Spring... when a gal's heart turns to: WOLLMEISE

The month's long winter snows seemed safely past us... I was ready for something bright, exciting, and inspiring. So, I asked another friend to join me for a train outing to get some more Wollmeise yarn from Claudia's shop. My friend doesn't knit.. but, I did entice her to join me with the promise of checking out the local Saturday market in the town square after yarn shopping and lunch at a wonderful place that I know on the town square. I might have also mentioned stopping by to check out the Easter Market in Nuremberg before we went back towards our part of Germany.


So, we got the Bavarian Pass and headed off to the small city that shelters the wonders known as Wollmeise. *If you want more information about the shop and my first visit -- I do have another entry on my blog.. just look for the Wollmeise entry. I am fortunate to only be about 3 hours away from Claudia's shop (one way) and I have been there several times.

I had also knitted a little egg out of cotton yarn. Once I arrived and was greeted by Claudia.. I gave her the little striped egg and Claudia promptly placed it a flower pot in her Spring/Easter display. The egg looked so cute in the display. I totally forgot to take a photo- but, It's the egg on the top in the photo. *If you click on the photos- you'll see a much larger image.



Claudia took me around the shop showing me all of the new colors since I'd last visited the shop. I wanted almost each and every skein. If only.. I had enough $$ to buy all that caught my eye. I had a big pile of dazzling skeins spread out on the couch.. and I finally managed to cull the large collection of skeins that had caught my eye to a more manageable amount to better match the EURO in my wallet.



The big hunk of lace yarn that I bought.. doesn't this just look like the sea? It does to me- I used to live in Okinawa, Japan and the water was blue like this..


If you've never been to the shop.. it is well worth the visit. I feel like the yarn displayed in the wooden cubbies looks just like a new box of yarn crayons just waiting for someone to use them to create knitted treasures, gifts, and lovelies.

I did buy a couple of skeins to knit for gifts. One skein.. might be a gift.. if I can bear to give it away.

ahh spring returns to Bavaria...

The snow piles finally begin to melt.





Spring/Easter decorations begin to appear outside shops...


Spring flowers are sold in the markets...


And the tulips that I planted last year have started sprouting...


And what do I see here? Some tiny blooming bulbs.. that I had planted last year..

I'm sorry that I haven't posted lately.. but, I've been sick with bronchitis for a few weeks. However, I'm happy to say that I'm not nearly as sick as I was last year (one reason that I wasn't posting much last year) when I had pneumonia for 3 months and fever every day for 4 months.

See, I do knit 'sometimes'...

This yarn has long stripes of color.. but, I love the cool 'pooling' that happened on the cuff area of the hat. I took an 'inside' view of the hat so you can see the bands of color on the hat cuff area. I made the hat like this- so, that the baby can wear it turned up when it is small and then as the baby grows (maybe even next winter?) the hat can be worn with the cuff pulled down to fit a larger sized head. The ribbing will stretch and fit the baby for a while.


A baby shower gift for a co-worker. The yarn is RED HEART Kids.

The hat pattern? I made it up.

The booties? A free bernat pattern. No official name on the pattern- however, this is the information found at the top of the bootie pattern. Bernat Handicrafter Cotton Bernat Satin Baby Booties (to Knit). Just go to:

www.bernat.com and click on free patterns, booties, or baby and you'll find the same pattern.

March 8, 2010...

Lookie here.. an unusual sight: No, not the snow in March.. but, the SUNSHINE.. do you see the shadows? The sun actually came out for awhile yesterday. Pretty unusual.. I took a photo because it was so unusual.

What can I say? 4 inches of new snow or more on the ground and it was 7*F when I drove to work this morning.

It snowed off and on today. I had outside crosswalk duty today (and the rest of the week too)... not good when someone missed most of last week because they had bronchitis. I'm working on getting someone else to do my duty for me this week and then I'll do it for them another time later in the year -- when I'm not sick.

However, I am happy to report that it is finally much lighter in the morning when I drive to work and it doesn't get dark at 4:30pm now.


Now... can we start having "NO SNOW" and warmer weather please?

Ok, I'll admit it.. I DO NOT LIKE 6 month long winters. There, I've said it.. I feel much better.. still don't like the dark, dreary, cold, dismal winters.. but, at least.. we are in the month of March and surely it will get warmer soon, right? RIGHT?

Freaky weather Part 2

Picture it..

Bavaria, Germany at 4:30pm.. date: March 4, 2010.

*Why do I feel like I'm in an episode of: THE GOLDEN GIRLS and have an urge to grab a handbag and put it on my arm??

The sun is brightly shining.. no, that's not the 'freaky' part.. (even though it is quite unusual)... no, the freaky weather part.. is..


THE SUN WAS SHINING and SNOWING at the same time!

At first, when I looked out the window, I thought that the sun had suddenly warmed and awakened all the little flying bugs or those little fuzzy things that float in the air in the summertime... but, I looked closer and I realized that what was floating in the air outside the 2nd story window was SNOW and the sun was still shining brightly.

I went downstairs to get my camera to see if I could take a photo of the latest in WEIRD GERMANY weather.





The sun continued to shine brightly.. during the 15 minutes of unexpected snowfall.

Before I found my camera, the snow had been quite heavy and it is a little difficult to see the falling snow 'due' to the bright sunshine.. but, I think that you might be able to see some of the snowflakes?

Sure do hope that spring is beginning to warm your corner of the world.. after all.. the calendar does indeed say: MARCH

We have had over a week of above freezing temps and a few days of sunshine.. and I'm happy to report that most of the snowfall that has been on the ground for weeks and weeks has finally melted. OF course, the huge snow mountains of shoveled snow will take longer to disappear.

Freak "SLEET" BLIZZARD

March 1... the beginning of warmer weather for some... spring just around the corner and all that...

Except apparently not here.. in my little corner of BAVARIA, GERMANY!

This morning, I left for work at my usual time.. it was 'sort of sprinkling'.. not enough to worry about with an umbrella. I started the Jeep and drove away. By the time that I was on the main highway... it had started sleeting and raining..

Within moments.. it was sleeting heavy! I mean.. so heavy that the road was white (and getting slick), the hood of the Jeep was solid white, and I had the windshield wipers on full blast.. but, it still wasn't fast enough to remove the sleet from the windows so that I could see!!!

I drove for about 8 miles in this freak 'sleet blizzard'... turned off this highway onto the next highway and the last 4-5 miles of my route to work.

In less than a mile.. the sleet stopped, the roads were dry, and the gauge on the Jeep's dash showed that the outside temperatures had now crept above freezing.

Very surreal.. is the best description that I can give because.. Within 2 miles the sun was shining (very unusual for Germany at this time of the year) and no evidence that a freak 'sleet blizzard' had ever happened.