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01/31/2006
THEY ARE DONE.
Today's the Peaceful Palms KAL's deadline and I'm extremely proud to present these to you at the very last minute:
My thanks go out to our wonderfully encouraging and caring host Nona!!
10:25 Posted in Gloves and Mittens | Permalink | Comments (12) | Email this
01/30/2006
Embarrassing Display of Knitter's Pride
Okay, people- I finally finished knitting the Floral Fair-Isle Gloves last night. There are still a few ends that need to be woven, but I'm wearing them anyway. Ummm, now here's a picture of me wearing them this morning. I didn't come up with this, I caught myself brushing my teeth wearing the gloves. Couldn't help but getting the camera to snap a picture of it. How pathetic can a knitter get?! See the sorry look on my face? 
I'm glad Johanna can't form sentences yet- if she could, she'd probably poked fun at me this morning;-)
10:46 Posted in Gloves and Mittens | Permalink | Comments (5) | Email this
01/27/2006
What a great day this was!
Aaah, what a beautiful sunny and chilly day we had today! I spent most of the morning outside, meeting an old friend, drinking coffee outside and enjoying the sunshine. I just had to take the day off:-)
Heading back home, I found this in the mail:
The Paton's pattern for the Savary Shores Sweater Ande knit. I'd seen it months ago and fell in love with it!! She also wore it a lot on the pictures she posted, so my mouth just kept watering:-) I actually picked up yarn back in November with this sweater in mind! So I couldn't help but asking her if she could somehow make the pattern available to me as I couldn't find an online store that'd ship it to Germany. She kindly agreed to send me the Paton's book:-) There's even another sweater in there that looks awesome! Uh, and I found out 'Savary Shores' is not the sweater's real name, it's only called 'Peruvian Yoke Pullover'... Ande's name for it is so much cooler:-)
Anyway, I was so excited about getting the pattern, I'd barely taken off my coat when I busted out the needles to knit a swatch!! My gauge is a little off, but I may simply knit the sweater in a size smaller (does that sound familiar, Ande?;-))
Well, this week I've been distracted from my projects by two little bunnies- the Professor's student I met on Monday asked me if I could help him modify some stuffed pets who will be starring in a movie they are going to make at his school. I added some lead weights to one bunny's paws and behind so Bertrand (the student) could make a string puppet out of if, and turned the other one into a hand puppet (I know, that is one KINKY weird picture!). Wasn't as big a deal as I thought, and he's paying $$ as well! That Monday was so fortunate, I should try to find out what my horoscope said that day;-)
I also finished one of the Jaywalker socks Monday night and did the cuff of Mr. Leftie. Grafting with the Kitchener Stitch is such a pain in the butt, ahhggrrrr! Didn't turn out that well... the sock fits perfectly, tho.
19:25 Posted in Blog , Knitting (general) , Socks , Sweaters | Permalink | Comments (6) | Email this
01/24/2006
Sockapalooooooooza!!
It's SIGN-UP DAY, people!! It's my first time, I'm so excited!!
11:06 Posted in Knitting (general) | Permalink | Comments (5) | Email this
01/23/2006
Public Jaywalking and Pony Bar Hat
THE EXCITEMENT! I've been knitting in public again;-)
Took a trip to the library to drop off some books that were only 2 business days late and got charged an arm and a leg for it... scew them...
anyhow, I took my Jaywalker sock along to knit on the bus and when I went to this café/bar later on, I really felt like knitting despite the student/urban hipster crowd... So I got out the sock and having tried it on now, the needles were FLYING! I'm ready to start the tip! Well this professor (?) with a VERY colorful crocheted scarf and a student were discussing at the next table and I had to force myself to stop eavesdropping at times, as they were talking about students having to be extreme go-getters during the course of their studies in order to make it on the job market later on. My favorite topic! AHEM! THat always gets me into such a crappy mood.
Sure enough, the professor started asking me about my knitting at some point- if I was knitting a hat. It'd be a little too tight for a hat, I replied, but we had a conversation going. He was really interested, admired the jaywalker and also complained about his hat being too boring. He ended up ordering a striped hat for himself! I took his head measurements with yarn from the other end of the ball and gave him my e-mail address:-)
I hope he's going to contact me now, cause I've already got a design for the hat and knit a swatch:
also Christoph, wenn Du das liest, welche Farben möchtest Du- das grün mit blau, oder mit beige? (Bild zum Vergrößern anklicken) Ich würde die Streifenübergänge etwas auflockern mit den abgehobenen Maschen- gefällt Dir das? Klick auf das Bild, dann gibt's ne größere Ansicht. Ich meine die Maschen, die bei den Übergängen in die nächste Farbe übergehen.
