Hello Henry

Late September I started with Henry, a pattern from the last issue of Knitty.
Now the scarf is finished.


Alone the bind off took me all day today. I used up a little bit more than three balls of the wool.
It is curling a little bit around the edges, which makes me not exactly happy, but I have to see how it behaves after washing and drying.

Here's a close up of the pattern - front right hand side, back left hand side.


I did five repeats of the pattern, though the original said seven, but it just got too wide, so I stopped at a place I felt comfortable with.

Stitched some on King Tut, but not really enough to show of. Maybe next time.

No One Noticed the Cat

Hmm, nobody guessed the patterned I've started last week. Well, now for an update



Now, with one of the eyes done, it should be much easier.

The pattern it It's All in the Eyes Cats Series #4 from Ronnie Rowe Designs. The sample in is stitched on a 18ct Aida, but as I'm not a big fan of Aida I switched to some 40ct natural linen, stitched over 2 with one strand of DMC310. The eye color (just the pupils) in the original is some rayon yellow, but again, I guess I'm going to switch to another color, possibly green.
It is a fairly easy stitch and I love the effect it gives, though you need some patience as it takes a long time until you see something. Surface wise I've finished about 25%, stitch wise I'm closer to 40% as there's a lot of free space on the left side.

Also, the king is back. I've finally decided to give good ol' King Tut another spin.


It's been a long time and I forgot how freakingly big the whole thing is. This weekend I only worked on the background and I've miscounted a few times (and some of that I did frog like a good girl - some I didn't) but I guess, there's no way anybody ever will notice.

New Atlantis was a very cool episode again - after a somewhat mediocre one the week before. No quotes, though.

"R" is for ...

Reunion:

Like our 25th year class reunion (Realschulabschluß - it's a secondary school system in Germany. At the end of it you leave school after 10 years and normally start with an apprenticeship)

We had a good turnout I think: 24 out of 34. Our beloved old class teacher also showed up. I was happy to hear that he's still doing well and still working at the same school we went to.


Riddle me this:

What pattern am I work on here?


This is worked in DMC 310 on a 40ct linen (which I bought two weeks ago in Michelstadt)
Pretty hard to see what it's going to be *grin*


Really can't think on how to start this with 'R'

A happy dance:

'Alphabet in Samt und Seide' (alphabet in velvet and silk ... which is bit of a misnomer as there's no velvet, but I guess 'alphabet in cotten and silk' wouldn't have such a nice ring) ;)
It's from Sticken & Staunen done in petit point. Of course, they also have the other letters in the alphabet

"P" is for ...

... Power Plant:



The local power plant (Staudinger) had a open door day today, so I went in the hope to get some photo op. Wasn't that great really, the weather didn't help (it was nice and sunny - though cold - yesterday, but today it just was cold and wet), but I really like that one bit where the fire department showed why you shouldn't throw empty spay cans into the fire.


The can(s) were in that cage in the middle and when they got too hot, they really exploded. Cooooool

... Pattern:

I started with one of the pattern / kits I've bought last weekend at the fair in Michelstadt.


It's using waterlilie silk for the smaller letters and some sort of cotten thread (Dänisches Baumwollgarn) for the large letter. It's stitch in petit point which works surprisingly well (I have only one previous experince with PP and I didn't like it back then). BTW, the fabric is white and the colors are far more intense (and the letter 'P' is in a dark blue)

...Preparations:

It's more than two months until x-mas, but I've already started making x-mas cards. Again a pattern / kit I've got last weekend also using waterlilie silk. It's a quick stitch (it has to be, else I couldn't handle making about a dozen for my mom as well), but I can't show it here - hey, it's a long time until x-mas, so be patient.


... Perfect:
Stargate Atlantis has started again and the last episode (Doppelgänger) was just perfect. So I decided to go back to my Atlantis quote of the week thing. Don't worry, it will always be at the end of my post, so if you see the quote, you know you don't have to go through it in case there might be something else.

Sheppard: Looks like one of those toys you play with when you're a kid.
McKay: Commodore 64?
Ronon: Triple barrel shotgun?
Sheppard: A kaleidoscope

Being Creative

*Sigh* the week vacation I had is over - nothing good ever lasts ...

But at least I did more things than just play with my Wii *grin*

I finished a few things I've started a looooong time ago.
Like this table cloth


A cheap kit I got sometimes begining of the year. I actually bought two, just for the material - after some trial and error, I actually got the print out, so I'll going to use it for another table cloth I've got a pattern for.

I also tired some new things:

A bead bracelet, I was just playing with the million or so beads I've got over the years. Only thing I haven't quiet figured out is how to close it.



