It's the first of September - is it okay to be knitting Klaralund now?? I want a count of how many of us have already started. Who else is willing to 'fess up?

I will step forward and admit that I started on a sleeve. The body pieces seemed kind of boring, so I thought I'd start one of those fabulous sleeves. And I'd hoped that doing the sleeves first would keep me from fretting over the sizing too much. So all of you who've yet to start and are wondering how a super-long, rectangular sleeve is ever going to work, here's an approximation.

even blurry, I do love these colors

This thing knits up in no time. You sit down, watch a little tv and next thing you know half the sleeve is done. I just can't help myself. Klaralund is on!

The tea party's still going strong, although I think I'm gonna call mine done sans creamer. Who needs cream anyway, right? Just take some more sugar, okay? At tea parties elsewhere, Georgia is all done with her crazy colors tea set and the recipient loved it! Hooray! And Helene, knitter of our fabulous mascot, Miss Muffin, found a couple of finished best friend dolls ready for tea. Here's Hanne's with a wardrobe to die for, and Vaire's with electric blue hair. I love them!

In the pool, Barbara finished her pooling scarf. It's incredible! What an inspiration for some of us who have gotten discouraged. Yes, Virginia, there is pooling! Barbara has posted some details here of how she got her scarf to work for those who are still struggling.

I hope you checked out Eklectika's finished pictures of her linen drape tank. And Laetitia's finished a beautiful tank herself. So purty.

And look, another pair of finished sweat pants! Come on, now that you've seen Melissa's, you gotta admit, they're cool. Okay, and a little ridiculous. But, WE MADE SWEATPANTS! COOL!

And did you see that the new edition of Magknits is out? Gonna be some knitalongs there, I bet! Anyone else gotta have an Ubernatural like me?

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The Olympic medals contest is officially closed. I'll be having the hubby work up some computerized random name/number picker/generator thingy to make selection easier. And I'll post the winners tomorrow!

Winner of the gold medal: Heidi, who was actually in Greece during the Olympics! She finished this cute baby sweater during her trip.

Winner of the silver medal: Michelle from the fabulous quidnunc.org and mastermind behind craftPOP.com. Michelle finished a beautiful baby blanket.

Winner of the bronze medal: Leslie, who earns her medal for completing a summer top and making progress on a winter sweater for her daughter all while watching olympics, taking care of three kids and a new house!

Congratulations, ladies! Send me your addresses and I'll drop your prizes in the mail first thing next week. Thanks to everyone who participated. I loved reading about everyone's olympic knitting and checking out all your blogs. What a productive bunch we all were! Bravo, everyone.

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Winners were selected via a random number generator that hubby programmed up for me in about a minute and a half. The numbers corresponded to the order of comments to the contest post. Here's a pic of the winning numbers being selected.

Greetings from NYC! We're on a quick weekend trip to NYC so the boys can see grandma again before our big trip to Germany. I got to do a trial run of packing the bags and the knitting. This trip: two suitcases and jess in my knitting bag. After giving my hand and wrist a little rest, I wanted to start back slowly, so I decided to start up a jess sleeve. Here's where I was when we left.

pretty little increases all in a row

I started this at Knitsmiths a while back and had a hard time talking and keeping track of the sequence of increases and decreases. So, not much net progress was made, if you know what I mean. But I'm back on track again now, knitting in the dark all the way here. I should have a finished sleeve by the time we get back!

(This trip is pure quality time with grandma - no time for yarn shopping. I've tried telling hubby that the boys would really love to see KnitNY, but he's not buying it!)

Klaralund, front and back. Look, they don't match. (stay calm) And I'm just fine. (deep breath - in - out) Really. (twitch) I can do this.

In order to prepare for the big trip (and all the knitting I'm imagining I'll get done on it), I bought myself a ball winder.

finally!

So what projects am I bringing? The vintage knits' wavy line sweater for sure, and... what's that blue yarn in front there... hey, that's not the frankensweater is it? Oh yeah! I actually brought the frankensweater with me on our NYC trip this weekend thinking I'd try to figure out where I'd left off in April. I had anticipated a nice, sunny ride home, but we ended up coming home much later than I'd planned and so I knit from the crazy chart with just the light from the headlights behind us. Do you know how silly it feels to be using a row counter in the dark? And I'll be sticking some long neglected stash yarn in my suitcase in hopes of getting my hands on some new catalogs while abroad. Always come prepared, right? Hee, hee.

all packed up and ready to go

So, it's official kick-off day for the Klaralund-along...

whoops, I finished!

I couldn't stop myself. We're off on our trip to Germany in a few hours and I didn't want to leave her unfinished, so I seamed her up in record time and here she is. Now I can leave her. Maybe when we get back we'll start having some weather where I can even wear her. I can't tell you how unpleasant it was doing a photoshoot in 80 degree weather in silk garden. But it's going to be so great to cuddle up in this sweater in the fall!

On to the details... This sweater is really cleverly constructed. It's just so neat that it's four rectangles, no decreasing, no increasing, no caps or curves or anything. Simple, simple, simple to make, the sewing is a breeze and still it ends up looking great. It's brilliant! I love how unique it is too. It doesn't look like any other sweaters that I have or see at the Gap and other stores. For example, I love how the cast off edges of the sleeves form the v-neck and how they're just sewn together a bit in the back.

Such an elegant solution for the neckline, which is usually a complicated detail. The big, bell sleeves are fun to wear and the little droop on the sides actually gives it a nice shape. Amazing. No more tittle-tattle, fiddle-faddle, making fun of Ms Tuttle Hamilton's name for me.

With that, I'm off to "Goimny" (as the boys say), with what seems like half my stash in tow. I'll update in a few days, so "Wiedersehen!" for now.

backpacks ready!

planes are fun

lollipops for takeoff

thirty minutes later

look what movie I got to watch!

and a little plane knitting

B plays "einkaufen"

S helps out in the kitchen

hey look, we have cousins!

Oh yes, the boys are having fun at oma and opa's. So much fun that I've even gotten some knitting done.

continental knitting

My current project is a secret project. Shhhh... people are listening. But I can tell you that it's stripey and colorful and lots of fun to knit. The yarn has a long history too. I originally spotted it on sale last january at one of my favorite yarn stores, Wild & Wooly. I let it go and Kerstin picked it up. We didn't even know each other then, but our similar taste in sale yarn brought us together! Well her project didn't succeed in the end and she generously passed the yarn on to me. And now I've finally found the right project for it. Here's a sneak peek of my progress so far. That's all I can show you until after Christmas. Sorry! But don't worry, there's at least one other vacation project planned, so I'll be able to post more progress pics once I start that one.

The Knitsmiths. Don't forget about me, ladies! I'll be back in a couple of weeks.

Knit Out Boston. Two year wait for the Knit Out to return to Boston and I'm out of the country. Poo.

Blog surfing. Internet time is big money over here, so I'm not blog surfing while on vacation. Just a quick check of email, blog update and I'm offline. So write comments and fill me in on everything I've been missing!

I arranged to have some little knitgoodies waiting for me when I arrived here in Germany. I ordered all my favorite German mags.

Burda, Verena, Rebecca, Filati

But the best post I received was a sweet package from Helene. Helene knitted our tea party mascot, Miss Muffin, and all the tiny little pastries that belong to a tiny Miss Muffin tea party. She generously sent me my own tray of yummy pastries.

mmmmmm....

Since you can't possibly appreciate how tiny these pastries are, here's a close-up with a penny for scale. Incredible, Helene! But that's not all, in recognition of my Olympic effort at finishing up all my projects before my trip, she made me this awesome gold medal. Thank you so much!

first class, Helene!

If I'm lucky there might just be a few more things on their way to me....

(It's so fun blogging from Germany. Now I can post as early as Wendy!)

Another sneak peek at my secret project, which is coming along fabulously. I'm loving the colors. They remind me of sherbert.

just a few ends to weave in

Yes, stripes means weaving in ends. It's unavoidable. I know, I know, you all want me to weave in as I go, but when I try, the colors keep popping through to the other side and it'll all just be neater when I do it later with the tapestry needle. It's not like you have to do it. (Of course, if you want to, I wouldn't mind! Hee, hee.)

* subway

We're off to Munich for a few days of mommy and daddy r&r. The boys are so busy driving toy tractors and discovering new playgrounds to even notice.

Greetings from Munich!

While on my mini-vacation within a vacation, I decided to really relax and brought no computer and no knitting. But that shouldn't stop me from doing a little knitblogging, right? I am able to blog from this internet place underground in the Marienplatz subway station. I'll be able to post a picture of it tomorrow when I get back to the in-laws, but for now you can check out the view inside from their webcam. If you're lucky you may spot me surfing my vacation away! This "internet point" (it's like an internet cafe, minus the cafe) is really a great idea. We paid only six Euros for two hours of internet time for each of us, which we've been able to use over a number of days. You pay, get a login code and password, use as much as you want, and come back tomorrow. The account even keeps your bookmarks and URL history. Could not be easier, people! Except for the smoke, I love this place.

Hmmm... that's pretty much how I feel about all of Germany.

Back from Munich!

We surfed.

