Express Lane Socks and Saturday Roast

D - I finally managed to make a picture of the Express Lane Socks I knitted for M (lovely pattern! I just had to make the socks slightly shorter as I was knitting with leftovers from my previous project: Dream in Colour, Smooshy, Colourway: Beach Fog).

When I woke up at 7.30am this morning, the beautiful awareness trickled into my conscience, that it was SATURDAY! The day to turn over in bed and sleep or doze another hour or so... no squeezing into the tube (London Underground) or fighting your way through masses of city dwellers on their way to work, to make it to work just in time (as the London Underground train had to park in the tunnel once again and took 30 minutes for a supposed 10 minute journey...)

So I turned over in bed and enjoyed the sun that tentatively shone its way through the clouds and into my window. K could unfortunately not make it to our weekly mosaique meeting and rehearsal today, so M and I had a nice long breakfast, knitted a few rows and listned to Ella Fitzgerald (Ella Swings Lightly). Such a lovely chilled and cozy morning.

A little later, we got this ready (here it is just going into the oven):


Oh so yummy pork roast on a bed of roast potatoes, tomatoes and onions.... mmmmh...
A, who is studying in the UK for a year (or more..), came by for lunch and we had a lovely - and, lets face it, fattening - meal and nice chat. In a couple of weeks' time M and I will be staying with her parents in Salem, OR :-) I can hardly wait - Seattle, Portland, Salem, Bend, Cannon Beach, Crater Lake.... here we come!!

Until then I shall knit a little faster to be able to finish my gifts for our lovely OR hosts, and I might add a couple of items to my USA shopping wish list...

Paris for the day

Finally we did it! We went to Paris, just for the day so don't get too jealous here. It was a fantastic day, though. Right from the - very early - start to the - late - end of it. We managed to meet up with our good friend (and former house mate) H who had finished playing for a masterclass and stayed on for half a day to see us.

After the 4am start and journey on the Eurostar from London to Paris, our (second) start of the day was a breakfast at the riverbank of the Seine, then (after some walking around) lunch at my favourite restaurant - my family has been going to this place since 1978. We spent some time around Sacre Coeur which as you can see in the mosaic (below) involved some knitting and buying very cool materials for sewing (pictures to come soon). A coffee stop on the roof terrace of the Printemps gave us enough time to recover (see picture above - took some time to merge my 5 photos in Photoshop!) and a quick jump to the Champs Elysées finished our trip.
Sunday we were barely able to move! But G's tried out the sewing machine and finished her felted bag adding a lining and a shoulder strap. More sewing is planned for the weekend as well as my final sprint for the Olympic Sock - 35% still to knit - that should be manageable if no disaster strikes. G has finished hers, so she's allowed the sewing and taking pictures of the FOs.

Madness - and gratefulness

Is it ever going to be summer this year? This morning the sky was bright and blue and enthusiastically I was wearing a skirt to meet our friend HC for breakfast before she starts her estival activities in the UK this year coaching in Glyndebourne. G, HC and I used to share a house for a while and I really miss her and our crazy Monday morning conversations about the meaning of life. But coming back to the summer outfit, by the time we went home at about 1pm my legs had a nice blue-ish colour and for the rest of the day I abandoned the idea of summer clothes.

I'll leave the story with the 'cat Nazi' and the slight madness that followed to G for another post. In any case, instead of visiting the cat we went to Ikea last weekend and bought lots of stuff and an assortment of boxes and shelves to organise all our things: music, CDs, DVDs, books and - yarn!

With order re-established, I virtually didn't leave the room in days in order to finish our press pack for our Body&Voice - Voice unlimited Project! From about 20 hours of material (concerts, workshops etc) we created a short video about our ensemble - only 2 minutes long and not too bad for someone who's not a technician in the first place. Eventually we'll put it on our YouTube site, so you can see for yourselves.
I'm so proud of our Body&Voice Project. A project that unites singing and body works with a team of experienced singers and practitioners; oh, just go over to our Body&Voice website where G just put the English site in place.
I had this idea for years, but only last year I found a team of practitioners who believed in the project. We received the most amazing feedback in our workshops last year. In about a day our amateur singers (who generally only sung in the shower) not only learned a couple of opera choruses (some in two parts) but happily performed them at the end in a mini staged version - and last but not least had loads of fun.
As an interesting side effect, our practitioners loved the singing so much that they joined in the singing classes like it would be the most natural thing to do and one of the participants has now joined a choral society. We usually get a lot of comments from people who think they are 'not cool enough' or 'not good enough' to join a singing workshop. Excuse me, but if you love to sing then you are definitely cool and good enough to do it (I'm not saying you will become an instant professional).
Who knows - you might find that you're actually much cooler or better than you think you are - and let me tell you the surroundings of the abbey where we will be doing the course this September are spectacular. So grab your favourite partner and/or friend and go to Germany for a weekend. There is loads to discover!

