A knitter never talks about her stash...

How have you been? The new year has started with all it’s madness and it is already the 7th of February. Where has the time gone?

January has been a surprisingly beautiful month. Before all the horrible news from the US.

Sadly, all the Christmas lights, Christmas markets and the beautiful ferris wheel of Düsseldorf are gone and with them, all the holiday vibes. I tend to be very depressed on New Year’s ending up hating January. This year was different though. Maybe with all that has happened in 2016, including politics and also the sudden passing of so many celebrities, 2017 seems like a new opportunity. A chance to become a better year. (leaving Trump out of the picture for a second now, as I bet we all need a break from that guy from time to time.)

I knit those for a friend of mine but liking the pattern, I made a pair for me, too. 

Sorting my yarn. What a mess!

So far it has worked, by last year this time already Bowie and Alan Rickman had died, so I keep my fingers crossed, that we won’t have another year of too many young dead people. To boost the mood a little more, I was much more disciplined during those last few days, when working from home, I studied, sat over my books, like a PhD student is supposed to. And only in the evenings I allowed my hands to grab the needles and keep on with my knitting. The pattern for the cardigan I was planning turned out not to look so great with the ordered yarn, which still is very beautiful and I longed to do something two-coloured again, so I dove deep into the topic of Norwegian knits. My, there are an abundance of cute patterns here. Especially the concept of Kofte fascinates me. Did you know that they knit the cardigan, top to bottom, adding the arms later. In order to avoid backrows, they are knitting the cardigans in the round, like a jumper, and then they cut them open! It’s true. My knitter’s heart screams when I hear this. Imagine, knitting a whole jumper in a beautiful pattern, with differently coloured yarn and then cutting into it? The thought scares me big time, but I would love to try it. The technique is called steeking and the stitches have to be secured either with a sewing machine or with the help of a crochet needle. Check out the crocheting way in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vno-cMURQjc

To prepare for the big project and also to use up some of my leftovers, I started to knit socks again, with Norwegian patterns. This is so much fun! Plus they are finished in no time and I am a big fan of that. First I used leftover yarn for those babies. A friend of mine liked the pattern a lot and so I asked her for her favourite colours and made another pair, this time in blue und purple. Feeling prepared for the adventure to knit a Norwegian cardigan, I started with a kid-sized one, which turned out a bit bigger than expected. I didn't knit a gauge, as I did not have a specific size in mind, but when I begin to knit one for me, I definitely have to prepare much better. 

First socks made from leftovers

second pair

Third one, made in blue and purple as a request for a friend

So far, so good. It is a lot of fun to knit in the big round, plus the baby yarn is really nice and easy to work with. I am collecting patterns from all over the place, different books and Pinterest, to connect them to one cute little cardigan. I am not too happy with how the yellow bell flowers turned out, as they don't contrast enough with the green background, but what the hell... I am not the kind of person that unravels their knitting. Perfection is overrated. I guess, one more evening to go and then I can face the adventure of steeking. So exciting!

The bell flowers are a nice idea, but they somehow don't fit the rest... Lisek likes to help, of course!

The top row here is part of a border of snowflakes, which I finished yesterday, so yay!

Next, I want to knit for a sofa cushion and when the ordered yarn is here I am going to start a Kofte for myself. Let's see how it goes. Especially knitting the right size seems to be a challenge for me. 

Shawls, shawls, shawls

So this is Christmas. Or rather, so christmas is over. It was an especially great one. My grandmother sadly hasn't been all that well during the last weeks, but she started to feel better again with the whole family around. Christmas eve tends to be quite hectic with between 15 and 20 people around, we argue, people race to dinner, race to open their presents and all in all it is usually less harmonic than I hope it to be.
This year was different though. We had raclette, which means less running to the kitchen and people being forced to take some time to eat. And only afterwards we gave each other our presents. Every present was highly appreciated and we had a lot of fun. I gave my mom a whole box of comfort-stuff, like very snugly socks, sweat pants and an extremely soft sweater, plus a book for self-helping you to sleep better. She has been a bad sleeper for such a long time and I know that you can get better at it. I hope she will take care of herself better and I wanted to tell her with giving her all that cuddly stuff. We all had a good laugh when she immediately changed into the new clothes.
The next day we went to my inlaws, also having an extremely relaxed evening. I can say it was one of the loveliest christmas I ever had. Presents include a small Lisek made of felt, a monthly chocolate delivery, bath oil and a spa day. It is going to be great!

