Back in the BRD

I know that I've not blogged for ages and I'm firmly on my way to hell as i have been paving the way with good intentions for ages now but I'm blaming it on post-holiday-blues.

I had such a good time. I even met Andy Nichol. For those of you who don't know him. He's the next best thing to god on the rugby pitch. Well for me anyway. He played for Scotland for years and is an incredibly nice man. Does more commentating than playing now but he's still wonderful.

The World Cup is now over and the only consolation about South Africa winning is that England didn't (sorry to all my english friends out there)



I've been knitting like a fiend too however I don't appear to be finishing anything. I'm a project buterfly. Well I could thing of other adjectives to describe this sort of behavior but I won't go into that just now as I've already offended half of my friends with england rugby comment. I've got socks, mittens, jackets, shawls and everything else imaginable on the needles and nothing appears to be getting finished. That's not entirely ture as Frank's mittens are doing okay and Its almost 1 down and start on the 2nd asap as he's now wearing socks over his hands on the way to work. (yes ladies and gents, its that cold in Berlin) I on the other hand (pardon the pun) have been wearing an odd glove/mitten combination so I will need to be knitting some mittens for myself too.



Regarding rugby, things are going okay. So far we've lost all of our games and I've had various injuries, including some stud shaped bruising under my chin. Don't ask me how that happened, I don't know. The girls are getting better though and even though the last score doesn't reflect how we played, it was still an improvement. Last night we worked on aggression at the training. It went quite well and all the old excercises which Eric taught us at AAC are coming out of the closet. Game experience comes into it too and some of them are chalking up a lot of experience. Oh and I've been invited to the national selections - now don't go getting any ideas. I've not lost 20kg, and gained mega fitness in 2 months. There's a trainers workshop there too and I'll be going to that.

I'm off out now. Goning out to celebrate Happy Pay Day to me but will need to go somewhere where they do nice salads. I'm back on the diet and 3.5kg lighter than I was at the begining of the week. I also want to go to the flicks but know that I will be tempted by the popcorn. I know that there is not many calories in popcorn. Calories are not the problem. Carbohydrates are.

Will post piccies tomorrow if I get the chance

Honeymoon

Its a bit unusual to be blogging from one's honeymoon but since I forgot to post a message before I left, I thought I might post one now. I'm about half way through my holibags and I'm having a great time. Took the night train to Basel, got on another 3 trains in total to get to St Etienne and watched Scotland beat Portugal.
We then got on our bikes and started the journey to Paris. We're not talking motorbikes here so it goes a bit slower than on the back of a kaiwasaki, honda or harley. The first day cycling was mostly down hill and we stayed a a lovey wee camping a ferme in Feurs. The 2nd day was probably the hardest and we managed 4 very steep hills. Going up wasn't so much fun but coming down was excellent. There are however some disadvantages to coming down hill at very high speeds when you're all hot and sweaty from cycling up hill. I manged not to think about what all those tour de france guys do on decents, did not wrap up warm and ended up with a throat infection or mal de gore as they call it in France. Sounds much more serious in french I think. runing out of time at the internet cafe will post more later

Homesick?

The simple answer to that is NO. All I have to do is look out of the window at all that lovely rain and the homesick feeling dissappears fast. Just now the rain is bouncing almost up to the windowsill here at work and that's pretty high up off of the ground. The lighting and the thunder haven't stopped for the last 30 mins and light outside would suggest that its midnight not midday. In fact its so dark out there, the streetlights have come on. At least its better at this time of day. 2 nights ago it was between 3am and 5.30am and even with earplugs in I could still hear it so you can guess who arrvied at work with a sunny outlook. Well it wasn't me so don't look at me with that tone of voice.

On the knitting front, I've done a few things. I've knitting 1.5 pairs of Obelix socks. That's Frank's old old rugby club in NL. They have one yellow sock and one green. Mr Obelix (Patrick) will be a daddy very soon so I've knitted baby's first obelix socks. The pair that are finished are newborn size and the 0.5 of the pair is a few months old size. Just one green one to do and I'll send them off. I'm also still working on the cable rib socks but I think I'll have to rip out a bit as my gauge is a bit tight. Might have to go up a needle size if it continues.

Only 2.5 weeks to go till we're off on our honeymoon. I know its a year after the big event but timing isn't everything. We've decided to cycle from St Etienne to Paris before picking up our train to London and then Glasgow. At the moment all I can think of is 'ouch' my bum is going to hurt but it should be a load of fun. Its mostly downhill so it won't be too much work on the legs and I'm hoping that France in September will not be as wet as Berlin in August. If it is then we'll camp out at hotel and jump on a train.

Rugby wise I've not been doing much. I will be going training on Thrusday though as I like the ground better when its a bit wet and muddy. Makes sliding tackles all the more fun. I've also agreed to take on the position of forwards trainer after my holiday so that should be fun. I've never done that before so it will be something new for all of us.

Too hot to knit?

I know that the title might raise some eyebrows as there are knitters is far hotter places than Berlin however, yesterday was sooo hot and sticky even after the thunder storms that it really was too hot to knit. I went along to stricktreff taking along my embossed leaves socks to play with and ended up knitting about 5 rows and making 50 mistakes.

I wasn't the only one. Most of the srticktreff maedels felt the same way and we ended up packing up our stuff early and just chitchatting for a while before heading home a whole hour before normal. Still I did come home with the new filati book thanks to Bettina (thank you) Its got some really nice designs in it which I quite fancy knitting up soon.

When I came home I ripped out the embossed leaves and started designing my skull and crossbones for the st pauli argyle socks which I want to knit. As Im not working this morming (still a bit woozy from yesterday's migrane) and its no longer so hot and sticky. I knitted a swatch. Yes me readers, ME. I actually knitted a swatch. Now normally I never swatch for socks. I do occassionally for other projects but for socks.....well....this is the first time. Okay so the colours are not what I'll be using but it will be the same make of yarn. However before I go out and get the other colours I need I think I'll make a very loud pair of argyles just for fun and to practice. Glad I've got the jolly roger all sorted though. I'think they will make very fun socks when I get around to knitting them.

