On giving in to your cravings and my own birthday present

Wollmeise sock yarns, originally uploaded by elemmaciltur.

Yes, this is all YOUR fault! You know who you all are...

Ja, Ihr seid alle Schuld daran! Ihr wisst, wer Ihr alle seid...

I finally caved in and ordered three hanks of the sock yarn in the above colourways from the Wollmeise. In a way, this is kind of my own birthday present to myself, since I don't think I'll be getting it until Monday or so. I might be lucky that they might be in the mail right on my birthday on Saturday.

Ich musste letztendlich meinem Verlangen nachgeben und habe eben drei Stränge Sockenwolle von der Wollmeise bestellt. In gewisser Weise ist das sozusagen das eigene Geburtstagsgeschenk an mich selber...obwohl ich nicht glaube, dass ich die Wolle bis Montag in die Hände kriegen werde. Trotzdem habe ich vielleicht Glück und sie kommen schon an meinem Geburtstag am Samstag an.

Anyway, as you might already have noticed, I'm blogging in both English and German. I'm going to try blogging bilingually from now on. So, it's going to be in English and one of the other languages I speak...most will be German, but there's also French, Italian, Spanish...and if I'm up to the challenge I might also do Esperanto, Dutch and Polish. (Way too much work with Russian....I don't have time to transcribe everything down into cyrillic). This will only happen in posts that are not super long though...so don't yell at me when I lag behind and don't do bilingual posts. :-) I want to do this just so that I can keep practicing all these languages I know so that I won't forget them completely. ;-)

Jedenfalls, wie Ihr es schon sehen könnt, schreibe ich jetzt sowohl auf Englisch als auch auf Deutsch. Ich werde mal versuchen, ab jetzt zweisprachig zu bloggen. Das wird jedenfalls auf Englisch sein und in einer von den Sprachen, die ich kann. Meistens wird es wohl Deutsch sein...dann gibt's noch Französisch, Italienisch, Spanisch...und wenn ich's kann, vielleicht auch Esperanto, Niederländisch und Polnisch. (Ich würde sogar Russisch versuchen...aber alles auf Kyrillisch zu tippen ist mir viel zu viel Arbeit). Die zweisprachigen Einträge werde ich nur machen, wenn es nicht allzu viel zu schreiben ist....also seid bitte nicht böse zu mir, wenn ich mal auf nur Englisch zurückfalle. Ich möchte das machen, so dass ich die Fremdsprachen üben kann, die ich kenne, bevor ich sie alle verlerne.

Anyway, that's all I have to say today. Hope y'all have a great week and are looking forward to the weekend!

Nun war das alles, was ich heute zu sagen habe. Ich hoffe, dass Ihr alle eine tolle Woche hattet und dass Ihr Euch alle auf das Wochenende freut!

Edit: I could only publish this on Saturday because the stupid Blogger Bot decided that my blog was a spam blog and locked it up....obviously, it's just got unlocked today. Okay, I'll just look at it as my birthday present then! *stupid blogger bot*

Current Mood: Sock yarn dazed
Food for the ears: Saa Itte Myô (Von hier an Blind) , Wir sind Helden - Listen to the song on my Vox

Über: Project Spectrum 2.0

Meilenweit Magico, Colour #2528, originally uploaded by elemmaciltur.

Meilenweit Magico, Farbnummer #2528

Für Project Spectrum 2.0: Februar - März, Blau / Weiß / Grau

Deathly Hallows Neuigkeiten und die heißen Fotos von Daniel Radcliffe beiseite.....

Jaaaaaaaaa, es ist so weit für Project Spectrum 2.0!!!

Die ersten zwei Monaten drehen sich um die Farben blau, weiß und grau. Als ich mir überlegt habe, was ich dafür machen könnte, fiel mir ein, dass ich doch ein Ball von dem Meilenweit Magico habe. Und wer hätte gedacht, dass ich alle Farben in einem Ball einfach so wiederfinden würde!!!

