King

Just give me one more week and I'll present you with a finished object. No, not the fair isle project, dear dw, which I haven't yet started, as you very well know. :) I'm almost done with the red lace scarf for my advisor, just in time, I might add, since I'm seeing her in two weeks.

Today's post, then, is not about knitting (surprise!) but about our first overnight outing with the Bean. I'm lying, of course, since we spent two weeks with him in Mississippi, but his grandma got Conrad a car seat, a bed, a bouncy chair, and a bathtub, so it all seemed just like home. Last weekend, however, we went to Pittsburgh and stayed at a hotel, which was quite adventurous. Since Conrad had proven himself to be an excellent air traveler (he's completely unfazed by airport- and airplane noise) we went about flying to Pittsburgh cool as cucumbers, only to realize once we got there that we needed a car seat for the rental car and that the Bean had nowhere to sleep, to bathe, and to have his diapers changed. Getting a car seat was wonderfully uncomplicated and not worth the tears I had shed in frightful anticipation (apparently every car rental place also rents infant seats); the solution to the bathing problem was also easy: we simply didn't bathe the Bean. Diaper changes, sleep, and play? Here:

Owning a full-sized bed ourselves, we've always been in confused awe at king-sized beds. Now that we're traveling with a Bean in tow, king size is making perfect sense. For a little Bean, that's plenty of room to play, sleep, and get one's undies changed, all the while the parents are hanging out with ya. (Co-sleeping did make me a tad nervous though, and I was happy that the hotel provided us with an infant travel bed the following night. I was almost shocked by how accommodating the hotel was.) We ended up spending a lot of time in bed even during the day, as it was rainy and gray the two-and-a-half days we were there, and our plans to go for long walks and such went to naught.

And the reason for flying to Pittsburgh in the first place, the curious reader asks? A million years ago, last September, I agreed to speak at a conference, foolishly assuming that at the age of two months Conrad would stay at home with his dad while I traveled by myself. Foolish was the thought not because Dear Husband can't handle the Bean for a weekend--he's proven himself to be a very independent babywearing/-feeding/-changing/-soothing sort of dad--but because it would have broken my heart to be separated from the Bean for so long. So, we all went to Pittsburgh, and while DH and Bean rolled around in bed, I spent the mornings conferencing (but I skipped the afternoons).

And (1) to talk to adults and (2) to talk to adults about topics not related to babies was almost mind-blowing. Although at some point I couldn't help myself but dragged this poor guy into a conversation about pumping breastmilk, only because he had mentioned the word "bottle." Except for that one instance I did pretty well, and no-one can accuse me of mommyjacking.

Now, we had been very excited to go to Pittsburgh, but as it turned out, while we sort of were in Pittsburg, we weren't really in Pittsburgh. The conference location was great, but the conference hotel was squished into a strange dystopian American landscape: looking out of our top floor window, we saw an interstate to the left, a row of chain restaurants in front of us, and a Walmart superstore to our immediate right. It was sad. The only afternoon stroll that the weather permitted took us to the Pittsburgh Strip, and that made up for the otherwise unfortunate impression we got of the city: the Strip has a gazillion of restaurants, and we ate ourselves silly on Enrico's biscotti and the best baklava ever. (The baklava alone are worth a trip to Pittsburgh, I kid you not. We were told that the secret was butter--isn't butter always the secret?--for these baklava [and what, please, is the plural of baklava?] were Syrian and not made with honey. OMG, so good!)

And now I going to catch up on y'alls blog posts and see what's happened in your lives recently. I haven't really followed anyone in, well, two months.

Two Years

We traded cold & snowy (rainy?) Boston for warm & sunny Mississippi to visit a newly minted set of grandparents (the Hubs's parents). It's been in the 70s for the entire two weeks we've been here, and I just love taking the Bean for walks through the hilly forest that is my in-law's neighborhood. It's good for both of us: Conrad is getting his much-needed dose of vitamin D and I'm walking off a few of those pregnancy pounds.

