Then I chain-plied them which means you make very big loops like crochet chains, and twist those in the opposite direction of how you spun them. I managed to cram all 108 grams of plied yarn onto the spindle (I put the tiny spindle into the pictures for size):

This is how the cob on the spindle looked after I pulled the spindle out:

And this is how the yarn looked after I skeined it:

I hope this makes your day a little brighter just like it makes mine every time I look at it.

• die urbane Spinnstube
• Wooly Whispers
• Twinneedles

News und Termine:

• großes Spinntreffen
• 3. German Raveler Treffen
• meine VHS-Kurse: Perfekt passende Pullover stricken und Spinnen mit der Handspindel
• Keltischer Sommer Socken/Celtic Summer Socks

Gestrickt und gesponnen und sonstiges habe ich:

• Topfbrot gebacken (Rezept bei Anke Gröber und hier der Link zu dem ausgezeichneten Buch “Nudeldicke Deern“)
• Deo gemacht (den Link hatte ich von Sallys Blog “Already Pretty“, der verweist auf das Rezept von How about orange; Link zu Reginas Blog (Ich habe für mein Deo 3 Esslöffel Kaiser-Natron und 3 Esslöffel Pfeilwurzmehl aus dem Bioladen vermischt, dann ca. 4 Esslöffel Kokosöl und 10 Tropfen Grapefruitöl. Einfach in einer Schüssel mit der Gabel verrühren, fertig.)
• gewebt hier der Link zu einer Anleitung, wie man mit dem Gurtwebrahmen anfängt, allerdings auf Englisch, aber mit vielen Bildern und Videos und hier ist Lavernes Blog, auch auf Englisch, eine wahre Fundgrube
• Ebony Turtleneck ist komplett fertig!!!
• Rivendell
• “Irgendwie Türkisch“, zweiter Socken bis ca. 15 Runden nach der Ferse,
• Glomerata
• Hopefully Enough Yarn, eine Strickjacke nach eigener Idee aus handgefärbter und handgesponnener Wolle 
• Farbverlaufswolle weiter gesponnen, wird schon.
• Polwarth von The Painted Tiger etwas weitergesponnen, die erste Spule ist jetzt wirklich so gut wie voll
• Indian Summer weiter gesponnen.

Hier der Link zum Zugsocking von Stuttgart zur Wollmeise. Und hier Fotos von der Operation Rollkragen, die dann missglückt ist:

I went to a friend’s party in Bamberg:

I went to another Creative Arts Breakfast Meeting

Rode my bike to a nearby “Biergarten”

Took my son to see the Smurf movie. Went there by bike. It was my first ever 3D movie. I think I prefer the 2D kind.

Went to a fellow writer’s birthday party, brought my guitar along and sang to songs for her.

Along with my husband and son rode my bike to the Andechs monastery again. We tried a new route that was brutal. I saw this for the first time ever:

After three hours of biking we absolutely had earned this:

and then we went all the way back home again.

Went to a writer’s meeting.

I had ordered a new spindle at the beginning of summer break and after only ten days it arrived. (I had ordered it because I found I need a medium weight one for the big sweater project I’m doing.) It’s a Bosworth Mini made of redheart wood, and it weighs 19 grams. It spend fabulous, and is very pretty.

Invited two of our neighbors over for barbecue. They’ve been living next to us for seven years now but this was the first time ever that we did anything together. We had a very enjoyable afternoon and evening. My son’s besets friend came over as well and stayed overnight. Since we started in the afternoon, and it’s impossible to have anybody over after lunchtime without offering cake in Germany I made this:

Then we did our very first space clearing ever. Before we had had the impression that the house was full of bad vibes from the people who lived here before us. Now we feel much better.

Then I got two packages in the mail. the first one is from LabCat from the US who tried to send this at the beginning of May because we did a swap. Well, after two months the package was back with her, German customs hadn’t wanted it to enter the country, for whatever reason. Since she spent the beginning of August in the UK she sent it again, and here it is:

And on the very same day I got a package from the “fiber fairy”. No, really. In the revelry group I love the most there is a tradition of sending people fiber anonymously. Mostly when they’re having a bad time. Imagine my surprise when Dan of Gnomespun fiber sent me a message telling me that he needed my address because the yarn fairy had wanted to send me a gift. Wow. And it’s gorgeous. I’d say that I can’t wait to spin it but actually knowing myself it will be some time before I’ll get around to it.

The another trip to the beergarden. Yes, we love it there. It’s in reasonable biking distance, it’s big and has gorgeous trees, the food isn’t too bad, and the beer is nice.

I always eat the same food there:

And there were so many wasps that my son’s soft drink needed a cover:

Next thing we bikes to yet a different beer garden again, this time the Hirschgarten right in Munich. We went about 15 kilometers, a little more than an hour. We met a couple of people there (not pictured here):

Last week it was unbearably hot, and we went to a nearby lake so our son could practice swimming, this time by train because it was just too hot to bike, and then, a few days later, we went to a nearby outdoor pool, by bike again.

Then the weather cooled off, and we were happy to stay indoors again, as that is our natural habitat anyways. Of course, next thing we’re heading to Italy for camping. In a tent. We’re already starting to pack, and then we’ll be away for a week or so.

And, very exciting to me, I did manage to publish my very first ever sock pattern on ravelry. You can go and buy it. It’s available in German and English, and it’s anything but dull. Cables, lace, intricate construction, and very enjoyable to knit if I say so myself:

Mehr und schönere Fotos gibt es auf Evas Blog.

Gestrickt und gesponnen habe ich:

• Ebony Turtleneck Vorder- und Rückenteil fertig, erster Ärmel Schulterkugel fertig, wieder aufgeribbelt, neu gestrickt, ersten Ärmel fast fertig, wieder geribbelt, wieder ca. 60 Runden gestrickt.
• “Irgendwie Türkisch“, zweiter Socken bis fast zur Ferse fertig, ruht unverändert,
• Sock Leftovers Blanket, ruht,
• Mossy Turtle, alle Teile fertig gestrickt, jetzt kommt das Zusammennähen und Ausstopfen,
• Spider Socke fertig
• Pogona komplett aufgeribbelt und Out of My Head angefangen und fertig gestrickt; muss noch gespannt werde n.
• Star Trek-Topflappen in Doppelstricktechnik angefangen, aber gleich wieder aus der Hand gelegt, muss geribbelt und neu angefangen werden
• melierte Merino-Seide auf der Bosworth Featherweight unverändert
• Farbverlaufswolle weiter gesponnen, lange noch nicht fertig
• Polwarth von The Painted Tiger etwas weitergesponnen, die erste Spule ist jetzt so gut wie voll
• ein Kilo “Indian Summer” auf meiner Bosworth Midi zu Wolle für den “Wiseheart Sweater” verspinnen. Gesamtergebnis bis jetzt ca. 170 Gramm:

Außerdem noch: Wie macht man einen Podcast?

Gestrickt und gesponnen habe ich:

• Ebony Turtleneck Vorder- und Rückenteil fertig, erster Ärmel Schulterkugel fertig, ruht,
• Keltischer Sommer Socken, ganz fertig, fehlt noch das schicke Foto und Fertigstellung des Musters,
• “Irgendwie Türkisch“, zweiter Socken bis fast zur Ferse fertig,
• Sock Leftovers Blanket, ein halbes Dutzend kleine Quadrate mehr,
• Mossy Turtle, ruht.
• Spider Socks angefangen, der zweite ist schon fast fertig.
• melierte Merino-Seide auf der Bosworth Featherweight unverändert
• Farbverlaufswolle weiter gesponnen, lange noch nicht fertig
• Polwarth von The Painted Tiger erste Spule fast fertig, genauso wie das Mal davor

Es wurde sonst noch erwähnt:

• Abby Franquemont

Das große Tour de Fleece-Projekt:

• ein Kilo “Indian Summer” auf meiner Bosworth Midi zu Wolle für den “Wiseheart Sweater” verspinnen.

Gesamtmenge:

flauschig:

die Spindel nach dem ersten Tag:

und nach dem zweiten:

And then somebody mentioned the book “Refuse to choose” that I read some time ago, and that reminded me about how I have wanted to do a map of my house showing all the works in progress that lay around everywhere. And since I don’t usually draw I thought it might be fun to take pictures instead. And then I thought you might like to read about that, so here we go (and since this is a very, very long post you might want to grab a cup of tea or something):

I started at the desk in my studio/office. This is the first sock for my soon to be ready for purchase sock design “Meadow Abstract”. I’m currently knitting the second sock, correcting errors in the pattern, and hopefully soon, I’ll translate the whole thing into English. (Underneath is some tax stuff, and random paperwork.)

Left side of the desk we have guitar tabs for “Road Tripping” a song I’m currently learning to play on the guitar.

This one was sitting in a bag right on top of my desk but it does look better like this, doesn’t it? It’s my current spindle spinning project. The fiber was dyed to go all through the rainbow, and I’m trying to preserve the colors while spinning.

On top of the spinning shelf inside the lazy kate there’s a ball of handspun Merino waiting to be swatched for a sweater, and underneath that some weaving that my son did, that I still need to hem. Don’t mind the green yarn on the bobbin, that’s not a project.

Too lazy to pull that out of its bag, here you see in the front my current wheel spinning project, also in the paper bag some red silk that I started spinning but don’t care about at the moment, and some cotton sliver that I started spinning on a suspended spindle. I don’t consider this a real project because I don’t care if I ever get that finished or not. It’s just for practice.

Big, huge, next spindle project. This is actually a sweater waiting to happen. My huge, big, scary project for July. (Two pounds people, two pounds of Corriedale.)

Piano. With some random sheet music. Playing the piano has been an ongoing project of mine since 1979. Still not finished. Probably never will.

Potholders to be. We’re down to only one pair so I bought some yarn today. After taking this picture I put it in one of the yarn storage boxes in the bedroom.

Pile on top of the stereo speaker: notebooks with stories waiting to be typed into the computer and eventually be published somewhere, book I bought to read for a book club that I never got around to open, and underneath the “Zen of Screaming”-DVD that I have been wanting to work with for about a year or so. Already watched it twice.

Stack of paper next to the computer: “How to make your own deodorant“-recipe that I printed out to have it ready for when I go to the health food store next time.

Next up the former guest bedroom, now the place where we watch TV:

Underneath the table there’s a basket with all my leftover sock yarn in it. Well, most of my leftover sock yarn. This will eventually be a blanket. Now to the bedroom:

Denim skirt to be sewn. I actually finished drafting the pattern, and cutting out the pieces on the day before we left for vacation but some time in the afternoon I finally listened to my husband’s advice, and didn’t try to finish it at all costs before leaving. It really only needs sewing by now…. (And no, I’m not a tidy person. This is draped over two dressers, actually.)

As I said. Underneath this mess is the dreaded mending pile. You see: the box the denim came in, the stuffing for another project that I’ll show you later, the finished sample for my soon to be released “Celtic Summer Sock”-pattern (need to fix errors, take fetching pictures of socks on my not-so-fetching feet, translate pattern into English, and such). Under those are my husband’s beloved Wollmeise socks that have a big honking hole in them, some brown yarn for a sweater I’m knitting, and some handspun Wensleydale. I don’t like the project I made out of it, and now I don’t know whether to rip or not.

Shawl waiting to be blocked.

Socks to wash by hand, table runner to be ironed to get wax out, apron to be ironed.

And off to the kitchen:

Green thread to sew the binding of my green corduroy skirt (that I have been wearing for ages) to the skirt itself.

Spindle with the part of the rainbow fiber on it that I’m currently spinning. Books to read on the kindle, episodes of Buffy to watch. (And lots of things to put away, oops.)

My corner of the kitchen bench in bad light.

Books and magazines that live on their own shelf next to the kitchen bench but I thought it would look better if I spread them out a bit. I have been trying to finish reading “Shadowrise” for ages, and the task is no less daunting for the fact that there is yet another part of that story to read after this one. I’m almost through with both spinning magazines, and some of these days I’ll educate myself about color in spinning so I can start dyeing fiber as well.

Spider sock in progress (lives in the red knitting bag).

Second “Meadow Abstract” sock, see above (orange knitting bag). Yes, my knitting projects are color-coded.

Mossy turtle in progress. That’s the project I need the stuffing for. Not all of the stuffing, mind you. It lives in the beige knitting bag that lives in the green knitting bag but that’s only temporary.

Beginning of sock yarn blanket. That I haven’t worked on for about two months. After taking this picture I transferred these bits, the crochet hooks, and the pattern to the knitting basket shown above.

