Schwetter Happens

Well at least it didn't get too wet. This happened on the way to work this morning. I picked the worst time to cycle to work and then my carrier bag broke (didn't realise that it was a nice eco friendly plastic bag that disintegrates in rain) and my knitting landed on the ground. Luckily for me, it was so wet that I'd decided to stop, lock up my bike and take the u-bahn so I had stopped at the time and it was on the pavement in a semi dry place so none of my knitting got run over by trams, cars, trucks or nasty white van drivers (white van drivers tend to be much more agressive than other coloured van drivers). I don't think I'm supposed to knit with lacy lamb ever. The last time I started something with lacy lamb a child threw up on me and my knitting on the train. to top it off, the mother refused to believe that the yarn is €17 per ball and left without even saying "sorry well here's a fiver towards new stuff". Hmm I don't think I'll go into that now as I'm relatively calm at the moment and I don't want to ruin the christmas vibe I've got.

I was supposed to be keeping up with my blogging but things have continued to be as hectic as before. What with 2 trips to NL and a visit from Mum and Auntie not to mention various chrimbo parties and get togethers. Those interfering things have also got in the way of my knitting. I've not finished anything for ages. Well, 1.5 socks, a scarf for a friend of mine(that's the long pink thing on the radiator) and that's about it. The lacy lamb project is the swallow tail shawl for my MIL for christmas. I'm just about to start the 14th 'budding lace 2' repeat so I'm kind of on track for having it finished, blocked and packaged for Thursday. Well I would be if I had from now until late wednesday night uninterrupted knitting time but I don't. My friend Julianne (the soon to be owner of a semi-dry pink silk scarf) is coming tonight for a visit then tomorrow I'm meeting another friend for a gift exchange and Wednesday I'll be traveling to NL. At least I've got a 6 hour train ride to get some more done. I also need to package up some presents for himself and neefje steefje.

My new neefje or nichtje (dutch diminuative form for nephew or niece) hasn't arrived as yet. He or she was supposed to say hello to the world yesterday but probably wants to be called Noel or Carol so is waiting for Christmas day. We'll see.

Well I'm off to get on with some work now. Will do some knitting on my next break (hopefully the yarn will be dry by then)

In case I don't get to post beforehand. Have a great Christmas and an excellent new year when it comes and as we say in some parts of Scotland "Nollaig chridheil agus Bliadhna mhath ùr."

Stuck for words

Well I was stuck for words and I was being lazy about blogging AND I've also been kind of busy with work, play, visitors and visiting. At least that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

the picture above is of a WIP scarf for yours truly here. I need a new one as my scarf from 2 years ago is getting a bit tatty. Time for a homeless person to benefit from it if they want it that is. Anyway the above scarf is in a fake Noro from Karstadt's own brand. Its a merino and silk mix (no polymide or other plastic in it) and was only 3.50 euries per ball so I bought 5 although on knitting it up, I only think I'll need 3 max but I can always make mitts and a hat to match. The pattern is some sort of multi-coloured brioche stitch. The pattern is called the inside out scarf and you can get it here. I didn't stick to the pattern (as usual) and added a few extra stitches. I cast on 37 in total. I kind of need a nice thick and wide scarf for cycling to work in the mornings.

Other knitting things have happened. Loads of socks have been knitted and sent to their recipients. Including the half pair which was given to my best friend at home in Scotland. She insisted on a full pair until I assured her that the other one was still on the needles and that she would get it very soon so she gracefully accepted one sock and a promise that she would have a full pair before Christmas.

I'm off to NL next week for work. Not looking forward to that but that's another story. Staying with a friend there who wants to knit so at least I'll have some sort of fun.

Will try to blog on a more regular basis. I promise.....Yeah yeah, we've all heard that one before.

WIP Wrestling and Shawl Crawling

falkenberg2
Originally uploaded by BerlinerBabe

I'm signed up for 2 events on the Ravelrympics which is to be honest, a bit over ambitious for me. I've also signed up for the group 'over committed' which appears to reflect my knitting character extremely accurately. Actually not just knitting. I'm over committed to all of my craft projects. At least the ravelympics is kind of keeping me on the straight and narrow for a change although I am still project, social life and gym juggling but hey that's what makes life interesting.