We rubbed the lions at the Residenzpalast for luck.

We laughed at the dirndl t-shirts being sold in preparation for Oktoberfest.

We laughed at the funny german words.

And guess what's right next door to the Suckfüll? The Wollkorb!

Oh yes, it's a yarn store!

More tomorrow....

I may not have done much knitting while in Munich, but I did get a couple of new projects for the knitting bag.

First, from the Wollkorb - a Lana Grossa haven! - two balls of Cat yarn, the softest, fuzzy yarn ever.

After letting out a little moan upon feeling the sample swatch, the saleslady came up to me and told me what my fingers already new - there's alpaca in there! I'm thinking a fuzzy scarf to go with my new Zara jean jacket.

I also visited Wolle Rödel, where I got my cool circ needle holder last time I was in Munich. Lots more fabby Lana Grossa yarns, but I restrained myself. Yeah, I restrained myself so that I could get two bags of a soft wool/acrylic blend in white to make Ubernatural.

check out that Sonderpreis: 1.50 Euros!

But that's not all! A little package of Phildar patterns arrived at my in-laws while I was gone (thanks!). I just happened to bring along the perfect yarn for one particular sweater from this catalog (hee, hee).

It's more stash yarn. I am being soooo good! (Pause for applause - thank you, thank you.) I originally got the Phildar yarn from Leigh. She had bought it to make this sweater. The yarn didn't agree with her and I bought the yarn from her and had planned to make the same sweater. In the meantime, I've produced more than a few feminine sweaters (like Rosebud) with big, bell sleeves (like Klaralund) and am thinking, do I really need another? Not really. But I do need this sweater. It's the black one in the picture, but mine's gonna have the big stripes from the original sweater I'd planned. This is going to be so cool.

Fall, here I come!

Yes, Silvia, we did leave Munich on the morning that Oktoberfest began. Since we used to live in Munich, we've been to Oktoberfest many times, so we decided not to stay for it this time (plus the hotels become crazy expensive!). Of course, there are regular Biergartens open all the time in the warmer months which are usually more pleasant to visit anyway. So don't worry, we did make it to a Biergarten or two for a Maß or two. And here's the proof:

cheers!

the sheep in the field behind the hedge

knitted teddy bears from the attic

woven in ends on my secret project

sock yarn on sale in the department store

my new pop sweater underway!

This project and knitalong kept growing strong for over a year. It was a real phenomenon! But now I think it's run it's course. There are a couple of sweaters out there still underway, but pretty much everyone's all set with funky striped phildar sweaters in crazy spongey yarn now. Let me know of any updates though and I'll update the links!

striped sweater

started june 1, 03

A quick look at the calendar tells me that it's time to say good-bye to summer. Now that it's mid-September and fall is bearing down upon us, I don't think we can get away with spring bearing anymore. Anyone still flinging out there? I'm happy to update this list with links to final pictures - just let me know!

It was a beautiful spring, wasn't it?

spring things!

started march 15, 2004

Our vacation is over and it's time to say good-bye. While we're in the air on our way home, I'll leave you to say good-bye to a couple of old knitalongs whose time has also passed.

See you soon back in the Eastern Time Zone!

It's a Weasley-along! You know, the Weasley sweaters from the Harry Potter films. And since co-hostess, Jenn, and I both have a little crush on Ron Weasley, it's also a Ron-along. Jenn's gonna make an "R" sweater and has come up with a chart for the letter for us. Check it out on her Ron-Along page.

Okay, sure we could buy a Weasley sweater, but why, when we can knit one (even without Mrs. Weasley's charmed knitting needles)? So, are you also as obsessed as we are (check out number 116)? If so, and if a scarf just won't do, get yourself the Rowan pattern or make up your own pattern (like Linda did) and join us!

Starting October 1st. The sweaters should be done just in time to give to your loved ones on Christmas morning (wink, wink).

[Updated: Linda has even recommended a source for the original pattern and yarn used for the sweaters in the movie, the Yarn Warehouse: Harry Potter kits for UK customers and Harry Potter kits for non-UK customers.]

[Updated: The link to McA direct seems to have stopped working - it must have been an older page -, so I have removed it and replaced it with the Colorway link - of course, this could be outdated as well. Here's the original McA link, in case you wish to ask them about availability.]

We survived the trip back. It was a little dicey for a while there. The boys were IN-SANE for the first few hours of the flight. But they settled down when the kiddie cartoons came on. At first they had a hard time seeing the screen between the crack in the seats.

Once we figured out that they could stand and still not block other people's view, they enjoyed it. S found the Goofy cartoon particularly gripping.

