Cowl Workshop

Last week Jessica hosted a workshop on How to Knit a Cowl at DaWanda in Berlin. She generously sponsored 20 participants with her beautiful Ku’damm yarn – a 70% merino, 30% alpaca blend – in various colors with matching circular knitting needles. What a treat!

kudamm-grauA flamy red would have been my choice – most (of the all-female) participants settled for steel-grey though.

Jessica had asked me to join and encourage „knitting rookies“ and that’s what I did. It turned out to be advantageous that there were two of us … for though it said in the invitation that knowledge of cast-on, knit and purl was a prerequisite to sign up, quite a few ladies showed up with less.

So we would walk around tables, explain and show cast-on methods, unravel failures, demonstrate how to purl, encourage those who needed it, and admire all progress – no matter how fast or slow.

IMG_0487 IMG_0488 IMG_0489 IMG_0490 IMG_0492 Sooner or later, the ladies would ease-in, chat, help and support each other and guidance wasn’t needed any more. And after less than two hours (!) the first cowl was done!

I really enjoyed meeting other knitters, talking to them and spending time together. Thank you Jessica and DaWanda for organizing the event, good luck to all new knitters, and all the best to the attending mom-to-be – may the cowl be ready before your baby is born 🙂

 

 

Bactus Scarf

Between Christmas and New Year I knitted Strikkelise’s Bactus scarf. Looking at all those pictures on ravelry made me want to have my own! Plus, the (English, German, Dutch, Portuguese) pattern is very easy to follow.

Half of my Bactus is knitted in red and pink, the other half in red and orange sock yarn. I added i-cords to each end and used bigger needles than suggested for this yarn, as I love the feel of sock yarn in loose-knit garter stitch.

It turned out quite big: each side measures 75 cm (29.5″), which makes it almost a wrap.

Bactus Scarf Bactus ScarfIt turned out great, still I wonder whether I should add a (one row) crochet edging to it. What do you think?

December 29

Happy Birthday“ to wake me up, a fancy cake for breakfast that J and M had made …

IMG_0160… followed by two hours of reading and knitting in a lovely café.

IMG_0162Afterwards, all three of us went to watch Alba Berlin play basketball (sadly an ugly game due to fouls, trash talk, and whippings. Alba won though).

© Alba Berlin
© Alba Berlin

Finally at night, we had dinner at a tiny Italian restaurant …

© Trattoria Bocca Del Buon Gusto

… with a handful of extraordinary friends: the professor who mentored my master thesis in American Studies and her husband, a devoted basketball fan; my lively and charming Belgian friend, photographer and mother of 5 boys, with her sharp-witted Swiss husband, and J’s former basketball coach, a very gentle young man from India who grew up in France and will go back to India next week to work with „sports without borders.“

Quite an experiment as they had never met before but we hit it off right from the start! I don’t remember having so much fun, so many interesting conversations, so much friendship and warmth at a long table in a long time.

I am inspired, grateful, and a year older! Thank you all 🙂

 

Coffee Cup Cozy

We went to my parents‘ house for Christmas and somehow I thought I might survive those three days with neither needles nor yarn. Mistake! BIG mistake! So I grabbed what was there and knitted with little left over bits and pieces of yarn.

There has been a partner for the red cozy too, but as I knitted my sister’s name and a heart on it you may guess where it is now … My favourite picture is the one with the grey cozies and the silver spoon. Very state-of-the-art 🙂

Coffee Cup CozyCoffee Cup CozyCoffee Cup Cozy

And for those of you who strive for more: try Eline’s hearts cup cozy: