S.E.X.

SEX: stash enrichment expedition.
Sorry, I couldn't resist to use this tremendously stupid acronym I found in Debbie Stoller's Stitch'n Bitch Handbook.
I'm back! The trip to Germany was wonderful. We had loads of sun, though bearable temperatures. It was only seven days and we mainly relaxed at home with my family, but also did some sightseeing, even enjoyed some cultural events (if you can call Live 8 cultural), spend time playing with our all together four cameras and had sex as mentioned above. Okay, the latter was only for me.


I had almost forgotten, how nice it is to sit outside in a t-shirt and drink beer that costs less than an hourly wage.

Guess, I spare you more of the arty pictures, only two more:

But now to the knitting part. I went to a wonderful little yarn shop in Berlin Charlottenburg, called la laine and was lucky that my father was with me. He very generously allowed me to pick some yarn as an early birthday present.
The weather outside is rather gloomy and - even worse - rainy at the moment. That's why my precious is spread on the parquet inside.

You can see sock yarn from Lana grossa Meilenweit, some black/grey/white blend and another in green/blue from the Meilenweit Multiringel edition. The orange/yellow in the front is Meilenweit Cotton Ringel. I have never knitted cotton socks before, but willing to give it aa try now. Maybe even for my sockpal. The huge skein at the very left is some 6-ply sock yarn, definitely turning into some warm hiking socks for me (and someone else, it's so big). I guess, the greyish stripe yarn will be for me, too. I checked my sockpal's blog of course, and though she said she is open to everything, she definitely isn't the kind of girl that votes for b/w TV after colour has been introduced. So, from the current display, the orange cotton could be hers, or the seagreen/oceanblue stripy yarn. The latter is somehow my favourite, specially after I have seen the beautiful ocean breeze lace socks Rachel, another sockapal-2-za participant, has composed. She is momentarily working on another gorgeous lace sock, the Birch Leaf sock. Go over there and be amazed! Such inspired, I imagine an ocean-inspired wavy, lacy pattern for this yarn to turn into a seaweed/oceanblue/caribean beach sock.
Unfortunately, I have no idea so far for a cotton sock pattern. The yarn feels so heavy but maybe the stripes or whatever comes out of the skein will be entertaining enough? Let me know, what you think.

And not to be forgotten are the skeins on the right side. They are my birthday presents. The upper one, almost vanishing into the parquet is a cotton/microfibre blend and feels incredible soft and light. I've got 300g and NO idea what to do with it. Most likely I will make a shawl that calls for mohair yarn, just have to find a pattern.
The lower one is the winner of the whole s.e.x. [sorry... that was the last time, but I am still giggling over this absurd chapter of the book, which I glimpsed in in this very yarn shop. I cannot belive that ANY of these trendy knitting nation girls ever actually uses this acrnoym. At least I have never read it anywhere. It just dous sound so much like a dictionary for parents to understand their teenagers. Okay, I'm losing the thread... back to my precious.]
The yarn is Lana Grossa Cool Wool 2000 print, Merino extrafine, and I was simply thunderstrucked by the colour. Unfortunatley, I could only buy five skeins (=250g) of the same dyelot. And there is not really a question, what it is going to be. The Clapotis virus has reached here: I've got to get one, too. I already swatched and thought I would run into a problem. The yarn calls for size 3-3,5 needles. I knit rather tight, so I would most likely have to use size 4 - but that's excactly the size I don't own in long circulars. I swatched with size 3 and 5 and found out that I am exactly on gauge with the size 5 needles. Quite some tension for right after holidays! Expensive investments (okay, it was a birthday gift..) are most often followed by further 'expenses'. I definitely have to get hold of a row counter before I start Clapotis.