Never-ending turtleneck sweater of doom. I have been knitting this thing since 2009. I’ve even started writing a song about it. I once was almost at the same point as I’m now, only the thing was too big. Now, after more than 1 1/2 years I’m finally starting to knit a sleeve. I need to calculate the rate of decreases now so this will only take a few weeks or months at least. For some reason I never get around to things like that.

After taking this picture I thought I had found all the works in progress but then I remembered. And went back to the bedroom:

This innocent looking broom handle will eventually become a backstrap loom. I now have everything I need.

Another project, I call it “Let’s get Susanne back in shape.” These are my running shoes.

For recording. This is a podcast waiting to happen, also improvisations waiting to be captured.

Four novel manuscript waiting to be finished. Well, okay, three because I don’t like the first one, and will never do anything with it.

Novel waiting to be edited.

You still with me? No wonder I feel a bit overwhelmed. I think I shouldn’t really start anything new soon. What do you think?

Gestrickt und gesponnen wurde dieses Mal:

• Ebony Turtleneck Vorder- und Rückenteil fertig, erster Ärmel angefangen (Hurra!!),
• Keltischer Sommer Socken, der zweite fast fertig, es fehlt noch der halbe Fuß und die Spitze,
• “Irgendwie Türkisch“, erster Socken und Anleitung fertig,
• Sock Leftovers Blanket, ruht immer noch,
• Mossy Turtle, desgleichen.
• melierte Merino-Seide auf der Bosworth Featherweight fast unverändert
• Farbverlaufswolle auf der Tiny Turkish 35 Gramm gesponnen, noch mehr als 75 Gramm zu spinnen, was etwas verwirrend ist, weil das ein 100 Gramm Kammzug war.
• Polwarth von The Painted Tiger erste Spule fast fertig, geht etwas zäh

Ansonsten wurde erwähnt:

• verschiedene Leute aus dem Spinnradclub
• Spiro und ihre Kammzüge
• Das Anna-Spinnrad
• meine neue Tasche
• GoKnit-Beutel

“Podcasting auf Deutsch”-Gruppe

Frohe Pfingsttage!

I wanted to write about vacationing at home some more, put up a story or two, and tell you all about how I’m failing my “one goal for the year”. And I will, eventually. For now I’m helping my husband prepare for a house concert, He will be playing here at our house tomorrow evening, and we’re getting everything ready while doing our usual teaching and stuff. There’s also a friend of mine visiting whom I haven’t seen for years and years. And I’m planning my knitting classes for fall. This is the picture I took today for my “Knitting perfectly fitting pullovers”-class:

See you.

• Oberbayern strickt
• Petzi’s [sic] Spinnradclub Forentreffen Süd
• WWKIP-Day
• iKnit – Ich habe iKnit gesagt und meinte in Wirklichkeit Knit Nation. Beides in London, das erstere ein Laden und das zweite eine bestimmt wunderbare Veranstaltung 15-17. Juli 2011
• Termin-Nachtrag: Leipziger Wollefest Ende Mai

Gestrickt und gesponnen wurde dieses Mal:

• Ebony Turtleneck jetzt wirklich mit Taillenabnahmen,
• Keltischer Sommer Socken, der zweite ist so gut wie angefangen,
• “Irgendwie Türkisch“, erster Socken und Anleitung fertig,
• Feminine Candy, angefangen und beendet, noch kein Foto
• Sock Leftovers Blanket, ruht
• Mossy Turtle, Körper ausgestopft, Augen angenäht, Beine gestrickt und halber Oberpanzer
• Creativity Booster, angefangen und fertig gestrickt, muss noch gespannt werden
• handgefärbte Merino fertig
• melierte Merino-Seide auf der Bosworth Featherweight fast unverändert
• Farbverlaufswolle auf der Tiny Turkish etwas weiter
• Polwarth von The Painted Tiger mit dem neuen Lace-Flügel angefangen zu spinnen, sehr schön soweit

Außerdem habe ich erwähnt:

• simplify your life
• Zen to Done
• orientalischer Farbrausch aus “Socken aus aller Welt“
• Flusi, das Sockenmonster (vergriffen)
• Flusi Sockenwolle
• die Kinderbücher, bei denen ich dachte, das Flusi-Buch gehöre zu gleichen Reihe
• Stringtopia
• gesponnener Rhabarber (Ravelry-Link)
• Day in the Park Backpack/Tote
• meine schwarze Handtasche
• das Buch, das ich gerade lese
• Laguna Bag
• Crumpler-Taschen (und der Link sollte zu der Tasche führen, die ich dann heute so ganz zufällig bestellt habe, ähem)
• Tom Bihn-Tasche
• Bree (manche Taschen sind wunderbar, andere überhaupt nicht)
• Mandarina Duck
• Wolle, die ich bei Spinning Martha gekauft habe:

Neuigkeiten:

• neuer Strickpodcast: Bei Hempels unterm Sofa – aus dem Leben eines Staubkoernchens
• VHS-Kurs: Spinnen mit der Handspindel

Gestrickt und gesponnen:

(Auch wenn ich letztens einen ganzen Stapel fertige Stricksachen fotografiert und die Fotos auf meiner Projektseite bei Ravelry eingestellt habe, gibt es von den nachfolgenden Projekten mal wieder keine Fotos.)

• Ebony Turtleneck
• Maplewings
• Vincent
• Checkerboard Socks
• Canopy
• Celtic Summer Socks (habe noch kein Projekt angelegt)
• irgendwie türkisch (dito)
• Tiny Turkish Spindle
• Blog Post von Abby Franquemont darüber, was sie als Handspinnerin immer in der Tasche hat
• IST Crafts
• handgefärbte Merino
• melierte Merino-Seide
• Kindle-Hülle von Sonja und Anleitung von SewMamaSew
• das Buch Färben mit Naturfarben

I mostly talk about all the projects I’ve been working on since August which you can find on my ravelry projects page. Sorry there are so few pictures.

I mentioned Tini because she gave me the idea for one of the topics, and

the Ouroborous Sweater by Debbie New.

Also there is a lot of mention of Wollmeise yarn.

[podcast]http://creativemother.de/audio/Handgemacht9.mp3[/podcast]

Gute Vorsätze allgemein:

• flylady
• word of the year (Das ist ein Link zu einem Post von mir, in dem ich über meine Wahl eines “Wort des Jahres” für 2009 schreibe und der Post enthält auch Links zu dem Blog von dem ich die Idee habe.)

Terminplanung:

• 3. deutsches Raveler-Treffen (15./16. Oktober 2011 in Frechen)
• großes Spinntreffen der Handspinngilde
• Backnanger Wollfest

Die nächste Folge wird eine Spezialfolge auf Englisch sein, aber keine Angst, das wird “Best of”, diejenigen, die nicht so gut Englisch können, verpassen nichts wesentliches.

Was ich gerade stricke und spinne:

• Cool Leave Mittens
• Sheldon
• Maplewings
• Ebony Turtleneck
• Schnappdrachenhandschuhe
• Vincent
• Second pair of handspun socks in perfect colors
• melierte Merino-Seide
• handgefärbte Merino

weiter wurden erwähnt:

• Tudora
• Threadsthrutime
• IST-Crafts
• Ouroboros Jacket aus dem Buch Unexpected Knitting
• Baby Surprise Jacket
• Enchanted Sole
• Frida Kahlo-Buch: “Self Portrait in a Velvet Dress: The Fashion of Frida Kahlo” und auf Deutsch gibt es das auch: “Fridas Kleider” (Schirmer/Mosel)
• Go WIP Go!-Gruppe auf Ravelry (deutsche Gruppe trotz des englischen Namens)

And I haven’t forgotten the blog or my readers or listeners, and I will wish you a happy new year properly next week.

In Arbeit:

Cool Leaves Mittens

Sheldon

Maplewings

Ebony Turtleneck

Schnappdrachenmütze

Türkische Spindel von Threadsthrutime

und handgefärbte Merino.

Dann die Frage, was ist die Strickcommunity? Ravelry auf deutsch?

NaNoWriMo habe ich überstanden und mir meine “Gewinner-Urkunde” abgeholt, mein NaKniSweMo-Pulli ist fertig und ich war beim Adventsspinnen in Ohlstadt. (Ich kann leider nicht direkt auf das Spinntreffen verlinken, nur auf das Forum als Ganzes.)

Fertige Projekte:

• Handspun Vine Yoke Cardigan
• Silky Green
• Beety Curves (der erste Socken), More Beets (der zweite)

In Arbeit:

• Cool Leaves Mittens
• Sheldon

Liegt dumm rum und geht nichts weiter:

• Maplewings
• Ebony Turtleneck

Außerdem wurde erwähnt:

• Snapdragon Tam und Snapdragon Flip-Tops

• Türkische Spindel von Threadsthrutime

Des weiteren habe ich noch einen blöden Fehler gemacht, ich habe des öfteren von linksgerichteten Abnahmen geredet und dabei jedes Mal gesagt, dass ich die Maschen links zusammenstricke. Das war falsch, ich stricke die Maschen natürlich rechts zusammen, verschränkt oder sonstwie….

Ferner wurden erwähnt:

• Virtual SOAR
• Judith MacKenzie McCuin und “The Intentional Spinner“
• NaNoWriMo
• NaKniSweMo
• Von meinen Projekten: Devon in Teal, die handgesponnenen Socken, Ebony Turtleneck und Maplewings.
• Neu angefangen: Handspun Vine Yoke Cardigan, Silky Green, Cool Leaves Mittens, nochmal Ebony Turtleneck (Ich gebe nicht auf!), Babysocken.
• Alle UFOs sind FOs: Toasty Pumpkin, Alien Algae, Psychedelic Liesl und Damson in Plum
• Frau Schlamusers Kommentar zu den sinnlichen Strickern
• Yarngasm
• Dornröschenwolle.

Außerdem ist mir dieses Mal beim Anhören das erste Mal aufgefallen, dass mein Podcast zischelt. Es gibt so einen hochfrequenten Nachhall, der daher kommt, dass mein Kopfhörer nicht ganz dicht ist und das Mikrophon mich von dort zusätzlich aufnimmt. Tut mir sehr leid, dass ist mir vorher nie aufgefallen. Ich dachte, ich hätte einen geschlossenen Kopfhörer, aber nein. Nächstes Mal nehme ich den wirklich geschlossenen Kopfhörer von meinem Mann, dann dürfte das nicht mehr vorkommen.

• Veranstaltungen: NaNoWriMo und Virtual SOAR (Dazu sollte ich vielleicht einen neuen Fred bei den deutschen Spinnern aufmachen. Hat jemand Interesse?)
• meine Projekte (wie immer), spezielle Erwähnung bekommt dieses Mal der handgesponnene Vine Yoke Cardigan (für den ich noch keine Projektseite angelegt habe)
• die Ravelry-Gruppe Go WIP Go! und der Kampf dem UFO-Teil
• NaKniSweMo
• Custom Knits
• und den Film How I Spin.

Mir ist dann erst später aufgefallen, dass ich die in der voherigen Folge versprochenen Stash-Fotos immer noch nicht veröffentlicht habe. Ich habe sie schon gemacht und sie sind auf Flickr zu sehen. Hier im Blog gibt es sie bald. Versprochen.

(Und hier sind sie nun: Stash-Fotos.)

On Sunday while waiting for the train I was struck by the thought that I really need to make myself a Vine Yoke Cardigan out of handspun. I got obsessed with the idea and spent all of Monday researching fiber. I wanted something that was a natural chocolate brown. Not too short-stapled so that it wears well, not too robust so that it’s soft enough.

Today I got the box in the mail. This ball of fiber is huge, it’s 1 kilo (not quite 2 pounds). I also bought the pattern. I’m looking forward to this like crazy but I guess going by my usual rate I’ll probably finish this in August. Next year.

1. Sew a bag to hold my two new spindles.
2. Weave in ends, sew buttons on, and block every single piece of finished knitting that’s on the “knitting to be finished”-pile.
3. Darn socks, and other items of clothing.
4. Clean the house including windows.
5. Sew a skirt.
6. Finish knitting clues 4 to 7 of the Alhambra-Shawl.
7. Get enough sleep.
8. Go to spinning meeting on Sunday.
9. Bake a cake to take to spinning meeting.
10. Exercise.
11. Do something special with my son.
12. Take pictures of all the finished knitted items.
13. Write a story for the next writer’s group meeting.
14. Finish doing taxes.

That’s pretty do-able, don’t you think?

It all started way back last summer when suddenly I realized that if I wanted to teach a lace knitting class I would have to provide the students with some sort of pattern. I couldn’t take somebody else’s pattern for teaching (well, I would have needed permission), most patterns I like are in English (and I’m teaching these classes in German), plus I had very specific ideas about what to teach.

