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!

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This is why I do not do garments. I really really really suck at seaming. I’m trying to finish my Striped Lily the Pink for tomorrow (that’s when I have to give it to the recipient and it’s close to 5am) and I’m about to cry. All I have to do is attach the arm to the body, I’m trying to do an “invisible” seam but it is more like an ugly seam. I can’t do other seam stitches because the seaming yarn can’t show through. Am I missing something here? Why doesn’t it look like the pictures????? Argh, I have until 3pm, and I really think I will not make it.

…tears…

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Rowan, my poor baby I had a really long and full day that ended up with tears and a cast. My son Rowan was being stubborn with me today as we were walking home. We were holding hands and he decided he doesn’t want to walk. All of a sudden he throws all his weight down and I’m holding him up. He’s a heavy kid - like 35 lbs. So, he dislocated his elbow. At first I couldn’t tell anything serious had happened but noticed that his hand and arm were limp. Oi! Took the train to my husband’s work place and my other son decides to play with the door handle and falls in between the train and the platform. Geez, could this get any worse? Luckily, the gap wasn’t big enough for him to fall past his hips/stomach, but still a shock. Yeah, mother of the year right here! Two screaming children on the crowded train. We eventually make it to the hospital. The doctors had to reset Rowan’s arm twice and checked to see if anything was broken (it wasn’t), but it still hurt him so they put a 1/2 cast on him. Poor baby! He cried pretty much the whole time but now he’s sleeping happily in his bed. The cast will be on only for 4 days since nothing was broken. sigh… Now I need a drink…

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OK, I haven’t been knitting hardly at all. I’ve been so busy though. I was soooo hoping to go to the gym every day this week but Michael and co. came back from the mountains due to bad weather. So I’ve just been lazy and pretty much staying up late Skype chatting with Shannon from the SSK podcast. I love her, she is so awesome and funny and has me laughing so much! We gossip about everything and talk bad about everyone. Oh, I’m kidding. I even found myself going to Expedia and checking out the prices of how much it would cost to go to the east cost (she is in NJ). $600, not too bad. AND I can pick up Prego too! :) Ha, like I can afford it. So I told her that she needs to come and visit. See how I work? I think it’s so amazing that you can form such close bonds with someone you never met but have something in common. Do I sound like a stalker now?

I am *this* close to finishing the Billy Reid socks. But I’ve had to put it down because I am trying to write it up but can’t because the computer that the pattern is on is acting up. Hopefully I will work some magic and get it transferred to my machine. AND I found out that I only have ONE set of US1 circs. What the hell? I thought I had like 4. But I searched everywhere and I only have one and it is on the Billy Reid socks. Sucks. I REALLY need to start my Sock-It-To-Me pal’s socks. Or I need to get off my ass and buy one.

I did the fringe for my Montego Bay scarf and I like it, the fringe seems a little short though. I think for the other one I’m going to make the strips 14″ rather than 12″. It is a great scarf. Soooo boring, but it’s so nice and light.

I wore it to this photo shoot that we had for some weird German management magazine. It was for a “people in front of a white backdrop” project? Elem says that it makes sense in German. They are also going to interview us about our podcast/knitting group. I actually dressed up for the occasion, wearing jeans (hey, that’s dressed up to me), a turtleneck, my lovely scarf, and a leather jacket. And I did my hair AND I wore boots with heels. Anyways, I thought it was going to be a “fun” picture with our knitting. But no, this is Germany! We were just on the street, right in front of an apartment complex. With a huge backdrop behind us. So weird. I was so confused as what this was for. My first disappointment was when she said she was only going to do full body shots. DAMN! We kept pushing to do untraditional poses. She kept saying “smile. but not too much.” and “don’t put your hands in your pockets” and “look natural but not too casual”. geez. We were standing in the rain (ok, it was a drizzle) and it is so hard for me to be in front of the camera. I always feel I look so huge. Having the scarf to help block my huge belly helped. And she made me take off my belly hiding jacket because “the picture will make it look like it’s sunny and it will be weird for you to be wearing a jacket”. OK. I am wearing a FREAKING TURTLENECK AND SCARF! Hello! And Elem was wearing a jacket and Cashyie was wearing a cardi. WTF? So I was standing there, belly exposed and all. ugh. I have serious body issues! Then we said we wanted some fun ones and she was like “ok, at the end, only for you”. But I think those are the best. We were being silly and natural. What is the deal with these photographers? And then at the very end we all whipped out our knitting and we were soooooo happy and the photographer could tell. HA! I bet they’ll choose those because that’s really who we are. She just doesn’t understand. I felt like I had a fake smile the whole time…we’ll see how it goes. Elem said that it was for a manager magazine that you can’t buy (thank god) and it’s just handed out to managers. But they will send us copies, so that’s cool. They will probably pick the one that I look the fattest in and have the stooopidest face, always happens. My feet were so sore at the end! It was good to get those boots off.

