Fasching!!!

Sunshine on my shoulders....makes me happy!!!

Snow in my ears.....makes me sad!

or at least a bit cranky!

But to thwart those lonely, cold feelings, we have Faschings Tuesday here in Germany. The day when everyone goes crazy - not just for New Orleans and Rio anymore :)

The management has delivered traditional Faschings Krapfen - yes, they call doughnuts "krapfen" over here. I get such a kick out of ordering something with the word "krap" in it - juvenile, I know - but it keeps me smiling.

Olympics: I'm proud to report I earned 2 Gold Medals in the Olympics this year. I designed and finished the half-finger gloves for the Irishman and finished AND BLOCKED the sweater for his brother! Yay me!

Seeing Double??

Ahh, a pair of gloves to make Picaso jealous.
Maybe it's time I skulk over to the dark side and try my hand at blocking. So far, the only thing I've blocked is a Flower Basket Shawl that looked like 6-day-old spaghetti until I attacked it with pins and a spray bottle. It seems ridiculous to block gloves, but I'm guessing (hoping desperately!) that the stranding-thing is what's got this pair all funky looking.

Are the Olympics just for knitting - or is blocking part of that challenge?

Next event is to finish the Beast - jeeeze! I hope that doesn't include blocking as well! My weekend is soooo screwed! Looks like I'm going to have to park my tooshy on the couch (ok, no big challenge there) and force myself to sit still and run aran yarn through my hands. This could be accomplished with some cranberry juice/Bacardi limon and Season 2 of The Shield. I'll only have to take my eyes off of Vic to tie in the ends ;)

Can't you just cut the tension with a knife here? Will I make the cutoff? Will I try to hide the ends of my knitting on Sunday's blog pictures? Or will I try to convince my friends in Blogtown that the recipient really did request a aran-patterned sweater without a neck....

P.S. Ever try typing a blog entry while wearing unblocked gloves? It's crap, my fingers are cramping.

Weiberfasching!!!

Today is Weiberfasching in Germany - it roughly translates to Womyn's Karnival. It's the day when women through-out Germany run through the streets with scissors and cut off the neckties of any unsuspecting males silly enough to have worn one today.

I never thought I'd have the nerve to attack a perfectly good silk tie, but lo, my work colleague Thorston wore an old stained tie today. He sacrificed himself and our work dress code at my desk only 20 minutes ago. Shortly after, Alfred gave himself up to the same cause (his is the shiny leather tie on the left) he says it's an old tie from the back of his closet (any guesses as to the decade??)

What's that?? Where's my Olympic Update?? Things are top secret here in Franken. There's been some work going on, but I'm not spilling all my beans just yet. Let's just say that I, also, am waiting with bated breath to see if I'm standing on the podium on Sunday night with tears of joy glistening in the corners of my exhausted eyes.

The Pre-Spring Mood Swings have started!

The ones where I get excited when I look at the seed catalog and feel the slightest warmth from a sun ray and then I look outside to the grey skies and snow flakes floating by the window and get all sad and blah-ey again.

This is usually the time when I start shopping for bright coloured-yarns and making
crazy clown socks for the Irishman.
To curb the potential danger of this shopping spree (shah!) I spent a little time at www.bastelundhobbykiste.de on Monday and ordered a couple of things to cheer me up. First I found the Spring 06 Interweave Knits (yes, in Germany!!!) and then I finally located a Dale of Norway kids pattern book. A Spin-Off book on socks caught my eye and a hand-painted skein of Opal for €8!!! Nice rainbow colours to chase away the blues :)

To distract myself, I'm going to focus on finishing my Olympic Self-designed gloves.
Gold is a nice, bright colour, isn't it??

Goddess Socks!

My colleague tried to describe these socks yesterday and I couldn't, for the life of me imagine what they looked like. So she brought the pattern booklet this morning.

I'm speechless.

Doesn't this look like the sort of sock that would interest Eve Ensler. I have to admit, I'm not an expert on *exactly* what THAT looks like, but I'm pretty sure, these socks are a woolly celebration of womanhood!!

Olympic Dreams

Talk about dreams - I never repeat *NEVER* thought I would get a glove knit this quickly. I figured I'd spend ages with all sorts of calculations and stitch patterns and retries. Thanks to Interweave Knits' Winter 2003 Glove Special, I am kicking some major glove arse over here on team Dislocated Knitty Americans.

And to think, I've been putting these gloves off for ages because I thought it would be too big of a project.

Ideally, I wanted to have a shorter glove - something closer to the pair I'm replacing. But the Irishman tried these on last night (sans fingers) and likes the length. (biting my tongue - lots of nice length jokes I could be making here, hehe). So they stay - and I'm happy I got lots of designs and repeats into my gloves. The colors aren't exactly south of the border, but he likes them, too - so they're sticking.

Now I just have to work past the SGS (Second Glove Syndrome). And work past still being stunned with my speed on this project, I'll probably procrastinate just to make the Olympic Goal interesting.
In the meantime, onto my other event: finishing the Beast (which I've since tinked back from the collar to fix the shoulders that, frankly, looked a bit wonky). Tonight, I'll un-wonk the shoulders and hopefully fly back up to the collar.

Three cheers for the glove, going for the GOLD, baby!!!!

Plugging Along

The gusset might be a bit high up - I'm considering a trip to the frog pond to put the main design closer to the palm and maybe do a longer rib...

11 days to go....can I make it????

Dances With Wool

Just found this today and she's knitting some really cool stuff. I never thought I'd like a knitted dress - but that green is beautiful!!

Olympic Update

I'm totally liking this color combination better. I decided to pick out a couple of colors and stick with'em.

The Irishman is pleased by this development. He wasn't too crazy about the dark mitts.

Now I just have to figure out the thumb gussett....

The other half of my Knitting Olympics Goal: finishing the Aran-patterned Beast, is coming along quite nicely. I'm in the middle of the collar ribbing - maybe I'll just finish that up to make myself feel all warm and fuzzy tonight :) If that won't work, then the Gumbo I plan to make will certainly do it. HOoooooooeeeeee

Olympic Paradigm

My Goal : to re-create this fingerless glove, in shape and design (something South American), but make it thin enough that the Irishman can put his hands in his pockets.














The Inspiration : Schachenmeyer - assorted colours and fluffiness (even though it's the same friggin yarn with the same guage, etc.)

First Attempts: I like the way the design is on the second one, but think I will return to the light background (earlier abandoned b/c of above mentioned gauge woes). Somehow I'd much rather see all these colours against the light background than mixed up with each other. Gauge be damned!

Two weeks left : here's hoping!

Contagious

It was only a matter of time. First Stephanie, then me, then Kimberly and now Marion.

My coworker was knitting a scarf for her friend but thought it a bit too plain. So I suggested the moebius twist and she's all excited. She saw me knit my two but didn't think she'd be right behind.

Here's the picture of Marion before gifting her scarf :)

Me, I'm in a sour mood these days. That Beast of a sweater that is taking for-freaking-ever to knit has tricked me into screwing up the neckline. Gee, nothing like perserving through a slew of cabling mistakes and painstaking corrections on an extra large sweater to get to the neckline and realize you've just knit an extra ten rows. Ever try to tink ten rows of aran-patterning? I wouldn't suggest attempting it without copious amounts of alcohol. I nearly needed a personal day from work to recover after I discovered the error last night. The Irishman left the room (after first pouring me more wine and once again complementing my cooking).
I've another row left to tink tonight and then will start neck shaping. I'm going to try it this time without tv, Irishmen and other distractions (except for the alcohol - what I would do for a margarita right now!).
Wish me luck!