Friday - this was a long week...

And I am glad it is over - a few more hours and I can leave the office for the weekend. I am going to a new SNB knitting group tonight after work. Why Knot Knit, a great yarn store in Buckhead - literally in walking distance from the office - hosts a knit-together from 5pm to 8pm. The location is dangerous for my credit card and so far I have not been over there very often. I heard that the meeting last Friday (the first one) was a lot of fun and they had 10 knitters there. I'll keep you posted.

So here is this week's update: WORK WAS CRAZY... Nothing new there, but it was just more crazy than usual.

AND AHHHH... I got my "release papers" from the orthopedist. The knee is a lot better. No more brace. He wants me to come back for a check-up in June. After my trip to Germany! Which brings me to the next topic.

I booked my flights - alrighty! I first thought about postponing the trip into June since my nephew has a couple of weeks of vacation - Germans have soooo much vacation. And my sister wanted to take some time off, too. But when I checked airfares, I thought a truck hit me. One week later the airfare would have been $1,300 instead $770. No way!!! I am not Rockefeller. So here is what I booked:

Depart from Atlanta Fri, May 19 12:29 pm via Amsterdam
Arrive in Munich Sat, May 20 8:20 am

LOTS OF KNITTING TIME HERE!!! But not enough time to go to a coffee shop in Amsterdam ;-)

Then I spend 10 days here:


And my return flight leaves on Tue, May 30 at 6:45 am. This gets me back to Atlanta at 1:50 pm the same day. I am very excited and so is my family. Can't wait to get my hands on my new niece. According to my brother (who is super-proud) she is just the greatest thing. Well - I believe him. Even though I think his vision is a little bit blurred from all the daddy-hormones kicking in :-)

Anyway - it is Friday. Yay - a weekend full of knitting ahead. I have to make up for last weekend's lost time. I have no new pictures yet - I'll take some over the weekend. For tonight's knit-together I have three projects in my basket:

No. 1 - a pair of socks. I splurged and got myself a skein of Mountain Colors (hand-painted yarns) Bearfoot - in Wildflower. It is gorgeous and very soft. Since I had a gift certificate, I did not cringe too much about the price tag of $21.75. UGH - usually I don't throw money around like this. But since I had to get rid of the gift certificate... I guess there is always an excuse ;-) So, I am on sock no. 1 and this is the first time I am knitting my heel with short rows. I am not very happy. I think I am more a flap heel person. But I won't rip it.

No. 2 in the basket (sounds almost like a TV show...) is the white sweater. I am still knitting the back and almost to the point where I have to decrease for the armholes. This pattern is killing me. It is very nice and not very hard, BUT there are so many stitches... 176 - BUT I had to use fingering yarn. Why didn't anybody talk me out of this??? Oh, well, I am not giving up - yet...

And the last project is the Cami Soleil from knitty.com. I am finished with the border pattern. It is knitted in the round and I have 160 stitches on my circulars. It is a lace pattern that repeats 3 times and then you plunge into boring stockinette stitch land... Perfect for a knitting group - you don't have to pay too much attention to a complicated pattern and can fully participate in the bitching part of the SNB ;-)

Besides the SNB NEGA meeting tomorrow and teaching a beginner knitting class on Sunday I will not do much. Maybe I can spend some time in the backyard with these two cuties:




Our adorable furballs... I guess now my doggie-mommy hormones are kicking in... OK, y'all have a wonderful weekend. I promise to have more knitting pictures next time. Cross my heart...

Monday & PMS Blues

Here we go again... Ok, not so interesting for the male reader... One of my girlfriends send me this hilarious link. Listen to Dolly Parton singing about the PMS Blues... And since I felted the Dolly Parton basket a little while ago, I thought I'd share this with you ;-)

The women's retreat last weekend was interesting and that is all I am going to say on my blog. Here are some pix I took at the camp. The scenery in the mountains is gorgeous. It was cold and rainy, but since we spent most of the time indoors, it didn't matter much.






I did not get a lot of knitting done over the weekend - oh, well...