The blue thing in the photo is where I'd got to with the Hanne Falkenberg I bought a while ago before getting annoyed with the german instructions and bannishing it to the naughty corner. Its now decided to behave and now that I've read the instructions about 40, I'm begining to get used to them the jacket is knitting up quite nicely now. I'm on the increases for he back and collar. Looooooong rows of plain knitting which is fairly useful when you're watching the olympics. Its also my WIP Wrestling team project. I've still to start the shawl crawl project but I'm saving that for the final stretch.

My favorite event so far is the swimming. I keep hoping that big headed American, what's his name, no not Bush, Phelps. That's it. That he'll get beaten by some obscure swimmer from a tiny wee country but he keeps winning. I suppose its swings and round-a-bouts. I mean last time round it was the dutch and the aussies who cleaned the medal cupboard out. This time round its the U.S.
I'm quite glad that van der Hoogenband isnt' swiming this year. In 2004 I was geting earache from all of the mispronounciactions of his name. That and Inge de Bruijn. Actually the dutch swimmers should just change there name to something everyone can pronounce. It would make the life of the commentators a lot easier.

I've also been on my travels again and brought back loads of goodies from Liberty's. I managed to get 20 balls of Rowan damask for 20 quid and 10 balls of kid silk night for 18.75 or something equally as ridiculous in price. If that's not enough to make the average knitter jealous as hell. I'm off to Bayern in October for.... well for work really but I managed to plan it so that it coincided with the Wollfest again. Sneaky or what? I've already e-mailed the Wollmeise to warn her of the Berlin sacking of her stall. Well maybe not quite but I do expect to be coming back to Berlin with a trolley case full to bursting and yes I will be bringing back goodies for the stricktreffers so don't worry.

Then to really rub salt into the wounds. I'm off to the big craft fair in Brimingham in November. It should be good. Last time I went in Scotland I came out with nothing. I was really dissapointed so went on a spending spree at John Lewis to cheer me up. The rowan rep there is really nice and she told me about the big fair in Birmingham and that a lot of wool suppliers only go there and don't bother with the Scottish one. Well if Mohamed won't come to the mountain then this Scottish Ben (Scottish for mountain) will go there. Hmph.

Chrismitts

I've finished my first pair of Chrismitts. That's my christmas mittens project. Okay I know that its July and that the temperatures are in the 30's but who cares. If I want to knit everyone mittens for christmas 2008 then quite honestly, I should have started in July 2007. Anyway. I'm well chuffed with the result of these ones. The pattern is from the Selbuvotter book and I really like it. These are knitted in Lang's sock wool and Wollmeise's rhubarb (rabarber in german I think). I like the colour change of the contrast colour. It makes the knitting interesting.

I think the next ones will be gloves and at the same time I still need to get Frank's NEC/St Pauli mittens finished. Well I've always got a million projects on at the same time so another one won't make any difference. I know that once I've done those then there will more than likely be a request for another pair for a couple of his friends who are die hard NEC and StPauli fans but they can wait till everyone else has their mittens, socks, jumpers, shawls and a few things which I would like to knit for me.

I've not yet added piccies from our holiday on the bikes but I will try and remember to do that tonight or tomorrow. I also need to update ravelry with some project, stash and other stuff photies. I'm diversing again. We didn't quite make it back to Berlin on the bikes but we did get to the old east/west border and then got the train back from Hizenacker or whatever its called. my achillies got rather sore which is why we stopped there. Otherwise it was straight up the Elbe and then onto the Havel and futher to Berlin but I suppose these things happen. I would still like to do the rest of the journey. Maybe do Berlin Hizenacker or something.

I'm off to Stricktreff now as its Wednesday and its stricktreff and that's what I like to do on Wednesday's.

Kip day

Me on ameland knitting in my rugby gear. Playing again tomorrow and knitting too probably.

Schlepping Projects

I thought I would post my latest schlepping (carry round) WIP. Its waving lace socks from the favorite socks book and its in wollmeise Storm. I frogged the waving lace in wollery dopio (rusty red colour) as I've heard that it shrinks in the wash and I'm a 'if the socks can't get washed in the washing machine then I'm not knitting them' kind of girl so off to the frog pond they went. I think the wool is much more suited to a shawl or even the colour bits in my mittens and gloves for everyone's christmas project. I've still to start that but I intend to while I'm on my hollibags. The holiday knitting should be the above mentioned socks and mittens and maybe if I'm lucky, I might pick up something along the way.