Weekend away going to Luebeck

We went to see my sister in Luebeck for her birthday and to celebrate her exams. My parents took us to a restaurant for dinner, I don't think I have eaten that much for weeks! During this weekend we found a most amazing shop and we made this: and this and thisWe drove to the beach and watched the ferries to Finland. It did look like they were walking over the beach...

and we spent lots of time talking, sitting on the balcony, watching a cat
And then we did some more talking, eating (white asparagus, I really miss this here in the UK!) and watching the sun set. A perfect weekend!

Weekend away

On the day G went to her last job interview I promised myself that, would she get the job, I would drag her on a weekend away back home. Weeks and weeks of stress and late night Shiatsu sessions have eaten on my nerves. G and I had a couple of things to do in Wiesbaden anyway, so why not have a weekend away?
We booked tickets to Frankfurt Hahn which isn't really Frankfurt but somewhere in the middle of nowhere, for last Thursday. The flight went well, the Hertz car rental guys gave a us a free sat nav. It needed to go back to Frankfurt Airport where we would drop our car anyway- Frankly I don't even care if they gave it to us because we looked like two helpless women, it was really nice - although I had all the maps printed out.
The Airport B&B was comfortable (I miss double glazing!) and even the weather was great. We had a pleasant drive to Wiesbaden - apart from one moment on the motorway driving past oodles and oodles of lorries. The poor Italian guy - who happened to be the first car in this lorry-overtaking-event - looked close to a nervous breakdown when we drove past him at the end of the line of lorries. It was a stressful with just two lanes, one being entirely occupied by lorries, the other one by the overtaking cars. I had to suppress the mad urge to crawl over G and out of the left window. It didn't help that the motorway bent sightly towards the middle lane, which gave the impression that the lorries would fall on top of the overtaking car.... well you get the idea: not a peaceful moment. The picture above shows our breakfast in Wiesbaden, in a small cafe/restaurant called Lumen near the cathedral. Nice place with enormous windows - I can recommend it. I particularly enjoyed the moment when the people at the next table made remarks about how sad people are who depend on their mobile phone. (I took several pictures with it while G was feeding the parking meter). Since G and I usually talk in a mixture of German/English they might have thought I was foreign - big mistake - and so I didn't feel guilty listening to their conversation.
We dropped the car at Frankfurt Airport because the train station is in walking distance under the terminal. It now paid off that I had to go to Frankfurt for singing lessons years ago and knew about the locations. The train journey up north to our families is one the most beautiful train journeys we have in Germany. If you take the IC train from Frankfurt to Cologne, it will take you for about two hours up next to the Rhein with stunning views. The Lorelei rock - I think - is part of the UNESCO world heritage. We sat on the 'wrong' side of the train, but I still managed to take one good picture. For more pictures, the legend and the translation of the Lorelei poem by Heinrich Heine see here. Of course all those hours on the train meant uninterrupted knitting! I finished the Odessa no. III - a birthday present for my friend A, and G knitted socks - which originally were meant for her Dad, but now will be for her. Also note on the picture's left side the red melon shawl which hadn't been on any pictures so far (we're still looking for the camera).
As you can see I already have the sock wool ready: Dream in Colour, Smooshy, Black Parade from socktopus who bent over backwards to make it possible that we could take the wool with us to Germany. Thanks again! I left G on the train as her family lives a bit further north than mine and spent a great evening with my parents at home. I love my old room, huge compared to what I have here. Ok, I really don't need it that big but it's so nice to come home and invade all this space. On the road again on Saturday to see my sister (three more hours of knitting) in my parents' new car and then to my friend A's 60th birthday party which only (!) lasted until about 3.30 am - summertime's calling.... slightly tired we all met for breakfast a bit later that day.... In the evening G and I met up at the airport to fly home together. A great weekend away. So nice that we decided to do this more often and have booked a car and a B&B to go the Wonderwool Wales at the end of the month!

