This is cool. We left Iceland at about 5pm and arrived in Boston at the same time. It's a 5 hour flight to America and there's a 5 hour time difference between the two countries. Which all means that it was 5pm for the entire trip. The view out the window was eerily constant - the sunset frozen shortly before sundown, the sky turning dark only as we finally turned to fly south down the eastern coastline of the US. Local time 5 o'clock.

But let's go back to 5pm the night before....

For our last night in Germany, we lit the candles on the tree one last time (yes, the family still uses real candles!) and I finished weaving in the last ends on the in-laws' afghan. I didn't even have to stay up till 5am to get it all done!

Finally done, I could go to bed and get some sleep for the next day's trip. We got the airport in plenty of time, check-in was easy peasy (there's so much less stress when you're flying to Iceland - still in Europe - first!) and the kids had plenty of time to play in Kiddieland before we had to go through security.

wee one is sharing her Zwieback with Ernie

The kids waited excitedly for the trip to start.

And once on the plane, wee one enjoyed my book (well, the cover at least) before settling in for a good nap.

But the boys were too entertained by Iceland Air's fun stuff for kids and "How it's Made" on the in-flight entertainment and forgot to sleep. They woke up at 3am this morning and here's how they were at dinner tonight (we had to go out to eat because we haven't had time to buy any food yet).

Wake up, boys, it's only 5 o'clock!

We're off to the airport soon to make the long trip home. Flying west from Europe to America is tougher with the kiddos because it's all daytime and they don't feel like sleeping. We tried to send the boys to bed a little early last night telling them that they really needed their energy for the flight home and they said, "yeah, cause it's boring." Yes, indeed.

We've packed lots of books and activity books for them as well as a few dvd's that they can watch on the computer. As a general antidote to the boredom around here, I give you a list of some of our favorite German games. I've mentioned the German games that we play a few times here and some of you have asked for some recommendations. Here ya go!

Family/grown up games:

Settlers of Catan - THE German game

Ticket to Ride - we gave this one to my sister-in-law and her family this year

Carcassonne - one of our faves

TransAmerica - cute little strategy game

Blokus - abstract tetris-style game for those whose brains work like that - the boys love this one

Lost Cities - great two-player card game

Wizard - awesome trick-taking card game

For the kids:

Hey, that's my fish! - we presented this game to S's class in show and tell and they thought the little penguin pieces were so cool

Chicken Cha Cha - awesome memory-style game for kids! - S's classmates liked this game the most because the German title translates to Zig Zag Chicken Poop!

Highly Suspect - a clever little dexterity and logic game with nice wooden pieces

They're not German, but they're fun:

Give Me the Brain & Save Doctor Lucky - gotta put in a word for these hilarious games from "Cheapass Games"!

And if you've got 8 or 10 people, you gotta play Werewolf

Have fun! We won't.

One last little Christmas present to give away while I'm here: a bunny tails hat for a wee girl cousin. This was a last-minute gift that I had to find yarn for, but I was pleased to find a very nice yarn store in the local area (and trust me people, this is a big deal because there's not anything in the local area!). The chocolate brown of this Lana Grossa Merino 2000 caught my eye right away, so I decided to make a brown bunny with little pink bows. And a white cotton tail, of course.

I'm so pleased with how this came out. It was a heikle Sache at first with some gauge issues and some reknitting. I wasn't expecting this sport weight yarn to work on a US7 needle, but it has a wonderful body and sproing that makes it knit up soooo nice. I finished up the ears in the dark shortly after midnight while watching some locals shoot off fireworks and ended up making one ear a wee bit longer than the other, but I think it adds personality to the little guy, don't you?

Here's hoping this adorable new year's bunny is a sign of happy knits to come in the new year.

The Christmas crafting isn't over yet! I've got yet another itty bitty hat to knit and some things to sew (yes, I brought fabric to Germany to sew!), but first there's still the afghan for my in-laws.

Looks pretty good from the front, huh? When they opened the gift and pulled out the afghan, they seemed to like it. They said the colors were beautiful and it must have been a lot of work. And the work continues....

