Yarn Along - Cover up your needles!

Knittin and reading. My favourite things to complete a perfect day. So I am joining Ginny on Wednesdays for Yarn Along to share my passions with you. Come and join in if you like!

Last week there has not been too much knitting but I finished the first sock that I showed you last time. The one here is the second one but I forgot to take a picture of the finished sock although the colorway is very interesting and worth showing... Sorry about that. I will show you the finished pair soon, hopefully... 

Today I want to show you something else though, I prepared a little tutorial for you, because yesterday I got tired. Tired of loosing the stitches off my needles all the time. That happens because I carry my knitting with me all day in a small bag that is getting draged in and out of my backpack constantly. And at home there is this very vital toddler... 

I needed something to cover my needles. And I needed it soon. It was night and there was no way I way going to do any shopping to solve the problem. So some upcycling it was:

I needed some material that would be strong enough to stop the needles from poking through it yet flexible enough to cover them and keep them together. That's when I remembered the broken tire from my last bike repare. Lucky me... But you can basically use any strong flexible material such as leather, tarpaulin etc.

I cut two 5" (12 cm) from the tire and opend them on one side.

Then I used a round item to draw a circle of 3" (7,5 cm) onto the tire and cut it. Repeat with the second piece.

I marked twelve spots (like a clock) and pinched holes through the tire pieces.

For the next step I used two strong elastic strapes (the blue one in the first picture turned out to not be strong enough but I found some brown left overs) and pulled each of them halfway through the holes as shown in the picture. Repeat the same with the second circle.

I fixed the elastic with a knot at both ends pulling the circles together as good as I could.

Last I tied the two pieces together. The length of the elastic should depend on the size of your needles. The elastic should be under tension when on the needles. Done! Such a fun way to upcycle!

I hope my tutorial was helpful for you.

 Oh, and I almost forgot, of course there has been some reading, even a lately rather rare visit to library in fact with some good outcome. A book about dying with natural colors, a knitting book for women of weight which I was very, very happy to find in the library as it has been on my waiting list at Amazon for month now and an easy reading murder mystery (only available in German) located in Brittany/ France which I read on my train ride to work these days. All of them make me happy on different levels, just like knitting different projects at the same time for different ocassions. You know what I mean, right?

But for now, I will hop over to Ginny and see what you have been up to last week. I see you around!

Happy Knitting!

Celebrating Fiber

First, of course, I want to wish all of you mums a wonderful and happy Mothers Day! 

Since I gave birth to my son I realize how I have started to find a deeper and more intense connection to the rhythm of the seasons. In nature and our home. I really want to show him all there is, this earth is offering us in plenty and I love to watch him while he discovers his world step by step.

There seem to be so many beautiful things happening around us every day if we just find the time to stop and appreciate them. Having started writing this blog and especially reading how you fellow bloggers live the seasons has added to this feeling even more. In the last weeks I have read some blog entries about sheep festivals and I was filled with excitement just by the thought of such a great event. 

A festival for fiber... I so wanted a tradition like that to be a part of our seasons too, just like I read this morning on Rhythm of the home. But I was sure, I would not find anything like a sheep festival anywhere near Cologne. Until my lovely sister, Aarons Tante Auto, a great spinner, asked me yesterday if we wanted to join her today to go, exactly, to a sheep festival. Did we want to go? You can imagine my joy...

The festival toke place in a very pretty open air museum, a small village that showes how people have lived in that area in the last centuries. You can watch all the old crafts, the farming, the living and today, plenty of sheep and other farm animals. Let me take you on a tour if you don't mind:

Here they are, the sweeties, still sweating with all that wool on there bodies...

... here they get undressed. It was a hilarious sight to watch this big ram sitting on a small stage, very patiently in a position like this, getting warped very naked. A wee bit like a peep show...

They had very many different breeds to show, this is a black German Heath, with very impressive horns.

A very smalll German Heath, a fully grown up dwarf version, so cute but very serious...

I just wanted to sit down and join in if I had only brought my wheel.

So much yummy stuff. I really had to hold close to my wallet.

The older kids could join in all sorts of activities, like felting, spinning and other crafts.

Hey, watch out for Lotta. She is a very cute Llama, everyone totally loved her.

And are those little fellows not extremly cute with their colorful knitted hats?

Even at times when there is no sheep festival this museum is definately worth a visit but today was just perfect, the weather was mild and sunny, everything was so very, very fresh and green, exploding with life.

Oh yeah, this little man enjoyed our outing too, very much indeed.

Did you know the very uncommon chameleon sheep ;-) very hard to find some...

My tour has ended now, but of course I didn't come home empty handed. What I toke home is plenty: a happy, very tired child, many images on camera and in my head, wonderful memories, lots of new information and, well, some wool for spinning:

The grey wool is from a Gotland Sheep, the very white is Wensleydale and the stuff with the dreadlocks is freshly warped today from some unknow (it came from a huge bag with different fleeces) but very soft sheep. That stuff is fanstastic it contains so much lanolin you can cream your hands just by holding it.

One last things I got, for free as a sample, is a garden fertilizer made from sheep wool. What an interesting product, I will have to find out more about that soon. If you speak German and are interested too, you can find out more here.

After this beautiful day I am sure, joining the festival of fiber will definatly become part of our anual way to celebrate the seasons. Oh yes!

Now, if you please excuse me, I have to get back to my wheel for a few more minutes ;-)

I hope you all spent a wonderful Mothers Day, just the way you needed it. 

{this moment}

Some time back, Soulemama came up with this wonderful tradition:

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. -

Yarn Along - color freaking me...

