cordeliaknits

Tuesday in Germany

Ok, I know I skipped Monday, but it was such a big day, I don't have the energy to blog about it now. Today was Tuesday, and my friend MacKenzie joined us in Tübingen. We have been friends for almost 20 years (!) and she now lives in Duisburg, which is a few hours north of Tübingen. We spent some time catching up, and then all four of us went to a monastery near here to explore.
here is the ceiling of the summer refectory, where the monks would eat (in silence, of course). We were very impressed with the Gothic architecture and the painting on the ceiling.

Here are MacKenzie, Jasmin and Eva, and next you can see the courtyard.

German Weekend

I have so much to tell you, please forgive me if it's a bit disjointed. The first picture is of me at Eva's parents' house, making spaetzle (very hard work!). We spent the day on Saturday in Stuttgart and then went home and helped cook dinner. Eva's mother is a great cook, just like her daughter. Sunday, we slept late--the first Sunday in ages that I didn't have to get up early for church!

Then we went to Ludwigsburg, to the palace and fashion museum there. We had a great tour (in English) and they even let us take pictures!
Here's a detail of one of many beautiful ceilings.

Sunday night, we went to an interesting (and a bit strange) concert at the local Catholic church, and then knit by the fire with Mama Lemaire until midnight!
As for the knitting, on Saturday night I finished this hat for Jasmin. It's made with my own hand-painted wool using garter stitch and short rows so the striping that happens is vertical!

The last picture is the Palace in Ludwigsburg from the outside. This was a summer palace, and is now full of museums, and it also has a lovely café where we ate Black Forest Cake! (as always, click on any picture to make it bigger!)

Germany, day drei

It's day 3 in Germany, and we started out by taking the train to Stuttgart. I have my small suitcase because we are headed to Eva's parents' house for the weekend. I have never really been on a train like this, that's not just a subway, and it was lovely, as more snow fell last night.

Eva and I knit on the train, while Jasmine slept. Jasmin doesn't like it when we are always knitting, because we're not paying attention to her, so she just rests.
We took the train to Stuttgart and stashed our suitcases in a locker. Then we walked all around downtown, stopping at stores, but not buying anything. We also stopped at the cafe where Eva's sister, Anke works. We took many pictures, and imagined being rich so we could buy pink appliances.

Now we are home with Mama Lemaire, and tonight we will have Schnitzel for the second night in a row! By the way, the Schnitzelakademie was a big hit! The Wiener Schnitzel with fries and gravy was very yummy, and I even drank German beer!

snow!

If the architecture looks a little too old and the weather too cold to be Berkeley, that's because it's not...it's Germany!
That's right, I made it here safe and sound, after about 13 hours in airplanes and another 5 in airports, I arrived in Stuttgart Thursday morning, which was actually around midnight California time.
Eva and Jasmin met me at the airport, and we took a bus home to Tübingen. Thankfully, they live just a few minutes from the bus stop, so we made it back to their new apartment with only a bit of trouble (dragging suitcases across cobblestones) Also, thankfully, I discovered that my ATM card does in fact work here, so my worries about getting euros are taken care of.
And, perhaps most exciting, there is snow here!
It's the first snow I've seen in well over a year, and the scene above is what I woke up to this morning.
Yesterday we had a tour of Tübingen and the Stift (which is hard to explain, but it's like where the theology students live and study and have some classes there-it's a big old building, dedicated to it's current use at the time of the Reformation).
Today, we will have another easy day, visiting the yarn stores and knitting and tonight, we will eat at the Schnitzelakademie!

new hair

just got a haircut (just a trim, but it had grown so much that it looks quite different) and took care of my roots.

SO, perhaps it's time to change my picture up in the corner?  let's have a vote.

do you think I should use the toothy smile picture or the twisty smirk?

just a hunch

I think Deacon is not so happy about me going to Germany. 

Either that or he wants to come too!

...

Sorry, not much to tell you today.  There's been lots of knitting, but I have no pictures for you.  There's been lots of video watching and list making and procrastinating.  There's even been a little homework!

Here's a picture I took from the car when we were in SF last weekend.  I bet you didn't know Eva had her own Hawaiian Cafe!

B.S.J.

Before.

The Baby Surprise Jacket (pattern by the amazing Elizabeth Zimmerman) took me about a week to knit.

It was a lot of garter stitch, which was slightly tedious, but it was a great project to work on in classes and meetings, so I'm not complaining.

As you can see, once the knitting is done, this thing looks like a crazy wobbly piece of knitting, but not like a jacket at all.  But look!

After.

With a little folding, it turns into a sweet little cardigan!  Because I used the sock weight yarn doubled and size 7 needles, it's actually more toddler-sized than baby-sized. 

As I mentioned before, this is my own hand-painted yarn, and I love the way the variegation worked.  There's virtually no pooling, and the colors are gorgeous in real life (if I do say so myself).

I haven't sewn it up yet, or attached the buttons, but that'll happen soon, and I don't have a baby in mind for this, so the first friend that has a baby girl might be in luck!

Lake Anza

the story

Here's a blurry pic of me and Mommy on Sunday, enjoying the amazing weather at a beautiful park.  This past weekend was so warm and sunny and absolutely lovely, I can't even express what perfect weather it was!  It was a great way to end Mommy's vacation before she went back to the frozen north.

She flew out last night, so our flat is a little emptier now, at least for a few days until Gayle's mother arrives.  Tomorrow afternoon I will clean, but tonight I'm all about surfing the blogs and finding new music.

And here's an urgent message: There is an awesome free download on iTunes right now!  Brandi Carlile's song, The Story is free, and I am in love with it.  I just got it and have been listening to it over and over.  So, those of you in the US, get on over to iTunes and get you some free music!