Wednesday, January 26, 2011

I'm Huntin HAAAAGIS


DSCF0084
Originally uploaded by MissMcNastie
The weather outside is frightful, there's no fire to be delightful and I do have places to go, so turn off the snow RIGHT NOW or I'll have a hissy fit.
Last night was Burns night so I had a nice wee Glen Garioch but no haggis. We're doing a belated Burns night on Sunday instead with Haggis, neeps, tatties, the works. This does pose a slight problem though.
Where does one hunt haggis in Germany?
I've been up die Bergen and through die Wälder and no haggis to be seen, not even a sniff of one. They're much happier in their natural habitat (see photo) and trying to find nice mountains like this in the Berlin area is slightly problematic. You see, other than the slight incline into Prenzl'berg, Berlin is as flat as a pancake. Anyway to cut a long story short, we're resorting to a raiding the freezer of one of my Scottish friends who managed to bag one last time she was home.
Now you may think that these wee beasties are really cute and cuddly but they're not. They're very ferocious  and when startled, can do some serious damage. I once had a very nasty finger wound from one. It stopped me knitting for at least 30 minutes.
Talking of knitting. Harriet's Betties got frogged. Yes its the pattern is stretchy, its lovely, its lacy etc but I realized that I really would need to measure her legs etc and I had to decide that approximately 3 cm before I started the ribbing on sock 1. So forgged they got and I did something completely unorthadox. I went out and bought a present. I got her a very good book and I also managed to rattle off a bandana/scarf/shawl thingumie with some left over lace yarn. I managed to get it done and blocked with2 hours to spare before I met up with everyone. Not bad at all really.
My 3 projects (yes I'm trying my best to keep to the no more than 3 on the go resolution) at the moment are Gloria which has been retrieved from the naughty corner, partially frogged and re-knitted. A jumper (sweater) for Frank and a wee pair of Neefje Steefje socks. I did find 3/4 of a 'squew' sock on the couch but I think that's desined for the frog pond. I don't really like it and it looks strange. Maybe just some plain vanilla socks with that yarn instead. Hmm dunno really. I'll think about it.
I've also been to London (work thing) and while there I managed to go visit Liberty's again. I should just forget that shop is there but I love it and something drags me past it every time I'm in the area.
It smells nice, the staff are friendly and they have fantastic sales twice per year. They also do mail order now. Anyway I stopped in there not intending to buy anything and I nearly managed. I put down the orangy kidsilk aura which was on sale for less than half the price because it was too orange, I put back the Kim Hargreaves book that was screaming for me to buy it AND the other Rowan book which had some scrummy things in it. I was walking past the table with piles of bargins on it and on my way back to the lift to the exit when I spied it. There sitting on the bargin table like a siren calling to me were some white boxes with half price written on them. Of course I had to look and that was it, I'd made a fatal mistake, I'd opened the box and fell in love with the lovely half price pure cashmere dk which was nesting in there and looking all soft and cuddly. Well in for a penny, in for a pound. I bought the box even though its baby pink and not exactly my colour but I couldn't leave it alone at that price. AND I also bought 4 balls of kid silk haze in silver. Why, I'm not exactly sure but I know it that it was good idea at the time. I reckon I'll make my mum a nice cardi with the cashmere and I'll have a think about what to do with the kid silk haze.
So in order to make room in my stash for the new commers, I'm doing some stash knitting. Frank's jumper is from some dark grey aran which I bought with the intentions of kniting an Aran jumper for him but he picked this one himself so he'd better like it.





