Yarn, yarn, everywhere YARN...

Yes, it's true. I knit and I have yarn. Lots of yarn. Lots of nice, soft, beautiful yarns.

My lace yarn collection... *Click on photos for a larger/clearer view


Sock yarn... some brands (Regia) can be found in a couple of the German grocery stores... Can't you see it now? Just buy some yogurt, gummy bears, and some sock yarn and soon you have lots of sock yarn.


My wollmeise yarn collection...

I must admit to a problem with the wollmeise yarns.. it's so pretty.. that I seem to be frozen searching for the perfect pattern to make the yarn shine as it should.


Acrylic yarns for toys, ornaments, baby gifts (sometimes) etc.


AND.. I have more yarn that I didn't photograph. Yes, I need to get busy knitting.

However, almost everything that I knit is gifted to others. I knew that- but, until I was looking at some photos of items that I had knitted in the past couple of years.. I didn't realize how much I did knit for others..(and most of the time- I forget to take photos of what I knit before I give it away) so, I have decided.. that I really, really need to make some changes. I deserve some of the knitted yummyness. I will appreciate it- after all I know how much time it takes to knit something.

So, here is my plan...

Baby knitted gifts, retirement gifts, and milestone birthday knitted gifts are allowed exceptions. Otherwise, I really, really am going to try to knit items for myself.

Of course, prior to coming up with my new decision.. I had knitted some long neck bunnies that I'm going to felt..


and a couple of knitted cat toys that I'll give to the human owners..
A donut and a felted mouse.

I did go through my yarn stash and I found this nice tweedy yarn that I had bought in Italy when I lived there about 10 years ago.. I love this color.


I did start knitting a cardigan with it.. the yarn does seem scratchy though. I'm going to knit a swatch and wash/dry it and see if I can get it to soften up with a wash.

Does anyone else have this same problem? You find that you knit almost only for others? I enjoy knitting for others.. but, darn it.. I'd enjoy some knitted items too.

Hello, SPRING BREAK....

I had plans of traveling to Istanbul for a few days, or maybe even seeing the local sites..

However, the reality is.. I still have bronchitis and I was still too sick to spend big bucks to fly somewhere and not feel like doing anything once I arrived. I figured that I could save the $ and stay at home doing that- plus, I had another doctor's appointment that I couldn't miss anyway.

I'm slowly getting better... I finally made a chart so that I can remember to take the 4 different inhalers and the prescribed 'pills' for the actual lung illness at the right times.

I decided that my job for this spring break was to simply do a lot of resting and try to get well.. or at the best best.. a rested body will certainly be able to get well faster than.. not missing work, even while sick, because it was the end of a grading period.

At least, I'm not as sick as I was last winter.. I had pneumonia for 4 months and as you can imagine.. not fun.. and is draining for weeks/months afterwards. *Which was one of the reasons.. I wasn't posting much on my blog last year. (not counting the 3 months it took to get phone/internet service installed in my house)

Ok, I did go and do one fun thing.. On Saturday, a friend and I went on an adventure and found a couple of glass places that I had been taken to last year. MY friend is moving in June and I wanted her to have a chance to see this place. Apparently, there are stores and stores that produce and sell glass pieces for miles and miles.. but, I only had the energy to go to the two shops that are only a mile apart. **Of course, we ran out of money anyway.. so, it didn't matter if we'd both wanted to continue shopping.

Here is what you find on the grassy area when you arrive. A glass fence...



An owl tree.. they did have another 'just birds' tree..

And, doesn't everyone need a glass peacock on their lawn? Much quieter than the live peacocks and almost as pretty.

HAPPY EASTER.. or.. subtitle "YOU WANT HOW MUCH TO MAIL THIS SMALL PACKAGE?"

I've lived overseas now for 20 years in various countries around the world. Many of my USA friends are also school teachers. I have often sent little 'holiday' gifts to them from my travels or cute little local tokens of cute, neat, unusual things that I've found for holidays.

This year, I decided to knit everyone something for Easter. Ok, the first plan was to knit a little 'nest' and fill it with a knitted egg, two, or three and a knitted animal.. chicken, bunny, or some other typical Spring time or Easter animal.

The problem seemed to be something called: TIME

I made one little nest... and it took an entire night to knit it.. I thought.. "Humm, this knitting a little nest for everyone on my list just isn't going to work out." So, I decided to just knit the eggs and the little knitted animals instead.

Here are some eggs.. Problem is.. even they took more time that I thought was reasonable..




Can you see a theme? My desire to knit yarny cuteness is bigger than the reality of time.


So, now my new plan was just to knit and knit and see what I can finish in a two week period. I also just happened upon some cute little metal plates with adorable bunny paintings on them in a local German grocery store. I decided to buy those and use them instead of the 'knitted nests' that I had hoped to knit.



Once I realized that Easter was a week sooner than I thought it was.. Yes, I know, I know.. I really do need a new calendar.

Update: I have a new calendar to hang on the wall.

Due to my shortened knitting time allowance.. 2 weeks vs the 3 weeks that I thought that I had available- Last week, it was time to wrap everything up to take it to the post-office on base (AN AMERICAN POST OFFICE mind you) and mail my little Easter goodies to my friends in the states.

I had all my packages wrapped, labeled, and custom's forms filled out. I went to the counter and discovered that I now had two problems..

1. They had changed the little 'easy to fill out' green custom's form on me. It is now this multi-layered, many copies, very detailed form that you have to fill out. So, I was sent to the back of the room to 're-fill-out' the new custom's forms for all of my packages. Sigh

I got the forms filled out.. get back into the now very long line, then I finally make it to the front of the line again.. with my 5 very lightweight packages and the newly filled out custom's forms.

2. Once the first package was weighed, I discovered that they (USA Postal Office) have raised the rates.. apparently a LOT for small packages!!

BECAUSE.. my tiny package of one tiny little 4 inch tall bunny and one very lightweight metal plate.. (costing only $1.50 to purchase) was going to cost $8.75 to mail!!! EACH!!!

YIKES!! Now, I don't have enough money to mail all 5 packages.. oh no.. I now have enough money to mail maybe 2 or at best 3 of the packages!

So, I opted not to mail anything.. I grabbed some of the 'flat rate boxes' and later I will stuff the flat rate boxes, that I will mail at a later date 'full' of other goodies. A couple of the boxes will also have birthday gifts included in the boxes.

*I'm having difficulties with blogger uploading my photos.. so, after trying for over an hour.. I have given up trying to post photos of all of the little knitted goodies.

I'm sorry that my boxes full of Easter cuteness is going to be a little late.. but, know that I did have good intentions. Does that help?