over the seas

my new blanket starts to grow:

meine neue Decke wächst und wächst:

in case you wondered about the weird language above, I was thinking about blogging bilingual again and figured why not just start :), so maybe you like to read both texts, it's German

happy first of May, Diana

btw this is the last post about this blanket

Easter Bunny bun rolls

Okay so pinterest is my latest addiction and I was rummaging it for some Easter ideas when I found these bun rolls. I also found this fail, But honestly? I think some people just want to make things fail. Anyways I gave them a try.

I didn't find these to be hard to do. I used my favorite bread bun recipe and let the dough rise. Then I formed six balls and started cutting ears. To find the right angle though is tricky. My first try was too flat, but hey it's only dough, I just reformed the ball and started over.

Now looking at my cute buns I think they are more like cats but they're still cute and cheer the Easter mood.

Googling before I started also made me find this video on YouTube which I found very helpful. Molding the ears and eyes is a must-do. I used a chopstick for this part.
Also thinking about my buns I think next time I wouldn't cut the dough all the way through for the ears, as the further rising made them shrink and also lift a little, which I needed to repair with the chopstick.

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend
Diana

it's in the mess .. somewhere

as you can see I did it

I need your input here

Hi everyone, today I need your input on my latest project. the brownish shawl makes me wonder if I like it as it is or not.

so above you can see at what stage I am right now. and in this post you can see my first two stages. Now my dilemma: I just don't know if I like the texture. I mean I now like the new needle size and the feel of the fabric BUT I'm not sure whether I like the alternating ribbing. I might like a pure ribbing a lot better. And I think the thinner lighter stripes would pop a lot more. If you take a look at the stripes in the stockinette version you can see that these thinner stripes show off better. What do you think???


also I feel like the finished shawl would lay and drape a bit nicer with a clean ribbing. Do you know any shawls that use ribbing throughout? I'm not afraid of frogging and re-knitting everything so that's not an issue but I'm unsure whether I like it or not. What do you think? Please give me your input.

so long, happy Good Friday, Diana

_____

edit: I think a close up of the pattern will be quite helpful. You can see the "alternating ribbing" here a lot better. With alternating I mean to change from purl-knit ribbing to knit-purl ribbing between each color section. I think if I just stuck to one ribbing it might look cleaner and drape better. I've also started to widen the lighter sections to four rows instead of two as I wanted to show this lighter color more.

twist collective spring/summer

the new twist collective is up, I like the spring/summer issues a lot, as they often contain lots of cool projects that you can wear all year round, maybe adjust the yarn to a warmer choice and you'll get a lovely autumn/winter item ^__^
in this issue I particularly like belarra, lanai and verbena. The latter actually might be something I'll make soon.

also I wanted to squeeze in a little extra "drooled" bit, I found this cuties on my pinterest board on Sundays and was like damn, this would have been awesome - so I just share here: again just click the pic to get to the link. Also I found a video on how to make them in my youtube subscriptions yesterday.. these are a trend don't you think?

so long, have a wonderful week

drooled - Easter edition

I want to start a new series on my blog, a 'share the love' series, just things I'v found on pinterest, things I've seen on other blogs of all sorts of interest, or other blogs in general, things I felt like 'uh that's a clever-cool-gorgeous-marvelous-fantastic-scrumptious-pretty-beautiful-delightful-charming idea' - things that made me drool ^__^

today I want to start with some Easter related things. only one weekend to go til Easter so let's have a look, shall we? - just click the pictures to find the original sources

---- on the table ----

what starts a good Easter weekend? bunny butt pancakes, oh yes!

and bunny butt pancakes impress even more with bunny style napkins, right?

these will be awesome after lunch, sunny side up cupcakes, we used to have a cake just like that when I was younger now these reminds me of yesterday only with that little modern twist

or if you prefer brownies, why not shape them round and put some mini chocolate eggs inside?

these will round up any table. Or make your kids search them. I think they're so cute

---- colored eggs ----

dying easter eggs is a long tradition here, but we always went with those cheap boxed colors. I think I will try these natural colored too. They are just adorable

when I first saw these on pinterest I was in love, gradient easter eggs, soooo cool! The picture already is pretty self explaining and to find the original source of these eggs (to link them here) was my personal eater hunt ^__^

---- fluffy ----

pom pom bunnies! do you hear me? pom POM bunnies, awwww - I should have known Martha was behind these, they just scream her name.

and last not least let me put in a little shameless self promotion ^__^ do you remember my easter bunnies?