Today, hopefully, I'll see the PT for the last time. I already walked around at the camp without the brace. Don't tell on me, but it is so uncomfortable - so the rebel in me took it off. But I carried it around, just in case.

And while I was at the camp, my adorable niece Julia was born. She took her sweet time to get here. Due date was April 11 and 11 days later she decided it was time.

Here are her stats:
Julia was born on Saturday, April 22, 2006 at 6 pm local time in Germany (12:00 noon in Georgia, USA), 3650 g (8.04 lbs), 53 cm (20.86 inches). Good-sized little girl with a thick, black head of hair - oh my... No wonder my sister-in-law had constant heartburn. An old wive's tale - if you have a lot of heartburn during the pregnancy, your baby has a lot of hair. Well, here is the proof:


AND - Did you notice the baby blanket? Wasn't my doing. Grandma, or as we say in German, "Oma" (my mom - the other crazy knitter in the family), is also knitting up a storm for this cute little girl. In the next picture you can see the matching booties on Julia's feet. Oma is the best!

And here is the proud Dad - my little bro. Man, time flies: I remember vividly how we used to chase each other around my parents' apartment about 30 years ago. And now he has turned me into an aunt.


Sorry for the non-knitting-related blog entry. More about knitting next time, since I still have some projects on pointy stix. Have a good week!

Camp Glisson

No, hubby is not sending me to boot camp this weekend. I am not that bad, at least not in my mind. ;-) A friend convinced me to accompany her on a women's spiritual retreat weekend. Now, if you know me, you know that I am not a very religious person. My parents raised me as a good Catholic girl but in my teens I decided that I would follow more my scientific mind... Evolution exists, you know... Anyway - that's as far I will take this excursion into the subject of religion - especially since I now live in the Bible Belt.

So - I am spending the weekend with a bunch of lovely women (I believe we are 50 in total) in the Georgia Mountains on a camp ground.

14 women in one cabin, that will be interesting. Who gets to go to the bathroom first? Well, I hope handicapped people (I am still wearing the knee brace) get to go first, he-he-he... Maybe my knee condition is good for something after all.

I brought 3 knitting projects and a bunch of yarn and needles in case somebody wants to learn how to knit. My friend told me she raved about me to the other women and told them I am knitting teacher. We’ll see how much I get done on my projects. ;-) I also remembered to bring the camera. I’ll post pix next week.

Y’all have a good weekend. Let’s hope I won’t come back too reformed. Maybe like one of the Stepford Wives – wouldn’t that be lovely? ;-)

This is probably what I will think Sunday morning in my upper bunk bed:

Mom's Latest Masterpiece

I finally realized that I have not shown off the latest sweater my Mom knitted for me:




Quite gorgeous, don't ya think? Too bad that we have spring now in Georgia. But I had a couple of opportunities a few weeks ago to wear it. And luckily sweaters don't spoil, so it's tucked away in the closet for fall. Or I can take it back to Germany in May - it is always cooler there.

I found this on Sandy's blog:

You Are an Espresso

At your best, you are: straight shooting, ambitious, and energetic At your worst, you are: anxious and high strung You drink coffee when: anytime you're not sleeping Your caffeine addiction level: high

What Kind of Coffee Are You?

This is also interesting:

You Are a Little Scary

You've got a nice edge to you. Use it.

How Scary Are You?

And that's all I have time for today. Sorry folks!

OMG - I am breaking one of my rules!

Which is? Don't sit in front of the PC on the weekend. But, I have a feeling I won't have much time for posting during the week. And I wanted to show off what I accomplished with my closet - yes - I finished it. Here are the pix - doesn't it look incredibly anal?





And I cleaned what I wanted to clean around the house on Friday. And I took pictures of what is on my needles now. And I had PT on Friday. Sounds busy now - but it didn't feel like a busy weekend.

The PT update is a good one. I will have three more PT sessions this week and then I'll see the orthopedist on 4/26. I am very confident - as is the physical therapist - that it was just a very bad sprain. I am not wearing the brace at home - which might be a mistake (hubby gives me grief for this and I am sure he is right, but it is soooo annoying and I promise I am careful walking around). As per doctors' orders I should wear the brace when I stand and walk... Oh well, I am not good with following orders - even being German does not help much. And Hermione, our Border collie, tries her best to keep her toys in my way. Maybe she likes having Mommy around for more than two days in a row.