I'm down to about 100 ends left to weave in. Seriously, the back looks so much better than before that it seems practically finished to me! All the remaining ends are in corners where four squares meet and require a little more careful attention to ensure that all the joins look nice and neat. I left them to the end so I could work on them calmly once the majority of ends were already gone and the whole back wasn't quite so overwhelming and scary. If I can get the final ends woven in in the next 48 hours, it'll be a wonderful way to finish off another year of knitting.

Happy New Year to everyone out there and best wishes for a creative and crafty 2008!

Wee one versus godzilla!

Wee one walks!

A quicky wee hat for a friend.

Nick the Cat hopes that if he saves his seat early, he'll get some of Christmas dinner. Dream on, Nick.

Nuts with nutcrackers.

A toy for wee one.

A giant Lego remote control dinosaur! First I'm going to build the creepy spider!"

"Look, the giant lego ferris wheel that was on my wishlist!" He actually jumped up and down when he opened it, just like they do in movies.

Two Red Sox rookies work on the ferris wheel.... and.....

Stolz.

My handmade Christmas gifts were well received. And now I can work on weaving in the ends on the afghan in the living room in the evenings without having to hide in the bedroom anymore. Pics to come when it's all done!

Twas the night before German Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring except Alison who was sewing up an afghan as fast as she can.

One more seam and my two halfghans will make one. It's... gonna... be... grrrEAT! I can't get a really good picture of all the colors when I'm doing the wide shot, so here's a close-up so you can see how pretty the yarn really is.

There's still a bazillion ends on the backside, but the front should look clean and complete by tomorrow. Hooray!

What a great trip we had! Despite the morning snow showers in Boston turning into an all day snowstorm, despite the taxi being 45 minutes late to take us to the airport, and despite our plane sitting almost two hours on the tarmac awaiting its turn on the single open runway, we made it - and were even early. Our hour and half layover in Reykjavik turned into a ten minute security check and quick walk to the gate where they were holding our plane for us. Love that Iceland Air! And because we were the last ones on our plane, our luggage was the first off the plane, so when we arrived at the baggage claim, our luggage - and only our luggage - was already going around and around on the carousel. We snapped it all up and were the first ones out (first born, B, was very excited about that!).

On the plane, the boys got Lazy Town coloring books, a Santa's workshop sticker playset and yummy koko mjolk to drink. Icelandic is funny! Then all the kids slept. Wee one in her car seat...

...and the boys on their side of the aisle.

Don't ask me why he has his socks off, I was sitting with wee one! Sleeping on the plane was awesome. I worked on afghan ends while we were waiting on the runway but then slept for most of both flights. I really feel like switching planes in Iceland works better for me. The flight is geared to having you eat something very quickly and then just sleeping. I feel like the longer, direct flights have more in-flight entertainment going on, take longer to get you through the food stuff and don't really get you to the sleeping part until later. When you get off to change planes in Iceland, you actually feel somewhat refreshed. You get to experience early morning rather than just getting to Europe and having it be midday already, and you feel ready to have a little breakfast on the next flight. It breaks up the whole trip nicely. We all slept well, we felt great when we got to Germany and didn't feel tired until about 7pm.

So what can ruin a perfectly lovely trip to Europe? Not just jetlag, children on jetlag. I spent the whole night going back and forth from wee one's room to the boys' room, nursing and holding her for 45 minutes, then sleeping by the boys for a couple of hours. I'd fall asleep and B would tell me not to leave. I'd fall back asleep and S would start smacking me groping for his blankie in the dark. I'd fall back asleep and wee one would start to cry. I'd get her settled and start all over with the boys. I don't know how I made it to morning. Ironically, I think it was my own fatigue that saved me.

All I know for sure is that it's dark here again already and, frankly, I'd rather fly from America to Europe again than repeat last night!

Working with this denim yarn is soooo weird. Everything seems "enormous and a half" (to quote my boys) when knitting and it's really hard to imagine that it could ever shrink down enough to be normal-sized. But it does. Take the denim hat I knit for a friend's little boy this vacation.

Before washing:

I knit the 2 yr. size. Can you believe that the pattern called for 9" before starting the crown decreases? It's as long as wee one's whole body!

After washing:

It's much snugger now. It even fits on wee one's head, although I did turn up the bottom edge twice to get it to actually sit on the top of her head. For a larger baby, I think it'll be great! With the ribbing and the extra length, he should be able to wear it for a long time.

