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Archive for the ‘personal’ Category

Smoothie Hats and what became of his Evil-ness ;)

Posted in odd stuff, personal, self made..., Whatever on November 11, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Just a short update to show y’all the new smoothie hats I made. My “modellling” smoothie – I don’t actually like the taste of them – has disappeared but as K. said this bottle is just as good…  😉

Smoothie hats

I particularly like the hat with the big flower on top. The funny thing is that it totally wasn’t planned that way. It more or less just happened. Originally I wanted to make a plain black pointed hat like those you see in the Harry Potter movies. But I had a left over flower from the crocheting project I’m working on at the moment and it just looked really cute. 😀

And here is what has become of his Evil-ness:

His Evil-ness

He is now a bit more than a week old and is starting to look toothless. 😉

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My “Innocent Smoothie” Hats 2012

Posted in knitting, pattern, personal, self made..., video, Whatever on October 22, 2012| Leave a Comment »

At the moment I’m down with a rather nasty cold and after finishing up all the socks and stuff I started to knit over the past few months – except of course for my crazy sock yarn blanket – I decided to again work a couple of tiny hats for this year’s “Innocent Smoothie Hat Knitting”.  Underneath you can admire the first 3:

So far I’ve I have 3 hats completely finished and another 2 are in progress and if I don’t run out of ideas and left-over yarn I’ll do a couple more soon… so be prepared for more smoothie hats posts in the future. 😉

In case you are wondering, why anybody would be crazy enough to knit a hat for a smoothie…the whole thing is basically a charity stunt. For every smoothie that is sold wearing a self knit hat 30 Cents are donated to help elderly people through the winter. Besides of that it’s a lot of fun!

While knitting I watched a couple of episodes of Game of Thrones, which is amazingly good…. and that’s high praise from me. I’m usually VERY picky when it comes to movies about books I’ve read before, especially when it’s a book I loved. But they didn’t spoil it and even the choice of characters is pretty good, though the Eddard Stark of my imagination was way more handsome than the actor. 😉

The only thing about the series, that is really annoying is that they did an awful job with the German translation. It would have been better, if they’d left a couple of words untouched, especially the names…. even Casterly Rock got turned into Casterly Stein, which is just plain stupid. Oh well…  it’s a good thing Dvds let you switch to English.

Anyway, back to those smoothie hats. Here is my ravelry page with the usual yarn/needle details. No patttern details this time, as I made everything up while knitting. http://ravel.me/aravis83/b6ikq

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My 500. LibriVox Recording

Posted in audio, Books, LibriVox, personal, Whatever on August 8, 2012| 2 Comments »

A couple of minutes ago, I uploaded my 500. LibriVox recording!!!!

500. LibriVox recording!!!

It took me almost exactly 9 months to record 100 sections. My 500. section is a short poem for the fortnightly poetry collection. The poem is rather sad, but also very beautiful and it is called “Are The Children at Home?” by Margaret Elizabeth Sangster.  Here is my recording of it and also the first paragraph of the poem:

Each day, when the glow of sunset
Fades in the western sky,
And the wee ones, tired of playing,
Go tripping lightly by,
I steal away from my husband,
Asleep in his easy-chair,
And watch from the open door-way
Their faces fresh and fair.

The full poem can be found here and here are all my other 499 recordings: https://catalog.librivox.org/people_public.php?peopleid=3885

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Elphaba pullover

Posted in knitting, pattern, personal, self made... on July 27, 2012| Leave a Comment »

My Elphaba pullover is finally finished and it turned out great!!!

Finished Elphaba pullover

Unfortunately it’s too warm here at the moment to comfortably wear a knit pullover for more than a few minutes at a time. But I of course tried it on and it actually fits. Well it’s maybe a tiny bit too big, but that doesn’t really matter as I usually wear something underneath anyway.

The pattern I used is from ravely and was really great! All instructions were very clear and I followed them closely. The only thing I modified is the main part of the body….  I added a couple of rows, as I like my pullovers a little longer. (I did about 40 rows.)

More pictures and all needle/yarn details are on my ravelry page: http://ravel.me/aravis83/l6fya

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Heimatlos and some more

Posted in audio, Books, knitting, LibriVox, personal, self made..., Whatever on April 11, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Today I finally cataloged the group recording of “Heimatlos –  Geschichten fuer Kinder und auch fuer solche, welche die Kinder lieb haben” (roughly translated: Homeless – Stories for kids and also for those, who love them) by Johanna Spyri. She probably is best known for “Heidi”, but I love her other books too and will surely do a couple more for LibriVox in the future.

