I'm back online and just in time - look, the new Magknits is up! Remember how I always wanted to make a design based on my grandfather's old tennis shirt?

Here's his shirt in all its oversized, holey, wide-collared glory.

Remember all those white stitches I've been working on the last couple of months? It was a labor of love - believe me, nothing else would have gotten me through that grafting!

So I go to Knitsmiths yesterday. I bring the child's spiral geek sweater to finally get started (the "geek" baby is due in a matter of weeks!), and our table was missing. Turns out Wil Wheaton (yes, the Wil Wheaton) was using it for a book signing upstairs in the Booksmith.

I must have missed the sign on the way in.

But it really was Wil Wheaton. Using our table!! COOL! (You are a Wil Wheaton fan, right? I'm not talking about Stand by Me or Star Trek: Next Generation. Did you see him on Tech TV's Screen Savers or Call for Help? Follow his über popular blog? He plays poker too and blogs about it. Read all about his post-Star Trek life in his book, Just a Geek!)

We were so tickled by the idea that he was using our table that we asked him to sign it. He was such a good sport about us silly knitting geeks asking for his autograph, especially when you consider the whole clown sweater incident (bad knitters, do not be mean to Wil Wheaton!).

And then he left, we got our table back and we knit on it. How freaking cool is that?! I got my stitch on to the tune of several inches of the baby geek sweater.

And get this, when I got home, TiVo was taping Star Trek: the Next Generation. Totally randomly - it's not one of our WishLists or anything.

Oh, the power of geek.

The perfect day to start my new birthday project.

Debbie Bliss pure silk

Look at the amazing yarn that super-sweet knitbuddy, Dani gave me! I fell in love with this yarn when I knit a swatch for the store with it. If you haven't ever felt this yarn, go, go now and do it. It's incredible. Softer and sleeker even than any of the other pure silks we have in the store.

So I thought was happy having knit the swatch and watching Dani knit a cap sleeve top in the pure silk and Lisa knit the Tie Bolero with it and recommending it to practically every customer. But then last weekend, I got chilly from the a/c in the store and I slipped on our store sample of this lace shrug. Just like when I tried on crinkle, I knew I had to make it. Dani agreed and got me the yarn for my birthday.

I heart this yarn

Thank goodness that this yarn is so incredible, because the Debbie Bliss pattern isn't. It's no worse than your average Debbie Bliss pattern, which is to say it's pretty frustrating. (At least this book, mercifully, contains schematics!) Her designs are often complex with multiple stitch patterns and unique constructions and there's never much in the way of explanatory notes about where you are or how things fit together. This one dosen't even indicate which side is the right side and which is the wrong side, which has already led to one failed start of this project. And I have to rip out most of the above (due to my own stupid error caused by trying to keep track of two stitch patterns with different row repeats without a row counter and while watching Orlando Bloom in Pirates of the Carribean). But this yarn is so fabulous, I don't mind knitting those few rows again. And like most Debbie Bliss patterns, it'll all be worth it in the end.

So I'm planning to celebrate my birthday by knitting more of the shrug while watching Orlando Bloom in Pirates of the Carribean with a row counter. Happy, happy!

A quick glance at my finished projects page and you'll find what is really an appalling number of pink projects over here so far this year. Nothing wrong with pink of course (clearly, I LOVE pink!), but a blue blog should probably be a little less pink. So it's back to blue for me!

There's the gorgeous blue pure silk that I've just started working on, the blue baby geek sweater and after another weekend working at the store, more progress on the lacy blue Angora Extra scarf:

I once was lost, but now am found; was pink, but now I'm blue.

So far the machine stitching seems to be holding.

The favorite corner is still with us. For now.

Hubby let me spend my whole birthday on the sofa with my pure silk.

It wasn't all pure bliss: there was the inch and half I had to rip out at the start (arrrrgh!), then some dropped stitches in the middle of a cable much farther on (man, that silk is slippery), keeping track of the two pattern repeats was literally exhausting (thankfully, they synch back up every 24 rows), and then the Germans lost in the World Cup (poop). But it still ranks as one of the best birthdays I've ever had.

The last time we saw my purple t-shirt sweater it was just a poor neglected front. Where is it now? Well, back in May, I finished the back (now I remember, this pattern has you do the front first, weird!) and even seamed the two pieces together.

I always sew the body pieces of a sweater together to get a sense of the fit before I continue on to the sleeves. When I tried this on, it was waaaay big. Now, my synchronicity top (knit from the same pattern) is also roomy, but there's so much shaping to the sweater that it hadn't bothered me. Somehow however in the cotton angora, this one felt freakishly large. So I stuffed it in the back of the knitting basket for a month.

I tried it on again last week and decided it was okay after all (I figure if I want something snug, I should find a more elastic yarn and knit another nothing but a t-shirt!). So this one's back on the knitting shelf, ready for when I need a break from all that lace and silk. Simple stockinette to the rescue!

Be sure to tune in next week for a new installment of Where Are They Now?! See what's happened to your favorite blue blog knits. Are they being worn? Are they packed away? Are they slated for ripping? Any requests?