And now my next adventure in shrinkage, wee one's white denim pinafore. The front is all done.

I've sized down the pattern to be about a one year size, but before washing it looks like a blanket next to a 5 month old wee one!

With some washing, it should fit her next summer. Cross your fingers, wee one!

The boys!

trying to decide who's taller

A lot of you have wondered where the boys are these days. Never fear, they're running around doing all the things that 1st grade boys do. That of course means that they haven't really intersected my knitting/crafting life that much of late. That is, until Monday when S comes down the stairs while we're packing up for sports camp and says, "mommy, I have to show you this interesting thing I saw in the Highlights magazine." I'm thinking maybe it's some article on bears or bees or one of those hidden picture puzzles to solve. Nope.

Him: "Look, here it says CRAFTS."
Me, clearly not getting it: "Uh-huh."
Him: "Look, you take a milk carton and cut it and glue paper to it and some ribbon..."

And with the enthusiasm usually reserved for picking out new Lego sets, he explains.

Him: "It's a pretty container - we have to make one!"
Me, incredulous: "Okay."
Him: "I can put things in it. We have paper. Do we have a milk carton? Can we make it now?"

Whaddaya gonna do? The boy wants to craft. And so we made it.

B didn't want to feel like he was missing out on the fun but we were out of half-gallon milk jugs and he's not quite as into the crafting as his brother, so he just had me do one of the other crafts in the book for him.

Also back...

emli!

Yes, without warning, wee one's suitcase suddenly showed up again and she's been wearing all her best little clothes and her enjoying her favorite toys again.

It's good to be back.

The lovely emli bonnet that I made for wee one in my embossed leaves knitting mania is now gone. It was in her suitcase that was lost by Al Italia and Air France on our trip back from Italy. All of her little summer clothes are gone now and I'm starting to really miss the particularly special things that were in there.

Like the emli bonnet.

Like this silly yellow sun hat that was big brother B's when he was a baby.

Like this handsewn baby doll that wee one really loved.

I know it's just clothes and stuff, but still I'm going through all the stages of grief: denial, anger, depression, and finally, shopping!

UPDATE 8/15: Emli bonnet is back!

So what did I knit while on vacation?

It's another dolly bag, knit in pink this time and with the few changes that I wanted to make last time. I added four stitches to the total width, allowing for one purl between the diamonds and the cables at the widest point, and also changed one of the cables to twist in the opposite direction so they twist toward each other. It was already the cutest thing ever for a little girl - and now it's just a little bit better.

So what do you make after you make the cutest thing ever for a little girl? Well, the cutest thing ever for a little boy.

It's the striped denim hat from one of my fave books ever, Itty-Bitty Hats (it's the inside of the white denim hat with dots pictured in the book). It hasn't been washed yet, so it's still a little long, but it is such a handsome hat!

These are both gifts (overdue gifts!) and are likely to be my last little projects for a while. After 5 months of the limited time and even more limited energy of new mommy-dom, it's time to make something adult sized again. Yup, the vacation's over.

Well, they flew us anyway. That's my favorite line from A Room With A View, which is as close as I'd ever been to Italy before this trip. "It is fate, vicar, but call it Italy if you like."

We had a wonderful time. The weather was unbelievable. Living in Boston where you'll have three different kids of weather in one day, it's hard to believe that folks just wake up expecting the same sunshine everyday, but that's how it was. We got to do a lot of fun stuff with the kids, but I still had enough relaxation time to knit a couple of things and finish the Harry Potter book. And no one spoiled it for me. Although I didn't see any other Harry Potter books on the beach, Italy was certainly not free of Pottermania. We spotted these signs in a bookstore window in Siena and on the way to our gate in the airport, we passed a life-sized lego Hagrid!

The boys said, "what's a Hagrid?"

The kids were so funny on the flight back home! Wee one squirmed unhappily in her wee seatbelt (so cute) but once she was in her baby basinette, she played with a screw in the wall for about twenty minutes and then passed out. Phew!