Yesterday I remembered that the last time we were here, Christmas 2009, I picked up the knitting needles after many years of neglect. I don't remember what triggered it, but it was with some urgency that I went to a Michaels store, picked up a bulky yarn and knitted a scarf, all in stockinette and with rolled-up edges. That's how I got hooked to knitting. The following March I began blogging, and once I remembered that, I realized I had forgotten about my second blogiversary, which was a few weeks back. Argh! To celebrate the occasion appropriately (if belatedly), I strapped the Bean into his car seat, took my FIL along to babysit the offspring, and went to the local yarn store (Mississippi's largest), The Knit Studio. And lemme tell you, The Knit Studio is making it on my list of favorite LYS. It's a spacious store with lots of room to walk around and daydream of future projects (as well as tables and chairs if the knitting bug bites you right there); the yarn selection is awesome and ranges from basic and affordable stuff (think Cascade 220 in a gazillion colors) to more luxurious and rare goods; and the owner is lovely and very helpful. The library is impressive, and if you have a husband in tow (or any other non-knitter who's rolling his [her] eyes at you for stepping into a yarn store), there's a "media room" where you can park your companion to read the news or watch TV. I'm totally won over by The Knit Studio.

Which is why I brought this home:

That's a lot of fuzzy stuff (angora! mohair!) for pre-summer knitting (who am I kidding?) and some cotton for (baby) knitting during the summer. Hooray!

***

Thank y'all for leaving such nice comments. Conrad is doing very, very well, and so am I. I love being a mom, and I seem to be doing a pretty good job, since the Bean is mostly happy and smiles and coos a lot. He's got some stomach issues, but supposedly (hopefully!) that gets better soon. In the meantime we take his mind off of his tummy by standing underneath his grandparents' ceiling fan--which he just *loves.* He gets a total kick out of watching the fan move.

Berloxyork: May in a Minute

Without further ado, here are those long overdue photos of my trip to Berlin, Oxford, and York!

1. Berlin. Fabulous conference that kept me incredibly busy. I only got to see a couple of museums...

a) Pergamon Museum

b) Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (aka Holocaust Memorial)

c) The brand new info center Topography of Terror

d) An exhibition of works by recent graduates of a textile institute the name of which I have forgotten. Preserved yarn, that's what I went to see:

2. Oxford. Impressive place. Would sell an arm and a leg to go on sabbatical there and spend a year at Bodleian Library...

3. York. We went to my BFF's wedding, and it was magical! Friends of ours brought their four-months old baby girl. My attention was divided between the bride and the baby. The famous York minster? We saw it from the outside.

Voilà. That was May in a minute. :)

408

That's the number of knitting blog entries I missed while I traveled around (half the) world, and back again, during the past 32 days. I may not be able to catch up entirely, but it's nice to be back online. Soon I'll share some photos of my travels (I make it sound much more exotic than it was in reality; I went to Germany and Great Britain, 's all. But there was a wedding, a graduation, a ghost-tour through one of England's finest cities, a discovery tour in the footsteps of Inspector Morse, a one-week vacation with the folks at a lakeside B&B, and, finally, the move into our temporary home in a house the locals call the Adams Family House... altogether splendid). So... see y'all soon! (I just got off the phone with my Southern MIL; forgive the "y'all", y'all!)

Rabbit Hole

Into which I fell sometime earlier this week. It's the end of the semester, which usually means chaos. This time it's chaos and then some. A lot of it is work related, but in addition to the normal stuff--writing and grading exams and planning last-minute review sessions to calm down the panicked kids--I've also been busy moderating at a couple of academic events (the task of which is both nerve-racking and delightful) and interviewing for a part-time teaching position for next year (I got it!). The week went by so fast I hardly had time to plan our trip to Europe, which starts on Tuesday. In fact, I know I'll be going to Oxford, I just don't know yet how and when I get there, or where I'll stay.

