Thanks to some of the comments left on my last post, I’ve tasted freedom! I gave up on my self-imposed rules and cast on a little project. I’m THRILLED with how it turned out. A little disgusted with how much knitting time I’ve lost because of my own rules.
So. I cast on 110 stitches of my favorite color of worsted weight wool (in this case Elann Highland). I knit loosely with 8mm needles for about nine inches (the first inch in garter) and then I started decreasing four stitches per round until I had about 48 stitches left. I flipped it inside out and did a three-needles bind off.
What did I get? A hat for my little clown?
A fruit bowl?
Nope and nope. Here’s what it looked like before being cast into the washing machine with a load of jeans:
And here’s what it looked like after about ten minutes in the washer and the addition of some simple embroidery stitches:
In a word…. I LOVE IT!!! Here’s a close up of the sheep where you can see my Colonial knots and the beautiful colors in the wool:
So…. I’ve learned my lesson. When feeling overwhelmed… cast on something! Anything! Get those creative juices going! I’ve had this tea cozy in my head for a couple of months now. It only took me an evening and a morning to do it and now I’m ready to knit again. Ahhhh….. FREEDOM!!!
What a whirlwind the last two weeks has been. We had a great time with Monica, Peter, PD and Sean. We rented a Mercedes and headed south to the Alps. Let it never be said that we don’t ride in style. I took this quick photo so that Monica and Peter would have proof that they rode in a Mercedes on the Autobahn during their trip:
Did I forget to mention that it was a bright blue Mercedes rental van? lol. We put some miles on that van and we never had the problem of losing it in the parking lot! Here it is looking down from Hohenschwangau Castle.
Our first stop was Berchtesgaden to see the Eagle’s Nest. You can click on the thumbnail to see a bigger picture but it won’t get much clearer. That is actually how it looked that day. We were literally in the clouds. We hiked up to the top of the mountain to get a shot by the cross and as soon as we got back into the Eagle’s Nest building the sky let loose and absolutely dumped rain. It was a wet, wet ride to Garmisch….
We stayed four days in apartments in Garmisch. We had the whole top floor. Our balcony was this one all the way across the front (little picture is view from our balcony) and Monica and Peter’s was the same thing but across the back of the house. Their balcony had a beautiful view of the Zugspitze:
More pictures from Garmisch:
No trip to Garmisch would be complete without going to Neuschweinstein and Hohenschwangau Castles:
We hopped down to Vipiteno, Italy for lunch:
This sidewalk cafe was at the base of the clock tower in the center of town. Right outside of town are two castles. We stopped to take photos in front of Reifenstein Castle:
The Grand Finale for the boys was the trip to Legoland:
And yes, there was knitting…. The guys went golfing one day while Monica and I caught up on laundry. My dear SIL…. whom I’ve been trying to talk into learning to knit for years…. finally picked up the needles. She’s a natural. Here’s what she accomplished in just a few hours.
It was sad to see them go. I wish we’d had more time to just sit and visit but there was so much to show them. It was fun for Monica to be back in Germany (she and Dan were here as kids when my FIL was stationed in Hanau). Dan took them up to see all their old haunts in Hanau on the way to catch their flight out of Frankfurt.
Dan left this morning to go to the States for a class in Virginia. The house seems way too quiet…..
Weeeee! Look what came in the mail from Knit Picks last night:
That’s the Andean Silk and it’s destined to become a Clapotis. It’ll be a couple of weeks at least before I can get to it, but I’ll keep you posted on whether I fail or succeed. I loved that colorway the second I saw it on Kary’s (sheep at the beach) blog. Now the pressure’s on. Here’s hoping the color wheel and book help me with my color problems. I’m color deficient. My dad is completely color blind. I have the hardest times with colors that are similar. You know the little numbers in the dots color test? I flunk it every time except for the green and red.
Speaking of the Clapotis… I just found out how to say it this weekend from Erica (knittin mama). It’s much more elegant than the Clap-OTIS that was spewing out of my mouth. Probably why I haven’t been inclined to knit it yet. Who wants to knit something with such an ugly name?…. “oooh… that’s so pretty! What are you knitting?” “Why it’s the Clap-OTIS” “Oh…. okay.” You see what I mean? lol. French is the one language that I’ve never been able to even fake while reading it. Not that I knew it was a French word. What? You mean I should have gotten that from the very obvious description in the pattern?! Ya. I know. Welcome to my world. I don’t do obvious. I swear I gave up a little piece of my brain with the birth of each of my four boys. Either that or I’m going senile already. Can that happen at 42? I sometimes wonder. It’s scary.