So hopefully next week I can book my flight for the trip to Germany. I am guessing that I will be leaving around May 24 for ten days or so. That gives my bro and sis-in-law enough time to get used to their new baby. Which is overdue now by 5 days - how dare she... Mom told me today that my nephew Michael (my sis's son) knocked on the belly and asked Julia when she would come out - very cute. Can't wait to see the Krauts! And Dad will be back from his rehab. And it is Father's Day on 5/25 - so this would work out nicely - we'll see. I'll keep you posted. I am taking shopping lists for Germany i.e. Nutella, Regia sock yarn, etc. Just let me know. I am sure Mom and I will invade the LYSs.

Look who I found today, trying to knit... Or better keeping me from knitting:



How can you not want to pet this little guy and forget all about knitting? Nah, not really. Noah is very cute, but that would take hypnosis skills. So, let's get on with knitting projects. Here is what Noah is laying on:



I am knitting a felted bag (no specific pattern - making it up as I go) with Lamb's Pride Bulky in creme and some silver Moda Dea Zing to spice up the boring creme color. This is actually an experiment for my friend Jenny. She knitted and felted a beautiful bridal bag with some expensive yarn and we wanted to see how the creme colored Lamb's Pride felts as a substitute yarn since she needs to do a second one. I am not a big fan of creme or white wool for felting projects because it takes forever to felt. I felted with other colors of Lamb's Pride Bulky before and they all felted great. Cross your fingers ;-)

Then, I am working on the "Accidentally on Purpose" drop stitch tank from Stitch'N Bitch Nation in a VERY red 100% cotton yarn:



I am knitting this in Annie Modesitt's combination knitting technique. This piece is about half of the front and then I have to knit the back as well. Pretty boring - all stockinette stitch (at least the new-to-me knitting technique makes it a little more interesting) until you come to the top where you drop the stitches and the fun begins...

Another tank top on my needles (can you see that I am trying to get some knitting done for the summer?) is the Soleil Cami. I am using a silk/cotton yarn in avocado green - I have to get some tan to wear this color though...



And I finally started the Clapotis like everybody else on the planet - this is a very popular and very cool pattern for a scarf or wrap:



I am using the Mandarin Petit cotton yarn I got from Jane the other week. I have five balls and I am planning to make the Clapotis as long as the yarn will last.

Then, I have two sweaters going - also for the summer - with short sleeves. Both patterns come from the Spring 2006 issue of the German knitting magazine VERENA:



This sweater is actually finished now. I used Knit Picks Shine Cotton yarn (sand color). I will use this sweater to show my sweater class students how to block and sew the pieces together. You'll get to see a picture when it is completed.



And this sweater - it is gorgeous, but it makes me crazy... Too many stitches (176 just for the front). I have to be in a really good knitting mood to work on it. One row - since it is all cables - takes almost forever. Yes, not really, but it feels like forever. I am using Knit Picks Palette in white and black - I am not a big fan of the color combination the magazine picked (red/blue). Palette is a 100% Peruvian wool in fingering weight. What was I thinking???

AND - YES - I HAVE FINISHED OBJECTS, TOO...

The baby blanket for my niece Julia - the one we are waiting for these days - is finished. A wonderful cloud of pink acrylic yarn - Yarn Bee "Frosting" from Hobby Lobby - yes, sometimes I shop there, too.



And here are the socks I knitted from the yarn Pixie gave me last Saturday during her soiree. It is from Sweet Georgia Yarns and it is 100% Merino wool fingering weight yarn and handpainted (river color). I knitted a pair of lace socks from a pattern from an Interweave issue from last year.



And here they are finished - do you notice something? When they handpainted the yarn they forgot one brown strip towards the toe. Very unique ;-) I was too lazy to rip back and cut the yarn and re-start with a brown stripe. Nobody will have a pair of socks like these. I would like for Pixie to have the socks. She will have to try them on since her feet are smaller than mine.