Beerfested

On Friday evening I went to heaven. Don't worry, I didn't get knocked off my bike again, I went to the beermeile in Berlin. 2.2km of beer and crap music. Well some folks liked the music but I tend to think of german Schlagermusik as something I have to put up with if I want to enjoy beer festivals in Germany. I enjoyed the beer so much that I spend most of saturday and sunday on the couch finishing these. That's Frank modeling them for me. As you can see, they're very short but that's what he wanted, so that's what he got. The yarn is a bamboo mix which his nibbs loves. He swears that they make his feet less smelly and I tend to agree with him so I'll keep making them until his entire sock drawer is full of them. These are knitted up on 2mm's as the yarn is very thin and on the 2.5mm's the stitches were just too loose. The yarn is by Online and was half the price of the Regia Bamboo but we'll see if its any different in wearability, washability and general comfyness. Actually its tough if he likes the Regia better coz I've got another ball of the Online stuff and some left over from the ball that I made these out of. I tend to have these type of socks as an ongoing project for when I don't need to concentrate too much on what I'm knitting. You see his feet are huge and especially with the 2mm needles, it seems to take forever to get a foot done.

I've also had loads of mails from people concerned about my friend Jeroen. He's doing better now. The collar will be coming off soon and he's moving around quite the thing. He says himself that it looks a lot worse than it was but still, its a bit of a shocker. Its making me seriously concider buying one of those really ugly but very safe cycling helmets. When I think of the amount of times I've been nearly knocked off my bike or actually knocked off my bike here in Berlin, I think that it might actually be useful to have and to wear one. I might look daft but at least I've got less chance of having my brains splattered across the pavement or road. Just wonder if they do them in Frank's size. He's got a rather large head as well as feet.

I'm now on another 2 pairs of socks. Still finishing the jitterbug socks. They have just not turned out the way I wanted them to but they'll keep my feet warm in my blundstone boots this winter. I've also started a pair of socks in the flaemschen muster from the genial sockenworkshop book. I don't think pattern looks like flames at all. It looks more like the eye in a peacock feather to me so I'm knitting them up in a nice turquoise colour. Will take photo when I get good light again which is usually in the morning.

Not for the faint hearted

Dear Hit and Run driver,

I understand that last week Thursday may have been a bit of a stressful day for you and that you couldn't hang around to see the damage you caused to my friend Jeroen so I thought I would show you.

Just to jog your memory; you were driving along De Clerqstraat in Amsterdam on Thursday evening around 11.30 pm and hit someone who was cycling along minding their own business. You didn't stop to see what had happenend but kept driving like the arrogant swine you were probably brought up to be. Luckily for my friend, the people behind saw everything and managed to call an ambulance But fortunately for you, they didn't managage to catch your number plate. Shame really as it would have been nice for you to meet Jeroen. He's a funny guy and I'm sure he would have laughed and joked with you about the whole thing, had he been concious at the time.

This is day 1 and by the looks of things, Jereon is still out of it. Which is kind of lucky because after he smacked the ground at high speed, his eye socket and cheekbone broke. I imagine that it must have hurt a bit. Oh I nearly forgot, you managed to crack his skull too. To be quite precise the external occipital protuberance. As you will see from the next 2 photos, he's getting better however he has to wear a collar for a few weeks in order to let the various breaks heal up.

While you were racing off home, checking for bloodstains on your car and snuggling up in bed, my best friend (Jeroen's girlfriend) was pacing the floor and worrying herself sick. I don't know if you've ever worried about someone in your life but its like a very painful limbo, not knowing where someone is or what has happened to them. All sorts of thoughts fly through your head. You imagine terrible things like them lying in a ditch or a the side of a road after being knocked off of their bike by some eejit.

So Mr or Ms Hit and Run Driver, if you ever read this (or get someone who's more literate to read it for you), driving is not a game of grand theft auto. In real life the people you knock down don't get back up again so easily.

I really hope that what goes around comes around.
Groetjes
Jules

Unblogged

I'm back in the land of blogging again. It only took them over 3 days to unblock the thing and now I've got far too much to say in one post but I'll try and keep it as short as someone who's been unable to blog for the past 3 days possibly can.

Thursday night was great fun. I have been in agony for most of the weekend however it was worth it. The following photo of my arm was not caused by domestic violence but by my first rugby training in over a year. My skin will toughen up eventually. At least its better than trying to explain black eyes to the doctor. While still playing in Amsterdam I managed to get 5 black eyes in the space of 3 months. My doctor gave me domestic abuse leaflets with the first 2 and with the next one, even though I was in the emergency room in still wearing my rugby gear and covered from head to toe in mud, they wanted to call the police for me and get my gorgeous hubby (the boyfriend at the time) arrested for beating me up. Now anyone who knows Frank also knows that the concept of him giving me a smack is completely outrageous but I suppose they were only doing their job. I did have a broken cheekbone then so I can imagine that it looked quite bad from where they were standing.

We'll skip Friday's karaoke and head straight to Saturday. Went shopping, went to stricktreff and knitted away quite happily. Met up with Charlene and then went to see the 'Seamen' Frank's band. Here's a wee photo of them. The bloke in the kilt is mine :o) They were playing at a club called JWD which stands for Janz Weit Draussen. German for 'in the middle of nowhere' Well it was in the middle of nowhere but quite packed for place where the only next door neighbours are a family of ducks. They played extrememly well and got loads and loads of applause. A few of the locals even took to the dancefloor. It was a bit like the old 'dorf disco' in Attendorn but the natives were friendly, the beer was cold and the music was good. All in all it was a good night.

Back to the socks now. I'm still playing with the collinette jitterbug and on Sunday I looked at what I'd been knitting on Saturday and decided to take Gisela's advice. She reckoned that my needles were too small for the thickness of the yarn. I have to admit that she was right. I was knitting the main part of the sock up with 2.5mm's and it did look a bit to tight. I ripped back to the cuff. Knitted up with a 3mm, the bundchen is just too loose so with the 2.5's for the bundchen and then the 3mm's for the leg, its going much better and the colours are pooling in a spiral rather than the strange inkspot blob which had appeared using the 2.5's. So thanks Gisela not only for lending me 10 euries when the silly Opern Cafe wouldn't take my EC card but also for the wisedom about the needle size.

