From Sheep to Sweaters 'n Socks

Public notice...

2006-07-20T09:25:00.000+02:00

Me and my blabber can now be found here

Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous sock pattern...

2006-07-16T11:07:00.000+02:00

I was on my Saturday Sky Webring walk when I came across Anne's Blog. Anne's in the UK and in her July 14th post she puts up a sock pattern she came up with. Although Knitty and MagKnits turned it down I personally think it is the most gorgeous pair of lace socks I ever saw!!!! I'm in love and am going to start them today.

Off to start knitting those Anne Socks :)

Cheers Eva

Have bed... will travel

2006-07-15T11:38:00.000+02:00

With this heat we're having for the past couple of weeks, my place really heats up. I used to schlepp my mattress out on my balcony to spend the night outside so that I would be able to sleep some... but it was hard to navigate my mattress out of my bedroom, into the hall, through the dining room and out on the balcony.

A couple of weeks ago I decided that the problem would be solved if I had a folding camping bed. So last week Wednesday Dad & I went to A.S. Adventure (sorry website only in Dutch) to get a bed. I grabbed the first one I found... I didn't realise I took the kiddie size (hmm... seems to be an ongoing theme with me LOL). So on Saturday we went back to exchange it... it turned out that they sold all 15 adult beds in those 2 days. The dude at the camping department managed to find a bed in a store in Belgium. So I had to wait and today I picked it up... it is Danish design and technology!!!! It is amazing how it all fits together and how easily it is folded/unfolded. I remember the folding camping beds my grandma used to have. It would take about 45 minutes to put together and then still it would suddenly fold together again in the middle of the night...with you in it!!!

It looks a bit wonky on the pic, but the fabric's striped and with the bright sun reflecting on it it was really hard to take a descent picture!!! Looks like I'll be getting a good nights sleep tonight :)

Oh and as you can see it is nearly as wide as my balcony... that doesn't say much as my balcony's only 47 inches wide LOL... I have to push it against the wall if I want to get to the other side of it :) I'll have to figure out some kind of scooting technique to get on it... if I sit at the footend I can scoot back up it so that I can lie down :)

The nice thing is that it packs together into this really handy carrying case. It is pretty heavy, but still it is doable if I travel by train. No more sleeping on too small uncomfy couches for me!!!

Saturday Sky

2006-07-15T11:31:00.000+02:00

Can we say BOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGG????
Good thing a plane was flying through this boring blue sky. Oh and it is not very hot yet today... just lower 70's... it might hit 80 today, but that's it!!!
This pic was taken by pointing my camera upwards while on my balcony.

This is also taken from my balcony, but at eyelevel and off to the right. you can see by the way that those trees in the middle bend over that there's a whole lot of wind today... and it is a nice cool breeze!!!! Very welcome after nearly 2 weeks of temps of higher 90's. I'm still hoping for some rain... me needs rain to survive!!

Cheers

Saturday sky

2006-07-09T08:28:00.000+02:00

This is my saturday sky... I took this pic while we where on the road to go to the shop to exchange my folding bed (I use it to sleep outside on the balcony when it's hot).

Anyways, the Lux. weathermen are not always correct. This is supposed to be a sky out of which it will rain all day and all night long.

As you can guess we didn't get a single drop of rain all day!!!

Cheers Eva

YIPPEE...

2006-07-06T00:29:00.000+02:00

The new Summer Knitty is up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stashalong July challenge

2006-07-04T22:08:00.000+02:00

I'm in a stashalong. To spice things up a bit, the boss decided to have a challenge. We had to list one or more UFO's that we have to finish during the month of July... I picked 3 of my recent UFO's. These kinda got forgotten about as I've got a serious bout of startitis right now and keep starting new things.

First up are my blue-green-turquoise cotton/wool socks. The yarn is something-or-other Fortissima. As they're summer socks (because of the cotton) the cuff's not very long. I've also picked a simple stitch pattern which looks great with the self-striping yarn. The colors are more muted than in this pic. I had to use the flash as it is dark outside :)

Next up is my Icarus Shawl out of the IK Summer (or was it Spring) 2006 magazine. I'm using Zephyr in Ice Blue... so the grey in the picture is actually a light blue... Actually... I used a light blue polo shirt as background. The color of the polo shirt in the pic above is what the yarn looks like LOL

And last but not least my red-pink-orange socks... also some cotton-wool blend. I think the yarn is 4 Seasons something or other yarn. And the colors are NOT as bright... If they were the color in the pic I bet I'd be arrested for grave bodily harm LOL.

Cheers Eva

My favorite cobblestones...

2006-07-04T21:51:00.000+02:00

This post is in honor of Monkee's 2nd bloggiversary. She asked us to participate in a little contest. Monkee always comes up with the most original ways of making pics of her knitting (on the roof, draped over plants in the garden to name a few).

This is what she writes on her blog:

A) Take a picture of your favourite road, highway, sidewalk, little path where the rabbits run, or anything you like that could vaguely fall into this category. Even a hallway. Whatever. Tell me some little factoid about it that might explain why you like it.

Well I didn't have to think about that one for a change!!! I had to take a picture of the little shortcut that I take at least twice a day. This shortcut has existed for close to 150 years. It is mainly still looking like it used to look. They have replaced the sandy mortar with cementy mortar over the last few years and the top part of the steps has been replaced too, but that was necessary as it was about to tumble down LOL.

I've been taking this shortcut for the past 29 years. As a kid/teenager to go to school and nowadays to go to my job.

I decided to guestimate how often I've walked this shortcut. I'm going to go with an average of 280 days a year where I'm using it. 280 x 2 x 29 = 16.240 times. I find this enormous, but... if you think about the fact that it has existed for the past 150 years and that I'm not the only one but there's lots of people using it... can you imagine how many feet have walked over those stones? Things like that amaze me... they give me a sense of continuity and make me realise that I'm just a small part of this big big world.

This picture shows the path leading up to the steps... the first 2 sets of steps are still in their "original" state. The top set (biggest set) has been replace a few years back.

A close up of the cobblestones with the cementy mortar which is actually also about 50 years old now LOL.

Oh, I just realised that Monkee wants a picture of
(B) Take a picture of some food that you believe is disgusting, barf-o-licious, or flat out nasty but will willingly eat anyway. If it is particularly disgusting, no need to actually show you eating it. I’ll take your word for it that it’s edible.

Now this is a problem for me... as I have this thing with food... if I think something to be disgusting, barf-o-licious or so I can not look at it, smell it or whatever or I'll barf indeed. So I decided to cop out on this one... guess I won't win a prize then LOL.

Monkee, I hope you like the fact that my little path is soooooooooooooo old... you still have a lot of bloggiversaries to go to catch up LOL.

Cheers!!!!

Belated Saturday Sky

2006-07-03T17:34:00.000+02:00

As I mentionned in my previous post... I was away this weekend. I spend it in Germany. I went to spend the night at a coworker's place. There were 2 ex coworkers too and we had lotsafun :) We BBQ-ed and laughed and had fun and danced to 80's songs and had a great time catching up. Just before midnight I remembered that I had to take a picture of my saturday sky... and as it was dark, I fiddled around with the funky night-features there are on my digital camera.

This pic was made using the nightframe feature and isn't it gorgeous? I didn't touch it up or anything... I don't know how to do that anyways.

hey there...

2006-07-02T23:30:00.000+02:00

just a quick note to let you all know that my saturday sky will be posted tomorrow. I was on a trip this weekend, did take pics, but it as it is close to midnight, I'm going to catch some zzzzz instead of downloading the pics :)

nightynight...

PS: edited to change the color of the text...

Kiddie shoes?

2006-06-30T23:36:00.000+02:00

Hiya...

yep, I'm still going on about the kiddie shoes :) I thought I'd make some pictures of them so that you can see what are supposed to be kiddie shoes. Correct me if I'm wrong... I think they look pretty adult to me...

First up are my Offshore Legends sandals. This is the most "strappy" pair I've ever owned hahaha. I especially love the soles :) I can see myself traipsing through the Bay Area wearing these :)

Next is a pair of suede KangaROOS. This pair and the next pair is more a fallish pair of shoes. Not really summer wear (at least not now that we have temps of close to 100 degrees). These have very thin soles, so they're extremely comfortable.

And finally another pair by Offshore Legends... this one's white leather with blue suede. The soles are a bit thicker than those of the KangaROOS...

Cheers Eva

ARRRGGGHHHHHH....

2006-06-28T16:21:00.000+02:00

Shop assistants in this country are known for their brilliant minds NOT and for their friendliness DOUBLE NOT!!!! In french you have a saying that says the customer is king. Here in Luxembourg this saying is adapted to say the shop assistant is the almighty G-d... and you better do what they want or you'll be sorry. And here is an example:

I went into town because I had do a couple of things. I pass a shoeshop that has nice shoes, but out of my price range, but they have a 50% off sale going on. I saw a couple of shoes I liked through the shop window. I go in and head over to where I saw them. They're in the kiddies section, but the sizes go up to an adult size 10.

As I go into this part of the shop a shop assistant (s.a.) stops me and informs me that it is the childrens section. I say, I know. She goes M'am those are CHILDREN's shoes. I say again I know and go ahead. She comes after me and and tries to direct me to the adult section. I look at her and ask her if she knows if I have children or not? She looks at me confused and says no she doesn't. So I ask her why she insists I do not buy childrens shoes. She throws me an angry look and stalks off. 2 seconds later s.a. #2 comes running over all aghast telling me that I am in the childrens section. I tell her, guess what??? your friend over there already informed of this and guess what??? I don't give a damn and I would like to buy those 3 pairs of shoes. But M'am those are childrens shoes??? I bite back that I KNOW and that I STILL WANT TO BUY THEM. We head over to the cash register. Here is the chief S.A. and again she informs me that those shoes are intended for children. I look at her and ask her if those shoes fit me (she saw me trying them on), her answer yes, then I ask her if they're for sale. Again her answer is yes, so I said I'd like to know what the F their problem is???

Now she tells me I have absolutely no reason to be so rude. I look at her and ask her how she would feel if 3 people, who know f-all about her would tell her that the shoes she tried on were childrens shoes as if they would transmit the plague or something. I told her she could be f-ing lucky that I was still willing to buy those shoes and not file a complaint for discrimination!!! And I also told her that if she didn't want adults to buy her shoes maybe she should not have "childrens" shoes going up to size 10!!!!

The 3 pairs are sneakers so it doesn't really scream kiddie shoes anyways.

Okay, off my soapbox and off to have another look at my new kiddie shoes :)

Saturday Sky

2006-06-24T20:22:00.000+02:00

Sandy over at Sandy's Knitting has this thing for skies. She has often the most gorgeous sky pictures on her blog. Today she mentions how saturday blog posts are often "blah" and she decided to do something about it. So she's created Saturday Sky. The idea is that on saturdays you point your camera at the sky, take a pic and post it. I liked that idea... good thing it is summer though LOL. It is already 8.30 pm over here, so I managed to quickly catch 2 pics of the evening sky out of my bathroom window. The sun's not completely gone yet, but it won't be long anymore.

If you want to participate, head over to Sandy's blog, let her know in the comments that you're participating by giving your bloggy living location and then grab a button (save it to your own space!!!) and get your pics up :)

Here's my contribution
The first pic is taken by hanging over the toilet bowl out of the window and pointing the camera to the right (my toilet is sitting straight underneat the window... which is a dangerous thing... but that is fodder for another post LOL). My street is a tiny valley and the sun is going down at the other side of the "hill".

The second picture is taken by pointing the camera straight out of the window... you can see how the sun highlights the houses on the left.

Me is lazy...

2006-06-23T17:09:00.000+02:00

so I've just copied the post I created for my Seraphim KAL :)

The Luxembourg Knitting Studio (LKS) is proud to present to you
Their newest creation featuring

Ladyslipper Zephyr and Dianthus Zephyr
together with
Mim's Pattern

Miss Seraphim

In the above picture she's lightly windswept due to a thunderstorm coming in

Here she rests in presence of her knitter's foot to give an idea of her size
(foot is 10 inches long)

A close(r) up of her point. The LKS would like to point out
that at this moment in time Miss Seraphim
has not been bathed or blocked.
This picture also shows the touch of ruffly cast off edge Miss Seraphim
sports. This is a typical LKS touch

And another picture of Miss Seraphim. The lighting isn't very flattering...
aforementioned thunderstorm being the culprit.

A funny little blog...

2006-06-21T12:36:00.000+02:00

Okay, I've decided to push this blog a bit. I discovered it a month or 2 ago and I must say the owner has a funny style. She tickles my funny bone with every post :)

The blog in question is Tales of a Bohemian Knitter

The owner is a Texan Road Nurse. I, as a European city gal, didn't even know something like that existed. She knits too by the way LOL.

Don't judge her blog on her last 2 entries though. She's going through a rough patch and they're a bit sad. But read the previous posts... I was laughing out loud several times when I did so.

Just had to share :)

The Amazing Lace - Challenge #2

2006-06-18T11:49:00.000+02:00

This is as X-treme as my lace knitting gets...

languishing in my dad's garden waiting for the cutlets to be done on the grill. And this is x-treme for me cos I'm outside... EATING outside where there's bugs and things :) As I always say "I LOVE nature... as long as there's a nice piece of glass between me and Nature" hahaha. I love to be outside, but it is the bugs I can't deal with.

What you see hanging over the side of my chair is my Seraphim Shawl, being done with 2 strands of Zephyr, one in the color Ladyslipper and one in the color Dianthus. Although I dislike variagated yarns for lace, this somehow works!!! And the result is a soft and thick shawl. I'm using 4,5 mm needles. Oh and the shawl's big LOL, don't think I'll have to block it a lot.

Side view...

View from the opposite side... No the beer isn't mine... I'm drinking the sparkly H2O :)

So I've decided that I should get a nomination for the most X-tremely boooooooooring post hahaha.

And as a reward for reading this you get a picture of a gorgeous pink geranium flower

Cheers Eva

How music rules my life

2006-06-17T09:02:00.000+02:00

I found this Meme thing on The Crochet Dude's blog and had to laugh so much that I couldn't resist doing it too :)
PS: sometimes titles in other languages will pop up... I've translated those.

The way it works:
1. Put your iPod on shuffle... as I don't have an iPod I used my Creative Zen thingy
2. Press forward for each question.
3. Use the song title as the answer to the question.

How am I feeling today? It's a great day to be alive - Travis Tritt - this is too funny as that was exactely what I was thinking this morning... I slept through the night for the first time in 3 nights. We're having a heatwave and it does get darn hot in my apartment :)

Will I get far in life? Girl on the Billboard - The Road Hammers - yeah sure... I believe ya... thousands wouldn't!!!

How do my friends see me? Geht's dir schon besser - Ich+Ich (Are you feeling any better?) - this one is nasty... I often feel sick so this is a bit close to the truth

When will I get married? Didn't your mama tell ya? - Montgomery Gentry - Well, what she did tell me was "do whatever you want and get married tomorrow" - which is a Antwerpian way of saying Do what you want and see if I care.

What is my best friend's theme song? Go with her - Toby Keith - hmmm don't know what to say about this one...

What is the story of my life? Honkytonk U - Toby Keith - Me is a highschool dropout, I've never been to any kind of U and never wanted to.

What was high school like? I want you - Faith Hill (this is so NOT true... I was the one always picked last... whatever we did)

How am I going to get ahead in life? Unbroken - Tim McGraw - Does that mean I'm a hard (or heartless) -itch? That nothing hurts me... so not true...