_____

Happy Easter!

how do you like this sort of posts? will you enjoy more? I always like to see these collections on other blogs as they include so many input in so little space ^__^

Framed - Mar 2014

March, I know I'm a little late to the party, but I don't care - the weather still smells like march so I believe it's okay. Also if you read my last post, March was quite busy for me and to make a long story short let's just have a look at my March pics (I believe there isn't a full set this month but we'll see)

1. YELLOW: crocuses! finally spring had sprung, aaah how I missed you!

2. SOMETHING BORROWED: my nexus to kids hands .. it's amazing how kids nowadays grow up with such technology

3. MY NAME IS…: Diana, sometimes streets are named after me *giggle*

4. ON MY MIND: there was chocolate and quicker than I could see it was in my belly

5. SOMETHING BEGINNING WITH i:

I was thinking about my playlist in the car, there are plenty of songs starting with i..

7. FLY: cranes! I love when they finally come back after winter

8. IN THE CORNER:

there was nothing cool to see..

9. 10AM: on sundays I normally spend my time running, lately on the treadmill, when it get's warmer I'll be outside again

10. FAR AWAY:

I'm thinking about a song right now, if I only knew which one

11. SOMETHING GOOD: ice cream under blue sky with summer like temperatures!! amazing

12. PARTIAL: me and the sky and me and my attempt with a middle part

13. FRESH: spring means tulips ^__^

14. CARE: to care is to share sushi. I don't know if I ever mentioned this before: I am a little addicted to sushi and sharing this stuff does really mean I care. Also the lovely friend I shared this stuff with helped me move around my couches and shelves so I guess it's double caring and double sharing - THANK YOU Uli xoxo

15. EVENING: him: playing racing games - me: knitting

16. BEAUTIFULLY ORDINARY: a mini sled on a big car in late spring, well yes, what more is there to say? hilarious if you ask me ^__^

17. TODAY’S WEATHER: stormy and grey - I didn't mind though, I was on the hunt for a new bed, after rearranging the living room I also wanted to clean out the bedroom too

18. FIVE YEARS AGO:

I was writing applications to get the job I know have

23. I’M LOVING: my easter decoration this year and especially my new bees. I found them a few weeks ago in a sale and bought a little set. I also got two for my mom to send to her as an early birthday gift and she liked them :) yay

25. SOFT: yarn .. hmmm .. drool, yumm

26. I AM HERE: on my couch, with fever and a bad cold. I'm glad I can enjoy my new living room arrangement though

27: SOMETHING I MADE: a new shawl .. if you want to read the back story on this one, please click here

28. NOSTALGIA:

if I only could remember ^__^

29. STICKY: yes I started a filofax, yes I do think this can be addicting, yes I admit I'm just this close to go with the flow, yes I hope it will help me to get more organized

30. FAST: frogging something is just sooo much faster than knitting it, it's a sad story but it's true. And I do like re-knitting something, which is weird, but I find I knit a lot faster when I re-knit something, can anyone relate on this? it's just weird

31. FAUX: the faux cable socks my friend knitted on our little "get-well-trip" I really like the way the pattern develops

have a nice April, read you soon, easter is just around the corner ^__^

stripes and stuff

hmm, no internet for me this last month, or nearly no internet at all. What did I do instead? I moved! or sorta like that, I moved all the furniture around im my flat which was quite an adventure. I looked through so much stuff, I didn't even knew I had. The result of that was a very serious clean out. A lot of books went on amazon, a lot of yarn to my friends and on ravelry, some of my shelf to goodwill and so on. The planing and actual doing took a lot of time and there still is some things left to do. I'm still waiting for my new bed and need to sew a few curtains for my bookshelves, now that they moved within the room they're more in view and make things a little restless for the eyes. Well a few things to go. Also I got sick, plus on this I had a few more days to sort things around at home and look through my stuff, downside, I was sick.

also I started a new shawl. Three times. It's the stripe study shawl by Veera Välimäki. I choose a cotton/silk blend, which feels lovely and will make an awesome spring/summer shawl. I started three times though as the garter stitch the pattern originally went for just doesn't look good with my yarn (upper left in the pic below). Learned, checked, frogged and re-started with stockinette. A lot better, buuut, yes there's a but, my needle size was too small. The stockinette looked alright but after a few repeats I calculated a bit and my shawl would have been tiny, maybe only one length of my arm. Also looking at the stockinette I wished for more texture and I figured I could try a ribbing. Which is what I'm doing right now.



and here a little peek at my current try, so far I really like it, ribbing and a bigger needle size make this a lot more pleasing:



what's going in your lives right now? anyone moving as well?

have a lovely sunday, Diana