Sapphire's Stitching Stanza

Listen

2012-01-18T15:55:00.003+01:00

When I was a kid, we used to have couple of books and audio plays on LPs. I clearly remember some 'Winnetou' by Karl May, 'Die Kleine Hexe' by Ottfried Preussler and 'Hui Buh'. I'm pretty sure it drove our parents to madness, but I loved them and it basically guarentied an hour of quietness from my side.

Today, being a bit more grown up, I have learned to love audibooks. I started out with 'Lord of the Rings' and the Harry Potter series (with both Jim Dale and Stephen Fry as readers) but am not adversed to other authors (i.e. Bill Bryson, Harry Dresden, Rick Riordan, ...). Audiobooks work great when driving long distances but I also listen to them while knitting or doing cross-stitch.

The current book I'm listening to is 'The Name of The Wind' by Patrick Rothfuss. One of the reasons I picked it up was because one of my favorite voice actors - Nick Podehl - is reading it. I listened to him reading the 'Foundation' Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey (one of my favorite authors ever) a while back and when I was looking for a new audiobook I found 'The Name of the Wind' also read by him. The story seemed interesting, the reviews were good, so I picked it up. It's 28 hours long and I've listened to at least an hour every day for the last two weeks. Nick is doing a fantastic job with the different voices and dialects. I'm getting near the end of the book and I'm happy to know that there second book in the series - 'A Wise Man's Fear' - is already out and that it's even longer than TNotW: 42hr 59min.

This should keep me listening for a while.

Potholder Interlude

2012-01-15T21:41:00.003+01:00

I've made potholders. Still working on optimizing the jogless stripes.

The cake

2012-01-03T16:56:00.002+01:00

I made this cake for my mom's birthday last year. She insisted that I show it around here, so here it is:

Inside are pears, a bit of cocoa and loads of whipped cream, between two layers of bisquit.

If I may say so myself, it was really yummy!

End of Year Statistics

2011-12-29T12:38:00.004+01:00

There've been 42 projects for me this year.

8 projects have been weaving, the rest mostly knitting with some crocheting thrown in.
I wove a couple of scarfs, but knitting some as well.
I've made 7 pairs of socks, though only 3 pairs stayed with me, the rest went to friends and family.
I finished two large blankets (one knitted, one crocheted)
I also made two cardigans for me.
For collegues I've made two bady cardigans (and probably will make another one for next year)

If I put all the bandwraps of all the yarn I've used last year into a big bowl I get something like this:

That is 116 band wraps!
If I add up all the yarn I've used this year, I discover that I've knitted about 24.5 km of yarn.
As I have - according to my stash list in Ravelry - still 55.3 km yarn available at home, I should be okay for the next 2 years at least.

The last project for 2011 is this hat. It has the lovely name 'Wurm' and it made with two shades of Wollmeise Twin yarn. The lighter yarn does match my new jacket, so I hope I'll get a lot of use out of it.
To all, a Happy New Year 2012. Stay healthy and be happy.

Military History

2011-12-18T16:13:00.003+01:00

The Museum for Military History reopened a couple of months ago after its remodeling by the US star-architect Daniel Liebeskind (funny little side note here, when I had my prom at the end of dancing school, my partner's name was also Liebeskind, though I think he was a Detlef ...).
I do like this new addition to the place, a pretty cool mix of classic and modern. From the tip of the wedge you also have a pretty good view out over Dresden.
The museum itself was quite interesting - we Germans have a somewhat strange view at our military history and it certainly wasn't always flowers and songs. So it's not an easy task to find a good balance to show to the audience.The building has a lot of unusual angles and corners, and on one of the slanting walls they displayed a couple of bombs seemingly falling directly down on you. Not a nice thought to know that not too long ago those weren't just props in a museum, but real bombs made to kill people.

Mom, the second jigsaw is done:

Hey, this is post 300.
Go me!

Knitting Update

2011-12-11T16:39:00.003+01:00

The knitting part for Cria is finished. I got 20 buttons (10 for the front and 2x5 for the cuffs) but still need to sew then on. After than it's washing and blocking and then the exciting moment where it turns out if it fits or not.
For my new Jack Wolfskin winter jacket, I made a short scarf. It's just long enough to cross properly on my chest, which is okay, and enough to keep the wind out. I would have liked it to be a little bit longer, but I ran out of the light yarn. It's nice and warm and soft, though - everything a scarf should be.

Still, a few more centimeters would have been nice.

Everybody is knitting a Hitchhiker shawl, so I'm doing one, too. I'm using Wollmeise Twin in the colorway 'Wasserratz' plus some beads on each tip. Totally love it. I did a test on the Magic Square Potholder and it turned out okay - only, there's not enough yarn left to make a second one in the same color way, so this one will be a single. So, instead, I'm making a striped version with some leftover cotton yarn I still have. It will be very colorful, I think.

That Season Again

2011-12-03T14:57:00.003+01:00

It might come as a surprise to some, but it's x-mas season again. Didn't we just have one last year and the year before? It can't be THAT time of the year again!
As my family decided years ago to not give presents among the adults, this time is actually fairly relaxing for me. No need to hunt for that one perfect present among throngs of other desperate shoppers with the same goal. I have the whole year to look around and if I happen to come across something I just know one of my loved ones will like, I can buy it and give it to them any time I like.
Ah, the season of peace.Being in Dresden, It is inevitable that at one point or another I'm going to check out the local Christmas Market. The Strietzelmarkt is Germany's oldest Christmas Market and it's been held for 577 years. Yupp, that's longer than Christoph Columbus 'discovering' America.
The Market is held in the Altmarkt square and attracts millions of visitors.
As it was just too warm for the famous muled wine tradionally drunken on a christmas market, I just stroled around and looked at the things on display.Funny thing about Dresden, though, there's not just one christmas market, there are (at least) five.
There's the one on the Newmarket square, which is more craft orientated (it's my personal favorite)There's the medievil one in the Stallhhof (stable court yard)There's one next to the Frauenkirche (not to be confused with the one on the Neumarkt, even though they are no more than 50m appart).
There's one on the other side of the river with a big ferris wheel.
And I'm sure, there are more ...

Finally, Mom, prove I finished the jigsaw puzzle:
It was easy and it took me 2 ~ 3 hours, tops.

Sock Month November

2011-11-28T09:39:00.002+01:00

There's something about the cold, wet fogginess of November to promt a person to start knitting socks.

First pair is rather spring-y (as in the month spring) with colorful flowers on a green lawn. I bought the green yarn last year in Bagnang at the Ravelry meetup, but didn't find a suitable pattern for it until I came across this one here.Second pair is made from the prescious Wollmeise in the color 'Mon Cherie' (plus 'Natur' and a wee bit of 'Fliederbusch'). This pair was a birthday present for a dear friend. Lastly, another skein of yarn I've bought in Bagnang. It's Zauberglöckchen handdyed in the color o'yello. As the pair turned out a wee bit too small, I asked a friend if she liked it and she did.
If those colors don't chase the November blues away, I don't know.

Early Start

2011-11-18T14:47:00.004+01:00

X-mas is still 36 days away, but I've already did get my christmas cookie baking out of the way. Thing is I've had a week vacation time, and no other chance to do the baking so it was was either now or never. Never would probably have been better for my weigth ...

The first lot is not exactly what it should have been (mainly, the shape should have stayed much more defined), but still they are yummy, so no complaining.
The cinamon stars are an every year stable. I love them.

Another stable, ginger Heidesand (a very buttery, shortbread type of cookie). This time with some orange peel added to the mix.

And, finally, butter cookies filled with jam. Not only pretty, but also very tasty.

All in all, very happy with my production this year.

Six Heads and One Hat

2011-11-05T11:04:00.005+01:00

The plan was to go to Berlin and visit the famous bust of Nefertiti (or 'Nofretete' as she is spelled in German)
Sadely, even though it's permitted to take photos all over the Neue Museum, it was 'verboten' to do so in the room she's kept. So all I have as a proof is a shot I snug in while the guard wasn't in the way (he somehow managed to sidle just into my line of sight every time I lifted the camera to to a shot)

Yepp, that's her, the blurry golden spot in the center of the picture.

Luckily, there were plenty of other photo opertunities. Like this guy, just on the other side of the long corridor.

He was quite tall (and I forgot who he was supossed to be).

I rather liked this relief.

This guy has a bit of a nose problem, but other than that I am just amazed how smooth the surface of this bust looks. He also has a bit of a smirker ;)
Speaking of smirks... No idea who he is, or were he comes from. He has rather big ears, too.

This is the Boy from Xanten ('Xanterer Knabe'). He was found in the river Rhein 150 years ago, but is originally of Roman origin. He's in a pretty good condition for somebody who spend hundereds of years in the water.

Finally, the 'Berliner Goldhut' (Berlin Golden Hat). The hat is a 'late Bronze Age' artefact, that - at least that's what archeologists are thinking - can be used as a calender to calculated the sun- and the moon years. Maybe not a fashion statement, but pretty cool nonetheless.

Hail the Queen

2011-10-30T14:29:00.004+01:00

Last week I finished a stitching project for a change.
Nefertiti - The Beauty of Egypt, a kit out of the Joandoor Collection by Lanarte.
I stitched the matching King Tutankamum in 2007/2008 and plan on placing them next to each other in my guest room.
I worked on her on and of for a good 1 1/2 years. The reason it took so long is simply that I don't stitch that much any more, doing more knitting lately.
So, now all I have to do is visiting her in Berlin for real (I did see Tutankamum's mask many years ago, so Nefertiti's bust is sort of a must, now). Maybe next week on my day off if the weather is not too bad.
I'll let you know how it goes.

Still Alive

2011-10-23T15:26:00.003+02:00

No, I haven't dropped off the face of the Earth. I'm still here and busy.

I have finished one project and started on two more. I've also done some more cross stitch on my 'Nefertiti' and am sooooo close to finish here.

Finished project are the socks for my mom (remember the blue-green-brown sock from the last post). I've added some liquid rubber dots on the soles so they are not so slippery and will hand them over to my mom next week when I see her.
(I could wait for her birthday, but that wouldn't be quite fair as it's cold right now and socks are needed to keep ones feet warm)

Cria also made some progress:

Actually, I by now finished the body part and started with the first sleeve. Still looking good and the fit is also good, though for the next time (and there might be a next time, as I really love this pattern) I would add some more stitches in the front, as it's a rather open cardigan.

Spectra is at wedge 56 or 57, so maybe 75% done.

I've started a new pair of socks with flowers in fair isle knitting. I call them 'Blumenwiese'.

I've also started a beaded cowl in malabrigo lace yarn which is sooooooooo soft. Pure joy to knit with.

Startitis

2011-10-05T16:33:00.004+02:00

With the big sock yarn blanket project out of the way I've got time again for other things (not that having a big project to work on normally would stop me from working on other projects, but for some reasons I was fairly monogamistic with the blanket, which is pretty unusual for me)

Anyway, since the sock yarn blanket is done, I've made not one but two pairs of wristwarmers. One pair I've got no photo handy, the other pair is here.

The pattern is a freebie by Hanne Falkenberg, a danish designer. I got a copy of the pattern in my favorite yarn store in Dresden and had to cast on right away. Super fast knit and lovely end products.

Then I'm ready to tackle the replacement of my mom's favorite socks. I've made them in November 2007 and already got them back for repair once. This time though, I decided to knit the same socks again in another color.

First one's done and it does fit, so I'm off onto the second one.

After my recent burst of Wollmeise aquicions I thought it might be a good idea to knit with some of it. Though, to be honest, I also would have liked to leave the skeins alone in their unearthly lovelyness. It's sort of a 'eating the cake / keeping the cake' thing.
Anyway, I cast on Spectra by Stephen West. The bluish yarn is the Wollmeise 100% Merino in the color Silberdistel (Silver Thistle), the other a skein of Noro Silk Garden Sock Yarn I happened to have in my stash. Love - LOVE - this combination.
And, finally, I did cast an for Cria a lovely little cardigan by Ysolda out of her book 'Little Red In The City'. It's a top down cardigan with set-in arms, only you don't sew in the arms in the end, but knit them as you go. Simply brilliant. I'm not 100% sure on the yarn (Rowan Revive in the color basalt), though. To begin with, the gauge is way off, so I'm following the pattern for a much smaller size. Also, the yarn is pretty rough to knit with (though it does soften a lot once it's been washed). And it smells. And I'm not sure I have enough.
Ah well, I will see.

Blanket of Many Colors and Yarns

2011-09-29T14:05:00.004+02:00

In May, I started turning my sock yarn left overs into something useful.
I picked a pattern from Drops and began to crochet small sqares from all the little balls of sockyarn, which have accumulated over the years. I made squares in blue, in green, red, orange, grey, brown, pink, yellow and any combination thereof. When a ball got too small for a full square, I combined it with others to make multicolored patches (up to five colors sometimes).

After getting 512 patches together (long since I had run out of my own scrapes and asked for and received donations from friends), I started to crochet them all together, using some off-white sock yarn I had in my stash. I had four skeins, but this was not enough, I needed a fifth one, which luckily was found in a friends yarn basket.
I didn't follow any particular order, only made sure that not two identical colors ended up next to each other.
I still need to wash the blanket and lightly block it. I hope that stops the curling on the edges.

Technical info:
material - sockyarn, about 2 kg I think
Regia 4ply, Regia hand-dyed, Regia Cotton, Colinette Jitterbug, Wollmeise 100%, Opal Hand-Painted, Gründle, Noro Sock Yarn, Lana Grossa Meilenweit, Schoppelwolle Admiral, Zitron Trekking Hand Art, Schoppel Zauberball, Mark & Kattens Fame Trend, Lang Yarns Jawoll Magic, ....

Crochet hook - 2.5 mm and 3 mm

Pattern - Crochet DROPS blanket in ”Delight” and ”Fabel” for the squares, the rest I sort made up as I went

Size - about 200 x 220 cm

Final thoughts - I just can't quite express how much I love this blanket. Colors I never thought would go together are happily next to each other and the whole thing is just amazing.

Baby Surprise Jacket

2011-09-19T12:00:00.004+02:00

I don't know why I don't knit more baby stuff. There are only advantages.

A) you don't need much yarn. You can pick a ball or two (or three) and for a little bit of money you get enough material for a complete project. Not like a jacket for myself which is really quite a bit of an investment.
The yarn below I scored at I Knit in London. At this time I didn't know if it would be a boy or girl, so I went with something fairly neutral.

