Christmas Plans and Projects

We are on pins and needles here, wondering if we will all be able to fly to Southern California to spend the holidays with Greg's parents. Greg and I leave on the 24th early in the morning, so I think we'll just make it before the coming snow storm. Chris is scheduled to leave on the 25th from Spokane, and Conrad on the same day from Seattle. I think the Seattle airport is having a harder time getting its flights out than we are because they weren't at all prepared for snow, whereas we more or less are. I hope all of us, and all of you, get to our holiday destinations!

To add a little holiday cheer, here's one of my favorite Christmas pictures of "Strohsterne," typical German tree decorations.

And now...a finished project! Here's a picture of Akiko's ballet sweater. I'll post another one later of her modeling it.

What would an entry be like without a picture of yet another WIP? I just started it yesterday, but I've had the yarn for a while. So in a way, it's not really a new project (I mean, I haven't spent money on more yarn!). It's a vest that I am knitting in the round, from the bottom up. The pattern was downloaded from http://www.tahkistacycharles.com/ and is called "Rocky Knit V-Neck Vest with Olympic Trim." The yarns are "Rocky," a thick and thin light bulky weight wool blend with bits of color blended into the main color, and "Olympic," a worsted weight wool blend. The pattern calls for knitting the front and back in two separate sections, but I decided to make it seamless, in the round. When I get to the armhole shaping, I will change to knitting each side separately. I especially like the bottom ribbing which is twisted.

We wish you all "Frohe Weihnachten!"

Record Snow!

Spokane has just set another record for snow--we got somewhere around 20 inches in a 24 hour period. Since the city owns about two plows, and they are busy with the main arterials, it could be days before we get plowed up on our street. We have an all wheel drive car, but even it can't get out when the snow is this deep. Our street is particularly difficult as it goes uphill on the way out.

Chris and Greg were both determined to get to work today, so Chris set out walking and was fortunate that someone picked him up on the way. Greg, on the other hand, decided to ski down to the nearest bus stop about a mile and a half away. Last I heard, he had made it to the bus stop. I'm wondering how they'll both get home now...

A Pair of Socks

Over the weekend my wrist started feeling better, so I picked up my half-finished sock and knitted away. Now I finally have a pair of socks! I plan to admire them for a few days, and then I will probably give them to someone for Christmas. I hope to get back to my other projects soon, but I know I will have to take it slowly still.



Working on the computer and writing things by hand are other activities that are still very difficult for me to do. The writing problem has led Greg and me to decide to send out our first Christmas newsletter ever. Usually we just hand write a note to everyone on their Christmas card. We composed our letter last night in a very self-conscious way...we don't want to brag or sound too self-absorbed, but on the other hand, we want to let people know how we all are. I really admire people who can pull off good-sounding newsletters, and I hope we manage to get ours out!

Pause

Two days ago I finally had the wrist surgery that I was so dreading. All is well, but it means I won't be blogging for a while, much less knitting! I have to keep my arm in a splint for 6 weeks, but I imagine I will be able to type and do a lot of other things with that arm in just a couple of weeks.



Bis bald!

Early December Progress

Akiko's sweater now has sleeves, and most of the body has been knitted. I still have about an inch more to knit on the bottom, and then I will add a ribbed band and a collar. The sweater is meant to be short--it's actually more of a bolero. It's exciting to see it this far along!

Here's a picture of the crochet vest I've started from the Doris Chan book. The straps and neckline will be added after the body has been worked.

I just got back from meeting my good friend Larayne (from our Montana days) in Coeur d'Alene. We haven't seen each other in several years, and we had a lot of news to catch up on. We also happened to find a yarn store, and, well, you know how that goes...I now have some beautiful gold yarn in my stash! Here are the details: it's made by Cascade Yarns, is called "Lana Grande," and is 100 % wool. It's a bulky-weight yarn that knits up at 2 stiches to the inch, so my project will go fast, once I get started.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving at our household was very relaxing, and the dinner turned out great. Greg took care of roasting the bird and making the stuffing, as he always does, and I made the other dishes. Here are a couple of pictures of the preparations:

I'm happy to have both boys home!

Beau hopped up on my chair when I got up--he seemed to want to be a part of the festivities!

