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! :)

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.

So, I remember a few days ago my husband mentioning how ticked off he was that he bought shampoo only it turned out to be conditioner. And I was like “didn’t you check it”? And he said yes, that it did in fact look like shampoo (the bottle did, at least). He didn’t know that “Pflegespülung” means conditioner. And mind you, my husband buys things that he is familiar with – so he always buys Clairol Herbal Essences. This is the shampoo with the woman going nuts because it smells so good. I always thought it was funny, but it smells good, so whatever. Anyways, he has bought shampoo before, but maybe they were out, so he picked up a bottle that looked like shampoo. If he bothered to open the bottle, he would’ve known immediately that it was not shampoo.

So today, while in the shower, I noticed that he bought a new bottle of shampoo. It is called “Guhl” (pronounced “ghoul”). I was laughing so hard! Because in my head, he was so mad at Herbal Essenses, that he bought the one thing that was the least flowery and Herbal Essense-like. It says something like “has a manly scent”. Oh god, I’m still laughing…

I am finally back home again! It has been such a wonderful (and warm) vacation, but there’s nothing like having your “stuff” around. And the boys really missed their Brezen (pretzels)! The flight was ok, the boys behaved so well, way better than expected. There were a few moments of frustration, but overall, I can safely say that my boys are excellent travellers. I came home and crashed, so now my sleeping is all messed up. There also seems to have been an indoor hurricane that made it’s way through our entire house, so the next few weeks will be filled with cleaning and organizing.

It’s so good to be home! Now I have to make my through organizing pictures, yarn, etc. etc. I brought home a sh*tload of cookies, so anyone in Munich can come over and have some! Why did I do this? In addition to gaining so much weight I couldn’t fit in my pants anymore, I bring all this stuff home. Geez. I’m signing up at a health club tomorrow! :)

So I arrived in Seattle last night and my sister picked me up from the airport. Awesome flight – on time and super empty. I even rented one of those “dig-E-whatevers” (ON THE PLANE!!!) and enjoyed knitting to whatever movies were on it. I got a LOT done on the clapotis on the plane. It was my hope to finish or almost finish it, but sadly, I also took a little nap. Why can’t all airlines have these movie players? It would help A LOT with the kids.

This morning I went back to the airport to get my rental car. Basically, they had a “4 day special” so if I rented it last night, it would’ve been $20/day but if I rented it this morning, $7/day. Go figure! So my sister works right next to the transit center so I just caught a ride with her in the morning and caught the bus to the airport. I really miss the trains of Munich! But I got the car and I was forced to purchase the freakishly expensive insurance because I don’t have insurance in the US (the credit card kind doesn’t count). So at least I had a $7 car.

Anyhooz, guess where I went first? No, it was NOT a yarn store. RED MILL BURGERS! (ok, I went to a friend’s house and we went together, but still) Still THE BEST burgers in the WORLD. I’m not exaggerating. I wish I could go every day! :) After that, I went to Weaving Works in the University District. While they had a fine selection of yarns and an EXCELLENT selection of Koigu (I walked away with 4 skeins of that), nothing else really struck my fancy. Maybe I’m yarned out. Nah!

After that, I had what could only be described as a yarn-gasm-tastical few hours with Wendee of Hazel Knits. We met in an unusual way (you’ll have to listen to the next podcast episode to find out how), but only today met in person. And I think we talked non-stop. She has a market coming up on the weekend so I didn’t want to take out time from her day, so I volunteered to help. OMG, being with all that gorgeous yarn was the best thing ever. ever. ever. She has a specially spun merino yarn that is fantastically squishy, very similar to STR. And the colors, oh the colors! Chocolatier is relatively new and ooooohhhhh to dye for!!! And did you see these mittens??!!! Holy crap, to DYE for! She is the nicest person and we never ran out of things to talk about. I learned so much about dyeing and how much love and attention she puts into her work, I have so much respect for indie dyers. She gave me the “tedious” task of reskeining and rinsing, but I had the time of my life! It was a blast and I’m glad that I helped at least a little! Thanks so much Wendee for taking the time out of our busy schedule to visit with me!!!

After that, I went to the West Seattle knitting group and they were a lot of fun too! It was a smallish group – maybe around 7 or 8 people but all very nice and they were so inviting and 2 of them actually listened to the podcast! I think when we were discussing what we talk about with the other knitters (who haven’t listened before), they were in shock. Heehee! But it was all good, they were a great bunch of folks to hang out with!

Now I’m headed off to bed (before midnight!) with a smile and a suitcase full of yarn! :) The rest of the weekend I’m going to be visiting with some friends and then go to one more yarn shop (Hilltop). I think that will be the end of my “US yarn crawl”. I wish I could go to one more knitting group, but unfortunately, there are no meetups on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays!

#1 of 3 felted clogs (cascade 220)

My new silk!!! Yummmmy!

this is his “breezy” look

First, a little bit about new year’s resolutions. I don’t make them, I don’t believe in them. For me, it is just a list that would be made of stuff I want to do and that I know I will never accomplish and it will make me feel bad about myself that I didn’t do it or continue it or whatever. So I just live life how I want to, make some changes here and there when necessary and that’s it. I have goals, but I keep them separate and small and accomplishable.