I really liked the way the shawl for my friend turned out

It was a light, cottonly yarn, very soft

During the last three weeks I had some time to knit presents. As I loved to knit the cable shawl, I did some more of those. One of them, a pink one, was supposed to be a present, but I made so many mistakes knitting it, that I didn't dare giving it away.

The cables come out nicely with the thick yarn

The next one was a present for my mom. She likes colours I would never wear, bright colours like apple green or orange. So I ordered some of the finest merino wool in orange / yellow. I like the result, it is soft and warm, but you can see I haven't washed it yet, it is less stretchy than the pink one.

soft and warm merino - not my colour, but my mom likes it

Right now I am using some really nice Alpaka Silk to knit a shawl for myself. As it is very thin yawn it takes a lot of time. After wearing my knit cardigan Palma for christmas I feel motivated to knit another one for myself. I ordered some very fine yarn in silvergrey and will knit the following one. It's special to me as my mom gave me the book it is in as a present some years ago and so far I haven't knit anything of the patterns.

My next project

Creative Day - Dog Bed and Collar

Today I was really inspired to sew something, after a long time of only knitting. One reason is Lisek. who is mastering lying on his own bed at the moment. It is part of training him to be quiet while staying home alone: to assign him his very own place and to forbid him to lie anywhere else.

Also, he gets all his treats in his bed now, which is why it quickly looks pretty horrible and has to be washed. As we had bought only one bed I decided to make him another one, in order to be able to wash either one. There was so much nice fabric to choose from, I decided on one strawberry pattern and one with white hearts on green. I filled it with little plastic balls, which I sew an inlay for, so that I can still wash the outer parts.


If you want to make a bed yourself:

You cut two big pieces measuring 100 and 70 cm,
two stripes measure 110 x 15 cm
two that measure 80 x 15 cm

Then you sew the fitting stripes to the first big piece, putting right side onto right side. Make sure that the stitching of all four pieces meet, in order to close all the gaps. When you are finished, you close the sides, also by making the stitches meet the stitches from the upper part. After that you sew the bottom part to it, right side facing right side, but make sure you leave a rather big gap you can later close with the help of buttons, if you like.

Sew all the sides to the top

Leave a gap for the inlay or filling - maybe bigger than this 

The inlay can be made the same way, but actually, I just took a big piece of cloth that measured 220 x 80 cm and joined all the sides except for one whole on the side, to fill it with material, and then closed the "gap". Here I used a zigzag stitch in order to make it really stable and flexible at the same time, so none of the horrible little pastic balls escape.

That's my inlay

It was quite a hassle to put the inlay into the cover, as I had made the whole a little bit too small. In the end I succeeded and made a poor puppy lie on the bed. I think it will take Lisek some time to love it as much as his other bed, as he is not used to dig a little whole into his bed, but I think he will like it eventually. It looks super cute to see him lie in it already.

Another thing I made today was a new collar for the little one, fitting his turquoise leash that he already has. I also like the fabric for the collar a lot. If you want to make a collar for your dog as well, be sure to get all the extra parts, like the metal ring and the latch. To make it a secure collar, you need to sew in squares like I did here. That way there is no danger of the seam to rip open. I took another collar I really like as a model.

Still not sooo comfortable

... but being a dutiful dog, Lisek still stays on his bed, as told

Better already....

Bye bye 2015, projects in 2016

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you had a good party!

I love the snowflake pattern!

Lisek wished I would stop knitting and start throwing some ball instead...

Christmas at Grandma's

Marlon's unfinished jumper

Traditionally I am feeling quite blue between the years, I guess it usually is a mixture of the dark weather, too much food and the after-christmas blues. Not this year, though. We met some friends of ours who moved to the North of Germany a few days before christmas, as they were visiting for a party and decided to celebrate New Year's with them. We had a great time up in Lübeck, which is a beautiful town, with lots of water and old magnificient buildings. The party was set in the firebrigade building (our friend is with the firemen there) a costume party, motto was "casino". Very cool. all the guys in tuxedos. We partied hard till the morning and then went home by foot. Glorious days with lots of good food and lots of walking the dog. Even a walk along the coast, in the coldest of weather, but nonetheless gorgeous! Lisek was wearing his (actually Mr. Schön's) new GoPro and filming the whole trip. (He also filmed our christmas at my grandma's and next year we will watch his director's cut)

Marlon's cardigan, drying 

Winter is always a time of redecorating and knitting, to make this time as cozy as possible. I got some knitting books for christmas and was inspired by the Norwegian patterns in them. I have to hurry to get the jumper for Marlon, our godson, ready. He is growing out of things so fast. Knitting baby stuff is the best, because they are finished quickly. I have been getting a bit faster at knitting though, (still slow...)