So I decided to design a pattern. Now, I have designed things before, I did a lot of knitting in the 80s when there weren’t a lot of nice patterns around, and all sweaters were very boxy. Apart from the sweater that had a fancy brioche pattern in three colors there was never anything fancy. (Well, and then the lace sweater, and when I taught myself how to knit entrelac, and gloves.)

I already had a sketch lying around somewhere because back when I made a purple stole for a friend of mine I originally had planned to design a pattern just for her. My problem was, though, that there is no lace yarn to be found at my local yarn store (apart from mohair, and I’m not going to give a beginner mohair which is impossible to unravel). So I had to make something that used sock yarn. And that idea was for a big stole with very thin yarn.

I ordered nice hand dyed semi-solid yarn with bamboo from Drachenwolle, made another sketch and thought, “I’ll do this during summer break.” Summer break came and went and – surprise – I hadn’t worked on my pattern. Fall came around, I found that I was somewhat reluctant to design something without even knowing if there would be enough people interested in a class but then I had to start some time. Finally, I gave in, pulled out a couple of stitch dictionaries and used those instead of doing it all from scratch. I made the prototype in two weeks time, it went really fast and easy. Then came the charting. Not easy and fast at all. I think I changed the charts four times to make them clear and easy to follow.

The lace knitting class provided me with test knitters. I had wanted this class to be the “lace knitting class to end all lace knitting classes”. I set out to teach them everything so that they would be able to knit every lace project they ever wanted to. So this little shawlette is quite complicated. It uses almost every kind of decrease known to knitters, and it has nupps, and stars.

It’s called Estnisches Tüchlein/Estonian Shawlette because that’s what it is. You can download it for free. There’s a German and an English version of the pattern.

My students liked the pattern, and the class even though after week one they were sure they’d never get it. But all of them came back for more, and at the end of our fourth evening everybody was confident they knew everything necessary to finish the shawl. And then they asked me for a follow-up class.

Silly me, I thought I had taught them everything they needed to know to go off on their own but they wanted to come back. So there’s a second lace knitting class this semester. Sadly I can’t use the same pattern as last time because of the students who already did that. So I had to design a new pattern. This time I wanted to teach them two things they hadn’t learned the class before, namely provisional cast-on and doing lace on both right and wrong side rows. And I wanted the pattern to be a bit easier than the first seeing that the first one kicked everybody’s ass.

Well, the thought of me making simple things is really funny. I wrote the pattern, I thought it’d be easy-peasy, then I got bored (as I’m wont to do), and slapped on a border that’s so hard to knit it made my own head hurt. Also, I – again – designed on a deadline, not only was there the beginning of the class looming, I also decided to do it during the ravelympics.

What are the ravelympics, you’ll ask? Unless you’re one of the thousands of people participating. The ravelympics are something that took place on ravelry during the winter olympics. The goal was to find a challenging but doable project, cast on during the opening ceremony and finish before the closing ceremony. I wouldn’t have thought about joining (much) if not for a friend of mine who was team captain for team Germany. And you know how much I love crazy internet challenges and strange, artificial, and arbitrary deadlines.

I tried to stay sensible though, and only planned two projects during that time. Project A was making this roving into socks:

All the pictures are dark and dreary because that’s what the weather was like in February.

My socks were done in time and I got some medals:

And project B was to design and knit that lace scarf, write the pattern and publish it on ravelry.

And I did it! And I have the medals to prove it.

And out of the process you get a free pattern for a lace scarf. The scarf is called Erster Frühling/First Spring for download here. (And I get a very cozy pair of yummy socks. Even though I’m not really taken with the colors. I will have to learn chain plying for my next pair. I already ordered the roving. Because while my sock drawer is so full that I can’t quite close it anymore, I really need some more hand-spun, hand-knit socks that are really, really warm. Just in time for spring.)

A few days earlier the new spring and summer edition of knitty went public. For those of you who don’t know, knitty is an online knitting magazine with all free patterns. When I saw that it had come out I went over and had a look. Now, the first thing I always look at is knittyspin. That’s the part of knitty about spinning, and about patterns made with handspun. And then I saw Tappan Zee. It’s a short-sleeved cardigan with a little lace around the yoke. I looked at it and thought, “I have to have this!” I looked at the requirements for the yarn, found that I didn’t have anything in stash that was suitable, went over to an online fiber shop, ordered 400 grams of merino-silk top, threw in another 300 grams of assorted merino for sock yarn, printed out the pattern, and started waiting.

And that was the moment it hit me. This is insane. I felt that I absolutely had to print out the pattern this instant, when first I would have to wait for the fiber to arrive, then I would have to spin it, ply it, wash it, and only then could I start knitting. I won’t be needing the pattern for another four weeks or so. The only thing I need earlier is the specifications of the yarn I have to make for it. But I absolutely felt that I needed the pattern to sit there, right in the middle of my desk.

Now, I have to add that I made a little pact with myself not to buy any more fiber until the 400 grams I already have sitting here are all spun up. I’m a little fed up with the way that there’s yarn everywhere in my house, leaping at me from unexpected places. I just finished spinning the yarn I bought last June, and am slowly starting to inch my way through some of what I bought last September. I’m not quite sure but since last summer I have spun about 800 grams of fiber. I still have 500 grams sitting around here (See how that became 100 grams more over the last two sentences? That’s because I remembered the other fiber I still have.), and then I went out to buy 700 more grams just because I had seen a pattern for a little orange cardigan in a magazine. By my own estimate once that fiber arrives I will have enough fiber here to keep me spinning for the next year or longer.

So, what started this? For one – as you all know – I can’t resist anything orange. If that cardigan hadn’t been made of orange wool I probably would have thought, “Oh, that’s interesting but I don’t need a pattern for it, I can make that myself.” and I would have put it aside because yoke sweaters don’t look that good on me, and I never wear short sleeved cardigans. But since it is orange, and the model has pink hair – I couldn’t resist. Well, I could have if I really had wanted to but I didn’t want to.

Also I really need a cardigan or two. One of my go-to cotton cardigans is starting to look old and ratty, no surprise if you know that I bought it in 2003, and I wore it almost constantly since then. On the other hand a merino and silk cardi will probably be too hot. But maybe the short sleeves will help.

The other thing is that despite my deeply felt cardigan shortage I do have a handspun cardigan and a handknit sweater sitting here that are almost finished. I only need to weave in the ends and sew on some buttons. These sweaters have been sitting here for months, and I haven’t managed to finish them despite my desperate need for more cardigans.

So, to be frank, I really didn’t act in any way sensible when I ordered all that fiber. I had this “I want that!”-impulse, and acted upon it. And it’s that same impulse that makes us buy yet more shoes, or three dozen skeins of sock yarn even thought we could insulate our houses with the yarn we already have sitting around. It’s not the most mature thing to do.

I’m still okay with my decision, and I did start spinning that merino-silk as soon as it arrives. My impulse cost me about 25 Euros, and I will make something out of that fiber for sure. But I have to see to it that I don’t give in to the Want too often.

Giving in to the Want once in a while is a good thing and can make us happy. Giving in to it all the times is unhealthy and makes us unhappy.

Yes, I decided to do NaNoWriMo again this year. First I was all sensible and only wanted to use it to get back into a regular writing habit, and write about 500 words a day. And finish a story I had started in June. Then I thought that not starting something new was like cheating. And then I thought, “Well, I can try how many words I can write comfortably without stress during fall break, and then I can decide later.” And – I think I’m hooked again. For now it’s really enjoyable if a bit crazy, I have managed to write mostly in the mornings so I could do other things later in the day without having to live with the dread of unwritten words all day long. In the past I have often procrastinated until bedtime and then written in a very bad mood and very tired.

And now that I’ve actually sat down to write about it I find that I can’t really describe it. The yarn isn’t that much more beautiful, and it still is uneven and looks very – handmade. But somehow I’m enjoying every stitch. This handmade yarn has much more personality.

I felt the same way about the first thing I ever made out of my own yarn, which is why I called it the “happy hat”. But now I have made three small shawls out of yarn that I spun and I enjoyed knitting them in just the same way. Even though the orange merino/silk-blend was supposed to become an Aeolian. And I didn’t manage to spin it fine enough, so it became an Ishbel instead. I seem to be on an Ysolda-spree right now. I have two of her sweaters in the making, and have just finished two of her shawlettes.

So, here’s the evolution to shawls:

merino/silk-blend hand-dyed by the “wool dragon”, the pattern is Ishbel by Ysolda

Blue-Faced Leicester multi from the “wool sheep“, the pattern is Gail (aka Nightsong)

This has been quite hard to photograph. When it was blocking my husband said, “This looks like the perfect latte.”

And this is some Corriedale, again from “das Wollschaf“, made into a Damson, another Ysolda-design. The Corriedale isn’t as soft as I would have loved it (I have since learned that that’s the nature of Corriedale). I was in such a hurry to make this that I didn’t even take a picture of the yarn or the finished shawl, the picture was taken by my father.

You might ask yourself what do I need so many shawls for? Well, the orange one is mine (and I use it often) but the Gail is for a friend of mine who lost her father this year, and the Damson for one of my aunts who found out she had breast cancer a couple of months ago. Don’t worry, she’s doing fine and on the mend again.

And the next thing I’ll make is for me again. Finally I managed to spin enough yardage for Aeolian. It’s Blue-faced Leister again (so soft, and marvelous to spin), hand-dyed by Spinning Martha, and I really love the yarn, even if it’s a bit too thick and uneven:

If it weren’t for my husband the house would be a disaster, and I’m still working on this “go to bed on time”-thing. Also on the “put things away”-thing, and on “complete things on time”.

So, what is it that I’ve done?

1. I have designed and charted a triangular lace shawl:

I used traditional Estonian stitches from a stitch dictionary for this. The lace knitting class I’m teaching is already half done, only two more weeks to go.

2. I also am teaching a class on mindful knitting that is more fun that I had hoped for. I’m not really knowing what I’m doing but I’m very used to the “learn by teaching”-method and it usually works well for me and the students.

3. I’m knitting up a storm, trying to finish the UFOs lying around (Un-Finished Objects).

4. I’m transferring one of my stories from notebook to computer. I wrote this in June, back when I decided to write 3 pages every day. I’m still not finished with the typing, and for the last few writer’s meetings I only had this story to read to my writer friends. Since the story is now standing at 3,000 words, and they are still sitting on the edge of their seats waiting for what happens next, all is well. But I better finish the story.

5. On the same note I have decided (yes, I’m big on decisions today) to participate in NaNoWriMo again this year, only I’ll be “cheating” by setting myself a goal of a mere 15,000 words. That will be like going to a marathon to walk 5k very slowly but I know from experience how I feel after having written the full distance. I’m no good for at least the rest of the year, and won’t be writing either.

6. I wrote two half blog-posts. Unfortunately two halves don’t make one finished post. One of these days there will be sunshine and free time at the very same moment, and I’ll take some pictures and tell you about the joys of knitting with handspun. And some time this year you’ll get an account of my son’s first day of school. Which happened a month ago. Oops.

7. I’m also thinking a lot about being intelligent and school. Of course, one reason for this is my bright son who now reads as well as the average third grader (as far as I can tell, I only teach three third-graders at the moment), the other reason is a conversation I had with a woman I met in September. And I remember how bored I felt all through school, and it only got better in grad school. How I didn’t do homework for the last four years of school. And how I really want my son to have a better school experience than I had. Unlike me I’d like him to learn how to study and manage time some time before he turns 25.

But I already found myself telling him that when he is bored in school he better sits there quietly and politely, and that there are other places to learn things. At home for example. My husband and I decided that he needs something a bit more challenging and are turning lunch breaks into informal teaching sessions. (No, we’re not pushing him. We’re just having regular conversations with a bit more explaining for him.) So he’s getting a dose of stories about Italy or Brazil, a bit of history and politics, and also throwing a ball, salsa dancing, and crafting.

8. I have also turned inwards once again, so if you happen to be a friend of mine, or someone to whom I owe an e-mail, or someone who used to know me through comments on her blog: “It isn’t you. I’m not communicating with anybody right now.” Part of this is due to the fact that I’m teaching a lot these days. Which means that I see people and talk with them for hours each day. While I’m reading blogs, and tweets, at the end of the day (and in between as well), I just want to sit there quietly. Well, as quietly as you can when you’re part of a family.

9. I have bought a ton of books, and am reading, among them one on writing songs. Yes, I’m still thinking that one day I will be writing songs again. Maybe even this year, who knows.