Yes, Oxford. I'm very excited! Many hours of watching the brilliant British detective series Inspector Morse made us want to visit the town. Between conferencing in Berlin in early May and attending my BFF's wedding in York at the end of May, the Hubs and I will have five days of real vacation. The Berlin and York bits are planned perfectly, only the "five days of real vacation" are as of yet unorganized. I don't mind so much; the conference organizers put me up in a fancy hotel, and for the wedding we will lodge at a posh B&B. Who cares if we spend our Oxford nights on the street? Turns out, the Hubs does. Wherever we end up, I'm sure it will be lovely. And the wedding will be absolutely wonderful. It's my BFF, she's getting married--need I say more? (My tiny complaint is that I'm losing her to Great Britain. What's up with that? Wonderful as he is, why does the groom need to be a Brit?)

Once we come back from Europe we're home for exactly three days before we move to upstate New York for the summer. The Hubs teaches Nerd Camp at Cornell (aka summer math school), and I will finish my dissertation. We sublet an apartment from a friend of a friend of a friend; it's a lovely place in one of the most gorgeous Victorian villas in town, with a porch, a beautiful garden, and easy access to a great walking trail. Although we're there to work, it will feel a little bit like vacation, or so we hope.

You guessed it already: lately it's been too busy here to knit anything at all. I'm hoping to get some peace and quiet on the plane (this is mental peace and quiet) to start something small. Perhaps Multnomah. Perhaps Damson. We'll see. I'm going to wind yarn tonight and wait till inspiration hits.

In case I don't get a chance to write before I leave: I wish y'all a happy May!

* * *

The following photo sums up today's attempts at trying to deal with Boston's drinking water supply crisis (read here for info):

Water? There's none left. Every store offered the same picture: empty shelves as far as the eye can see. We started drinking diet coke. I don't know how we will wash dishes with diet coke. Brush teeth with diet coke?

New York Yarn

Dude, it's good to be home! It doesn't matter that our frat-boy idiot neighbor trashed the plumbing so that we don't have any water today--it's still nice to be home. I spent the weekend conferencing in NYC, and although the actual conference was a one-day affair I had been in conference mode the entire week leading up to it (mean: stressing too much, sleeping too little). After the (successful!) delivery of my paper I spent two days with the Hubs' NY family, who spoiled me rotten with very good food, walks along the Hudson, and the chance to sleep in. Still, I was glad to get home last night: traveling without the Hubs ain't as much fun.

You may have already guessed it: conference mode does not allow for knitting. (The little I knit I undid again: I'm still experimenting with a sock design that features multiple rows that consist of eight 8-stitch cables. Hopeless endeavor; I just don't know how to stop.) In lieu of actual knitting I went to two special places in NYC to at least think about knitting:

That's Habu Textiles' showroom. I was surprised to find not a store but an office on the 8th floor. It doesn't look like much in my photo, but I enjoyed how different it was from what I had expected. I didn't leave empty-handed either:

My next stop couldn't have been more different from Habu, but I wanted to go there to see for myself its sidewalk fiber art:

This is outside the Lion Brand Yarn Studio. The inside looks pretty awesome too.

In spite of its appearance, the store was a bit of a disappointment: it's full of mostly acrylic yarn. In all fairness, Lion Brand has a cashmere yarn and also offers organic cotton, among other natural fibers. Still. The acrylic was too scary. And so was the crochet talk between customers. And the staff's advice to check out Michael's for knitting needles.

Originally I had planned to check out Purl, too. In light of the rain and my wet suitcase that I had been pulling behind me for 27 blocks already, I discarded the idea and headed for the train station.

And the Hubs? How he spent the weekend? Cooking and baking, of course. Cinnamon rolls, for instance:

As I said, it's good to be home again... :)

Picasso's Moon

While in Sarasota I visited two yarn stores. Following online recommendations I tried Spinning Wheel first (no website), which was celebrated as well-established business with a great variety of everything you need. The name led me to believe that this might be the place where I could make my first purchase of roving, which is exactly what I needed that day, since I had decided I wanted to give spinning a try. Rather than drop spindles, spinning wheels, or roving, many cotton and novelty yarns in either pastel or über-bright colors greeted me. Not my kind of store, I quickly decided (which doesn't say much, since the store actually was quite packed with happy customers).

