KNITTING WITHOUT DOG HAIR IS NOT AN OPTION

OK, I thought it'd be fun to add some language to the blog. ;-)

In this case it'll be a German knitting word a day, every day in October. Let's hope I can keep up and not disappoint you guys.

SOOOOO, let's start with an easy one and then you'll also understand the button:

knitting (noun) - das Stricken

If you click on the word, you should hear it spoken. I will do my best to find links so you can listen to how to pronounce the words correctly.

And as an extra, there will be a quiz at the end of the month and a prize! And if you're really interested, grab the button for your blog and let me know and I will raffle off a prize among the bloggers, too. This should be fun - I am excited!

Stay tuned!

Today's word is the knit stitch. Explaining this is a little complicated. In German, the wrong side of textiles is referred to as the left side. (Actually, hubby, who is left-handed, says that "left" - in the handed sense - derives from "wrong" in some strange way.) Anyway, in German, the knit stitch is a so-called right stitch (on the right side of your knitting), and the purl stitch is a so-called left stitch (on the left, or wrong, side of your knitting).

So - here is your word for the day:

to knit (verb) - rechts stricken

These two words, literally "right knit", actually describe the making of the knit stitch.

And I guess you can figure out what tomorrow's word will be...

You guessed right - what follows "to knit" is "to purl". Just as in real life when you learned how to knit. You start with the knit stitch because it's easier to grasp and after a while your knitting teacher shows you how to purl and most knitting students groan. It is weird and difficult at the beginning but after a while we all get the hang of it.

to purl (verb) - links stricken

In German, there is no specific word for purl. Links stricken literally means "left knit", as opposed to rechts stricken (literally "right knit") from yesterday.

Completely coincidentally, today is the 17th anniversary of German Reunification. Get it? Left knit? Anyway, I am going to the reception of the Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany tonight to celebrate this special day in German history. They're throwing a big party (I heard that 600 guests from the Atlanta area will be there.) at the Rialto Center. So I left the house all dolled up this morning…

I will rummage through my stash this weekend to look for prizes for the quiz I mentioned at the start of the month. Allison had a great idea!!! She suggested a little swatch contest with German instructions at the end of the month. Thanks Allison - done deal!

Yup, I got kissed by a llama on Sunday. There is no photographic evidence, but you can ask Jen because I spent the day at her fiber farm and it was just wonderful. Lounging around all day, playing with the animals, knitting a sock together with a very dear friend... I don't think a Sunday can get any better.

The dummy I am, I forgot the camera and therefore I stole (with Jen's consent) some of her pictures. You can see more pictures on her Flickr. I just didn't want to put them all on my blog and make you jealous because I got to play with goats, llamas, cats and dogs. ;-) And here you can see the Bavarian farm girl hanging out with some Georgia farm animals:

Jen and I spent the afternoon in her backyard knitting Cat Bordhi’s first learning sock called Little Sky Sock from her newest book, New Pathways for Sock Knitters, Book One. Cat takes you to a whole new world of sock architecture. I'm glad I had Jen by my side while knitting this new pattern. It was so much fun to figure out the pattern together.

I knitted with Knitpicks Wool of the Andes on US #6 size needles and Jen used sock yarn from Jawoll and tiny needles. And since Ms. Jen is so smart, she ordered us a set of stitch markers from Turtlegirl’s Etsy Shop. They're very cute and were a big help when we knitted our learning sock.

Aren’t they neat?

I had such a good time at Jen’s – THANKS FOR HAVING ME OVER!!!

And I got so inspired by our little knit-a-long that I knitted the second learning sock called Little Coriolis Sock on Sunday evening as well:

And because I am such a crazy doggie mommy, I made Hermione wear the two socks. Sorry that they don’t match. But Hermione was so focused on her green rubber ball (hubby had to hold it so she would pose for the pictures) that she didn’t notice, thank goodness – I would have never lived that down… ;-)

As mentioned, the structure of these socks is pretty interesting and keeps you on your toes. ;-)

I guess I can say that I'm now as prepared as I can be for the sock class that I'm taking with Cat Bordhi on November 7.

