Very busy

I am at the moment, with several things… reading, knitting, frogging, changing the provider (invisible for us ) and today to clean up the papers.

Although I have some secret projects, which I can at first after Christmas (to be exactly, at the moment there are three), but nevertheless I have today many photos for you.

First there are many finished projects:

Another turtle which I put on the desk of my boss:

Zum time ago I joined Knitting-Delight-Gruppe (Yahoo) from Birgit Freyer. My first project there was Donna Rocco.  Playing with the instruction is so much fun, that I knitted two at once and recently ordered the material for a third, where I plan to play much more with the clues.

The last project of the group was until now the ‘Wave of Color’ Moebius. Here in between I finished two and a third one is on the needles. A wonderful project for Christmas presents, as you need only one ball of sock yarn for one!

As well on the go is at the moment a baby blanket. My Englishteacher will go on maternal leave in the middle of December (if everything turns out fine she will exactly finish our class, for the next season we will have to cope with another teacher). I choosed ‘Samson’ from ggh, where I was able to buy a remainder from a dear friend.

And I can show one pair of socks just started, as they will be given away later. The yarn is ‘ Zwergenschmiede’ from Kirsten ‘Handgefaerbt’.

I wish you all a nice Sunday evening and a good start into the new week!

Cardmaking

has been the matter of the last two weekend afternoons and a first series of Christmas Cards have been finished. Certainly they don’t belong to the planned cards for family and friends, I tinkered them spontaneously, after I found the 3D-sheets bought after the last Christmas in an Internet Store.

Except of the quadratic cards they are all German letter post suitable and roam now in the store.

I wish you all a nice Sunday evening and a good start into the new week!!!

At such a grey autumn day…

I would like to show you one of my summer-impressions. I was several times in Hanover this year, visiting my dear friend Birgitta. At the main station there is a nice yarn shop and a fantastic biscuit shop… and together we explored the town enspecially the Herrenhaeuser Gardens and the nearby Berggarten.

The first time was a bit early, in between the Spring and Summer Flowers. The third time I took Arne with me. Together with Birgitta and her husband we strolled thorugh the city, enjoyed a fantsatic view from the town hall tower, feasted at a very good Chinese restaurant and in the evening visited the illumination in the Herrenhaeuser Gardens. What a great day!

Of course there were also a second time And from this time I will show you some expressions:

I’m still alive

Vacation is past since a while, the leaves are slowly turned coloured or dropping down. A not ever eventfully Sommer  is running out.

As I wasn’t in the mood to blog for a long time, I think I will present again my pictures of the summer (PotS). There were visits in Hanover, London and the vacation in Lanzarote.

Straight after this vacation Arne and I together with the help of a dear friend minuted a homepage for our Lanzarotean landlady, Mrs. Kim-Geitner. We offered her to do it and to manage this additional part to book her apartments. Do you like to take a look? The main parts are in English as well (translated by Arne and checked by my English teacher in the company) as English spoken guests are also welcome (French and Spanish surely too, but to offer the page in this languages will surmount our abilities, sorry). The page has nearly been finished, just the gallery with the Lanzarote Impressions is still missing:

Voilá: Lanzarote Appartments

I read again a lot, lastly the whole ‘Lazarus/Decker’ serie (17 books are in between available in German) from Faye Kellerman, which I value very much.

I knitted also abit, no socks, I’m not in the mood doing this at the moment, but I finished the third rainbow shawl, which will stay with me.

As well since a few weeks I’m joining the Knitting-Delight (Yahoo-) Group from Birgit Freyer and I’m knitting the ‘Donna Rocca’. Here is the variation I ordered in her yarn shop:

Two weekends ago I was very busy. On Friday I went to Osnabrueck after work, to visit the fair ‘Nadel & Faden’ (Needle & Thread) were I bought a second yarn pack for Donna Rocca, several nice sock yarns (I will use for shawls) and a cross stitch picture. The second shawl you can see here:

On Saturday came some members from the Hanseatic Knitters (Ravelry). The daughter of Baerbel ist studying in Bremen and during a visit she detected a real nice yarn store.

