I loves me some yarn

I had some spare time on my hands today between therapy and meeting K. for lunch, so I went for a stroll in the city. There were a few things on my mind that I wanted to check out, but I ended up with totally different stuff. I had planned to look for one certain yarn and only one yarn. I didn't find it, so I was about to leave the LYS - until I saw this:


Isn't it gorgeous? I looked at it, touched it, held it to my neck, and then I heard it whisper "I'm going to be a scarf for you!" I couldn't leave the shop without buying it anymore.


I had to work on the photos a little bit to get the color right-ish. It's a nice pinkish tone, actually quite untypical for me. Maybe that's why I liked it so much. I haven't decided on a pattern, but Wavy popped up in my mind. I'll have to make a swatch to see if it works with this yarn.

Progress and other things

I finally made some progress on K's sweater. I think it's coming along nicely, I like the stripes and absolutely love the yarn. A yay for Alpaka!

K_sweater, originally uploaded by d.knit.

The only disadvantage is that it's curling up, because it's stockinette stitch and it's on a round needle. That's a bit annoying while knitting, but it's not so bad. But as long as I get to touch the alpaka...

siegestor, originally uploaded by d.knit.

This thing above is the Siegestor here in Munich. K's office is near there, and so is the University where I study. So, when we walked past it on the weekend, I took this picture because the weather was just so nice. (It has changed since then, and it's raining constantly now)

oktoberfest_sunday, originally uploaded by d.knit.

Last sunday, at the Oktoberfest... the weather was nice and it was crowded. The second weekend of the Wiesn is called "Italian Weekend"; but not because they start serving pizza and pasta and vino rosso instead of the usual Bavarian Schweinsbraten / Schweinshaxe mit Knödeln und Sauerkraut (roast pork / knuckle of pork with potato dumplings and sauerkraut), no, they call it "Italian Weekend" because lots and lots of Italians come to visit the Oktoberfest. Munich isn't that far away from Italy (some even call it "Italy's most northern city". Some from Munich, not from Italy, that is), so lots of Italians drive across the Alps in camper vans (or mini vans, or in station wagons... or in regular cars), and park somewhere in the city. Then, they party all weekend, and maybe longer, take the train back to Italy, leave the camper van in Munich, and the second shift takes over the van and drive it back once the Oktoberfest ends. Clever, huh? (I'm not saying it's only Italians who are at the Wiesn... you'd still meet loads of Germans, French, Dutch, British, Australians, Americans, Japanese, Koreans, and any other country you can think of. It's just disproportionately many Italians on this second weekend)

Oh, and even Paris Hilton gave Munich and the Oktoberfest the honor! After she had a PR date in a supermarket, opposite the meat counter. She didn't seem to have much fun there though (they did a report on her on TV), not even when she was sipping on a Maß (a liter hump of beer); she only seemed to have fun when riding some roller coasters, listening to her single... "just like in Disneyland" or so, was what she said. (How old is she, ten? I better stop here, or else I'll keep going.)

Laurie asked to show her where her readers knit. Well, I thought I'd share this picture with you too; this is where I knit, next to the lamp, with the blue pillow in my back. This is also where I blog sometimes (like this post for example). I decided not to tidy up before taking the picture, to keep it real. Where's the knitting, you might ask? Hover over the photo with your mouse!

And last but not least, you can congratulate me for completing this bloody mouse over effect-thingy! Carola put a little tutorial on her blog, but it still took me some time until I could adjust it to my blog.

Knitting..? Oh yeah, knitting!

Didn't I use to do something in my free time and then blog about it here? Right!


The Victoria Tank is finally coming along! I need to do the neck edging, and then sew the picot edges... and weave in all the ends, of course.

Beer madness

Believe it or not, but I didn't do any knitting on the weekend. We had a guest from Melbourne, Australia, and showed her some of Munich's sights.

Like the inside of the Theatinerkirche for example...


...or the Hofbräuhaus...


...where we met some locals (I took our guest E.'s picture with that guy, and then they wanted to take my picture with him too. Oh well.)


And, of course, the Oktoberfest! In Germany it's also called "Wies'n" (pronounced "Veesn"), because the grounds where it takes place used to be just a plain field, outside Munich. Now it's in the middle of the city, but the grounds are only used three times a year: for the Oktoberfest, for a Christmas market, and for a Fest in spring (this fest is similar to the Wies'n, with rollercoasters and stuff, but way less beer tents).

