The Flagstaff Jacket

To the end of our trip my traveling companions started to bore me (I mean the shawls, of course!) and I was ready for some new wool and project. Plus it was raining. We were in Flagstaff/Arizona.



Purl in the Pines! Another great name for a yarn store.



It had to be something for baby. I bought two books: 60 Quick Baby Knits and Clara's choice Amigurumi Two! I chose some red Cascade superwash yarn for a Raglan Cardigan. Not yet knowing the gender of the baby, this colour and pattern seemed to be unisex.

I cast on right away in the car on our way to Las Vegas. The rain stopped. It got hotter and hotter. 104°F/40°C.





Most of the cardigan was knitted in our very nice and spacious suite in Las Vegas. Watching Forrest Gump for the umpteen time (got very excited when I recognized Monument Valley where we had just been in one scene) and my favourite detective series Monk. And it was there with the cardigan on the needles, where I was really sure to feel baby's first kicks. So actually this cardigan should be named "The Las Vegas Jacket". But it doesn't look bling-bling ka-ching at all. Very decent mountain town like.



For your information: I also found a yarn store in Las Vegas (their website). An oasis in the heat of day.



The secret: air conditioning.



Super-friendly staff in both Flagstaff and Las Vegas - how can they be not? And also all over the yarn stores I visited: German knitting tools.





It was only back home in quality-knitting-tool-producing-Germany that this cardigan got finished. There was something very strange happening with the yoke while knitting. The number of stitches, the decreases, the way it looked in the book - it was not coming together at all... So after the Las-Vegas-knitting-flash (at least that was flashy) it took me a while to discover that it was not my knitting that was wrong, but the pattern. Internet, google, errata 60 Quick Baby Knits. The whole yoke section needed to be re-knitted (you still see the line in the photo where the cardigan had to the frogged, it is not blocked yet). Then it was easy and quick, two days of by-the-way-now-and-then knitting last week. I added three more buttons then in the original pattern, where there is only one top bottom. Ravelry notes here. The size should fit a 6-months-old baby.

So next summer we should really travel to some cooler mountain area, just to fit the knit.

Live the Life you Love

... as found in Flagstaff / Arizona

Fresh & Organic 31

Due to technical problems no picture of the vegetable box today. Will be coming! Contents (use your imagination):

Fruit: grapes, apples, kiwifruit

Vegetables: potatoes, kohlrabi, Chinese cabbage, mini tomatoes, more tomatoes, cucumber, red bell pepper, carrots, savoy cabbage, red radishes, onions, fennel, corn salad

... here comes the photo:

Sisters in Knitting

This week at Clara's dancing class - I met a fellow knitting mama for the first time. Usually I am the only knitter... And which wool did she knit with - Sisters wool!

Also this week: I was very happy to join my knitting sisters (and one brother) at Oldenburg Knit Night again. It's been a while, only my second time since they moved to their new location in August. It was great to see what everybody was up to and who knows how the coming weeks will look like for me ...

Five Years ago

Yesterday in my post I mentioned the 3mm bamboo needles I knitted with when I was pregnant with Clara. I still have the baby outfit:



This was also the time I fell for pink (and have not recovered yet). I didn't consider myself a knitter then, the pregnancy just seemed like a very good time to pick up some needles and wool and see what was left of my teenage knitting skills.

It was before Ravelry and I didn't even consider the Internet as an option, I just went the good old way - to the local yarn store. We lived in Cologne at that time and I had discovered the shop Maschenkunst, where a very helpful and enthusiastic Czech woman worked (Daniela Johannsenova, also a knitwear designer like I know by now). She helped me find a little brochure with baby patterns (Regia Journal 4001, Ravelry link here), pick some yarn and those bamboo needles. I was between jobs then, had started a yoga teacher training earlier that year, left my well-paid TV job and already began teaching prenatal yoga. The pregnancy came like a surprise, my original plan was leaving everything behind and go to India to an ashram, stay there and meditate until I know exactly what to do with my life. That was the plan. Instead I got married. A sure sign that I was a fickle knitter - I wouldn't take my knitting to our wedding/honeymoon in Venice... but I remember missing it a bit (but just a tiny bit, everything around me was exciting enough), e.g. when waiting in restaurants (I put on five kilograms in my wedding month, ok, I was also five months pregnant...).

And looking at my knitting now, I am really surprised how skilled I must have been and how much love, hope and tenderness I put in the stitches, how carefully every seam, every picot and every other detail was done. The truth is, I don't remember much of this, must have had pregnancy forgetfulness...

I think, Clara only wore this outfit once.



To a friends' wedding when she was nine months old.


Do young mothers always look so tired?



It's been really quite a while since I saw my dear husband in a suit and with sleek hair like that... The last wedding we have been to was our own - the renewal of vows in Las Vegas this summer (blogged here).
Second baby, same benefits. But more hand-knits.

Something Blue (and purple, too)

After three cardigans (and another one in progress), two bonnets and the baby blanket (blogged here), I thought this coming baby really needs some knitted nether garments.

Some research and I went for "the classic" - Elisabeth Zimmermann's Baby Leggings (February), the pattern is nearly 50 years old now, time-tested on generations of babies. And I don't know why, but I am always totally excited when I knit one of her patterns. Maybe because she is such a knitting genius, an icon and it takes some brains to figure out her "pithy" instructions.