After my vacation I crocheted also a bit. Two animals from the book ‘100 kleine Haekelfiguren’ (100 little Crocheting-Figures). They are part of this years birthday presents for my colleagues.

To show you last but not least a few Lanzarote-Impressions here are some cat pictures:

Our beloved Oscar:

Sweet little Linda with her blue eyes:

Blacky, terror of all mice and birds (but also fondling):

And the poor Felix:

Felix is new. He must have had a very hard life bevor. He is blind on one eyer, sometimes (perhaps because of that) scarry while petting, on the other side he is very afraid to miss something, my it be food or attention, he is very jealous and complaining very fast.

Vacation

Hello dear readers,

I’m still not in the mood spending much time in front of the PC and now it will be less. Because now I’m on vacation and we will got to Lanzarote.

In the suitcase you can find apart from a lot of books these two knitting-peaces – shawls:

In September I will get back to you.

Catalonia-Impressions (without words)

Book-Hangover

Today I have a real hard book-hangover, something, which I hadn’t for a longer while.

It’s the fault of Alison Croggon with her ‘Books of Pellinor’. This is a serie of four books and some time ago I bought the first book of it ‘The Naming’. I ‘found’ it last week in my shelf and I started to read. Although from time to time the influence of Tolkiens ‘Lord of the rings’ was a bit too visible, her world is her very special own world with interesting and complex charakters. The real ‘bad’ thing with this tale is (beside the little failing describe above), it took me completly with it and involved me, this already started with the map.

Immediately I had to buy the missing three books and, advanteged by the weekend, I red them nearly in one go. This night I finished book four (and with this the tale) – and at the moment I really miss this world and the fond of protagonists and I would love it to read more of them. And so I now have a ‘hangover’ and I’m reading older unattended issues of ‘National Geographic’, as at the moment I don’t feel like changing the genre or to read about another fantastic world.

By the way Alison Croggon set her world onto our earth, as a supposably lost continent (perhaps Atlantis?) from which a bigger amount of scrolls had been found a while ago. So it is really worthwile to read the foreword and the appendices including the bibliography – they make the illusion nearly perfect.

I read books in the Germany translations (and ‘National Geographic’ in its German edition), although of course four you I try to search for the English titles, which make more sense.

Midsummer

Hello dear readers,

oh yes, I’m still alive. Several things happend since my last entry, but they were not very related to knitting.

Again we were in Catalonia in June, but this year it was not so nice as the year before. Several little queries and it was hot (no surprise, last year it was the same) but also humid (which is very unusual as it seems). This combination is not ours and for me that meant that I got a persistant cold.

Back in Germany we were happy to be able to take a deep breath (and to sleep very well), then the summer arrived here, too. So I spent many hours on my balcony, sometimes into the late evening. In Catalonia I continued two (new pairs…) of socks, but then I came back to the bocks and this is still going on.

So I detected the series about the solicitor Matthew Sharlake, taking place in the era of Henry VIII in England and I like it very much. Then there were several books of authors you will not now, as for example Rebecca Gablé writes excellent books about the English Middle Ages, but she is German and her books are not translated into English.

At the moment I’m reading ‘London’ from Edward Rutherfurd. As I love London and English History (especially till around the end of the Middle Ages) the book is absolute fascinating, and it is so much fun, to detect where the buildings or areas of today came from.

But since it’s a bit fresher outside (today it rained the whole afternoon), I knitted again. The rainbow shawl is growing and in the train I knit the socks.

In the next days I have again many nice photos for you. Some impressions of Catalonia (of course there were also nice things) and I visited once again my friend Birgitta in Hannover and made some photos there, too.

Gran Canaria: Into the Heartland

It’s time to come to the end of the logue (next week we start again for a few days at Catalonia…) so I will post two entries today. As well I was really looking forward to write from this day as it was except for the end, completly ingenious and in fact the pictures show this only inadequate.

One of the most beautiful streets on this island is the street from San Nicholas to the heartland. Very good quality but very narrow and with oncoming traffic (later it becomes wider but the quality is not more so good). But if you have the nerves for this it is really worthwhile.

Arriving San Nicholas angekommen we had to search a bit. This is there very typical. Sometimes you have a sign, sometimes not, I think, they assume, that the driver follows the street until a sign (here to Artenara) shows another direction.

