Afternoon Tea at Bethany's

Had afternoon tea and gave the tea cozy to Bethany. It seemed to be a big hit. Here it is in action. As I said before, two of my co-workers looked all over town for a tea cozy without luck and Bethany, who hosted the party, said she looked as well. So if you want to start a tea cozy business in Prague... there seems to be a dearth.

Have to say that Bethany initially got really excited when she opened this because she thought it was a HAT! I'm definitely going to make a strawberry hat for someone at some point.

Tea Cozy Insanity

If you told me I would live to knit a tea cozy, I would have said you were insane... yet I've just finished one. And if you said it would look like a strawberry, I would have had you committed, yet here it is.

My friend Bethany just got her British citizenship, so she's having afternoon tea with some friends to celebrate. The women from work looked all over town to buy her a tea cozy, but couldn't find one, so I said I'd knit one. After I said it, there was no turning back, but in the back of my mind, I kept thinking, "I'm so not a tea cozy person." Maybe it's our impending move to London that put me in the mood... Anyway, Mirjana, another colleague, got out of Bethany what her tea set looked like. It's a beautiful Wedgwood Wild Strawberry pattern. Although the strawberry tea cozy wasn't initially high on my list of options, it seemed perfect for this occasion. The pattern is from MagKnits. It's actually pretty cute and I'm thinking of modifying it for a baby hat. Wouldn't that be cute? A pumpkin for Halloween, maybe!

Bundle of Ukrainian Wool

The poor woman who cleans and irons for me once a week doesn't hold my messy house against me. She again brought me a huge bundle of wool from the Ukraine. You can't see the size in the pictures, but this is a huge chunk of wool. Wanted to get a picture before I roll it into balls. It's a beautiful color of brownish gray. Lovely.

I've been working on the baby sweater and now have redone the two side pieces. They look great and I'm very glad that I frogged the thing and started over. It certainly took some extra time, but it was worth it. Now onto the sleeves. I'd like to get this done soon. Even if I don't sew it together until later, it would be nice to at least finish the pieces.

Little Girls Knitting

Always fun to teach kids to knit. The cousins are in town this Easter weekend and the weather is bad so the kids wanted to knit.

Big needles and fluffy yarn make for a great scarf -- all the sins are hidden. CO 8 stitches, which made it up to 24 stitches or so at one point. Got it back down to 8, which it stayed (more or less), but the scarf looks great nonetheless and she's so proud of it.

The Benefits of Knitting with Those in the Know

In the last post, you got a chance to see the sweater I'm making for a friend's baby. I was almost done with the second side when I went to my knitting group. I asked them to help me read the pattern because I was really missing something... and that something was intarsia. I was totally forgetting to weave the two colors around each other. I had two different colors that were not connected and I just sewed them together after the fact. Once they showed me what to do, I just felt so stupid for not figuring it out for myself. Of course everyone was too nice to actually say so, but they could have and I would have agreed. I've used the technique with other patterns, but just didn't make the connection on this one.

Then I needed to decide whether to start the whole thing over again or just fix it from that point on. "Are they knitters?" one asked... "if not, they'll never know the difference."
"Start over, you'll never be happy with it if you don't" said another.
"It's hardly noticeable. Just keep going" said the last.
I haven't touched the sweater for more than a week and today, when I finally got back to it, I frogged the side that wasn't complete and started over and will do another left-hand side as well. I realized that I wouldn't be happy with the sweater and would be embarrassed to give it to friends even though they would never know the difference.

Babies, Babies Everywhere

This is what I have so far for the Baby's First Tattoo sweater from Stitch 'n Bitch Nation. You can see that I have no tattoo on the piece. I may add something on the side that I'm currently knitting. I haven't done any blocking, so it looks like a dried leaf, but I'm hoping it will be nice once it's done.

However... just when I thought this might be the last baby gift I would be knitting before the move, a woman I work with in the library came in and said she's due in October. That means I'll have to finish something before mid-June for her, and another middle school teacher's wife is pregnant, so that's a second gift. Not sure yet what I'll do.

I've been calculating the age and relationship status of the rest of the faculty to see what the chances are for more babies before I leave. I could be in big trouble.

Back from Warsaw

Just got back from a girls' basketball tournament in Warsaw. So 8 1/2 hours each way on the train = 17 hours of knitting (or close to it anyway). Currently knitting a sweater for a friend's impending baby (is that the right word or too doom-filled?) Started using a cotton yarn to knit a blanket, but decided the texture of the pattern didn't work with the cotton, so I switched and used the yarn to knit a sweater from Stitch 'n Bitch Nation called "Baby's First Tattoo." Not sure yet if I'll put a "tattoo" on the sweater, but need to decide soon as I'm on the last front piece.

The last night in Warsaw the girls wanted to go to a mall, so we went to Galeria Mokotow ul. Woloska 12. Nice mall, but a mall's a mall. However, I did run into a little yarn and sewing shop there. I believe it was on the second floor. Anyway, I didn't buy anything, but they had some nice stuff that was quite cheap. Some of the other wool was pretty expensive, however, so not sure was up with that. Otherwise, absolutely no time to hunt for wool.

Good to be home and I'll try to post some pictures of the sweater soon.

Knitting Shops in Berlin

I just returned from a librarians' conference in Berlin where I had very little time to search out wool shops, but that does not mean I was without success. There was a website that listed shops in a variety of German cities, with several listed in Berlin, but I was only able to get to one and barely...

The conference was way on the eastern side of Berlin, so I had a heck of a trip to the yarn store. I also am not the type of person who can skip anything, especially if my school is funding me, so I waited until after the last session to hightail it out of there and onto the S-Baun...

The shop, La Laine, is located close to the Savignyplatz station off the S-Baun. If you follow the signs to Kantstrasse, you will come out of the station and from where I was, it was a right and another right. I have to take a moment here to explain just how big Berlin is compared to Prague (or at least the places I go on public transportation here are maybe 20 minutes at the most, so I really misjudged the time). With connections, the ride itself took me almost an hour and a half from where I was. I could tell that I was going to be cutting it short. I practically ran down the street and made it into the door of the place at 6:59 p.m. on a Friday evening.

The woman who was working in the store, and I believe possibly the owner, could not have been nicer. She was super helpful and stayed open as long as I needed. I would have loved to have really browsed, but I knew I was keeping her from her Friday night. She had a beautiful store with lots of types of wool and cotton yarn. The displays were nicely done. I would highly recommend a visit if you're in the neighborhood.

La Laine, Kantstrasse 145, Berlin, Germany. Monday-Friday 10:00 to 19:00 and Saturday 10:00 to 15:00. www.lalaineberlin.de