31 July 2006

 

Grandma's Shawl



My Grandfather was diagnosed with cancer in the spring. He was in for his second hospital stay over Mothers' Day weekend. I went with my parents and one of my aunts went to Grandma's house to celebrate the holiday. Grandpa's health was a big topic of discussion.

Aunt Mary is a crocheter. She said something along the lines of, "If Dad comes home, it's going to be in a wheelchair" (he'd lost a lot of muscle mass and was really weak from the chemo). A little more discussion followed and her decision was that he should have some lap blankets, because a man that we love, who is that sick, should not be cold.

I thought that was a great idea. But if she had the lap blankets covered, I should work on something else. Grandma was going through a lot while caring for her spouse of 62 years, and his prognosis wasn't good. I started a prayer shawl for her.

Among knitters there's a tradition of knitting things for people. When someone you know is going through a rough patch, often a prayer shawl is created, sometimes knit by multiple people. I'm not especially religious, or even very Christian, but I like the idea of knitting something with a focus. Putting your mental and emotional energy into a thing, and staying mindful while you make it. This, to me, is a prayer shawl.

A few years ago I had knit a sweater with a big heart on the chest, I was in lurve, and on a romantic trip with a boyfriend. Later we broke up and I wore the sweater once or twice, but it just didn't turn out the way I expected it. So I ripped it out and balled up the yarn again. I used this New Zealand Merino Wool, already imbued with some love and sentimentality, to start Grandma's Shawl.

I knit it on some Boye interchangeable needles that Grandma had given to her sister Ethel 40 years ago. When Et went into the nursing home, the needles came to me because I'm the only family knitter now.

I started the sweater after I visited Grandpa in the hospital, the day after Mother's day. I cast on with the red wool, and kept both Grandma and Grandpa in my thoughts. The shawl progressed, I took it to work for our knitting lunch.

I made the most progress over Memorial Day weekend, during the all-night watch we held in Grandpa's hospital room. I sat, with aunts and parents and cousins, knitting and helping with the Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle. It was a long night, there was much knitting.

After that, I knit at home. I'd put music on and knit for a few hours, staying present with the work.

When Grandpa passed, I knit at the viewings. I kept the project near me the whole time. Having something to do with my hands was reassuring. I love the colors. Knitting this shawl, was a comfort to me.

Out of Folk Shawls I chose a traditional shape from the Faroe Islands. I'd knit it before and it would be easy to remember. Faroese shawls stay on the shoulders and don't really need pinning because of their 3-panel shape.

The neckline is cast on first,


and the center panel is knit straight, but the side panels have a yarn over at each end, so they expand triangularly as you knit. It makes for a shoulder hugging, easy wrapping sort of shawl. I like them for ease of wear, but they're also pretty, and offer a good structure to be creative within.

The side panels were done in the Shetland Fir Cone lace pattern I picked from the Big Book of Knitting Stitch Patterns, with a garter stitch center panel. The fir cone pattern is funny, because it puckers when it's knit, and it doesn't lie flat until it's blocked. So a bunch of the shawl looked like it was made to resemble egg-cartons.

Near the bottom of the shawl, in the center panel I knitted up a St. John's Cross. The pattern for which was inspired by some Swedish Viking armor, and converted to a knitting pattern by a Elsebeth Lavold, published in her book Viking Patterns for Knitting. It's a symbol for good luck and prosperity.


Finally, I used a handpainted variegted yarn for the edging, a Victorian lace pattern, called Herring Bone Faggoting (little sticks) that I pulled out of Barbara Walker's A Treasury of Knitting Patterns.


I bound off the shawl, with a K1 *Sl1L K2 K2togTBL on RH needle pattern, that allows for a lot of give at the edge. Finally, I wove in the ends and blocked it out. The fir cones went flat, the faggoting opened up, the shawl turned out beautifully. I love blocking shawls, because they look like butteflies pinned to a board. However, no butterflies were harmed in the making of this shawl.

And the best news? Gramma likes it.


27 July 2006

 

decided

i thought i'd take a month or so of sabbatical between my gig here in North America, and my gig over in .de.

i figured, my program launches in October. I'll take most of November and all of December, travel around the country, the do the holidays with my fam.

but then i went to germany. i fell in love with the bakeries (pretzels with baked on pumpkin seeds) and train travel (the ICE is high speed, has a dining car, and is fast, quiet, and less troublesome than actually driving).

and now i want to go back as soon as possible.

so i told the HR gal, I want to move in Oct or Nov. I'lll catch my sabbatical after i do the working in .de thing. so now she knows where my priorities are.

from here, i continue to sit on my hands until an actual job offer materializes. but my thumb is out. i'm serious about Deutschland.

