KnitFreak

Finally, finally I took a look at my camera's handbook, and found out how to take really close close-ups! (I love it. This is what I've been looking for so long. And all the time I thought my camera sucked at taking close-ups, but it doesn't!) I'm back in love with my camera, just like I was almost a year ago when I bought it. Oh, and my blog had its first birthday yesterday! Congratulations, blog! My knitting life surely has changed since I have you. I've met lots of nice people, and I have made friends with some of them. And I know, I'm not good at keeping up communication, I'm a lazy e-mailer. My friend Karin from the olden, analog days, can confirm that (Hi Karin! How ya doin? I know I owe you one... I meant to call you ever since your last email, and I will! Eventually) So, if you're waiting for an email-response from me, I haven't forgotten you. I might be thinking of you right now! And I will email you. Eventually. (I'll try and make it sooner rather than later)
Over the past year, my knitting has... grown. I had no idea how many beautiful blogs are out there, how many beautiful things to knit, how many nice yarns and knitting accessories, and that I'm not a freak when I'm willing to pay an expensive price to get beautiful yarn/wonderful needles/a gorgeous pattern/or any of these that need to be shipped here from overseas.

Like the Interweave Knits subscription... it's a fine magazine, once it gets here. (That's another story... the first issue of the subscription takes a trazillion years to get to the subscriber. I don't know if this applies only for the international subscribers, or for anybody. All other issues don't take that long any more though.) In one of their back issues, I think it's the Summer 2004, I found the Victoria Tank and decided to make it with some Rowan 4ply cotton because I couldn't find out if the original yarn from the pattern still existed. (Schoeller Esslinger Fortissima Cotton) Yes, I did ask the yarn company, but they didn't help me much. They sent me a list of shops in my area which sell their yarns, but I didn't particularly feel like going to all of them until I found that yarn. And no, the internets didn't help me much either. (And I didn't feel like ordering German yarn from a shop in the Mid-West of the US to have it shipped back to Germany, when the company that makes the yarn is about 25km/15 miles from my home town) I think it must be either sold out or discontinued or something. Anyways, the Rowan has the same length (I think), and the same gauge, or close enough. I even calculated the yardage! Can you believe that? About a year ago, I wouldn't even have known about this. Anyways, I bought 5 balls of the Rowan in blue, just in case I'd change my mind and would want to start Glampyre's Orangina, which I might make anyway. But then I'd have to find a black yarn...

Anyways, here's a picture of the Victoria Tank:

Yes, it is lace, but it's really easy! Plus, it's basically the same stitches over and over and over again, so you get used to it pretty quickly. I've just started the second ball, and I started the whole thing Sunday a week ago. Surprisingly, it knits up quite fast, but it's the only project I've been working on since I started it. But I have to get to a few other projects really soon... I want to finish some of the squares I made for Grace, and I want to make more squares. Plus, there are a few babies due in a few months, and I want to make something for them as well. Just some booties, and maybe a hat or two.

I'll leave you with two close-ups (it's close-up day today) of some Gracie-squares.

 This is some wool yarn (I forgot which one, and I'm too lazy to check) in basket weave stitch,

 and this is a cotton yarn (Catania by Schachenmayr, I think) in tulip lace stitch.

The German team played Sweden yesterday at the World Cup (Football, that is. Or soccer, depending on where you're from) here in Munich yesterday. K and I went into the city center to get some of the atmosphere:

 ... and they sure made a lot of noise!

 You should be able to listen to it with Winamp (I hope. I'm not a great nerd at this). This is the sound to the picture... on Marienplatz, not in the stadium! Pretty noisy, huh?
(And no, I haven't figured out how to make videos with my camera. I've only had it for a year now, so what do you want from me? Miracles?)

Last Saturday (wow! Time is flying... it's been a week already) I received a little packet from sunny California. And in it were... my SockapalOOOza socks! Made by my sock saviour Agnes! 

 I really lurve them! They fit just perfectly, the colors are so yummy, and I'm absolutely into this pattern! Simple yet subtle. Unfortunately, it's too hot these days to wear them... but the yarn is very nice (Knit Picks Sock Garden). Thanks Agnes!!!

These socks really came as a surprise. I know that my "original" sock pal had a lot on her plate (a PhD thesis, the renovation of the house she's going to move into, a pregnancy), so I told her she could take all the time she wanted to finish my socks. I'm not sure if she was aware I was assigned to a sock saviour... So, if you read this, I've got some socks now. So, hmmm... how should I say that without you getting me wrong? Well, if you still want to make these socks for you, I won't say anything against it! But if you decide to just skip it because you have enough other stuff to do (and I know that you do), I'll be fine too.

There are still no pictures of my knitting! I'll say goodnight with a picture of a few Munich sights instead.