Apart from today's progress on Jaywalker, I didn't get to do any knitting at all the past few days, as I was hit by a weird virus that gave me monsterous head-aches, joint pains and an upset stomach. It was awful! Luckily, my DD was kind enough to be very low-maintenance on Saturday, happily bringing me picture books to look at with her and entertaining herself quite a bit, which is so not like her most of the time;-)
19:25 Posted in Knitting (general) , Socks | Permalink | Comments (7) | Email this
01/19/2006
Aschenbrödel
I'm listening to THE SONG right now! After so many of you have commented on Drei Haselnüsse für Aschenbrödel, I did a quick google search on it, and there's a wonderful German fanpage at http://www.dreihaselnuessefueraschenbroedel.de/
You can even download the theme song, or rather a re-composed version of it in the Musik-Section.
I want to climb on a white horse and ride up that snowy hill right now.
Umm, Mr. Prince, please e-mail me so you can come along, thank you.
20:42 Permalink | Comments (4) | Email this
yeee-heee...
...I finally got me a flatrate! How relaxing it is not having to worry about the bill when I'm reading all those blogs:-) or writing blog entries, for that matter!
So, here's an update...
my sister left for Argentina with 1 1/2 socks mit Missoni-Zacken, I was hoping to get past the heel, but I only managed to do the shaft right up to where the heel starts. She was happy anyway, because she really wanted to knit the same socks for herself and had mentioned that, once she'd left my mom's house and was back on the road, she didn't knit as much anymore. THis way, I'm sure she's going to finish the socks in no time because she won't lose interest as easily as she might have if she had to knit this (quite strenuous) pattern for an entire 2 socks. Sorry, no picture of the 75% finished pair.
Another little knit item I forgot to take a piture of is 'odd fellow' from Jess Hutch's booklet. Very cute and quick to knit! I made it for a friend of Johanna's who started daycare this Monday. His mother sounded a bit too 'polite' when I gave it to them. Sigh.
Oooh, great news this week: I FINALLY received a copy of Charlene Schurch's (LOVE HER!) Knitting Marvelous Mittens after having ordered it for the first time back on October 20th!!! of 2005!!! The first company lost it, then I re-ordered via amazon.de, who also had some delivery problems. A THREE MONTHS' wait for that book!
The good part: it was worth waiting for! What a beautifully made book with absolutely stunning patterns, great pictures of well-composed colored mittens, plus some sock and hat patterns. All of which I'd love to cast on for right away, but I'm trying to compose myself;-)
I finished the first of the chunky black-and-rainbow k3p1 rib socks
and tried finishing the toe with the Kitchener Stitch. Ahem, that did NOT turn out good. I need to re-do that and look at a good description in the process. I've done it before and thought I had it down...um, yeah...
My sweater cuff has also been re-done, and I think it looks just fine now:
And, of course, the inevitable Jaywalker is also growing: 
The heel Grumperina has in her pattern is much like the regular ones I've knit before, only that it is much longer. I'm very pleased with the slip1, knit1 on the heel as well, it makes so much sense as it adds extra padding. i'll definitely use that technique on socks in the future!
Are you all looking forward to Sockapaloooza starting next week? I'm going to be in!! YAAY!
12:25 Posted in Socks , Sweaters | Permalink | Comments (3) | Email this
01/17/2006
list of fours
4 jobs you have had in your life
- selling yarn at my mother's store
- translator for a company who wanted to convert old Russian military helicopters for civilian uses
- sales clerk at an outdoor gear store, yay!
- driver/maintenance person for a rental car company
4 movies you could watch over & over
- Clerks
- Before Sunrise
- Whale Rider (only with an extra box of Kleenex)
- Drei Haselnüsse für Aschenbrödel (Czech Christmas classic)
4 places you have lived
- Rendsburg, Schleswig-Holstein
- Jork, Niedersachsen
- Dillingen/Donau, Bayern
- Trier, Rheinland Pfalz
- BBC documentaries
- Sex and the City (still can't get enough of it)
- most cooking shows, that's soo relaxing!
- I need good new series, seriously!
4 places you have been on vacation
- most of Canada
- like, 25-30 States including Alaska
- most Western European countries
- my favourite place probably was Nelson, BC
4 websites you visit daily
- Bloglines
- craftster.org
- amazon.de
- mmmhh, another thing I do daily is downloading my favorite podcasts!
4 of your favorite foods
- anything with pumpkin
- chocolate
- pasta
- spicy stuff
4 places you would rather be right now
- Canada
- somewhere where I can see the sky (I have to go close to the window and look straight up to catch a glimpse here:-()
- on the road
- at a cosy coffee place chatting with other regulars
4 bloggers you are tagging
- If you are reading this and haven't already done this meme - consider yourself tagged!
