Peachy Knits

New domain - peachyknits.com!

2007-10-23T15:34:00.000+02:00

For forwarding purposes - I can be found at www.peachyknits.com/blog !

on the move, again!

2007-01-24T13:39:00.000+01:00

But this time, not fleeing, just changing my blog!

From now on, you'll find all knittery things here:

http://peachyknits.wordpress.com/

It's just a matter of layout and so on - I'm a bit unhappy with the new blogger, so wordpress it is from now on. Hope to see you there!

Lala la la Lala

2007-01-24T09:04:00.000+01:00

Reporting which that is finished: the melon Shawl!!

It is still blocking in my room, taking up all the floor space thgere is, and I have to reblock the points on one of the small sides again - because I ran out of pins! But it is more than a whopping 2 meters long (I blocked it for length as it was already wide enough), and when wet the KSH smelled like wet cat. Mew.

So the first lace project for the year is done, only two more to go (but I fear more will likely come!), at least to go with my total for the year. I won't cast on anything til Friday, as today I have to figure out how to get the underskirt of my ball gown sewn inside - the pattern called for the skirt just to hold up with a rubber band inside, which was theoretically fine - onlyx when I have that around my hips they flare, and one of the things I definitely don't need is flaring hips. So last year I had it tugged up underneath my breasts, but that kep slipping, ending with me tangling my legs in the skirt - not pretty. And as the bodice is sewn exactly there to the main outer skirt, I could easily sew in the underskirt there - just that it is nearly 4m of fabric bunched together with said rubber band.
I guess the easiest way would be to get the rubber out, minimize the circumference of the skirt to just what I need around my torso, and sew that inside. Should be done in under two hours, I hope. Haven't been sewing latley, so that might take a while to get into it again. But luckily the only pats of the underskirt visible are below my knee where there is a dramatic gap in the outer skirt to let the underskirt peek through. I will post pics tomorrow from the whole ensemble with stole, me inside, so that you can get a better grasp on what I am rambling about here.

Hm, dragons?

2007-01-23T09:22:00.000+01:00

First, about the title - I have the pattern for the Heere be Dragone Shawl at home for like half a year, and still haven't cast on. I might do the hidcote garden shawl before that, but it definitely shouts at me to be knit. And Lime & Violet featured a song in their podcast about the old Dragons & Virgins thing - I just love that song. Just cannot remember the URL of the great bards who sang it now. Just fitting, isn't it?

Yesterday I went out and got myself some running gear. And I tried on my ball gown - I sewed it last year all by myself, and somehow had strange nightmares about it not fitting anymore - but it's perfect. I still have about 10 cm of edging to do, but tonight the melon shawl will be done, and ready for wear on Thursday. Yay!

reading too much fantasy epics is bad for me - now all kinds of strange ideas for shawl pattern run rampant in my mind. I've long been planning to design my own shawls, or generally patterns, but now this becomes sort of an obsession. Maybe I'll make one or two during the time I won't be able to knit nearing summer ... don't know yet. And just maybe I'll finally buy a domain for myself, put of a good homepage, blog there and should I ever get good patterns together, maybe sell them there. So many options, so little time ... But that's really for the far away future, not like next month or so.

Why did I even start this post today? There's not really anything of value to write. Nothing much happens these days ...

reflections

2007-01-21T12:26:00.000+01:00

I just posted an update post of my melon shawl on the Victorian Lace KAL - for more details on that, just go there.
As a teaser, here's a pic of the eding progress:

There isn't much more visible than the actual yarn, as the pattern will only come out when stretched - but I should finish it this weekend! Yesterday has been a bit too troubled, but I only have to go like 15 cm on the side, then the lower border, and the 32 repeats to the beginning, and I'm done! That should be about the time I catch up on all the Knitty D and the City episodes I somehow lost in iTunes. And forgot about. Comepletely. I'm such a dork ...

From here on, no knittery yarn porn thingy. I have warned you, now comes something personal, so if you don't want to get into my crappy reflections - LEAVE!

Now, I do really like to ramble on in my posts here, rambling being one of my great passions. And this time the title really has a purpose (as to all other times, usually) - because I spent the last week reflectingt my life. And playing Mah Jongg excessively, but that's not worthy being talked about. And just shortly before taking the pics of the stole one thing hit me:

I'm the only one responsible for making my life miserable.

Now you will say, Duh! So let me explain:

Now, I just deleted baout 20 mins of rambling, so I'll be cutting this short: I've been deceiving myself. I'm perfectly happy with my life, my study, my boyfriend, and fuck all those people who brought me to think I'm too fat! Hell, if that's my only fault, I can slim down to 50 kg easily within 2 years, but can you cgange a crappy character as easily?

What all this is about is that during the course of the last year I rediscovered a side of myself that has been laying dorment for years, having been repressed by others for a while - my creativity. Writing is my true passion, and has been okay with people for years, but actually creating something crafted has not been wanted in my surroundings for years.

Now I found knitting, I really like it, and somehow it all screwed over my life, with the only strong wish to change my lifeand just be creative as the lone driving force. It has made my 8 hour days a neverending string of unendurable slow minutes ticking by, making all other things muted.

But that is so wrong - no one will ever take my creativity from me, it's a part of me the same as my inner force to study things, working in science - the second passion I harbour, and are going to make to my job, being nearly destroyed during the last months, just because everyone always expected me to just want that. I want both, and from now on will love both, as both will define me.

Mad genetic engineer designing knitting patterns before going to bed, doing naughty things ;)

heck, that's just me! And I'm proud of it!

And tomorrow, I'll go out, find myself some nicely fiting running clothes, and go for a run, ehm, wlak with some fatsre steps, in the evening. Not because I want to slim - butbecause I've always loved being out in nature on my own, letting my body drive itself to exhaustion. So I'm fat and I haven't been doing sports for years, so the first few trips will be awful, but do I really care? No, they won't be awful, because I will be outside, and will be happy. that I won't be running 10 miles in one hour is clear to me - why should that even be my goal? My goal is just to be outside, sweat a bit, get those lumpy muscles moving, and have fun! Running has always been such a strange competition for me, like, okay, now I'm on the road, I should jjust run verey day now and slim down, because they expect it of me - now is this strange, or just plainly fucked off?

Oh, and as an ulterior motive - should I really take up jogging regularly, I will inevitable slim a bit, and then I will need less time and yarn for projects, so that's definitely a motivation.

Now, two adorable cats:

end of rave. start of happy life.

Tinkering again

2007-01-19T10:37:00.000+01:00

I'm just a little peeved today - with everything. But in a good vibes way. I guess I'm already halfway into the weekend, and now doing nohting, sitting raound here, that's making me mad.

I guess that's why I retinkered on my template again. I soo cannot decide whether I want the sidebar to be on the left or right side, and the colours - oh well. I guess tinkering with the template is my number one reason why I even blog. Sounds strange? So what, I'm a geek.

After complaining so much about the waxed paper and the knitting needles, I have to admid that when I changed dpns yesterday (because the cat attacked me and one of the two I'm using for the edging got stuck between the chair and its armrets and was unfindable for hours, so I had to get another one) I realized that after knitting for 3 hours with it it had already smoothed significantly, so I guess I don't need that stupid paper anyway, just time for knitting. Meh.

This then inevitable led to further considerations - why buy needles for 9 EUR a pair when I can get 15 for 15 EUR? Yes, talking again of the ebay shop of my doom, although there is a new one,t oo, here. At least new to me. But the needles from the needle shop are great - just not all soo smooth as some of the more expensive ones. But ... I just saw that I also carry their sets for circular needles with 100cm and 150cm length (39'' and 59'') - the latter one with 3.25 and 3.75mm needles, too! That means - lace knitting needles!! I just hate it to knit my lace on a 60cm or 80cm needle, as it all bunches up and until binding off I won't se a singe detail - those would surely make that easier. And they are soo cheap!

Ok, stop. I guess I spent enough on needles already to buy yarn for like 2 pullovers. But ... well. I honestly don't know what to do now. I'd so like circs with fancy coloured cables, and they do have that, too. And for knitting in one piece but not in the round my 80cm are waaay too short - the provincial waistcoat would get even more of a problem that way. But can I justify buying at least one set of needles, again?

I guess I should cast on for that damn project before buying ANY new needles. But as I don't intend to buy any yarn right now, apparently I have to buy needles. Stupid.

Still not extinct!

2007-01-19T09:17:00.000+01:00

Now exactly what I thought would happen, happened - where I and the various parts of my family lived nothing really happened. Even a plastic bag I forgot on the balcony was still there, this morning.

