Question 2

Where are we now?

It took us nearly 21 hours to travel here (door to door). This beautiful town is in the Rocky Mountain state. It is near the San Juan Mountains. It is famous for its Steam Train.
In winter tourist come for sking and in summer there are loads of activities, White water rafting, Mountain walking, horse riding etc.
The town even has a yarn shop, where I already spent some money. I bought a knitting book for my friend, she has just started to knit.
I have started on Caitlin, I have nearly finished the back. On the plane I spent the longest part of the journey with my two skeins of Koigu and rolled them into balls.
After clearing customs and changing planes I was finally allowed to knit. I did two fronts for a dolls cardigan. I sat next to a fellow knitter, we had a nice chat, even though I was feeling very tired by then.
Sorry no pictures today.

Question 1

What is the name of the town where I was born?

E-mail me the answers!

I lived in this town for nearly 28 years, it is in the centre of an Alpine country. The country is the centre of Europe but has not joined the EU.The city is old, it celebrated 800 years in 1978. It has a lake, a river and is surrounded by mountains. It is a popular tourist destination. The big mountain that towers over the city is named after the person that put Jesus on the cross. (check out the Easter story). The legend is that this person is buried in a little lake somewhere up on this mountain. For centuries nobody dared go up this mountain. Nowadays it is a must for any tourist. Up on side by cable car and down the other side with the steepest clock rail way (or the other way round).

The Rowan workshop today was great. I learned a few new things and perfected others. The catering at John Lewis is very good. We got tea with danish in the morning, then lunch and later on coffee with cake.

The socks have been to the office and back, put they will end up with me for golf. He did not enjoy wearing them. He claims it is the wool content and the way the heel is made. I feel I have steam coming out of my ears.

Finsihed Socks

I did it, the socks are finished and they are on their way to the office - on my husbands feet! If he likes them, I will need to wash them tonight and pack them in our luggage.

I am getting ready to go to the workshop. Hopefully I will learn a lot of new tricks.

Competition

In honor of my new blog. A little competition. Prize: yarn, what else.I will tell a bit about myself and give clues to the questions. My daughter Noor will be the fairy and choose the winner on April 3. I will post the first question with the start of our vacation on Thursday.
Perry says: Play with me.

Last night I did not get that much knitting done. I usually knit only in the evening. During the day I knit on my 'on the go project' if I have a bit of spare time. Yesterday morning I went and played 9 holes of golf, then went of to the gym to swim, steamroom and sauna. That wiped me out for the rest of the day.
I knitted a bit on the socks. I have set myself a deadline. I want to finish them tomorrow and pack them. I have done the heel and are now doing the lenght of the foot, luckely my husband has very small feet, his are only one shoe size bigger than mine, sometimes he wears my slippers if he has to take the trash outside. Today Noor has swimming and I should make good progress on the socks. Charlotte will have to wait until I come back. My Mother has seen the pictures of all the button hole bags and I think she wants one to.
Thank you Kay for sharing this fantastic pattern with all of us.
Never knew how much fun felting can be. After the holiday there certainly will be more bags and other felted objects.

New Project

There is nothing more exciting than to decide on a new project. I usually will not have more than three projects on the go. But Belle is waiting for her buttons and a bit of ironing.
In a few days we are of on holiday. I always take a new project with me for holiday knitting. A few months ago I bought some Debbie Bliss Cotton Denim Aran in one of the discontinued shades from Get Knitted. I love looking at their special offers. I bought 12 balls of yarn, that should be enough for this in size 7-8. Also the Debbie Bliss patterns are on the larger side. Noor is now 7 and two months young.
Caitlin: Inside the Debbie Bliss book called Junior knits. This will be my second project from this book. The first was Molly the bolero.
I will also take two skeins of Koigu KPPPM with me. I will spend the long transatlantic flight rolling them into balls. I am very tempted to take some toothpicks with me to do some miniature knitting. My daughter wants me to make some stuff for her American Girl doll with the KPPPM shade 211. That will be my knitting on the go.
Yesterday I did not get much knitting done. We spend most of the afternoon packing our suitcases and bags. Winter traveling just takes up so much more luggage space. I filled one up with ski gear: jackets, pants, sweaters, mittens, gloves, hats, heavy snow boots etc. times three. I wish we were going somewhere warm.

Belle

Yesterday was on of those Saturdays in our household, we spent most of the morning just being lazy which then does not leave a lot of time in the afternoon to actually do things.
We went to Green Street in the eastern part of London. This road is full with Indian and Pakistani shops, restaurants etc. We were on a mission to buy a birthday present for a friend. We had decided on a small piece of jewelry. Of course we had to go and see all the jewelry shops, see the prices and compare. I also popped into a few clothes shops and I managed to find myself a Shalwar Kameez in baby blue cotton with a lit bit of embroidery in silver thread. We finally settled on a piece of jewelry as well.
Back in the car, I spent the time knitting away on the socks, we went to a Bathroom showroom. Of course it was closed by the time we got there. I wanted to see some bathrooms to get more ideas for ours that needs redoing.
In the evening I did not feel like going out anymore.
I spent it at home watching some TV and with Belle. I first saw Belle at the Rowan Coffee morning. That was Feb. 15. Rowan had no books no. 37 to show! But they had Beach Cool and some of the garments. I fell in love with Belle and here she is. Nearly finished - last night I spend sewing up her sleeves and attaching them to rest of the body.

Here is view of the back. I like the big collar. The sleeves look totally different than in the book. They are long and flare. In the booklet picture they are tight and pretty short. On Wednesday I am off to a Rowan Workshop at John Lewis Bluewater. It is 'Finishing techniques' I have a whole list of things to bring with me and I also have to knit up two Stocking Stitch squares.
Belle

Lloyd

My Lloydiboy enjoying the wintry sunshine. He is 12 1/2 years old.
Lloyd

Socks for husband

I started these socks about two weeks ago. They are my knitting on the go. I knit while traveling on a bus, train, underground or in the car (not me driving!). I hope husband will wear these. I had him try them on and his comment was: 'Do I have to.'I am biased when it comes down to sock yarn - only Lang or another Swiss brand will do.

Charlotte the 1.

I have learned a lesson: Read instruction booklets better. I bought the yarn for Charlotte at the Knitting and Stitching Show 2004 in Alexandra Palace from the Colinette stand, Charlotte uses Fandango and Tagliatelle yarns. Both are lovely to work with. I had never used Colinette before. So I was very keen to start this projects and also wanted to savour the moment. I wound the yarn into balls straight after I bought it and waited this long with the knitting part.

1. Should have knitted a tension swatch. I don't do that very often. My own fault.
2. Should have read the information pages. I read those pages in October but my brain does not seem to remember the small print.

There was only one thing to do. Frog..... ribbit, ribbit, ribbit..
Charlotte the 1.

Charlotte the 2.

A few hours of knitting and voila. This time I am using smaller needles and changing balls of yarn every row. I am still knitting with circular needles in rounds. Luckely the sweater grows very qucikly and there was nearly no damage to the yarn. Perry got tired from the frogging and knitting
Charlotte the 2.

Welcome to my brand new blog.

Welcome to my blog. I have to practise a bit and hope fully start blogging soon.
How to attach pitures etc.