Aus dem Wollvorrat

Ich mache zum ersten Mal seit ewig wieder einmal bei einem Knitalong, abgekürzt KAL, mit. Ein Knitalong ist, wenn eine Gruppe von Menschen gemeinsam über einige Zeit entweder dasselbe Muster oder ein Stückchen von einem Projekt oder gleichzeitig verschiedene Dinge, vielleicht zu einem bestimmten Thema stricken. Häkeln und Weben wird da mit reingenommen. ;)

JulesEins schrieb nämlich auf Twitter über das Phänomen der sehr teuren Garne bzw. dass Stricker_innen in Podcasts und Videoblogs immer neue davon kaufen, was sich viele Menschen nicht leisten können und rief daher einen Knitalong aus, bei dem ein schon lange im Wollvorrat langerndes Garn verstrickt wird und auch über gute und günstige Garne gesprochen wird.

Garne lange im Wollvorrat lagern ist quasi meine Königinnendisziplin. Ich habe noch welche vom Beginn meiner jetzigen Strickphase, also aus 2004. *hust* Für manche habe ich einen dezidierten Plan (irgendwann *kriege* ich eine schwarze Jacke mit grauem Puschelkragen, ich hab ja das Garn schon!), aber noch nicht genug Knowhow oder ich mag gerade nicht, andere liegen und warten auf meine Inspiration, die dann plötzlich mit "Aber ich hab ja noch dieses Garn aus dem Jahr 200X" zuschlagen kann.

Also zum Beispiel wie in diesem Blogpost beschrieben - das eine Garn für die Jacke kam aus dem Wollvorrat und lag dort seit vielen Jahren und wartete auf ein Projekt oder ein anderes Garn. Viele meiner älteren Garne habe ich gut im Kopf, weil ich sie ja schon oft angesehen habe. Ein anderes Projekt, meine Jacke namens Dotty about Pink (Ravelry Link), verwendet als Basisgarn ebenfalls eines, das ich 2008 gekauft und in einen Pullover für meinen Vater verstrickt habe. Der passte nicht und dann starb mein Vater, also habe ich den Pullover irgendwann wieder aufgetrennt und die Wolle einfach mal eingelagert.

Was nun meine Lieblingswolle angeht, die ich für alles verwende, was lange halten soll und, nun ja, verhältnismäßig günstig ist, so ist das Lana Grossa Cool Wool in allen Stärken. So an die 70 meiner Projekte habe ich daraus gestrickt. Die Farben sind so wunderschön satt, sie ist in der Waschmaschine waschbar, aus Merino und sie hält ewig. Diese hübschen Handschuhe habe ich 2006 gestrickt, in Schottland. Seitdem benutze ich sie immer wieder, natürlich nicht zur Gartenarbeit und ich habe auch noch einige andere Handschuhe, die sich mit ihnen abwechseln, aber insgesamt benutze ich sie schon so lange und sie sehen immer noch aus wie frisch gestrickt.

Ok, die Babysachen, die ich für meine Niblinge daraus gestrickt habe, sind, weil oft gewaschen, schon etwas fusselig. Aber insgesamt ist das einfach *die* Wolle für mich. Wenn meine Mutter wieder Arm-, Bein-, Hals-, oder sonst irgendwas -wärmer braucht, dann kommt diese Wolle zum Einsatz. Und in meinem Wollvorrat befinden sich viele Knäuel davon, farblich kombiniert und so in einem eigenen Säckchen verstaut, damit ich, falls mir irgendwann die Handschuhe ausgehen oder ich Lust auf neue habe, gleich anfangen kann zu stricken. Aber dadurch, dass die Handschuhe und Mützen, die ich schon habe, so unverwüstlich sind, stricke ich im Moment wenig neue.

Als Projekt für den Knitalong habe ich mir aber eine andere Wolle ausgesucht, die sich seit ca. 2008 in meinem Wollvorrat befindet, nämlich Lana Grossa DaSolo. Daraus stricke ich einen Kinderbolero und eine Katzendecke, denn Susu möchte was Eigenes. Nur mit dem Stricken wird es schwierig, denn Susu findet es immer noch äußerst spannend. :D

Zu lang, zu kurz und ein Loch unterm Arm

Bei mir lebt eine neue Katze, ein Kater namens Susu, der an Fäden verständlicherweise sehr interessiert ist. Das macht sowohl das Stricken als auch das Sticken leider recht schwer. Aber manchmal schaffe ich es doch, ein paar Maschen zu stricken. Im Moment habe ich ein altes Projekt in der Mangel - einen wunderschönen Mantel (Link zu Ravelry) aus Lana Grossa Classic Tweed. Das Muster ist "Helmi" von Mari Muinonen.

Leider wuchs der Mantel nach der ersten Wäsche gehörig in die Länge, er wurde so lang, dass es direkt unangenehm war und auf Treppen am Boden schleifte, besonders wenn ich etwas in den Taschen hatte. Auch die Dreiviertelärmel waren zwar sehr stylish, aber im Alltag waren sie mühsam - es zog trotz langen Handschuhen oder Pulswärmern durch den Spalt und bah. Also beschloss ich, den Mantel zu kürzen und die Ärmel zu verlängern.

