Finished: wedding stole

Pattern: Lead or Follow Lace Scarf by Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer
Yarn: Rowan Kidsilk Haze, 210 m (229 yds)/25 g, recommended needle size 3.25 mm - 5 mm, gauge 18-25 stitches x 23-34 rows in 10 x 10 cm, 70% super kid mohair and 30% silk
Color: "Cream" #634 (it's an off-white, the other off-white Rowan offers is "Pearl", but it looks darker. The true white shade, "Bleached", what an awful name for a color, by the way, is discontinued.)
Price: about $13 per ball
Amount: 3 and a tiny bit of the forth to finish the last row before the binding-off row and the binding-off row
Needles: 5 mm
Gauge: -
Dimensions: about 192 x 68 cm
Modifications: I decided to go for a different border since I wanted it to look like a stole and less like a scarf. I kept the inner border though and added a similar row with holes on both ends. For the outer border used the one from the Lily-of-the-valley shawl from the book "Lace Style."

Width:
I did the 12 stitch repeat five times. I left out the 13 stitches part on the right side and the 13 stitches part on the left side. Total cast-on: 79 stitches (including the slip stitches on both sides, one for each).

Length:
12.5 repeats.

Inner border:
I wanted both ends of the stole to have a similar inner border as the ones on the side, which consisted of yarnovers and a garter stitch edge. I started with a provisional cast-on and knit three rows in garter stitch and then knit the row with holes.

Subtracting the slip stitches and the inner borders I had 69 stitches in the middle left. My plan was to [k2tog, yo] until the end. As I wanted to start and end with a yarnover though I had to knit the last three stitches together in order to maintain the same number of stitches.

When your stole is long enough, finish with a row with holes and three garter stitch rows.

Outer border:
For the border you need a multiple of 8 +2 stitches.

I increased 11 stitches on both ends = 90 stitches (it might not be necessary to pick that many for the border. Either that or I should have picked up more stitches on the side. The border on both sides is more stretched than the border on the two ends).

For both sides of the stole you're supposed to pick up three stitches from two slip stitches. I had to drop some of the picked up stitches (three on one side and five on the other? My inner perfectionist ran amok when it realized that things were not working out as expected.) in order to get a multiple of 8 + 2. I picked up 226 stitches on each side.

By the way, there are mistakes in the border (row 11 and 13). In the pictures you will see that the yarnovers are on both sides of the corner center stitch (count them), but the charts will tell you that the center stitch and the yarnovers in row 11 and 13 are separated by one knit stitch. Of course, I did notice that the pattern was kind of irregular, but instead of stopping and investigating further, I ignored the tiny nagging voice in my head that was preventing me from blissful mindless knitting. But it was ok, in the end I just had to figure out how to fix a mistake a couple of rows down in a lace pattern. Why have it easy when it can also be complicated and fun. :D It was fixable though without too much fussing around.

The border is really pointy. That's because I added extra stitches when binding off, meaning after binding the yarnover before a center stitch, I knit a stitch (basically you crochet a new stitch), bound off the center stitch, knit/crochet another stitch, bound off the yarn over. I think the border is a bit too pointy, but I really don't want to deal with this stole anymore. It has already woken up the perfectionist in me and that one exhausts me.

Difficulty: The pattern is doable and not really difficult. It is true lace and you also have to pay attention on the wrong side rows, but it's not too difficult. I recommend that you divide (highlight) the rows into groups of four, that makes it easier to read, but it also disentangles the pattern a bit.

Blocking was a pain in the ass. The stole is huge and I had no clue how and how much I wanted to block it. I spent an hour and half shifting the pins around till it looked right. The pattern seems to look better when you stretch it more lengthwise. The stole is very hole-y and the stitches are bigger than I would usually knit them, but I like the stained glass look here, it goes well with this pattern.

Overall I think it looks nice. I was a bit unsure before, but as a friend of mine said, just look on Ravelry for projects with Rowan Kidsilk Haze, everything knit with it will look nice. And I tend to agree with her.

Now, all I have to do is get this stole in time to my friend!







