Friday, February 29, 2008

Good friends...

refering to my post Feb. 20 th...
my very good friend living next door stept by this afternoon and gave me a brandnew toilet bowl and tank that was surplus, since she decided to use something else. And the best, I got it for free, because she said, she would trash it anyway. Well, although my bathroom is beige - that was up to date in the early 80th - and this is white, I don't care. It will do, good enough for me and my purse. Thank you U.

..it's absolutely necessary..

..well folks, I've got to start a diet, right now, at once, without any delay...it's so depressing...look at this...

March, 1st 2008

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Socks 07/02/08 "Blueberry Waffle Socks"

..here they are, my finished Blueberry Waffle Socks, knitted after this design.

Material: Gedifra Funny Socks Color, dpn 3.0 mm.

Monday, February 25, 2008

Knitting Dicipline

Reference to my entry from Friday, Feb. 15th
I had been thinking about this problem and decided to work out a monthly plan. Otherwise I would never be able to get on with my stash. In order to reduce my sock yarn stash, I will continue sticking to the sokker project, then I have to finish one gift for Christmas, well there are already a lot of ideas in my mind.. and if there is time left, I can work on other projects, especially my patchwork-leftover-blanket.....because I still have to take care of my house and garden, and I really didn't remember that it is a hell lot of work, if you will always keep everything clean and tidy. In all these years I wasn't at home more or less, I was only able to get the important things done, such as laundry, ironing and shopping. During vacation I cleaned the house, but this was never all I had to do. Gardening was impossible, so the place looked accordingly. And I admit that I didn't have any energy to do housework after 12-hour days. Only just a few rows of knitting in order to retire before bedtime. I already created a weekly plan for my housework and up to now it is working fine. I'm not finished with everything yet, and I didn't start the gardening yet, due to rainy weather, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. But I realized as well, if the household has to be proper managed on a regular base, there is no time left for doing a job. I hope I will not mutate to a maniac for housework, this would definitely controvert my temper.....

WIP

..well, still in order to catch up with all the sokker patterns, here a pic from the three socks in progress. I took the foto during daylight and finished the blue one on the left this evening during Sunday night crime time on TV.

Friday, February 22, 2008

Socks 06/01/08 "Thuja Socks"


This is my first pair of socks from the sokker knitalong made after this pattern.

Material: Calzino Color 6-ply, dpn no. 3.0 mm.
And I already started these, in order to catch up asap.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Gift 01/Jan


Socks for my Sister Katha
Material: Rellana Flotte Socke Bamboo, dpn no. 2.0 mm, plain stockinette

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Good things come to those who wait...

Finally my good friend Jue called in order to let me know that he will be able to help me fixing my bathroom soon. Since ages I couldn't use my guest bathroom, it's always inconvenient when I have to share my private bathroom with them. So I will have a job to do tomorrow, go to the DIY store and look around for tiles and sanitary ware etc......how exiting....

Old Memories...2

During cooking my dinner today, I continued recalling my time spent in Norway, and I was thinking about the food there. Well, when I went out shopping groceries, I had to learn that I couldn't buy like I was used to. Basically no problem at all, and after a while I had my shopping list adjusted to the food offered. What I missed during all these years were only two things every German is missing while living overseas, is "our" brown bread and "our" beer. And I had to experience that "H-melk" is fresh milk and does not longer hold than the eat-by date. "Normalsaltet smoer" is salty, so I had to buy "usaltet smoer" - not salted butter. If noone tells you..? In the first time I couldn't get any "quark", but then it was offered under the name "kesam". I had to get used to that salami is pink, that most of the cold meat contains horseflesh and that you cannot beat "husholdningsfloete". What I didn't like were the sweets from "Freia" and I was glad, when I got somewhere "Milka" or "Haribo", and the Norwegian coffee, it was too much roasted for my taste, but I had possibilities to get German decaf. After I got used to all these "imponderables", which just require some flexibility, I began to go through Norwegian food and found things and dishes like "brun ost" - my son really loved - , "jarlsberg", "noekleost", or "roemmegroed". For Christmas - Jule - I prepared traditional food like different sorts of "sild", "lammrulle", "juleskinke", "pinnekjoett" etc. By the way, this is all special Norwegian food, you won't get anything that will only come close to that in Germany. I tried it, no way. And my hubby baked "kransekake" every year, decorated with loads of little Norwegian flaggs. I've still got the form for it. And we adopted as well some other Norwegian traditions, such as hanging out a flagg on each birthday of a person that lives in the house. It's supposed to hang there only for that particular day, but since my son and I have our birthdays one after another, the flagg had to hang for two days. In the first year our neighbours stepped by and advised us to that, because they didn't know....And we always shared May 17th - national holiday - with the Norwegians. The whole country is on the way, people waering their "bunads" - liveries, and flaggs. It's just formidable to see, how a nation is celebrating itself, something, we don't know. Well, when I think, I would hang out a German flagg in order to indicate my birthday, or on October 3rd, my neighbours probably would call the ambulance....

