Hello from Paris!

I drove to Paris this morning - easy drive, and I am now sitting in the subburbs at our office here, and tomorrow it is off to the mountains and a week of skiing!   I am very excited about going skiing, although after my day skiing last week in Switzerland, I know that I am going to be VERY sore after 6 days....perhaps I'll lose some weight during this time - I can hope!  =)   I did not really pack any projects to take with me - I threw in a doily I am working on at the last minute, but just did not feel the mood.  I am looking forward to just relaxing and skiing and not thinking about work.....well, not thinking about it after my call on Monday that I need to take.....well, 2 calls actually.  No rest for the weary that is for sure.

Au revoir Mon Ami

What to do?   What to do, when the bad news arrives The unchangeable need to say good-bye What to do, when your hearts torn in two? The pain and the sadness, filling your mind What to do, when you need to talk But only silence answers your cries What to do, when you need to cry The tears won't come, for your eyes are dry What to do, when you're all alone Miles away no chance to go home What to do, when the curtain is closed But to say farewell, we'll miss you my friend   ________   Farewell my old friend.  You will be missed by everyone who was lucky enough to have a chance to have you in their lives.  I thank you for so many good memories, and I wished that we had had a chance to have more together, but we had to grow up and move on with our lives, while time and distance came between us.

And the year begins.....

With lots of travel and a snowflake!   I am in Zürich for a week, including staying over the weekend which will let me get in a day of skiing on Saturday.  I'm really excited about skiing and trying out my rusty skills before I go to France.   I am off to the French Alps the 24th for a week of zooming down the mountain.  I am hoping that I can get in some lessons again this year and improve on my very beginners skiing ability.  We are going to Les Menuiers which is part of the Trois Vallee region in France.    Hopefully I will have a few more trips planned in Feb and March which will keep me busy.  I still do not know when I am moving back to the US - I am living one week at a time almost waiting to see what the job hunt turns up.   The first finished project in 2009 is a snowflake from a Spanish magazine I picked up in Argentina.  The pattern was charted which allowed me to easily complete it, although it took me a few minutes to figure out which symbols were which stitches.  I'll post a picture of it as soon as I get my camera downloaded to my computer.   I brought the Granny Blanket which I did not finish in the US in hopes of making more progress on it.  I hope to have it finished soon and mailed to my cousin back in the US for her baby girl.  I also brought a doily I am working on and the Spanish magazine in hopes of making a few more flakes from different patterns.   Happy Crafting!!

A few Vacation pictures.....

Here are a few pictures from my vacations - all of people since I had been to Argentina before I did not take that many touristy type shots of buildings etc, but people are what makes the holiday great!

Included here are the Niece & Nephew with my parents Christmas Bears, Me & Miss Molly (Vik's dog), Me & the Llamas at the zoo, Me, Zori & Leen, and then Me & Vik.

A look back at 2008....

Part of the whole making resolutions each year is to look back at what was accomplished or as the case may be not accomplished during the previous year.

Before I go into a huge self analysis on my resolutions from 2008, I thought to show you 2 of the final 2008 projects that I made.....

First up is the Santa Cloth that I made for my Mom. Done in Katia Cotton in red:

Second is a hat made with some of the yarn I bought in 2006 in Argentina:


Now on to the 2008 failures and successes. The whole resolution list can be found here from last year: http://cityofcrochet.blogspot.com/2008/01/first-post-of-2008.html

Resolution #1: Yarn on Top 10 List: Only used 5 of the yarns - Failed
Resolution #2: 52 Projects: Over 56 if you count the yarn food - Succeeded
Resolution #3: 26 Projects with Stash Yarn: Done thanks to yarn food - Succeeded
Resolution #4: No more yarn bought: Bought way too much: Failed
Resolution #5: 2 Projects KPAD & CPAD: Failed
Resolution #6: Finish all existing WIPS: All either finished or frogged: Succeeded
Resolution #7: Weight Loss: Gained more - Failed
Resolution #8: Travel to 2 Places To Visit Before I die: Went to 6 - Succeeded
Resolution #9: Travel once per month - Succeeded
Resolution #10: Decision to go back to US: Made in May - Succeeded

Well, 60% or 2 out of 3 (just about) ain't bad! =) #4 was set out to fail - how could anyone not buy any yarn?

I still need to think about resolutions for 2009, perhaps some repeats from 2008 will occur, and hopefully all will be a challenge but more reachable than 2008's resolutions!