Murphy's still in town.

This post was originally supposed to be called 'return to rugby' however on trying to blog this morning I recieved a notification that my blog was locked due to the blog being a 'spam' blog. Now they're probably right about the content being rubbish, but spam? Must be the grammar police or something. So I've sent in my wee secret code or whatever its supposed to be and I'm now waiting not so patiently for them to unlock it so that I can post again. Seemingly I can save this a draft until some 'real' person reviews my blog and judges its content to be unharmful to the world. That may take some time.



I'll post my return to rugby pictures when I actually know that my blog is going to be published.



So thankyou very much Mr Spam-Prevention Robot. NOT

A touch of the Murphy's

I'm having another one of those days/weeks/months I think. You know, those times where nothing seems to go right and everything that can go wrong will go wrong? The separate actions fall directly under Murphy's Law however when it apears to be more of a virus which will eventually clear up then its a Touch of the Murphy's.



List of Bad things

1. Got knocked off my bike on Tuesday


2. Couldn't get toe up sock right at all.


3. Ripped out Collinette jiterbug socks 4 times


4. Ripped out again when I got home after strick treff as I didn't like the pattern and it was too stretchy.


5. argued with my colleague


6. Frank bought huge sideboard for a euro and now we can't get it upstairs or in the cellar.


7. Not getting my knitting time this morning


8. Back light on bike dying last night


9. Harry Potter dying on page 536 (joke)


10. Managed to post this on the wrong blog

Okay so some things have been gonig well too and I'm just whinging and being a grump.

List of good things

1. Found pattern in my favourite socks for the jitterbug
   


2. Went to stricktreff last night and didn't get knocked off my bike or rained on
   


3. Made up with colleague
   


4. Stalin has calmed down and is now only Atilla the Hun(my boss)
   


5. Found new rugby club which will be playing 15-a-side.
   


6. Got Colin's toe up right by the 2nd go


7. Manged to delete entry from wrong blog

Here's a photo of my stricktreff in TeaTheTee or whatever its called. Its not our normal treffing spot but, as our usual haunt was on holiday, we had to find somewhere else to click the sticks. Last night's treff back in the Aurum and was good fun. There wasn't that many of us there but we ended up having a discussion about language history and blunders. Language blunders are one of my favourtie and I abousolutely love it when folks here ask about becoming sausages. I also like making mistakes myself. Maybe I should write more german and see what kind of hillarity comes from it. Acutally I dunno, there's a difference between writing e-mails in bad german and writing blog in bad german. Knowing my luck I'd probably get put in prison by the german grammar police for grammatically gross misbrauch.
Tonight I'm gonig to be cycling miles to the rugby training. Its my first rugby training in over a year so I'll probably be in agnoy tomorrow. I love the german word for muscle ache caused by excercise 'musclekarte' I hope I've spelled that correctly or the spelling police might get me but anyway it literally translates as muscle hangover. Brilliant! Its a much better word that 'Strickjacke'
And because I will have my muscle hangover tomorrow I expect sympathy and chocolate :o)

Toe up tragedy

I've decided that I hate toe up socks. I think in general, the principle is good i.e. you can knit and knit until you run out of yarn.
This is all fine and well if you have 2 balls of 50g or if you have 2 balls of equal length.
The thing which bugs me about toe-ups is the toe. I've tried loads of different ways and I personally like the results of the sherman toe. However I hate picking up the stitches after the toe is completed. I always end up with the wrong number and I'm sure I've dropped more than I've picked up and I find it difficult to unzipp the crocheted chain.

Maybe it was just a bad day but its now the 3rd time I've had to rip out the toe at the unzip stage and I'm getting ever so slightly annoyed with it.

The good news is, I've almost finished my cotton jeans short jacket. I know it will be a bit on the small side but hey, I don't care any more. I hate diets too. They make me more miserable than toe up socks.

Ach never mind. I'll have another go at the toe and if it works out, I'll go back on the diet and fit the jacket.

Finally

So I actually took a picture of something that I've finished. I'm very pleased with myself. Its the first time I've used 2 colours over 2 different fingers. It goes so much quicker than picking up one colour at at time. I can't quite get the 2 colour on 1 finger technique and to be honest I like this one a lot better anyway.

I'm now going to lie down for a while even though its 4pm on a Saturday afternoon. I have a slight ye olde wilde hangover again.

Oh but before I do crawl back into my scratcher. Someone gave us back the summer and there is a huge big bright warm thing in the sky again. Its nice :o)

Addictions in General

Okay so I'm addicted to knitting, wool, books and a few other things. Crafty and f!*@ abouty things. I do also (very) occassionally when the mood takes me, have a sneaky ciggarette however I am trying to stop that completely and only tend to do so when I'm out on the sauce.

Anyway, on the way to work this morning, an incident took place which has left me not only in pain but also with enough incentive never to suck on a cancer stick again.

There's me cycling to work. I decided to go down Friedrichstrasse this morning as Charlottenstrasse can be a bit iffy around 9ish when one is in a hurry. Although F-str can be just as iffy, at least there are plenty of police and traffic lights and its a haupt strasse with lots of yellow diamond signs which means that even me on a bike has right of way. I diverse again. As I was cycling along minding my own business, one of my pet hate's drove by. A BMW s.u.v. I hate those things in town but nonetheless it was there and it was driving. The passenger (sitting on the right chair in this country) was casually flicking the ash from his ciggie as his friend drove along as fast as the morning traffic would allow him. There was however, a bit of a wind and the ash of his ciggie landed straight in my eye. I yowled with pain then cycled as fast as my legs would go in order to catch up with him at the next set of traffic lights. I caught him and was extremely pleased to be able to tell him off in german with tears streaming down from my left eye. He did try to blame the big truck in front but concidering there was no passenger in that vehicle, it didn't really wash and I also knew that it was him. I did see it from my one functioning eye.

