Nobody knows where they might end up

I’m supposed to be packing for my weekend at my parents’. Hell, I should be on my way, or at least showered and mostly done packing.

And what am I doing instead? Weaving in ends and watching Grey’s Anatomy.

No blocking necessary, but if I ever feel the need to, I have a yarn-over edge to make it as easy as possible.

And when I come back – on to new projects.

Smoooooooooooooke on the water

After two weeks and a 50 minute bind-off – the Sock Yarn Shawl Two – Garter Stitch Bitch is DONE.

A project that incidentally has the same initials as the German Spy Book, a shared journal of Adam and me after I left for Germany when my foreign exchange year was over.

Ah, garter stitch. Calming, monotonous, wonderful garter stitch. Honestly, with all the Spanish craziness, I don’t really have a mind for much more intricate patterns. I’m already ogling Baktus again as a next project, too.

But this isn’t a post about planned projects. It’s a post about finished ones. Cause I really don’t wanna tag this in the WIP category.

So, yes. Stats.

The GSB weighs in at a whoppin’ 310 grams, and uses 12 different yarns. These range from Drachenwolle (the first two) to Zitron (3-6, 8, 11), plant-dyed indie yarn (7), Lana Grossa Meilenweit (9), Opal Hundertwasser (11) and last but not least, the one row plus bindoff in Brown Sheep luxury sock yarn (12). There’s 124 yarnover holes on each side in the second-to-last row of #11, which puts the cast-off somewhere in the vicinity of 500 stitches. Unstretched, it spans about 2.2 meters and is approximately 1 meter deep at the point. There are (only) 24 ends I have yet to weave in, of which only half are actually at an edge, the others are distributed unevenly in the body. Leftovers constitute of about 1.5 g of Brown Sheep and bits and pieces here and there. Not more.

This isn’t every project I’ve worked on in the last year, but it’s a pretty good cross section: the green tweed, the purple-brown and the deep blue are from last year’s Christmas present frenzy. The Opal is from my endless procrastination during the exam phase at the end of my first semester of uni, the Lana Grossa is from Tyler’s Rocky socks. I bought the Brown Sheep while visiting my host family in March. The Brazil is from the socks I made while I was still so very enthusiastic about Portuguese, the brown-teal-orange is left over from the Wave socks for my roomie. I knit on the green-yellow-orange flamé yarn while sitting in the city surrounded by crazy goth people. The plant-dyed gold I bought at the Leipziger Wollefest is mostly a pair of Kirk-socks I still haven’t duplicate stitched the Starfleet logo on. The blue-and-purple was dragged all over London while the second TARDIS sock was still attached to it.

And the very first Drachenwolle? Was something I bought at the first Leipziger Wollefest, in May 2008, when I’d just finished my application test for uni here, and was floating on Cloud Nine with my now ex-girlfriend.

What a year and a half it’s been. I’m content.

I feel rivers overflowing

Living here is never as awesome as in autumn. The tree in front of the church turns this breathtaking shade of gold, and I don’t even mind the clouds hanging low, because… it’s autumn.

I’d take the time to recommend and/or extensively quote Robert Frost’s Nothing gold can stay, except it would clash grossly with the CCR headline of this post. So, pictures instead.

(This is what I see every day. From my room, from the bathroom, from the kitchen if I leave the doors open… I’m so lucky to live here!)

The Garter Stitch Bitch is coming along awesomely… it’s gonna be bigger than the first SYS, and slightly more subdued in the color choices. Slightly. As in, no reds. Greens, blues, purples, a bit of gray, a bit of gold, but all in all, slightly more subdued. But then, it’s hard to get less crazy, color-wise, than the SYS.

And also, I’m actually getting rid of the scraps this time around. The only colors I used up on the SYS were the hot pink, the spring green from the Grasshoppers, and the teeny bit of Atlantic from the cowl. And the other scraps I just reduced to an even less workable amount.

Not with this one.

I’m almost done with the Opal Hundertwasser, and then it’s 30 g of brown-purple and 9 g of purple, and then I’m DOOOOONE.

The last two rows of brown will go to a [k2tog, yo] and the row back, and then one row purple, and then bind-off. Woot.

**

I also got the second season of Grey’s Anatomy. Which is made of so much awesomeness I can’t believe I ever forgot how awesome it is. There’s Addi, there’s Mark, George is still alive, and… omg. Excuse me while I hyperventilate about Denny, because Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s voice makes me gooey inside, and even more about Callie, who at this point practically glows with self-confidence and cockiness and it just blows me away. Not that I don’t like the current lesbian twist (hell, I think it’s brilliant and I’d like nothing more than invite Callie and Arizona over to my place) but it’s nice to see her so carefree and angstless.

Oh man, the drama.

It’s an overload in my head

I’m really pleased. Muir blocked fine – I’ll have to redo the foot or so where the wires ended, it’s kinda dumb that it’s not quite as stretched-out as it could be, but it’s not an immediate concern. I have to weave in the ends, anyway, so, eh.

