Delirious Diva, Done.

After my exams last year I wrote this blog post, describing my new knitting project and the yarn I spun for it. I worked on it here and there, was distracted by renovating the house, a yarn bombing project, and work, so it took me a very, very long time to finish it. But now it's done, and I already wore it to a wedding. I also wear it regularly at home, as it's so warm and cozy.

The photos were taken after the wedding of our friends in Dublin, Ireland. By the way, should you ever need an apartment in Dublin, I highly recommend this one - it's not only pretty, cozy and located in walking distance to the city centre, but Wayne, the owner, is a fantastic host. He made sure we had a fridge full of tasty things (which I wouldn't expect when renting a holiday flat), tea, coffee, and cupboards full of supplies, he even bought us a small loaf of bread and provided fresh flowers.

But let me get back to the knitting stuff ;-) The pattern I used is Line Break by Veera Välimäki, which was well written and easy to follow once I got the hang of it. The wraps and turns were a bit difficult at first, and I think I ended up doing them differently after searching on youtube. I also made a few mistakes with the yarn overs, making them on the wrong side of the stitch marker on occasion. So it's a bit crooked, but I love it :-) There are more photos on Ravelry, if you'd like to have a look.

I'm currently knitting quite a lot after many months of not knitting at all. When I was still knitting the Diva shawl, I started on a small project of mindless knitting to carry around, a scarf for my grandmother which I called Omis Aubergine (Grandma's eggplant). It's nearly done, and I can't wait to give it to her - but as she lives 600 km away, it might be a while.

 
After finishing the Diva shawl, and while still knitting the scarf for my grandmother, I was already looking for something else to knit, and was very happy when I found the Sea Dragon shawl pattern. This was shortly before we went to Dublin for the wedding, and I decided to look for suitable yarn on our trip. I usually don't buy yarn (except for some colourful cotton yarn for yarn bombing projects), but I didn't feel like spinning so much of the same yarn for this, and I wanted to start knitting. This gave me the perfect opportunity to check out This is Knit in Dublin and to buy some souvenir yarn for myself ;-) (By the way: lovely shop, friendly and helpful staff!). I bought two skeins of hand dyed Vivacious 4ply by Fyberspates in wonderful greens, and a skein of Rialto 4ply by Debbie Bliss, and started knitting the very same evening. I love the Viviacious, it's beautiful and fun to knit, but I don't really like the Debbie Bliss one (too little twist, no "life"). I've made a lot of progress since then, but didn't get around to taking a new photo, so here's one from about two weeks ago:

I am halfway through the pattern now and will start the decreases as soon as I have some quiet knitting time. I've already planned the next two projects - so I can't wait to finish this one and start working on the next! It will be either Verdant, which I have already spun two skeins of yarn for, or Sorceress, which I plan to knit from a beautiful and slightly sparkly black yarn I originally spun for Wa na na na na na na na Bat Shawl! years ago. I started knitting (also years ago), made a mistake, didn't like it anymore and put it in a box - so now I figured I could use the yarn for something else. I think it's a bit too thin for the 5,5 mm needles called for in the Sorceress pattern, but as the shawl is very large and wide, maybe slightly smaller needles will also be okay to use, and I think the yarn might work after all.

I have no idea how long my knitting frenzy will last, it usually comes in phases. As winter is coming, however, and there are more knitting people in the house, I might actually finish some projects this time, without long pauses in between ;-)

What are you knitting at the moment? I'd love to chat about projects, if you'd like to leave a comment :-)

Back Home - and Back in Business :-)

Hi everyone, I hope you have been well.
We're back from our vacation and our shop is open again :-)

We had the most wonderful time with our friends in Bavaria. They have real mountains there! Somehow, that's still worth mentioning for me, coming from the flat north of Germany. We went on walking tours, played board games, went mushroom hunting, made delicious dishes from the edible mushrooms we found, went to a beautiful moor, and to a lake in the mountains. I didn't get as much knitting done as I thought I would, but I started to make a ninja from the Creepy Cute Crochet book. I'm nearly done, I only still having troubles with the throwing star, though. Maybe I'll make one from polymer clay instead of crocheting one from silver thread.

