Got ya covered, netbook.

As much as I try to juggle various projects like pretty much all other knitters, stitchers and generally crafty types do, it's just not my style. I like continuity. I like beginnings, middles and ends. I like finishing things.

So, this is what I've been working on the past week or so.



It's a cover for our wee teeny netbook! And finished just in time to pop it in the overnight bag and head off to France for a few days.

It didn't come out exactly the way I pictured it in my head. But, I only dropped one stitch and it's the biggest thing I've made with nothing but the picture in my own head to go by. And I'm pretty happy with it!

You can dress the coffee up, but you can't take it out. Alright, you can.

Look what I made last night!



I try not to use paper coffee cups, usually. But, I didn't think to pack a travel mug with us. I don't mind carrying the ceramic cups around the hotel, but once we head out to the park or for a walk, I've been using paper cups. Rather than add a cardboard sleeve too, I knitted a fuzzy sleeve. With a bow tie!

To knit the bow tie, I used a flower pattern and just knitted two "petals".

cast on 5 stitches
row 1: slip 1, knit 3. turn leaving remaining stitch unworked
row 2: purl 3, turn leaving remaining stitch unworked
row 3: knit 3, turn leaving remaining stitch unworked
row 4: purl 3, turn leaving remaining stitch unworked
row 5: knit 4
row 6: purl 2 together, purl 1, purl 2 together (3 stitches)
row 7: knit 1, knit 2 together and pass first stitch over to give 1 stitch on needle. Pull yarn through.

I tied together the two pulled through tails and voila! bow tie!

Linked on:

Vierundzwanzig

The big news of the day: WE GOT OUR APPROVAL BACK FROM HOUSING!! I am so, so, so, SO very excited!! Were it not for the suddenly bum knee, I would likely be executing clumsy cartwheels around the teeny tiny hotel room. If everything else in the process goes as scheduled (BIG IF), we should be in our new house on Monday!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Everything else I was going to say seems all small and unimportant now. But, that's never stopped me from blurting it out anyway.

We had to make a trip to the farther away post today because - apparently - making a routine eye appointment is a many step process that, several steps in, requires you to make an appearance in the healthcare administration office. Every time you make any kind of routine appointment off post. Which you have to do for anything related to eyes, teeth and who knows what else. I'm excited about this.

Cheeseball and I decided to pick El Niño up from school instead of riding the bus, so we had a few hours to kill until school got out. We wandered through the thrift shop and found what must be the most awesome book ever written.





I'm glad I actually had my camera with me today (!!) because, really, who would believe me without photographic evidence? I know I wouldn't. I also bought a book called A Killer Stitch. It advertises itself as a knitting mystery. No, really. It promises a delicious recipe and knitting pattern included! with the book. The back cover teaser begins:

'Tis the season for knitters in chilly Fort Connor, Colorado: scarves, sweaters, mittens - and murder.

Ha ha ha, how do you NOT buy that book!? I don't know, I bought it. I'm not sure I'll actually be able to read it. I can barely slog through the back cover, which continues:

The House of Lambspun has been bombarded by holiday knitters. In the midst of overflowing bins of sumptuous yarn, an unexpected winter romance buzzes in chorus with the spindles of shy new spinning instructor Lacy Adair. But when a rancher is found dead in Bellevue Canyon, avid knitter and sometime-sleuth Kelly Flynn quickly puts festive pastimes aside.

Hmm. Awful, but I have to check it out. It's like when someone says, "oh god this tastes horrible, try it!" And then somehow you have to. Or I do. I have to know how bad it is! Same principle applies.

In other news, we are still adjusting to life in a foreign country. The kids asked me this morning what "juice" means.

I said, do you mean "how do you say juice in German? You say saft."

They said, "no, what does juice mean?"

"Well, I guess it means pulverized fruit mixed with water and often sugar."

"No, not that kind of juice."

"I don't really know any other kind of juice. Unless you mean power. Like, you could say 'give it some juice' when you mean, step on the gas."

At this point, El Niño was getting a little frustrated.
"Why does everybody say 'juice' when they're done talking to you!?"

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Ha ha ha. No, they're saying 'cheers'! Just, with an accent."