Monday, February 18, 2008

12/24 Pairs of Socks

I found this blog sokker2008. It is run by silja-devine from Norway. I like the idea of a new pattern each month. May be, that I'm a little bit late to start this program, but I'm sure, I will be able to catch up these two months. This does not mean that I'm going to participate, because I don't like to be under some kind of pressure, I will just do it for me and see how far I can get. This blog is written in Norwegian, what I don't mind, but the patterns I saw up to now are in English.

Cookies

..and here they are, the cookies I baked yesterday afternoon from the before mentioned dough. I was not satisfied with the consistence, don't know what happened, and since I could not roll it out, I used a form for baking. Well, on one hand it makes them look all the same, but on the other hand you don't have to clean the whole kitchen from flour and leftover dough afterwards.

Arrangement: almond-balls in the middle, right side blond cookies with dark crumble and on the left side blond cookies with honey and trail-mix, just an idea, but it's yummi.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Old Memories...

I was preparing some dough for baking cookies this afternoon, and when I opened the box, where I keep my "baking secrets", I suddenly remembered all these years I used to live in Norway. Well, it's ages ago, but I still have flashes about the one or the other memory once in a while. I really loved this country, and I was very sad when I had to move back home. Now, almost 20 years later, I'm still familiar with the language, that's why I'm reading Norwegian blogs as well. But I'm not able to write, I never learned it. I could write down after hearing and suppose that it would be almost correct, but I can't express in a proper grammatical way. This would be very embarasing, so I would never really try to do so.

I loved all seasons there, but I prefered winter time. It is cold and dry, due to less humidity, and when the sun is shining, it's wonderful. I lived in the Oslo area, and there you can do a lot of sports like alpine skiing, cross country, telemark, skating etc.

In all these years we had a White Christmas. I remember looking into the sky, see big snowflakes falling down, the illuminated town in the background and waiting for Santa Claus to appear with his sledge every minute. This is our association to Christmas....Friends from the States told me that their children grew up in Key West, Florida and when they saw snow for the first time in their life, they were really scared, because they thought it was the end of the world and heaven was falling down.

Summers were hotter than in Middle Europe, but again due to humidity it felt not so hot as it really was. So I didn't care enough and was sunburned several times. Shame on me, I know that it's dangerous. In summertime we went swimmig in a lake nearby that was located in a little forest. The water did not reach caribian temperatures, but it was warm enough to swim..and in the background rose the all-season snow covered mountains. Fantastic view. Alternatively there was waterskiing, sailing etc. on the Fjord.

What else did we in our spare time? E.g. there were a lot of possiblities for trekking and hiking.
We rent a cottage up in Hemsedal in order to spent our weekends there. This is the best way to relax, to be away from home, I really didn't believe it before I tried.

I think I've got to stop here, otherwise I'm going to book the next flight to Gardemoen tomorrow...old memories, sweet memories...

Friday, February 15, 2008

My Mom

Today is a date to remember, annually...

Last year my mom had a very serious cardiac infarction, including reanimation and stent implantation, followed by intensive care. We were extremely shocked and stayed with her all the time. Doctors said that she had a guardian angel, since the cardiac arrest happened, when she was in medical care already. We are not very religious, but after she could get up again and walk a few steps, we went to the church nearby and lit a candle.

After she was released from hospital, she attended a rehabilitaion and recovered relatively fast. But in September she had to keep an appointment for follow-up examination. Now the result was not better than before. The stents could help only temporary so that a bypass operation was necessary. This happened in October and it took some more time to recover. But now she is doing better on every day and can live more or less as she did before.

Yes, it was a hard year, but we are thankfull that our mom is still with us and that she can celebrate two birthdays, one in February and one in June.

Discipline or Morality

I refer to my post from Febr. 3rd 2008...
I didn't realize, how hard it is to stick to the complete programm. The household is almost done, here and there some leftovers that I don't know where to store. My house is definitely too small, I have to decide what I must get rid of.... Next week I will start with the gardening...horror for me, but I have to get through, otherwise the house will be ending up behind a green curtain...
And now, what's about my creative progress? I'm not able to finish one project at a time. That's, what I mean by dicipline. There is so much material in my stash that I can start new objects over and over again. Well, I admit, I finsh my stuff as well, but then I have already started at least two new projects.. Is there anybody who can give me an advice, how I can dicipline myself...???

Ha, and finally I tell you that I've got my first mosquito bite for this year. Not to forget, it is still February......

