Tuesday, December 18, 2012

The Interim and Christmas No. 1

The last few weeks have been crazy stressful and exhausting. I haven't done whole lot of crocheting and the camera stayed in it's pouch most of the time,too. I finished a cute Santa hat and my first knittign project anyway... No pictures, yet, I guess I'll get to that once we've settled down a bit in North Carolina. That was the only way I was able to clear out our appartment in Hamburg. I don't think I've ever done anything as exhausting before, getting a master's degree seems like a walk in the park now. 
Die letzten paar Wochen waren so richtig stressig. Ich hab nicht wirklich viel gehäkelt und die Kamera blieb auch meistens in der Tasche. Trotzdem habe ich eine süße Weihnachtsmütze gemacht und mein erstes Strickprojekt ist endlich fertig geworden... Ich hab noch keine Bilder gemacht, dazu komme ich vielleicht, wenn wir wir uns in North Carolina etwas eingelebt haben. Aber nur so habe ich es überhaupt geschafft, unsere Wohnung in Hamburg zu räumen. Ich glaube, so etwas anstengendes habe ich noch nie gemacht, meinen Abschluss zu machen erscheint mir dagegen jetzt der reinste Spaziergang dagegen.



Zoë did her best to "help" me with everything but for the last week I was on my own and all I did was through out most of our stuff.
Zoë hat alles getan, um mir bei allem zu "helfen", aber in der letzten Woche war ich allein und hab eigentlich nur Sachen weggeschmissen.

We sent 19 boxes of moving goods to North Carolina, 17 (!!) of which have arrived so far.
19 Pakete voller Umzugsgut haben wir nach North Carolina geschickt und bisher sind auch schon 17 (!!) angekommen.


Pretty good!
Nicht schlecht!

And finally I signed the form and the apartment was no longer ours. I made it to my parents (on my own, by bus and train with two heavy suitcases and two carry-ons...). With all that luggage I couldn't move through the crowded train or find a seat, but I got to my destination on time.
Und dann konnte ich endlich das Formular unterschreiben und wir waren die Wohnung los. Als nächstes hab ich's dann zu meinen Eltern geschafft (allein, mit Bus und Bahn, zwei großen Koffern und noch zwei Handgepäckstücken...). Mit soviel Gepäck konnte ich nicht durch die überfüllten Züge gehen oder einen Sitzplatz suchen, aber immerhin bin ich pünktlich angekommen.

Ten days of unwinding at my parent's house followed! I got to sit in front of the fireplace and enjoy German gemütlichkeit.
Und dann folgten zehn Tage Entspannung bei meinen Eltern! Ich durfte vorm Ofen sitzen und die deutsche Gemütlichkeit genießen.



Since I've been married to Peter and we've spent Christmas with his parents in the States, we've had an early Christmas celebration with my parents. This year, Zoë was big enough to decorate the tree with next to no help!
Seit ich mit Peter verheiratet bin und wir Weihnachten bei seinen Eltern in den Staaten verbringen, feiern wir mit meinen Eltern vor. Dieses Jahr war Zoë groß genug, den Weihnachtsbaum fast ganz allein zu schmücken!









Christmas cookies! Baked by Zoë, destroyed by Peter...
Weihnachtsplätzchen! Von Zoë gebacken, von Peter zerstört...



And after the opening of gifts: Storytime...
Und nach dem Geschenkeauspacken: Vorlesen...


delicious food,
leckeres Essen,


and a cozy evening under the Christmas tree.
und ein gemütlicher Abend unter dem Weihnachtsbaum.


Only two days later we would set out for Hamburg again to catch a flight across the ocean.
Nur zwei Tage später würden wir uns schon wieder auf den Weg nach Hamburg machen, um einen Flug über den großen Teich zu kriegen.

Monday, October 22, 2012

my Visa is here! / mein Visum ist da!

This is awesome news! One huge point of concern is off my shoulders: On Saturday I received my Visa documents in the mail.

Großartige Neuigkeiten! Eine riesige Sorge ist endlich runter von meinen Schultern: Am Samstag kamen meine Visumsdokumente mit der Post.


And I wasn't even home to see it right away, I was visiting my parents and seeing my best friends from school for a last evening of girly chatter together. I checked all over my computer but couldn't find a picture of us, neither old nor recent... too many computer crashes, I guess.

Und ich war nicht einmal da, um sie gleich zu sehen, ich habe am Wochende meine Eltern und meine Schulfreundinnen besucht. Ein letzter Mädelsabend mit ordentlich Geschnatter. Ich hab überall auf meinem Rechner gesucht, aber keine Photos gefunden, weder alte noch neuere... wahrscheinlich ist mein Computer einfach zu oft böse gecrasht.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Wooden Rose Baby Cardigan

The date of our final departure from Germany seems to be way too soon. With so much left to do -> anyone looking for used furniture in the Hamburg area? Drop me a line, we have pretty much everything...

I still hope to keep posting regularly, I'll just use less words and more pictures. This is the Cardigan I finished as a gift for a new baby.








Sorry for being so lazy, but please see my Ravelry project page for details.
In case you were wondering, my other project are creeping along slowly but I need to keep crocheting to stay sane these days!

And now, head on over to these ladies:



Wednesday, October 3, 2012

A Classic Baby Cardigan... and some big news

You'll have to read to the end for the big news, I'm afraid...