At my mother's, there were some problems, but considering that she lives just near the territory where the damage was worst, a few fallen trees are nearly nothing. Hurricanes are just not the same here as anywhere else. But then my country wasn't the worst afflicted, either.

Now to more knittery things - I nearly completed the first side of edging on my shawl yesterday, just when the howling of the storm became too loud I went to sleep - I seem to sleep best in bad weather, and when I woke up in the morning, everything was fine. Apart from the cats looking rather sleepy, but I guess they had their fun, looking out the window watching the trees for the better part of the night.

I guess that the way the edging progresses, I will be done tomorrow evening, should nothing big interfere. I even found more cat food, so I can go shopping saturdays. Oh, I'm writing from work, as the storm died down to a breeze this morning, not even more than slightly windy.

Thanks to all people leaving comments about my needle problem - I asked some people in the lab, and got the adress of a craft store that should have some wax paper. I still don't know why it's so hard to find anything here, but taken how long I had to search for good yarn stores I should not be so surprised. Most things crafty are not en vogue around here, still. I guess by the time I get this paper I will have used the needles long enough so that the usage alone will have softened the surface.

Here it comes ...

2007-01-18T22:31:00.000+01:00

Kyrill has reached us, finally. I guess all people in the western / middle european regions know what I'm talking about. We just happen to be visited by a hurricane - from Britain and Germany the reports have been worsening during the day, now it's comeing to us. I'm still believing that we will not be hit quite as hard, but I'm living on the outskirts of the city, there are a lot of trees around here - if we really get up to 120 kilometers per hour wind speed here, I'm so not leaving the house tomorrow. If I ration it, I still have enough cat food until saturday, so no need to risk anything.

When I left work today, there wasn't even the slightest breeze at the city core. One hour later, at home, it was already windy. Two hours ago now I went outside on the balcony, secured the flower pods underneath the chairs, and brought anything less stable in with me. For the first eve since months the cats showed no notions of going outside with me, the usual highlight of the day ...

I don't really fear for my life - I'm quite save here, even more so if I really stay inside. But we are really not used to such weather, and just now I'm all alone. Maybe if the howling gets worse in the night I'll get the cats to join me in the bedroom - comfort for everyone. I just hope that my collegue who is heading to the airport tomorrow to fly to colorado to a meeting is on the save side, too.

Uhm ...

2007-01-18T10:37:00.000+01:00

A lot of people are writing about knitting said provincial waistcoat - but I couldn't find a single blog entry or pic of anyone starting it. Meh! I'd so need a report for possible damage assessment. And to know which needles to buy.

Okay, just after writing that I did another search, and even found 1 entry plus comments - and now I'm scared. I think my yarn might not be up to the gauge anyways, and the needle sizes ... oh well. Size US 10 (6mm) are way too large for me - I measn for calbes? Are those people insane? I guess I'll just go with the yarn requirements.

Talking about obsessive ...

2007-01-18T09:16:00.000+01:00

After getting the good, good news that my mum only drops in for like 30 min. today, I yesterday had the whole vening for just loading the dishwasher, concerning housewifey things - which I did today in the morning. The cats were also kind of crazy, running around in the bookshelves (near the top of course), not needing to lie on my knitting, the best place a cat can be - so I sat down at around 7 p.m., did the last repeats on the melon shawl, and started the edging.

I was really kind of scared of that edging. The shawl is my 4th lace project, after Scheherazade (Mystery Stole 2), birch bottom-up, and Icarus. I did edgings before with the MS2, but that was with life stitches from the last row still active, no borders etc.. Yet after reading the instructions for like 5 times and not comprehending much, I decided to do that what a friend of mine always told me when I messed upo the choreography in aerobics classes - don't think, just do it (with a hint at a major stortswear manufacturer, to be true). It worked then, and it also worked with the edging.

I've already about 20 edge repeats, and the pattern I already memorized pretty well, although I tend to forget the 3 BOs in the third WS row (row 6). And now I also understand what I have to do once I get the the turning points at the corners. Pretty simple, now that I have deciphered that mystery.

Really, the longer I knit lace, the easier it seems to get - and I don't think it's practice. I guess it's just loosing the fear and knowing that after blocking catyack - as the lovely Misses Lime & Violet put it - blooms up into the most wonderful pieces of lacework that just look like I never could have possibly knit them. The only thing about lace is that depending on the pattern you just have to keep alert while knitting, and have to know your place. With the shawl here it's easy - the pattern repeats are small both in size and row numbers, and after like 3 repeats in every direction it's easy to just read the lace and know just where you are and what you have to do next. The edging is pretty much the same, just small enough that it goes waaay faster ;)
With MS2, where there were no pattern repeats, I just worked in 10 stitch squares with lines drawn on the chart and stitch markers within the work that I slipped every row. The worst I ever got lost was about 9 stitches either right or left - easy enough to recount and move on. And until now I have not yet found a pattern where that method would not work. I might need more stitch markers, but with enough time every lace piece should be conquerable!

Talking of said lace pieces, I guess the way it goes the malon shawl will be done beofre the end of the weekend, probably already in the wee hours of Saturday morning should I choose to stay up tomorrow. I tend to do such things when I'm hooked on something. And I have about 12 DVDs I'd like to rewatch, so ... well. We'll see.

Thinking about what to do next, I'm a bit in a conflict there. I'd really like to start the Hidcot Garden shawl, as the KAL is already up and running, and the first pics I saw online made me drool a bit. On the other hand, I wanted to knit the Forest Path Stole for months, I'm signed up for that KAL, too, and although they officially start on February 1st, I'm not really in the mood to wait very long. BUT I would need good dpns for that, and the bamboo ones I work the edging now, well, for KSH they are good as the yarn tends to slip a bit and on the edging I wouldn't want to pick up fallen stitches - but for a whole stole that would likely make me crazy, that unslippage. I have a good source for wooden needles, I guess I might even order today. The last time they arrived pretty fast ...

So I guess in the end I will end of with the Hidcot Garden Shawl - for that I do have everything I need, I just have to decide on a yarn. I guess I will be using my Jaggerspun Zephyr, same as I plan for the Forest Path Stole, too - I just have to decide on the colour. I guess blue for Hidcot and green for the Forest - it's just soooo hard if you have the choice!

Now that was irony.

Speaking of my bamboo dpns, I tried to make them slicker yesterday, using furniture polish, but that did not really work out. I read online that peaple used wax, but I don't know where to get any (I guess rubbing on candles won't work either). I even tried skiing wax - don't ask. But at least the needles did not change for the worse, either. So should anyone havce a good suggestion - please drop me a line.

Well, and still no sock knitting yesterday. I just didn't want to cast on for the Kews. Maybe I should just take another yarn and save the STR for later. And I soo want to start the Provincial waistcoat. Maybe I should order needles for that, too. My bamboo circs are not all that good - the others are just so much smoother. We'll see.

So I guess that's it for now. Seeing that so many people have those "100 things about me" lists, I might do one too, and backdate it so it is not too obvious. But should I do that, I will post a link, both in text and sidebar.

2007-01-17T12:41:00.000+01:00

Well, I like such lists - stolen from someone's blog (cannot remember whose)

48 thing you never wanted to know but will read anyway
1. FIRST NAME? Barbara
2. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? Not really, but my great grandmother had the same name
3. WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY? When last watching Titanic. I always do. I'm such a sissy ...
4. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? Kind of.
5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCHMEAT? I try not to eat meat for lunch - but ham.
6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? I guess.
7. DO YOU HAVE A JOURNAL? Two blogs and some old fashioned papery one,s not in use for 3 years nearly.
8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? No - got them removed TWICE.
9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? I don't think so. Only for really a lot of money.
10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Kellogg's Smacks - but I don't eat them anymore.
11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? If they need untying ...
12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? Emotionally not. Physically, yes.
13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR? Strawberries, and Hazelnut.
14. SHOE SIZE? Don't know for other measuring systems, but from heel to toe I've got roughly 25 cm.
15. RED OR PINK? depends on the exact colours.
16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? My endless rambling.
17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? Sad but true, no one.
18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU? No!
19. WHAT COLOR PANTS, SHIRT AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? Light brown pants, dark blue t-shirt, black lab slippers.
20. LAST THING YOU ATE? Breakfast - a roll-kinda thingy with ham.
21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? The stupid computer next to me
22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Green, that green of early growth.
23. FAVORITE SMELL? That's tough - right now my bodyshop eau de toilette. jasmin.
24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? My bf who had not time for me
25. THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE YOU ARE ATTRACTED TO? Wierd and strange details I then have to stare at for like the next 5 years.
26. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON YOU GOT THIS FROM? I don't remember, but I read the blog, so I guess yes.
27. FAVORITE DRINK? Our wondeful tab water - better than evian.
28. FAVORITE SPORT? Inline scating
29. EYE COLOR? grey/blue/something
30. HAT SIZE? seriously, I have no clue.
32. FAVORITE FOOD? Italian and Asia-related
33. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? Please no happy endings.
35. SUMMER OR WINTER? Spring?
36. HUGS OR KISSES? Hugs
37. FAVORITE DESSERT? Tiramisu or Ice cream
38. WHO IS MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? I guess that's from the mail thingy - now it's blog, so no responders likely.
39. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND? see above.
40. WHAT BOOKS ARE YOU READING? Right now like always 10 at a time. But mostly re-re-re-reading The Wheel of Time seried form Robert Jordan (Book 3 right now). But make it epic and fantasy or urban horror - that's my genre(s)
41. WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? Don't have one here
42. WHAT DID YOU WATCH LAST NIGHT ON TV? Strange things while zapping through.
43. FAVORITE SOUNDS? rain on the window, waves.
44. ROLLING STONE OR BEATLES? the stones!!
45. THE FURTHEST YOU'VE BEEN FROM HOME? Iceland
46. WHAT'S YOUR SPECIAL TALENT? I could be a published author if I ever sent my 1000+ pages who actually has the power to publish them :)
47. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? Vienna, Austria, where I still recide.

WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? Stolen from a blog

Uhm, well ...

2007-01-17T12:16:00.000+01:00

It's really strange, but I feel somewhat under pressure because of the few KALs I'm participating in. This is still stranger as there are no deadlines approaching, and all. I'm just a bit on the freaky side of things, lately, I guess.

Yesterday I needed about two hours to get the flat straight, spent 1 hour in front of the computer, and knit like 6 rows. I guess the "I will knit soo much" week planning was abit on the optimistical side of things ;)

I'm a little peeved that my mum comes either today or tomorrow - I mean it's now my flat, and she should be a bit more concrete. I hope for tomorrow, because with a little luck we won't see each other. I'm just sooo not in the mood to quarrel with her because of my general messyness. As if that was the most important thing in the world. Meh. If the flat weren't so nice and cheap I would move out just tomorrow, to be true, to somewhere were she couldn't just drop in any day she liked.

See, I'm stressed, depressed, and generally a bit on the down side today. I guess I'm really heading towards a big depression, kind of the clinical / medical type, not the "oh, today I'm lazy, call it depressed" kind of thing. So many things don't make sense lately ... and don't get done. So, well.

Oh, nice

2007-01-16T11:19:00.000+01:00

I just got my weekly stats of the site count meter, and apparently some poeple are reading this blog! Most hits are via google or the kals I'm participating in - linking does work, somehow.

But now to more important things. First off, my mobile rocks. I just wanted a phone I can take some snapshots with, and therefore it is perfect. Plus it has a radio receiver, so I can listen to my most favourite radio show each morning, now. And the battery still holds. I just wanna use it so much now, and I honestly don't have anyone to call. All my usual suspects are already getting bored with me calling them. I'm such a poor baby ;)

I also photocopied the pattern of the provincial waistcoat today so that I can take notes - and started to write down the instructions for my size seperately. It's just such a mess with all the different sizes having different numbers in nearly every single line of the pattern - twice. But I will go on, and eventually it will work, and I might even cast on this very week.

Yesterday was a slow knitting day, I just did two repeats of the melon pattern (60 now), and after stretching the thing I decided to just do the 62 repeats as in the pattern, that's by far large enough! I guess I'm running towards 2 meters already ...

I'm somewhat looking forward to spending the next evenings just with my cats, sipping coffee by the podwise, and staying up till 2 a.m. or the likes ;) will get a lot of knitting done, for sure!

Planning

2007-01-15T09:12:00.000+01:00

Squee, I'm getting my new mobile today! In just about three hours it will be mine!

Yesterday I did cast on with STR nodding violet lightweight for the Rapid River Socks - but the pattern does not look good with that colourway. I saw someone doing kew from knitting with the yarn, and it was sooo beautiful - I'm a copycat! But the yarn is without doubt the best yarn I ever knit. It just does not slide, even with the long tail cast on it did not significantly unwind, it just flows over my needles, and the 2 inch I knit felt really good on my foot, stretchy yet fitting - perrrfect. I guess once I've decimated my sock yarn stash enough, I'll revisit the blue moon fiber arts website and buy some more.

I also decided to cast on for the provincial waistcoat from the current IWK issue - I know I talked about slimming and waiting and so on, but I guess it will likely fit me for loosing the next like 20 pounds, and I can always start tricksing should I really loose more. I mean 20 would be great anyways ;) I just cannot put on one of those lovely meters for slimming because I will not go near my scales until I know that I have slimmed what I have "gathered" since my parent's seperation. I'll do the waistcoat in rowan RYC cashsoft aran in bud, a light greeny yellow. I so love colour and yarn ...

Oh, and the colourmart yarn I talked about lately arrived last thursday, with having been shipped on monday. Really neat! And it's such a ... lovely yarn. I will knit three or four strands together, but even the lace weight silk is soo beautiful - gotta get more should I ever run out of my current stock ;)

So that's it for today I guess, no more yarns to drool about, no more projects I will cast on for and then let them rest for better times. But for me just planning and starting is worth so much - and it's my money and my flat space that is used up by those projects, so who are others to complain?

just rambling

2007-01-14T15:56:00.000+01:00

I just counted my melon repeats on the shawl, and I'm at 58 out of 62 - only 4 more to go! And not tugging on the monster, just holding both sides between my arms, I've already reached my maximum wingspan. Blocking, and of course with the added border, it should approach2 meters soon. I guess I'll NOT do some extra repeats, even with my stocky torso that thing should wrap around me enough.

I guess today I nearly knitted 10 repeats, catching up on podcasts of the not snot-laughing type (yeah, I did that when the pony boy hat came up. And I sooo know what that is ;)) - but now my arms are protesting - I think I'm about to get cramps in the sinews just below my elbow. I've had those critters in my legs when I was doing 15 hours of aerobics when I was 16, and never wanna meet them again. Taken, in your right arm it's better than in both legs, but I have to work really a ot with the full use of fingers and arms from tomorrow on, so ... I guess that's it for today with knitting, at least the lace stuff. It's only 4 p.m. on a sunday, and I'm done for the day? Not likely ... I guess the sock will come up waaay sooner than I expected. Sorry for typos, by the way, but my fingers are really not oin the good side today. It I were a little less obsessive I'd give up knitting for the time being until my carpal's are done, but hey ... it's all about obsessions, now isn't it? Life, I mean. What's left when you take out all the obsessions and passions?

I'm a bit sad that I got non of the lime & violet etsy yarn from the latest update, but hey, I have like 7 miles, that should be enough for now!

Now something totally knitting unrelated. Once again I'm listeing to Garbage, singing a bit on the loud and false side - I so love Shirley's voice. I'm just mentioning it because the track list finally reached the first album, and I was playing that on endless repeat whgile reading Jordan's Wheel of Time for the first time in english, obsessively. So much for obsessions, again. I think I cannot do anything without obsession and still find it worth the while. I guess that's why my diploma thesis has until recently evolved into something hideously that graps me on monday and spits me out thorouly chewn up on friday night. But htings are working now, just 7 weeks before the end of it, so who am I to complain?

Until now, 2007 has been a really good year. Not really relation-wise as our relation is something like stagnating for months - but not in a bad sense. Just in a I'm depressed and don't need headaches to say no, but it will get better anyways soon! But my creativity really is taken up by other things lately, and I've got no energy to speak off, so where should the rest come from? But I'm really not complaining, apart from job troubles my life has never been so good. When all problems will be sorted in 3 months or so, and I've just got the final exam to learn, I'll be the most happy person on earth. Well, probably after passing said exam, but still - life is good, so why should I complain? I just have to refind that spark of life again, but I guess it's already sitting in front of me and I just have to take it up.

Hm, getting a bit philosophical here, scaring away people reading this ;) But hey, it's my blog, it's not like anyone HAS to read it. I also don't read it, what's visible from the many mistypings. I do know pretty good how to spell and write, but my fingers get a little too fast sometimes. That's what you get from typing english on german keyboards ...

Finally, Pictures!

2007-01-14T11:26:00.000+01:00

First off, I finally came round to making pics of my Jaywalkers:

I used about 62 gr. (half the hank) of Lisa Souza's Lime & Violet Colourway in Merino Sock Yarn. The patterns are nearly symmetrical in both socks, aligning in leg and foot parts pretty good. I'd already wearing them the second time around, and really like them. I cast them off just two hours short of the start of the new year.

