Forgot to say...

After getting the comment from Elemmaciltur asking if the C-socks were from the Wollmeise Gewitterhimmel... I realized I hadn't mentioned what yarn I was using for them! It is in fact NOT Wollmeise *gasp*! It is a 6-ply brandless? (Coats GmbH) yarn I picked up in a LYS a while back just to make socks for him. It says "Funny Strumpf Color" on the label and is color #7108. It is blues and purples and greys versus the Gewitterhimmel's more green colors and is no where near as vibrant, lol.

Also, "Hi" to all those new readers of my blog! It's great fun getting all these comments from people who are near me! It's so sad that we didn't find out about each other sooner... since I will be leaving to head back to the States in about a month.

Anyways, that was just a quick note to clarify things. I will be doing a more thorough update (ie have pictures) later in the week.

Big Feet and more

Well, I got a lot accomplished on the C-socks in the last few days. It went so quickly that I amazingly didn't have second-sock syndrome!

C-socks with the Snicket socks for size comparison

I would be a lot further... but I decided that I shouldn't neglect Tubey so I finished the ball of yarn I was knitting off of.

I've knit about 9.5" of the body so far. I want it to be a fairly long sweater, so am expecting it to end up at 19-20" (I'm short..).

As for the Snicket socks... they're still where I left them. So far the majority of the poll is saying to redo the heel and finish the sock. I'll probably end up doing that, I just really don't feel like it at the moment. Which is really too bad because I really enjoyed the pattern.

I'll leave you with a little teaser. I knit up a swatch out of the sample skein of Wollmeise I received with my package of sock yarn. I have an interesting idea that involves buying more of her sample skeins....

A swim in the near future?

Hi again.

Well the Bergkirchweih is over and Erlangen is returning to normal. Here are a few last photos from the festival before I get into the knitting content.

A sign telling you about the ox on the spit (this one is named Max VII) and me with our last meal at the Berg (ox roast, kloss, apfelrotkohl, and of course a giant pretzel)

The Berg the last night and the ferris wheel coming down the next day.

Now on to knitting. I've been working on various projects since my last post. Mostly on the Snicket Socks.

I had some issues with doing the heel as written (including losing a needle full of stitches with yarn overs about 4 times) and had to frog it twice.

This side of the heel turned out nice (correct)

This side of the heel turned out weird. It was the purl side... maybe I was doing the yarn overs wrong.

But that is not the big problem. The big problem came when I tried them on (well, attempted to). They were WAY too small. They had looked kind of skinny all along, but the stretched a lot and I could get it over my foot, so I figured it'd be ok. But it wasn't. Sigh. I must have some bad sock-size juju or something because the Jaywalkers I had started, as seen here, were too small too. I don't know what to do. So I'm turning to you...

For now I'll just let them sit on the needles (but I only have the one set of 2.5 mm metal dpns, so I need to decide soon!).

Because I was so frustrated with the Snickets, I decided I needed to start on another pair of socks. I've had some DK weight yarn sitting around to make some socks for C's giant size 13 wide (that's size 47.5 for those of you in Europe) feet. So I had him look through my stitch dictionary (Harmony Guides Vol. 2), knit a swatch, and cast on.

Yeah, I've already turned the heel... they're going suprisingly quick!

Stitch pattern: Triangle Ribs (page 27 of Harmony Guides Vol. 2)

Eye of Partridge Heel

iPod nano for scale

They seem really big, but they fit on his foot (almost) perfectly so I'm really happy with them.

No real progress has been made on Tubey. I've knit a few rows, but that doesn't make for very exciting pictures.

It Came, It Came, IT CAME!!!!

I was just about to get out of bed this morning when my doorbell rang. I opened the door and was given this:

(OK, so it wasn't open when it was given to me. I was just so excited that I broke into it before realizing this is really something I should blog about.)

It was my Wollmeise package! It came quickly since they just shipped it on Friday. I had seen it on several blogs (Elemmaciltur and Bockstark Knits and pictures from the Summer of Socks Flickr group)and decided that since I was in the same country as them, I just had to have some! (plus my trip to London fell through, so I had some extra cash lying around and never having bought hand dyed yarn I thought it was my chance!)

So I ordered 4 skeins of their superwash sock yarn:

Campari-Orange: Beautiful purpley reds and yellow and orange.

Birkenrinde (Birch bark): Black, grey, and an off-white

Sonne (sun): Bright orange and yellow (it's a lot oranger than on the website and I'm not sure if I like that or not. This may end up in a secret pal gift or yarn swap or something)

Gewitterhimmel (Stormy sky): All sorts of shades of GORGEOUS blues.. teal, navy, azure?

And she even included a sample skein of the thicker yarn in the Zenzi colorway (Zenzi is apparently a common name for a milk cow here in Bavaria and it is grey and brown and cream)

So that was my excitement for the day! I haven't decided what to knit with it yet (most likely socks, but I have no clue as to patterns.. there are many I am looking at). Maybe one will be the first yarn I knit with for SOS '07!

Wow....

So I joined the knitting blogs web ring thinking I might have a chance at having a few more people visit my blog. In the last 2.5 days I have tripled the number of visitors to my blog (and the first stuff included several visits by me before I figured out how to block myself)! Over 150 new visits since June 1. WOW.

Anyways, on to some knitting content.

My good friend Jenny (Hi Jenny!) came to visit me this weekend in order to go to the beer festival. We studied abroad together in this town 2+ year ago, but were back in the States before the festival came around. Anyways, knitting. So when I went to visit her earlier this year (she's currently studying on the other side of Germany), I brought some knitting with me because she likes to knit as well. Up to that point though, she had only done scarves (correct me if this is wrong Jenny!). She saw my socks and wanted me to show her how to do them. So we went to the store and bought her some dpns and sock yarn and the rest is history! We had a great time knitting together this weekend between the beer and wine drinking and I even made some progress on Tubey! We also spent part of the afternoon looking at EVERY SINGLE PATTERN in the archives at Knitty! There are now lots more patterns bookmarked for future use. Needless to say a great time was had and her socks are looking great!

Jenny (right) and I working on our knitting.

Tubey progress (I've knit about 6-7 inches on the body)

Close-up of the progress.

I didn't have a chance to work on any other knitting projects due to large amounts of beer and other alcohol consumption. The Bergkirchweih beer festival is still going on after all! Here is another small sampling of photos for your viewing pleasure:

Waitress with a lot of beer steins! and A view of the festival.

Scary, scary, scary high up swings. SCARY! and a view of the festival from the ferris wheel.

C and I on the ferris wheel and me with a view of the town

My apartment from the ferris wheel! and an ox on a spit... yum.

Getting ready to go out (it's a LOT cheaper to bring your own beer...) and Jenny and I the first night szhe was in town.

Me in a cool Bavarian hat and Jenny drinking lots of beer. (these were both taken after we had only drank 1 liter of beer..)

Beer bottles! (only about 12 are ours.. the rest were found on the street. Yarn money!) and me attempting to make a carrot cake after 2 liters of beer and half a bottle of wine. It turned out pretty good...