Do you remember Bob? Bob remembers you!

Bob, who was christened by you wonderful readers, will be the next free Mochimochi Land pattern. He or she is coming very soon, but in the meantime, I thought I’d share a sneak peek at the new and improved Bob:

The changes are subtle- I just plumped her up a bit and made the tail part of the main knitting, instead of a separate piece. And the snout is a bit shorter now.

Check back soon to learn how to knit a Bob of your own!

This weekend I pulled out some of my old ikebana magazines to show to a friend, and I fell in love with it all over again.

From The Ikenobo (No. 403)

If you’re not familiar, ikebana is the traditional art of Japanese flower arrangement.

Like many of the traditional arts in Japan (calligraphy, tea ceremony, kimono putting-on), ikebana is compelling in its beauty and profound simplicity and its design that is surprisingly modern-looking to Western-trained eyes.

From ikenobo ikebana (Senei Ikenobo, 1982)

An arrangement is meant to capture the essence of a particular flower, and, ultimately, of nature itself. At the same time, as a work of art, an arrangement is acknowledged as an artifice. In order to capture the essence of a flower in ikebana, sometimes you have to bend or break stalks, insert wires, or even add obviously “unnatural” elements like plastic.

From The Ikenobo (No. 403)

There are many different schools of ikebana, and different styles within those schools. The last time I was in Japan, I studied the Ikenobo school of ikebana. My sensei was very nice, but very disciplined – for some arrangements, she would show me a diagram of exactly how each leaf should be placed, and at what angle. (These were the “shoka” arrangements, for which there are crazy-strict rules for each different type of flower.)

From ikenobo ikebana (Senei Ikenobo, 1982)

Then there was “freestyle” arrangement. For this, my sensei would give me a bunch of flowers and tell me to do whatever I liked with them. Then, when I finished arranging them, she would pull them all out and show me how I should have arranged them. It was my own weekly Karate Kid experience, which I loved.

Here is one arrangement I did that I particularly liked (I believe it was shoka) – the flowers bloomed over the course of a week or so after I took it home:

Looking again at all this gorgeousness, I feel that it’s time to finally pursue some lessons in New York. I’ll have new photos to share if so. In the meantime, you can see more ikebana here.

John and I went to take a walk in the Central Park yesterday and this little phone followed us home.

OK, it didn’t actually follow us home, but it was all alone on the path, without an owner in sight. We found it on the east side of the park, somewhere near 72nd Street.

The batteries are running low, so it keeps turning off after a few seconds of turning it on – getting any information from it is a desperate task that makes us feel like we’re in an episode of 24. This sensation is further exacerbated by the way that the phone insists on playing a 5-second ad every time you turn it on. It’s super annoying – don’t get this phone if you haven’t already.

In several very hurried sessions of turning the phone on before it shuts off, John has managed to get the number of the phone (he left a message in case the owner checks his or her voice mail), the number of a friend in the contacts list, and the number listed under “home.” So far, neither the owner nor her good friend nor whoever is at home seems to care about this phone.

We’ve considered returning the phone to a Verizon store, but John thinks they would rather see the owner buy a new phone than see this one returned. So if this is your phone, come and get it! We have enough phones as it is.

Someone recently reminded me that I had promised to knit a giraffe.

So here is my giraffe:

A version with a few (white) spots is in the works. But I actually like the simplicity of this version, even if it would be teased by any real giraffe that came its way. Poor little spotless giraffe!

This toy also gave me the opportunity to do a little “hair” embellishment that seemed somewhat vintage to me, though maybe it’s still often used and I just haven’t noticed it.

By the way, the books in the photos have been sitting in these piles for weeks, waiting to be taken to the Salvation Army. Of those pictured, I recommend The Alienist and The Blind Assassin (actually barely cropped out of the pictures) as good summer reads.