12:15 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (6) | Email this
01/12/2006
Sock bug
...it bit me!
Here are the THREE pairs of socks I have on the needles right now:
the Socken mit Missoni-Zacken, which have to grow immensely until tomorrow night when my sister is coming over before she takes off for her trip to South America. I'm sure I'm not going to be able to finish the 2nd sock, but I'll give them to her anyway...she was going to knit them as well, so it'll just be a joint project.
They could have grown a lot more, but I got a bit annoyed with the k2, m1, k1, m1, k2, dd pattern, I had to do something plain and quick. I still had this 6-ply sockyarn in my stash and while I don't particularly care for the black and rainbow colors, it was relaxing to knit and I really want new handknit socks BADLY.
As I've mentioned in the previous post, I cast on for Jaywalker the night after the peak of my yarn binge. It totally is the same pattern as the Missoni-Zacken one, but the colorway kept me going. THis is also the first time I'm knitting a sock on 2,5mm 15cm long needles and absolutely enjoying it. No idea why I've always been knitting with 3mm needles, the pattern comes out much nicer and the stitches look so much neater!
21:05 Posted in Socks | Permalink | Comments (5) | Email this
01/11/2006
Sock yarn binge
Oh-oh... I felt it coming... I caught a little sock bug...
First I had my sister bring me some yarn from the store, then I went to another and bought 2 more balls, and today I had my delivery from Wollsucht.de in the mail.
*sigh with pleasure* I love the blues and greens and turquoises and aquas and haaaaaahhh...aren't they pretty?
(click to enlarge)
At the bottom you see the first centimeter of the inevitable Jaywalker (I'm such a lemming, but how long have I resisted!) for which I had to cast on at friggin 11:30pm last night. I'd better get some sleep!!
13:54 Posted in Socks | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this
Über-Jaywalker
The yarn I use for the socks is in fact a self-striping yarn:-) Here's the sole where you can get a non-zig-zagged view of the colorway:
The pattern itself is really a lot like Jaywalker, there are only a lot more increase/decrease sections in this one... Über-Jaywalker, if you wish;-)
11:10 Posted in Socks | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
01/10/2006
One and 1/4 down
Unfortunately, I had to resist working on the star sweater the last couple of days, because I decided to give the Socken mit Missoni-Zacken to my sister as a farewell present. She's leaving for South America on saturday, where she will tour around with 10 other friends for 6 months or so. Sigh...
So I got crankin' with the socks, here are some progress shots, but I gotta warn you, my feet ain't the pertiest;-)
11:34 Posted in Socks | Permalink | Comments (3) | Email this
01/08/2006
reaching for the stars
I've finally picked up the star sweater again to finish the first sleeve. My arms are so long, it's just been taking forever.
Anyhow, the general top-down raglan instructions I'm using said I had to decrease a whole lot of stitches for the cuff and change to smaller needles... this is how it came out
and this is what it looked like on my wrist, ewwwwww! I'm SO ripping this up!
Apart from the cuff, I'm pretty pleased with the sleeve's fit! When I'm done with sleeve no.2, I will also make the body's hem longer, the way it is now, the proportions simply don't work out. No big deal though, as it is a top-down sweater.
If that's not a proud knitting mama!
15:10 Posted in Sweaters | Permalink | Comments (8) | Email this
January is the time to get organized:-)
Look at this! My friend and I went to IKEA again on friday, and I found a little container to put most of my knitting tools in: 
aaah, I love how neat it looks right now. Neat according to my standards, that is;-) I wonder how long it takes until this baby is overflowing with other non-knitting related stuff.
When I moved all the needles from their old box into this container, I realized that I had 3 different types of lip balm and two different kinds of dental floss among my tools. Weird, huh? Not so much the lip balm, I guess, but the floss? But I simply like to do some teeth cleaning in between rows...
I should start a new meme...
What kind of non-knitting related items do you always keep handy while you're knitting? Any pictures?
15:02 Posted in Knitting (general) | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this
01/07/2006
Glove Pattern source
A couple of you have asked where I got the great pattern for the floral fair-isle gloves.
It was Interweave.com's web-exclusive project in Fall 2005, here's the link: http://www.interweave.com/knit/interweave_knits/web_proje...
The gloves were designed by Carol Wassell.
As you can see on my pair, you can simply use some leftover yarn to make them.
09:15 Posted in Gloves and Mittens | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this
01/05/2006
It's the small things that count
...like gloves, scarves and socks:-)
I've totally been avoiding my 'BIG' projects, happily knitting away on the fair-isle gloves,
a scarf for miss j
and those cool socks.
My sister absolutely loved the socks, copied the pattern for herself and got the same yarn. Talk about sibling competition!
14:47 Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this