After all it’s fall, and that’s always the time to make plans, and get more grounded. I do it every year, some years I’m better at following through other years I’m worse, who knows. Even though we had snow today. Snow. It’s freezing (in a literal sense). Still, snow or not for me it’s fall, and time to get things going again.

That wheel would have been my first choice even a year ago if I had been certain to love spinning. But then I decided to be sensible, and since the Kiwi is only two thirds the price of a Joy, and since the only difference is that the Joy is foldable I thought, “I won’t take my wheel anywhere anyway.” and bought the Kiwi.

Of course, next thing I know I start going to spinner’s meetings. Not that often but often enough to contemplate making myself a bag for my wheel. And then, with some unexpected cash on my hand, and my husband’s instructions to use it for spinning equipment I just went and bought a Joy. And I love it dearly. It’s cute, it’s small, it’s sturdy, it can do all the things my Kiwi could do without even needing a high speed whorl. It folds easily, and I have a nice bag for storage and for carrying it around.

It arrived and I didn’t even have to assemble it much. screw in a couple of hooks, tie some fishing line to some springs, and off I went. And once again something happened that happens all the time: there were things I just couldn’t get right about spinning, and then I found out it wasn’t me – it was the wheel.

You’d think that two wheels that similar in ratios, made by the same manufacturer, using the same bobbins and construction would be like twins but they aren’t. The pull of the Joy is much smoother than that of the Kiwi. With the Kiwi I never had to use the brake but with the Joy I do need it. One very unexpected blessing is that the Joy makes almost no noise. You hear the flyer stirring the air, and that’s pretty much it. Whereas the Kiwi was always a bit louder, and mine in particular had this tendency to start creaking out of the blue. Very annoying. The Joy’s treadles, on the other hand, did take a bit of adjustment. They are smaller so I have to position my feet carefully, I have to sit farther away from the wheel, and need a bit more force to keep it going. I don’t mind though because all of a sudden my goal of spinning lace-weight yarn doesn’t seem as far away as before.

That’s what I have been aiming for right from the start. So far it hasn’t happened. I’m getting better though, I just have finished spinning a 2-ply yarn that’s almost fingering weight. And I have some hand-dyed roving that I’m currently spinning that might become Aeolian.

The last time I went to the spinner’s meeting in Tutzing someone said, “What are you spinning there? Sewing thread?” If only. I had had hopes of getting that to become a lace shawl but then it turned out to be too thick again. The yarn is nice though, and I already knit it all up into a nice shawl.

Something I also really like about the Joy is that it’s so small, it sits there innocently in its bag without screaming spinning wheel at everybody. When my students enter my room, the room I teach in, the wheel is the first thing they see. Only very few people have asked me about the wheel because you know how almost nobody really looks at things or people. But still. The Joy in its bag almost looks like an unusual musical instrument, so that’s a plus. Also I often take the wheel to the kitchen in the evenings so my son can hear me while he goes to sleep. The spinning wheel makes a nice regular sound that tells him I’m nearby. And while I did that with the Kiwi too it’s so much nicer to have the wheel, and the fiber, and everything I need in one bag that I can carry over my shoulder.

So all of a sudden I had two spinning wheels. This seems to be a very common occurrence, there are a lot of spinners out there with a lot of wheels. And that does make more sense than you would think at first because spinning wheels are tools, and some are good for a particular job, and others are good for other jobs. Like, if you want to spin very fine very even yarn you’ll look for something different than if you want to spin art yarn for example. And the most versatile wheels usually are not that easy to carry around so you might want a big wheel at home, and a light, small folding wheel for traveling.

But I looked at my two spinning wheels with a feeling of unease. They have the very same ratios. Since I got my Joy I haven’t used the Kiwi at all. I thought about this, and some people told me to use the Kiwi for plying and the Joy for spinning but then I still didn’t have all the money for the Joy, I only got the money for half a wheel for my birthday. I thought some more. The only option the Kiwi has and the Joy doesn’t is that you can get a real big flyer for it which is better for plying and for making art yarn, which means crazy yarn that’s often bulky and has things like beads, and feathers, and flowers in it.

I don’t see myself making art yarn in the near future. I’m still on the quest for “thin and even”. So I thought about selling the Kiwi. In my mind keeping it for plying would have been like buying a 200 € plying machine. And I can ply yarn as well with the new wheel. And so far in spinning at least I’m all “one project at a time”-girl. So I took a picture of the Kiwi, and told people on the spinner’s forum and on ravelry that I had a Kiwi to sell. I truthfully told that the treadles are stained with dark oil from the inside, and just 15 minutes after putting the offer in I had a buyer. And the next day I could have had four more.

It took a bit to figure out how to get the wheel to her since she lives in Northern Germany but in the end I took screwdriver to wheel, partly disassembled it, used every shred of wrapping material I had in the house, put the wheel into a box and sent it to her. It has arrived safely, and she is very happy about it. When she wrote me she already had spun two bobbin full of singles, and said she loved it.

And I’m happy too. An unused wheel would have weighed on me. Seeing it sitting there made me sad. And it’s not as if I have that much space here, it’s much better this way.

I’m enjoying my Joy (it’s named after a woman named Joy by the way). Of course that doesn’t mean I haven’t been looking at other wheels, there’s still the Ladybug, and the Suzie, or the Matchless maybe, possibilities are endless. But so far this wheel is enough.

Not even at the computer much, I basically spent my last two days spinning, and listening to audiobooks and podcasts. I’m waiting for Easter break to feel like days off but I have the faint suspicion that by the time I feel like I had free time it will be over.

Of course I had great plans, I wanted to sing, and play the piano, and write a bit more on my beach story, and tomorrow there will be writer’s group meeting again, I wanted to take a bit of time to think about my life, and what I want to change, and I wanted to write about the epiphany I had on Saturday, but all I find myself doing is things that don’t require me thinking, quiet things, restful things.

In a way I feel like I need a year off from everything but I really hope that I will feel better after a few weeks of sleeping enough and going for walks, and getting into meditation again.

I feel the need to apologize that I don’t read your blogs, or twitters, that I don’t answer letters, or phone calls, or e-mails. That I haven’t opened twitter the whole day.

I also haven’t done the monthly or yearly taxes, haven’t vacuumed or cleaned the bathrooms, I haven’t made the best of fair spring weather, haven’t gotten groceries for Easter, and can’t be bothered to look up the ingredients for our traditional Easter bread.

While I’m tired I have been good with sleeping, every day since April 1st I have slept eight hours or more. Except for the night my son was sick.

Life is good, my son is calming down a bit, my husband is happily recording drums to new songs, and tomorrow we will make pizza from scratch.

So, the only thing I have to show for the past days (and weeks and weeks before) is this:

The good news: my son obviously got sick only because he ate way too much yesterday. They had their Easter party in kindergarten. Of course. Right in the middle of Lent. (You can’t see me so you have to imagine me shaking my head.)

Anyway, the meeting. I had been a bit discontent with my spinning. I thought I was doing something wrong, the yarn doesn’t turn out as I want it, my wheel is making noises, I wasn’t getting anywhere, still trying to fill the same bobbin as in August, and so on. So when I heard that there would be a spinning wheel workshop at the first German raveler meeting in September, of course, my first thought was, “That’s great! I’ll take my spinning wheel.” Grand idea. My second thought, of course, was, “Are you crazy? Do you really want to schlep your wheel with you, on a four hour train journey to a meeting where you’ll teach two knitting workshops?” Um, no?

But meeting other spinners, preferably more experienced ones seemed like a good idea. Since I’m living near M.u.n.i.c.h I can find pretty any kind of group or meeting within a reasonable distance. So I turned to the internet which told me that there are two options nearby, one group is meeting regularly and is hard to reach, and one is meeting roughly every six weeks or so in Tutzing. And they had a meeting last Sunday. So I talked the whole thing through with my husband (“Do you really have to dash off all the time like a madwoman? Well, if you really must but I still want to be able to work on my music that day.”), then with my mother-in-law (“Could you please care for my son that Sunday because I’m going to a spinner’s meeting and my husband wants to work on his music?”), and everything went well and I decided to go.

Next came my usual bout of worrying and planning and writing lists: where’s the meeting, how do I get there, do I take the train or the car, when I take the train do I take my spinning wheel or only the spindles, what to take, what to wear, where to go, what to pack. In the end, unsurprisingly, I took the train because I’d rather spend 45 minutes knitting and listening to podcasts on a train than 40 minutes listening to the stupid radio while driving and getting angry about all the other stupid drivers out there.

Of course it was raining. And though my spinning wheel is quite small it is way too big for any of my bags or backpacks. I contemplated making a spinning wheel bag but thought that five days full of work with a sick child at home might mean that maybe the bag would not have been ready on time.

I spent the whole morning packing, putting fiber, and more fiber and all my spindles, and my three spinning books, and the last two issues of spin-off magazine, and cookies, and tea, and my ipod, and my “take with me”-knitting, and a screwdriver, and an allen wrench, and spinning wheel oil, and two different whorls and drive bands, and everything but the kitchen sink into a backpack, got totally confused because it was the first day of daylight savings time, and went off.

Everything went surprisingly well, the wheel is light and small and easy to carry (though I’d still like to have a bag for it). At the station I was met by two other spinners, and one of them even knew the way.

At first I felt a bit weird because I didn’t know anybody, and everybody else was excited to meet each other again but that’s always the same when you’re the new one in an established group. There were about eight people, most brought their spinning wheels, one even brought a drum carder. I got to see some wheels in person that I had only seen in pictures before, like the Tom Triskel, a Lendrum, and an Ashford Joy. I totally fell in love with the joy, it’s a folding wheel, it’s very cute, and it uses the same bobbins like my wheel. I’d love to have a travel wheel. And, of course, I totally need one, I already left the house with my wheel once. But then I’m forever judging spinning wheels by their appearance which is why I feel an urgent need to own a Schacht Ladybug.

The reason why I’m thinking about other spinning wheels is that I was discontent with my nice Kiwi. It seemed hard to treadle, I felt like it was yanking the yarn out of my hands, and – most important – it makes noises. Creaking noises. Wooden noises. A regular rhythmic “nyagh, nyagh, nyagh”-noise. I tend to be quite sensitive to noise. I can’t enjoy spinning when my wheel is loud like that.

That was one reason I went to the meeting. I hoped that somebody could help me with that. And one nice fellow spinner really tried, she even put something on my wheel, only it didn’t help. The interesting thing was, though, that after spinning for two hours or so the creaking stopped. All of a sudden my wheel was silent. Relief! Especially since my wheel was the only one making noises in the whole round of spinners there. Of course it didn’t last, an hour later it started again but at least I know that it doesn’t go on like this forever.

The best part about the meeting for me where the times when we all sat there in a circle, spinning in silence. And I loved the way my bobbin was filling up. At home I never spin for more than twenty minutes at a time. I found that about four hours of concentrated spinning gave me a bobbin almost full. This isn’t only because I’m new to spinning and a bit slow, it’s mostly because I’m spinning quite a fine yarn. I want to do a three-ply for a sweater.

I left a bit early to catch my train back, and managed to be back home in time for dinner. A very pleasant afternoon, more pleasant in retrospect than I realized while I was there. And it’s really nice to meet other spinners, to know that I’m not the only one.

I don’t know when I will go to another meeting, it certainly depends on the date, and on the rest of my life, but it’s good to know that there is such a place to go to.

I found that I’m not very eager to learn something new in spinning right now, or to try other wheels or carding, or techniques. I’m content sitting there and spinning the next 400 grams of merino for my sweater project:

And the next 250 of Wensleydale for a lace stole (on my spindle, I know it’s insane):

The only thing I’d like would be some hand-dyed merino/silk-blend but I’ll wait a bit for that, I don’t want to feel buried under fiber.

So, tomorrow I will be go to a meeting of a different kind, it’s time for mindfulness day again. And then there will be Easter break. With a bit more blogging, I hope.

Nice summer combination of sleeveless top and short skirt. Think of a day spent sailing on a lake.

Cozy and practical sleeping bag. Removable pack of tissues as a pillow. Notice the border in contrasting color. (The designer probably ran out of yarn.)

There’s a few year’s gap between the above models and this one. Here there’s actual seamless construction in a floor length sturdy gown with puffy long sleeves. The dress is buttoned at the back and features single rows of single crochet in a brighter color to add interest.

This model is meant to be worn at elegant tea or garden parties. A black skirt sets off the brightly pink top, again with long sleeves. The bow at the neck adds a little extra touch, and for those chilly evening breezes there is a nice black shawl to complete the outfit.