The book consists of two wonderful stories – “Am Silser – und am Gardasee” and  “Wie Wiseli’s Weg gefunden wird” for kids. Both stories are about orphaned children. In the first it’s a little Italian boy, who goes out into the world because of a song his father used to sing and in the second one a little girl has to go and live with a relative after her mother dies… and though both stories are very sad at times they both have a happy ending.

Here is one of the chapters I read:

The whole project can be found here: http://librivox.org/heimatlos-geschichten-fuer-kinder-und-auch-fuer-solche-welche-die-kinder-lieb-haben-by-johanna-spyri/

Now something totally different. I’m down with a rather nasty cold at the moment and so I had quite a bit of time for knitting. So here is another sock to show off:

Acutally the first sock is almost finished by now, I just haven’t had time to take new pics. But there will be a couple soon.

After knitting those black beaded socks I blogged about last time, I wanted to try something a little more complicated. I didn’t find good pattern for working with beads online, so I’m kinda making it up as I go. It’s superfun and I think the socks will look wonderful when they are done. 😀

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Happy Easter!

Posted in knitting, personal, Whatever on April 8, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Only a short post today (as usual 😉 ) to wish you all Happy Easter! 😀

…and to show off the pair of knit socks I made. It’s the first time I worked with beads and I think they turned out wonderfully. I’ll do a proper post with details on how I knit them soon.

The only thing I’m a little worried about is that the beads might not be washable…. that is, that they might loose their color when put into the washing machine.

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Shrinky Dink Hypnotoad & friends

Posted in art, Drawings, odd stuff, Pencil, personal, self made..., Whatever on February 25, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Last weekend, K. and I had a great time trying out shrinky dinks. I did the Hypnotoad – All glory to the Hypnotoad – from Futurama and Blinky, the 3 eyed fish from The Simpsons, who lives in the lake behind the nuclear power plant. K. did the Triforce symbol from Zelda and something, which I can’t remember from some other video game. It was such fun! Here are some pics:

Hypnotoad in progress

We used a pencil to draw a draft of the outlines before we did them in more detail with a very fine black marker. Afterwards we colored everything with simple colored pencils. The hole on the top of each we did with an ordinary hole puncher. I was little worried that the holes might be too large, but it shrank SO much, that it’s now the perfect size to draw a string through them.

Here are our shrinky dinks right before shrinking. I put a 1 Euro coin next to them for reverence.

Before shrinking…

And here they are after shrinking. They shrank so much that all of them are really tiny now, especially Blinky.

…and after shrinking!

Doing them was fast and real fun. Oh and I just love how they turned out. 😀

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Simple Cabled Hat

Posted in knitting, pattern, personal, self made..., Whatever on January 16, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Today I finished knitting a rather simple cabled hat for mum. I used size 6 (US 10) needles and the yarn is Lana Grossa Uno (1 1/2 skeins). Though the yarn looks great, feels wonderfully soft and awesome to wear, it is a real pain to knit with. Still I love how the hat turned out. 😀

Simple cabled hat

As I couldn’t find a suitable pattern I made it up. Here is what I did:

CO 80 stitches

1.-5. row: *knit 6, purl 4* to end of row

6. row: *slip 3 stitches on cable needle, hold cable needle in front of work, knit 3 stitches from the left needle, now knit 3 stitches off the cable needle, purl 4* to end of row

7.-14. row: *k6, p4* to end of row

15. row: *slip 3 stitches on cable needle, hold cable needle in front of work, knit 3 stitches from the left needle, now knit 3 stitches off the cable needle, purl 4* to end of row

Repeat rows 7 – 15 once more. After that is done, work another 4 rows of *k6,p4* (or till it was the desired length) before starting to shape the crown.

Decreases:

1. row: *k2, k2tog, k2, p4* to end

2. row:  *knit 5, purl 4* to end of row

3. row: *k5, p1, p2tog, p1* to end

4. row: *knit 5, purl 3* to end of row

5. row: *k2tog, k1, k2tog, p3* to end of row

6. and 7. row: *k3, p3* to end of row

8. row: *k2tog, k1, p2tog, p1* to end of row

9. row: *k2, p2* to end of row

10. row: *k2tog, p2tog* to end of row

Cut of the yarn and thread through the remaining stitches, pull tight and sew the end in. Have fun knitting! 😀

My hat and more pics can be found on my rav page: http://ravel.me/aravis83/st5a8

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Waves Cardigan

Posted in knitting, pattern, personal, self made..., Whatever on January 14, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Just a tiny short post to show of my finished cardigan:

Waves Cardigan

Isn’t it pretty?

