At Very Long Last

In my book of 2012 some things can wait until next year - ambition, resolutions, laundry. But some things just needed to get finished this year. Like knitted things. Like the Easy Lace Stole.

Or better known now as the Six-Months-Stole, as it took me exactly six months to knit it.

* From winding the yarn into a ball on June 28, while better not watching the German soccer team lose against Italy in the Euro Cup.
* The words Easy and Lace sounded like a good summer knitting project, for leisurely moments in the garden or on vacation
* But the yarn went on and on... and didn't seem to end... fall came and the need for warmer knitties... and the first snow... and more warming stuff
* Until the lazy days Christmas couch days with Downton Abbey on TV
* I could cast off on December 28 and block it

Lace yarn bought in Kiel. My Ravelry notes here.

And it is long. Very long. 2 meters and 20 centimeters (my calculator says 86.6141732 inches).

All rolled up - like the year we are leaving behind very soon. I will wrap it around my neck and party (just a little tiny bit). I even intend to jump from a chair into the New Year like they do in Scandinavia.

Hope to see you in 2013. Happy, healthy and hand making.

More Light

With the days getting (very gradually) longer after the Winter Solstice and the recent knitting bug that I caught during the lazy holidays, Hubby's Christmas gift makes my handmade days even longer, better for my eyes and more cozy on the couch than the regular evening lighting.

 

A daylight lamp.

One Heart, Five Stars

Hot off the Christmas Press:

 

Ornaments for Oma's Christmas Tree (ours is more minimalistic).

Light to All.

Love to All.

Peace to All.

Pink Moment of the Week

... is actually white this week.

Merry, Merry

I knitted myself another Dickey, my first Dickey is still good and warm, but with its colours a too funny match with my baby carrier coat. And I can not only use another Dickey, but they are also too much fun to knit.

Simple, but clever constructed, with enough happening while knitting to keep you entertained (ribbing, increases, decreases, turning corners, garter stitch grafting). And still all the while not too complicated, so you can knit them by-the-way going on with your everyday life or for winding down at night. You can find my Ravelry notes here.

There is just one flaw, yarn snobs beware! It is knitted from 100%  Poly acrylic (the yarn is called "Polly"). Oooh, aah, yes! Plastic! But the colour of the yarn just waved at me at the store. And there are also advantages - it is vegan, you can machine wash it easily and it only cost me three Euros (I still do prefer real wool, don't worry...).

So I put those two plastic friends together for a photo. 

But to come back to the original purpose why I knitted those Dickeys in the first place:

My neck and chest stay warm while I am doing my job.

These Pants are made for Playing

Sisters and Pants. Matching Pants. It is this time of year again, after Sisters' Dresses last year. I just couldn't help it and had to make them. And I couldn't wait until Christmas. So when Clara opened her birthday presents yesterday, Carolina got her little sister's pants version, too.

The pattern comes from Christiane, owner of the Berlin label Madame Jordan, who we met at Family Camp this summer (blogged here). I saw her own children running around in these cool pants called "Knickerbockers", and wanted to add some urban chic to our sleepy Oldenburg life.

I also added a pink jersey lining for the cooler days now. The pants themselves are corduroy and after I messed up my first attempt at sewing both sides together, I am now very pleased with the outcome.

And now for the pictures at play:

Too hard to stand still, of course.

Exciting new skipping rope.

So much fun.

6

Three weeks after Carolina's birthday it is Clara's turn today.

Muffins for school

6 is fun

Clara made her own invitation cards for her party on a farm

We love you.

Babies vary, Knitting stretches

These Elisabeth Zimmermann words in mind, I remembered Carolina's Little Sister's Dress the other day, packed away with her other newborn stuff in the basement. While Clara wore her Big Sister's Dress a  good deal last winter, Carolina's dress only warmed her once, worn at Christmas last year. The dress was not too convenient for carrying Carolina in the sling or Elimination Communication.

But can't the dress be worn as a vest right now?

No knitting is in vain.

Startitis before Christmas

Why not cast on a little bit more,
why not cast on a little bit more,
why not cast on a little bit more?

Why not?

