Saturday walk

Despite my good intentions I didn’t go for that nice long walk in the woods between Düsseldorf and Ratingen but I went out with my mother last Saturday in Heiligenhaus. We had to wait a bit for a dry period because the weather was atrocious – rain and thunderstorm all day! We took a route I walked many times when I still lived at home – nothing spectacular, but we had a piece of cake and a hot chocolate at a newly opened cafe by the lake (which I didn’t take any pictures of ).

Heiligenhaus is a small town with approximately 30.000 citizens and we have a few historical spots. The buildings in the next pictures are all part of the “Abtsküche” (roughly translates into abbot’s kitchen – it once belonged to the abbey in Werden, which was quite famous and powerful in the middle ages).

Besides those old houses there’s a nice lake (well, it’s more of a pond) which was the spot for a sunday walk when I was small.

I like it best when it’s frozen over and there’s snow everywhere!

I’m at home this week because I’m sick AGAIN! but on the upside I get a lot of knitting done and will be back with pictures of my first attempt at the Selbu modern (Ravelry link) and my yarn order from the Shetland islands! See U!

Catching up… part 2

It’s Friday which means another semi-crazy week is over. It also means that I only have six days until my courses start and now and then I’m getting a bit nervous about this. But knitting a few rounds in plain stockinette soothes my nerves just fine ! Since I did get a lot done this week I’m taking today off, mostly because today will be the only sunny and cool autumn day in the near future so I’m taking the chance for a long walk. I’ll be sure to take pictures!

Now, more catching up with my knitting!

1. “Wicked”
I’ve been working on my first sweater, “Wicked” (Ravelry link) in the worsted weight version for some time now and finished the body on monday. Now I’m happily knitting away on the first sleeve, which should be done this weekend. I used Knit Picks Wool of the Andes and so far I really like the yarn. Some progress shots:

Now I’m hoping for a lot of cold day this autumn and winter!

2. Socks
I joined Lolly’s Socktoberfest because due to a lot of my oldest socks are giving up one by one and I really need to replenish my supply before it gets (hopefully!) cold. I’m working on one pair following my standard sock pattern and decided to cast on another one while following a pattern from Knitting Vintage socks by Nancy Bush.

The yarn is from Online (I forgot which one and can’t find the label right now) and while the self patterning is a bit bold the muted colours make it ok. So far I like them and think they will be good company on the walks I’m planning.

The pattern is called Fancy Gentleman’s socks(ravelry link) and since I am no gentleman I had to reduce the stitches a lot! I tried this in a yarn which turned out to be slightly stripy and it didn’t work with the pattern so I frogged it and bought some Araucania Ranco solid in rust at my LYS. The pattern incorporates a heel I’ve never worked before and short rows so there is a bit of a challenge for me.

So I’m off for my walk. I’ll be back with the second sleeve and some more pics! See U!

Catching up…again

Summer break here in Düsseldorf is nearly over and I have lots of knitting projects to show you. Unfortunately I’ve been ill for nearly four weeks and I only made crafty progress – not so much luck for my thesis, though… Anyway, what’s done is done and hopefully things will look better in the next semester.

Now, I think I’ll have to split my progress report up into at least two posts and I try to write here more frequently in the future.

1. Quilts

I finished this coin quilt around the end of July/beginning of August and this is the first quilt I made entirely on the sewing machine. I visited my quilting buddy to use her machine and I really like how it turned out. For the quilting I used strips of adhesive tape arranged into a diagonal grid and sewed along those lines. It’s a bit on the small side (about 1,20m X 1,70m) but it will be great for snuggling up on my couch!

2. Knitting
I have only three FOs to show and on two of them I still have to weave in the ends so there are only progress pics to show here. The weather’s been a bit dull in the last days and it’s hard to take pictures in this light, so bear with me, please!

Those are socks in Lana Grossa Meilenweit 100 Bosco, which I picked up in a yarn shop in Venlo, Holland. They’re comfy and the yarn has a nice sheen to it.

As you can see I went with the flow and made my very own Ishbel. The pattern is well written and the lace pattern is split up into several small sections which made this part less prone to mistakes. The yarn I used is Isager Strik Højlandsgarn and it suited this project very well. I like my lace shawls to be a bit on the sturdy side!

The last show and tell for today is a modified version of LaLa’s simple shawl (pattern on ravelry). I wanted something simple and not too lacy because the yarn I used, Noro Kureyon sock, is spun very unevenly. I don’t think real lace would look too good with this. I still have to block it and weave in the ends.

I’ll be back with some new projects soon!
See U!

lots of work

I won’t be able to update in the next weeks because I have to get started again on my PhD without the distraction of blogland & Co.!  So, see U in a few weeks, hopefully with some FOs to show you!

Lace bug

The lace bug has bitten me once more! I’ve been knitting the Vortex Shawl for some time now and fiddles around with the Adamas pattern since last year. I managed to make some horrible mistakes there which I couldn’t fix so I took the easy way out and abandoned this project. Shame on me! However, I re- purposed the yarn ( I’m using Højlandsgarn by Isager )for Ishbelby Isolda Teague and I simply love this pattern!