This is a bead neckless I've got as a kit in France some time ago. Fairly simple to make and I don't even know if I ever will wear it, but it's pretty.


Last, but certainly not least, is a set of stitch markers I've made. The whole construction is fairly simple. The tricky part was finding the right wire. I'm still not completely happy with the solution I've found - I think the next time I use something a little bit more flexible.
There is more than one of course:

I've made eight (and no idea where number eight is)

Today was a needlecraft trade show in Michaelstadt, so I got more patterns and material for some time to come *grin*
Next project will be some x-mas cards (I don't want to end up like last year, when I was way too late and had to put something together at the last minute)

... and the bee(s)

Well, finally I broke down and got myself a Nintendo Wii. And when you get a Wii, you also can create a Mii (to represent you in games and such). Given my current obsession with Transformers (and one Transformer in particular) I give you my Mii 'Bee' *grin*


Bee's already gone playing Tennis, Baseball, Bowling and Boxing (yepp, got the sports bundle) and he's doing good (my right arm on the other hand, is not used to all that swinging around and I got some muscle soreness in the upper arm and the shoulder)

I also managed to finish Michael Powell's Mini Village IV last week.

(obviously not ironed so far ...)
As always, the backstitch really does it.


For now I haven't decided on a new stitching project. Instead I'm going to concentrate on finishing some of the stuff I've started a long time ago, but never got around to finish. At the moment, the table cloth that I started back in July (here) and also Henry (as mentioned last week)

The birds and the ...

... well, actually, mostly the birds.

Warning: picture heavy, out of normal schedule blog.

Wednesday was a holiday here in Germany, so I went and visited the zoo in Dresden with my camera and the new zoom lens. What can I say, I'm in love ;)
With the zoom lens, you can get soooooo close to the animals, it's really amazing.
Some examples:


Isn't that snow owl the perfect Hedwig?


I love everything about his picture. The pose, the background, the colors

I do love penguins, and this one is my favorite
Flamingos: they were a pretty loud bunch - but also pretty pretty ;)



Some non-birds as well:

He (or she, not sure, and I never checked) looks so sad :(


And another of my favorites, though only a butt shot :)

Something to see

Sorry, for the short post from last week. But, honestly, there was nothing to show.

Today, though, things are different.

Exhibit A:


I've finished Dracolair's Medieval Tiles *big grin*

The picture doesn't really do it justice. For once you don't really see all the metalic gold that's in there. Very nice and shiny. I've made a mistake in the backstitches and did all the outside backstitch in Kreinik 002J instead of a DMC color. But I have to say, I really like it this way, so no harm done.
As this was my big travel project, I have to decide what to do next. So far, there's no strong cantidate, but I'm sure if I ever find the time to go through my stash I might get an idea (or five)

In the mean time, I've gone back to do some knittings. Scarves are so far all I wanted to do, but knowing me, there might be a pair of sock coming soon.

Exhibit B:


Doesn't look too scarfy ;)

So, try this for size:


I've bought the wool originally for a Faroese shawl, but it just didn't work out the way I liked. So the big evil frog of backward knitting visited me and I ripped averything up.
The scarf was knitted sideways, just a very plain garter stitch, until I just couldn't stand the boredom and had to bind off.
It's nice and warm and soft, though.

Never stopping at just doing one, I've started another sideways knitted scarf. The pattern is from the latest issue of Knitty and it's called Henry.

So far I've did 35 rows with 452 stitches.


Knitted in a dark blue wool / silk / cashmere mix from Lana Grossa. Super soft to the touch. I've already pretty much reached the end of the first ball. The edge doesn't look to great at the moment, but there's trick to it, so in the end it will be all nice and pretty.
Only 'negative' thing is that the wool is not 100% color fast. I've got blue fingers after only a short few rows. I don't really remember this happening, except with hand painted wool (where I sort of expect something like this happening.

So, on to the last WiP pic for today (and possibly the first Happy Donce of next week, as I think I'll be done by then)

Michael Powell's Village IV:


All the stitching is done, only (*gough, gough*) thing to do is the back stitching. For once I'm almost looking forward to it, as I know how cool it will look once the bs is there.

Nothing to see

Move on, move on, there's nothing to see.

Sorry, no pictures this week. Nothing to show really. I had some hopes to finish Medieval Tiles this weekend, but then I had a knit attack, so I didn't stitch at all. And the knitting isn't finished either.

I promise, there will be something next week. Scout's honour.

Blackwork Dragon HD

Happy dancing here. My Blackwork Dragon (by Dragon Dreams) was finished Friday evening.
That makes it a little less than four weeks for it. During that time I only worked on her and on the Mini Cottages IV.