Nee, nee, ich habe kein neues Ball gekauft. Heute ist doch auch der Anfang von meinem Knit From Your Stash 2007: Yarn Diet. Überraschenderweise wurde dises Ball ergattert vor mehr als einem Jahr, gerade zu der Zeit, als ich angefangen hatte zu stricken. ;-)

Ich weiß noch nicht ganz genau, was für Socken ich mit der Wolle stricken möchte....vielleicht noch ein paar JayWalker...aber ich glaube nicht, dass die Meilenweit Streifen den Zigzagmuster des JayWalkers so gut wie die Farbstreifen von Regia Canadian Colours hervorbringen könnte.....

.....und nun, wenn nur meine von gestern bestellten Addi Turbos Rundstricknadeln ankommen würden, so dass ich die MagicLoop Methode ausprobieren könnte....

Aktuelle psychische Zustand: Hervorragend trotz Kopfschmerzen
Ohrwurm: Klaviersonate Nr. 53 in e-moll (Hob. XVI:34) - Joseph Haydn

On...Knitting Content, Pointy Sticks Contest & executive decision

Sorry, keine Lust, das ganze Ding zu Übersetzen:

JayWalker #2, originally uploaded by elemmaciltur.

Started: 22nd December 2006
Finished: WIP
Yarn: Regia Canadian Colour 4-ply sock yarn, colour #4733 "Ottawa"
Needle: 2.5 mm/ US #1/#2 Inox dpns
Pattern: JayWalker by Grumperina on MagKnits
Modifications: Shorter leg, otherwise I'd run out of yarn for the second one

Sorry that I haven't been posting....life kinda got the overhand recently. Ever since I started teaching two more English classes it seems that I kind of fell into the state of constant Zombie-ness. Yeah, my problem, I just go to bed too late and have to get up early. Mea culpa.

Anyhow, the main reason I'm doing this post is to enter Christine's Pointy Sticks Podcast Podcastiversary Contest...and so I need to talk about socks, or to be more specific, hand-knit socks.

• Why do I love/hate to knit socks?
• I'm not so sure if I love knitting socks or not, definitely not hating it. But I'm sure that I kinda like it. It's small and portable and usually fits in the small-ish bag I normally carry around with me (I don't really like big messenger bags anymore, used to, but not anymore). It's quick enough to knit a couple of rows on my short tube rides and I get the kick out of people's reaction when they see an Asian guy knitting on the tube on something colourful, small and dainty. *LOL* And the end result is pretty amazing. I get some cozy warm socks for myself. By wearing my colourful socks I break out of the monotonous colour pits guys usually fall in with their colour preference on clothes, without me ending up looking like a clown (coz the socks are under my jeans, obviously!).

• What sock yarns or patterns do I love?
• Well, I haven't found a sock yarn that I love just yet (okay, maybe Wollmeise sock yarn, but I haven't ordered one to try out yet). I have heaps of the Regia Canadian Colour in my stash...one skein of each colour I could get my hands on. As for patterns, after I finished my first JayWalker before Christmas, I started looking around for another pattern to no avail...and just resorted to knitting another pair of JayWalker. So I guess that it's my favourite pattern for the moment.

• My favourite sock method?
• Well, I'm a traditional 5 dpns kind of guy. Tried the 2 socks on 2 circs one and the yarn from two balls twisting around each other just drive me nuts (*note to self: frog those socks soon*), but I'm sure that I'd find it pretty okay with just one sock on 2 circs. This morning I just succumbed and ordered two 100 cm (length) Addi Turbos in 2.00 mm and 2.5 mm each...so that I could try out the MagicLoop....so, the prognosis would be: Socks on the way!!!!

So that's all I could think about for now. Sock knitting is fun!!!

Sweet Pea Shawl #2, originally uploaded by elemmaciltur.

