Durrow nearly finished

Just a quick update then I am off to continue the collar.

As aways click on the pictures to enlarge them.
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Olympic Sweater

Last week Ruth , living in Whistler (where part of the Olympic winter games will be next month), posted about designing and knitting her special sweater for strolling around her town during the Games. She offered to publish her notes, not a real pattern, as she went along knitting, so that those who want to join in can knit their own special sweater doing their own maths and adjustments:
I loved this idea. Really loved it. For the idea itself, for the thought of knitting my unique Olympics sweater, for really being interested in the winter sports right now (wasn’t always like that).
But my next thought was: hey, this is not reasonable. Sweetheart is waiting for his Durrow sweater to be finished, there is my still not finished Aberlady sweater waiting to be taken out of the bag next to the couch again, I have work to do in my craftroom (*more about that later*), I don’t want to buy any new yarn as long as some of the stash isn’t used up, I am not really good in deadline knitting as I usually don’t sit down just to knit (I knit when I am already sitting down, mostly while watching TV or in the car), the Olympics start on February 12th how am I supposed to knit a whole sweater by then – so it just didn’t seem reasonable to join in. But if I liked the sweater I could still knit it later.

The weekend went on without me checking blogs or thinking any more about the topic.
Then I saw Ruth’s first picture of her sweater , of the collar and read what the stitches symbolize (and that was my first thought seeing the pic) and I loved it so much more.
I checked my stash though knowing very well there wasn’t anything good for a project like that. So sorry. Thought about going to LYSs but fearing that I might not find what I look for at a reasonable price and buying then something similar for what is more money than I want to spend, just because I wanted to get some yarn and to help that LYS (and get that yarn to get started). Went online instead. Found the perfect yarn and I think it is a bargain! 500 g of 80/20 wool/polyester in a creamy natural white, easy to wash (important for me with a light colour like this) for 18 Euros. Into the shopping cart it went as well as a set of 1.75 mm dpn (really not easy to find those .75 sizes and sometimes needing them for the ribbing of socks made from thinner sock yarn) and am now waiting for my package to come. Hopefully before the weekend.
So exciting!
My concept for the sweater is a bit different than Ruth’s, I don’t need it for layering but want a warm, close fitting sweater for “everyday indoor wearing”, with just a little t-shirt under it. sop the 500g should be sufficient. And I won’t force myself to having it finished with the start of the Olympics but it can be my knitting-while-watching-the-games-project.

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Letzte Woche hat Ruth , die in Whistler/Kanada lebt nächsten Monat ein Teil der olympischen Wettkämpfe stattfindet), darüber geschrieben, dass sie sich einen ganz speziellen Pulli entwerfen und stricken möchte für ihre Spaziergänge durch ihren Ort während der Spiele. Sie hat vorgeschlagen, dass sie ihre Notizen dazu im blog veröffentlicht, kein fertiges Muster, sondern sozusagen eine Vorlage für diejenigen, die sich auch ihren ganz eigenen olympischen Pullover stricken wollen und dafür bereit sind auch selbst zu rechnen, je nach individueller Größe und Maschenprobe.
Ich fand diese Idee toll. Wirklich klasse. Die Idee an sich, die Möglichkeit meinen eigenen einzigartigen Olympiapulli zu stricken, diese besonder Verbindung mit jemanden, der die Spiele hautnah erlebt, da ich gerade wirklich am Wintersport interessiert bin und in den letzten Wochen einige Wettkämpfe verfolgt hab (das war in der Vergangenheit nicht immer so)…
Aber mein nächster Gedanke war gleich: hey, mein Schatz wartet drauf, dass er seinen Durrow Pullover endlich anziehen kann, danach wartet mein Aberlady Pulli, endlich wieder aus der Tasche neben der Couch auftauchen zu dürfen, ich hab im Moment jede Menge im Craftroom zu tun, ich will mir kein neues Garn kaufen, ehe ich nicht was vom Vorrat verbraucht hab, ich bin ganz schlecht im Termine einhalten, da ich mich normalerweise nicht hinsetze um zu stricken, sondern ich stricke, wenn ich sowieso sitze, vorm Fernseher oder im Auto, die Olympiade fängt am 12. Februar an wie will ich bis dahin einen kompletten Pullover stricken – kurz: es erschien mir einfach total unvernünftig. Wenn mir der Pulli supersupersuper gefallen würde, könnte ich ihn mir ja irgendwann immer noch stricken. ---

Das Wochenende ging rum, ohne dass ich irgendwelche Blogs angeschaut hätte oder über dieses Thema weiter nachgedacht habe.
Dann sah ich Ruths erstes Foto vom Kragen ihres Pullovers und hab mich direkt verliebt. Mein erster Eindruck war, dass das Muster aussieht wie Schispuren im frischen Schnee und genau das war beabsichtigt. Ich mochte ihn noch viel mehr. Wollte nun doch auch gleich einen haben.

