Hellau

Fasching (or Karneval, or Fastnacht, as it's called in some areas) is somewhat similar to Halloween in the US, especially if you look at the costumes and all the sweets that are handed out. But in other things it couldn't be more dissimilar.
For once, Fasching is a very serious event. In some areas it's political - nothing can get more serious than that. It has traditons - according to Wikipedia (and we all know if it's in Wikipedia, it must be true) it goes back to the 13th century, possibly even longer.
On the other side, it's about having fun, being somebody different for a short while and gourging yourself one last time before Lent starts.

In the little town I've grew up the traditional parade happens on Tuesday - and as far as I can recall we never had bad weather on that day. It may have rained on Sunday on the parade in Frankfurt, or snowed on the big parade in Mainz on Monday - we had neither (not always sunshine and rarely warm, as this is usually February, but no rain or snow)

So I went out and watched purple cows pass by.

I cheered for the guests from Venice.

I crossed my fingers as the little frogs crossed the street that they are not run down by cars.

I tried to catch my breath as large octopus swam by. And I picked up a ton of sweets.

Hellau to you, too!

Lemmings

Knitting - like a lot of other things - is driven by 'things that are IN'
What I mean with that is that there are certain designers whose pattern are cast on by hundreds knitters all over the world the moment the pattern is available.
Stephen West comes to mind. Some of his patterns get more than 1000 projects on Ravelry. The wide shawl 'Daybreak' for example has currently 3257 projects (two of those are by me)
There must be about a million - well, okay, maybe not a million, but A LOT - Cookie A socks out there ('Monkey', the most popular, has right now 15.286! projects - that is a lot of socks)
Last year I made Elizabeth Zimmermann's 'Baby Surprise Jacket' (16.761 projects).
A fairly new star to the knitting world is Ysolda Teague - I have made at least two of her designs so far.

The latest fad I've followed is the pattern Color Affection by Veera Välimäki - at first the pattern was only available as a kit - you had to buy the yarn to get the pattern, but finally, this month, the pattern came out for download.
I had already picked my colors so I could cast on right away (only to change my color choice mid knitting). The yarn is Wollmeise Twin in the colors Neptun, junge Maus and Moses. In reality the blues are far more petrol than on this photo.

A simple, relaxing knit, with an unusal construction, I zipped through the whole thing in a little over a week.

I don't consider myself a follower of every new trend out there to knit - but somehow I end up quiet often with the in-patterns. Well, there must be a reason they're in, right?

-20.5°C

no comment

Winter

This morning, as I was driving to work, it was -18°C

Ice is floating on the Elbe.
The ferries have stopped working.
And the lake around Castle Moritzburg is frozen.

Yep, it's winter!

Two And A Half Pair

(and, no, I'm not a fan of Two And A Half Man ... )

It's cold, I'm knitting socks.

Pair No. 1 is the pattern Eunice by CookieA - possibly my favoriet sock pattern designer (I've knitted up about half a dozen of her patterns and I'm more than willing do go back for more). The yarn is Wollmeise Twin in Brombeere.Pair No. 2 is made from Noro Kureyon Sock Yarn. I have a love/hate relationship with this yarn. The colors - to die for!, everything else - hate. It's the most none-elastic sock yarn I've ever knit with, the yarn tends to have knots all over the place (this skein had two and always with an sudden color change), it breaks super easy when knitting and it's rough on the skin while knitting (I don't mind on the foot, luckily, else it would have been a deal breaker)
But the colors!!!
Damn, it's still worth it.
The patter is a simple 3 - 1 rib, top down with an after thought heel.
Final the half-pair (and the work in progress) is made from Lorna's Lace Shepard Sock Stripe yarn. The color is a special dye job named 'Parry Hotter' in the Gryfindor colors of red and gold. I bought it serveral years ago in Noe Knits in San Francisco.
I've tried various pattern, but the stripes are so close that most pattern are just swallowed up. Finally I came across this one, and though I'm not 100% happy, I think it's about as good as it's going to get.