While wee was investigating the screw in the wall, the boys got their little headset package from the flight attendant. B immediately put on the big blue eye mask and S had me explain to him what each thing was. After considering everything for a moment, S handed me everything but the earplugs, insisting that they were all he wanted and asking me how to put them in. He stuck them in (not to far!) and looked so funny with those giant pink things sticking out of his ears! And then he said disappointedly, "but I can't hear the music at all in these!" Ha! So we switched the earplugs for the earphones and he chose some hideous rock channel to listen to. "Listen to 7. 7 is great!"

(Note: the camera card was full, so unfortunately there's no pictures of the boys' airplane shenanigans.)

Later, with their children's meal, the boys each got a small bag with a coloring book and stickers and a plastic digital watch. S was so excited about the watch that he made me set the time right away and then gave me updates on the time every minute for the next five minutes in a happy sing-song voice. "It's almooost four o'clo-hock.... It's four oh one-hun..." I turned to roll my eyes at my husband and caught a glimpse of B who in some sort of jet lag induced punchy state had stuck about twenty of the stickers all over his face. I looked back at S. Asleep. And so they stayed until landing.

We got home crazy late because Air France lost wee one's suitcase. Fingers crossed that we get her little clothes and toys and favorite doll back. In the meantime, it's unpacking and getting over jet lag for us for the next couple of days. Please oh please, let the baby get back to her normal sleep schedule!

I've posted pictures to all my previous vacation posts, so go back and check them out for all the sites: the beach and Pisa, Florence, and the water park, Sam Gimignano, and Siena.

UPDATE: Now I can include some vacation photos...

To cool off, we visited a local water park. The boys had a blast on the slides (not this fast one though - that's my brother-in-law flying out the bottom!) and it was a refreshing and sand-free break from the heat of the beach.

Our last outing took us to two of Tuscany's most famous and most beautiful medieval cities, San Gimignano and Siena.

San Gimignano was amazing. You park outside the city walls then walk into this tiny little world. I wish I could convey how it feels to be inside this little town. The streets are crooked and narrow and the buildings on either side are high, so there's no view of the countryside around you. Then suddenly the small street will open up into a piazza.

Walking the shady zigzag streets, winding around and cutting through the little city, you really get the sense of medieval people living their lives in the confines of this small unit hidden behind the safety of city walls and high towers, cut off from the rest of the world.

Siena is much like San Gimignano, but muuuuch larger. We got to drive into the city walls to the parking area. Drive into them - cool! The streets were again all narrow and brick paved and lined with high stone buildings, but this was so much bigger. Here the small streets open up to a giant cathedral,

and the most incredible piazza.

The piazza has a sloped ground (perfect for sitting and relaxing) leading down to the impressive Tower del Mangia. And there are restaurants and bars all around the piazza. We couldn't resist sitting down and enjoying a pizza and the cool evening air in this beautiful space.

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

Coming to you today (the first day of the official sockapalooza send off) from a very hot internet point in Siena. I've checked the sockapalooza database and we're at 48% reported done! That's almost half. Woo hoo! You've definitely been knitting. Now wipe that sweat from your brow and keep it up! I've got one last repeat of waving lace to do and then it's the final toe for me. The socks will be ready to ship when I am back stateside.

When last we spoke, I had popped into a 10 min.-1Euro internet point in a hellaciously hot Florence and only had time to check the sockapalooza progress. It's been near impossible to find stamps and a mailbox to send postcards around here, so I gave up early on ever being able to find an internet point where I could upload pictures. Therefore, one more promise of pics to come, including boys on the beach, wee one in Florence, and a very leany tower.

Now to see if we can find some pizza around here....

UPDATE: Finally I can show you some vacation photos...

I've always wanted to visit Florence. The sites were amazing, but it was very hot and extremely overcrowded. There was no chance of actually going into any of the museums or larger churches. Too many people. And there was no place to catch a break from the heat. The main historic center is all concrete and stone with no shade or green spaces at all. This made visiting Florence a little disappointing. But you can't argue with the beauty of a piazza like this.

Yup, that's David there near the end (well, a copy Michelangelo made for the square - the original was in a building full of tourists and therefore impossible to see).

The cathedral is so incredibly big, you couldn't possibly ever get one good picture of it, so I opted for this shot with wee one. She was so good on the trip, sleeping through the hottest part of the day in the stroller while we walked through the narrow streets of Florence.

Our favorite site in Florence was this church, Santa Croce. The burial place of a staggering number of important names, like Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli, it also houses amazing frescoes and stone works.