While the Christmas Crafting is going along smoothly, why not cast on some in-between-and-post-X-mas knitting?

Christmas Crafting

A little glimpse into my Christmas Factory:

Sewing for the girlies.

Crochet for Oma's Christmas tree.

10 more days to go - I think it's possible.

The Real Pink Moment of the Week

As I realized that yesterday's Pink Moment of the Week looked rather purple, I bring you to today the real pink plastic.

O Christmas tree, your branches pink delight us!

Pink Moment of the Week

Light up - our Christmas tree.

Christmas Fairies

... seen around the house at 7.44 am.

Little Snowflake

No Advent Sunday without going to the Advent Bazaar, third year in Oldenburg, same tradition. The ladies of the Advent Bazaar craft club (I visited them here) had done a good job again, this year. Clara and me hoped for new snazzy Barbie clothes, but either we were late or the lady who knits them had prolonged her vacation.

But still, we found something. Some tiny Froebel stars and a purple knitted loop scarf for Clara. And hidden underneath some other knitted things, Carolina's babuschka spotted a whole knitted baby set for her - hat, scarf and mittens.

Tiny stitches, lots of work, tiny price.

Stay warm and roam about in the white, baby.

Pink Moment of the Week

... with a little bit of white frosting.
First snow is always special.

Funny Thing

I still carry my now-one-year-old-baby in the sling now and then. When Carolina is tired and fuzzy. Or for a short hop outside the house to pick up Clara from school. Cold temperatures at the end of last week made me realize that I might have a good baby carrier coat and Carolina and I snuggle up to each other warmly, but there is still one small area of my body that gets cold. As Carolina is used to nursing while in the sling (always!), I need to wear open-collared shirts and dresses. A scarf doesn't cover it all and my chest area gets cold.

The solution came to me just in time - while browsing Elisabeth Zimmermann's Knitting Around. I totally enjoy reading her digressions-memoirs and looking at the photos from her life right now. And one pattern in the book puts an end to a mama's cold chest - the Dickey (my Ravelry notes here).

Cast on Thursday night after my Kundalini Yoga class I made nice progress over the weekend and could weave in the ends on Sunday evening - and put it to the cold test this morning.

Waaaaaaaaaaarm! A cool knitting pattern by EZ, knitted with the first wool I could grap that kind of matched the required gauge. And it dawned on me while knitting, that this is the third EZ pattern I knitted with this wool actually (also Baby Leggings and Baby Bonnet). It is neither my favourite colour nor yarn patterning and Clara said this morning that it looked "funny" on me. But hey, Dickey does his job to my full warmth. It's a Mama Bib!

Carolina has a new hat

I wanted a new hat for Carolina on her birthday table. She already has two in rotation, her knitted EZ baby bonnet (knitted here) and Butterflies. Rotation is the right word for it, because those hats don't stay long on her head, no matter how cold it is, Carolina just pulls them off. And I put the hat back on. And sometimes it stays on her head for a while.

For the new hat, as I was all busy with making her birthday book, I relied on other mamas' wonderful craftivity. At a handmade fair three weeks ago (blogged here) I saw some nice hats at a stall (or actually it was a table with a suitcase on it - it was a "suitcase fair"), by bootshauskind. We tried some on and didn't find a hat in Carolina's size - but I took the business card and later contacted Lena, the woman/mama behind bootshauskind.

A couple of days later and just in time for Carolina's 1st birthday, the new hat was personally delivered at our house by Lena (we live in the same quarter of Oldenburg, it seems). A cute reversible hat with little woodland creatures on one side, and red stars on pink fabric on the other.

It fits.

And Carolina loves to pull it off.

Carolina's Birthday Book

On Carolina's birthday table was one present "made my mama" - she probably couldn't care less right now, but it was important to me.

Making her book has kept me busy most of my November spare time, but it was a labour of love, enjoying stitching away when Carolina was having her afternoon naps and the daylight was still good.

It is a lot of felt appliqué on vintage fabric, with templates from the book Sew Liberated.

I used more pink than the original version in the book.

And designed a little free butterfly instead of the original aquarium fish.

Enjoy!

1

One year around the sun.

Happy birthday, little one!