This is the official entrance to the Oktoberfest grounds... and there's always loads of people. In the background you can see some of the beer tents.

As I mentioned before, the Oktoberfest was opened on Saturday. And when I say "beer tent", then I'm not talking about a camping sized tent... the biggest one holds more than 8.000 people inside!





And they sure sell Lebkuchenherzen (gingerbread hearts) at the Oktoberfest! I guess if you


Unfortunately (or, unfortunately for our guest), we didn't make it inside a tent. They (there's about 14 large ones, and some smaller ones that hold "only" 100-500 people) were all closed because they had reached their maximum capacity, but we were lucky enough to find a few seats outside the Hofbräuzelt... and people were still going crazy, no matter they were outside.

Did you ever want to see grown up drunk people dance to "YMCA"?

Back again

So much has happened since I last posted. Steve Irwin has died (Steve, I never thought you would; you did a great job! We will all miss you. Rest in peace mate). This was the saddest thing that happened in a long time.

The Pope spent a few days in Munich, and the people didn't go as crazy as everyone thought (feared) they would.


This is the best picture I could take, and he wasn't even looking my way. At first, he didn't appear for a long time, and nobody knew where he was, then he was approaching, approaching, there, gone! Hrmph! (I will not swear here.) They said the Papamobil would drive at walking speed, but the bodyguards (the bald guys near the car) actually had to jog to keep the pace. (At least that keeps them in shape) So there was no chance for the onlookers to rush ahead to get the chance for a second glance.


This is a shot of the twin towers of Munich's Frauenkirche, where the Pope held a mass while the people in the street were waiting for him to come out. The building in front of the church with the writing "Hirmer" on it is a men's department store, the biggest in Germany. They always have such beautiful flower boxes on their building!
Oh, and the Oktoberfest starts on Saturday! If you ever imagined what it's like; well, it's Hell in a huge beer tent.

In knitting news, the Victoria tank is going along quite well. The body is all done, and I'm just starting the shoulder straps and the picot edging. Then, by the end of summer, it will be finished! Yay! That's what I call great timing.

I *heart* New York

You Belong in Brooklyn

Down to earth and hard working, you're a true New Yorker. And although you may be turning into a yuppie, you never forget your roots.

Where Should Your Inner New Yorker Live?

Dear readers,

I'm sorry if I haven't responded to your comments (and I know I haven't done this a lot lately). Things are pretty stressful around here lately; but hopefully, it will all be over by this Friday - keep your fingers crossed for me!
I have decided to post the pattern for the blue baby booties, some time soon(ish) after this Friday. So please be a bit more patient with me!

Yesterday, I took the time to finally go to the post office to send out some baby stuff to my friend in Melbourne, Australia. Her baby was due in August, and I hope everything went okay and they are all happy down under (I haven't heard from her in a while).
The other package went out to a certain someone who reads this blog, so I won't tell any details yet, as it's supposed to be a kind of surprise. Maybe she'll let you know in the comments after she found it in her mailbox (and I expect that to be some time by the end of the upcoming week).

Now, back to Richard Nixon and his foreign politics...

Note to self:

Read the pattern closely before starting to knit (the next patch), so then I might not have had to frog it after noticing that I kept knitting in the Italian cast-on for about 28 rows to far and wondering why the damn ribbing was still not 8cm (3in) long. Knitting can be so simple if you only obey the pattern... (unless, of course, the pattern sucks)


This is what the sweater is supposed to look like when it's grown up. I'm really looking forward to K wearing it! (And me touching the soft alpaka, hehe)

The sweater below is for me, from an old Rebecca magazine. All I've done so far is the gauge swatch; I think I'll get started with this one once I'm done with my summer top.



This little number is from the same magazine as K's sweater. It's one of the very few German knitting magazines that are quite nice (mostly). Usually I don't like boleros because they are something in between, but nothing quite whole. I like this one though, and I'm waiting for the LYSes to get the fall/winter yarns in stock so I can buy some.


I'm out now, off to some knitting and movie watching. Sorry about the picture quality; taking photos out of magazines isn't quite that easy, and I didn't feel like making a big effort when I took them the other night. Better luck next time!