The street runs narrwo through high mountains. Impressive! After many curves it passes two reservoirs (the water here is emerald green, not the colour of the sky). The good small street ands at a tower (fortunatly it was renovated and closed, at our last visit it was horrible inside and close to it) from it’s place you have a good sight.

The street continous, but the surrounding is changing. More green and more settlements. And somtimes you see one of thos typical houses build into the rocks.

We went to the Pico de Gáldar. From here the weather changed. Until here it was sunny. The North of the island was cloudy and the wind was cold.

We went back to Artenara, into the sun. The village is the highest on the whole island. From the street to it you can even take a look to the Teide on Teneriffa.

From Artenara you have a wonderful sight to the holy rocks of the island, Roque Ventaiga and Roque Nublo.

We went to, as our guide wrote, most beautifull village of the island, Tejeda. The place is absolutly wonderfull.

From there we wanted to go back to the south. On the way we could take a look on Saturdays chaos in the central mountains…

Because of a bike rallye many streets were closed. Unfortunatly this forced us to take a long way through the grey dark North to the motorway. So the end of this day was not so nice as you may think, this was absolutly no fun.

Well, only one more trip is left and will follow, to the North of the island, but not today 

Gran Canaria: On the beach (and a bit more)

It may be unbelievable, but beach visits on Gran Canaria are not so easy for the ambitious visitor.

The beach of Maspalomas is fantastic for us – in the evening. We are not one of those people sitting in the strong sun for hours. At our laziest days we stayed until three hours at a beach under a sunshade, but if we don’t have that possibility, it’s much more less.
You have to walk a while to find a place more empty at Maspalomas, and at days there might it be difficult to find an nice parking space.

The little beach of Puerto Rico has two disadvantages: It is a bit like a bath tube and small – and there is no free parking space as the whole area there is blue zone. So first we took a look onto the (how it was proved gravelstone-) beach of Tasarte and drove then two times to Puerto de Mogán.

Imagine Gran Canaria a bit as a clock (this is of course not correct, as the middle of the island is much more North than Mogán but I think, this picture fits the needs). You can circiut the whole island – until the quarter from six to nine o’clock. At six there is Puerto de Mogán, from there you have to go in direction to the middle, to drive shortly after  Mogán in direction nine o’clock (there is La Aldea / San Nicholas). The street runs along mountains, above several valleys. And at the locations you can drive on streets back to the sea.

We tried two of those street in this vacation: The first, coming from Mogán is at Veneguera, where it is shortly behind the village only a piste, it can be driven with a normal car and the whole area is beautiful, but it needs a bit of ability and patience. The second is at  Tasarte. Not so nice as the Veneguera-down-hill but nearly until the beach tarred and good for driving. The last is Tasartico, but as written in our guide it should be very hard to drive.

In any case, the mornings started again with a look down to the roundabout in Puerto Rico. You can see two busses and on the right a part of the bus station. 

On our way to Tasarte we passed again ’Los Azulejos’. This time we stopped directly unter the rocks. There is also a nice little bar, leaded by a German.

As written above, the beach of Tasarte is pure gravelstone and very exposed. Maybe somthing for surfers but surely nothing for swimmers. But here is a little restaurant which shall be not so bad as hour guide says. It was before lunchtime and for us to early for eating fish.

After a stop we drove back to Puerto de Mogán and went there to the beach. It is not so bad, and there were not so many visitors. Arne had a lot of fun in the water (I love it more to knit at the beach). Unfortunatly there is nearly no shadow and as I felt the sun although I used a good sunblocker and my arms where already bronzy, we had to leave after a short while.

In the evening we went again to the other beach, to Maspalomas. As it was low tide, we decided to stroll on the promenade on the other side, at Meloneras. There are many nice shops and a center, some are exclusiv and expensive, other not (but never cheap in the bad way) and we made some nice shoppings. 

The last photo shows the vestiges of a Guanchen-Settlement, which where found there and where integrated in an exploratory way.

At hour second visit at the Playa de Puerto de Mogán we were a bit more earlier and could stay a bit longer, as a tree throw his sheadow on a place backwards at the wall.