There was just way too much good sports on tv yesterday for me to get myself over to the computer and blog! First, I watched Wimbledon (we know I love watching Wimbledon). I tried explaining the game to the boys and to their credit they really watched and cheered with me for about an hour. ("Go Fed!") Then they went off to practice their penalty kicks in preparation for yesterday's World Cup final.

Knitting group rescued me from seeing the bitter end of that game. And the baby geek sweater kept me from even getting involved in that interminable Red Sox game.

Phew, what a day!

This looks familiar, now doesn't it?

It's the drill box that I used to send out my sockapal2za socks to Carola. The very same drill box that became one of the boxes for the yarn aboard sock yarn swap! I kicked off one half of Yarn Aboard back in February with the radio box that Carola sent me. Now the swap has come to an end with my receiving that old drill box again, this time filled with goodies from Gracie.

Check out that awesome Chocolate Covered Cherries yarn from Brooklyn Handspun! Yuuuumy! Thanks so much to Gracie for the beautiful yarn and all the little treats too.

And the package arrived just in time, cause in a few hours we're outta here, off to Germany for our annual trip to see the in-laws. I've got a lot of knitting planned - check out the yarn suitcase. (Don't laugh, my other suitcase is half-filled with, you guessed it, legos, as it's the boys' birthday and they'll be needing some pressies.)

For me, it's a few weeks worth of design projects and maybe a little baby sweater knitting here and there. Deadlines, baby - wish me luck!

See you on the flip side in a few days!

It was a long, strange trip.

It all started with changing the boys' clothes at the airport. It was hot outside, but cool in the airport (and was bound to be cold in the plane), so we quickly grabbed long pants and socks out of the suitcases before checking them, leaving the boys dressed in freakishly realistic "German" outfits (World Cup t-shirt, jeans, sandals with white socks - it doesn't get more German than that!)

Our first stop was the crazy kinetic sculptures (ball contraptions) at the airport. The boys can't get enough of these things. All the other children were running through the airport playspace playing a complex game of dinosaur/robot/wizard tag ("run, the velociraptor put a spell on me!"), while our boys stood motionless in front of the kinetic sculptures. It was like one of those videos where one person stands still and everyone else blurs by all around them. It actually hurt my eyes to watch them (sort of like watching that wacky All-American Rejects video).

Then we got on the plane. (Photo by B.)

And it got weirder.

Because this year we flew to Germany with Iceland Air. When the pilot made an announcement, B looked at me and asked, "what does that mean?" No idea, kid.

The boys fell asleep cuddling their Pirates of the Carribean II toys, which is a little creepy when you think about it. (But I have to say, these have got to be among the coolest McDonald's toys I've seen. B kept opening and closing his Dead Man's Chest and S wouldn't even let me touch his Captain Jack! I am so stealing that doll as soon as he loses interest in it.)

As we took off there was a huge orange moon (which I couldn't photograph very well)...

...and as we flew north towards Iceland, we saw the most beatiful sunrise. Or maybe it was the midnight sun, I don't know, but it was pretty amazing.

Then, we got our first view of Iceland: coastline, rocks, a couple of dirt roads, rocks, a lone house, more rocks. Isn't Reykjavik supposed to be around here somewhere? (I didn't take a picture, because I was waiting for, well, something to take a picture of, if you know what I mean. Check out this site for pictures of actual places in Iceland.)

Taxiing up to that deserted-looking airport was like being in a scene from Stephen King's The Langoliers. Inside, it was gorgeous though! All wood and glass and stone. Very cool. These Icelanders (wherever the hell they are) must be pretty cool to make an airport like this.

Quick check: yup, still showing the Langoliers outside.

We got on another plane, and finally flew to Germany: trees, fields, groups of red-roofed houses, trees - yes, trees, where were the trees in Iceland?! - and flags, lots and lots of German flags.

Flags, good weather, this can't be Germany! Oh God, we've landed in The Martian Chronicles. Wish us luck.

What could be in there?

Legos, of course!

Must. Build. Now.

Aunt and Uncle help out with the (over 1400!) pieces.

Most giantest helicopter ever, done.

Super truck getting the final touches (chassis, frame, interior with hand brake, gear shift, pedals, side mirrors, glove compartment)... and done!

Wheeeeee!

(Don't you just love that when Dwight asks a ridiculous question on The Office? By the way, saw the German version, uh, not so good.)

Question!
How am I supposed to get over jetlag when it doesn't get dark until like 11:00pm? Seriously, it was way too light at the in-laws' to readjust my internal clock. So we drove south to Munich for some parental R&R and some darkness.

Question!
Is anyone left in the Netherlands? Apparently every single Dutch family was driving south (surely farther than Munich) when we were. I've never seen so many crappy trailers on one road in my life. The A3 was like a camping site.

Question!
Exactly how many H&M's do you need in one city center? If you stand in front of the Tivoli movie theater in the middle of the Fußgängerzone in Munich, you can see FOUR different H&M's. They are within a minute walk of each other. Wow, and I thought I liked H&M.

Question!
Just how am I supposed to post without any pictures?! The lack of image uploading facilities is killing me. Pics to come next week when the mini-vacation is over and it's back to the kiddos and the computer.

