ProseKnitic – of Words und Wolle

Military

Sitting in the surgeon’s shop, I am working on socks while we discuss all of our procedures and documents. If I was willing to take orders, there would be a line out the door.

Last evening we were entertained by the Jazz Group, who set up near the two DFACs. Pretty up front about their agenda (the more they get invited to perform while downrange, the fewer scut details they will have) to make sure that everyone knows that they are around and love to provide music.

The moon was almost full glory. Here we don’t get the second full moon of the month tonight – it shows full tonite at 0140 according to the Space Websites. As a result, for Europe, the Blue Moon will fall near the end of the month.

Socks

And then there are the current socks. They are knit in STR. The particular color is Fire on the Mountain in medium weight.

I need to get back to my Sockapaloozas starting tonight!

-Holly

Military

Picture in your mind a long open bay of sleeping space with a door in each end that opens to the outside. There are overhead lights and windows on the outer wall that open. The inner wall is shared with the other side of the buildings.

In this room are metal bunk beds along both sides witth the feet pointing toward the center isle. Since there are not 48 women, in fact not even 24, everyone gets a bunk on which to sleep, putting their gear on either the bunk above or below.

Unfortunately, it appears that most of the women sharing this location with me are GenXers and really young. Nothing against young knitters, most of you have manners and considerations for others. But for this crew who is sharing space the idea is not to disturb others, especially if they want to sleep. So TVs, Stereos without headphones are not a good idea. Neither are private phone calls in the building (unless you don’t care if everyone else hears them, and trust me – none of the rest of us want to hear you). Nor do we want to be woken up before 0600 if we don’t have to be anywhere for a few hours. You can tell most of these kids have not been deployed or they would not be doing this stuff.

I am contemplating posting house rules covering lights out, noise, and neatness. As the senior occupant, I am reserving my right to be crabby.

Socks

I have this lovely skein of Fire on the Mountain from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. I started Vinnland from The AnitCraft but the pattern disappeared in the bright colors. So I am back to a basic 4/1 rib. I am going to figure out tomorrow how to manage to get to the library so that I can upload a couple of pictures.

But I have some down time, a great opportunity to crank out socks.

-Holly

Military

There is an old saying – If it is not raining, it is not training. Well, this morning we had it in spades. 1AD is doing their deployment prep. Part of that is a rather large exercise out in the field. Lucky me, I get to play for a couple of weeks.
I am not going to Iraq, only to bay billeting and a secured working area for the next couple of weeks. I know a lot of the people, many have worked for me at various assignments over the years. There are beds in buildings rather than tents, there is a DFAC open twice a day, with MREs only for lunch. I can get on the computer, but pictures will be limited.
The 300+ km to here was in the pouring rain, complete with construction zones and lots of trucks.

Knitting

To make my day, the SGT at the Heidelberg Mail Room let me bail out my packages prior to hitting the road. It would be fair to say that they were all for me. And contained either audio books or yarn. I have more than enough to keep my happy for a couple of weeks.

I will try to keep you posted. Most importantly, I am looking forward to new June patterns from a couple of KALs.
-Holly

The rain comes down softly. Not salty of tears but fresh to wash the grief of those standing silent. With respect and memory, the pebbles are placed.

Yesterday I placed money in a contribution container. Sitting at a table with their poppies, two of the few remaining veterans of the Second World War reminded me of how much wars have cost. How little things have changed in the last few years, except for the innocents who are dying.

Looking through my files, it seems like this day means something when I am deployed but passes almost unnoticed when I am in garrison. The details of ordinary life taking away critical meaning, reflection, and honor.

Life is too precious to spend it carelessly. I am honored to serve, but I see the cost in lives and injuries as we remain mired in the middle of an inevitable civil war.  As I contemplate my friends downrange, I can but pray for their safe return.

In the morning I head to the field for a couple of weeks. 1AD will roll this fall. Doing what I can to help them be ready and worry about what is in store.

May wisdom be granted to those who lead, while those elected face the responsibilities oftoday. For the lives lost, torn assunder, and the families that remain.

-Holly

Sitting here, I have not much energy for knitting. Last night I was time zone whacked and up at 0230. Now, I have no clue as to why my son was up at the same time. Could it possibly be that he slept the day away (without cleaning up) and is not tired at night?

This morning it was strawberries, our ground cover. Not to eat, they have no flavor, but seem so cheerful.

Totally out of control – it is her ball, trust me.

Knitting

What I really had to do was choose and wind sock yarn from the stash to take with to Graf. I am planning on knitting socks in the evening. Rumor has it that there are even mattresses on the beds along with lights and heat. Now, if I can just find an internet connection I will be all set and you will hear from me! In any case, I now have to figure out, other than the sockapalooza (only thing on the needles) which patterns to bring along. Suggestions welcome!

Socks

Another Monkey – out of Opal Herbsmelodie. That makes three socks from one skein of yarn.

Audio Books

Loaded to the MP3 Player for evening entertainment – The Zero by Jess Walker. E through I by Sue Grafton, Dark Tort by Diane Mott Davidson, Dead Run by pj tracy, Thanksgiving by Janet Evanovich, The Cat who had 60 Wiskers by Lilian Jackson Braun, Stuart Woods, Short Straw. I still have a number of cassette sets to hear, provided the recorder decides to cooperate. And more Agatha Christies as well.

Time to upload this and convince my body that it is time to sleep.

-Holly

We flew over the Canadian Rockies, landed in Montreal and changed planes for Frankfurt. (We will skip the part about the flight delay from Vancouver & Montreal, the late arrival in Frankfurt and the delayed train from Frankfurt. Why bother?) What a lovely feeling, getting off the train in Heidelberg, getting home, dropping off the suitcase on the way in the door.

Home

We shall also gloss over what the house looked like. I don’t even want to talk about the dining room where there is a table somewhere buried under all the flotsam. Or the living room where the teens have apparently been living in order to watch the only TV in the house. They are on Pfingstferien. They tell me they are entitled to stay up late and sleep in.

Actually not my problem as I have to head to the field in the morning.