Das Verlängern der Ärmel hat gut geklappt. Die alten Ärmel hatten so eine Flappe, die fest vernäht, aber weil Style mit Knöpfen befestigt war. Die habe ich mir jetzt gespart und werde auch keine Knöpfe annähen, die bleiben nur hängen.

Nicht so gut geklappt hat das Kürzen der Länge - ich habe zu viel aufgetrennt und nun ist mein lieber Mantel eine Jacke. Wenn ich also mit den Ärmeln fertig bin, werde ich die untere Kante nochmals auftrennen und länger stricken. Bisschen dumm von mir, aufzutrennen ohne die Länge zu überprüfen. *seufz*

Das Mühsamste ist allerdings das Loch unter dem Ärmel! Ich weiß nicht, ob es ein Mottenloch ist oder ob ich den Ärmel einmal zu stark belastet habe, die Wolle ist nämlich nicht sehr reißfest. Das muss also geflickt werden und die ganze Sektion muss ein wenig verstärkt werden und auf der anderen Seite auch.

Ich habe mir zwar auch einige Sommerprojekte vorgenommen, aber für eines muss ich im Wollvorrat erst das Hauptgarn finden - wo das wohl hin ist? - und für das andere habe ich noch keine Ideen. Also ist es ganz ok, dass ich im Moment nicht viel zum Stricken komme. Hoffentlich schaffe ich es aber bald wieder zu sticken!

unbearably warm

Ah, Vienna. Vienna in the summer is hot and humid (except currently it's warm and humid and stormy and partially rainy) and the less said about it the better.

Kuro has flown the nest (or yard) and has done so apparently so successfully that s/he lost her/his parents. They came to our yard to look for her/him, but no Kuro. And after all the love and care we gave that bird ... tssss. Anyway, I'm sure Kuro is quite alright and while I hope that the parents don't drop another baby bird in our yard next spring, I'm also kind of curious to see if they'll do it again.

In the meantime, knitting. Yes, despite the heat. I just do it where or when it's cooler (the country, Starbucks, during rainstorms). I finally knitted something that for some reason I haven't knitted for myself until now. Legwarmers, that is. When I restarted my knitting, after the first bad experiments (did I talk about those yet?) I made legwarmers for my mother and for a neighbour ... but not for me. And I have suffered cold feet and cold ankles for many years and always thought "Gee, I knit, right? Why am I not knitting legwarmers for myself?"

Actually, considering I don't wear my woolen socks that often, why didn't I just knit legwarmers with the sock patterns? I guess sometimes I'm so set on FOLLOWING THE PLAN that I don't even see how a very small deviation from that plan can make everything so much better. I'm pretty good at deviating in general, but sometimes ... sometimes it doesn't happen until quite some time later.

So, the Spiralling legwarmers. And how they paid off already. At first I thought a rather involved pattern like the very pretty Unraveling Ribs Socks would be cool, but that required a whoooole lot of purling and chart reading and the yarn just didn't really like the pattern. Then I looked at the beautiful Sinusoida socks and fell in love. I actually love the slip-stitch fabric so much that I'm wondering where else I could use it.

The yarn is an older edition of Lana Grossa Meilenweit "Party" and is therefore a little scratchy. But when I saw the colors, I just had to have it, although looking at them now, the pictures are again much too blue. Damn that camera! I really like this combination and the pattern just mixed up the stripes beautifully. And I just need to weave in two more ends and cut off that one end ... finishing ... never one of my favorite activities.

Now I need to get back to work - the letters are almost almost almost transcribed, but due to very complicated circumstances I can't print out the last ones. And tomorrow I start doing historical research for the book project about the recipient and author of those letters.

Celebratory kitty!

surprise guest

Hardly any knitting happening here, since I am busy transcribing extremely inane letters written in an old German writing style into word files. Anyone who said that email, texting and twitter will lead to the loss of great writing ... read these letters. They were written by hand in 1878 and great writing they ain't. Ah well, it pays the rent. 

But I do have things to tell. My mother and I are shuttling back and forth between Styria (where we have a house that needs constant work) and Vienna on the weekends, because Austria has lots of holidays in May and June and particularly this June almost every weekend is a long one. Two weeks ago we returned from the country to find a dead young crow in the courtyard and were consequently sad.
 
Last Sunday we returned from a lovely brunch (oh doesn't this sound fan-tas-tic ... and so fashionable ... brunching with my mother) and found a live young crow in the courtyard! This one was older than the last one and was hopping around on the ground.

That's Kuro, meaning black in Japanese and it's also the way the English word "crow" is pronounced by the Japanese. S/he is a lively, pleasant fellow and loves it when you talk to her/him. If you don't talk and just walk by, s/he becomes agitated and will hide in funny places.

Like here. It's not a very good perch - Kuro hasn't quite learned yet what makes or doesn't make a good perch, but today s/he showed me a very funny maneuver - I wish I had caught it on video.









