About Sharing

This week’s SBQ:

How do you share your finished pieces with others? Do you frame them, scan and/or photograph them, or do you have another method that you would like to share?

I've framed most of my larger pieces. Some I give/gave away, some I have at my home up on the walls.
I've took pictures of almost all of my finished pieces and usually can't resist HDing on one of the message boards. I've got a webside (shared with a friend), but this is very slow on the update as it's not me who's maintaining is. And since I've started blogging, I, of course, post the results here.

Pomatomus

I just finished my Pomatomus socks (those socks, that I had to unravel the first one at one point, because it just got too tight) They fit perfectly.
Wool was Regia 4-fold in color 1040

Last weekend I ended up in my yarn shop and come out with quite a bit of new wool *blush*
But at least I've already started with new shawl with dropped stitches. The wool is Zoom from Lang Yarns. It was new in the shop, but I guess it will sell fast - it feels very, very soft. It's a mix of Merion extra fine, cotton and Nylon. The blush yarn is for weaving along the dropped stitches at the end.



And the reason (ehr, excuse really) I went shopping was for some perle cotton for some placemats I plan to make in Hardanger



Finally, the Stargate Atlantis quote of the week (from 'Commen Ground').

Kolya: The truth is, I would've settled for Doctor McKay, but I don't imagine I would enjoy his constant wailing.

Being Creative

Yesterday, a friend of mine had her b-day party. As her TV set went kaputt a short while ago, she ask everybody for money instead of something else. Now, I could have gone and put a couple of bills into an envelope, but that would be booooring.
What do to?
A while back I found that some Lego Pirates of the Carribian stuff at Toys R' Us. I also found a flat bowl somewhere. So, working with some blue food coloring (I would have loved to work with blue Jello, but you can't find blue Jello in Germany for love or money), gelantine, some sand and glittery stuff and the Jack sparrow set I've created this:



The money is imbedded in the gelantine *big grin*

My first attempt was too dark, so this is actually version 2.


Another way to get creative is to paint your walls. I've bought an appartment half a year ago, and every room has something special - my guest room has the Stargate symbols in a band along the walls, my office had some golden stars at the walls and my living room got the map of Middle Earth on it. I've only now added the place names and here's how it looks:


I love it!!!

I thought I go and answer this weeks SBQ question.
What do you keep your WIPs and other stitching supplies in when traveling?

I do travel quite a bit (because of my job) and I used to carry my traveling project in a plastic sleeve with the material in a small floss storage box. For my birthday this year my sister (bless her soul) gave me a DMC travel bag in navy. I swabbed out the Sitchbow Wallet thingies and put in something to hold my bobbins. To make it my own I used a Stargate Altantis patch and sewed it over the SMC logo ;)
This bag is great and I absoluty adore it.

Berlin, Berlin

Back from Berlin. The exibition was quite interesting, actually, though I was sort of more interested in how they found the stuff they showed and preserved it, than in the stuff itself (though there were a couple really cool items)
Guess I'm still spoilt from the Tutankhamun exibition I saw a long (long!) time ago in Cologne. Back then they had a lot of items from the treasury and even the famous face mask. I don't think it can get much better than this.

A good thing I had an early start though, as for some strange reason I though the exibition was in the Egyptian Museem - sounded kind of logical to me *shrug*


At least I got a nice picture of the Old National Gallery ;)

I've found out about the place change after a while and headed for the Martin-Gropius-Bau by bus. I was not the only one. I got there just as the show opened and I got in fairly quickly (after queuing to get in, and queuing for the ticket, and queuing for an audio guide and queuing at the cloakroom). It was also pretty full and I was jostled more than once while trying the get to the displays.
When I got out, though, the queue outside was pretty long and it was raining (as you can see on all those little umbrellas) - at least two to three times as long as shown here.

After the exibition I walked around a bit, looked at some remains from the Berlin Wall (actually, the place I'm standing to take the picture above would have been on one side from where the wall used to be and the building would have been on the other side - 20 years ago it would not have been possible to cross the street)

%&@§ socks

After working for three days on the Pomatomus socks, and getting not even to the middle of the foot on the first sock, I ripped everything up and decided to start all over.