Even less my problem as DH and I blasted back out the door to pick out bathroom tile and plumbing fixtures. In less than two hours we found tub, tiles, sink and toilet. I am hoping that our bathroom is ripped out while I am in the field and Noah’s room is already partly deconstructed. Those went to our plumbing upstairs.

Socks

The Fluted Banisters are done. The colorway is Shades of Teal knit out of Monarch Yarn. I adore this yarn, it is springy and highly twisted. It shows stitch definition extremely well. I have only tried the sport weight on 2,5-2,75mm needles where it is wonderful.

Which only leaves the sockapalooza and a scrap monkey on the needles! The kids did not pick up the mail this week. I could cry, considering this was yarn that I wanted to take along to the field.

-Holly

Oh – the Vancouver Public Library is a beautiful building – here is a bit more of it.

The trip back home takes a long time. Several audio books, a few pictures, lots of sock knitting and hours upon hours. Departing Vancouver at 0850, we are chasing time zones.  About five hours again in the air before Toronto, and three hours for time zones. Leaving Canada, add almost nine hours, and six more hours on the clock.

That means that it will be over 24 hours on the clock before we get off the plane in Frankfurt to face the train ride home.

Bed? Not a chance. The bath and tile places are only open until 1300. If I want a say about our new bathroom, Saturday is my only opportunity.

Arches

From my foot tour, an out of the ordinary public building.

Headphones back on – Roberts and Patterson still to go.
-Holly

Travel

After the conference finished around 1300 today, it was time to visit yarn stores. The DH who was returning from that dangerous place, San Francisco, was tied up in Immigration/Customs for almost two hours. No idea why the lines were crawling but something is going to have to improve before the Winter Olympics or there are going to be thousands of really unhappy people.

But I digress. After visiting the first store on Main Street, I headed off on foot up 20th in the direction of Kingsway. And this is what I saw adorning the fence tops along my route. Not on the cross streets, and not a block over. Something must have infected this street with a need for creature guardians.

Please note, I spared you the other four dwarves who were in a lot more shadow. Along with pineapples, more lions and other unidentifiable crowning elements. Snow White knew better than to be out in public.

Knitting

Yarn Shops. Birkeland Bros Wool Ltd. is at 3573 Main Street. Not only do they have a wide variety of Canadian and Scandinavian yarns on hand, they have fibers and spinning wheels. And then there is the 100 year old huge carder still in the shop. You can see it from the front, the back and up close and personal. I would not put my fingers in there.

I also stopped at Burnaby Knitworks. She was having a storewide sale. A wide variety of yarns, mostly good solid choices were on the shelves. If I had anything planned (other than socks), I could have easily stocked up on Peer Gynt or Lannett. But I was good and didn’t buy anything.

Socks

At 0530 this morning I settled on Fluted Banister for my Barrister. The colour way is called Shades of Teal from Fly*Dyer if I am reading the label correctly. The sock is at that wonderful limp dick stage that is only obvious is you are knitting top down socks. Some times you really don’t want to wave it around at this point, It can really startle the uninitiated.

Our flight is fairly early in the morning. Vancouver -> Toronto -> Frankfurt.

-Holly

Travel

The weather was beautiful today.  Rather than go to an optional, non CME, lecture I hiked up Howe to Chapters (book store) where I found a copy of Vancouver by Davis. Yes, there were several other coffee table books, but his lecture was so excellent that I wanted the stories that went along with the pictures. It was really hard to go back inside, out of the sunshine after lunch. I also had collected a few pictures that were unique from an outsider perspective. 

I didn’t expect brightly coloured taxis. It looks like someone scattered a box of Smarties.

Or a city that very carefully labels the nearest wall in impressive script to make the fire hydrant easier to find.

Not to mention my proof that the Convention Center looks like a cruise ship or that there is what could be a UFO landed on top of the Harbour Centre.

Knitting

In the slightly more sane world of sock knitting – I have Monkeys! Knit in sport weight LimeNViolet, 64 stitches on 2,5 mm needles they just sped along. I have to admit that the colour combination is obnoxious, but so are monkeys. That made it a great match.

Now, what socks are next?

-Holly

Travel

Other than someone from Switzerland calling at what I think was 0100 in the morning, I actually got some sleep. This bodes well for my functioning here, but not so for the return to Europe at the end of the week.

I spent the day at the conference, occasionally appreciating the turning globe.

All the lectures were decent, some of the speakers absolutely outstanding. I can’t figure out the Brit Military attitude toward Leish as presented by the speaker today, but then catching a preventable disease does not win you a free ticket home in the US military.

Wandering downtown at the end of the day I enjoyed the contrast between a few old buildings, and reflections in some of the new. Unfortunately the majority of the architecture is on the high-rise cement with windows version. Functional, but really really boring.

Ah yes, I bought professional books today. It is always hard for me to tell whether or not I want a book by reading about it in a catalog or on a webpage. Now, if it is fiction and under 7$, I might take a chance. Medical texts, on the other hand, like all professional books can easily run $40-275 a book. I am unlikely to guess at those prices. Since the three major book publishers had reps, I was able to sort through and decide how to best upgrade my references. This is important, money spent on medical texts is money not spent on yarn or knitting books. Let us get our priorities straight.

Knitting

It is now Monkey, from Knitty. The Opal matches the Horcrux I finished yesterday. The second pair was started on the way in this morning out of colorway LimenViolet in sport weight from Lisa Souza

From there I think it is the Fluted Barrister out of Shades of Teal from Monarch.

I guess I am keeping this up while I am on the road because that I how I started in the first place: with an email distro list out to family and friends since March of 1998. I still have that running as well, but automated out of Yahoo Groups to make it easy on myself. But most of crew is not at all interested in knitting. And posting pictures is a lot of work out my email account.

Besides, it is a great excuse to make sure that I have email!

-Holly

The convention center in Vancouver is right on the Harbour. In fact, the Coral Princess is tied up at dock right next door. With all the private balconies on the upper deck, it makes me want to just get on board, sit with my feet up right out from my room and knit my way up the inland water ways to the coast.

The architecture of the Convention Center itself is built like a ship. There may be sails, but the rest is pure cruise ship. It is wonderful. The views from the upper deck, a plaque with the history of the Two Sisters, and the inside Totem. Too bad I had to spend most of the day inside, not being able to see the sunshine that finally arrived.