What is the best thing about me? All around the world - Lisa Stansfield - Me likes to travel, but not all around the world :)

How is today going to be? Tu m'oubliera - Larusso (You'll forget me) - Wonder what I'll be doing that y'all forget me hahaha..

What is in store for this weekend? Never gonna break again - Tracy Byrd - LOL... Unbroken and never gonna break again. Sounds like a theme here :)

What song describes my parents? The first time I ever saw you - George Michael - I doubt that

What song describes your grandparents? Nightingale - Leonard Cohen - I doubt this even more

How is my life going? Like the rain - Clint Black - now if only we had some rain I'd be happy... I hate this hot weather.

What song will they play at my funeral? There for you - Leonard Cohen - This is pretty creepy as it is a song that could be a eulogy...

How does the world see me? Let's just call it love - Lisa Stansfield - hmmm... I think people would disagree as I can be pretty volcanic with my anger :) I'm not always about "peace man"

Will I have a happy life? Is anybody loving you these days? - Dierks Bentley - yep, a question I ask myself all the time

What do my friends really think of me? You need a man around here - Brad Paisley - Never was there a truer word spoken... any candidates?

Do people secretly lust after me? Why Why Why - Billy Currington - Indeed why????

How can I make myself happy? Come a little closer - Dierks Bentley - I'm not even going to comment on this one

What should I do with my life? You caught me at a bad time - Toby Keith - indeed I haven't got a clue. Next!!!

Will I ever have children? Ain't that a kick in the head - Robbie Williams - having kids sure sounds like having a kick in the head... I don't know a positive kick or a negative kick though LOL.

What is some good advice for me? Sweet little mystery - Wet Wet Wet - what kind of an answer is this hahahaha

What is my signature dancing song? Walkin' in - Tracy Byrd - that should have said Walkin' in it... like I often put my nose where it shouldn't be nosy sod that I am

What do I think my current theme song is? This is the right time - Lisa Stansfield - yeah sure

What does everyone else think my current theme song is? I dare you - LeAnn Rimes - If you take it as a threat then it would be right :)

What type of men/women do you like? How long? Wet Wet Wet - mmmm how long... what is how long??? gotta get my brain outta gutter here

What kind of kisser are you? We carry on - Tim McGraw - now this is something I agree with

What's your style? Last night I saw Santa Claus - New Kids On The Block - yeah yeah I know... don't ask me what THAT is on my player hahahaha. But if you look at it on another level, my style is exactely that :) I have my own style :)

What kind of lover are you? There you are - Martina McBride - no comment

What would be playing on a first date? This moment is OK - Marti Pellow (singer from Wet Wet Wet) - This sounds like a good attitude for a first date don't it?

Where do you see yourself in 10 years? Party for 2 - Billy Currington and Shania Twain - oh yes!!!

Okay, this might be funnier if there hadn't been so darn many country songs on my player hahaha.

Cheers Eva

KSKS questionnaire

2006-06-15T18:31:00.000+02:00

The Questionnaire:

What are your favorite colors? Blues, yellows, pinks, reds, springy or summery colors.

Are you a new sock knitter? I started at the end of 2005

How long have you been knitting socks? So, doing some math that would be about 7 months

Do you prefer solid or multicolored yarn? I don't mind either, even dyed by yourself yarn will be welcome

What fibers do you prefer in sock yarn? anything except angora, alpaca, cashmere or mohair (allergies)

Where do you usually knit socks? Those are my on-the-go-projects, so mostly on the train, bus and in the office.

How do you usually carry/store small projects? They're just dumped into my bag... and more than once I've lost stitches because when rooting around in my bag for something else, they'll come off the needles.

What are your favorite sock knitting patterns? No real preference

What are your favorite sock knitting techniques? Any... I often will start socks using ML and then switch to DPNs and switch back and forth between the 2. Sometimes I'll even throw in some 2 circ action too. I started out doing socks toe up, but now I prefer cuff down a lot more

What new techniques would you like to try? I'm not into colorwork or fair isle and I know how to do lace/cables. I don't know if there's anything else around.

Do you prefer circulars or dpns for sock knitting? No real preference.

What are some of your favorite yarns? I have worked with Opal, Regia, Trekking, Lorna's Laces sock yarn and I have yet to work with the STR and FleeceArtist (I think... I can't remember the name) I have.
I haven't had a chance to try some Koigu, Sundara, Blue Moon Sock Candy or Scout's yarn (don't remember the name right now)

What yarn do you totally covet? Nothing in particular. I'm happy with anything I get.

Any pattern you would love to make if money and time were no object? Can't think of anything right now... it would probably be something lace :) If I really want to make something I'll find the time and money to do so.

Favorite kind of needles (brand, materials, straights or circs, etc)? I knit using the combined method, so I basically use circs. As I live in Europe Addi's are really cheap so I have a big stash of those. I also like Boyd Circs in sizes 4, 5 and 6 for my lace knitting. Yes, they have stiff cables, but somehow I like that LOL. Edited to add: I have lots of DPNs in bamboo and only 2 sets in metal. I like my DPNs being 6 or 7 inches long. The one set of metal DPNs I use are Pony Pearls. I just LOVE them. The other set I have is by Regia, but I don't like them. Although they're metal they drag real bad. Oh, and I'm a very very very loose knitter so I use 2 mm needles for all my sock knitting... I think that is a US 0 isn't it? Edited again to add: I just saw these needles and they look like something I'd like to try: KnitPicks Double Pointed Needles. They come in the length I like, are metal, and have all the size I'd like to use (I've been wanting to use some Cascade Fixation I have and can't find the right size DPNs (US#3). Oh and they look wickedly pointy too hahahaha.

If you were a specific kind of yarn, which brand and kind of yarn would you be? Oh boy, I'm useless with questions like this... I'd be a yarn that would be sturdy and reliable, with lively colored splashes on a more sedate background.

Do you have a favorite candy or mail-able snack? Cream savers, most fruit flavored hard candy. Nothing with peanuts (or peanut taste), black currant or grape taste.

What’s your favorite animal? Kittykats.

Do you have pets? What are their species/names/ages? No...

If you were a color what color would you be? Oh another one of them questions LOL... I can't make up my mind... yellow for my bright and fun personality, blue for my reliability or red for my (sometimes) flaring passion... euh make that anger hahahaha.

Describe your favorite shirt (yours or someone else’s). My favorite shirt??? A tshirt that is clean hahaha.

What is your most inspiring image, flower, or object in nature? A hydrangea... I love the colors they come in (if you take a look a few posts back you'll see several nice flower photos I recently made) or the ocean.

Tell me the best quote you’ve ever heard or read. Live and let live. There is another native american saying, but it won't come to mind right now.

Do you have a wishlist? I have a list at KnitPicks... which is more like a personal shopping list for my next trip to the US LOL.

Hope this will help my pal a bit :)

Cheers Eva

Joined a new KAL...

2006-06-11T11:25:00.000+02:00

I joined the Knit Sock Kit Swap that Scout organizes. It will be a challenge as I'll have to make a baggie in which to put the kit :) But being the daughter of an accomplished seamstress I should be able to do so dontcha think??? Now if only I could get them sewing machines to cooperate hahaha.

The signups are only until tuesday sometime, so if you want to join... hurry!!!
Signup information: here

Cheers Eva

Wow... 4 days in a row :)

2006-06-07T11:39:00.000+02:00

Yeah another post... Just to say that I survived last night's aqua jogging fine. No hurting shoulders/neck. The teacher forbade me to do any of the exercises... my legs are a bit sore though because they got to do all the extra things hahaha. Guess it won't be today that I'll be going to the lunchtime class... I'd have to be there in 9 minutes and I'm still sitting in my bed :) Good thing I don't work on Wednesdays.

Now I'm going to show off a few more flower pictures. Yes, I like flower pictures :) As I don't have a garden I take pics at Markets or wherever I can. I had been wanting to post these over the weekend already, but for some reason I got stuck on the name Cyclamen for them... I knew that was wrong, but hey, it got stuck. Then, today I was reading The Yarn Harlot's blog entry and as I was looking at one of the pictures I thought "wow those are Clematis" (y'all I had to look it up again as I'd googled Clematis to make sure that was what they were!!!). And Bing the light went on... my flowers were Clematis hahahaha. (Does a lightbulb actually go Bing when you light it?)

This one is gorgeous for its colors... there was a bit of orangey red in the purplish pink in the middle. You can see a little hint of it in that top leaf

This one is a simpler version of the others. I like the shape of the 4 leaves...

Here you can see the front and the back of the same flower. The front wasn't striped, just a periwinkle blue. The back, as you can see, was striped in lilacs and blues. Simply gorgeous :)

This one was just pretty hahahaha.

That's it for today...

Cheers

Once again...

2006-06-06T15:02:00.000+02:00

I have proof that I am not made to be sporty!!! I like the german saying "sport ist mord" (sport is murder).

Anyways, let's roll back 2 weeks from today. After a lot of excuses my friend AM convinced me to go with her to the pool to take a class called Aqua Jogging. I used the following excuses:

I do not have a swimsuit
I do not have time to do the necessary deforestation works on my legs
the Dr forbade me to go swimming as the last 3 times I had a mid ear infection every time I went (this was 3 years ago)
But it is at 5.30 and the will give me only 10 minutes between getting home and leaving again (actually it is at 6.30, but she knows me so she knew that if she told me I'd really wouldn't go)
I might have my monthly you-know-what coming up in the next 3 weeks
I can't wear my lenses in the pool... I'm blind as a bat without them

These are just the ones I remember. Well, no such luck... I ran out of excuses and I went... although with a lot of complaining. The class was 45 minutes and before I knew what hit me it was over and I'd enjoyed myself enormously.

The next day though I was crippled with muscle pain. Not in my legs or belly as I expected. We did a few mean exercises that involve belly muscles. But my arms... It was so bad that on the morning after I could NOT type or knit or do anything, but let my arms hang alongside my body and as soon as I moved them I was in agony. A good thing I do not work on Wednesdays.
By the afternoon I had a numb feeling in them, the same as if you fall asleep on your arm and then it has this weird feeling once the blood comes back in it. Then I would have tingling all the way down to my fingers.

On Thursday it felt a bit better, although I was still sore. So last week Tuesday rolls around and I go back. I really liked it. I let the teacher know about my agony and she tells me to let the arm/shoulder exercises out or do them in a lowkey version.

On that first Thursday, I had a couple of hours at the office where I felt lightheaded. Not really dizzy or nauseous, but just lightheaded. It happened again last week Thursday. And then again on Sunday... suddenly in the afternoon. I also had a headache like a tension headache. My neck and shoulders felt stiff. I went to my dad's for dinner as usual and told him about it and so we checked my bloodpressure. It was 132 over 90... which for me is HIGH... I normally am barely alive with a BP of about 90 over 60. So my dad thinks its bloodpressure or an ear infection (but I said no, because there's no pain). It was still with me yesterday, but as it was a holiday here, I didn't go to the dr. This morning it was still there. The neck/shoulders and headache got worse. I had come to the conclusion it couldn't be my BP as I normally feel really really sick to the stomach when I have a BP problem (normally it drops even lower than it already is) and I couldn't stop eating hahaha. Another thing that was weird was that when I walked I felt fine. Sitting still, knitting or writing would make me feel lightheaded.

This morning I walk to the Dr. and in his office I tell about the weird spells, the pain in my neck/shoulders, the light headache, the BP thing, the not feeling nauseous and so on. I get to sit on the bed... he does a couple of tests with the forkthing holding it on different spots on my head. Then he gets behind me and TRIES to pinch my shoulder muscles (you know... the ones going from your neck to your shoulders) and they're like concrete... and I scream in pain...

He asks me if I have started doing some sports... he's a sports dr along with a generalist. I look at him and say "euh yes" and explain the aqua jogging. He says it explained it all... my muscles are still tense and sore from those exercises... and as I unconciously try to not move naturally as it hurts I got sooooooo tense that I get a headache because of it and the lightheadedness is also due to those muscles being soooo tense. He pressed one little spot at the base of my neck and I could feel the muscles tense up all the way from my hips to the top of my scalp.
He told me to keep going to the pool and keep doing the aqua jogging. He says, those muscles need to get used to being used for something else than knitting, typing and writing. He even said I could try and go both times this week or next week (on wednesdays at lunchtime there's another class). I just need to build up those shoulder exercises slowly.

So for once he's not telling me to stop (I've had to give up biking because of my broken/traumatized ankle), swimming because of my earinfections, brisk walking because of the tendonitis in my knee... Guess me's not made for sport hahaha.

And now, as a reward because you read the whole shebang... a gorgeous picture. I took this on Sept. 6th, 2004. It was the last vacation that I took with my parents. One month later my mom died. The picture was taken at Bergen-op-Zee in Holland at the beach. The sailing boats were getting ready for the last regatta of the season and that "tropical" boat, just came racing along :) I can still hear the drum of the person at the front. And they were going FAST hahahaha.

Cheers Eva
I have proof that I am not made to be sporty!!! I like the german saying "sport ist mord" (sport is murder).

Anyways, let's roll back 2 weeks from today. After a lot of excuses my friend AM convinced me to go with her to the pool to take a class called Aqua Jogging. I used the following excuses:

I do not have a swimsuit
I do not have time to do the necessary deforestation works on my legs
the Dr forbade me to go swimming as the last 3 times I had a mid ear infection every time I went (this was 3 years ago)
But it is at 5.30 and the will give me only 10 minutes between getting home and leaving again (actually it is at 6.30, but she knows me so she knew that if she told me I'd really wouldn't go)
I might have my monthly you-know-what coming up in the next 3 weeks
I can't wear my lenses in the pool... I'm blind as a bat without them

I'm still alive...

2006-06-05T21:39:00.000+02:00

I just haven't felt like blogging a lot lately. Funny as I have lots of things to say :)

Well, first of all I finished Lani's socks. I've been working on those for a long time, but as I mostly work on them at the office with the computer system's down or slow, I did not work on them regularly. Pics will follow... tomorrow they'll get a nice bath and then on Wednesday I'll toss them in the drier or maybe they'll get to hang outside in the sunshine.

I've been working steadily on my Seraphim shawl. I'm about halfway through the second chart of lace. After this one there's a third chart and then the edging.
Once it will be done, I'll be working full time on the Civil War Shawl again. I love that shawl. It is a bit slow going right now as I'm blending 2 skeins of Zephyr so that it is not so noticable that they're not the exact same shade. So one row gets done with one ball and the other one with the other ball...

I'm such a doofus though... I'm in The Amazing Lace KAL for this summer and I was supposed to present my team on my blog. I had taken pictures 2 weeks ago. I had to post the presentation yesterday at the latest... but as it was a 3 day weekend here, somehow I thought today was sunday and so I was going to post it this morning... Guess I missed challenge #1. Oh well, I'll participate in challenge #2 instead.

Doofus again... I missed my blogiversary... not that I was really thinking about it, but... I now decided to have a blogging party for my 100th post (which will be in a little while). I'll have a little contest I think and there will be some yarny prices and maybe some cross stitch prices too as I know some stitchers read these rare posts too hahaha.

And as a post without pictures is not really a post I'm leaving you with some pictures I took at a gardening thing a few weeks back. These are my most favorite garden flowers... hydrangeas. I love their intense blues, purples and pinks. I know there's also deep purples nearly red, but they had none at this garden show. I also love the pale pink ones. There were also some that had white flowers with pink scalloped edges!!! Pretty Pretty Pretty...

Well, enough for now...