Elephants on Marlon's cardigan

Redecorating... well I have much more plans, but time is rare, especially as I have just written my paper for the mediation course I am taking and started with Yoga and running again. 2016 is going to be an active year! So far I have only painted the elk hanging in our hallway. He fits much better to our wallpaper with his new white colour.

Oh come all ye faithful...

It is very nearly christmas and still, the weather is gorgeous and warm. Lisek and me have been outside all day on our day off, strolling near the Rhine. During the last few months, he has turned into a ball-addicted maniac. To give him some extra exercise I often take the ball with me and throw it for him along the way.

As every year the production of christmas presents is ongoing. Knitting, knitting and knitting. It is not as if I wouldn't enjoy it. Seriously, I am as addicted to my knitting as Lisek is to his ball. At the moment I am knitting a hat for a friend and socks again, as they are so easy and fast to make.

In the picture you see a present I am donating for a good cause. We have a christmas tree on the Carlsplatz, in the middle of Düsseldorf, where children attach selfmade cards with written wishes their parents cannot afford. As we don't have kids and in our family most kids are too grown up for fun presents, I guess it was a very selfish deed to get one of the cards and fulfill the little boy's wish: he wants to have a magician set, how cool is that? On the other hand, it is sad to see how some parents cannot afford the 20 Euros to get their little one a gift.
To come back to the selfish aspect of this, I just love giving away presents. To this day I haven't knit much for myself, most of the socks, mittens and hats have been given away to friends and family. Ariana Huffington writes about this impulse in Thrive, one of the most impressive books I have read in some time. One big part of her book is about giving.
"What makes service so powerful is that its benfits go two ways.", Huffington writes. I absolutely agree. Especially in times like theses, when millions of people lose their homes due to war and poverty, when people from all over the world come to our area to find their luck, or at least some peace, I sometimes feel so helpless, it feels good to give something.

The wish to help others is a big motivator for me and has been those last two years while I was training to be a mediator. The mediator's (or conflict manager's) attitude derives from a strong will to serve other people, it is an attitude of humbleness towards the world. Modesty and Reflection are lessons I have learned on the way and it helps me big time to stay calm in moments of craziness around me. This zen-like mindfulness makes you appreciate others in ther own way and you learn to take things less personal. Everyone has their own struggle and you appreciate that by not judging. This humbleness is very powerful and it motivates to help people in many ways, as it feels rewarding and liberating. Ariana Huffington writes: "From the depths of our compassion, we can free ourselves of all that limits our imagination about what is possible. It's the only way to counteract the excessive greed and narcissism that surround us." She quotes a 2012 study of the University of Wisconsin: "Compassion and altruism can be viewed as trainable skills, rather than as stable traits." Going through the world with an appreciating view, looking for opportunities to serve and to help others, is really mindblowing. Sometimes I have to think of the idea of Karma and I can see why it could make sense. When you try to be mindful and appreciating, while serving and helping people actively, it feels a bit like accumulating; but it is rather joy than points on a chart (that is somehow how I have always pictured Karma, a good-job sheet like in school) As everyhting, mindfulness gets easier with practice. I still remember when a friend asked me what I was learning in my lessons and I tried to show her how attentive listening works. It was pretty hard for me to do, as I am usually the first person, thrusting their good advice at others. Nowadays however, it is not such a big deal anymore. I can listen intensely and being with the other person totally, withouth much effort. This alone is a small step, but has such power, I could have never imagined it.

Mindfulness will be a big topic within the next months and I want to invite you all to read "Thrive", it may help you to be a happier person, as it has helped myelf. Also, if a friend tells you about their problems, why not just really listen, without any advice? Often that is all they need. We do not listen properly anymore, neither to our friends or family, to our surroundings or ourselves. By pausing and listening, I think we can already make a big step towards true mindfulness.

I have been knitting like hell and not telling you about it, which I think, is unfair.

Are you an ordered and correct knitter, always finishing one project before starting the next?

Well, I am not. Definitely not. From time to time I continue to work on cardigans started long ago, but in between I am either knitting presents for friends or I feel like I have to do something with THIS wool and THIS needle. A small hat or gloves, something that will be finished in a short amount of time. I just need success, people, otherwise I tend to give up easily.