Also I've kind of split my knitting into types of project. Home projects and Schlepping round with me projects. At home there are various things OTN and the little amount of time I've been spending at home lately I've been working on that Anne Falkenberg thing. Its easy knitting especially with the loooooooong rows of knit stitch. I don' t have to concentrate too much. Not like in the begining. And to break up the monotony, I have my schlepping projects.

I know that most folks will be meeting up and knitting somewhere in the sun this weekend however, I'll be on a beach in the middle of a rugby tournament knitting in between games. Should be fun and I will try to keep the sand out of the wool although since I can't keep the sand out of my bag usually I've not got much chance. After that we're off on our bikes again. This time from NL back to Berlin. Should be fun and not very hilly so we might have a chance of actually reaching our destination. We won't be doing the direct route which is a bit boring but the coastal route and well, if we get bored or saddle sore, we can always jump on a train back to Berlin or to somewhere sunny.

I'm still gym bunnying away but the numbers on the scales keep going up the way. Hoping that's to do with the weather and not the increased consumption of ice-cream. Well it is hot

I'm back

Yep its me, in my motorhead baseball hat and the vertrans 10's trophy. I am actually old enough to play the vets rugby now (yes but I look like a wee spring chicken and no arguments about that)but for our tournament I'm the wrong sex so I just got to pretend for a bit.
The tournament went really well. I got 20 womens teams in so I was really chuffed and top notch teams they were too. I got to go on a boat trip with the Mens South African national 7's team which was excellent fun and the lads were really really nice. I also managed to do the announcements for the Women's European Championship games which kicked off on the Saturday night. By the time it had all finished on Sunday I was so tired, i couldn't even drink beer. Actually that's not entirely true. I could drink beer, just not Heineken. I hate the stuff now. I think my tastebuds are now in tune with the more refined german stuff. Anyway, everyone worked really hard and my mates Tessa and Sarah are stars :o) coz they ran me around, put me up and generally just helped me out loads.

I got absolutely no knitting done almost the whole time I was in A'dam. I did knit on the way there though. I started a sock which I had to frog as it was too big but that was it. Before I went I finished the swallow tail shawl in KSN purple stuff with glitter. Photo will follow when I get around to blocking it. I slept near enough the whole way back on the train so no knitting done there but since I've been back I've done 1.5 socks. I've had visitors as well and I do feel that I'm not paying them enough attention if I sit and knit while they're here. This weekend I have some more visitors and I need to get 0.5 of the other sock finished before they arrive as the socks are a sort of belated b'day pressie for one of them. Hopefully I'll get the top part of the sock finished tonight.

My wish to turn into a gym bunny is slowly working, I'm just trying now to work up the courage to get my knitting out while on the exercise bike as I feel it cuts down on my hobby time. I mean I don't mind reading while I'm on the bike but I'm not sure about knitting yet. I have read knitting books and patterns while cycling to nowhere so the next logical step would be to whip out the pins and knit in time to the pedals. We'll see.

Book Quiz and stuff.

Was at stricktreff last night and it was great fun. I did more treffing than stricking as I made a mistake with the swallowtail shawl. Yes I've moved on already. The other stuff has not been forgotten but I'd been sorting out my stash when I came across some lovely kid silk night in a purpley plum colour. It was there sparkling and blinking at me saying 'knit me please' so i did. I'm on the 2nd graph of lilly of the valley lace and I don't like it. I'm glad that there is only a few more rows to go before that stops. I think its the yarn and the needles that makes it all the more difficult to purl 5 together on the return rows.

I'm also turning into a gym bunny (Well I'm trying) I went last night before stricktreff and got myself a new training schedule. This one involves coming to the gym 5 times per week and bouncing around on the cross trainer rather a lot. I did 30 mins on the cross trainer and 30 mins on the bike, sweated like a pig and felt great afterwards. Although my toes did go slightly numb. Maybe once some kilos have gone, they won't go as numb. Also I need to be perfectly honest with myself. I DO have time to go 5 times per week. I mean what else do I do apart from sit at home and knit? And to make it less tedious - yes bouncing around on the cross trainer can be very tedious - I've to break up the training days, so 2 days off per week and not one after the other. This does mean that I have to go to the gym at some point over the weekend. Fingers crossed that I manage to keep it up.