For the last five days we've been stuck in the no-internet-connection-land of German wine country bed & breakfasts for hubby's best friend's wedding.

The wine is grown on steep hills and mountains along the river Mosel. Down river is Trier, Germany's oldest city - dating back to 16 B.C. - and one-time seat of the Western Roman Empire.

"Roman" tour guides give walking tours of the ancient sites, like the ruins of the Roman baths, an ancient ampitheater, and the Porta Nigra, a giant Roman gate in the center of the city.

Trier is also home to a beautiful marketplace dating to the middle ages (which contains only one H&M - weak.).

But we were here for a wedding, so enough with the Romans and on to the romance! The happy (and apparently slightly sadistic) couple decided to get married in the Felsenkirche in Idar-Oberstien built into the side of a mountain and reachable only by climbing over 100 steps up from the town square.

Built in the 15th century, legend has it that a man threw his brother over the side of the mountain here because both were in love with the same woman. He built the church where the body fell as pennance for his sin and then collapsed and died inside it when it was finished. Romantic, huh?

Na ja, put a bride in a long gown in front of it and it works. There was applause from the cafes down in the town square as the wedding party started up the steps to the church. They weren't climbing 80 meters up in formal wedding attire though.

After the ceremony, the übersporty couple led us over to a restaurant on another mountain for the party and a group climb up a tower with beautiful views of the countryside.

Very pretty, but I'm going to need some physical therapy after this trip!

Before we went to wine country for the wedding workout, hubby and I spent a little time in Munich, where we met nine years ago.

Frauenkirche

We decided to have a relaxing trip, skipping all the sightseeing stuff and visiting only our favorite places.

Siegestor

Alter Simpl cafe

Löwenparade

Last year, we saw bears in Berlin, this year there were lions in Munich.

a shady Biergarten with no Pfand!

the Trambahn driving through the pedestrian zone

an U-Boot in the Deutsches Museum

This was like the prototype of the first German submarine, complete with two torpedos. Wow.

Kino Mond & Sterne

Zum Abschluß we went to the Open Air Movies and watched The 40 Year Old Virgin dubbed in German. It was just like old times, running to catch the last U-Bahn after the movies before the subway shut down.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I talked to the boys on the phone one night while we were gone. They told me about the Legos they'd built that day and how they'd played in the pool.

old Schlauchboot as pool

And then abruptly said "Tschüß!" and hung up. No "when are you coming back?" or anything. Good German though.

80 bucks for a tank of gas - wow! (That's for only 16 gallons, people.) But it took us to Munich and Trier and beyond.

41 degrees - aaaack! (That's centigrade, people.) It is hot here - don't go telling me about missing out on any big heat wave. We've been sweating. It's like the freaking Mediterranean here. So much so that the Germans are (jokingly) considering switching their agriculture over to growing olives.

Omigod, that was a sign for Legoland!! Darn truck got in my shot, but we totally drove right by it. (Somehow, I think the boys are probably satisfied with the Legoland they've got back at Oma & Opa's, but still, we gotta go there someday.)

We found it, we found it - the Schachenmayr factory store. Oh boy, oh boy....

Boxes and boxes stuffed full of bags of Regia and Gedifra yarn. (You had to buy complete bags - now what am I going to do with 5 100g balls of the exact same sock yarn? I'm not saying I didn't get any, just what am I going to do with it?!)

And hideous samples for sale too. What fun!

The other day, the boys brought flowers over to their Urgroßtante (great great aunt), who lives next door, for her 75th birthday.

Later the local church choir came to sing for her. (They sing a special song during church service for people over 70 every year on their birthday, and once you're 75, they come to your house to serenade you.)

She's the sweetest, spunkiest, and tiniest woman I've ever met. (She used to ride a little moped around the village and since her feet couldn't reach the ground, she had to jump on to get started and jump off to stop!) Look, the boys'll be bigger than her in another year!

She's bought her way into the boys' hearts by always giving them candy.

They don't even know what it's called; for them it will always be Oma Christinechen candy.

Germany has a very famous puppet theater in Augsburg that puts on productions for German television (every German kid - and adult! - knows these shows). The most well known production is Jim Knopf, which involves a little boy named Jim Button, a train named Emma and a king named King Alfonse the Quarter to Twelve-th. (When they were littler, the boys used to make us fast-forward and rewind this one constantly, skipping the story so they could just see the scenes where the little train drives around the island.)

Every year, Oma and Opa introduce the boys to another one of the Augsburger Puppenkiste productions and this year it was Fünf auf dem Apfelstern (Five on the Apple Star), where a strange group - consisting of a sailor, a porcelain doll, a russian nesting doll, a little chinese boy and a blowfish that always burps when anyone mentions food - find themselves on a planet that is essentially a giant apple (thus allowing for lots of burp-worthy conversation).

The sailor, who always wears a thick ribbed sweater and knitted cap, is named Heiko PurlTwo-KnitTwo. The rest of the story is totally weird, but that makes perfect sense to me.

Funny hats.

Rides at the Lochmühle amusement park.

A climbing gym for daddy.

And socks and sandals for everyone!