Have You Any Wool?

time flies when you're having fun

Well, it's been a while since you last heard from me, hasn't it? The past month has been crazy, but in a good way. Travis arrived home safely the first week of February (a week later than anticipated), and everyone has adjusted extremely well. He's gone back to work this week, so we're settling into a new routine of normal once again.

While Travis was on leave, we took the opportunity to travel to Paris. It's a fabulous place to visit, and I was so excited to be able to travel again. It's been hard, spending fifteen months in Europe without being able to really go anywhere. I suppose I could have, but I'm not really brave enough to set out on my own with a 5-year-old and a 2-year-old in tow. Flying back to the United States for Christmas was enough for me :)

In Paris, we saw the usual tourist attractions:

The Louvre

Surprisingly, the kids held up to several hours of walking around the museum. We saw the Mona Lisa, which, frankly, was a disappointment. It's so much smaller than many of the paintings in the museum, and it's all by itself on a wall covered with glass. There was a very large crowd in front of the painting, and the glare from the overhead lights off the glass made it hard to see. Oh, well, I guess at least we can say we've seen it!

From the Louvre, we walked down the Champs-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe. It was quite a long walk, which involved much whining from the Princess (Zippy got to ride in the backpack on Travis' back). She was fairly excited to see the Arc de Triomphe, however, and had a good time chasing the pigeons that were seeking shelter beneath the Arc.

We visited Notre Dame du Paris

as well as the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur.

And of course, we couldn't visit Paris without seeing the Eiffel Tower.

There were also two days spent at Disneyland Paris, but clearly that part of the trip was more for the kids than for us. I could have done without going there, but the kids had a wonderful time. We figured that after dragging them through Paris, we had to do something to keep them entertained as well.

There has also been knitting happening over the past month. Mostly socks, because they are portable. I finished up several pairs, including a pair that I started last August.

You can go to Flickr to get the details on each of these projects, if you so desire. I'm too lazy to repost the details again here :)

Home again, home again, jiggity jig

We returned from our holiday late last week. We spent 4 days in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, a ski resort town in the Alps. It was a nice, relaxing holiday, because we had been there before, therefore had already seen some of the local sights. This time, we did head to the top of the highest peak in Germany, the Zugspitze, and also visited Neuschwanstein Castle. Other than that, we did a lot of shopping and ate at some wonderful restaurants, and had an all-around wonderful time. The kids behaved much better this time than they did the last time we were there, which makes life easier for all of us. If you are interested in seeing some of the pictures we took, click here.
The drive took 5 hours each way (not including the 40 km stau we got stuck in on the way home), so it made for some quality knitting time for me. When I wasn't retrieving snacks and juice, or changing DVD's, I managed to finish up the second Spiral Columns sock. This means I actually managed to finish a pair for Socktoberfest, after all.

Pattern: my own, tentatively named Spiral Columns socks (pattern may be available someday)
Yarn: Regia Canadian Classic Colors #4748 (Orion)
Needles: 2.5mm Addi circulars

These are intended to be gifted to my mother for Christmas. They are based on a stitch pattern I found in one of my stitch dictionaries, altered slightly and rewritten for knitting in the round. The photo isn't really very clear, but you may be able to see that the pattern does indeed spiral around the leg, rather than just go straight up and down. Because of this, I decided to discontinue the pattern on the foot, and stick with plain stockinette.

I have managed to get a bit of knitting done over the weekend, including finishing my second Forest Canopy Shawl, which is blocking as I write this.

Just a sneak peek.

Not long after casting off the Forest Canopy, I started a Diamond Fantasy Shawl, which I hope to finish in time to give to my mom for Christmas. She complained that her office is chilly, and she was going to get a fleece jacket or vest to leave at work. I decided I could do one better than that, by keeping her warm and stylish at the same time. I just hope I can finish it.

I also wanted to share the goodies that were waiting for me when we returned from our trip. A little while back, I won a contest on Beth's blog, and she sent me some wonderful goodies:

A very cute little bag that she made from a felted sweater. It's lined, has the great flower applique, and a magnetic clasp to hold everything in. Inside the bag was this:

Two skeins of Noro Kureyon, in two different colors (so I can start stashing and eventually knit a Lizard Ridge), some chocolate, Laura Ashley sticky notes, and fabulous stitch markers that are already in use on my DFS. Thanks so much, Beth!

