Summer Crochet: Elise & I

It’s a fake. But I could not resist when getting off the train this morning.

shawl Elise haekelmonster.comNot the Bahamas, no vacation – Berlin Wannsee, journey to work. And I would only stay long enough for a few pictures (thank you gentle breeze, for your help).

Thereafter, I would stuff the (half way) finished lovely Elise shawl back into my backpack and hurry to work, trying to make up for the quick time-out at the lake.

Filing and bookkeeping are on my desk for today … (ugh!).

Unfortunately, swapping job with the duck was not an option 🙂

wannsee haekelmonster.comWhatever you’re up to: enjoy!

Pentecost

In Germany Pentecost is a holiday. There is Pentecost Sunday and Pentecost Monday. That makes it a three-day weekend and we were very much looking forward to it.

35°C outside (that is 95°F), enough ice cream in the freezer, and my parents visiting made up for J‘s root canal treatment (…) on Friday.

It feels like I didn’t knit or crochet that much lately (not to mention my orphaned blog …). Progress is ever so slow … Obviously, when it comes to knitting 35°C is the upper limit (for me). However, I am a lizard – I love the warmth!

An A-shape tunic, made of cotton yarn, is (one of four projects) on my needles right now.

Flower Power

Warmth or cold, sun or storm – this year, summer is on and off in Berlin. However, the garden appears to like it. Everything seems to be growing overnight and whenever I have time, I am outside to weed and water. The minute I turn though, those mean little greens seem to be breaking through the soil anew.

yellow flowers front yard

J caught the garden bug from me and keeps “planting” little pips and grains between damp cotton pads waiting for them to sprout. This one – placed in the lid of some spray can – immediately did what was expected. It will become a tree, says J. In the meantime, the “tree to be” has been repotted into a flowerpot and we’re counting days until we can sit in its shade.

IMG_1892

With gardening and such, there was never enough time to knit or crochet lately (not to mention blogging …). Anyway, little crochet flowers are easy and fast to make 🙂  and I managed to make quite a few last week. They’re on their way to the UK now and I sure hope Dilly Tante will get them in time!

simple crochet flowers

Crochet Bags

Surfing the net, I realized a few days ago that there are some very nice crochet bags out there: very colorful, very fashionable, very useful! And all of a sudden I knew that those little squares (Edie Eckman motiv #88) I have made, were not to become a blanket as intended.

Instead, M and I spent hours trying to arrange some of them according to Inga’s pattern in such a way that same colors do not adjoin … Well, if you look at the final outcome we did not succeed. Yes, it bugs me. No, I won’t undo it. There are enough little squares left to start over and make a second bag 🙂

Crochet Bag

Recently, Juliane too has discovered crochet bags. Here is the bag she made for a little girl. I really like her choice of colors! Pretty in pink 🙂

Crochet Bag Juliane

I want summer!

No! More! Winter! (Please …) I am so tired of the cold, the ice, the snow. Especially, after spring was already here with sun and crocuses and gardening and all of that. Sure, (at least) with regard to knitting and crochet, winter is a wonderful season but I am longing for daylight and warm weather. Aren’t you?

Therefore, I decided to at least “crochet summer.” Here’s the outcome:

Floating Tire

Any idea what this might be? It belongs to the gentleman with the blue bathing cap and matching speedo.

swimmer

His legs are slightly big and maybe not long enough but still I am very pleased with his appearance. Especially, after I managed to do the floating tire. Trust me, I had countless attempts, but when about to give up it hit me like a bolt from the blue (see the pun with blue and blue :)) – it had to be done from the outside to the inside, just like an LP would play its music (= Long Record, for those of you not old enough to remember records) and not in rounds. So here they are, the swimmer and his floating tire:

swimmer & tire

swimmer & tire

swimmer & tire

swimmer & tire

Well, looks like there are two of us waiting for summer now …