New Poll and some Knitting

Hey girls! :)

I'm back today with a little bit of knitting:

But before I tell you about this scarf, I've got two other things I'd like to mention:

First, I've started a new poll for our link-party in January. Once again, you can vote for your favorite topic: Baby Crochet, Kitchen, Clothing, Colorful, Pretty in Pink, Animals, or a Free Topic Party. The last one is a new category, which is actually no topic at all, because you're free to link up whatever you'd like - as long as it is crochet, of course :)

Second, I'd like to link to our current Christmas Crochet link-party again: You've already posted great ideas, check out what's new and maybe link up your latest Christmas creations - the party's still on!

And now back to my knitted scarf:

Isn't it fancy? :) To tell you the truth: I'm a very bad knitter, I just don't feel that comfortable with knitting needles like I do with a crochet hook. I like knitting socks (the first one, the second one is boring), but that's all I've ever made over the last few years. But this scarf was too easy, really - you just need the simple knit stitches, eight stitches per row, over and over again. The scarf looks curly, because it's made with a special yarn (or rather net), that looks like this:

One ball - one scarf, and then you just make knots into the ends, you don't even have to weave them in! Actually it feels a little bit like cheating, similar to those painting-by-numbers pictures: you don't have to be very talented to have a great result with little effort - awesome! :)

The color - which I've learned is teal *gg* - is almost the same as the one I've used for one of my potholders, I like it a lot! This scarf will be a present for a friend, but I think I'll make another one, soon - there are lovely colors available, even variegated yarn with a great effect for the finished scarf!

 

I hope you liked this little foray into the world of knitting - does anyone of you knit sometimes, too? What do you like better, crochet or knitting? And of course: Why?

I'm looking forward to reading your opinions, have a great Sunday everyone!! :)

Thursday Thoughts

Source: Uploaded by user via Barbara on Pinterest

"My" Day

Hello everybody, did you know that it's Saint Barbara's Day today? I usually forget about that myself, but my family always remembers. Especially my sister-in-law never forgets to give me some twigs. "Twigs??" you might wonder? I don't know if this is a tradition outside Germany, too, so let me tell you a little bit about Saint Barbara.

Barbara is a Christian Saint, martyr, and one of the 14 Holy Helpers. She's the patron saint of artillerymen, military engineers and miners, and she's a helper against lighning and fire. I've read on Wikipedia, that Saint Barbara's Day is celebrated by the British, Australian and Canadian armed forces and that she's also the patron saint of U.S. Navy and Marine Corps Aviation Ordnancemen (I didn't know that before)

What I haven't found on the English article on Wikipedia is the tradition that we have in some regions in Germany: On Saint Barbara's Day, the 4th of December, it's a tradition to cut some twigs from a fruit tree, put them into water and wait until Christmas - if you're lucky, the buds will open and bloom until Christmas Eve. If they do, the next year will be a happy one :)

 

This is a picture of my twigs today - I hope I can show you another picture with some blossoms until Christmas (usually I'm lucky) - and maybe those of you out there in the world would like to join this little German tradition? Twigs from cherry or apple trees are great, but I think any other fruit tree is good as well. I'd love to see some St. Barbara's twigs in your living-rooms! :)

More Flower Potholders

Remember the potholders I've made for my Mom's birthday in September? She really liked them a lot, so a few days ago, she asked me if I could make two more. No, wait - actually she asked me if I've "coincidentally" got two new potholders lying around. Err... no :) (does anyone of you?)

Next week-end my parents will go to Austria for a little pre-Christmas vacation (they've started this two years ago), and my Mom would like to bring some little gifts, like my potholders, for their friends down there.

I used Jennifer Martin's Flower Potholders pattern again and a thicker cotton yarn this time:

I had exactly these four colors of thick cotton yarn, and maybe they wouldn't have been my no.1 choices if I had a whole range of colors to choose from, but now I think they've turned out quite pretty. I like the blue-ish one, in Germany the color's called "Petrol", but I don't know what it is called in English, the dictionary is no help here ;) Somehow I seem to be drawn to this color, because right now I'm knitting (!) a scarf in a similar shade - I hope I can finish it this week-end :)

For more Christmas Inspiration, please visit my Christmas Crochet link-party

Theme Party # 5: Christmas Crochet

I love the advent season, don't you? Here's your chance to show off your Christmas Crochet: Things you've made last year or the years before, and things you've made just recently. Maybe you'll find new ideas and inspiration and come back to link up more :)

I'd like to start the poll for the next theme-party in January, soon - so if you've got suggestions for new topics, please leave a comment!

Some things you should keep in mind:

What you see is what you get: please link to the specific post where your chosen project can be found (not just your main blog address), and make sure that your post is about crochet and matches the given theme! No shops! Please understand that I might remove links that ignore these points.

Feel free to post as many links as you like - you should really search in the depths of your archives to retrieve your forgotten treasures, this is your chance to bring them back to the surface! :) more info

This collection can be found at The Crochet Boulevard now!