 

I’m almost finished with the stockinette section and will possibly be ready to start the lace part this evening. I’m determined to finish this shawl in the foreseeable future so I will use lots of lifelines.

I ordered some lace yarn since my stash has always been a bit low on this and last year’s moth infestation decimated my lace reserves a good deal.

Both yarns are by Knitpicks which is a brand usually not available in Germany so I just couldn’t resist.
Apart from my current shawls there is sadly no progress to report on my red pinwheel quilt but I have a date with my quilting buddy on Saturday to quilt my Stack of Coin quilt. I’ll be back soon with new pics! See U!

Week/Weekend recap

I had to spend my nice recreational weekend I mentioned in my last post mostly in bed because on Saturday I got hit with a nasty migraine. Sigh. No knitting no sewing no quilting because of my headache.  It’s been two weeks since then and I didn’t get much done. I cast on for a new pair of socks, made some progress on the vortex shawl but no progress on my red monster quilt because on most evenings I’ve been either too tired or too lazy. The only positive event has been the fact that I finished all the necessary course preparation. I’m really looking forward to the summer break now! No pictures today because it has been overcast and rainy all week. I’ll be back (hopefully) soon with some pics and progress to report! See U!

Weekends are for recreation…

…and boy, do I need some free time! last week has been a crazy jumble of spending over 10 hours per day in my office, headaches because of the strange weather and not enough sleep. I managed to finish my course preparation for next week by Thursday, though and I took some time yesterday for my thesis. The glorious beacon of hope this week which enabled me to withstand brain damage and insanity were tickets for “a Midsummer night’s dream” at the annual Shakespeare Festival at the Globe in Neuss. We enjoyed a hilarious, outstanding, delightful, funny, amazing, awe inspiring performance by the (all male!) Watermill Propeller Company. I can’t wait for next year’s Festival!

Sadly, I forgot to take pictures of the Globe (taking picture of the performance was not permitted) because it rained cats and dogs when we arrived at the venue. You can take a peek here, though.

I’m off for the weekend now! I’m looking forward to quilting (the red monster!), reading and listening to my new Blackadder Audio performance (courtesy of audible ). Hope you’ll have a good time, too! See U!

Not enough time

I know a lot of people who dedicate their free time solely to one area and often excel in it. I am not one of them and the downside of this is the need to divide my free time and budget between several hobbies and pastimes. In the last years my interests have settled down on four topics, knitting, quilting, music and books. I know, I know – I’m a couch potato…

Anyway, my knitting projects have suffered a serious lack of attention in the last months. I have sort of a deadline for my red pinwheel quilt because I want to dry it outside due to its size. This means I have to finish hand quilting it in time to catch at least one dry and warm day this summer.

The only knitting WiP I have been working on from time to time is the green vortex shawl (or better: green blobb!)

I’m using tow balls of Schoppel Zauberball which is a sock weight since I like my lace shawls to be a bit sturdy. The picture was taken just after I started on the second ball of yarn. This is my first circular shawl and the beginning nearly drove me crazy. Now it’s a soothing and nearly mindless project perfect for knitting in front of the telly but put aside in favour of the red monster. This will be the story of my summer evenings. I’m hoping to make some progress on the shawl when the weather gets to hot to stay inside. The red monster is by no means portable so I’ll probably take my knitting with me.
As for some quilting news: I haven’t started quilting the coin quilt yet and the four patches for my charm quilt progress very slowly. Stay tuned for another fabric post since I couldn’t resist a fabric bargain… Have a good week!

Mini quilts

I’ve been stumbling over a lot of Mini Quilts on the Internet lately but since now I’ve always shied away from making one because of the small pieces and accuracy the involve. Sewing neatly and cutting the pieces for my quilts precisely is a constant hardship for me and although I’ve improved a bit lately I still manage to make a four patch out of pre-cut charm squares look wonky. But despite all this or maybe because all this I decided to try to make a mini quilt with this cute little teacup pattern I found on Tallgrass Prairie Studio. After lots of fiddling and seam-ripping and the usage of some really colourful language I put together the first teacup:

I’m thinking about a second one to make this into a wall hanging. Right now I need some mindless and soothing hand quilting on my red monster after this nerve wracking sewing.

Shopping spree

Nearly two weeks ago my quilting buddy Bärbel and I took the train to Cologne to have a look at the “Kölner Creativ Markt”. I hadn’t been to Cologne for some years and we took great care to look up the directions beforehand. We got off the train in Köln Deutz (which is near the Cologne Exhibition Centre) and wanted to take the Streetcar as advised by the directions. We did manage to get on the right Underground train after lots of running around the station They need to seriously improve the signage!!! After all, there usually will be a huge amount of travellers due to the Exhibition Centre!

The market really made up for this discomfort! This is what I took home with me:

Almost all fabric came at heart stopping bargain prices between 8 € and 2,50 € !!! per metre.
A local department store which has a sizable fabric section had a sale on some batik fabrics and I couldn’t resist.

The icing on my cake were these two charm packs I ordered on etsy.com:

So, lots of options for new quilts. Since I’m seriously considering a new sewing machine my yearly output on quilts could increase dramatically! The fabric’s already waiting!