And I have a couple of FO pictures, well one is semi-FO… The felted bag is finished:

And Brett got to try on his sweater (well, the body without sleeves) last Friday:

He doesn’t look very excited but I think he is. I need to get going on the sleeves because I promised him he could wear it to SAFF. First I have to find the remaining balls of yarn – they are buried somewhere in my crafts room. Yikes…

Have a great week!

PS: I meant to do this last week and totally dropped the ball. I would like spread the word about a blogger friend, Aimee and her Lupus Fundraiser.

Please support a fellow knitter and blogger! So far Aimee has raised 62% of her goal of $5,000.00. GOOD LUCK, GIRL & SEE YOU AT SAFF!

Now that we know how to knit and purl in German, how about we move to some techniques. What do we do at the start of each project?

casting on (noun) - der Anschlag
to cast on (verb) - anschlagen

Sorry, I couldn't find an audio file for the verb, but I'm sure you can figure it out for yourself.

And you gotta watch this little movie - it is hilarious!!!

Don't you wish you could knit that fast???

Happy Thursday!!!

We got knit and purl down. We know how to cast on. So what's next?

How to make more stitches... Knowingly, or sometimes unknowingly, we increase.

to increase (verb) - zunehmen

HAPPY FRIDAY! Stay tuned for a second post later today. I want to keep the Word of the Day separate from the rest of my blog blabbling.

Woo-Hoo!!! Thank you Ms. Jane!!!

I won second place in her ANNUAL SHOW ME YOUR SOCKS CONTEST this year. And here is the prize she gave me last night:

And in the bag was gorgeous Fleece Artist sock yarn, a pair of tiny scissors, note pads and a notebook:

The extra little goodies (Jane, you were supposed to only destash some yarn!!!) went straight into my knitting bag!!!

I love, love, love these colors!!! They remind me of a rainbow - and I already have a project picked out for it: I will knit a pair of socks out of the new Cat Bordhi book. I can't wait to try a "real" pair out of her new book. When I added the yarn into my stash at Ravelry, it was my 127th entry - SERIOUS YIKES!!!

AGAIN, THANKS SO MUCH JANE!!!

Thankfully, I found the remaining balls for Brett's sweater. Guess what? They were neatly stashed away in my yarn closet. Sometimes I am too organized for my own good. And so I cast on for the first sleeve last night:

Have I told you that I love the Harmony wooden needle set from Knitpicks? No? Well, I do.

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!!! I will be knitting up a storm on Brett's sleeves and finish Gale's cardigan. I think she would like to get it soon. ;-)

After increases, we need to know how to reverse them - with decreases. So, how to have fewer stitches... Always knowingly ;-) ...

to decrease (verb) - abnehmen

OK, my entries are a little sparse, but the focus should be on the word, right?

What a day... On my way over to Phyllis today, I drove by a turtle. The little guy was in the middle of a very busy road. I noticed him too late to stop and rescue him. There were two cars right behind me but thankfully no one ran over him. All of us moved out his way. So, what to do? I called Mr. Turtlelover, aka Hubby, and told him about the dangerously adventurous Mr. Turtle. Hubby has a total soft spot for all animals, but he LOVES turtles. Among the cows everywhere around the house, we have a healthy scattering of turtles.

I drove on to see Phyllis. She's doing much better and I'm glad I went to see her today to check on her. She says hello to everyone who knows her, and she hopes she can come to a knitting outing soon.

While visiting with Phyllis, I knitted away on Brett's first sleeve, and need only 5 more inches to finish:

After I left Phyllis, I went to get the car washed. It was filthy dirty from driving on dirt roads around Lake Burton. And after that I stopped at my favorite nail salon and, figuring it would be my last chance to get my toenails pretty before sandal season is over, I told the nail lady that I would like some design on my big toes, and that I liked hers, and could she copy it. Well, I guess I didn't look too closely because I, who am nearly petrified by spiders, ended up with this:

Oh boy...

When I finally got home, I found that dear Hubby had rescued Mr. Turtle:

Hubby introduced us and told me of his nerve-wracking rescue - having to wait for 5 cars to zoom over or by Mr. Turtle (fully expecting one NOT to) before he could snatch him from the road to safety in the minivan.