I went shopping today hence the green summer dress at a time when I have already turned on the heating... I'm not running like that anymore in case you were wondering. :D My intention was to buy winter skirts, but I came back with this summer dress (and a winter skirt). It doesn't look like a very clever idea, but it was on sale, and I know if I buy it now I will have enough dresses next summer. I don't really like this kind of anti-cycle shopping, but it's not such a bad idea for me actually. I don't care about shopping and I just hate having to shop when I need something now (like the winter skirts). I know, when next summer I open my wardrobe and find a new dress that has even already been paid, I'll be happy. :)







Since I have posted masses and masses of pictures it should be clear to you now why it's called "lead or follow lace," right?? :D


By the way, I got these a couple of days ago, too. You have to admit, they are really cute, aren't they? I wish they also had the tights in my size.

Finished: One-Skein Shawl

Pattern: One-Skein Shawl by Clara H. Parkes from Knitter's Review
Yarn: 1/15NM lace weight, 100% camelhair from Colourmart; I asked them to ply it for me, so I received a 2-ply yarn, but then I wanted a heavier yarn and used it doubled. So, what I used was a 4/15 NM yan (fingering weight?)
Color: Kid
Price: $16.00
Amount: I have yarn left, I think I used more than 100 g
Needles: 4.5 mm
Gauge: I made a mini-mini swatch to check if my needle size was right, but it's a shawl, so you don't have to swatch properly and measure how many stitches go into 10 cm. :p (you know who you are :p :p)
Dimensions: 150 cm wide and 75 cm from center to tip
Modifications:

I also modified the cast-on. Instead of casting on 5 stitches, I cast on 3 ((I'm convinced that it looks nicer that way, but don't have proof, because I didn't bother to cast on 5 and compare it with my 3-stitch cast-on. Just trust me. :D).



1. Row: Setup row: k to the end
2. Row: 1. row: k1, yo, k1, yo, k1 (=5 stitches)
3. Row: 2. row: k1, purl to last stitch, k1

Continue with the 1. row from the one-skein pattern (= your 3. row).

Every 9. and 11. row I added some holes:

k1 (edge stitch), yo, repeat [k2tog, yo], k1, yo, k1 (center stitch), yo, k1, repeat [yo, ssk], yo, k1 (edge stitch)

Edit: Sorry, I'm confusing. The first rows with holes are done in the 11. row and 13. row. After that it's every 9. and 11. row.

Picot edge: Using the cable cast-on, *cast on two stitches and bind them off. Bind off two more stitches (I purled them. I find the edge looks nicer that way and I was also hoping that I would get a less curly edge. In the end, I didn't have problems with the edge curling, but I also blocked a lot.).* Repeat from * to *








Yep, that's a spinning wheel that you're seeing in the left corner! :D It's a Minstrel from Kromski. I had a hard time deciding, because at first I like the antique look of this wheel, but then I thought I wanted something less frilly and with clear lines and shapes, like the Ashford Joy (I was also thinking of all the dust that would settle with time in the thousand corners of the Minstrel. While I don't like cleaning, I like things to be clean, if you know what I mean.). Having tried it before I did know that it was a good wheel and after reading Abby Franquemont's post about choosing the first wheel and her recommending it together with three, four other wheels I decided to go with that one (also the others were not really available here.). Sofar I'm really happy with it. :)




Same stuff as here, but spun with the wheel.




The blue yarn is Domestic (a bit scratchy. Or maybe overspun...? :o )

Finished: Lilly's Leaf Shawl

Pattern: Lilly's Leaf Shawl by Lillysmuul
Yarn: Wollmeise sock yarn, 100% merino superwash, 150 g skein (574 yards), 350 m/ 100 g, wash at 30 °C
Color: "Farn"
Price: around 15 € per skein?
Amount: well, more than I thought in the beginning! I ran out of yarn after finishing the body and I had to start a new skein for the edge. Of course, I hadn't bought a second skein. I tried the skein that one of my friends had, but the color was too muted. I finally succeeded obtaining another skein by contacting Claudia from Wollmeise. She was supernice and did indeed have a similar skein. It's not a perfect match, but the difference is not too obvious.
Needles: I think 4.5 mm (sorry, I didn't write it down and between finishing and blocking a lot of time passed. I finished it sooo quickly, but not having jigsaw mats to block it delayed the whole finishing process.)
Gauge: -
Dimensions: 168 wide and from the center to the tip it's 80 cm (I measured after blocking it, usually my shawls shrink a bit after that)
Modifications: none

It's a nice and easy pattern. The main body is composed of a quite popular Estonian stitch pattern that I have already seen used a couple of times in other shawl designs. At the upper edge and on both sides of the center you have a leaf pattern.

