Shopping

Some shopping finds.

1. But first, the knitting content. The doll purse is progressing nicely. I abandoned the pattern after making the head, modifying it as I went along to get a decent-sized bag.
   
   I also changed the face to make it less severe than the traditional Andean design (here).
   
   
   The opening of the purse is at the back. All it needs is the strap, and then I can felt it.
   
   
2. Here are some recent purchases. These cute wooden pizza and sushi sets are for my nephew and niece. I love the wooden bowl of soya sauce and lump of wasabi. The Star Wars Galactic Heroes pack is for my nephew.
   
   
   
3. I bought yarn of course. There's a new Mary Maxim store at the Yonge-Eglinton Centre, in the location where the Lewiscraft used to be. The yarn is 14% off (so no taxes) for a limited time.
   
   
   
4. I also got new horror manga. They're finally publishing Kazuo Umezu's work from the 70s in English. Here are two pages from Drifting Classroom, a serialized last-man-on-earth themed novel.
   
   
   The big hole in the ground is where the protagonist's school used to be.
   
   
   The school - note the little people on the roof - somehow transported into the distant future where everything is sand and ash. These panels are from volumes 1-2. Volumes 3-5 are not yet available, so I don't know how the story ends.
   
   I really hope Umezu's other stuff will be translated someday, or at least re-released. I'm holding out for Left Hand of God.
   
   
   Along with the works of "Kazz" (as the fan boys call him), I'm rabid about collecting anything by Junji Ito (Uzumaki, posted here), Keiji Nakazawa (Barefoot Gen, posted here), and Toshiki Yui (hentai master). I'm always on the look out for this material.
   
   
5. Marie Claire Idées is not a magazine I buy regularly, but it's reasonably priced in Canada, I know enough French to be able to read it (although, not enough to understand "Bon Cop, Bad Cop", except when the anglophones spoke French), and this issue has many pages of geeky book-lover crafts. In case you're not familiar with this title, it's like Martha Stewart Living but with more emphasis on DIY and less on displaying the homes of the wealthy.
   
   
   
   A book lamp and embroidered "open book" placements.
   
   
   An interesting shelf with plaster blocks shaped like books, and corsages.
   
   What's particularly nice about this publication: almost every object is denoted as, "Explications en fin de journal."
   
   
6. Oh, I got a very nice score at the thrift store a few weeks ago while shopping for Halloween costumes. I picked up a dogi jacket in my size - it had no blood stains or even signs of wear - for four dollars! I nearly hyperventilated when I snatched it up, and had to calm myself before walking to the cash register. Normally, a new adult dogi is about eighty dollars or more, so you can imagine my excitement.