After the churches closed and the city emptied out a bit, we were able to enjoy the old streets and main squares much more and actually catch a glimpse of a few things we hadn't been able to even approach before, like Ghiberti's stunning Gates of Paradise.

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

Greetings from Florence! We're nearing the close of our vacation and still have yet to see a cloud in the sky. I've finished book 7 (could have lived without the last chapter, but I really liked the last two sentences!) and am knitting away on the boys' tiger/lion animals. It took the boys exactly eight days to remember that I promised to start knitting them on vacation. The yarn (db cotton dk) is actually made in Italy, so it's a little homecoming for it. I've finished two other little knitting projects (pics to come later) and am past the gusset on my sock pal's final sock.

Yo, sockapaloozas, there's barely 40% of you done. Knit, knit, knit. Hey, if Harry can ... ... then you can finish those socks! ;0)

UPDATE: And now I can finally show you some vacation photos....

First, the beach. That's why we came (the in-laws planned the beach vacation). The boys had never been to a beach before and they were not disappointed. They would sit by the water and let the waves crash around them and yell, "this is so fun this is so fun this is so fun!"

Even wee one got to enjoy some beach time.

Our first outing beyond the beach was to Pisa.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa really is that leany! I was so amazed by it. Usually you visit a city, it has interesting sites, you take pictures, but I just couldn't stop taking pictures of this tower. It is sooo cool!

We waited in line and climbed up the tower. Scaaaaaary! It's no wonder that kids under 8 aren't even allowed to go up and from 8 to 12, they have to be held on your hand the whole time. Climbing up the stairs was totally weird because when you got to the side where the lean was going in your direction, suddenly the uphill climb seamed easy, and then on the other side, it was soooo hard to go up each step. And in the middle, you were thrown to one side of the narrow staircase. "Keep to the right," as if you could do anything else! And then on the top, it was waaaay open. A little railing with three horizontal bars and that was it. And the level below it was even scarier. It wasn't flat, but consisted only of circular steps around the tower and you had to walk along the top step, which was higher than the railing, to get the the staircase for the next level. Yikes! But cool. Way cool.

The kids loved the tower too. Here's B donig the the obligatory pushing-over-the-tower pic. When you walk around the square, you see people posing for these pictures everywhere. It's so funny!

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

Hi from Italy! Just checking in very quickly from an internet cafe in Pisa and I see that with only one week left in sockapalooza 4, only one third of you are done knitting. Come on everyone, don't let your pals down. Knit, knit, knit!

I'm working on my second pal's socks at the beach and late at night (jetlag's great for late night knitting sessions!). They'll be done on time. I hope yours will be too.

See ya next week (with photos)!

(PS - No, I am not done with the book yet. So, keep quiet a little longer, kay? Oh and KNIT!)

Like many others, I'm offline, reading my Harry Potter book. I'll just be doing it in a different country far, far away from the internet and for a couple of weeks.

the contents of my 'carry on'

The Potter Party in Harvard Square was AWESOME! First there were the Hungarian Horntails, three little kids who screamed (really screamed) things like "kick Voldemort's butt!" and "Crabbe and Goyle are stupid beaters" into the microphone. Between songs they'd argue about what song was next and the oldest boy (the one with the guitar) would tell the others to stand away from him. It was hilarious, albeit very hard on the ears.

Then came the real punks, Draco and the Malfoys: "Draco, year nineteen and Draco, year fifteen" they said.

Okay, they totally rocked! Their lyrics were so funny - "It's time to party like you're evil! It's time to freak out some Muggles!" -- so Draco -- "My father is rich and your father is dead." -- so meeeeaaaan - "I love my mom. I love my dad too. We all love Lord Voldemort. And we love to hate you." You've got to go to their site and listen to some of their songs. Buy a CD or two. They are great!

Finally, the ones we all wanted to see, our hometown HP rockers, Harry and the Potters!

You may have heard their music before and thought that they're not the best band ever, but they were so fun! They really got everyone psyched. "Are you ready to rock?! Are you ready to read?! Are you ready to defeat evil by reading?!" They had us pledge not to spoil the book for all the children who are so excited about it and then they rocked! We sang together about saving Ginny and playing Wizard Chess, what Draco Malfoy's problem is, and how awesome this book is!