So, now we have an overnight guest babygated in the spare bathroom. We are offering water, fresh parsley, and a plum. But Hubby thinks that Mr. Turtle is too worried to eat.

And tomorrow - while I'm at Knitch with St. Pauli Pilsener and Pflaumenkuchen (German beer and home-made cake to celebrate the last day of Oktoberfest) - Hubby will deliver Mr. Turtle to a safe spot in a large forest, nowhere near subdivisions and busy roads.

Good night! :-) It's way past my bedtime... I have more stories but they'll have to wait... I can't yawn and type at the same time...

Hmmm - I realized I should already have told you one of the really important words, since this word shows up, like, all the time...

stitch (noun) - die Masche

I need to sit down with my German books and magazines to find more knitting terms - I'm drawing some blanks here.

Today's Dilbert is pretty close to the truth...

Requested by many...

In fond recollection of a wonderful weekend in the mountains last February with the Atlanta Knitting Guild, we will today learn the yarn over. We clinked with our glasses (and Gatorate bottles with vodka and cranberry juice) with the German word for a yarn over - Umschlag - instead of the good old boring Prosit, Cheers, À votre santé or Skål.

yarn over (noun) - der Umschlag

HAPPY COLUMBUS DAY!!!

That's what I was thinking when I came home on Friday night and I found this in my crafts room:

I couldn't believe my eyes when hubby showed me what he'd gotten for me on eBay. I think I was actually stuttering and then speechless - well, maybe for 10 seconds...

So, why did he get me a laptop? Well, remember when I was invited to Ravelry, I took home the firm's laptop to spend more or less the whole weekend online? I had a ton of fun entering all the data for my projects, stash, books, etc. So, the firm's laptop resided at our house for a long while, and I was breaking a rule I had for all of my life - until then: I was almost never on a computer during the weekend because I spend 8 hours 5 days a week on a computer and I like to do other things besides typing...

Anyway, the firm's laptop was at home in my crafts room, so of course I used it in the evenings and on weekends - to chat with friends, blog, look up knitting stuff and watch DVDs while knitting. But a couple of weeks ago, one of the attorneys needed the laptop and I had to bring it back. Oh well, it was a very sad parting, but it wasn't mine to begin with. Even so, I missed it. Yes, I had to admit it was nice to have a handy little laptop friend at my total disposal 24/7. But in a conversation a while ago, I made it clear to hubby that I didn't need my own computer - too expensive and clearly not essential.

Well, apparently hubby figured out that this just might not be entirely true. When I told him I had to return the firm's laptop, I said it was unlikely I'd ever see it again. So, he flew into Internet action. In just a couple of days he'd decided on his favorite, and found and won one on eBay. Naturally, the attorney who took back the firm's laptop decided he no longer needed it on the very same day that hubby's surprise arrived by UPS.

It's a Dell Inspiron E1705. The laptop is about a year old and has everything my little heart desires, and then some. Don't ask me any specifics - I'm not a computer geek. The things I've noticed so far - it is superfast, has a very big screen (nice for watching DVDs...) and has the latest MS Office software (which I actually hate because the menus got totally redesigned and I liked the old ones much better).

Hubby says he didn't wait to give me this laptop for our anniversary, which is coming up on October 22, because he didn't want me to be without one for a single minute longer than necessary. (Insert ironic smiley here - is there such a thing?) Seriously, I think he is just the best thing that ever happened to me. THANKS HUN!!!

Now here is an update on Mr. Turtle.

He was very antsy to leave our home on Sunday morning, and tried to "jump" the baby gate that separated him from the nosy fiber dogs. Noah actually had several whining fits because he couldn't play with Mr. Turtle.

Finally Mr. Turtle gave me the evil eye: "Lady, stop flashing me - I'm having no fun right now - you need to get out of my face! It's time for me to leave your lovely bathroom.":

Hubby had already decided the night before where to take Mr. Turtle for his safety. So he and the dogs took the turtle to Lake Lanier and found Mr. Turtle a nice piece of property with a lake view far away from busy streets and neighborhoods.