Look what I can do with my Yarn Food!

While home for Christmas my niece Megan pulled out her play Yarn Food that I had made for her, along with the two doughnuts that was sent from Anita. She got a huge smile on her face and said "Look what I can make Aunt Kim"

This was the result......



A little person made of food!

Megan is still saying that she is going to be a Chef when she grows up. She got an Easy Bake oven for Christmas and took great pride in making a cake and giving us all a bite of her masterpiece.

Happy New Year 2009!!

Best regards to all for a prosperous New Year in 2009!

2008 has been a difficult year in many ways. I am glad that it is over, but also sad that another year has passed by so quickly! I hope that everyone has has a great Christmas vacation!

My trip to Argentina, Texas & Michigan went very well aside from a few transportation issues, but I arrived safely every time which is all that matters at the end of the day!

Hola from Buenos Aries!!!!

A quick picture of me, Zori & Leen out and about in Buenos Aries last night. Having a great time down here will be sad to leave tomorrow but also happy to go on and visit 2 days with my Grandfather. Vacation is flying by faster than the speed of light - wish I had another week or two or three here to enjoy!

More details on the trip to come. I did manage to find 2 yarn stores so far, will see if I visit any more tomorrow with Vik!

Only 2 more to go....

Days that is!  I leave Friday morning for my 2.5 week voyage.  I am flying first to New York and then on to Argentina.  I will spend a week there and then fly to McAllen Texas to visit my Grandfather for 3 days, and i will then fly up on the 23rd to Chicago and drive around to Michigan for a week with my parents and all my nieces and nephew!   A VERY busy time, but all will be well worth the time spent on airplanes and waiting in airports.    And did I mention that I am in Zürich tomorrow?  Ick!  But I am going for a good reason so that makes it worth the additional airplane time this year.   I am busy working on a few last minute Christmas presents - hopefully my time on planes and airports will be well spent!   I hope that everyone has a great few weeks and will talk to you all soon!!

Pattern Tester Needed

Anyone have a days time on their hand to knit up a charted dishcloth?  I have the dishcloth both charted and written out so anyone comfortable with either method would be able to knit my newest design.   If anyone is interested, please contact me either on Ravelry (user name: Kimberly) or via e-mail at KAML19 at YAHOO dot COM   As the cloth is intended for New Years, it would need to be knit rather quickly.   Cheers!

Foreign Country does not equal not understood

What is it about some people that make them think that just because they are in a foreign country others will not understand what they are saying?

While eating tonight in the hotel restaurant, I had the great experience of having a "lovely" American couple sitting behind me. I would estimate that they were in their upper 60s or so.

During their conversation I heard about their romantic life and what he intends to do to her tonight. Their financial status including the cost of this trip and how American Express cards work. A rant about foreigners in America...are we not all foreigners and children of immigrants? His own sense of self-importance.....how would the world function without him? That maintenance road workers drive around with the lights on top of their car lit up to make them feel more important the "#$*!&$# *!*$# !$*#@$*" and so on and so forth.

I really held myself together until the whole romantic escapades section came up and then I had to leave. I mean ick! I don't want to hear about that while eating dinner....well, I was done eating so while digesting my dinner.

Please, I ask everyone to consider when traveling to a foreign country to please realize that others around you just might speak your language!

In Dublin I had some French speaking people talk about me rather rudely after I told them in English that the chair they wanted to take was occupied.....the expressions on their faces when I told them after listening to them basically say how ugly and stupid and bitchy I was that "perhaps they misunderstood my English, but the chair is occupied by a friend so they can not take it" in French was priceless. Needless to say they quickly left the area.

*sigh*

Other than the dinner experience Zürich is good. Colder than Brussels with a covering of snow on the ground in places.

I did notice tonight that I have somehow managed to chip part of the ruby in my ring off. Not so happy about that one. Especially as I replaced not even a year ago one of the diamonds that fell out of the setting in the ring. It is not so noticeable unless you look closely at the ring, but now that I noticed it I can not help but look for it every time the ring catches my eye.

*sigh*

Okay, I hope that everyone has a great and wonderful week!

I think its done!

I've been working on an idea for a dishcloth, a knit dishcloth, and i think that I have it finally done.

I've charted out a design for a New Years cloth with a champagne bottle, 2 glasses & 2009 on the chart.

I just need to print off the instructions and go back through the written details versus the charted details to make sure everything is in alignment as I made changes to the chart several times as I went along.