Then it was time to head to the Harvard Book Store to get said awesome book. They sorted us by alphabet; I was in Charms.

At midnight, the clock chimed twelve times and we all cheered! By 12:18, I had my book! On my way home from the Square, I drove down a deserted, dark street and passed a young guy riding a big upright bike with a giant basket very reminiscent of Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, but instead of a doggie, he had the book in his basket. Awesome. Harry Potter is cool.

See ya in a couple weeks! Enjoy the book, enjoy finishing your sockapalooza socks, enjoy this time.

The finished dolly bag is living up to its name by holding the dolly doll I made for wee one back in October. It's exactly the right size to hold her. So it's official, the purse will go to wee one for holding her little girl things.

I enjoyed this project so much more than I ever thought I would. I'm thinking of making some more dolly bags for friends' little girls. It would make a sweet present for a toddler (and be much less time and yarn intensive than a sweater!). It could also easily be sized up to make an adult purse. I think one more repeat of the pattern across and up would be enough to make it usable.

There is one change I would make to the pattern though. I don't like how the diamond borders and the cables actually touch for four rows where the diamonds are the widest.

I would definitely cast on 4 extra stitches to each side and place them as extra purl stitches between the diamond and the cables. The diamonds and cables could remain the same size, but when the diamonds are at their widest, there would still be one purl stitch separating each one from the cables on either side. It might be that the addition of these four stitches on each side would mean that the whole bag would take more than two balls of handknit dk and that's why they aren't there in the pattern. I had some extra yarn, but quite possibly not enough for this adjustment. It's just a little detail that bothers me as a knitter/designer and generally uptight detail person. The bag knit according to the pattern and with the included yarn really is super cute even without my change. Perfect for all the little dolls in your life!

Look at how adorably small this dolly bag is!

It's only about 2/3 as big as my shoe. Because it's so small, I'm not sure how much use I'll get out of this bag - maybe it could hold a wee baby knitting project -, but can't you just see a little toddling wee one playing with it in a year or two?

She can put all her teeny treasures in there. Awwww....

This is one of my all-time favorite knitting abbreviations. I love how the very formal order "make" is followed by a silly little word like 'bobble'. (Can't you just imagine Captain Picard from Star Trek saying 'Number One, make bobble.') Plus, I enjoy making bobbles. Which is a good thing because this dolly bag ends with a ton of bobbles!

I also really enjoy Eeyore, um, I mean EOR as an abbreviation. And pwise is pretty funny to say too. Then again, I may enjoy knitting patterns a little too much.

I got my gift package in the mail yesteday for subscribing to the Rowan magazine! Did you get yours? I'm going to guess that you got yours about.... a year ago.

When I first subscribed like 5 years ago, I signed up in the summer, which is apparently the end of their publication year. Ever since, when it comes time for me to renew my subscription, they're out of the little gift package for that year. I've had to wait extra weeks, pick different colors because my choice was all gone, and last year they even told me that they were just going to send me the gift from the next year. You might recall that last year the gift package had two skeins of kidsilk haze in it. I was really excited when it finally came time for my renewal because I'd watched everyone else get their yummy kidsilk haze. Then when they told me they were sending some handknit dk for a purse kit, I wrote to them and said, no I really want the kidsilk haze! They were very nice (they have been very nice every year when they write to tell me that I have to wait or change my choice) and sent me the kit in a different color. And as usual, I didn't knit the kit. I never do! The all seasons cotton and the linen drape from a few years back eventually worked their way into tank tops and the rowanspun dk from even longer ago may never become a Kaffe Fasset pillow, but I'm saving it for something special. I've loved getting the yarns, but I don't seem to convert them into actual things that often.

So yesterday, after waiting some extra weeks and sending in a second choice color selection, I get this year's gift (uh, last year's gift for the rest of you!): two skeins of handknit dk to make a little cabled purse. This never happens, but I felt this intense desire to start knitting the thing right away!

I really needed a change after working on socks for so long. My hands were yearning for the feel of a different gauge and a different yarn. I don't need a knitted bag, but I couldn't stop them! Turns out the pattern is interesting without being difficult and I'm having tons of fun with it. It feels like a little knitting summer vacation!