stitches and letters

Today is a crappy day. It started with being woken by the construction work beneath my living room window. Some big machine shook the whole house including my bed and me. Then I made it out of my front door just in time. Today is my day of holding office hours for the student representatives of my faculty. At that point I discovered that the road construction that woke me earlier and that is directly between my and the faculty building progressed just today to the point of taring. A layer of hot road tar had just been lain down effectively cutting me of from the physics building. I had to walk all the way around the construction work to get there and was by then 25 minutes late for opening office.

Additionally we had to power down our server for one day because of work on the local power grid. That means no blog today (I'm prepping the posts offline and am going to upload them tomorrow, hopefully.) and no mails today.

When I finally got to our office I discovered, that my favorite webradio is also down. For some reason it just won't play.

I had a few nice visitors including two former members of the student representatives board (I don't know how it's properly called in English. We are about eleven people, elected indirectly by the student body of the faculty and we represent them before faculty board and try to solve problems of all kinds that are arise when studying physics.) I chatted with one of them who just got back from Sweden and needed a signature for a form concerning her Master thesis, which is kind of weird and a new procedure. She brought to my attention that the mensa (a canteen for students and university staff) is closed today. Also our in-house cafeteria is closed for the whole month and the cafeteria at the mensa is closed too today. That means: no food on the whole Northern Campus.

'Coffee', I thought. 'I need coffee now.' You see I'm stuck here till 4 o'clock, trying to make up for the missed office hour this morning and I haven't eaten a thing today. So I went to the coffee vending machine in the basement and fed it one Euro, it returned 10 cents, spitted out a plastic cup, there was a faint sound of water running, but it didn't yield any precious coffee. Then the elevator started acting all funny and needed several tries to open its doors. Luckily (although that is the only piece of luck all day so far) I was on the outside.

That is my day today. Hope yours is better. Later today I'll tell you all about yesterday, which was my fathers birthday and I lift the mystery of Blue Beast.

Since today is the first time in a week I really enjoyed my morning coffee I have all reason to declare myself healthy again :) Seriously, my throat bothered me to the point of refusing coffee, that sadly aggravated my poor sore throat, especially in the mornings, when it was already dried up. Except for an occasional cough I'm back to my normal self.

After my last blog entry ette came for a visit, but this time she took the direct route to me (or should I say she tried?) instead of going via our parents. So she endet up in the big road works going on under my living room window. To be more precise she was redirected around the construction zone and taking the first sign, that read "University Northern Campus" she ended up in an area completely unknown to her. Unfortunately the redirection took her the long way around the campus area and nearly very road sign will direct you to the Campus (frankly because there isn't anything else there) and instead of taking the first one of those, she would have been perfectly OK, had she taken any other exit :) So now she was parked in the lot of the new Botanical Garden, with no idea how to get to the lot of the Physics Building. So she phoned me and asked be basically "I have no idea where I am. How do I get to you." Even Botanical Garden parking lot is not especially helpful as there are two botanical Gardens there in close proximity each with at least two parking lots. But then there was the helpful bit: "I think I can see your house". Hallelujah. We confirmed that suspicion with frantic waving and holding up a large piece of white paper on my side and a quick description of her clothes on ettes side. Than I picked up my mp3-player and went to her and directed her to the right parking lot, all the while shaking with laughter :)

We sat down on my couch and knit away and discussed our plans. We had a fair bit of knitting and talking about knitting to do, especially on ettes super secret knitting project and wanted to go to the movies to watch Captain America on Monday night.

Now I have to report my knitting progress or the next thing that came over us won't make any sense to you :) I finally finished Blue Beast (hence the title)! It looks really great (even if I say so, but ette confirmed it also) and I sticked with the sewn cast off because it relaxed nicely since my last entry and doesn't flare anymore. "Cuddly and Sweet" is also done and awaits the fun that is to come. "Rainbow" has four and a half seam done. And I really started on "Wraparound" that is as of now more than half way done. Also I cast on a new pair of socks, that kept nagging me to try them since the last knitty-issue came out: double heelix. I chose sock wool in a foggy gray-green and a simple cream to offset the green wool and make it pop in contrast. I'm thinking of adding a spiral toe and cuff, but the jury is still out on that one.

