Winning is Sweet

... for Anja who made the right guess in the Travel Quiz.

Polveróns from Gran Canaria.

Congratulations!

Anja, will you be coming to Oldenburg Knit Night someday soon?

Just let me know,

so I can bring them around

(and maybe some knitting also).

Three Funny Guys on the Bus

On the way to the cozy Advent meeting of our Oldenburg Knit Group, Clara, Carolina and me encountered these guys.



I asked them the reason for their performance.
Just for fun, they said.

Especially for Anja

A photo of the mama.



With Carolina Aura in the sling, warmed by my new mama & baby jacket, ready for a walk.

Five Days

Monday



Friday



And look, what also fell from the tree!



A baby jacket and some wool!

Just kidding, of course. Today in my prenatal yoga class, I got this jacket from knitting yogini Johanna, member of Oldenburg Knit Night (find her as Faser on Ravelry) and now also an expectant mama. She started it before she was pregnant herself and finished just in time for me. DANKE.

Mama & Baby Knitting

With my regular Tuesday Mama & Baby Yoga class pausing right now and my growing desire for rest & nest, I was very happy to be invited to a morning spin-off of Oldenburg Knit Night. Three young mamas who met at my prenatal yoga classes last year and who also became regular knitters at Oldenburg Knit Night during their pregnancy, have started their own little knitting circle with babies, breakfast & knitting.





Lots of baby knitting.



A finished vest is examined by a young expert's eye.





The little expert also tried on mama's knitting.





One baby girl needed a rest.



So mama could do some knitting for her.





We want to make these Tuesdays a habit.

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 ...

Knitty Titty Graffiti

Yesterday was World Wide Knit in Public and Yarn Bombing Day.
My bombshell was a leftover from my husband's birthday present, the prototype for the boob, featured also in Annkari's blog post about some fun we had at Oldenburg Knit Night a couple of weeks ago.

In May we have a had the first Knitting Summit for WWKIPD and this week a second secret meeting where we talked about the whereabouts and whatabouts of the action.



Last night six women met at a restaurant (at a different place then our weekly Oldenburg Knit Nights, for a change) and started knitting/crocheting. A quick and hefty thunderstorm outside and inside later we were ready and equipped.





Busy hands.







Working together.







Finishing touches.





OK, I had this one spare breast.



And had to find a good spot for it.



I liked the combination of both pink graffitis, sprayed and knitted.
But eventually turned the boob around, because in my first time knitting graffiti vanity I wanted it to be seen... while waiting for green light.



Thank you girls! What a great night.

Knitting Summit

This morning after my Business Yoga class at Oldenburg University, two important people met for the first time: Annkari, "head" of Oldenburg Knit Night and let's call her XX, head, hand and heart of the Oldenburg Yarn Guerilla. Hope to see great results!

Guerilla Knitting Mystery Solved Extended Version

On Thursday night the mysterious guerilla knitter revealed herself to me - right before my eyes. I was on my way to my Thursday Night Kundalini Yoga class and en route two students joined me on their bikes. We stopped at a railway crossing gate as a train approached (during classes we hear trains come and go by every now and then and it really adds atmosphere to the class, seriously, it reminds me of the thoughts that come and go, the fleeting quality of things).

Standing there, chatting and waiting, one of my students went to the side and started twiddling with something at the gate. She asked us:
Do you know what guerilla knitting is?

My reaction: ????????§§§§§§§////%/%%%%%%(((()))))))))))))///%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is you??????????!!!!!!!???????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! At Oldenburg Knit Night we have been asking ourselves for weeks who you are.

As she wants to stay undercover I can reveal only some facts:

- she is an artist, a stone sculptor

- having had an artist's block with her stone sculpting she went for the softer way

- she has had the idea of guerilla knitting for two years and started on March 8, the 100th International Women's Day

- she is not a university student, although she works part time there, all the graffiti at university seemed to send people on the wrong track about the identity and the intentions of the guerilla knitters, including myself

- it is not a group, but only her and a friend, which is remarkable, because they leave their traces in all parts of town

- it is a political statement in a public space

- it will go on

I could pick a flower from her guerilla knitting bag
(guerilla crochet this time).



Now a guerilla flower blooms in my garden.

And I was very happy when she said that Kundalini Yoga really kicked her creativity. Though it looks different then art it is kind of the same.



All I can say again - in my world knitting and yoga seem to be intertwined.