Cheers Eva

Seraphim Shawl

2006-06-04T20:05:00.000+02:00

This is just a post to make some publicity for the KAL I've started. We're knitting the Seraphim Shawl by designer Miriam Felton. Her other published designs are Mountain Peaks and Icarus (summer 2006 IK).

You can buy the pattern and see a pic here.

To view the blog, click here.

If you want to join, please e-mail me at sweetpea at sweet-p dot net !

Cheers Eva

Regulation/control of the internet????

2006-05-16T17:25:00.000+02:00

Okay, normally I do not pay attention to the banners on Yahoo, but this one creeped me out!!! The US government is about to pass a bill where it will take control of the internet. I normally don't do politics either, but if this bill is passed everyone's freedom of speech (not only the US citizens) will be curtailed.

Please, my US friends, have a look at www.dontregulate.org and see it for yourself. It will play a little movie detailing what is going on. Once you're done with that site, go to http://handsoff.org/ and see how you can get in touch with your legislator to vote against this!!!

Thank you!!!

2 FO's...

2006-05-12T18:42:00.000+02:00

Hello,

I've been knitting and knitting and knitting, but most of the projects seem to be at that horrible stage where you knit 17 trillion rows and they don't seem to get any bigger. I did manage to finish 2 projects. No pics yet as the shawls are not blocked yet. Waiting for my dad to take his trip at the end of next week so that I can use the beds in his place :)

I finished the Seascape Shawl (Fiber Trends), using 2 skeins of KnitPicks Shadow in the blue color (is it called Jewels?). It had some funny bind off, which I couldn't wrap my brain around so I played a bit with the yarn and a crochet hook. I ended up binding of each stitch alternated with a chain stitch. This looks great... the bottom of the shawl is Old Shale and so my bind off repeats the holeyness of the Old Shale pattern. I'm very pleased with this bind off. Oh, and you know what? I had only about 10 yards of yarn left when I was done binding off so I didn't do the whole i-cord thingy :)

Next was Fiddlesticks Lotus Blossom Shawl. This one is TINY!!! I only used 2/3rds of a skein of handpaintedyarn.com laceweight in Orchid. I'm thinking about making this one again and adding more of the stem repeats to have a shawl that would actually be usable. Oh and the bobble bind off???? Did NOT happen!!! I ripped (have you tried ripping handpaintedyarn?? It is near impossible) the 3 bobbles I made and did a crochet bind off. If I remember correctly, I hooked 2 stitches together, alternating with 1 chain stitch. I will make a detail photo when it is blocking.

I have several other shawls in different stages of finishment on the needles and a few more will be added over the coming few weeks. I signed up for The Amazing Lace KAL (still need to add the button to my own blog though).

This is all for the moment :)

Cheers Eva

How well do y'all know me?

2006-05-11T19:57:00.000+02:00

The Bookish Wendy had this great quiz on her blog... I took it and amazed myself!!! I got 6 out of 10 questions right. You'd think I stalk the girl day and night, but I don't LOL. Some of the answers I knew, some I guessed (wrong) :) I had so much fun I had to make one myself and see the scores y'all would get :)

Quizzywizzy

Cheers Eva - PS: Wendy... yours was the first I encountered!

Music I listen to...

2006-04-27T15:40:00.000+02:00

I actually had to switch on my MP3 player LOL... oh and one of my favorite groups was not available: Wet Wet Wet and of course most of the frenchies/germies/italies I listen to weren't available either.

Create your own Music List @ HotFreeLayouts!

Why oh Why...

2006-04-19T12:03:00.000+02:00

did I forget my camera today??? I would have had a great little movie to show y'all!!!

I had to go into town to get my lenses tested. I'm on my 4th pair in 2 weeks time and we finally found the perfect solution. A new type of lens for my right eye and my beloved SureVue for my left eye. Anyways, when I left the lens shop I looked up and saw this really really really posh lady coming out of Louis Vuitton. She was still holding court to the shop assistant and her doggie was already outside. She turns around to say something to the shop assistant and right in this moment her dachshund crouches down and takes a big dump... right on her sandaled foot!!!!!!!!!!!!! The woman starts shrieking and shrieking and flapping her hands and shaking her foot to get IT off!!! As she's making such a commotion a cop comes running and when he sees what's happened he get's his little book out and gives her a ticket for dumping the sh!t and the paper towels the shop assistant is using to clean her foot on the street (we have a law here that you clean up after your dog or you get a ticket). I could see that the cop had a hard time keeping a straight face... Anyhoo, as she doesn't have the cash, she gets escorted to the nearest ATM LOL. You should have seen it... the whimpering lady in her high heeled strappy sandal full with doggy poo trying to walk with dignity to the ATM while being escorted by a cop and the dog that looks at her as if to ask what all the hoopla's about!!! It sure made my day!!!

Actually, I was feeling so great I bought 3 pairs of shoes: 1 pair of very plane jane black sandals, 1 pair of fancier red sandals by VaBene (swiss hand made => expensive, but worth every euro cent) and 1 pair of red Birks with SHEEP on it!!! I'd seen them last year, but they were out of my size... this year they had my size so I didn't think twice about getting them hahaha.
Next I went to the clothes shop (the one for the Big Sized Ladies) and got... 5 pairs of pants (2 all season ones, and 3 3/4s for summer (same model, 3 different colors)) and 6 t-shirts. Guess I'm done for this summer.

From now on no more yarn, shoe or clothes shopping until September.

Cheers Eva - yep I used poopy brown to reflect the doggy act hahahaha.

Shameless promotion of a shop...

2006-04-17T14:05:00.000+02:00

Okay, I'm going to share my favorite online LYS with y'all... It is the Germany-based Martina's Bastel und Hobbykiste.

You want to know why I love this shop so much? Easy... the prices are great! And the shipping... I placed an order for some Addi's and within half an hour I got a mail telling me that they were shipped.

She has a great promotion going on right now: 40 100-skeins of sock yarn (Opal, Trekking, Regia...) for 200 EUR. That sounds a lot, but that is 5 EUR per skein! This sale ends today. And if I'm not mistaken, shipping to the US is 16.50 EUR.

Cheers Eva - who will have to move to a bigger place if she decides to adopt any more yarn...

I met a Townie!!!

2006-04-15T12:51:00.000+02:00

Okay, I'd written this really really really long post going into all the details, but it bored my own pants off LOL. So I'm just going to share some pics with you.

The Townie that I got to meet was "Deb in Atlanta". She, her hubby and Little Munchkin (I'm not giving out her real name as I don't believe in breach of privacy where minors are concerned) spend a whopping 22 hours in Luxembourg hahaha. But they were charmed by the town :) Which is a good thing.

Oh, for those of you who don't know what a "Townie" is... it is a member of this yahoo group. Of course, I somehow managed not to get a single pic of Deb herself.

Blogger has been true to form and has mixed the order of the pics up to suit its own mysterious purposes... And I don't feel like fiddling around with code to fix it, so you're getting a jumble of pics, but with comments.

This is the Little Munchkin and her Dad close to the entrance of the Casemattes.

This is the view down from where Little Munchkin and her Dad were standing. Isn't Lux pretty LOL?

This is the ship in the playground in the park. Little Munchkin (together with about a hundred other kids) spend half an hour running up and down on it just after they arrived. She'd been "cooped up" on a train for over 4 hours LOL. It is a magnificent attraction. Entirely made out of wood that the got from trees that had toppled over in the park during a winter storm a few years ago. I took this pic a week before they came and at that time of the day there were no kiddies :)

If you look closely you can see the train with Deb & Co arrive in the distance... it's the one with the lights on :) To the left of the pic you can see the train I got in on (yep I take the train to get to my office... 6 minutes beats 32 minutes by bus doesn't it?).

The Little Munchkin enjoying her apple juice at La Table du Pain (a rustic posh place to have breakfast... actually it is a bakery LOL). All those jams and jellies you see are home made.

Deb gave me my own skein of STR (Socks That Rock) yarn... I do now understand what the fuss is about LOL... It's been lying here on my nightstand so that I can pet it when I wake up and just before I go to sleep. The colorway I got is called Shibui. It's got tans, blues, greens and greys in it. I've tried to take a pic several times now, but the light here is so awful that I just can't make a pic that does it justice. I will get one up soon... the sun should be out tomorrow... I picked a pattern out of Nancy Bush's Vintage socks (can't remember the name right now) and am waiting on my needles to arrive (2.5mm addi circ to do the magic loop thing).

I will post more pics and a bit of our adventures (you won't believe what we managed to do during those 22 hours - 11 of which were spend "sleeping" hahahaha!!!) later this week. I will also add some more pics!!!

Oh and before I leave y'all... I must admit that the Little Munchkin is the most well behaved and polite nearly 5 year old (tomorrow!!!) that I've ever met!!! I mean we spend a lot of time walking (mostly uphill, cos somehow here in town you seem to be walking uphill which ever way you go) or in restaurants. No fussing, no tears, no tantrums... Deb & Pete, you really are doing a wonderful job raising her!!!

Cheers Eva

Wow...

2006-04-09T11:58:00.000+02:00

I'm normally not into weaving, but I found this site through Knitty.com board. If you go to the Galerie you will be able to have a look at this lady's work. I find it truly amazing. I'm totally in love with the first shawl/scarf in her Schals und Schultertüger gallery.

Just wanted to share :)

Cheers Eva

A quick answer...

2006-04-09T09:26:00.000+02:00

Diana, you can still join the KAL if you want. Go to Risa's blog and drop her a note. I think I linked to it in the post. She might not get back to you immediately as she's in the middle of moving :)

Cheers Eva

Quick update...

2006-04-08T14:57:00.000+02:00

yeah yeah, I should post a bit more often, and have some pics ready and so on, but... guess what??? I am basically a very lazy person LOL.

Anyways, you wouldn't have known it as I totally have forgotten to tell y'all about it, but I'm in a KAL called WIP Wipe-Out. Basically we're working on our WIPs to get them done. No restrictions on buying yarn or starting new things or whatsoever.
I think I was one of the first people to sign up, but I keep forgetting to send my weekly reports to Risa. Every time I think about doing it, the weekly update is the next blog entry I read :)
I don't even have the button or the link up yet, so I'm just going to link to Risa's blog.

Well, so here I'm going to try and remember all the WIPs I've got going right now.

Seascape Shawl by Fiber Trends, done using Knitpicks Shadow in Jewels. I started this a little over a week ago. Finished the body of the shawl in 4 days. Then I started the Old Shale border (or whatever it is called...). I ended the body with 325 stitches on the needles. Read the next line "after row xxx there will be no more increases". Sooooooooo I thought 44 rows of 325 stitches... I'll zip right through it and while I'm at it I'm going to make the border longer. So I get to row xxx and BANG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What I didn't realise is that in row xxx I had to increase... 160 (one six oh, or one hundred and sixty, or honderzestig, or cent soixante or...) stitches. So one row of the border is 485 stitches long. And 44 times 485 stitches equals 21340 stitches which is about as many stitches as I've knitted in the previous 150-something rows!!!! So guess what... I've done about 8 rows of the border so far and started something else.
That something else is Fiddlesticks Lotus Blossom Shawl using Handpaintedyarn.com laceweight in Orchids. Apparently I'd started this shawl a little while back and forgot about it. I was picking up some needles on my couch and hey, discovery, they had the starting of the shawl on it. I'd made a mistake somewhere a few rows down, so I ripped it all and promptly started over again. That was on Thursday night (at about 10 pm) and so far I'm at row 89. It is pretty repetitive, but not boring. I hope to get through all of the stem charts today.
One of Sivia Harding's faroese shawls in Sage Zephyr. I started this a while back as a present for my Gran. But my Gran made me soooooooooooo darn mad 3 weeks ago that I doubt she will be the recipient of this shawl. She does not deserve my knitting time or Zephyr. Might sound harsh, but hey we don't get along and after that phone call I've had it.
Second Feather and Fan sock using Trekking XXL #67 (I think). I don't know what I keep knitting Feather and Fan or Olde Shale (they're pretty much the same pattern) as I hate knitting it. I've done about 1.2 out of 3 repeats on the leg so far.
Bavarian lace sock from Red Bird Knits March 2005 sock-of-the-month club. I'm nearly done with the first repeat of the lace pattern on my first sock. I'm doing these on 3 DPNs as each repeat is 22 stitches for a total of 66 stitches on the sock. I greatly dislike using 3 DPNs, but I started out using 4 and kept messing up the lace.
A simple sock for Daniela, my coworker. They're done in Regia Canadian Fashion Colors in I think Calgary as colorway (or Vancouver). It is BRIGHT red, orange, yellow, pink and peach stripes. I was past the heel turning and working on the gusset the other day when I ripped way back to the leg part as somehow my stitches were all loose before the gusset and it kinda bulged.
Some socks for my friend Lani. She's in the middle of moving from one military base to another and will soon be sent to a warzone (I don't know if I'm allowed to say where, so I won't). I believe she needs some handmade socks to take with her. She won't be able to wear them with her uniform, but maybe as bedsocks or on her time off (I don't even know if they get time off). They're not 100% what I wanted colorwise, but they've got some of her favorite color in them and I'll look for nicer and more Lani-like yarn soon and then I'll knit her plenty more socks.
Second Knitpicks sock that I still need to start.
Cardigan for JuJu or Juliette, my coworker Karine's 1-year old. This is a cardigan that I "designed" myself. It is a top down raglan in 2 colors of pink yarn. I need to find my notes again and work on it so that the kid can still wear it before she's too big LOL.

I think this is about all that I have on the needles right now. At least this is all I can remember right now.

I'm also swatching like mad as I want to make a couple of cardigans for myself. I ripped Eris last night. I loved the cabled collar, but the fabric of the body of the cardigan was horrible. I knit too loose to use Cascade 220 with a 4mm needle. I could read the paper through the fabric... without stretching it. I also want to make Bristow. I'm swatching some Cascade Eco+ for that. I do have a small problem, because my swatch (after being washed and dried) stayed the same stitch wise, but shrunk row wise. If I make Bristow I was going to make it longer anyways, but now I have to figure out how much longer I will have to make it so that after washing it is still long enough to my taste. I've also got some Jaeger Aran yarn in a burnt orange that I want to make a cardigan with. I am thinking about doing a top down, round yoked cardi using one of my sweater design programs and maybe add some cables or so to it. I still need to swash (swatch & wash) that yarn though.

Pics might come one of these days...

A couple of pics...

2006-04-01T12:43:00.000+02:00

Okidoki... some pictures... sorry for the mumble-jumble, but those of you who use blogger know that blogger doesn't always upload pictures in the way you want them uploaded (or am I the only one struggling with that?).

These are my finished socks... yes they're short. Even a bit too short to my liking, but I can live with it. They're done using Trekking XXL in color 05. The picture makes the colors look nicer than they are. In reality there's a peach in there that I greatly dislike... me don't do peach. Ah well, I'll survive...

This is the kiddie sock using the left overs of the yarn above. I made a ruffled edge, 10 rows of k2, p1 (as the ruffle's also on a 3 stitch basis this looks best), heel flap is sl1, k1 and next row purl. The rest is plain st stitch. Star decrease toe.

I'm going to call this picture "unorthodox use of knitting appliances". I couldn't stop laughing when I saw what my coworker Hanne used for the safe transport of her Aloe Vera plant :) Lone (other coworker who's going to look after the plant) didn't understand why I was laughing. She always uses knitting needles for plant support. She asked if there was any other way for using them :)

Here you can see one Feather and Fan sock that is finished. Cuff done using a 2mm needle, heel flap using a 2.5mm needle and foot done using a 2.25mm needle. Don't know why I changed needles so much on this one, but I just liked the fit best that way. The yarn used is Trekking XXL in colorway 67... To be honest I like the striping on the bottom of the foot best :) Guess I'll be ordering some more to make plain socks with. You can also see that I really did start the second sock. But I haven't worked on it since Wednesday... the shawl's taking up all my attention right now.

