This & that
If you live in New Zealand and are looking for a canine companion (Gaby, this is for you), head over to doggelganger to find your match. You can upload a photo or have a snapshot taken by a webcam on the site. Doggelganger will match your facial features to their database of puppies/dogs for adoption. I love it when a good thing is also fun. I know, I don’t live in NZ and we are not ready for a dog yet, but it was fun.
Doggelganger matching my face to the NZ puppy database
My canine match is a 6-month puppy named Max.
No knitting news of note because I’ve been derailed by the new round of construction around the house which this time involves considerable legwork to choose and buy materials. I’ve been swatching a little in the evenings and coordinating a bit of testing with my lovely helpers. The only intensive thing going on at the moment is my new found interest in the Japanese language. This time my goals are less lofty — I am never going to learn to actually speak Japanese unless I find a way to be exposed to it daily — and a lot more practical. I am looking at all my Japanese knitting books to get a hang of how Japanese patterns work and slowly compiling my own Japanese-English knitting dictionary with the help of books, various online glossaries and tutorials, and the wonderful
Japanese Knitting and Crochet group on Ravelry. Why? Hm, I don’t have a good answer. Japanese is one of the constants in my life, like knitting. I may abandon it for a year or two, but it always comes back. As a way of practicing what I am learning, I am starting to translate my PIP into Japanese. OK, not really translate; “labeling” might be a more accurate term. I am also trying to condense the pattern and looking at how the Japanese do it. There’s a lot to be learned there. My next patterns are not, repeat not, going to be as long as the first one. And just so you don’t feel like you’ve wasted your time looking at cute puppies, I leave you with something useful.
If this wets your appetite for more knitterly Japanese, check out these resources: Dancing Barefoot: multi-instalment tutorial in how to read
Japanese knitting and crochet patterns. Fleegle: Japanese Knitting Symbol Primer. Select Yarn: How to interpret a Japanese knitting book. The Translation pulldown menu has several useful pages.
Posted by Francesca
MaryjoO
I feel like a total idiot — I hadn’t realized you were “blogging” again — I rarely get to read blogs anymore ….. so nice to see you here (and thanks for always commenting on my umm infrequent blog posts LOL)
Anyway! I need to catch up here with your posts — but tomorrow. I’m at 23:06 pm 6/20 and that means in CA you are at 10:06 am 6/20 ….
but great minds think alike – :)) I am besotted by the Japanese flower shawl etc etc (you saw it on my blog) so I’ve been trolling the internet for some place to start thinking about Japanese crochet symbols while I wait for my Etsy ordered book to come and there was a link to an “ancient” post of yours — I didn’t know you spoke/studied Japanese ….wow. VERY impressive. You are really a Renaissance woman :)) so I’ll be trolling around on the Rav list too, and checking out your links above …. tomorrow. Thanks for posting them … and yes, I miss CA. It is really wonderful to be able to call someplace “home.” :) Maryjo
twinsetjan
Thanks so much for these links! I’ve dipped my toes into use of Japanese stitch dictionaries and these are going to help me plunge the rest of the way in.
gaby
Wow, Francesca, this is cool! Kuri needs a buddy, we’ll have to try this out and see if we can get him a girls friend :-)
Bethany
What a cute dog! I am going to post that site everywhere. :D
Ben
I think that Doggelgänger would be better if you could include various hobbies, etc., in the picture. For example, a dog who always has a stick and/or rope in its mouth might be matched more readily to a person who always has a couple sticks and some yarn in her hands.
Wuddya think?
/head pats
fleegle
I love the Japanese language…so cool! I’m afraid to go to the dog site, but I guess I’ll have to give it a try :)
Yarndude
That dog thing is so cool!
Annie
I shall be watching your Japanese efforts with great interest. I have a Japanese knitting pattern for a very complicated lace sweater that I have promised myself I will knit as soon as I’ve lost the weight I need to shift. Only problem is I can’t make head or tail of it !