The old and the new

By know everyone knows that I work fulltime, run, cook, sew, crochet and knit.
As life is in transition, we all know it never stays the same RIGHT!, the order of things occurring is slowly changing. What is first becomes last......and what occupies us most of the time drifts into the background or completely goes away.
- I am preparing for no more working. No more driving in 18-lane highway traffic every morning and evening. That is what I now look forward to the most.
- My running has been helping me to relive the stress created by my job. Now in my 60ties I know not to expect this to be possible endlessly. Sooner or later I will have to slow down to walking.
- Cooking might be one of those activities that are on the borderline, not sure if I will be doing less or more in the coming years. If it stays the same, 3 to 4 times a week, I would be ok with that.
- Sewing has not had a grip on me for a while, but projects are piling up. The bedrooms need new curtains. The material is already in-house. I can see the days, months ahead, with my friend the sewing machine and a Netflix Season of some kind or other.
- Crocheting has my interest and with more time there will be more of that coming from me in the future. I am on the lookout for crochet charting software. Once I found that, watch out crafting community!
- Knitting, my passion. I don't think I could ever do less and can't wait to have more time for much, much more knitting, creating and sharing.

This week was very exciting for me because a ravelry group decided to offer one of my sock designs for a KAL (knit a long).The group is creating 12 pairs of socks, one pair a month. My Rozanna's socks is the March 2016 selection.
 http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/rozannas-socks

It is nice to see the effect my work has on others. The pattern is creating socks and eventually comfortable, warm feet for someone.

In the knitting world comfort and warmth are words mostly associated with 'winter knitting'. So it is not a surprise that I am currently working on a sleeveless vest for Ruben. He wanted stripes. So stripes he will get, but the Renate way.

OK, as you can see, I am busy. On a rainy day, like today I am sure the back for this vest will be done in no time.

Summer Fun

Yes, I like knitting and traveling
Yes, I do other crafts and projects like crocheting, sewing

Yes, I make it a special mission every year to read at least one book in English and one book in German

and Yes, sometimes another 'new' passion sneaks into my world.

I have discovered cooking soup.

First it was just a few soups to have something different than the same old meat. It was actually my husband's constant searching for 'other' meat that brought my idea to the fore front. Soup can be with or without meat and does not take long at all to prepare, usually about 30 minutes.

I have settled on a few favorites now.

• Fennel soup, with Fennel, Chickpeas, Tomatoes, Garlic, Chicken broth, and a big Potato
• Sicilian Wedding soup, with Spinach, baked Meatballs, Noodles, Garlic, Onion, Carrot, and Celery. The broth for this soup can be Chicken broth or Beef broth, both work well.
• Potato soup, with Potatoes, Leaks, Carrots, Celery, Garlic and Steak strips, Chicken broth, and Onion
• Chicken Noodle, with Celery, Carrots, Garlic, Chicken pieces, Noodles, and Onion

There was something else that contributed to this soup idea and that was my little raised garden bed out front. I started growing Basil, Tomatoes, Hungarian Peppers, Green Beans, and Chives last year.
All the best ingredients to spice up a home made soup.



on the left, below my porch, my husband built the raised garden bed for my plants



Today, I spent some time at a Nursery to buy this years second growing season plants. I researched on-line that San Diego has the right climate to plant some winter vegetables. This afternoon I was busy planting 2 Tomato varieties, one regular and one purple. The purple came very much recommended from our friend the gardener. I also bought two Pole Beans, and seeds for Cool Weather Pees, and Kohlrabi.

 I have also reviewed some Garden Magazines last month. Hard to believe that there was still time for that between the knitting, the Olympics watching and the finishing my 900+ pages Dragon story book.

In the magazine I found the chairs I wanted for my porch that my husband built for me 2 tears ago.

Finally the right chair, I thought. Luckily there was a store in San Diego that had the chairs. I wanted the yellow ones. The woman at the store recommended to take the chair outside to be sure the color was what I wanted. I am so glad she did that because the yellow was more orange glowing than I wanted. Seeing them up close and in the sunshine made me change my mind. The ones I bought are red and beautiful.



Now I sit out there in the morning shade and cool air to celebrate the beginning of
another day with the first cup of coffee



As you can see the chairs are also used for modelling some of my knitted wares, like the Poncho I made years ago



Don't you agree the icicle shawl from 2007 does look better on the chair than on me