Back to recapping ettes visit we went grocery shopping on Monday morning and since I was sadly projectless (more or less) and also kept thinking about the Aeolian Shawl and my ball of regia lace and how I didn't have exactly the right beads for that I dragged ette to my local yarn source. And than ette discovered that there was sock yarn on sale. That was the beginning of the disaster as it was half or even a third of the original price. After about half an hour of getting high on wool fumes we left both with way to much wool and in my case to new pattern books. I got a happy orange and a pale yellow to set it of. another ball of gorgeous deep green wool (as if I didn't have enough of those). Also I got a nice booklet with patterns to knit acorns, mushrooms, berries, bumblebees and other things you meet in meadows and forests. And a knitting book for women with curves pointed out to me by the really nice clerk. But the zinger was the hand painted sock yarn in a deep coffee and chocolate brown, that apparently no one loved as there were several left. They looked so lonely that I adopted three skeins. I have no idea what they are going to become, but it will be fabulous and I think it will have lots and lots of stockinette so the color way can have the stage.

At that point ette was already a bit miffed because she broke her sock wool rule but I hadn't found the right beads for the regia lace. So I had to go to the arts and crafts store next door where ette pointed out the perfect beads, I quickly picked up those earring wire thingies and ette had a little accident in the aisle with the knitting books and bought two pattern books that I have to steal at the next possible occasion. Than we really went grocery shopping and collapsed on my couch. When I had found my breath again we ate and then ette had me make the decisions on her super secret knitting project because she couldn't muster up the required courage. The details I can't share as they still secret and of course they are ettes to share. But it involved some weird kind of impromtu-steeking which should be enough to make you understand her reluctance.

Finally we decided to skip Captain America because it would be no fun for me sitting in the movie theater, sneezing and coughing in turns, and pissing of every other person there. We will simply watch it next week. We ordered rather bad pizza, watched "The Mentalist", knitted and talked.

We ran knitting project ideas by each other and I have at least three new projects in line. Number one is another version of "Quack", Number two will be a sweater for my niece with an elephant on the front and Number three is super secret and a perfect present for a dear friend. All of them require new yarn, so that ette should get things together on her end. We will order together to save on shipping and because I already have an account.

And now I have to finish this in order to chat with osti who is currently in Argonne, near Chicago :)

So I'm ill, I got a damn cold, I'm sneezing and coughing and my throat feels raw and hurts. I took that as a pretext to finally try out the recipes for "Flammeris" in my mothers cooking book from school (You know, all that stuff about turning the lemons you're handed into lemonade). A "Flammeri" is what you and me would call a pudding, but that lovely old cooking book from 1975 states very firmly that a pudding is cooked in a tightly closed pan in a double boiler, whereas a Flammeri consists of milk or fruit juice thickened with cornstarch or something similar. I am deeply in love with that cooking book. It's called "Das Elektrische Kochen" (roughly "The electric cooking") and gives detailed instructions and opinions to everything. It states proudly on the first page, that the ministries of education and cultural affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany (making it abundantly clear it's West-Germany) permitted this electro-cooking book for use in schools. I was most impressed to discover a hidden treasure: a recipe for scalloped brain, it's alternate name being fake oysters :)

If you get over the recipes for innards, that seem rather disgusting today, but were perfectly normal then and the helpful advise for housewives and the general assumption cooking for your family is the extent of your personal dreams it's a really good book. It has a general introduction into every group of dishes, that highlights characteristics and possible difficulties. While most of the specific advise on electric stoves and how to do your grocery shopping is now obsolete it details everything and brings you many basics (like which kind of meat is best used for what dish) that are now mostly disregarded in cooking books. And I never didn't find a recipe I wanted to try.

I'll now stop my rambling and get to the point (yes there was a point, though now ist deeply buried) I wanted to tell you about the Flammeri and my aching throat. So I followed the recipe cutting up chocolate (I added some extra of that), mixing it with a teaspoon of instant coffee and nearly half a litre of milk and setting that to boil in a pot, while mixing the rest of the milk with sugar, vanilla and cornstarch. That I added to the boiling chocolate-milk-mix and kept stirring viciously and - voila - I got a Flammeri.

Sadly it sports quite a number of lumps, as it thickened quite rapidly. So next time I'll use a larger pot, so I can stir as viciously as I want without spilling everything and I reduce the amount of cornstarch, so it thickens more slowly. Also I will reduce the amount of sugar, as I am fond of a really dark chocolate and maybe even add cacao.