As I've mentioned earlier, hubby is a turtle freak. So Mr. Turtle's departure didn't leave us totally turtleless. Here's a sweep through (a small portion of) his collection:

On the knitting front - surprisingly, I finished the first sleeve for Brett's sweater (it took me three days) and I am about 5 inches into the second one. I'm glad it's going so fast. Now I'm confident I can finish the sweater before SAFF. That's a relief.

Which reminds me... Counting today, there are only 12 days until hubby and I start our vacation in a lovely cabin on the outskirts of Asheville. YIPPIE!!!

Well - I still haven't sat down with my books (what am I thinking...), and therefore I'm going to have to put off introducing more technical knitting terms, and instead give you some less specialized words for the next few days. Let's start with a very old but very back-in-style technique. There are all these Yahoo Groups and Knit-A-Longs out there (and I'm sure there are more):

Mystery Stole 3
Secret of Chrysopolis
Secret of the Stole
Muir Along (for the Knitty pattern)

and it's all about...

lace (noun) - die Spitze

What am I thinking? Obviously not much, because I haven't told you with what we're working with ... Duh...

knitting needle (noun) - die Stricknadel

Now doesn't that sound dangerous? No wonder sometimes we have to leave our knitting needles with airport security... I wonder if I should write up the little contest swatch now to make sure I cover all the words needed to knit the swatch?

Hubby just pointed out that this is my 100th entry in this blog. I guess some bubbly is in order. What, none chilled? Oh, well, some red wine will have to do... tonight. ;-)

OK, this is the forecast for today:

Sunny
High: 69°
Low: 44°

Yeah, finally there's a glimpse of fall. Out come the handknitted garments, and maybe we can wear a hat soon. I have a bunch that I could take to North Carolina in 9 days... ;-)

hat (noun) - die Mütze

And if you don't have a ü on your keyboard, you're allowed to spell the word Muetze.

OK, the fall weather continues. I am wearing a knitted vest and poncho today. YAY! So, I might also take mittens (no, not Jane's new kitty cat) to SAFF.

mitten (noun) - der Handschuh

I find this German word amusing. Literally translated, it means hand shoe. A shoe for your hand - kinda makes sense tho', right?

With that - have a great and sweater-wearing weekend!!!

PS - Thanks, Joanne, for the "cool" wishes - they seem to be helping. Tschüß!

...and very happy and proud to be the recipient of such a gift!

It's the Feather & Fan Shawl from A Gathering of Lace. IN SILK!!! Understand why I'm speechless?

It took six people to hold it up.

BRETT - thank you so much for my birthday gift! I can't believe how beautiful this shawl is and that it is all mine and how fast you knitted it up. I'm also surprised that I made to my car without getting mugged. ;-) But there will be many more opportunities, because I'm taking this beauty everywhere to show it off!

It's truly a work of art, and I will treasure it for the rest of my life!

I woke up this morning and the bedroom was pretty chilly - love it!!!

Two more garment nouns this weekend, then on Monday we'll start with some "knitty-gritty" terms - ssk, k2tog, and all that good stuff. Knowing the German word for scarf, for example, won't really help much if you want to understand something like this:

Der Schal wird im Krausrippenmuster gestrickt, danach wird eine Spitzenkante (die zum Schluss angenäht wird) gestrickt. Auf Ndl. Nr. 6, 8 M locker anschlagen. 3 Krausrippen stricken. Mit den Krausrippen weiterfahren, gleichzeitig als 1 M auf beiden Seiten alle 2 Ndl zun. wird. Achtung! Die neue M wird so zun.:1 Umschlag innerhalb der drei äuβersten M auf beiden Seiten. Nach ca 66 cm (die Arb. flach legen, wenn gemessen wird) – jetzt sind ca 186 M auf der Ndl. – 1 Krausrippe über alle M stricken (ohne zun.), danach locker abk.

This is from one of the German patterns at Garnstudio.

