Elbe River Boat Trip

My husband's bosses love to sail. And this year marks the 10th anniversary of the company. So they decided to take everyone on a little boat trip on the Elbe river. It was a really long and stressful day for the parents of a very lively 3 year old, but I suppose everyone else got to relax... Still, it was an adventure for Littles and the weather was perfect. Here are the pictures:

They even had us solve some navigational quiz with a compass and everything. Way out of our league...

a huge freighter passing us with ease

sailing past the homes of the rich and famous of Hamburg

passing the Airbus plant

if you look closely, you can see the plane (or part of a plane...) inside

This was our second boat trip with the company and even if it was stressful for us as parents, sailing is really special and it has the power to take you away from everything else. I wish we had the funds to do something like this more often... I know, it wouldn't be as special anymore...

Summer 2012 Family Time!

I don't know bout you, but my parents live a good 3 hours from Hamburg. They don't get to see us every weekend. But last week saw the visit of my brother and a trip (by train!) to my parents! Enjoy:

I know it's hard to believe, but this is her favorite!

coolest kid on the monkey bars

on the seesaw with her uncle Sören

taking the train to my parents' place

enjoying family and a family BBQ! (And I started to practice taking pictures in widescreen... feels weird, but it's kinda cool, you can get so many people in one picture!)

Ahhh, it was so good to be away from home for those couple of days... and I promise: next time my husband gets to take a few pictures, too so I can be in them... ;-) psst, I think he's still intimidated by the new camera...

Free Pattern: Granny Sleeves

I made this beautiful wrap for my Mother's birthday

and the yarn was just soooooo yielding I figured I could make something for myself! And because I just love the look of the cluster stitches on the wrap I went for something with granny squares. I was going to come up with my own pattern but then I realized that I was combining two patterns: Nina Leon's Ribbed Sleevo Scarf and Suzetta Williams' Granny Scarf.

But I'll still give you a pattern for what I did, I call them my Granny Sleeves!

And you can also wear them as a scarf if it's too hot for long sleeves! So, here's the pattern:


Yarn: dk weight (I used just under 400 yards, but I'm tiny...)
Hook: 4mm (G)


Gauge is not important, you'll be working with the actual measurements


Colors: A = beige, B=pink, C=green (Just letting you know what I used, pick whatever you like!)


(1) 
In color A chain multiples of 4 for the length of you scarf. Keep in mind to subtract quite a bit since you'll keep adding to the length with each round. My foundation chain hung a little lower than my elbows and produced a full length sleeve. Guesswork, no formula, sorry...
Add 2ch and then 3ch for turning chain


(2)
dc into 4th chain from hook
dc in next 3ch
[ch1, skip 1ch, dc in next 3dc] repeat along scarf
dc into last 4ch
fasten off color A


(3)
attach color B in space between last two dc
ch3, 2dc,ch1
[3dc, ch1] 3 times into same space you attached B
[3dc in ch-space, ch1] repeat along scarf
[3dc, ch1] 4 times into space between last two dc
[3dc in ch-space, ch1] repeat along other side of scarf
join with sl into top of ch3
fasten off color B


(4)
attach color C in next ch-space
ch3, 2dc, ch1, 3dc, ch1 into same space
3dc, ch1 into next ch-space
[3dc, ch1, 3dc, ch1] into corner space
[3dc in ch-space, ch1] along the side of your scarf
work corners as described
join with sl into top of ch3
fasten off color C


(5)
Continue to add rounds as in (4) until the scarf is wide enough to wrap around the very top of your arm. If your yarn stretches take that into account, you'll want the sleeves to be pretty tight fitting at the top of your arms so you won't loose them!
Leave a long tail to sew first arm.


(6)
Fold scarf lengthwise and sew arms closed from the ends to the middle. Mine are 17" long, but again, I'm tiny...


(7)
Weave in all ends. Wear it!


Btw, I'd love to hear your opinion on how you like your patterns written. This is only the first one I'm actually writing down. Do you prefer brackets over asterisks? Do you like more line breaks and paragraphs? How easily can you follow the instruction?... Things like that...

Thank you so much for reading and your feedback!