ette im k-Raum

I'm recovering from a cold. Yesterday I was able to knit again. So far so good. I finished a pair of socks, I got a lot done with my green scarf but when I turned to the scarf knitted with the knobbly yarn things got out of control.

The knobbly yarn informed me it didn't want to be a boring scarf. It wants to be a pullover, a vest, legwarmers or at least a scarf with pompoms. I think it has a point. Pompoms would be cool! And I really loove crazy clothes! Maybe a pullover with pompoms?

Thing is, I always wear non-crazy clothes. Usually in one color. I'd have to lose some weight and gain a lot of confidence to wear the clothes the knobbly yarn suggests.

Lizzie advised me to put it aside and talk to it again when I'm well. Good plan. Right? *sigh*

Last weekend I traveled to lizzie and osti. Because my car is sick I went by bus and train and that was amazingly not annoying: I finished what I call my red bat. That's this lovely shawl in, you'd have guessed it right, red :D. My first attempt in lace knitting went well, but I'm procrastinating on blocking it because I fear it turned out too small. And yes, there's no logic whatsoever in not blocking it and finding out for real.

After some family time with loads of important stuff happening on Friday night, all of which is not your concern ;) we had a NKL meetup on Saturday. NKL you ask? That's the Ninja Knitting League Lizzie and I founded with two friends. Lots of fun so far :) This time we started by visiting a local yarn shop. Not sure it classifies as a brilliant or a really bad idea... All the attending NKL members fell in love with beautiful yarn and bought way more then they wanted including me.

This is what I bought. I really only wanted some green cotton yarn to make a hat for the summer as I get sunburn on my head and sadly all hats you can buy are too small for my head. Who invented one size fits all? IT DOESN'T!!!! Well, they not only don't fit, I also don't have a hat face. It looks plain wrong. But... sunburn! Not fun... I decided to make a green hat, because I love the colour and what the heck, if I have to look stupid it better be in my favourite colour :D. You see the yarn in the left lower corner.

Then I fell in love with the two sock yarns in the right lower corner. One in greens and one in candy colour. This are the two shades that always scream to me... Lizzie already laughs about it a lot. May be the reason why I don't have any male sock yarn :D

And then the two skeins of knobbly yarn! It's merino and 1% nylon and it's soo soft and beautiful and I love it! (It's blick fang from zitron in the shade Wohlgefühl) I immediately casted on a simple shawl on Sunday morning. As much as I love the yarn as much of a pain in the *clears her throat* behind it is to knit it. Knobs... not fun to knit... but it's so soft, I think the result will be worth the annoyance. I had to unravel it once, because I changed the pattern and made it less wide to gain more length. It now looks like this:

The amount of yarn already gone now made me suspicious and I feared a short shawl and this yarn screams for a loong scarf! I did some research on ravelry, calculated a bit and found out that with my current width it only will be as long as 177cm. Too short. If I reduce the width from now 24cm to 18 cm it will be 237cm long. Better. Not good though. But I can't make it any smaller, 18cm is the minimum width in my book :) I'll see how it turns out, maybe I'll need to acquire more yarn. Sadly that means I have to unravel it all AGAIN. And if the knitting is annoying, unraveling a knotty yarn is really really bad...

I really wanted another sock yarn too, btw, but my fellow ninjas were faster than me and took the great yarn, in greens again, right before my eyes... I tried to snitch a skein but sadly lizzie caught me. She also checked my bags before I travelled home. The saying "All is fair in love and war." should be extended <.<;

Now that I described the wool wonders, I can get to the rest of the day: We ate de-li-cious burritos with guacamole lizzie made herself. So very yummy! We drank caipis and we chatted and showed each other our finished and unfinished projects and newly acquired yarn. I have to mention two beautiful lace shawls, cool socks, leg warmers and a dragon hat! And we sat in the spring sun an knitted. It was amazing!

I think if I made a pile of all those unread books in my shelf it would go up to my hip. Well of course it won't because it'll tumble over well before I'd be finished stacking them but anyway...

The books started to pile up last autumn when I had time for nothing and was completely stressed out because I was finishing my exam paper. I got the usual amount of books in my queue by borrowing or buying them or they were given to me as gifts. But instead of devouring them like Homer at an all-you-can-eat-buffet - my usual approach to books I like - I was fretting and panicking about the thesis. When I was finally done, I needed another month or so to REALIZE I was done and then I eagerly gathered all the unread books to decide which one I'd read first. I was anxious to finally get back to reading and I wanted to know all my options. Well, that was a mistake!

There were just too much cool books I wanted to start reading immediately and I was overwhelmed. I started but instead of enjoying the read I just wanted to finish that book to get to the other cool ones. That really sucked the fun out of it.

Still does. That's so sad. I got some finished but new ones got in again. And I just look at the pile a few times a day and sigh.

This can't go on, I want the fun back! So for now I stand before you, a man on a mi... wait! I lack the manly parts for that... *thinking* ... *thinking* ... *clearing my throat* ... a MAID on a mission to reclaim the fun in reading! I will not rest! Wild horses couldn't drag me away! I will move heaven and earth! I will search the universe and back! (Now I'm out of more or less appropriate quotes...)