Organisation

Sheep message - cute isn't it? It took 200 sheep, 6 dogs and 3 hours to arrange. It doesn't feel a bit like spring at the moment, though. It was snowing on Monday, absolutely miserable weather for Easter - according to the weather service it hasn't been that cold over Easter for 38 years! I have some time this morning and wanted to use it to take some pictures of our Easter decoration and update my knitting pictures, but somehow the camera is missing. I got told off for working too much and I promised to do less before leaving the house this morning - I had so many headaches lately. I need to organise my time better, so that I have some to rest as well....
I have now found the chip with the all the pictures on it, but the actual camera is still nowhere to be seen. So you just have to take my word for it that there is some Easter decoration in the house (and that we made ourselves) and that I knitted at least 3 Odessa hats (I'll keep one) and currently two more are on the needles. One is for my friend A's birthday - together with a biiig fluffy towel for her weekly trip to the sauna. In absolute hat mood, I have done a green beret in a berry pattern which G is currently wearing a lot as she left her hat on the train - again. I'm still knitting the second version of the Sahara in Emerald Malabrigo and should do another pair of socks for my Dad as he loved the pair I gave him for Christmas to death. I wasn't quite sure he would like them as he has freakishly sensitive feet. Buying socks with or for him requires an expert - he is just not going to wear them if they are scratchy - probably he had enough of those as a boy. Smooshy did a great job, so there will be some more of those in the future. If I'm lucky, the yarn will arrive before I leave for Germany tomorrow evening. I have to go home for some check ups and A's birthday which means that I'll miss the spinning meeting on Saturday morning. Ah, why can't I have it all?!

Easter

It's almost Easter and I had promised myself to make some praliné eggs, or at least some interesting painted eggs this year. Not so sure now, as I see the mountain of work that needs to be tackled. In the end, I went through something like 20 different interviews, but was offered exactly the one I wanted. So I am a happy bunny for Easter ;-) And, to top it all off, I'll need new working clothes..... sooooooooooo.... I'm going SHOPPING!! Ha! Maybe I find some more elegant knitting patterns that can be worn as well. Hm. Any suggestions? I better get going now, or I'll be late for work.

Activities over Christmas...long time ago

I know it's February (almost March), but work exploded after Christmas and I forgot to put up the pictures of all my knitting Christmas activities... I made my first stitch markers as a present for a knitting neighbour of my parents. Pretty stitch markers cannot be found easily. It took almost 30 minutes to explain what I needed to the shop assistant who was very eager to help, but had clearly no idea what I intended to do. I have to admit that part of the credit for those markers goes to my mother helping to find some simple practical solutions for putting the beads together and burning her hand on the lamp while I took the pictures....

Literally finished the day I went home to Germany was my Mom's Christmas gift: Sahara by Stitch Divas, here without sleeves. I had to block it here (in the UK) because I couldn't be sure that she would see it lying around somewhere in the house otherwise. My sister almost fell over her IPod Sock which I proudly showed my parents before she arrived home - and then forgot to hide. Luckily she had no idea it was an IPod Sock (she got the IPod for Christmas too), but a phone cozy. Phew!
The Sahara pattern proved my Mom's prejudices wrong that jumpers without seams never ever fit properly. I like it when I'm right:-) It's knitted with worsted Malabrigo in Amoroso. It was such fun knitting this pattern with this wool, that I'm doing the same pattern again in Malabrigo, this time in Emerald.

What will THEY see first?

A new edition of what UFOs (and everyone/thing else outside good old earth) will see when they have a look at us is... the GIANT rabbit. You'll find him near the town of Artesina (Italian Alps). A group of Austrian artists called Gelitin have spend five years to knit it. It's so big that you can see it from the satellite cameras. Don't believe it? Click here to see it on Google earth! The giant bunny will be lounging on the hillside for the next 20 years (or so). If you are in the area you're invited by the artists to 'climp up along the ears'... in case you haven't planned your holidays yet this should give you some ideas.
The news came this morning with the S&B London newsletter and is soooo cool that I had to share it here.

Gnomitis?

After weeks (and weeks and weeks) without the wool for the Gnome beards, it finally arrived just before Christmas.
Obviously that meant that I wouldn't touch it before January, since there were enough Christmas gifts to knit.

G. finished her Gnome a couple of days ago and mine is complete with beard and beanbag bum since yesterday. I had to take all the pictures twice; the first time there was no card in the camera....
Well, here they are, our Gnomes.

Christmas Knitting Results

I was finishing so many little projects before Christmas (and during Christmas), that I have to slowly catch up on sharing them with you lovely lot. Some of them haven't yet been photographed, so here is a start with some of the ones that have.
On the left are the socks I knitted from my dad (he was a bit concerned that his feet now appear on the internet.... well, they do!) Made from Dream in Colour Smooshy in Cocoa Kiss. I bought the yarn at the London SnB Day at the lovely and very tempting Socktopus stand. They were a joy to knit despite my dad's biiiiiiiiiiiiiig feet (size 48). The pattern is Harris Tweed by Ali Green.

Next one up is a very quick scarf project for my niece L. Very soft (as she is blind, I try to give her texture and things that are lovely to touch). Made from Lana Grossa Favola, simply knitted in "Patent" stitch. As I was sick over Christmas, I couldn't even give it to her yet :-(

Anyway, I'd better run. More projects later....

Post Christmas and New Year's Resolutions

Yes, stating the obvious, Christmas is over. Unfortunately, I was sick with the flu all of Christmas and spend most of the holidays in bed with a fairly high fever.... as did M. who visited her parents, as did my mother, whom I was visiting (my dad was sneezing for maybe half a day and that was it, so at least I didn't get the entire family sick). Lots of time for knitting, though, once the fever had subsided.
I am all excited about the beginning of a new year. I like new beginnings and (hopefully positive) change and surprises, and here is a whole new year to go. No new year's resolutions on my part - just to take every opportunity, to be thankful for my friends and family, to help when it is in my power to do so, to make music with passion, and to enjoy life as much as possible - which is not really specific to this new year.

Sooo, for a fun start, have a look at the little creams and custards and the Bohemians' choir in Verdi's Traviata (in the video bar on the right of the blog).

Wishing you a fantastic 2008!

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!

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 ;-)

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:

Five days of holiday

Last Wednesday I was looking at this! I have been in Catalunya for five days and this is the view from the terrace. The sea is slightly to the right of this picture, I know, not very geographical! We found a great way to walk to the beach. It took me about 1 hour and that was only one way (plus this way goes down the hill and in the heat of the afternoon), but I managed. One needs to remind oneself of the essentials and I made it both ways, otherwise I couldn't sit here and write about it. There's no WIFI on this little hill...
I wish I could go out for a coffee like the one on this picture, but no, I have to work. (I took this picture especially for Laurie, good coffee now makes me think of her!) in the square of Palafrugell.

In Lübeck

I'm staying with my sister in Lübeck for a couple of days. At the moment we are sitting on her bed G., my sister and I all with our laptops waiting for R., my sister's boyfriend, to wake up from his nap. He had a hard day at the clinic and declared he couldn't go out for dinner if he didn't have his two minutes of sleep.
We had a great day doing almost nothing. My sister has the flat in the center of town, everything in walking distance. We went out to get some funky Roiboos tea (Peach&Cream and Creativity) some sugar free licorice, Gummybears , some German Books and a cool poster.(Two things in life one can't do without: cats and books). One of the books is by a German comedian about his pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. According to my cousin it was great fun to read. And the must-have in Lübeck: Coffee at Niederegger! I had a marzipan flavoured black tea. Not bad!
- .... we just came back from dinner-

We had a very funny, very nice dinner at the Steakhouse which had a great view of the Holstentor!

I really enjoy holidays!

The blanket I made for my sister was finished in time and she loves it! Unfortunately I forgot to make a picture at home and just took one yesterday night with bad lighting with G's camera. I will put them on the blog when I'm back home. Despite a very happy sister (which made me forget the long depressive weeks of working simple garter stitch) I wouldn't knit a log cabin adult size blanket again all that soon. It looks great, but it's really heavy to knit the last two rectangles, it pulls on the arms. But I found a similar pattern online...I'll post more about that later as well....