An Outing is good every so often...

This is some sock yarn-- thicker than typical sock yarn- but, it will be great for socks for boots/etc.   Notice that the label even says:  MEGA BOOTS stretch!   Some of this is for a gift too.  I am going to teach a friend how to knit socks and I think a thicker yarn that 'slowly changes' colors will help keep her interest level and of course they'll knit faster than regular sock yarn will.  I did get 3skeins for myself-- *I got double skeins of most of the colors.  I forgot to get a second skein of the orange/red skein though.

Today, a friend and I went out to do some shopping.   She was a valuable asset as my 'Navigon' system holder and telling me when to turn/etc.   There are lots of new roundabouts on the Italian roads that aren't always on the Navigon maps.   

I used to be able to display my device on the windshield - but, a couple of summers ago-- when I was getting out of my car to meet my transportation,  in the middle of the night, to go to the airport-- I remembered to grab my Navigon device from the windshield (which would also keep my car from being broken into during the summer- if it wasn't on display on the windshield for all to see).... and I just grabbed the whole device including the attached 'arm thing' that had the suction cup to hold it in place on the windshield.   Problem was- when I went through the USA airport security.   Unbeknownst to me- they broke the device- my best guess is that when they took it to the back to 'make sure that I didn't have any drugs or bombs' hidden in the arm (the part that goes on the windshield) part- that they broke the device off and I didn't notice it until I got to the states and used it the next day.   They just dropped it in my carry-on bag.  

So, it isn't easy or safe to use it alone- so, it's best if I have someone in the driver's seat to help read the device for me.  *I've tried it alone and the device tends to fall into the floor when resting in the passenger seat- plus, I don't feel it is very safe to constantly be looking down into the passenger seat trying to view the screen.  

Same yarn from the end so you can see the color changes better.

I loved the colors on this selection.  Orange/purple and some red w/ a little blue thrown in.   No plans for this- I just liked it.

This is more my style 'color-wise'... various shades of tweedy blue colors. 

I had bought this on another shopping trip.  I can't remember if I shared a photo of it or not?   I like the brown with the blue and turquoise blue colors.

This is the green yarn that I had in my mind-- for the shawl that I had bought the yarn for a few weeks ago.   They didn't have this soft leafy green color when I bought the other yarns-- but, I was happy to see that they had this in stock today.

Here it is again- posing in front of the flowers that I bought myself for my birthday a couple of weeks ago.  Of course, when I bought them they were just 'bulbs' in the ground.   My living room smells so nice now.   By looking at the window; you can see that it is raining again.

Today, we went first to the showroom of an Italian purse designer.   They sell some models at a great, great discount- before they start selling the next season's new purse lines.   I haven't taken a photo of the purses yet.  I found this place last year and I went the first time (and only time) when my friend Lisa came to see me in June-- the first week that our school's were out for the summer.   We got to have a short visit before we both flew to our respective homes in the states.   I wanted to go back to this place while they still had some 'winter colors' in the leather purses.   I just wish that I had brought more money with me.  I'm trying to find/buy the special Italian things that I want to take with me when I do move.  You can't wait until the last minute to do the shopping before one moves from one country to another one.  There just isn't time to pack up for a move, continue working, and try to shop in spare moments.   Something has to give and it is usually the shopping.   I know that I didn't get a chance to buy hardly anything when I was suddenly given the chance to move from Germany to Italy a year ago.

Our second stop was the yarn store.   The third stop was the big Italian grocery store that is near my house.   Our last stop was to a new, to me, restaurant.   It wasn't raining while we were out shopping- but, it has rained heavy since about 1pm today.   The temperature has also dropped and my house even feels cold.  I have turned up the heat two times today and it still feels cold to me.    I think it's because we've been having warmer than usual weather for the past 2-3 weeks and we've gotten spoiled by the spring-like weather? 

I've been spending many weekends at home- cleaning house, finding things to get rid of, and working at school.   So, it was fun to 'get out and about'...  maybe, I'll start trying to do something every other weekend now that the weather is getting 'hopefully' warmer and my knee is getting better?

Tomorrow, I will be back at cleaning house and working at school- but, for the rest of the day?  I think that I'll actually take a break and do some knitting.   Sounds like an exciting Saturday night, huh?   