The point of this little rant is simple. If you smoke and you want to smoke in your car, please do so but flick the ash into the ashtray. That's what its there for. If you don't smoke in your car then fill it with pot pourri or whatever but then please don't fill it with pot-pourri and flick the ash out of the window onto unsuspecting cyclists or pedestrians who happen to have chosen a much more environmentally freindly way of traveling to work than sitting in a BMW s.u.v. Rant over

My book arrived today. I can't wait to get home now. I had written to Amazon to complain that one of my stricktreffers ordered her book about 1 week after me and had gotten her book last week and my delivery date still said August. 5 mins later I got shipment notification and today it arrived. Yippeee. Harry Potter next weekend and in between should be the Loop delivery. Oh my knickers are in a knot now. He he. I've just thought something up. knickers which are called 'knot now knickers' which look something like a chatstity belt. Either that its what you give to someone to destress them. 'here you go love,have some knot now knickers so that you can get yours out of the knot/twist they've just got into'

Service

I must admit that I love Loop in London. I ordered my needle case on Thursday and it arrived on Monday. I could only pick it up last night but I was soo happy that I did a wee dance at the post office. Well not quite but I almost did. The jitterbug sock yarn is even more gorgeous irl so and I'm kind of itching to wind it, knit it and wear it but I want to wait for my favourite socks book to come in. Mind you I did by the Genial Sock Workshop book and that's got some really nice patterns in it too. We'll see.

Anyway the good thing about www.loopshop.gb.com is that they sent me an advert with the rowan cotton jeans on sale. One of the girls at the stricktreff had been admiring mine so I sent the advert to her. It was such a good deal that I decided I wanted some too and well we ordered loads of the stuff. 40 balls in total. The didn't have enough of the hemp colour (now christened brombeerjoghurt by us as it looks like bramble yoghurt) for Sabine so we both got this. The colour is Jute. Well they' didn't have 40 of that either but 39 so I've ordered 39 and I should be able to make a jumper and matching hat out of my 21. It knits up really well and feels sooo nice. The competition is now on though as Sabine and I now have to make 2 completely different garments so that we don't look like we're doing a 'single white female' . Better go and do some work now or I'll get shouted at by Satlin (my new boss he's called Satlin as he's a cross between Satan and Stalin)

Spending Spree

Look what I bought!! I don't think his nibs will be able to moan at me for this one as it will be helping tidy up the flat. Well it will tidy out the old tin I'm using at the moment and once that's tidy I can shove more stuff in there thus creating space somewhere else in the flat. Well that's my theory and I'm sticking to it.

I also finally caved in and bought some Colinette Jitterbug yarn. Its a nice pinky purpley colour. I know that I don't really need any more sock yarn, never mind pinky purpley sock yarn but I heard soooo many good reports about it AND it was too gorgeous to resist.

I know its been a while since I've posted but I've been kind of busy running around like an eejit as usual. I've been to a couple of stricktrefs and had fun. Also the Seamen made their first appearence live. I still think the Seamen all over Berlin would make brilliant t-shirts. Maybe even 'Pirates of the Mugglezee' on the back or something... I'm off on a tangent again. Anyway I have been finishing projects which is highly unusual for me. One project will be going to its recipient on Saturday so I'll post some piccies after then. My other secret project is the Harry Potter SockSwap. Those are just beeing finshed and put in the post. Same goes for HPSS photo's. The Rowan cardi only has half a sleeve and a collar to go an its done then I don't know what to do. I think I'll finish Berni's jumper. Its been on the back burner for so long that I've forgotten what I was supposed to be doing with it. Well not quite but I have worked out what I'm supposed to be doing with the neck which is something. While deciding on that, I suppose I could be getting on with knitting some socks for Frank. I've got 1 sock almost finished and 2 x 100g balls of bamboo yarn to be knitting. I also want to be knitting some corsages and doing a felted bag and knitting up a skirt which I thought up AND a purse AND start on Christmas presents AND AND AND. So really I think I do know what to do and there is no shortage of projects.

Oh and bunny update. The poor wee soul had a tummy bug or something as she had a dose of the trots and wasn't eating or drinking. Well she had been trying to eat the fixtures in the flat and had a good go at the door and door frame but that's not proper bunny food. Maybe thought she could eat her way into the living room or something. We took her to the vet who gave her a couple of wee jags and she's now doing fine, eating snoepjes again and has thankfully stopped eating the house.

Ye Olde Wilde Hangover

Well it turned into a Wilde night after all. I am sooooo hungover today however I had so much fun that yes, I will do it all over again. Did Janis Joplin for a change and even managed to sing in key.

Met more new and interesting people which is always nice and got rained on big time. We had more thunder and lightning storms again. I know I'm scottish and that I'm used to a lot of rain but this was BIG rain. When I was a kid we went to the states for rather a long holiday. It was to see if maybe we wanted to live there etc. Anyway we were in Florida and I remember it raining so hard. This torrent of rain and then within 5 minutes the streets were dry again and too hot to walk on with your bare feet. Well the rain last night was a bit like that but there was no hot sunshine to dry it up again and no insy winsy spider.

In my hungover state I have not dared to pick up the needles but now that I'm feeling slightly human again, I just might. I need more food though too so I think I'll sort that out first.

Bad Bunny

Look what my wee darling bunny did! She is very lucky that I couldn't catch her until I calmed down otherwise she would have been on her way to being a very pretty pair of grey furry gloves. I was in the middle of posting a comment on Rachael's blog about the gorgeous Wolmeise sock yarn which she bought and how jealous I was again when things started to go wrong (mental note, still have to post that comment) First I thought it was something to do with the internet provider etc etc however it was the bunny. Bunnies aren't too clever and don't tend to know if they're being punnished let alone what they're being punnished for so there was no point in shutting her up in her cage or witholding snoepjes (bunny sweeties) She just wouldn't have a clue. I also think my wee knabbleartist is a bit blonde even by bunny standards. Ach well the new cable cost €8 and I'm back on line and the bunny is still chewing cardboard which is better than cables I suppose.

I'm now almost finished the right front of my cardi. This is after frogging it twice. For some reason I got mixed up with the increase and decrease count and managed to screw things up but I'm back on track and now doing the neck edge decreases. Just 2 sleeves to go and then I can press and sew it. I was thinking of buying one of those mat things where one can pin out the knitted item then press it when I realized that I have about 40 of those folded up in my towel section of the cupboard. Duh!