Berlin, part 2

After seeing so much on the first day of our tour of Berlin, we took it easy the following day by visiting the Berlin Zoo and aquarium. Both the Princess and Zippy were happy to have something more interesting to look at, rather than being dragged around museums.

We started walking around the zoo, looking at the animals, headed toward the polar bears, because it was feeding time for them not long after we got there. The kids got a kick out of seeing the polar bears jump in the water and catch their food, and one polar bear kept standing on his hind legs to catch the food in midair:

There is a small part of the zoo fenced off for kids to go inside and feed the animals, which include goats, sheep, Shetland ponies and donkeys. We fed the sheep:

then washed our hands and went to get a snack for ourselves.

We've visited a number of zoos here in Europe, but the zoo in Berlin was the first time we have ever seen a panda bear, so this was a big highlight:

Once we had seen all of the animals in the zoo, we went to the aquarium.

Look! We found Nemo. Plus lots of other fish, snakes and reptiles. The aquarium didn't take that long to get through, so we still had time left before dinner. Not far outside of the Elephant Gate is the Kaiser-Wilhelm Gedächtniskirche (Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church).

The church was originally built in the 1890's, but was badly damaged during a bombing raid in 1943.  A portion of the ruins were kept as a reminder of the devastation caused by the bombings, and alongside it a new church was constructed.

After visiting the church, we had dinner at Hard Rock Cafe (I know, how American of us. For the record, it wasn't my idea. I think their food is awful), then headed back to the hotel.

By our third day of travel, we had already seen so many of the sights we intended to visit, so we headed to the Deutches Technikmuseum to check out the exhibits. Our hope was that the trains and planes would actually hold the Princess's interest. No such luck. There was a nice little exhibit on textiles, though,  that I did manage to see without interruptions.

From the museum, we went to the Sony Center at Potsdamer Platz to eat lunch. The restaurant, Café Josty , was rather overpriced and the food was nothing spectacular, but the view was great. It was warm enough to sit outside and eat, and watch the fountain.

Following lunch, it was on to the Berliner Dom (if you're interested in what it is or the history, you can read about it here, since this post is already a bit wordy).

And that concludes our visit to Berlin. I hope you enjoyed being a virtual tourist. I promise to be back soon with knitting content.

Berlin

Finally, a chance to sit down and write a post about our trip to Berlin! The laundry has all been washed (how a family of four can go through so much clothing in 5 days is beyond me), suitcases unpacked, and now we all have colds. I'm up before the sun this morning, not able to get a whole lot of sleep between my own coughing fits, and those of the Princess and Zippy. They were able to get back to sleep, but I'm not so lucky. So, I'll tell you about our trip, instead.

We had a great time in Berlin. The weather was very nice for October, and we actually managed to fit in all of the things we wanted to do. We were there for five days, but the first and last day were mostly for traveling (it's a 6 hour train ride from where we live to Berlin). Day one, we didn't see much, other than train and subway stations. By the time we got to the hotel, unloaded the luggage, and went out to get dinner, the kids were exhausted. We turned in early that night, got a good night of sleep, and set out early the next day.

First stop was Schloss Charlottenburg, the largest palace in Berlin, built between 1695 and 1699.
It was heavily damaged during World War II, but has since been reconstructed.

The inside of the palace  is a museum, filled with art, beautiful porcelain dishes, silver, Oriental vases, coins, and the crowns of a king and queen, among other things. the Princess and Zippy weren't real keen on taking the time to look at each piece, so we missed a lot, but it was still interesting.

After the museum visit, we ate lunch at Kleine Orangerie,
and had some wonderful flammkuchen. With full bellies, we headed across the street to the Ägyptisches Museum, but it turns out the museum is under construction, and the exhibits had been moved elsewhere. It was just as well, because I'm sure the kids wouldn't have been very pleased to go through another museum.

On we walked, until we reached the Siegesäule (Victory Column). This was built from 1864-1873 to commemorate the Prussian victory in the Danish-Prussian war.  It's original location was across from the Reichstag building, but Hitler ordered it to be moved in 1938 to it's current location at the Großer Stern.

From the Siegesäule, we walked to the Brandenburg Gate.

