So, I actually HAVE been knitting, I just haven’t had the time to write about it. I finished my first pair of socks! YAY! (Maybe I already wrote that) The problem is I don’t want to wear it because I don’t want to wear them out. How sad is that? I started on a pair for Michael, and with the suggestion from Ingrid (my SP8 spoiler), I decided to do the Jaywalker pattern at MagKnits.

The sock that’s too small for Michael

OK, so it’s all my fault that it turned out horrible. With all the moving, I misplaced my measuring tape to check the gauge, so I just went “by feel”. I had no idea that the tape measures here ONLY has centimeters. On both sides! Does that make sense? I mean I know they don’t have English measurements normally, but there are a lot of British/American things in the craft world where inches would be useful. I checked several stores only to be severely disappointed. I started on the bigger size, but as I was knitting it, it just seemed too big. And based on the last sock, I wanted something tighter. So I started on the smaller one. Everything went fine. The Regia yarn that I got accentuated the zigzags, although it’s not as luxurious feeling as the Cherry Tree Hill yarn. After I turned the heel, I had him try it on and his ankle area is so big that it doesn’t fit. I got so frustrated that I stopped knitting. I didn’t want to start over again. So I figure those will be my socks and I’ll just start new ones for Michael.

My new Lorna’s Laces yarn! I ordered some Lorna’s Laces yarn and Arwin and Joey brought them over for me. Look at these scrumptious colorways! The baltic sea colorway (the one on the right) is MINE!

So this morning Michael allowed me to sleep in until 11am. And then after that, I went out in search of more yarn shops to update on my yarn shops page. I am so super addicted to getting this page done. Last night I mapped out a whole route of 9 stores. I ended up dropping 2 of them so that I don’t take up too much time. So, for 3 hours, I was criss-crossing the city looking for stores. It is so much fun, it’s like treasure hunting.

On the way to one of the stores, I passed by this cool furniture store that sells Stokke brand furniture. I’ve only heard of the super outrageously expensive kinderchair, but they had adult chairs too. And yes, they were ridiculously expensive (like 2k), but ridiculously comfortable. I was very attracted to one chair called the “Gravity” and it is the most comfortable chair I have ever sat in. It is like a La-Z-Boy, but not as offensive looking. Kind of like IKEA’s version of a La-Z-Boy, but it is very well made and just like floating on a cloud. It is a little bit scary reclining in it, since it is like a rocking chair, but the sales person practically jumped into the chair and it was fine. The thing that was the most cool was that I talked to the sales person entirely in German and she didn’t switch to English. I was so happy. Making some progress. I told her maybe my husband will buy me this chair for my birthday. (Hint Hint) By the way, my new yarn site is at http://www.mountainwerks.org/MunichYarnShops. Check out all my hard work!!!

I also went chocolate shopping for my SecretPal8. She is a chocoholic, so I figured for my first batch I will get her a bunch of Munich-made or German-made truffels. I couldn’t decide on which one, so I basically got her one piece of everything that they had. I also bought some chocolate for “hot chocolate”. I am also sending her some of those candy chocolate eggs that are so popular with the kids. She has 3 kids herself, so hopefully they will join in on the fun too.

I have an idea to create a web page that lists all the yarn shops here and include pictures and the brands of yarn that they carry. That would be really useful. It was fun finding places and taking pictures though the windows. Some places were not yarn stores (got the name from the yellow pages), so it was like a treasure hunt. So excited when I find a new store and severely disappointed when I got sent to a dead end.In the evening, I uploaded the pictures and created a separate blog with all the information. I’ll have to go back and take better pictures. Blogger is kind of limited with what I can do. I want to add ratings and have a different layout. I’m exploring other options…

Done with the hat!

In the afternoon, I really wanted to go yarn shopping. So we went out to Marienplatz to Ludwig Beck. On our way there, we ran into Steve and De Knipple. It’s so cool that the city is small enough that you actually run into people you know. And it’s not like we know a lot either! Michael at this point decided to turn around and head home so that I could take my time shopping. I was a little disappointed. I expected a lot more. They pretty much had the cheapie yarns, no imports, just German and Italian yarns (or at least that’s what it seemed like). They only had a handful of stuff in a billion different colors. I bought some trial balls to see if they will work for the project that I’m starting.

After that store, I decided to check out Galleria Kaufhof and Hertie for their selections. Kaufhof sucked and really didn’t have much. Hertie I thought was the best selection, even though it still was the cheapie yarns. I bought even more trial stuff to play with.

I’m working on a pattern for my cousin, Lynn. I would tell you what is is but she reads this blog so I can’t until she gets it. It’s kind of funky and it might be a little bit too “out there” for her. We’ll see. She has to at least take a picture of herself with it and then she can throw it away. I’m sure she is dying to know what it is now. It’s not that big of a deal…