I did call the clinic of the veterenary university to see whether there was something we could do. Kuro wasn't hurt, but you know, just in case. But they said to leave her/him be as long as her/his parents were supervising, s/he would be ok and that this was a normal thing for crows. And the parents are definitely watching over her/him! At first they were pretty noisy and even tried to attack my mother but now they're calm. 

As you can see, Kuro is a bit of a show-off. First s/he was hiding by the bikes, but when I talked nicely, s/he came out and assumed this pose. Heh.









 



I don't think Kuro will stay with us much longer, though. S/he has already shown off her flying skills to us and today I saw her/him on the bar that is at the level of our first floor (i.e., the one above the ground floor). One parent was up on the roof of the third floor, watching her/him do stunts on the bar (silly bird).










I am a little sad to see Kuro go, but see, there is this kittycat ...

.... thiiiis kittycat ....

.... this kittycat who is the best and prettiest and cuddliest and snuggliest and the most beautiful kittycat in the world, who keeps me from knitting because he wants to be petted ...

... and he hasn't been allowed to go out in the courtyard because of Kuro, so he'll be glad to see her/him take off.

stars and flowers

I'm at 39 pages and need to convince myself to get to 40 today. It's the last week before I start an internship at a library, which I'm looking forward to, but there are lots of things that I have to do this week, because next week I'll be on standard work time for the first time in a few years (2006 actually) and there are some things that can only be done in the mornings in Vienna, such as visits to the university offices to straighten out all the red tape hoops - or would that be red tape skipping ropes? - that I need to jump through to get my thesis on the official tracks. I hate red tape. Thank goodness my mental directions finally reached the history department and they put together something of a checklist, which looks fierce and dreary. So tomorrow I shall gather alllllllll my university papers and on Wednesday I'll go visit the hopefully nice people at the student service office to ask them what papers, signatures and whatnots I'll still need.

Gee, that was a lot of text! Would that my thesis would grow whilst I blog. But let's talk about flowers. I love flowers. I love taking pictures of flowers. And if my dinky little camera from 2004 was a little better at taking pictures of particularly vibrant flowers, I'd be overjoyed. It still takes pretty good pictures of roses, though. To wit:

That's my favorite rose in the whole garden. New Dawn. A climbing rose with a wonderful, not too overpowering smell and it blooms from May to September. Then there's Constance (Constance Spry), who after a few years of growing without any blossoms is now always full of them:

It's no wonder that roses would also inspire my knitting. I made up this Rose Mitten pattern on the go with a chart I found somewhere, the curlicues are part of a fairisle design. The yarn is Lana Grossa Mood Print, which is soft and squishy with a little silk to make it extra-nice. I finished these in September 2009 and haven't even woven in the ends yet ... tsk. Maybe in September 2010 so I can wear them.

Here's the palm ...

The thumbs are a bit of a weak point, design-wise, but overall, I'm pleased. Apart from the roses there are plenty of other flowers in that garden. Like peonies, which I also love very, very much. The light pink ones actually have a bit of a minty smell.

And an intriguing visitor ...

Here's the darker variety of peonies. Funnily, when I was searching for project pictures, I came across pictures of these same peonies and roses that I had taken in May 2008. I'm really glad these flowers decide to delight us again every spring. To be honest, I'd love to plant even more roses and peonies and all kinds of beautiful flowers, since they mostly take care of themselves, unlike vegetables.

Strangely, even though I love flowers so much, I don't actually have many knitted items that use an explicit flower design. I have a few with leaf lace, but flowers, not so much. This is one of the few items, the Plum Blossom mittens - frogged, sadly, because the yarn needs smaller needles. But I have the yarn still and will remake them at some point. I love the design of these so much and there are so many things you can do with the idea. The yarn is Lana Grossa Baby Alpaca, soft and lovely, but not very stretchy, hence the need for smaller needles.

In that garden, there's also a tree that my mother calls Japanese Lilac. I have no idea. It's from the botanical garden in Frankfurt, planted probably a hundred or so years ago, since it's rather large. This year the spring was so cold that it's blooming only now and the bees are all over it and making a lot of noise.

Funnily, the bees entirely avoided the following plant, I have no idea what it's called in English, we call it jasmine, but it isn't jasmine (I know, I have real jasmine here in Vienna).

I made a yellow spot on the kitty's forehead with that pollen. I like doing that, since all cats are yogis and he looks cute like that. Too bad I didn't take his picture. Overall, this blog really does lack cat pictures, I must say. Like the bees, I have avoided the following project. It's crocheted and actually very simple to make. I only made it because it looks like a flower. And I made it in those colors, because they were available, I have no excuse, really. Never wore it. Still love it. Just don't know what to do with it. The Chrysanthemum Tea Shawl by Doris Chan has been redesigned by her into a skirt as well, so maybe I'll try my hand at that at some point in a different color.

Now I'm definitely more in the mood to write. The star that I mentioned in the title is the evening star. I've been watching it every evening since the weather has cleared up. I know it's actually a planet, Venus to be correct, but it's still my favorite.