Bats In My Belfry

With our health mostly back it was the icing on the cake that the sun came out today! I didn’t take the camera out, didn’t even think to but nothing special to photograph anyway. The sun was haze covered but it was quite clearly there. It has been over 3 weeks since we saw the sun so this was a treat. Many folks were out walking, cycling or rollerblading even though the temperatures were right on the freezing mark. I think we’re all just so glad to see light.

And then…came tonight. I harnessed up The Dawg just after midnight and we set off and two steps outside the front door, he wiped out and I almost joined him. There was a glaze of ice on everything. We carefully made our way to the street thinking the texture of the sidewalks and/or street might help but had to give up because it was just too slick. The Dawg did his thing on the corner bushes and we made our way back home, carefully, with me clinging to the fence the whole way. Nasty business! Supposedly it’s snowing now which’ll really be a treat in the morning. Snow covering the evil ice. I sure hope that most folks are home and in bed and not out trying to drive on this.

Got pictures of the gifts for my MIL and my GMIL (grandmother-in-law) so here they are for posterity. I do have to say I am totally disappointed in my offerings this year but the grand projects I had partially done had to be set aside due to being so sick and I had to turn to things I could do in my sleep. Good thing, too, because I really don’t remember doing the crochet scarf for my GMIL.

This is the scarf I made for my MIL. Alpaca that I doubled. It was meant to be a lacy dressy scarf but I couldn’t manage to focus on it well enough to stop making errors every few inches. So this was a fallback pattern that I figured I could do.

And here it is “wrapped”. The gift bag I had originally purchased was meant for something very lacy and thus small. This wouldn’t fit so I had to improvise. iCord was knitted and this is the result.

And this is the crocheted scarf with the same alpaca yarn as used for my MIL’s scarf. It’s very light and yet warm. Originally I had planned on doing the Airy Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts using Rowan’s Kidsilk Haze and I actually still have it about half way done but again, the whole plague thing. I couldn’t see straight to work with that fine a yarn. Neglected to get a picture of this in its gift bag but it was just a plain ol’ holiday gift bag, nothing special.
Both of the projects that got booted because we were so sick will be finished and gifted in the near future. Had fun making the cards too.

So, I suppose it’s not all that bad considering the circumstances but I am so disappointed that I didn’t get done what I wanted to.

A look at the weather forecast shows that we’re in for snow and/or rain for a couple days, oh joy. Rest of the week looks to be just above freezing and surprise! cloudy. Just as well that I am almost done with my llama “set” (headband, keyhole scarf and gauntlets…the two former are done and were in use this evening, the gaunts were just cast-on this evening). Not crazy about my workmanship on these items but oh, they are cozy warm. Gaunts should only take a couple days and then I’ll be set for the rest of the season.

I am sorely grouchy about how my One Row Scarf (Yarn Harlot’s One Row Handspun pattern) is working out. I made it from Karaoke and it looked great when finished. It has gone funky now though. It’s stretching something fierce. It’s about a good 10 inches longer than it was and has narrowed commensurately. Bummer. I’m going to give it a serious wash and blocking and see how that goes but I have a feeling I just learned something about Karaoke. We’ll see. It’s a nice feeling scarf but especially now that it’s stretched out, it’s waaaaay too long. I suppose I could frog it and make a cowl from it. That way there wouldn’t be so much pulling down going on. Bah.

Oh well, it’s all a part of learning!

Snowed a bit last night, maybe half an inch or so. Just enough to coat everything and make it very pretty on the midnight walk. Of course this morning, it’s all messed up and half-melted (we’ve actually gotten UP to the 32°f after two weeks of being stuck at about 22°f). It was so still, so serene last night walking after everyone was abed. The Dawg loves frost, ice and snow and rolls in it whenever given the opportunity.

He’ll even roll on iced-over puddles, breaking the ice and then turn around and try to eat the ice.

And then it’s back to…

I can haz mowse?

And this dog is a real pro at having his picture taken. He will patiently sit still and even look straight into the camera. This is such a change from the cats who, when spying a camera, run like hell resulting in many pictures of blurred cats. Not The Neem, oh no…he will hold still for things like this…

Beautiful boy.

As can be seen, the snow is mostly gone. I hesitate to want more snow lest we end up with a meter or so of it but it would be nice and a change from the gray day after day that usually constitutes winter here. Still there is beauty even when the snow mostly has melted away.

Quite the contrast to last August when my toe-nails were melting. In fact, I prefer this weather vastly over heat and humidity. Just would be nice to see the sun occasionally.

We had illness, the Plague. I don’t care what anyone says this was not just a “cold”, it was the freakin’ Plague. We still have it but it’s gotten manageable the past couple of days. Came down with it on the 14th and honestly, I remember very little of the following weekend. I do recall being so sick that I had to drive the 2 blocks to the Fields to walk The Dawg a couple of times. This was just awful. And the first 4 days I could not sleep which is a new experience for me when having a cold/flu. Usually that’s the only time I can sleep for hours and hours on end. Not this time, oh no. Finally was able to start sleeping more than an hour here and there and I think that helped a great deal.

