Fuzzie

Another photo of my Laminnara and the colours show a bit better but not much considering that the wool looks slightly green in the photo and there's no green in the wool. Still using the rubbish phone camera though.
Went up to the Faden Insel at lunch time. Actually I was on another secret errand wthat I don't dare post here just in case the person involved sees even though they're not a very bloggy person and also not really into knitting. You never know so best kept unpublished for now. Anyhoo the Faden Insel was on the way back to work so of course I couldn't resist going in. They now have the new knitpicks tunisian crochet for doing big projects. You can screw one of those cords on and bob's your father's brother, you can do big blankets etc.
The yarn diet was broken only slightly as his nibs requested fuzzy feet last night and I don't have enough feltable stuff to make them for him. I had made a pair for him before but he managed to really felt one so that it fits me (must make myself another one). He was doing the wash so I couldn't shout at him for being careless. At the moment, he's at home nursing a bad cold and would like fuzzy feet to keep his tootsies warm. He insists that he has the flu but he's a guy. What more can I say?
I'm getting sidetracked yet again. Anyway the fuzzy feet. Actually I do have enough feltable wool for his fuzzies. I have purple feltable wool but I don't really fancy making using that for him. Purple is my colour. I bought some manly navy blue stuff for the manly fuzzies. That's really a contradiction in terms but never mind. I bought enough to make a new pair for him. I will just chuck the other black one in the wash some more so that I have a pair and then knit myself another pair of purple ones. Or, I could make a bag out of the purple stuff. Here that would be a good idea. Nice purple cable pattern then felted.
I've taken a couple of hours free this afternoon so I'm off to the bookshop on the way home. I'm on a yarn diet not a literature diet. Oh and I've decided to sign up for the OU english lit course. I'll be doing that soon and then starting in September. I read that much that it makes sence to get some sort of qualification out of it.

Catch up and Australia Day

This is what I managed to get done on my road trip this weekend. its not such a good photo but its a phone camera so what do you expect? I would have gotten more done but I did have to do a stint of driving, partying, meeting new niece and shopping. The pattern is.......yep you guessed it.....Laminara from Knitty and I'm actually enjoying knitting it. The yarn is malbringo baby merino. The colourway is paris night. Unfortunately, you can't really see the colours in this photo (apologies again for my rubbish phone camera). Its a very dark grey with dark lilac and turquoise. Sort of twighlight colours. The best thing about this project is that its for me :o) I'm still on the monster kilt socks for Frank. He has extremely long legs. I've got Charleen's darkside cowl done (one night knit)in Debbie Bliss cashmerino aran and of course a couple of wee jasjes (dutch for wee jackets) for my new niece also in cashmerino and something else soft.

I'm on a yarn diet at the moment and its going well. I'm only allowed to buy yarn if I get rid of 500g of stashed yarn. Its called Wollabspecken in german :). I'm thinking of starting up a group on ravelry as I've come up with some pretty cool rules and fun things to help those with yarn dietry issues. Not just me actually. I pinched some ideas from some fellow yarn adicts. So far I've managed to get rid of a few extra gramms of wool and after the monster socks are done, the laminara, the wips, ufos and orphans, I'll be able to buy a few kilos again :o)
Rule so far is for every 500g used. I get to buy 100g. I also get to buy 100g for every 2kg I loose personaly :) Sort of Wollbauchbeinpoabspeckregime (wool-tums-legs-bums-fatloss-regime). Dunno if that will make the next edition of the Duden dictionary but I kind of like it.



Life wise, everything is cool. My new niece (yippee a girl, I can knit wee dresses for her and everything) is lovely and weighs a tonne already. My nephew is gorgeous too and keeps giving his new wee sister kisses and cuddles which is really sweet. Berlin is cold and grey but that's January for you. I reckon that January was invented for knitters. You see the thing is, all those folks who don't knit, crochet, sew, quilt etc etc are absolutely bored out of their minds and hate January. I love it. I get to spend time at home knitting, reading (currently on a non fiction kick) and other indoorsy stuff. I've even heard of some folks who start their christmas knitting in January. If you're that organised then fine. I'm going to wait till summer. the mittens which I didn't get finished this year are up for next year.

And to my lovely Australian friends. Happy Australia day. This time last year, I was in an Aussie bar in Amsterdam with Mess (my twin brother seperated by parentage, a continent and 4 months) getting rather drunk and doing my impression of Shrek by shouting at Donkey (another aussie who's nickname is donkey. I won't say why though) This year, I'll have toast with butter and vegemite. Yumm.