But, where were we... Oh, yes:

scarf (noun) - der Schal

OK - I'm on the run today. Here's your word for today - because it's still chilly fall weather and I can't believe it:

sweater (noun) - der Pullover

I'm going to wear a new sweater today:

OK, so strictly speaking, this isn't a sweater, but it came in the mail yesterday, and I have to show it off. Sandy's talented son designed the logo and you can get one yourself. You might want to get one for SAFF. ;-) Oh, their sizes come pretty big - I ordered a size M and it fits me perfectly (usually, I need an L).

HAPPY SUNDAY - I'm off to shower and then to Knitch. ;-)

More about the latest adventures and FO's later!!!

I learned that expression from hubby sometime this week, and it's a good title for this entry. I have to report about two MAJOR finished garments.

Brett's sweater is all done and he received it today. I will take pictures of him wearing it next week. Nancy, Melissa (still blogless...), Jen, Steve, and I had dinner today at the restaurant where Brett works. But fortunately for Brett - unfortunately for us - the place was hopping and he got to spent maybe 10 seconds with us...

Yarn: Cascade 220 Tweed (100% wool - 6 skeins - 220 yards per skein)
Color: Olive
Needles: US #5 (3.75mm)

I'm also done with Gale's Sonnet. I'll meet with her sometime this week to hand over her new hand-knitted garment. :-)

Yarn: Gale's Handspun
Color: all colors
Needles: US #10.5 (6.5mm)

She will have a booth at SAFF with her gorgeous rovings and handspun - go see her!!!

And while knitting this afternoon I finished another one of these multi-directional scarves. They are totally addictive...

Yarn: Suss Crunch (Cotton, Acrylic, Alpaca blend - 2 skeins - 153 yards per skein)
Color: neutral
Needles: US #7 (4.5mm)

This scarf is extremely soft and airy - not crunchy at all. ;-)

And while I was at Knitch I had to buy some yarn... Three kinds - only one for a project, isn't that how it always works out? At least for me...

A coworker in our Munich office is expecting his first baby - a boy. I will send him and his wife a little knitted starter-kit: a hat, booties and thumbless mittens. So I had to buy some Rowan Wool and Cotton - machine washable. Very good for new moms, and dads:

I started the baby hat - it's going to be one of those adorbable hats with the umbilical cord.

And then I "had to" support a local artist - Lotus Knitter. She sells her hand-dyed yarn at Knitch. And it is lovely. And, gee - it's in the Knitch colors...

Like I don't have lace yarn coming out of my ears - Nell waved some beautiful lace yarn at us on Friday night before we left, right out of the box of a brand new shipment. And for sure I had to hunt it to down today and one skein went home with me.

1460 yards of lovely PRISM lace wool in the color Cabernet:

Surprisingly, I still have room on my books shelves and I added the following books this week:

On Friday I came home and found a huge box and a squooshy envelope. The huge box came from Crestline. I ordered lunch bags from them with the fabulous logo that Sandy's son designed. I thought they would be a good accessory for the upcoming SAFF. I highly recommend that you pack lunch for the event. The food there is beyond horrific and you have to stand in line for forever to get it.

Noah so reminds me of a St. Bernard. Instead of the little barrel of booze to rescue skiiers in an avalanche, he carries mommy's lunch bag to rescue her from eating awful food...

And yes, you can fit 6 bottles of beer in it, or food, if you must...

If you want one, you can have it at my cost, $6. I'll have a bunch of them with me at SAFF. Let me know.

And the squooshy envelope had brand new blog shirts:

So, we have His and Her t-shirts for SAFF. If you see a guy wearing the white t-shirt - that is my editor-in-chief, aka hubby dearest. Yup, the poor man has to advertise my blog, or at least I would like him to. ;-)

I'm almost at the end of this post. Bear with me for a very serious topic, OK?

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I started designing a pair of socks a couple of weeks ago, and while I was knitting on them, one of the guys at my Thursday group - I think it was Doug - said that the center pattern looked like the breast cancer ribbon. It really does and the added XOX cable adds a special touch to it:

He got me thinking. I wanted to write up the pattern anyway. Now I have a purpose to do it. The pattern will be available for purchase and I'll donate the proceeds to a breast cancer foundation. Suggestions are welcome. There are so many out there and I don't want to send the money to a place where it just gets lost in the bureaucracy. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure they are all very good, but I would like to make a difference with my donation and not have it just get lost among big $$$ donations. I'm sure you know what I mean.

