my June 2013

most of the time this last month I was ill in bed. I reached very high when the universe asked who wanted to have a cozy little summer flu. Nevertheless, feeling like a walking dead didn't stop me from taking some pictures.. here we go, my June:

1. B is for…: Berlin! the city I live in, isn't she beautiful?

2. A moment: in every crocheters life, and so in mine, making the last stitches in a granny square..

3. On my table: is my favorite sweet: Maoam!. I have no idea if this internattionally known stuff, but I like sweets like these .. I have a very sweet tooth in general, but this kind makes it water more than other sweets

4. After dark: well, the sun just set, it's the view from my balcony

5. Environment: being at work, traveling, today my environment was a small city called Schwedt, it's quite nice there

6. Transport: well, a car (found in an Überraschhungsei/ a kinder surprise)

7. Bright: papaver .. they bloom everywhere this time of the year, I love it!

8. An animal: my co-driver ^__^

9. From down low: the Berlin poplars are blooming at the moment, which makes certain areas look like winter, all white, I tried to capture a little of that magic in this picture

10. You!: well .. no idea why there's no picture, I guess I just didn't find the time?

11. Something funny: all day I was thinking about this, quite hard actually, but nothing funny crossed my way, until I parked at home and right in front of me there was this dark purple car, a Trabbi express, weird

12. 11 o’clock: pm, I usually read, in June I was reading Drachenseele by Angela Planert, I wouldn't recommend it, It didn't rock my socks, but it was a nice, fluid read, I need to admit it

13. Kitchen: in my kitchen I have a cookie jar..

14. Texture: on the road again, I saw a few textures, the strawberries I ate in the car, the roof of my hotel, the octopus tentacles we had for dinner

15. From above: I've been on a little congress over the weekend which was at the baltic see. I also went to see my sortof hometown Rostock and then suddenly from above there came a super storm

16. Family: this is always hard for me, I don't have my family with me in Berlin..

17. Centered: one of my favorite and sooo simple summer dishes: sweetheart cabbage sauted with mango (and salt and pepper)

18. Street: hmm, it must have been empty ^__^

19. Currently reading: as I've already shared my currently read book (at 11 o'clock) I read the city mag with some icecream on the balcony, heaven!

20. Cute: and the flu got me! I had pretty high temperature and it also was the hottest day of the year so far .. the cutest thing that happened that day was the thunderstorm that cooled the air quite noticeable

21. Lunchtime: a light lunch, some pasta with pesto. being ill doesn't mean you couldn't eat properly right?

22. Enjoying life: my first visitor .. sweetheart brought me flowers .. he's such a romantic sometimes

23. Last: piece of cake, rainbow cake in particular. my favorite cake when I was little

24. Negative space: according to fatmumslim, who started this challenge negative space is to have a lot of space around your photographed object, here a strawberry

25. Sharp: a knife would have been to simple, right? so no picture

26. Empty: an empty box of strawberries, the only good thing about being ill was, that I was able to get my hands on my favorite strawberries (They're coming all the way from my home area and are always already sold out when I get home from work)

27. Into the sun: on the balcony, a shot through my basil into the bright sky

28. Red: and on my balcony there are also some red eyed flies sitting on my mint

29. In my bag: sweetheart came by to have breakfast with me, he found heart shaped whole grain bread rolls, isn't that the cutest bread roll you've ever seen?

30. Handwriting: a very simple but effective way to make new friends :)

and with this I'm leaving you for today, have a wonderful week friends ^__^

p.s. I guess this month will be filled with lots of updates on my flower granny blanket, I make good progress at the moment

recap May 2013

oh boy, what happened to flickr? I'm not sure whether I like the new design.. anyways another month went by, and in May I picked up the challenge to post a picture a day again. Haven't done this for 5 or 6 weeks I almost forgot that it's actually a lot of fun. I always try to take the picture the day of the specific challenge, which makes me see life a little more open-eyed and also it's like a little diary. Did you write diaries when you were little? I used to, but never sticked to it for longer than a few weeks. I also felt a little weird writing : "dear diary today nothing spectacular happened" growing up quite a lot of days were normal average fun days, but not SPECTACULAR!!, you know what I mean? Now I write a diary again, and always try to only write one little sentence, the first thing that comes to my mind when I lay in bed and think about the day that just ends. This is a lot easier and I realize that life doesn't need to be spectacular, it is the small things that make a life unique

so my pictures in may:

1. I bought this!: raspberries, soooo yumm! I'm glad we finally reached the warmer months of the year and berries in all shapes and sizes are available on the market

2. Morning ritual: breakfast .. usually I eat my cereal, and do you see the spoon? it's the same spoon I learned eating with when I was little, I love this spoon

3. This is really good!: pasta! even better pasta with freshly made pesto genovese

4. In my cup: iced coffee with cream, mucho crema, yumm!

5. Paper: post its

6. Broken: while working I drive through eastern germany and today I spend my lunch break wandering around, seeing this tree in the front clearly broken I couldn't stand but not taking a picture. This one is not filtered or edited, the colors are original, isn't the color scheme kinda like a Burton movie?