With all but one speaker today being absolutely excellent, I really enjoyed the meeting.

Knitting

The Horcrux pattern is an auto pilot knit once past the upper portion. I have the pair now finished and Monkey started. In the same yarn because the DH really liked the yarn and I should knit something for him. But it is really busy. And the truth is I forgot the ball of yarn that I wanted. Tomorrow, LimenViolet for Monkeys.

Travel

Being awake really early is not at all surprising, so we will just skip that.

Besides getting registered for the conference and visiting a few souvenir shops, what was important was seeing a bit of Vancouver. This is the Pacific North West. It rains. Not to be amazed that it was raining here. And occasionally coming down hard enough to get us wet, even with the new umbrella we purchased having not remembered to bring one along. I did bring a rain jacket. But putting it on makes me feel like a wimp. So instead it stays in my bag while I get damp.

But anyway….

We drove around Stanley Park which is at the very end of the peninsula that has the “old city.” (This is Old in a Northern American Continent kind of old. – not European old.) Just for your general interest, Vancouver believes in charging for parking, a lot. At least I think $2/hour for street parking or pull over parking in a park is a excessive. But it does make money for the city and prevent commuters from using it as a parking lot.

Then there is the  University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology with an incredible collection of First Nation Artefacts. The most prominent of which are house totems as well as other Salish and Haida works, both old and contemporary.


Since the purpose of being in town was to attend  CISTM10,  it seemed to make sense to attend the opening of the conference (along with the included reception). Because of unexpected road construction not there this morning, we missed the Bagpipers. But heard some short, very entertaining greetings and saw the Chinese Dragon Dancers.

The only issue for me was the number of people crowding around the snack tables. It was much nicer watching from the balcony above than being in the press.

Knitting

In the middle (between registration and museum), we had headed to Grey’s Point. I checked out Urban Yarns. Other than carrying a complete like of Fleece Artist, they had some other lines, all higher end and good quality. The store is quite small, but good use is made of the space. Their sock yarns were limited to Fleece Artist, Lorna’s Laces, Koigu, and three different colorways of Regia. Not lines, mind you, but three individual color patterns. But the women working there were lovely. I did pick up some Seawool, but the guy colours were pretty limited.

According to the clock on this system, it is 0752 on the 21st. Since it is not that where I am, it explains why I feel so tired.

-Holly

Travel

The train was at 0605. And there is no way you should believe that I got to bed prior to 0230. That makes for a short night.

It is over 8 hours to Montreal from Frankfurt, a scramble through customs, luggage re-check and a run to the gate to make the 5+ hour flight to Vancouver. Air Canada is nice, polite and acting American as far as service on the in-country flights. I am still not used to paying for food on flights. My bags of trail mix went a long way to keeping the DH and I fed for that leg.

With a window seat on the first leg, I kept my self entertained with socks, the camera, and the MP3 player.

For that second leg, middle seat, the MP3 player was running down (did I mention that there was actually a USB port in the panel in front of me which worked for chargeing?) and getting a crick in my neck from difting off in weird position.

Socks

Half way down the first sock – the Lava Spiral out of Lisa Souza’s Earth Birth were finished by the time we got off the plane in Montreal except for the minor issue of closing the toes and dealing with the strings.

This gave me time, before I wiped out completely to start Horcrux (6 Sock KAL) out of Opal Herbst Melodie.

Audio Books

MP3 players are great, that is once you finally get to the menu that lets you cancel “shuffle.” I mean really, how do you list to a book with a device that insists that all your tracks be scrambled. I intensely dislike not knowing what comes next anyway, so it is not an option for which I see any use. Given the time frame, I was able to listen through two of the three books in Nora Robert’s Key Trilogy and start on the third. Dead Run and D is for Dead Beat did not get ripped completely. Argh!

Meeting registration is in the morning and the opening ceremonies and reception are tomorrow night. Time zones are striking.

-Holly

The day before I go anywhere it seems like everything falls apart. At work there are meetings, crabby people, and emergency deadlines. I suddenly remember a number of items that really do have to be completed prior to going out the door.  I won’t bother to mention the email box that keeps filling up as fast as I emptied it out. Since I will be gone over a week, this is not a small consideration.

And we will not discuss the idiots on the road. Passing streams of lumbering trucks grinding their way up Grünstadt Hill there is always someone who does not believe in speed cameras until after they go flashing past and get blitzed. This is followed by the sudden slamming of breaks and accident near misses. Did I mention this is also a construction zone? And that the fog was so dense this morning than 60 km was pushing it?

No crash, so I suppose that the fool in the Mercedes thinks that there was no foul.

Socks

I started a new sock. I was looking at RPM, and then looked at the ball of yarn. I really didn’t want to have to count. I also like Bohus. This pair will be a spiral variation. I simply purled when ever either the yellow or a transition orange was in the row below.

Packing

The most important part of the packing has been completed. I have identified and made center pull balls out of Opal, Fleece Artists, Monarch, Lisa Souza, and Ellen’s Half Pint Farm to take along.

I also have knitting needles, tape measure, patterns. Camera and charging cords.
Clothes? Oh, yes, I probably should pack some of those, shouldn’t I? Not as important as yarn.

Audio Books

Rescuing an MP3 player back from the teens, I still have to load books on CD. I think I am going with Agatha Christies’ The Mystery of the Spanish Chest and Return to Baghdad, PJ Tracey’s Dead Run, and Richard North Patterson’s Exile. It is similar to yarn. By far better to have too many books loaded in case one of them is just not what you want to hear.

Arches

Should I run a contest to identify this location?
-Holly

Knitting

Totally and completely amazing. The only sock on needles is the sockapalooza. The grasshoppers are complete. Not knit by the pattern completely (one sock is a sampler of various 2tog/yo combinations, with the second a bit closer to the real pattern.

Yarn= STR Silky in colorway “Walking on the Wild Tide”
Pattern= variation on Knee High to a Grasshopper, the April Rocking Sock Club Pattern. The key change was knitting the back of the sock in 1×1 ribbing.  It may not be as pretty as the mesh, but the socks are staying up after a couple of hours. All the yarn overs were done front to back, which made the p2tog a snap.
Needles = 2,5 Colonial Rosewood dps over 56 stitches.

