Merry Christmas!

Just a couple of more hours (we get our present on Christmas eve - HA!) and only one hour before we go to church (eek still need to get dressed and get all the glue off my hands from wrapping presents). Merry Christmas to all of you!

Just a few more days

Just a few more days at work, and then M. and I both fly to Germany to visit our families. We have booked our flights onto the same dates, so that we can brave London traffic together and have a coffee at the airport before we each get on our plane (sounds a bit like we own a plane each.. on the contrary! After a few telephone calls with Ryanair, I am not sure they will take my luggage on board, never mind actually offering some customer service - every year I swear I won't fly with them again, but they are now the only ones flying directly from London to Bremen, which is where my parents live).

My Christmas-gift-scarves/shawls are all finished and being blocked as I write (pictures hopefully before I leave for Germany). I have decorated the gift boxes and now there are only two or three projects left to knit before Christmas..... :-) I just don't want to brave loosing my needles to security at the airport, but I'd so much like to take them onto the plane.... maybe my bamboo needles..... Any hints or tips?

Well, off to work now - have a great start to your week!

Coffee Swap Three (the first one)

For St Nicolaus Day I got two packages of goodies. Every now and then it seems to be my day - I remember, I passed my driving test with a pretty nasty instructor on that day (ages ago) as second and last one out of ten. My Mom always sends my sister and me something on St. Nicolaus Day - I got a book and some homemade cookies. Thanks Mom! Later this morning the postman found our house to deliver the first of our Coffee Swap Three packages. G's still waiting for hers from Munich and so I conclude that, in postal service terms, South Carolina actually is closer to us than Germany... strangely enough.
Anyway, back to my Christmas-comes-early-package content (sorry the camera is not working, these are the only pictures I managed to take) Two skeins of Ultra Alpaca (the red one is called Chianti, the darker one Lobster Mix - very promising names!) Can't wait to start knitting with it! The Holydaze Sampler from Caribou Coffee which I only heard of - I'll wait until Saturday morning to try it out. I need time to enjoy it. I also got a new mug to try out the coffee with. Some yummy Coconut and Kiwi scented body butter (how did she know that I love Coconut?) A pretty snowman and a scented candle to brighten my loooong dark evenings trying to finish my Christmas knitting. :-) Thank you Cheryl! A report of tasting the coffees will follow shortly....

Happy 1st of Advent!

The first of Advent (Advent Sundays = 4 Sundays before Christmas) has come around, and with it the real count down to Christmas. This weekend, apart from both J. and M. having a lot of pain in their necks (no, I am NOT their pain in the neck.... at least not this time), we welcomed the season by making some glitter stars and listening to Keith Jarrett. M. and I had to chase through London on the search for the right kind of glitter, glue, cardboard, paper cutter with self-healing mat, etc., but once we got going in the late afternoon on Saturday it was great fun. I managed to ram the butt of the knife so firmly into my thumb for such a prolonged period of time, that the tip of my thumb is still a little numb today, but have a look at the stars! The instructions can be found on the Martha Stewart website.

On Sunday, my friend H. and her son D. were visiting us for a session of Christmas cookie baking. Oh, the fascination of being allowed to sample the chocolate, cookie dough and cookies, as well as J's famous Brazilian cheese bread - I'm not sure whether D. had more fun or I did! Since neither M. nor I can have sugar in any quantities, we revised all the recipes and used some no-sugar-added-jam and made up the volume with some ground almonds and/or oatmeal. Also, we used lovely sugar free Rococo Chocolates. Here are a few (visual) samples of our achievements.

