Skandal um Rosi

Last weekend I was at the annual weaver's market in Haslach, and finally I can understand the hype around the Wollmeise yarns. The colours are great, and the yarn is incredibly soft.
Here's what I bought:


From left to right: 1 skein in the "Grashüpfer" (Grasshopper) colourway, 1 skein in the "Tampobata" colourway, 1 skein in "Gewitterhimmel" (Thundersky) and 1 skein of "Skandal um Rosi" (scandal about Rosi).
For my non-German speaking readers I'll have to explain what's so funny about "Skandal um Rosi". Sometime in the early 80s there was a band called "Spider Murphy Gang" (I even think they are still around), and their most famous song is called "Skandal im Sperrbezirk". It's about a girl named Rosi who takes away all the town's prostitutes' business. In a very 80s kind of way, it's hilarous (for me even more so, because my Grandma is called Rosi). Have a look:



I'm afraid the lyrics are intranslateable (at least I'm too lazy to give it a try ...).

Anyway - stay tuned for a post very soon, because I've already started to knit some pretty things from my new Wollmeise yarns :)

Fawkes, the Phoenix

Summer has only arrived here a few days ago, and before that I was in serious need of some thick, warm socks. Freezing in July just isn't an option. So I bought some sock yarn and went searching for a matching pattern. The yarn was coloured in bright red and orange tones, very warm colours. So when I stumbled upon the Fawkes socks by Monkey Toes - mere weeks before the new Harry Potter movie started - I knew that they'd be a perfect match.





As you can see, they did turn out quite well and I love wearing them. Well, not right now as summer finally arrived and the temperatures are at least 25°C.

I'm really enjoying my holidays right now, and despite the fact that my knee is still not behaving itself, I work a lot with my horse - mostly lunging, as riding does not work the way I want it too.

Anyway - enjoy your summer, too! (If you are in a place in the world where it's summer. If not: Enjoy whatever season there is ;) )

End of term

A few days ago, Klemens kindly reminded me that I've lately been noteably absent. This is true, and I apologize. But there's really not a lot to write about right now. It's the usual end-of-term time: Squeezing in a lot of end-of-term studying in between a lot of end-of-term parties. Next week is going to be a bit crazy: Two talks about rather complicated scientific topics, as well as an exam in Spanish, which I don't really speak (or write, for that matter) all that well.

Last night I was at the debut gig of a band some of my friends play in, and they really rock! If you are interested, you can visit them and listen to some of their music on their myspace page.

My knee finally regained most of its mobility, but I've lost a lot of strength, and I still haven't found the right balance between working out enough but not too much. But now I can ride my horse (and even dance a bit *grin*) again, I'm mostly happy :) :) :)

As for sewing: I've continued to work on the Claire Shaeffer Blazer, but this thing really required a lot of handsewing and is still going to take quite some time.

So, what I actually wanted to ask you: How do you want this blog to be continued? Originally, my horse stuff had its own blog, this place was meant to be for the creative (and a bit of personal) stuff. I'm not sure how well those mix, and if the people who want to read about riding etc. wouldn't get bored when having to read about sewing and knitting. So please, tell me what you thing about this!

Mother's Day

To all you great mothers out there: I wish you a happy Mother's Day!!



This is the cake my sister and I made for our mum. Let's just say I'm really looking forward to trying it tomorrow :)

Lilly rocks the Saustall

In the village where I grew up, there is a fun project called pigbrother, which I'd really like for all of you to know about - and even more important, to support it :)
(The website is in German)



4 piglets grow up on local farm, and during a time of 6 weeks you can watch those cute animals on a live cam. But you can not only watch them, but you can choose one of them and support it by registering and feeding it with virtual potatoes once a day.

And now I'm at the point where I want to ask for your support. Please vote for Lilly! She's the smallest of the piglets, and we want her to grow!



There are already support groups for Lilly on studiVZ and facebook called "Lilly rocks the Saustall" (in English: Lilly rocks the pigpen).

Among those people who vote for the winning pig, prizes are drawn. Unfortunatley, participation is only possible for residents of Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

All pictures courtesy of www.pigbrother.at

Cherry blossoms

Quite a few of my fellow students are spending this term abroad (if you're interested, you can find their respective blogs here and here and here ).

Anyway, the two guys who are staying in Japan wrote about the traditional annual celebration of Sakura, the blossoming of the Japanese cherry trees.
Well, cherry trees are blossoming not only in Japan, but also in Austria.







These wonderful blossoms reminded me of a quick scarf that was published in one of the past issues of the awesome online knitting magazine knitty.com: Nagano Sakura

Here are some impressions of my version:







I also finished my project for the 2nd SKC KAL: Karma Tank



My knee is also improving rapidly. After 4 weeks at home (including the 1 week I spend at the hospital), I've been back to university for 2 days now. What shall I say - I think I've never been quite so happy to study again :)
I have to wear a brace that prevents my knee from doing any harmful movements like rotations. Actually, this isn't all that uncomfortable.





The cuts are healing nicely, too. I'll be up to full speed in no time at all.

Anyway. I don't want to end this post with this ugly pic of my even more ugly knee. Something nice of two of our horses having fun instead:

Blood, Sweat & Tears

Well, no tears, actually :)

I've been absent here for quite a while now - but I'm still alive and kickin' ;)
Last week I had the surgery performed on my knee (that's where the Blood comes in), so I've got a brandnew anterior cruciate ligament. I'm not up to full speed yet, but with lots of physical therapy I'm getting there (that's the Sweat).
Before that, I had to study for an exam, which luckily I passed. Congrats to myself :D

But I've been not lazy on the knitting front: I finished the fair isle sweater:







I used this pattern: Fair Isle Sweater (here it is on ravelry)
The yarn I used were leftovers from my Sylvi cardigan, as well as some skeins of Icelandic wool. They worked pretty well together.

The project I have currently on my needles is Clapotis by Kate Gilbert.
I'm using OPAL Hundertwasser sock wool, and it looks pretty cool right now. As soon as there's something to see, I'll take a picture and post it here.

Anyway, when I'm using a band's name as a blog post title, I might as well put some music on here. Enjoy.