London Calling - again!

London was great! The U2 show was beyond great! The We will rock you-musical (based on Queens music) was cool and fun, the company was the best, the weather was nice, the shopping (including a few hours at Camden Market - hadn´t been there since 1994!) was excellent... and my long awaited visit at Loop ended up with a surprisingly modest yarn purchase shown below. The shop itself was super cute and the staff very friendly and welcoming. This will definitely be a regular stop on my London visits. All the yarn is available from the online store, of course, but nothing compares to the real thing ;-)

Crazy Zauerball Sock Yarn; 75% wool, 25% nylon

Isn´t she lovely

Supernøtts Little Miss arrived on July 14th, and I must admit I´ve been awaiting her arrival with impatience and excitement! I hope she will enjoy this little warming and welcoming Lazy Daisy Baby Jacket (and I think it will match the blanket from granny...?!?). For once I finished the garment BEFORE the baby was born, but of course I didn´t want to spoil the surprise by blogging it before the wee one (and her mum) had seen it "in person". So here it is in all its scrappy glory :o))

PS - if anyone is still in doubt: the headline applies foremost to Little Miss. Even though the jacket came out pretty cute too ;o)

No cabin fever for Fiberfeber

We are going to stay at my parents cabin for a few days. My happiness is not weather dependent - I´ll be knitting and crocheting in sunshine or rain :o)

The only new project I am bringing is this one; a halter neck top for Princess. Yarn: Cotton Viscose by garnstudio. Needles: 3,5 mm. Pattern: my own (2 x 2 ribbing is hardly a pattern design - but there will be more shaping involved later, I promise!)

The lace stola is still growing; a few more repeats and I am ready for the edging.

The never ending story II... (the first one was the hexagon blanket). Still around 50 cm of rippling to go.

Ripplin´ progress

2 good 2 b 4gotten! The ripple blanket has been resting peacefully in its basket all winter and all spring. I brought it with me to a knitting café a few weeks ago, trying to gently wake it from its long slumber. I think I finished one single row that night. Finally, this weekend, the time was right for some serious ripplin´ again! I think I still have 76 or so rows to go - but I´ll get there! Eventually...

Progress

The pretty lace stola for Princess grows quickly. I think it measures 60 cm or so right now, so I am fairy optimistic about finishing this one in time. Also considering there will be some timeconsuming dressmaking during the summer. Of course I have plenty of UFOs and ideas for new projects too. And what do you know - there´s a sale at my LYS this month... No idle hands!

Glimpses - 2nd of July

Detail from Jacob Weidemans home. Lillehammer South Park, Lillehammer Detail from Jacob Weidemans home. Lillehammer More details from Jacob Weidemans home. Lillehammer At Hoel Gård, Nes

...and one last detail from Jacob Weidemans home. Lillehammer We also visited Sigrid Undsets home, Lillehammer. At noon we had a very nice lunch break at wonderful Skafferiet, Helgøya

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