7. Something beginning with F: being in Leipzig for a big congress, on the way into town I came across this wall art, is it graffiti when it's clearly painted?

8. Shape: round, a mac blush, an orange one to celebrate springtime

9. A snack: during the congress one of the healthier snacks was one of the bananas from one of the other counters

10. Stars: seems like I didn't see any

11. A smile: me :) .. or rather a cartoonist drew a picture of me during the congress

12. Mother: mothers day!!! since I wasn't with my mom this sunday, I was thinking quite a bit about this one (plus I think my mom wouldn't enjoy a picture of herself on the internet) than I came across this peanuts comic strip .. perfect

13. Sunrise/Sunset: evening sun in Tempelhof/Berlin

14. Need: food, it doesn't need to be healthy all the time but bananas, milk and blueberries are a wonderful combination

15. 7 o’clock: me, still a little wrinkly fresh out of bed .. obviously it's been very early, I managed to foresee the future, it still was the 15th

16. Mailbox: I meant to take a picture of one of the yellow mailboxes in Berlin, but I never managed to actually do it

17. Season: oregano and spring meet each other

18. Want: a BBQ .. with my BF in Ulm

19. My favourite view: a good sunset, I love the clouds in all shades of pinks, oranges and reds, so so good

20. Light: still being in Ulm, looking up at the sun behind a cloud

21. I care about this…: a little message between me and sweetheart, we share humor

22. Change: the whole day I've been thinking about things that could change.. until in the late evening I bought something and my change also included the new changed 5€ bill, it still feels and looks wrong, not like real money

23. PJs: well .. I don't usually wear any, soo..

24. Go: the typical traffic light in Berlin, the little guy used to be the traffic light guy in former eastern germany, now some traffic lights still get to have their (much more loved) old/new traffic light guy, cute!

25. Us: a picture from Ulm, I'm having a little fun .. he wasn't aware of this picture until now ^__^

26. Fave thing to do on Sunday: cuddle in bed, breakfast would be awesome too, but someone would need to get up and prepare one

27. Can’t live without: fun!! .. (and m&m's too)

28. What you’re doing now: I went swimming in one of the lokal indoor swimming pools

29. Kiss: isn't this cute? the new menthos edition wants kissable breath

30. Tool: chopsticks, I ordered sushi for dinner

31. Four things: eating out of town .. the appetizer included fresh bread, cream, salt and a knife

I hope you're having a totally awesome June, see you all soon, Diana

casting on

it's not like I wouldn't have enough projects that would love my attention but when going to our weekly knit meetups I don't want to crochet every single time. I was crocheting on my sunflower blanket/granny squares for every single meeting through the last months. And I find myself observing all the others who use two needles with a little sentimental emotions. Soooo it was time for a new knit, one that could be easily transported and would be appropriate for a chitchat group like ours.

The yarn will be a pain in the ass I already can tell, it's super slippery. Maybe that's normal with bamboo. It's the first time I use bamboo, so we will see. I want to knit a little vest/cardigan to wear during summer over dresses. My first idea was to knit goodale, but I checked the projects on this one and even though I will make it (maybe even this summer) I won't be using the yarn I want to use at the moment. Which btw is Alize Bamboo Fine Batik Design. It's sooooo gorgeous!!! A friend at our meetings has made a small shawl with it and it's the softest thing I ever ever ever felt!

so which pattern will I make? good question. I considered using some small needles (2.5mm) and couldn't find anything that I liked, that's why I started designing my own little vest. I will knit up and down to get some lengthwise stripes instead of .. well around the body. I have no idea how that will turn out but I'm in a good mood for this so I started swatching..

knitted hugs, Diana

finally a finished object - revival dress

so I finally managed to get some decent pictures of me wearing my first knitted dress. Last year I was knitting on and off on this dress from August 2011 till October 2012 - and only now I got to wear it, the weather is finally springy!

Pattern: revival by Ankestrick .. the original pattern is for a pullover using the contiguous method. I enjoyed this new method very much. No sewing is always something that catches me. I would change a few little bits when using this yarn again with this method, like not making the arms as wide as I did here. The overall shape though is lovely. The yarn is gorgeous too! it's a cotton/linen/silk blend and I have more than enough to make another dress, so I think I will make a cardigan from the leftovers. The quality feels perfect on the skin with the warmer weather.

Changes to the original pattern: basically I followed the pattern. It's top down which made it a lot easier to turn it into a dress. I added some short rows to create more room for the boobs and I also added waist shaping. The waist shaping also was the base for the increases that I simply continued to create an A-line to the skirt. Turned out great!

I simply love this dress although a knitted garment doesn't hide any curve, if you know what I mean ;)

have a lovely knitting weekend,
Diana

also big xoxo to the photographer