The yarn surprisingly looks very very much like cotton. If I didn't know that this was merino, I would have assumed that this was cotton. Many knitters I know think the same. I don't think this is something positive or negative, I was just surprised about its texture. The colors are fabulous, many many shades of green. I really really liked the first skein I bought. The colors were brilliant and just perfect greens. The second skein was also nice, but the green was tiny bit more muted and blueish. I'm usually not such a Wollmeise fan, but this colorway I liked a lot.




The next two pictures were taken by a friend's boyfriend.







I'm not sure if I should keep the shawl or give it away. I never knit shawls in this size (it's really big) and I have no clue how to wear it without looking like a granny. I think it doesn't look that bad in the first picture. I could also use it like a scarf and wrap it around my neck. Or I could give it to my grandma who likes green. Shall I keep it? What do you think?

Resolved --> Does anybody recognize this plant?

I love this plant. It's just gorgeous. But what's its name? Anyone has a clue? I got a cutting from a friend of mine whom this plant belongs to. Hopefully it will survive.

Edit: I also posted pictures on Flickr and yippieeeh - I got an answer! It seems to be a Japanese aralia (Fatsia japonica)

Progress shot of the wedding stole

Rowan Kidsilk Haze in cream (looks pretty white to me though). It's not blocked yet, don't worry. I just pulled it apart a bit.

Does anybody still remember the Mystery Stole 3?

Pattern: Mystery Stole 3 (Swan Lake) by Melanie Gibbons
Yarn: Jaggerspun Zephyr wool-silk, 50% merino wool, 50% Chinese Tussah silk
Color: Pewter (a very nice light grey)
Price: I don't know anymore, I bought it at Sarah's Yarns a while ago
Amount: not sure, officially 1000 yards
Needles: also a good question, I'd assume 3.5 mm needles
Gauge: not necessary
Dimensions: ??
Modifications: none
Comments: I used black beads. I thought I was very clever, but later on I thought they resembled black sesame seeds. I have to find a way to store, because if you fold it, its own weight will cause creases, that's what I realized when I took it out from the box where I had stored it to take pictures.

They Mystery Stole 3 was a knitalong that started in June (oops, June 2007! :o I just looked it up in my project list on Ravelry. It says I started in August 2007 and finished it in December 2007). I blocked the stole using the lazy method (just pulling it apart without using needles) when it was finished, so I had to re-block it a couple of weeks ago, but hadn't managed to take pictures until today. Obviously I'm in dire need of a good photographer, but don't worry, I will try to compensate quality with quantity, which is always a good idea in my book. :D (The good thing is also I don't have to decide which is the best picture and which one I should use. I just take a couple that look ok.)





Melanie won't be doing another Mystery Stole knitalong this year. Her mom will be responsible for the design of the Mystery Stole 4.

This top my mom knit for me. The pattern is her own.



I still haven't been able to block Lily's Leaf Shawl. It's quite big and I don't have enough of the jigsaw pieces.

Suggestions for wedding stole?

One of my friends is getting married and I would like to send her a knitted gift. I suggested a wedding shawl, but she already has one, she doesn't have anything yet for the dress though that she is going to wear in the evening. I'm thinking about a stole.

That's the dress.



Since this is a simple dress with clear lines I think the stole should also not be too girly or frilly. As the dominant color in this dress is already red a white stole might match it nicely. She is from Tahiti and will get married in November, so I thought I could use mohair, as it's light and airy, yet warm. What do you think? And what pattern would you suggest? What do you think of the lead and follow lace scarf by Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer? And maybe instead of mohair I could use alpaca (I don't really like knitting with mohair and I'm not sure how well it would work with this pattern)? I have one skein in white from Alpaca with a twist.

