KNITTING WITHOUT DOG HAIR IS NOT AN OPTION

... relating to the Super Bowl:

I didn't watch the game or the pre-game stuff. I had better things to do. Like going on a field trip to a yarn store for a "Football-Free Zone" get-together and knitting there with friends. We had a great time. More about that and the latest and greatest from my knitting world in a little bit. Stay tuned and recover from the Super Bowl! I heard it was quite a game. :-)

Sorry, my dear knitting friends - this is mostly a non-knitting entry and it is especially for Ann and anyone else who is interested in some Bavarian traditions.

A while back, I posted a picture of two boys wearing lovely cable sweaters and Lederhosen. Ann asked if these pants are also called Plattlerhosen. Well, her spelling was a little off - Gerplatnerhosen - but close enough for me to understand what she was asking about. And the answer is yes.

Plattlerhosen are worn by Bavarian men when they perform a specific dance called Schuhplatteln. Prepare yourself for some funny tunes and dance steps. ;-)

With thanks to YouTube - you really can find anything posted there.

And from a Bavarian Schuhplattlers website:

Schuhplatteln, which means slapping the shoe soles, originated in the Alpine regions of Austria and Bavaria during the 17th century, and had a very practical beginning.

During the winter months, when the men went into the mountains to cut wood, they spent their evenings in a wooden cabin. Partly as entertainment, but mostly as a means of keeping warm, they began jumping up and down and slapping their thighs. This developed into a sort of competition to see who could jump the highest or stamp their feet the loudest. The story also goes that they had watched the male grouse drumming and strutting in the woods, and that some of the dance steps that were later developed depicted this ritual. After several weeks in the mountains, when the young woodchoppers returned to their villages, they tried to impress the girls with their Schuhplatteln.

It's always about the girls, isn’t it?

So, these Plattlerhosen are made of leather (Leder) and are therefore also called Lederhosen. I'm guessing that they make the pants out of leather because it makes a nice sound when you slap your hands on it. The most common leather used to make these pants is cowhide, deer or goat. Yeah, I know, it makes neck hair stand on end as well.

And now you can say "Ya know... I learned something today", just like the kids in South Park. ;-)

A little knitting update (still no pictures... I know - I need to get my behind in gear) to close this cultural post.

On Sunday, I started a baby blanket with little sheep in the pattern for my German coworker who will have a baby boy in June. I'm past the first couple of sheep and it is so cute. So cute that it made hubby laugh because the sheep's ears are knitted to stick out of the blanket.

I started yet another pair of socks - this time with the 6-ply Regia Polar I just got from Germany:

Since the yarn is very busy colorwise, I chose a super-easy ribbing pattern and I did the German boomerang heel on the first sock. I'm about 3-4 inches away from finishing the first sock. Knitting on US #2 and only 48 stitches around is an unusual sock pattern for me. I'm more the #0-68sts kinda gal. This means I'm getting closer to translating the Boomerang heel into English for y'all, even tho' I have to say I'm not really in love with this heel. It's very fast but it feels bumpy inside the sock.

And shockingly, those two projects haven't even made it onto my Ravelry list... Geez...

And last but not least, the top-down cable cardigan from my Mission: Possible 2008 list is making really good progress. I'm about 5-6 inches away from binding off the body. Which means only the sleeves will remain to be done.

I'll take pictures tonight. PROMISE!!!

Here we are - and Ravelry is updated, too.

The cutsie-dootsie baby blanket:

The sheepies are too much fun to knit...

There are 5 rows of sheep in total. I'm on the second row and on yarn ball two of four. Between the sheep, the knitting is pretty boring but with an exciting name - Reverse Stockinette Stitch. Perfect TV or group knitting. I would even recommend this pattern for a beginner knitter. The sheep are not hard at all. And the sheep have floppy ears. ;-) And I just thought - it'll probably be cute on a dishcloth, too. Hmmmm...

The Polar socks grow as well - well, number one has...

You can hardly see the Boomerang heel. But it's there, I promise. For the translation, I'll probably take pictures of a sample with light-colored yarn.

And finally - the sweater progress:

As you can see, there are only a few more inches to go before I can bind off. My goal is to finish it during the AKG knitting retreat on President's Day weekend. I'm looking forward to a three-day weekend with no agenda but knitting and chatting with knitters.

One of the baby kimono receipients sent Hubby and me a picture this weekend:

We got your package. Thank you so much! The kimono is awesome and fits perfectly.

The baby is soooo adorable. I am always so happy when people like what I knit for them.