Chocolate Chip Ginger Bread Cookies

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Almond & Pecan Sandwiches (German Recipe)

Classic Mürbeteig Biscuits (German Recipe)

To round off this Advent weekend, M. and I finally started knitting our Christmas Gnomes (Alan Dart). I have to say, the initial verdict is that they both still look a bit like Barbabelle at the moment... Barbabelle with one giant foot.... But I'm sure we'll get there in the end ;-)

Stash and Christmas Knitting

Wasn't it just yesterday that we set off for the fabled Get Knitted in Bristol? One Stitch'nBitch Day and several visits to Stash and i knit london (including a fun knitting meeting last Thursday) later, and my stash has grown unconscionably.
However, I'm doing my best to knit my way through it (like the mouse eating the elephant: one bite at a time ;-) I have yet to make pictures of the Smooshy Sock Yarn I bought at the Socktopus stand and some RYC Cashsoft.... And I can't wait to see how the Sirdar Foxy will turn out (as beard for the Christmas Gnomes)!

From now on until Christmas - once the second lace scarf is finished (the one in moss green Handmaiden Sea Silk) - you will probably be finding me knitting Christmas Gnomes (Alan Dart) or baby kits (my friend AS is expecting her second child).... if you will find me at all among my stash....

Happy knitting and may Christmas take a long time to arrive!

Soooooooo long

Eeeeek - no post for 15 days....! What happened? A lot. We did go to the S&B UK day - I'm looking for the pictures (which is difficult while trying to type) - and had a great time. Ah here they are....

My scarf, our lunch box (red rice salad from 101cookbooks - you have to try it) and the program of the day. There was entertainment for everyone including music from the Shellac Sisters (on old gramophones and a comedy duo called Girl&Dean). We missed the "I knit a hamster" workshop, because they changed the location. We found it too late to join in, but it looked like fun.
There is a flickr group where you can check out lots of more pictures from the show. You'll find I Knit shop owners Craig and Gerard on the catwalk wearing some items knitted from the Debbie Stoller book! Ours came out a bit fuzzy, we only used our phone camera. We're still looking into buying a camera - but as we're also looking into buying a sewing machine it's going to be a close call of what's going to be there first. :-)

I was really good and only bought 1 skein of sock yarn from socktopus- which was great fun to knit and really fast. I finished them yesterday night. (I can't post a picture as they are part of my Christmas knitting. Yey two down! I'm getting there - hopefully!) G bought some amazingly soft yarn from --- I really can't remember. She'll probably post a picture in the next post. She is buried deep in Christmas knitting and I lost track of what's which yarn. We went to explore Brunswick Center and find some strength with a cup of coffee and some more knitting at Carluccio's.

What happened otherwise? Hmm, I finally got the CDs with our new ensemble pictures (343 pictures to work on...thankfully not all of them are worth it!). Lots and lots of Photoshop work. We had the deadline to finish the newsletter for our charity board meeting- which we made despite me having had lots of headaches.
We "converted" J to knitting and had a fantastic Sunday sitting in Starbucks teaching her how to knit - I can feel some Christmas knitting coming her way.

And (with G and J) I finally made it to an I Knit knitting meeting. A really nice evening - of course I finished the sock (remember?). D had had gotten her Moo Cards and badges for her latest project and we all ended up putting badges to our bags... really cool.

On the Knitter's Coffee Swap front G's packet arrived safely at its destination. I wish there would be pictures to point you to, but the girl seems to be so busy with pre-Christmas preparation that she didn't post anything on her blog. You just have to take my word for it that it was a cracking good packet!
Oh and congratulations to T's sister who is having a baby girl in January and (AGAIN) I'm knitting a baby hat. T asked for a sheep hat (apparently he confused one of my patterns) but even after hours on Ravelry I couldn't find a suitable baby hat sheep pattern. I suppose I could make one up, but it's before Christmas, so it's going to be some pattern I have. Although it would be quite cool to design a sheep hat...

Packages ready

Wool leaving us.... After resisting A LOT of temptation in Get Knitted in Bristol last Tuesday, our packages for the knitters' coffee swap3 are ready to be mailed out tomorrow. I hope my pal's going to like it, it was so much fun to get everything together. Mine is going to the US, but it should still be out before the Christmas rush, so it should be fine and not take too long.
I was determined to have it ready before the first UK Stich 'n Bitch day on Saturday. It was hard enough to resist on Tuesday and any excuse buying more wool.. I don't think I'm fit to fight it. We finally ordered tickets for the event today (probably the last people to order them). If we are still in presentable shape after this event we'll be at our friend ON's birthday bonfire party.

