First day of Summer 2015

This year I have started and finished my summer vacation before the summer officially arrived.
I am not sure what the reason was, but I am sure that it was the right decision. The order of events 'before today' was as follows:

May 13, performance review at work. It is always a good review, I always exceed expectations. That's just the good little girl I am. He he he he

May 14, fly to Germany
May 15, arrive in Germany
I was born in Sulzbach-Rosenberg. The town has been polished since the year when I was born. It looks very pretty and clean now.

I have been looking for old photos of the Windschnur, but the black houses have been demolished long ago. I did find an image that shows Rosenberg with the steel factory in the background. To imagine where I was growing up, you need to imagine what it was like to live behind the the steel factory inside these exhaust clouds. The life then was not colorful and rosy. In my memory most images are black and white.

Only the summers have color. The times away from the black and white. Summer camp in the Alps, or in Sulzbach with Opa and Oma. They used to live in a small house in the back of a store, a main street store. Only steps from the the red brick building shown in the first image.
When I go home now I concentrate on the colorful memories and make new ones. The main reason this time was to visit my mother in her new home. She lives in a senior center since last July and she raves about the place.

She lives on the second floor in her own room, with some of her own furniture pieces. Since she moved in she was unable to ever leave. It was my goal to get her outside and experience something different everyday. I think I did my job well. She still remembers the time we visited her newest great-grand child Bastian, or the time we eat a Lox-sandwich at an Imbissstube. We played cards, sang songs, and went for small afternoon trips. It was not easy to rent the perfect car, a Jeep Renegade. The rental agency gave me grief, but I insisted. This car had the perfect heights for a person that could not walk. All I had to do was guide the wheelchair to the passenger door, get my mother to stand up, turn her a quarter turn so she could let herself fall onto the seat. The way out of the car was just as easy. Guide both feet outside the car and slide her forward, just a little so she can stand, make that quarter turn the other way and she could let herself fall into the wheelchair.

 Some of these trip memories got captured on these pictures.

May 16:
I know my blog is about knitting intertwined with life. So her it is. On my visit this time there was a special occasion. My sister Rita turned 65 earlier this year and I knitted her something. Luckily I was able to also deliver the present in person. My newest  design 'Wirtsweiher Loop' is named after a small pond behind Rita's farm house. I gave her the finished loop and the knitting instructions. You can buy the instructions in german and in english at Ravelry.com:
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/wirtsweiher-loop

May 19:
I also knitted while traveling. Every knitter will tell you that it is extremely relaxing and lends itself to knitting away some empty moments, some evening hours, or hours on the plane. My project was aimed at a special group of knitters. Since I grew-up and was taught knitting in same place they were, I've guessed that my method was new to them. I choose some self-striping sock yarn and cast on two socks to knit at the same time from the toes up. My mother used to meet with this group of very experienced knitters near her home, when she was still living on her own. One of our day trips was to visit this knitting group. I showed the ladies my recently learned method of knitting 2 socks at the same time using a circular needle. It got lots of attention.

This is a picture of the finished socks today. I thought it was a strange coincidence that my living room flowers match the color of the socks!

May 20 was spent in the senior home - they had a May day celebration planned but the rain came and the outdoor event was moved indoor. No pictures from the singing and Bavarian Tracht wearing band.
May 21, and 23, playing cards, going shopping. My mother has not been to a supermarket for at least a year. Oh boy did we do some shopping. I wheeled her through every isle twice. We ended up with bags of goodies.
May 22 was Dinner with Brothers and Sisters.

good times 

Saying good buy was hard, but after many years of living away from everyone it has become easier. I don't leave Germany though without visiting my BFF. 

Rita and I spent the day dining at a country restaurant and afterwards walking around in Rosenheim. Naturally I found a knitting store. The name was Woll Lust and deserved to be photographed.

 May 25: time to fly away.......but not without Currywurst.

San Diego Yarn Crawl 2014

Talk about yarn intertwined with life! here is one of those 'perfect examples'!

Saturday 10:00AM, right after breakfast, we took a ride to Chula Vista. The store was my chosen starting point for the yarn crawl that day. I had never been there before.

They have plenty of parking in the back of the store

The sign in front is big enough, you can't miss it

I was really surprised and impressed with the enormous selection of well-known yarns. Now I know to go to Border Leather and Yarns when I need something unusual and don't want to wait until an on-line purchased package arrives.

We stayed for one raffle drawing, purchased a nice light green ball of wool and went on to the next store on the crawl schedule. The grove at Juniper $ 30th.
I had visited that store many times before. It is located close to my home and 'shop local' is one of my mottos. We found a decorated 'YARNBOMBED' bike stand in front of the store and many people inside. The yarn selection is much smaller there, but I have learned that a local yarn company, Ewe ewe yarn, is carried there.

So if you ever want to get wool for a child project, try http://www.eweewe.com/welcome/

It was still before Lunch - so we went on the next store on my list, Yarn and Thread expressions in
La Mesa.

This is the store I find what I am looking for the most. They have the regular, and the rare yarn. I also like the little poodle that is guarding the cash register. Very sweet little girl.

 

My life is about yarn, intertwined with life. So a visit to my very young friend in Escondido fit right in at lunch time. My little friend Allison is always happy to see me.

 

Parents and Grandparents are all taking a break from packing. Allison's dad is called up to the reserves and I will miss them. At least for a year.

 

Luckily I had the good fortune to spend a little time with the new baby, Adelle.

 

Ruben is a natural

 

La Dolce Vita Alpaca, enjoy the Alpacas. I did!

I even got to touch one, sooooooo soft.

Other's liked it here too.

 

All together that farm has 45 animals. A lot of yarn, I'd say.

 

The guard was on a break, apparently.

This was the day one result. Future socks and hats.

Sunday morning we went to have breakfast on the beach. There is an IHOP very close to the Needlepoint Cottage.

 

Here you will find a large selection of really inexpensive and really expensive yarn. She carries both. She also has a large selection of needle point kits and accessories. This one is always worth a visit when you are just looking for the next project.

 

You never know what you are going to find. I found a book about beading, knitted or crochet beading. Hmm, I wonder if my next project is going to have beads!

 

My new stash.

 

Red Hats, can you see it.

Green hats, just yummy.

Cau Cau Surfer Girl

My next adventure is called Cau Cau surfer

The test gauge and knitting pattern trial shows already how the waves will translate right into the finished garment. I can't wait to see the finished work on Miss Allison and show it all to you. So far I have the sketch of the finished dress, the knit stitches I will use and the gauge swatch. This will be a great knitting weekend!!!!

Since it is early and I am still on my first cup of coffee I thought you would enjoy to see my glamour shoots of the last design I have published. The pattern for 'My red Kimono-Hoody' is now for sale at www.ravelry.com and will be added to the www.etsy.com store shortly.

The pictures are from a trip to the "MIDWAY" Aircraft Carrier on Presidents Day last Monday.

shot from the Idol stage were Jessica Sanchez was selected to go on to became the Idol 'runner-up'