Mein Liebster

Thank you so much for this Anna :)

A few days ago a lovely comment reached me saying I got the Liebster Award, I feel honored and blushing.
There are a few things the awarded blogger has to fulfill :

Visit at least three blogs that were awarded as well - check

Follow the blog of the person which awarded you - check, as I already did that :)

Explain 11 things about you - okay:
* I take notes on my wrist to remember important stuff
* I dye my hair red since I was 15
* I could never live without a bathtub, even though I prefer taking showers
* I love pasta, I could eat it all day, ALL day
* I love my freckles
* the best thing about autumn is rustling through leaves
* the best thing about winter is the noise you make when walking on fresh fallen snow
* I have one brother
* I did my diploma in biology
* I love to sing in the shower and I think I do a pretty decent job at it
* I wanted to become an astronaut when I was a kid

Answer the 11 questions about yourself - okidoki:
* How do you define yourself? balanced.
* What is your favorite dish? pasta, have said it once will say it again.
* Would you rather cook or you cook? I cook, I quite like it, only thing I don't like about cooking as cleaning up afterwards.
* What's your favorite dessert? anything with chocolate or strawberries, even though chocolate covered strawberries don't really float my boat.
* If you had to stay with an ingredient, what would it be? Tomatoes! what a silly question ^__^ what on this planet is better than tomatoes?
* What is the best trip you've done? Berlin, at the moment it is the trip I take right now.
* What is the best restaurant you've eaten in? my moms kitchen, no restaurant can top my moms kitchen.
* Do you prefer meat of fish? a tough one... I rarely eat any, but like both equally...if I need to choose, I guess meat will win.
* What is your favorite cheese? parmigiano reggiano!
* Black or milk chocolate? a dark milky chocolate.
* What is the worst dish you tried? a soup made from potato peels, mew.

Choose 11 blogs and name in the post - here you go:
threadpanda I've just found this blog a few weeks ago through my ravelry friends blogs and love it already
knitted bliss is very inspiring and I love her modification mondays, awesome
knit and tonic I just love reading this blog, such a lovely way to write
limescented takes you on a ride with knitting, it's wonderful
according to matt takes awesome photos and his blog is one of the most colorful I've seen
canaryknits if you're looking for inspiration, you need to check her out!
schnueffeltier very sweet! I love her resolutions and lists, she's so organized
foodwishes do I need to keep this to craftiness? well isn't cooking craftiness as well, foodwishes is a wonderful place, even though I mostly check into his youtube instead of his blog
smitten kitchen recently made pasta with a broccoli pesto, looks delight, but pasta isn't the only reason why I like this blog so much
that is all no it's not, not yet. Ashley is a beauty blogger and I enjoy her view on things
Essie Button Estée is such a sparkling personality! you will love her too

a month in pictures - october 2012

October went by so quickly, didn't it? I can't believe this year is almost gone. Looking outside it feels like winter already and I start to think about christmas decoration. A few months ago I found fatmumslims blog and started to join instagram and her picture a day challenge. Last month was the first month I posted a picture almost every single day. I'm kind of proud of myself. Not to mention I finished a few knits and even a whole new amigurumi design, phew

1. Where you stood: on my rug, in my living room, close to the balcony, obviously animals were coming in, ouch

2. Lunchtime: pasta!, fresh with tomatoes, yumm, I love pasta

3. This happened today: it's been a holiday in Germany: Tag der deutschen Einheit and me and a few friends went to see the feast at Ministergärten, it's been the most beautiful weather and a wonderful day altogether

4. What you read: I read on my kindle, sometimes I have company, what I read at the moment?: the forgotten garden, Kate Morton

5. Shadow: bell peppers on my balcony in the afternoon light. They finally started to get color and cast shadows on the wall

6. I’m thankful for…: a lot of things, my family, my friends, my life after all
but I just didn't take a picture

7. Light: first day of "winter", it was freezing cold and I burnt the first candle of the year

8. Angle: obviously either a hard one or I've forgot

9. Red: my rubics cube is a pyramide

10. Emotion: I felt a bit dull and silent that day, the weather didn't do much to cheer me up, all cold and grey, but this window mirrored it perfectly: grey with that little bit of fire that will lighten things up sooner or later

11. Something close-up: some knitting, I bound of this cowl and it became a good friend afterwards, winter is sooo damn close

12. On the table: I harvested: bell peppers from the balcony

13. Landscape: Berlin, at the back there is the Reichstag in the front the Holocaust Memorial

14. Makes you laugh: a squirrel in the botanical garden, it didn't show any sign of fear and got really close to our group of people

15. Dinnertime: I love rice pudding with cherries and I finally found an easy way to cook a single serving, just for myself, yumm, in the microwave, takes twenty minutes, but no clean ups and no milk burnt

16. Something you wrote: mmh, I don't write?, I do, but I guess I didn't feel like writing just to take a picture

18. Made you smile today: the most beautiful weather, the most beautiful trees, the most beautiful colors, the most beautiful time of year: autumn

19. Letters: just in time before the day ended: I spent the afternoon with a picnic and a long walk: graffiti art over the water..I wonder how it got there

20. 4 o’clock: traffic jam, yay

21. Calm: a morning walk in the woods, sometimes I love love love my job

22. In your town: saturday was Zoo day

23. The view from here: my plate, eggs and tomatoes

24. Weather: well, it's autumn: cold and cloudy

25. People: a weird day! a really weird day, I'm working as a saleswoman and got lost in the woods that day, I didn't see much people at all, weird!

