Yikes!!

Ok, I´m really starting to freak out now: my thesis is due next wednesday! That means it has to be at the printers on tuesday! And I´m pretty far from being finished. Well the text is done, but there are still some touch-ups to do. And yesterday morning, on a business trip to Berlin, I slipped and fell not once, but twice in about 3 meters... Man that was embarassing and it hurt, too. So when I got home last night, my ankle was hurting really bad and it took me 15 minutes to get my boot off... So I had to go to see a doctor this morning and he tells me that I tore the ligaments in my foot.
Something weird happened today: as I was waiting for my two doctor´s appointments 2(!) people asked me about my knitting. I couldn´t believe it, I mean ever since I started knitting regularly again nobody has ever approached me about it! And now two in one day!

No pictures today because I´m too lazy to get the camera out but there has been knitting. I´m almost ready to start the toe on my train sock, the blue socks for my brother are getting a couple of rounds a day and the patchwork blanket now has two completed squares and a bit of the third.
Now I gotta do some more on my thesis.

Good night!

Ooops, it´s been a long time

I´ve been meaning to post for a couple of days, but real life has me up to my elbows in stuff that comes before pleasure! Also, a couple of days ago I got my ravelry invite!!! Yeah!!! I have to say, that is some cool shit, what Jess and Casey pulled together there!!! So I´ve been busy snooping around ravelry and looking the beautiful stuff people are knitting.
In my little free time, there´s been knitting! And yarn buying...


Isn´t this a pretty still life? That´s 17 balls (one is already in use) of Siena 100% merino superwash from Wolle Rödel (6 each of off-white, tan and chocolate). They are intended for a nice comfy blanket for myself for the couch. It´s going to be a patchwork blanket out of a bunch of 10" solid colored squares each knit in a different stitch pattern. I already ordered 2 more balls of each color, because I´m thinking that those 18 balls won´t be enough.

Here´s the first square: 55 stitches, 5x5 rib, reverse every 7 rows.

This yarn is the big brother of Siena: Siena Big, also 100% superwash merino but a heavy worsted weight. The colors are really nice. A light lavender (pic is pretty accurate) and a dark purple. Each of these balls has a twin, but these are also already in use. They are destined to be a stripey hat. Pictures next time, I forgot... my bad!

My train sock is coming along nicely, I finished the heel today. I love how the diagonal line of the short row heel coincided with a color change.

The blue socks for my brother finally have two heels...Remember that I had to show my ma how to do a short-row heel, so this second sock got stuffed into the basket until last saturday. Now my mom is addicted to knitting again. She used to knit a whole bunch of stuff when I was little, but just picked up the needles again a couple of weeks ago. She´s already done with the first sock and almost to the heel on the second., making plans for a sweater...

When I showed her my Siena and Siena Big, all she could say was: "Siena Big, off-white, order, enough for big sweater". This stuff is so soft, it´s amazing!!

So my six balls of Siena are going to be accompanied by 16 balls of Siena Big. ;-))

It´s going to be really cool to stitch ´n bitch with my ma as soon as my damn thesis is finished. I´m on the homestretch and hoping to finish next week friday.

I´m sure I mentioned this before: I have been to Bonn twice in the last couple of weeks, talking to a company about a new job. They are very interested and the final meeting is in two weeks. Then I´ll know how much they´re offering. I haven´t made up my mind yet, but it would be interesting...

On the other hand, my boy and I have to lead a long-distance-relationship and I´m not sure if that´s an option right now. Well, actually I guess that´s really never an option, but we´ll have to talk it through, as soon as I have the contract from them. This is a big decision and I don´t know what to do... My head is so full of all of this stuff, I´m rambling and rambling... Sorry, if I´m boring you. I promise, things will get better in December!

Something old, something new...

Here are my finished socks, autumn leaves:



Specs:
Yarn: Buttinette "Sydney" no color name
Pattern: Baudelaire from Cookie A.
Needles: 2,5 mm metal dpns
Size: 35 for my ma
She already received them and is very happy with them.





Here´s my little ebay score: 100 satchets of Kool-aid. I´m really looking forward to dying my sock wool.






This here is a new sock I´ve cast on using 2,5mm Pony Pearls. These Pearls are a bit weird to knit with. But once you get used to the flexibility, they´re cool. I have a feeling that they are better for my hands and wrists than the metal dpns since I tend to knit pretty tight, which kills bamboo dpns on a regular basis. The yarn is Opal sock wool and I´m trying a pattern of my own. The cuff is a 2x2 rib, the leg you´ll see once I worked out, if the idea I have works. Since I want to find out how long it´s going to take me to knit a pair of socks when I work on it only outside the house, meaning on the train or waiting at the doctors office or things like that. Because of this, I need to have something small to work on at home which is why I cast on for these:

out of this book:
The yarn is Opal "Smoke" sock wool. It´s knit on 2mm bamboo dpns.

Warning! Mostly non-knitting content!