My extended three weeks of Christmas holidays were perfect for it. I knit a hot bottle-warmer for my mom, a hat for my Dad, several mittens, a hat for my grandma and quite a lot of other stuff. But also something for myself: a skirt in a chessboard-pattern.

So far I haven't been wearing it much, but the only reason for that is, that I own so many dresses and skirts, I simply forget about itt when I am not searching my wardrobe for something. 

Even if you are an inexperienced knitter, making a skirt is not too difficult, you don't even need a book or magazine for it. Just nice wool, an idea and then you have to measure your waist, create a gauge and then do the math.

It took me some time and it wasn't one of the shortest projects I ever made, but it is definitely worth it. 

beer-seat

... or alternative lemonade-seat of course.
Who does not know the situation? There is more people than seats at a party and finally some people take a cushion and sit down on a crate of beer. Highly uncomfortable, true. We have a solution.

Here you can see the cushioning I used.

Eva-Melina and me went to a housewarming-party of some friends and wondered about what to bring them. Weh thought about painted flower-boxes or homemade jam, but we decided to make a beer-crate seat, as this is a handy gift for a party, bringing your own beer and seat. A frozen joghurt shop beneath our apartment  uses these for their guests, but only with plain wood, so not very comfotable.

As you can see, we put four pieces of wood unter the seating area in order to prevent it from slipping from the beer crate. Then we took the staple gun and connected the oil cloth and the wood.  Be careful with your fingers, they are freakishly strong, those machines. 

So this is how we did it: We used a crate of beer we had all bought together in our holidays and which therefore is a reminder of this time. In a hardware store we got several pieces of wood, a staple gun and I had bought cute oil cloth on dawanda. To make the seat more comfortable, add some sort of cushioning.

Et voilá! Here it is! As you can imagine we filled it with beer before we brought it along to the party.

Knitting Season 2013 has begun

The last two weeks I have been on holiday, mostly visiting friends in various German cities. And as a lot of them have kids or will be having kids soon and as I happened to have a lot of time suddenly, especially on our long cross-country car-rides, I found great inspiration in all those small feet and heads to start serious knitting again. I am easily frustrated, so being done with a sock within an hour is making me very happy. So I started with socks. 

I proudly present the first sock I ever made (which look really odd):

I always thought they are too much work to knit, but it is actually a lot of fun. And baby socks are also so very cute. Next bigger project is a baby blanket. I am so much in the flow that I will be able to finish it soon and not make it another UFO. Plus the baby I am knitting for will be born in November, so there is a deadline. Creating all those little things in no time got me to thinking. And no, not about having a baby, but about a project I read about last year: knitting for preemies in hospitals. Baby clothes often don’t fit premature infants, as they are so very tiny. I bet parents, who are probably worried about their little ones, will be a bit happier, knowing there are people creating stuff for people they don’t even know. As soon as my baby blanket is finished, I will look out for hospitals that take donated clothes and will animate my friends to collect mini-socks and –hats. With fall approaching fast, time for knitting will increase for all of us, so if you feel like it, start such a project yourself, motivate your friends to help you and let’s make the world a tiny bit better.

Two heads, socks and I especially love the teeny tiny gloves

Hooray, Spring is here...

... at least in my projects. After I finished the knitting project for the baby daughter of friends of mine, I decided to make myself something with the same kind of wool, as it was so nice to knit. As we all need more colour in our life I chose mint green and dark green and did my first ever knitted "picture". (Maybe, if I practice, I might be able to create another "Alf Jumper" for Eva Melina, she told me she had one as a kid she really loved.)

Those are the tulips I did. I know, they are not perfect and not very detailed, but I am still so happy that it worked out without having any plan or advise. Plus, the red makes a nice contrst to the rest of the cardigan. I am knitting it in one piece and will sow the short arms to it afterwards. As it is supposed to be worn in spring and summer, I am optimistic and will do it without long arms. This is how far I have gotten to up to now. As there is a long weekend with shitty weather ahead I will try to finish it till next week:

Creating stuff with your own hands is so very satisfying and it doesn't matter whether you are planting, cooking, repairing, knitting, crocheting or painting anyhting. Just being "creative", meaning you are the active creator of things, changing your environment in your own way, is remarkable. It should be a very small thing, and yet it feels like the grandest things of all.