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Jam/Jelly

..see, what I did in my kitchen yesterday. When I defrosted my freezer, I found diverse juices appropriate for cooking jams. Then I crocheted "hats", in order to make perfect gifts. The yellow ones contain pear and some matching liqueur, the red/pink ones are red currant with sherry and the purple glas is plum with almonds.

Material:
Schachenmayr Catania (125m/50g) and crochet hook no. 3.0 mm.

I cannot believe it...

..but my german written blog has vanished from the web. I'm not able to find it, both via links or via search engine. Is it possible that it can be deleted without any message? I did not write "forbidden" posts or something, just entries about my creative projects, absolutely harmless...
I spent such a lot of time to create it..I could cry....
Well, I'm going to continue this blog and hope that it will not disappear as well...

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Spring in Winter?

Well, folks, what's wrong with this weather? Spring already in winter? It's in the middle of February, and it should be cold and frosty outside with a lot of snow. But flowers begin to bloom, bushes and trees are growing and I'm really thinking of cutting the gras for the first time this year...What's developing here? Warm winters, short and warmer springs and falls and long dry and hot summers? And this right in the middle of Europe? I can't believe that the climate is changing that fast, but we obviously have to live with it....gone, these wonderful long, dry, cold winters with loads of snow, skiing, sleging, scating and White Christmases when I used to live in Norway...but almost 20 years ago......

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Socks 05/08

Material: some cheap poly-yarn from the discounter. These socks are only supposed to be usefull for temporary couch-potatoe-times....pattern ist just an easy cable in two different directions, in order to create a right and a left sock for being able to keep them apart at any time... knitted with dpn no. 2.5 mm.


Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Socks 04/08

Double Moss
Material: Gedifra funny socks sportivo with dpn 2.0 mm. The pattern "Double Moss" can be found on page 37 in Sensational Knitted Socks.

Monday, February 4, 2008

Winter Set

this set I finished last night, it's still winter here, cold and unpleasant, but no snow. Instead we had some heavy storms that left a lot of damage.

Material: Gedifra Fashion Trend Surprise, needles no 4.0, 5.0 and 6.0 mm.

I ran out of yarn, so the snail at the hat turned out to be a little too small. I decorated it with the black elefant, a gift, my old friend Julie in London gave me in the late 70ties. Memories are made of this.....

The scarf is my own design, just a zick-zack, performed by decreasing and increasing stitches.

Pattern for the fingerless gloves is here.

Socks 01 - 03/08




Hundertwasser

Material: Rest of Hundertwasser yarn, created after motives from the artist, combined with matching marine blue. I knitted the leg in a vertical way and added the foot and the cuff traditional with dpn 2.5 and 2.0 mm. Friedensreich Hundertwasser was an austrian artist who performed a very specific way of art. Read more here.




Blue Bamboo

Material: Rellana Flotte Socke, selv patterned yarn with bamboo, dpn 2.0 mm. First Christmas gift 2008 for my sister.




Jaywalker Socks

Material: Gedifra Cotton, dpn 2.0 mm. Pattern can be found here.

Christmas comes to us all once a year...

..and mostly all of a sudden....

So, if you are wondering that I'm already doing x-mas gifts, my experience says that I can't start early enough, and my schedule allows it right now. I don't know what this year is going to be like and I can only afford to show up on Christmas Eve without any packages once. Well, this event happened last year....I'm sure there are no further queries....

Sunday, February 3, 2008

All New Year's Resolutions....

Well, I'm sure that you all know about this human attitude. When I lost my job in December, I said to myself: "Welcome to your new life, Sophie". I don't have any other chance than to make the best out of it. And how can I start successfully? Of course, stick consequently to all the pledges of last past years that never had a chance to be kept. Not so easy, I know, but it prevents you from falling in a big, deep and dark hole. And it challenges your inner temptation.....

So, what have I done so far?
First of all, I quit smoking....I did't plan it, it just came over me...now I have to take care of my weight....but one after the other...
I began to clean up the house that hadn't seen more than absolutely necessary work in the past ten years...and I have to hurry since the garden already needs attention and it doesn't look better than the rest of the property.
I need more time as usual to take care of all my matters since I've got to finish all ways on foot or by bike.
And last but not least I began to clear up my stash and have a look through all the unfinished objects around the place.

What I will make out of these ufo's, all other material for hundreds of projects knitted and sewed, and some other passions I couldn't live for ages, I will share with you. I invite you, to comment my posts if you want, because it's always exiting to see what other members have to say about an entry.

Now I'll get back to my needles and I hope to be able to show you something finished tomorrow.

Best wishes Sophie

new start in new year


Welcome to everybody who loves being active with wool and fabrics, colors and all the other items that make your hobby fabulous. Miss Sophie and I like to share our own creative world with you.


Have fun with us and we are looking forward to your comments.