26 July 2006

 

Guster

I love Guster. On this day I was glad to be a self-supporting, expendable-income-having adult. Nick, Marts, and I were able to upgrade from soggy lawn tix to pavilion row K or something, for $12. And drink the $7 big-as-my-head beers.

The extra cost sort of added to the disappointment though. I ended up paying ~42 clams post-ticketmaster-assrape-charge, and Guster only played for an hour and fifteen. They did 2 encores, the second was a single song. They also looked kind of tired. Like they were up there playing, but would rather be taking naps in their tour bus. Like they had been on tour for too long, or had too aggressive a schedule, and couldn’t make their songs as boppy as they normally are. They lagged a bit. Still, a so-so show is better than no live music at all. Next time, though, I'll probably give them a pass.

17 July 2006

 

Berlin and getting home.

As I returned my rental car (and filled out the damage report) I met 3 American GI’s right off the Bamberg base. One claimed to be a German, but was in the US army. I’m not sure how that works, maybe it’s a dual citizenship thing. But she said she’d been living in the US for the last 15 years or so, and didn’t really speak any German.

The two men she was with spoke only English as well, but with heavy southern accents. The poor girl at the counter, her English was Ok, but seriously. One of those guys had lived in Germany for 2 years. He couldn’t be bothered to figure out how to say please, or ask for rental car rates in the native language of the country he’s been staying in? The counter girl gave me a "can you believe this?" look. I returned with an, "yeah, sucks. sorry." facial expression.

I understand not knowing the language if you’re just passing through, but gimme a break. I guess it’s pretty uncommon for the GI’s to know German. I guess it pisses me off because Americans are widely believed to be monoglots. And I’ve been busting my brain trying to learn German, which will be my third language. It’s easy enough to muddle through the vocabulary and pronunciation, it’s just the grammar that’s tricky. Sometimes I just forget the word order and start blurting, at least they know I’m trying, and can pick out what I’m trying to say. It’s the honing of the language that will be the most difficult and time consuming.

Anyway, this wasn’t supposed to be a rant about ignorant Ugly Americans. Really.

So I returned the car, caught a taxi to the train station. I was perfectly on time and jumped right onto the train, moments before it went speeding across the countryside. I did crossword puzzles as sleek white train wended between foothills, then mountains, and came out in fields of modern windmills somewhere south of Berlin. It was neat to see how the terrain changed as we progressed. Every city has a spire, the big church in town. Steeples make great navigation points.

I arrived at the Berlin Hauptbahnhof (main train station) and navigated myself to the inner city Sbahn trains, kind of like Chicago's L trains. I got off at the right station and hoofed it towards my hotel, asking directions of passersby as I progressed. I really had no idea where the thing was, and carrying my huge backpack (full of office, tourist, and bike clothes) it felt like a very long walk. I did eventually find it, and checked in.

I walked around the block trying to find something to eat. On the main street, Potsdamer Strasse, there was a Cabaret, an expensive cocktail bar, and some cheapie fast food joints (Turkish fast food). I turned down a side street that looked promising, but didn’t like the looks of the cafes I found there. I completed the circuit around the block, speeding up to get past the hookers. There were probably 10 of them, getting into cars, getting out of cars, standing on a dark street showing off their big jugs.

I grabbed a Doener Kebap (kind of a turkish chicken gyro with extra veggies in half of a pita bread. And then wandered into the spendy cocktail bar. It was mostly men, sitting together in pairs, talking intently, sometimes laying a hand on an arm to emphasize a point. The bartender in front of me wore a jaunty little sailor hat, and poured drinks with happy go lucky energy. I ordered some Hemingway Gin drink and decided to watch the time pass. A tall older Dutchman came to my end of the bar to order a drink. We spoke for a little bit on books and Berlin. He offered me another drink, but I headed back to the hotel. It had been a long day.

Saturday was the Love Parade. I got up and walked around looking for food/coffee, an ATM, and where the heck do they keep the Tiergarten? Behind the Brandenburger Tor, or Brandenburg Gate of course. And you could tell it was the Love Parade from the cinematographers in cherry pickers.