Next on the list was Picasso's Moon, and oh boy! would I have loved to gather my knitting and sat down in one of the mega-comfy chairs and started chatting with the knit'n'bitch group that was in session. The store isn't just a lovely yarn store that has, in addition to yarn, plenty of beautifully dyed roving, but it's also a fibery art gallery, a coffee/tea/wine bar, an antique shop with wonderful curiosities, and a place where friends meet. If it hadn't been for my step-dad waiting in the car, I think my mom and I would have wanted to stay there all day.

Debra, the incredibly friendly owner, saw me looking at the roving, and when I had picked something beautiful and casually mentioned that I knew nothing about spinning but was going to try it, she respectfully took the roving out of my hands and told me to start with something easy. BFL, for instance, in plain ol' natural:

Lacking a spindle and being tied to the bed still, I haven't played with it yet. It's a big mystery to me how this cloud becomes yarn, but I hope that after this summer I'll have some time to figure it out. And in the meantime I thought I should mention the store to you: if you're ever in Sarasota, do visit!

A surprise! Rachael, whose blog I love to read, had a wonderful give-away a couple of weeks ago. In exchange for book recommendation she gave away knitting books that she no longer needed, and yesterday's mailman brought this book of hers to my door:

Thank you so much, Rachael!!

In Bed with Bob

Bob is not the name of my husband. It is the name of an unpleasant visitor who forces me to stay in bed with my legs up on a foam cube cut to my specifications. Bob is the name of my back when it hurts; Bob is the name of lumbar back pain.

Once upon a time, not too long after I had finished a half-marathon and was in pretty good shape, Bob entered my life uninvited. My then-neighbor Amy named him after Bob the Builder (context now unknown), and the name stuck. The first time he visited, Bob stayed for several months and accompanied me to various doctors--from university hospital genius to total quack, and everything in between--; he demanded Vicodine, oxycodone, and morphine; put me in the hospital; and left only after I rolled him into a physical rehabilitation clinic in a wheel chair. At the clinic, somewhere in the middle of rural nowhere, I learned to relax without the use of pain medication but through acupuncture and meditation, and to heal with the help of electric muscle stimulation, afore-mentioned cube, and specific insoles designed for my feet. No surgery needed: Bob left on his own. The threat of Bob's return has curbed my ambition to run a full marathon, but except for rare (and short) visits, Bob is gone.

Now that he is here again I try not to freak out or fear the worst. I try to be zen about Bob. Ice packs, hot baths, walks, time on the cube. As long as I'm not sitting or bending or standing, coughing or sneezing or brushing my hair, Bob is under control. Bob doesn't like me knitting, and Bob surely does not want me to wash and block a new sweater. The Hubs is a trooper, as always, and today he even washed my Olympic sweater. (I know! Totally too sweet. Proudly I put the Ravelympics medal on the blog.) He cooks and brings me tea and helps me into my walking shoes (I can't put on socks on my own, nevermind tie shoe laces).

The confinement to bed has given me some unexpected time to upload and sort photos from our Florida vacation, and here's a mosaic of my favorite photos:



I was over the moon to see palm trees, and I took plenty of photos of those. The kissing couple? My parents. The felt flowers? For my birthday. The astronaut? Cape Carnaveral. I loved to walk at the beach, and just thinking of it makes Bob want to go back to Florida. Maybe he should go there right now and leave me in peace... :|

New York, New York

Today I was asked several times what I have planned for New Year's Eve. Nothing, I replied truthfully each time. Our Christmas vacation in New York City was so fantastic we forgot all about New Year's Eve.

