Then enter here at the Old Red Barn Co. I cannot believe they are giving it away, it really is pretty! But you need to hurry, the contest ends today!

Leave a comment

I finally got my act together and took pictures of my destash yarns and put them up on Ravelry. Again, it’s probably not all that great to people in the US due to shipping.

http://www.ravelry.com/people/BockstarkKnits/stash/trade

Comments (3)

Spinning, fiber and handspun have taken over my life. I have decided to get rid of yarn to pay for my car repair as well as money for more fiber (ok, it is probably going to the latter). So basically I am getting rid of almost all my yarn. But wait, don’t get too excited, I am keeping all my fiber/handspun, Wollmeise, Hazel Knits, seasilk/silk (laceweight) and gifted yarn, but mostly everything else is going. Take a look in my Ravelry stash (ALL yarns except the ones mentioned above, not just the “to trade” yarns) and let me know if you want anything. It probably isn’t a deal for anyone in the states due to the exchange/shipping. Generally selling for what I paid for it for example, US Sock yarns will run anywhere from 15eur - 18eur.

Comments (8)

This made me LOL. Originally found on PhotoshopDisasters.

EDIT: damn, Sears fixed the picture! This is what it looked like originally.

Comments (3)

Hiking in Zermatt - isn’t the view amazing???

Finished handspun socks!

We planned this trip awhile ago, and with everything going on I kinda forgot about it, but then suddenly it was here. My family and I (and my parents) went to Zermatt, Switzerland for a week. It was freakishly expensive, but after the initial shock, we learned to live with it and thank goodness our apartment had a kitchen so we could cook all our meals.

We had more good weather days than bad and oh, when the sun shines, it is truly one of the most beautiful places to be. We had an awesome view from our apartment, but to get out there with the boys was really fun. They are hardcore hikers/climbers! They always took the hardest paths and always wanted to go up up up to the top! One of the most memorable days we took the train/ski lift up and walked down. It was about 2 miles (maybe more?) and we were constantly amazed at how well the boys did, considering they haven’t really done much hiking. The whole time I kept thinking, THIS is why we moved to Europe. The accessibility to the outdoors is really great here, and I am ALL for taking a lift up to a mountain top and/or enjoying a hot meal and wine in a hut. :)

The trip back we had some back luck - my wonderful husband read the wrong departure time, so we missed our comfy glacier express. We took the regional trains back home and I think we had to transfer 6 or so times. Yeah, that was fun. But I’m home and getting caught up on stuff.

So, now I’m off to bed, thought I would leave you with some pictures! One is of my family on the memorable hike and the other is my husband showing off his new socks which I’ve named “36 pieces of flair”. Hope everyone knows the reference. :)

Comments (15)

So we’ve had a traumatic past couple of days. Thursday afternoon, we headed out on a train to Chur (me, husband and boys). My parents left early in the morning so they were already there. It’s a long story about a car that has been in the shop for 4 weeks as to why we didn’t leave all together. Anyways, the train ride was actually pleasant, the boys did great.

The boys have been potty trained for about a month now and have been doing so very well. Hardly any accidents and if it did happen, it would happen during their nap. Bathrooms on the train really aren’t great for beginning potty trained boys. One of them did fine, but Elijah got totally freaked out by the weird toilet and how it moved. I think this really scarred him for life and he didn’t want to use a toilet after that - even the ones in the train station and in our hotel. So we put him in diapers again. He always wants to wear underwear but then when he realizes that means going to the toilet, he starts screaming and crying. Ugh. Today Michael bought a kids toilet seat - you know, the kind that fits over the toilet so it’s smaller and he is finally comfortable enough to use it.

We got a rude introduction to Switzerland! When we got to Chur, it was surprising at how expensive everything is. Thank goodness my parents were there to warn us. We knew it would be expensive, but I don’t think we were quite prepared. One swiss franc is about the same as one US dollar. We paid close to $40 for a McDonalds meal for 2 adults and 2 kids. Wow. We also booked a cheap room (at least in Chur - it was $130 a room) and it was in the middle of all these strip clubs and bars. How embarrassing it was to be walking with 2 kids and your parents with pictures of these naked ladies everywhere. I couldn’t wait to get out of there. The next day we took the Glacier Expess train to Zermatt and it was a really great train ride (but OH MY GOD expensive)

Zermatt was so much nicer and everything is clean and there are no cars (except for these little electric cars). Our room is amazing and surprisingly not that expensive. Off of our balcony we have an incredible view of the Matterhorn and the weather is PERFECT! We have a kitchen here so we plan to cook as much as possible to save on the costs.