OK, off to get more needles!

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UPDATE: After writing this (like the next day!), Jenn posted in her blog that she sent the letter last week! So my foot is going directly in my mouth. Can’t wait to get it!!! Thanks Jenn and I sincerely apologize for being very impatient and a big jerk…

So, I participated in Domesticat’s Knitterly letter swap and I received a lovely letter from Carin in NY who I was assigned to, but I haven’t heard back from Jenn in AR. I am a little sad about that. She is an English grad student and so not hearing back from her makes me feel like my letter wasn’t good enough to reply to. I even knitted her a wee tiny sock too!!! I know I’m not the greatest of writers and my letter may not have been that interesing but still… I mean, it could be that she is busy with papers and school and what not, but I also think that if you sign up for something, you need to do what you’ve committed to. I’m not mad, just a little disappointed. So Jenn, if you find this, I am still holding out hope that you’ll write - just a short letter would be good! :)

Or maybe I just complain too much… Or maybe I haven’t given it enough time. I sent her letter on April 12, and she got it sometime before the 19th. So it’s been almost 2 weeks. Maybe wait 1 more week?

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Going, going, gone!

OK, so lately I’ve been frogging things so many times. I think it’s because I spent so much money on the yarn that I expect to have something that I REALLY like come out of it. Unexpected poolings in patterns or the pattern just not popping out enough, or whatever. Such is the fate for my Scoutswag yarn. I love the colors of this yarn, but I just couldn’t find a sock pattern that I would be happy with. I mean, I can’t just knit a basic sock with it!!! So gone is crusoe. After I turned the heel, I just wasn’t COMPLETELY happy with it. I mean, if I spend all these hours knitting something, it should be something I’ll use and like.

So, I have decided to knit my first scarf with it. I never really owned a scarf until I moved to Munich. Oh sure, I had them, but never wore them out of necessity. But here you NEED them. I decided on the Tiger Eyes scarf. I’ve done about 2 feet and so far so good. At least I’m happy with it. I think I’ll be even happier when it’s blocked. Which reminds me, does anyone know where I can get blocking wires in Germany?

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Frogged Monkey Socks!

So I decided to use the Snowbunny Scoutswag yarn. But what pattern to use? I thought of Hedera, but then changed my mind. Then I thought of “Monkey Socks” and started with that. I had to alter the pattern a bit because it was too small. I knitted a good 3 inches before I decided that I didn’t like the way the colors were pooling and it totally hid the design. So I took a picture (not very good one) and frogged it. I finally decided on Crusoe from Knitty.com. I knitted about 2.5 inches and so far so good. I don’t think I anticipated having too much white in it. I thought it would be more blue/brown. I have to say though, I like the yarn, it’s very soft. When I look at it, it reminds me of neopolitan (sp?) ice cream. Even though it’s blue and not pink. I wonder how this yarn will wear. I think it will wear out sooner than my Lorna’s Laces and Wollmeise yarn, but we’ll see.

For some odd reason, Michael calls the Wollmeise “Weissmies”, I think because that’s how he read it the first time. Even though I correct him a billion times, he still says it wrong.

I also joined two knitting lists, one in German and one in English. The German one is good and bad. Good because I’m practicing German - I even sent a post and got some really nice responses, but bad because I get 200+ emails a day from them and have to sort though my mail. But, I asked about the handarbeit fair in Cologne and someone responded and said it’s only for retailers. Thank goodness I asked! Otherwise I would’ve gone to Cologne for nothing.

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OK, so it’s my fault that I hate it so much. I knitted this pattern once before for Michael and I had problems with it then. So I should’ve known… I thought I had everything right, but I finally turned the heel tonight and had Michael try it on. It is so dang tight! He has a really pointy heel (don’t know what that’s called, or maybe it’s a high instep). Anyhoo, so if I make it big enough to get around his heel, it wil