And this last picture shows my sock (the finished one in my previous pic) while I was working on it in the office. It has become a joke... every time the system slows down or crashes I get my sock out, get ready to knit a stitch and the system will start up again LOL. It is really funny. Anyway, here's the sock reclining mid-sock-mojo on my keyboard and on some work.

Cheers Eva

Why do I sabotage myself???

2006-03-31T12:24:00.000+02:00

I actually knew before I started this "finishing 4 socks beofre the end of the week" thing that I wouldn't last more than 1-2 days? Why ? you ask... because, after living for 35 years with my wonderful self, I know myself :)

I did finish 1 sock and I've been wearing them already, but I made them really really really short LOL. But hey, a finished sock is a finished sock. I also started sock number 2. Am halfway through the second pattern repeat (out of 3), but I haven't worked on it since Wednesday. I also knit a sock for a kiddie. Said kiddie will be here in Lux for 1 day in April. I don't know said kiddie so I don't know if it will fit or not. We will see that when she's here. And if it fits, I'll knit sock #2 to match sock #1... if it doesn't fit, I'll take all the necessary measurements and make a pair to fit said kiddie.

Yesterday I was feeling horrible again. I'd been up all night coughing so horribly that nothing helped. I took several doses of my syrup and even one of those codeine containing pills, but still no relief. I finally fell asleep at about 6 am and woke again at 8. Last night was about the same, except that I slept 5 hours instead of 2. Anyways, I didn't knit all day, except in the evening I cast on for a new shawl... I need some shawl knitting right now LOL. I started Fiber Trends Seascape Shawl using KnitPicks Shadow in Jewels. I'm thinking about making the bottom border longer and maybe do a crocheted picot edging instead of a knitted one (I don't understand the explanations for the knitted one LOL).

Off to knit some more...

Cheers Eva

Challenge...

2006-03-28T09:14:00.000+02:00

As I mentionned yesterday, I'm challenging myself to finish all the twins to the single socks I've got lying around here. I thought it would be 5 or 6 socks, but I think it was only 4. That's okay too.

Twin #1 is done. I was just 10 rows of garter + 25 rows of ribbing short of finishing it. I did them last night while watching CSI NY and part of Criminal Intent. As soon as it was done, I weaved in the ends and cast on for twin #2. I thought I had the pattern for my Nina's Socks by Jeanie Townsend with me in the living room but I didn't. So it's the Feather & Fan sock in Trekking XXL colorway #67 that got started (the colors are a lot more muted than in this picture, but it is the only clear one I could find). This colorway is soooooooooooo yummy, that I'll need to get another skein and just make plain socks with it, to show off the gorgeous colors of the yarn. So far I'm done with the ribbing and the first 2 rows of the pattern repeat. I hope to finish this sock today LOL.

I linked to the Jeanie's yahoo group where you'll find several gorgeous free patterns for socks. I don't remember if you have to become a member of the group to have access to them or not though. Anyways, it is definitely worth it as that group is a very very nice group. Very friendly and helpful.

Off to knit knit knit... oh and I will post pics soon, but ya know... my camera's in my purse and I'm still in my bed and it is a LONG way to get to the hallway hahaha. In other words me's just very lazy :)

Cheers y'all, Eva

PS: I was having a look at the Trekking XXL colors on the site where I linked to, and to be honest, the picture of color 106 looks a LOT more like the 67 I have than the picture of the 67 color LOL. So I linked to that too...

Results of dr's visit...

2006-03-27T17:00:00.000+02:00

I was at the dr's office faster than expected. I called at 8.15 to get an appointment and the assistant asked if I could get there within the next 15 minutes... I whispered yes... My throat's in such a bad shape that my voice is gone. So, I jumped into some clothes (I'd had the bright idea of showering before calling), ran over to my dad's and got him to drive me to the office. I need 15 minutes to walk there, so the car was the only option. My dad stayed instead of going home. I was out of there within 15 mins. My doc was shocked at my state. I said that at least my temperature had dropped to my "normal" temp of 36.3 deg C (97.34 F). So as I thought, I've got a double tonsilitis, sinus infection and bronchitis... hoping to keep away from the mid ear infection.

For once I don't have an infants illness (yep, I tend to get things infants or elderly have), but as my throat is in such a bad shape, I got liquid antibiotics, just like for infants..... can we say YUCK YUCK YUCK?????

I'll be home all of this week and I've decided to knit all the twins for my single socks (5 or 6 I think). So far I've not knit a stitch hahaha.
Guess I'd better get cracking.

I might even come up with a post or 2..

Cheers Eva

Sick...

2006-03-27T05:48:00.000+02:00

I've been wanting to post for more than a week now, but first my puter got sick and went to the puter doctor and then on friday I woke up with the tiniest scratchy feeling in my throat. This normally signals a cold coming on. By 10 am I was feeling and looking horrible. So bad in fact that my superior told me to go home. As it was a friday I needed a sick note from the doc. I had slight earache and my midriff hurt when I breathed. So I had an appointment at quarter past two in the afternoon. The doc said that it looked like a cold and that I came too early. I told him that if I'd waited til monday to come I would have had tonsilitis and a double mid ear infection. I know my body. It goes from one extreme to the next in a matter of hours.
As I was his last patient for the day we chatted for about an hour or so. After one hour I told him I started feeling feverish and was extremely cold. I walked home, but every yard of the way felt worse.
I got there and then waited another hour before my dad arrived, and we went to the pharmacy and grocery shopping. At the grocery store I was sooooo happy to have the cart to hold on to because I doubt I would have been able to walk if I didn't have it. We finally got home around 6.15. I went straight home and to bed. I was freezing cold. I piled all my duvets on my bed, put on 3 sweaters, 2 pairs of socks, couldn't find my pj pants... Took some Tylenol cold medication. An hour later I was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo burning hot that I got rid of everything and had just a sheet on me. I didn't sleep all night, was extremely restless and just felt horrible.

Saturday more of the same... I got my dad's thermometer and I had a fever of 39 degrees (102.something fahrenheit)... which is unusual for me. My throat felt better... but the pressure behind my cheekbones and above my eyes was horrible. Even simple breathing hurt my head. I went and had dinner at my dad's but paid for it on Sunday.

Yesterday the pain in my face got worse and my throat is simply killing me... even air just passing my throat (my breath) feels as if it is glass shards. I took some Tylenol sinus and that releaved the pressure in my face a lot, so I guess I'm having a sinus infection. The coughing and my throat have gotten worse. My fever's nearly gone, although I still feel feverish.
I'll be in my drs office first thing this morning (in about 3 hours)... and begging him for anything to make the pain go away.

I've felt so horrible that I haven't even knit or watched TV all weekend.

With me it really is a case of all or nothing...

Once I feel better enough to post I will do so...

Tests

2006-03-17T20:19:00.000+01:00

You Have A Type B+ Personality

B+

You're a pro at going with the flow
You love to kick back and take in everything life has to offer
A total joy to be around, people crave your stability.

While you're totally laid back, you can have bouts of hyperactivity.
Get into a project you love, and you won't stop until it's done
You're passionate - just selective about your passions

Do You Have a Type A Personality?

You Are Austin

A little bit country, a little bit rock and roll.
You're totally weird and very proud of it.
Artistic and freaky, you still seem to fit in... in your own strange way.

Famous Austin residents: Lance Armstrong, Sandra Bullock, Andy Roddick

What American City Are You?

Blogger duh moment...

2006-03-12T15:45:00.000+01:00

okay folks, my blog is back to having pictures. I finished writing the post that I started a few days ago when the problems with my website started. For some reason Blogger posted it on the 7th of march... the title is sock-sock, sock-sock, sock (or something original like that LOL).

cheers Eva

Paddy's day

2006-03-08T19:14:00.000+01:00

Cute isn't it :) Ciara... that's a name I like. I'm pronouncing it Keeyarah LOL...

Your Irish Name Is...

Ciara Carroll

What's your Irish Name?

sorry...

2006-03-08T14:28:00.000+01:00

but the servers hosting my site containing my pics are still down... Nola said it would take a couple of days before they would be up and running again. I'll post a post containing pictures as soon as it all works again :)

Cheers Eva

I'm out of the stash-along...

2006-03-07T19:38:00.000+01:00

yep, you read that well, I fell of the wagon. Last week a coworker asked me to order her some sock yarn online as she was having trouble with the site. Of course I obliged... and I got the box yesterday. Lo and behold, several skeins of sock yarn jumped in the box that my coworker didn't order. Of course I racked my brain and realised I must have hit the "in cart" button a couple of times subconsciously.

Kim, I'm really sorry that I didn't manage to stick to it till the end, but I've done a lot better than I expected to do, so I'm pretty happy with myself.

Okay, folks I had this long post with pics and so on that I wanted to do, but my website is down so I can't access the pictures. I just contacted my website manager (now doesn't that sound posh) and she told me that the place where the servers are had a power outage yesterday and that it would take another day or 2 before it would be up and running again.

I was soooo pleased with myself, because I managed to add comments and arrows to one of the pics to point something out LOL. Ah well, I'll post it as soon as everything's working again.

Cheers y'all, Eva

sock-sock,sock-sock and sock...

2006-03-07T16:02:00.000+01:00

Hello every one... first of all, let's all thank Nola for getting it all fixed again so that we can have pictures on this blog :) Nola, I know I was a total pain in the you know what... but I do thank you for getting it all straightened out :) Here are some virtual yellow roses for you... they're called Olympic Gold (I nicked them from some site that had tonnes of images of yellow roses, but no references as to who took them).

Okay, now on to the knitting content and the reason for my title. As you may have guessed it refers to having finished 2 pairs of socks and a singleton (in the meantime I've finished another singleton, but it will be featured in another post).

This first pair of socks is done with a very bulky yarn by Lana Grossa. The recommended needle size was 8-9mm. My friend AMN wanted some thick woolen socks to use as house socks. I thought I'd try and use this yarn. I used 5mm needles and 1 ball of yarn for each sock. The pattern's a basic toe up pattern. They took me about 15 hours to complete. Luckily AMN and I have the same shoe size so I kept trying them on to see if they fit. I gave them on Wednesday and just had some feedback... they're too short. I don't know if she means the foot part or the leg part. Anyways they went on her trip to Tenerifa today, so I'll know more once she's back. I'll rip and reknit whatever needs to be done. Oh, the way they are now, I only had a couple of yards of yarn left over on each ball, so next time I'll make them, I'll use a ball and a half per sock.

This is a pair I knitted using KnitPicks Dancing in Ballet. I LOVE THEM... I've got them on my feet right now as we speak. I bought a sampler pack of this yarn while in the US and am glad I did so, as KnitPicks will discontinue this yarn. When they run out of it... that's it!!! I did find a German company that sells the exact same yarn, but under a different name. It is called Hot Socks there. I found it in this german online shop. I might order some more from KnitPicks and have it mailed to CH in OR (Hiya CH!!! More stuff to mail hahahaha). The one thing I'll change, is I'm going to make them smaller and longer... they're kinda loose...

And this is the singleton... done in Knitpicks Sock Garden and the color is Hydrangea and not Sweetpeas as I've been calling it all this time. Guess I mixed my 2 favorite flowers up LOL. Since I took this picture I did weave in that end you can see hanging off the toe.
For this sock I used a garter stitch short row heel... which I LOVE. It is easy, and fast.

This is a picture to show how the colors and texture of the yarn seem to be different on the cuff. Really weird LOL. Oh and this is the softest wool I've ever felt. It feels like cotton...

And finally a close up of the garter stitch short row heel. I'm sooooo darn pleased with myself... I figured out how to add comments and arrows (although a bit wonky) to my picture hahahaha.
This is to show how those wraps disappear in the garter stitch rows.

Since having done this first sock using the garter stitch short row heel I've done a new sock using it too... I did figure something out though. A normal short row heel adds about 2 inches of dept to my socks... with a garter stitch short row heel it is more like 1.25-1.5 inch... so you do have to remember to make the foot of your sock longer than you normally would. I don't seem to be the only person with this "problem"... Maybe I'll have to do some research to see if this is "normal".

Well, this is it for now... I've got pics and things for more posts, so be on the look out the next couple of days :)

Cheers Eva

Controversy...

2006-03-05T12:51:00.000+01:00

Okay, I've been blogwandering for the past few hours and from one of the blogs I came across Franklin's blog. Franklin's the artist that created the Knitting Olympics medal. Which I display here in it's big size for referral if you read this post on Franklin's blog. Sometimes I really wonder what goes on in people's brains... how they turn anything and everything in something "inappropriate"!!!! Don't they have anything else on their brains???

I also took the time to read all the comments... and there's one that suggests that we, Europeans, are probably falling over laughing at those 2 e-mails and yes I was!!!

Anyways, go have some fun and read that post!!!

Can we say White Fluffy Crap???

2006-03-03T13:27:00.000+01:00

I've sooooooooooo had it with winter you can not believe it!!! Yesterday it started snowing... nothing more than the inch or two we were promised. Last night the weather dudes at the airport said we'd get about 7-10 inches overnight. I was already whining about that. But this morning on the radio they said it had not happened so far. The at 10 am it started snowing and snowing and snowing and snowing. At 11 people were advised that the speed on the highways was reduced from 120 km/h to 90 km/h and the first trucks-in-ditches were announced too.
Now it is 1.30 and as you can see from my pics, it's still snowing hard... My dad's on his way from Belgium by train and I don't have the heart to call him and tell him that they've just started saying that they're cancelling public transport (i.e. busses) as the folks of road maintenance can't keep up with keeping the streets clear.
The weather dudes are expecting the snow to go over into rain which is not a good thing as the ground is cold enough for it to freeze immediately.

View out of my bathroom window... it makes me dizzy to see all those flakes coming down in such a hard way.

This is a pic of my balcony... see how the snow clings to the fabric windbreaker LOL... it is hilarious!!!

I wanted to show how deep the snow is on my balcony... that's a screwdriver which is 7.5 inches tall... I got rid of all the snow on my balcony last night, so we've had 7 inches so far and we're expecting more...

Here you can see a wall with a tree in front of it... between the wall and the tree is a road... that was cleared 20 minutes before I took this picture, but you can't see the road anymore.

So all in all... me hates this crap... I hope it will be gone soon..

Here's my gold...

2006-03-01T09:47:00.000+01:00

Here's my gorgeous Olympic Gold Medal

The smaller button will reside on my side bar :)

If you go to the Yarn Harlot's post The Podium you will find an e-mail address where you can participate in some prize drawings. If you enter you will get an automated response with a PDF file with a certificate you can print out. It looks gorgeous :)

Congratulations to all my Olympic companions!!!

Hugs Eva

How about...

2006-03-01T09:02:00.000+01:00

a KAL for that gorgeous Fair Isle cardi from KnitPicks??? I know that one person already ordered it and maybe I can get some others to join????

I would say May 1st as starting date. That way I will not fall of the stashalong wagon and I'll have time to get the yarn from the US to Lux (as KnitPicks won't ship outside the US/Canada).

Anybody game???

Cheers Eva

My love story continues...

2006-02-25T15:28:00.000+01:00

My love story with KnitPicks that is :) I just got their latest newsletter and it features this gorgeous cardigan:

Having looked at many a fair isle sweater/sock/mitten (scroll down a bit on this last one) lately I've been wanting to try this technique too. I could of course start with something simple like a mitten, but I'm not functioning that way LOL.