And - I'm naming the socks after a dear friend of mine who went through breast cancer a couple of years ago, Lucy. I'm very glad to tell you that Lucy is fine now after some major surgery and chemo. SO, these are the Lucy Socks:

I hope I can raise a bunch of money for that good cause.

I don't know how much time I'll have for blogging this week. Hubby and I are leaving on Saturday for our vacation in the mountains near Asheville. I've got lots of things to do before we leave and tons of work at the office. No worries, the WORD-OF-THE-DAY is already all mapped out for this week. :-)

OK, the German is way too long to use in the title of this entry... I promised you knitty-gritty and here we are. And, I'm sorry, but I think this is where the audio files will stop.

k2tog (knit 2 together) - zwei Maschen rechts zusammen stricken

I will give you a summary of all the WORDS-OF-THE-DAY at the end of the month, and I'm also working on a PDF containing the most common knitting symbols, with English and German explanations. Hello chart lovers! :-)

Of course, you will have to learn to mirror the k2tog stitch pattern. So, today's translation is for

skp (slip1, knit1, pass the slipped stitch over) - 1 Masche rechts abheben, 1 Masche rechts stricken, die abgehobene Masche über die gestrickte Masche ziehen

Yup - all that means skp... Whew... I know.

After decreases with the knit stitches, let's check into decreases with the purl stitch.

p2tog (purl 2 together) - zwei Maschen links zusammenstricken

More to come - we'll get into cables next. Stay tuned!

This is a very fun word - another one of those German words that sounds like a curse word when you say it out loud and fast...

cable (n) - der Zopf

The same word also means braid, pigtail or plait. Well, they can look like cables, right?

OK, I promised cables, so we need to know what to call a cable needle in German. Well, if you decide to use one. I rarely use a cable needle anymore - too lazy to deal with an extra needle. Except when the cable is more than 8 stitches or so - then I break down, because it's too easy to lose a tiny stitch along the way...

cable needle (n) - Zopfnadel or Hilfsnadel

OK, here is the translation of a typical cable instruction in German:

Slip 2 sts to cable needle (CN), hold in front, knit 2 sts, knit 2 sts from CN:
2 Maschen auf einer Hilfsnadel vor die Arbeit legen, 2 Maschen rechts stricken, 2 Maschen rechts von der Hilfsnadel stricken

Hope you're still with me. We're almost done, and then I'll get you fixed up with a little German swatch. I'll come up with a pattern that you could actually use for a scarf or a hat. ;-)

Oh, and zopfen is a verb and means to make a cable.

Yup - we left good ole Georgia around midday and now we are vacationing in Black Mountain, NC.

Hubby dearest did the driving and I did the knitting. :-) Just in time for the vacation, I got a bunch of knitting books, and one made it into the basket for the cabin - Knitting New Scarves by Lynne Barr. I have to say I am very happy that I have a box of scarf yarn to try out. She has some very interesting and intriguing scarf patterns. Lots of 3-D scarves. Stay tuned for more.

I started the Stacked Wedges. All it takes is two balls of Noro Kureyon Color No. 102 and a pair of straight no. 7 needles. I was at the end of the first ball when we arrived at our destination. Black Mountain is a small town about 10 miles east of Asheville, NC. Hubby rented a cute little cabin for us and the fiber dogs for the whole week. And of course it is close to SAFF. ;-)

We passed the Ag Center (the site of SAFF) on the way in, and hubby offered to drop me off. When I said that nobody is there yet, he grinned and said I could just sit and knit and wait for them to open. Well, I am not that much of a fiber groupie.

We did stop at the Visitor Center in Asheville and loaded up with information on what to do around here, and then headed on to our cabin in Black Mountain. I have to say the cabin is sort of ugly inside, but clean, and ugly in a way that is almost charming. More interior pictures later. I have the perfect knitting chair - and as you can tell the cabin has wireless Internet - so I'm all set. And the porch is really awesome - I'm hoping to spend lots of hours out there. There's even a BBQ grill.