The yarn was lovely to knit, I will have to see how it wears. I find foot length much harder to estimate with toe up socks., perhaps in part because I am never in the situation where I can try them on in process. And moving stitches from my beloved dps to something else and back is a pain.  Since I have never run out of sock yarn, I have proved that I can knit toe-up and will go back to knitting my top down socks. There is a lot of room for personal preference.

So what do I do for simpler project when Sockapalooza kntting is too much? Something out of More Sensational Knits? Certainly I should knit a fingering weight pair of Hocrux for 6Sox KAL and March Madness Monkeys for my spongemonkeys (be warned, the song is horrible) as part of the running family joke since they started singing “We like the moon” at World Con [LA CON IV] last summer.  

Sockapalooz4

Only a couple more rows tonight. I have to decide whether I am going to take them along to Vancouver, or just go with simple patterns on the trip. The pattern, which I created by pulling various twisted patterns from a couple volumes of Strickmuster aus dem Steirischen Ennstal, has two panels which are quite complicated with side panels that are less so. It takes concentration. Unlike the twisted stitch patterns that wind up in most popular pattern books, these panels include a lot of knit/purl swaps. Since I wanted to make my pal something that was going to be unique, I think I have succeeded, unless I go insane in the process.

Audio Books

Finished Dead Wrong by J A Jance tonight. In plenty of time to return it prior to leaving town. Now to decide what to load onto the MP3 player for the trip. My cassette recorder is not cooperating. That might be good in that it takes up a whole lot more space.

-Holly

Before I forget – is there anyone out there from Vancouver? We head that way on Saturday [Conference time] and I am hoping to get in a couple of yarn stores or see if anyone is willing to have me treat them to tea or coffee.

Sockapalooza

Blowing up the pattern with the xerox helped. Should I admit my eyes are getting older? Or that knitting sometimes is neither the right focal length for either my distance or the bifocal portion of my lenses? Unlike stockinette – this was more like 10 rows in a couple of hours. Might have something to do with a dropped stitch or two, but I would rather not talk about the fun of chasing a lost pearlpurl down a number of rows. This is a full repeat on the front: which means a double repeat on the back and x6 on the side panels. I think it looks ok.

Knitting

See what came in the mail today from Ann K

Isn’t it such fun? It was a prize from her blog and I was a random winner. I now who is going to be marking the center of Cottonwood when I get it back on the needles.

The Blue and Grey Stripes are done.

And I am making progress on the Grasshopper, only the leg left on the second sock. So I need to choose my next project so that I am not completely insane. A pair of Monkey’s perhaps?

-Holly

To be honest, this was one of those days at work best put out of mind as soon as possible. Long meeting in the morning followed by commute with car (I am so glad the CD player was willing to play today without skips, fits, stops and starts) followed by work, acrimonious meeting and more work. I didn’t get in the door at home until after 2000.

So you can imagine what this did to my knitting. I brought home my Sockapalooza pattern, and turned the heel on the stockinette sock.

That is it. The grasshopper is only six rows farther up the gusset.

I took pictures of both, but felt too stupid to post them. Six rows? Give me a break, the progress is not visible from the last update pix. And a standard heel turn – you have all seen that before.

The best I can offer is the yarn basket (which seems to be the home for cords and chocolate as well as knitting paraphenalia) and the dog, ever patient as she waits for me to drop food within her reach.

Oh, and then there are the sponge monkeys on their way to school.

-Holly

Moving right along, you don’t want to hear about my morning of meeting (that is right – 3+ hours long) anymore than I want to think about it. Nor do you want to know that I then had to hitch a ride to Landstuhl for a 30 minute meeting late in the day.

And how did I get home, you might wonder. Assuming that I successfully made it home tonight without wheels.

Well, I gained knitting time. I had a chance to work on the grasshoppers for part of the midday blast down the autobahn. At least till I got to the part where I needed the pattern which was in the trunk. Should have suffered through being uncomfortable in the front seat of the sports car with large bag under my legs than have 20 minutes unable to knit. I will know better next time.

No dummy, I am taking the xx07 after the hour S-1 as it passes through Landstuhl on its way across four states to arrive at Osterburken. I was sitting there in time to see the new Trans-regio pull in. And see that orange sign? It represents a remarkable change for Germany.

A No Smoking sign. In an outdoor public place. The train stations are now to be smoke free.

One hour, 42 minutes later, the S-1 passes through Heidelberg. Allowing for boarding and exiting, I figured a good 95 minutes of knitting at the minium. Executing complicated patterns requires concentration – I elected train knitting. Plain, ordinary stockinette can be absolutely wonderful.

Socks

I finished up the first sock of this pair quite a bit earler, the second was cast on after boarding – and this is 16 cm of sock cuff wrapped up as we pulled into Heidelberg. Really not bad for what turned out to be 100 minutes of knitting time.

I should be thrilled to accomplish even 20% of that speed on my sockapalooza. There I made absolutely no progress:  I forgot the yarn at home and the pattern at work. Phooey.

While we are all at it – have you seen Summer of Socks 2007?

Books

I have both the India Ink and Yasmine Galenorn cozies just returned from the eldest to read. All these sock projects are really interferring with my reading. I have gone from a book/day normally down to maybe 2 a week.

-Holly

By rumour, today is Mother’s Day. We had absolutely nothing scheduled. Once the basic errands were finished (getting some groceries in the house) the rest of the day was mine to sit and play. The cheese cake was baked by the eldest just for me. The dog just decided to stay with me in case I was willing to share my food [not].

Sockapalooza4

If you think these socks are for you – you might be right. But then again, with so many of us involved, the odds are not high. I don’t know if my “victim” has ever been here to look. Not posting would take a lot of fun out of the process.

After working out as much as I wanted with my sample yarn – I discovered the following: using 2,0 mm needles made too stiff a fabric with a gauge around 4 sitches per cm. Plus if I want to stay with this gauge, I will have to expand the number of stitches. Hitting the stash, I found a skein of J-Knits in colorway Newbury Port. which I had purchased from theYarnGrove.. The best I can describe it is as a semi-solid falling between rose and lilac. I have been to my pal’s blog. She has pink, she has purple, she has red socks on the pages. I think this color is going to work out better than my previous choice.