City wear in bright colors. This is an 80s model after all. A simple straight and sleeveless dress that can be worn with or without the matching short sleeved jacket. The simplicity of the piece draws the attention to it’s cheerful color, and the interesting texture achieved by irregularly placed rows of single and double crochet.

The next dress is actually my very first piece of sewing. My mother made herself a dress at that time, and since I was so interested she decided to teach me machine-sewing. The fabric is leftovers from her dress. She helped me measure the doll, and cutting the pieces, then I sew the front and back of the dress, and the hem. My mother helped me gather the skirt and then she sew it to the top of the dress. She also made the hat. (So this time my mother’s the designer, not me.) There was a matching shawl made from thin red cotton but I don’t have it anymore.

A light summer dress made of brightly printed cotton. Notice the matching sun bonnet with it’s pretty rick-rack at the brim.

Again a summer dress, lacy and flowing, fit for a party in a nice dusty pink. Unlike the earlier works this one is knit instead of crochet which gives the fabric a nice flowing drape.

This one is for colder weather, a wooly coat and matching hat. The moss stitch fabric is gathered at the cuffs. The double-breasted front is once again closed with bows. The crocheted hat has a ruffled brim that frames the face and a bow in contrasting yarn to add more visual interest.

Another evening gown, a straight top and skirt with embroidered detail at the neck and shoulders made from a sleek, silk-like material. This model also features a matching bag with embroidered detail, and matching shoes (not pictured because they didn’t fit the model).

It’s really interesting to me to see all these in one place. I find that I still avoid seaming as much as I can. I even used pinky shears to cut out the pieces for the green, hand-sewn dress so that I didn’t have to sew more than absolutely necessary. The preference for bows and yarn as closures is due tot he fact that I didn’t have any buttons. Later I took inexpensive snap-fasteners that my mother didn’t mind giving me.

The other reason for why I tend to knit as seamless as possible came to me just a few days ago when I used my little sewing kit that I got from my grand-aunt when I was 14. I needed a tapestry needle and when I took it out that I had another one tucked away in there which I hadn’t known about for twenty years or so. In my youth there was the tapestry needle. One. It lives (to this day) in my mother’s knitting basket. We were not allowed to take it without asking, and we had to put it back immediately afterwards. Of course I avoided asking for it as much as possible.

I thought tapestry needles were expensive and rare. I don’t know when I decided to buy my own, certainly some time before I moved out of my parent’s house, and imagine my surprise when I found that tapestry needles are actually quite cheap, and that you can’t buy one only, you have to take a packet of two. At the moment I’m the proud owner of about four or five of them, the two I bought myself, and two or three that came with the sewing basket I inherited from my husband’s grandmother who was a seamstress.

Of course the doll clothes you see above aren’t the only ones I made when I was young. But these are the only ones I still have. I kept them because I liked them so much. I remember making clothes for a stuffed ape in bright yellow, blue, and pink cotton, crochet dresses for Barbie dolls, purses, and hats, and such. All made from leftover yarn and fabrics. I’m not sure but the yarn in the first picture on the top might actually be leftover yarn from my third big knitting project, a Norwegian sweater with colored yoke. When I was a child, I didn’t know you could have a home without a sack of leftover yarn and fabric in the attic.

I started them on a whim more than a year ago. The pattern is Tiffany by Sabine Riefler. I used leftover yarn from a crochet scarf, and in their first incarnation they looked completely different. I had to frog them since they were a) way too big for me, which wasn’t much of a problem since my husband said he’d like them, but then I b) ran out of yarn. I ripped, I started a doll’s sweater with the yarn, I ripped the sweater, I read a bit about doing two-handed stranded knitting, I tried again on tiny, tiny needles, and there they are. In two-handed stranded knitting you’re holding one color of yarn in each hand, and you knit continental with one hand, and English with the other. It was very weird at first, especially since I had to modify the way I knit continental, too, since usually when I’m knitting I’m using both hands. In this case I had to free my right index finger. At first I felt like wearing handcuffs, and my right hand hurt but in the end it got easier and more comfortable. And I really love the way the knitting looks and feels, and most of all that there are no strands on the inside. Someday I will make a whole sweater using this technique, I’m sure.

By the way these are all crappy photos because it’s still grey in grey here.

Then there’s the cardigan that I started last year in June. It still needs washing, blocking, and a button. It looks really crumpled because the yarn used to be an almost finished bobbled and cabled sweater that lay in the attic for something like 14 years. It survived the big de-cluttering of 2004 only because I like the color, and I thought that it might become a new sweater eventually. Last year when I saw the pattern Something Red by Wendy Bernard I wanted to make it immediately, and I thought about the yarn in the attic. So I unraveled the bobbled monstrosity, wound up the yarn and re-knit it. No, I didn’t wash the yarn first. Silly. I’ll have to wash and block the finished thing anyway. I made it a bit too small because I think the cotton will become bigger with wearing. This will either be something that I wear all the time, or something that I don’t love at all. The knitting went really fast, until I got bored with the plain stockinette, and with the cotton (because I really don’t like knitting with cotton). I have this feeling that maybe my knitting basket dooms project because the cotton sweater sat in there, only lacking one sleeve for months, and months, and now I have started a new sweater which lives in the basket, and again I am both enthusiastic, and reserved. We’ll see how that one turns out.

I also finished my Clapotis. I had bought some Wollmeise Lace Yarn, which I wanted to use for Mystic Earth. Well, it was much too colorful for that. So I made it into this:

Much better. Also needs blocking, of course. If I go on finishing things at this rate, and not blocking them I will need a special closet for “things to be washed and blocked”. Right now they are blocking both of our dressers. Ahem.

Another one from Wollmeise, this time Wollmeise sock yarn:

The pattern is Ornette by Cookie A. I love the intricacy of her patterns and also the fact that she named so many of them after Jazz musicians. I will have to knit a Thelonious Sock eventually because Thelonious Monk is one of my favorite musicians of all times.

Then there was the re-knit of Gretel because the first one turned out too big for me:

You can find a picture of the bigger one here, and there you can actually see the pattern of the hat. I really love Ysolda’s designs, they make me very happy.

The last thing I want to show you for today is yet another shawl out of Wollmeise Lace, Irtfa’a by Anne Hanson. When you click on the link you’ll see that it is supposed to look like a raven’s wing, well, mine rather looks like a bird of paradise, maybe a psychedelic bird of paradise:

Again with the crumpled look because again, not blocked. Which is why you can’t really see how beautiful it’s going to be. In my defense I have to say that the drum set is sitting on the rug that I use for blocking. But who knows, maybe someday I’ll block everything, and then the sun will shine, and I’ll show you even more pictures of knitting in reds.

For those few of you who’d want to read even more about my projects, you can find me on ravelry. And of course I already started three new projects, or rather four, a pair of plain socks to take with me when riding trains and such, a little doll designed by Ysolda for my son, an olive green turtleneck for me, and a lace stole. Not that much, don’t you think?

On the other hand I can barely close my yarn drawer, and there are projects, patterns, yarn and needles everywhere in the house. How can those two things be true at the same time?

So I decided to a) think about it, and b) pull out the wool and have a look at it. I haven’t gotten as far as actually looking at it right now but thinking about it helped a little. I think I might start to understand what’s going on here.

1. I usually put my leftover yarn in the attic. Sadly the “leftover yarn boxes” are full. More knitting means more leftovers. This is one of the reasons why there is a lot of yarn in my yarn drawer.
2. When I ordered the yarn for my last two sweaters online I, of course, ordered a bit more than I thought I’d need. Since the shop isn’t nearby I can’t just go and get more. Actually, with the last sweater I ordered the exact amount of yarn needed and I have about 2 1/2 skeins left over. I know, it’s a mystery. That accounts for 400 g of yarn between the two sweaters. The leftover yarn would make great mittens or hats (I don’t knit scarfs, hate making them). Only the colors don’t match anyone’s coats.
3. Even though I thought I don’t have any more sock yarn there is in my yarn drawer: a) an almost finished pair of summer socks, b) leftovers of two pairs of socks, enough yarn two knit another pair out of the same yarn, c) between 40 and 60 grams of each skein of Wollmeise sock yarn that I’ve ever owned (which might become either striped or fair isle socks at one point).
4. There is leftover Wollmeise lace yarn, enough for a lace scarf, or if combined with the two other colorways of Wollmeise lace that I have (that accounts for two of my currently active projects), there might be enough for yet another stole,
5. There is yarn I bought in order to make yet another lace stole, this one will be for a friend.
6. There is leftover yarn from making a scarf and hat that will eventually become a pair of fair isle mittens for me. (
   And it would be nice if I finished those before August. So that I can actually wear them.
7. There are three balls of cotton sock yarn that I wanted to design socks for. They have been sitting in the drawer, untouched since July. I had an epiphany last week, and have declared that I will just make socks following a pattern. Designing should be fun, not a chore. The pattern is sitting on my piano at the moment, the yarn is in the yarn drawer. And I won’t start them soon, since it’s not summer yet.
8. There is enough cotton from 1994 to make yet another preemie blanket. Only I hate working with cotton.

I think that’s all, apart from the hat that needs seaming that sits on top of the fridge, the lace shawl and pirate scarf that need blocking that sit on top of the dresser, the two pairs of socks, and two lace shawls in progress that sit on the kitchen bench, the unfinished cotton sweater that sits in the knitting basket in the living room (it only needs another sleeve and a button band to be finished), and a ziploc bag with the cast-on for the aforementioned baby blanket that probably will never happen.

So, you can easily see why I have the feeling that I’m in desperate need of wool, can’t you? O already ordered yarn for another sweater (one that I really need), a knitted doll, and a pair of socks. I’m desperately waiting for them to arrive. Before I run out of yarn and things to knit.

I feel quite virtuous, though, because only half of the drawer is full of wool. The other one is occupied by my fabric stash. That somehow overflows into the rest of the bedroom too…

P.S.: I just remembered the spinning stash, and the handspun. And the yarn that was a hat that was too big for me until half an hour ago when I wound it on the niddy-noddy to re-knit the hat. Ouch.

With the needles that I used I had 16 stitches and 23 rows on 4 inches pre-washing, and 15 stitches and 20 rows after washing. You’d think that isn’t much, won’t you? What’s a measly stitch? Let’s see: for this particular sweater I cast on 141 stitches. 141 divided by 16 is 8.8 that is 88 cm. And trust me, that is not enough to fit me. But after washing it’s 141 divided by 15, and that is 9.4 which is 94 cm, much better. So just by washing the sweater and blocking it it would become 6 cm (or 2.3″) wider. That’s how much difference the measly stitch makes.

So, back to the actual sweater. I did everything right, I swatched, and measured, and washed, and measured, and chose a size that would hopefully fit me, and then I knit the whole thing in one piece instead of making a lot of weirdly shaped pieces that have to be sewn together. The sweater is quite fitted, and the designer obviously isn’t afraid of sewing everything on, including the buttonbands. (It’s the L’il Red Riding Hoodie by Jennifer Stafford, by the way.) And while I do love the design, and while I’m certainly not afraid of seaming, I don’t like it much, it always looks wonky, and I stubbornly refuse to sew together a raglan. Raglan yokes are meant to be knit in one piece.

The knitting experience was quite interesting. I was knitting something that looked about two sizes too small. I had to put together the instructions for the fronts, buttonbands, back, and sleeves in one place at one point, and these weren’t of the “now decrease two stitches every fourth row” kind. Even though the whole thing is in plain, boring stockinette, it was more challenging than knitting lace. Also I don’t really like the yarn. I wanted something plain, not too expensive and hard-wearing, and that’s what I got. In a color that goes with everything I own, so the color isn’t particularly exciting too. It’s no wonder that I actually started two more sweaters before finishing this one. (Actually, upon further thinking I recall that I started three more sweaters before finishing this one.)

But at last, and through sheer stubbornness, I finished it. There wasn’t much seaming, of course, and I even managed to graft everything that needed seaming nicely together (a first for me). But then there was the zipper. I had to put a zipper into a knitted garment. Argh. Here are pictures of the unwashed hoodie, pre-blocking and pre-zipper:

Of course it took more than a month before I even bought a zipper. I managed to wash and block the sweater, and, alas, finally it matched the intended dimensions. For months I had been sure it was all a mistake, and I’d end up with a hoodie fit only for my son. I even worried about what to do about the waist shaping and bust darts, something he really has no need for.

