Sunday, March 31, 2013

Post-Holiday Progress


... that was just a couple of rows here and there. 

Not so much of a knitting holiday, 


 but a beautiful family vacation with a capital V.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Pre-Holiday Progress


These two knitting projects will come with me - my 2 at-once-socks and a dress for Carolina. Let's see what a couple of days in the sun will do.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Teaching

When it comes to knitting and crochet, my currently trained craft teaching skills do not only benefit the little ones in my needlecraft class, but as of last weekend also the more mature students.


Getting hooked on my Mojo socks, my own mama decided to get her knitting gear and skills out, after what must have been 25 years of abandonment. One of my aunt had given her her sock knitting kit about three years ago (including sock yarn, DPNs and a little book about sock knitting), so that came in handy. Show it some light of day! My mama started her mojo knotting adventure last time she visited us a month ago.

The same day I taught Clara how to knit (blogged here), I showed my mother how to knit a short row heel later in the evening. Yes, it was the end of a long and lively day with the girlies, eyes don't get better over the years, I had to be strict and there was some ripping involved.


But before we went to bed there was a finished heel.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Mini Myboshi from the Eastern Bloc

Another evening, another kids program. A TV series I watched myself as a child back in Eastern Germany is re-aired weekly on the kids channel - Pittiplatsch and Schnatterinchen.


A talkative duck and a funny troll wear crochet hats.
Probably made in the 80s.


Political climate or not - you always need a warm hat in winter.

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Knitting... magically

This week I was called to the TV when Clara watched her kids evening programme: "Look, the fairy mama is knitting!"

 (Ben & Holly's Little Kingdom, episode: Woodpecker)

So that's the way a Fairy Queen knits.


And what is she knitting: socks! (I can do magic knitting, too)

This morning while I was knitting away on Hubby's sweater, Clara asked me if she could also knit: "It looks so easy!" My standard answer: "First you've got learn how to crochet." She still struggles with her first simple crochet stitches after mastering chain stitches. But with persistence on her side I couldn't not help but casting on some stitches for her. And what happened then?


I can tell you what Clara said: "Knitting is easy."

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Pink Moment of the Week


a gift from a yoga student
a souvenir crochet hook from a trip to Vancouver 
in a size uncommon in Germany 
11,5 mm or P
Thank you!

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

At the Museum


Haven't been to a museum for a while ... so two days before the closing of the exhibition about the Swinging Sixties in Western Germany, we (Carolina and me) finally made it to the Oldenburg Castle.


After having lived in big cities like London, Berlin and Cologne and being used to museums there, all I can say is that the Sixties exhibition was very mama-and-child-friendly. When I asked at the entrance how long it would take us to see the exhibition, they told me 1,5 hours. 15 minutes later we were through. Carolina was tired and I had seen briefly most of the 300 exhibits (including John Lennon's guitar and a furnished sitting room).


I didn't take many photographs, though.


Lego is a sixties child.


Some sixties children must have played with these dolls.


With crocheted clothes.


Speaking of clothes...


And a quiz:


Which famous couple of the sixties is this?

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Vegan Supermarket


Being a vegan in sleepy Oldenburg was never a problem for me - even though I didn't know anyone else. I cook at home, have good cookbooks and an experimental spirit reigns in my kitchen. There is one "kind of vegan" Restaurant nearby (blogged here) and one in Bremen, you know, this is not Berlin Prenzlauer Berg. But there must a be vegans out here, because a vegan supermarket opened two weeks ago called Veggiemaid.


This week I went there, and while going there it crossed my mind that coming Easter will be my fourth vegan anniversary. I remembered making up my vegan mind in a sauna in New Zealand on Good Friday. It was a spontaneous gut decision. It was not the animals I felt sorry for (even though the more I more I hear about the way they are kept, the more appalled I am), it was a pure matter of taste, dairy products started tasting like zoo. And the switch from vegetarian to vegan made me feel better while our little family was  traveling around the world.


The place is run by young woman, Stefanie, and looks fresh and well-stocked (on the left you see vegan dog food).


I have the opinion that you can get everything you need from a vegan diet of vegetables and fruit, grains and legumes and am naturally sceptical about meat and dairy substitutes. But those substitutes make it beginning vegans easier, I think, and are often hard to get (on depending where you live, of course).


                                                            Soy meat of all shapes.


For a try, I bought a bunch of substitutes.

PS: If you want to know about the shop, it has a Facebook page here.