"Oh, ok. What does cheers mean?"

Parenting. You have to be a fan of the circular. And also a fan of the element of surprise. Every time I've gone to upload the few pictures I've taken lately, I'm surprised to see my camera uploading 60+ pictures. Cheeseball has become a fan of the camera. All of her pictures fall into three categories; 1. pictures of her dog, 2. pictures of her toys, 3. pictures of her making funny faces. And most of them are either extreme close ups or extremely brief movies. I've tried to teach her the settings, but I think that's beyond a four year old and she always ends up on the movie setting.

Some come out suprisingly well shot.

Others are adorable, but somewhat lacking in composition.



I think I'll have to work with her to develop the interest and then maybe I'll feel less guilty about all the pictures I don't end up taking.

Technorati tags: photography, Germany, books

Siebzehn unt Achtzehn

At least I think I'm chronicling (does that word look weird or what?) Days 17 and 18. I skipped a day and now I'm all confused. Maybe I skipped two days...? Who knows. I have to count on El Niño to keep track of the days of the week for me, but I don't have a handy blog helper.

Yesterday (Day Siebzehn? Maybe...?), we met with the realtor and our landlord to draw up the tenancy contracts so we'll be all set if and when we get that approval from Housing to live off post. I'm still getting used to Germans and I kept thinking the landlord was angry until he'd finish what seemed like a huffy tirade in German and then smile at me. ?? Different body language, different tonal sounds and I don't understand the words, so really I was lost and mildly concerned through most of the meeting.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in our usual routine...picked up some dinner from the store, hit the bakery, swam in the pool. Well, the kiddos swam and I knitted. While not in the pool.

I was again surprised at how cheap it is to eat here. I went to the grocery store and bought a big bottle of water (no gas!), a decent bottle of wine, a bottle of balsamic vinegar, a cucumber, two frozen lasagna portions, two different chocolate treats for the kiddos, a small cardboard puzzle that Cheeseball had to have that a day later still sits unwrapped on the dresser, and some yogurt for less than € 10. Then, of course, I stopped at the bakery and got two big, soft pretzels and a tiramisu schnitten for about € 2. I think schnitten means jello and I should have thus realized that the tiramisu flavored portion of the dessert was a jello layer atop the cream layer atop the cake layer atop the different cream layer atop the last cake layer. Which was a little strange. But, the non-jello portions were delicious.

And, now I'm realizing that I should have gone ahead and written up siebzehn and achtzehn separately. But, too late now, forward ho.

Today, the kiddos and I wandered back to The Coolest Park Evah, which they were super excited about right up until they realized that the trip was really just a sneaky ploy by Mom to drag them to the yarn store that I've been dying to go to. I haven't blogged much of it, but I've been knitting quite a bit.

Before we left North Carolina, I knitted two pairs of fingerless mittens for El Niño.



The funny thing about these was that I knitted a pair, and one had the gray stripe and one had the red. He really liked them, so I knitted him a second pair and again it was one gray stripe and one red. So, we re-paired them and I'm completely amazed at how the variegated yarn works out in patterns.

Cheeseball had picked out a yellow and white yarn before we left, and I made her a little purse the other day. She asked for another one that was a little bigger and I started working on it. I've almost run out of that yarn, though, hence the trip to the yarn store today.



Look what I got!



The yarn store had SO many beautiful fibers, but I had to contain myself. I picked up the orange to finish up Cheeseball's purse, the gray for a pair of leg warmers that I've been trying to work on (but not finding the right yarn for) for at least a month and a half and the last skein I just couldn't resist. Isn't it pretty!? I don't know what I'm going to do with it yet, but I'm sure I can find something.

Fresh off my high from the yarn store, I got a call from The Man that totally bummed me out. We were at the PX yesterday and I almost bought that Lamborghini bike. But, I would have to walk it home and drag the kiddos with me, since I had them both and no trailer. So, I decided to hold off. He went back in today to pick it up for me (which was really sweet, because he was thoroughly UNexcited about riding a pretty, woman's bike home) and they had sold the last one. Since yesterday! Booooooo. :(

I guess I'll have to get a performance bike. High class problem.

Technorati tags: knitting, yarn, Germany