It's Taking Shape!

Akiko's ballet sweater now has the sleeve stitches on pieces of scrap yarn so that I can finish working the body of the sweater. Then I'll go back and knit the sleeves in the round and add a collar.

I should be farther along on this, but I have gotten distracted, as usual. I ordered the book by Doris Chan called Everyday Crochet and have been trying to make a vest in it. Chan's sweaters are absolutely stunning, but her patterns are very difficult to read. Reading knitting and crochet patterns is a little like reading a foreign language; I would say that Chan writes her patterns in her own special crochet dialect. Anyway, I got pretty far along on the vest and had to completely unravel it. This wasn't only because the pattern was hard to figure out--my guage was off. I knew it was all along, but I thought I could compensate for it. I should have known better!

Ballet Lessons

Besides knitting and crocheting, I also like to go to my ballet lessons. They keep me in shape and are sooooo much fun. They're addictive, really. Our adult class has women, and sometimes men, of a variety of ages, sizes, shapes, and skill levels. I can't do some of the more challenging jumps anymore, and I can't do anything that involves bending backwards, but otherwise, I keep up pretty well. Here's a small group of us from last night:



And here's our teacher "Dodie":

She inpires us to keep working hard!

Ballet Sweater Beginning

The adult ballet-style sweater for Akiko is currently on the needles! The yarn is wonderful to work with--I'll definitely use it for other projects in the future. Maybe I need a ballet sweater too?...

You can see how this sweater is constructed--it is knit all in one piece on one circular needle. Soon I will work on the sleeves (on the left and right sides of the piece) separately, and then I'll continue with the body. It's kind of hard to explain, but the pictures will make it clear, I think.

And the second sock is progressing, although now I'm completely obsessed with the ballet sweater, so it may not progress very quickly. In the picture you can see that I've worked and "turned" the heel. The turning of the heel of a sock is an almost miraculous process, not difficult to do, but nevertheless astounding. After the heel is turned, there's only a little shaping left to do, and lots of knitting round and round, so the sock is soon finished--provided one works on it!

Project Updates

Yesterday I bought a navy blue turtleneck top to go under the little boy vest; now I'm ready to give Tracey and the baby their present!

I also started the cuff on the second sock.

And here's yet another WIP (embarrassing, how many of these I have--must change my ways!). This is a crocheted scarf using a pattern from Margaret Hubert's Hooked Scarves and a Patons yarn called "Soy Wool Stripes." I love the way this yarn forms stripes as you crochet, but it's not quite as soft a yarn as I would have liked. Still the colors are very vibrant. I have a crocheted hat I wear a lot made out of this yarn.

Poem

Today a poem from an online journal I just discovered called Ezra

(http://ezratranslation.com/Fall_2008.html):

WHEN I WALK THROUGH
GERMAN CITIES
~~translated by Daniele Pantano

When I walk through German cities,

getting lost

with every fourth step


Through these black and gray

wastelands that

like giant cesspits

had to be burnt down


Stuck in the monotonous mass of its

denizens,

hearing their language, knowing

they despise us provincials


Although it is they who are

behind the times,

mankind’s prime in every imaginable

situation


Once world champions in poetry and thought.

Oppressors, not out of primitivity

but presumption, proud even

of their afflictions


Relieved I return to my country


And put all the trash

that surrounds me here

back onto my shoulders. With my head

held high I begin again

to fight the windmills.


Always a Don Quixote, I love my country

by castigating it

affirm the world by negating it


Speaking a better German than the Germans.

FRIEDRICH DÜRRENMATT

One Sock Syndrome

I recently discovered that my habit of knitting a sock and then getting bored and never knitting the second one is called "One Sock Syndrome." The cure for this syndrome is to knit both socks together. There is a way to do this on circular needles, or you can knit the cuff of one sock and right away knit the cuff of the second one. Then you knit the heel of one, the heel of the other, and so on. Now this blog has inspired me to try to finish some of my UFOs (Unfinished Objects), and in the future when I make socks, I'll try the method of knitting them together. Here's my current one sock project:

And here's the little boy vest! It was exciting to knit because I knew it would go fast:

I got the yarn for Akiko's sweater wound into balls, so I should be able to start on it soon:

Josie's Sweater

Josie stopped by recently wearing a sweater I gave her last summer. The pattern is from Stefanie Japel's book Fitted Knits, and the yarn is Lion Brand's "Thick and Quick." This sweater was so much fun to make because it knits up quickly and because it is knit all in one piece. There are no seams to sew at all.

