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.





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