Jo's Advent Calendar - Day 17

As every year, the amazing Jo is hosting an amazing advent calendar, and as always I have to be a part of it! I got lucky and got assigned a date on the weekend, because during the week I'm terribly busy lately and would have been hard pressed to get the post out on time!

I haven't done a ton of Christmas stitching so far, and I'm showing Angel of Frost around all the time, so this time I'll pick the other one I did - Peter Polar Bear, stitched for an ornament exchange a few years ago ^_^

Now Jo has asked us to write about our favourite ornaments, the ones that are/or have some kind of history attached to them. Felix and I don't have a lot in terms of Christmas decoration yet...I know traditions differ, but in Germany (or among the people I know here, at least) it's common to only put the tree up on Christmas day (or maybe the day before), and it's only out until January 6th (although some people do middle of February). And since we spend the 24th with my grandparents and then visit Felix' parents until New Years Eve, there's not much sense in putting up a tree we will never really see. This will probably change once we have children of our own, but for now, I'll be telling you about a few of my grandma's ornaments - the ones I grew up with and love deeply :D

The left of these glass birds was a gift my mum got for my grandma many years ago, when she was still a child. The one of the right I got for her when I was a child, kind of to continue the tradition.

 These two birds don't have any special history, I just really like them because the are really pretty. They are also super heavy, so it's not really easy to find a good place for them on the tree.

 When I was a kid, grandma would always do some crafts for me every year to make Christmas presents for all the relatives and friends I wanted to give something to. One of my favourites were these ornaments, made from half a walnut shell, a wooden bead and some fabric and really pretty ribbon.

Those are some of the first ornaments my grandma bought when she and grandpa were newlyweds. They are made from painted wax, but I think they still look very pretty!

Alphabet Club Catch Up - G

I'm super behind with my being behind! But hopefully, I'll get teo TAC posts out as well as a regular post this week to be kind of up to date again. So without further ado, here comes 'G'!

For this letter's word, I was searching the internet for German words that don't have a proper English translation, and one word I came across was 'Geborgenheit'. Geborgenheit is, generally speaking, a feeling of safety, but more than that - it's also feeling warm and cozy and protected. Like you felt as a child when your mum or dad held you tight and you knew that nothing in the world was going to hurt you - that kind of feeling. I can't think of a good translation off the top of my head, but is there actually none?

A long time in the making...

...and finally done! I had a finish that justifies another quick update, even if it's much shorter than the last ones. Today, I finally finished knitting the shawl Lestrona I started for my grandma over a year ago. I didn't always love this project, I was arguing with myself whether to start over or not (since I felt I should use a 'better' yarn than ordinary sock yarn to knit such a pattern)...but after all, it was the pattern and the yarn my grandma picked out, and so I stuck to it, made a few mistakes along the way, and finished it anyways, and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out - so far, of course it still needs blocking, but that should be managable before Christmas.

I also did some more stitching and finished 'Second Breakfast' on the Hobbit Meal Planer. Just one more line going up, then three more going down!

I also took a short break over the weekend to work on this month's ornament. November had two to chose from again, and even though both are very very pretty, I had my heart set on the orange one since I have different plans for the yellow one!

And I just realized, I haven't shown you guys the second of my 'crochet a week' yet either! So here it is, much bigger than the first one, so it makes me wonder at which size those will turn out on average.

Alphabet Club Catch Up - F

I just checked my calendar and was suprised to learn it is, in fact, already time for another Alphabet Club Catch up post! We have reached the letter 'F' now, so let's celebrate this Fact with a visit of this cute little Fuchs (fox), and also some Fliegenpilze (fly agaric, according to my dictionary). He's also a very Fitting host to introduce today's Funny word, which is 'fuchsteufelswild' (fox-fevil-wild, if you take it literally). It decribes the state of being really, really mad about something or someone, and my dictionary offers 'hopping mad' as a translation. Really short post today, but I thought it was a cute little word still!

Fixing Purple Bunny

So in between my vigerous holiday crafing, here's another little project I wanted to share with you.

Ever since he was a little boy, Felix has had this little purple stuffed rabbit. He loves it dearly, but as well know, being dearly loved can take a toll on little stuffed rabbits, so it has become very worn over time. A few years back, I crocheted a pair of flap trousers to help cover all the spots on its belly where the filling started to leak out, but lately, it's neck had become all thin and hole-y as well, so while Felix was on a business trip last week, I decided to make fix his bunny and make it pretty again.

Here's our patient pre-surgery. First, I gave him a good soak and let him dry on the radiator for a few days, then I set to work. I took some soft white cotton and cut to shapes that had roughly the shape of the bunnies body. I sewed the lover half together to get kind of a tube, then I put the bunny inside this tube. I sewed the lower end of the tube to its legs, then sewed around his legs, and lastly I sewed the upper part to his neck/chin area - since the neck was so worn, I had to go pretty far up, so it looks a bit love Purple Bunny is wearing a sleevless long turtleneck now!