Yesterday evening, I also finished my first pair of socks for the Lime & Violet Sock Marathon 2007:
I used the Anastasia pattern and yarn bougth on etsy from yarnahoy in Old Earth:

Éowyn just loves them ;)
I did not measure the exact amount of yarn I used, but I'm too lazy to calculate all that- I'll just knit 10 pairs of socks. That should fit, as I guess I used more than the required 250 yards per pair anyway. The pattern is really beautiful in the colourway I mean, shifting the blue and red parts around appealingly on both socks. I did change the original pattern in so far that I knot both socks with k2tog instead of one with ssks, and read the chart from left to right, as it was an even row.

Right now I'm only working on the melon scarf - I still got 11 days left, rather 9 with the blocking, that should be enough. Right after that I'll cast on socks with my STR yarn - don't know which ones (pattern and colourway), but that's up next. For the larger projects, I plan on really taking up jogging and swimming again next week as it's still fairly warm around here, and once I do that I will inevitably slim again (I always do once I'm really into it), so I will use less yarn, and it would be such a waste to start now. grin.

next week I'll be spending most of the days alone as my BF is away from tuesday till sunday - just me, my cats, and yarn. And the flat to be cleaned thoroughly again, but as I will count that as sports too - I only clean like once every two weeks, thoroughly like only 6 times a year, so that's really hard work - I will still have plenty of time for my knittery love. And I plan to get my new mobile phone, the old one really needs to be exchanged after 3.5 years. Can't be a techno freak with such an old phone. I'm going to get the Nokia 6103 - a little old already, but hey, I just wanna TALK with it, maybe take a few snapshots, but that's it! Even on the newer model I couldn't fit one episode of lime & violet for listening to, and I just need my iPod when I decide to listen to somehting. I don't just require 100mb, I need the 30 gigs, with like 400 cds. I'm just such a geek.

okay!

2007-01-12T12:26:00.000+01:00

Now I have my blood count - guess what?

Everything's okay!!

My cholesterol and other fat values are at below 2/3 of what they could be, my sugar's just at range (family problem, a bit), but that's not critical, immune system is okay, too. The only value that is high are my prolactin levels, but as I hormonally check not to become a parent that's to be expected. To sum it up, for a 23 year old girl who takes contraceptives and who is a little lazy lately I have perrrfect values. I'm healthy as ... I don't know, you name it. A little more jogging, sweetener instead of sugar in my coffee, and I'll be an example for healthy blood counts.

I'm just so relieved - and sassy. Yeah. Just feeling good.

The good, the bad, and my cats

2007-01-12T09:05:00.000+01:00

So today I've calmed down a bit again. I still don't have the report of my blood count (will get that in my midday break), but yesterday in the evening I sat down in front of the TV, my knitting basket on my left, a purring black cat on my lap, aantilopes galloping over flooded prairies on the screen, and took my blood pressure with one of those wrist measurement instuments that are not that accurate, but can't be too much off. And what did I get, twice? About 100/90. Looooow low sytsolic pressure, taking that I was nearly dozing off and the cat purring like mad to facilitate this even more, and no caffeine in my system, I guess that's normal for me at that state. My mum also has low blood pressure to the point pf dozing off every late afternoon while reading or watching TV, that's in the family. So I'm OKAY now again.

Phew. Jumped off that panic wagon soon enough. Truly, I'm still mad at the doctor, but rationality already peaks through the gaps in my rightious fortress of self-defense - I could just have said, uhm, you know, I'm not feeling all that well, I'm a little peeved about the whole checking my votals, please measure my pressure (nice forumulation, isn't it?) in like 15 minutes again? And oh, I was rather sporty until two years ago, so even with digress I still have to climb up to my flat like 100 stairs a day, same at work, I can't be THAT out of the normal frame.

What really makes me so furious is the fact that I don't even need the means of modern internet search to read the strange things he put in the fiche for the blood count. I know what hyperlipidemia is. I know that I don't have it as a) the values in my whole family have always been good to low (yeah, there are people who have to dress flabby and have low, low bad cholesterol), and the last blood count I got was also okay - and I neaver changed my eating habits since then. I also don't eat enough fat to have my blood swim with lipids. And anyway, that usually comes as a genetic disorder anyways with people who eat too much but rather healthy. Umpf. I had like 3 lectures in biochemistry that concerned metabolism, I can f***ing draw the chemical structure formulas of the metabolic products of all these metabolic pathways where our vital signs come from and what shows in blood count. I'm three months from my final exam of my study, biochemistry being one of my major subjects, I just HAVE TO KNOW THAT!
End of rant.

To more lovely things, I've yesterday started with the third ball of kidsilk haze on my victorian melon shawl - I'm somewhere around 45 repeats out of 62 for the whole inner stole part of the thing. Maybe I'll even make it larger, starting on the edging somewhere save, knitting til the yarn starts to dwindle, and end with the last few cm of yarn ;) I still have till the 23rd of January, the ball being on th 25th when I want to have it done - anyway I will make it! But no more sock knitting. And I also stopped in progress of the arwen cardi as I plan to take up jogging any way now, and when I slim I can make the cardigan longer and smaller in size, and oversized garments are the bane of anyone who just slimmed like 5 kg (my rational goal for now). Meh.

And my cats are so cute. Really. I just looove them!

so ... that's it?

2007-01-11T09:51:00.000+01:00

I've got a bit of a mood lately, and today it's too much to hide it - mostly because I'm anxious.

Now why? Because I've been to the doctor 2 days ago - hate to see doctors, but I wanted to have my hemogram (blood count) taken so that I know when I'm 35 and they find anything, that it has been okay when I was 23. Duh.

Okay, wehat do I expect? Normal yet in the high ranges for cholersterol and triglycerides - fat values to you. Why? Because I don't just eat carrots (although I love carrots), and I've been on the chubby side of life for like ever. I did slim down when I was 18, like 20 kg in 2 months, in like what in retrospect was a huge "I'm out of puperty but HELP ME!" cry - and no one said anything. Like it is normal that an 18 year old suddenly looses nearly a quarter of her weight. Yes, I did eat nearly nohting for two months. I had a lot of blanks, too, that's why I started eating afterwards again, and within 4 years I had made up for that again ;)
Then my parents started their divorce, and I gained ... a lot. Steadiliy I might sa,y with stress at work and not time for sports / practice - go figure. But I've always been healthy, I gain weight becvause I eat too much, but not fast food or just fat things. I'm just too good a food utilizer. Come the next ice age I will be a survivor for sure ;)
Just three years ago I stopped going to the gym regularly, but until then I've had good pulse, low blood preasure, and all. Just a little too chunky, but healthy enough, thank you.

So two days ago I venture into the doctor's (internist) lair, already a bit peeved - I hate it when skiiny docs look at me like I'm an alien. I'm not that fat! Until recently I've been doing more sports than most skinny girls my ago, so please, give me some credit. So I'm not very happy to start with, then he does some tests, ultra sound and so on, and I'm a bit short of breath because he keeps pushing the ultra sound thingy very hard into my lower abdomen. He has me sit up, takes my blood preasure - and it's like 190/100. 190!! I don't even know anyone who ever had that high a blood pressure. And what does that man do? Hands me, 23 yera old gal, blood pressure reducing pills, and sends me to take my blood count this week. I was just so dumbfounded that I didn't even say another word about it, and at home like mechanicall too a pill.

And then started the five worth hours of my life. Me having high blood pressure? For sure not then.- I was not able to read, to knit, not even plain stockinette, and not able to follow CSI on TV. I just sta in front of the TV and felt like dying, with my heart pounding and the world taking spins around me. When I wnet to bed it only got worse, and I was up and reading til 3 a.m.. Then things got better, but even now, 1.5 days later, I still feel a little weird. And why? because I did not need that crap, and it sunk my normal blood pressure into the ground!!

I'm surely not going back to that doctor, even if my bf thinks he is a good doctor. That guy should have let me calm down in the waiting room for 10 minutes, and my levels would have been normal. Heck, 1 year ago there were normal!
But I went to get my blood count today, and if everything's fine I'll go visit my General practitioner next week and tel him about that. I'm just freaked out still. I mean, who can anyone justify that behaviour? Just because I'm fat I have to have high blood pressure, so I need meds? I mean my pressure cannot be that high when the woman taking my samples today needed like 1.5 minutes to fill 4 vials. With high pressure that should be spritzing out like ... whatever (I love "spritz" - I also saw it last week on a cosmetic spray, it#s so funny to see german words in english language).