Indeed, we had the most splendid time in the city. The Hubs has family just outside and we visit regularly, but to actually spend entire nights in NYC: a rare and awesome opportunity! (Back in the pre-Hubs days I used to go to the city and crash on various Columbia U grad student floors that I'd share with furry creatures and the occasional cockroach, but as marriage has made me a respectable woman my travel arrangements have become somewhat less adventurous but much more luxurious.) We were ecstatic to receive our friend's invitation to take over her apartment while she was traveling abroad, and to make the most of our time we spent several nights walking until the wee hours through the magical wonderland that is New York at Christmas time.

We ditched our high-brow museum plans on the 23rd and 24th and hiked around Central Park instead. The 23rd was bitterly cold, but stomping around the snow-covered park in brilliant sunlight was well worse a half-frozen nose (and half-frozen ears: can you believe I went to NYC without a hat?! Knitter's pride forbade to purchase one, but luckily my down coat has a hood). Christmas Eve we stood in line for an hour to make it to the St. Thomas Episcopal midnight mass; we were just two of the 1800+ people attending. I don't think we made it back to our digs before 3 am (I vaguely remember getting a ten-dollar hotdog at Rockefeller Plaza and a plastic cup of Sake, sold under the table by a crêpe baker: that was our Christmas Eve meal).

Christmas Day we spent with the Hubs' relatives: apart from terrific company we enjoyed a culinary feast that included pâté de campagne and foie gras, homemade in Southern France and shipped to the US by a cousin so many times removed from the Hubs that we don't even know her (?) name; a bûche de Noël made by the hostess, the French-born Mme B.; and more than one bottle of champagne. (And a tray of selected cheeses, Cornish game hens in orange reduction, Vermont ham, roasted vegetables, a very fancy mac & cheese for the youngsters... you get the idea.) Two days of gluttony with the family and then we returned to the city.

Rather than going to any Broadway or Off Broadway or even Off Off Broadway productions we watched three movies, two of which receive my thumbs up: Up in the Air is a deliciously entertaining movie; A Single Man is impossibly gorgeous and heart-breaking. The third film we watched is, in the words of one woman who left the theater 20 minutes into the film, more of a father's day than a holiday movie: The Road is not only depressing (which by itself would be quite alright) but the bloody scariest movie I've ever had to suffer through. There was a point where I, too, thought about leaving. Great movie, don't get me wrong, but absolutely terrifying.

Oh, and I knit a little here and there. Mainly on the bus to and from New York and in between episodes of overeating. I'm working on a plain, seamless round-and-round-and-round-we-go sweater for myself, following EZ's percentage system so that I finally learn something about sweater architecture.

The watch cap I made for the Hubs? My FIL saw it here and sent me the following email on Christmas: "Wow! Beautiful watch cap. Make mine a deep navy blue!" Since then I received orders for two more watch caps and a pair of the Fiddlehead mittens. That's on top of the scarf for the Hubs and a secret Christmas project that didn't get done in time (ouch). I should probably put my EZ sweater aside; then again, it's twelve months till next year Christmas... :)

Now I need to figure out what we're doing tomorrow night.. I don't want a repeat of two years ago, when we went to sleep at 10 pm. (Granted, we had just driven a ten ton moving truck from upstate New York to Boston, through a blizzard, mind you, and were somewhat exhausted.) What are you doing on New Year's Eve??

Merry Bookmas!

Howdy folks! How was your Christmas? We spontaneously went to NYC for the holidays, camping out at our friend-the-artist's house in Hell's Kitchen, just off of Times Square. I had the most fabulous time and will tell you about it tomorrow (?). For now just a brag picture of what Santa brought to our house:

(Yes, we believe in giving books. Half of those books belong to the Hubs. The other half is Mine. Mine. Mine. My share is mainly art and art criticism books, with a few clever detective novels here and there and the occasional bestseller. The Hubs' half concerns math, economy, and an effective way of saving the planet and making the world a better place.) (We started with the latter by buying local. We loves independent book stores.)

