Christmas deadline approaches fast

I'm sure I am not the only one who is scared of December 24th. Do not get me wrong, I love Christmas... but why on earth did I decide to knit for everyone? Not that my family is large but after a sock weight scarf for my mom and two worsted weight scarfs for brother and dad I am hopelessly stuck with the cowl for SIL. Could someone please tell me why I decided a laceweight yarn would be a smart idea? Waaahhhh....
(but honestly, it is going to look great! )
I'm off to knit a few more rows... only 210 stitches each *sob*

when it rains...

...it hails :-/
There are times when I hate being so far away from my parents. Like this weekend :-( First of all my dad had a (luckily small) car accident, my mom, who is disabled overworked her muscles and now has to use crutches to walk (usually she "just" has a limb) and now yesterday evening one of my fathers beloved dogs died of heart failure. When I talked to him on the phone today he cried. I've never heard my father cry before :-( Now I just hope dog no.2 who is dog no.1s brother) won't die soon.
I'm now going to knit a bit instead of doing my housework so I can calm down before leaving for University today. Let's hope and pray that this is the rock bottom for my parents and now everything will start to get better again.
If you pray I'd appreciate it if you would enclose my parents into your prayers. Thank you.

Happy Halloween :-)

Yes, this tradition is getting more and more popular here in germany too. I wonder why ;-) (ok, we all know that children love to dress up and also love getting candies, so no wonder that, when they see the commercials and all those american cartoon specials about Halloween they want to try that too). I just prepared our entrance (just a little, a china pumpkin filled with a candle, some scarecrow made out of seethrough orange fabric that, thanks to our door lamp starts to glow when someone comes to us) etc. Nothing special, but I like it when the kids smile after they leave us :-)
But do you know that October 31st isn't only Halloween? It is also "Reformation day" at least here in Germany. Most people don't know it but today Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the castlechurch of Wittenberg. This is the start of the Protestant Reformation.
Just a little interestning tidbit for you :-)

I have started knitting for christmas and I'm turning nuts already. I don't even have so much to do but the first scarf I am making takes ages :-/ I use the upstairs pattern (ravelry link, german pattern on Wollke 7) but only work 5 repeats of the pattern section until my yarn (150g of handpainted merino yarn from Handgefaerbt.com) runs out. Much to my surprise it goes slowly.. very slowly... I really should work more on it since I need at least 3 more scarfs until the end of December. Ack! Luckily my parents in law are going to spend the whole winter in Spain so I guess they do not need warm necks there. Books are great for them too ;-)
In other news, university has started and I'm already drowning in work so I guess taking pictures of my sewing and knitting is postponed until nice weather and me being at home collide ;-)
I'm off to do my homework now, just a few hours and the kids come trick and treating!

Busy bee

I am working on my last paper for university tonight. Hopefully I'll have a bit more wiggleroom (or "knitting room") soon :-) As soon as that happens I'll take some pictures of my finished knitting and a few "in between" sewing projects from Tilda. They are awesomely easy so I did sneak in an apple or two for our fall/christmas decoration :-)

New blog clothes :-)

I just found a nice page that offers a few downloads for blogger. I absolutely fell in love with this one (and it's so much better than just boring blogger-pink). I just need to do some housekeeping as in re-inserting my links etc. and I'm done :-)
How do you like it? :-)

Tilda, how do I love thee...

..let me count the ways.

Even though I know hubby doesn'tlike decorations that much I am a total sucker for Tilda- products. This year, I'll try to start sneaking in more handmade decorations.

Do you know Tilda by Tone Finnanger (hope I spelled her right). Her books are marvelous. I love her northern style quite a lot.

My first book was the german version of this one: Sew Pretty Homestyle . I made a doll out of it for my mother who at once fell in love with the patterns in this book.

As you can see the patterns in there are very diverse, from bags to plushies, rugs to shoes. It's great if you love that special "country style" of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark.

And now, thanks to amazon, I received the Christmas book that just came out in german. Ohhh, I know where I can be found after this blog post: on my couch with a nice cup of coffee and Tildas new book :-)

Oh, and please don't remind me of the tons of work I still have to do. *sigh* But I see the end of the tunnel finally (and then... well, then I can start cleaning the darn house).

Btw, if you would like to see a bit more about Tilda, here are a few links:

german Tilda-Addicts Blog

french Tilda- Addicts blog

english Tilda-Addicts Blog

but don't blame me on any "infection" that couses you to run out, buy fabrics and start redecorating your home, ok? ;-))

Excuse me, have you seen

... the sun lately? Weather here is horrible currently. At least if you plan to go outside and/or take pictures :-( It's grey and soggy, stormy and overall more a weather to stay at home and cuddle in front of the TV.
Hubby finally found the battery for his old camera and now I am the proud owner of a "new" Olympus 8080. I just need to figure out how this wonderwork of technology works.
We actually planned a trip to the northern sea so I can learn to take pictures with different settings, but with this weather? No chance.
Hubby will be gone for almost two weeks (with two less than 24h-stays here inbetween) so I guess we'll be heading out in a few weeks to the beach. Meanwhile I'll try to finish the second glove (just cast off the first one) and knit on my sotsiii :-) And of course... take pictures inside of our cats and my knitting (wonder if he needs to look for the connection cable too - reminder to myself: ask before he leaves! ;-))