The Quadriga atop the Brandenburg Gate

From the Brandenburg Gate, we walked just up the street to the Reichstag building.

The line to enter the building was dreadfully long, so we were going to skip the visit to the dome atop the building. That was, until a very kind woman informed us that there was a wheelchair/stroller entrance off to the side, with no wait at all. We passed through security, and took the elevator up to the dome. Inside the dome there are walkways leading up to the top, providing us with a fabulous (though very overcast) view of the city. I'm so glad we had the chance to go up. It would have been a disappointment to have missed out on it because of the long wait to enter.

Moving on. Our next visit was the Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas (Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe).

This memorial was just opened last year, and one source I read labeled it "controversial". I can see why. The memorial is slabs of concrete at various heights, placed on a sloping surface. There are no markings or any indication as to what the symbolism is, until you go to an underground exhibit, which lists the names of those who died. I understand that the artist who created this had a specific vision in mind, but I don't really find it to be an appropriate memorial to those who lost their lives under horrific circumstances. But that's just my two cents.

From the memorial we headed for one of the remaining sections of the Berlin Wall, and the Topography of Terrors.

The wall above the Topography of Terrors, and a marker showing where the wall once stood

We also visited Checkpoint Charlie, and the associated museum.

The museum was absolutely fascinating. It was so interesting to read about the ways people tried to escape from the East to the West. At the same time, it was depressing to read about the failed attempts. The area is now a tourist attraction, complete with fake US soldiers standing "guard" for tourists to have their pictures taken beside (Travis refused to stand next to them), and it's kind of tacky, but the museum has done a great job of detailing and displaying the history of the wall.

OMG, I'm such a tourist!

Wow, I guess I didn't realize just how much we covered in one day! We did a lot of walking, but we also used the U-Bahn (subway) a great deal. Since this post is already so long and picture-heavy, I'll save the next two days of our trip for another post. If you've made it this far, thanks for sticking with me! I hope you enjoyed reading about our trip. We certainly had a great time.

It's been an interesting and busy week here in my household. It started off pleasantly, with a trip to Strasbourg, France over the weekend. Even though it was bloody hot, we had a great time. The kids both behaved well (even though poor Zippy was teething), and we were able to see most of the sights we had set out to see. If you're really interested in the rest of the trip, pictures can be viewed here.

Sunday evening we returned home to find this:

That would be debris, which was in the garage, also. We were very confused, not knowing what had caused this mess. Our neighbors came out and informed us that there was a major storm on Saturday which caused a wee bit of flooding. They were also kind enough to share some pictures of the mess.

On normal days, that is our street. On this particular day, it was more like a river. A friend who lives in the same town told me that there really wasn't a whole lot of warning that there was an impending storm, the skies just opened up and sheets of water fell to the ground. Of course, there was also hail, which did a number on the gardens, but seemed to spare my husband's vehicle, which was parked on the street. We were also lucky that there was no water damage to his car. When he moved it after our return home, this is what was underneath:

We were very lucky that there was no water damage to either the car or the house (the garage is the bottom floor of the house, and the water only went in about 2 feet, and it didn't touch anything). We had closed all of the windows before leaving, so no rain entered the house, and there were no leaks. Many of our neighbors were not so fortunate.

Luck ran out on Monday, when I came out of a store to find my car in the parking lot looking like this:

It appears as though someone backed into my car, and took off without leaving a note. Fuckwad. I guess they thought that their bumper was a good enough signature. It really fries me that I'm now stuck footing the bill for someone else's stupidity and dishonesty (Watch out, the idiots are everywhere. They got to Uli, too). I just don't understand how people can live with themselves when they do something like this. Granted, no one was injured, but now we're out $500 to pay the insurance deductible to replace the rear bumper. It angers me that people are so irresponsible. How many hit and run accidents occur in any given day? Far too many. I know when we used to live in San Antonio, it seemed that there was a pedestrian hit on a daily basis, and the driver took off more often than not. I'm sure the situation is the same in most other areas. Seriously, how can these people sleep at night? Okay, I know I'm  making a great big deal out of a stupid dented bumper (Travis keeps telling me to get over it, already), but it really pisses me off. The money we have to spend to fix the car would have been used for travel (especially with his impending deployment in the fall). Aaargh!