Starting on 2,25 mm needles, I went with a long tail cast on and knit a cuff in twisted rib that I think is long enough. It measures 4 cm. Which led me to a bit of research and a curiosity – how long a cuff is long enough? Is it a standard length, which seems to be common for most German patterns, or is it more reasonable to be proprotional either to the length or the pattern? I have noticed that I seem to knit about the same length cuff, and it is related to how much cuff is needed to hold up the sock. And that means that it may very with the receipient. What do you think?

After 13 rounds the patterns are coming clear. I am quite pleased with how well the colour, stitch definition and pattern combination came together. The front and the back. I can see right now that this is not mindless knitting. The side panel repeats are only four rows long, but the back pattern is 13 and the front is 15 for the center and 8 for the side. Once I am completely done, I should properly write out this pattern in case anyone else is interested. Working from xeroxed sheets cut and taped together is fun [I have some shore front property in the desert].

Knitting

The second grasshopper is progressing. It is my break knitting when my eyes are too crossed from the Trautenfels Tulip. Going toe up again (my consession to the pattern) I even decided to do the mesh stitch. We will not talk about the one stitch that jumped off the needle and made a break for freedom down four rows before I could blink. Rather than reknit, I picked it up as best I could and kept on going. Since the other sock became a stitch sampler, one irregular hole in the mesh is not going to bother me.

Audio, Visual, etc

The winner of the Eurovsion was Marija from Serbia. And if you have any interest in listening – all the songs can be heard over the internet by following the links to each of the participants pages and hitting audio or video.

-Holly
going back to her knitting.

In what is a rare event for us, we are sitting in the living room and watching the Eurovision finals. If you are not familiar with Eurovision, let me give you a quick explanation: each country through popular vote from TV broadcasted competition choses a music performance to enter the International competition. The entries vary from solo jazz singers, through weird home language performances to totally wacked out rock groups. The winner is decided through popular International vote (phone and SMS). This whole thing is accomplished through TV Programs. Started in 1956 – it predates American Idol by decades.

Some of the entries are totally insane – Ukraine metal group in mylar costumes – UK sappy pop in flight attendants uniforms – incredible drumming from Bulgaria. 24 in all. An amazing number of gorgeous women’s voices and performances this year. Moldova, Slovakia, and Finland come to mind.

Of course, evey act was followed by commentary out of the teens plus the DH.

It interferred with my knitting.

Military

Of course, most of my evening had already been blown by the Annual AMEDD Ball. George got off the train from Frankfurt in time to put on his tux and we headed to the Village Pavillion.

The color guards were in the tradition of wearing uniforms from across the wars.

[You can fill in the middle here - opening remarks, welcomes, buffet dinner, various award announcements and presentations, closing remarks]

Once the colors were retired, there was supposed to be dancing. After talking to a few people, we hung it and came home.

Knitting

Ready to bind off the first Grasshopper, with notes taken on changes for the second. Still going toe up, and I like this heel version. Once I picked up the trick of doing the yarn over from front to back, I might just mesh the second sock. What is also making a difference is that I am making the back side of the leg in 1×1 ribbing so that it does not sag.

Sockapalooza4

I have found the componets for my pattern, knit a twisted stitch cuff and am five rows down the sock. Because of the bright red, it is hard to see at this point. Mostly I am making sure this is doable, checking gauge, and keeping this pair for myself. I will get daylight shots tomorrow.
Since there are 2000 participants out there, even if my pal stops by this blog, I have no reason to suspect that she would ever guess these are for her.

—
The votes are now being announced. It is a hoot, Serbia, Ukraine, and Russia are in the lead. What can I say? Next year this program will be hosted out of somewhere in the former Soviet Block. Should I stay awake, or crash? Humm, knit is best.
-Holly

[No clue - the post along with the comments just vanished. I think it may be to do with my editing methods. In any case, this is an approximate repost].

It was a long week and I was ready for a break. The Challah was baked by Nina to be taken along for services tonight. I would have photo’d the cake, but the dog got a piece of it when her back was turned.

Knitting

More progress on the Grasshopper: beyond the heel and starting up the leg. I am still treating it as a sampler, so the stitches do vary here and there. After trying out the front-> back yarn over, I might just knit the second one by the pattern.

Sockapalooza

I doing a sample pair (which I likely will keep for me) to double check gauge and pattern prior to making the one’s for my pal, the Lisa Souza yarn is really pretty bright. I like the way the twisted stitch rib is coming out. This was just a regular cable cast on. I am contemplating a chanel isle cast on for the second sock to see how it looks.

Arches

The time was August 2005, the location-Glasgow, Scotland. The SS Armadillo.

Audio Books

Checked out from the library – Dead Wrong by J A Jance and Fiddler by Ed McBain.
-Holly

It was all worthwhile, the fussing and the fretting and the guy from Telekom who insisted that our equipment was old and fried. Admittedly the router has been in continous use since 2001 and the Frtiz! box almost as long. It also meant at trip to Telekom for new equipment. But we have DSL up and running once again with one combi box replacing three pieces of electronic equipment.

Wollpiraten!

Hermes followed instructions. When I got home today, there was a treasure chest waiting for me in the garage. It had come from Nala. The Pirate trove included yarn to keep me busy while underway, cream for hard worked hands, shells, candy and a log book. I have found some fun things to restock and will get it on its way Saturday.

Knitting

The Grasshopper is started (STR April). I promised myself that I would just knit it per the pattern. I even started it toe up. Then added a few extra rounds because I wanted more solid on my toes. After doing a few rounds of the P2tog, yo followed by yo p2tog, my fingers felt like they were bleeding and I felt nuts. On this kind of project I am not obsessive. I did not frog, I just changed the pattern to alternate rows of k2tog yo with yo k2tog back loop. It gives a nice mesh pattern with a lot of give as well. I have finished the heel of the first one and have just the leg to go. No fake hem in the back (why prove that my legs are weird?).

To balance out the concentration needed for Grasshopper, I needed a mindless knit. Digging out a standard guy yarn, I have made great progress on a pair for DH in the last couple of days.