So anyways, that was my rant about Switzerland. On to knitting! I finished spinning the skein of CMF superwash merino in San Francisco and I was so-so about it. It wasn’t as thin as I would’ve liked it and also I wasn’t sure about the colors, they kind of went everywhere. I decided to knit Michael socks with it anyways (and he saw the colors and thought it was ok), and I LOVE THEM SO MUCH. The transformation that handspun makes from yarn to sock is amazing. Oh, it is so awesome. I wish I could take a picture of it, but sadly, internet connection here costs money (of course) and the computer that works with the internet connection doesn’t have a port that fits the memory card. Argh. I’ll take pictures and post them later. I am making a plain stockinette foot with a 2×2 rib leg and an afterthought heel. I never made those heels before so I thought I should try it.

Other than that, I am missing my spinning (no wheel for 1 whole week!) but have my handspun socks and Fiddleheads to keep me company among the mountains!

Oh yeah, today is WWKIP day, I’m going to try and knit outside awhile. But it’s kinda sad that I’ll be by myself. There is a yarn shop here, I’ll have to find it! :)

Comments (8)

Flowers from my boys Hey there Mothers - hope you had a happy day yesterday! The weather was (and still is!) glorious here in Munich and I had a pretty laid back day. No spinning (NO SHIPMENTS YET, I’m DYING HERE!!!), some sock knitting, and playing with my sweet boys. They are both getting the hang of using the toilet, which is a gift enough for me! They made me my first gift at kindergarten (preschool in Germany) and it nearly brought me to tears. They probably had lots and lots of help from the teachers and older kids, but still, I think it really shows a lot of personality. We immediately hung it up on our wall in the sunshine. I will always smile when I see them.

I broke down today and had to play with my wheel. It’s been a week or so since I have spun anything up. I waxed and oiled it up and it is running very well and super quiet, you can barely even hear any movement! I tried again with the Ashford corriedale and merino that I bought and for some weird reason, I CANNOT spin those up. I don’t know what it is. I get so frustrated and think that I can’t spin anymore and then I pick up something else and everything goes well. What is it about this fiber that doesn’t work with me? I really don’t understand. I was hoping to use this fiber as “play” fiber, but it really doesn’t work. Maybe I’m too inexperienced? I am spinning up the squoosh fiber that I have and trying to get sport/dk weight. I’m also playing around with a faster ratio (finally breaking in that smaller whorl) and wowee is it fast. I have to constantly remind myself to treadle slower.

Since today (Monday) is a holiday, I’m hoping that tomorrow will yield some fiber shipments. Can y’all please put some pressure on the Deutsche Post to bring me my freaking fiber??? At the very least, my parents are coming this week so I have mucho fiber then, and that is guaranteed. :)

Comments (4)

WTF? You know why? Because Thursdays are for What the hell is this!!!! Another one that’s funny is You knit what? but they shut down awhile ago. Shannon from the SSK podcast introduced me to Rose Kim’s blog and I’ve been laughing ever since. She is soooo funny!

Comments (6)

1 bootie in search of buttons!

So I’ve wanted to make Saartje’s booties (pdf) for awhile, but in my head they were for girls. The cross over strap thingy made me think it was a girl thing. But everyone on Ravelry and even my husband said “no way!” So now I’m going to make 4 pairs for friends. Didn’t I tell you guys to stop having babies??? I guess you didn’t listen. That’s ok, they are waaaay cute! Weaving in the ends is a bitch though. I hate having ends stick out. How do you guys deal with this? In the pictures, I don’t see anyone else have ends, maybe it’s just hidden. I’m getting better at seaming though, so that’s good news!

Destash is going well, thanks to all who participated. I have to take photos of more yarn and put them up.

And now, a quote from my hilarious husband. I asked him to get a 10 lb. bag of rice, but instead he got a 10 KILO bag. And then I found that he wrote this in his blog: “Today I walked across town with a 10 kilogram (20 pounds?) bag of rice on my head. It was so much easier to carry that way! I don’t think there is anything else to say.” No wonder the kids have been saying “daddy rice head”. I just thought they meant he likes rice.