Must resist...

The lure of new yarn.  Today, my plan was to do some chores, laundry, cleaning house and those things that you should/need to do on a regular basis so that you aren't featured in the TV show:  Hoarders   Part of my errands was to stop at the local Italian Pharmacy to pick up my prescriptions that I totally forgot to pick up yesterday.   Only $167.00 later and I was back in the driver's seat of my Jeep.    It's another rainy day/ weekend.   It just seems to rain a lot on the weekends here.   As I sat in the Jeep... I really, really wanted to drive to the big discount yarn store that is in the local area.   I don't need anymore yarn.  I know this.  It doesn't mean that I don't want to buy more yarn.  I do want to get enough wool to knit (someday) an afghan.  I also want to continue to get 'sweater amounts' of yarn in various colors- because, the truth is... those things will COST FAR MORE in America than I am willing to pay!   However, as I sat there and realized that I didn't have that much EURO left in my wallet, it was raining, AND for some reason 'my voice' seems to be gone again... I thought that maybe, I should just go on to the nice nearby huge Italian grocery store, go home and eat a nice lunch from some of my purchases... and then start cleaning house.   BEING a grown up sucks sometimes.   The yarn shopping was just delayed- because there are still more yarn purchases for projects that I want to knit in the future.   I also need to buy this yarn fairly soon- since, yarn is seasonal too and most of the wool yarns will be replaced with acrylics, cottons, and novelty yarns.   As I was talking myself out of driving to the big yarn store... I did promise myself that I could 'cast on' and start a new knitting project using some of the YARN THAT I DO HAVE.

*Anyone else have to talk themselves out of things that they'd rather do and instead do the grown up thing sometimes?

Some of my Christmas Market Purchases and a little knitting...

I saw these 2 little sheep in the window of a store in Bolzano.  They were the last 2 that were left.  They are made out of the natural sheep's roving and are hand-made.  I added them to my rustic hand carved Nativity scene that I had purchased in Poland one time.   They do look a bit like 'giant sheep' but with sweet little faces like that-- I don't think that 'Joseph' would have been alarmed by sheep the size of horses, do you?   I'll have to see if I can find some roving, some day, and make some more appropriately sized sheep.

I got this at the Innsbruck Christmas Market.  It was hand-made out of TIRES!!  I couldn't resist it!   I will store yarn or anything heavy that I need to carry when having handles would be more useful than just trying to haul a heavy cardboard box around.   It's pretty big too.

I did a tiny bit of knitting during break.  I just 'winged' it and knitted a little sheep out of some multi-colored fuzzy yarn that I found on sale here in Italy.  It was difficult yarn to knit with and I'm glad that I didn't pay much at all for it.  There is enough to knit another sheep-- I'll have to wait awhile while the memory of how difficult the yarn was to work with fades a bit.   I put a bell on a gold cord around his neck.  *Can you see how much more 'fuzzy' this photo is than the tire bucket is?   The tire photo was taken before the most 'recent' camera drop to the pavement.   I'm afraid that was the one that was ONE DROP TOO MANY.   My camera seems to have suffered too many 'concussions' and isn't able to do the job anymore.

Here's a little star that I knitted out of some sparkly red, green and white left-over yarn that I had.  The hardest part was trying to weave in a bent piece of wire through the i-cord tube.  Why was I using a bent piece of wire you ask?  Well, it was all I had... no stores open... to find more.   I needed the wire to be thin enough that I could pinch it at the points so that I could make it 'look like a star' as much as possible.... and strong enough to keep the bent shape.   I used some left-over wire from an old crafts show from many years ago-- 'SEE, there is a REASON for not throwing EVERYTHING that you no longer have a need for (at the moment - that is)... it could come in handy some day.   I think you learn to do this just from being a teacher... much less a 'crafty type of person' who just happens to live overseas with limited 'crafts' materials-- depending on where you are living.   You just keep things-- because it is likely to be needed in the future.

A candy cane knitted ornament that I made.  This was the first one that I did.  I tried using some jewelry making wire-- it wasn't really sturdy enough-- and it was so time consuming trying to force/weave/push it through the one color -- that I decided that it held the shape 'good enough' and I only put the wire in ONE COLOR of the candy cane!   

