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.