End of the Line*

As all good things must come to an end, so must our Thanksgiving vacation with the Hubs's folkanoids in the NYC vicinity. Last night's greeting from the train was a quick one, and I owe you a few photos from yesterday's trip to MoMA, another one of my all-time favorite art museums of which I am now a happy member (I'm taking full advantage of annual student memberships these days, since my days of student discounts are numbered).

MoMA was absolutely, totally, and completely packed, and one of the special exhibitions was closed due to large crowds of Thanksgiving vacationeers. The Bauhaus exhibition, however, was open:

It was here that I overheard the following, uttered by a twenty-something year-old gal in that sense-of-entitlement tone of voice that drives me up the wall: "So! Explain to me just what this has to do with the band Bauhaus??" The boyfriend/date person to whom her demand was directed looked a bit uneasy and begged her to keep it down...

In any event, the exhibit was fantastic. As a college student I spent a lot of time in Dessau and attended several events at the Bauhaus. The Hubs wasn't quite as impressed with Bauhaus design as I would have liked him to be, but he was a good sport and listened to my mindless "And when I was in Dessau..." babble.

Of course, we also saw a lot by Matisse:

And by Clyfford Still and Barnett Newman, both of whose work I like very much, very much to the Hubs's dismay (I love walking through large empty gallery spaces with giant abstract paintings or minimalist art: I'm not one for crowded, crammed, cozy, cuddly, etc., spaces. Sometimes I wonder how the Hubs and I will work out our different design ideas: whereas he'd like to live in a Wunderkammer filled top to bottom with interesting things, I'd like to live in a large, empty cube made of glass and white walls. With just a little bit of yarn.)

After MoMA we walked to The Art Students League of New York (sacred halls for my MIL, the artist), visited with our artist friend Hyeseung, had the most amazing Chinese food at a restaurant in Chelsea, and simply walked around the streets of the city:

After a bit of a sleep-in this morning (was it really noon?), we slowly got ready for our return trip to Boston. Since I had gone on and on about the nearby LYS Sticks and Strings, my MIL, who had picked up knitting in June (horray!!!) and I convinced the guys to first drive us there. Hubs and FIL weren't too psyched about yarn and went to a prized wine store instead, and once we got back together again, the Hubs and I had a few new goodies:

That's enough Lorna's Laces Worsted for Norah Gaughan's Bubble Pullover and a bit of yarn for a pair of socks. And while the Hubs won't get to play with the yarn, I sure will help him finish those twelves bottles!

Those manly socks for my dad, you ask? Well, I didn't finish them. We hit the road too late in the afternoon to have any usable daylight, and I didn't knit in the car. I made it around the heels and hope to finish the socks by the end of this week... I got a bit side-tracked the past couple of days trying out entrelac knitting: so addictive, those little squares!

Almost twelve... I'd better publish this post before turning into a pumpkin!

*I stole the title from the Hubs, who has been blogging every day this month as well, and who usually comes up with much better blog titles... Check his blog out here.

Day at the Museum

Actually, it was two museums: first we went to the Met, then to the Guggenheim. Apart from the fabulous Robert Frank show celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of his photo essay The Americans and an exhibition of American paintings documenting everyday life between 1765 and 1915, we also saw the Met's famous Christmas Tree, mounted today:

Among my absolute favorite galleries at the Met are the modern European art galleries, and I spent some time there by myself while my family entertained themselves with arms and armor (the Hubs) and Vermeer (the ladies). My eyes usually pop out right about when I come across the first Matisse, and today wasn't any different: so many Matisse, where to look first? Once upon a time I almost became an art history major, and today I ventured down memory lane trying to remember bits and pieces of what I learned in art history classes. The Met definitely is one of my favorite places in the city (and the country, really).

Once we left the Met we walked up to the Guggenheim to see the Oh-My-God-this-is-too-awesome Kandinsky retrospective. I loved LOVED LOVED it! (The Kitty Kraus installation on display, on the other hand, was complete nonsense. Or perhaps my lack of understanding [and appreciation] just shows that my decision against majoring in art history was a good one.)