B) Knitting something for a baby is usually a very quick knit. The Baby Surprise Jacket (aka BSJ) by Elizabeth Zimmerman is a hugely popular pattern for it's fast and fun (and really a bit surprising - that woman was a genius). There are more than 16000 projects for this pattern on Ravelry as of today. It took me one weekend to finish. It's still missing buttons, though.

C) Finished projects are super cute and one has the sudden urge to find a random baby to put the jacket on.

And there lies the problem (that's why I don't to more of that stuff). I have a certain lack of babies around me. And I don't see how this will change in the near future.
Ah well, back to knitting stuff for myself. How much yarn do I need for this .....?

Three Guesses

2011-09-08T10:33:00.004+02:00

... on where I've been. 'London'?
Damn, you're good.
I took a quick trip to visit a friend, do some sightseeing and watch a couple of shows.
On the first day I've rode the London Eye and got a great view on Parlament and Big Ben.I then walked down to the Tower Bridge.On the second day I then visited the Queen.I also went to see two shows: 'We Will Rock You' and 'War Horse'.

I saw 'We Will Rock You' a couple of years ago in Köln and enjoyed it a lot. It's one of those musicals with an abandonce of energy that will have you dancing in the aisles at the end. Loved it.

'War Horse', on the other hand, is a bit more serious. It's based on a children's book by Michael Morpurgo, showing the horrors of World War I through a horse's point of view. The play was excellent and I was blown away by the puppetry (or 'horse choreography' as they called it) which was used to bring the horses to life. The play has won quite a few awards, and rightly so.

Berlin, Berlin (again)

2011-08-27T11:10:00.008+02:00

It's been a while since the last time I've went to Berlin. Of course, this time I just had to pick one of the hottest days this year to go.

Still, the sights were something to see, so sightseeing I did.

Brandenburger Tor

I actually wondered if I ever walked through it before or not. This time, I did.

Reichstag (no, I didn't get inside. You have to reserve well in advanced)

Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas (or, short, the Holocaust-Memorial)

Die Siegessäule

In the Pergamonmuseum, the Market Gate of Miletus

One of the lions on the wall of the Gates of Babylon. The colors and details of those is absolutely amazing.

And finally (but certainly not least), a very different tower … A Ritter Sport Chocolate Tower (though, to be honest, this is only a mock up, but one can wish … and, I think there was enough chocolate in that place to make it real)

I haven't seen half of what I wanted to see and done half of what I wanted to do, so I guess another visit to Berlin will happen soon(ish)

Meisenwahn

2011-08-13T13:49:00.004+02:00

There are few yarns in the knitting world that cause a hype such as those sold by the Wollmeise. A couple of years ago it was still possible to simply go online and order the yarns in the colors you wanted – you could even ask for different shades (light/medium/dark).

Nowadays, you have to be there (online) right on time when the weekly job update happens on Friday mornings. Still, there’s a good change that between the time you manage to put a skein in the color you want into your shopping basket and the time after you dug your credit card out of your purse in the living room, the skein will not be available anymore. This has let to skeins being sold on ebay for ridicules amounts of money. On Ravelry, skeins of Wollmeise being offered in trade are gone within seconds. People downright horde skeins. “My precious” is heard more than once as proud owners cradle their skeins. One might get the impression they are made of gold.

Other than buying online, there are very few places you actually can go and buy this yarn. Here in Germany there is a brick and mortar store in Pfaffenhofen (close to Munich), but this is only open every other weekend or so, which makes going there a little bit difficult for the average working stiff. Except, once per year (I think), the shop is open for a whole week. However, you can’t buy the regular yarn during that week, but only second choice, the ‘unlucky fellows’ (aka ‘Unglücksraben’) that didn’t quite made the cut, may it because the color didn’t quite come out the way they should have, or because there are knots in the skeins, or because the skeins are under weight.

Still, even with those little flaws, the yarn is still very, very pretty.

So, on Thursday, on my way from Frankfurt to Dresden, I took a little detour. What is 300km for some Wollmeise yarn, really? I know of people who fly from the US just to shop there (though, I guess, usually they try to sell it to their family as a jolly good vacation in the lovely country of Germany).

I arrived around 2pm in Pfaffenhofen and quickly found my way to the store. Overwhelmed by wool fumes and assaulted by pretty colors I stumbled back out 45 min later, a good part of my money gone, but with 10 skeins of sock yarn in blues, green, red, honey and white and 2 skeins of lace yarn in blue.

For the lace yarn I plan on making another Featherweight cardigan and the sock yarn calls to being knit into a nice colorful blanket and/or maybe even into socks.

But for now, I’m going to sit next to my pretty new yarn any time I can and pet it a little bit now and then.

General Update

2011-08-08T10:16:00.006+02:00

I've now got 329 patches for the scrap sock yarn blanket. I decided to put them together on a bias using off white sock yarn. The reason I picked the white is A) I have at least 4 skeins of it as I bought it a long time ago with the intention of dying it and B) the white is nicely neutral and doesn't swallow the other colors in the blanket. I gave it a try putting five rows together and I do like it a lot. It does curl a little bit at the corners, but I hope with some light blocking this will go away. The stripe is 200cm wide with 16 patches across.

I would love to go on putting those squares together, but as I still have about 150 - 180 patches more to make and I don't know what colors I'll end up with, I had to put a stop on it. It's just too much fun picking up a patch at (more or less) random and see how it goes with the others around it.

Those socks have been finished some time ago, but only now I got around to take the picture.

The yarn is Opal Handpainted in the colorway 'Asien' and the pattern is Spring Forward from an older issue of Knitty.I now wish I had made about a half repeat more on the leg section, but, well, it is what it is. Besides, the left over yarn is already used up in the blanket (you can even see one of the patches in the top picture)

Then, I pulled out my loom again and using up some yarn I bought because I liked the color very much (and it is still a great color), but when the yarn arrived I discovered that it is one of the most scratichest yarns I've ever got and certainly not usuable for socks (I think it was labeled a sock yarn, but I'm not sure now).

Anyway, I added some golden yarn to the mix and going to weave a piece of fabric I then plan to make into a small project bag.

Sockenwollerestedeckeupdate

2011-07-24T19:15:00.003+02:00

Update on the scrap sockyarn blanket project.

Last Friday, I put all the patches I've made so far in one big pile and looked at it.

Looks like plenty, I thought.
Then I spread them out on the floor, in mostly random order, into a 15 x 16 patches retangular (plus 4 patches) and looked at it again.

First thought: Pretty!
Second thought: This is not enough, damn.
Measuring I get about 132 cm across the 15 patches, which is not quite the 180 x 220cm I'm aiming for.
*Sigh*
Back to the crocheting.

One question remains, though. My original plan was to crochet all those patches together using black sockyarn, but looking on the patches lying on the ground like this, I wonder if I should use something lighter in color. I'm thinking of an off-white or cream.
And suggestions?

Canada Vacation - Post 05 - Stuff

2011-07-10T18:55:00.002+02:00

Just Stuff that somehow didn't fit into the other posts.

The streets of St. John's
The entrance to the harbour of St. John's (aka the Narrows)

Our ferry from Argentia to North Sydney

Moose advertisment:

Actual moose:

Canada Vacation - Post 04 - Birds

2011-07-10T18:39:00.002+02:00

Seagulls, Puffins and Gannets, oh my!

Black-legged Kittiwakes:
Puffins:

And gannets:

Canada Vacation - Post 03 - Landscapes

2011-07-06T22:01:00.004+02:00

Sometimes bad weather (as in wind and fog) has an advantage. Take a rocky coastline, add some atmospheric mist in the air. Some wind for the waves, and one has a fantastic picture.

Well, one of the reasons we went to Newfoundland was because the Northcoast is also known as 'Iceberg Alley' as during spring and early summer the icebergs that have broken off months ago from the glaciers in Greenland travel along the coast and can be seen from land. At least in theory. During the time we've been on the island, however, icebergs had been rather scarce. We only got about three and for two of thoe we had to take a boat tour.

The advantage of taking a boat tour is that you can get really close to the bergs and see details you just can't get from land.

One of the icebergs even had a guest.
One more typical picture.

Canada Vacation - Post 02 - Lighthouses

2011-07-05T15:44:00.003+02:00

I've always have loved lighthouses. I'm not sure what it is that calls to me, but if I know there's a lighthouse somewhere I will try to get there and make a picture of it.

The first one pictured, is actually the last one I took a photo of. It is the lighthouse in Peggy's Cove and quite posibly the most fotographed lighthouse in Novo Scotia, is not in all of Canada. It was Canada Day (1st of July) and our last day in Canada. Luckily we arrived early enough to beat the crowds. The weather was brilliant and it was for the first time in three weeks we actually saw a clear blue sky.

This lighthouse (and the sky behind it) is more typical for what we had for most of the trip. It is the light house in Cow's Head on the West coast of Newfoundland.

This lighthouse is the one in Cape Spear, the Eastern most point in North America. Again is was foggy and the first sound we heard when we arrived there was the deep bass of the foghorn blowing every minute or so. This is actually the new lighthouse there, there's another historical building a few meters away that is the original lighthouse.

The funniest lighthouse (in my opinion) was this one in Bonavista. This is the more traditional style of lighthouses, where the lighthouse is actually more of a house for the lighthouse keeper and his family living on the premise. Today, all the lighthouses are automaticized (is that a word?), though, so no lighthouse keepers needed anymore.
This last building is obviously not a lighthouse. This is the Cabot Tower in St. John's, marking the place John Cabot on St. John's Day 1497 (24th June) set foot for the first time on North American soil.
This place is interesting for at least one more historical reason. It is the place where in 1901 Guglielmo Marconi received first wireless transatlantic signal from Cornwall in England, basically jump starting the modern communication age.

Canada Vacation - Post 01 - Nova Scotia

2011-07-04T11:53:00.007+02:00

Some may have wondered why I haven't posted anything for the last three weeks (some may not have wondered, because they knew). I've been away on vacation to Canada. A friend and I rented a motorhome and went from Halifax to Newfoundland and back.

When we arrived in Halifax, the weather was great, nice and warm.

The Clocktower in Halifax:

We went down to the harbourfront and took a tour on the Harbour Hopper, going through downtown Halifax and then into the harbour itself.

Of course we also saw tugboat Theodore Too (isn't he just too cute - he got his own tv-show)

The next day we picked up our camper. It also had started to rain, which was pretty much the mode for the next 2 1/2 weeks. If it wasn't raining is was foggy or windy.

Compared to some others we saw on the road he was downright smallish, but for us he was just the right size. When we returned him, we had driven more than 5000 km.

Before heading to the ferry and up to Newfoundland, we drove along the Cabot Trail, a very beautiful strech of road on Cape Brenton Island.

From the trail we saw quite a few times fishermen pulling up lobster baskets full of yummy North Atlantic lobsters.

Of course, it didn't us long before the first lobster landed in our cooking pot (though, we didn't go for life lobster. I don't think either of us could have manage the kill the poor thing by drowning it in boiling water - we left that dirty job to others)

Kirchentag

2011-06-06T19:35:00.002+02:00

Last week the Deutsche Evangelischer Kirchentag (German Evangelical Church Congress) took place in Dresden. I had to work most days, but on Thursday I took the tram downtown and immerge myself into the going ons.

Most participants did wear green scraves, but it looks like Mr. Luther thought he looks better in pink (it certainly is a nice touch of color)

The streets were pretty growded. Taking a car downtown would have been a excercise in futility. Most people got around on foot or with a bike, though for the more adventures one also could choose a horse drawn carriage.

Music could be found on every street corner.

And, if you were at the right time at the right place, one could brush elbows with the famous and powerful.
The gentleman in the center is Christian Wulff, the President of Germany. He might not be as powerful as some other president, or even our Chancellor, but he's still our head of state. I knew he had been at the Kirchentag the day before, so when I saw the car with this special licence plate, I took a guess on who might show up eventually.
When he came out of the hotel and saw the growd waiting for him on the other side of the street (which was as close as we've been allowed to go), he came over and shook hands.

116

2011-05-30T10:04:00.003+02:00

... patches I've made on the new blanket.

It's a rather wild mixture, so I will have to see how it turns out in the end. I concentrated on blues and greens last week, but guess I will have to dip into the reds soon. Currently I guestimate I'll need 500 patches all in all, for a afghan 25 x 20 patches, which would make it 225cm x 180cm (more or less), big enough to cover my queen size bed.

Kusha Kusha

2011-05-19T13:21:00.003+02:00

The Kusha Kusha scarf is one of those immensly popular pattern (there are currently 643 projects on ravelry alone) that is extremely simple to knit up and has a quick, interesting result. It is worked from a stainless steel/silk yarn (if you can call something that is the thickness of human hair yarn, that is) together with a soft wool lace yarn, and, once finished knitting, gently fulled (or felted, what ever you prefer to call it)

The process of fulling gives, a) a sturdy body to the whole project, b) takes care that the whole think lays flat (it's knit in stocking stitch, which normally leads to curling on the edges), c) adds warms to the whole thing and, finally, d) softens the whole thing considerably.

I'm not quite sure what I'm going to wear it to, but it's super light and rather pretty.

I might dye it though, as the grey is a bit on the boring side. I aimed for elegant, but it didn't turn quite out that way.

With the Iceland afghan out of the way, I've started a new big, long term project. The idea is to finally use up my pile of left over sock yarn. Having discovered recently that I like to crochet once in a while, I started a patchwork blanket. The pattern is available for free from drops and once you have the five row pattern down, it's super simple.

I've already made about 30 of those patches and they work up really fast. It is fantastically portable (a small ball of yarn, a crochet hook, that's all). Going through my bag with left over yarn, I've noticed I've got a lot of reds - I'm not so sure I want to go that way, but for now I've got still enough other colors.

Iceland Afghan in Moritzburg

2011-05-12T09:33:00.000+02:00

Last weekend I finished the latest afghan in my collection. It is knitted with yarn I've bought mostly in Iceland two years ago, originally planned to be used for a cardigan. The yarn is Lett Lopi, it comes in a billion different colors and is dirt cheap (especially in Iceland).
Eventually I decided to not do the cardi and knit a blanket instead. I added a few more skeins of different colors to match the original set and started knitting.