What else have I been doing?  I've spent quite a bit of time... 'downstairs' in the 'extra room'... the room that you need a guide to go with you to make sure you make it back out safely.   It is where all the boxes got shoved after I moved in and had 2 weeks to get my house ready for company.  That was after teaching all day... in the winter (ceiling lights aren't very bright and I have really tall ceilings too) ... I had to get 3 bedrooms ready, boxes out of the way, etc.   So, after a certain point-- everything that didn't have a home or I didn't have time to deal with... got shoved/hauled to this extra room downstairs.   I had wanted to work on it this summer and I had planned to do so- until the knee surgery/injury problem prevented me from doing it.   Now, the problem is... I want to find things to get rid of... but, since I haven't seen this stuff in a long time now-- it is more difficult to get rid of something that you haven't seen in awhile... and that you still like.  I'm working on it- I'm trying.   I have sorted through things and I do have some things set aside that I can do without-- but I need to get rid of a lot more things.    ANYONE ELSE 'sorting' or getting rid of things?

Tired and so much to do...

Sometimes, you just need to say "NO" to the shirt!   I spotted this 'shopper' making some clothing purchases for a male in her life.   This is when you need to remember... "YOU" (the female YOU, that is) might like the dashing scarf and the large summery flowers... but, are you sure your father?  Brother?  Boyfriend?  Male Friend?  Or Husband would also want and wear this outfit?   Then on the other hand... maybe they would?   Who knows?   I certainly am not on the 'cutting edge' of fashion... heck, I'm not even on the surface of fashion trends!   It just reminded me how we all sometimes 'buy' something for someone else that WE'D LIKE FOR OURSELVES!!

*Photo taken somewhere in France?  Or Italy?  Can't remember now- but, it was about 2 years ago on a trip somewhere... we were in a large group (military base travel trip) and I wanted to take photos- but, I had to be careful so I wouldn't get left behind because everyone else was walking quickly following the person leading us to some other location.

One more week of school.  AND, I will spend another weekend working at school.  Why?

Lessons to grade, report cards to 'eventually' fill out, comments on the report cards to write..    I also need to pack up some things from my classroom to take home... because... A lot of my own things, that I have hauled to my classroom,  won't fit into the cabinets and will need to be brought home, stuff needs to be cleaned up... (it gets busy and things go by the wayside).  Etc. Etc. Etc.

Happy WWKIPD or JUNE 13th

To celebrate my first 'official day' off from teaching school.. I went with a couple of friends on the train to Nuremberg, Germany. Of course, the first official day of holiday.. really only starts on what would be the FIRST DAY OF WORK.. because, your normal days off.. (as in my case: Saturday and Sunday) you'd have off from work anyway..


I also found out later that it was also WWKIPD ... or WORLD WIDE KNIT IN PUBLIC DAY *Since, I'm always knitting in public.. I must be an 'un-official' charter member?

Here are my contributations to knitting in public:

I knitted on the train ride to Nuremberg (and back too of course) 50 minutes for each leg of the trip.

I knitted off and on while waiting for friends shopping... some shops are tiny and sometimes it's best to have someone wait with the bulging shopping bags outside the shop. I did that a few times.

A few photos...

Outside one shop, I found a lady who just looked bored to me. Maybe even listless?

I thought that I'd help her out...
Now, doesn't she seem somewhat happier? A purpose in life? Or maybe she has even forgotten that there is no water in the little pool for her feet?

*I will admit that a few shoppers had gathered during the posing the statue with my knitting. Also, a couple of elderly ladies came by smiling and talking to me in German while I was sitting outside this shop 'knitting'... I didn't know what they were saying.. so, I just did my usual.. 'smile and nodded my head in agreement.'

Of course, a trip to Nuremberg couldn't end without me stopping at the ONLY YARN SHOP that I've found in Germany. *I'm sure that there are many.. but, I'm in a very rural area and I haven't seen any in the outlying areas where I live.

Here's some sock yarn. One skein will be a gift...

AND some yarn in my favorite colors...



More photos will be posted this week.. about the trip to Nuremberg.