I need...

... a new job.

(Warning: endless rant about stupid people following. No, it's not about cyclists, eBay sellers, sociologists, this is a new group of people - graphic designers.)

Starting here:

A new job where I do not have to work with people who reduce the dpi [not dpn as I had written previously. Obviously even unconsciously I'm thinking about knitting.] number of a screenshot thus decreasing the resolution and the size of the screenshot and then create a banner image adapted to the new dimensions of the screenshot!!! It will be too S - M - A - L - L!! And not only once, but like four times? Five times? Six times? And do it to the same screenshot of the same website, creating the same wrong-sized banner image over and over again? He just keeps sending me banner images that are simply tooooo small. Small, small, small! No matter what I tell him.

I don't understand how a graphic designer with more than 15 years of work experience could do this!

If he believes that graphics on a website have to be reduced to 72 dpi (I have no clue) he should reduce the original image and then create the banner image. Increasing the resolution will just give you a low-quality image. What's so difficult to understand about this??? He complains that I don't give him the exact measurements of the image while I tell him to make design changes to the layout as he wishes and that the technical implementation was my business and if I couldn't do it do I would forward it to the multimedia agency who created this \&%$/§& website. I'm going crazy with that kind of people. This is just an example, but it's irrational things like these that drive me nuts. Recently just mentioning the words "marketing" and "website" drives me up the wall.

Rant over!

Anyway, I've decided I want to do something with environment - phytoremediation (short version: the use of plants to remove toxic substances from contaminated soil/environment). As a student I did an internship at a lab where they did research in this field and I still think it's a pretty cool thing. If you have been wondering about my recent blogging frenzy, it's because I'm on annual leave. I'm taking two weeks off (this is my second week now) and not going anywhere so I can take care of this jobseeking thing. I've been procrastinating a lot, but I think having an idea of what you want to do is an important step forward. I'm feeling superanxious at the moment, even if you don't believe it. I have problems with applying for job, because I get hypernervous just reading the job description, so if you have any kind of helpful advice to give, go ahead. It will be very much appreciated. :)

... these puzzle mats (or whatever you call them in English):



I bought them at Obi, but they don't have them anymore. :( Has anybody the same puzzlemats from Obi and would like to get rid of them?

... patience. I gave in and ordered a spinning wheel (YAY, YAY, YAY!! :) ), a Kromski Minstrel, but the delivery time is 4 weeks! I could cancel the order and order it somewhere else, but that dealer had the best offer and I need to be considerate of my budget. *big, big sigh*

Last but not least, my recommendation for a really tasty cooking blog: www.deliciousdays.com I haven't tried any of the recipes yet, but the food always looks very yummy and if someone writes with that much passion about food, the recipes must be good.

Finished: Gretel beret

Pattern: "Gretel" beret by Ysolda Teague (I'm also wearing the Backyard Leaves Scarf by Annie Modesitt)
Yarn: Numero Uno Tweed by Lana Grossa
Color: Green
Price: ?
Amount: 1.5 balls?
Needles: ?
Gauge: a bit smaller, I think, but the beret is still big enough
Dimensions: Fits
Modifications: None

I'm pretty late with posting about that one, I think I finished it last year? But never say never! (Hmm, that green of the scarf looks a bit dull in the picture...). It's a ver nice pattern. I made another one with Rowan Felted Tweed in pink, but I haven't uploaded the pictures yet. The cables take a lot of time though, even when you don't use a cable needle.

Bloody flickr...

You have 171 photos stored on Flickr. Once you hit 200, you'll need to upgrade to a Flickr Pro account or you'll only be able to see your most recent 200 photos.

Nothing will be deleted, and if you upgrade, you'll have unlimited space for all your things. Perhaps you'd like to upgrade to Pro now? You'll even get 3 months free for purchasing before 30 September 2008!