It’s not that I don’t like the pattern. I love the patters. It looks absolutely cool and the blue wool I’ve picked for it (Regia 4pl. 1040) is a perfect blue/blue mix. It isn’t that the pattern is too difficult. Au contraire, it is actually fairly simple and if you have started it right no problem to figure out where you are and how to move on.

But … they are too tight. That’s a first for me. My socks are always too wide. Always!

When I saw the socks had a cast on of 72 stitches I was concerned. I normally cast on with 60 stitches. That’s like 20% more. Those socks were gonna be huge. So, instead of using 2.5mm needles for the cuff and 3mm needles for the rest, I decided on a 2mm / 2.5mm combination.

The first couple of rows after the cast on should have given me a clue. Knitting a purl / ktbl pattern, this cuff was going to be tight. But still I plowed on. This would sort itself out eventually, I was sure. I started with the pattern, and even though it seemed a bit tight, it looked pretty and who cares for anything else? Even though the pattern was fairly simple to follow, I made a few mistakes like missed castovers, but those I could sort out and slowly (very slowly) the sock took shape. I got to the heel flap and the turn and started with the foot and found out that (again) I’ve made a mistake somewhere. But where. And how to fix it. And why are those socks to narrow and tight. They will never fit me (and I know nobody with smaller feet than me who would want to wear them – even my nephews are now getting bigger feet than me)

I took a deep look into my soul (or should hat be my sole in this case ;)) and decided to end it here and now and rip everything up and start all over again.

Of course, I have no 3mm needles with me this week and stitching wasn’t working either because I’ve forgot to bring my stitching frame with me …

Instead I took a dive into the entrelac I’ve seen and did a swatch trying to figure out how this is working for me. I’m thinking out making a scarf in that pattern but I need some nice wool for it. Something in solid colors maybe. Or maybe using a verigate fiber.

Well, I need to visit the shop anyway as I need more wool for my shawl ….

Tonight I’m going to head for Berlin and I plan on visiting this exhibition there tomorrow.

Weekend progress (or lack thereof)

I've finished the bamboo socks
I've fixed a pair of socks that I've made for my mom last year, but turned out to be too long in the foot - they are shorter now, and if they are too short, well, they fit me now.
I've almost finished another ball of yarn on the shawl
And I undid the last two rows on Northern Lights Sampler, extented the 3rd row by two threads (to center them to the trees) and re-stitched row 4 shifted by one thread to the right. So I've actually got less on NLS than last week.

Don't try this at home, kids:
I've got the soundtrack to the new 'Superman Returns' movie last weekend. So I took it with me for my weekly trip to Dresden. The first track it the Superman Theme from the original movie with Christopher Reeves by John Williams - one of the most brilliant pieces he's ever writting IMNSHO.
Turned the volumn to LOUD
Founnd a straight stretch of autobahn without speed limit ahead of me and without too much traffic (contraire to some believes, we do have wide stretches of autobahn with speed limits - and normally I follow those speed limits)
... and put the petal to the metal
I didn't thought that my car could to more than 210kph, but it does ;)


Oops, almost forgot my Atlantis quote of the week. I sort of liked 'The Real World', but that was maybe because a long time ago, I've wrote a SG1 story that pretty much was based on the same idea.
Nonetheless, there's a fun McKay quote that had me smile:

Sheppard: How do you know what you look like when you have a brilliant idea?
McKay: Because it’s happened more than once in front of a mirror.

rainbows and shawls

Yesterday we had our annular BBQ in the Hunsrück and even though it was sunny when we came and a clear sky when we left, we had a thunderstorm in the middle. After that rain I took that pic above. Isn't that just an amazing rainbow. It looks like the end of it was only a hundred meters away. I didn't go to check for that pot of gold though ;)

I also got some knitting done. Halfway on the foot of the second bamboo sock and I also started a blue shawl with a lace pattern for those cold winter days soon to come.

This is after only one skein (25g) - I have eight skeins, but I think I'm going to need a few more. As if this is no excuse to haunt my yarn shop again?

knitting with bamboo

This sock (the second one is in the works right now) is not only knitted with bomboo needles (which I dearly love to knit with), but it actually contains bomboo fibers. The wool is Regia Bamboo Color and is a mix of 45% bamboo, 40% wool and 15% poloyamid. It feels wonderfully soft and is cooler on the feet than just wool or cotton. And that color is to dye for ;)


Yesterday, I went to my beloved local yarn shop in Arheiligen and got some more sock wool for Pomatomus socks. I've found that pattern last week while I was hunting for free sock patterns and fell in love with it. I can't wait to start (but of course, I'll need to finish the other bamboo sock first, and then I've started a lace pattern wrap in blue mohair, then I promised S. to make here a pair of socks and not to forget ....

my stitching:



















This is my progress pic for Voyage at Sea, my travelling project (fitting, isn't it ;)). Got a good 70% of the cross stitch done.