Still need to figure out how to accomplish that though. For now, I'll choose 10 books and put the others in a box in my closet. Out of sight, out of mind. Hopefully, if I concentrate on the 10 on display, I don't feel this necessity to rush like I now do. And from now on I have a complete ban of new reading material in place. Ok, the magazine I subscribed to doesn't count, but other than that a COMPLETE ban on acquiring new books. I'll just have to keep a list of the books I earmarked mentally to read.

Oh boy, I really wish I'll be done with this quest till Christmas. Otherwise it'll really suck. A Christmas without books is like a festival without beer... *sigh* ... Ok, I really really gonna need to stop this sighing thing, otherwise my quest is going to fail...*sigh* ... damn...

Btw: I'd tell you about the books I just read this week but I can't. That would include some major spoilers for lissy who wants to read them next. And it wouldn't be fun to get strangled, even if it were with really beautiful hand-dyed yarn...

That's where I just was and it was good that you weren't allowed to take animals home today or I'd have two very cute cats and at least one dog now :)

We ate lots of cake and bbq stuff because all the money they made was for the animals, we looked at cats and dogs and warded off lots and lots of wasps. There's an invasion of them this summer. Not fun. And then we participated in the tombola and I even won two things! A gift certificate for a breakfast in an restaurant and a pedometer. Quite cool, if I hadn't bought one just two weeks ago...

Now I'm starting to pack and prepare for the visit (again) at lizzies...

Edit: Oh, I forgot to tell you all about the incredible bad singer there, who sang Eric Claptons "Leila" and Johnny Cashs "Folsom Prisom Blues" and it sounded exactly the same! And he continued to brutalize a lot of other songs and I really really wished I could just shut my ears but sadly that isn't possible. A significant flaw in human design. I mean, really! How can someone just alter the tune if it gets too low to sing for him??! And in what universe is it possible that those two songs sound the same??

I forgot to write about last weekend which was really nice. Lizzie and I talked the supersecret knitting project through and made a plan. Tomorrow we meet again and start phase 2. That is if I finish phase 1a today and 1b tomorrow. That's why I'm knitting like crazy right now...

There has been other stuff last weekend: I spent some quality time with my family, including my cute and headstrong niece of two and a half. She even called me afterwards to tell me she had olives which she just loves. Strange taste for a little girl but I find that very endearing! I only didn't see one of my sisters but she'll hopefully come to visit at my father's birthday so I'll see her soon.

Back to knitting... That's what lizzie and I did mostly while I was at hers... I made some progress on the striped socks, but we didn't have the time to block the skulls socks.

When I came back home I found a postcard from MalTea from Paris! Very nice! And some bills and the slip of paper that allows me to vote in the upcoming election.

And after this quick update, I get back to knitting...

Lizzies post inspired me to blog about the upcoming weekend too. Of course I already made various lists, no need to say how very ette that is of me. Because, you know, I'm me... :D But I rather enjoyed that comment, lizzie!

I'm gonna drive to my parents tomorrow and stay there till Tuesday, sneaking in a day at lizzie's. Today's the day of getting ready and getting things in order, the actual packing will start tomorrow morning.

I finished the skull stocking knitting project on Wednesday and as soon as dear osti explained to me how to upload pictures here, I'll post about it. (Waving whole fences at osti :D) Before I block it I really need to decide if I want to repair the little error in it or not. As I'm very unsure about that, I'll take them to lizzie who also will help me block them. I never done that before and can use some help.

Next knitting project in line is the supersecret one. This whole project is upsetting and exciting and I will explain everything about it when it's delivered. I really want a second pair of eyes from a fellow awesome knitter (Hello Sweetie! *waves to lizzie*) on that one. In the meantime I'm knitting a pair of striped socks.

This weekend will be dedicated to family, knitting and reading. I plan on packing a bunch of books and get through some while MalTea is on vacation, trying to take the lead on the challenge we have going on on twitter.

So far so good. That's the list for today:

• getting my laptop ready to take it with me
• gather things for supersecret knitting project
• spend an hour or two organising my storage attic
• deal with the stack of papers on my desk

Btw lizzie: We already settled on the color of the thrums! Months ago I told you she wanted them all... I'm really sure about that. Nevermind: Multi-coloured, she wants multicolored, you can start now :D

And... I'll be bringing cherry liqueur. First because we both gonna need it with "Big Blue" and the supersecret knitting project, second because I have it, third because it tastes good, fourthly because elderly ladies drink liqueur, gossip and knit and we'll be doing exactly that. I'd bring a gray-haired wig with short curls if I only had one! :D And last but not least because I like the German saying "Denn wer Sorgen hat, hat auch Likör." which translates to "If you have worries, you have liqueur, too.". It's nice to sit down with a friend and drink a glass or two when everything's gray. Not that everything's gray in the moment... And I don't recommend that as the only problem solving method. As lizzie stated nicely not long ago, I live in a town where this kind of problem solving is the cause for most problems :D

Test entry for testing purposes :)