Lighter times ahead

Things are finally starting to look a bit brighter again.

For one thing, the leak in or roof is fixed and we have electricity again. That also means I can finally start decorating our flat properly and feel "at home" - until now this thought was mainly connected to stressful thoughts about landlord, insurance, contractors, wet ceilings and full water buckets. But now I can start seeing the potential and all the possibilities of this flat. A blank canvas that we can now start filling up with (mainly my) stuff - long live the hoarding mentality.

We also managed to find a solution to compensate for the big holiday disappointment. After intensive searching for a few days we decided to go to Georgia and Armenia instead. As close as you can get to Iran without getting into potential trouble. Also, I'm an expert on flight searches and holiday planning websites now.

Work is still crazier than ever but I feel I can cope better. Maybe I'm just getting used to this unhealthy level of stress. Or I have grown into my responsibilities. Usually I'm too tired to find the real answer to this question and the only thing I manage to do in the evening is cooking dinner (I find this suddenly strangely relaxing) and watching stupid TV shows.

And lastly, another positive note: the days are getting longer again and even though I technically don't rely on it as much anymore since the electricity is back on it just gives a damn good boost to my mood. I definitely feel like going out more and a walk in the woods is long overdue. 

A knitting revelation

Going through my blogroll I recently stumbled upon this article by Andi Satterlund about twisted ribbing. I had noticed this in her "Miette" pattern but basically ignored the instruction as I couldn't figure out how to do it - I thought it was just regular ribbing. But reading through her post now, it suddenly struck me: I didn't understand it because...

... I have been purling the WRONG way all my life!!!! It was one of those moments when first of all you just cannot  understand how it is possible that I just didn't learn to purl properly and I haven't noticed for about 20 years. But when I started thinking about it all suddenly made sense. Why my stockinette always looked a bit wonky if I didn't knit in the round and my grandmother even said a long, long time ago: "It looks almost like a different pattern the way you knit.". And especially in my "Miette" I noticed the weird definition when stretching the garment which looked different to the sleeves that were knitted on DPNs.

If you look very carefully you can for example see it here:



I'm just completely baffled that I never, ever realized this myself and only when Andi described it so well in her post I recognized my own mistake. To be fair, I also knit most of my cardigans in the round so I only noticed it in certain garments (this is not an excuse but  maybe partly an explanation).

Just so you know, it might be worth checking your own purling technique and maybe you can still fix some mistake even after 20 years of knitting! 

The trip that was not meant to be

As you know I'm not only a passionate knitter but also a very avid traveler. Since my last trip  - to Montenegro - was now already more than three months ago (not counting Berlin because Germany is my native country so this is technically just a home visit) I was already looking forward to planning the next adventure.

For a long time we had already been  looking into visiting Iran and this has been one of my all-time favourite travel destinations. Now that the economic sanctions were being relaxed and the overall political climate seemed to have calmed down a little we heard from several friends that travelling in Iran was amazing and actually not too much of a hassle in spite of visa requirements and restrictions on dresscode, etc.

We did some research on the internet, talked to some friends, bought a guide book, started the visa application procedure and decided to go ahead with the booking when we find some ridiculously cheap tickets for direct flights to Teheran. I was super excited! Of course, there had to be a catch though...

Only a few days after we booked out tickets, Thomas sent me a link to a news article by e-mail. The headline was "US tightens visa rules for certain Europeans". I skimmed through the article quickly but didn't really give it a second thought. The US changes its visa policy. So what - I'm not planning on going to the US anytime soon and even if I do, surely it doesn't concern me?

But when we started discussing it in more detail it turns out that we were very unlucky indeed: The US's change in visa regulations  to "prevent terrorism" meant that anyone who has been to Iran (as well as Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan) in the past six years or has double nationality of any of these countries cannot get an ESTA anymore. In practice that means that whenever we'd want to go to the US, even if it is just for a layover to travel to another country (as I did for example when I went to Peru last year), we would have to apply for a US visa including all the cost related to it and a personal interview at the US embassy with the risk that the application could be rejected.

Urgh!

While this didn't bother me too much personally, Thomas could get some problems because he potentially has to travel to the US and Canada later this year for work. It seemed like a lot of hassle with uncertain repercussions for "just a holiday". I was so angry!! Why this change in legislation? And why now?? Of course we didn't have travel insurance either so we knew that the money for the tickets would be lost if we decided not to go. After long discussions, we decided to cancel our trip.

Despite all this, there is a silver lining to it all. You're probably thinking "How's that possible after she has been going on about this for three pages?" but yes, we were in the end incredibly lucky in our misfortune. A couple of weeks after we decided to cancel our plans I received an unexpected e-mail from the airline, saying they had cancelled their entire flight connection to Teheran including the trip that we had booked. Would we prefer to change our booking or rather have a full refund?

In the end, this was the best solution we could have wished for: it basically confirmed our decision (as we would never be able to find equally cheap tickets for the same time period with another airline) and we had a full refund of the flight tickets that we thought we had lost! I'm still gutted that we don't get to go to Iran but we promised ourselves that we WILL go one day, hopefully without the harassment of the US authorities.