Each square is 24 stitches wide and 48 row long in garder stitch. I used a little bit under 2 skeins for 7 squares, so in the end the blanket / afghan came out as 9 x 7 squares. For the border I used another 2 skeins. I made a really, really long circular needle by connecting three cables from an interchangable needle set. With this circular needle I picked up around 770 stitches all around, then I increased by two stitches in every corner every other row.
When I got the the cast of, I held my breath if the yarn would be enough. I wouldn't have been, if not for some pieces of scrap yarn I pulled out of my trash (it was on the top, and I washed it before I sliced it to the rest, so the yuck factor was not too bad). In the end I had about 10cm left *phew*

The afghan is super cushy.
I dragged it out to the castle in Moritzburg the other day for a photo session (spot the afghan in the picture ;))

I'm madly, deeply in love with that afghan. I do love everything about it.

And it's mine.
All MINE!

To knit, to crochet, to weave

2011-05-05T08:46:00.006+02:00

Knitting: The Kusha-Kusha scarf. Interesting concept with using steel/silk yarn together with normal wool. The wool is going to be felted once the scarf is done.

Weaving: I'm trying to weave a wrap-faced band. Normally an inkle loom is used for this, but I thought I give it a try on my rigid heddle loom. So far, so good.

I also wove a scarf using Noro Kureyon sock yarn. Weaving with that yarn has its challenges, mostly because the wrap broke serveral times. The colors, though, make more than up for that.

Crocheting (or, as some people call it: hooking): I'm using up some stash yarn. By my calculations I might be able to get up to 100 of those patches (I've got 8 so far) - eehr, correction, I should get 50 patches, not 100. I've got 250gr of the yarn and 8 patches weigh 40gr, ergo, 50 (minus maybe one or two due to snipping off ends)

Not sure what I'm going to do with them once they're done. I baby blanket (which, given I don't know any babys is maybe a bit useless), a pillow or maybe a bag.

Registration

2011-05-02T14:45:00.003+02:00

With ravelry it's fairly easy to keep track of one's stash. This is quite useful when one is not at home and needs to do a quick check if you have this or that yarn or if you have enough of it.

When my mom gave me all that yarn a short while ago, I decided when I have the time to finally update my stash.
So, today, I put all of my yarn into one room, and started to go through it and try to get it into some order. I also set up a little photo studio (a white piece of paper taped to the wall, my camera on the tripod) and took a picture of every yarn that had not been registered so far. All in all, I took about 50 pics, though not every one of those was actually new stuff (new in the sense that I didn't have it before. Some of the yarn I've added was bought more than 30 years ago).

After updating the list in ravelry, I now know that I have 106 different yarns in my stash. I also have 41664 meters of yarn to work with. This is more than 40km!!!
... and this doesn't even include the cottons and the uni colored sock yarn. I just couldn't be bothered with those.

One should think this is enough yarn to keep me busy for a while and I certainly don't need to buy any more yarn in the foreseeable future.
I'm not so sure of this, though ;)

She Smiles

2011-04-21T21:01:00.003+02:00

It's been a while since I updated the last time on Queen Nefertiti back in December.

She now has a mouth and also a good part of her neck is done.

Quick Update

2011-04-17T19:20:00.003+02:00

My mom is cleaning out her cupboards, so a whole bunch of yarn and stitching material has come my way. There are several individual balls of yarn I have no idea what to do with, but I'm sure eventually something will come up. For the stitching threads (there's cotton and wool) I'm thinking of weaving, but so far that's only a pretty vague idea. As already mentioned the last time, I've finished the Dawn shawl. It looks quite lovely and is surprisingly warm for something so thin. Lately I've came across a nice pattern for a short sleeved cardigan I thought would look good on me. In my stash I've found a yarn I think works well with the pattern. I thought I might have enough of the yarn to finish the cardigan as written in the pattern, but I have the feeling it will be a bit short.

As the cardi is knitted top down I've now stopped working on the body and decided to finish the arms first. This way I can use up every scrape of yarn I've got to make it as long a possible. Keep your fingers crossed it will be enough.

Break Out

2011-04-03T18:03:00.004+02:00

Seemingly over night, summer has broken out here, pretty much skipping spring in the process. I feels like only last week it was freezing, and suddenly people left and right throw off their winter clothing and got out to the ice cafes to sit in the sun getting sun burned. You almost can watch how the leaves and the blossoms work their way out of their winter shell, dibbing the world in fresh colors of green, yellow and pink. Every bicyle in Germany has been pulled out of winter storage and people who haven't had any excercise in the last six month bike or jog or nordic walk through nature. Barbeques are pulled out and the smell of burned meat mixes with the scent of flowers. Yup, it's spring. On the knitting/weaving front, I've finished the retangular blue and red scarf. It's blocking in the other room, but I hope to get some pictures soon. I've started another pair of socks from 'Socken aus aller Welt'. This pattern is called 'Kieler Sprotte'. It's not that I think I'm going to need socks soon, but it's always good to have something small and portable on the needles. Finding other uses for sock yarn, I wove this scarf with various left over sock yarns in blue and green (more blue than green though). I'm not so happy with the drape of the scarf - even after washing, the material is somewhat stiff - but the colors are to die for.

Call of the Wild

2011-03-23T20:12:00.010+01:00

Close to Hanau in Klein-Auheim is the Alte Fasanerie, a kind of zoological park in a natural environment with mostly local fauna. The park was founded more than 400 years ago, though at this time is was not open to the public and instead was used to raise and keep animals the rich and famous could then hunt for fun.

I have some vague memories of going there when I was a kid and I actually believe there is some super 8 footage of me and my family being there, but I think it's been a good 30 years if not longer since I've visited.

I've had a couple of days off this week and the weather was gorgeous, so I decided to pull out my camera and and see if I could get a couple of good shots in. When I was there yesterday I saw that the park also has a falconry which offers shows once a day. As I had no time for it yesterday, I decided to come back today and have a second go.

Before the show you could get pretty close to the birds and they (at least most of them) obliged to pose for photos.

Not for the first time, I realized that getting a good photo of a bird in flight is damn hard. But with a sufficient amount of tries, at least one or two had had to come out all right.

One of the main reasons I went for the park was that I read an article the other day that the wild boar now had their young and if the weather was nice and warm enough, they would get the little ones out.

The park also has a group of three lynx. Yesterday they proved to be rather lazy, but luckily today they were far more active (in case you're worried, they one on the right is washing the face of the other one. Really, it was adorable)

The grooming didn't last long, though and soon they were chasing each other around the enclosure. While I was watching, one suddenly jumped a good three meters up a tree and made itself comfortable up there.

The wolves, on the other hand were not exactly active. But if you look like this one, you don't need to.
They also have a group of three polar wolves. A lady I was talking to, told me they had a little concert earlier in the day, but in the afternoon they mostly enjoyed the sun and didn't do much.

Search for the Right Angle

2011-03-20T20:26:00.003+01:00

Remember one of my Works in Progress from two weeks ago?

I don't have a pattern for the shawl and try to muddle my way to something that looks sort of like what I want.
The problem I have with this is that when you decrease on both sides while knitting stocking stitch, it will not result in a 90 degree angle, in something a bit pointier than I'd like.
Through trial and error (and a little bit of actual thinking) I figured a decrease in every right-side row PLUS a decrease in every third wrong-side row (a total of four decreases in six rows), should get me the angle I'm looking for.
Looks like I've got it sort of right now.

However, as my first attempt (as seen in the previous post) was not what I wanted, I frogged the other side. Not being one to waste perfectly good yarn, I wrapped them all in nice little balls.

As I actually will knit less rows now to get to the end (the stripes are somewhat narrower now), I should be fine.

I'll see.

Meissen

2011-03-13T16:23:00.005+01:00

The town of Meissen is about 25km away from Dresden, situated on the banks of the river Elbe. It is probably most famous for the Meissener porcelain, the first high-quality porcelain that was ever made outside of China and the orient.

Founded over a 1000 years ago, it sports a large castle (the Albrechtsburg) and a nice old town center. Within the confines of the Albrechtsburg is also the old cathedral.

I took a tour around the place. I might not be a devote church goer anymore, but I still admire the architecture.
One of my favorite things in the Albrechtsburg were the many little details, like the iron door knocker and the old door handle. I also took a dozen pictures of the floors, with their repeating patterns (though showing them would sort of overload this blog today)

However, what loved most, was the spiral staircase in the Albrechtsburg. I just love those things, and finally I got a decent picture of one. I think I might blow that one up and hang it on my wall.

Works in Progress

2011-03-06T18:12:00.002+01:00

As a knitter, I almost never have only one project going. Usually I have at least one small, portable project, like a sock. Then I may have a a long term project, one I can pick up any time, knit a little bit on it, and then go one to something a bit more interesting. I also like to have one project, which is more or less mindless TV knitting, where the fingers know what to do and I can concentrate on whatever is going on on the scree. Sometimes I also have a proper project, like a sweater or a cardigan. Those are usually more of an investment in time and money. And then I like myself some lace knitting, or fair ilses, which is a challenge and demands more attention.
Of course, any of those projects can be a combination of the above mentioned things. Mindless TV sock knitting - can be done. A lacy, complicated sweater - no problem.

Right now, I have those projects ongoing:
Dawn is a pattern in a book I don't possess. When I saw the pictures I thought it would be simple enough to figure out how it's done. I started and all looked fine, but now I have a problem. The angle on the left hand side should be a right angle. But it's not. And I should have known that before. When you decrease every other row when knitting garter stitch (knit back and forward), THEN you get a right angle. But when you decrease every other row when knitting stocking stitch, you don't get a right angle. That's because stocking stitch has a different row to stitch count. If you take a square of a stocking stitch knit fabric, you will have more rows from top to bottom than stitched from left to right. Unlike garter, where the row count is almost the same as the stitch count.
So, what to do?
I guess I'm going to rib up that section beginning at the darkest stripe and knit that part again but doing some decreases also on the wrong side of the fabric. Maybe every sixth row. Only problem with that is, that I then will get narrower stripes than before.
Ah, well, I will see. As the 'small portable' project I have a pair of fingerless glowes. That is, it's not a pair yet, but only one glove. That one glove, on the other hand (pardon that pun), I seriously love. Nice, tight fit and the yarn (a 100% merino) is super soft.

In the 'not really knitting' category, I've got a nother weaving project on the loom. This may, or may not, turn in to a kitchen towel. It is narrower than I hoped it would be, so the dimensions are off, but on the other side, nobody ever said a kitchen towel can't be long and narrow, right?

Then, I have actually one finished project, which are the Feuerland socks for my mom. The fit and have gotten the latex dots one the sole for better grip, so they will be handed over as soon as I see my parents again.

Wrap and Weave

2011-02-24T09:20:00.003+01:00

Welcome to my newest addiction ... ehr, hobby.

This is a Ashford Knitter's Loom (and, no, I'm not sure why it's called a 'Knitter's Loom'. It's not that one HAS to be a knitter to weave with it)
At the moment, the loom is wrapped with some old mohair yarn I've had in my stash forever and never quite found any use for. Weaving with that stuff is ... interesting. When you move the reed (that's that thing in the middle where all the treads go through) half the threads move up, the other half moves down. Ann thanks to the 'fluffyness' of the yarn the threads tend to stick to another. Getting them free requires a bit of work, though I'm getting the hang of it.

My very first piece was much easier. I've used some old Wollmeise yarn (the color is Wellensittichvogelfeder).

On the other hand, with this piece I had big problems with tension. The width varies between 11cm and 15cm. I know by now what I made wrong, so this shouldn't be a problem in the future (at least not too big of a problem)

One more piece in between those two was a trial piece from the magazine that came with the loom. Much fun to play with colors and how different counts in the wrap or in the weft affect the result.

Oh great, it's snowing.

That means I better stay inside and weave a bit more, right?

Update

2011-02-20T18:14:00.004+01:00

Last week I managed to finish the Adventskalenderschal 2010. This was a project by several people on Ravelry where they got together and designed a shawl. Then, during the Christmas Season, they revealed a clue a day (kind of like opening a door in a normal Adventskalender) and if you wanted you could knit along with the rest of them (there are 288 projects for it registed on Ravelry) until, after 24 clues and on Christmas Eve, you've got a finished project.

I did wait until the knit along was completed and all parts where posted in one handy-dandy document, before I decided to start my Adventskalenderschal.

I used Regia Lace, a fairly new garn similar to the Regia Hand Dye, only thinner (for lace)

One skein of the yarn runs for 600m/100gr and I needed to buy a second skein for the last six or seven days (they shawl weigths a total of 130gr)

It was a very interesting project which needed quite a bit of attention (I'm pretty sure I've screwed up on day 2) and I'm very happy how it turned out (especially after I blocked it)

And even though it's lace it's nice and warm wrapped around my neck (I have to double it to do that as it has come out as rather long with a wooping 205cm by 45cm)

Next I've moved away from lace knitting and turned my hands on crochet for a change.

And what does one normally crochet?

Potholders:

I discovered only while I blocked those that I managed to make a mistake by not paying enough attention. With both of them.

Still I love them as they are bright and sunny and still usefull.

Not quite so useful, but still fun is M:

He's Michael's Minion and already moved in with my friend to look after him.

Can there be a more usefull birthday gift?

That is, if he doesn't manage to blow up his place ... (go, see the movie and you know what I'm talking about)

A Walk Through The Neighborhood

2011-02-15T11:51:00.005+01:00

Last week, on my day off, I took a lazy stroll through the neighborhood at The Other Place.

Just down the street, there's an abandoned building, which surely has seen better times, but that still looked out at the world with confidence and pride.

Even if some houses have people live in them, the surrounding fences sometimes are rusty and overgrown (which, I believe, adds an undeniable charm)

Seeing that old bus, I can't help but think if some people missed the memo that the 70ties (and for that matter the 80ties) are over.

I'm sure, though, the cat here couldn't care less (she didn't care much about being photographed either...)
Looking through doorways into the dark, I wonder what lays back there.

Coming back home (I mean the Other Home, of course) and looking up to the windows of my living room.

The Other Place

2011-02-06T17:24:00.003+01:00

In my line of work I usually end up working wherever my company's customers are. Some time, when it is a longer engagement, I end up with an appartment at that town. I've lived for half a year in Dallas / Texas several years back, and also had an appartment close to Paris / France for a year or so.

Last big customer project got me an appartment in Dresden (at least it's still in Germany) and over the last few weeks I've tried to make it a home. As I spend a lot of time there, there's obviously a lot of my stuff that travels with me when I get there. And once in a while, stuff I thought is at my place home is in fact (most probably) in Dresden.

Case in point is the other half of the leg warmers I've made for my sister. I was sure I had the first piece I've knitted at home, but coming home this weekend, I can't find it here. Which means it probably, after all, in the Other Place.