Pixie also gave me some Baby Alpaca Brush yarn. I found a pattern for fingerless mittens. They can wait until fall ;-)



OK - this is it for today, whew... - y'all have a good Easter Sunday!

Let's have a Martini!

Somewhere on this planet it is after 5pm - actually in Germany I could have a Martini right now - it is 6:50pm. Perfect time for one, don't you think?

But since I am sitting here in Georgia, USA (where you can't even buy booze on Sundays...), I am indulging you with a Martini glass dishcloth. You might think now, I am really a bit on the insane side, but here is the reason for the dishcloth.

Pixie emailed our Yahoo group and asked if somebody had a dishcloth pattern with something like a Martini glass, a wine bottle, etc., for her sister-in-law. Pixie couldn't find a pattern online and since I like Martinis too, I had a good excuse to make one up. Good task for an otherwise "boring" Saturday - I finished the written pattern this morning. Here it is, in case you want to knit one for yourself or a friend who likes Martinis ;-)


Yarn: 1 ball Bernat Handicrafter 100% Cotton
Color: Hunter Green
Needle Size: 5 US / 3.5mm
Approx. Size: 9" high x 10" wide

(Note: I knit a little on the loose side and I like my dishcloths knitted tightly- the yarn label calls for 7 US / 4.5mm)

Cast on 45 stitches.
Knit 6 rows in Seed Stitch (k1, p1).
Continue the Seed Stitch pattern for 5 stitches on each side of the dishcloth.

Pattern:
(Note: Don't forget to knit 5 stitches in Seed Stitch at the beginning and the end of each row! Pattern is worked over 35 stitches.)

Row 1: Knit.
Row 2 and all even rows: Purl.
Row 3: Knit.
Row 5: K12, p11, k12.
Row 7: K15, p5, k15.
Row 9: K16, p3, k16 (repeat this row 8 more times).
Row 29: K15, p5, k15.
Row 31: K14, p7, k14.
Row 33: K13, p9, k13.
Row 35: K11, p13, k11.
Row 37: K9, p17, k9.
Row 39: K7, p21, k7.
Row 41: K6, p23, k6.
Row 43: K11, p2, k22.
Row 45: K10, p2, k23.
Row 47: K9, p2, k24.
Row 49: K8, p2, k25.
Row 51: K7, p2, k26.
Row 53: Knit.
Row 55: Knit.

Knit 6 rows in Seed Stitch.
Bind off.

Tip: If you want to give this dishcloth to someone as a gift, toss it in the washer & dryer before you give it away and the stitches will even out.

Designed by Claudia on April 15, 2006.
Please let me know if you have any questions with regards to the pattern.

Off to find a martini now ;-)

Long weekend - Happy Easter!!!

YAY - a-three-day weekend! I love it! I have BIG plans, yeah right... Not all involve knitting but I am planning to take pictures of my current projects. Our house needs some serious spring cleaning. I am dedicating Friday to this task. Hopefully I'll get a bunch done and then I can go back to cleaning up the yarn mess from last week - I will post more closet pictures, too. And I still owe you a pic of the latest sweater my Mom knitted for me.

I am still wearing this annoying brace for my knee. Mostly as a precaution, the doctor and the PT don't want my knee to give out under me. Oh well, I hope I can get rid of it some time next week.

And here is some whining - I am not going to Maryland, boo-hoo...



Mouse - thanks for the great button! Check out her webpage - she is very creative and made up a bunch for Maryland Sheep & Wool 2006.




But I am going to SAFF - I am very excited - already, yeah, I know a bit early. Weeks and weeks and weeks to come until October. I am going with Jen and we'll see who else will join us. I am taking our "doggie car", a Toyota Previa. So I could actually take 4 more crazy knitters/fiber lovers. Who wants a ride?

Y'all have a great weekend. I have more PT tomorrow and then next week. And the week after I'll see the orthopedist again. I am feeling more and more sure that I don't have to have another surgery.

HAPPY EASTER - lots of eggs and chocolate for you ;-)

What is new in my stash...

Before my "knitting-related" accident last weekend, I got several packages of incredible yarn - YAY - here are the pix and where they came from.