Also, the contrast color for my top-down raglan came – a gorgeous gold color, better than I imagined. Very pretty. Now I only have to figure the numbers out, and chart a Starbucks symbol, and… start knitting. Ahaha.

My copy of ‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’ arrived, too. (And ink cartridges for my printer. I had three packages waiting for me. New record.) I haven’t read that far, and I’m not intimately familiar with the original due to the fact that I abhor Jane Austen – but the five or so pages of PaPaZ I’ve read were absolutely hysterical. I am becoming rather convinced most books would benefit hugely from a zombie invasion.

Does Pride and Predjudice and Zombies count as fanfic? Huh.

**

Anyway. Yes, awesome materialistic things – but mentally, I’m exhausted. Too little me-time. Came back from Christian way late last night, at like 12.45 am, unpinned the shawl and read a bit, got back up at 7.15, spent all days at class or in the canteen or baking and doing our translation homework with Christian and Saskia and then walking Christian to the tram station and going back and watching Supernatural with Saskia and all in all, the only quiet times I’ve had today are bathroom breaks. And not even all of them, since Ulla and Saskia and me were talking and laughing in the bathroom at uni.

So, yeah. Head, meet wall. All walls. In a shower of blood and brain chunks.

**

Speaking of brain chunks (braiiiiiins!) last night we watched ‘My Bloody Valentine 3D’ at Christian’s, sadly in 2D.

It’s a bit of a splatter movie, yes. I mean, there’s a guy with a gas mask (are you my mommy?) going around killing people with his pickaxe in the most bloody and gory ways possible, and LOTS of people get their eyes poked out through the back of their heads or their lower jaws ripped off and gross stuff like that.

I tell you, it’s hilarious. Seriously.

The main reason we watched it was because Jensen Ackles is in it, and I hadn’t seen an actual horror movie in ages, but it was so predictable. Like, really predictable.  I’m not 100% sure how seriously they took themselves, but there were so many clichés that I’m almost positive they were in there for the comedic effect. I mean… a pug, and a midget lady, and some blond chick running around in nothing but high heels for about five minutes before she gets brutally murdered, and some guy trying to scare his girlfriend except thirty seconds later his eye is about half a foot in front of his face, stuck on the tip of the pickaxe that just smashed through his skull… that’s pretty freaking hilarious to me.

Or maybe I’m just sick like that.

What I’m saying, however, is that they had lots and lots of effects that must have been really great in 3D – stuff coming towards you, tons of it (including the aforementioned pug and midget lady) so… yeah. I’ll have to see if I can get my hands on that one. It’d be awesome.

I take a look at my enormous…

(Ahem. If you don’t know what I’m alluding to in the heading – you have GOT to listen to this)

So, Muir.

I was overwhelmed by the sheer size of the thing relaxed, but as it turns out, the monster’s a grower as well as a shower.

(I’m just gonna see how far I can take the penis metaphor in this post.)

This morning, while I got ready, I soaked it, then did the whole squeeze-until-slightly-damp routine, took it back to my room, and started sticking aluminum rods in.

*evil overlord laugh*

*strokes white angora kitty*

Let’s just say… it’s big. Huge, in fact. So big that I have nothing even remotely approaching the necessary size to handle this correctly.

Well, maybe the hallway, but I don’t want dog hair all over it (or the dog, for that matter), and you can’t stick pins into laminate floor.

So, anyway, the aluminum rods I bought are obviously not long enough. So I’ve come up with this nifty contraption that features Philip Pullman’s ‘His Dark Materials’ box set, my backpack, and an armchair.

I have no idea how many times I’ve stumbled over this thing already.

I dare not measure this thing, but seeing as my bed’s 1.20x2m, I’d say… 95cm x 2.40m. Maybe 2.50m. Holy crap.

But it’s pretty. I just wanna stroke and fondle it.

And after over a hundred hours, I think I’m entitled to a bit of quality time with the Big Huge Monster (TM).

*whistles*

(As a side note, I have no idea why the pictures turned out so grainy. Weird.)

Down where the hills are sleeping

A Sunday is a good Sunday when you spend it curled up in bed, snuggled into your favorite oversized hoodie, doing nothing much at all.

Today’s a good Sunday.

Yesterday was fun – Saskia and I went to the hardware store, I spent €35 on aluminum rods (for blocking wires), orchid fertilizer, a poinsettia and a pot for the flower. The walking and the shopping (I love hardware stores), combined with the awesome weather, really made my day. Plus I did the whole housewifey shebang and did laundry and cleaned the kitchen with Saskia and made crackin’ lunch AND baked some smashing pumpkin spice bread.

I’m semi-satisfied with it. On the one hand, I love me some homemade bread, and my passion for pumpkin almost exceeds my passion for yeast dough, so I was really excited to try it.

It only calls for half an Hokkaido, which came in very handy as I’d only used half of one for lunch. It’s an easy recipe, the actual amount of work you have to put into it is relatively small, and I don’t mind the waiting at all. Cause it all pays off when you end up with the smooth, warm, dry weight of well-kneaded dough in your hand and it just makes the most delightful sound when you slap it.