New Start: Northern Lights Sampler

I started yesterday with the Northern Lights Sampler by Jeanette Douglas
I fell in love with that pattern about two yers ago when I saw it in a LNS in Canada. But at this time the high price for the embellishment package kinda shocked me, and I didn't buy pattern nor pack.
But, as I was thinking about this for two years and still wanted to do it, I asked my friend Antje to pick it up for me and of course she did.
I finished row 1 to 5 today (exept the beading, which I will do at the end)

I didn't care too much about those trees and I know I have a counting error somewhere, but I decided to leave it for now. The colors are lovely



I also did a quicky - a dragon design I've found in some old magazine. I stitched it with DMC 4070 (one of those new color variation threads I picked up in France). And I made it into a coaster.




Liked the new atlantis Episode, but no new quote at the moment. I'll need to see it a second time, maybe I pick something up then.

So, instead something from one of my favorite episodes of season 2, The Hive. From this McKay was re-titled to Mr. Amazing (at least for me ;))

McKay: There’s no time, no time. The planet ... not Ford’s, the one the, uh, ship’s headed towards, we need to get there and we don’t have much time. (pacing) I was barely able to escape myself, but I managed to take out the guards. (McKay grins) Oh, you should have seen me! I was amazing! I wish we’d got it on camera because ... That’s not the point.

Look, white socks

A week or so ago, I read somewhere about knitting with beads. My first reaction was 'what a cool idea'. My second 'I have a lot of beads, I wanna do that too'
Somehow, one of the first ideas was to do a pair of white socks with beads on the cuff. But, how to get the beads (and all I have is seed beads) on the cuff? So, I turned to my trusted wool store and they duck up a thread with pre threaded beads. They must have had that stuff for a while already - the priece was still in Deutschmark.
Not what I envisioned originally, but good enough for me to want to try it.
Outcome is that pair of white socks:




Now, I got quite a bit of that thread left, I haven't used any of the beads I wanted to use originally, and it wasn't what I wanted to do at first.
Still, I love them ;)

Maybe one day ....

(oooookay, after editing this for some typos, the pic of the socks have disappeared - I'll see what I can do, but this might take a while)

The many people who are me

As the pic of the white socks I wanted to show of, don't actually show for some reason, I'll skip to something else.


Ever googled yourself?

I just did and, boy, I'm surprised about the things I do/did is my life ;)
... or at least somebody with the same name I have did ;)

- I published (together with others) a book on poetry which is available on Amazon.de
Freaky, because I actually did publish fanfic together with a friend - though I never touched poetry. I do suck at poetry.

- I'm teaching a class for step-aerobic
Yack, I'm not sporty in any sense of the word.

- I helped to set up a German fanfic side
True, that was me, but I really did only very, very little. At the side has been dead for several years.

- I wrote a dissertation (is that a disertation? Some sort of final paper you need to write in order to get your diploma. Whatyacallit? Degree disseration?) on some farming tool
I did write such a type of paper, but that was more than ten years ago and it was about the optimization of a vacuum sensor

- I'm manager is a vacation resort on the Algarve
Cool. I've nver been there, but this sounds cool

- I do study managment in Innsbruck
Hmmm, I seem to be interested in bettering my life. That's the second student I am

- I have art and fiction in several Ghostbuster fanzine
yep, that's me. I admit it

- I'm a fictional character in a tv movie
wow ... I just hope I'm not the dead body ;)

and the cream of the crop
- I do publish my own cross stitch designs. And pretty stuff, too *big grin*

Long Distance Driving

Driving to and fro Dresden once a week has it's perks.

It has it's down sides, too. It's 480km one way and on Mondays I have to leave at 6 AM to be on the customer side at 11 AM (the weekly meeting is on Monday afternoon and of course I need to prepare). Also, there's temptation on the route – every 50 km or so one can drive off and take a break at either McD or Burger King. And if I manage to resist one or the other, there's always one more to tempt me off the road and towards burgers and fries and other not really healthy things.