This "heap" I got from Jane. She is clearing out her stash since she is moving to a new house and needs to get rid of some stuff. It was a steal and I couldn't resist. How come I know all these enablers???



I got 5 skeins Mandarin Petit (black) (yes, one is already hanging out on needles and being turned into a Clapotis shawl), 4 skeins Lamb's Pride Bulky (several colors), 10 balls Crystal Palace Merino Frappe (silver grey) and 7 hanks Felting Wool (85% wool/15% mohair). Yummy - can't wait to do some funky felted bags!!!

And then I found this real nice online store when I was looking for blocking wires. Yes, I finally broke down and bought some. After 25 years of knitting, I thought, it's time. We'll see how it turns out. Usually, I am not a big blocker (shhhh, don't tell my knitting students...) but I thought I'd give it a try. So, while I was at Angelika's Yarn Store, I had to look at yarn, too. Well - you always have to look at sales, right?



And I bought 8 hanks of 2nd Time Cotton Yarn from Knit One Crochet Too. Love the yarn - it's soft and the color is a variegated mix of orange, pink, dark yellow and light green. Can't wait to see how that looks on some pointy stix.

I have to tell you that Angelika is wonderful. After a little hiccup with a broken ruler (UPS was too stupid to read labels on the package and they broke the blocking ruler), her customer service to get me a new ruler was superfast and very accommodating. Thanks again Angelika! And while we were emailing back and forth, we found out that we come from the same country. Germans rock!

Ok - what else? I got a bunch of yarn from Knit Picks:



Some textured cotton yarn in super-bright orange (summer, here we come!), two different variegated sock yarns (got to plan for fall...) and some ribbon yarn (the color is called "Fireworks" and I just realized that the colors are white, blue and red - go figure - fireworks..., guess I can whip something up for Fourth of July).

And finally - enough with the new yarn already... I know. Some of the Wednesday SNB knitters kept raving about WEBS. Hey - they still have their anniversary sale going through April and May. Go look!!!



I got a bag of Debbie Bliss - wool/cotton (grey), a bag of Vaudeville (100% Merino wool knitted ribbon yarn with a bulky weight gauge) and two skeins of Lamb's Pride Bulky (Creme).

All that should tide me over a couple of weeks - JUST KIDDING - more likely a couple of years... At the rate I am finishing projects at the moment...

And the knee update - I will have my second physical therapy later today. I am still in pain but I can deal with the level without taking Darvocet - no thanks, I am loopy enough already. We'll see how it goes with PT. I am very hopeful that this will do the trick and hopefully no orthepedist will have to sharpen his knives anytime soon for my knee. Keep your fingers and toes crossed. OK, OK, OK, if you must knit - then just the toes...

I'll keep you posted!

CRAP IN A BUCKET

One of my knitting friends made this expression up - I love it and it totally sums up what happened to me last Thursday. If you remember, I went to the Container Store and got me some nice clear vinyl hanging bags for my stash closet. And of course, I was too excited about my latest purchase and I couldn't wait until the weekend, so I started taking my closet apart when I got home around 9:30 Thursday night. And here is a detailed report of the events that followed...

These are the "before" photos:



Well - you can see why I wanted to change something... SO - I dragged everything out of the closet, all the boxes of yarn, all the plastic bags with U.F.O.s, etc. The room looked like a small explosion of yarn had taken place and I started to realize, OMG - how much yarn do I have?!... Thoughts that come to mind when you organize your stash for the nth time: 1. I don't remember buying this. 2. You really have a lot of yarn for a lot of projects (Mom said on the phone today: "Sounds like you own a yarn store." - IT IS NOT THAT BAD!!!). 3. You should not buy any more yarn any time soon. 4. Hey, I just saw a pattern for this yarn somewhere - where is that magazine? And so on....

After the closet was empty and restored more or less to a state of virginity, I assembled the hanging bags, one by one. And oh what joy, to sort the yarn and fill the first hanging bag. I was totally in a brown study - or maybe more a very colorful study - no, no drugs present for the colors, just a big heap of yarn...