Whee!

2007-01-09T09:33:00.000+01:00

a.k.a. the follow-up post to yesterday's Squee!

So I did try out my new knitting needles, and already cast on for the Arwen Cardi (followingly called just AC), and am already knitting on the larger sized needles in the back. I did mess up a bit with the yarn as I have 14 skeins of one batch and 7 of the other, so now I'm knitting 4 rows with batch A, 2 rows batch B, 4 rows A, you get it. The one colour is a bit more grey, the other more blue, but it does not really shjow up. And most importantly: my gauge in knit and purl stitch remains the same. On some needles I clearly change, but with those everything stays and the overall structure is even. Yay! And the needles are just sooo cool. Smooth yet with enough grip to not let the yarn slip. I should have bought them months ago ...

Oh, and I went yarn shopping yesterday, on ebay, and bought 10 skeins of RYC Cashsoft Aran in "bud", a nicely limey green. I do like the colour, you know ... it's for the Provincial Waistcoat, featured in the latest IWK (winter 06). From the band I should get gauge, knowing me I will be at a little less stitches per inch, so knitting the thing just off the pattern will provide me with just my size, coincidally 2 inches larger than the last one posted (I guess). Whee again!
I was so hunting for that yarn since I bought one skein last year at Liberty's, after monning over the yarn for like 20 minutes, hogging the yarn section and driving other costumers off with my erratic looks.

Speaking of erratic, and because I saw it mentioned in another blog, readwise I've again fallen for my "epic fantasy of doom" series once more - Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" Series. Reading the books for like the 4th time ever. Since I don't even know which one of the latest books was the last I read, and even the summaries could not help me, I started to re-read all books last year - and two weeks ago I took up the third book again, by now I'm hooked again as ever. Knowing that I still have 3 good books to go makes reading fun again. I just keep hoping that towards the end the story will pick up again. So much hope ;)

Squeee!

2007-01-08T12:04:00.000+01:00

My knitting needles just arrived!
First, that was really fast. I ordered on the 4th (thursday), and today our secretary brought it to my writing place - even letters sent within my hometown (a.k.a capital of the courntry) might take longer. Duh.
Second, they are so great! The texture is just ... nice! Just like the needles I bought in one of the stores in London, just cheaper ;). Now I have long straights from 3-6.5mm. So I can just start knitting on the Arwen Cardigan tonight!

I already found a project for the Jaeger Shetland Aran I ordered and that didn't knit to gauge for the AC - I'll knit the Rogue Pullover with it, as it is nearly on gauge for that, and I need to change the stitch numbers anyway because of the extra little more me I carry around. I'm just happy I didn't already start, 2 large projects at a time is a bit too much for me.

More about stash

2007-01-07T08:40:00.000+01:00

After doing the stash dive for the Sock Marathon, I yesterday decided to organize the rest of my stash, too, putting everything (useful) down in a spreadsheet. Useful because I don't count the various balls of cotton yarn I used to use for a crochet blanket I am too lazy to complete. Sewing 150 granny squares together, I'm getting a chill only thinking about that.

What I came up with was only half as bad a I feared - 60.7 km or 38 miles - not too bad. There is useful yarn for about 6 pullovers/cardigans there, and a loadful of lace shawles, too. It is not that bad.

Now the only thing stopping me from casting on for the Arwen Cardi is the fact that I don't have the needdles for it. I hope they arrive soon.

On the sock front, I'm knitting on the second Anastasia Sock - and decided after 3 pattern row repeats to not do the second sock with ssks and spiral going the other way, but just knit the first sock twice. I'm also not quite sure if I did not knit the pattern mirror-wise anyway in the first place - I have knit with charts long before using written-out instructions, and I fear I read the chart from the wrong side on. BUT the socks are lovely, the eyelet spiral nicely pronounced, and all. Pics will follow when both socks are ready, and the jaywlkers are dry again.

I'm Undone

2007-01-05T10:51:00.000+01:00

Just look at this ... revelation! It's a cone from Colourmart Uk ebay shop, and I just have to have it. 100% silk, 150 gr per cone, 2500 yards, and they even wind it for free up to dk. I am sooo in love! Forget the link I posted yesterday, must have this yarny goodness!

Now I was going to buy some yarn today, the LG from yesterday's post, but now I'm uncertain. No, for sure I'll buy both, as I still have to swoon over lime green silk yarns, but still ... 3 cones would come to just over 50 dollars, I guess that's roughly 40 EUR, I guess that would be enough for a pullover, or maybe some lacy cardigan. Still, it's silk, hm. The Debbie Bliss Pure Silk I knit with was on the brink of extincting me (now can you say it that way? actively brink of extinction usage. Hm. My english gets worse every year ...). Well.
Oh, I just found the perfect project - Sahara from Stitch Diva - should be perfect! And when I run out of yarn, well, who said I wanted to make long sleeves anyway?

Okay, I just bought it. 4 cones, plus shipping, less than I will spend on yarn today. I'm so crazy (but until now I haven't found a good yarn for Sahara, and I won't use a 20$/skein Tili Tomas yarn anyway). Now this is solved. I really payed more for sock yarn orders, lately, so no complaints. And I don't have stash, nooooo. Please keep looking elsewhere.

So I'm off work for the day - all is done, and I gotta do something else, too. Weekend, finally! (after 2x3 hours of work this week, I'm soo lazy).

No cat-being wishes right now

2007-01-04T15:08:00.000+01:00

Oh, they are soo poor! My freshly neutered cats, I mean. Normally I so envy them for their life (apart from that "no opposing thumbs, no knitting" part of their lives), but yesterday evening I've just been one fussing pile of pitty looming over them.

To start with, they puked like 5 times each, for hours. The smaller (the black) one, Eilistraee, did get well faster, she was the first to wake and crawl around (and piss herself) even though they put the larger one under first, and had also picked at the wire stitches long before the second cat even started examining what was missing and what not. So cat number two, Eowyn, weighing a 0,07 kg more, was like sick for he whole day, and in the evening she even puked up that worm. I already talked about that, no more puking since then, but a small pack of misery she was, curled up on top of the scratching post, not even opening her eyes when i talked to her or scratched her behind the ears. I was even thinking about calling the doctor, so apathic she was.

Now this morning, at 7:30, both cats were already complaining for fresh food in front of the bedroo door, making me jump out of bed like mad, the image of ripped wounds and cattery misery before my eyes - to find both critters demanding food, looking all like normal, just being pesky. After the run for the food both played at being miserable again, but every time something stirs, they are up and running, so the pain seems to be diminishing already. They even hunted a spider half an hour ago that had the nerve to sit 1,5 off the ground at the wall, and both cats jumped up like nothing bad had happened or might hamper their well being. I feel just a little bit played by them, but the misery yesterday was real, and today they well deserve a bit of playing sick. Just their cunning boggles my mind. They are way smarter than me, I always claim to be all right while I'm still sick. Should look at them for ideas next time my core temperature goes towards meltdown.

So now to ther things. I completely got over the restriction thingy yesterday, and bought some knitting needles on ebay, long straight bamboos. I already have a lot of bamboo needles as I bought them also on ebay from a hong kong seller, and I'm all happy with them - I mean they are not as smooth as the pair of 3.75 cm needles I got from the UK when I visited last year, but they cost like 17 EUR for 15 pairs of various sized circular needles. I also got the shorter straights and dpns - and now want the long ones, too. catsrating the cats cost less than I planned, so I gotta spend the money!! But the new neddles are from another seller, and come with a rolling case, and double cost, but it's still cheap. Now why do I justify buying needles I probably need, sometime in the distant future? No, they are also for the arwen cardi, mind you.

Arwen cardi, good topic to venture on. I gauge swatched yesterday with yarn I originally bought for Eunny Yangs Argyle V-Vest - asking for not-superwash and getting, yeah, right, superwash yarn. SoI have 7 balls of sky blue and 8 balls of dark brown Lana Grossa Cool Wool Merino Big - and plan to stock the sky blue up to have enough for the cardigan. I could even drive to the yarn shop now, but then I would have to dress for outsides, leave the cats alone, and well, go outside! I'm so lazy today, I don't think I'm going to do this, now. They still have open til 6:30, maybe I find the will later.

Listing to the new lime & violet episode just before blogging, I'm a little relieved about the sock marathon right now. I guess after knitting my ten pairs, I don't want to count the yarnds. Ten pairs of socks in 3 months should be enough ... I don't know what's it with me and competitions anyway. As if anyone, even me, cared whether I come up with 9, 10, or 11 pairs. As Miss Violet already pointed out, it should be FUN, not stress. duh.