A New Button for those who just want to watch people try and knit 52 pairs in a year’s time. We started with about a hundred of us on 1 April; completely insane beings. I know how long it takes me to knit a pair that are uncomplicated. And I really have no babies or small children to score rapid progress. I am ahead of where I need to be for the present (those are sock pairs 14 & 15 noted above), kind of banking socks for those months when I am unlikely to be knitting socks.

I have rescued all the comments out of the hold bin, I am not sure why Akimet caught a couple of them. I have no idea why the snail body is so white, perhaps he was just washed by the rain. She had moved on this morning, which is good considering how awake I am not when plowing down the stairs at a dead run with the dog before coffee.

-Holly

It seemed like a really good idea at the time. I could never find a laundry basket that did not have strange things in it when I needed one. Weeks ago I bought two more laundry baskets. That way I had one for my clean clothes and one for the dirty.

George did the laundry this past weekend. The kids also did their laundry, except for Nina who flew from Barcelona straight back to school. I had not been in the laundry room for several days.
It was not as bad as I have seen it; all members of the family had a few items here and there. But then I counted the laundry baskets: standing on the floor and piled on each other, several with only one or two items flung on the bottom. There was no place to set down the basket I had just brought down from upstairs. Disgusted, I dumped everything together and sorted out the first load so that I would have a clean uniform to wear this morning. An hour later (mind you, all of this is before 0730), I came down, dropped the first load in the dryer and just dumped the remainer of my basket in the washer. Taking the basket with me, I headed back upstair.

Then it hits me, uniform shirts. Uniform shirts have various patches with Velcro. I have three tops, two of which are in the washer and one in the dryer. I have two sets of patches. I have an almost dry bare shirt. The patches are securely fastend to the shirts currently in the middle of a wash cycle.

The digital display says 35 minutes remaining. You do realize that I have the standard German front load washer. I have to wait for a spin cycle, kill the process and turn everything off for at least five minutes in order to get the front door to unlock. And there is no way to restart it mid cycle. This is not a fun choice.

I could go and dig out a set of BDUs, find and polish a set of black boots. Right. Not. Some of the above accomplished, I zipped up my dry shift with the soaking wet patches, restarted the washing machine, gathered up everything and headed out the door.

Knitting.

They are done. Finished. Complete. The Shadow Socks – on feet, on blockers and up close. The shadow part was interesting, and I have proved that I can wind up with actually a sock from a rather weird construction. It will be a while before I even think about repeating this.

Audio

No, Lime & Violet is not good for me. I would up making a trip to Lisa Souza’s website.

It is late, and I am still wandering over to the hospital to post. We will not talk about WordPress giving me fits.

-Holly

No DSL. No camera hook-up and no way to edit pix down to a reasonable size even if I could upload them.

Bleh.

Knitting

The last 8 rows on the foot, then it is on to the toe on Shadow sock. It feels like it is taking forever. The yarn is wound for my STR pair of Grasshoppers which I hope to be able to start tonight. That just leaves me with my Sockapalooza Pal. The yarn is from Lisa Souza who has such lovely yarns and colors. As well as generous yardage. The pattern? Well, I am just about done with it. I am going to test drive it on some of Lisa’s Sock! in Denim, but will knit a lighter color for my pal.

I need some denim coloured socks; this is a two-fer.

The weather is cool, blowy, with spritzes of rain. It could be worse- I am leaving the office before dark.

And listening to Lime & Violet on the way home.

-Holly

It took this little snail longer to make it across the one step than it did for me to make it the flight of 60 to the house.

It is not like I am in a hurry or need to access the Internet in the evening. Cruising knitting blogs or similiar sites is optional, right? So why would I care that the phone started working again this morning but the DSL quit? And Telekom will not be able to come until Thursday. Of course, I have not a clue as to how we are going to manage that, given that some of us (not Telekom) seem to work for a living.

Wollpiraten

Now, given a chance to stay home and wait for the post, in case the Schatz Kiste comes my way in the next couple of days – why that would be of far more interest that to wait on someone who once again will tell us they have no clue as to why the DSL does not work. Oh – the Treasure Chest? A round robin of wool treasures, where each sucessive Pirat adds to the packet before removing anything, then sends it on to the next victim participant on the list. Not leftovers, no, this is for treasure.

Shadow Socks

Ok, this way of knitting is almost as fiddly as the original, since I wanted the colours on the foot to match the original. After completing the leg, I used the cherry for a standard German heel. Then it became fun (not). Knitting all the way around twice with the moss, followed by the instep over with the cherry, backwards around the foot with the moss, interlock the two yarns then backwards with the cherry while the moss returns around the heel. It means that every fourth round is a real pain. I also noticed that I have stripes in the top; something that was not really evident in the sock, but shows clearly in the picture. Only 1/2 a foot and the toe to go.

Mai in den Tanz

Completed as ankle socks per request of the younger teen. Knit on 3,75 mm needles over 42 stitches, it was a quick knit.

Off to finish up two documents for work, and not from the comfort of my own chair.
-Holly

You have to understand that it sometimes takes us a while to get anything accomplished. Like the jungle on the property cut back, the house cleaned, or objects mounted on the walls. Years as a matter of fact in the case of hanging pictures back on the walls. We relocated from München in summer of 2001; still with work to do on the house when we moved in.

Everything that had been up on the wall prior to the move wound up stacked against the wall in the living room, placed in the wall cupboard below the stereo, or tucked up on a shelf.

And there it all sat till last weekend. I am not good with hammer and nails. Plus we have German wall construction with finishing over block. It can make hanging things extremely challenging. The teens had sorted out everything over their vacation. I enlisted the oldest’s finacé on the principle that if he can store and work on a VW bug in our garage, he might know how to hang things.
And it has happened. After being here 5 1/2 years, we now have art work back up on the walls, the mirrow hanging over sideboard in the dining room and family pictures up in the kitchen. It looks pretty impressive.

Computers and Comms

Last night was nuts, the DSL was out, and I posted from elsewhere. In the process, some updates to shared blogs did not make it through and others were duplicated. It came back on this morning, then went out again an hour ago. Checking on the set up, there was a wire that seemed to be kinked. Restarting everything plus unkinking the wire has worked for the present. Who knows how long it will hold.