Going out to play with yarn....

How exciting is this: tomorrow (on my birthday) M. and I are taking the car and driving out to Bristol. There, it is said, is a very lovely yarn shop called "Get knitted".
So, not only do I get to leave London behind for a day, but I get to PLAY WITH YARN!!!!!! I can't wait :-) We will pack a picnic, load up our laptops (yes, even on a 'day off' there is just too much work to be able to get away from it completely....) and hopefully come back with new treasures. Knitters' Coffee Swap partners, maybe we will find that last touch to finish your packages that have been steadily growing and are nearing completion!
...... pause.......
After midnight now. My two amazing and crazy house mates just gave me a knit picks options set for my birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Pictures later - I'm going to sleep now dreaming of new projects.

WeekendWeekendWeekend

When I came home from work today, I made some of the beautiful new Allegro Mexican bean coffee from Whole Foods to try together with M. and we both snuggled under blankets and had a cup of coffee, some sugar-free chocolate chip cookies (yes! they exist, hurray!!) to knit / work with laptop on lap and listen to our latest Elizabeth Peters audiobook (from the Amelia Peabody series: "The Ape who guards the Balance"). And there is a whole weekend ahead of me - well, quite a busy weekend, really, but I am looking forward to it. Before I get into the business, I will continue some more of my newly found rich, smooth coffee.

This week I finished my new Sahara Pullover in Alpaca Silk (Blue Skies), which I have been wearing ever since. Here is the sleeve.... (incidentally a Tigerduck portrait is peeking over the top of my arm :-) I love the yarn, which is a shiny grey/blue. Very classy - could be worn in the office or to dress up a nice pair of jeans. Oh, but I better stop blogging and turn the audiobook back on, as it is not really fair to make M. wait how the story continues while I write and write.

Happy Halloween...

....hope you have a great day! I'm not planning on wearing a costume today, but if I would this looks perfect, doesn't it?

Dignity

Our always full of latest news (and gossip) Opera Chic has an update on the battle over the late tenor Luciano Pavarotti's assets (or lack thereof) in which Nicoletta Mantovani (P's second wife) does some damage control.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Pavarotti affair a short recap: Pavarotti died early September leaving his lawyers to sort out the mess with different wills. (For a long version of this dreadful story see here.) Last week the officials in Pesaro (Italy) could open an investigation into the filing of Pavarotti's last will, which contradicts his previously filed will, leaving most of his fortune to his second wife Nicoletta.
The reason behind such an astonishing situation? A massive overdraft (around 10 million dollars) has been found in Pavarotti's bank accounts for reasons that remain unclear.
This is all a terrible mess and I'm leaving everyone to their own conclusion. Nicoletta Mantovani's damage control is an article in the Italian newsweekly "Chi" which reports that she has been diagnosed in 2005 with MS and is in care at Multiple Sclerosis Research Center in NYC. What drove me up the wall were the words of "Chi"'s article '...There she attended a center that specializes in Multiple Sclerosis, an illness that she has combated for two years, in silence and with dignity...' What does this mean?
Does it mean that people who talk about their illness do not fight them with dignity? Do you measure how much dignity people have by how much they say about their illness? In other words one has to be ill and mute to have dignity - and what about people who aren't ill? How do you measure theirs?
Strange world! I know I feel rather strongly about this, so please don't be put off! I just happen to live with illness and sometimes it takes me all my courage to admit to it.
People who impressed me most were the ones who could actually talk about their illness as a fact, something you have to go through and you might as well take it graciously. A bit like you frog a knitting project when you're not happy with the result. You swear loudly and probably for some time one shouldn't talk to you, but after that you proceed with knitting.