I finished it yesterday and just love how it turned out. Also it fits perfectly. It will be fun to wear it over short sleeved shirts in spring. Right now it’s a little too chilly for that…

Anyway, I followed the pattern closely without doing any major changes. I only added a few rows to the main body of the cardigan to make it a little longer. I just love knitting top down, that way it’s so easy to determine how everything will look when it’s done. 😀

The pattern, all needle/yarn details and more pics can as usual be found on rav:  http://ravel.me/aravis83/u06z2

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Books I’ve read in 2011

Posted in Books, personal, Whatever, tagged , , , , , on January 6, 2012| Leave a Comment »

2011 was quite a busy year where reading is concerned. I read 39 books and listened to 77 audiobooks. Of those 77 audiobooks only 16 were either commercial or non LibriVox recordings. The other 61 were Librivox recordings, for which I did the prooflistening.

Of the books I read the one I liked best probably was “Little Town on the Prairie” by Laura Ingalls Wilder (though I greatly enjoyed the rest of the series too). Also the “Hunger Games” series by Suzanne Collins and the “Cazalet Chronicles” by Elizabeth Jane Howard were great.

The book I hated most was “3096 Days” by Natascha Kampusch. It’s badly written and badly translated (I tried the German and the English version). Everything sounds terribly artificial and very much like the author is trying way too hard to try to convince everybody that her story is true…

Anyway here is the list of books I read:

1. Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder
2. Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
3. Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder
4. On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder
5. The Graveyard Book Neil Gaiman
6. By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder
7. The Apple Stone by Nicholas Stuart Gray: audiobook. LOVED it!!!!
8. Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary
9. Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary
10. Ramona the Brave by Beverly Cleary
11. The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright: audiobook
12. Pu der Bär by A.A. Milne
13. The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder
14. Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
15. These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder
16. The First Four Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder
17. Das Wunder von Narnia by C.S. Lewis
18. Four Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright: audiobook
19. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
20. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
21. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
22. Half Magic by Edward Eage: audiobook
23. Fever of the Bone by Val McDermid
24. Ramona Age 8 by Beverly Cleary
25. The Secret Garden by F. H. Burnett
26. Ramona and her mother by Beverly Cleary
27. Ramona Forever by Beverly Cleary
28. Ramona’ World by Beverly Cleary
29. The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephanie Meyer (commercial audiobook)
30. Fall of Giants by Ken Follett (commercial audiobook)
31. The Passage by Justin Cronin
32. Marking time by Elizabeth Howard
33. The Adventures of Sally by P.G.Wodehouse (LV recording)
34. Charlie und die Schokoladenfabrik by Roald Dahl
35. Brat Farrer by Josephine Tey
36. Frei ist nur der Blick zum Himmel by Sandra Gregory
37. Fever Dream by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (commercial audiobook)
38. Da waren es nur noch neun by Agatha Christie (commercial audiobook)
39. Heidi by Johanna Spyri (LV recording)
40. Trick of the Dark by Val Mc Dermid
(Michel aus Lönneberg by Astrid Lindgren: picture book)
(Der alte, der junge und der keine Stanislaus by Vera Ferra Mikura: picture book)
41. Marked by P.C and Kristin Cast (commercial audiobook)
42. Superfudge by Jody Blume (commercial audiobook)
43. Der stumme Schrei by Hilda Lawrence (commercial audiobook)
44. Wolfskind: Die unglaubliche Lebensgeschichte des ostpreußischen Mädchens Liesabeth Otto von Ingeborg Jacobs
45. A Stolen Life: A Memoir by Jaycee Dugard
46. Delirium by Lauren Oliver
47. Die Welle by Morton Rhue (commercial audiobook)
48. Der Herr der Ringe by J. R. R. Tolkien (commercial audiobook)
49. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
50. Ramona and her father by Beverly Cleary
51. Room by Emma Donoghue
(Guck mal, Madita! Es schneit! by Astrid Lindgren: picture book)
(Na klar, Lotta kann Rad fahren by Astrid Lindgren: picture book)
(Weihnachten in Bullerbü by Astrid Lindgren: picture book)
(Die Heinzelmännchen von Köln by August Kopisch: picture book)
52. Der König von Narnia by C.S. Lewis
53. 3096 Days by Natasche Kampusch: HATED it!
54. Confusion by Elizabeth Jane Howard
55. Reckless by Cornelia Funke (commercial audiobook)

If you are interested to see what I listened to, here is the full list including all LV recordings: https://forum.librivox.org/viewtopic.php?p=553871#p553871

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