I got this from SaRi's blog and thought that it would be fun. Quite appropriate book concidering the gym bunny stuff and the fact that I do talk about rabbits :o)

You're Watership Down!

by Richard Adams

Though many think of you as a bit young, even childish, you're
actually incredibly deep and complex. You show people the need to rethink their
assumptions, and confront them on everything from how they think to where they
build their houses. You might be one of the greatest people of all time. You'd
be recognized as such if you weren't always talking about talking rabbits.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Wips

This is my current WIP. Its Laminaria from knitty. I'm not putting in the link coz the blog police always think that I'm a spam blogger and cut me off for weeks at a time. Okay so that was a slight exaggeration and its normally only for a couple of days at a time but its a pain especially when you're an infrequent blogger like myself. The wool is from Wollmeise in deepest darkest Bayern and the colour is Pfauen fädern I think. They are really pretty colours when in the skein but I'm not so sure about them now that they're knitted. I think this might be a present for someone. We'll see.
I've also decided I like the term Work in Progress or WIP much better than UFO. In that case I have tonnes of them. Another WIP (started yesterday) is the Hanna Valkenberg or however you spell her name's Gloria. Its kind of petroly blue colours and very nice. Its kind of wierd to knit and they didn't have the english pattern so I'm knitting auf deutsch but its going okay so far. Its quite complicated but the woman in the shop was right. Just follow the instructions to the letter and it works. Because I'm having to concentrate on the german thing, I'm not making as many mistakes as I normally would with a new style of knitting so I would strike the 'its going okay' and change it to ' I'm quite pleased so far'. We'll see how far I get with it before i get bored again.
Fank's boat warmers are finished. Well his feet are the size of boats so the socks can be classed as boat warmers.
Off to sort out some 7's stuff now. One cancellation and one other team from the waiting list in, Its going well.

Phone mitten

This is my new phone mit. Most folks have phone socks but not me. I've got a wee latvian mit.
Okay so it was originally knitted for neefje steefje but he won't mind coz he's too big for it already and I only knitted one. I've got a wonderful new phone and I can blog instantly from it so I might just be able to keep this up to date for a change.

What's been happening lately? Too much if truth be told. One funeral after another, one business trip after another etc and not enough time either in Berlin or with the knitting needles

On a more positive note, my Mum retired and had a great retirement party. She got some really nice presents and is so far enjoying every minute of being retired. The first official day of retirement, I dragged her into a bookies to pick up my winnings from the Scotland v England game at Murrayfield (yes I was there and Scotland won). Its the first time she'd ever been inside a bookies in her life.

AAC (my old rugby team in amsterdam) won the championships after a fantastic final against Tilburg. I even got to run out onto the pitch with the team. Okay so that was by accident and I had a couple of beers in my hand at the time. I also I got rather inebriated during the celebrations and lost my lovely pink phone, hence the reason for my new lovely phone which isn't pink but it does have a phone mitten.

Jules and the Beaniestalk

Once Upon a Time in a land far, far away lived a young (no comments on my choice of adjective here please) knitter named Julie. She loved to knit and had many, many projects on the go at one time. Some might say that she was a project butterfly as she would flit from one to the other.
One fine winter's day while cycling to work, she realised that her ears were frozen solid and decided that she would knit herself some sort of device for keeping her ears toastie warm so that they wouldn't fall off. After finishing her work for the day, she cycled home and looked up patterns on the internet and to her delight she found the pattern for Calometry.
Immediately she cast on the stitches with some very precious yarn and knitted the whole thing in one go, sewed on a button and Bob's your Auntie, she had a headthing that would keep her ears toastie warm throughout the winter. What she didn't realise is that this wonderful yarn was magic and that each time she wore the headthing, it would grow and grow and grow.
After wearing it a couple of times and having her ears kept toastie warm she noticed that she had to use the next button hole along, and then the next and the next until after StrickMittwoch at the Aurum, even though she had her head thing on, her ears were no longer toastie and there was a force 10 hurricane blowing along between the head thing and her ears. This would not do at all and she struggled home on her bike regardless of the cold wind biting at her ears.
Once home and warm she grabbed the magic headthing and wrestled with it untill it started to unravel. She wrestled and wrestled until it was neatly wound into a ball then set about designing a beanie hat with holes in it for her pigtails. That done, she cast on with the magic yarn once again but this time with only 80 stitches in a 2x2 rib in the round and once 2.5 inches (6cm) was knitted, she made 2, 1 row button holes exactly where her pigtails should go. She's now nearly finished the Beaniestalk and is looking forward to wearing it all through the winter, having toastie ears again and living happily ever after with the rest of her projects

TADAAAAA!!!!!

I did it, I got the head thingie done in a one sit knit and it fits and its warm and I've fallen in lurv with Noro Silk Garden.

