Cookie Monster

First of all, thank you all for your comments on my last post! I meant to answer each one individually, and I'm trying to still do that. Please be patient!

I know, I haven't been around much lately. There were lots of things to do... first of all, I really needed to (and I still need to) work on my thesis, because I have a meeting with my professor next week. I know it's a necessary appointment, but I'm not so looking forward to it.
Then I looked into job offers, although I don't really have the time for that. The problem is, that I only want to work one day per week because my thesis claims the rest of my time. The next problem is, the deadline for the thesis is in early April, and then there are more written and oral exams following in June. So, I'll be pretty busy in the first half of 2007... and that's not the best condition when looking for a new job, especially as I'll be having the student status until the end of September only, if everything works according to my plan.

You might wonder why I was fired in the first place... a former employee is coming back from her baby break. The thing is here in Germany, if a female employee is going on baby break, she can set a date when she's coming back into the company, to work either full-time again, or part-time. And the employer has to guarantee her a workplace.
So far, so... well, not good, but fair enough. I know the lady who's coming back, she's really nice and I know it's not her fault. The one I'm really angry at is my boss. He's the head of our department, and usually he's really really busy. I usually don't see him very often, as he's out of the office quite often, and I'm only there once a week anyway. And when I'm at the office and he's there too, he doesn't even say hello to me. So, I haven't spoken to him in months now.

The day they fired me, he was out of the office too, and so my colleague (she's my direct "boss", I do the preliminary work for her) had to do his job and fire me. The thing is, she is really content with what I'm doing - as is the rest of our department, apparently including the boss of the dept. - and she doesn't want me to go. But she's not the one who makes the decisions.
Plus, the layoff came totally out of the blue. I had no idea that when my former colleague would come back, I had to go! If they had told me a few months earlier that it would come like this, I could have had the chance to look for another job. As it is now, with my deadlines and exams and tight schedule, and me being a student for not much longer any more, it will be extremely hard to find an equivalent job. And that's why I'm so angry, my boss fired me - wait! HE didn't fire me, to be exact. He had me fired; he didn't even have the decency to talk to me himself. He was back in the office last week when I was there too, but he was too busy with other stuff. So, no talk. I wonder if he considers student work as work at all.
I guess he doesn't even know that I'm working on my thesis right now; how can he when he's too busy to talk to me? He's even too busy to talk to the full-time employees of the department. Whenever they need him, they're on the edge of their seats to jump up quick enough when he ever hangs up the phone, or the door of his office opens. My colleague even said, maybe he would also talk to me about it... some time. But she said she doesn't believe it. Neither do I. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!! What a bugger!
Oh, and I did send out two applications this week: one's for an internet research job, but they had so many applications so I have to do a test (=free work for them), and the other was for a job that doesn't exist (yet). A lady from the German knitting group opened this opportunity for me, but I didn't get a response so far.


Up to more pleasant news: Wavy is done! The day after I finished it, the weather got cold: perfect timing! So, I didn't have the time to wash it, or block it, and I don't think I will. I like it the way it is! I don't know how long Wavy is, but it's almost twice as tall as I am; I used almost 5 balls of my LYS's home brand yarn.

modelling_the_wavy, originally uploaded by d.knit.

I'm my new model. And I do like my new winter coat!

In between working for university, office anger, the usual house work and trying to come up with Christmas present ideas, going to therapy and baking Christmas cookies are the things that are positive and relaxing. Well, okay, therapy is somehow relaxing as I get to lie down for almost an hour, and baking cookies is kinda relaxing even though it's quite stressful as well. Here's what I did last:

cookie_tray, originally uploaded by d.knit.

Snowflake shaped chocolate Christmas cookies with pink lemon icing. I know, I'm a cookie monster.

cookie_closeup, originally uploaded by d.knit.

Yummy! A cookie! With a silver sugar pearl.

K and I went to visit my parents in early December, to have a late birthday celebration for me. On our last day we went out for a walk in beautiful and pretty warm weather. We even picked some apples!

redapples_bluesky, originally uploaded by d.knit.

Nice red apples, aren't they? They tasted quite delicious.

K's sweater is growing, the back part is at the sleeve decreases. It might even get done this winter! And I haven't forgotten about the baby bootie instruction, I just don't get to it right now. I will post it eventually. Promised!

News

...but no pictures yet.

On Monday, I picked up a packet at the post office (because K and I went to my parents' place over the weekend), and it was a birthday present from my friend Andreas. Inside was "Last-minute knitted gifts", from my amazon wishlist. Thanks, Andreas!

I finished my Wavy scarf last night, at knitting group.

And I got fired yesterday.

Munich musings

K and I went for a walk today, as the weather was beautiful and quite warm. Too warm actually for late November; I'm glad that it was cold at my birthday.
The picture shows the river Isar, at the Deutsches Museum (German Museum). It's a really cool technical museum, so if you happen to come to Munich, do go there for a visit!

Bad weather

Finally, the weather is bad. It's raining and it's cold.
Why this is good news to me? Well, it's November, and the weather is supposed to be bad. Plus, we had a very warm October (it was more like a mild version of summer than a proper fall), then we had about 3 days in early November when it was like winter, even with snow, and then it got warm again as if it was spring. And I really couldn't cope with the warmth, for my inner season sensor was set on fall/winter.

