200

Yeah, this is my 200th post here.

*throwing confetti into the air*

I've started blogging about 3 years ago. My idea was to show of my stitching (which was at that time my primary hobby) and give my family and friends an opportunity to take part on what I'm doing when I don't see them. Due to my job I do travel a lot, so I do see them not quite as often as I would like.
I finished quite a few stitching projects in the mean time; travelled to Japan, Scotland, Iceland and the USA; switched my focus from stitching to knitting; bought a new, really nice, Nikon camera and really enjoyed to sit down once per week and let everybody in to my life.
One positive side effect from this whole blogging business is that when I try to remember when I work on one thing or another, I only need to go to my blog and check out when I wrote about it.

This week I've finished a new pullover, and just in time. I did snow in Dresden on Thursday, something I didn't figure on when I packed on Sunday, so the fact that I had something extra to wear was very, very good

The pattern is Margot, from the last Knitty, the yarn is called Soft-Merino from Wolle Rödel. I love the color of that yarn and am quite happy on how the pullover turned out. I haven't washed it yet, and hope it's not expanding - this would not be good. I've got one ball of yarn left, and right now I'm thinking about making the pullover a little bit longer, but I'll wait for the after washing to decide.

My mom asked for a winter hat, so I quickly made one
This pattern is called Coronet and is also from Knitty. My mom's request was for the yarn to be machine washable, which it is. I quite like the result.

Exploding Flowers

On Friday night in Dresden were some fireworks on the other side of the river. The room in the hotel I was in provided me with front seats, and I remembered that I have this 'fireworks' setting on the little digital camera I always have with me.

Not the best fireworks picture ever, but for something pratically shot out of the hip, not too bad.

Which reminded me, that the week before, at the Ironman start, there were also fireworks.

Daylight fireworks :)

Also, last week, I tried my hands on something new knitting wise: doilys



They are fun to knit (I'm currently working on no. 4) but, considering that I have no ideas what to do with them once they're finished, I'm probably going to stop there in order to work on one of the many other UFOs I have sitting at home.
You might be in luck and next week I'm back to posting Afghan squares .... ;)

Squared

Well, I still spend too much time with the Gamecube - it's just too much fun :). I'm almost through with the first game, but, alas, there are more ....
My stitching has suffered accordingly - King Tut didn't see any progress last weekend at all.

The Medieval Tiles on the other hand, got a little bit done, due to the fact that I can't take the Gamecube with me on my business trips. So an update on this one.


I'm still waiting for the GAST thread for the blue squares (the two empty squares closed to the center). Last Friday I've got the info that the package has been sent out, so there's hope (this package also includes the gold cord for King Tut)

Last Saturday (9th June) was offical Knitting in Public day. I didn't knit so much in public, but at least I did knit and there were other people around, so I guess it counts (I was visiting friends)
I'm working on the Lizard Ridge Blanket from Knitty's 2006 fall issue. So far, I've finished 3 squares.




The plan is to buy three or four skeins of a new color whenever I get some extra money (like overtime payment, bonus ...) and spread the cost for the project over a longer time. I've still got three skeins left, so there's no hurry at the moment. I need a total of 21 skeins (for 24 squares)

And, in case I'll get very bored and think I've got nothing to knit (and may I laugh out loud at that thought), I've bought a new book.


At first I was a bit awed by the patterns - wonderful stuff that would take forever to knit. But after a second (and third) look through I believe there're a few patterns I would dare to try after all.

Last Thursday, when I was driving back from Dresden I just got through a thunderstorm (one of the kind where you voluntarily slow down to 50kph) when the traffic suddenly grinded to a total halt. And didn't move for a good part of an hour (good thing I've got something to read with me). I could see that whatever happened, did happen not too far away, as I could see that there where no cars on the other side of the valley. The radio said there was a tree that blocked the road, so when it finally got moving again, I had my camera out and tried to take a pic of the accident side. Well, the tree picture wasn't something too exiting (they already cleaned up real good), but a short bit later, I saw a Golf escorted by two police cars (or one police, one fire department ... not that it really mattered) that was banged up pretty good.



I would hazard a guess and say this car was under the tree when it fell.
But, that that's what's pretty cool, it was still moving under it's own power. Good thing to know that that when my Golf should ever get under a tree, I have a good chance to get out of it alive.

Elbdampfschiffflottenparade

We Germans have the funny habit of stringing nouns together to form long words. We really enjoy doing that - I remember it as a game when I was a kid.
The word above is an example of this - translated it would go like parade of the fleet of the steam schips of the (river) Elbe. Just, it's only one word (and it is allowed in German grammer rules as well) *grin*

Well, there was a parade of the fleet of the steam schips of the (river) Elbe on May 1st in Dresden. It's sort of like the opening of the season. The ships of the fleet all go up the river Elbe from Dresden to Pillnitz and back. On the ships they have music groups, normally playing Dixieland music. Getting on the ships is ney impossible - they are booked out long in advance, but you always can watch it from somewhere at the river. I choose a bridge that is known as the 'Blue Wonder' (one of the first steel construction bridges of this size built 1893) and had a lovely view.



To fit under the bridge, the steam ships (at least the bigger ones) needed to tilt their main chimney over, which I thought was funny.

As the weather was perfect and I had the day off anyway, I headed up river a bit more and went to see Koenigstein Fortress, a mountain top fortress near Dresden. As you can see there's a great view all around and the fortress itself was also quite interesting.




On the stitching front, I've worked some on Mariner's Light, so a progress picture on that.