Habe meinen Wollevorrat durchgesehen, obwohl ich genau wusste, dass da nicht passendes dabei ist. Pech. Dachte daran, zu den örtlichen Wollgeschäften zu fahren, fürchtete aber, nicht das Passende zu einem vernünftigen (für mich jedenfalls) Preis zu finden und dann für zu viel Geld was zu kaufen, wovon ich nicht wirklich überzeugt bin, nur weil ich unbedingt den Pulli anfangen will und auch dieses Wollgeschäft unterstützen will.
Bin also stattdessen online gegangen und habe, wie ich finde, das perfekte Garn zum Schnäppchenpreis gefunden! 500 g 80/20 Wolle/Poly in einem cremigen weiß in passender Stärke, gut waschbar (und das ist wichtig bei mir bei solch einer hellen Farbe) für knapp 18 €. Dann hab ich noch ein 1,75 mm Nadelspiel in den Einkaufswagen gepackt (da die so schwer zu finden sind und ich sie durchaus schon vermisst habe für Bündchen bei feinerem Sockengarn) und ab an die Kasse. Jetzt warte ich auf mein Päckchen. Hoffe, es kommt vor dem Wochenende!
Hach bin ich aufgeregt!
Mein Plan für den Pulli unterscheidet sich etwas von Ruths, ich brauche nichts für draußen mit mehreren Schichten drunter, sondern möchte mir einen relativ engen, warmen Pullover für jeden Tag stricken (dann sollten auch die 500 g ausreichend sein), und ich werde mich auch keinesfalls dazu zwingen, ihn vor der Olympiade fertig zu bekommen, im Gegenteil es mach ihn doch nur noch olympischer, wenn er auch während der Spiele gestrickt wird, oder?!!

Danke fürs Vorbeischauen!

Snow

We got some more snow. I was so glad that the last snow has gone pretty fast, was poured down with some rain, which was really good.
But it has snowed again to about 2 inches here. Wet, heavy snow.
The dogs enjoy walking in the snow, especially Dingo acts as many years younger, runs around and gets so crazy if you kick some snow in his direction.
The rotting beets in the fields aren’t so great though, seem to be SO yummy and worth any punishment that might follow but the tummy-ache and having to go out at night are NOT o funny…

It's cold out side tonight, cold cold wind.
Wir haben noch mal Schnee gekriegt. Ich war so froh, dass der letzte Schnee so schnell weg war, regelrecht vom Regen runtergespült.
Aber letzte Nacht hat es noch mal so 5 cm nachgelegt, nasser, pappiger, schwerer Schnee.
Die Hunde lieben es, im Schnee zu laufen, vor allem Dingo verhält sich um Jahre jünger, rennt rum und wird ganz verrückt, wenn man den Schnee in seine Richtung kickt.
Allerdings sind die im Feld verrottenden Rübenreste nicht weniger toll, sie scheinen super lecker zu schmecken und jede drohende Bestrafung wert zu sein, aber die Bauchschmerzen und dringende Bedürfnisse des Nachts sind nicht so lustig…

Snow ball lantern from last week. Was fun to build and looked beautiful.

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I run again in 2010

Last week or so I thought that I still want to go for my big 42 with 42 goal meaning I will run a marathon next year!
So I adjusted my goals to running the same 5k in March as last year, then a 10k in spring/early summer and then maybe a half marathon in fall – or next spring, so that I might be ready for my marathon later in 2011. I don’t know yet where this will be, I think it would be cool and I would LOVE to run in Paris or London, but Frankfurt would be all right - the local one would be ok, too, but is probably too early in the year for my planning.
This week I ran once, after all the icy snow remnants had gone. Had Flavie with me and stopped/walked a few times for letting her sniff but felt so good overall and I think I could even have run all the time, not fast but constantly. Now we have snow again and I will have to see if I can still manage to run safely. First goal is to run constantly 2-3 times a week.
And I am excited about this again! Go me!

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Thoughts on running

I fell completely off the running wagon last summer. Why???
I was so enthusiastic after my first 5k in March. Liked to run after that (but stopped stating my runs on jogmap – don’t know why) and was determined to get ready for that 7.?k city run. I was ready for that one but it was unusually hot and humid the days before that race and on the day we had some bad rain and thunderstorm predicted for the evening. I chose not to run but go for 5k the next day. I was glad I didn’t run the city race as it was so hot and humid, I definitely wouldn’t have got to the finish line. The 5k race the next day was at 9 am, a time of the day I usually don’t run and it was already hot and humid at that time. But I went there. Felt good in the beginning but soon thought my head would explode because it felt so hot. The course was out of the village, through the fields into the forest, u-turn at some point, out of the forest into the fields and back into the village. That u-turn with decreasing speed to nearly walking as it was on gravel then finally “broke my neck” as it was so hard to get back into my pace again. I never felt comfortable again, just tried to get to that finish line without collapsing… Got there. But was so disappointed of being slower than in my first race, though I knew the reasons for that. When I ran I had the feeling that the kms weren’t all the same because I needed so long for one of them though I had run in a speed that felt good – and after the finish line I overheard other, experienced runners talking about just the same, there must have been something wrong with the measuring…
I was still proud that I had finished and could be hard to myself and really make myself run to the end.
Wanted to run some 10k later the year, in fall when the weather would definitely better for me. I don`t mind running in the cold but heat or worse humid heat is just killing me.
BUT I never got that far as then I was so deeply hit with loosing Josy in July. I stopped going for runs even if the weather was fine for running and so time went on and on and on. Till now, and I made a decision.

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Best whishes for 2010

We woke up to some snow yesterday but the sun took away most of it (after I had taken some pictures in the morning light this time). This night it snowed again and I am off for a snowy dog walk now, doggies will love it and I will enjoy the quietness - it is still dark.

As always you can click on the pictures to enlarge them.
Thanks for passing by!