So ... I guess for my next project I'll buy yarn here. I think I found that shop before, but it appeared on the L&V message board today, and there's something with me and light greens ... any sky blues, and lilacs ... I don't always look good in pastels I just love to look at them. My old blog was lime green for a year, and I sort of still miss that here - but changes should be changes, now should they not? But I still plan on knitting from my stash, as I have a load of summer yarns, just not now.

Oh, and my Vogue Knitting Holiday Issue finally arrived, after ordering the suscription in october. I just hope that the winter issue is here before it is too warm to think about pullover knitting. IWK is way faster. But I'd just love to knit that frilly coat on the left. I generally like the designes of the IWK more, some of which has to do that they mor eoften include my size in the patterns, so I don't have to do calculations for like a week before starting to cast on, but the last 3 issues of VK have been quite to my likings - I just want it to arrived within the month of coming, not 6 days before the next issue comes out. But when I wrote them a month back they answered "please except up to 14 weeks for new orders" ... I mean why do they need 14! weeks to send me my first issue when I payed some days before the new issue was first shipped? Even if it takes a few days to process things, and maybe add it to a second shipping - 14 weeks? I guess I was lucky with only 12 ...

I just feel like writing now - I guess that was innitiated by a) knowing that during the university break I might get a few stories published that get me enough money to buy yarn, at least, if not live from it, and b) I got a feedback on a story I wrote like 3, no 4 years ago! When I read it I at first did not even know what story the guy might be talking about. Phew, I'm getting old ... old 23, hehe. Which reminds me, only 1 month till my birthday, new excuses for yarn shipping - I just love the cold season of the year. So many happy events ...

That's it for today. I should probably update that sidebar.

p.s. again, for nad: Die Wollmeisenwolle ist es wirklich wert - seit ein paar Monaten gibt es in vielen deutschen blogs Bilder von den Socken, und sie strickt sich wirklich gut - vor allem mag ich das typische Nylon in den Opal-Sockenwollen nicht, weshalb ich die der Wollmeise liebe - greift sich absolut nicht an wie als wenn ein Plastikuntier da hineingekommen wäre. Und die Portokosten sind auch für mich der Grund, warum ich, sofern ich jemals keine Sockenwolle mehr habe, wieder dort einfallen muss.

Uh, no idea for a title

2007-01-03T17:47:00.000+01:00

Now the last post somewhat sounded a bit ... harsh and bitter. I am not bitter!! NOt at the least! Ah., IN the least, duh. I'm just a blogger who uses her blog to vent off steam. Sue me ...

Just the 3rd day of the year, and I already dropped out of the Knit from your Stash thingie - I did not actually buy yarn yet, and I still plan to do a lot of knitting from stash, but the restrictions ... let's just stick to !"i don't go well with restrictions, even self-inflicted ones" for the while. Bad experiences 2 times in the past, and I don't want to bother you guys with that - my own personal crap.

Today I really don't have a mind for anything, although I'm happy that my yarn from the UK arrived - I cannot use the Jaeger for the Arwen Cardi, but I have some Lana Grossa that should fit, and just have to buy a few more skeins tomorrow ... see where this is leading? But I don't see why I should postpone one project for another like 10 months because of that. And I don't like restrictions.

Hm, maybe I should really venture on about that - venting off and stuff like that. But I had my two sweet kitties catsrated today, and they are sooo poor, my sweeties! Just trotting around, barely moving, lying in small balls of cat, and just being miserable and in pain. One of them is still nautious, and she even hacked up a worm, ick! But now I know at least that she's got to get treatment for that, too, when we go to get the wires removed. Normally the thought of my cats having worms just creeps me out, but she was soo poor, I just hunched over her for about 10 minutes and just comforted her. Can't carry her because that hurts the wound. I'm just such a sissy when it comes to my cats.

So I took today and tomorrow off (still having 11 days of leave and from next week on y boss won't allow me to take them, so I gotta have time with the cats anyway) - and then the idea sprang up about the yarny goodness I might bring home with me when I hop out for food - yes, it means leaving the cats for two hours, but they appear to appreciate being left alone, and I can
remove their saucy leftovers any time later, too. Plus worms, should others dare to appear. Ick.

And I opened a new, old bloggfer profile for KALs. This is just getting on my nerve otherwise.

Hm, just escaped the posh yarns site, too. Phew, that was close. I just hope I'll never surf the site when the sock club is open again.

Und übrigens, Wollmeisengarn unbedingt kaufen. Ich weiß, ich bin gemein ,)

What's it with all this?

2007-01-02T10:17:00.000+01:00

I've already been contemplating this for days, but right now things to bitch about are piling up. Bitch in the sense of rambling on about, less complaining.

First, this post on the blogger help sections:

Some users are having problems accepting reader and author invitations on the
new version of Blogger in beta, and see an error message when they log in to
accept. While we sort this out, the workaround is to send the invitation to a
different e-mail address. The invitee may still accept the invitation with
whichever Google Account he or she wishes. Updated, 11/20: This is now resolved.

Uhm ... no?!
I already had these problems with my old beta blog, then I made the new peachyknits here, in old blogger, joined the L&V KAL, and now that I switched to beta here again, I cannot join the Hidcote Garden KAL!! I now will try out that thing with the different email address, but what should that change? And it is not solved!!

Okay, so I'm a bit bitchy about that in the real sense of trhe word. The rest now is rather rambling, as stated above.

So, as that was first, now comes second:
What is it with me and joining communities online?

During the last 7 years (starting on Dec 1st, 1999) I've been hooked on online communities. It started with joining local chat rooms - not to find any kind of friends, be they of whatever depth of interest, it then went on to forums of all kinds, and finally blogs. I usually stay for half a year, and then things get either boring or comlicated, and I move on.
Now I guess with this I'm really a child of my generation. Contrary what some stupid (now I mean really stupid, as in not knowing what they are talking about but still making a fuss people) parental associations here claim I've never been a complete loner. Yeah, I'm a geek a.k.a. girl gamer, I actually know stuff about computers, I study a breathtakingly complicated subject at university, I'm entitled to geek, and proud of it!
But with all that my "normal" social interactions have never suffered. Even improved I would say as programs like Skype or ICQ help keeping in touch when people are not in the country, or have no time for meeting or even phoning. All works online better, without problems of time zones.
Heck, I even got my boyfriend off the internet! Although that was rather, uhm, a mistake. I never was there to look for someone, but even before my whole profile was online he was hooked to me, and well - now we've just had our 2.5 years anniversary, and fit together like, well, twins. Nearly identical interest, with enough variation not to bugger each other too much. Would we ever have met "in real life"? I don't know. Probably would have ignored us, although for a time we even frequented the same university building parts (and it's pretty close there, so we would surely have met).

Stop, I just saw I got my first comment here, squee!!
Now going on:

But apart from that I'm more than happy to keep online stuff online. I don't want to meet people whose blogs I read, or with whom I chat. I'm sure you guys are all allright - but please keep to your nicknames and leave me with mine in my secluded area of the great world wide web!
Okay, so that is the reason why I fled my old blog. I wanna be on my own, and then I'm too polite when poeple ask to meet with me. And send me handknit socks, meh (it was after a secret pal like thingy, and she was so happy as my spoilee. I really spoilt her too much!). But now, in this like 10th comunity I won't run into that kind of trouble - no, no, you are all 1-10 timezones away, that's okay ;)

Okay, third:
What's it with me and appreciation seeking?
Now herein fits the comment. I haven't even read it, it's probably spam, but last week the reader frequency rose from non-existent to a select few, and now I'm happy. Now isn't that stupid in itself? Do I only "live" online so that others can see it? Now this one really bugs me. But I guess it stems from my parents never really appreciating what I did. The downsides of being nearly bet in class for 12 years of school ... well. Let's not dwell on that.

Forth:
What's it with me and my stash?
I'm like drowning in wool and yarn, and stuff, and still I rue committing to the Knit from your Stash 2007? Why do I feel like having to go out today and buy some more yarn? WHY??

Fifth:
Not really a 5th, but I have to go out today and get the single CD of the new Bond Theme song, from Chris Cornell. I sooo love that song!

Oh ... my ... god!

2006-12-31T15:36:00.000+01:00

I'm really not religious, and should probably change god for entity, but hey!