Other than that I have no news from this weekend. I was seriously under the weather because I caught a stomach bug that is going around at the office. Thankfully, the mess didn't start until I was safely home from my knitting group Friday night. On Saturday I felt so bad I didn't even feel like knitting. People - THAT IS BAD! Hubby made lots of tea for me and the fiber dogs offered themselves as warm pillows and slept by my side. At least that's how I interpreted their snoozing bodies. I'm sure there was no selfishness whatsoever in their behavior... ;-)

Therefore, I completely missed all the fun at Knitch on Sunday, where they had a crème brûlée contest, hosted by Melissa and Regan. Dangit! But at least, luckily for my employer, I felt good enough to go to work today...

I drove to work this morning through snow flurries... Hello, weather gods? Are you on the wrong page of your calendar? It's three days until March! I was totally stunned when I left for work this morning. Not that I mind driving in that kind of weather, but other people freak out.

And all you dear people can stop teasing me now about not blogging. Here I am - with updates and pictures. Sorry this has been such a deserted place lately, but I just have so much going at work that I feel like turning into a couch potato when I come home, and all I want to do is to be a veggie, watch movies with Hubby dearest, snuggle with the dogs (who have been very bratty lately...) and knit. Yes, the knitting is still going on.

So let's back up.

You remember, don't you, that I'm the one who hates-Hates-HATES seaming and sometimes goes out of my way to rewrite patterns so I DON'T have to seam. Well, I made a knitted item for Hubby for Valentine's Day. I sure hope he feels the love because I had to sew 17 (!) pieces together to give him ............... drum roll please! A turtle!

I was racking my brain about what to give him for Valentine's Day and then this light went off in my head. Hubby has a huge turtle collection. I could knit him a turtle. YAY! I think he totally likes it - at least that's what his face said when he opened the gift box. We can't agree on whether it's a he or a she. I named him Valentino, but Hubby says that the shells of male turtles aren't rounded on the bottom. Leave it to the female turtle to have a belly...

I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that it probably took just as long to assemble the turtle as it took to knit all the pieces.

Right after Valentine's Day, I hopped in the car, picked up Phyllis, and we drove up to North Carolina, to the annual knitting retreat of the Atlanta Knitting Guild. Phyllis was a great travel companion, and she gave me some beautiful sock yarn and wonderful soap. Thanks Phyllis! She actually picked two sock yarns I have not knitted with before - Opal and Cherry Tree Hill:

And as you can see, the Opal sock yarn is already almost half gone. As you can guess I had to start socks with it. More later...

The only picture I took at the retreat - because "what happens at The Mountain stays at The Mountain" - was of the cake. Linda, our own baker, delivered this gorgeous baby:

Looks yummy, doesn't?

At the retreat, I worked mostly on two big projects. My alpaca sweater and the baby blanket and I made good progress. Sitting around for almost three days with knitting as your only activity sure helps. ;-)

I finished the first sleeve of the alpaca sweater. LOVE IT!!! I decided to put a classic 2 x 2 ribbing on the edges. My goal is to finish the sweater within the next two weeks. We'll see.

More and more sheep are appearing on the blanket:

I just love that you can pull the sheep ears. :-)

The pattern knits up pretty nicely. I'm almost done. I need one more row of sheep and the border. The recipient is due in June - I guess I'll finish in time. When Hubby and I are in Germany in May, I think we'll visit our friends and I can give them the blanket.

The guys went shopping during the retreat and Doug brought me back another ball of sock yarn. Thanks Doug!!!

It is also Opal - another special edition - based on a Hundertwasser print called "Wartende Häuser" which translates to "waiting buildings":

The ball band has a pattern for sideways knitted socks, hmmmmm... But I don't want to seam a sock. That's the only reason that keeps me from doing this at the moment, and 10,000 other things...

Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser was an Austrian painter, and sculptor. By the end of the 20th century, he was arguably the best-known contemporary Austrian artist, though he was always controversial. Hundertwasser's original, unruly, sometimes shocking artistic vision expressed itself in pictorial art, environmentalism, philosophy, and design of facades, postage stamps, flags, and clothing (among other areas). The common themes in his work are a rejection of the straight line, bright colours, organic forms, a reconciliation of humans with nature, and a strong individualism. Hundertwasser was also known for his performance art, in which he would, for instance, appear in public in the nude promoting an ecologically friendly flush-less toilet.

Thanks, but no thanks...

I actually visited the Hundertwasserhaus in Vienna, Austria, in the late '90s.

This building is a low-income apartment block in Vienna, features undulating floors ("an uneven floor is a melody to the feet"), a roof covered with earth and grass, and large trees growing from inside the rooms, with limbs extending from windows. He took no payment for the design of Hundertwasserhaus, declaring that it was worth it, to "prevent something ugly from going up in its place".

This is what it looks like:

That's it for the moment. I have more but you'll have to wait a little bit. My lunch break is over. Stay tuned. :-)

Hubby and I were playing around the other night. Not what you think... with the fridge magnets I got from Interweave Knits. Guess who came up with which?

Have a good weekend! I am off to Knitch with a bottle of red wine in my knitting bag - HELLO WEEKEND!!!