The Giving Flower

Do you remember these mittens I knit back in January?

Well, because I promised my mom two pairs of mittens for Christmas, I thought I would finish these and get one present out of the way. I can’t believe I finished them in 3 days. I guess I really did forget to cook. Just to prove that I didn’t just re-post the same picture of the original mittens I knit these a little different. Can you spot the difference?

Linda,
Yep, that’s a bed of clover. I took this picture on the grass at my in-laws’ house just before we left. Oh how I miss having a yard!!

Here are the dirty details:
Start Date: July 26, 2006
Finished Date: July 28, 2006
Pattern: Knitting Around by Elizabeth Zimmermann
Yarn: Lana Grossa Merino 2000 Superfein, 50 gr/160 m
3 balls- 2 in red# 514, 1 in white #432
Needles: 3.5 mm/4 US
Notes: I lengthened the pattern by doing the second to last repeat one more time than called for.
Chalk these up to another pair of Bitchin’ Mittens because I personally think they are quite bitchin’!

We’re back and it’s hot. I have so much to show and tell that I really don’t know where to start but as soon as the laundry is done and the suitcases are stored far, far away, I’m a bit tired of living out of them, I will tell and show all. First, here is a sneak peak of the FO parade that is soon to be revealed.

Just a peak.
You see, we were at my in-laws in Southern Germany the last 9 days and it was so relaxing I was able to get lots and lots of knitting done. Although we took several trips with the kids, I was able to sit and knit most of the time. Here is a picture from one of the books Martin read to the kids at night. He said it reminded him of me.
Click to make the pages bigger to read the text and see the picture.

It’s in a book called The Race Between the Rabbit and the Hedgehog. The English translation of this page might be something like this: “His wife sat dosing in the rocking chair; she had been knitting and forgot to prepare dinner. She hadn’t cooked anything, not even sandwiches. That’s ok…”

That was my 10-day long vacation; knitting and forgetting to prepare dinner. Well, what else can you do in this heat? More to come.

Did I say something about eating being overrated in yesterday’s post? Well, unfortunately my body doesn’t do what I want it to do so yesterday we made these:

Just one more crazy fun thing my sister gave us are these ice cream sandwich makers from Williams-Sonoma. My one advice to you when making these is to do it fast, in this heat the ice cream was melting faster than we could make them, as you can tell by the not so perfect sandwiches. They sure were yummy though.

To get away from food for a moment, this is what I’ve been working on since finishing my gloves.

More about that later.

I’ve also harvested a little lavender from my balcony. It sure smells so good around here now.

Tonight we’re off to visit Martin’s family in Southern Germany and should be back sometime next week. This time we’re taking him with us. Yeah!

I’ve been working on my August birthday swap and some other gifts, which I will post when I get back. Ironing fabric in this heat is not recommended!! It was 97° yesterday and we don’t have air conditioning so you can imagine how fun it was. I also have some fish to make and thank you’s to send so please be patient if you are expecting something, I will be back and sewing in no time.

See you in a week!

You didn’t think I could go to the States and not leave without a little fiber goodness, did you?

Remember click=big

Here are my must-have colors. Patons wool for felting in two shades of pink and one of brown. I’m starting to like the color brown, let’s see how I look in a brown hat. I also bought some wool from Elann.com for my Ribby Cardigan in my favorite periwinkle. Oh and I finally bought some Lorna’s Laces in that same color. I have an idea what I’m going to do with this, but that remains a secret for now.

I also bought a bit of fabric. I went to my usual fabric store with Chris, my so awesome crafty sister-in-law, and after being disappointed by the selection, we drove 30 minutes to a quilting store that I was ready to move in to and never again leave. It was amazingly big and had the best selection of fabrics I had ever seen. They even had a room full of fabrics on sale. My dream come true. I’m thinking we need to move back to the States based primarily on this store being there. I have yet to run that idea by Martin but I’m working on my proposal.
The majority of the Amy Butlers I bought were 1/2 yard each until then I found the pink and green flower fabric, one of my favorite color combinations right now, on sale at half off so I had to buy 3 yards. Linda sent me some bag patterns last year from Amy Butler so I think now’s the time to make some. I just love these fabrics.

Of course, I couldn’t leave without getting some tacky Dora fabric which Alida loved. I’m debating whether or not to make a quilt or a pillow with this.

This is my utter favorite of all fabrics. It has my periwinkle blue in it and is my much-loved theme-the beach. (I bet you hadn’t figured that one out yet.) The white fabric next to the shells also has white shells on it but you can’t really tell from the pictures. I have a little something in mind with this material, although it hurts me to cut into it, but I can’t reveal that just quite yet.

And then there were books. All you people living in the States are so darn lucky and rather spoiled. I couldn’t believe how much of a discount I got on my order, up to $8 off on each of the books. If you get their credit card you get another $40.00 off! Whoohoo, can you say Christmas in July??!! Of course, Vogue jumped into the basket, just because.
As you can well imagine, we won’t be eating much the next few months, but who needs to eat when there are so many other things to do like sewing and knitting? Eating is so overrated!

Although I did stick to jogging every other day, I still gained about 2 Kilos. I think this self-induced famine the next few months should help get those off!

How are you faring with your fitness regiment?