However, the bad weather brings the disadvantage of not being able to take proper pictures during the day, as the sky is completely overcast and gray. So you'll have to believe me when I tell you that the Wavy scarf grew quite a bit; I can wrap it around my neck twice now, and the ends are somewhere between boob height and belly button height. I was pretty surprised by this, when I tried the scarf on last night because I expected it to be shorter; but I think I might want it even longer. I'm at the end of the 4th ball of yarn now, and I have 2 more left. Originally, I had planned to make matching mittens with the leftover yarn, but I think if I keep on knitting, then there's not enough yarn left. And I'm not sure if I can find the same dye lot again. (Serious problems, I know)

Last night, I finally knit a few more rows on K's sweater. I don't know what I'm doing these days, but I hardly get to knit. My usual evening schedule looks like this: Either K or I make dinner, then we eat; I sometimes do dishes either before or after dinner, then we sit on the couch and watch TV. K usually is on the computer, me sometimes too (we have our own laptops each), because I try not to read blogs during the day. Then, all of a sudden, it's almost 10 o'clock, and I have hardly started knitting. No wonder I only get a few rows done! (Except for K's sweater where I have 128 stitches on the needles, that does take ages just to finish one row) Maybe I should keep track of what I'm doing at night, what keeps me from knitting... it's not that I have to or that I want to knit every night, but that's the only time of the day when I have time to do it, and I'd like to actually finish some of the things I've started.

Oh, and Heather, if you're on the blog, please email me!

Progress?

Is it progress I'm making? On the scarf front, yes; Wavy is growing (although I don't necessarily notice it straight away), but I'm sparing you another picture of the same thing over and over again. The only difference is its length, but it's still a bit to go till it's finished.

On the baby bootie translation front? The translation itself is done, I only need to actually knit a bootie and take pictures - the problem here is the timing. Taking pictures when it's dark outside isn't so great, due to the artificial light (and it's getting dark here at 4.30 pm these days). That's why I prefer taking photos during the day, but I don't get to knit during the day unless it's a weekend. So, either I need to take some time during a weekday, or I need to take time on a weekend which isn't so great either, which leads me to the next point:
The thesis front. I'm a bit behind, so in theory I'm working every day of the week (apart from once a week, when I'm at the office, earning money). And why am I not as far as I want to be? Well, here the usual thing kicks in, somehow, you know, the thing why I'm in therapy. And I thought it got a bit better... but I guess I've still got some way to go. Oh well.
That's it, I'm back at the scarf, so the damn thing is going to be finished hopefully soon!

Oh, has anyone outside the US received their Interweave Knits Winter 2006 issue yet?

Flying

This is a progress pic on my Wavy scarf, taken on Sunday already - where did the time go?!


By now, Wavy is even longer. I can wrap it around my neck once already, but then it's still a bit short. Besides, I want it to wrap around twice anyways, so I still have some way to go.

What I'm wearing underneath the scarf is Josephine, indeed! I haven't worn her much outside the house though; I think I wore her once when I went to the local knitting group . But ever since the weather got cold enough to turn the heating on, I've been wearing her a lot inside. It's so nice to snuggle up on the couch, and to bury my neck and chin in the big collar! She's a perfect comfy-snuggly cardigan - but more of a jacket-type (I usually wear her on top of my sweater, and then I wrap myself - or K and myself - in a blanket. I know, I'm such an icicle!). Maybe I make a "wear-it-instead-of-a-sweater" cardigan-thing (I'm thinking of Starsky here) some time (I wish I had more time to JUST KNIT. Pure knitting time)... more likely to be some day, in the future... whenever that may be.

Wavy

Guys, where did the time go? It seems to be flying lately, and there's so much I want / have to do!

I took a little break of K's sweater and started my Wavy scarf, so I can wear it once the weather turns nasty. The yarn turned out to be quite good, definitely not too flat.

wavy2, originally uploaded by d.knit.

Too bad the light wasn't good. I like the picture though.

wavy1, originally uploaded by d.knit.

Wavy, in its full beauty. It was actually too dark to take pictures, but I wanted to photograph the progress anyway. The scarf's growing, but I'm not sure if I want to make it wider than it is. It's now about 10 cm (4 in), unstretched though; but the more I knit, the less likely I'm going to frog it and cast on with more stitches. Maybe I can make it wider when I block it.

And before I finish up today, thanks again for all the comments on my Victoria Tank! Yes, I did make it myself. No, I don't mind some midriff-baring, as long as it doesn't show too much (the show-off-my-belly days are over); plus, once the straps are longer, the whole tank will reach further down. The pattern was in the Interweave Knits Summer 2004 issue, and I didn't use the recommended yarn. I bought some Rowan 4ply cotton instead, 5 balls to be exact, but only used 4 for the second-smallest size and two gigantic gauge swatches. I have seen a picture of Glampyre's Orangina, and I think that the stitches are the same, too. I think I got the idea for the Rowan yarn from that pattern.
I liked knitting the tank; it's knit in the round, so no seaming - a yay for that! The pattern may look complicated at first sight, but as it's repeated over and over again, it gets easy after a while.

And this is for Heather: I haven't forgotten the translation for the baby booties, so please be (even more) patient with me! If you need the pattern urgently, contact me, and I can email you the pattern in German.

I loves me some yarn

I had some spare time on my hands today between therapy and meeting K. for lunch, so I went for a stroll in the city. There were a few things on my mind that I wanted to check out, but I ended up with totally different stuff. I had planned to look for one certain yarn and only one yarn. I didn't find it, so I was about to leave the LYS - until I saw this:


Isn't it gorgeous? I looked at it, touched it, held it to my neck, and then I heard it whisper "I'm going to be a scarf for you!" I couldn't leave the shop without buying it anymore.


I had to work on the photos a little bit to get the color right-ish. It's a nice pinkish tone, actually quite untypical for me. Maybe that's why I liked it so much. I haven't decided on a pattern, but Wavy popped up in my mind. I'll have to make a swatch to see if it works with this yarn.