26. Listening to: I spent my lunchtime with the radio, and I love the high noon talk at fritz radio

27. Morning: damn it! missed another day, but this is the picture I took in the evening, I know it's cheating, but hey, it's my blog ^__^

28. Looking back: having the new bat design in mind, I looked back at my first one, couldn't believe I made it in 2009

29. Moon: I couldn't see the full moon myself, but my weather app could...

30. Clothes: my outfit of the day, it's cold and I'm wearing boots and a hat, a hat with a pixie pointed top

31. Whatever you please: dinnertime again, I helped myself to some pasta, halloweeny pasta yummyumm

what was your October like? was it fun, was worth remembering? I hope you had a wonderful one.

hugs, Diana
♥

Berti Bat - the pattern - complete

edit: here you can find the pdf download

_____

as promised yesterday, here's the first bits of the last minute Halloween amigurumi. I've worked on it for two afternoons, so making it should take about 3-4 hours total (depending on your time and mood of course ^__^)

I'm going to update the pattern on this post until Wednesday so we won't have the complete pattern on all sorts of different places (not like two or three posts would make a whole mess, but I like my stuff organised...must be part of being Virgo)

let's start, what's most important to a bat?

to know its abbreviations ^__^

sc -- single crochet
m2 -- classic increase
sc2tog -- classic decrease, I prefer the invisible way
B6 -- bobble made from 6 double crochets
B3 -- bobble made from 3 double crochets
hdc -- half double crocht
m2dc -- make two double crochets into one stitch, equals an increase with double crochets

_________

WINGS:

make two:

1 _make a slip knot and chain 7 with a slightly smaller hook than you normally would like to crochet with
2 _now use the hook you normally crochet with and starting in 2nd chain from hook: sc5, m3 in last chain, continue on the other side of the loops of the starting chain and sc4, m2, place a marker and continue to work in a round
_(short: sc5, m3, sc4, m2)
3 _m2, sc5, sc2tog, sc5, m2
4 _m2x2, sc5, sc2tog, sc5, m2
5 _sc2, m2, sc5, sc2tog, sc6, m2
6 _sc2, m2, sc6, sc2tog, sc6, m2
7 _sc3, m2, sc15
8 _m2, sc2, m2, sc16
9 _sc1, m2, sc2, m2, sc17
10 _sc24
11 _sc4, m2, sc19
12 _sc5, m2, sc11, m2, sc7
13 _sc6, m2, sc20
14 _sc20, m2, sc7
15 _sc6, m2, sc14, m2, sc7
16 _sc22, m2, sc8
17 _sc7, m2, sc15, m2, sc8
18 _sc25, B6, sc8
19 _sc8, m2, sc16, sc2tog, sc7
20 _sc24, sc2tog, sc1, sc2tog, sc5
21 _sc25, sc2tog, sc5
22 _sc31
23 _sc9, sc2tog, sc14, m2, sc5
24 _sc9, B3, sc14, m2 x2, sc5
25 _sc7, sc2tog x3, sc13, B6, sc6
26 _sc6, sc2tog, sc1, sc2tog, sc10, sc2tog, sc1, sc2tog, sc4
27 _sc5, sc2tog, sc1, sc2tog, sc9, sc2tog x2, sc3
28 _sc4, sc2tog, sc1, sc2tog, sc7, sc2tog x2, sc2
29 _sc5, sc2tog, sc6, sc2tog x2, sc1
30 _sc12, sc2tog, sc1
31 _sc14
32 _sc14
33 _sc10
BO with a slip stitch, leave tail to sew to body
you don't need to stuff the wings

Head/Body

1 - make a dr with 6 sts
2 - m2 x6
3 - (m2, sc1) x6
4 - (sc2, m2) x6
5 - sc1, (m2, sc3) x5, m2, sc2
6 - (m2, sc4) x6
7 - sc3, (m2, sc5) x5, m2, sc2
8 - sc42
9 - (m2, sc6) x6
10 - sc48
11 - sc4, (m2, sc7) x5, m2, sc3
12 - sc9, (m2, sc17) x2, m2, sc8
13-16 - sc57
17 - sc4, (sc2tog, sc13) x2, sc2tog, sc13
18 - (sc2tog, sc7) x6
19 - sc3, (sc2tog, sc6) x5, sc2tog, sc3
20 - (sc2tog, sc5) x6
21 - sc2, (sc2tog, sc4) x5, sc2tog, sc2
22 - (sc2tog, sc3) x6
23 - sc1, (sc2tog, sc2) x5, sc2tog, sc1
stuff
24 - (sc2tog, sc1) x6
25 - sc2tog x6
BO with a slip stitch

eyes and ears will follow tomorrow morning, here's a pic of what my prototype looks like so far:

