Monday, May 26, 2008

Yarn Sale!

Just recently I took stock of my yarn stash, and it really has grown out of proportion. I have quite a few yarns that I don't like any more (there's nothing wrong with them, I just realized that the colors aren't "me" anymore). That's why I'm putting them up for sale, together with a few books that I have hardly looked at since I bought them, so I figured I should get rid of them as well.

I will only charge pretty much what I paid for the stuff, or even less (because I don't remember how much a few things were). Prices exclude shipping! Please contact me (knitfreak[@]web[.]de), and I'll find out what the shipping will cost.



Schachenmayr Extra Merino, originally uploaded by d.knit.

14 balls of Schachenmayr Nomotta Extra Merino
40 Euros
Color: 56 (dark petrol)
Yardage: approx. 138 yards / 50gr
100% Merino
SOLD!




GGH Solitaire, originally uploaded by d.knit.

9 balls of GGH Solitaire (I knit a gauge swatch with one of the balls - the swatch is included)
25 Euros
Color: 34 (please also look at the color card on the GGH-website as this color is really hard to photograph!)
Yardage: approx. 143 yards / 50gr
44% wool, 43% acrylic, 13% Elité




Baby Soft, originally uploaded by d.knit.

2 skeins of Baby Soft by Wolle Rödel, a store brand of my LYS
4 Euros
Color: pale yellow
Yardage: approx. 115 yards / 50gr
50% rayon, 50% acrylic




Funny sock yarn, originally uploaded by d.knit.

2 balls of Funny Strumpf Color by Coats
5 Euros
Yardage: 409 yards / 100gr
75% superwash wool, 25% nylon
These balls came from a factory outlet, so there's only one ball band for all of them.
SOLD!




Regia Nation Colors, originally uploaded by d.knit.

3 balls of Regia Nation Color
7 Euros
Color: red/white or white/red
Yardage: 230 yards / 50gr
75% superwash wool, 25% nylon
These balls came from a factory outlet, so there's only one ball band for all of them.




rainbow sock yarn, originally uploaded by d.knit.

1 ball of Sport&Strumpfwolle Color Extrastark sock yarn by Wolle Rödel, a store brand of my LYS - I knitted a gauge swatch already which is included
2 Euros
Yardage: 328 yards / 100gr
75% wool, 25% polyamide
SOLD!



The following sock yarns are a bit like "mystery" yarns. They all came from a small online yarn shop which produces only small amounts of colors at a time. Some of the yarns had all their information on the website only; I did write the details down but last year, my old laptop crashed and all the information got lost. So, I'll write down as much as I can remember. All skeins are enough for a decent pair of socks though (well, maybe not if you're Bigfoot). The yarns aren't plied, they knit up beautifully though - examples here and here.



Lotusblüte, originally uploaded by d.knit.

1 skein of Lotusblüte (lotus blossom) by Ewas Sockenwolle
3,50 Euros
Yardage: 430 yards / 100gr
wool, polyamide, spandex
SOLD!




Godetia, originally uploaded by d.knit.

1 skein of Godetia by Ewas Sockenwolle
3,50 Euros
unknown yardage, approx. 100gr
contains wool, polyamide
SOLD!




Park Princess, originally uploaded by d.knit.

1 big skein of Park Princess by Ewas Sockenwolle
4,50 Euros
unknown yardage, skein weighs about 140gr
contains several strands of cotton/polyamide and one strand of viscose/cotton
SOLD!




Ringelblume, originally uploaded by d.knit.

1 skein of Ringelblume (Calendula) by Ewas Sockenwolle
3,50 Euros
unknown yardage
contains mainly cotton
SOLD!




Doro, originally uploaded by d.knit.

1 skein of Doro (that's my name!) by Ewas Sockenwolle
3,50 Euros
Yardage: 394 yards / 100gr
wool, polyamide




Baeuerliches Stricken I, originally uploaded by d.knit.

Part I of the Bäuerliches Stricken-Trilogy by Lisl Fanderl, as reviewed in the Spring 08-issue of Interweave Knits. This is a used edition of 1976; it has a name written on the first page, the symbol explanation taped inside and a plastic jacket. Apart from that it is in a very good shape.
Hard cover
13,50 Euros
SOLD!