Feeling overwhelmed

This is how I feel at the moment - ok, I still have my hair. I had my lovely cat Hissy shaved at that time because she had some funny skin problems. She clearly has some difficulties adjusting to life with less hair. I leave the news for G. and will go on playing around with Photoshop to get our 300+ photos in a presentable shape - maybe later there will be time for knitting a bit on my Christmas projects. One must have time for fun.

Swap Questions Coffee Swap3

Not to waste an enormous amount of space we thought we put our answers in one post... hope it doesn't make it too complicated :-)

1. Whole bean or ground?
Tigerduck: Ground (French Press) Tournesol: Ground

2. Fully-loaded or decaf?
Tigerduck: Fully-loaded (good job Tournesol and I are sharing house...)
Tournesol: Fully-loaded otherwise what's the point?

3. Regular or flavored?
Tigerduck: I prefer regular most of the time, althoug I remember an amazing Macademia Nut Kona Coffee that was very nearly heavenly.....
Tournesol Regular, flavored only occasionally if it's nice, not too sweet/intense

4. How do you drink your coffee?
Tigerduck: quite strong and with lots of milk
Tournesol: French pressed with milk (sometimes fresh cream) best thing in the morning!

5. Favorite coffee ever?
Tigerduck: lots of favourites, usually full flavour, medium or dark roast, but not too bitter
Tournesol: So difficult, it's like choosing the favorite music/book, can't do it, usually the one I'm just drinking. I'm fussy at picking them out and like to try out new coffees...

6. Are you fussy about your coffee or will any old bean do?
Tigerduck: Afraid so.
Tournesol: I like smooth ones, not too strong or bitter

7. Favorite treats to have with your coffee?
Tigerduck: A good audio book, and some chocolate or cookies...
Tournesol Depends on the time of the day...Chocolate or cookies or cake or bread (I found a banana bread recipe which is amazing with coffee on 101 Cookbooks) - but I don't think they ship that well, a good book, some knitting...

8. Anything else about your coffee preferences?
Tigerduck: love to share it with friends :-)
Tournesol: Can't think of anything

9. Yarn/fiber you love?
Tigerduck: I'm a very tactile person, so soft natural fibres as well. Just saw some lovely chunky Alpaca at my local yarn store and made myself leave WITHOUT it in my shopping bag...
Tournesol: Soft natural fibers

10. Yarn/fiber you hate?
Tigerduck: same as Tournesol
Tournesol: I don't like acrylic or funny synthetic fibers - worst nightmare a furry orange acrylic yarn aaaahhhh....

11. What's on your needles?
Tigerduck: an Alpaca Silk Sahara Pullover and Kid Merino lace stole
Tournesol A lace edged hat in cashmerino dk (from my first knitters coffee swap) a vest with emerald malabrigo. If you are on Raverly have a look!

12. Favorite colors?
Tigerduck: strong colours (but not screaming ones...) Winter colours, if that says anything
Tournesol: Blue, Green, Red - don't know

13. Allergies?
Tigerduck: same as Tournesol
Tournesol: No allergies, but can't have sugar only the artificial one like Maltitol

14. Anything you really love, really don't like, or just need to get off your chest?
Tigerduck: Nah.... so well balanced.... don't mention London's mayor or tube strikes and train delays, though...
Tournesol Not really fond of dark chocolate and I love mail so I'm absolutely annoyed with the postal strike we have at the moment - even more because I'm still waiting for two of my pay checks to arrive (BUH!).

Perfect Saturday

After having had a stressful Saturday morning - with NO breakfast! - it turned around and wasn't too bad. G. and I went to a very (very, very) late breakfast at Whole Foods in Kensington, did some other little errands and bought some yarn at Stash. Look at this colour of my Malabrigo yarn; I bought it for the tweedy vest I'm doing. Is that not simply gorgeous? So, why am I not knitting now you ask? Well, Ravelry is the answer. G.'s putting up her latest project and can't concentrate on the new audio book I bought...so I'm being nice and wait for her- but wait, there she is finished. Sorry have to knit now!

Singers NEED socks!