I can't believe it: Again I'm forced to put my WIPs aside for a cute little personal handmade new baby gift! What a shame... ;-)

I was NOT going to make another hat, sooooo boring after a while. I love making baby blankets, but the little girl is already here, so I compromised for a cardigan!



(The pattern is Lisa van Klaren's Classic Baby Cardigan)
I just love the softness that ensues when using a 4mm hook on fingering weight yarn! It'll be perfect for a baby.

I'm also still working on the striped skirt. Can't wait to wear it!



AND: The knitted scarf is coming along, too. And I think I can see fewer and fewer mistakes in the more recently knitted rows...



And now for the big news: We are currently preparing for our biggest move yet. We'll be leaving the cold of Germany for Raleigh, North Carolina! So all these projects are actually just to keep me sane during the completely insane process of getting my visa...
But by now it's almost completed and my husband has finally been able to tell his boss, so it's not secret anymore as this topic used to be. What a relief!

And now, head on over to Kristine's and see what everyone else is doing!


Wednesday, September 5, 2012

WIP Wednesday

So I rethought the colors of my skirt again. I did end up switching from horizontal to vertical stripes and I it seems to harmonize with the pattern much better. I guess it was kind of against the pattern's nature to try and force horizontal stripes on it!




And while I was thinking about the whole matter and waiting for people to voice their opinion (in the end, I listened to my husband, who thought the vertical stripes would be more flattering...), I needed a small project to give my mind some rest. So I started making this cute little needle case. The crocheting was done quickly and I blocked the acrylic to help it lie flat. Now I "just" need to sew in some fabric and get felt for the part that holds the needles...



And I finally caved and dabbled a bit in knitting... The (Danish and very cool!) dollar store had bamboo knitting needles for 1€, it's all theirs fault. They also had a hook size I didn't have yet for 2€... and some bulky acrylic in an awesome color! Well, it's really low quality, you can pull it apart with your bare hands and it wasn't as cheap as the needles. After painstakingly casting on some stitches for the first time and twisting my fingers until midnight, this was the result:












But I have to admit, it wasn't half as hard as teaching myself the first steps of crochet. I guess that's because this time I know how to hold yarn, control the tension of it, know what all those number on the yarn and needles mean... it helped a lot to know a somewhat related craft when starting a new one!



And now, head on over to Kristine's and see what everyone else is up to! Also stop by Sara's!


Thursday, August 30, 2012

WIP Wednesday - again!

Wow, looks like I finished a lot of projects and gifts! The first one was a cute shirt for my daughter with matching bracelet and scrunchy:







Next up was a little package for a cute new baby boy:


And I had cool new idea (everybody probably does this, but for me it was an epiphany): Instead of writing some washing instructions on a tag, as I used to, I just put part of the yarn label on it! Love this idea, looks so much more professional.


The next package was for my Papa, whose birthday we forgot...


and, of course, the whole ordeal with Zoe's slipper... read about that in the slipper post!


And yesterday I finally got started on a bigger project again: my winter skirt! It is crocheted from side to side, but I want a horizontal color blending effect... so I planned the color changes very carefully:

I'm using four different shades of blue and they kind of create an ombre effect, what I was going for. I recently found a better method for that, but now that I have the yarn...
So, this is how far I've gotten. Sooooo many strands of yarn everywhere... it's a hassle and I'm still undecided, if I'll just switch to vertical stripes.


Okay, and now head on over, see what everyone else is working on!

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

A Slippery Project

My daughter has been in need of new slippers for a while now. But thankfully it's been very warm so she just jumped about barefoot. Now the summer is drawing to a close and I've finally finished her Granny Slippers (free Pattern from Bernat)! I wanted something a bit more fun and colorful... This is my yarn: Drops Nepal (65% wool, 35% alpaca)



It's so soft and wonderful to work with! At a very reasonable price, I might add...

The size seemed to be a problem, though. The children's size given in the pattern is supposed to fit a 6-7 year old. Zoë is 3 1/2. "Luckily" her feet are enormous; she wears a size 11. So I read a couple of different size/age charts and afterword I was just as confused as before. The differences were huge! 

So I just got started. Only the slippers do not start at the sole, like most slipper patterns. I thought I might still try my luck and just went on to crocheting the hexagons.

Additionally, I tried out some new (to me!) crochet techniques. For the slipper on the left I joined the hexagons by slip stitching through both loops of the final round (right sides held together), for the one on the right hand side I only slip stitched through the outside loops. The outside loops are a winner!


I did the almost the same for the soles; on the left hand side I slip stitched through both loops of the final round and on the right hand side through the outside loops only. And again the outside loops win!


I also tried out starting a new round with a standing stitch, instead of the usual chains. I forgot to make little arrows, but on right hand slipper you can easily see the ch3 of the cluster round in off-white. On the left hand slipper you should be able to spot one cluster that looks a little knottier at the top than all the others. That's the beginning without the chain. Cool, huh?! Btw, here is the tutorial for the standing stitch...


Applying the latex took forever, because the tip kept clogging up on me all the time. And it takes 10 hours to dry...


And then... these extra cute slippers are too small!! 


So I improvised and blocked them over a pair of boots (one size too small for Zoe).


Now they seem to fit. But Littles remembers how weird they felt when they were too small and won't wear them... :-( 

Oh, yeah, and I think I'll have to add a button; the top is kinda wide now...
grrrr....