All in all I don't think I will go back to using the premixed stuff. It's nearly the same fuss and much more versatile. I'm thinking of trying out caramel as a flavour next :) Oh, what I nearly forgot: I did this whole thing, because my throat is sore and pudd - sorry - Flammeri seems to ease that :) Since I'm bored, I think I'll be blogging a lot today :) see you soon :)

Today I'm giving you just a quick rundown of my agenda:

• "Blue Beast" hasn't been knit much. I finished one facing, but I'm thinking of ripping out the bind off again. I used the sewn one because I wanted it to be loose enough, but now it's wobbling a bit. I think I 'll be really irritated, if I don't fix it, but, damn, ripping out a sewn cast of in a pain in the butt. So "Blue Beast" is meditating at the moment :)
• "Cuddly and Sweet" has one and a half feet now and will hopefully be finished when I'm going sleeping tonight.
• As soon as I blogged about my seeming inability to finish "Quack" they smiled at me, when "Blue Beast" was bitching, so they are done and really cute
• On "Rainbow" I'm halfway through the second seam.
• The elongating of the striped cotton sweater I finished also, with a result nobody could have expected. When it had strangely long sleeves before and was nicknamed "Gorilla-Pulli" now the body seems oddly - what's the word - long. So I'll have to confer with my big sis before closing the seams.


It seems to me I'll need a new Agenda for the weekend :)

So now I have to come clean and tell you how much actually got done from my agenda over the extended weekend (I snuck in an extra day at my parents, mostly spent cuddling my niece).

• "Blue Beast" was bound off, the ends woven in and ready for the big steek adventure about ten min before ette rang. I had to wrangle a bit with my sewing machine, because the little conveyer belt (or what ever it is properly called) under the needle liked the knitted fabric a little too much. Additionally the bound off edge kept curling over the little foot-like thingie, that keeps the fabric in place. Than I got out the latte macchiato liqueur and got myself a little bit of courage. I got out the scissors, ette had to reassure me a bit and then I cut the steeks. I was enormously relieved that the blob of wool had finally taken on the intended shape :) And then I spend the next two hours backstitching the hell out of the steek edges to sew down the cut bits and get a clean field for picking up stitches. That I did yesterday night. It should be ready for giving away well ahead of time. Regarding pictures I have to tell you, its all very secret until its been given away. We did take lots of pictures, but, of cause, forgot to transfer them :)
• I finally managed to knit one foot for "Cuddly and Sweet" in the appropriate size. But I had to frog one really small one for that, but luckily only the sole. So it should be done soon.
• I seem to have a problem with "Quack". Its really only about ten rows of roughly 40 stitches to do plus weaving in the ends, but it always gets bumped to the end of the active queue. Maybe its because there is so little left to do: I think I keep thinking it won't be enough to keep me occupied and that I don't want to schlep too many projects and I'll need a sewing needle and a pair of scissors and... Man, its really handy, that it only needs to be done by late October :) Though I think I'll have to knit an other version of them.
• Getting to "Rainbow" I can tell you proudly, that I got done nearly one half of one seam. And that one looks really great. (And I don't want to think about the 13 and a half seams that still need to be seamed. Lalala. I've still got months for that. Lalala)
• On elongating the cotton sweater I can report picking up the stitches and picking apart one row and knitting nearly all of the elongation on the front part. I'm telling you, playgrounds are a really great place to knit, as long as Granpa is watching my niece :) Also I got talked about by some half grown girls in not so hushed tones. "That woman is sewing!" - "No, it's knitting", I reply. - "It looks really hard" - "Not so much. You get used to it" (Because what else can you say.) And that was as long their attention span reached.

So that puts me at two and two halves out of five. All in all I can't complain. Now I just have to figure out what exactly the command for switching on the spell check is and I can bore you to tears with this post :) I may be boring you till you get that twitch in your eye, but at least my spelling won't make you weep :)

Today is all about the upcoming weekend. I put my shopping list next to my Petronius, so that I can jot anything down, that comes to mind. On sunday ette is coming for a visit and we are going to do some super-secret knitting-stuff. To be precise we are going to do two different super-secret knitting-stuff things. And one of them is going to involve "Rainbow".