Saw the most wonderful kitchen unit in a live auction which I might just bid on. Its about 4 meters long, over 2 meters tall and has 75 drawers in it. Yep you read correctly 75. Imagine how much of my stash I can get in that. Actually all of it and I'd still have drawers left over so I would have to increase my stash so that I could fill the drawers.

Off out for dinner now and then onto 'Ye Olde Wilde Karaoke' at the Oscar Wilde's Irish Pub round the corner.

Small Whinge

While browsing through my new book, I decided that I also wanted to knit the 'Clovelly' jumper and went to the LYS to pick up some silk aran for the job. Or so I thought. Seemingly out of all the Rowan suppliers in Berlin, not one of them stock this yarn and not one of them can/will order it in for me. So I'm either stuck with getting a replacement yarn at €5.90 per 50g or ordering it on-line. Never mind, I came back with a silver frog brooch and a pair of addi's in 4.5mm so at least I got something from my shopping trip. Back to the cardi now.

About time too

Feels like ages since I've been on-line. Well that's because it has been. Part of the reason is that I was staying with my lovely Mum who doesn't have a computer. She reckons that she's too old for it. She's in her 60's which I really don't think is too old to be playing with the pc. I mean there are plenty of 'mature' ladies and gents on the socknitters group who surf the net, blog, play games and work on-line. I'm trying to talk her into it but I think it will take time as she's a bit of a technophobe. Mind you telling her that she could do her shopping on-line seemed to appeal to her. I think the thought of not having to pick up huge tins of cat food and carry them herself was quite reassuring. She only has 2 cats but they eat a lot.

While the disadvantage of not being on-line is that I can't update my blog. The advantage is that I get lots of time to shop and knit. Or go on stash enhancing expeditions which are otherwise known as 'SEX' Anyway on one such sex excursion I manged to get this lot well some of it anyway. The sock yarn I bought here in Berlin but ther rowan classic 'Coast' book and the blue yarn for the 'Lynton' cardi is what I bought in Scotland. I had great fun in the shop and even met one of the rowan designers. Jane Galbraith. She even let me try on the cardi which on the front cover. Very nice but I decided to go for some mindless knitting and do something a bit plain. The colour of the cardi has come out pretty well in the photo .

Scotland was great fun and just hanging around with my Mum and sometimes my Sister was very relaxing for a change. Normally my time is so short and I try to cram far too much in. So much so that I barely get a chance to knit. This time was different. We went straight from the airport to Helensburgh to meet up with friends of mine and see Sofia's exhibition at Hill House. Wow is all I can say. She's a very talented girl and I get so jealous ever time I see her work. I have a few of her originals here at home but the new work she's done is fantastic. She's updating her website but as soon as its finished I'll attatch a permanent link so that folks can have a look at their leisure.

Before I dissappeared from the cyber world I did manage to cram a few things in around work. One of them being the Berlin Sternfahrt for bikes. It was a huge cycle tour with 18 starting points in various parts of Berlin and surrounding areas with over 250000 participants. Needless to say, we stopped the traffic and we even got to cycle on the motorway. We started out from Wedding U-Bahn and did a circular route through Berlin. There was a bit of a bike jam trying to get onto and off of the motorway but it was great fun and I really enjoyed it. There is also a campaign for going to work on your bike which I do every day anyway but I think its a good thing. Events like this and more cyclists on the road will mean that the local council or whoever it is who is responsible for putting in bike lanes will maybe take note. On my whole way to work, there is not one single bike lane. Occassionally there are little dotted lines with a bike symbol at the traffic lights however these are generally ignored by cars and I've been knocked off my bike a few times by drivers who just don't care or don't look. One of them was a police car which I was very annoyed about. Ah such is life. In the mean time I'm off to finish the right side of the cardi and then start on the sleeves.

Rrrrrippping Yarn

Went to my Stricktreff last night and had lots of fun. Knitted away at my HSS and the more I knitted the more I realised that I didn't like the foot at all. So while I'm really happy with the leg and the pattern, its really baggy around the foot so off to the frog pond it goes again.


While at the stricktreff, I bought the most amazing sock wool from one of the girls. Its from the wolmeise and the colourway is Salamander. She reckons that its too dark and I reckon that it will make perfect Harry Potter socks for my swap partner.

Keeping this short today as I've loads to do.

Finally

Okay so I'm not the brightest spark when it comes to computers and uploading and downloading stuff but I've managed it. I've got the pdf uploaded and in my links section of the blog. That means, those of you who have been clamouring for the pattern, Go for it :o) Its under HSS pattern

Just noticed a small mistake. It should read repeat rows 15-26 x 3 or how many times you like.

Here's the key

● = knit
/ = knit 2 tog
○ = yarn over
\ = ssk (slip slip knit or knit 2 tog throug back of loop)
▲ = slip 1, k2 tog, pass slipped stitch over


Last night while playing about with my socks, I decided indeed that I really hated the heel so I frogged it. Then did a short row hell. Not sure if it was the sherman as I was working from my own memory rather than the computer's but it turned out a lot better and tightened up the ankle area. So my recomendations are, if you're going to knit this and you're a loose knitter then use a short row heel or an afterthought heel. If you are going to do a heel flap and gusset, then I suggest you do the gusset decreases on every row rather than every 2nd. That should also stop nora batty syndrom socks.


Next Friday I'll be off galavanting again. I'm off home this time. Himself is going to Ameland Beach Rugby. I was supposed to be going too but have decided that I would much rather go home to scotland and get rained on than on some northern dutch island where it also rains a lot. I've had enough of that here in the past few days so I'm hoping that Glasow will look a bit like the piccie on the right when I get there. And not the one down here on the left. Will also stop in on some friends and maybe even get to meet my sisters newish boyfriend. I say newish because he's been on the books for a while now but I've yet to meet him. You get that when you live in different countries though.

That was the week that was

Phew is the only way I can put it. Almost 2 weeks of running around like mad, working like crazy and almost no knitting, I really need a break.

The tournament went really well. 16 womens teams, 54 men's teams and 11 vets teams, all turned up to play and we had a great time. The beer was flowing and the sun was shining right up until the men's final. The rain, however didn't cast too much of a shaddow on the festivities. Have a look at this and you'll see what I mean. I do warn you, there is some nudity :o) For those of you who would rather see some fully clothed players, this what the tournament is really about. Its in dutch but you'll get the jist of it I think.