Which also means I'm not able to pack them up and send time to sister dearest just right now.
Which sort of sucks.

If, however, it turns out it is not in the Other Place after all, and if it's in fact lost somehow, I still have one skein of the yarn and I could knit aother one.
Which, upon finishing, would garanty that the moment I've done that it would reveal that the first legwarmer was right in front of my eyes and had not, in fact, been lost.

Maybe my sister would be interesting in growing a third leg ;)

Ah, as a certain birthday has come and gone, I can finally show this here.

Yep, another pair of the infamous French Press Felted Slippers.

'Should' and 'Shouldn't's

2011-01-23T16:28:00.006+01:00

Sorry for the quiet last week. I'm afraid you guys will have to get used to it (at least for a while - I have to see how things develope). Thing is, since beginning of this year I've got a new working pattern that has me working every other weekend (I do get a long weekend on the other end for compensation, so it's not too bad). Another part of this is that I now have a second appartment and this new place in not completely set up yet. I'm still shifting stuff from one place to another and try to find the best balance. I'm getting there, but it will take a little bit still.

Anyway, being a sensible and responsible person (sorry, I need to have a little snicker right now ...), I SHOULD be knitting sensible, useful stuff. Like the legwarmers I've promised to make for my sister.

Hmm, this is not very far progressed.

Then there are the socks I've started to knit for my mom and that SHOULD be much further by now.

Still on heel number one (and this is the status since two weeks ago)

I also SHOULD be knitting on my blanket (the link leads to the picture from three weeks ago - nothing has changed that status). Dresden in winter is cold, and there already had been occations where I thought it would be nice if I had that one finished.

What I SHOULDN'T knit is a lace sampler scarf I probably won't ever wear, is too light and airy to provide any warmth and already forced me to buy more yarn.

But, damn, it's just too much fun working on it and I can't wait for the day I'm done and I can block it. It will be gorgeous.

Well, at least I've finished another pair of the French Press Felted Slippers. They're easy to make (though the sewing part is a bit painful) and I love wearing them. For embellishing I took a bit different route with this pair than with the others. I didn't use the straps (though they had been knitted and felted together with the slippers) but needle-felted those swirls on them. I also added some tiny bead flowers.
They do remind my of how some blossoms are being picked up in the summer wind.

Neckwarmer

2011-01-10T10:11:00.003+01:00

Even though it got a bit warmer the last few days, I'm convinced the winter is not done yet. So I keep knitting warm stuf.

This is a neck warmer. The original pattern is for a wimple, meanig it's worn slipped up over the head, but I didn't want this. Instead I knitted it shorter than the pattern asked for, but did increases every fourth row between the lace pattern in the third (and last) repeat.

This makes the lower part flare out and settles it on the shoulder when wearing it.

I really like the effect here.

As I wanted it to fit snuggly I didn't block the lace. This adds some elasticity to the whole thing.

The yarn, Zitron Unisono, was one of those spontanious buys where you see something, think it's pretty, but have no clue what to make with it. This is about the fourth project I've tried for it and about the first one which doesn't totally suck.

Statistics 2010

2011-01-02T10:26:00.002+01:00

Out of the 51 projects I've started in 2010, I've finished 46.
2 projects I've frogged because I didn't like how they came out.
3 projects are still in progress.
I finished 16 pairs of socks and 5 pairs of gloves.
I've made 11 shawls / scarves / cowls.
I've made curtains for my apartment in Dresden and an afghan for my sister's birthday (this was, without a doubt, the biggest project last year)
I knitted two cardigans and 1 pullover.
I've made the French Press Felted Slippers twice.
Most of my finished objects I've kept ( I like my feet and hands and neck warm, thank you so very much), but a few things did leave my place to go to some members of my family.

I have not run out of yarn yet (and am not very likely to do so in the foreseeable future).
This will not stop me from buying more yarn.

2010 was a good knitting year. Lets hope 2011 will be as well.

Another Year, Another Blanket

2011-01-01T14:46:00.003+01:00

Happy New Year to everybody.

It's still cold outside (and, no, this time I'm not going to start singing), so I've started another blanket to snuggle in with a good book.

The yarn is Lett Lopi and most of it I've bought in Iceland 1 1/2 years ago for a totally other project. Eventually I decided not to do the other project and, after buying a few more colors, I've started this one. I get a little more than seven squares out of two balls of yarn (which is the number I've got of most of the colors). Right now I plan it to be 7 by 9 squares big, which is not going to be huge, but it should be enough for a nice lap blanket at least.

Winter Wonderland

2010-12-26T18:13:00.003+01:00

It's cold outside (... there's no kind of atmosphere, I'm all alone, more or less. Let me fly, far away from here, fun, fun, fun, in the sun, sun, sun. ... ugh, sorry, Red Dwarf flashback here)

Well, as I said, it's cold, so the logical response from me is to knit something warm.

My first ever self-knitted knee-socks. I used some cheapy yarn in alternating 4-row stripes. The socks were my knitting project from my Japan trip, and so I titled them 'Stripes over Tokyo'

Even though I followed the pattern and did the increase every 10 rows they are a bit tight on the shanks. So next time my plan is to do the increases every 8 rows.

Another knitting project that got finished (the knitting part I did weeks ago) are the second pairs of French Press Felted Slippers. After the hand felting (see here for more) they were still rather big. I could use them, but I wanted to try to get them a little smaller at least.

I put them in the washing machine together with two other felting projects. When I pulled them out I thought I've gone too far and they would only fit a five-year old. But with some tugging and pulling and walking around in the wet slippers, I managed to model them to my feet and now they are a perfect fit.

Sadely I think I did break my washing machine with this project (though I blame the potholder that went in with the slippers for it). It won't pump the water out anymore and my guess would be that the lint got into the pump. I have to see if I can get the machine fixed or not. It's twelve years old, so getting a new one wouldn't be too bad.
In the mean time I bring along laundry when I visit friends ... *grin*

While in Japan I've picked up a kit for Sashinko stitching. The book I bought later here. The technique is fairly simple, but I do like the effect and the geometrical design appeals to me. I've got a few more projects in mind.

Sushi & Co.

2010-12-19T16:04:00.004+01:00

If you ask anybody about the quintessential Japanese food, I bet you 9 out of 10 people would say it's sushi. They wouldn't be very wrong either, but, on the other hand, the Japanese cuisine is so much more than just sushi. Chicken skewers grilles over an open flame (Yakitori), vegetables dipped in batter and deep fried (Tempura), fatty pork, battered and fried and searved with raw cabbage, and the soups, oh, the soups. There is so much more, really, and it's not all fish.

On my trip to Japan over the last two weeks I had all kinds of food and all of it very Japanese and all of it very good.

Only in Japan, though, I think it was possible to invent something that is a combination of food, technology and entertainment and that's conveyor belt sushi. We went to one restaurant last week and it was great fun (and it was tasty too)

We were sat at a bar and in front of us dozens of different kinds of sushi passed by on a conveyor belt. All you have to do is to take a plate from the converyor belt and enjoy.

Also, in front of you is a computer screen where you can order special kinds of sushi, or soup or deserts. Once you have placed the order a little train drives up on a track above the conveyor belt to where you're sitting with your order. After you take your plates you push another button and the train rushes back into the kitchen ready for the next order.

Once you're done eating, a waitress comes by, counts the stack of plates you have in front of you and all that's left to do is to pay. With a measly 100 yen per plate, it is an actually relatively cheap enjoyment.

Nikko

2010-12-11T11:47:00.003+01:00

Konichi-wa once again. It's another business trip for me to Japan.
Today two of my collegues and I headed to Nikko, a small town about 150km North of Tokyo with many shrines and temples and also the entrance to the Nikko National Park. They are very proud to call themselves a World Heritage Site and they deserve it.

At the entrance of the shrine areal they is this lovely bridge.

Also quite famous are these three monkeys: hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil.What intrigued me without ends are the hundreds of stone lanterns which all were covered with moss, giving them a mystique flavor.

Remember the Queen?

2010-12-04T18:59:00.005+01:00

It's been a while since I've posted any update on the Queen Nefertiti cross stitch project. This is mostly because I haven't stitched very much on it. Once in a while I pull her out and put in some stitches only to leave her alone for weeks. The area I've been working on is also rather dull, so I don't feel that motivated. There's not much to see in there.

Anyway, after the last update in May, finally another one. The project is still alive and I hope to make more progress soon.

Transformations

2010-11-28T15:42:00.003+01:00

Knitting is all about transformations. First of one starts with a string of yarn, and, by using two long sticks, one turns that string into a flat or even three-dimensional object. It's pretty amazing if you think about it.
But it doesn't end there.
Depending on the material used (preferable natural wool) and the addition of water and agitation, one can turn that somewhat flobby object one has made, into a far more tense and sturdy thing.

Exhibit A (category felting/fulling):

It's not finished yet, really, as I would like to add some embellishment to it. What exactly, I'm not 100% sure yet. My first idea didn't work out, so I'm thinking about alternatives.

Another examble for the magic that is post-knitting transformations is blocking. By soaking the finished object one has knitted into water for half an hour or so, pressing most of the water out and then stretching it with the aid of some blocking wires and/or half a million pins, one can change something that once looked like a bowl of uncooked ramen noodles into something that defys description.

Exhibit B (category lace / blocking, pre-blocked):

and Exhibit C (category lace / blocking, post-blocking):
This is a pair of curtains I've been knitting for my new place in Dresden. I haven't hung them yet, so please keep your fingers crossed they are the correct size.

Another kind of transformation is currently taking place as fall/autum is clearly over for this year and nature has decided to dump a respectable amount of snow on us last Friday. Yep, it's winter.
With snow this early, my guess is that around christmas it will be spring like temperatures ...

Glees

2010-11-14T16:44:00.006+01:00

A few weeks ago Aldi had a sale on wool for felting. Never one to refuse to buy yarn on sale, I bought two packs, one in red and one in grey.

For a while already, I've had my eyes on the pattern for the French Press Felted Slippers, so I purchased the pattern, got me a set of needles and went to work. The knitting up was done quickly (I did add some Cascade 220 for the sole and the straps). I then sewed them up and last Thursday I've pulled out my bucket and plunger and started on the felting/fulling process. While I splashed away, I did listen to the soundtrack of Glee on my ipod, hence I dubbed them 'Glees'

It worked out pretty well and they fit nicely.

I might end up making another pair soon ....

One sock, two sock, three sock, ...

2010-11-07T17:49:00.003+01:00

After knitting gloves, I've went back to knitting socks. I guess, my turnover for socks is just bigger, simply because I'll put on my socks in the morning and then off again before I go to bed, wearing them the whole day. However, with gloves I only really ever put them on when I go outside and it's cold. This means of course, that I need to wash my socks much more often than my gloves, meaning that I go through more of them in the term of a week.

And this means, I guess, I'll need to have more socks.

Also, a few weeks ago, I went through my sock drawer at home and culled some of my older experiments in sock knitting and discarded them. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with those old pairs, but this made room in the drawer for some new members to move in.

First of those is this pair.

The pattern is from the first Verena Spezial: In 80 Socken um die Welt ('In 80 socks around the world'). In fact, it's the pair on the the cover, though I shortened the part between the jaquard border and the beginning of the foot by quite a bit. A new technique - for me at least - was the so called Vikkel braid, which is a bit fiddly to do, but the end result's very nice.

Second pair is the pattern 'Lindsay' from Cookie A.'s book 'Sock Innovation'

The yarn is a cotton/wool/nylon mix. It makes for somewhat slouchy socks, but very comfortable. It was the first time I made a garder stitch short row heel and toe, but it was no problem and they turned out really nice.

I'm on the next pair already ...

To knit something else, I've also made a quick hat from a devine silk/merion mix. I haven't actually worn it yet, as the weather was either too warm or too windy.

I'm working on a matching scarf in the same yarn also using the snowdrop pattern. I think I might need to buy another skein of the yarn, as at the moment the scarf looks to be very short. Hmm, as if I need another excuse to visit my favorite yarn store ....

Dresden at Night

2010-10-31T17:25:00.004+01:00

I'm trying the stretch my fotographic skills and so I dragged my tripod and camera with me to Dresden last night. Luckily the weather was cooperating and there was no rain.

First there are the buildings on the other side of the river from the hotel. I particularly like the moon and the reflections on the water.

Then I went to get the typical skyline. I had to play around with the settings a little to get what I wanted, but eventually, I got this shot.

The conference center next door was hosting a party and put on the special lighting.

And, last, but not least, there was a carnival closeby and I took this shot of the ferris wheel. I like it, but wish there was a way to make it not look like it's falling over backwards. Maybe next time I keep a larger distance

250

2010-10-24T18:54:00.004+02:00

I've started this blog in July 2006. I wanted to have a forum to showcase my stitching and grafting and photography and to give my family and friends an opertunity to see and hear what I'm up to. I also wanted something for me to keep track of what I've made and I've used this blog more than once to go back a few years and look what I've done back then.

My aim is to make one post every week, updating on Sunday evening if I have the chance, and so far, I'm doing not too badly. This is post 250.

Over the years I've collected 10 followers, which I think is pretty cool.

My mom always complains that I write my blog in English, and I've been think about doing it bilingual, but eventually decided against it. Sorry, mom.

To make you feel a little bit better (I hope) here's a peace offering:

My mom asked me for mittens, so I've made her some.

They're made following a free pattern from DROPS design (sort of - originally the pattern was for gloves, so I improvised) and I used some leftover yarn I've had in my stash. I did run out of the white yarn (Rowan Cotton Wool) for the thumb of the second mitten, so I ribbed out some of the cuff of the first mitten and got just enough to finish the pair.

While working on those, I've also started a pair of gloves for myself. I pulled out one of the skeins I've bought in Backnang and some beads and started 'Galaxy'

They're pretty cool! They're also a complete set, but it's more difficult than one would think to make a picture of your own hands while holding the camera that is used to make the pictures. So, for now, only one hand photographed.

Ah, I almost forgot. My Ringwood gloves have been featured on the Knitty blog, where they show the first couple of finished projects from the latest edition of Knitty.

I'm getting famous!

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

2010-10-17T18:34:00.002+02:00

A couple of months ago the movie 'Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time' hit the theaters and as I liked what I saw in the trailer, I went, shelled out the Euros and watched it. Three times.

I really liked the look and the feel of the movie, I liked the soundtrack (bought it of course), I liked the actors, I liked the action and the special effects. I liked the humor and the sense that the three brothers really cared about each other (even though two of them accused the third of murdering their father). I liked the story.