This cardigan uses 28 out of 30 colours of the Palette sampler package. I've been wanting to get that for the longest time and this sounds like the perfect opportunity :)

Edited to add: I asked KnitPicks about the sizes of the cardi... 36"-52"... which is great because that's what I need with my rack :) Guess I'll be falling off the stash-along wagon soon... haven't fallen yet, but the fall's imminent.

Another cardigan I like from KnitPicks is this one, although I do not really like the way it seems to "weird" at the armholes...

That's it for now... back to drool a bit more over that cardigan...

YAY for me...

2006-02-23T10:44:00.000+01:00

Some of you might have seen the little bar thingy to the right that says I'm done with my Olympic knitting project, but so far I hadn't posted about it.

So here it is:

I'm done!!!

And I have been done since Sunday around noon. I started the previous Sunday around 10 in the evening. I've had to change yarns as the one I picked was very adamant that it would NOT become the shawl. I think I knit and ripped the part til the shoulder pattern about 10 times and out of frustration threw the yarn across the room and picked the first ball of anything lace that I came across.

It was some Henry's Attic laceweight yarn that I bought of someone this summer. She dyed it with Koolaid and it is this gorgeous crushed strawberry color. The yarn, once knitted up, feels great too... You take a handfull and squeeze it and it feels like squeezing a sponge!!!

I love the faroese style too. You can indeed do anything and it'll stay on. On Sunday I tested this by jumping up and down and dancing all over the place (no worries... no neighbours were home).

The shawl has been keeping me warm in the office... too warm actually LOL.

Some pics now...

No it is not flying or hanging from a wall... the pic was taken on the black carpet in my dad's computer room... I just rotated the pic so that it'd look right side up... forgetting about the tiles in the background LOL.

This one is taken from a different angle. I’m still amazed at the magical shape you get by just “adding” extra stitches in a couple of rows.

Close up

Obligatory shots of the shawl draped over my mom’s chair

Okay, as I’ve been done with this shawl for a couple of days I’ve got another FO, but forgot to take a pic of it. Remember that pale lilac lace sock from a few posts ago??? It’s done too. Now I need to cast on for the second one and knit it. I used a star decrease for the toe as I’d tried doing that Kitchener stuff and it is just too much hassle.

Then on Tuesday, my St Valentine’s order from Schoolhouse press arrived (I’m specifying that it is my Valentine’s order for Stash Along purposes J)… Icelandic Unspun in Denim. This really feels weird… it is indeed not spun and has a funky feel to it. Not yucky funky, just funky funky hahaha. Oh, and it doesn’t like any resistance whatsoever when you work with it. The yarn broke twice in the first row I knitted with it. I’ve now learned not to “control” it by lacing it through my fingers like I normally do with yarn.

Oh, and you know what had me really flabbergasted???? With the yarn comes a note explaining that the yarn is not spun or dyed… does that mean that in Iceland they’ve got blue and pink sheep wandering around??? The yarn also comes in pink… If yes, then I want a blue and a pink sheep. Now that I’m thinking about it… if they’d have babies, would they be calico blue/pink or lilac????

Here’s a pic of the blue sheep goodyness. Oh, in case you’re wondering I’m knitting the Faroese shawl from GOL with it. So I’m using the required yarn hahahaha. The blue is a bit less intense in reality. It is more like a mucho washed pair of jeans.

Guess that is all for now.

Cheers Eva - who's given up trying to get all the fonts look the same size on this blogger thing... It starts to p!ss me off

PS: Fleur Maxwell, one and only Luxembourgish Olympic athlete, I'm rooting for you tonight!!!

Wanna listen to Annie Modesitt???

2006-02-11T11:30:00.000+01:00

On the KnitCast website you can listen to an interview with her. You do not need an iPod to be able to listen to the interview. I just clicked on the link and listened to it with my media player. It was really interesting :)

Cheers

Drive by posting...

2006-02-10T19:57:00.000+01:00

Just a small one...

Today I went to Créativa. This is a craft fair held in french speaking countries all over Europe. It was in Metz, France. France is a bit "behind" on what is popular and what isn't. So they're all about scrapbooking and beading and treat it like it is the newest thing since the invention of the wheel. I did get some beads to make some earrings.

Oh, and they do have a LOT of cross stitching, but the prices are crazy. The cheapest Mirabilia chart we found was at 18.75 EUR (22.40 USD) and the most expensive at 80 EUR (95.30)!!! Yes for a SINGLE chart. The lady was insulted when I told my friend that I could get her the same one through the internet for about 15 USD.

I did buy one kit... I hope I don't get kicked out of the stash along for it though

Next up a FO... 2 mitts... for my friend Cheryl... 1 skein of Lorna's Laces in Flames used (actually still have 22 grams left over). I bought this skein while in Portland, OR in November. Pattern used: Lady Fingers by Pink Lemon Twist and available on her blog :) I did make a few changes though. The main one being the scalloped cast on.

This is my first top down sock. I'm making them using some cotton blend Meilenweit from Lana Grossa that I got last year. The color is a lot paler in reality... sometimes it looks pale lilac and sometimes pale grey. I'm working at the heelflap right now.

Another sock. This one toe up. Tweedy Meilenweit. For my friend Anne Martine.

That's it for now... off to nuke some food and start my Olympic Knitting :)

Cheers y'all

Olympic Training update...

2006-02-08T14:48:00.000+01:00

I've done some of my olympic training for my shawl.

The following results have been gathered:

Indigo Zephyr yarn: 0 points. It just wouldn't give me the "fluffyness" I expect of a faroese shawl. I've never seen a faroese shawl in real life, but I have this "image" of them being fluffy without being made out of mohair or one of those other long haired yarns.
To be honest I feel this indigo Zephyr is destined to become some beaded shawl. I have tons of beads, but no beaded patterns :) I know there's a pretty famous book out with beaded shawls, but I don't have it. It's funny last year I was in Maryland in May and anywhere you would look where they'd sell books I'd see at least a copy of it. As I didn't know knitted lace back then I wasn't interested in it. Then, when I was in Oregon in October and I WANTED the book BADLY... I couldn't find a single copy of it!!!!

So off I went to find some other laceweight yarn that would be used in my Olympic efforts. I have several colors of Zephyr, so those were all out. Next I have a couple of skeins of Helen's Lace and even 2 skeins of Cherry Tree Hill yarn too. Those were out of the running too as I didn't want any of the (harsh) color changes in my shawl. So the sole solution was my stash of Handpainted Yarn. Luckily I have quite a stash of that too :) Although most are single skeins so not enough. When I got to the bottom of my box with yarn I found 2 skeins of the Stone Blue colorway. In the picture it looks pretty bright, but in reality it is the color of well used and washed blue jeans :) The color is absolutely perfect!!!

Next I got some needles. The chart calls for 3.75 mm (US 5) needles. The finished size of the shawl sounds a bit small to me, so I decided to use size US 7 (4.5mm) needles instead. I dislike garter stitch though. I made swatch number 1 using stockinette stitch... hmmmm me dislikes the result... no fluffyness. I thought and thought about it and decided to give the garter stitch a run too. I think I found the exact ingredients for the fluffyness I was looking for :)
So now I'm all set... just sad that I won't be home for the start of it on Friday night.
PS: sorry that this gets posted after the start signal of the games... Blogger messed it all up once again...

Picciepoo:

I've made up my mind...

2006-02-06T10:07:00.000+01:00

I’m going to knit Sivia Harding’s Follow the Leader Faroese shawl. I got it as a payable downloaded pattern from www.knittingzone.com

It looks gorgeously wonderfullatastic… I’ll probably be using some indigo zephyr for it.

I’ll get a picture up once I’m back home.

Cheers

PS: sorry about the size of the letters LOL. I send this message through the email thingy and so I didn't have a clue about the size of the letters :)

Name change...

2006-02-02T09:33:00.000+01:00

I've found a new name for my blog. When I started my blog I was in a low point of my life and I wasn't very inspired.

Right now I was fiddling around with my pooter as I'm trying to create a button -- this is very hard for someone who's totally drawing and photoshop challenged LOL. I was fiddling around a bit and suddenly I was thinking of making a photo of some skeins, sweaters and socks and tada... I didn't get a button, but a great name for my blog :)

cheers again..

PS: still don't remember what that great post was supposed to be about...

I've got a great mind...

2006-02-02T09:05:00.000+01:00

it is just very fickle on retaining information.

Last night at 11.33 I had a great idea for a post, but given the time I decided to post it this morning. And of course, for the life of me, I can't remember it!!!! I don't even remember the subject I wanted to post about. I just had this great catchy title to go with it... it is all gone... sometimes I really hate sleeping LOL... it seems to wipe the hard disk in my head clean :)

I'll just try and not think about it for the next few hours. It might get back to me...

have a wonderful day y'all...

My very first blogtag :)

2006-01-29T19:26:00.000+01:00

Lani tagged me :) I got the questions from her blog. Here are my answers:

1. 4 Jobs you've had in your life:
-- babysitting
-- record shop
-- Substitute teacher (only 1 week)
-- proofreader (for the past 17 years)

2. 4 Movies you could watch over & over ? ( in no particular order )
-- Sweet Home Alabama (with yummilicious Josh Lucas)
-- When Harry Met Sally
-- 3 hommes et un couffin (original french version of 3 men and a baby)
-- Baby Boom (with Diane Keaton)

3. 4 Places you have lived ?
-- Antwerp, Belgium
-- Warken, Luxembourg
-- Pontpierre, Luxembourg
-- Kirchberg, Luxembourg

4. 4 TV programmes you love to watch! ?
-- Any kind of CSI
-- Gilmore Girls
-- Criminal Intend
-- Everwood

5. 4 Places you have been on Holiday ?
-- Italy
-- Maryland
-- Oregon
-- Holland

6. 4 Websites you visit daily ?
-- Yahoo Groups
-- Bloglines
-- EZboard bulletin boards
-- Knittyboard

7. 4 of your Favourite Foods ?
-- most pasta's
-- potatoes
-- chocolate
-- ice cream

8. 4 Places you would rather be right now ?
-- Oregon
-- Amsterdam
-- Myrtle Beach
-- Colorado (never been there yet, but it looks soooo beautiful)

9. 4 Bloggers you are going to tag? ( Hope they don't mind :) )
-- Jenn (Devilwmn)
-- Stacey
-- MrNicksgirl
-- Nancy

Fun :) Off to finish the second sleeve on the sweater I want to wear tomorrow LOL... No me no do blocking so I can wear it tomorrow :)

Cheers Eva

Phew...

2006-01-28T14:21:00.000+01:00

I've just sweated for close to 3 hours over adding buttons to my blog :) It was a boatload of work LOL. I've also changed something... because some blogs don't have buttons they were getting lost in the forest of buttons, so I moved them to the top of my list. I was smart before starting this... I copied the whole shebang into Word and there I could copy paste comfortably.

Next I added a couple of groups I belong to too. But before adding those I figured out how to link to pictures on my website instead of PhotoBucket. So next up will be moving all the blog buttons to my website and redo all the links... but that will be next week or so. Have had enough of the scary HTML-stuff.

I'm going to look for a tutorial on button making and I'll make my own button too :)

I found an interesting link in google, but it was broken :( It was a tutorial on how to create your own wallpaper and everything. I'd like to do that as I'm a bit fed up with the standard blogger stuff...

That's it for now, cheers

A quicky...

2006-01-26T19:33:00.000+01:00

I came across this article on yahoo.com Odd News and thought that some of you might be interested in reading it... Who says that Cashmere is expensive stuff???

Started another sock...

2006-01-24T06:11:00.000+01:00

I know I talked about my third sock in an earlier post, but that sock is no more. I was past the heel, but didn't like the way it looked and so I decided to look into this afterthought heel business and wanted to try that. When I ripped back the sock, I couldn't get the stitches picked up right so I ripped the whole sock.
Yesterday, in the office, I started another sock with a different color of yarn (some Twinkletoes I got from ebay a couple of months ago). Thanks to the computer system being slow and horrible yesterday I got the toe and about an inch knitted.

As I said in my comments to my Knitting Olympics post, I think I'll be knitting one of the sets of cardi-tank-skirt for Dawn's twins during the Olympics... does this sentence make sense???? It is 6.17 am and I'm still half asleep.

Jorun, do you know how to make one of them buttons???

cheers y'all

Sock update...

2006-01-23T06:25:00.000+01:00

I washed my socks yesterday... just chunked them in with my clothes. I plucked them out before dumping the rest into the dryer and boy did I get a surprise!!!!!!!!!!!! They were kinda scratchy before washing, but now they're SOFT SOFT SOFT... Okay, I do use fabric softener, but oh boy are they soft!!! If they weren't still wet I think I would have taken them to bed so that I could pet them all night LOL.
I hope that all my sock yarn will get this soft :)

Cheers

Knitting Olympics

2006-01-21T12:16:00.000+01:00

On January 14th, The Yarn Harlot launched a new knitting frenzy to take over the knitting blog world: The Knitting Olympics.

I've been wondering if I should apply or not. So far I haven't got a clue about what to pick. Maybe some socks with a lacey pattern and a heelflap or something like that. There's a UK team, USA team and Canadian team out there already... should I be the Luxembourg team all on my own???? It will be very very lonely though.

I'll continue to ponder about it.

Cheers

A manly yarn...

2006-01-19T22:20:00.001+01:00

Look like Colleen's encounter with the Media while knitting in a LYS in New York wasn't the only one... Look what I found while reading through the Yahoo.com Odd News section: the article's pretty good... don't understand why they put it in Odd News though.

Just had to share...

Cheers

Is it a plane???

2006-01-19T16:24:00.000+01:00

Is it a car??? Noooohhhh............ it is a sock!!!! Oops correction... a PAIR of sockS!!!

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you my first pair of handknitted socks: Knitted using Fortissima Colori Disco in ??? color. It's got glittery stuff in it and it is fun as the colors are pretty muted and classy looking. Pattern: my own... I casted-on 6 stitches, increased every other row til I had 32 stitches on both circs and knitted till it was long enough, did a double wrapped short row heel, knitted some more, did 16 rows of 1x1 ribbing and used a crocheted bind off. Right now I'm perfecting a few things though (yep a new sock :))

A blurry picture of my feet in the socks. Don't ya just love those little sparklies?

Another pic of my feet in the socks... They're a bit big and slouchy, but me loves them... especially those sparklies hahahaha

A pic to show that they match... upside down. I did that on purpose. One of the reasons I want to knit my own socks it is to be able to mismatch them hahaha.

I have 2 more colors of this stuff and I'll make more socks with it. I had a 100 g ball and I have enough yarn left over to make a third sock. But hey, I'm just like any human and have only 2 feet, so why should I make a third sock? Any ideas what I could do with the 32 g left over?

Right now I'm working with some Lana Grossa Meilenweit Fantasy self striping yarn. It is light pink, medium pink, purple, orangey yellow and lilac colors. A bit funky, but still cute.

Guess that's it for now.

Cheers
PS: Stashalong Kim, I've got a question. 2 of my coworkers want me to teach them how to knit socks. They asked if I could buy them yarn and needles (they'll pay for them) as they both live out in the country where there is no LYS. Would I be breaking the rules of the game doing so? I explained this to them and they had to laugh about it, but understood if I said no :) They're willing to wait til the yarn fast is over if it is necessary.

Another week's bitten the dust...