The monday after is traditionally 'Bloody Mary Monday' at the cafe Corso. This is what I can only describe as an experience. It doesn't matter what you order, be it coffee, coke, beer or water; you get a bloody mary. I managed a couple but the problem is that they go down far too easily so I opted for sobriety, left and went to have a proper breakfast, go back home and get some sleep.

On the way back to Berlin on Friday I had another adventure. This time KLM were not to blame. It was the weather gods this time. Looks like I upset them again by putting my winter jackets away. We were delayed by 30 mins with take off, then we circled over Berlin for another half hour. We landed at the wrong airport and waited for 45 mins till the ground staff were allowed out again to refuel and handle the baggage. The turbulance was excellent fun and the light show in the clouds below was great so it wasn't all in all an unpleasant experience. Oh and this time, I checked in online so that they couldn't give my seat away and make me sit next to the hugest, smelliest person on the plane. I'm fat myself so I prefer to sit next to skinny people so that I can hang over onto their seat too.

In 1.5 weeks I managed to knit 0 rows, rounds or even frog anything. I brought my knitting with me of course on bamboo so that it could come with me in the plane, extra yarn just in case I finished the heart shaped sox and wanted to start on something different. Mr Murphy must have been pointing his sodding law book in my direction as you could bet your life that if I hadn't brought my knitting along I would have had a nano second in which to whip out the sticks and rattle off 2 pairs of socks and a jumper. It wasn't until Saturday just gone that managed to sit down and knit for a bit. Turned the heel and thought.......yeuk. Unfortunately I'll need to keep going until I get nearer the toe before I decide to frog the heel and go for the sherman. It just looks too loose and baggy at the moment but it will probably fit my fat ankles perfectly. We'll see.

Amsterdammed

Back in the dam after an almost trouble free flight. Every time I fly KLM something goes wrong. This time my luggage nearly ended up on a flight to Tel Aviv. Seemingly there were only 5 passengers or something who were actually stopping in Amsterdam. The rest of the flight from Berlin were flying onto various other places. Tel Aviv being one of them and all 5 passengers who should have picked up their luggage in Amsterdam had to go to the KLM info desk to be told that their luggage would follow them a few days later. Not impressed but after some gentle persuasion (me shouting my head of in Dutch) they agreed to get someone to go get the luggage from the baggage tolley and bring it to us pronto I mean the flight wasn't taking off for another few hours so it should have been easy enough. As it turns out it was and me's is now very happy coz at least I will now have clean underwear for tomorrow.

the link on my blog appears to be working for me but doesn't appear to be working for anyone else. I really will have to work out how to do the pdf thingie. As soon as the 7's is over and I've got some free time and I can work out how exactly one converts word or excel into pdf I'll post it.

Right now I'm waiting on a phone call to tell me what exactly we're supposed to be up to and what still needs to get done before everything kicks off on Friday evening. For those of you curious about the rugby weekend the website is www.amsterdamsevens.com the website isn't brilliant but at least you'll get the picture. Its ususally a lot of half nacked blokes in rugby gear running round the pitch and looking very gorgeous which is one of the reasons I'm still doing part of the organising for this tournament. Free eye candy the whole weekend. And as I'm normally at the jury cabin where most players and people come by at some point in time, I get to see almost everything except the games. Well I do get to see a couple of those. Me and Tessa (a good rugby friend and ex team mate) started it up last year for the first time. We're called the Corolettes, named after cafe Corso in A'dam. Its the best rugby pub in the world and James the owner sponsors us AND the Corso Marauders. This year we've got a bit of tough competition though. We'll see. The tournament is always a surprise when it comes to the women's teams.

Phone's ringing now so better go and get things done.

HTML Maybe

I think I've worked out how to get this thing up and running. HTML. Its bulky but it just might work.

Here's the link

Just hope that it works for non gmail or google blog users. If not then post a comment and I'll try figure out the pdf thing.

p.s. I spoke too soon about the weather. Forgot to take my lucky umbrella with me tonight and got rained on. No Likey :o(

Me Silly

I got so many really nice comments both on the blog and on the socknitters group about my heart shaped sox. Also most of them asking for the pattern. So at lunch today, I played with excel and came up with a chart. Now I can't seem to post the thing. If I try to copy paste it, it comes up with a load of symbols and now I can't seem to convert it to a pdf document. How do other people manage it? More research is required, either that or a degree in IT which I definately don't have. I'm normally allergic instruction manuals. Colin, I'm with you all the way on that one.

AAAAAHHHHH. Life wasn't meant to be easy but tell that to someone who gives a s#@t!

What a difference the daylight makes

Woke up this morning with the sunlight. Looks as if someone chased the rain god away for a bit. The funny thing about rain is that its good for the plants etc and we need it for water supplies but we all moan when its here. I would really like it, if it just fell at night time when we were sleeping. That way the plants would be happy and so would we.

Got kind of stuck into my heart shaped sox last night. I've now worked out the pattern in my head so all I need to do now is get it on paper and I've designed my first pattern. Maybe not entirely my first but the first one I'll put on paper anyway. I'm just hopeless at chart writing. Í'll see what I can come up with.

Tomorrow I'm off to A'dam again. This time for the 7's. Hopefully the weather will stay nice for it. Got my 16 teams so things should work out. I've managed to couple it with a business trip to the Hague so I won't be back in sunny Berlin for over a week :o(. Poor bunny has to go to the bunny hotel for a while. She likes it there anyway. The woman there thinks she's very hubsch. Well she is. She's just camera shy. This phot was taken in our old house in A'dam but as you can see, she doesn't really like cameras and decided to go hide in her usual place. She likes it under there for some strange reason. Even here in the new house she still does it.

I have to go and do some real work now :o( I don't want to. I want to stay outside and enjoy the sunshine.

Fixed - well almost

The broken Brittnays are almost fixed. I asked my sock group about them and loads of folks said to email them with the size of the needle, the problem and my mailing address. In a few weeks, I should get a new needle or 2. Cool eh? Will now be counting the days till I get my new needles.

Oh and while I was at it, I contacted Vogue Knitting about my barely recieved subscription and they're sending out the holiday season, winter and spring magazines to me again. If they don't arrive by mid June, I'm cancelling my sub and if anything nice is in them, then I'll be ordering from one of the german or uk suppliers. Not putting up with it. Don't think they ever sent out my mags to the new address.

Blizten and Broken Brittnay's

We were off to the Schnizelwirtin last night. Monday night is schnitzel night at the Andechserhof Hotel on our street. Its eat as much as you want but if you can finish one then you're doing well. Seemingly one wee skinny bloke ate 6 of them but I'm not sure I believe it. I reckon its an urban myth.

After sunday night's 'party' we decided to take it easy so after stuffing ourselves we went back home and chilled out. Unfortunately for me, I was all fingers and thumbs and managed to knit NOTHING. Well I did knit some stuff but frogged it, started again, frogged it started again and frogged it.

During one of my start from scratch attempts, my brittnay's broke :o( I was not impressed. I'm a kind of chilled knitter and don't even put a lot of tension on the needles so I can't understand why the thing snapped. Okay so its a 2.25mm (us size 2 I think) but that shouldn't make a difference. So one broken needle, half a dozen attempts at a pink sock with hearts, toe up, toe down and whatever way I tried, one frayed temper and no chocolate, I decided to go to bed.

About 3am this morning, I thought things were exploding around me. There was an almighty simultanious flash and bang with the sound riccocheting around the small hof at the back of our house. The lightning must have been directly overhead or something. So no I haven't slept well, yes I am a grumpy git and yes I will get better just as soon as I get some tea down my neck and some food in my tummy.

Off to the canteen for chocolate. Oh I know I'm on a diet but sometimes a girl really needs chocolate. Like NOW

Summer's Back?

Well not quite but at least it stops raining occassionally.

We had a voll programma weekend. On Friday, himself picked me and my bike up from work and we went off to pick up the hall wardrobe which we'd bought on one of those internet auctions. Anyway we took a left turn too soon and ended up doing a 75km detour through parts of Berlin which I didn't know existed. Also you would have sworn that we were driving in Scotland. Wee lochs, single track road and lots of trees. Back to the point... I don't think either of us realised that it was so heavy but we had fun humpfing it up 4 flights of stairs.

Saturday I had my striktreff in the Opera Cafe in Berlin but before that I went to the new LYS with spinning wheel in hand and it was declared as working and wunderschön. Also had a good chat with the owner and introduced her to the stricktreff group. She came along after she closed up for the evening. I also met some english speaking knitters too which is great. Sometimes I really miss speaking english. Okay so himself and I babble away in english sometimes too but we usually end up speaking our mix of everything because we're too lazy to translate everything. Started on the lovehearts socks and have now decided to frog them. The pattern is too loose and more importantly, I don't like it. I think I'll knit something else.

After the striktreff it was off to meet the band. Himself is the talented one in the family and is in a band called the Seamen of all things. He is trying to get them to change the name and even the threat of a t-shirt which says 'Seamen all over Europe' won't budge them. I'm off on a tangent again......

So, off to meet the band and wifes/girlfriends. I normally hate things like that but it was fun. A bit of an adventure getting there and I would have been cheaper in a taxi but I got a new pair of jeans out of it AND a new shirt. The heavens opened and I got soaked and of course I couldn't go to meet new people and drip all over their hall carpet. As it happens we were outside anyway so it didn't matter about the carpet but you know what I mean.

Yesterday was the 6th anniversary of my wee Daddy's deathday so I wasn't really in the mood for anything but went out for dinner and got drunk. Slept in this morning an didn't get to work until 9:45 Oops my bad. It happens. I've also got a tick bite which is itching like hell so think if its still red tomorrow then I might go to the docs and get it checked as they're rife this year and I don't want Limes disease.

N'er cast a clout til Mai is oot

Who ever made up that old wives point of view was 100% correct. Its freezing here. Okay so the thermometer hasn't dropped below 10° and its not technically freezing but its horrible, wet, windy and me no likey so there. I even left my bike at work last night, borrowed my colleague's brolley and U-Bahned it home.

It wasn't really all that unpleasant. I even got to stop at Friedrichstraße for some grocery shopping or messages as we call it in Glasgow. Anyway got the old DDR feeling when I had to que to get into the supermarket there. Seemingly lots of other people had left their bikes at work, U-Bahned it home and thought 'oh, there's a supermarket at Freidrichstraße and its under cover and I won't have to go out in this pissy wet weather and get soaked' so they got there before me and I had to wait until a few people had left before the security guard would let me in. It was either that or he thought I was going to hold up the store.

Anyway got home, relatively dry. Sat on my bum and finished the Aedelweiss Socks or however you spell them. My tootsies were cold so I put them on straight away. Of course they fit perfectly and are nice and snuggly. Immediately started on a pair of lace heart socks. The pattern is in dutch but its easy enough to decipher. If I get stuck I can always ask Omi.

At the momement my aim is to reduce my stash and actually use some of the yarn I have instead of keeping it in boxes and occassionally petting it. Also my bunny likes knabbeling the boxes and has created rather large holes in them so its either put the yarn in bunny proof boxes or use the stuff. I think I'll have more fun using it. I have given myself a small incentive though. The more stuff I knit from the stash. The sooner I get to replace it :o) Dunno if himself will like that but he sometimes gets the fruits of my labour.

See I can actually post piccies occassionally. Even if they are out of focus and are more of a work in progress than anything else. These were finished before going to Belgium for the Tour de Geuze and himself loves them. Made from Regia Bamboo. He swears the keep his feet from smelling. You know what? I believe him :o). Don't think he'll object if I buy more bamboo yarn for his big sweaty feet. He's a size 46-47 in EU sizes. Not nice when you're doing the gussets but since he likes plain socks it makes great tv knitting. Think I got most of these done watching Germany's next Top Model by Heidi Klum. My favourite crapy tv program by far. I can't stand watching all the dubbed stuff so its either Sex and the City dvd's or that. Mind you the Simpsons in German are hillarious.