Yep, I guess you could say I liked it. A lot.

I've been eying the game 'Prince of Persia: Sands of Time' for quite a long time, but never was sure enough if I really wanted to buy it. First I didn't trust the computing power of my PC, but that was easily fixed by the new computer and so I, driven by the impact of the movie (and the fact that I had to wait so long for the DVD finally hitting the shelves) I got the game and played it.
Even though there have been a couple of really frustrating spots in the game, where I had to repeat a fight several dozen times, some glitches (i.e. the prince needs to move a box to a certain place but he just wouldn't allow me to push it in that direction) and the fact that halfway through the game I lost all my saves when the computer died on me, I really, really enjoyed it. And I'm damn proud I did eventually beat the last battle and thus the game.
I've started on the second part now ('The Warrior Within' was part of a bundle where I got game one and two together) and start to get into the game, but not as much as with Sand of Time. The mood is much darker and the soundtrack is frankly annoying in parts. I'll have to see if I will play it through or not.

Gloves Are The New Socks

2010-10-10T15:33:00.005+02:00

Last year around this time I was churning out socks like there was no tomorrow. I guess I had a feeling the winter would be long and cold and in the end I was rather glad I had all those socks to keep my feet warm.

This year it's gloves. I'm on my third pair and have at least one more in the pipeline. The first pair were really wrist warmers, but, hey, they're there to keep my hands warm, so I think they count.

The second pair are the Ringwood gloves:

The yarn is some Cherry Tree Hill Supersock yarn I've bought in Florida last year. I've used only about half the skein, so maybe I'll make something else with it (it should be enough for at least one pair of wrist warmers ...)

The pattern is from the lastest Knitty and when I saw it (the pattern) I knew I had to make them. It is a surprisingly easy knit and it took me only about two days.

Speaking of Knitty; this new issue is great. The one before was a bit on the bla side of things and the only thing I wanted to knit (and did knit) was the Coquille shawl (and that pattern only showed up as a surprise pattern a few months after the original issue was puplished)

The new issue, now, I have already faved about seven pattern, and though I don't know if I really will knit them all, they are definitly on my list if I'm looking for something in that area.

First one is Eileen, a lovely, lacey cardigan with clear, simple, none-frilly lines. It looks like a nice, every day cardigan, which would work great with what I like to wear.

Pretty Maids looks like a cool lace shawl. I love to knit lace, but to be honest I don't usually wear them. So this is more something I would like to make, but propably won't as I don't know what to do with it once it's done. One the other hand, I might just take the lace pattern and make a scarf from it ... this might work.

Eleanor is another one that looks cool, and a cowl is currently a very 'in' item to have. For this I would need the perfect yarn, though, something with cashmir or like that, just something übersoft.

Brumbles seems to be a cool hat. I imagine it would be nice together with a matching scarf with the same cable pattern as the hat's edge.

Another hat I like would be Spry. This has the advantage that I would have the perfect yarn in my stash already, so I'm rather tempted.

I also love the two sock pattern in that issue (Riff and Nemesis) and could imagine knitting them both. Even Kilravock would work for me. That is if I wanted to knit some knee length socks. Which, if this winter turns out as cold as the last one, might be a posibility.

So, all in all, a really good issue with many possibilies.

Until I get around to knit those, I've made one little addition to my household. Last weekend I went to see 'Despicable Me' and I loved it. Leaving the theater I knew I had to make myself one of the minions from the movie. They are sooooooo cute. I love them. So I present you 100 (so named because he's my 100th project I've posted on Ravelry)

Happy Birthday, Big Sister

2010-10-03T16:46:00.005+02:00

Last week was my big sister's *mumblemumble* birthday (it was one of those round ones everybody is scared of, so I will not name the number)

So, a happy birthday to you!!!

As my sister is living in Sweden and I'm not, it will be a while until she gets her birthday present, but at least I can show it to her now.

It a log cabin afghan with noro and lopi yarn (so it's sort of a Japanese / Icelandic joint project). Size is 180 x 180cm, plenty big enough to keep you warm in the cold Swedish winters. It already kept me warm while I was sewing everything together.

I would have finished it exactly on your birthday if not for an error I discovered after I started putting everything together. I fixed it now, so no worries.

The colors are to die for:

I hope you like it.

Not Knitting Fast Enough

2010-09-26T16:53:00.004+02:00

I'm currently knitting a small shawl (Coquille Shawl). The pattern says I would need about 370 meters. I've got 420 meters (one ball of Crazy Zauberball in blue/green/gray), so I'm okay.

Of course, I wouldn't write about if this would have been no problem.

I noticed fairly early on that it might be a bit tight, that there's wouldn't be much yarn left over once I'm done, but I've plowed on. I just followed the old maxim that if you think you might not have enough yarn, you just knit faster. So you'd be able to finish before the yarn runs out.

Of course, this doesn't really work, and I got the point where I've got about one repeat of the pattern to do and still 30 stitches on the needle when the yarn ran out.

Sigh.

So, the only thing I could do really, was to rip the shawl back up until about half way point, take out one repeat there and start again working my way back to the end.

Luckily it's a rather fun pattern and the changes in the yarn also keep it entertaining.

Hey, the way I see it, I'll get about 50% more knitting enjoyment out of it than if I'd finished it already.

Right?

At least that's what I've been telling myself....

Ah, almost forgot, I've got my computer back. They just reinstalled win7 and sent it back. Naturally, now I wonder if the next time I need to do a recovery I'll end up with exactly the same problem.

I've got a lot of data in the backup, but I still suffered a few losses. All the pictures I've took between May and September are gone as I stored them on a different partition of the hard disk which, as it seems, had not been backuped. Luckily nothing really important, but still it sucks.

Backnang

2010-09-19T16:58:00.005+02:00

Internet is very dodgy right now, so this will be short.

Computer update: the new computer is at the computer doctor to be fixed. Careful estimate is three to four weeks.

On the old computer, the internet is not working well. It's okay right now, but I don't know for how long. (Well, it didn't last long ... I hope this can get out, but I'm not holding my breath)

To lighten my mood (and because we bought tickets weeks ago) a friend and I drove to Backnang, a small town close to Stuttgart, in order to knit. It's the second annular German Ravelry Meeting and hundreds of ladies (and a few brave men) came together to talk about yarn, pattern and techniques. And to oogle the lovely yarn on sale.

There was a lot of it. Even a pool full. Takes the term 'stash diving' to a whole new level. Some lucky ladies got the opportunity to fill large bags with that yarn, but sadly not me.

Instead, I took those home with me:

From left to right:

- Wetterhoff Silvia (30% silk, 70% wool) lace yarn

- Sedapur by wollerey (100% Schappé silk)

- Zauberglöckchen sock yarn (75% super wash wool, 25% polyamid)

- 2x Zauberglöckchen tweed melage sock yarn (75% super wash wool, 25% polyamid)

- Spinning Martha (100% merino)

- Spinning Martha sock yarn ((75% super wash wool, 25% polyamid)

and - Zauberglöckchen lace (baby alpaca, cashmere and silk)

Code Purple

2010-09-12T14:28:00.003+02:00

My lovely new computer died on me yesterday. It started out small, with it wanting to dial up the internet and I'm telling him that with the new router it didn't need to do that. I've got the new router for two weeks now and even though the computer insisted once or twice that it wanted to dial up, I usually just cancelled and the computer accepted that. No problems with getting into the internet either.
Now, yesterday it didn't accept it, so I do my usual thing, which is to power the computer down. It will be fine once it's back up, right.
Wrong!
As I boot up again, it suddely insists to do a recovery and format the hard disk.
Aaaaarghlll!
Still, no panic yet. I have a back up, so once windows is installed again, I'm fine.
Wrong again!
The coumputer does the install, everything seems to be fine but when it reboots again, eventually I get a 'configuration error'.
Just that, a 'configuration error'. And, at the end of the text, which instructs me to call service (which, as it's Saturday is no answering the phone ...) the message 'code purple'
What the f*** is a 'code purple'?

Long story short, my new computer is dead, Jim, and I'm back to my old one, which I luckily have kept around.
This one, surprisingly, doesn't have any problems with the internet. At least I've got that.

Good thing I don't have any pictures anyway. I'm focusing on a big, secret project right now, which, because it's secret, I can't show right now..

Preparing for Winter

2010-09-05T13:52:00.004+02:00

I know, I know, winter is still a good way away (luckily), but then one can never start early enough with winter knitting.

So, my first 'wintery' project are the Sourwood Mountain handwarmers (or fingerless gloves) knitted in some leftover yarn from the brown cardigan I knitted May 2009.

I love them!!!

I also finished the Shaelyn shawl in Jawoll Magic. I hoped for seven repeats of the pattern, but ran out of yarn about two rows from the end, so I improvised a bit. I don't think it hurt the project though. As a shawl it's a bit on the smallish side, but I think it should still do the job.

Colors are a very dark blue/grey to a nice mid blue.

Look, I've made something

2010-08-29T18:36:00.002+02:00

My friend lost the film container she had used to store her needles (sewing, stitching, you name it ...). She's been complaining about it for weeks, so I decided I solve the problem for her. 2008 I've made the Needle Case Guardian by Teresa Wentzler. This time I've decided to stitch it on a blue fabric. I had to change a few things, but in essence it's the same needle case.

I gave it to her yesterday and she seemed very happy about it.

Then, a few weeks ago, I came across a yarn called 'Sekku' by Noro yarns. As most Noro yarns it is very bright with many different collors. Sekku is a lace weight yarn (about 400m to 50g) made from cotton, silk, wool and nylon. It feels very nice.
I've decided to crochet a scarf from it and I used every last scrape. In the end it turned out a bit on the shortish side with only 150cm, but over all it's okay.

Knitting wise I'm make a triangular scarf from Jawoll Magic (the same yarn I've made my last socks). The pattern is called Shaelyn. I hope I have enough yarn for one more repeat.
Keep your fingers crossed.

My new internet connection is acting up a bit. I hope I get that posted ....

Manipulations

2010-08-22T18:55:00.002+02:00

Though I did knit and crochet a little this week, I haven't photographed any of this yet. So other pictures for now...

I've played around a bit with Photoshop. I've got the software and a 2,5 kg book to go with it, and I'm really only at the very beginning, but I like what I've did so far.
The bike I photographed in Sweden this winter. I left the saddle and the rear light in the original color, but black and whited everything else.
Same principle, on an owl I photographed about a year ago in Büdingen.

Last, but not least, I flower I photographed last week at our BBQ.

Lizards and Snakes and Fish, Oh My!

2010-08-15T15:47:00.003+02:00

The family of one of my friends is breeding repiles. Yesterday, we've came together for our annular barbeque and so I took the chance to take a few pictures (which wasn't that easy with the animals being indoors and the lighting being rather poor)

This little chapp is living together with three others of his family (I'm rather sure he didn't even say 'sorry' for stepping on his siblings tail ....)

He just had shedded his skin and was still working on getting rid of the last bits of his old skin in his face
I don't even know if this is a he or a she

Oh, and they have beautiful fish too.

176 grams

2010-08-08T18:36:00.003+02:00

... is the weight of a feather(weight cardigan)

I finished knitting it today, but still need to block it. It is soaking right now.
I have the feeling it turned out as too large. The sleeves are definitely too wide. But then, I can always wear it to slouch in at home, so who will know?

Also finished the Wandering Vine socks from the 'Think outside the Sox' book I've got for my birthday. I used Jawoll Magic for it and love, love, LOVE the shading. The yarn is a bit on the splitty side, so you have to pay attention when knitting, but the result is wonderful and very soft.

The was a mistake in the charts for the pattern, but nothing too difficult to figure out.

Dresden

2010-08-01T18:22:00.003+02:00

Last time I've been to Dresden I've brought my camera along. The weather was glorious (though a bit on the hot side), so I also went to Moritzburg, which is a castle close to Dresden.

A gryphon on the roof of the Semper Oper:

Sunset at the river:

The castle at Moritzburg:

The castle was once used as a hunting retreat:

A swan on the lake.

They Have Safety Lines For A Very Good Reason

2010-07-25T18:34:00.004+02:00

I few months back, I've wrote about the new climbing garden that had opened close to where I live. I did say that it 'does look like fun'.

Yeah, right!

Now, this weekend I had my nephews (12 and 14 years old) over for a little over night wii party, and I though it would be fun to go out a bit and have some fun. Now, being the 'cool' aunt (well, at least I try to be), I couldn't say no when they insisted to go up there with them. Of course, they seriously outran me, going through twice the parcours I got through (and they didn't stay with the easy to medium parcours either ....)

I wonder, if in one month time, when the bruises and my sore muscles have healed I will think back to today and say: 'Well, it WAS fun?'

At the moment .... I doubt it. ;)

More Pattern

2010-07-18T19:05:00.003+02:00

For some strange reasons I seem to think, I don't have enough knitting patterns. I don't know exactly how this can be, as I already have plenty of books with knitting patterns, particularly for socks.

Still, for my birthday a few weeks ago I put a coulple of pattern books on my wish list and, thanks to my good friends I got them all.

First is a book with socks patterns. I do have the predessesor, called 'Socks Socks Socks', which I love, and the new one is also pretty damn cool.

The titel is 'Think Outside the Sox' (which I believe is a bit lame ...) and contains the winning pattern from a sock knitting contest. I particularly like the one pair on the cover, but for now I have cast on a different pattern from the book.

Second book is a more basic book with about fifty knitted or crocheted afgans.

There are some cool pattern in there, and I want to use it for sort of a idea giver if (or rather when) I start another afghan. The book's title is 'Comfort Knitting & Crochet: Afghans'

Last, but not least, 'Successful Lace Knitting' by Donna Druchunas. I do love the cardigan on the cover and I'm currently thinkint if I just should use that lace border for my featherweight cardigan (which, btw, is make progress ... slowly, but progress). And there's that lovely little shawl in there, and that scarf, and ....

Summer

2010-07-11T19:31:00.003+02:00

Heat is still on. There was a bit of a break beginning of the week, but now we're back in the mid-thirdy degrees.

Well, I guess that's why they call it summer.

I finished the socks for my mom.

I managed a pretty well matched pair and I like how they came out. The yarn is Regia World Color 'Paris' and the pattern is my own.

My mom wants some anti slipping protection, so I'm going to put some rubber stuff on the soles. Should be done soon, but with the weather as is, I doubt see needs them very soon.