Knit the University II

As Guenther and Hillit pointed out at Oldenburg Knit Night this week,
the yarn guerillas around the campus are still very active!







Favourite spots seem to be benches and (lamp) posts.









Still no signs of identification of the knitting guerillas and what their intention is. But despite their message Vera thinks knitting graffiti is a very good way to get rid of excess yarn.

PS: More Oldenburg yarn graffiti discovered by Annkari here.

Tonight at Knit Night

My very first handspun!


(not by myself)

It is a gift from I-knit-with-my-handspun/design-my-own-patterns/
and everything-that-is-knit-with-bigger-needles-than-2,5mm-is-bulky/ knitress extraordinaire - Richie.
Very lovely merino/silk blend. Thank you very much!

A yarny forerunner of things to come on the weekend...

Early Bloomers

Oldenburg is a considerably small (160.000 people live here) and placid city in Northern Germany. There seems to be one rule: when I go some place, I either meet somebody from Oldenburg Knit Night or from my yoga classes. Or better - both intertwined.

A family walk in the Oldenburg Castle Gardens in the afternoon.


(early spring bloomers!)









We crossed paths with Britta, her hubby and their newborn baby boy - quite an early bloomer himself. His due date was tomorrow, but he decided to arrive three weeks earlier right on his daddy's birthday.



This is how I met Britta: I went to Oldenburg Knit Night at Café Florian some months ago. I was the first one to arrive when I saw a pregnant women who looked like my exquisite and very nice target group. As I had freshly printed yoga flyers in my bag, I approached her and she really came to my prenatal yoga class, I mentioned knitting casually (or rather passionately, I suppose), she wanted to learn it, she came to Knit Night, we showed her and she knitted this beautiful and classy baby blanket -
it is her first knitting project! Congratulations!!! (on both FOs)

Knitting in Kiel

While my lovelies are spending their last warm days in the south,
I decided to go further up north on a little trip of my own. Leaving Oldenburg main station possible rail strikes were announced:



Anyway, I was professionally prepared for any waiting time with good reading and knitting materials.



Excuse my shameless self-promotion, but guess whose letter to the editor was in the journal? (if you don't know German or know German but don't like my egomaniac cross-promotion just skip this)



I am sure I didn't write magenta. I wrote pink.

I do suspect that knitters must have some kind of inner radar system to find each other in all kinds of surroundings. Because getting off the train in Bremen (Bremen is worth a visit, too) I met two babes from Oldenburg Knit Night. And how did I recognized one of them from behind? By her self-designed white cabled hat, of course. Her comment when she looked at me? You look pink.

Do I?



No strike on my trains, I was lucky. And what a surprise, shortly before Hamburg - snow! I hadn't seen snow since the beginning of January.



There are two yarn shops near Kiel main station.



Wolle & Hobby is located in a big hall. The yarn section was overwhelming.



That is only part of it.



And it is not only wool they sell, it is a crafter's paradise with everything from patchwork to scrapbooking, from painting to embroidery.

As I was in the company of my two charming friends they were so nice to pose with pink wool.


Lee (I have made him do this before) and Daniel

The other yarn shop is fadenwerk, located in a former gym (Daniel used to work out there, he told me). Smaller & lovely.





Also fabrics, sewing machines and sewing supplies.



They offer sewing classes.




This used to be the sauna.



I couldn't resist.

Yet the highlight of the Kiel yarn shops is on the outskirts, in the placid surroundings of woods and lakes. The WollWerkstatt Kiel, specializing in high quality yarns.



And lucky me, once a month there is a Stitch'n'Bitch - on Saturdays from 11 am until ... (it is usually dark by then). This Saturday.



The shop is downstairs in the owner's house.





On Knit Saturdays she opens her house to the Kiel knitaholics.

I couldn't resist.

Another good thing - there is potluck.
And if you are an experimental vegan like me, my recommendation for Kiel is:



How could I resist that name?





It is more like an alternative pub with a familiar feel - seriously, in the short time we spend there they had following customers: young mamas with really small babies, teenagers, families, a grandmother. They have a vegetarian/vegan menu - and everything that is vegetarian can also be turned into vegan on request. The pizza, burger and thai curry we had were equally yummy.

This last thing is for the German speakers/or linguistically interested - during my stay there was a trade fair going on, which is called:



Umschlag has different meanings: in this case it is a fair or a market.
In my case it means: yarn over.