Knitting

The Tanz in den Mai is almost complete, with just the toe to the second sock to complete. (I obviously managed a few cm more after taking the picture, but it is too dark outside for another photograph.

Making it just a little bit farther on the second shadow sock – I should be to the heel and the heel turned tomorrow. I am actually liking how the pattern is appearing in this method. I am thinking now about the foot construction and whether it is going to wind up being stripes, or if I have enough energy to work back and forth on the sole of the foot with the equilivant of short rows to complete it in the solid color.

Which means that I can wind the STR skein tomoorw for the April pattern. It has been interesting seeing all the pictures of these socks in progress across knitting blogs. They appear to be various shades of purple, pinks and greys. When I look at my skein, it mostly seems to be greens and pale browns. Ah well, I am having fun with this. I also need to work up some swatches for my Sockapalooza pal’s socks, as I am not going to knit any pattern at 11-12 stitches per inch.

Audio Books

Ten Big Ones is finished, as is Loyalty in Death. I just picked up Diane Mott Davidson’s Dying for Chocolate at the library on Friday for the CD player, while I am back with One, Two, Buckle My Shoe by Agatha Christie on the cassette player. Said player which is now making weird grinding noises. I am hoping that it is not dying; I really don’t want to have an go buy another one. There are few cheap ones in Germany, only expensive. And I want something mid-range. Perhaps I will go hunting when in Vancouver later this month.
-Holly

Once more we are having DSL problems. This time around the phone is working, so there is a connection into the house. And all of the computers connect just fine with the router. But the Fritz-box says that there is no DSL coming in. And it is right.  Since I had to go over to Heidelberg Hospital and check something for work, figured to maximize the use of the medical library computer.

Knitting

May Day, pattern by Anni of Sockamania

They are knit in STR. This particular colorway is Lemon Grass. As is common for many of my sock pairs, they are fraternal rather than identical. The leg and instep were knit on 2,75mm needles, the heel, sole and foot after the first repeat on 2,5mm needles.
Remember I was thinking about alternatives to lengthwise knit for the second sock? Top on the list was a fairisle method so that the columns would run vertically, just like the other sock. After a provisional cast-on and some calculations about numbers of stitches I had a sample.

And then had the blinding flash of the obvious. Rows of purls and columns of purls are different. If I stack them in fairisle, all they are going to do is disappear into the fabric. They are not going to stand out. Why we use purl stitches to frame cables and to make the elements around them stand out. Short frog later, I restarted with the younger sib version. The direction of the pattern is 90 degrees from the other sock, but the integrity of the shadow is preserved.

Since this is going to still be a somewhat fussy knit, I decided that I needed something quick. Out came a skein of Claudia’s Handpainted in Roasted Chilli. Since the ball winder seemed to be somewhere else, the nostepinde that I purchased from Jim Childs of Hatchtown Farms came out of the basket. After winding the yarn, I started with Mai in der Tanz from my SKL. Given that I am knitting on 3,75 mm needles, I would be making rapid progress even if it were not being turned into an ankle length sock.

Audio Books

Detouring off from JD Robb for the moment, Stephanie Plum is starring on the car CD for the last couple of days. Funny is good when you are caught in traffic. And I do prefer the CD to wearing a head set while driving.
-Holly

Do you remember ages 5-10 (especially boys) and their fascination with bathroom humour? Take two teens, ages 14 & 16, turn them loose with the built in Mac translation program and they can get extremely weird. After going through mixing and matching between English, German, Spanish and French, they wandered further. Not being able to read the Japanese or Chinese, they put it aside in favor of “guess what this Dutch phrase is.” Not satisified with simple declarative sentences, they moved on to such challenges as “I like to play in the road as a car hurtles around the corner,” “Are sheep allowed to drive cars?” and “I will dance a polka on your grave.” Noah listened to Miriam read Nederlandisch and tried to guess what words she had entered. Of course they had to test out the extent of the vocabulary present, concluding that Bablefish has a great fund of words.

For Elena, it was just too much.

Knitting

Today I was once again startled when a coworker commented on multi-tasking. “I am no longer amazed that you knit, talk, and seem to know everything that is going on, I am just looking for you to be able to knit and type on the computer at the same time.”

I could do that, I thought, using voice recognition software…..

Meanwhile, May Day 1 is complete except for grafting the toe; the leg on the second sock is complete. As previously mentioned, the yarn is STR Lemon Grass. The leg is knit on 2,75mm Sox Stix, then I dropped to 2,5mm rosewood dps for the heel and the foot. Two full repeats of the pattern on the leg, one on the instep, then two more on the foot top, but only the center section. When I get to the foot on the second sock, I will move the pattern over so as to have a complete leaf type structure in the middle for the last two repeats.

Arches

Interior arches, stairs, and layered openings off the cental courtyard open to the night sky.
-Holly

Military

And today it was Butzbach retiring their flag. Outdoors on a beautiful day, the clinic is located in Roman Way housing area. The clnic will actually cease operations end of June or so, but the commander and his family fly tomorrow. Since the PAO took only a few shots and I took a lot, I promised to send off a disk.
According to the Public Affairs officer for the area, there are two deactivation ceremonies a day on the line unit side for the next couple of weeks. The whole area will be Ammie Frei by August.

Knitting

Besides riding with great people who actually have a sense of humor, the trip offered me almost 90 minutes each way of knitting time. That little bit of cuff turned into most of a sock, with little less than half the foot to go. I started the small size with 2,75 needles, then dropped down to 2,5mm when I hit the heel. The pattern is a really fun knit. Normally not a yellow or green person at all, I had this yarn in the stash. It just said “Spring leaves” to me.

And then there is Shadow sock. I did the grafting. And if anyone is afraid of grafting, you will be a pro after doing 85 stitches (half of which had to be done in alternating knit and purl sections.

From there, I picked up around the end and added in the toe, once again experiencing the thrill of grafting the end closed.