Fingers crossed, it will be ready to be published by the time I return from Zürich on Wednesday night!

I've had several ideas for charted dishcloths floating in my head - its a nice feeling to get one onto paper. I charted it out using my handy dandy excel and then pasted the chart as a picture into my document, so hopefully all is readable! My only fear is that now every time I open Excel for work I will start thinking of knitting charts......not going to make my new boss that happy if my productivity goes down!

Okay, I need to finish doing dishes from the cookie making experience! Great fun was had - my french is getting better as I was able to converse with the 5 year olds with no problem, although a few times they laughed after I said something....must have said it really wrong, but none the less they understood - yay!

Cheers!

Today is cookie baking day!

I am so excited to be making cookies today! Yummmmmyyyy!!!

My co-worker Marjorie and her two children are coming over. Will be interesting to see how my apartment handles two 5 year old twins! I am figuring that the boy will not last that long with cookie making, so its a good thing I have the PacMan game and the Wii to keep him entertained afterward! I also pulled out all of my kid movies so those are also a fall back, but I think the Wii should keep him well entertained!

Pictures of the event will be coming along with pictures of the finished cookies!

I am going to Zurich tomorrow morning for 3 days. Some issues came up on Thursday and Friday last week so I am going to Zürich to straighten them out as best as I can. Or at least attempt to. It all depends on my new boss and the VP being behind my way of thinking which is at least more rationale than my colleagues in the US who started the issues.

Okay, must go get all the ingredients ready for the cookie making! I hope everyone is having a GREAT weekend!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

To all my fellow Americans, I wish to you a very happy and joyful Thanksgiving! I hope that everyone is able to spend this day with family and friends as we give thanks to what & who we have in our lives.

I will be spending today working as it is not a holiday here in Belgium and then tonight I will do a big dinner with my fellow Americans who are here - it should be fun.

I am preparing a ham, and lets just say it will be interesting! It is a raw ham from a freshly butchered pig, no pre-cooking or curing done on it. I've never cooked a ham this way, so I am taking the butchers advice on this one and preparing it the way he told me to! Thankfully one of the other girls is preparing a Turkey, so we will have that as a fall back if only not really enough meat since there are 10 of us and the Turkey is 10 pounds.

I've been busy crafting. My Argentinian yarn hat is about 3/4 of the way done, my Santa Cloth is about 1/4 of the way done, and I am making some snowflake type things from a pattern in a French magazine a colleague gave to me. The flakes are charted and I've never seen a chart like this before so it is interesting. I've hit a point where I am a bit stumped by the chart and what it wants me to do, but I will figure it out I am sure!

Pictures are coming - I'm just too lazy to get them posted lately it seems....At least I am doing better on posting, so that is half the battle!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!!!

Snowflakes keep a coming!

Everything melted that we got yesterday but its finally started back up again.  Nice big fat snowflakes are drifting past my window here at work.  Really pretty if you overlook the view of the wet train yard.  It will not stick though since it's too warm out still. =(   Being in the Christmas mood I cast on yesterday for a Santa face dishcloth in bright Christmas red.  The pattern is really cute and can be found here on Ravelry:   http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/the-santa-cloth   and here on the web:   http://krisknits.blogspot.com/2007/12/that-one-last-gift.html   This should be a fairly quick knit for me, but since I am working on 10 other things at the same time, who knows!   I'm planning a big thanksgiving dinner on Thursday with my fellow Americans here in Brussels.  My friend Te-Keisha has her mom coming in to visit this week and she's volunteered to make the Turkey which will help since we all have to work so dinner will be around 7 at night I think.  I'm bringing salad and desert.....still trying to decide what desert to make - perhaps apple pie, but I'll have to think about it.....if I had know I would have picked up premade crust and pumpkin at the Commissary last time I was there and made Pumpkin Pie!    Okay, I must finish up a few things and then I am heading home!  Have a great week everyone!

Snow flakes are falling....

And not a one is sticking. I love watching the snow come down, I only wish it would stick around!

It is super cold here in Belgium this weekend, low in the 30s which is almost as rare as the snowflakes we have seen on and off all weekend. I'm not complaining though -I love the snow in any form. I even wish that we would have more than a few days of snowfall every year.

The hat I've been working on is coming along well. I still have not decided on how big I am going to make it.....I would like something that fully covers my ears as several of the hats I've made are a little too short for super cold days.