I'm still getting used to being back home and back to work, but I already took photos of my latest art yarns which I spun before our vacation, and I carded some batts today. There will be new yarns in the shop soon :-)

Cute Lil Cthulhu

Last week, I ordered "Creepy Cute Crochet", which had been sitting on my Amazon wish list for a long time. I started on crazy cute Cthulhu right away, and quickly realized I really had no idea about crochet. I mean, I have been able to make chain stitches and single crochets ever since school, but everything else was just a vage kind of "oh yeah, I've heard of such a thing". I am so glad there are  useful videos on Youtube, teaching me what I had to know :-)
The wings were quite a challenge, but today I discovered the author provided help videos on them, so I'll try again later, hopefully with more success. There are also free expansion patterns on the author's website, and I was delighted to discover a Viking and The Valkyrie. But for now, I'll stick to Cthulhu here, can't have him wandering about without wings or eyes (the arms are now done, at least). The next thing I want to make is the Skeleton Bride and Groom, they are so cute!
My wonderful husband consented to a Christmas tree decoration of skeletons, ninjas, cthulhus and whatever else I'll make from the book. NOW I'm looking forward to Christmas! :-D

Oh, and I also went yarn bombing again, this time in a beautiful little place called Dilsberg. We went there for coffee and a walk with my dad who visited with us for a few days. Installing the graffiti was quite funny since there was a group of little girls coming around the corner who were curious and a little sassy. They asked what it was, if I was allowed to install it and so on - but they consented that no one else asks if they can spray graffitis on the walls, and that a yarn bomb is easily removable should anyone really hate it.

I also found some colourful flowers on our walk. It was a great day :-)

Pirates or Football?

Last week, my husband and I spent a few days in Hamburg. I used to live there, and my family still does, so we visited with my mother and went out to lunch with her, my dad and my gran, whom I hadn't seen in two years. She is too old to come to Heidelberg, and last year we didn't manage to go to Hamburg, so that was quite a long time. It was nice to catch up, and we had a good time and good food. My gran is always interested in my spinning and the shop, and I like talking about yarn any time ;-)

On Saturday, my husband and I went into the city, did some shopping, met a colleague of his, spent some time at the Alster, and then went to the Gateway of the World - the port of Hamburg. I brought a graffiti which I had made a long time ago and saved for a special place. This was it! After all, this was a pirate graffiti and the famous pirate Klaus Störtebeker was beheaded in the port of Hamburg, it just seemed to fit.

 

The thing is, Hamburg's football club FC St. Pauli has a skull and crossbones in their logo, and some people just can't tell the difference between football and pirates :-P When I installed the graffiti, there was a group of people coming past, and I heard them say something like "oh, a St. Pauli fan". I just ignored them, and thought of proper pirates, rum, and lots of treasure ;-)

Newgrange Art Yarn

Newgrange

In September 2009, my husband and I went to Ireland for our honeymoon. Some of you might remember that I study archaeology, so you won't be surprised by my I really wanting to visit some of the archaeological monuments. We went to Boyne Valley in order to visit some of the sites there. There's Dowth, which I knew from a previous visit - it's just a hill with a fenced-off entrance, but still nice and somehow peaceful. Since there's not that much to see, there are not many tourists there, or at least there weren't when I visited the site in 2007. We didn't go there this time, though, but decided to visit only the monuments I hadn't seen yet. There's Knowth and Newgrange. You have to book a tour in order to be able to enter the Newgrange chamber, so we did.

Knowth

We had to use the bus, though we'd much rather walked there, but that was not possible with the tour (strict time table). It was worth it, though. I knew both Knowth and Newgrange from books, pictures and seminars, and I was so eager to finally go and visit them. I loved being there, and the Newgrange chamber is really impressive, as are the Knowth tombs (though they were enforced with concrete after the excavations). The fassade of the Newgrange passage tomb was reconstructed after the excavation, there's no evidence of it ever having looked like this, but it's still impressive - and it's also impressively visible from quite a distance. The vaulted roof of the chamber itself is still intact, which is absolutely stunning - just think about the fact that it's still airtight after about 5000 years!

All of the sites are very important when it comes to megalithic art. There's all sorts of abstract forms, the spiral being quite prominent among other forms.