I started already the next pair. Pattern here is called Calendula-Zopfsocken (yep, it's a German pattern) and the yarn is from online called Trend-collection Linie 1 Supersocke. I adore the color, which is a bit paler than in real life in the picture below.

I did also finish the Annis shawl, which was a nice and simple knit. Only, I do have the feeling I did something wrong. a) I used only about half the amount of yarn stated in the pattern and b) it does look much smaller than the other finished object in Ravelry.

I have no idea what I did wrong. I checked the pattern. Repeateably.

I'm also not happy about the color of the yarn (I do love the yarn itself - it is dreamingly soft). Currently, I'm thinking about dying the scarf either all in brown or in black.

There's no hurry though - I doubt I'm going to need a scarf/shawl in the near future.

I did mention it's hot, right?

Heat Wave

2010-07-04T20:55:00.004+02:00

Summer has arrived. Yesterday, we saw a new heat record for this year with 37 °C. Which is waaaaaaay too hot.

World Cup is still on and our team is doing very well - I watched the quarter finals yesterday and enjoyed how they seriously clobbered the Argentinians. 4 : 0 - well done!!!

Luckily for all those brave Ironmen and Ironwomen who are doing the 3.8km swimming, 180km on the bike, followed up by a lovely little marathon, the temps have dropped a good ten degrees since yesterday, so it was not at terrible as it could have been.

I owe you guys a little update on the knitting front. There is not much, as it a) is just too hot to do much knitting, and b) I'm still working on the Super Mario Galaxy 2 Game (I'm in the fifth world and pretty stuck at the moment - some of those games are tough!)

I did finish the second crossword potholder - though it's not fulled yet. Both are knitted to the smae number of stitches (though the pattern is slightly different). I will do the fulling, when I have a few more things together. There is no hurry.

I made some progress on the Featherweight Cardigan. I finished the yoke and put the stitched for the arms on same waste yarn. Now I'm knitting on the body. It's fairly straight forward stocking stitch, no counting or attention needed. Perfect TV knitting.

My mom requested new socks, as one of the pairs I've made for her is starting to develope holes. I'm happy to oblique, especially after she picked out the wool.

It's not a fancy pattern, just something I came up with. I wish it would zigzag a little bit more, but I've tried some variations and all turned out ugh.

I like it - what about you, mom? I'll bring the one sock over next Friday for a fitting.

Finally, I started knitting a small shawl from some yarn I picked up a while ago. I'm not sure what I was thinking with this color combination - it is rather wild.

(but then, I think I used to have a skirt / pullover combination in exact the same colors once, a long, long time ago ....)

Energy

2010-06-27T18:46:00.003+02:00

What is this:

You don't know?
Here's another hint:

Okay, I know it's hard, so here's the solution:

The power station in Großkrotzenburg had an open day (much like 2007). The last time, you could not get inside one of those 100m tall cooling towers, but this time is was possible.
Pretty cool, eh?

Movie Time

2010-06-20T18:19:00.005+02:00

A few weeks ago I happened to watch the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. When I looked for information on the movie I came across one of those top 100 movie lists, which led me to wondering which of those movies I've actually had seen.

Well, here's the list from the American Film Instidute from 2007 (incl. the German titles)

1. Citizen Kane -- Citizen Kane (1941) --> yes

2. The Godfather -- Der Pate (1972)

3. Casablanca -- Casablanca (1942) --> yes

4. Raging Bull -- Wie ein Wilder Stier (1980)

5. Singin' in the Rain -- Du sollst mein Glücksstern sein (1952) --> yes

6. Gone with the Wind -- Vom Winde Verweht (1939) --> yes

7. Lawrence of Arabia -- Lawrence of Arabia (1962) --> yes

8. Schindler's List -- Schindler's List (1993)

9. Vertigo -- Vertigo - Aus dem Reich der Toten (1958) --> yes

10. The Wizard of Oz -- Der Zauberer von Oz (1939) --> yes

7 / 10, not too bad a start

11. City Lights -- Lichter der Großstadt (1931)

12. The Searchers -- Der schwarze Falke (1956)

13. Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope -- Krieg der Sterne (1977) --> yes

14. Psycho -- Psycho (1960) --> yes

15. 2001: A Space Odyssey -- 2001: Odyssee im Weltraum (1968) --> yes

16. Sunset Boulevard -- Boulevard der Dämmerung (1950)

17. The Graduate -- Die Reifeprüfung (1967) --> yes

18. The General -- Der General (1927)

19. On the Waterfront -- Die Faust im Nacken (1954)

20. It's a Wonderful Life -- Ist das Leben nicht schön? (1946) --> yes

12 / 20
(I'm not 100% sure on "The Graduate", but do think I saw it in my 'I watch anything Dustin Hoffmann' phase)

21. Chinatown -- Chinatown (1974)

22. Some Like It Hot -- Manche mögen's heiß (1959) --> yes

23. The Grapes of Wrath -- Die Früchte des Zorns (1940)

24. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial -- E.T. der Außerirdische (1982) --> yes

25. To Kill a Mockingbird -- Wer die Nachtigal stört (1962)

26. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington -- Mr. Smith geht nach Washington (1939)

27. High Noon -- Zwölf Uhr mittags (1952) --> yes

28. All About Eve -- Alles über Eva (1950)

29. Double Indemnity -- Frau ohne Gewissen (1944)

30. Apocalypse Now -- Apocalypse Now (1979)

Only three more here, and not 100% sure on "High Noon"

31. The Maltese Falcon -- Der Malteser Falken (1941) --> yes

32. The Godfather Part II -- Der Pate - Teil II (1974)

33. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest -- Einer flog über das Kuckucksnest (1975)

34. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs -- Schneewitchen und die sieben Zwerge (1937) --> yes

35. Annie Hall -- Der Stadtneurotiker (1977)

36. The Bridge on the River Kwai -- Die Brücke am Kwai (1957) --> yes

37. The Best Years of Our Lives -- Die besten Jahre unseres Lebens (1946)

38. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre -- Der Schatz der Sierra Madre (1948)

39. Dr. Strangelove -- Doktor Seltsam oder: Wie ich lernte, die Bombe zu lieben (1964) --> yes

40. The Sound of Music -- Meine Lieder - Meine Träume (1965)

19 / 40

41. King Kong -- King Kong (1933)

42. Bonnie and Clyde -- Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

43. Midnight Cowboy -- Asphalt-Cowboy (1969)

44. The Philadelphia Story -- Die Nacht vor der Hochzeit (1940)

45. Shane -- Mein großer Freund Shane (1953)

46. It Happened One Night -- Es geschah in einer Nacht (1934)

47. A Streetcar Named Desire -- Endstation Sehnsucht (1951)

48. Rear Window -- Das Fenster zum Hof (1954) --> yes

49. Intolerance -- Intoleranz (1916)

50. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring -- Der Herr der Ringe: Die Gefährten (2001) --> yes

21 / 50
I'm fairly sure I have never seen the original "King Kong" (except, of course, for the famous last scene in New York)

51. West Side Story -- West Side Story (1961) --> yes

52. Taxi Driver -- Taxi Driver (1976)

53. The Deer Hunter -- Die durch die Hölle gehen (1978)

54. MASH -- MASH (1970)

55. North by Northwest -- Der unsichtbare Dritte (1959) --> yes

56. Jaws -- Der weiße Hai (1975) --> yes

57. Rocky -- Rocky (1976)

58. The Gold Rush -- Goldrausch (1925)

59. Nashville -- Nashville (1975)

60. Duck Soup -- Die Marx Brothers im Krieg (1933)

24 / 60

61. Sullivan's Travels -- Sullivans Reisen (1941)

62. American Graffiti -- American Graffiti (1973)

63. Cabaret -- Cabaret (1972) --> yes

64. Network -- Network (1976)

65. The African Queen -- The African Queen (1951)

66. Raiders of the Lost Ark -- Jäger des verlorenen Schatzes (1981) --> yes

67. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? -- Wer hat Angst vor Virginia Woolf? (1966)

68. Unforgiven -- Erbarmungslos (1992)

69. Tootsie -- Tootsie (1982) --> yes

70. A Clockwork Orange -- Uhrwerk Orange (1971)

27 / 70

71. Saving Private Ryan -- Der Soldat James Ryan (1998) --> yes

72. The Shawshank Redemption -- Die Verurteilten (1994)

73. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid -- Zwei Banditen (1969)

74. The Silence of the Lambs -- Das Schweigen der Lämmer (1991) --> yes

75. In the Heat of the Night -- In der Hitze der Nacht (1967)

76. Forrest Gump -- Forrest Gump (1994) --> yes

77. All the President's Men -- Die Unbestechlichen (1976) --> yes

78. Modern Times -- Moderen Zeiten (1936)

79. The Wild Bunch -- The Wild Bunch - Sie kannten kein Gesetz (1969)

80. The Apartment -- Das Appartement (1960) --> yes

Whoohoo, five more. 32 / 80

81. Spartacus -- Spartacus (1960) --> yes

82. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans -- Sonnenaufgang - Lied von zwei Menschen (1927)

83. Titanic -- Titanic (1997) --> yes

84. Easy Rider -- Easy Rider (1969)

85. A Night at the Opera -- Skandal in der Oper / Die Marx Brothers in der Oper (1935)

86. Platoon -- Platoon (1986)

87. 12 Angry Men -- Die zwölf Geschworenen (1957) --> yes

88. Bringing Up Baby -- Leoparden küsst man nicht (1938)--> yes

89. The Sixth Sense -- The Sixth Sense (1999) --> yes

90. Swing Time -- Swing Time (1936)

37 / 90

91. Sophie's Choice -- Sophies Entscheidung (1982)

92. Goodfellas -- Good Fellas – Drei Jahrzehnte in der Mafia (1990)

93. The French Connection -- French Connection – Brennpunkt Brooklyn (1971)

94. Pulp Fiction -- Pulp Fiction (1994)

95. The Last Picture Show -- Die letzte Vorstellung (1971)

96. Do the Right Thing -- Do the Right Thing (1989)

97. Blade Runner -- Blade Runner (1982) -- > yes

98. Yankee Doodle Dandy -- Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)

99. Toy Story -- Toy Story (1995) --> yes

100. Ben-Hur -- Ben-Hur (1959) --> yes

40 / 100

I notice, if the movie is either a western, or a war movie, the chances are good
I won't have seen it. Or it has something to do with the mafia. Or if it's really,
really old (like black and white, no sound old). Or sometimes in the 40th or 50th.

There are a couple maybe's, where I'm fairly sure I've seen it, but this believe
might be based on the fact that certain scenes are shown someplace else.
Like the 'King Kong on the Empire State Building' scene. Or Charlie
Chaplin eating his shoes in 'Gold Rush'. (I'm fairly sure on those two that
I haven't seen the whole movie ...)

Place Holder

2010-06-13T19:43:00.002+02:00

The only knitting I did this week was the second crosswords potholder and I'm not done with it yet, so no pictures.

Other than that, I've spent most of yesterday with the new Super Mario Galaxy 2 game on my wii. 'Luckily', the weather was bad, so I didn't feel too bad staying indoors all day. I've got 30 stars already and I'm looking forward to get some more tonight, when the rest of Germany is watching the football game ...

Twinkle, twinkle

2010-06-06T17:20:00.006+02:00

After seven years of service, I've decided to retire my old home computer and get a new one. The last week of my vacation and this weekend I worked hard on breaking it in (without breaking it). I even managed to get my old printer working (with a different driver, but who cares? It does print). There is still some software missing - not every thing that worked with my XP software is working with the new Windows 7 version.

But I'm getting there.

One thing that's driving me crazy is that I can't cut and paste pictures here in my blog as I was used to. I make do, but it used to be easier. No idea what the problem is, but the good old Ctrl+X followed by Ctrl+V doesn't work. I think the problem is the Ctrl+V as the pictures disappear all right after the first step. But they never show up again ...

Anyway, what was I saying?

Ah, right. I made some jewlery.

This bracelet is knitted after stringing about a million beads (okay, maybe not a million - the instruction says 1,650) onto a stretchy cord. The knitting part is rather quick, the beading part not so much ...

The yellow/red/gold one is more of a test balloon and it turned out a bit on the wide-ish side for my wrist.

The blue one contains some larger facetted beads as well as some large hearts.

Over pentacost I finished one pair of socks - pattern is Sam from the book 'Sock Innovation' by Cookie A. The cables were slowing down my knitting speed to a crawl, but, luckily, the foot part is all stocking stitch and went much faster.

The second pair I finished just today are Lacy Scallops Socks. I'm not particularly fond of the picot edge, but don't hate it so much I'll be ripping it up. The rest of the socks I love. I even managed an almost perfect matching pair.

Pentecost

2010-05-27T21:53:00.007+02:00

Ever since I can remember, my parents (and, by extention, my sisters and I) meet with their friends from waaaaaaaaaay back (like when they had been with the Scouts) on the Pentecost weekend in a house they rent somewhere in Switzerland.

Over the years the houses got more luxerious, but other than that the meet up has not much changed over the year. There are trips to places nearby, hikes depending on the willingness and stamina of the hikers and on Sunday we have a picknick. There's also always a cheese fondue one evening *yummy*

I couldn't go for several years, either because I was away some place else on vacation, or I had to work. But, as my vacation plans this year fell through, and I didn't fly to the US after all, I asked if there was a spare bed.

Our house this year was at the North-East corner of the Lake Constance, just where Germany, Austria and Switzerland meet up. The place is called 'Sonneblick' and we had one fantastic view over the lake and the surrounding land.

We had seriously perfect weather. Not a drop of rain all weekend and so much sun, I didn't get just one sunburn, but at least three (front, neck and left ankle)

On Monday we made a round trip first taking the post bus, then the train, then a ship and back up home by rack railway (I hope this translation is correct)
The train we took had open sides, which was brilliant and loads of fun.

I just couldn't resist taking pictures of the sheep grazing close to the house. Little yarn balls (okay, not much yarn on them right now, but it will grow back)

On my way back on Tuesday, I made a stop in Ulm, taking pictures in the Münster. I was playing with the settings of my camera and am quite happy with the outcome.

Needle and Thread

2010-05-16T16:21:00.003+02:00

For a change I saw (sewed?) a little bit last week. My sewing machine is not the best in the world (okay, it was a super cheap one, so I shouldn't be too surprised), but I managed to beat it into submission to make that:

It's about 30cm long and perfect for one smallish knitting project.
The one above was actually the test run for the pattern. I've made another one, but forgot to take a picture before giving it away as a birthday present for a friend. It was the cutest cat pattern fabric and I've been looking forever for a pattern to make something from it.