Meti has asked for another hat, so I need to get busy making that one. Not idea which pattern I am going to use. He looked through several of my patterns and picked out one that I already made him. Not going to re-do that one so I need to think about it. I'm thinking something rather simple - ribbed collar and then basic stockinette, but I've been in the mood for cables lately.....will wait until I finish my hat to decide so I have several days to think about it!

I am off to snuggle into a blanket and get warm - my apartment is freezing today as the 2 working heaters are not enough to warm the apartment the whole way through it seems.

Have a great Sunday!

I do believe she is on a diet....

Otherwise the knit skirt I made for my niece's Cabbage Patch Kid would fit mine perfectly right????   I finished the skirt last night, grabbed my CPK doll to check the sizing out, and its seriously falling off her!    My doll is fairly old...about 25 years old, so I am going to live in hope that my doll has just merely lost her figure over time and slimmed down a little bit.....okay, a whole lot of bits!  I'll take the skirt to the US with me and see if it will fit, otherwise I'll tear out the decrease rounds and do them over on smaller needles with a tighter gauge in hopes of modifying it to fit.  The bright side is that I don't need to sew anything then this week - yay!!!  =)   Having this come out so huge has put questions into my mind on the sweater.....I don't want to spend the time on that and then have it be way too big as well....I'll need to think about this one a little bit!   Oh well, I'll work some on my hat then and get some progress / pics of that going.   Have a great weekend!!

Wow! Two days in a row! *grin*

I spent some time during my lunch to update my Ravelry projects with the few items I snapped pictures of last night -   A Purple Cabbage Patch Kid skirt and an Off-white Cabled CPK Cardigan for my niece for Christmas are on the needles - going rather slow, but progress is being made!  I bought a pattern book off of E-bay for these designs and when I received it I realized that several of the patterns were for sweaters that a neighbor made for my Cabbage Patch kid when I was little!   I'm working on a dinosaur from a Jean Greenhowe pattern.  I was to the assembly stage when I realized that the head just did not look right.....I misread the instructions and made it too small - that will need to be frogged and redone.   I'm also trying to figure out what to make with a few "one-skeins" that I have lying around the house include a skein of Malabrigo and some of the individual skeins I bought in Argentina a few years ago.   Speaking of, I leave for Argentina in 3 weeks from tomorrow - yay!  I was told today that several of my friends there are taking the week off of work while I am in town!  Yippeee!  I get in on Saturday and we are going to Celebrate Vik's birthday that night, and then on Mon-Wed I will be at the beach.  I'm back in BsAs then until I leave on Saturday. I need to work on the Thursday though as my boss is new and we have our monthly conference call with the US that I usually lead so I'll have to call in for that one for an hour or so.    Okay, speaking of the monthly call, November's is today so I had best finish preparing myself for that one!

35 days and counting.....

Goodness yet another year flying by with only 35 days until Christmas.....And I have yet to start the majority of my originally intended holiday knitting or crocheting - oops!! I seem to do the same thing every year and wait and wait and wait and then Wham!  Not enough time to get anything done.....a plot you ask to get out of spending time and energy into crafting something big......you got that right!   I did start a hat recently with some of the yarn I bought the last time I was in Argentina - it is turning out pretty so far!  Will see if I can actually finish it this year!   I also have a few other small projects on the hooks and needles which are close to being done and could become Christmas gifts if needed.    A few dishcloths and potholders should be put together along with perhaps some coffee cup sleeves or mug warmers!  Quick and easy is what I need this year, and a scarf is never quick or easy for me regardless of what others say - I have trouble staying focused on one project I think so multiple seem to be the way to go as long as they are small and fairly simple!   What are you planing for your holiday crafting?

Pattern Testing Photo Shots

I've been testing several patterns for the Yahoo Holiday Mystery Gift group. Here are two that have been published recently so I can finally show my pictures!

First up is a Lace Cap in Rowan Kidsilk Haze. It came out larger than planned as I knit with kidsilk really loose.

Next up was a Mystery Knit which turned out to be a holder for Chapstick / Lipstick. I made up several and even added a keychain holder to one of them.


I was kinda busy this weekend - spent the time baking some - a yellow butter cake with Chocolate frosting and some Oatmeal Raisin Cookies - yummmy! I also found time to clean and pick up most of the apartment as well as going to dinner and drinks with friends.

I hope that everyone has a great week - I am in Belgium all this week so I should be able to find some time to blog more!