They are two versions of the pattern, one in her book "The Opinionated Knitter" and another similar one in EZ's "Knitter's Almanac". They differ slightly in the number of stitches and ways of decreasing, and I think the Almanac's pattern is more accurate.

I started with the blue one, 100 % virgin wool, after all the pink and purple, on 4mm needles and the instructions in the "Opinionated Knitter". The the result is probably something for next fall, for a baby 9-12 months old. I omitted the bootee-foot, not really necessary on a crawling baby or a baby learning to walk. I guess, I will be happy next year to have some longies ready to put on, with probably less time for knitting ...

The pattern only gives you one size, so I went down to needle size 3mm for something more "right now" or "very soon" - like you want to put in on the baby in the coming colder months. I loved knitting those, on the same bamboo needles I knitted for coming baby Clara five years ago (the only needles I actually had at this time).



The wool for both came from a wool bargain (blogged here) in February, when I was mentally getting ready for a new baby. I love those little green speckles in the purple-white yarn, which is very soft to the touch (half wool, half acrylic, probably more durable).



I used the pattern from the "Almanac" and did the bootee-feet.



Finishing touches: an i-cord for the purple version and some elastic for a more active baby to fit next fall. Something new I learned around midnight (yes, the night knitting virus is back!): Grafting with Kitchener Stitch for closing the seams of the bootees and crotch, actually quite fun and they are some very helpful videos on the internet. You can find my Ravelry notes here. While doing the finishing I watched a prenatal yoga video (this one if you would like to know, Anna Getty also trained with my Kundalini yoga teacher Gurmukh). I am not quite sure, whether this is the way you are supposed to use this video, but the combination worked for me, relaxed and inspired me. And I had two finished pairs of baby leggings in my hands at the end of the video!

And because I enjoyed knitting these leggings so much, I am seriously considering knitting the lady version of the longies for myself now, a.k.a. "leg sweaters". Have to find a nice yarn first - see you wool shopping...

Leftovers

... I found from the baby booties party last year. So booties can be ticked off the knitting list. Just one pair of booties never got completely finished, they are still missing the ties. In shocking eighties neon pink (even more shocking in reality then in the picture!).



Who could be brave enough to wear them?

My Favourite Place right now

...non-stop rain outside...
...non-stop growing baby inside...

Fresh & Organic 30

Today photographed with flash.



and without:



Fruit: pineapple, apples, bananas, grapes. pears

Veggies: potatoes, cucumber, carrots, Hokkaido pumpkin, red bell pepper, curled lettuce, cherry tomatoes, another bigger sort of tomatoes, Chinese cabbage, kohlrabi, leak, parsley

Moab

According to Chloe, an artist and Kundalini Yoga teacher (I did my international yoga teacher training with her in India), Moab is a magical valley in southern Utah. She must know - she lives there (check out her art, it is magical, too).
Besides her about 4800 people live in Moab and for tourists like us it was a great starting point to see Arches National Park.







And to come back to some food & wool.
We especially enjoyed the Eklectica Cafe.



You can view beads and jewelry while eating breakfast (what about some soy-ginger-seaweed-scrambled-tofu?),



drink organic coffee on their garden patio,



and be surrounded by original art, antiques and collectables.




... even in the restroom.

And, of course, in a nice town like Moab there must be a nice yarn store with nice people!



I just love the name!



The super-friendly owners Cathy and Rosie created a cozy oasis with a fantastic selection of yarns and books. Their knitting nights are on Wednesdays. Their website here.





Very child-friendly, too - one of the owners has a little son.





You just want to sit down, relax and get out your knitting needles.



I still dream of my own rocking chair, that day will come...

My Mama is a Knitter

What we have right now:



And for a change - something blue and something red on the needles.

The Pink Elephant Effect

Clara at the annual funfair "Kramermarkt" in Oldenburg

Don't think about pink elephants, fly them!

Falling Leaves

Nothing sparks creativity like a couple of days off, some of the loveliest October days ever, a bunch of new knitting books and a big project off the needles. Inspired by the time spent outside, I wanted to capture some of the golden season and the oncoming desire to knit for warmth inside.



The pattern for the leaves come from Lesley Stansfield delightful books 100 Flowers to Knit & Crochet and 75 Birds and Butterflies to Knit & Crochet. There is so much inspiration for more projects and other seasons to come in that book. The fabric in the frame is actually more grape violet then sky blue, but the camera decided to show it that way.

While Clara browsed the books with me and saw me knitting the leaves, she wanted to have some fall fun, too. As knitting is still too difficult for her, I suggested a colour study she could draw.



Fall /autumn (I like both words) can come!

Woodland Walk

September Blanket

The baby blanket that supposed to keep my hands, heart and mind busy until the end of November left my needles on October 1.
It virtually knitted itself.

After a good soak:



and a nice dry in the October sun:



It is the Pinwheel Baby Blanket (pattern here), knitted up to 710 stitches in the round. With three skeins of 6-ply sock yarn (incredible how every of the three sections is one skein). Ravelry notes here.

And it is huge!



To see the size see this:



or this:



It warmed the baby already while I knitted it, when the blanket grew bigger and bigger and softly landed on my belly.



And what landed in my lap today? According to the universal knitting law, that emptied knitting needles need to be occupied with new stitches immediately to avoid the void - something for myself, for spring (???), even though the trees still look quite green outside.