I bought that skien a looooooong time ago and its been waiting for the right project to grab its attention. I think I bought the skien about 3 years ago and I just bought one for petting purposes as its kind of expensive. Anyway my ears will be toastie on the way to work. I can fit my headphones under the calorimetry thing and I can keep the pigtails. I've got a really nice baker's boy hat but I have to put my piggintails lower than usual and I don't like to. Either that I have to wear my hair down and I don't like that either. I feel already that me and my headthing are going to be very good friends this winter.

Oh and I've made a strange discovery. Well bunny has made the discovery, I just witnessed it. She likes apple and ginger tea. I had a cup of it sitting next to me on the floor which had gone cold. She stuck her head in the cup and started drinking. Strange bunny. Anyway I put some in a wee bowl for her so that she doesn't get her head stuck in the mug. It was bad enough of her doing the superman impression with the paper shopping bag, having to take her to the vet with a mug on her head would not be good.

Shopping around

It really does pay off. I know that you may wonder at the title of the book I just ordered (see photo to the left) but its one of my knitting things so don't wonder too much about it but you can guess what everyone is getting next year for christmas.

Anyway, this little piece of advice covers books and other items which you may want to purchase online. I ordered this from Amazon.com and got it including shipping for €23.35 which in comparison with what I can get it for on the Amazon.uk or .de is a complete bargin. UK want £27 (approx €34) and DE want €35 for it and that's not including shipping fees so I've managed to save myself.....think....think....think....10 beers if buying at the rugby club on a training night, 6 small beers if buying at the Village Voice and 4 large beers if buying at the Oscars.

Its stricktreff on Saturday at the Opern Café and since its like knitting at the cinema (loud and dark) I'll take along some mindless knitting. That way, when I get back home and discover all of the mistakes, I can easily correct them. I'm making it sound like torture which isn't true. The company is good, the cakes are yummy and its a lot of fun.

I've just printed out the pattern to Calorimetry which would make a good one skien wonder project for me. I'll add it to my ravelry thing and tonight I'm gonig to break my 'finish one thing before I start another' rule coz I reckon that I can knit that quite quickly and use it before my ears freeze off.

Right I'm off home to cast on.

Out of the Dumps

As opposed to down in the dumps.

Apologies to those who actually read my blog and have been getting a bit fed up with October's post. I've been a bit off colour lately but I'm now back to being freckle faced and rosie cheeked so that means more blogging.

I was going to post some piccies from France and Scotland when we were there on our delayed honeymoon but........I managed to lose all of the honeymoon photies so absolutely no piccies of Sean Lamont's bum. I will try to get a couple more close ups of it though in February when I go to see Scotland play France in the 6 nations. My camera/computer decided not to be very compatable and unformated the picture files before they could be saved. Unfortunatley nothing or no-one could re-format them and they got deleted. I was a bit upset to say the least but it was photos mostly of France and Sean Lamont's bum and he's already posed for the stad de france calander for this year and anyone can get piccies of France.

What I did manage to download onto the computer was our piccies of New Year in the middle of nowhere or Fort Augustus to be a bit more accurate. Its the southern most tip of Loch Ness and lies nestled between Fort William and Inverness. Its very picturesque and the way up is pretty spectactular too. I've got some more photies of that which I will post in a bit. The good thing about being in the middle of nowhere is that you have to chill out which I very much needed to do. We did manage to drag our lazy bones to a ceilidh (pronounced Kaylay) which is a proper scottish party on hogmanay (scottish word for new year's eve) and did a bit of hooching and chooching. Joris and Bernie had never been to or seen anything like it in their lives and were mesmerized by the traditional dancing. I even manged to drag Frank up onto the dancefloor a total of 3 times. 2 times for the Gay Gordon's and once for Strip the Willows. Oh and before I get another spam blogger ban, those are the names of 2 of the dances.

I also got some knitting done and my new year's resolution is to stick to projects and get them finished before starting new ones. Actually that resolution was already made before the new year and I've been sticking to it. So far I've finished 1.75 pairs of socks and I'm knitting a jumper for myself in the round as it's a raglan sleeve so easier to do without seams. I like it that way. I'll get round to posting photo's of them soon. My camera doesn't take very good piccies with the flash on. Yet another reason to get a new one.

Anyway here's some of the photo's from Glen Coe and the hills surrounding Loch Ness. The last one is especially for those of you who can read dutch.