2006-01-15T11:23:00.000+01:00

I've been meaning to post since last week Sunday, but I keep "forgetting" :) I have some pictures of my Ene blocking to show. I liked knitting it a lot, but it is soooo lacy that I keep getting stuck in the yo's with my fingers or rings or whatever. And then of course I've got the hardest time ever to try and get the thread back in. I'm also scared that I'll break the yarn one of these days. So for now it is just lying around, unused.

Here are the pictures: The first one shows it draped over the chair my mom used to sit in, with part of one of her quilts showing. You can see how lacey it is... Next up, having a flirt with my dad's computer chair. And the last one is a upside down picture of it on my "blocking table".

What else have I done... well the Shetland shawl has been ripped as I didn't like the plain garter middle and I didn't feel like picking out a lacy something for it instead. I'll do that some other time. I did start the Spirit of the Southwest by Fiber Trends using that shade of KnitPicks Shadow. This shawl's a pain in the you-know-what. I'm having the hardest time possible with the corn part. I've put it aside as I'm really not enjoying working on it for the moment.

I've also started another shawl, Wings of Fantasy by Hazel Carter for Blackberry Ridge Yarns. The picture on the site doesn't do it any justice... Off to find a better one. Found a gorgeous picture of it on someone's blog... she's done it in 3 shades of lilac yarn... absolutely gorgeous. I'm going to make a second one using 3 shades of a color too... it is just too beautiful like this!!!!

Oh... and as I'm yarn shopping deprived... I've gone and spend LOADS a money yesterday on a DVD recorder (I could have bought several hundred skeins of my beloved KnitPicks Shadow for that kinda money). I got one with a 200 GB hard disk... imagine I can record over 350 hours of stuff!!! and I've been fooling around with it a bit. It does all kinds of nifty things, like downloading the channels from my TV. Oh and last night I was watching a movie and had to go do something else, so I hit record and 10 minutes later I started watching what I'd taped while it kept recording the rest of the movie!!!!!!!!!!!! I do realise that those of you who have Tivo can do the same thing, but we no have such thing here in Europe (yet).

I saw 2 good movies this week (both dubbed in German): Switchback with Dennis Quaid and Sidney Poitier and Down with Love featuring Renee Zellweeger and Ewan McGregor... I want to get both on DVD.

That's about it for now folks,

Cheers

May I present to you...

2006-01-07T21:18:00.000+01:00

Pacific Northwest Shawl from Fiber Trends. This version's done in KnitPicks Shadow in Sunset.

(Intermezzo: Blogger's being a real pain-in-the-you-know-what and I've lost this post more than once... the pics are not in the correct order any more, but I'm too happy that I actually could post pics to fiddle around with them.)

I made this for my aunt for her 60th birthday (last year september). I got the pattern while I was in Oregon and when I saw the yarn I knew I had to get these two together. I used inox needles in 2.75 mm. I'm going to make this one for me too, but using bigger needles.

I didn't block it very severely as my aunt's petite and I don't want her to drown in it. I mostly blocked the body but not the border. I kind of like the way that the border looks "denser" than the rest. I haven't measured it yet, but it goes from hand to hand on me and ways down over my popo in the back. I'll try and find my measuring tape and get real measures.

I use my mom's quilt cutting table to block my shawls. On it I put a piece of batting. It kind of grips the knitting. To get a straight top edge I use the Yarn Harlot's trick by weaving a piece of string through it and then I attach it to 2 drawerknobs at the 2 sides of the room. It's funny to see LOL. But it's faster than having to pin it all out and hey, the table's too short anyways :)

This picture shows detail of the fishies, water, sand dollars and trees

Over my head shot to show you the shawl in most of it gloriousness. See how the edge softly ruffles? I stretched it out a bit more and now it ruffles a little less.

A detail shot of the trees and the gulls... the gulls that made my life hell :)

A picture of how I tied the shawl to the drawer knobs.

And another shot to show you most of the shawl.

I really this pattern :)

Cheers y'all...

hihihi...

2006-01-06T10:05:00.000+01:00

I added a site meter to my site yesterday (duh, isn't that logical?) and I've just had my first report... I just LOVE it :) It does register me as being at Niedercorn, Lux. (which is about 10 miles off) but hey, this country's sooooo tiny that that map is allowed to make a mistake.

It does make me curious to know who else is reading my site... I recognised one person (Hi Jenn) though and I've got an idea about another... but those 7 other people??? Who oh who are they LOL. I'm already very pleased that there's 9 people out there reading what I'm writing :)

Okay, some "sad" knitting news. Yesterday afternoon, I decided to put my Feather and Fan shawl on waste yarn and have a good look at it off the needles. And just as I feared, it looked horrible. I'd added a 3 stitch garter border because the Kfb on the first stitch looked horrible in the (slightly) thin/thick yarn that I was using. The fact that I added a border wasn't the problem... what I did that created a problem was slipping the first stitch. I shouldn't have done that (I always forget if it adds or takes elasticity... If I'd thought about what I was doing, I'd know the answer before starting). Well, whatever I tried, I couldn't get the curve to straighten out enough and deciding that I couldn't live with the way it looked not straightened out I (drumroll please) ripped it all. All hunderd thousand something stitches I'd made. I was at 24 rows from the end... 24 rows of each some 500+ stitches... The yarn's already wound in balls again. I've mourned it and decided that I didn't like the contrast between the black and medium grey anyways. It was too stark. And then between the medium grey and light grey there wasn't enough contrast to balance the contrast of the black.
I have some of that same yarn in Paris nights which is like a dark antracite color and which will look gorgeous with the 2 other greys, so keep watching this space... I might start the Feather and Fan shawl once again in the weeks/months to come.

As I was shawl-less I started making a traditional shetland shawl using the pattern in The Best of Knitter's Magazine Shawls and Scarves. It is the pattern In the English Tradition by Elisabeth Zimmermann. I'm using KnitPicks Shadow in Vineyard. I'm still working on the center square... I enjoy this working in biais :) It's fun and you don't have to think LOL.

Oh and on the Hot Chocolate front... it's been languishing in my bedroom for the past week and a half. I thought I'd finished the body over xmas and I bound off... threw it over my head and whammo... It ends just on my fattest part. So it is not flattering at all. I need to "unbind" it and knit 10 or so more rows so that it will end at a more flattering length. One of these days I'll do it. Would be neat to do it soon as the winter cold is known to get here end of Jan/beginning of Feb.

Eris is languishing in her ziplock bag. I'm not too happy with the fabric I'm making with the size 6 needles. I find it a bit holey. I don't know if Cascade 220 fluffs up with washing or not. If it does then I'll continue, if not I'm going to try and use my 3.75 mm needles.

Ene's done and will be blocked today. Ha, blocking's something else... I'm blocking my aunt's shawl right now and you should see the construction I made hahaha (pics to follow in next post). I'm using my mom's fabric room. This time I put some batting on her designing table and then I used the Yarn Harlots method of threading a crochet thread through the top and stretching the shawl alongst it to get a neat top edge. But as it is not a mattress, I have attached the thread to 2 cupboard drawers at 2 ends of the room.

This is all for now... guess I'm more chatty at 10.30 on a Friday morning than I expected to be.

Cheers

Once again...

2006-01-05T11:31:00.000+01:00

I'm a day off :) I knitted and knitted and knitted and didn't finish the shawl... the rows are never ending with over 500 stitches a piece and each row adds 4 or 2 stitches. I've got another 24 rows to do. The more I knit the more I fear that I'll have to rip everything as soon as I'm done... See, I didn't like the Kfb to start the rows with so to make it look nicer I added 3 garter stitches at the beginning and the end of a row. Because of the curving nature of the Feather and Fan lace that the bottom constitutes I fear that the border is not stretchy enough. So far it really really really puckers awfully and it doesn't look like I can block it out. Anyways there's something that boggles my mind. The drawing of the shawl shows that the top is straight... but what I'm knitting doesn't make for a straight top edge... I mean every row I'm starting and ending with a Kfb... which of course creates a curve.

Ah well, enough rambling... of to the knitting I go again. Who knows, I might get it off the needles today.

Cheers from snowy (once again) Lux.

Technical blogging questions...

2006-01-03T20:58:00.000+01:00

Hey folks,

I know not many people read this blog (yet), but I hope one of you can help me... I'm wanting to add a couple of things and need someone to tell me how to :)

I want to know how to add one of those little calendars that shows when a post has been made;
I want to know how to add a button for a knit-along or something similar to my sidebar
Some people make comments on how their blog was found through google or something like that and they also know how many people read their blog... where can you find that information

That's all for now I think...

cheers again

I already messed up my first...

2006-01-03T20:32:00.000+01:00

new years' resolution... I was going to blog on Sundays and on Wednesdays. Before I knew it it was Tuesday LOL. I'll try and do better from now on.

I have a FO though... Ene's done finished but not blocked yet. I'm going to my dad's place tomorrow and block her. My apartment's too small, and as he's not home right now he won't know :)

I finished Ene last week Wednesday. On Thursday I casted on (is that the correct way to say it???) for one of the Faroese shawls from Best of Knitters Shawls and Scarves using Indigo Zephyr. And on Saturday I started the Feather and fan triangle Shawl from Folks Shawls. I'm using handpaintedyarn.com's laceweight in Black, Pearl Ten and Pearl. I set the goal of finishing it tomorrow... but I doubt that will be the case. It is already 8.40 pm and I still have 37 rows to go... Each 2 rows adds 6 stitches and the row I'm doing now is 459 stitches long already.

I'm participating in a stashalong at this blog. We're not going to buy any yarn for the next 13 weeks. It'll be very very very hard because a) there's a sale going on at one of my favorite ebay stores (she has Cascade 220 for 4.85 USD a skein) and b) a sale at my LYS (who only sells Lana Grossa). I'll try to be strong...

I've also received the scarf from the International Scarf Exchange I am in (no, mine's not done... I'll be picking it up soon again :)). Rose from Enchanted Ewe spun and dyed the yarn herself... it is absolutely gorgeous!!! Oh and she's in the process of getting her own store up through her website.
I made this picture last week wednesday. I draped it in a tree on my way home from the bus stop... I got lots of weird looks from the cars driving by. Oh and all the snow you see has melted since. It was very windy so I had to poke the branches partly through the scarf to avoid it flying away.

The second picture's taken from a different angle and the sun disappeared just before I pressed the button to make the picture. Oh the pattern's Feather and Fan and it is LONG LONG LONG... I can wrap it 3 times around my neck, or twice around the collar of my coat and still knot it so that I don't loose it. It soft, warm and smells gorgeous hahahaha. I took it to the office on Thursday and Friday and my coworkers kept coming to my desk to pet it and smell it hahahaha.

Well folks, I guess this is it :) I'll post more tomorrow... as it will be Wednesday.

Cheers

Just a tiny post...

2005-12-29T19:42:00.000+01:00

to share something silly LOL...

At the beginning of December I placed an order at Handpaintedyarn. I got it today... and there was a gift in the envelope. A skein of Apple Green Colonia 140 (I'm not sure, it doesn't say, but it sure looks like it is that yarn)... it is soooooooooooo soft, I can't believe it's wool hahahaha. I unwrapped the tight skein it came in so that I could pet it better. Then I tried something new... I just wrapped the hank twice around my neck :) It fits snuggly like a neck gaiter would hihihihi. I just might keep it like that and wear it like that and not knit it at all :)

Told ya I was silly!!!

Cheers

PS: I'll make a bigger post over the weekend...

The promised post with knitterly content

2005-12-18T20:42:00.000+01:00

Hello again,

I wanted to have this one up earlier, but I got into ripping and organizing music on my MP3 player and it took longer than I thought it would. Actually, I'm still at it.

I took pictures of the 3 projects I'm working on:

Hot Chocolate, a top down raglan sweater in Eco Wool by Cascade in a Chocolate color. It is designed by me using my KnitWare software. I think I'm going to call it Spiced Hot Chocolate because I want to do something to spice it up a bit. I'm thinking cables. Right now I'm just a couple of rows before the last waist decrease (I make shaped sweaters as I think that is more flattering). Once I've done the last decrease I'm going to start adding some cables that will end in a border.
Ene Scarf from Scarf Style. For this I'm using Blackberry Ridge's Silky Merino in pale iris. I got the yarn in a kit to do the Tempelhof Airlifter shawl, but I ripped it several months ago as I couldn't keep track of the pattern. This stuff is soooooo soft it is unbelievable. I might have enough with just one of the 3 skeins I have. This is my 4th attempt at Ene LOL. I could never get past the border. Now I'm on the last rows of garter stitch before beginning the middle part of the scarf. The rows are getting slightly shorter already
Eris Cardigan by The Girl From Auntie. For this I'm using the Cascade 220 Tweed in charcoal that I got a little while ago. This yarn is made for cables!!! It is even more yummylicious knitted up than it is in the skeins :) Can you see I'm majorly in love here????
Eris is a top down cardigan/sweater, knit in 1 piece. You start with the collar/yoke thingy and then, once that is done, you pick up stitches along it and start knitting the sweater. I started Friday night and am nearly done with the yoke... I've never done any cabling, but I'm flying through this. I love cabling so much now that I decided on adding some to Hot Chocolate (which was a wee bit boring with just plain stockinette and lace doesn't look good with thick yarn like Eco Wool).

Here some pics (the quality isn't too good... still learning to use my new camera):

This shows Ene... the color is totally off. It is supposed to be a lilacy-lavender color and not periwinkle blue.

This is a pic of Eris showing how much I've done so far. Since this pic was taken I've added another couple of inches :) I'm nearly finished.

This is what I have of Hot Chocolate so far. The color on the sweater's accurate, but not on the ball of yarn. Oh, that ball, is not even half of a skein. So far I've used just a little over a skein. According to my software I should barely need 3 skeins... I've got 6 LOL.

Here some detail on Eris. The color is pretty good in this picture. You can also see the specks of cream and tan that are in the yarn.

Guess that's all for now... My Eris is calling me :)

Cheers

PS: I'm giving up on using Zounder... it is a LOT of hassle for nothing... It says that you can drag and drop pics if you use Firefox... HA!!!!!!!!!!! NOT TRUE!!!

This is another test...

2005-12-18T11:31:00.000+01:00

Hello hello...

I'm writing this post using Zoundry BlogWriter lite. It is a software to write your posts offline. You can also do some magical stuff for adding pictures, but I've not figured that one out just yet LOL.

The other thing I've been trying is using NewsGator instead of Bloglines, but I do not like it much for the following reasons: a) it does not have a notifier and me loves me little "Blue B-with-a-red-dot" telling me there are updates in the blogs I read and b) it keeps messing up the number of unread posts there are. I mean, how many times does it want me to read a post that I read using NewsGator 3 days ago??? Of course it might be that I am doing something wrong LOL.

Ha, just discovered something with this software... I was adding the links to NewsGator and Bloglines. As I do the copy/paste thingy, I had the webpages displayed each time. I highlighted the links in my browser, did CTRL+C and then clicked on the little link icon and the little pop-up window had the correct link in it already!!! How's that for being smart LOL???

Cheers y'all... Eva

PS: a post with knitting love will come soon :)

This is a test...

2005-12-11T15:10:00.000+01:00

According to Blogger I should be able to post using this email
address... this intrigues me :)

Warth of the Gauge...

2005-12-11T10:35:00.000+01:00

I seem to be in good company when talking about gauge problems. Just look at Pink Lemon Twist's blog (Nov. 8th entry) and Miss Grumperina's (Dec. 7th entry)...