Thanks to our beloved Opera Chic we have a proof that Opera singers not only need socks for warm feet, but also to sing on stage.
This is OC's picture of Svetla Vassileva and her grey socks from act III of the new Traviata production in Parma. For OC's description of the evening and lots more of her fabulous pictures go to her blog.

Turning Pink for October

Five minutes before the beginning of the 9th of October we turned pink (talking about insomnia...). All of this started with the weekly email from IKnit whose webpage not only turned pink, but who also have a breast cancer fundraiser for Breakthrough Breast Cancer.
Last year we managed to organise a breast cancer fundraiser concert back home in Germany. This concert was not only a fundraiser but also a memorial concert for my friend Beate who died of breast cancer in November 2005. She was one of those lovely people you'll always miss. She was hugely active when we started the Charity that supports our vocal group. I think one would be right to say that without her, there wouldn't be a Charity at all. The concert was a huge success with the local radio station recording and broadcasting bits of it later. We tried to come up with a fun programme that Beate would have like herself. Her husband was in the audience and very proud to see that his wife did make a difference to the world. Yes she did! She made it more lovely. So we turned pink for October (we are no 548 on the Sites Going Pink) All illnesses suck, so let's unite and give them hell :-)

Sheep Outing and Concert Prep

Not sure whether I love or hate the manic time before a recital.... Probably rather love than hate - lots of rehearsals, research and writing for the programme notes, practice (trying to fit it all in with the part time day job), some nerves.... Oh, and of course the obligatory COLD! I have been thinking back, and I can remember more concerts with colds than without, even one fairly legendary 'Lemsip Concert'. Do they pay commission if you display their cold and flu medication in the intermission?!
M. has also been under the weather, and we are praying and keeping all fingers and toes crossed that things will be well, come the recital on Wednesday. It's a really lovely programme (thank you, M, for choosing most of the arias / songs!) with Baroque and 20th/21st century repertoire.
While trying to rest enough, get rid of the cold, not spend whole nights on Ravelry, and enjoy some of the October sunshine, Miss Maple (who has now been joined by Mopple the Wale) went out for a little outing in front of the house...

Ravelry

Weeeeeeeeks on end I have been spying on Ravelry, thinking I'd be the last person who would get an invitation. Ok, ok I over-exaggerate - a lot actually - G.'s still waiting for her invitation.(imagine nasty laughing here) Despite the flu I got last week (probably sitting in the wind while the plumber knocked off half of the wall in the bathroom) I'm soooo excited. I really, really, really should take more pictures of my FOs. Ok, I'm off doing that and eating some soup. No recipe for this one, we just threw all the remaining veggies in the pot. Ok, this is not going to make you want to cook, but go to 101 cookbooks, I'm sure there is something in there for everyone. I have tried a few like the banana bread - hmm that's actually a very good idea I could put that in the oven while the soup's heating up. Have to go... Oh I forgot I'm Tournesol in Ravelry as well. See you there!

So much to blog, so little time

After the proverbial kick in the backside (by myself - quite a gymnastic feat, really), I continued my blocking and finishing spree.

Since I was visiting my mum in Germany, the jacket just had to be finished, and although a good part of my visit consisted of sitting on my parents' couch, sewing the pieces together, adding a crochet edge and sewing on the buttons, I DID IT! IT'S FINISHED!

What a wonderful excuse to buy more yarns and start new projects.... Yarn shops here I come (well, once I've saved up a little). And while my mum and I sat in the cosy living room (she is still nursing her knee after a surgery), my dad was on his yearly hiking trip through the rain...