I tested the usability of the bag for knitting projects on a lace scarf I knitted last week (test was very successful)

The shawl is made for a Japanese yarn called Ito Kinu and is 100% silk. I've bought it in a lovely little yarn shop here in Frankfurt called Maschen.Werke. I spent a delightful hour there last week talking with the owner and, naturally, leaving some of my money there in exchange for yarn.
The scarf pattern is from the book 'Victorian Lace Today' and I really enjoyed making it. The finished product is also very lovely.

Some finished socks

It's a pair and I'm wearing them right now. The yarn is some I've bought in Sweden in February.

I've also working on another pair of socks right now, which is the pattern 'Sam' from the CookieA book 'Sock Innovations'

I was already halfway down the foot, then I noticed that I crossed one cable the wrong way. This is one of those things nobody else would ever see, but I knew I couldn't live with it. So I ripped out quite a bit and am now back on the leg. I don't really mind - more knitting fun for the buck - but those cables are not really relaxed knitting, I tell you.

Finally, I've started with my next cardigan project, which is the Featherweight Cardigan from Hannah Fetting in Knit Picks Shadow.

Mostly nice, relaxing, mindless knitting.
A lot of it!

Flowers (for Mother's Day)

2010-05-09T16:12:00.006+02:00

Last month I've had the 15th anniversary in my company and besides three extra days for this year vacation time, I've got a nice voucher, which I've used to upgrade my camera equipment. I've bought myself a Nikon D5000 DSLR camera.

As I'm on vacation the next three weeks (*bounce, bounce, bounce*) I'm sure to have plenty of chances to play around with my new toy.

As a start I focused (*haha*) on the two orchid flowers I have. I don't know exactly why, but even though I don't tread them any special (like orchids are supposed to be treaded), they are both already on their second flower cycle and have been for several weeks now.

(I particularly like the one on top)

I'm still working on figuring out all those buttons and I'm sure it will be a while until I'm really proficient, but it's a start.

Catching Up

2010-05-02T15:17:00.004+02:00

I didn't update much on my projects lately, so today one big getting-up-to-date post.

My finished Mondo pullover. At one points it was finished, but I found the hip part was too wide, so I did rip everything up to just underneath the arms and knitted it again with some decreases instead of increases. I'm rather happy with it and did wear it twice already.

(I know, I'm looking crumpy in that picture, but it is not that easy to take a picture of yourself in a mirror without blocking up most of what you wanna show)

The required update on Queen Nefertiti:

I just hit the midway point (except, I haven't stitched any of the metallics yet, as I'm going to keep that for last), so I'm sort of halfway done, but not really.

Entralac mini-bags:
Those where the other stuff in the bucket when I've felted last week. Very, very happy with them and possibly will do more. They've been fun to knit and fun to felt.
Originally, I've made three, but one (in browns and white) has been given to a friend together with the last shawlett I've made (Traveling Woman)

And, finally, what I'm working on now - the Ditto cardigan:
Done on the body and one (short) arm.

Splish-Splash

2010-04-25T15:18:00.004+02:00

Over the last year or so, I've felted several bags in my washing machine. In most cases it worked out quite well, even though my washing machine is a front-loader, while most people recommend to use a top-loader for felting (a top-loader gives one the chance to stop the whole process anytime you want to check on the felting progress, so you can stop whenever you deem the whole thing is just right. With a front-loader this is not exactly possible, but given that my washing machine is in the basement of my house and checking on it would mean I would need to run down 64 steps every single time, it's not very likely I would do it anyway)

Last time I used my washing machine for felting was a bit of a disaster due to lint blocking my drainage and me finding new and creative ways to get the water out of the machine that involved NOT flooding the room, so I decided I would like to try another way to felt my stuff. Originally I heard about hand-felting on the Yarn Harlot's blog, but she in turn reverences a Knitty article from 2007, so I'm going the same.

For my objects to felt, I choose a) three little entralac bags I've knitted a while ago with left over Noro Kureyon yarn and b) a pot holder I've knitted with a sock yarn I've heard rumor of that it might felt, even though it is supposed to be super wash (Sockenwolle 'Treviso' bought at a sale at Lidl). Either way - if it felts, or if it not felts - would be fine with me. I just need to know. So I knitted a smallish object that would work both ways, and threw it in with the bags.

When you hand-felt, you need a bucket, a plunger (a new one preferably), something place your bucket on so you don't damage your bath tub and some muscles.

I threw in the stuff I wanted to felt, some detergent and hot water, as hot as it comes from the tap.
Then I started to agitate it.

I timed myself with my kitchen timer, taking a break every 10 minutes or so. After some time, I moved the whole caboodle out to the balcony (we have perfect weather today and it would be a shame to waste it)

I'm not quite sure, but I would guess it took a good 30 min before the bags actually started to felt, but I kept going another 20 to 30 min after that before I decided I had enough.

I've learned two things from this:
Yes, the sock yarn I've bought does felt.
Here's a before and after picture:

(I freaking love that holder and will certainly knit a partner to it)

And hand-felting can be fun, though it is nothing for the impatient.

Spring Time

2010-04-18T20:51:00.006+02:00

Since Friday the air traffic in Germany and most of Europe has been grounded thanks to the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull.

Some people still get their planes up into the air, even though, sadly, no passengers in those (unless they are really, really small)

In order to get off the ground, some people just climb up into the trees

(here in my home town a tree climbing garden has opened a couple of weeks back - it does look like fun)

And, Spring has clearly - finally - arrived.

Decision Time

2010-04-11T16:14:00.002+02:00

As I had six of the sixteen balls of yarn left after finishing the Mondo Sweater (well, let's say I thought I was done with it, but more about that later) I returned those back to where I bought them.
I came back home with thirteen balls of 'Borkum', a cotton / linen mix by Wolle Rödel (a chain of yarn stores that has a couple of house brands)

The question is, what to do with this yarn.

I've been thinking about a short sleeved cardigan for the summer and had a list of about eight patterns I liked. I've now narrowed it down to three options.
1) Tappan Zee, a free pattern from the last edition of Knitty
2) Ditto from the Berroco webside
3) Drops 118-17 from - obviously - Drops Garnstudio

At the moment Ditto is the most likely candidate. I do also like the Tappan Zee a lot, but I'm not so sure the yarn would work so well with it (the example in the pattern is knitted with a wool/silk mix) .
I did knit up a gauge swatch and it came out with 20.5 stitches to 10 cm which is fairly close to the gauge asked for in the pattern.

The Mondo Caple pullover was finished last week and I did actually wear it on Friday, but then decided that I don't like the basic shape (a slight A-line) so I ripped everything up to the height of the chest and restarted with a bit more waist shaping. I hope this works out.

To keep my mood up I did knit a small shawl as a gift for a friend of mine. The pattern is called 'Traveling Woman' by Liz Abinante. It is a hugely popular (and free) pattern on Raverly and I knitted it in Heritage Paints yarn by Cascade Yarn in a green colorway.

Love the yarn, love the pattern and love the finished object (it's still blocking right now)

Finally, the obligatory update on Nefertiti
It's moving along rather well, I think.

More Progress

2010-04-04T20:29:00.004+02:00

I know it looks as if all I'm doing is stitching on Nefertiti, but that's not true. I did finish the Mondo pullover on Saturday and it's blocking right now. Before washing it, it was a bit on the short side, but I do have the feeling it's long enough now. If not, I've got plenty of the yarn left.

Progress on the queen:
I've had a stretch of rather boring stitching - for two days I've used basically only three colors and one of those was for back stitching those hieroglyphs and the two bird people.

Tomorrow - Easter Monday - my family will decent on me expecting to be fed. I'll be busy.

Progress

2010-03-28T17:01:00.003+02:00

This week I've worked mostly on Nefertiti and also on knitting the pullover. On the knitting front I've finished the body and am now on the right arm (not very far on this one yet, but I'm getting there)

Stitching-wise I've did this:

A lot of this was accomplished while listening to 'A Short History Of Nearly Everything' by Bill Bryson. I've read the book already twice, but recently got an unabridged audiobook copy and I love it. Audiobooks lend themselves to stitching like nothing else and I've a hard time stopping once I've started (the typical: 'just one more chapter' syndrom)
Over all I think I've got maybe 20% done, though I might be wrong on that account. It's difficult to judge.

Change of Plans

2010-03-21T15:08:00.003+01:00

After knitting the back and one and a half of the fronts of the Central Park Hoodie, ripping everything up again, as it was simply too big and re-knitting half of the back, I've decided that this pattern will not be what I want it to be. I'm not even sure what the problem is, but for now I decided the give up on it and start with another project using the old yarn.

The new project is called Mondo Cable Pullover by chicknits. It is a fairly simple top-down, raglan pullover with a large 5 by 5 cable down the front. I've had a wrong start, but now, on the second start I'm rather happy.

In the meantime, I've also knitted a new scarf. The zipper on my old winter jacket broke while I was in Sweden, and I bought a new jacket there. Only problem: I've got not a single scarf that matches the new jacket (a sports jacket in red, white and black). I didn't want anything lacy with this so I settled on a simple 4 knit 4 purl pattern, switched over after every six rows. And I used black alpaca yarn for it.

Definitely a success.
Except that finally, FINALLY winter had given up (or at least retreated for a bit) and it's been downright spring outside for the last couple of days.
Well, I'm sure I'm going to get some more use out of it, as I'm sure we're not really done with winter. And if not, if it really should stay a bit warmer for a change, I won't be too depressed either.

Last, first update on my new stitching project. I've put in some hours already and it's progressing quite nicely.

Stitches

2010-03-14T15:57:00.004+01:00

It's been a while since I've did any amount of x-stitch. Last week I've finished two long term projects and started another one.

First project was my Sampler Game Board.

I've got a plan for this, eventually, to incorperate this into a small couch table. Just need to find the right table now.

Second project is called Bethlehem by Diane Arthurs

I know Christmas has been over for a while now, but at least I've started this *before* Christmas (on my flight to Florida to be precise). Nice, almost mindless, stitching that and I do like the effect.

As I couldn't have no stitching project, I've started with Nefertiti by Lanarte, the companion piece to my King Tut.

Almost There

2010-03-07T15:31:00.004+01:00

Once upon a time - or, rather, last March - I posted the last update of my Sampler Game Board, a stitching project I've started a long time ago. I know I did stitch a bit more on this one after that post, but pretty much, for most of last year, this project had been put aside (some might say, ignored) for other things to do - like knitting a gazillion socks.

Not that I stopped knitting socks, no sir!

I finished my Skew Socks and I do love, love, Love them

This is one neat pattern, I tell ya. Not that complicated and the result is jaw dropping cool. Since posting the above picture on Ravelry I've got a lot of hits and many, many positive reviews.

And, of course, I've got another pair on the needles already.

Toe up with what pretty much is a reversed heel flap heel. Pretty funky that, and pretty cool too.

But, to come to the point of this post: I've picked up the Sampler Game Board again and thanks to the cold my dear nephew gifted me with I've got to stay at home the whole of last week and treaded myself with a Due South marathon and some long stitching hours.

There's a small sneak peek here...

... but I think I actually might be able to finish this by tonight. Only three more squares to go.

Sweden 2010 - Part 2 - The Snow

2010-02-28T17:23:00.005+01:00

The Day I arrived in Sweden about half a meter of snow was dumped on the country (well, at least where I went). As the sun was out, it made for nice photos.

It had been below freezing for more than two months and the sea close the coast and the smaller harbors are all frozen over.

Some people didn't get their boats out of the water in time:

Some just enjoy that they can ski over the water:

The birds may have some trouble finding their feeding stations:

I mentioned it was cold, right?

Cycling was possible in principle, but first one had to find his bike:

Picnicing may also be somewhat difficult:

And finding out where you buried uncle Sven also was a challenge:

Sweden 2010 - Part 1 -The Crafts

2010-02-28T17:02:00.004+01:00

Olympic Games means for me usually (or at least for three times now), a visit to my sister in Sweden. We watched the Games (of course) but I also spent time with my nephew (making big progress on MySims Agents) and doing crafts. Last time I did some quilting projects as well as some socks and some beading. This time I did sew a bag, finished a pair for socks, started a new pair of socks, stitched a bit and got a cold - I could have done without the last one though.

As a little present for my sister I made her the second Daybreak shawl in a smaller size.

She seemed to like it, so I'm happy.
The yarns are again Zauberball, though this time in the color 'Frische Fische', and the Istex Einband.

On our trip to Boras (spelled with that little circle over the 'a', but somehow I can't get my keyboard to make that symbol) I did pick up a small DMC kit for a bracelet with metallic thread which I stitched up on the same day.

Nice and glittery and very easy.

I also sewed a Grab Bag, which is a small and fairly easy to make bag for smallish projects (i.e. socks)

Actually, I did make two, but the second one is a present, so I can't show it here ...

And finally, I knitted the first of two Skew Socks. The pattern is quite unusual and borders on genius. For a while there you don't know what you're doing until that one magical 'origami' moment when you finish the heel and everything comes together.

From the front:
And from the back:
I really, really like how this sock turned out.

Daybreak

2010-02-14T15:27:00.003+01:00

Once in while a knitting pattern comes along, which is, at least for me, like a good book. Once you start, you can't stop. 'Just one more row' easily turns into an hour or more of happy knitting and though you can't wait to have the finished object, you threat the moment you're done because it has been so much fun.

One of those projects is 'Daybreak' by Stephen West. It's a fairly simple semicircular shawl with stripes and can be knitted in three different sizes. I've bought the pattern when the 'pattern for Haiti' was one, meaning that a large percentage of the proceeds went directly to a charity to aid the people after that terrible earthquake one month ago (though, I have to admit, that was not the main reason - I just wanted the pattern)
I saw several people on Ravelry using Schoppel Zauberball yarn in the colors 'Schokocreme' (brown/creme) and 'gebrannte Mandeln' (red/brown/orange) and as I had one ball of the 'gebrannte Mandeln' in my stash I thought it a pretty cool idea. I also had a ball of 'Schokocreme', but had knitted it up already last year for a triangular scarf.
Now, I could try to get another ball of the 'Schokocreme' or I could try something else. So I dove into my pile of wool and came up with three skeins of Ístex Loðband Einband, an laceweight yarn I've bought in Iceland last summer, in the color black.

I have to say, I'm very happy with the combination. The reds and orange colors work very nicely with the black and the black make those colors simply pop.