Maybe we are going to do some dyeing, since ette may want to try that and osti will be gone to France :( by then and therefore won't complain :)

Mostly I hope until then I have the main part of "Big Blue" done. That is because it has steeks and my very first ones. I may need ette to hold my hand and mop my brow while cutting those. *scribbling down "white wine" on my shopping list.* We may need that. (Or would you prefer eggnog, ette?) You'll get a full report by next week.

Hopefully I'll get some of the odds and ends on those nearly done projects from my last post finished. Seeing them written down motivated me to finish them and getting them off my queue. Also I discovered some additional half-forgotten projects and that list is about to become even longer:

• Another thrummed project: mittens in black for a friend of ette. For those I have a decent excuse: the color of the thrums has not been decided definitely by the recipient (ette: that is an not so subtle reminder to get that data)
• A pair of fingerless gloves in orange with red beads. Number one is about two thirds done, but I seem to have lost interest the moment it stopped being so fricking cold in spring.
• The first square of a double-knit blanket with colorwork. I'm starting to think it may take that one years and years to get finished.

Now I think I need an agenda for those odds and ends. Hmm. Thats very ette of me :)

1. knitting on "Blue Beast" till I'm getting to the point of cutting the steeks
2. new feet for "Cuddly and Sweet"
3. finishing "Quack" and weaving in the ends
4. starting the sewing part of "Rainbow"
5. finally elongating the striped cotton sweater

Hmm, that looks like an weekend heavy on knitting :) And I'm thinking along the lines of two kinds of cookies and visiting my parents, before osti is off to France. I can picture how that ends: Next week we are going to see eachother again and I'm going to have the exact same agenda :/

And now I'm going back to my books before someone (*glaring in a very specific direction*) is going to scold me. I better add chocolate to my shopping list...

As I am starting this blog, I think I have to start with a full recap of my ongoing knitting projects. But this is getting rather difficult, because my most active projects are all those I can't disclose of just yet. They are going to be presents. I'll have to fill them in, as I give them away. Now here is my rather embarrassingly long list, that proves my short attention span (concerning knitting projects):

• code name "Blue Beast". Yesterday I got out my food colouring and dyed the second batch of blue wool with a bit of green. I'm really hoping that those 500g in total will be enough because osti won't stop complaining about the smell of hot wool and vinegar. Knitwise I'm approximately at the halfway point.
• code name "Cuddly and Sweet". Something cute and funny for my nephew to-be-born. Following the pattern I ended up with ridiculously large feet. I have to get around to fixing that, but Blue Beast's recipient's birthday is coming up.
• code name "Quack". This is funny and for very little feet and just needs a few last stitches and the ends woven in.
• code name "Wraparound". My first serious attempt at developing a pattern and again for my nephew. (I know. It's getting ridiculous.)
• a cute little sweater in cotton for my niece. I had it finished, but in trying it on, my sister and I decided it needs a little more body length
• code name "Rainbow". I'm not going to say anything at all. This one will be a really big surprise.
• one pair of Argyle-Socks. I was halfway through the first pattern, when I realised the intended recipient won't appreciate it at all or even be happy about it. So now I'm one present short for the upcoming birthdays and the Argyles have to do some meditating at the bottom of my knitting basket.
• code name "Very blue". There is nothing I can say. Any details at all and the recipient will catch on.
• a little blue jacket, that my sis started. She discovered that she doesn't find any knitting time at all, so I'm finishing that. We are faking it following a purchased jacket, which in itself is posing several problems. Then there is the yarn: a gorgeous deep blue Merino-Alpaka-Nylon blend, but clingy as hell.
• One half knit sock in red with thrums in different yellows. I was too damn stupid when I knit those for my mothers birthday and started the second one on smaller needles. They turned out widely too small. But since my mother reported that her pair got bigger in wearing them, they may have a future there.
• one pair of a knitty-sock pattern, that I can't remember right now, in foggy green. The first one is nearly finished.
• two Laminarias, again knitty pattern. The first one is a really beautiful Merino in shocking blue. It only needs about three rows but I'm out of yarn and I really have to buy more. The other is not very far along and forest green.
• code name "Pick a Side" a sweater for my niece that's only one half of an arm right now.

I think that is it. You're going to see hopefully everyone of them again as I finish them or, in case of the secret ones, as I give them away.

Now I have to start cooking because we are starving and tonight it's meatloaf.