KNITTING WITHOUT DOG HAIR IS NOT AN OPTION

Et voila - we proudly present - the finished vest for Dad!

I am so relieved. I have to say I am very pleased with the vest - and I hope Dad will be, too.

So, just in time for the trip to Germany, I received new knitting books:

I will take the More Sensational Knitted Socks on my trip. I plan to whip up a bunch of socks - perfect for 2 hours of knitting time on the train every day. My work commute from the sleepy village to the big city (Munich). :-)

I started socks for Mom last night:

So far I haven't found a repeat in the stripes. Very interesting. I am planning to take that project on the plane tomorrow and a lace project that I started last night - the Alpine Knit Scarf from Victorian Lace Today:

I love the colors - and I am prepared for the plane. The good old Denise plastic knitting needles. And Mom's socks reside on wooden dpns.

With this - I am off to go home, clean up, and get ready for tomorrow. Direct flight from Atlanta to Munich on Delta. 10 hours of knitting time - YAY! I'll check in some time next week.

And - Happy Easter! ...

Hey guys - I saw all your comments and I am so happy that I have such a nice knitting buddy community - I can't tell you how appreciated I feel! I miss y'all!!!

SO - I arrived safely last Saturday. Bro and SIL picked me up at the airport. The weather has been gorgeous since I got here - when angels travel... ha-ha-ha...

We had a long weekend - Germany has two bank holidays for Easter - Good Friday and Easter Monday. Everything (!!!) is closed. This also means that in my little hometown the sidewalks are rolled up and the town is deserted except for all the tourists who spent their Easter vacation here and harrass the natives. :-)

No knitting pictures yet - but I already uploaded a bunch onto Flickr. Help yourself if you want to see them. Here are my favorites - so far...

I will take knitting pictures tonight. More soon - take care! Happy Wednesday!

Well - the first week flew by - 4 days in the Munich office. Boy - things are a lot different over here. Germany is way different - I guess I am not used to all the standards, forms (uh-h-h - especially when you work at a law firm), procedures - and grumpiness... I don't know, it is actually a bit depressing. Maybe I am just missing all my knitting friends and SNB get-togethers (and hubby, I suppose).

I ride the train from Garmisch to Munich and back each day, which means I have in total almost 3 hours of knitting time. I finished the Pomatemus Socks this week, a sock in the German flag colors and I started another sock in plain stockinette stitch because the colors are very dark and variegated and you wouldn't see a pattern. I will take pictures over the weekend to show off the FOs and also what is in the works.

I ripped the Alpine lace shawl. The yarn is too variegated to show the beautiful lace pattern. But - I started a new project with it - Bloom from knitty.com. I think that pattern is a good match for the colorful yarn.

And I scored some handspun yarn - YAY! Mom's neighbor gave her a plastic bag full of handspun yarn. I have to think about what to do with it. No tags - no info where it came from or what sheep breed it is. Probably from a local farmer. After I decided I want to keep it, Mom washed it this week. It is a lot softer now - but it is also overtwisted. Ha-ha-ha. We have no idea how much yardage it is, but it is 600 grams. I think I am going to try and knit the Alpine Shawl with it. Mom can't stand the yarn because it is itchy (she's very sensitive), but it is OK for me.

The original plan was for me to work in the Munich office this past week, then a week of vacation and then I would be back at the office during the third week. The plan was also for the Munich assistant to be in the Atlanta office while I am in Munich, so she can see what goes on in Atlanta. BUT - life intervened and the poor thing had to have emergency surgery on Good Friday. She is better but still out sick. So, I had to cancel all her arrangements for Atlanta, and now she will be back in the Munich office sometime next week. But that, of course, left me to do my Atlanta job and the Munich job at the same time. Well - I still managed to get out the door each day between 5 and 5:30pm. But I will have to go back on Monday instead of hanging out with Mom and Dad. Actually, that's quite alright because I get to take off the Friday before I come back to Atlanta. Then I don't have to pack in hurry, etc.

I am looking forward to some family time next week. I have to say tho' that living at home has a disadvantage - no downtime, except when I go to bed. :-)

Cross your fingers that the weather stays as beautiful next week as it was this week. Hopefully I can acquire a little color before I come back. I am also planning to go to the local yarn store for some orders I brought with me, and I already checked into "Kinder Schokolade" for the sweet-tooth people in the Friday SNB Group.

OK, y'all - I miss you guys. Plus hubby and the doggies - at least he and I talk every night before I go to bed. That is kinda weird tho'.

Have a great weekend. I WILL TAKE KNITTING PICTURES, PROMISE!!!

Hello - remember me? I kinda fell off the planet into an apartment in a little town with just my parents and no PC, no internet, no PlayStation, no Game Boy, no cable TV, and not even an answering machine. Yup, such a place still exists - my parents' place. And I did nothing last week but knit, hang out with my family and eat too much - boy, I really need to get back in shape when I am back in Atlanta. At some point I had to tell my mom that I am not 4 anymore but almost 40 and that I know where the fridge is. Hotel Mama is truly a great place and one can turn into a 4-year-old very, very easily...

So, here are some knitting pix for you - FINALLY...

As I thought, socks are fabulous projects to kill the 3 hours each day on a train:

I finished my mom's socks. This is a picture of the first one. She was so anxious to get them that she almost took them away from me before I could weave in the ends. It is so much fun to watch her being excited about a pair of socks. But of course, I weaved in the ends and now she wears them every night. Even tho' we have temperatures in the 80s each day, the nights are still pretty chilly, and my parents' apartment has wood and tile floors throughout.

This is my German sock – with a little cable. I tried a new heel that I found in Mom's German sock book. It is called a “Boomerang Heel”, I guess because the heel looks like a boomerang. It is very easy and similar to a short row heel, except that you don't wrap but let your yarn run alongside the stitch. No worries, I will try to find an English translation or I'll translate it for the “sockthusiasts” among my knitting buddies.

This is a close up of the boomerang heel – pretty neat, huh?

And I finished the Pomatomus Socks. Very nice to wear. They are being washed today. Yes – mom also "forces" me to let her do my laundry. It's really no wonder – my brother didn't move out until he was in his late 20's. And he still comes by for a hot lunch every day...

I also bought a bunch of German knitting magazines.

And I seem to be a kiddie magnet wherever I go. The smaller cutie pie on my lap is my little niece Julia and the girl in front is her cousin Anna Lena.

But maybe it is just the very cool aunt with the cool t-shirt - YARRRN. Ha-ha-ha...

And last but not least - the man with the vest. As you can see - the vest fits him. And he really likes it. He says it's very light and comfortable. YAY for that.

OK - gotta run - the Munich office is crazy today. I'll have more pictures and stories soon - be patient. And also be patient with emails. I haven't looked in my Yahoo email for over a week. I know... I'll make it up to y'all with GERMAN CHOCOLATE!!!