At least I don't have to drive on Sundays any more – I used to do that and even if the time is counted as overtime (not that I need more of that, really) it sucks to have one's Sunday cut short.

But there are perks – I love listening to audibooks and driving long distances is just perfect for it. I've just finished (I think for the third time as audibook) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Askaban, and am looking forward to starting with Order of the Phoenix next. This will keep me busy for a couple of weeks, I'd say.

And there's the weather. I love watching clouds and sometimes when I go by the Wartburg or one of the other sights on the way, the view is just breathtaking. I've seen a couple of amazing rainbows, some great lightning and a couple of really lovely sunsets (or rises in some cases) in the last year.

If only I could stitch or knit while driving, it would be perfect.

Last week's episode of Atlantis was finally watchable again. I was not really thrilled with the first three of the new lot, even though I found that 'Irresistible' improved after watching it twice.

I didn't have high hopes for 'Seteda' (it being a Ronan centered story line) but I was actually pleasantly surprised. Finally some good interaction, and even the Ronan part was okay.

Two quotes, one typical oh-so optimistical McKay and the other a really nice Sheppard/Teyla exchange (though the Sheppard / Teyla bit is more fun when actually hearing it – the delivery is great).

Ronan: I have a bad feeling

McKay: I always feel like that. Like something horrible is about to happen.

Teyla: How to you live?

McKay: I get used to it. Thing is, when someone else also has that feeling, mine gets worse.

Sheppard: Look, Teyla, I'm not really good at ... actually, I'm terrible expressing ... I don't ... what ya call it

Teyla: Feelings

Sheppard: Yeah, sure, okay. Point is, I don't really have good...

Teyla: Social skills?

Sheppard: Well, that is why I enjoyed flying choppers in the most remote part of my world before all this craziness happened. But, you should know. I don't have ...

Teyla: Friends

Sheppard: No, I have friends. You, Elisabeth, Ronan, Carson, even Rodney, are the closest thing I have to ...

Teyla: A family?

Sheppard: I do anything, for anyone of you. If I had to give up my life, the way Ronan was going to ... I would.

Teyla: Thank you. For everything you ... meant to say.

Happy dancing galore

First day of this year, I started with a rather large stitching project: Midnight Hunting by Dracolair. Since I've discovered Dracolair's designs I've wanted to make at least one of those dragons - I love those shadings and the dragons are simply beautiful in my opinion. I did start small with the two bookmarks (Knotwork Dragon and Red Dragon Bookmark) though in both cased I did change the colors - Knotwork is blue on green and Red Dragon is actually a Green Dragon Bookmark.
After seeing somebody else's finish of Midnight Hunting on an hand dyed fabric, I decided to do it at well, only I've plunged in, and dyed the fabric myself in light shades of blue. Not very noticable, but I'm quite happy how it turned out.
As the dragon has a fairly limited color palette, I used for the first time pre-threaded needles for the blended colors and loved how this made stitching easier. Though I probably wouldn't want to do it with something like a Teresa Wentzler pattern - there are simply too many needles to handle in this case.
It has been really fun to stitch and sometime in the need future, I' plan on doing the other two dragons in the series (and the two unpublished ones if they are ever published)
And, finally, I'm done with my draggie.



The colors are not quite right - they are a bit on the greyish side. Dunno why.
But you get the idea.
A larger photo of Midnight Hunting will hopefully go up on our webpage today.
(here's the link: Midnight Hunting)

Here's some details of the face.





And here are two smaller finishes.
Dance of the Bumblebee from Bent Creek (which I don't twice now)
All colors are the rcommended GAST and Week Dye Works theads exept the green in the flower, that is one of the new DMC color variations.




And, I tried my needle for the first time ever on hardanger. This is a freebie from Victoria Samplers. I loved it and plan on doing more. I'll finish that one as an ornament, eventually. The fabric is a very pale green .... not that you can see that on the picture *shrug*

Hare Pictures

I have no idea, why the pics don't show up in the previous post. I've tried quite a few things, but it just didn't work. Finally, I managed to create a new post, with the pics, but when I went back to edit the old post the pics didn't show.
So, here are the pic to my Needlepoint hare:



And here's some detail to the hare's head