While blocking I found it had a bit different shape than I expected, but I like it. As the 'arms' of the shawl are somewhat longer, they stand well on my shoulder when I'm wearing the shawl.
Even though I knew I was knitting the 'large' version of the pattern it turned out a bit bigger than I really wanted. Done the center line it's a good 60cm long, and across about 150cm.

This picture is probable truest in color. Isn't it gorgeous?

The Icelandic yarn was very rough while knitting, but it softened a lot in the wash and it blocked out beautifully. The Zauberball is a dream to work with and I know this won't be the last project using that yarn.

By the way, I did cast on a second daybreak already ....

Careful What You Wish For

2010-02-07T15:56:00.005+01:00

Well, the snow is gone. Most of it at least. There are still splotches of it here and there where there used to be piles of it. Though, next week, the forecast is for the temps to be below freezing again. I will guess winter is not beaten yet.

New socks:

Pattern is called 'Pyroclastic' and can be found on Knitty (where else?). I seriously love them. The foot part is a bit unusual in such they are knitted with a bias, but it makes for a great fit.
I liked that idea so much, I started with a second pair like this, though this time just with a simple 3-3 rib.

One sock's done and I'm working on the second one right now.

Other than socks I've started on 'Daybreak' a semicircle shaped shawl using some Schoppel-Wolle Zauberball (in red / brown / orange) together with some of the lace weight Icelandic wool I've bought last year. I think it's a pretty good match.

Okay, It's Enough Now

2010-01-31T19:10:00.004+01:00

I know I said last week that I love snow, and this is sort of still true, but I'm getting to a point where I've got enough of it.
Usually, our winters are wet and miserable, with temperatures hovering just about freezing and some wet, cold rain. There's usually one, tops two weeks of real snow and real cold temperatures, but this goes usually away pretty quickly.
Not this winter. We've got lots and lots of snow and for the last four weeks I didn't see much in the way of positive temperatures. Driving is getting adventures and my sister is talking about getting out the snow chains (she's living a bit higher above sea level then I do, but not by much)

Though, I have to admit, it does look pretty.

A figure of Dostojewski in Dresden.

Trees just a short walk away from home.

The bird house on my balcony (though, strangely enough, no birds this week ...)

Still knitting socks, so my feet are staying warm.

We did brave the snow yesterday and saw the new Sherlock Holmes movie with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. Great, great fun. I'm tempted to give it a repeat viewing. Good story, great acting and the rest was also just right. Loved it.

Upper and Lower

2010-01-24T09:44:00.003+01:00

It's snowing. Again.
So far it's been a very cold winter, though, to be honest, I don't mind. A) I like the snow, it's pretty, and B) I've got plenty of knitting to keep me warm.

Like my newest hat.

The pattern for this Beret is called Meret as it used to be a Mystery Beret. Now, luckily, the pattern is available for free. It was a very fast knit (two movies).
The yarn is some really old stash yarn I got in Holland ages ago. There's a golden threat running through the yarn, which adds a little bit of umph.

Also, the second 2010 pair of socks is finished.
Remember my experiment in dying in October (--> link) ?
I finally knitted some socks with this yarn and I love the color. Only ... it's not colorfast - my hands were always green after knitting. I tried a trick to fix that I've found on Ravelry, but I might have lost some of the definition in the colors now.
Ah well, it's still a pair of nice green socks.

From the leftovers I had after knitting the big squared bag (--> and another link) I've knitting up a smaller bag, but still need to felt it and decide which handles I'm going to us.

And I've already got the next sock on the needles, Angee from Cookie A's book Sock Innovations.

Not very far along right now, but I've sadly managed to break two of my beloved 2mm Knit Pro dpns (stupid me that one). Luckily I've got a bamboo set as well, so I was able to continue.

Hail the Irish

2010-01-17T16:26:00.004+01:00

Sock pair no. 1 for 2010. The pattern is called 'Die Grüne Insel' (the green isle) and can be found in the book 'Socken aus aller Welt' by Stephanie van der Linden
I've used Regia hand-dye yarn for the green and I like the effect of if a lot. The black was a close call - in fact I did run out of it on the toe of the second sock, but luckily I found a small left over in a different project, so I didn't even need to buy more.

I've made progress on the Central Park Hoodie, but am currently thinking about ripping it up and knitting it a again on a smaller needle. The problem is that I like the feel of it before washing, but after washing the yarn loosens up a bit and I'm not overly fond of the drape of it. I think a smaller needle size could change the problem.

A New Start

2010-01-10T15:27:00.004+01:00

One of the pattern I've been wanting to knit for quite a while now is the Central Park Hoodie. It is an immensely popular pattern, especially if one considers it's not free. Currently over 3000 people on Ravelry have knitted this cardigan up and almost 5000 more have it queued with the intention to knit it up one day.
I did queue it a year ago, but it took me forever to decide on the yarn I'm going to use. As I'm not living in the US, most of the substitutes are not really doable for me, and I wasn't really happy with the options I have here. Now, finally, I've decided on a yarn called 'Lord' by Lana Grossa and using the last of my vouchers from my birthday, I didn't even crinch too much about the money.

The pattern knits up fast, and I finished the back already. After washing and blocking it did grew a bit, though I have yet to see how it will behave after drying.

My current interest in jigsaw puzzles had me dig up an older puzzle I've bought years ago with the intention to give it to Bill one day. As this is not going to happen now, I've decided to put it together myself. It was quite tricky and I did curse a few times, but eventually I managed to put all 1.000 pieces where they belonged.

At the moment I'm working on figuring out how to get is up on my wall. I think I've got just the perfect spot for it....

Statistics

2010-01-03T09:31:00.004+01:00

I hope everybody had a good start into 2010.

It has been a rather productive year, knitting wise at least. I just counted my finish projects and am quite impressed by myself.

socks - 10 pairs
potholders - 6 pairs
bags - 6 (5 of them felted)
shawl / scarfs - 5
pullovers / vests / cardigans - 5
mittens / gloves - 3
hats - 2
toys - 3

Obviously, I don't need to worry about cold feet and burning my fingers on hot pots shouldn't be a problem, except I didn't keep any of the potholders for myself (most of the socks stayed with me, though)

2010 already saw two finished projects.

The mittered stripes back was finished knitting in 2009, but the sewing together and the felting was done in 2010. I did block it using old video cassettes which worked great and I'm very happy to see it does stand up on it's own. I does shed a bit, still, though.
The felting made it shrink by 10 ~ 15%. I would have liked a bit more, but ah well.

The gloves are 100% a 2010 product. I *did* start on the 31st, but had to rib everything up again.

The turned out to be rather small, but they are perfect for me. As it snowed today, maybe they will so some action today already.

Other than that, my mom got me back onto jigsaw puzzles.

This 500 pieces puzzle was fairly easy, but now I'm on another one that's somewhat harder.

In Memory

2009-12-28T12:41:00.005+01:00

Sorry, this is going to be a rather somber post with very little knitting in it. I'll stick the finished knitted item at the end (it's only one), so, if you're not interested in me lament, just scroll down until you see the picture.

Okay (I'm taking a deep breath here)

This year in October a good friend of me passed away. I learned about it only a few weeks later, as his wife had trouble tracking me down (all the contact information was on his computer and she couldn't get into it). His death was very suddenly, caused by blood clots in his lungs and there was no real warning (his wife should know - she's a doctor). I had no warning, though I thought it was a bit strange that he hadn't answered my last two e-mails. Usually he was very prompt about it, but I figured he was away traveling without any internet access (it happened before, but usually he sent me a warning he would be out of touch for a bit).
I came back from my trip from Florida in November when there was a message on my answering machine from Ann with the bad news. It took me another three days to get hold of her in return. So, now the plan is for my to go to Alaska next May for a memorial service and to scatter his ashes over Denali National Park as to his wishes. Bill loved Alaska and I think it is the right thing to do.
I've met Bill August 1993. I was a student at this time and took part in a work and travel program which allowed me to work for two months in the US. It was my very first time in America and, thinking back, I believe I was a bit naive. I knew about Bill before the trip - he was at that time maybe the biggest distributor of fanzines in the US and I had bought stuff from him before. I remember I contacted him and asked him if he would mind for me to come by his house and meet him. Obviously he didn't mind and he picked me up a the train station In East Lansing, Michigan. He told me he would be easy to spot as he was almost seven feet tall. He also brought two of his border collies and Skylass and I were love at first side. Afterwards, Bill always said, Sky was my dog, even if she was in the US and I was in Europe.
Originally, I had planned to stay only a few days (I didn't want to be a bother), but Bill and Ann insisted that I stayed two weeks. He introduced my to some new series I hadn't known before and Ann's cooking was to die for.
After that we never really lost contact, though sometimes there was a month or two we didn't write. We went on vacations together as Ann, as a doctor, didn't have the time for it. London, Scotland, Germany, several trips to the US, and, of course, New Zealand. Very good memories there and tons of pictures.

After Michigan, Bill and Ann moved to Ohio, but Bill's dream always had been to live in Alaska. Finally, Ann found a job there and they moved maybe four or five years ago to Kechikan. Eventually, they ended up in Kenai, south of Anchorage, and where in the process of buying a house there, when it happened.
Bill was a very generous soul and very sharing. He had a wicked sense of humor. He loved music and movies. He was a very willing recipient half a dozen of my stitching projects and I have a few more I had planned for him. In Alaska Bill had taken up fotographie and had taken some fantastic pictures.

Since I've learned of his passing, there was never a day I didn't think of him for some reason, was it because I saw something that reminded me of him and because of something I thought he would be interested in.
I miss him!

So, okay, some much for the morbid part. I needed to get that off my chest.
Christmas has come and gone. There were not many presents - we have the deal among the adults not to make any and I very fine with that as it cuts down on the pre-Christmas craziness.

I did a bit of knitting and made an hat for my youngest nephew (who's going to be nine in February) from the left over yarn from the pullover I've made for him.
I designed it myself and have no clue if he'll ever going to wear it. I just think it's a funny little hat.

Happy New Year to everyone.

The Day Knitting Saved My Life ... Well, At Least My Mind

2009-12-19T11:58:00.003+01:00

... and that's without even picking up a knitting needle.

This week a bit earlier than usual and without any pics.

Thanks to my job, I'm doing a lot of traveling. Almost every week I drive about 480 km from my home to Dresden and, at the end of the week, back home. I don't really mind driving. I listen to the radio, some audio book or, lately, to podcasts, and let my mind wander, thinking about my next project or what I'm going to cook on the weekend.
The normal driving time is 4 1/5 to 5 hours, incl. a half hour break in the middle.
Yesterday, however, it took me 9 hours.
Nine hours!!!
And they haven't been fun at all.
End of the week, the temperatures decided to take a plunge to below freezing and it has been between -12 and -14°C all day yesterday. Add a bit of snowing to the mix, and you have the recipe for disaster. A bit after the halfway point I got stuck in a traffic jam for two hours because some trucks had trouble getting up a couple of hills, which did nothing at all to improve my mood.

What saved me, though, were the knitting podcasts I'd downloaded last weekend. I really enjoy the 'Electric Sheep' and am still looking for more good podcasts. I picked a selection and am still working my way through them.
So, here a list of what I've got so far.

Cast On - An American living in Britain
Here's to Ewe - Knitting in Vegas
KIPing it Real - Knitting in Public
Knit Misadventures
Knitmore Girls - A mother and daughter team
Knitting History
Never Not Knitting
The Sassy Sheep

I didn't got around to the last two yet (there's always tomorrows trip for that ...)
So far, I rather liked the Knitmore Girls, though I'm not in love with the voices, the others were so-so.
Well, at least they kept my sane.

I don't really have anything to show this week - I didn't do much knitting, really. The new Zelda game keeps me happily busy. I'm maybe 2/3 through by now and am enjoying every minute of it. I hope to be done by Christmas. I expect my nephew will want some pointers...

Snow Day

2009-12-13T17:27:00.005+01:00

When I woke up this morning, we had snow. Yeah, winter has arrived. My guess is, it's gone by christmas....

All three projects I've had in the works two weeks ago have been completed.

The Schokobaktus made with Schoppelwolle Zauberball in the color 'Schokocreme'
I was a bit too careful on the halfway point, and now have a good 20g of the yarn left, even after using some of it to make two tassels.

The flower trim bag also went pretty well.
The pattern didn't make any mention of lining the bag, but I decided to do so anyway and found the absolutely friggin' perfect fabric for it.

The sewing took at least as long as the knitting (at least it felt like it), but it was very much worth it.

Third project was the hat heel socks. I finished them, and they fit perfectly, but I don't know if I really would ever make a second pair. They are nice enough, but the method is a bit too fiddly for my taste.

Off course I've already have something new on the needle. This here is the start for the mitred stripes tote. The first scare ended up at a solid 40 by 40 cm, though it will shrink a bit once I throw it into the washing machine for the felting.

I don't know, though, if I get a lot of knitting time in next week - the new Zelda game came out last week, so there's a bit of the distraction.

Christmas Cookies - 2009 Edition

2009-12-06T17:05:00.004+01:00

As every year in the Christmas Season, I throw caution and calories to the wind and make a batch of Christmas cookies.

As every year I have a few classics (in the sense I'm practically make them every year) and a few newcomers.

My favorite recipe is probably the one for Cinnamon Stars.

Sweet, chewy and wonderfully nutty. This year I've made them a bit smaller then before, which I think works well. You can eat more of them without feeling too guilty, right?

A repeater from last year (on special request by my mom) are the Ginger-Fruit Sticks

Made with candied Ginger, dried apricots and almonds, plus some honey and other lovely things there are wonderfully nice and fruity.
I took a couple of those to friends last night and already got one request to pass on the recipe.

Another great hit from last night were the Linzer Cookies, which are a new addition to the list, but have a good chance of coming back next year.

I've made those having my dad in mind, as he rather likes cookies with jam. The cookies are base on a famous Austrian cake. They are a tad on the soggy side, but the taste is quite lovely.

The next cookie recipe is sort of a half cookie / half praline thing, which is in princible not a bad thing, but didn't quite work out the way I wanted.

They are very brittle and I already have quite a few broken bits in my cookie tin, which I really can't offer to anybody else.

Last, but not least, I've made a patch of my favorite short bread with ginger, which was in the oven when I made the pics, but to be honest they are a bit on the boring side of photography. Just imagine a round, light brown cookie. There, that wasn't to hard, was it.
The taste though .... mmmmmmhhhh.