Hollywood Knits, originally uploaded by d.knit.

"Hollywood Knits" by Suss Cousins
2002 hard cover edition
7 Euros
-Reserved-




Modern Lace Knitting, originally uploaded by d.knit.

"Modern Lace Knitting" by Marianne Kinzel
1972 soft cover edition, has some sticker marks on front and back cover bottom
6 Euros
SOLD!




Shadow Knitting, originally uploaded by d.knit.

"Shadow Knitting" by Vivian Hoxbro
2004 soft cover edition - as new! I flicked through it about twice
10 Euros
SOLD!




Stitch'n Bitch Nation, originally uploaded by d.knit.

"Stitch'n Bitch Nation" by Debbie Stoller
2004 soft cover edition - as new! I flicked through it once
9 Euros
SOLD!



And, without a photo, "Crazy Aunt Purl's Drunk, Divorced, and Covered in Cat Hair" by Laurie Perry
2007 soft cover edition
6 Euros


And finally, I'd like to put my yarn swift for sale. I just bought it on ebay, and when I wanted to use it for the first time I found out that it was too small for the hank of yarn I wanted to use (Wollmeise sock yarn). The swift is old but works fine as far as I can tell; it can be fastened to a table and it is very easy to handle.



Yarn swift, originally uploaded by d.knit.

It comes in a small box, along with instructions in German. The instruction includes a picture of how the swift should look like when it's all set up, so you don't really need to speak the language. The swift is so simple, it's pretty much self-explanatory.



Yarn swift box, originally uploaded by d.knit.

8 Euros
SOLD!


Everything comes from a loving, smoke and pet free home.

Monday, May 19, 2008

Published

A couple of weeks ago I received an email from a journalist from a women's magazine, asking if I'd like to make an interview with her. The topic was hobbies in general and why it's important to have a hobby. The article would also feature a couple of women and their "unusual" hobbies, like playing bagpipes, flying a small plane or fly-fishing. Or knitting.

I didn't jump at this interview right away because I was a bit skeptical. A camera team from a big TV station came to our knitting group once, and I didn't like what they made out of the material they got (let alone they cut out my part) because they pretty much let hand knitters look like freaks. So, I inquired about the article's content before I said yes. The journalist, however, seemed like a really nice person and I liked the idea she had in mind for the article, so I did it. And it was fun! We did the interview part on the phone, and then there was even a photo shoot! That one was really interesting - we went to a museum, but they would only let us take photos in the cafeteria after they learned that we brought knitting needles. Like I would have run wild in the museum and attacked the exhibits with 2mm bamboo needles... yeah, right.
The photographer had brought a machine-knit scarf in signal-red and 5 meters (that's about 5.5 yards!) in length, and I was "knitting" on it. There's a photo on the magazine's website, and whoever speaks German can have a look at the June-issue of "healthy living" on page 124. Have fun reading!

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Melbourne, Part II

I love walking through China town in Melbourne, especially because there's no such thing here in Munich. So, on our holiday, K and I had lots of Asian food - we really miss it here. There are Asian restaurants in Munich, some good (there's a lovely Thai place near our house, but it's quite pricey), but most of them are tacky take-away places.

Anyways, Melbourne - China town. It's a cool place to be, there's always something to discover like the bar next to the Asian dumpling place where there used to be a parking lot, and there was a game of bingo going on when we stopped by. (One guy had called out a false bingo and then was presented 3 options: 1. buy drinks for everyone, 2. strip naked in front of everyone, or 3. have a glass of ice cubes put in his underpants for 10 seconds. He chose the ice, in case you wondered.) On the way to the car, we walked past this place:


MaoTheRestaurant, originally uploaded by d.knit.

Mao Please!

Federation Square wasn't fully finished when I left almost 5 years ago, so it was really interesting to be there and see how it had changed. There's a bar there, Transport, where we met up with friends a couple of nights.


DowntownMelbourne, originally uploaded by d.knit.

I love the view of Flinders Street Station, the old building tucked in between well, not really skyscrapers, but tall, modern buildings is just the mix of times and cultures that represents Melbourne to me.

One day K and I hit the road to Torquay, to go to the surf shops (this is where pretty much all the big companies come from) and to go to Bells Beach, where there's a surf competition every year. This year, it was on the Easter weekend, so we missed it. When we were at Bells Beach, there was only one surfer in the water, and he didn't surf much. Tough luck.


BellsBeach1, originally uploaded by d.knit.

I like this beach anyway, there's always a chance to see some good surfing action and even though I'm not much of a beach person, I like coming here.

On the way home, we saw this:


HomeOfVegemite, originally uploaded by d.knit.

Did you ever try Vegemite? (Or Marmite if you're in Britain) It is very typical for Australia; my theory is that you have to grow up with it in order to like it.

The coffee K had at Macro:


Coffee!, originally uploaded by d.knit.

I once read that Melbourne had the best coffee outside Italy, a coffee loving nation par excellence. I have to agree - I never had a coffee in Melbourne that I didn't like (and I'm fussy about my coffee!).

Last but not least, some knitting content. Before the holiday I started knitting Stefanie Japel's Orangina with Rowan 4ply cotton.


OranginaPattern, originally uploaded by d.knit.

I like the yarn, I've made the Victoria Tank with it before and the pattern repeat is actually exactly the same. Because the Victoria Tank is a bit tight (especially under the arms) I really want Orangina to fit but I have a very hard time measuring the gauge. Actually, the measuring part is the easy part, I just can't seem to count the stitches. I started knitting with the recommended needles but it looked like I didn't have enough stitches. So, I ripped it and went up a needle size, but I'm already dreading the moment when I have to count the stitches again. Is there a trick to count stitches in a lace pattern? How do you do that? Oh well... I'm not looking forward to that one.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Holiday... celebrate...

Warning: picture-heavy post ahead, the photos might take a while to load!

The vacation was perfect. It was the first time in 2.5 years that I got to get away from home and relax (going to my parents' place for a weekend - while it's nice - doesn't really count). I got to breathe through, leave everything behind me and relax. We actually stayed all the time - 3 weeks - in Melbourne, despite having planned on going to Byron Bay for a couple of days. But in the end we scraped that, as there were too many friends to catch up with and too much to see; and we really didn't want a completely planned out holiday where we had to stick to a schedule.

We had to leave Munich early in the morning, the plane left at 7am so we got a taxi at 4.15am. On the way to the airport, I turned on my mobile phone and received a message that our flight to London (our route was London-Hong Kong-Melbourne) had been cancelled and that I should either go online or call the service number. Okay, online I couldn't do, and I knew that calling the service number wouldn't help because no one was working there until 8am. So we went to the airline's service counter at the airport and waited there with a bunch of soccer fans - Bayern Munich had played Aberdeen FC the night before, and Aberdeen had lost. Many of the fans seemed to have stayed the night at the airport, and now they were told that their flight was cancelled... you can imagine how pissed off they were. Fortunately, an airline employee found a batch of like 30 seats on a different plane for them, so most of them left and the line got visibly shorter. Then, however, travelers to the US got taken care of first (apparently, it didn't matter much to the airline that we had a plane to catch as well), so we had to wait in line until we got to the counter. They ended up putting us on a plane to Cologne, and then from Cologne to London, cutting our stay in London just about 1 hour short (we should have had 4 hours, so it wasn't too bad).


Sunrise_on_a_plane, originally uploaded by d.knit.

I took this picture on the flight to Cologne because the sight was so beautiful... it really marks the start of our holiday!! Then in Cologne we had to rush because we had to get our boarding passes and only about 1 hour time. The lady at the airline counter was really sweet to us, and while we waited we saw 2 TV-celebrities (we only waited about 20 minutes)! This can only happen in Cologne as quite a few TV channels are headquartered here. Then, after security (the guy there even made me take off my hooded cardigan! I was about to ask him if he wanted me to take off more of my clothes), off we went to London Heathrow and caught our plane to Melbourne without any problems. Even our luggage arrived in Melbourne with us, I was really happy about that because I feared that our stuff would get lost somewhere in transit.

