She Smiles

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.