I think Josie should take up modeling!

Summer 08

I haven't been very good about keeping in touch with family and friends, and that's one of the main reasons I started this blog! I hope this will be a way to let everyone know what we're up to and that we are thinking of you.

We had a really busy summer, and I thought I'd share some of the highlights. Probably our biggest event was that Chris participated in "The Blue Knights" drum and bugle corps (a marching band). The Blue Knights toured all over the country and competed with other bands in the sweltering heat. Greg and I drove to Ogden, Utah to see a performance (I think the temperature was about 100 degrees during that time).

Drum corps is like any other sport or activity your kid gets interested in: once you've watched a few shows, you really get into it too; I never would have imagined doing this before Chris got involved in it. Can you find Chris in the lineup?

The other big event of the summer was that my German relatives came to visit for several weeks. We did a lot of things together, and Cousin Christian and Uncle Helmut also explored a bit on their own. Below, Christian and I are on the neighbor's boat at Lake Pend Oreille.

We took Helmut to Manito Park in Spokane one day, and he took some glorious pictures there.

At the end of the summer, Greg and Chris chartered a 34-foot sailboat ("Firefly") and sailed for about a week in the Canadian Gulf Islands. I joined them for the last couple of days. They had had steady wind most of the trip, but by the time I got there, things were pretty calm. We had a good time anyway, and one of the highlights was a long hike on Cyprus Island (back in the San Juans). Click here to see some of Greg's pictures from his trip (with a few miscellaneous photos from Europe last year thrown in for some odd reason!).

At the end of the sailing expedition we spent a couple of days on Guemes Island with Greg's parents at their summer home, and Conrad came up from Seattle to join us. Here's Conrad, Greg, Herbert, and Helen enjoying a favorite island pastime: Happy Hour!

More Projects

Akiko really liked the pink ballet sweater, so I offered to make one for her too. The problem is that I couldn't find an adult pattern that was similar to the child's sweater, and I'm not very good at figuring out how to knit things without a pattern (although I'd like to learn how to do that at some point). But then we realized that Akiko is so small--maybe a size 0 or 2--that we could use the large size on the child's pattern. So that's the plan! I could probably figure out how to lengthen the body or sleeves a bit if needed. Here's a picture of the yarn I bought for Akiko's sweater:

It's a worsted weight 100% wool called "Cascade 220." It's very soft to the touch, and the pink is absolutely luscious.

Like any good knitter, I have several WIPs (Works In Progress) to show as well. I wonder how bad I am about starting a new project before I've finished the last one--I usually have 3-4 going at once. That's why I don't finish my projects very quickly I suppose, but it keeps it interesting for me. I wonder what the average number of WIPs is for knitters...

Below is a recently started vest for a little boy (Tracey, this one's for you). I'm making the smallest size, which looks like it would fit a 2 year old. I like to give baby gifts that the kid can grow into, so this would qualify since the baby is only 3 months old right now! The yarn is a softly variegated worsted weight wool made in Italy called "Vero." It's fun to knit with because you can see the stripe pattern develop as you go, and this yarn feels marvellous--soft, yet substantial. The pattern is from Naturally Fashion Collection #FC21.

Finally, here's a picture of a lace scarf I started during the summer. The yarn is a wool and silk blend 2 ply from Naturally called "Dawn." I've never knit a lace pattern before so I chose this very easy one to start with. The pattern is also from Naturally, #N1089.

I'll save my other WIPs for a later blog (yes, there are more).

Alicia's Sweater

This is a ballet-style sweater or bolero from "Knitting Pure & Simple" (Children's Neckdown Bolero) that I made for my friend Akiko's daughter, Alicia. The yarn is a worsted weight blend with a bit of cashmere in it (unfortunately, not machine-washable!). Alicia wears this over her ballet costumes while she's waiting to go on stage.