13820 yards = 7.852 miles = 12.6 km

That's what came out when I calculated my sock yarn stash. It looks like that:

It consists of:

Esty bough yarn:
Gypsy knits: 3x 380 yards
Sophie’s Toes: 3x 350 yards
Cinnamon Stitches: 2x 500 yards, 1x 400 yards
Pigeonroofstudios: 2x 185 yards + 3x 170 yards
Miss Violet: 450 yards
Ruby: 3x 550 yards
Yarnahoi: 3x375 yards

Ebay: 3x 420 yards

Regia Bamboo & Silk: 4x 440 yards
Lana Grossa Meilenweit Cotton: 3x 415 yards
Socks That Rock: 2x 370 yards
Lisa Souza: 2x 560 yards

Now is this crazy or what? And it is stored in here, bought two days ago for other stash, but as the previously used box became too small I had to move it!

I'm a sock yarn whore!!

This really is bad. I never thought it to be that much. I knew it was a lot as it kept growing in size, but I did not even see it at the level on money it cost as last year was the first year I earned money every month with varying intensity, so I never saw what was spent on yarn directly. uuuh yeah :)

But now I'm set for the marathon, and that's my goal: 10 pairs of socks over 3 months, using up 1.5 miles or 2650 yards. I calculated it at 250 yards per pair of socks, plus some as some patterns use up more or I might go for higher socks when I try out knitting them from the toe up. And only 8 hours till the start is for me, here, but I will likely not cast on for another 10 hours - sleep and such.

I surely could have gone for more, but I also want to do the cardi for arwen, and the melon shawl, and I also signed up for the Hidcote Shawl KAL today, so ... yeah, I'm a busybody!! Terrible, really. I'm already really worked up about this whole issue, you know? Giddy and all. Now I'm alreda ytsrating to act like my poor cats in heat - my bf really is the only one around here not being mad at the moment. Poor boy ;)

Progress, of a kind

2006-12-30T23:46:00.000+01:00

To be true, I did not really have any great kind of christmas knitting stress this year. As all the years before, as I have only been knitting "seriously" for a year now, so last year it was struggling with a cardigan I have since frogged and reknit about 3 times, and will likely never finish. And, I might have posted it already, I generally don't make a lot of christmas presents, just my parents, the kinda boyfriend of my mum (the pendant for my dad does not even get recognition, you know, the whole "that b*tch destroyed the marriage of my parents" kind of thing), and my own highly cherished boyfriend - that's it. Why so few, no friends on the list? Because 7! of them have birthday between 3rd of december and 6th of january, so if I had to buy christmas presents too I'd be broke till July. But some of those guys and gals require knitting, and this year I did the icarus, already showed here. And mom got a birch, and binary from the current knitty has been in planning but was stopped after about 15 cm. I like fair isle (novice still), but I had neither nerve nor time for that, this year. Maybe next - I know a whole lot of geeks anyway. So I resorted to starting knitting socks, and the medlon shawl.

Why do I post, you ask now? Because I used up my first skein of KSH for said melon shawl, and now it's already 23 repeats long, 23 of 62 or the likes. So I might even be left with one unused skein should the border not eat up 2. Well.
And my jaywalkers are nearly done, too. Just a few more rounds and the second toe will start, after that (fits) I just have to redo the first toe, too - not that stubby toes after all, it seems ;)

Today I also created a new profile at yahoo for flickr, and joined the Lime & Violet Sock Marathon - so tomorrow I will go stash diving, yards counting, and probably set some spare yarn up at ebay. I'm the only gal in the world who has opal yarn and does nt like it. But for a defense, I did not know how ... squishy it was, and sounding, as I did not get it beforehand, and well ... we'll see.

We will spend the next two days alone with our cats - who just became randy like hell - being in heat for the first time ever - and the last time, if I can help it! When the first one started this morning it was still funny, but now they are both singing and showing us their cute little bums, and it really gets on my nerves. I just hope I don't have to spend all my christmas money on the vet, but better now than in 2 months when my paychecks will stop for a while. But they are still so cute! Just a little too horny ...

Photo update

2006-12-27T13:51:00.000+01:00

I redid my picasa web album, here: Peachy Knits

Now there's albums for my cats, socks, lace and the fibers I recently acquired.
First, my etsy "I gotta get 'em all!" spree, using up my christmas money:

Plus some Lisa Souza

and my swift, a gift from my bf:

Here's a closeup on the Birch I knit for my mom for christmas:

The full view of the monster is also in the web album, I'm just too lazy to post that, too. I knit it bottom up, but nearly never ade it - it was so boring, and I din't like the yarn after half the shawl was done. It was just like ... I don't know. We didn't match.

Aren't they adorable?

Here for more catsy cuteness:

Oh no, bad knitter!

2006-12-27T13:01:00.000+01:00

That's about how I feel, right now, or something like that.

The last time I thought something like "oh yeah, noiw your stash is so large, you should do something for yourself/some else/accomplish someone to earn new yarn" it ended with several hundred dollars (in the low range of "several", but still) burned on etsy yarn, mostly consisting my current stash in sock yarn.

And now, the Knit from your Stash 2007 is launching - and what do I do, just 4 days before the new year? Buy yarn of course!!

To be true, I really needed it. No, that's not the lame "oh I want it so I need it" thingy, but I really didn't have yarn for the Arwen Cardigan - it will now be knit in Jaeger Shetland Aran #38 Lilac - and the small words "reduced" and "free shipping" was what made my poor paypal account scream once more.
And there were these words some more, and some Rowan Cotton Glace also jumped into the shopping card - probably used for the new stitch diva pattern Sahara. And the best - good yarn I don't get here, 1kg each (for a laaarge sweater, about 20 usual skeins worth), for under 100 dollars. I just love Jannette's Rare Yarns!! Both my yarns here are discontinued, but I got enough for like 1,5 projects each, and she's so fruiendly and all, and also cheap in still available yarns. I got a lot of rowan kidsilk haze some weeks ago from her, and now this - she's definitely my number 1 ebay seller, ever, UK based so no customs troubles and costs either.

But that's it for now. No more yarn this year, and none until october next year, likely. I figure my Lisa Souza order pending still on my side will probably contain lace wheight yarn too, so it should count, but somehow I will get raound that "no yarn till september ends" anyways ;)

And I should update this sidebar, definetly. And do the photos, picasa is already waiting ...

overly ambitious

2006-12-21T19:30:00.000+01:00

It's not as if I didn't have a little time to spare most evenings for knitting, but this ...

There are so many, many KALs going on right now that I simply cannot join them all. But I have joined / will join these:

- Knit From Your Stash 2007 - Wendy called for it, and I will answer, mostly because I'm drowning in stash yarn, and more wants to come in - I could even afford a little more, but well - and I will also try not to do that buy sock yarn thingy for quote some time.

- Victorian Lace KAL - if they wanna have me But I will knit the shawl on the cover anyways, in the exact same yarn but a bit wider, to go with my ball gown (in dark blue and vibrant green).

- Lime & Violet Sock Marathon 2007 - but I will be doing it rather like the usual marathon runner - participating and finisheing's the goal, not topping anyone else. Knitting just for myself.

- Miss Violet's Pink Ribbon Along - I keep this up as I plan on getting the yarn, but have to save up a bit - so that Lisa Souza will likely be my green card (and sock yarn besides) from the whole not-buying affaire.

- Arwen Along - I soo fell for this pattern, and now there's the kal ... do I have to say any more? But I will likely modify it as my hips and butt are already large enough and don't need cardigans stopping just between the two.

So, for anything further, I alreday have the yarn for Frost, Flowers and Leaves from A Gathering of Lace, and Heere be Dragone Shawl (independent pattern). I will knit both. Some. Time. Should I ever have a day off. Hm, hey, wait, there's christmas holidays ... noooo! X-Mas 07 more likely.

And still too lazy to take pics with the cam.
Well, okay, here are the cats:

From katz

Éowyn, most active and clumsy cat in the house (of two).

From katz

Eillistraee (Ellistree spoken), worst Diva. Ever.

Horrible, terrible ...

2006-12-17T09:19:00.000+01:00

Yeah, it was, two days ago when I found a notification in my post telling me that yarn had arrived - and went straight back to the post office. Plus taxes to pay, meh. THis thing happens from time to time as it is on the brink of being legal to just "import" yarn from the US and not pay the taxes we put on all things here. Most people, like Sarah from sarahsyarns.com adds "gift" to the sign on the package, or writes a much lower value so that even should someone pick it out of the hundreds of other packages, it slips through. Well, this one did not, and the postage paid was a little too low - so it got stuck. But I'm more unhappy about the beautiful yarn having to have stayed at customs for two weeks, not coming into my caring stash box reserved for its likes, and not about the price. It wasn't that high, and as the yarn had been relatively not soo high priced ... well. Now it's here, and I'm happy.