Absorbed in fibers, I squatted in front of the closet and wanted to get some more yarn from the heap. And when I got up, my left knee made a horrific grinding/grumbling sound and that was it. I could not get up at all at first, pain shot through my left knee, no way of either bending or straightening the leg... Hubby came into the room from the living room to see what happened - he heard me groaning from out there. Thankfully, he didn't hear my German cursing under my breath... Now - I have to tell you that I already have had three surgeries in this left knee resulting from a skiing accident in my wild years. Well, growing up in a mountain village in the German Alps, you basically grow up on skis instead of in a stroller.

Ok - back to the groaning... Hubby helped me hobble into the living room and settled me on the sofa. I took some pain killers and we elevated and iced the knee. I hoped it would be better in the morning. Of course I could not finish the sorting job - this is how I left the room:



Friday morning came around - IT WAS NOT ANY BETTER...NO, IT WAS WORSE... So instead of going to work, hubby drove me to the doctor's office. After some x-rays and checking the mobility of the swollen knee, the doctor decided to refer me to an orthopedist. I got an appointment at 5pm the same day.

When the orthopedist looked at my knee, he gave me two options: Either he could do a fourth arthroscopic surgery right away and check out the problem from the inside or I could do physical therapy for a couple of weeks and then see how the knee is. This is the kind of approach I like. He had several possible diagnoses - it could either be a very bad sprain, a torn ligament, or a meniscus injury. So, my first appointment for physical therapy is tomorrow. He also gave me prescriptions for Naproxan and Darvocet. Hubby's comment - good stuff :-)

So, let's hope it is just a bad sprain and the phyiscal therapy will take care of the problem. If not, I will have another knee surgery - so cross your fingers and toes that this is not gonna happen... I'll keep you posted!

And here is a picture of my newest accessory - don't you like it when your leg looks like something from another planet and you can't really wear any of your regular clothes...

Jen offered to knit a more fashionable brace - I am sure that would look much nicer - when will it be ready???

BTW - my advice - Y'all be careful handling yarn - it can be dangerous ;-)

A BIG THANK YOU to all the friends and knitters for their wonderful emails. I love you, too! It is good to know that I'm surrounded by such nice people!

I have since been back in the room with the yarn explosion and did a little bit here and there, but if I stay on my leg for too long, it starts hurting - darnit... So, no "after" pictures yet - at least you got some "in between" pictures... It just kills me that the room is such a mess!!!

OK - Hubby just got back with Sushi - since the "Chef" is out-of-order at the moment. I have to brag about him some more. He is truly a jewel. He waited on me every day and does not get tired of fetching things, making coffee, warming leftovers, etc. He even looked for a lost dpn that somehow disappeared during my walk with a sock in progress from the living room to the bedroom. Yes, knitting in bed is nice, too. AND he offered to help put the stash away - but I did not want to burden him with sorting all that yarn. I truly feel like a pampered little princess. Of course, this does not mean that he is not nice when I am not injured ;-).

Flash Your Stash - April 1, 2006

I missed it... Oh well, the once in a lifetime opportunity to be a flasher and get away with it... But, at least I got some great inspiration. Here are some nice ones:

This is the coolest one I have seen - definitely worthy to go on a knitting book - in my mind. Way to Go - Knit And Tonic! Here is Pixie's stash and this is Mouse's stash (her Apr-1 entry).

And if you want to know who-all participated in the flash-o-mania, go to the contest itself.

But - knitters - as I said, I got inspired. Not too long ago I spent a whole holy Sunday in my room and tried to organize my stash. It was OK, but not great. At the time, I used storage material that we had at the house, mostly cardboard boxes (at least the pretty - I mean purdy - ones from IKEA). But these boxes are not very sturdy and since I have a lot of yarn, they do not hold up well. Anyway - I was in a way happy that I got everything kind of organized but not with the way it was put together.

SOOOOOOOOOOO - I made a trip to the Container Store. Ahhhhhhhh... Heaven for an anal German who likes to organize. Not so heavenly for my credit card... Anyway - this is what I bought:

Two of these:

And one of these:


We'll see if I can fit everything. I was being conservative... Does this look like yarn organization or what? I promise I will take BEFORE and AFTER pictures of the closet. I am very excited about it and maybe if I have enough energy tonight, I'll get started. Since I am not going to be home before 9:30pm (Knit Night at Joann's), we'll see... But not later than on the weekend... Ha - can I wait that long?