From left to right: the Frauenkirche (Church of our Lady) with the twin towers and the Munich Rathaus (the town hall) with its grey tower.

Please leave a one-word comment that you think best describes me - it can only be one word long. Then copy and paste this into your blog so that I may leave a word about you.

;-) 

Folks, the bitchin' ain't over yet. Check out this entry on Elemmaciltur's blog. Oh man... I'm getting sick of this.

Fortunately, the lady who did all the bitching said goodbye to the Stitch'n'Bitch thread in that chat forum... so I hope that was it.

The weather is really nice here today (the forecast said it would get up to 28°C/82°F!), so I might be able to take some nice knitting photos in good daylight. 

Once or twice a week, I go to Munich's Stitch'n'Bitch. Usually it's a whole lot of fun, there's a bunch of English native speakers, a few near-native speakers, and then me, of course, the German (who has been invited by one from the group), but I also speak English when I go there. At the group, we normally speak English (me too), and very very rarely somebody says a sentence in German. A couple of weeks ago, however, there was a German lady who had heard about our group, so she came along as well, although she didn't speak more than a few words of English. But this was fine with the group, well, with almost everybody in the group. There was one (English) lady, however, who got pissed off because the German lady dared to speak to her in German, and that's why she (the English one) left the group (after making rude comments). Now, this SnB is organized through a chat forum for English speakers in Germany, and that same lady is still around in that forum. The thing is, she doesn't come to the SnB nights any more (due to the "wrong" language usage, which didn't really happen at all), but she still is around in the SnB thread in that chat forum, critizising the others for inviting the "wrong", aka German, speaking people. 

I mean, when she has a problem with Germans, why is she still living in this country then? Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to start anything discriminatory here, but, come on, what do you expect when you live in a foreign country? That everybody adjusts to your needs and your language? If you want a German-free (or should I say "germ-free"?) environment, then don't leave your house and only invite the people you think speak the "right" language. But don't continue to annoy all the others with your opinion, because they don't share it. You seem to have a problem here, a rather large one I might add, so you should better get some help. After all, this is a free country, and yes, it's okay if you have an opinion like this, but don't try to control the group like this. You're not going there any more anyway, so what are you trying to do here? You're only making an idiot out of yourself. True, the name is "Stitch'n'Bitch", but you are obviously only looking for a place to bitch, so leave the rest of the group alone. People like you just make me want to throw up. This is supposed to be about knitting, and meeting other people. So, my English isn't good enough for you, because I'm German and you teach German students how to speak English? And this is the reason why, on weekends, you don't want to have to listen to Germans who speak "crappy" (not-perfect) English? If I discriminated against you because of your language, what would you say then? But you have the right to do so? What makes you so superior?

I needed to get this off my chest... back with some real knitting content soon. 

Sorry, no photos today, I didn't get around to that. Although I'm making quite a progress on the squares for Grace, I just finished the 11th square! I've got a big book full of patterns, so that gives me an excuse to try out these patterns/make more squares for Grace... whatever way you'd like to see it.

The weather over here in Munich has been horrible for the past few weeks... we had temperatures of about 10° Celsius (that's about 50 in Fahrenheit), which is waaaaaay not enough! It's almost as bad as winter in Melbourne. Only that then, there's the advantage that you're in Melbourne (and there's no pollen flying around at that time of year in Australia). I think today's the first nice day in a long time, the sun's shining, it might even be warm - just in time for the World Cup. (Doh!) So, the city is going to be packed with tourist (even more than usual), especially when there's a game on. I will have to walk to Uni on those days, because the subway going to Uni is on the same line as the one that's going to the stadium. And because the buggers who were in charge of planning and building the stadium in Munich were too stupid to build enough parking lots, the majority of those who were lucky enough to get tickets (another story) will be forced to take public transport to the stadium. Well, actually they don't have a large choice of public transport, as only one kind is going to the stadium - one subway line. If anyone is reading this who has tickets for a game in Munich: Go to the stadium early. Like, a few hours early. I mean, there's nothing out there apart from the stadium, but I guess you don't want to be crushed in the train with a bazillion other soccer fans who probably went to the Hofbräuhaus to have a taste of real German beer (as it's not served in the stadium) and I think I have to stop here now or else I'll really go over the top. I think I wanted to say something about knitting for summer... oh yeah, right, I've started a gauge swatch for the Victoria Tank from Interweave Knits Summer 2004 issue with some nice Rowan yarn. I'll give you the details in the next post, along with some pictures!

A certain somebody is going to receive their socks some time soon... I mailed them yesterday, so I guess they should arrive in about a week.

 I saw on Grumperina's blog that she modified the sock label with all the sock details:

 It was really easy, just with a little help of Photoshop... and it can be done even when you're not a Photoshop expert (believe me, I'm not!).
I really really hope that my sockpal will like them and that they are going to fit!