So I spent the first day of the new year untangling a whole freaking skein (all 400 yds of it) because I just HAD to cast on and since I don’t have a ball winder/swift, I had to do it by hand and it got really seriously messed up. It took me about 3 days to undo it all. It is 100% silk, so it’s not the best yarn to be messing up. Now I’m really upset at doing this since I feel like it ruined it’s nice sheen. Hopefully the pattern in the lace will distract! :) The yarn I speak of is sunsilk from Sunshine Yarns. I was eyeing this yarn for a couple of days, and I was real hesitant to order it, but I went for it and boy am I glad. It is really gorgeous stuff and the color is just amazing. I had to put this yarn away so that I could finish the 2nd pair of felted clogs first (it was painful to knit what I *had* to vs. what I wanted to).

So in the mean time, I knitted 3 pairs of clogs, 1 of the Lamb’s Pride, which I ran out of yarn so had to make some adjustments. And two with cascade 220. I prefer the Cascade 220, much less hairy AND it’s stiffer (good for clogs at least) AND cheaper AND you get a little more yardage. Although the Lamb’s Pride has a more uniform felt to it (no holes). And let me tell you, I love felting in a top loader. Complete difference and dreamy. I think I may have said this in my last post, I can’t remember. Anyhoo, I am felting the 2nd pair now and instead of boiling water and slaving over a sink with tired arms, I’m sitting here writing this post. I wanted to make the boys some new house shoes since the ones they had broke. And really, it would’ve been way cheaper (and easier) to just buy new ones, but I was determined. My mom is threatening to get a front loader and I’m trying to convince her what a great machine she has! Help!

I also went to my first Aloha Knitters meeting and it was so much fun! It was a big group – there were quite a few visitors, me included. But it was nice to meet fellow Ravelers who I’ve only seen on blogs/pictures/projects. And of course, Hawaii people always have stuff to talk about. I even met the famous MK Carroll, whose womb you may have seen/knit. AND to top it off, MK was destashing and guess who ended up with a whole bunch of hemp yarn? ME! and for $5! I have been wanting to try hemp and linen for awhile but didn’t want to invest the money quite yet, and lo and behold. I have several small skeins of multiple colors, so I don’t think I can make 1 thing with it, maybe just a whole bunch of dishcloths, which is great to see how it softens up. And also to make me buy hemp yarn in some point in the future, I’m sure. Another knitter, Michelle, made off with a large lot of hemp, and I curse her! (just kidding, she is a really nice gal who enjoyed talking about my son’s heart condition at length).

I have also been pimping out stickers for Knitters Uncensored and feel like a rock star. Just kidding, just the opposite, in fact! I’ve been going to knit shops and groups in the Houston area and in Hawaii and hardly anyone has heard of us. Maybe one or two people. Maybe someone will know me/us in Seattle? ;) But, I’m hoping that people will like me enough to listen to the podcast and give us a try…or recoil in horror. I do warn people that we’re very risque (don’t know how to do that accent french thingy).

OMG, I can’t stop buying things. The bad thing about coming to a country whose currency is less than yours (especially the US) is that you end up buying SO MUCH STUFF because everything is on sale! OMG, the yarn I have acquired these past few weeks and I still have more coming. My sister got me a gift certificate from BMFA and several skeins just plopped into my shopping cart.

I also included a pic of the alpaca scarf that I knitted for Michael before he left to go back to Germany. He had to model it in very hot weather, so I told him to look breezy.

Anyhoo, so now I’m off to cast on Print o the Wave with my new silk. I was kind of disappointed that it’s not a pattern that I can use up every inch of yarn. But I’ve been obsessing over it the last couple of weeks and can’t wait to start! I want to show something to the knit group next week!

Just wanted to wish everyone out there in the internets a happy new year, in Hawaiian, of course! Yarn acquisition continues at a break neck pace. I bought 4 skeins of Cascade 220 at Aloha Yarn. That store was really nice and I highly recommend it. They don’t have a whole lot of hand dyes, but a nice variety of yarns in a very comfortable little shop. I hope to go back there before I leave, since this last time my dad and kids were waiting for me in the car, I pretty much had to go in and out. The owner, Nanea, is very nice and helpful.

I am currently working on some felted clogs for my boys but I couldn’t get gauge, so I decided to just knit a bigger size and keep my fingers crossed. The problem with that is that I ran out of yarn! I only need enough to seam, so maybe it’ll be ok. I’m a little worried that the Lamb’s Pride will be too hairy, so I decided to try and make some out of Cascade 220 (any excuse to buy more yarn). I’m almost done with the pair and it’s looking really close. There is more yardage in the cascade, so I think I’ll be ok. We’ll see very very soon. AND I want to do more felting projects because my parents have a top loader!!! :)

OK, now my gripe about the US. What is the freaking deal with having Region 1 only DVD players? It really pisses me off. In other countries (except maybe Canada), all DVD players can play all regions so you can buy DVD’s anywhere and play them. My poor boys can’t watch Nemo because we bought it in Germany. Luckily, we have lots of Region 1 titles too.

Hope you guys have a great new year! And if you haven’t already, go and listen to the 11th and highly controversial episode of Knitters Uncensored!