I carefully measured the hoodie, went to the store with my huge gauge swatch for color-reference and bought a zipper. When I came home I immediately was sure that the zipper was too long. Also too heavy. And I didn’t know how to put a zipper into a sweater. I’d certainly not use a sewing machine but what to do? Thanks to ravelry and the internet I found two excellent tutorials, one by Grumperina and one by Claudia. I mostly followed the latter because of the, as Grumperina put it, “absolute quality in every shortcut”. I’m very keen on shortcuts when sewing (come to think of it, I like them in knitting as well, only you can’t use any in music). And I actually basted my zipper in! I never baste anything in, but finally I have been convinced to make exceptions for zippers. Some shortcuts aren’t shortcuts but time-wasters. It’s a good thing to know the difference.

So, after about nine months I finally have a nice everyday hoodie that I made all by myself. It’s thick wool which will help me to stay warm through winter, and I love the fit. It will surely get a bit longer since I have knitted it all in one piece and there are no seams to prevent it from sagging but that suits me fine, it’s a bit short now anyway. Here are the pictures of the hoodie after washing and blocking:

Also I seem to be in sweater knitting mode. I think it has something to do with several things: a) it’s becoming quite cold, b) I am a bit sick of my two winter sweaters, the red one and the terracotta one that I have been wearing all winter long for the past four years (and both of them have sleeves that are too short), c) I realized that knitting a lace stole or shawl doesn’t take more time and work than knitting a sweater but while I clearly don’t need more than four, or let’s say five, lace stoles and shawls I can easily need more than four winter sweaters.

And now that I have experienced the wonders of knitting gauge swatches, and measuring them, and even of such extreme steps as looking up the measurements of the finished sweater in the pattern, and – instead of just assuming that I need something in size M – actually measuring me, and some sweater that fits, and choosing the size accordingly, well, they might even look good on me.

Which is why I set out to knit a sweater in November. It’s red. I love it so far but since it’s not been washed yet it’s still too small for me. I started on November 8th, and completed it two days ago. Happy NaKniSweMo!

All of a sudden I had this urge to knit something from my handspun. What good is all this new yarn if it’s only sitting around looking all artsy? So I looked for patterns. Since there is only so much you can knit with 90 grams of very bulky and uneven yarn (this is the second yarn I spun on my wheel), I was glad to find this pattern [Urchin] by Ysolda. I knew I probably had just enough yarn to make it. Of course I wanted to cast on immediately but then I had to first wind the yarn into a ball, and then wait until work was done. Friday in the evening I sat down and started making it in the smaller size but with bigger needles to compensate. Because it’s all garter stitch I got confused about which stitches were wrapped and which weren’t a lot. At the end of the evening I had about a third of the hat, and was afraid that it would be too small. So I started again on Saturday. I went up a size and knit a bit more loosely. It all went beautifully and was much fun to knit. Then I started the final wedge and found myself eyeing the ball of yarn every other second. Would there be enough? With about 1.5 m of yarn left and eight more rows to go I remembered the leftover singles I still had on the bobbin, and went to ply them very sloppily. I went back and knit the remaining eight rows, and found that the yarn was just barely enough without the “emergency yarn”. I had two little snippets left in the end, about 5 cm altogether. The hat looks much better than I thought it would. I’m very, very happy with it. Now I only have to take pictures…

Since then I have been waiting for the stars to align so that I can take pictures of me wearing the finished hat. I wanted three things to come together: a) the sun should be shining, b) I should be wearing make-up, c) I should have time to take pictures. Today I realized that the next time that would happen would probably be in spring, and so I decided to take pictures anyway:

I think my tendency to make endless lists is stemming from a deep desire to live my life as best as possible. It also stems from the experience that if I don’t make lists, if I don’t write down things nothing will get done, and by the end of the weekend I will feel bad about that.

I wasn’t always like this. Back in my twenties I spend weekends mostly alone, in bed. I kept the lists and the things to do for weekdays only, unless I had a big paper to write or something. I remember when I decided to make Saturday a workday, and felt almost shocked about this. Still, Sundays were spent in bed, reading, doing nothing, with a solitary walk in the afternoon.

Now, my life is much fuller than it used to be, and I have begun putting things on my lists like: “talk with husband”, “play with son”, “read comic”, and “take a shower”.

So, on Friday I made a list, and I did almost all the things I put on it, and now I feel quite good about my weekend and myself, only I have this feeling that I shouldn’t be making these lists all the time.

This was my list:

• seam, wash and block green cardigan
• spin
• block scarf that I made for my husband (has been lying around since April)
• clean house
• buy groceries
• go to hardware store
• play the guitar
• continue knitting Mystic Waters shawl
• read Flash and Firefly-Comics

I did everything on my list apart from cleaning, but then my husband vacuumed the whole house so he did my chore for me. What I didn’t put on my list but what I should have put on there was:

• practice recorder with son
• give son a bath
• exercise

It wasn’t on the list so I didn’t do it. Oops. On the other hand I did spend about an hour on Saturday teaching my son how to crochet. It was all very sweet. He had been studying a children’s catalogue full of clothes and toys, and suddenly he said, “I want to knit a bag like that.” Of course I was interested, and after telling him that it was indeed crochet, and that yes, I would teach him how to do it but only after breakfast, I fetched some yarn and a crochet hook. He’s becoming quite good at the actual crocheting part that you do with your right hand but he is completely unable to hold the yarn, and the piece he’s working on in his left, so for now he needs me to be his left hand. Which led to some frustration on his part when he wanted to work on his bag a little more after lunch, and when I couldn’t help him immediately he tried on his own only to discover that he can’t do it without me. Not the best for building self-esteem.

I don’t remember it being so hard. When thinking about how I learned to crochet and knit, I’m left with a feeling that my mother showed me briefly and then I got it. I remember that learning how to purl was a bit more complicated because I taught myself out of a book, and got it wrong but that was that.

On the other hand I was eight when I learned how to crochet and my son is only five years old. He will learn eventually. At least I hope that he will.

But, back to the list-making, I do find it a bit sad that I have to put things like “read comic” on a list to get them done. It’s only because I’m wading through heaps of unread books, comics, magazines, and blog posts.

So, while the weekend to-do-list does work for me, I still have the feeling that I shouldn’t be having one. And, of course, if my life were in order, I’d do the grocery shopping and other errands during the week.

So, what do you think about weekend to-do-lists? Do you have them? Do they work?

for Wordless Wednesday

Sometime I suspect that online stores who happen to forget your order never say so but they’ll tell you something along the lines of “We thought we had one in stock but then we hadn’t.” or “It took our supplier a week to deliver.” Which can happen. I’d just like to know instead of hanging around the house each morning for eight days in a row hoping not to be out when the postman rings.

But I won’t complain, here it is:

I had the opportunity to take the whole morning assembling it because my student didn’t show up.

Then I de-assembled part of it again because I had managed to screw some things together the wrong way, then I tried to treadle it, was happy, and then there was this noise. I dis-assembled another part, oiled everything twice, re-assembled and started to – try to spin.

It’s as if I have to learn it all over again. Even though I’ve set it to the slowest setting it’s much too fast for my fumbling attempts at drafting. But I can see that it will be fun once I get fast enough. I like spinning with a drop spindle but always feel that I spend more time winding the yarn onto the spindle than actually spinning. Well, that won’t be the problem with the wheel.

Here’s a picture of my new “spinning corner”, the place where my congas used to stand:

Here’s the wheel, an Ashford Kiwi (she’s more beautiful in real life):

And here’s my bad handspun:

This post took me three days to write. That’s not because I spun so much, it’s because I’m easing back into teaching and normal life mode. The good thing is that today’s 15-minute-attempt at spinning on the wheel went much better than the two days before because I actually had taken the time to look into my spinning book under “when you have the feeling that the yarn is pulled away from you”. Aha, I eased the brake tension, and it went much better. Also, fluffing the roving before spinning it is highly recommended. Also, when I treadle more slowly the yarn gets less kinky. Revelation after revelation.

It’s too bad that I don’t like art yarn at all. Now I have about 250 grams of it at home.

I didn’t quite know whether to sell them or not. At the beginning of 2007 we were a bit short on money and space, and I started to sell old books and stuff. And decided that it might be a good idea to find a new home for my congas. Only I never put them up for sale anywhere. Because of the blog post though I got e-mails from people who were interested in them. Only, this never let anywhere. So I resigned myself on keeping them, I love them very much even if they were mostly serving me as a very pretty keyboard stand.

But then I got another e-mail a few months ago from somebody who was interested in them, and yesterday they went away. It feels a bit weird but very good at the same time.

These congas were the only excellent musical instruments I ever bought for myself. I started drumming quite late, when I was almost 20. I had tried a bit in school and was fascinated by African music, and then I went away to Munich to study. There I met a guy who was learning how to play Brazilian music who later became my boyfriend. He was very surprised when I enrolled in the same school as him because to him I was “classical piano” girl. I have never been a good pianist though. In that school congas were our main instruments. We also learned how to play all the smaller percussion instruments that are used in Brazilian music but mostly it was congas. When a bit later I decided to switch my major to music education I had to choose a main musical instrument, and I just went for it and chose drumming. Which, in a way was very funny, because I only had been playing for about a year. Strangely enough it all turned out okay. There were only very few drummers there, and fortunately the professors had no way of telling how easy or difficult anything was that I played for exams, and so I earned my degree by dazzling them with music that looked harder to play than it was. Also, I switched my main instrument to voice, and I even threw in a bit of recorder playing at the exam. At that time the whole institute wasn’t as structured as it became later.

One problem with drumming is that you need quite a bit of equipment. I was very poor at that time, and so I always played instruments borrowed from my boyfriend, or the drum set in university. All that time I longed to have my own drum set, marimbaphone, congas, and surdo.

The summer I bought the congas I had worked for two months in order to buy a computer. I didn’t have one at that time, and it became apparent that I’d need one for doing papers and such. Then a drummer friend visited me and said, “What do you think, which are the best congas?” I immediately answered, “Michel Delaporte”. Those were the ones my conga teacher played and I loved their look, feel and sound. They were ideal for what I loved to play, though they are no good when you’re playing in something like a salsa band because their sound isn’t sharp and penetrating enough for that. I took my friend to the drum store and showed him some congas. He tried them and was disappointed. He played Cuban music which requires a different conga sound. He hated them but I fell in love.

A day later I went into the shop with my computer money and bought the congas he had tested. Without ever having played them myself.

I had just moved to a new apartment. I set up the congas and started to play. I was very happy. I had the best congas in the world. Ten minutes later a neighbor banged on my door. “What are you doing in there? Stop that noise!” She was very angry. Imagine somebody playing very deep, rich, resonating, booming drums in a building where you can here your neighbors sneeze through the walls.

So, since I didn’t have a room to practice in, that basically was it. I didn’t play them much for years. I bought them in 1990, and the first time they saw real action was when my husband and I started a Brazilian band together in 1998. We had that band for about two years before we gave up looking for places to play. There is a demo CD of that band but I think that most of the drumming on that CD was done by my husband since he’s much more precise than me.

You can hear the congas on some of my husband’s recordings. When I told him that they were sold he realized that he had used them much more than me for the last years. Though not enough to justify having them around all the time. (That was the point were I almost canceled the sale at the last minute.)

Yesterday when I helped load them into a car I was not sad as I had thought. I was relieved. For all the years that those congas had stood in my room they had called to me, “Play me! Play me! Play me!”, and I never had. And when I had tried, it sounded horrible. Not playing will do that to your technique.

I’m very happy that they have found a new home, and I hope they will be loved and played there.

Do you know what I did with the money? I ordered a spinning wheel. I know, crazy. We’ll see how that goes.

(Also, I’d like to remind you to send me any posts about social justice that you read or wrote in August until September 7th for the Just Posts. My e-mail is: creativemother AT web DOT de)

I found the pattern when I followed a link to the Hanami stole I had seen on somebody else’s blog. It’s by the same designer. The swirls and ornaments appealed to me instantly. I wanted to knit this stole for myself.

It’s called Scheherazade, and I thought of mine as my storyteller stole. Telling stories seems to be more important to me than I have recognized in the past. So this stole became a symbol to me.

While knitting I imagined myself on stage, singing, and wearing it. Not very practical, but then.

Of course it’s a writing talisman too

November 30, 2007: Wollmeise Lace-Yarn in “Campari Orange” arrived.

March 31, 2008: After ten days work.

June 17, 2008: Blocking

I have to keep you in suspense for the final result because I was to busy to take a picture today. But I promise one soon.

Which reminds me that I had promised you a post about the things I like. I have been thinking about it for weeks now but all I can come up with is “Raindrops on roses, and warm woolen mittens, …” (and I just found that I misquoted it, I’m horrible at remembering song lyrics) Every time I try to write a list of things I like I end up with something like this, and it feels totally arbitrary.