Then, a partial sock, and an after thought heel. Und noch mal…

And, as I am sure you noticed, I was running short of needles in the right size (due to MayDay on needles). This reminded me of how much I do not like to knit socks on circulars. The cord just drives me nuts. I know that it has some really great points, but just not my thing. Once I finished up the picot bind off, I had the first sock done.

It fits fine.It was interesting to knit, but really fiddly. Lots of interupts on one of the colours meant numerous ends to be woven in. And I really don’t like afterthought heels. Now I have to decide among several choices: do I knit the second sock by the pattern anyway, or make a completely fraternal sock by changing the pattern to horizontal (allowing me to knit it in the round – I will just have to fiddle the foot), or do I still make the stripes vertical but knit in the round which means a faux fairisle and floats on the inside. I weighed the yarn and have enough for any of the options.

-Holly

My teenage offspring cut seriously into my knitting time tonight. I walked into the kitchen and was stunned.

Half jokingly, the DH and I made this deal when we got married – or he accomodated me – but I normally do not do either kitchens or bathrooms. I hate dusting and vacuuming as well and always avoid them whenever possible, but that was not part of the original deal. I don’t eat much at home – glass of juice in the morning on the way out the door – then cook my noodles at work. So I spend little time in the kitchen and hardly notice it at all.

Tonight there was no choice when I realized that all three of teens had escaped (Monday and Tuesday) without cleaning up after themselves. And no, I am not grateful that they can cook. Any person in my house who is tall enough to reach the fridge and doesn’t, well I am not really excited if they stay hungry. Especially since the teens had a lot more hours off than I.

They left me a sink full of dishes, two frying pans and the cookie sheets. The cookie container was empty. Sheesh, at least they could have left me a bribe. I can’t blame the DH, he left early Monday, well ahead of the messy crew. It is amazing how fast you can clean up while waiting for the microwave to go off.

I had plans for this coming weekend, a Space-A trip. The KC-3 crew decided that they did not want passengers on their turnaround to New Hampshire. Depriving me of a weekend visiting friends in Portsmouth and yarn shopping, it has given me the gift of 2 days at home free to knit and drive the kids bonkers with chores.

Knitting

If you haven’t seen The Last Knitter on YouTube, it is hilarious. I found the reference on Rosie’s Knits.

I am making progress on the shadow lengthwise socks. Not as much as planned, very little knitting time today (see above, plus work, plus dog). Following directions, I am now at the point where I need to do the long graft for the back. I am going to do that tomorrow afternoon, even though I had really wanted to finish this sock tonight. Daylight seems like the best idea. The detail shot is of the back leg gusset. It was really fiddly – with a lot of short pieces of yarn.

Instead, I decided on Lemon Grass (STR) for the May Day Socks. It seemed to be reserved in the skein, but brightened up considerably in the hank. A few minutes with the ball winder and I was ready to go. Trying my new 2,75mm (US 2) Sox Stix. They feel nice and are a great length, but the points are really blunt. Don’t you just love the difference between outdoor photos with natural light and what one gets indoors, without a flash but with a halogen spotlight.

Since I am off to Butzbach in the morning, the dog and I are headed to bed.

Quiet

George left yesterday morning for Switzerland. Nina flew to Barcelona this morning, and I just returned from dropping the youngest two off at the Bahnhof so they are able to make the 2100 school deadline. The dog has been under my feet since I returned. She does not care for being alone and the house is ringing with silence. I can hear the birds singing outside, since all the music generators have been turned off. Yesterday, I had 4+1 all late afternoon and evening. Laughter and squables from our four echoing through the house. Add in the dog barking and Shana’s Frank- and it was truly home.

Knitting

Before I forget, if you think I have a lot of socks – you need to look at Steffi’s Collection.

I do knit a lot of socks. They are fun, portable, and fast. I try to balance anything complicated with a pair that is mindless for all those times when I want to knit on auto-pilot. Now that it is Mai – I have a short list that I am planning for the month:
1) Chameleon Colorworks – April’s SOM - Shadow, a lengthwise pattern. I am knitting the first as written. But I have already decided that this will be a fraternal pair with the other sock top down. I don’t mind grafting, but it is not my favorite pass time, especially when it is 80 stitches, half of which have to be bound off in garter.

2) SKL – Tanz in den Mai (May’s Dance) is a lovely twisted stitch pattern that ripples down the sock combined with small lace areas.
3) STR – April SOM Grasshopper. The package arrived today. Noah really liked the colors. But I don’t think that he really wants lace or needs silk in his socks. Like last month, I am trying to stay as close as possible to the designer’s intent for the first sock, then doning what I want with the second sock. I don’t have to have identical socks to be happy. And I am enjoying trying out new techniques.
4) MayDay – Sockmania. It looks like a great pattern and a quick knit. Just enough design to be interesing, capable of being combined with an audio book. I think I may well take the LemonGrass for its cheerfulness, saving the Lucy in the Sky for
5) Sockapaloosa4 -Alison did a great job of matching up levels of knitting experience. I have looked at the data on my victimsockpal. She is picky. Really, really picky. I think it is a difference in philosophy. I left the person knitting for me a lot of freedom, they should have a great time, and to knit something that they like. I am not worried about getting a pair of acrylic socks knit at 4 stitches per inch. Emailing with a couple of others, I am not the only one who has landed a picky pal, so this will not identify the person. I have instructions on yarn, types of patterns not to mix with certain kinds of color combinations, and so forth. But I can be extremely evil. I have read her blog. I know what she likes. Amazingly, we have shared a city in common at one point in our lives. I now have the ocean between, but that just lends to the fun. And I have just the perfect pattern (which is one I know she has never knit for herself). Now I just have to decide if I am going to be kind and use the blues that arrived today, or perhaps the Lemongrass.

6) Monkey KAL – had forgotten about this one. My March Madness Group just sort of keeps on going. After doing a sweater together in March, we knocked off UFOs last month. This month the vote was for Monkey.
After that – I am working my way through Favorite Socks, plus I have several pairs out of Sensational Knitted Socks that should be up.

Which is why it is wonderful that my Sox Stix were in today’s mail. I think everything that I had ordered is now in. I have yarn, a shawl pin, patterns, and needles. Lovely blonde, fine wooden needles just for sox found on Yarn Bazaar for a better price than Lantern Moon’s.

-Holly