small mercies

The craziest period is over, the more painful period of waiting is beginning. Will they get my application in time? Apparently the postal service shuts down over the weekend or something like that, but then, my thesis made it to Berlin in time, so I'm hoping the application will make it to where it's supposed to go, too. Then of course, the big question: will they invite me for an interview? And the biggest question of them all: will they hire me? I've done what I could ... I'd really like this job, but I'm not going to wait around for it, that would drive me crazy.

At least the weather has been cold enough for me to take up knitting again. That's a big relief. And I'll be able to focus on my other work again, that's also nice. However, the rain and clouds mean less foto ops and the stressful last weeks mean my room is in a state of advanced chaos (which I hate). So, when I can get to it: cleaning, not knitting. Ok, a little knitting. My most wonderful brother brought me some awesomely nice yarn from the US and I started a shawl for a dearest friend of mine.

I needed that yarn to cheer me up, because one of my favorite yarns from Lana Grossa has been discontinued - probably not sucessfull enough. I love it, it's light, fuzzy and soooooft. So I bought a large amount of red yarn and a large amount of dark grey yarn and I will be making even more cardigans. I'm starting to wonder when I'm supposed to have the time to knit all that I want to knit, but ... the time will come, I'm sure.

Now just to motivate myself to go outside ... 

Operation Sonnenstrahl

Sounds ominous, doesn't it? A friend told me that a friend of hers had christened her thesis "Project Sunshine" instead of calling it "the damn thesis". But my thesis needs a much more nefarious name. After all, it is a laser that will be directed at the moon ...

Right now it is at 25.5% of its operational power, i.e., some of the structures needed have been built. At 50% I think we can start warming up the generators which power the laser. At 75%, the laser will be programmed and adjusted with the correct coordinates. At 100% the laser will write something pretentious in Latin, Greek or Japanese on the moon. Yes. *evil cackling*

So right now it's a little like this weather below, since I received so much praise from my professor that my insecurities have been dampened down quite a bit.

I guess I need to produce more pages (and sleep more, lack of sleep is really not helping). That's why I'm once again repairing to the country to cut myself off from the internet for a little while.

Meanwhile, as I may have already mentioned, Herzblut is my only allowed knitting project. Funnily enough, its original name Lehtivihreä means chlorophyll in Finnish, but mine is blood red.

I'm using the Schoppel Zauberball Laceweight in Cranberry for this. My favorite yarn store got in a shipping of lace Zauberbälle in winter and I snagged up two, thinking they'd be sold out in a rush. No such thing! Even though I posted about their availability on Ravelry. Maybe there is a secret source for laceweight yarn in Austria that I haven't discovered yet.

Speaking of my favorite yarn store and yarn - I already got to see some of the winter yarn and it's gorgeous! Another reason to finish the thesis - unlimited knitting time! And the time and qualifications to look for a paid dissertation post or a proper job, which lead to more yarn money. The colors were simply incredible. And there is no on the other hand here. I might have a large stash (by non-knitter standards), but there are some yarn opportunities that just won't come again.

We'll see at what operational evel the laser is when I get back from the country.

playing around

So, new design.

Today I went to the World Wide Knit in Public Day Pickknit in the Stadtpark and it was a lot of fun, even though it was so hot that knitting or crocheting was nearly impossible. I puzzled around, trying to find a good pattern for the yarn I had, but am still kind of lost on it. I think multicolored yarn just isn't me. And it's really hard to find a pattern that will make it look good. I just can't think of anything else to do with it and I like it so much. Frustrating.

I did pick up a beautiful skein of merino lace yarn in one of my favorite colors (dusky rose) from Karlaa - it will become a beautiful scarf of some sort. Right now I'm not supposed to work on it, though. I'm not supposed to work on anything besides my thesis. There's only one piece of knitting that is allowed - my Herzblut shawl, using the lace Zauberball yarn. My first attempt with it looked like this:

That's Spanish Armada, but it just didn't feel right. Right now I'm still kind of torn between Lehtivihreä and L'Aux Anges. We'll see. I have two red lace Zauberbälle and I'm a little more tempted to do a rectangular shawl, but on the other hand, that ring effect is just too cool. It must be square or rectangular. Just not sure on the design ...

The best part about the picknick - apart from seeing so many knitters and their projects and their yarns and their techniques - was seeing my friend R., who usually lives in Budapest. Seeing her is always fun :D Sadly, the evening has been ruined about 10 minutes ago by a spider that first crawled over my naked leg (AAAAHHH) and then vanished. I really would like to know where it is so I can kill it. I mean, it's bad enough that I brought in a spider in my backpack two weeks ago, but I thought I was safe from spiders on the third floor, here! No fair! Brrrrrr.

it's not like I stopped knitting

Only stopped taking pictures and blogging about it. Also had some troubles with motivation, for a while there I went back to socks, which is usually a sign that I've kind of run out of ideas and all projects in progress need involved work to be finished. Eh. At least I have managed to cross two sock patterns off my queue that were on there for a long time and one birthday present for a friend is also already done (keeping just one pair of those socks).

But then, all of a sudden, my mojo came back. As usual, it was because I had promised to make something for somebody - a pair of fingerless gloves. Also as usual, the inspiration came in the yarn shop and also as usual, the gloves I created turned out so prettily that I didn't want to give them away. So on Tuesday it's back to the yarn store to pick up more yarn so I can make some for myself (which will happen in ... 2 or 3 years I'm sure).