We missed Christmas at Himself’s folks’. Now this is particularly ironic because it’s the first Christmas in 3 years that I had agreed to go. Normally I avoid things like that like, well, the plague. Heh. This year, though, was going to be a very small gathering, just his brother, mother and grandmother. I figured I could manage that. Then we got sick and there was no way in hell I was going to expose anyone to whatever this was. I was feeling better by the 24th (when we were supposed to go to Himself’s Mom’s house) but not anywhere near 100% and still honking and choking and dribbling and sneezing etc. At least I had reached a point where I no longer just wanted to croak and be done with it.

Throughout all this I knit. Not due to any desire to, but rather because I was not sure ’til pretty much the last minute whether we were going to the dinner or not and I had to finish up 2 gifts (cop-out scarves, one crocheted and one knitted). I don’t remember much about either one save that the knitted one morphed from a pretty lace thing to a basic garter on the bias. I couldn’t manage to do the lace without screwing up constantly. So I caved. I finished the 2nd one on the 23rd. That’s cuttin’ it close. I would’ve had them both done by the 18th had I not contracted The Plague. I could only knit for a short time before I just couldn’t focus anymore.

But, here we are, on the other side of Christmas/Yule and still alive. Now all that’s left is the never ending snot production and being easily tired. It was lovely, though, the past couple days going for the DawgWalks. Fresh air and the ability to walk a half mile without wondering if we needed to call for a ride home. Heh. Past 4 days have seen very pretty, fluffy ice crystals on the north side of everything. Looks like a fairy wonderland. I got some pictures of it earlier today and was going to take more this evening but it started to snow!

Here are some shots:

Looking SouthWest-ish along Heggelinstrasse “Creek”.

The crystals that cover everything on the northern face.

Believe it or not, that’s the sun at about noon. And that’s the first sign of it in, hmmm, 3 weeks, I’d say. It did manage to peek out a bit more mid-afternoon but was soon smothered again by incoming snow clouds.

Beautiful in a chilly, wintry way. Like someone dusted everything with sugar crystals.

And this is the face I get when I’m dithering too long taking pictures. “Mom, hurry up, I have mouse-holes to excavate!” Like so…

He lives to dig.

And then there is the one apartment house that went bonkers and decorated hugely. This is not a common sight here in Germany, well at least this part of Germany. It stands out as unique and for a couple weeks people have been sauntering past this building goggling at the sight of it:

I breathed and it was starting to snow pretty heavily.

And the sign? Basically warning that there is (gasp) electricity!

But neatest of all?

Snow!

There’s about an inch accumulated out there as of ten this evening. Not much but it makes a nice change from the dreary gray that we’ve had for weeks. I’m hoping it will still be there in the morning and I expect The Dawg will go crazy rolling in it.

Eyeore is ready for Yule

Originally uploaded by Die Alte Hexe

Just testing whether this actually works. This is being done via Flickr and will supposedly look all spiffy and cool.

Well, finally, sit down and write stuff. Been crazy around here lately plus been a bit under the weather.

Still a mad Ravelry addict, although haven’t had as much time to lurk there as I was. Was nice to sit down and get caught up there this afternoon.

Despite all my good intentions of having a nice baby set for my newest nephew, I failed. Maybe too nitpicky but after the hat that I made mysteriously developed a huge hole in it (yarn simply broke, no clue as to how. It was fine one day and when I picked it up to tuck in the ends, honking great hole. Yarn wasn’t the best but, it somehow broke and after an hour of trying to fix it, I had to give it up.). This of course happened less than 24 hours before the gifts were meant to be given. Happily the blanket was long done, washed and ready to go. The booties, scarf and wee mitts that were intended will go in another basket next month. Probably good because after seeing pictures of Robin, he’s a LOT larger than I had anticipated. This is one well developed baby. He’s a big fella. So, I can now adjust upward and I think I’ll go with six month in size (and room to expand with that). I neglected to take a photo of the blanket in its basket before sending it out with my MIL for gifting, bah. Was too busy trying to get my husband to hurry the hell up since he was still in the bath when his ride to the event (christening) arrived.

The Great Office Clean-Up has been proceeding apace. Got half done by virtue of shoving a great deal into the other half, cleaning, tossing, sorting etc. For a blessed day there was actually probably 25 square feet with nothing in it. This is a miracle around here. Then I dragged up the three pieces of furniture that have been awaiting being put together for, oh…months. Hilarity ensued. I am not very good at looking at the instructions that come with “put it together yourself, you cheap wench” stuff. This time I decided to just use logic (hah) and examine the parts and proceed as if it were a puzzle. This worked rather well except for one item which thoroughly kicked my butt to the point where I had to put it together and take it apart not once but three times to get it right. Thrilled, though, to finally get a desk that is full-sized as opposed to this “writing table” which whilst very stylish is oval in shape which cuts down tremendously on the surface area. The other two items are a kitchen cart which has three wire drawers and leaves that can be raised or lowered as needed and a “roll container” which is about coffee-table height and has four big drawers. We have another one that we actually used as a coffee table ’til The Dawg showed up and we needed the floor space (premium here). Pictures eventually.

Weather seems to have settled into typical German winter. Rain, gloomy, foggy, repeat with the occasional day so nice that you want to spend the entire day outside in it. Actually have seen the Alps several times in the past week with all the new snow on them. Beautiful and, of course, no camera with me.