Lastly, I put the freshly washed pants back on and added a little neckerchief I cut from some flower-print cotton I had in my stash. Isn't this a handsome little bunny boy?

I'm pretty happy with how my little improvised bunny surgery turned out, and Felix is super happy he can snuggle his bunny again without fearing to accidentally tear its head off!

November WIPocalypse & Gifted Gorgeousness

Just ten days since my last post, and I feel like I already have a ton to write about - and there are two SALs to check in as well! Let's start with WIPocalypse. as the checkin was a day earlier. The question of the month is What pattern (or designer) is on your must-try-to-stitch bucket list? and oh my, where even to start for a question like that? There are, of course, a ton of designs I want to stitch, so I'll focus on designs of designers I haven't worked on yet. So for one, I, like many other stitchers want to do a Chatelaine some day - I haven't decided which one, although I really like the Japanese Garden. I also have been wanting to stitch Joan Elliott's three Oriental Graces for some time now,  and Electra from Nora Corbett's Bewitching Pixies. And of course all the Mucha Princess patterns by my friend Ashley!

Now for my progress, I've been working on a lot of things, three of which don't qualify for the Gifted Gorgeousness SAL - for one, I finished the 5th page of the Fire and Ember SAL. I loved this page, those bright red, orange and yellow colours where so much fun to work with, and they look stunning now!

Then, my friend Carla joined a crochet-a-day challenge on dA, where she attempts to do one small motif every day. She's using some very pretty perle yarn for hers, and they looked so pretty that I couldn't resist joining in as well - more with a corchet a week-ish thing, but let's see how it works out. Instead of the awesome book Carla is using, I'm using the patterns from a 'Crochet for your purse' box my grandma gave me a while back, and also some yarn I got for Easter this year. I'm planning to do most of this in the same two colours and join them together into some kind of wallhanging later.

As Felix is on a bussiness trip this week, I used his room to get my blocking mats out and finally finish-finish my snowflake party shawl I had finished knitting in August. It's more than two meters in length now, and sooo snuggly and soft with the 50% merion, 50% silk yarn. I have to admit, I'm very happy with this pattern and yarn and very proud of the result.

Of course, I also worked more on my list for Gifted Gorgeousness. For the two hats I finished knitting, I bought a plastic pompom maker (which was like 5€ for three different sizes) which was much easier to handle than the paper ones, and I made two nice and round pompoms with which I was finally able to finish-finish the hats. I've been wearing mine every day since then and my grandma loved hers as well. Now just two more to go!

I also finish-finished the puprle baby jacket. I had a few problems with the buttons I wanted to use - I originally wanted to use some cute caterpillars together with the butterflies, but they couldn't be attached safely enought for me to be comfortable with gifting it to someone. So I went to my stash and found some neutral ones that went well with the colours, and I really like the result as well. I will have to increase my button stash eventually, though.

So my new update on my to-do list is as follows:

1. Two toddler-scarfes 'Sharky-Pie' - beginning of one is pictures in blue - as christmas presents for a friend's twins
2. Two One more small Mill Hill kits as christmas presents for friends/coworkers of ours
3. Shawl Lestrona for my grandma- a little over ten rows to go!
4. One pair of socks for Felix' dad - one sock done up to the heel
5. One BSJ for a soon-to-be-a-dad coworkers of mine - due in December
6. One pair of Baby Booties and one Toddler sized purse for the kids of a friend - due in December
7. One pair of Baby Booties for a coworker - due in October
8. Two gifts for the kids of another coworker - plans are being made - due in January
9. Cut Thru' Cottage as a housewarming gift for Felix sister- two more pages to go! - due whenever
10. Four Three Two more hats for my grandparents, Felix and myself
11. 'Elevenses' by fiddlesticksau as a birthday present for Felix' brother - Due in January - 2/7 done

So a fair bit of progress, but still quite a bit to go as well. I still think it can be done, though! Next up I'm trying to finish Lestrona for my grandma, and another two lines on Elevenses.

Alphabet Club Catch Up - E

Time for another Alphabet Clup Catch Up - the letter this week is E, and luckyly, I actually have a fitting WIP to show! My current project is called Elevenses, and I have already stitched this word too. And since the last time you saw this, I've also added about half of the next (or prior) meal, 'Second Breakfast':

I also have another fun German word for you, and this word is Eselsbrücke. A Eselsbrücke (literally: Donkey Bridge) is a fun saying or poem that is meant to help you remember something, like a formula, historical dates or the sequence of something. I'm not sure where the term 'Eselsbrücke' actually comes from, as all the explonations I have read (about the nature of donkeys and how the don't like to cross water unless they are provided with a safe bridge) seem kind of sketchy to me, but I know that it is actually a Latin term as well - pons asinorum. The best translation my dictionary had was 'mnemonic rhyme' - do you know another, colloquial term for this in English or another language?