Monday, February 07, 2011

Berlin

MMmmmmmmmmmmmm.............Berlin and Bratwurst. This was an extremely hot day. Over 100, no AC anywhere, it seemed. As you know from my earlier post, I defected from the group, going rogue in Berlin with my new iPhone to lead me around. It was great--I found Freitag then ate at this place that was definitely not a tourist spot. The best bratwurst and German potato salad you could ever hope for!



I forgot to put this in earlier. This photo shows the queue waiting to board in Copenhagen. The lady in the middle casting on is Chris Bylsma. She is an author, designer, and one of the teachers on the cruise. She was casting on a new design and counting. A lady walked up and told her that she could teach her a much easier and faster way to cast on. Chris kept counting and smiled. See the couple behind her, just off of her right shoulder? See how they are staring? This is kind of how everyone looked at us during the cruise. Even thought there were only about 25 of us, we became a noted group. People in the elevator would say "Oh-you are one of the knitters. Exactly what are you doing?" We noticed that some of the other cruisers (appx. 2, 480 to guesstimate) would follow us when we went ashore because they knew that this cruise was one gigantic Baltic yarn crawl.


This is the Freitag Messenger bag I bought for Carson, being modeled by the lovely Monkey and Cat. Freitag uses the tarps that European trucks use for the sides and tops of their trailers. They cut them up and make all kinds of cool recycled totes, bags, backpacks, you name it. The strap is made of old seat belts. The trim on the flap is from old inner tubes. Their products are indestructible, their customer service unbelievable. I order a backpack for him at Christmas. Ordered it online on a Wednesday night, received it on the following Tuesday. And it came from Zurich. That would be Zurich, SWITZERLAND. Via UPS. check them out at www.freitag.ch

These are the new Birkenstocks I bought for my mom. She never got to wear them, not in this life, but she has them on now, along with two pair of handknitted socks, one of them my hand-dyes. I miss her a lot, every day.



Coming up next: a day at sea, a class with Chrissie Day, and looking for inspiration in your knitting. You will see some photos like this :

















and some like this:
Stay tuned!

Tuesday, February 01, 2011

More from the Baltics.


I really must finish my trip for you!

I spent time tonight organizing my photos in folders so hopefully I can blog a little each day. My last post was from Copenhagen. We boarded and headed for Warnemunde(I think, or was it Rostock?) which is a port in Germany about and hour or so outside of Berlin. It was really hot this day and we were glad to have a bus take us in to Berlin rather than the train. I have been to Berlin a couple of times and done the touristy thing--Checkpoint Charlie, the Holocaust Museum (HIGHLY recommended), The Brandenberg Gates, the Bundestadt, etc. So this time, we had a date at a yarn shop and were met by Horst Schultz. After a bit of shopping (insert gratuitous yarn photo here)



After a bit, Herr Schultz took us on the train to his apartment, which is an awesome thing to do. Our tour may have been the last that he did this with. I took a 2 day class with him at Stitches West a few years back, so I politely detoured at one of the train changes. I was on a mission to find the Freitag store........................
(teaser photo goes here)



Coming up next--more of Berlin, the adventures of Monkey, Cat, and a Bratwurst on a hot summer day.....Tallin, St. Petersburg, Helsinki, Stockholm, yarn, food, knitting inspiration and new friends!