On Friday I made a swatch using the yummy Chocolate yarn to make a swatch. My KnitWare software needs a gauge to calculate a pattern for me. I don't like doing swatches, but I'm a good girl and I made one using my Boye Needlemaster needles in size 10. 4 inches = 19 sts and 20 rows.

I was a bit suprised at the number of stitches as this is a THICK yarn, but I measured again, and it was exactely the same thing. So based on that I made my Hot Chocolate pattern. A raglan sweater, knitted top down with a rolled neck.
As the cable size I wanted to use is being used by something else I decided to use my Plymouth Yarn interchangeable bamboo needles in a size 1o. I made another swatch because I wasn't certain about my row gauge. Hmmm.... still 20 rows, but only 16 stitches this time. I compared the needles and they are exactely the same size!!!! I changed my stitch gauge in the pattern.

I cast on and happily knit my rolled neck and started the raglan increases. I stopped cos I thought the neck looked BIG. I took my tape measurer and checked things again... This time I had 19 rows for 4 inches and only 14 stitches. So I yanked it off the needles. I was really upset... I tried it on and it was wide and ITCHY!!! so I'm going to change the Hot Chocolate to something else. I still want to try the top down raglan thing... but I need a bigger neck opening so that I don't get anything itchy on my skin LOL.

I'll keep y'all updated :)

Cheers y'all, Eva

Wool wool wool gorgeous pretty wool

2005-12-10T22:11:00.000+01:00

This is what I've been singing for the past few days. I got some Cascade yarn through this Ebay store (well I got it through regular auctions, but she's got gorgeous stuff in her store too... still eyeing a couple of things LOL).

First up is Ecological wool in a gorgeous Chocolate color. It is sooooooooooooo soft that I can hardly believe it is wool. I've got 6 skeins, each being 478 (or something humongous like that) yards. I've started a top down raglan sweater with it. I don't know if I'll finish it, but I just might... you never know hahaha. I designed it using my KnitWare software and am calling it Hot Chocolate. Do I have a brilliant imagination or what :)

Next is some "plain" Cascade 220 wool (11 skeins). Also extremely soft... in the color Wisteria. I hope to have enough to make this cardigan with it. It is in Phildar Book 441. And Jody is thinking about starting a KAL for this one in January. I said I'd knit along and help out with the french lingo :) It has a hood, but I don't really care for the hood, so I'm thinking about making a "sailor's colar" if you get what I mean.

And last but not least I got 10 skeins of Cascade 220 Tweed. It is a dark grey color with cream, tan and brown flecks in it. I am thinking of making this vest with it. I swatched with the recommended needle size and I don't like the way the pattern looks. I might go down a needle size or 2.

So whadda ya think of my yarns?? Are you getting jealous yet??? Good thing y'all live way too far away from me to steal it from me hahahaha.

Off to knit a bit more on my Hot Chocolate sweater.

Huggers y'all, Eva

Hello...

2005-11-20T14:47:00.000+01:00

how's tricks?

I'm done knitting with the body of the Pacific Northwest Shawl by Fiber Trends. I'm working on the border... a new experience for me. I have never knitted on a border like that. Actually, I've never knitted a border on any which way LOL. This is only my second shawl. As soon as this one's done I'm going to knit it again for myself, using KnitPicks Shadow in Jewels, but on bigger needles. I'm using 2.75 mm right now and I don't think it will be very big, but my aunt's smaller than I am. For myself I'll be using 3.5 mm or 4 mm needles.

The border kinda stressed me out last night so this morning I started a scarf for myself. I'm using KnitPicks Gossamer in Sunrise, 4.5 mm needles and the pattern A world lit only by fire by Lavish Lace. So far I've done 2 pattern repeats and they're going pretty fast.

Yesterday I watched a fun movie. It is an old one, Cheryl told me to get the DVD while I was in Oregon. I think I paid 4 USD or so for it in Walmart. It features Dolly Parton and Burt Reynolds and is called The best little whorehouse in Texas. The famous "I will always love you" song is from this movie. And if you want to hear Burt sing, watch this one LOL. It is funny and a combination between movie and musical. Oh, and next time I watch it I'll be writing down some of them expressions they use. I love expressions like "slicker than catshit on a linoleum floor".

Cheers

Hello from Oregon

2005-11-17T15:43:00.000+01:00

I know I know... I was going to post daily while I was out here and now more than a week has gone by and I've not made a single post... I feel bad about it. I really do.
It is 6.40 am over here right now and the others are still asleep except Miss Tabovsky (the cat), but she's mad at me right now. The cat's name is actually Tabby, but I call her Miss Tabovsky :)
Okay, blogger has decided that the picture of The Tabster goes to the left instead of underneath the text... It's too early to start fighting with blogger.

Today I've got my class in knitting backwards at Lint, inc. in Portland. We're going to head into town early and then eat before class starts...

Well, this is what I wrote on Oct. 27th... and forgot about it. Let's take it from there :)

I had the class and enjoyed it. It was about knitting backwards. It's fun. I've been working on a scarf so that I could practice my knitting backwards technique. Picture will follow sometime.
I spend more time shopping I think than actually knitting, but hey, I'm totally LYS-shopping deprived over here.

I had a great time over all in Oregon. I loved it. Cheryl's got a great family and her house is beautiful. Nature was great too. I made some pictures but I downloaded them to her puter and forgot to put them on CD for myself. She's going to send them to me one of these days.

As usual I had a hard time getting back to my regular time schedule. It's only since 2 days that I'm more or less on a regular time schedule and I've been back here for nearly 2 weeks LOL.

Since I've been back I've been knitting up a storm. First of all, there's Cheryl's shawl (to be honest I haven't worked on it since I was in Frankfurt Airport), Faroese Peaks Shawl by Knitpicks. I'm using the same colorway as in the picture, Sweetpeas. It is a bit "boring" as it is done in garter stitch and I don't like working in garter, but Cheryl wanted it that way.
Next I started on Fiber Trends Pacific Northwest Shawl (scroll down) using Knitpicks Shadow yarn in Sunrise. The more I work with that yarn the more I love it. I just have one tiny fear... I'm running out of it right now. I've mailed several skeins in the boxes that I mailed from the US, but of course they're not here yet. I'm making this shawl for my Aunt's 60th bday (sometime in September). I'm seeing her next week saturday and so I'm hoping that the boxes will be here soon so that I can finish it before then. I think I'll have enough for the body of the shawl, but certainly not the edging.
Then I'm working on the Shaped Triangle from the Gathering of Lace book. I'm using some hand dyed yarn that I bought from someone a while ago. You could say the color is crushed strawberry :) She used Koolaid to dye it. I think it is Henry's Attic dye-your-own yarn, but don't quote me on that one.
And lastly, I'm doing the first of these three shawls. I'm using some yarn from Handpaintedyarn.com, although I don't know what color. I got several skeins from The Subway Knitter and so I don't know what it is. It is a periwinkle or light lavendar color... I'm using 4.5 mm needles and so it is a LOT lacy-er than I normally do, but I love it so far.

Pictures to follow of all of the above...

I'm still off from work until the first of December. I'm really feeling well right now (well rested and so on). I've been watching a lot of TV of course. I've discovered a new (to me) series: Everwood. It started on Monday (on a german channel) and I guess I'll be taping it once I start working again LOL. It is followed by the Gilmore Girls and after than I switch channels and watch this absolutely yummylishious guy... I'd forgotten about him to be honest, but I've been drooling over his pictures for the past half hour and boy... he sure is ageing well :) Wouldn't mind having him in my... oops, too much information I bet :) I'm going to read a little more on this site soon.................................

So, this is about all for now. I know there's more that I want(ed) to say, but hey, it kinda seems to be gone with all those searches for the links (blogging sure is hard work :)).

Cheers y'all Eva

I wasn't going to post today...

2005-09-24T09:26:00.000+02:00

but there was a box waiting for me when I got home... I was a bit surprised as I knew nothing from Europe was on it's way, and mail from the US only gets here Mon-Wed. I looked at the box and this said it all...

This is tape from the Customs and Duty authority. So it WAS a box from the

after all :) Gotten here in Lux. on Wednesday, inspected by the authority yesterday and delivered by my adorable mailman (he has to be adorable as he keeps bringing me all these "gifts" LOL) today.

I then flipped the box over to see who it was from (several ebay goodies are also still on the road). It was from Colleen. On Saturday she posted about having handpainted.com puppies up for adoption. I e-mailed her and told her that I'd adopt any that she didn't have a home for yet. Turns out that none had been adopted :) So I got them all. I'm not one for breaking up happy families.

I rushed up the stairs and decided to blog the "real" way, using my camera to show y'all what was in that box... This is what I saw when I finally got the box open (that tape sure is heavy "duty" tape LOL). Isn’t it gorgetastic??? Funnily enough those colors are the closest to the real thing. Sure is hard to get colors to photograph correctly. I tried fiddling around in Photoshop and so on, but I haven’t got a clue what I’m supposed to do and as I can only save them as photoshop files. Those files were all 20.000 kb or bigger LOL.

Next I decided to free my new puppies from their plastic traveling suit. And as you can see, one actually tried to climb out of the box.
The colors are a bit darker in reality. Guess I’ll have to take a few classes in correcting pictures… (if anyone knows about an online tutorial, please point me in the right direction :))

And suddenly I saw something else at the bottom of the box… a postcard from Colleen!! (I opened the box upside down, so that’s why I missed it LOL.)

Here you can see a picture of Boston nestling between the pups.

And now I’ll have something to do tonight… nothing I like more than feeling yarn rushing between my fingers while winding them into balls on my yarn winder :)

Cheers y’all

A little PS: getting this post done was like going to h*ll and back... for some reason blogger wouldn't allow me to add pictures to the original post (that I started friday evening). I tried to get it written and online for 2 hours last night and another 3 hours this morning. Finally I decided to start a new post, add the pictures first (miracle miracle, they posted) and then copy/paste the text from the other post and delete that other post... Tada... looks like it worked. I just hope I won't have to do it that way every single time.

Snotter Snotter Snotter...

2005-09-22T10:16:00.000+02:00

Here it is!!!! My first cold of the season. It started yesterday afternoon with the telltale scratchy throat. But as I hadn't had a cold in, like, 3 months I didn't take my beloved Tylenol Cold medication. Well this morning I felt as if a truck had hit me... my head was feeling all stuffed up although my nose was (is) running like a faucet, my throat feels swollen and I feel bones/joins aching in places I didn't even know existed.

Luckily I keep a big stash of aforementionned beloved medication in the office and I'm starting to feel a wee bit better after the first dose of it. I'll keep you updated on how I feel :)

Cheers Eva

YIPPEE...

2005-09-21T06:20:00.000+02:00

Finally some "good/nice" news: I've got my month's leave without pay!!!! Me likes that!!! AND my request for a 4-day work week was accepted too... and I got my requested wednesday off!!! So there are advantages to having moved teams. In the french team it would have been impossible to get the wednesday off (in France a lot of schools are off on wednesday, so parents of kids in those schools have priority to getting that day off) and I would've had to take the fridays off. Although it sounds nice to have a 3-day weekend, I'd rather have to work 2 days, have 1 day off, work 2 days and have 2 days off.
Wednesdays are anyways my "blah-me-wanna-stays-in-bed"-days. I don't know yet if it will be from December or January on, but that's okay as I'll be off from Oct. 18th until Dec. 1st. Yep, I know that's more than 1 month, but I still had to take 9.5 days of paid leave too :)
This weekend I'll get my plane ticket to Portland, Oregon to visit my friend Cheryl who just moved back there from being stationed in Japan for years (8 I think). Oh, and I've found a class at a LYS that I'll be able to take too!!!
Me happy this morning, even though it's wednesday :)

Why?

2005-09-19T17:23:00.000+02:00

Hiya,

I'm sorry but I need to vent... The place I work sometimes is a bit bizarre. On Friday, at 4 pm, they told me that from today onwards I'd be working in the english language department (I'm a proofreader and my working languages are dutch, french and english) as they're having such a lot of work... When we have a lot of work that means that we have to proofread between 200 and 250-300 pages a day. Well, I moved my stuff to my new desk and so on, logged on to the system and then I had only 1.5 pages to do... all day long!!!!
So I asked my boss if I could help out in the dutch or french team as they're literally drowning in work and the answer was no, there's no need.
Okay, fine with me, and out came my scarf done in Lana Grossa Rainbow (the color I have is a burgundy with brown, green and royal blue). It is a simple garter stitch scarf done with a 7 mm / US 11, 20 stitches wide. I did 20 inches of that and then I also knit several rows on my cardigan (I'm knitting the sides and the back in 1 go... me do not do seams :)).

I hope there'll be more work tomorrow because I feel horribly useless this way.

Cheers Eva

Oops...

2005-09-16T17:39:00.000+02:00

once again I seem to have forgotten about this blog thing :) I have been planning on adding a post for a while, but when I sit down to do so I'm not inspired.

I have finished my Mystery Shawl 1. It is blocking, but I didn't manage to do it the way it is supposed to be done. It is still at my dad's (had to use one of his rooms as my rooms aren't big enough LOL). I'll make a couple of pictures soon.

What else have I finished lately... Oh a sock!!! I made a sock!!! the only problem... it's got not mate. I still need to knit that. I finally managed to do a sock and I'm so proud of myself. The thing is that I don't use those pesky dpns (I bet it was a man who invented those LOL). I use 2 circular needles. Here's a great tutorial on how to use 2 circs to do small diameter knitting in the round. I'm going to use it for sleeves on sweaters too!!!

I also made a moebius scarf. It was just something I wanted to try. I used some Lana Grossa Sock yarn. I'm going to rip it because it is too long and so is of no use at all. I'll make it again using only 200 instead of 300 stitches. I don't have the pattern anymore. My puter ate all my bookmarks a few days ago. If I manage to find it again, I'll put it up here!

I'm working on the Rosy Fingered Dawn shawl by Hazel Carter, the Mystery Shawl 1 in Zephyr, a Lace Sampler Scarf by Sandy Terp in ebony Zephyr (I got the kit at Sandy Terp's shop).

I've joined the following KAL's: Mystery Shawl 2, Rosy Fingered Dawn and Frost Flowers and Leaves. Those are yahoo groups and we're a very chatty bunch (just warning those of y'all who don't like chatty groups :)).

I now also belong to a sock knitting group: Townsend Sock Knit Along and a lace group where we also laugh and chat a LOT :) It is fun to belong to all these groups as I don't know any knitters close by.

Well, this is it for the "mini update". I'll try and get back to y'all over the weekend and talk a bit more and share some pictures.

Cheers Eva

Little knitting update...

2005-07-03T16:21:00.000+02:00

well... my elfin lace isn't anymore. I had finished the shawl, needed to add the border, but a) I was running out of yarn, wouldn't have had enough for the 10.000-something stitches I still needed to do and b) at 120 inches, unblocked without border, it was just to frigging big to my taste.

I knitted it with US6/4mm needles instead of the US2/2.5mm recommended in the chart (yes, Nola... I know!!!!). As I was using yarn that wasn't cobweb weight like the one they used in the original I thought I'd be fine using bigger needles. Guess what... it wasn't LOL. Well, now I'll go get me some 2.5mm needles at the shop tomorrow. I have some, but they're still traveling in the boxes that I mailed from the US 7 weeks ago tomorrow. I wonder where those boxes are. Normally they say 4-6 weeks for surface mail. You'll see they will be here tomorrow if I go out to buy new needles... Murphy's law.

I've also ripped the other wrap I started Wings Wrap as I forgot to write down what row I stopped on and couldn't figure it out. I had only done about 20-something rows on that one, so it wasn't too bad.