The crest and eye was done in Kreinik Antique Gold cord 205C

This was my first larger piece in blackwork (I sort of doodled a bit before) and I enjoyed doing it. - definitely an option when I'll go in another long distance flight.

I'm now back on Medieval Tiles and making good progress.

Exit from Tokyo

Home, sweet home!

Got back about 24hrs ago. So far, jet lag hasn't exactly hit me - there's always hope it doesn't, especially when I go West. Going East is much tougher - I had a nap attack (as in, I can't possibly keep my eyes open for another second) in the afternoon for the first two weeks I've been in Japan.

The customer was ... difficult, but all in all it went pretty well. Last night we went back to Tokyo and went for Shabu-Shabu, a kind of fondue with beef and vegatables.


Very yummy.

Afterwards was a first for me - we went to a hostess club (link to Wikipedia is provided here). Aimed clearly not at female business travellers (well, this one was), you go there and lovely young ladies are there to entertain you, dance with you. Nothing sexual - my hostess told me that they have bouncers that take care of customers who get too far (though what is too far is decided by the lady)

Next morning I had to go up early (ugh) but at least I had a nice view out of the window.


The tower is Tokyo Tower.
Hard to believe that it is actually taller than the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

I didn't stitch any on the 11 hours flight back, but back home, I've found some metalic thread I tried on the crest of the black work dragon. It's Kreinek 205C, the darkest gold I could find.

I think it works okay.

I've got some requests from the Needle and Threads BB to show my Green Dragon Bookmark. The original design is in red ('Red Dragon Bookmark' by Dracolair), but I had this greenish bit of fabric, so I decided to try a green variation.


I used following colors: 163, 500, 501, 561, 890, 3815, 3816 and 3817
Most in some form of mix, some alone.

How to survive in Japan

Second week in Japan is almost over - one more week to go (of course, the customer will be here Thursday / Friday, so this week will be tough)

One thing about Japan: if you don't like rice, you'll get hungry :)
(liking fish is also a good idea, but not required - there's plenty of chicken around)

Exibit A - hotel breakfast


From upper right in clockwise order: a raw egg, some little dried fish, Miso soup, some nori leaves, rice (lots of it), fried fish and some pickled veggies. Oh, and at 12 o'clock, a little bit of Natto (check it out at Wikipedia), which is probably the most veil thing, suposingly edible on the planet - the smell alone is gagging (some people do like it, but I, for once, didn't go by my old rule that I try everything at least once)

And, yeah, it's pretty much the same every morning. I lasted for about a week, then I switched to some fruit and jogurth in the morning.

Well, you can't accuse the Japanese that they don't like to experiment.
Ever heard of potato chip ice cream? And why is it blue?


(and, no, I didn't try any)

Oh, I do love my new lens. I gave it a bit of a work out today and I'm as happy as can be. Need to buy a larger camera bag though. I'm not looking forward to lugging two bags with me all the time. So I need something bigger, where I can put stuff other than then camera + lens in.


A self portrait for a change, while waiting for the cable train.

Cross stitch front: I've put the blackwork dragon aside for now (save it for the flight back) and started with Michael Powell's Mini Cottages IV (I did skip III as I don't like that too much, but have done I and II)
Can't wait for the wonder of the backstitch on this one - it's amazing on all the Michael Powell pieces. Brought a wronge color of yellow for the left roof - so will only be able to finish it when I'm back home.



I've started a Life Journal - blame the Transformer movie for it. And I got back to writing fanfic. Finished two (very short) stories so far, but posted only one (waiting for the beta on the other)
Here's the first one (Judy Witwicky and Bumblebee): The Unfairness of It All

Harajuku Omotesando Genki Festival Super Yosakoi 2007

Upps, my controlls are all in Japanese now ... I have to see if I get this done.

Today was my first day off since I've arrived in Japan. After sleeping in (oh, that was sooooo nice) I got my camera and headed down to Tokyo. This is a six minute train ride to Kumagaya and then another 50min with the Express train (Shinkansen).
My first goal was Harajuku, which is known for teenagers hanging out at the weekends in the weirdes costumes (they call it cosplay), and I just wanted to shoot some (with the camera, what did you think?)

When I arrived in the sweltering heat (it's August, its Tokyo ... there's no other way), I was pretty surprised to see some sort of dance contest / performance going on. Groups of up to a 100 people doing a mix of traditional and modern dance and the only thing in commen I saw in all groups was that they seem to use some sort of rattle in there dances (some also used fans and lanterns, but there was allways the rattles). After a couple of those groups, I wandered off, only to find out that before they go up on the stage they have a form of dancing parade. Very, very cool.