Today has been such a great day we're going back to the city tomorrow to see MoMA, visit the art studio of our dear friend Hyeseung Marriage-Song, and maybe even step into a yarn store! I'll keep you posted...

Dear Reader:

I had anticipated NaBloPoMo to be a lot of fun, but for the last couple of days I've felt like I owe you, dear reader, an apology. There's neither enough knitting nor enough remotely French stuff going on here for the blog to deserve its name, however, I don't feel quite ready yet to quit NaBloPoMo. As is more universally true, things first need to get worse before they start looking up again, and I'm hereby preparing you for twitter-like blog-posts during the next few days of traveling to internet-free places. The up-side of that: I'll have time to knit! We're going on a four-hour car ride tomorrow (to NYC), and although one year ago this would have sounded like punishment for everyone involved (I'm a bad driver and a worse passenger), today this is filled with the promise of enjoyment: I'm looking forward to knitting during the ride and will do so quietly, without complaining, whining, sighing, or engaging in annoying activities. I'll be all Zen, for each and every one of the two-hundred-and-forty minutes.

And that's basically my grand plan for the rest of the week: I'll be calm and composed, and I'll enjoy everything. I graded for seven hours today before teaching for another five, and now my desk is clean, pristine, empty. Work's all done. I'm ready for this vacation. Au revoir, office!

Your LYS in Berlin

Ahem... now that I flooded you with photos of non-knitting matter, it's time to talk yarn. There was embarrassingly little knitting going on during my trips to Germany and Wisconsin, largely because I screwed up that unfortunate Grumpina sock (again!) and spent most of my knitting time not knitting but tinking. I started a little blue something that is, however, still in the experimental phase.

So, rather than showing off projects, I will show off my newly acquired Berlin yarn store knowledge. Ha!

Having had accompanied my mom to yarn stores in the past (ten years ago and more), I was a bit perplexed to learn that several of the places once famous and fabulous had either gone out of business or changed ownership.

This is particularly true about the KaDeWe, which used to have a fairly good yarn section that it has now outsourced to the nearby Idee Creativmarkt. While the KaDeWe is still worth a trip (especially for breakfast at the slightly vintage yet still very classy restaurant Silberterrasse), the yarn department at Idee Creativ isn't.

So I browsed through comments by Ravelry users to find LYS recommendations. The top three appeared to be Fadeninsel, Loops, and Lalaine.

I previously mentioned that I "found" my former English high school teacher, who lives in Colorado, on Ravelry. Sort of unbelievable, but totally true: she was in Berlin last week. We met and decided to check out Fadeninsel in Kreuzberg. (I didn't take photos, but others have, to be found here.) Now, we both *loved* that store! The selection was terrific and went far beyond Lana Grossa, Lang, GGH, Gedifra, Opal, and Regia (your standard German yarn store selection, as I learned) and included yarns of all fibers, weights, and, of course, colors, as well as many knitting accessories, tools, and pattern books. The two women working at the time were both helpful and nice (and funny, too), and we happily agreed to watch the store while they stepped out for a cigarette. During two hours of oohing and ahhing at yarns, Sandra and I had plenty of time to catch up. After retiring from teaching English, she took up working at a fiber mill, Lonesome Stone Fiber, where she now teaches knitting. How cool is that?

My favorite Fadeninsel treasure? A sweater's worth of this:

Sandra and I had such a great time at Fadeninsel that we decided to go across town to see Loops in Prenzlauer Berg (Wörtherstrasse 19, photo here). In spite of serious overstimulation at Fadeninsel, Loops didn't fail to impress us just as strongly. The store appears to be smaller, but it has a second room, which is full of bargains. The sock yarn selection seemed smaller, but Loops has a wider range of felting yarns, as Sandra pointed out. Prices were about the same.

The best Loops deal? Heavenly fuzz for five bucks (70% angora):

It's impossible for me to say which I liked better, Loops or Fadeninsel. Both were grand.