Finished: clutch with red-white flowers

Pattern: Clutch from "The Happy Hooker" by Debbie Stoller, p. 137 by Ileana Rodriguez
Yarn: "Soft-Merino" by Wolle Rödel (for those who don't have any of their stores in town, here's the link their webshop), 100 % merino superwash, 100 m/50 g, 18 stitches x 22 rows = 10 cm in stockinette stitch, recommended needle size: 4 - 5 mm, wash at 30 °C
Color: blue, red, white (not in order: #308, #360, #331)
Price: 3 € and something per ball
Amount: one ball in red and white, two balls in blue (= one ball and a little bit of the other)
Hook: 4 mm (G-6)
Gauge: was a bit off, but since the pattern is very simple it's very easy to make modifications
Dimensions: 25 cm wide and 15 cm high
Lining: red cotton
Modifications: I made three small flowers instead of one big flower.





I like the clutch although I find it a bit floppy. Next time I would maybe use cotton to give it more rigidity and stability. The lining did help somewhat. At first I wanted the lining to go up to the upper edge of the bag instead of letting it end below the handle as it says in the instruction which might have added a bit more stability to the bag, but then it started to look more complicated than I had planned and I didn't really think the added bit of stability would not have justified spending more time fussing with the lining. In any case, I'm really pleased with how the clutch turned out. It took me a bit more than a week to finish it, so that's a quick project (hm, now I think I want to make one with cotton, in green with little daisies).

The yarn is very loosely spun and probably will pill a lot.

I like this book a lot. I had borrowed it from a friend and then eventually got my own copy. If you have no clue about crocheting this is the book I would recommend. Debbie Stoller starts from 0,00 and explains every "stupid" question you might have. I've never been as proficient with crocheting as I am with knitting and I've been never been really sure if what I did was a 100 % correct. Crochet is somewhat more forgiving of mistakes than knitting and you can crochet happily along without getting busted that soon (although I have heard of people who had been knitting through the backloop instead of the frontloop for years), but with this book you can end your miserable existence as impostor and become a real crochet queen. Apart from the excellent explanations there is also a very nice compilation of crochet designs (hats, a wrap, scarfs, belts, cardigans, bags, a blanket, toys, a pair of gloves, a pair of slippers, a shawl, tops, a skirt, a doormat, a necklace and a bracelet made from wire, etc.) from various designers.

How the orange dress looks in real life

After a lot of encouragement of my friends I took the orange dress out for some real-life testing. I went to a beergarden to knit with my Sunday knitting group. Pictures here and here.

Remember what I said about stupid pedestrians and drivers? Well, I forgot to include stupid cyclists!



I had to end my Sunday bicycle tour and go home and cool my foot. Obviously it wasn't that bad, otherwise I wouldn't have been so fascinated by it to take a picture of it. :D Gross, but fascinating, right? :D Leave me a comment and I will show you another picture of my toes turning red and purple (which is weird, because the lump is in the middle of the foot). Or not? :D

Turning off animated images with Firefox

Firefox for various reasons is my prefered browser. The developers were also nice enough to allow you control over the freaking animated graphics that you will find on many websites.

How to turn them off:
1. Type "about:config" into the address bar
2. Type "anim" into the filter field
3. Double-click on "img.animation_mode"
4. The default setting is "normal". You can use "none" or "once" to stop the animation completely or to prevent it from being repeated.

Rambling or projektleiterin's pearls of wisdom

*The girl in the movie "Happy-go-lucky" is extremely annoying. If you are a mature adult and know life in London you might enjoy the building up of tension that eventually leads to a happy catharsis and an understanding of the whole picture. - I don't. :D Maybe I would have liked it if I had had enough stamina to bear with her giggle fits at the most inopportune moments and the lack of a story line, but I didn't.

*Romance is a social construct like race. If they produce more movies where the woman is older than her male counterpart then I will change my mind.

*One day when they invent a pill against menopause the world will go down the gutter. When women become independent from their cruel biological clock and can be as carefree as men about reproducing, they will also choose to take a little bit more time to grow up. Women are just a bit more mature than men because they have to. Give them control over their reproduction and humankind will be screwed! Mark my words!