And before you might wonder, no, I did not knit on the various flights; I didn't even pack any knitting! Now stop looking at me like this, I knew I wasn't allowed to take knitting needles on board and I didn't feel like trying to bring wooden needles. Plus I knew that I probably wouldn't feel like knitting because the flight was so long (about 12 hours to Hong Kong, 2 hours at the airport there, then about 8 hours to Melbourne), and I was right about it. After about 2 hours on the way to Melbourne I just wanted to get off the plane and lie in a real bed. So, no knitting on the plane, and no knitting for me in 3 weeks. To be honest, I didn't even miss it. But then again, we were so busy and hardly stayed a night in; over here, I usually knit in front of the TV (which I didn't watch in Melbourne). And I only went to a yarn shop once, but only because K took the initiative and made me go. It was the same shop he took me to when I lived with him 5 years ago, so it was kind of a nostalgic visit.

It was so good to be back in Melbourne! I hadn't been back in 4.5 years, and it was a bit weird because it felt so normal. So... right, like I was meant to be back. Anyways, even though we were there for 3 weeks, time was too short to see everything we wanted to, but we did get to see lots of new places. I noticed a lot of graffiti (like the one below), probably because there's hardly any in Munich.


StKildaGraffiti, originally uploaded by d.knit.

The graffiti is in a side street in St. Kilda, an inner city suburb of Melbourne at the beach. Not too far from the graffiti is Luna Park, an amusement park with roller coasters and stuff. The entrance is just beautiful:


LunaPark2, originally uploaded by d.knit.

Right next to Luna Park is the Palais Theatre, (sorry, no link!) a very beautiful building but I think it's empty now after the neighboring Palace nightclub burned down just a few years ago. I hope they renovate the place and reopen it, it's just a very nice place.


PalaisTheatre, originally uploaded by d.knit.

And finally, a photo with knitting content! It's a close up of the cardigan I've been making all fall and winter, and it won't be finished until spring is in full bloom. Talk about perfect timing... I really like the pattern and the yarn (100% alpaca...), but I'm starting to hate the cardigan. I had to rip the first sleeve to the cuff because all of a sudden, the tension wasn't right any more and the sleeve would have fit an orang-utan; I made a mistake with the cabling of the second front-half, so I had to rip most of that too; I didn't get the waist shaping right of the first front-half and some of the back, so I had to rip some there as well. I'm now knitting the second sleeve, and I can't wait when I'm done with that! Hopefully without ripping it. Then, there's "just" the button band left and sewing it together and all that stuff. And hopefully, it'll fit after all that!


GlamCardiganPattern, originally uploaded by d.knit.

Coming up soon: more vacation photos, and a stash sale including a couple of books! My stash is just too big for my apartment and I have quite a few mispurchases that I'd like to get rid of. There's nothing wrong with those yarns, I just don't like them any more or wouldn't knit with them... you know how it goes, sometimes you just have to have a certain yarn, then it sits in your stash and when you look at it again it's suddenly not as nice any more. So, stay tuned for more!

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Can't wait! - Update




Oh my God, the vacation is only 9 more days away! And my graduation is this Friday. My parents are coming to town for that, they'll be here for the whole weekend. My sister is coming with her family as well, but not for my graduation or for visiting me, actually. We might catch up for a coffee though, I really want to meet my new nephew! He was born on New Year's Eve but I haven't met him yet. My exams were in the way, and afterwards I just wanted to sit back and relax. I took up knitting again (even knitting was too exhausting during exam time!) after reading "The Friday Night Knitting Club", but so far I was too exhausted/lazy to look for my camera software, so I didn't bother taking pictures. Plus, I had to knit, frog and re-knit quite a few times, so it wouldn't have been too interesting anyway.

Anyways, as I'm going to Melbourne soon, I was wondering if there are any yarn shops in the area that you think I just HAVE to visit... let me know! When I lived in Melbourne I used to go to a shop near Tooronga Station (because I could just get off at that stop on my way back to Glen Waverley), I think the shop was called Wondoflex. Is it still worth a visit?
Off to bed now... I'm almost falling asleep while I'm typing this... Good night!

Friday, January 25, 2008

Yehaw!

I passed all my oral exams at uni! That means that I now have my degree, Magister Artium (pretty much the same as Master of Arts), and that I never have to go back to University! And now I'm looking forward to a real free weekend.

Thanks to everybody who had their fingers crossed for me! Your support meant a lot to me.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

My condolences...

... go out to Heath Ledger's family and friends.

Heath, you were too young to die. You will be greatly missed.