Started: Beginning of July 2006
Finished: 22nd January 2007
Yarn: Wolle Rödel Toscana colour #13635, 50% cotton, 50% Polyacrylic Microfibre
Hook: 6 mm hook
Pattern: Sweet Pea Shawl by Amie Hirtes in Debbie Stoller's Happy Hooker

I was talking about an FO last week, but that I can't post about it yet because it's going to someone? Well, that someone got sick and couldn't come to the SnB to receive the mysterious gift....and I'm just way too impatient to wait until I can post....coz I'm proud of the result. So, here it is!

The project had been sitting in the UFO box for more than half a year before it was completed. But well, it's finished now.

The shawl is huge....it spans about 1.80 m. The length is....oh, I don't know, but if I wrap it around myself, the bottom fringe just brushes the ground (and I'm 1.78 m tall).

Shedir, originally uploaded by elemmaciltur.

Started: 26th January 2007
Finished: WIP
Yarn: Wolle Rödel Soft Merino, 100% superwash merino, colour #359
Needle: Two 4.5 mm Addi Turbo circs (using 2 circs method)
Pattern: "Shedir" from Knitty's Breast-Cancer Awareness Mini-Issue
Modification: Since I'm using bigger yarn and needles than called for, I'll be doing only 3 repeats of the cable pattern before decreasing

Finally, last Friday while out on the yarn crawl with the SnB gals, my ears were hurting me because it was cold. Again, mea culpa for not having a beanie with me...but it ruins my hair! *Oh, vanity!* Okay, I have some headwear but I want something new...so I started Shedir after having seen so many people doing it...but the most inspiring was Brooklyntweed's version (also in brown, but with the right yarn).

However, the weather in Munich just got warmer again *drat!* But I'm determined to get Shedir finished soon.

Right now, I'm resisting a very strong bout of Cast-On-itis. But I think that I can only resist the urge until the Addi Turbos arrive. :-p

Lastly, in the lights of things that have started to dawn on me, I have made a radical decision and decided that I'm going to join the Knit From Your Stash 2007. I don't have a huge criteria just yet, but these are things I'll try to achieve:

• I'm doing this on a month to month basis, starting with February, i.e. tomorrow.
• This means that I won't be buying any yarn for February at all with the exception of:
• If I don't have yarn for Project Spectrum 2.0 (but I think I have something Blue/White/Grey already) and want to knit something for the project, then I'm allowed to get something for it...however, I could resort to doing something else, too (translate: photography, for example)
• I receive yarn as a gift
• I need yarn to finish a WIP
• Needles, patterns, books, etc. are not counted as yarn
• I don't know about sock yarns, but I'm sure I have enough in my stash already

So, that's it....help me being strong by sending me yarns as presents and give me kind words. This month will be hard, but if I'm successful, I will probably carry on into March. ;-)

Y'all have a great week!

Current Mood: Good, with a touch of Zombie-ness....need my X-glass of coffee....*all hail Darth Senseo!*
Food for the ears: Bayern 4 Klassik

Warme Füße zu Weihnachten

JayWalkers, originally uploaded by elemmaciltur.

Started: March 2006
Finished: 22 nd December 2006
Yarn: Regia Canadian Colour 4-ply sock yarn, colour #4727 "Vancouver"
Needle: 2.5 mm/ US #1/#2 Inox dpns
Pattern: JayWalker by Grumperina on MagKnits

Ich hoffe, Ihr habt alle ein frohes Fest gehabt. Ich jedenfalls!

Meine JayWalkers sind fertig!!!! Pünktlich zu Weihnachten, damit ich warme Füße habe. Jetzt will ich noch ein neues Paar Socken stricken aber ich weiß nicht, was für Muster. Vielleicht werde ich sogar noch mal ein Paar JayWalkers stricken.

Ich wünsche Euch noch einen guten Rutsch, sollten wir uns davor nicht sehen. :-)

JayWalkers, originally uploaded by elemmaciltur.