Please keep in my mind, years from this day on, that I was the first one to develop this theory. Future sociologists (my best buddies) will hail my foresight and ingenuity. :D

*Last week I went to a swing dancing class. It was fun, but half of the guys had cold and sweaty fish hands. And two smelled of alcohol. And onions. But no sweaty armpits. Justice where justice is due. :D Most were also very badly dressed. If you think that I am superficial I would recommend that you take a good hard look at yourself. When was the last time you felt attracted to someone? Was it purely because of his/her intellect? His/her inner values? I know people who insist that they be loved for who they are, that wearing make-up is deceit and nice clothes are something superficial. I think, if you want unconditional love you should get a dog or stay with your parents. We all want to be loved for who we really are, at the same time I don't believe that we fall for people for who they really are. It's a double standard. And I really believe we should like ourselves enough to want to give ourselves the best. And go to a yoga class and AA. :D

*I'd like to run all these people over who cross the street without looking at all if a car or bike is coming. I don't support cruelty against animals, so I don't do this, but really... I also would like to run the stupid drivers over who don't care if they kill me or not, but I'm afraid they're stronger and bigger than me. Instead I shake my fist to the heavens and curse the mother that bore them. :D

*Do flatmates know that running around in shorts and shirtless in the morning is pretty sexy? Thank God I do not really dig him that much, but he's eye candy in the morning. :D

*I think I'm digging a guy who hit on me, tried to convince me that he was trustworthy and did not tell me that he had a girlfriend. Doh... He apologized though. I now find myself secretly hoping that he breaks up with her. She's gone anyway and she will be away soon for another nine months...

I do not even think he is that cute... Curse my freaking irrationality... Thanks to my superficiality and the shallowness of my feelings though I probably will be over him in a couple of weeks.

(Thought I should also come up with a dirty confession, you might otherwise believe I'm a saint ;-) Did I mention he is very very likely 7 years younger than me? - No comment. :D )

*I read a blog today that I found pretty good: www.der-englisch-blog.de The English lessons are very short (thumbs up), but entertaining and interesting. Many things I already knew, but it was good to be reminded of some basics, while others were new to me.

It's raining and I'm blocking

It's raining, raining, raining... :( But thanks to that you can enjoy a new blog entry. Instead of going to my yoga class I'm sitting here and putting something together just for your entertainment. :D

Pattern: Rebecca no. 36, originally in yellow
Yarn: ggh yarn "Tara", 72 % cotton, 28 % polyamid, 100 m/ 50 g (that's the orignal yarn, I seldom use the original yarn, but I happened to see the dress in the yarn shop and the owner convinced me that it would look good on me, so my resistance melted like icecream in the sun.)
Price: not sure, less than 50 € but since I have two balls of the orange yarn left, I should look for the receipt so I can return it. In the magazine the retail price is stated as 44.55 € for the kit.
Amount: theoretically 400 g of the orange yarn and 50 g of the white yarn, but like I said, I have two balls left and my gauge is correct.
Needle size: 5 mm
Size: 34/36

Comment: I would recommend that you use 60 cm and 80 cm, instead of 60 cm and 100 cm long circular needles. And start with the short circular needle and not the long one.

There is one minor mistake in the instructions (sorry, I just checked them, but I can't find it now), but it's not that important. I think the stitch count somewhere was wrong.

The dress is tight, not like in one of the pictures in the magazine where it seems to have more ease around the waist (the one I'm thinking of is not on the website, only in the magazine). I had to include some short rows around the bust.

Not sure why I had gone for a knitted dress. Knit with 5 mm (!) needles. And as we all know the line between uniqute and plain weird is thin! I'm not afraid of wearing knitted stuff, but I do not want to look like an esoteric-Birkenstock-wearing-eco-sociologist (I'm pissed off with a certain sociologist, so I felt like including an over-simplifying insult against sociologists. :D Even in high school I was convinced that the majority of sociologists talk too much and are weird. I also bet they don't shower very often. Some people seem to confuse eco and natural with smelly). I also don't really like tie-dye. Now, go and hate me. :D

It looked nice in the window though and it seemed to be a quick knit (it definitely is). I wanted a very mindless project and this one suits the purpose. Good ol' stockinette in the round (not much of a fan of knitting in the round though, you never get to an end, it goes on and on and on...) That was also one reason why I bought the original yarn, I simply didn't want to go hunting for the right yarn and then recalculate everything, because my gauge would be off. I think, I have a reluctance to knitting sweaters, because when substituting yarn I never get the right gauge, which means I have to do many calculations to adapt the yarn to the pattern.