All right, all right, enough. How about we change the subject to knitting? I have two pairs of socks to show that have been finished up over the past couple of weeks.

Pattern:  Badcaul by Anna Bell
Yarn: Trekking XXL #105
Needles: 2.5mm Inox circulars
Modifications: None. This pattern is well written and easy to follow. I learned how to do a Turkish cast-on for these socks, and it is the easiest toe-up sock cast on that I have used to date. Never again will I use a provisional or figure-8 cast on. If you haven't tried it yet, and knit toe-up socks, I highly recommend giving it a shot. Oh wait, there was one tiny mod. I used a sewn bind off rather than binding off in the traditional manner, because even moving up to a 5.0mm needle to bind off, it was still too tight. Enter the sewn bind off, and the problem is solved.

Okay, now you may want to grab a pair of sunglasses to view these socks, because they are BRIGHT:

I warned you.
Pattern: Embossed Leaves by Mona Schmidt, Interweave Knits Winter 2005
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Potluck Brights (and they aren't kidding)
Needles: 3.0mm Inox circulars
Modifications: None, really, because this is such a great pattern. The 1x1 rib cast on is a bit tight, but it's not a very big deal. When I first started knitting with this yarn, my initial reaction was that the colors were horrid. But as I continued to knit, they grew on me. Sure, they're a bit...um, loud, but I'm sure there isn't another pair like them out there.

That's probably a good thing.

Thank you for all the comments on my last post. The blue mood has lifted, and I'm feeling much better now. After seeing all of these gorgeous flowers in Holland, how could I possibly be down? We had a great time on our trip. The weather wasn't all that great, but at least it didn't rain. On our first day, we visited Keukenhof, which is where all of these beautiful flowers were photographed. This place is absolutely amazing. Everywhere you turn, there are gardens upon gardens of tulips, daffodils, and hyacinths. I was not aware that there are so many varieties of tulips. Even more amazing than the gardens at Keukenhof were the fields upon fields of flowering bulbs, planted for the purpose of cutting and sending the flowers to markets and florists. We also spent two days in Amsterdam, which wasn't quite as pretty as the flowers, but still a lot of fun. If you would like to see all of the pictures from our trip, click here.
The little guy just woke up from his nap, so knitting updates will have to wait until tomorrow.

The Bavarian Alps

We got back from our trip from hell vacation on Friday evening, and I've spent the weekend unpacking and catching up on laundry. I mentioned the trip quickly in one post and never had a chance to post again before we left, but we went to Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Munich for a short 4 day vacation. Unfortunately, traveling with a 4 month old didn't allow us to relax at all. Rather than regale you with horror stories from the trip, I'll share pictures of the Bavarian Alps that we took. The Munich portion of the trip was a total washout because of the weather, so there is not one single picture from the city.

The view from our hotel room

A view of the Alps in very overcast weather

Here are a few in the spirit of the Olympics. Garmisch-Partenkirchen was the sight of the 1936 Winter Olympics.

The Olympic Ice Arena

We caught a couple of hockey games here, because there was a tournament going on. Half of the seats inside the arena are actually the original seats from when it was first built.

The Skistadion, with jumps in the background
The day we were there, we saw kids that couldn't have been much more than 10 or 11 years old practicing their jumps. It was amazing. Every New Year, there is still a ski jump competition held here.
Actually, the trip wasn't a total bust. We did have one good day (the day these pictures were taken), but for the most part, we had to deal with a very unhappy little baby. We plan on making a return trip next winter, when Zippy is a bit older and won't scream through every meal we try to eat (at least I hope so), and the Princess can skate and maybe hit the slopes. There is so much we missed out on, and we really want to go back.
I also have a backlog of knitting to show, but don't have pictures yet to prove it. Sundby is finished, except for the weaving in of the ends. I finished the first sock of my second pair of Jaywalkers on the ride down, and am about halfway done the leg of the second. I still owe a photo shoot of the Tea for Two sweater, and I started my sockapaloooza pal's socks. The Latvian mittens are moving along, but only a row or two at a time, and I'm nearing the finish line on the front of Rhapsody in Tweed. Phew! I think that's it for now. Hopefully some proof of real live finished objects will present themselves in the next couple of days.