Now all but 3 of my madness induceds etsy purchases for christmas self-satisfaction are here - oh yeah, and I'm not lazy here, I have been ill for the better part of the week, and stupid enough to work on Friday, so hgh fevere and constant diarrhea it's been for me instead of christmas party there. Meh².

I did finish the first lime & violet KAL jaywalker, but pics will follow later, I promise.

And I honestly think about doing two "knit from your stash only" thingies - I have a terrible amount of sock yarn from etsy now, and even with a sock a week rates I will just for that use several months - and there's the lace weight drowning in boxes, and that one package of rowan kidsilk haze ... I cannot afford to buy yarn next year anyways, because I will be out of job from about march to september, and trusting on the alimentations my father then no longer has to buy to continue is such a thing ... well. At least I have the yarn already ;)

As knitting is still a bit hazardous with my health status - dpns and started socks ready to fly when I raze towards the loo, cats well behind me to catch the yarn and/or sock, go figure ... maybe I take pics of everything, wind it, and then take more pics. This blog is still so pristine, that has to end! And yeah, I should start customizing that sidebar, too!

Confessional, and such

2006-12-13T10:49:00.000+01:00

So today I receied three (in numer, 3) packages of sock yarn. Yeah, a few days back I went a liiitle bit, just teeny weeny bit crazy on etsy ... and now yarn drops by here nearly every day - I'm in heavene!

Well, technically I should be in bed. Because I am ill, again. For the like 10th time this year, no exaggeration. The new year will hopefully bring less stress, and a visit to the doctor looking at my vital signs and what roams my arteries, blood-vise. I've been ill a lot as a child, consequently having had an immune sysrtem like a VIP club bouncer - until last year when my parents went crazy, one after the other. Some might call it divorce, I call it just plain crazy. And from September 05 on I've been more often hogging the bed than since my last OP when I was 7.

Weehe - more knitting time! If it can be called knitting when I'm having a hard time between coughing up tea and not snotting my jaywalkers full of, yeah, well, snot. Meh. Not so good - but I can at leats stare at the yarn that just arrived, today.

Which is - 2 pairs of socks that rock! Nodding Violet and Puck's Mischief. One is in light and the other in medium weight, just to see the difference. And I'm soo drooling over the yarn - had to repack it swiftly so no damage can come from that.
Also my yarn from cinnamon stitches (argyle, mer and blueberry pie) and yarn ahoy (Old Earth, Carribbean Gold, and MT Vernon Ave) came - and now drowning in sock yarn. And I'm so itching for more Lisa Souza ... but as I spent about double my christmas money already, I should probably at least wait for the credit card bill to drain my bank account before ordering more.

So for the rest of the year, and possibly a lot of next year too, I'll be knitting socks. I already printed out a lot of patterns, so that should not lessen my progress. Hopefully. But then I also hope for the promised Lime & Violet book, so I'll have to buy more yarn when that come out, and so on. Meh, I have to get a better job to buy more yarn!

FO: Snakes on a Sock

2006-12-11T14:12:00.000+01:00

Snakes on a Sock!!

Kreeping down my legs, just now. Yesterday I finished those cuties:

From socks for blogs

took me about 1 week, and 57 gr. of Lisa Souza's Sock! Merino yarn, in Mahogany. Enough left for another pair of socks, bf already shouted for a matching pair for him.

I just love the pattern, curtesy to Miss Lime, and the yarn! The colours! Sadly the yellow parts are at the sole part, but the darker portion line up nicely on both socks.

And I started Jaywalkers for the Lime & Violet KAL. Looky here:

From socks for blogs

Fly away ...

2006-12-11T14:03:00.000+01:00

... on icarus!

From lace

Took me about 2 months on and off, and 104 gr. of uruwool lace merino - just 4 rows before BO the first skein ran out, so I had to reorder some - colourway luckily fit perfectly.

Sadly not for me, but a gift for a good friend - luckily she' a bit taller than me, because I would get a kinda devil tail from the bottom - looking cute, at least my bf said so, but then he is not the right one to ask such questions!

And the new knitty now poses a problem for me - time-vise. I had planned on being nearly finished with my pre-christmas-birthdays-knitting, but then the binary scarf went online, and I happen to know two geeks who have birthdays on december 3rd and 25th respectively - so off to the LYS I go! And as for getting into the right mood we were weatching the whole matrix trilogy this weekend again. Just love it.

innnnovation!

2006-12-07T09:08:00.000+01:00

My dear readers, I guess all who have made the following experience will be with me - and those who have not, get one!

I'm talking about my ball winder that finally arrived yesterday!

So for years, or at least one year, I was perfectly happy without both swift and ball winder. I mean when knitting only balls of yarn, who needs fancy stuff like that? And then my first lace project came, and with it 400 gr (about 15 oz I guess) of superwash sport/sockwheight yarn came, in a huuge hank. 1300 yarnd of yarn. Yummy. And it took me about 20 minutes to get everything tangled up badly, and 1 week to finally bring it into ball shape. So after that, the forearms of my boyfriend had to jump into the water, making things easier but me also bitchier because of constant yarn tangling because of urges to move on his side. How dare he?!
After 3 rounds of that he was martyred enough to build me a swift - not an umbrella swift, but just two parts of wood, forming a cross, another one like it underneath, the top part rotatable with sticks extending for yarn holding. Cost about 10 bucks, and 2 hours of work. Now things went rather swiftly, pun intended. But still, my fingers always ached after unwinding a whole hank of sock yarn, or even worse, lace weight yarn, and the outcome was rather ... well, bally in the least, offly shaped at best.
And last week, finally, my greed succumbed to my aching fingers, and a ball winder ebayed it's way into my life. Yesterday, the prestine thing, attached to a small stool next to my chair, was first taken into service - and the first hank was wound within 10 minutes, cat action included. 10 minutes. For what had taken me hours until then. So the followiung was that I spent another hour winding, and now nearly all my yarns are wound - sadly, so I had to endulge myself on etsy a bit more, to get more yarn. Just for winding practice ;)

After that I was positively restless, and completed the first snake sock, and cast on for the next without hesitation - no second sock syndrome yet, I just wanna wear them! Next will come Lime & Violet coloured Jaywalkers. YXet without the knitted cast on. Yeah, I know, I've read about it being bad for socks, but as my usual long tail CO was to messy last weekend for whatever reasons, I resorted to this, and it's not too tight - at least the sock stays up. And looks rathger nicely, although the pattern does not look great on pictures. Maybe it will come out better when both socks are finished.

Snakes biting my toes

2006-12-05T21:16:00.000+01:00

At least that far the first sock is going - look for yourself:

From socks for blogs

Here you also see "the hole" - I tried to avoid it when picking up the stitches around the heel, but then ankle ventilation rocks!!

Oh, and here the most beautiful Lisa Souza yarn (Mahogany) before winding:

From socks for blogs

Hello world!

2006-12-05T11:20:00.000+01:00

... or the likes. This is take two on my second blog, or something.

Why take two? Well, making a new blog on blogger NOT using blogger beta is horrible! But now everything should be fine ... or at leats I keep telling myself that.

So who am I? I'm me!! Now that was the answer to everything, wasn't it?
For the rest, I'm a 23 year old university student in Vienna, Austria, Europe. I'm a yarn addict, thanks to the lovely Ms. Lime & Violet now also to etsy bought sock yarn, and I actually knit when neither my boyfriend or my two cats keep me from it. Or work, or something.

My old knitting blog can be found here, but it's mostly in German, so enjoy the pictures and forget the rest. I moved from there to here because I want an English knitting blog, too. And hide behind the great annonymity that being European often conveys ;)
And it also explains the stupid times my posts will show up here - I don't usually blog in the wee hours of the morning, but only live in a time zone that can be queer for American folks. I know, because one of my best friends is in the US right now, and we usually skype when I'm not really awake in the morning, and he's staying up pretty late.

Last weekend I finally got my hands on my Lisa Souza yarn, and signed up for the L&V and the Snakes on a Sock KAL yesterday - pictures will follow, today. I promise. Sometime. Maybe they are even up before anyone reads this. By the way, I don't even know if anyone WILL read this, ever, or something. But I hope so - keeping a blog just so people can read it. Sounds queer? That's me!

Oh, and as a last warning, I'm really into changing templates of my blogs, so don't wonder when you come back and everything looks different. It comes from having had to learn html pretty well at school, never oggling css or php more than an hour - so to bring it to the point, I know some of the stuff, but keep on messing with the rest. A LOT. Because at wortk I cannot knit, because people think me crazy when I bring my sock yarn with me, so I have to do other things, like redesigning my blog. Oh, yeah, and working, but that's not that interesting, too.