Now just to decide where to go next... and in the planning department we're back to square one. 

Miette (the cardigan)

Our roof still isn't fixed but I took advantage of the weekend and the short time of daylight I had to take some pictures of my latest FO - Andi Satterlund's "Miette".

I like this pattern a lot and it was the perfect match for my re-purposed merino yarn from another frogged project (a vest that I've never, ever worn - who comes up with patterns for thick merino yarn without sleeves??). I recently discovered Andi Satterlund's patterns and took an immediate liking to them. A) because she has a good taste in cardigans and b) because they are fairly straight forward and fast to knit.

The construction is top-down which I liked and the progress was fast. I was just a bit confused with the lace pattern around the edges so I think in the back of the neck I got a bit mixed up with the lace but was too lazy to rip it all up again. The lace pattern might or might not be a bit wonky as a result.

Unfortunately this is another cardi that came out a bit too small - either I have gained a size or I should seriously rethink my swatching technique because I swear it seemed fine when I tested the gauge! I hope it's nothing that a bit of blocking can't fix.

All in all I'm very happy and I'm already considering knitting a second edition, maybe a size up this time.

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Pattern: Andi Satterlund's Miette
Yarn: Lana Grossa Merino 

Housing troubles

After moving house in December I thought the worst was over and I could finally concentrate on my knitting and other FUN things. Unfortunately I was wrong.

It's been barely a month but things with the new flat have been chaotic to say the least: on the day we moved in, our garage was broken into and a neighbour's bike was stolen and another neighbour had his car window smashed. Not even a month after moving in, it turns out we have a leaking roof which manifested itself in flooding of our bed- and living rooms. As a consequence of the leak a fuse blew and we have been partly without electricity since. Fun!! Especially the part where we walk around with camping lamps in our own flats to  brush our teeth....

Of course things can go wrong - that's life and we all get our share of it - but why does it all have to happen at the same time?! Besides the flat-situation, work is also particularly stressful (if exciting) which means I have to do long hours and all I wish for is to come home to our (dry) flat, cook a nice dinner, and sit on the couch and read a book or knit - all of which are quite difficult without light. Not even mentioning the unavoidable quarrel and chasing up with landlords, contractors, janitors, etc. which is costing me a lot of nerves.

I need a holiday!

PS: Sorry, no fun pictures. Mainly because I don't feel like it but also because of a lack of lighting.

Arrows

Lopipeysa number 01/2016 or, to be correct, number 6 in my personal collection. But as I'm trying something new with every jumper I tested using Plötulopi this time as Maria Carlander mentioned her positive experience with it on her blog. I also used her chart for the yoke while keeping my trusty "Aftur" pattern for the bodice & sleeves.

Knitting with Plötulopi is a bit different because it is unspun yarn so the fibres are only attached to each very losely; it is not twisted or plied. But since it is sheep wool the fibres "stick" very well to each other and you can fix it very easily if the yarn breaks. That didn't actually happen to me very often, the only thing that was a pain was at the end when I tried to stitch the underarm holes together with kitchener stitch. Of course there was too much tension on the yarn and I should have come up with a better solution but in the end I just plied a strand by hand and that worked.

In spite of my positive experience I'm not sure if I'll use it again because when held double it is very bulky, something in between Létt Lopi and Alafoss Lopi, which results in an extremely warm garment. I might try to hold it as a single strand and see what the result is but normally, Létt Lopi is more than enough for the mild Belgian climate. Big plus though: Plötulopi is even cheaper than the already cheap Lopi yarns in general. I think I payed around 3 € for 100 g in the Alafoss shop in Reykjavík.

Oh, and I already have my eye on the next Lopipeysa. Isn't this one a beauty?

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Pattern: A mixture of "Aftur" and Maria Carlander's chart for the yoke
Yarn: Alafoss Plötulopi/Unspun Icelandic

Berlin

It's been a long time since I celebrated New Year's in Berlin even though we used to go almost every year when I was a child. It was always great fun to stay up late and just before Midnight climb the roof of our friends' 5-storey building (to the horror of my mother who clung on to the chimney while we children balanced along the edge of the not-so-shallow incline of the roof). From there you had the best view over the city and all the the fireworks. 

And, wow, I had forgotten about the fireworks! I think nobody who has never been in Berlin can imagine the amount of noise and chaos that ensues the two hours before and after Midnight on New Year's eve - except if you're coming from a war zone, that's probably the only matching comparison. I don't know why people choose to waste their money on firecrackers (or rather small bombs) and I always wonder why there are no restrictions on the worst combination ever: drunk people handling explosives. Was that ever a good idea? Well, at least it makes for a memorable party and it certainly left a lasting impression. By Midnight, the air was so full of smoke that we could hardly see the other side of the street and when people started shooting fireworks at each other we decided to make a move. 

But Berlin, you never disappoint with your run-down streets and Hipster cafés, cheap food and Ossi nostalgia. Both in summer and in winter, even though this year we can hardly call it a "winter" with the cherry trees in bloom. Next time I won't let as much time pass to visit again but maybe then without fireworks.