The mystery stole is coming along slowly but surely. I've now done 4 repeats and am about 1.5 repeat shy of a full repeat. I have to do 5 full repeats. A total of 420 rows... only 358 to go hahaha. Once I've done those I still have to do clue number 4 which is 16 rows and then there's still clue number 5... we'll see what that will be.

Oh, I did have some wonderful stash enhancement on Friday :) I had ordered 10 skeins of laceweight yarn from handpaintedyarn.com and boy are they gorgeous!!!! I picked 5 colors and got 2 skeins of each. They were sent on Tuesday using DHL and I got them on friday, and for less than it would have cost to mail them regular mail from the US. They are located in Uruguay I think, but definitely worth a try. I might get some of their other yarn soon.

Cheers y'all Eva

2 posts within 24 hours...

2005-06-26T21:22:00.000+02:00

oops, I must be running a fever LOL.

It is unbearably hot & sticky here. It rained about 20 drops about 3 hours ago and there was some thunder rumbling but nothing serious yet. I really really really hope that there will be a thunderstorm soon as I can't stand it much longer. I'm just sitting here and the sweat rolls off me...
I got my fan on the middle setting and things are flying away in my room LOL. I guess I'll be headed for shower number 5 soon.

Okay, what I wanted to share is this: Today I saw a documentary on Kelpie sheep dogs. They're australian sheep dogs and cute as can be. The fun thing is that these dogs automatically herd sheep... without being taught. The lady interviewing the german breeder didn't believe her when the breeder told her that these dogs do it without being taught. The breeder does teach them several commands later on in their lives, but the basics are there from birth. To prove it she put one of her 6-week old pups in a field with sheep. The pup had never seen a sheep in his life yet. After a few minutes, when one of the sheep started to stray from the rest of the herd, this lil' one started barking his head off, and run, wobble & tumble in the direction of the sheep and just went after it until it was back with the rest of them. It was just way too cute!!! The funny thing is that this breeder got a few sheep to keep her dogs trained and now she's a shepherd mainly that has kelpies as helpers and breeds them on the side. If I would ever get a dog I think I'd go for a kelpie, but they need a LOT of exercise and we all know that I don't do that hahahaha.

I tried to find a nice picture of a kelpie, but didn't find any that I liked enough.

Well this is it for now...
Cheers

PS: I've been doing so much tinking today that I am really getting fed up with knitting right now. Every time I tink to correct a mistake I'll happily knit 2-3 rows just to discover that I made another mistake just before or after the one I just corrected!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Am I a real blogger? And other things....

2005-06-25T16:31:00.000+02:00

Why that title? Because I just saw a french documentary on this "new" thing called blogs. I'm putting the word new between quotes cos the french are sometimes slooooooowwwww on picking up on new trends and fashions. No offence ment to any french people reading this, it is just my own perception of the french and new things :) I am not just saying that. I live close enough to France and work with them French every day so I know what I'm talking about.

One of the points the people in the documentary made was that you're not to be considered a blogger if you didn't post at LEAST once a day on your blog. It didn't matter if it was just to say that your cat pooed in his box or that you were getting married or that your significant other broke up with you or that you were ready to jump from a building as long as you posted at least once a day.

Okay, I'm not real good with keeping up with this blog thing, but that is mostly because I don't want to bore others with my life... or rants about people (those 2/3 people that read this blog that is LOL) they don't know. I could post every day about the fact that x pissed me off again because she thinks she knows my job better than I do... Excuse ME!!!! I've been doing the darn job for the past 17 years compared to her 3 years... Helloooooooo!!!! Who's got the knowledge??? Or that y is starting to sound boring with her talks about how many times her boyfriend did her the night before (you must realise that we get the details like how long, how etc.) ...
I'm not trying to say that I'm a hardcore blogger, but I do think that I am part of the blog sphere anyhoo...

So that was one of the reasons why I wanted to write today. The second was that Nola told me earlier this week that I had to update my blog. And as Nola's one of the 2 (or maybe 3) readers of my blog I have to obey don't I :) The other person that I know reads my blog is Jenn. It was with her that spend most of my waking hours while I was in MD earlier this year.
And the third reason I'm blogging today is to share some pictures of the 3 misbehaving, stressing, horrid, spanking-deserving things in my life right now... About 3 weeks ago I fell in love with lace knitting. And those who know me, know that I kinda tend to go overboard sometimes. Anyways I signed up for this Mystery Stole Knit-along. I flew through clue 1. Okay I had a mistake here an there, but I didn't care. Then I had some major mistakes and so I frogged it all and again and again. I think I'm now on my 15th try. I've never before come this far and I'm using lifelines as the more experienced knitters suggested. I've also joined 2 other KAL's: Mystery Shawl KAL (starting August 1st) and Rosy Fingered Dawn KAL (starting September 1st).

Next to that I'm knitting a shawl using Helen's Lace by Lorna's Laces in the Lakeview colorway. This shawl is called Elfin Lace and is by Designs by Cherry Tree Hill. I'm also knitting their Wings Wrap.

If I figure out how to add those nifty little buttons to the side bars I'll add the ones for the KALs.

Okay here are a few pics (I finally managed to upload them to my pic hosting site... Thanks once again, Nola, for helping me out!!!! I really appreciate having my own computer/internet helpdesk hahahaha).

This is the Elfin Lace Shawl. It is sitting on a straight needle because I'm frog-frog-frogging 8 rows right now (at about 190 stitches each :( )

This is the Wings Wrap done in a lime green 100% wool yarn that has been handdyed by a member of the Mystery Stole along. I'm not someone who likes lime green, but this one's just gorgeous :) I neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeddddddddddddddddd moooooooooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeee of it :)

And here you can have a peep at my Stole from the Mystery stole along. Again I'm using a yarn handdyed by Carrie. This is a color that I would call crushed strawberries or so. It is soooooo yummy that I want more of it too.

Okay, this is IT for tonight. Off to knit some more. Nola, hope this is enough to read for you :)

Cheers y'all...

Inspired...

2005-06-05T14:08:00.000+02:00

Well, guess it was about time that I posted again. I've been wanting do so for the past few weeks, but somehow when I sat down with the page in front of me I didn't know what to write about...

Well, I'm still not done with my Soleil tank top. I added some short row shaping and although it looks great, I didn't understand that I was supposed to pick up the little wraps around the stitches when I knitted across the whole thing and so now I have these 2 rows of purl stitches that point towards my nipples LOL. I will have to frog it out again and pick up those wraps. Which means undo half the back and the front etc. I might have the energy and courage to do so later today.

Meanwhile I did finish 1 tank top. It is a free pattern from a shop online somewhere, but I don't know what shop. It was called Eyelet tank top (or something like that). I knitted it in pink Riso yarn by Lana Grossa. It is part microfiber and part cotton. It looks gorgeous. The fit & drape are wonderful too. I can wear it over a tee or just as it is... although it is a bit hot to wear LOL.
Here is a pic... it is hard to make a nice picture of oneself wearing something that one wants to show off...



Meanwhile I've dived into the world of lace knitting... use very very very thin yarn and knit it with needles that are way too big :) I'm knitting the Cobweb by Emma Crew (edited to add this little piece of information... about half an hour after this post I noticed that somehow 2 stitches had slipped of my needles and zipped all the way down. I couldn't figure out how to fix that problem with all those eyelets and so I ripped it all and am now going to use the yarn for something else... 10 hours of work ripped in 20 minutes :( :( ). I'm doing it in Helen's Lace by Lorna's Laces in Irving Park. I've "only" got to do the last 52 rows of each 257 stitches and the edging LOL. It is neat though. I think it will be a birthday present for a friend having her birthday in August (not naming any names yet)... I think she'll like the colors (reds, rusts, oranges and a bit of purple mixed in). I'm also doing the Mystery Stole Along that I came across on someone's blog. It is a yahoo group. I signed up and started last night. I'm using Helen's lace in Lakeview... gorgeous green/purple/blue/turquoise and I think it will be for mememememe...

Next I did some yarn shopping. On ebay I got some Patons Classic Merino in black and aran and I'll be making a sweater for my dad I think. I'll be using this pattern as I think it is classic and cool enough for him hahaha. Adirondack Pullover. I'll do it in the black I think. Or the Aran and keep the black for my brother. Although I can't imagine a skater handwashing a sweater, but who knows... he might just do it.
Then I wanted to bid on some silk. The lady said that only one skein was up for bidding right now but she actually had 7 more skeins. I e-mailed her and asked if she was willing to sell all 8 skeins to me and she did!!! She ended the bid early so that I could get it. Isn't this just gorgeous??? I'm going to use it for a scarf or a stole or a wrap or or or or...

I won some other yarn too a week or so ago and I'll post pics of that later on. Then I went and ordered this Cherry Tree Hill Merino Lace in Gypsy Rose

and in Dusk

but the colors I really really wanted and that were out of stock are

Java

Old Rose

and Spring Frost

Okay, that's what's happening in my life on the knitting side of it. What else is there to say? Oh, at the office there's not much going and the system tends to be slow/freeze/breakdown, so I get some extra knitting time there (oops knitting again :)). The weather's all over the place... one day we have 32 degrees the next barely 16, so no wonder that I'm sick (once again). My balcony has been re-done. I have some gorgeous light colored tiles now and I hope they won't get as hot as the horrible dark red/brown ones I had before. I'll make a pic of both (I'll have to hang over the balustrade of my balcony so that I can take a pic of the one below mine so that you get an idea of the horrible oldfashioned tiles LOL. Well this building's 35 years old, so I guess it's logical they're oldfashioned.

Well, I guess I'm done now... I'll try and keep this posting up on a regular basis...
cheers y'all Eva

knit knit knit...

2005-04-25T08:00:00.000+02:00

okay, I've about had it with the plain stockinette stitch of this piece, but I keep plugging on. My original plan was to have it finished this weekend, but that's not going to happen. Just hope that I'll get it all done before leaving next saturday. I will also have to decide what I'm going to take with me to knit on the plane. It might be my second Soleil. I ripped what I'd started last night as this yarn's got some elastan in it and so it stretches :) I will be able to go down a size or 2 and it will still look great, so that's what I'm going to do.
Not much else happened today. Did my work I took home on thursday, am running some loads of laundry and tomorrow I need to go to the bank to pick up my traveler's checks.
The airport shuttle will be here at 5.20 am on Saturday morning to pick me up... with my plane leaving at 7 I find that a bit close, but hey, they're the professionals. The ride to the airport only takes about 15 minutes, but check-ins for the US always take a lot of time. I'll be hanging around Heathrow for close to 6 hours though. Hope the tranfer area's comfortable and that I'll be able to knit a lot, because those are a lot of hours to fill. And then I'll be flying for about 9 hours. I'll be in the US at 16.00 local time (22.00 for me...) and then get through luggage/customs/immigration, which will take another hour at least. Then it is a 60-mile or so trip back to Jenn's place. Oh, boy, I'll be sooooo tired and cranky LOL.

That's all for tonight... sweet dreams...

Oops... forgot about having a blog :)

2005-04-24T08:00:00.000+02:00

Guess I have to start getting used to keeping up with this blogging stuff :) What happened since the last time? Oh, last week I was in Antwerp (Belgium) as we (dad, brother, aunt, uncle, cousins & grandma) went to a restaurant together for my grandma's birthday. It was the first time we got together since my mom passed away so it was a very bittersweet celebration. The weather was awful... lots of rain, but we (Dad & I) did go into town for about an hour. I got some simple (cheap) cotton yarn in a gorgeous periwinkle blue. I'm knitting Soleil from the Knitty site with it. I've knitted the bottom lace part about 20 times so far and know it by heart LOL. I think I could even knit it with my eyes closed by now.

I also picked up a couple of DVDs while at the FNAC (big book/DVD/CD/computer stuff store). 2 movies I already know: Enemy of the State with Gene Hackman & Will Smith and How to make an American quilt with Wynonna Ryder. And 2 I haven't seen yet, Moulin Rouge with Nicole Kidman and a french movie called Les Choristes which has had a tremendous success in France. Tonight I watched the Enemy of the State movie. I'm normally not into action movies like that, but that is one I really like. I was looking for the CD by Morcheeba, but they were out of it. It has this absolutely gorgeous song on it called Undress me (with your eyes)... am totally in love with it hahahaha.

I just realised... this time next week I'll be in the US, probably struggling to get my luggage on a cart or trying not to loose my patience while going through immigration :) It will be great to be on american soil again, do some great shopping, laze around, spend time with friends,... Just hope the weather's nice cos me wants a tan... if not I hope they'll have a fake-'n-bake (solarium) hahaha.

Well, off to knit some more on my Soleil. Will post a picture soon.

Cheers y'all, Eva

Another week's started...

2005-04-12T03:14:00.000+02:00

The weather's crazy again... Saturday and Sunday we had snow and today we have about 70 degrees F (20 degrees C). It is very sunny which is nice, but also very very windy which isn't so nice.
I started a test sock last night and so far I'm liking what I'm doing. Then I'm knitting some swatches with different yarns I have and writing down the gauge in an excel file on my ppc. That way, when I want to use the yarn, I have the info handy.
I also found some funky knitting software. It does all the thinking for you :) If you need to change your pattern as your sizing/gauge is different, all you need to do is fill in the blanks and puter does all the work for you. It's called Sweater Wizard and it isn't free, but it sure looks great. The lady seems to have some interesting knitting books too.
Well, that's it for now... off to nuke something to eat for dinner.

See... it's happening already :)

2005-04-10T15:20:00.000+02:00

I'm no good at these kind of things :) Keep forgetting I started a blog hahahaha. Oh, well, I'll try and remember from now on.

Nothing much happened this week except a LOT of work, but I plodded through it dilligently and so next week it should be less.

On Saturday I went to the mall with a friend and I got some "sexy" shoes... I bet most of you think they're pretty regular looking, but for someone like me who lives in sneakers and oxfords these are sexy hahahaha. I'm going to add a few pictures of them, IF I find how to do it :)

My friend and I (I've known her for 30 years... scary thought to be old enough to have had a friend for 30 years) went to a clothes shop next as I wanted to get some capris... found 4 pairs and a nice red tshirt too. And I was smart enough to try them while wearing the sexy shoes... they look great with all of the capris except the red ones LOL... the red's different and most people wouldn't notice, but I do and it bugs me.

I wanted to finish Donna for saturday next week, but that is not going to happen, so I put her aside for the moment. Will finish her before going to the US. I started knitting Soleil from the Spring issue of Knitty. I first started it in dark blue Toccata by Lana Grossa. My problem is that my knitting gets soooooo loose that I have to knit with needles 3 sizes smaller than the smallest size suggested. I'd done a few rows and was not liking it at all, so I ripped it and then started it over again, using 2 strands and a US size 6 needles... okay, it will be a bit thicker, but at least it looks as if I'm making some progress here hahahaha.
Will probably make a pic of what I have soon.

Here a few pictures of The Shoes
This first one is a sideview of the shoes... so that you can see they've got a HEEL hahahaha.

Next is a topview without my foot in them.

And last, but not least... my foot in them... love the way I have to wrap those laces around my ankles :)

Well... guess this is all for now. My sunday barely started, so nothing much happened yet.

Monday

2005-04-05T05:28:00.000+02:00

Today I went back to work after being ill for 2 weeks and having 1 week of vacation. It was strange and hard and there was a LOT of work waiting for me.
After work I went to the travel agency and got my ticket to go to Maryland at the end of the month.
I have been knitting a bit on my Donna sweater for the past hour or so. It's coming along nicely. Will post a pic of what I have so far soon.