You should take the warning seriously!! My boyfriend and I went to a wine tasting here, with a couple of friends, yesterday. It felt really good to take two days off and just enjoy good wine, food and company. Was a nice change from being holed up in my office, writing my thesis. But now it´s back to normal and tomorrow, I even have to go to work again...
Knit-wise, it´s been slow. I wanted to use the drive to the vinyard to get some good progress done on the sock, but since I had to sit behind the driver, I started getting really car-sick. So that was not cool!!! But nonetheless, I only have 4 more 8-row-repeats to go on the leg and then about 15 rows of 1x1 ribbing. Since I´m going to have to commute again, starting tomorrow, I
bet I´ll get it done next week.

Today, on the drive back I tried knitting again and my friend Ute kept saying: "Wow, I wish I could do that, but I just can´t knit socks to save my life...You know what, I want handknit socks for my birthday. It´s March 5th, I wear size 40! ;-)"
I usually don´t like knitting for other people, besides my ma, because I had some bad experiences with people not appreciating handmade stuff, but she and her boyfriend make some of the most awesome jewellery I have ever seen. He made me a necklace for my birthday that my boyfriend gave me and Ute made me a really cool ring, which she made me. I´ll post pics as soon as I get around to taking them!!! So, if she really wants socks for her birthday, she gets them!!
That sounds like a deadline I can meet, so I can start scouring the net in search of a cool pattern and some cool sockwool. I know she likes it colorful, you should see her house, so I need to find or dye something really loud!
Well, my freetime is up, better get back to my thesis...

New Stuff

As I mentioned earlier, I got a package full of cool stuff from Ewas Sockenwolle. Now I just have to wait for my Kool-aid to arrive. Anyway, here it is:

This is a measuring tape with sock sizes on it. It also tells you when to start with the toe! I thought that was pretty cool! We´ll see, how it works.



On the top of this picture are some metal hands that say handmade on them. I think they´re a great addition to a nice handknit sweater, aren´t they? The heart-shaped stitchmarker was a gift, that came with the purchase, along with a little packet of gummibears that didn´t survive the first five minutes in my possesion. I really love the frog stitchmarker. It´s adorable!

This is my sock wool, 100% merino, four 100gr. hanks. This is enough for at least 5 pairs of socks for me!!!

And last but not least: my new pony pearls! I don´t remember, where I read about them, but they seemed interesting. And I must say, they really are! I ordered them in 2.25, 2.5 and 2.75 mm, 15 cm long. They have a weird feel, but I can´t wait to try them on my next pair of socks.

Yeah!!

I just scored 100 little satchets of Kool-aid (in 20 different flavors on ebay!!!! Can´t wait to get started with dyeing!!!

I also got my undyed merino sockwool along with some other cute stuff. I already took pictures but I don´t feel like posting them tonight.

Will do tomorrow, though!!

My sock is coming along nicely, I´m on the heel right now. Aside from that, I´m not feeling all that swell right now. Have the flu, which really helps my writing...

Well, gotta go! My mattress is calling!

Dyeing to dye!

I just ordered some merino sock wool to dye. Yippieh!! I´ve been wanting to try dyeing my own wool for some time and now I´ve got an eye on a batch of Kool-aid on ebay, so I should be ready to go after I´m done with my thesis. Which I hope will be soon... I´m having some motivation problems, although I keep telling myself, that procrastination won´t get me very far and it would be a lot easier on my nerves if I got it done with time to spare instead of at the last minute. I promise to do better tomorrow!

Anyways, back to dyeing: I already have some cool ideas for color combinations. Also on it´s way to my mailbox is Selbuvotter and pony pearls dpns in assorted sizes. Can´t wait for either to arrive.

My plan is to make some fabulous mittens with hand-dyed yarn and cool colored dpns!
Have I mentioned that I can´t wait???

Oh, almost forgot:
ravelry is down to ONLY 8400 people ahead of me!! A big yeah for that!!!

Got Sock! (and a third)

There´s not much going on around here, except me trying to work on my thesis, which is not going that well, but I´m workin´ on it...

I did make some progress on my socks though:

I´ve also been reading some knit blogs. Haven´t commented on any of them, because I want to wait until I get this one up to speed and have conquered html so that I can link my favorite blogs to the sidebar. That is not going to be anytime soon, because I have more important things right now.

Since there´s not much to tell ya guys (well actually, to tell me, since I don´t think anyone has found this blog yet...), here´s a picture of our dining room:

We just moved in to our apartment about 6 months ago and if I feel like it, I´ll post some more pictures every now and then. Especially when there´s not much knitting news...

I´m knitting...

a little bit a day! I have the next one and a half weeks off from work to finish my thesis and I´m very determined to get it finished by wednesday so that I have a long weekend full of knitting and cleaning (yeah!)!
Still haven´t turned the heel on the blue socks, but the autumn socks are coming along nicely. I just finished the 8th repeat of the pattern and will be turning the heel shortly.
I´m almost down to a four digit number on the ravelry waitlist, so that´s coming along also
In other news, I had a job interview on tuesday in Bonn, which is about 250 kilometers from where I live right now. It´s already been the second interview and it went pretty well, but I´m not even sure I want to go there. They told me to call them after I slept over it and tell them whether I wanted to proceed or not. I´ll wait until tomorrow... I really don´t know what to do. More on this the next couple of days.