I almost forgot - here are the details
Pattern: Filati Summertime, Galaprint Cardigan
Yarn: Lana Grossa quality "Gala Print", 48% silk, 24% viscose, 17% linen, 11% polyamide
Colour Way: 508 - 'Olive Mottled'

Lots of pictures of M's new black sheep, walks along the river Thames and such like are waiting to be blogged, but - alas - time to go to work now. So, here is one last picture of the finished jacket, modeled by my mum:

Lace, lace, lace

M's birthday finally forced me to get on with blocking - seeing that one of the lace shawls I finished, was supposed to be her birthday present! And here it is:
Yarn: Kid Merino (Crystal Palace Yarns)
Colour: Sage
Pattern: Melon Pattern (Victorian Lace Today by Jane Sowerby)
While I was at it, I also blocked my Sea Silk project:
Yarn: HandMaiden Sea Silk
Colour: Ocean
Pattern: Print O' The Wave Stole (Design by Eunny Jang)

This second shawl was much fun to knit, especially with the scrumptious Sea Silk yarn - highly recommended!!
I loved Eunny's design, although it was a pity that there was an error in the border design, and also I preferred not to separate the centre into two panels.

We have a poster

I had such a great time on my birthday weekend! Having CFS or rather CFIDS (Chronic Fatigue Immune Disfuction) my social life is not great. Work always comes first and then I need so much time to recover that I don't like evenings out.
Apart from KH and KL who had to work that evening all my London friends made it to the club. T. even dragged his massage chair across town, I wonder what they told him in the cloak room. We got a table on the side of the stage, basically looking into the big band's music stands! Perfect! The food was fabulous and I really liked the music!
Unfortunately - from a blogger's point of view - one is not allowed to take any pictures into Ronnie Scott's. G. took a couple after the show in a cafe opposite the club, but they are not really flattering for anyone of us... we were in a rather silly mood.
I still need to put on pictures of my shawl. G. has taken some, so she might put them on tomorrow morning. Keep checking!
The great Sunday news is: the poster for our concert on the 10th of October is online! Check it out at here. We have been cooking on this program for a while now. We called it Waiting Room Project. Since KH's heart is beating for contemporary music we have been looking at a possibility to integrate it into a concert program and still get a 'normal' concert goer into the concert. Usually contemporary music is only done (and listened to) by specialists. I think we need to keep music alive. This means not only trying to reach out and get young people into concerts/opera etc, but also encourage new music. I'll tell you more about this another time as it's time for Michael Palin's New Europe show on BBC1. I have to watch it!

Birthday!

Today was my birthday and G. made me a sheep! And she made me a LACE SHAWL!!! I also got a glow in the dark stick, bubble bulves (haven't had that since I was 9) and a cherry lip balm. Since I still don't have a cat here I got lots of cat cards and cat birthday candles on my birthday muffins - there wasn't enough time to make a proper cake. That is a plan for the weekend. The girls are taking me out to Ronnie Scott's tomorrow. Yey!

blanket and pipes

Now I want something like this! The weather is perfectly horrible - drizzle!! This is an euphemism for the fact that you are going to be soaking wet when you leave the house. It's this soft, light rain which crawls under your clothes, and I swear even your skin and bones (if you stay out really long). The blanket on the picture is the one I've made for my sister earlier this year, the log-cabin-mega-project. It took about 45 minutes for ONE row in the final square! The flat giraffe is a book mark I got my sister for her 'light readings'. I think the plan was to snuggle up in the blanket and grab a good book. She is going to graduate from medical school in January and there is a lot of 'non-light' reading to do. But she loves the blanket so it gets used - light reading or not. I have been thinking of knitting one for myself and I found an easier (portable) pattern somewhere on the internet. It must be somewhere in my bookmarks... I finished my green jacket, but it's still missing buttons. Maybe I can buy some tomorrow... My list of what to do gets longer and longer. On a happier note my blue shelves (on the picture below) now are the home of my new box files (LOVE them) with music (in ORDER) and a lot of my scores. Some live in the living room. Still, my room looks like after a small bomb explosion although one can see how it could look like when everything has found it's place.