So. I’m almost 41 now, and I keep thinking about what to do with my life, where it’s headed, and I still don’t know. Music is important, I now know this, because without music I get depressive. Sometimes I also get depressive with music but without it I always do. I know that I want to sing more, and make up songs, and improvise, and that I want to perform again. I only don’t know how or where or when or with whom. And I find that it feels a bit pointless to hum to myself at home, and so I bought myself a new recording thingie that is sitting on my desk and gathers dust. (I actually recorded something and started to write a post about this at the end of, um, April. Well.)

Last year I had this feeling that I should become a tarot reader. I bought tons of books, and three more decks of tarot cards, bought a spiral notebook, and started learning the meaning of two tarot cards each day. For about a week or two. Because while I enjoy pulling cards and doing readings for people with the oracle cards that I have, I never can remember the meanings of the cards. I always have to look them up. And while I feel pretty good about drawing cards for people it then occurred to me that people might want to know about serious life-issues, and I didn’t feel up to the task. Also, learning while I go along might work for the things I usually teach and do but for this I felt that I needed a better foundation. I haven’t abandoned the thought, though, it’s just one of the things that is swirling around in my mind.

Then there’s the knitting. It has become quite important to me again over the past year (which you might have noticed), and so I started thinking along the lines of, “Maybe I should teach knitting classes.” or design knitting patterns again and see where that leads me. That’s my latest spleen, and so I have started drafting a plan for knitting classes, and have run into my old obstacle of not being able to promote myself. I just can’t do it. I have all these plans, and enthusiasm, and I know people would love the classes but when I put it all to paper it becomes stiff and hollow and brittle. My husband has been going over my draft to help me, and now it’s up to me again.

Then, the designing. As I have said before, having ideas is never the problem for me. (And I thank God for that.) As soon as I decided that I wanted to design something there were a few ideas popping up. I even bought yarn, and I have thought about them constantly. Now all I need is a couple of days to really do something. And, most important of all, I need some space in my head for that.

Just in case you’re wondering why I, all of a sudden, think that I can design knitting patterns, well, back in the eighties when I lived in a small town I pretty much made up all my own patterns. Not always successful but then, these days, I actually knit gauge swatches and such, and on top of that I’m totally willing to rip everything back until it looks like I want it to. The only thing I’m a bit nervous about is that in the eighties sweaters were just rectangles, and these days they are supposed to fit a bit more tightly. On the other hand, from what I see these days, baggy sweaters might be back again soon. And designing fitting sweaters only means doing a bit more math. Which, strangely enough, is not a problem, it only takes a bit more time.

I also would like to teach creativity, and work as a coach but I have this feeling that I need to grow a bit before doing that. The other thing I’d like to do is improvised music. So I’m planning to teach circle singing, and waiting for the opportunity to improvise with others.

Then there’s the writing. I like doing it but I still have to read my two NaNoWriMo-novels. (That still sounds weird, my two novels. Lately someone asked me what I had been doing, and when I told her “I have been writing more, there’s the blog, and I have written first drafts of two novels and a screen play.” it sounded really weird to me. But then, it’s true nonetheless. It won’t do me any good, though, until I do something with what I have.)

I know that this is pretty much the recurrent theme of my blog, my lack of focus on just one thing. So, I have decided that I’m unable to do just one thing, and go in all directions at once. Which is fine, only now all these things in my head keep canceling each other out. Where to start? I start each day with a plan to do one of the important things, like, “Today I’ll be working on my concept for knitting classes!” then procrastination happens, or housework, or blog reading, or exercise, or family, and soon it’s “I’ll do it on the weekend when I’ll be having more time.” (That one’s always good for a laugh.), and so the weeks go by one after the other.

So, this, of course, will be the weekend when I will be:

1. Doing some extra thing with my son like going to the zoo, or riding our bikes.
2. Sew a dress, and about three bags.
3. Knit about 250 rows on Mystic Meadows.
4. Clean the house.
5. Do all the laundry.
6. Design and knit a pair of socks and a men’s sweater.
7. Finish my plan for knitting lessons, write a CV to go with it, take a new picture of myself, write accompanying letter, and mail it off.
8. Sleep for at least eight hours straight each night.
9. Cook something not fast food-like.
10. Read half of “Shadowplay”, “The Mindful Way through Depression”, a third of “Spook Country”, “Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames”, and re-read “Mindful Knitting: Inviting Contemplative Practice to the Craft”. (I sense a theme here with the self-help books.)
11. Watch two games of soccer because of the European Championship.
12. Write my monthly story for the writing group.
13. Mix the improvisation I recorded.
14. Record some more.
15. Write one or two blog posts.
16. Do yard work. (If you knew me in real life this one would be ROFL-worth funny.)

While I’m at it, I could also teach my son how to swim. Or something.

These are not really my plans for the weekend but then I might have taken on a bit more in my life than I can reasonably do. Do you know anybody who hasn’t? Which of the things should I drop? I know, the answer is housework but my husband doesn’t like doing it all alone. And I don’t blame him. So, any advice? I could quit blog-reading of course but that isn’t really an option, isn’t it?

I know, how unusual, and I even read it, and read it with much pleasure. It’s called “the creative family” by Amanda Blake Soule and with that title of course I had to have it. Also I love Amanda’s blog, I find it very soothing and positive and inspirational and it’s the same with the book. So before you read anything else you have to keep in mind that I really love the book, am about to read it for the second time in a row and just went out to get embroidery supplies to embroider some of my son’s drawing onto cloth even though I never liked embroidery before. I will make quite a few of her projects and am looking forward to do some “family drawing time” in the future. There was only one thing in the whole book that didn’t sit right with me and that started with the following paragraph from the introduction:

Given the creative nature of children, it is no coincidence that so many of us are led to seek a more creative life in their presence. Either an old creative passion or pursuit that has been forgotten is internally churned up, or we suddenly feel a need for something else in our lives when we’ve never considered ourselves creative before. Being around even the youngest children – and the purity of their rich creative energy – brings out our need for that same innovative spirit. They inspire us not only to nurture and embrace all of who they are, but to nurture and embrace our own creative selves as well.

(from “The Creative Family”, p. 2)

I know that my situation before having a child was quite different from hers in that I already was an artist then. I wasn’t exactly lacking imagination or creative spirit, only energy and sometimes time to make music, or write, or craft. Then I got pregnant and tired all the time and tried to record vocals for my husband’s CD while being out of breath, tried to help him mix the CD while being extremely sensitive to loud noises (and music), then had a baby, and was even more tired all the time while trying to parent, teach, and still make music on the side while helping my husband with his next CD, recording vocals during naptime, and once with a baby on my hip (oh no, on his hip, but in the same room, and it even kept quiet). So, while I always encourage people to be creative and while I have even written a series of posts about how to be creative when you don’t have the time, resources, or space for it there are several things about having children that don’t foster creativity for me.

Before I dive into list-making though I have to tell you that I really love my son and really think that he makes my life richer. He is a very creative and imaginative person. He’s fun to be with. So this is not about him, it’s about the daily things that come with having children.

1. I’m tired. When I’m tired my body wants me to sleep, or eat and rest, not to spend energy making art.
2. I have much less time than when I didn’t have a child even though I teach less. I have to spend a lot of time caring for my son or attending to household chores that didn’t exist before. For example ever since I returned from the hospital after his birth our laundry has been triple the amount than before.
3. I’m being interrupted constantly. It’s much harder to find time to hear myself think.
4. After talking with him for more than ten minutes I feel as if my brain is dripping out of my ears. Now, don’t get me wrong, he is an intelligent and entertaining human being, it’s only that after being talked at for an hour about robots, or building a submarine in the backyard, or going to the moon with his stuffed bunny in a LEGO rocket I usually need about thirty minutes of quiet time on my own to feel like I have any mental capacity at all.
5. There is so much more organizational detail to attend to that my mind gets constantly drawn towards things like bringing money to kindergarten for the field trip, organizing baby sitting, searching for his rain pants, remembering that he had his rain pants with him when he went to that birthday party three weeks ago, asking the mother of his friend where his rain pants are, searching again because that other mother said her husband had dropped the pants off at our place, remembering while her husband might be sure that he did that I haven’t set eyes on the pants since my son left for the birthday party, making a note on my to-do-list to buy new rain pants at the second hand store, actual remember the rain pants when I’m near the store, go in, look for pants in his size, not finding any, make another note for another day, finally after three attempts get new rain pants, only to have him lose them at kindergarten the following week, start over. – And that was only one thing. And one child.
6. Did I mention that I’m tired? Before I had a child when I stayed up late I just slept in the next day and restored my energy. Nowadays if I stay up late I have to pay for it for three days straight.

These things don’t make being creative impossible but it’s much harder. Even on weekends there is never a feeling of “open end”. Creativity has to be pressed into whatever slice of time is available. And for me that is partly the reason that most of my creativity these days comes out in knitting and blog posts, and there are no new songs written by me. That’s not to say that I can’t be creative with my son around but I have to say that I find it hard.

And I have found that there are different degrees of creativity for me. Things like knitting or sewing other people’s patterns, while fun, don’t fulfill my creative urge adequately (and neither would designing my own patterns, I tried). Writing blog posts is okay but writing fiction is better. Practicing guitar and playing other people’s songs is okay, improvising is better, and writing my own songs is best. But writing my own songs or writing fiction is neither “fun” nor relaxing for me. It’s hard and takes a lot of energy. I tried to find a way to make this easier but even when everything flows perfectly afterwards I feel like I have climbed a hill. And also my mind is entirely elsewhere. My son doesn’t like this. Nobody likes it when his mother has this far-away look on her face and doesn’t really pay attention.

The creativity Amanda talks about in her book is mostly the crafting type. And in the book there are mostly projects you can do with your children, which I love. But that’s just it. I can sit next to my son and knit, even while he plays or draws or even knits himself. (I’m so proud of him, he has knitted all of two rows on a scarf for his teddy bear. Of course after that he lost interest again.) Sometimes, very rarely, I’ll even play the guitar a little or sing while he’s with me but I can’t do more than that. Creating art requires your full attention and your child does too. Which is why even Amanda does most of her book writing and serious embroidery and sewing at night after her children have gone to bed.

Please understand that I am not saying anything against her or her book, in fact I strongly recommend buying it, it is lovely and very inspirational. That paragraph I quoted was only the starting point for me to say something that has been on my mind for a long time (and on my husband’s even longer). I find that I am not alone in this. I see a lot of musicians who used to practice for hours every day spending their evenings slumping in front of TV these days because they feel too brain dead after a day with their children. I also see people picking up something new through their children’s activities like the mother who started playing the guitar when her daughter didn’t want to any longer and who is now learning something she always wanted.

So, what’s your experience? Are you more creative or less since you’ve had children? (Of course, comments are open for people without children too…

Since I didn’t know the place where the market was supposed to be, at first I thought we’d have to take the car and make a family day trip out of it but further research showed me that getting there was actually quite easy. I only had to get on the train that passes the nearest train station and stay in there for about 50 minutes. Then I found out through ravelry, the knitting and crochet community, that of course there were a lot of people planning to go there, and i figured it’d be best to go there right when the market opened.

So I dropped off my son at kindergarten, for once wearing makeup and carrying my enormous purse with my knitting and something to read and such, and got on the train. I had posted on ravelry which train I planned taking and there had been a couple of other people saying they would be on the same train, so I sat in the first car, knitting, so that they could find me.

That didn’t work out though. At one station suddenly the train was turned around. The first car became the last. Just before leaving the train though I spotted Elemmaciltur, Mrs. B, and needlegnome (That last one is link to a ravelry profile. You have to be a member to be able to see that but she doesn’t have a public blog.) We went to the market together.

I’m not meeting many knitter in real life and so I found it quite refreshing to hear things like, “Is that the Kaffe Fasset-yarn in your scarf?”. Also it got me so confused that I answered yes before realizing that the Kaffe Fasset-yarn actually was in my purse instead of around my neck, and that probably nobody there possessed x-ray vision. I also did that confusing thing where I talk English a lot, and then with different people keep switching between English and German until I need a few seconds to answer to anything because I first have to make clear which language I’m currently hearing.