Knittin and reading. My favourite things to complete a perfect day. So I am joining Ginny on Wednesdays for Yarn Along to share my passions with you. Come and join in if you like!

Somehow color just seams to happen to me, it comes and goes in turns. Right now color is boosting! My newest sock yarn is kind of crazy but its such fun to knit. The yarn is a single Zauberball from Schoppel. I hope the unplied yarn will be strong enough...

This is my third pair of socks since I conquered my fear of kntting socks and I must say, it is becoming fun! But, there has to be a good colorfull yarn. The second pair I made for a college who gives me a ride in his car from time to time. The color was rather boring, some sprinkled almost plain blue, but his choice. This one will be for me!

Do you know the book I have been reading to Aaron lately? Its the same one my mum used to read to us and I am still in love with it. The good thing, I know it by heart and can "read" it even when Aaron turns the pages too fast or flips the book (which he does often). And, are you surprised, there is a page about colors in it :). The story is about a mice family who work very hard to gather food for the coming winter. One of them doesn't help out though. Fredericks excuse is that he gathers sun shine, colors and words, for the long, cold and gray days of winter. A wonderful story! 

Amongst all those colors, did you discover the green smoothie? I am totally into green smoothies these days. Not just because of the color. They are (can be) so delicious when made with the right simple choices: Spinach, apple, banana and some salad leaves work great, even Aaron likes it and he is not into vegetables at all...

The baby bunting from last week was finished this weekend and passed over to sweet three month old Liana. What a cutie pie she is! 

The dandelion syrup from last week got me started on the syrup, and what else could I be making, than rhubarb syrup? I only had enough rhubarb for one bottle though which I toke to my friends birthday, added by some bottles of sparkling water so mix a great soda. Soooo yummy! There is more rhubarb syrup to come these days! :)

Of course there is not only color in my life, work has been stressfull the last days, Aaron and me are still sick with some exhausting cold and money is as short as it has never been before. Enough to freak me out...  That makes it even more important to me to enjoy the exploding nature, spinning, music, knitting and all the colors around me as much as I can.

Here is a song I want to share with you that lifts up my spirits so much, not just this song, all the music by the wonderful Senegalese artist Habib Koite. Enjoy!

Happy Knitting!

First harvest of the year

This weekend had us occpuied with running noses and sore throats. There were two friends birthdays to attend too, so the energy level at the end of the day was rather low. Still I wanted to tell you about our first harvest this year which happend last week. Aaron and me went on a small outing with my sister, his favourite "Tante Auto" ("Auntie Car"), because she has a car and Aaron loves it, sorry, her, very much ;-) . The only aim we had was to find a sweet lonely meadow with lots of dandelions. A meadow far from polluted streets and peeing dogs...
We didn't even have to search for very long and found this wonderful place at a hillside, near Altenberg.
For city people like us there is sooo much to do in a meadow: picnic, knit, play, pick flowers, watch busy bumble bees, doze, take pictures, breath... we did all that!

Aaron was the best helper when it came to picking dandelion heads. He toke his task very serious. So when we came home we had enough flowers for some syrup. I used this recipe and it worked out very, very well. 

That's how the heads looked like by the time I started. They have to be soaked over night before you boil the syrup.

Preparing the jars is the part of preserving I like least. 

Filling them is the best part. Look at that color, isn't it yummy?!

Done! Some bottles in the fridge, ready to enjoy, some jars prepared as gifts for some more up coming birthdays. The syrup is best to be served on toast, pancakes or ice cream. Mmmmhhhh... 

There is some crazy stuff you can do with dandelion. You can use every part of it. I even found a recipe for dandelion ice cream on pinterest, are you interested? And from the leaves you can make salad or dandelion pesto. I really wanted to do that but somehow the leaves were still very small and I guess I can wait a little longer... The roots can be roasted and turned into coffee. Has anyone tried that yet and knows if its worth the effort?

If you have some more recipes including dandelion, please share. I would be delighted!

{this moment}

Some time back, Soulemama came up with this wonderful tradition:

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. -

Yarn long - A Baby Bunting

Knittin and reading. My favourite things to complete a perfect day. So I am joining Ginny on Wednesdays for Yarn Along to share my passions with you. Come and join in if you like!

Oops, is it Wednesday again? I almost missed it! But, no Wednesday without knitting and reading, right?! Since I started spinning I am on the lookout for small projects to knit with the spun yarn which still is rather individuel to put it nicely... Not so many things can be made with it. Especially nothing to wear, the yarn is still too thick and a bit itchy. But, I am positive I will solve that issue in the near future. Until I am able to spin my own fine sock yarn I will just have to be creative with my projects... and there comes in the baby bunting. I am going to meet my friends baby Liana for the first time next Sunday and I want to welcome her with a little bunting, possibly with her name stitch or sewed on with some fabric, I don't know yet, any ideas?
A bunting is a great project for hand spun yarn because you only need very small amounts of yarn and can show off with all colors and mix them wildly if desired. I found helpful instructions for buntings with hand spun yarn here. Only I cast on with 20 sts and finished a few rows earlier. Some more colors to go now... Btw, did you see Loris buntings she knitted for different seasons, for example the summer bunting? Soooo fantastic!
Well, besides the knitting there is still lots and lots of spinning and dyeing, lots of purple, lilac, lavender shades lately, with a special person on mind... ;-)
Which brings me to the reading... what else could it be, spinning books of course! The lady who sold me the wheel had sent her old spinning books too. They are not on the market any more, so lucky me...
And I also found some interesting books in our library. So much input..
Now I can't wait to check out what you have been up to last week, yarn wise. See you at Ginny's!

Happy Knitting!