Ahem. Anyway.

The smooth warm dryness, as I’m talking of it, was precisely what I have to criticize most about this recipe: It didn’t occur as fast as it should have. In fact, it only got any less sticky after I’d added in an additional 150g or so of flour and let it rise the first two times. I don’t know why this was – maybe the pumpkin puree was too hot, or there was simply too much of it, even though I used the exact amount called for. I don’t know.

Also, using the amount of spices called for, it’s a bit… bland. Yeah, bland is the exact word. Maybe it was due to all the extra flour I had to add in. Who knows.

But still, if you’re not waiting for a whole kick of combined spice awesomeness, it’s delicious. Fresh out of the oven, drenched in butter (and when I say fresh, I mean about a minute out in the air) or the next day with some cheese – it’s good bread, it’s got a nice flake, but I’ll have to experiment with the amount of pumpkin and spice the next time I make it.

And I definitely will make it again. Enjoy the pumpkin while it lasts!

Bake you poison birthday cake

Call me the shiznit, for I totally just cooked schnitzel with country potatoes and pumpkin and managed stagger the start of each process just so that it all finished at the same time.

Honestly, it’s ridiculous how much cooking validates me.

And yes, I know it’s not hard, but dude. Cooking. Successful cooking. Dude.

And now I’m off to buy some blocking wires, and yeast for Pumpkin Spice Bread.

What a feeling

I’ve come to the realization that taking Spanish was possibly not one of the smartest things I’ve ever done.

Mostly because last night, I copied out 150 new vocab cards, for next week, and it was HALF of the unit. HALF. Which makes around 300 new words every week, since we’re aiming for one unit per week. Or one week per unit.

So, yeah. The shock of these sheer numbers led to a half hour of feverish hallucinations of me in a big sombrero and a poncho, eating paella when I’m not too busy playing my pan pipes, and breaking into cow pastures every weekend with a red cape.

But then I did what the British do, and made some tea. (Have I shown off my new tea pot and cozy yet?)

And then I made my current favorite food, which is Pomegranate Awesomeness, and all was well again.

What’s Pomegranate Awesomeness, you ask?

Well, first, you take apart a pomegranate. This is messy, especially when they’re so ripe that sticking your knife into them makes the plate look like somebody bled to death over it, and it stains your hands, but oh, it’s so worth it. I love pomegranate.

The way I get all the seeds out is that I cut the fruit in half, then wedge a teaspoon between the seed chambers and the peel, lever everything out, and pick out everything that isn’t a seed with my fingers.

Then, you pour muesli over it (the one I like is with oats, raisins, nuts, almonds, coconut and possibly some other stuff). And sugar. And then you mix it up.

And then you pour milk over it, let it sit for a bit so the oats can soften up, and then it’s just… awesome. Pomegranaty awesomeness.

(I should really stop photographing everything I eat, but man. My food’s just so damn pretty!)

**

On a completely unrelated note, I bought the best buttons ever. For my tea cozy. Wanna see?

Dude. Sheep buttons. Sheep buttons that have the right size.

I should really go back and buy the rest of the stock, too.

It’s the final breakthrough

Few, very few things indeed, are as satisfying as baking.

I do know this makes me sound like an even bigger nerd than I normally am, but man… last night, when I carefully snapped open the springform pan, and stuck my knife in, and landed a perfect piece of pumpkin pie on my plate… my friends, I tell you, it was a slice of heaven right there.

The brilliant, uncomplicated and not-using-a-lot-of-stuff-I-can’t-stick-into-the-dishwasher recipe is over here at Chefkoch. (It’s in German, but if anyone wants a translation, I’ll  be happy to oblige.)

(Just look at that pumpkiny goodness.)

In other news, I have a little tea pot, short and stout, and I bought it so I could make it a sweater.

I’ve always had a secret passion for tea cozies, but I never actually owned a tea pot I could make one for, so… yeah. Other people make cozies cause they have a pot. I buy the pot to make a cozy. Whatever.

It’s Elisabeth Kleven’s Tea Mitten (link goes to the Rav-Rav) in Zitron Nimbus, on 3.5mm metal DPNs and a circ. It’s a tad big, I’ll admit that, but still. It might, uh, shrink in the wash. Or something. But yeah, I totally made a merino tea cozy. Yup.

Quick Garter Stitch Bitch update: chugging along. Choo, choo.

Other exciting stuff that happened today: It’s another gorgeous fall day, and my 650g Hamburger Wollfabrik 5-ply chocolate brown merino extafine arrived.

Gebrat’ne Mumie auf Spinat

I’m just dumping a couple of photos, really.

I haven’t exactly been up and around much the last couple of days – I had a quiet study day with Saskia on Sunday, which ended up with a board games evening, Christian, some alcohol and some vomit, though fortunately not on my side.

But! The weather’s been gorgeous lately. I mean, really, really gorgeous. Blue sky, crisp air, not a cloud in sight… all day.

**

New forays into cooking: It’s the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester!

**

Oh, and I’ve been knitting a bit.