Eyes

with white
1 - make a double ring with 6 sc
2 - m2 x6
3 - m2, hdc1, m2dc x3, hdc1, (m2, sc1) x3
4 - sc1, m2, sc1, hdc1, m2dc x4, hdc1, m2, sc1, BO with slip stitch

dark pupil color (maybe the same color you used for the wings?)
1 - make a dr with 8 hdc, BO with a slip stitch
and finally the ears

Ears

1 - chain 5 with smaller hook
2 - sc3, m3, sc2, m2 with normal hook and continue in the round
3 - m2, sc3, sc2tog, sc3, m2
m2 x2, sc3, sc2tog, sc3, BO with a slip stitch

assembling and final pictures will follow this afternoon, but I'm sure you'll be able to sew all body parts where they belong ^__^
you can also embroider teeth, I'm still thinking about this myself

I hope you enjoyed this little fella, I'll bee adding a pdf later as well

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Diana

♥

_____

it is finished ^__^

Last minute Halloween crochet

Muahahaha, Halloween sits just around the next corner and is waiting to scream BOO

are you in the mood for some last minute Halloween crochet? some real LAST MINUTE amigurumi? I've been sitting and doodling and crocheting:

His name will be Berti

and he will make companion to Betti

hope you will like him, I will post the pattern tomorrow

muahahaha, Diana

♥

pattern: Wesley the crab

the testers were awesome and here is the pattern:

as always Wesley was created with Schachenmayr Catania yarn and an E hook. He turned out about 4-5 inches high (5 inches the highest point of the eyes) and about 7 inches from tip of left pincer to end of outer right leg.

On Wesley you will use a lot of slip stitches, therfore I recommend to have a second smaller hook at hand to help you pick up the stitches. Wesley will be awesome as a zodiac or just make him a toy ^__^

USD 6.50

add to cart --- show cart

♥ hope you enjoy him, Diana

one, two, three ... autumn cardigans

a lovely reader (Hi Anna ☺) asked for easy/quick to make autumn cardigans or sweaters, so I thought instead of just sending her a few links I answered in form of a blog post. I looked at my ravelry queue and found a few lovely things, both knitted and crochet:

when it comes to clothing I prefer knitting but I found a few crochet pieces as well. Knitting quicker to me screams BIG needles aka hooks, the bigger the stitch the less stitches you need, the quicker you see results. Personally I like app. 4mm needles the best. I don't know what mystery it is that makes even bigger needles knit slower. (maybe it's the more movement you need to put into a single stitch? I don't know..)

Also something that doesn't require assembling will be finished a lot faster than something that does (I still have a cardigan sleeping in a box somewhere that I started about six years ago, if not longer, I "only" need to sew the arms to the body but it seems an impossible task to do). So going top down is a good choice.

1 Liesl is a pretty simple top down lace cardigan, with 3 buttons and no assembling I enjoyed making it a lot.

2 featherweight cardigan a very sleek design, simple and joyful, yet quick warm enough for chilly autumn days

3 Rocky Coast Cardigan I love the stitch pattern on this one, texture and a little bit "boyfriend" style

4 Goodale this design is very clever and elegant I think. the "pockets" on the front make it something special. Plus I think with longer sleeves it will look very cute too, maybe half arm?

5 driven maybe this is the bigger sister of Goodale, with its longer arms it seems thicker and warmer overall

6 Whisper Cardigan airy! I think with Whisper the name says it all, a whisper in the leaves of autumn trees

7 Tempest a very classic cardigan design, I love the stripes and the design is very clever and will make the stockinette not boring as well (also watching the stripes grow is lovey to trick your mind to knit more a day)

the next three are crochet:

8 Esmee the deep V neck and the lacy crochet make this look fabulous. I love the color as well!

9 Chevron lace Cardigan it reminds me of Liesl, only crochet, very pretty

10 Hourglass jacket it's tunesian crochet, so maybe not the quickest, as you might need to learn the technique first (I certainly would) but it looks so pretty

and last but not least, I found this lovely cardigan in my blog-roll yesterday: it's the wildflower-cardigan, it has such cute details on the front pockets

I hope you liked my little selection and found it helpful, if only I could decide what to make first (reminds herself to finish something!!)

autumny hugs, Diana

♥

I am such a Muppet!

Time flies! and it seems like I neglected this blog again, I didn't plan to, I even planned a few posts (like one about a few autumny cardigans I like and that could be knitted /crocheted quickly OR finally publishing the pattern for Wesley) but somehow life interferred and here I am two weeks later.

I instagrammed a bit and even twittered in case you're interested. I like instagram quite a bit and post a few pictures a week there, some about knitting and progressing (the knitted picot bind off for this shawl drives me crazy) and some on the adventures of a little bear:

in case you want to have a look at my twitter or instagram I'm @mygurumi on both.

and I squeezed in some reading too! I flew through the first two books of the Divergent Series, Veronica Roth did a great job with these! If you like Harry Potter or the Hunger Games I'm sure you will like this series as well

would you still want the blog posts I mentioned above?

have a sunny day, Diana

♥