AND the pipes in the kitchen have been replaced and we can now do the dishes. No more swimming pool in the kitchen sink! According to J who stayed home for the plumber he took 3 hours and he had to lift the floor boards. I'm glad we stayed away from that! :-)

An eventful weekend

M. and I set out to have a laid-back weekend as our photo-shoot event to make promo pictures for the October concert was postponed: some rest, some knitting, maybe a visit to the gym, some good cooking (we took that beef roast out of the freezer to try a new recipe), maybe going for walks in the sunshine....
As you might have guessed, this is not quite what happened. As we both had a day off work on Thursday, we had started our 'mission' to improve the kitchen: new silicone around the sink and water tap, sanding and re-oiling the kitchen work surfaces, and then M. also white-washed a shelf and chest of drawers for her room.
Well, come Saturday, a little trip to Divertimenti brought us home with new storage containers, a muffin tray, butter container, and a few other goodies, but not the colander we had set out to buy. And of course these had to be put in place, and while one is at it, one could clean the cupboards in the kitchen, and......

Sunday started with beautiful weather and a Sunday paper, followed by a lovely lunch with a mutual friend on the Southbank of the Thames - then a bus ride home and .....

A completely blocked drain (not blocked due to the residues of our cleaning, but there since Friday) in the kitchen sink forced us to experiment with our abilities as plumbers after Mr Muscle drain cleaner had done nothing to clear the pipes over night - completely unscrewing and cleaning out the pipes under the sink (which didn't do any good as the blockage seems to be further down in the system, but was quite a funny sight of two women with yellow rubber gloves and fairly disgusted facial expressions), and M. decided that now that she had started, she could also go on to paint the big shelf blue - more sanding and painting followed and we eventually collapsed with a cup of tea at about 9pm on Sunday night..... pictures to follow.... off to work now.... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Wooly Sheep Diary 2 1/2

... where Miss Maple came to life. This is a picture from our Sunday breakfast at the beach at a café. It was somehow magical. Now don't get jealous S's house is actually not on the beach we had to drive there - for a couple of minutes :-)
I really love the city, but there is nothing like a peaceful time at the sea. S. only bought this house recently and we helped to sort our the music library... and I thought I had lots of scores! Well, I do have a lot, but most of them didn't make the trip to England and remain with my parents. Needless to say that we visited the only wool (and framing shop) in the area - run by totally mad people according to S., and G. bought some stuffing material for Miss Maple while I got a nice very small Christmas gift for my Mom. I want to be prepared this year...

G. seems to be on a sheep trip... all I can say is that there is one more on her needles at the moment, probably due to the fact that I Knit London extended their 10% off all wool as their birthday present until Saturday 15th September. Great offer!

Are you addicted to wool? Do you think that wool souvenirs (wool bought during holidays) don't actually come from your 'wool budget' but fall under the category 'holiday gifts' and therefore increase your ability of buying wool? Are you also trying to find knitting shops in all the towns you are visiting and happen to find only the ones that are either closed or with unfriendly staff? There is help - if you happen to live in a German speaking country or go there on holiday, Annkaris's Strickblog started a list of knitting shops. She calls it 'Ein Handarbeitsreiseführer'. What a supercool idea! I will try and link her map to our blog.

Woolly Sheep Diaries 2

And here she is: Miss Maple! (no spelling error - Maple as in Maple Syrup, in honour of the great sheep detective of Glenn Kill). As predicted, she came into being before either lace shawl was blocked, and the felted bag is also still quite a way from being finished... But who could resist? I certainly couldn't.
Right from the start, she enjoyed good company and very nice surroundings, as we were visiting my friend S. who lives near THE SEA!!! So one of my obsessions has already been passed on to Miss Maple: I'm sure she will always be crazy about sea and waves and strolls along beaches. M. (who came along as well) thinks I completely loose my marbles when faced with the seafront. There is an initial joy that just bubbles up, can't be controlled and expresses itself very inappropriately in childish jumping up and down, and running to the water to have at least touched the sea, even though it's probably too cold to go in....
Well, as far as Miss Maple was concerned, this weekend was the best: she came to life near the sea and amongst lots of opera scores and within sight of a baby grand piano. What more could a sheep want!

Oh, I forgot to mention (and was asked on my last 'woolly sheep diaries'): the pattern comes from The Knitter's Bible. To finish this post, one final glamour shot of Miss Maple: