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.