Oh and its now thunder, lightning and torrential rain. I've still to go out for lunch and I'm not looking forward to it. Looks like the colleague's brolly again and a walk along to the imbiß.

Harry Potter Book 7 Swap It Questionnaire:

1)What are your favorite Harry Potter Book Hogwarts House color combinations?.......Oh I think I'm a Gryffindor kind of girl at heart. I really can't stand the combination of yellow and black on anything else than bumble bees.

2)Do you have a sock yarn that you can't wear? Or just hate?.......I'm not fussed so long as it doesn't itch.

3) Would you prefer nice "Harry Potter" socks, or can your sock Pal go all Funky on you? How weird is to weird for you?..............I don't mind funky. In fact my socks don't even need to match but no frilly bits. I'm not all that frilly really.

4) Who is your favorite teacher at Hogwarts?.... I like Minerva McGonagal.

5) Is there a color that you just can't wear, you know the one that makes you look sick, or you just can't stand? Explain the color? (Example ~ Light green, not med, or dark, but light..yuck!)

For my feet it doesn't really matter too much but I'm not a fan of yellow and black together as previously mentioned and also the combo of Green and white is definately off.

6) Are you a superwash sock person or a 100% Wool sock person?
I'm a superwash girl all the way. Just no 100% nylon. I have an aversion to socks that squeak on the needles as well as on my feet.

7) What do you think is the funniest scene in one of the books and what was it? ...................When Hermione punches Malfoy.

8) Will you be attending any Harry Potter parties or midnight releases like what Barnes and Nobles has put on in the past?.........Nope, I'll be at home, sitting behind the letterbox, waiting for Amazon to drop it through on the release date.

9) Was there a scene that just cranked your needles? A scene that just made you mad?........In the last one when Snape bumped off Dumbledore. Got well upset by that one.

10) Have you watched the movies and read the books? or just one and or the other, and if so which ones?.......Read all the books, watched one film and have stayed away from HP films since.

11) Have you or do you have any plans to knit anything else "themed" Harry Potter?.....I've already knitted an HP mini Gryffindor scarf as a book mark.

12) What is your favorite all time sock yarn, and your favorite sock pattern?
Oh difficult one as I like lots of yarn for different reasons. I do love Lorna's Laces though but a bit on the expensive side for a sock swap.

13) Do you knit your socks, toe up, cuff down, DPN's, Circ's or whatever you feel like?......I do whatever I feel like. I've just taught myself how to knit continental style so I'm now on a dpns kick again.

14) Are you a Chocolate, Soda, Tea, Coffee, or Hard Candy kind of person?
I like tea, chocolate, sweeties, coffee and beer. I don't drink much of what the US calls Soda but prefer water or Apfelschorles if forced to.

Any special treats you just can't resist? Haribo Fröschli and gummi bears

15) Anything else you would like to tell about yourself, about the books, or about your knitting, bring it on! :c)
Oh too much to tell in one sitting. Best read the blog. If you can call it a blog yet.

BRB

Well......
As you can tell, I really am crap at this blogging thing. I have however been up to loads over the past few weeks, months, years, well months really. I've been to NL loads of times, I've been home, I've been to Belgium and for some of the time I've also been in Berlin which would make sence as I still live here. When I have been here. I've been inundated with visitors. That's also nice but doesn't leave you a lot of time for knitting. After this month, I get to sit on my bum for a bit which will be very welcome.

In the mean time and for the build up to the release of the new Harry Potter book, I've joined a Knit Swap and Knit-along thingie. The link to the blog is here

It should be a laugh and I hope to get a nice pair of HP socks out of it. I've no idea who my swap pal will be but I'm not fussed. Just hope they don't have HUGE feet.

OTN just now is a pair of socks for myself!!!!! Its the Aidleweiss pattern from Vogue Fall 2006 in MegaBoots Stretch in nice peacocky colours. Beat knitting plain vanilla socks all the time.

Berni's jumper is still on the go. Got the back and the front done, one sleeve finished and the other one to be started. Once that's done I just need to attach the sleeves to the body and then worry about the neck but think I'll do the i-cord cast off for that. Then I need to embroider a salamander of all things on the back of it..... Don't ask.

Better post my HP KAL and Swap questionnaire now.

New Years Resolutions

I've worked out that I'm not very good at this blogging stuff but will attempt to be better at it now that 2006 is over and 2007 is well underway.

To be honest the start of this year has just been as hectic as the 2006. I've already been to NL twice and will be going again in 2 weeks. You would think I actually liked the place the amount of times I have to go back.

This weekend was good fun though. F wanted to go to the Obelix New Year's borrel. I always manage to get absolutely trollied there. Anyway lost my pink gloves somewhere. Next I missed the 7s meeting and got to A'dam in the afternoon. Met up with Sarah, Petra and Berni then later with Cindy and Tessa. We had a right laugh. I think I need to go on detox for the next 3 weeks or something. I feel really really unhealthy. Spent an absolute fortune in Waterstones only to discover that they hadn't put in the DVD's I bought F for his b'day. Phoned them though today. They were really honest about it and told me that they would keep them by for me until next time I'm in A'dam.

The Tara tried to do us for 1 irish breakie, 1 cup of coffee and a pint of Murphy's. However the girl got a good tip out of us and she reckons that it was an honest mistake however when I think of the things that the waitresses used to get up to in the Kilkenny then I'm not so sure.

Left my lovely just finished cardigan on the train on the way back. DB haven't found it yet but have said that it could take a day or 2 to make its way to the lost and found dept. Fingers crossed that it does.

Oh and remember that I was moaning about my digital camera? Well the thing wasn't broke, we were just using what we thought was charged up batteries. One of the batteries wasn't charging properly so the whole thing wasn't working properly. Got new ones and everything is now hunky dorey and it takes piccies again. That means that I can start adding photo's to my blog. Might make it more interesting for knitty folk.

On the needles right now is Berni's jumper. Poor soul has only waited about 2 years for it but it is on its way. I'm knitting it in the round with jaeger mohair art in black and will be adding some furry stuff later to it.

Neefje Steefjes jumper after that and then Mum's socks and some stuff for me for a change. Oh the list goes on. One day I will get through the list but to be honest i like doing it so I shouldn't really complain.