There's a lot of esoteric interpretation going on about all the sites in Boyne Valley, and I can't really get into all that here - but if you'd like to read up on any of the monuments, just keep in mind that not every "fact" is really a fact, but some of the conclusions and so called evidence could be challenged.

The other day, I thought back on our wonderful honeymoon and the Boyne Valley, and I decided to spin a Newgrange art yarn. I spent over an hour with stubborn brass wire and - with time, effort, and admittedly some swearing - I made 12 beautiful brass spirals to spin into the yarn. My hands ached afterwards (the wire was thicker than the one I previously worked with), but I love the outcome. Each of the spirals is not only hand bent, but also hammered flat.  
I also decided on beautiful shell/mother of pearl beads as add-ins, since people in the stone age used (a specific kind of) shells as ornaments and jewelry. The brass spirals are not authentic in any way, the people of the neolithic period (new stone age) didn't have brass or gold, but I thought it would look wonderful with the white and green fibres, and I really wanted the spirals since they are so prominent among the megalithic art :-)

But enough talk now - have a look at the yarn! :-)

I spun the yarn from white lambs wool, merino wool of different shades of green, bamboo flakes, and bright green linen. Then there's the beads and spirals, of course, and green sewing thread to carry them all.
157 m / 99 g, about 9-14 WPI.

Let's Do the Yarn Bomb Again!

I am relieved to say I have finally managed to go yarn bombing again. It's been too long, really, I had nearly forgotten how thrilling and how much fun yarn bombing was.

This is a fountain in the partly beautiful city of Erfurt, Germany. We spent our last weekend there, visiting with my sister-in-law. We had a great time craft store hopping, playing board games, and doing Etsy stuff :-) AND yarn bombing, of course ;-)

Prague, Loot, and a Foto Tent

I'm back from a few wonderful days in Prague - very cold, very snowy, and very relaxing because we spent a lot of time in Cafés and Restaurants  ;-) I'd like to share my favourites with you:

Coffee Lovers (Kaprova 9)
good coffee, wonderful cake, kind of cozy/stylish/shabby, free wi-fi, nice place to spend an afternoon reading, knitting, surfing, playing games on various modern cell phones and the like ;-)

Pizza Nuovo (Revoluční 1)
fantastic antipasti buffet! And several all you can eat options, great food, fantastic service. We went there twice and would have done so again if we had had more days in Prague.

Taverna Pepino (Jugoslávská 11)
fantastic food, good service, located in a vaulted old cellar.

But apart from all the eating and drinking we did see some parts of the town ;-) We went to Charles Bridge, the Old Town Square, climbed the tower of the Old Town Hall, saw the Municipal House and the Powder Gate from the outside, went to the museum (terrible archaeological collection - they really need to revise that, it looks like it's been like this for eighty years or so and I've only started to talk about the presentation, not yet the "facts" they convey) and walked around the Jewish Quarter. Let me share some pictures with you :-)

On our way from the Jewish Quarter to Charles Bridge which you can already see in the distance

 

Charles Bridge Gate, and Prague Castle, far far away on the other side

 

on Charles Bridge

 the Spanish Synagogue

 looking down at the Christmas market (from the tower of the Old Town Hall)

The Church of our Lady before Tyn, photographed through pillars on the tower

 Museum Station - what does it remind you of? Any Dr. Who lovers here? ;-)

I also started knitting the scarf I already blogged about - and I frogged it several times because I am always too lazy for swatching, but I think I got it right now. I had meant to take a photo, but I forgot after photographing all kinds of other things. Such as the Czech glass beads I bought in Prague - aren't they beautiful? :-)

They are not exactly lower in price than when I buy them on Ebay, but I really wanted to take some nice things home with me, and it's always good to be able to touch what you're buying I think.

I've been very frustrated with the absence of light recently, as I might have mentioned. It's just not possible to take good photos - so I ordered a photo tent.

I am still trying it out (and I had to buy sufficient lighting first) but I am not really sure it's such a wonderful thing, really. But let me use it a while and try editing the photos a little, and then I'll tell you if it's the better option compared to putting the yarn out in the rain to catch a little bit of daylight ;-)

As for other news, I've been very busy last night and today - I listed some of the yarns I've already posted here on the blog, I've spun two new ones, and I am currently planning some more things. Keep in touch and find out! :-)