KnitFreak

Just a few minutes I posted a post, and then I remembered that I had forgotten two three (I forgot that I wanted to say something on the html post as well!) things:
I started Josephine, but somehow, the pattern instruction and I don't get along. Somehow, I just don't understand it - neither in English nor in the German translation! So, I'm kinda counting on your help here: do I have to read the charts from left to right or from right to left? Somehow, the way they are, they don't really make sense with the pictures of Josephine (or am I just blind?) And what about that stockinette-stitch instruction? "Cont in patt as set, working Charts as established and working all other sts in reverse stockinette st until work measures 20.5[21.5, 22, 22] inches, ending with a WS row." The way I see it, the cables (they are worked in knit-stitches) sort of lie on top of purl-stitches. But then, the charts say something different, or am I supposed to knit all non-cable stitches in stockinette/reverse stockinette, even when the charts tell me something different? (If you could see my face while trying to figure this out, it looks like this: ???)

Second thing: thanks for all the html-recommendations! Don't stop commenting, I have to take a closer look on the books in the new year.

Third: HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OF YOU!!!

Finally, I uploaded the pictures of my Christmas knitting! Here we go:

The soccer club socks for my sister (don't they look like those candy canes?)...

...and Kate the cat from knitty.com for my nephew!
The other Christmas presents I made are a golf club cover for my dad - I don't have a picture of the finished thing because my dad's clubs are locked up at the club. They can't play there right now because it's snowy, so I guess I have to wait for a picture with the cover in action.
Then, I made a scarf for my sister (scroll down a bit), and - during the socktoberfest - socks for my godmother (scroll down again).

Finally, I'd like to show you something off-knitting:

I took this picture yesterday morning on the way to the train station (I took the train from my parents' place back to Munich). Just right after Christmas we got heaps of snow, and when I took the picture it was -10C! (that's about 14F)

Does anybody know a good html-book for beginners that you can recommend? I'd like to do a few things on my blog, but I need html for this and I don't "speak" it. And there are soooo many books on html in the world... I wouldn't know which one to pick.
Feel free to comment or to email me.

I have yet to try and upload the pictures of my Christmas gift knittings to this computer... stay tuned till the weekend, I should have them online then!

I finished all my Christmas gift knitting! Not exactly on time, but by the 26th of December. I have to show you some pictures when I'm back in Munich - I'm at my parents' place right now - because I cannot upload photos at this computer. Luckily, we'll be having dsl in Munich by the time I'm there, and I'm quite looking forward to going back because slowly but surely I'm running out of stuff to do here... small town life isn't so exciting, and there aren't too many people here over Christmas that I could meet (I've said hello to all of them... well, almost all of them. Some of them don't want to answer their phones, so I can't say anything to them, not even that it buggers me that they're not answering their phones even though a few weeks ago they had said they wanted to catch up because we haven't met for a few years now).

Christmas madness.

I'm still alive. I just don't have an internet connection at home any more. K and I decided to get a wireless dsl connection, and now we're waiting for the hardware which is probably stuck somewhere in the mail with loads and loads of Christmas packets. So no internet. Over the weekend I didn't even have a phone line, because I switched my phone connection as well. It was supposed to switch on Friday, 6 p.m., but it did already some time in the morning. And then it broke. The phone company guys messed it up somehow, and they didn't fix it before Monday early afternoon. Dammit! Telekom sucks!!! (my German readers will know who I'm talking about, don't you guys?!) I went to one of their shops on Saturday to ask what they could do to fix my phone line, and they gave me the phone number of their technical customer service (my phone connection doesn't work any more. I think you're very smart when you give me the phone number to call some guys to fix my phone. Because my phone doesn't work any more, remember?) Anyways, I called, they promised, they called back (my mobile, that is), they didn't even know what phone connection I wanted, they fixed it. It works now. No dsl hardware yet though. Which sucks. But I guess German Mail is overstrained right now... just as I am with my knitting for Christmas. Must. get. done. in. time.

Oh my god. Oh my god! OH MY GOD!!!

Is it really only 12 11 (it's Monday night already) more days until Christmas Eve??? (For my American Readers. And the Australian. And the British. And the Irish. And the French. And wherever in the world where you read my blog and celebrate Christmas on the 25th of December, here in Germany the 24th is THE day. The evening of the 24th, to be precise)

I need to start turbo-knitting!!!

I don't have much knitting content today, apart from the news that I almost finished the ****** for ****** and I turned the heel on ****** for ******. And no, my keyboard isn't broken, nor did I go insane over the Christmas knitting; but I know a few people might look at this and they're not really supposed to know about that stuff - even when it's not for them. So, knitters, check out my post here; family and friends will get a slap on the fingers if they click there. (Marco, if you click there, I'll find out and you won't get your present!)

During the past week, the elves paid a visit and made a few Christmas cookies:

Ok, cut the Christmas romance, it was only one elf, her name is Dorothee and she looks very much like me ;-)

I finally found a way out of my dilemma: I'm blogging on the Christmas gifts for my family in the Holiday Gift Knitalong!

Go visit it - except if you are Mom, Dad, Sister S, Brother-in-Law M, Nephew L or K. Don't spoil your suprises and don't klick on the link above! Otherwise, the Christ child might not bring you any presents.

I showed my blog to my parents, my brother-in-law M. and my sister, and some friends (one in particular: say hi to Andreas!). So far, so good. But now, when I post, I'm aware that they might read what I'm writing (not that I wrote bad things about you guys!!), so I need to tell myself, "forget about it, just write what you want the way you used to write it before they knew". Has anyone of you been "detected"? How do you feel about it?

Anyways, I don't mind my family reading this blog, but Christmas is coming and I guess I will knit some things for that occasion. Sooo... can you see it coming? Posting on knitted gifts plus a blog that the family might be reading equals: DOH!!! (Sometimes, my inner Homer Simpson is huge) Very clever, huh? I guess I can now either a) not blog on knitted Christmas gifts and bore you with other, non-knitting posts or b) blog on knitted Christmas gifts and spoil the surprise or c) blog on gifts and ban my family from reading my blog until after Christmas or d) blog on gifts but not tell what they are (I guess you might figure out eventually) and who they are for.
So, here's my new yarn stash (partly for Christmas and for other occasions that I haven't figured out yet):

Clockwise from left:
- 5 balls from the Regia/Gedifra factory outlet, it's called "Funny Strumpf Color" (strumpf means sock), and I already started knitting a sock on which I turned the heel yesterday. I'm not sure who these socks will be for though... I had somebody (not from the family) in mind when I started them, but now I'm not sure any more.
- Lots and lots and lots of balls of Adriafil Charme for Josephine. I still have to knit another gauge swatch (the pattern requires two swatches with different needle sizes), and I guess I'll start with it as soon as I'm over my knitting-listlessness.
- The red and white balls are also from the Regia/Gedifra factory outlet, it's sock yarn and I have an idea what I want to make with it, but I can't talk about it yet.
- The black and dark red balls in the bottom right corner are for another project that I have on the needles already (I posted on it before, but I don't think I showed you any pictures so far), but now I can't tell you any details just in case this is for Christmas. Or for a birthday. I'll see.

And now to something else. Frappr seems to be everywhere on the blogs nowadays, so no wonder I've got it too ;-)