Wednesday, January 12, 2011

The Highway to Hell


Harriet's Purple Betties
Originally uploaded by MissMcNastie
is paved with broken New Year's Resolutions and too many WIPs on the needles.
But I had to! Honest. You see we're supposed to have this secret Santa thing on Saturday. Yes I know that its either late or very early indeed but somehow, that's just the way that its happened.  Anyhoo, the reciever of my secret Santa present likes purple, likes knee-high lacey socks and loves hand made things and since I'm a lunatic and need to put myself under enormous amounts of pressure, I thought 'hey, lets make this person some purple lacey knee-high socks/stockings for secret santa'.
I started theses off in Zauberbal in a nice pinky purple - black purple colour and attempted to knit them in magic loop. That kind of backfired so they got frogged back to the toe.
I then decided to keep going but on 3 needles as the pattern suggests. and then I realised that if I wanted to get these babies finished before the Jan 15th 2012 then I'd better get some thicker yarn and some bigger needles so they got frogged again. This time all the way.
I then cast on with wollmeise in a nice purpley colour and got nearly to the heel of sock one when I realise that the center wasn't lined up properly so I frogged again and panicked.  I mean I know I knit fast but 2 knee high's before saturday and only the toe and 2 pattern repeats finished!!!
Anyway, got a phone call to postpone the secret santa until the 29th so the pressure is off but I will finish these babies before I start anything else. I need to finish a project.
I did manage to knit and finish socks for the neefje while on my way to NL over the weekend. He was very pleased and shoved them on his wee feet straight away. He also informed me that his wee sister likes her wee neckerchiefs but that he's not to fond of his crockodile scarf and mittens. He thinks they're too scary and that he would like socks instead. Very nicely done. First the praise bit and then the blow. Diplomatic career ahead of this one I think :o)




Thursday, January 06, 2011

burn babe burn

There doesn't that make you feel a bit warmer?

And for those of you out there who are not aware, Hell has indeed frozen over. I've started to blog again :o)  We've had snow, ice and all sorts of freezing stuff going on for months now and even I'm getting bored with it.

Christmas and New Year were good not only coz I got really nice presents BUT also because Hogmany (31st of December) signified the last day of a horrible year.

I've not posted since August 2010. There are various reasons for that which I won't go into too much but basically 2010 sucked big time and I'm glad to see the back of it. On to 2011 :o)

2011 has started off quite well and I've got a couple of resolutions which I will try to keep. Number 1 on the list is to chill out and not to take things so personally which is going okay-ish. There are still certain people who still annoy me just by breathing but my new zen approach will hopefully help me to ignore their normal caustic personalities and not get upset with the mere thought being in the same place at the same time as they are.

Number 2 on my list is that I shouldn't have any more than 3 knitting projects on the needles at any point in time. One of them always has to be a protable project and one has to be selfish knitting. The portable and selfish can be one and the same but hopefully this way, it will motivate me to finish some things and not have 1000s of UFOs kicking around. About UFO's, I've been frogging big time. I had a stash clearout and a UFO tidy-up.

Number 3 is to try and be more organised. iPhone calander is a wonderful thing and so far, so good. I've been tidying out my e-mails and updating my stash AND throwing things out.


 Over to the side here is what I've got on the needles a the moment. This is my selfish and portable for now. Its in Anny Blatt - Lady Blatt and its gorgeous. So far its less than 1 ball of main colour per mitten and less than half a ball on the contrast colour. I'm now on the thumb of the first mitten so I feel secure in saying that. Considering that I'll have 2 of each colour left over then I might want to knit a matching hat or something. No point in wasting this gorgeous yarn.

the date for the big move is not yet set in stone but it should be at the end of March. Only 6 months over the original date of moving in but still we'll be getting to move in and I can't wait. I feel like I've been putting so many things on hold for so long now. Not just me but Mr McNastie too.

The good news is that we're both going to New Zealand for the rugby world cup this year and we have tickets for all of Scotland's games again including the big one in Auckland versus the Auld Enemy at Eden Park. Before we travel quite so far though, we're off to NL soon. Quick tour of the in-laws and back to Berlin with the usual haul of dutch goodies. The big NZ tour isn't until September anyway and I'm sure we'll have some mini trips inbetween so it won't all be work and no play.

Oh and you may have noticed that I've burned BerlinerBabe. 2010 reason's behind it but McNastie is here to stay.