And then they fell asleep until landing. Hallalujah! I knitted more of the back of the pop sweater while they slept, making it up to the first color change.

Again, I had no problems bringing knitting needles on the plane. Three cheers for Lufthansa and sleeping toddlers - knit, knit, hooray!

I brought the frankensweater with me to Germany, but didn't do any knitting on it. I looked at it many times, trying to figure out why I was not inspired to knit further. I had stopped while working on the sleeve pieces. If you recall, each piece of the sweater is made up of several smaller pieces which are crocheted together. Here's the original pattern pic. With my yarn and my gauge (I've gotten a little off gauge over four months of neglecting this project) I'm not really conviced that the sleeves are going to work as well as the front does. I'm also not convinced that the sleeve shape and length are going to work for me. And I know that I'll never finish this sweater if I knit all the pieces, seam them, see that they look awful and then have to rip and reknit. So I've come to a difficult decision. I'm going to rip out the back pieces and all the sleeve pieces that I've knit so far. Then I'll reknit them as single units with no inside seams, leaving the cool crochet seams just on the front piece. I really think it looks cool and suspect that having it on the front will be enough. This way I can adjust the pattern to suit me better and end up with a result that I still like.

So now it's time to rip!

Look at those colors. Look at those curves. Yummm....

I mostly worked on new projects while I was in Germany so that I could practice my continental knitting. I've only made a few projects using the technique since learning how to knit continental: the crazy continental, hubby's brown butter vest, and sooty mango. I was pretty satisfied with how they came out, but the yarns were fairly forgiving and at points the tension still wasn't completely consistent. So I stuck with throwing and used my left hand mostly for two-handed colorwork. But I've noticed that my throwing method keeps causing me little twinges in my right wrist, particularly when I am working in small gauges. I changed how I held the yarn, which keeps the twinges from coming, but my wrist has still been sore from my olympic record knitting pace in August. So, when I started klaralund I decided to give my right hand a vacation. And then I went on vacation. To the continent! I couldn't switch back then.

So in addition to klaralund, my secret project was knitted entirely continental (no, it's not quite done yet!). And I'm knitting pop continental style as well - except for the ribbing, which is still best left to my right (left to my right - hah!). I must say that I have been surprised at how comfortable I am knitting this way now and at how well the projects are coming out. The tension is very even and I'm even getting the hang of doing special stitches, like decreases and bind offs, with my left hand. So here I am knitting continental and loving it. I'm very tempted to switch entirely.

The only hitch is the few projects I still have underway, like the frankensweater and mom's jess cardigan. Plus, switching would put a serious cramp in my plans to knit the wavy-line sweater anytime soon. I've still got to get lots more comfortable with my left hand to do the yarnovers and lacy bits justice. But I do love a challenge!

* links stricken, literally translated as "left knitting", is actually how the Germans say purling, but it seems to me like a better name for continental knitting, don't you think?

No, it's not another post about picking (continental knitting) vs. throwing (english style). In fact, I haven't done much knitting at all. The weather's been too good. Instead of staying at home or going to the playground, where I might do some knitting, we went apple picking at a local farm.

have bag, will pick

oh boy, pumpkin lollipops are in season!

I finished the back of pop! After I laid it out and took this picture, I realized that I had an old sweater somewhere with similar striping and these EXACT same colors. I searched through my closet and found a circa 1997 H&M sweater that indeed had two of the same colors. I bought it back when I was living in Germany and it was one of the first sweaters with brighter colors that I purchased after a long period of only browns, navys, grays and muted tones. After seven years, I still may like orange and pink, but look at how much the styles have changed!

The weasley-along is almost here! I'm getting my yarn all ready, don't you know.

I'll be using this Felted Tweed for the boys' "H" sweaters. I got the yarn at a Wild & Wooly sale this January. I'm using up stash! Yeeeeessss! The sweaters will be in the grayish green and the navy blue colors and the golden green in the middle will be for the H's.

And to get me in the mood, I just started rereading Goblet of Fire which was my favorite of all the HP books. I'm in the process of rereading them all (I actually had Prisoner of Azkaban with me on the flight over to Germany when they showed the movie on the plane!). If I remember correctly, the weasley sweaters get another mention in either Book 4 or 5. I'll be keeping my eyes open!

[Update: Looks like the Rowan HP pattern is proving hard to find. The Colourway link is too old and doesn't really lead to the shopping cart. Helene reports: "I asked our Norwegian Rowan importer, and she told me that the pattern had been withdrawn because the royalty to the HP-people was so high." I bet that some copies are still hanging around at local yarn shops though. The trick is finding one. Otherwise, there's always the kits (yarn and pattern) from Yarn Warehouse.]