I’d say that I need to “brush up” on my French before our trip to visit Nilda (Waltzing Natilda) in Brittany next month but there’s nothing to “brush up” on. I’ll leave the par-le-vou to Nilda and her hubster. They could kick us out of the country the way I butcher their language.
So, I got to meet up with Kathleen (Knits Well With Others) and Erica (knittin mama) this weekend. We had a BBQ at Kathleen’s just north of Nürnberg on Sunday. It was a lot of fun. Very international. Kathleen had friends from every country on the globe there it seemed. We brought a taco dip (YUM!), hot dogs with American condiments and the ingredients for S’mores. About five minutes after Erica left, Kathleen and I realized that we didn’t take any pictures! Bad…. BAD bloggers. It seems that Erica caught a most flattering shot (snort) of Kathleen and I chatting. It’s posted on her blog for all the world to see. Sneaky, sneaky, Erica! 😉 A good time was had by all. Can’t wait to do it again girls!
Luckily we had great weather that day which is more than I can say about the weather we’ve had since then or are supposed to have for the next week. Cold and wet. I checked the weather in Garmisch (where we’ll be next week) the other day…. SNOW!!! And Monica was worried about the place we’re staying having a pool. Sure. That’s great if you’re a penguin!
I can’t believe my SIL and crew will be here in a little more than 48 hours! I’m out-of-my-mind excited! They are in London right now, but will be heading for Paris and Normandy today. They landed in London on Tuesday morning. Dan calls the hotel that night (they were taking a nap before dinner), takes on his best British accent and this is how it went (Hotel name and room #’s have been changed to protect the innocent) :
Dan: Yes… um… ‘alo mum. Is this room 654?
Monica: No… it’s room 635 (great! My SIL is giving her room number out over the phone! That makes me feel secure about their safety. She “claims” she was just half asleep. lol).
Dan: Yes… well…I’m sorry ’bout that mum. This is the front desk. We’re ‘avin a wee get together down here for our new guests and we’d like you and your family to join us.
Monica:……….silence……… Now????
Dan and I were about to pee our pants we were laughing so hard. It’s the only reason she figured out it was her brother. Monica, Monica, Monica. Who loves ya baby?
So then he calls his mother to let her know that Monica, Peter and the boys arrived in London and are fine. Same British accent:
Dan: ‘alo mum. This is the Grand Hotel in London. We do the service of letting family members know when their loved ones have arrived safely at the hotel ‘ere in London. Monica, Peter and the boys are up taking a wee nap right now tuckered out by their travels. We’ll make sure to take right good care of them for you.
MIL: What a wonderful service!! Thank you so much for letting me know.
OH MI GAWD!! LOL! Please, God… don’t let my children be so gullible. What makes this funnier is that Dan does this every single time he calls home except it’s usually in Spanish… posing as an old woman looking for charity. My MIL falls for it every time. Scary.
Have you all seen this baby set? It’s adorable and the pattern is free from Opal. You can find it on the PT yarns site.
I’m 3/4 finished spinning the Kool Aid wool. I want to finish it today or I never will. I’m one of those spinners that has to be able to finish the entire process of one skein of yarn in one sitting. I spin the singles, wind it off on the ball winder and then ply from a center pull ball. I hate having little bits of singles left over and I hate having to try to get my ply twist right when the singles have been sitting on the bobbin and have set. As I ply I check the twish of each legnth by letting it hang before I let it wind onto the bobbin. Probably takes me twice as long. I really wish I could be more carefree about it but I guess I’ll always be a little anal about my spinning.
UPDATE:
Just a few moments after I posted this post I got a Fox News bulletin about the bombings in London. I immediately called the hotel but Monica and Peter had checked out at 9am… just a few moments after the first blast. Because I’ve been to London a few times I could map out where the tube stops were, the hotel and Waterloo (where they’d be headed for the train to Paris). I was pretty sure they’d take a taxi and they’d just miss everything. It was a scary few hours but we just got a call from Peter and they are in Lille, France and fine. He’d gotten my cell phone message and called wondering what the problem was. They were just minutes ahead of everything but had no idea what had happened. I was telling them on the phone and they were relaying it to other passengers. Luckily, I found out they were okay just about the time that our families in Texas were waking up so I could tell them before they saw the news. I want to thank those of you that emailed your prayers. My heart and prayers go out to all of those effected by the tragedy in London. I think I need a shot of tequila now.