The market was very nice but of course we made a beeline to the Wollmeise’s booth first. I had prayed beforehand that it would be a pleasurable experience for me, and it was. Though right after we arrived all hell broke lose. I went in with a vague idea of wanting about four skeins of sock yarn, preferable oranges and reds with at least one skein of something turquoise like Pfefferminz Prinz for my husband, and at best two skeins of lace yarn, preferable something earthy, and something orange or red. When I went in the lace yarn was invisible under all the people so I just grabbed one delightful skein of sock yarn after the other, then when there was a slight opening at the lace yarn basket, dived in, pulled out the two reddest skeins I saw, decided that I didn’t like the other colors that much, found a salesperson, paid, and waited in front of the booth, the paper bag with my yarn firmly clasped to my bosom until everybody else was finished.

I had ample opportunity to see that not all shoppers are as decisive as me. I saw one woman agonizing over a skein of lace yarn for about half an hour. She put it next to herself and looked in the mirror, she asked a friend and two other people for advice, she thought about whether it would be enough or not… I saw people going in there with a list as long as my arm, people who had to get something like 20 skeins for other people. I can tell you, I was very happy to be standing a bit apart from this. Well, I could have had a list too, you know, in fact I did have a list. I told one woman whom I met on ravelry that I would bring her something, if possible. She told me her favorite colors, and I was happy to have found something she’ll like.

After that we wandered around the rest of the market, I bought a marble for my husband, had waffles, and then after hitting the booth a second time (not me) we went home.

It was an interesting experience to meet people whose podcast I have been listening to and blogs I have been reading for months. Mrs. B started to tell me about the spinning wheel she borrowed and I already knew it. I felt a bit like a stalker. Especially since none of them reads my blog.

I’d love to meet knitters more often but then I’m already doing too many things as it is. The only meetings I could manage to attend would be on Sundays and that’s family time.

The very best thing for me though was that I found out that there is such a thing as enough talk about knitting (and spinning) for me. When I came home on Friday hungry and thirsty, and my husband had prepared a lovely meal, and I then started to teach again I was so happy to making music again! I had feared that my longing for knitter talk were bottomless. With the people I know I usually talk about knitting until their eyes start to glaze over and then I try to stop. But there I met people who are willing to talk about fiber and such for hours on end without getting tired of it. And that eventually I was ready to talk about other things again. You know, like other people.

for Wordless Wednesday, the pattern is Elijah by Ysolda

So here are my finished “objects” in chronological order:

Jaywalker socks for my husband. I started them on our train ride to Paris. I had to knit about three and a half of them to get them right. (No, my husband only has the usual two feet.) They’re still a bit too big…

Vinnland socks, again for my husband. Those on the other hand are too tight. I love this pattern. I made my usual short row toe and heel, though, because I can’t get the hang of wrap stitches. I have learned a different way to do short rows which I like better. (Of course I found that out only after I had knitted the toe the first time and it was full of holes. What can I say, I’m an expert at ripping things, obviously.)

Then I made a pair of dashing, fingerless mittens for my mother which I forgot to photograph. That was no fun, again, I made about six of them until I was left with a pair that seemed right. Oh, and she says, she doesn’t like them, and so I will have to frog them and re-make them. But she only told me after I had given her a matching hat (Le Slouch by Wendy Bernhard) for Christmas. And she loves it. Phew.

(That’s me wearing the hat, not my mother.)

Finally I made something for me, my first lace stole (It’s the hanami stole. When I saw it I knew I wanted to make it and now I’m hooked on lace stoles. I’m planning two more already.):

And a hat for me to go with my crocheted scarf:

(I’m not very happy with this picture but I’m pressed for time here, sorry.)

And finally, Carlos Santana, the elephant who still has to get his eyes:

What I’m knitting right now (but not all at once of course) is: a pair of mittens for my husband, a pair of socks for myself, still the brown cardigan (sigh!), a scarf for my husband (with sock yarn, a true labor of love), and I made a swatch for the secret of the stole II- knit-along (the button is in my left sidebar). And a scarf with the Vinnland-pattern for myself.

Though I haven’t been blogging much I have been busy as usual. Mostly knitting and a little sewing. To blog about the “psychedelic bag” now feels a little weird because it has been completed for a while now. I started thinking about it months ago, made most of it in August and finished it weeks afterwards.

For ages I have been thinking that my husband needs a bag. In fact, I’d say he needs a purse, only men don’t get to wear those without getting funny looks. But a messenger bag seems to be acceptable, I’m seeing men everywhere with bags that I’d call purse if they were for me. And it’s a good thing because I don’t know why a man is supposed to be able to carry everything in his pockets. Otherwise he has the choice between briefcase and backpack. My husband owns an enormous backpack that really works well if you want to take your laptop, your knitting, a book like the fourth Harry Potter, a notebook, and everything you happened to pick up while running errands, plus all the contents of my purse. At least that’s what I carried around in it the last time I borrowed it.

For everyday use my husband needs something to hold his wallet, keys, maybe a cell phone, and something to read. So I decided to design a bag for him. He was game and we went to the fabric store. Those of you who have checked out his blog psychedelic zen guitar know that he loves all things psychedelic (not psychedelic drugs though) and so his fabric choice holds no surprise.

finished bag

Before that I had literally spent days thinking about this bag’s design. It had to be big enough to hold a magazine, it should have interior pockets with and without zippers, everything should be easily accessible and at the same time safely kept inside. And there shouldn’t be velcro. So I made a sketch and I measured the magazine and the wallet and the cell phone and I almost wrecked my brain thinking about how everything should come together at the zipper. The main one that closes the bag.

So you can imagine that I was mightily pleased with myself when I almost finished this bag (for those of you who are new to this blog, “almost finishing” is a specialty of mine). Only to find that a) the flap is too short, b) the shoulder strap was fastened too high up and so c) it was impossible to sew everything together at the zipper. (Note to self: when making last minute changes such as adding strips of fabric to the top of the bag better take the time to think about which other parts of the design will have to be changed because of that).

So, of course, I decided to leave it as it was and sew everything shut by hand. That was very nice until I lifted the bag by the straps and with a horrible srrk-sound all the hand-sewn seams opened up again. Disgusted I threw it in a corner and put a heap of laundry on top of it. But then, eventually, I finished it. And I’m now quite pleased with it, also very happy that nobody will ever see the inside of that part with the zipper in it ever again (hopefully!). But every time I look at it there’s a little woman in my ear whispering, “But the flap is too short!” I’ll just go and tape her mouth shut.

For those of you who are interested in sewing details:

first time zippered interior pocket following Lisa’s tutorial

first time interior pockets

construction

the dreaded “sew everything together with too small seam allowances”-zipper

Read the pattern about a thousand times, decide that it’s really easy to make. Convert all the inch measurements into centimeters. Measure your yoga mat thrice to ensure that the bag will be big enough. Start looking for fabric.

Find the perfect exterior fabric only to find that it’s a) silk, b) 50€ per meter. Think about making a 70€ yoga bag for about five minutes three times daily. When your mother-in-law throws the sheets out of the window that she has used to cover the floor for some renovation work, think about whether those sheets might be perfect. Decide against the colorful turquoise-and-orange-and-red-striped with elephants pattern. Go and look for the sofa cover that you put away when you threw the sofa out. Think that you have found the sofa cover which then turns out to be leftover fabric from the making of curtains last year. (That, by the way, might have been the lowest I ever sank in my “sewing career”. I was so fed up with sewing and my machine that I had them custom-made.) So, in order to keep the budget low, decide to make a red yoga bag instead of an orange one like you wanted.

Resume quest for suitable piece of lining fabric. That has to match the exterior. Go on several expeditions eyeing expensive fabric and – this is very important – leave the exterior fabric at home. That certainly helps with the matching. Finally buy a scrap of fabric that’s on sale for 5 € with the rationalization, “Well, if it doesn’t match at least I haven’t spent much money on it.”

All the while look for interfacing. Think that you have very bad interfacing karma. Look for at least a package of thin interfacing. There used to be dozens of these in every fabric department, but nowadays you might go to a store three times without seeing even one. When at last you see some, buy every scrap of it. Vow to buy at Lisa’s store next time. A place where when you say, “I’d like some interfacing because I’m making a bag.” the salesperson won’t look at you with a very puzzled frown and answer, “So, do you need it for appliqué?” “Um, I want to make a bag out of light fabric and I need it to strengthen…” “So, you want this then?” You, meekly, “I guess so.” Just saying. And the bonus: I wouldn’t have had to spend money on three trips to the big city. Paying the shipping from London to Germany would have been cheaper. And you can bet that if you told her what you wanted she just would have known which interfacing to use.

Interfacing. I never know how much to use and which kind because, well, I lack experience and then, due to my shopping woes, I only have used the flimsy kind up until now anyway. But there is something to say for the department store I bought my fabric in because last time, when I left the store clutching my packages of flimsy interfacing and went to have a look at the sewing patterns, I caught a glimpse of interfacing on bolts! Interfacing of different thickness! Wow! Not quite the holy grail, but close.

Next decide to be sensible and put your bag project aside for a month of script frenzy. In July start agonizing about it again. Think about how to cut out something that’s 121,92 cm long. Will it all work out when you round it? Should you make a pattern first? Or not? Then remember that you own a tape measure with inches on it. Decide to make a pattern. Look for some old newspaper because you’re too cheap to buy real pattern making paper.

First day: Cut out paper pattern.

Second day: When a student cancels a lesson, start cutting out the lining. Note that the scissors that came with your new sewing machine (more on that in another post) might be worth 47 £ to someone but not to you since they don’t exactly cut. Get out the old sewing scissors of your husband’s grandmother that you have been using as kitchen scissors for the past ten years. Sigh. Lust for a roto-cutter. Look at pictures of roto-cutters on the internet. Discuss the merit of such cutters with your sister. Decide to be sensible and frugal and use the kitchen scissors instead.

Third day: After waiting for this moment for six days, tell your family that come what may, today’s the day you will cut out your DAMN BAG PARTS! Cut them out on the floor because you don’t want to occupy the kitchen table and your writing desk is too small. Get really distracted by reading the ads on your pattern. Remind yourself to use real pattern paper next time so that you don’t have to look at disgusting “sex on the phone”-offers for hours. Find that not even one angle you have cut out is straight, nor anything. If every single bag part is crooked, will the bag turn out okay? What if the exterior and the lining bag are different sizes? What if the lining bag is bigger than the exterior bag? Calm yourself down so that you won’t have a nervous breakdown with the thought that it isn’t woodwork or rocket science. Since you can’t sew a straight line anyway it will all sort itself out somehow in the sewing. Wonder if this is like when you’re recording something that you just can’t get right and then you just leave it at that, telling yourself you will “fix it in the mix”. (That never works by the way. You can make things better but you can’t make bad things good. Better to start with something good and make it better…) Tell yourself that this is only a practice bag anyway. Stress out about your really complicated dress project that you want to sew after that. Take out Liesl’s backpack pattern, carefully study it and decide that you’re never be able to make it. Then think about altering it because you don’t like magnetic snaps. (I didn’t say I was logical, didn’t I?)

Find that you still have a little time before dinner and start ironing the interface parts to the fabric. After all you decided to use flimsy interfacing on both the exterior and the lining. Find that you have just about enough flimsy interfacing to do this if you practice “patchwork interfacing”. Since you lost all patience when cutting out the interfacing and just did it by rule of thumb and where the scissors hit since it doesn’t really matter if the interfacing isn’t as big as the fabric, everything looks a little, um, sloppy. Remind yourself to next time turn the interfacing right side up before cutting. So when you iron your uneven and crooked pieces of interfacing to your uneven and crooked pieces of fabric at least they pretend to fit. Congratulate yourself that at least you haven’t ironed interfacing to your pressing iron. Find that you can pull off already fused interfacing from the ironing board quite easily. Use the quickly cooling iron to iron a tablecloth and a napkin.

Fourth day: After realizing that two students in a row canceled their lessons plan to start sewing the bag. Meet husband for lunch who then reminds you that the berries are ripe. Sigh. Gather berries, clean berries, don’t finish this because it takes so long, lose hope. When another student calls in sick, find that your husband has prepared all the berries and start pinning and sewing. At the end of the day you will be very tired, have severe neck and back pain, an outer pocket pinned to the main panel of the bag and rows of jam glasses:

Fifth day: Promise yourself to go on slowly and careful, start sewing in the morning, and become quite confident and optimistic. Though everything is quite crooked, it is starting to look, well, like an actual bag. Though very small. With bulging and wavy seams. Like the following:

(Yes, I know that seam allowances shouldn’t look like this.)
Manage to somehow put it all together. A little hint: having uneven and crooked pieces doesn’t really help with the alignment. Spend some time with your son and his friend. Cut your son’ hair when his friend is gone. Find that you still have about half an hour before dinner. Put your son in front of a DVD. Finish bag. Keel over. Write a blog post. Take pictures of finished bag.