Field Trip with the SNB NEGA Group

Ha - I still owe a trip report - so to speak. The SnB NEGA (Northeast Georgia) group went on their first field trip. So, what does a bunch of knitters do on their field trip: find a good place for food/drinks and knitting and of course a LYS for invasion. And that's exactly what we did. We drove to Dahlonega, up north in the peaceful, serene Blue Ridge Mountains. Everything up there is soooo "purdy" (that's how "we" say "pretty"). You can actually dig for gold in Dahlonega - "Thar's gold in them thar hills!" But who cares about gold when you can go and look for some wonderful yarn...

So, we had lunch at a great place called Crimson Moon. This is us:



You can hear about the group and see more pictures on Pixie Purls' podcast and blog. Yup - we are famous ;-)

After we took care of hunger and thirst, everybody got the projects out and we knitted. And time flew by - all of a sudden it was one o'clock and we walked to the yarn store. YES - you read correctly - we walked. I loved that. Where I come from (small town in the Bavarian mountains in Germany) you don't drive everywhere, you walk or you take your bicycle. Anyway - we had gorgous weather and Dahlonega is a cute little town.

We visited the local yarn and quilting store Magical Threads - a great store. Very nice selection of yarn. But I was a good girl. I've bought so much yarn recently - so I indulged myself with only one (!!!) ball of sock yarn and a knitting magazine. Am I good or what...



After the visit to the yarn store, the hardcore knitters didn't want to go home yet, so we looked for a nice place to sit and knit. And boy, did we get lucky. We found a table in a corner on a porch on the second floor of a restaurant/ice cream place. Sorry, I don't remember the name, but it was right on the square. So we grabbed that table, it was self-service - nobody bothered us - and we just knitted and chatted and stitched and bitched. It was great - these gals are just very lovely and fun people - well, what do you expect - they're knitters.

So, we decided we have to do that again very soon. The next trip will probably take us to the Athens area. Yeah - right - we are going to Greece for the day. I wish - been island hopping there once - in a former life... It is very nice, sunny and beachy ;-) Ahhhhh - a vacation would be nice now... But no, we're staying here and visiting Athens, GEORGIA, for a day. That's OK, too.

Dad's vest made it across the ocean...

What a drama... My Dad finally got his felted vest last Friday. It took EXTREMELY long this time. Usually you can figure two weeks for airmail to get to Germany. This time it was almost 4 weeks. You just never know with the postal service - and the German one is not any better than the one in the US. At some point I actually thought it got lost. All the hard work and all the sweat when shaping this gigantic felted piece in shape for nothing...

Another crazy thought I had... Down the street from my parents lives a Catholic priest (everybody is Catholic in Bavaria - that's where the current Pope is from...). This fellow has the same last name as my folks and sometimes the mail gets crisscrossed and my parents end up with the priest’s mail and he gets their mail. So, in my evil mind I thought maybe the vest arrived on the wrong doorstep... I told my Mom (since Dad didn’t know what his gift was) if she saw the priest in a new vest, she should call the cops. I took pictures before I sent it and I have the proof. But of course that was just my evil mind – a Catholic priest would never do anything wrong. Ha, yeah right...

Anyway – my good ol’ Dad loved the vest. He called me himself - very unusual, he hates to talk on the phone and he can not understand how my Mom and I can be on the phone for more than 5 minutes... Mom told me that he wore the vest on Friday and Saturday - he must really like it. Since my Dad is a professional tailor he can appreciate the work and knows how much time and effort you put in a big knitting project. Especially since he lives with a knitting addict as well ;-) And a felted vest just simply beats a pair of bicycle gloves (sis’ gift) and a cordless screw driver set (bro's gift). I'd rather give him something that he can't buy in the store.

I’ll take a picture of handsome Dad with the vest on my next trip to Germany in May. I still haven’t decided on the exact dates. I’ll keep you posted, of course ;-)