The next day my mom took me to her favorite yarn store, Lalaine in Charlottenberg. The store has every available yarn by the three big brands--Lana Grossa, GGH, and Lang--and every pattern book issued for each of them, but except for some additional Anny Blatt and Opal, nothing else. And the yarn is organized by color. Which I didn't think was helpful. However, my mom loves the store for precisely the arrangement, which helps her to match different yarns when planning her own designs. So, while I remained quite skeptic, she was totally into it. Now, I was happy to look at new fall designs and yarns, and was even happier when Mom said to pick a few pattern for which she'd buy the yarn as a very early Christmas gift (in July!), but I wasn't quite as happy with the staff: both women were flat out grumpy. The younger one warmed to us after it became obvious we'd be spending money, but the older one kept frowning at us. I didn't like that, but since I went home with two bags full of lovely yarn, I didn't really complain.

Yes! Yarn was purchased! Merry Christmas to me!

(That's three sweaters, one silly scarf, and something-that-was-on-sale-and-will-probably-become-a-scarf. It will last me through the end of the dissertation. I'm officially on a yarn diet.)

Lastly I shall mention Handmade Berlin. I accidentally walked by this small, exquisite yarn store in Mitte. Many familiar yarns from the Anglo-American fiber world greeted me, along with yarns from Anny Blatt, Habu, and Taito Pirkanmaa. Since I was in a rush, I didn't take the time to look around, but shall do so the next time I'm in Berlin!

Berlin Impressions

That's the Israeli drummer troupe Sheketak...

And Hubs' fellow conference participants on a cruise on the river Spree...

The New Synagogue, which, sadly, needs to be safe-guarded by police...

An apparently cat-unfriendly living environment...

And a little bit of knitting at Gendarmenmarkt...

For our anniversary, we left Berlin to go to Potsdam and visit Sanssouci Park.

Travels Near and Far

Berlin was fantastic, but so was Madison!

To the latter we travelled the day after our return from Berlin, to go to my good friend E's wedding. Neither one of us had been to Madison before, and we were surprised by just how much we loved it. The wedding was absolutely beautiful, and so was the city.

Congratulations to E & B!! (She was such a gorgeous bride... and both had planned a really wonderful event. It was the best wedding I ever attended as a guest. Yup. Totally.)

Madison has now made it on our list of places where we can imagine ourselves living. This is an important list. As soon as Monsieur is done with his post-doc gig in Beantown, we're out of here at the speed of lightning, and move to wherever it is either one of us gets a job (preferably, where both of us get jobs!). Madison wouldn't be bad..., not bad at all....

Berlin Knits

Next Monday Monsieur and I are off on a ten-day trip to Berlin. He's attending a conference (again), and I'll be going to the archives (again). I doubt I'll have much time for knitting; after all, it's my childhood home, and I'll be visiting my family and enjoy the Biergarten and Tiergarten culture that makes this such a great city in the summer. While I expect to be busy in Berlin, I've been thinking about knitting projects to take along on the plane. Here's what I have in mind:

Remember this sock?

Since I messed up the heel (I turned too early), I had to rip, and once I started ripping I thought to myself, 'What the heck? This is fun!', and undid the whole thing. I had made a mistake early on, a mistake absolutely invisible to anyone but myself, but since I knew it was there, I was bothered by it. So... my first Jaywalker has been reduced to nothing, and I'm starting over again:

That's project number one. Anticipating another mishap with this sock project (I think I cast on with this yarn 16 different times already), I'll also bring this along:

It's Orlane's Textured Shawl, a finished version of which I saw in Sean's Woolcott and Company store last week, where I purchased the same yarn he had used. (Beautiful samples here and here.)

It's my first cotton yarn, and I love it! It's very, very soft, and because Sean's shawl had the perfect drape, I'm hoping to be just as lucky.

Lastly, for your viewing pleasure (although those flowers look a bit sad):

PS: My Hubs--ever so cute. He checked my Ravelry page and realized that the scarf I made him has received more hearts than any other of my projects. His delighted response: "I was given the most popular thing!!!" (Thing?!?)