Very medievally inspired. They're called Heathered Brocade, yarn is as usual for gloves, Lana Grossa Cool Wool 2000, 100% superwash merino. It's slightly heathered and looks even more gorgeous in person.

Sadly here my camera decided to suck and I think I forgot to turn on the macro function. I really need a new one. Patterns are from the Scottish pattern book I studied in Edinburgh. I copied those I liked by hand ...

Amazingly detailed for gloves that are not for me!

On their intended wearer. And on it goes. I wonder what kind of project I should start to see me through my thesis. In the meanwhile, I'll leave you with a dreamy picture of the Alpenglühen in the South of Switzerland.

yarn candy

My favorite yarn store is tiny, just a small room. If it isn't raining or snowing, they put all their on-sale yarn outside in big baskets and they have some rolling shelves they put outside, too. If it is raining or snowing, you can't move around in the shop, because all the yarn outside needs to be stored inside. If there are too many customers (and I always seem to attract them when I go in there), you can't move around either, but that's good for their business. One advantage of the small size is that they really have to do a sale when they change over from summer to winter yarns or from winter to summer yarns, because they simply don't have the storage. And I love sales there, although I definitely pick up enough yarn during the non-sale time, too.

To me, it's like a small, but full to the brim candy shop and since I suffer from the "single ball/hank/skein" affliction common among knitters, it's a dangerous place for me. It isn't so bad with the summer yarns, but when the new winter yarn comes in, I feel the need to get just one ball of every yarn I like. Not a sweater's worth, no, just one ball or maybe two (for mittens, so many mittens on my queue ...). Even worse is the end of winter sale, which starts in January. Single balls aplenty, just waiting for me, sometimes for weeks. All the good intentions and resolutions go right out the window and yarn follows me home.

So when I went to my favorite yarn store to pick up that ball of Latte for my snow bunny, some of the yarns that I've been eyeing since they came in pounced on me. I always rejected them because while they were pretty, they weren't really my colors or I didn't know what to do with them. But how could I say no to this:

No, I don't ever wear orange. It doesn't suit me. But I love the heatheriness of this yarn and its thickness and its bright, beautiful orange orange orange color. What will I knit with it? Pfffff, that's not so important, is it? Maybe a big version of a baby ball ...

I can blame the following on the snow bunny, at least, since the colors are clearly snow bunny-inspired. But apart from that, Nuvola from Lana Grossa is a lovely yarn, soft and squishy and again it has lovely heathery colors, which is a definite improvement as well. For a long time, Lana Grossa yarns were either one single color (lovely colors, I love them) or variegated.

With this yarn I'm definitely thinking mittens. Fairisle mittens with a delicate plant pattern on a white background. They just won't get knitted until next winter I guess.

And the last ball of yarn that followed me home was this one:

This poor bedraggled ball of Dieci had been waiting for me in the single balls sale basket ever since they put out that basket. I had to finally taken pity on it and bring it home. Since it's machine washable, I'm thinking ball for my friend's baby - that way I can test for my orange ball.

I still have a lot of single balls of yarn waiting to be turned into something pretty. I guess I just love the challenge of finding or designing the exact right pattern for them all.

milk and snow bunnies

There are new summer yarns at the yarn store. Deliiiiiiicious summer yarns. My favorite shade of pink. Shiny stuff. Yarn that looks like it should be in a Klimt painting. Vibrant colors - for some reason I'm really being drawn to orange and yellow. Lots of tape yarn (have no use for tape yarn, but it's pretty). Incredibly soft yarn. Exciting new fibers.

See, continental Europe hasn't picked up on all the exciting new fibers out there. And there are a lot less handdyers and handspinners and small yarn companies. There are some, but definitely not as many as in the US, UK or Canada (don't know about Australia). So ever since my favorite yarn company, Lana Grossa, started releasing a line of organic yarns with non-common fibers, I've been over the moon and tempted to try them all. I got a lot of single balls for cowls, mittens and the like.

I've tried their cotton, bamboo and soy yarn, cotton and soy yarn (soy! unheard of! and there's even soy sock yarn) and the wool and alpaca yarn, and dang, I never got around to trying their yarn with maize fiber. But! Yesterday I bought a ball of yarn consisting of cotton and milk protein. It's called Latte and it's soft and pretty and I just wanted to try it.

I've been wanting to try it ever since I saw it. I wanted to get my hands on that milk yarn and squoosh it until it liquidized. I wanted to knit something with it. Something white. Something cute. Something squooshable.

Enter Natsume Yuujinchou, second season, second episode. Natsume Takashi, the protagonist, is able to see all the spirits that live in everything and can inhabit anything in Japan. Some of these are evil, some are good, many are neutral. While he's trying to return the names of the spirits that his grandmother collected in a book, he also comes across spirits that have turned evil for a reason or need his help and he tries his best to help them. It's sweet and sometimes sad and makes you a little wistful, but it isn't one of those anime that take a katana to your heart. For a katana-to-your-heart-dealing-with-spirits anime, try Mushishi.

In this second episode, a forest guardian spirit living in a statue needs Natsume's help but tries to possess him first. Natsume evades possession and the spirit, Gen, possesses a snow bunny that Natsume made instead.

Yeah, you can see where that ball of Latte is going.