The yarn is ok. I usually prefer 100 % natural yarns, but cotton is a very heavy fiber, it probably wouldn't have been a good idea to use a 100 % cotton yarn for a dress. Recently I have developed a fondness for orange and this one is a quite nice shade. The original yellow is a bit bland in reality. The yarn is also available in a couple of other colors, but in my opinion they are all a bit too bland for a summer dress.



This is another Swallotail Shawl. Follow the link for more details about the pattern. This one is quite old, but I never posted a picture of it. Having been in use for a quite a while it had shrunk a bit and needed re-stretching, so I reblocked it yesterday. It's one of my favorite knitted items.

Yarn: Misti Alpaca lace
Color: natural white
Needle size: 3.5 mm



Still on the needles: Feather and Fan Shawl by Eugen Beugler from A Gathering of Lace. Same yarn as I had used here.




That one is actually finished and I was about to block it this morning, but I didn't have enough of the jigsaw pieces that I use instead of a blocking board. At the moment it's drying outside on our balcony.

Pattern: Lilly's Leaf Shawl

More details when it's blocked.



Instead of blocking Lilly's Leaf Shawl I'm now blocking the Mystery Stole. Yeah, I'm fast, faster than a ray of light. :D I did block it already, but since I did it the lazy way, I wasn't happy with the result, so I decided to do it again. But since I somehow got less and less convinced of its wearability I put it off until now.

I got tagged! And it's all about me, me, me! :D

Domestic Miss told me she reads my blog and tagged me for a questionnaire about me. Uiiiiih! I like it when things are turning around me. :D And someone said she reads my blog! Wooot! Did I mention, by the way, that Krawuggl also said something nice about me? Isn't that nice? :)

Rules:
The Rules: each player answers the questions. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 or 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

Here's the questionnaire:

1. What I was doing 10 years ago:
I was in my second semester at university.

2. What 5 things are on on my to-do list for today (in no particular order):
*Going to the gym. Checked.
*Meeting my landlady. Checked.
*Finishing the orange dress (it took nearly three days to dry! But to be fair, my washing machine doesn't spin-dry well, when I took the dress out to block it it was still really wet.). Checked (now I just need someone to tell me how I look in it. Also the collar seems to require modifications.)
*Trying to compose a "Zwischenzeugnis" for myself.
*Looking for a new cycling buddy? (If you live close by and are interested, send me a message.)

3. Snacks I enjoy:
Macadamia nuts, that package with all different kind of seeds, fruits.

4. Things I would do if I was a billionaire:
*Invest my money in innovative green technology.
*Become a generous philanthropist and donate a lot of money to people who don't deserve it. – Oh - kaaaay, I'm just being sarcastic. I'd donate a lot of money to those who need it, but I'd try to keep them away from me. I'd be a very grumpy philanthropist.

By the way, where does my money come from? Am I making money with speculating with food prices on the market and by supporting companies that ruin the environment? I really should start a foundation and give money to NGOs that work hard to protect the environment or help poor people since I don't know what to do with the heaps of money I have greedily acquired at the cost of other people.

*Build big monuments to remind people of my generosity.
*Use the mighty power of money to bribe people and succeed in getting what I want where my temper tantrums didn't work out.

5. Place I have lived:
Vietnam
Germany
Egypt
Spain
USA

I'm going to tag Krawuggl, Alala, Kent, that girl n, Melusine and Angelita. I haven't commented for a very long time on blogs (and have also not been reading many... :o), but I sort of assume that since they have commented recently or in general seem to be patient with my sporadic answers and posting that they won't mind if I tag them.

Edit: Uh, there are rules. I've forgotten to post them.