At home I learnd that this was the Harajuku Omotesando Genki Festival Super Yosakoi 2007





Some of the teams were very good and I was also very impressed with everybody's stamina. It's no mean thing to dance for hours in a heat like at the moment and then go up on a stage and do an extra five minute skit.

After some shopping around (and not buying) I went to Shinjuku, which is famous for electronics stores. I've had my eyes on a zoom lens for my new camera. The lens I wanted was circa 25% less expensive than the cheapest I've seen in Germany (via internet) so I did buy.

On my way back I stopped at the Sushi restaurant. You sit on a type of bar and little plates with sushi will travel by on a conveyer belt. All you need to do is to pick a plate and take it down. Payment is decided by the colors of the plate you stack in front of you. Simple.


I think at one point I picked a $12 plate, but I can't even remember which it was, though I suspect that it was the little grilled fish, which still had the bones in ....

I didn't have that much time to work on the Blackwork Dragon, but I got some progress to show.

bbq

On Saturday was our annual BBQ in the Hundsrück.


As you can see, there was not much risk of us starving (actually, that one only one of the two bbq setup - the other one was for meat and chicken and such)
There was plenty of cake too and salats and bread and ....
And it was plenty of fun. We talked and stitched and talked and played and talked and (well, you get the drift)

Stitching: I've got back to the Medieval Tiles from Dracolair. Now that I've got he GAST Midnigh, I've got to finish the two squares that were only three/quarters done.



A prize goes to whoever figures out what mistake I've made (and will no fix :)) in the lower of the blue squares.
Only one of the big squares to be done and to finish the border.

For the Japan Trip, though I've left the tiles at home and started something else.



The beginning of the blackwork dragon by Dragon Dreams on a 28ct white linen and with DMC310. This is after 12 hours of flight - not bad I'd say (I stitched through three movies, but actually managed some sleep). Blackwork has a few things speaking for it, mostly that you don't need to carry many different colors and don't need to change every few stitches.
I've played a bit with blackwork before, but this is the first major project and I'm enjoying it so far - though, it's my second go on him. I've tried to do him with a veriagate thread before, but that didn't work out the way I wanted. I'm much happier with the simple black on white version.

I'm back in Japan for roughly three weeks. More about that next post.

Back to the Roots

Some instant - or at least quick - gratification.

Moon Dragon by DragonDreams on 28ct Cashel linen in the color Millenium (I do love that color)

It was a fast stitch, three evenings for the pattern and another for the backstitch.

Isn't he cute.

Stitching at home is once again hindered by the loan of the CameCube from a friend including Legends of Zelda: The Twilight Princess. I love how Link (aka the hero) has been animated. Cute fellow ;)

Yesterday I went and saw Transformes (second time for me, as I've seen it already in Kechikan). My friend has been/is a big Tranformers fan with quite a few stories to her credit, so I was really interested what she was thinking of the movie. She loved it, and we both agree that they better put out a score (not the 'songs inspired by the movie' which is the only thing available at the moment)

I've got another doctor's appointment tomorrow morning, so I took the day off. I need to do some shopping before flying off to Japan for three weeks next Sunday. In the US I know where to get things when I need them, Japan is a little bit more difficult.

to knit or not to knit

... that's the question.

Well, there's this:

My vacation sock. My own 'make it up as you go' pattern, toe up.

Then there's this:


Ankletts, another 'there's no real pattern' sock, again toe-up and with a short row heel.

And, there's this:

An attempt on a Faroese shawl using a pattern from the 'shawls and scarves' book I bought a while ago.

And, well, I'm not happy with either of those (well, maybe with the second sock, except for the fact that it's still a single sock, meaning, there's the need to knet a second one some day)

The vacation sock turned out, well, maybe a little much too green - as in 'I will never wear them' too green. And I like green. And I like the wool, but still ...

And the Faroese shawl - everything wrong with it. The pattern discription in the book sucks. Really. It's my first Faroese shawl and I'm totally lost. Okay, I admit to try working the shawl with the wrong gauge, but, heck, it's a shawl, there's no such thing as too small or too big, right? I don't like the pattern (what you can see of it, it's barely recognizable) and I'm still not sure if it should be a third repeat. The book doesn't say anything about how often to have to repeat it, but on the photo it looks like twice and that's what I did. Looks too narrow.
At the moment I'm tempted to rib the whole thing up, and start another shawl and use another needle size for the correct gauge (I've already knitted a test swat on a 6 mm and an 8 mm needle. One's seems to be too much, the other too little ... more frustration)

So, I think, I'm going to go back to my cross stitch :)
After all the missing threads for the 'Medieval Tiles' and for 'King Tut' have arrived.
And I've kitted up 'Moon Dragon' from Dragon Dreams.