After schlepping all our stuff inside - OK most of it was mine... spinning wheel, roving and all the spinning tools, a basket of yarn, knitting books and magazines, two knitting bags, a plastic bin with gifts for hubby (for our third anniversary in two days), and of course a pretty big suitcase... - we went back out to cruise around, get familiar with the area, and buy groceries.

And then we just hung out on the porch and watched the sun set. That is what I call VACATION!

knitting and wine

Playing with the dogs, wearing no make-up but a silly t-shirt. Yes, this one says "It took me 40 years to look this good." (one of hubby's gifts for my last b-day - yes, really, I am that old...)

After a nice home-cooked pasta dinner, hubby retired to reading The New Yorker and I am telling you how happy and relaxed I am. The fireplace is going and it is heavenly!

In Black Mountain, NC, at 7am this morning:

38°
Feels Like: 38°
Barometer: 30.25 in and rising
Humidity: 93%
Visibility: 10 mi
Dewpoint: 36°
Wind: Calm
Sunrise: 7:41 am
Sunset: 6:47 pm
High: 78°
Low: 48°

SOUNDS LIKE A PERFECT FALL DAY!!!

I am already up and maybe I can catch a sunrise. The fireplace is going to warm up the cabin and I'll make coffee in a little while. Hubby is still snoozing and I don't want to wake him.

Well - we are going to knit a swatch at the end of this contest, and you might want to use the swatch pattern for something else. And if you knit a scarf or a hat with it, you might need to repeat the pattern.

pattern repeat (noun) - der Mustersatz

Whoa - that looks pretty complicated. But it truly is not. It's simply a way to get rid of two stitches at once. Sometimes a lace pattern calls for this kind of decrease:

Slip 2 sts knitwise, knit 1, pass the two slipped stitch over -
2 Maschen zusammen wie zum rechts stricken abheben, 1 Masche rechts stricken, die beiden Maschen darüber ziehen.

Et voila - you've got a double decrease.

It is our third one - HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

Yes, our wedding bands are 7-band puzzle rings from José Grant.

To many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many more!

Thank you - honey - for (and there are many others things!)

Before I end this sappy entry, I want to share one of the cards he gave me this morning. He picked the card not only because of the lovely text, but also because it has a craftsy cover with fabric, needlepoint and beads. So here we go:

Dang - I need a tissue now. He always gets me... because he is sappy and romantic.

LOVE YA BABE!!!!

I think I pretty much covered all the technical terms we will need to knit the contest swatch.

This morning I was looking around for more knitting terms to fill the rest of the month and I found a few tongue twisters and interesting words for you. So, the rest of the month is already all laid out.

I never told you what Germans call the stuff we knit with. Well - one kind is wool.

wool (noun) - die Wolle

I tried to find acrylic with an audio - to make Famous Steve cringe when he reads it. He has a serious accc-rylic phobia. ;-) But in German it is just Akryl (boring translation, I know) and I couldn't find an audio file. So... no acrylic forrrrr you, Steve!

I thought you'd get a kick out of this word. If you can say this to me, you'll win an extra prize. ;-)

yarn evenness (noun) - die Garngleichmäßigkeit

This is a long and picture-heavy post - better grab a cup of coffee or a glass of wine. ;-)

What have we been doing? Let me think. I'm so relaxed - hanging out in a cabin and doing only the things you really want to is fabulous. I can't tell you how much I needed this vacation. I think all of you who anticipated that I would be very mellow when SAFF rolls around are 100% correct. I will be totally ready for fiber excitement. And SAFF is now only two days away. WOW. I remember when Jen and I talked at the end of 2006 about reserving our hotel rooms.

SO, what have Hubby and I been up to?

SUNDAY - 10/21/07

As usual, I got up early and actually caught the sunrise. Well, the part that you can see from our porch:

Later, we had coffee on the porch, and I started swatching for the Koolhaas Hat (from the Interweave Knits Holiday 2007 issue):