It´s a start!

Despite the extremely hot and beautiful summer weather, I am knitting! Litres of water and a place in the shadow makes the unusual weather bearable - it is just like being back Down Under! The photo shows the start of a narrow Print o´ The Wave Stole for Princess. There has been more knitting than this, the time is just not the right to show and tell ;-)

Baby Blue & self flattering rambling!

Baby blue is finished and it is a pleasure to wear it! The pattern is an alteration of the "Jakke i retrostil" ("Retro cardigan") designed by Gerd Fjellanger, from the book "Strikk i en fei" edited by Karen Marie Vinje. First of all, I replaced the called for yarn by one thread of fingering alpaca and one thread of laceweight mohair. The finished garment included buttons weighs 340 g. This means I used less than five balls (250 g) of alpaca and less than two balls (50 g) of mohair. The 2x2 rib is knit on 3,5 mm needles, the rest on 4 mm needles. I also altered the button band, making it blend into the pattern.

It is all about hitting the right button...

Even the arm/arm hole seam came out fairly nice, and the pattern stripes came together in peace and harmony... with a bit of friendly tugging, that is. I left most of the neckline stitches on the needles and made short rows instead of binding off, and only picked up a few stitches on either side of the neck, to avoid lumps and knots from bound off stitches. This required a fair bit of nip & tuck action to even out stitches afterwards, but it was worth it! Knitting 4 rows of garter stitch before starting the actual collar made quite a neat adjoining . Wouldn´t have hurt with another couple of garter rows though. I am also very pleased wiyh how I managed to place one buttonhole exactely where the double ribbing meets the pattern and also at the base of the collar. These are details I appreciate very much myself, and as they were not considered in the pattern I had to do a rough calculation as I went along - and I was spot on!

All in all: I loooove my Baby Blue :-)

Ich bin ein Berliner!

It has been almost 20 years since I last visited Berlin. Back then, I came with my photography class, and the timing turned out to be perfect: The wall came down only two weeks after we left. It was not necessary to speak German to pick up the tension everywhere. The atmosphere was dominated by the heated discussions among the people of Berlin. I feel lucky to have experienced East Berlin - and I felt totally confused when I came back 20 years later. Next time I go I hope it is all for pleasure so that I can linger and dwell for as long as I like and need to take in the new Berlin. This time I went with a network group at work and we had an incredibly tight but interesting schedule. These are just a few glimpses from the three days I stayed, mainly from Treptow, Die Hackeschen Höfe, Charlottenburg and Breitscheidplatz.

The closest I got to wool and fibre on this trip were these wool covered xylophone sticks. Hm... it might have been a vibraphone, actually. All that jazz! We went to the best and coolest jazz club in Berlin, A-Trane in the Charlottenburg area. Not something I would normally do, but I enjoyed it a lot. The marvellous Anja Mohr Trio was bliss, even though I had to capitulate in the break as my day had started at 03.30...

from the Treptow area, more or less

Die Hackeschen Höfe

we will never forget. Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church

Red Cross

The weekend was fantastic - one extra day off and BEAUTIFUL weather! So a new pair of shorts came handy. This is a detail from the front, showing "Number One"-buttons sewn with dark red thread. And this is a detail from one of my early handbags, also shown in my shop. Matchy-matchy! If I would wear these items with my new red sandals?. Oh yes! A blurry version of the bag here...