I used my travel pass and caught a bus to the Main Train Station. There I found acceptable food and an ATM that probably charged me an arm and a leg. Ah well.

I took the bus around the city a little bit, watching out the windows. I also walked on foot and got to see some chunks of the Berlin Wall.


Some ultra-modern aspirin tablet architecture:


The Love Parade. What’s to say? The techno was great. I expected the Floats to be more imaginative.


It was something to be part of the 1.2million people on a 4km stretch of road. Everyone was nice, I got into some conversations (in German) with people. The beer was astoundingly cheap. 2.5 euro per halfliter can. Needless to say, I got completely tanked and spent some time sleeping under a tree. It was a tree in the middle of a field. Pretty much all of the bushes were in constant use as urinals.


Oh yeah, the whole gig was taking place in the Tiergarten, an old hunting preserve that is effectively Berlin’s Central Park. Lots of litter on the street toward the end of the night. I cut my foot on some errant glass. but at least in Berlin they litter and have Graffitti!!


on the way out, i was adopted by some wannabe club kids. they marched me over half of berlin, trying to find the next bar. we went past a full club, a goth club, and finally ended up in a catacomb-like club under their L train.


there were 4 rooms, each with high arched cielings of brick and a good DJ playing a distinct type of techno. I enjoyed it. Right up until i realized that it was 3am, and i was asleep on one of the big leather chillout couches.

i got back to the train station, had a McD's cheesburger to help me sober up, and then ate a hot Banana and Nutella crepe because I could. I caught the L train back to my shitty hotel.

In the morning I got up early, caught a bus, then took the L train to the main station, switched trains and headed out to one of the outlying stations, where i could catch the subway, so I could get to the spot where i could get a bus to the airport. it took a bit of doing, but i got to the airport about 3 hours before my flight took off for Amsterdam.

Tegel airport sucks. They check you in at the gate. When i got to my gate they were still checking in passengers for the 10:45 to Munich, and I had to wait over an hour before they started checking luggage for the 12:10 to Amsterdam. This means I had to wait until my mammoth backpack was checked before I could grab breakfast at the airport bakery.

Bitching aside, I got home. Safe, sound and in one piece. Plus I got to enjoy a big bottle of Heineken in the cafeteria of Schipol airport in Amsterdam. That made me a happy traveller.

All in all, I'd say Bamberg is a cute little town that I'll enjoy living in. I'll have to spend some time in Munich, and Berlin has a lot to offer me in terms of nightlife and mayhem. I like all of its paradoxes. I'm ready.


14 July 2006

 

cars and borders

CARS
today's adventure was locking my keys in the trunk. i've got this loaner beamer 318. i put my backpacks in the trunk, which took some shoving and finagling (because i've still got a crate of pia's water in there), so i set the keys down to manage things. when i was done, i popped the lid shut, feeling very proud of myself, and looked at my empty hands. ach!

long story short, the bmw is a very secure car, hard to steal. and since there were no wire coathangers about, we had to call the BMW dealership. they sent a guy who broke out the taillight in a very professional way, and released the latch.


perfect. now i have to return it, because they don't want me driving a busted up car. but i think i'm just going to turn it in and ride the train to Berlin. that sounds funner (and more relaxed).

BORDERS
The land around bamberg changes character very quickly. one minute you're in the forest, the next a field, the next a town. the towns are small clumps of buildings. not much outlying, nothing like suburbs. the woods are just that, no houses in them. just woods. very structured, very scripted. everything is regelmeßig - following rules, regulated, orderly.

there's no graffiti in the bathrooms. how am I going to learn funny little poems auf Deutsch?
it's very hilly in this area. i'm convinced there will be good mtb'ing somewhere nearby. you can't tell me that the german kids are so well behaved that there aren't any bandit trails. i don't believe it.

13 July 2006

 

cut and aligned

the haircut went fine. i sat in the chair at the salon, and the woman asked, "what is there to do for you?" in german. i told her i wanted it shorter, and she asked how short? ...oh, a number one. but everything's metric over here! so we started out with a 3mm guard, and then went to a 2mm. beauteous. 10€ and 10 minutes later, i was all hübsch and cute again.

Saturday and Sunday were the Samba festival in Coburg. I stayed at Pia's parents house. wow, gorgeous, huge, and old. They rent out the top floor as an apartment. Her parents planted fruit trees when each of the kids was born. Mumsi took me to the Veste, the big castle on the hill, and I got some pictures, but most of the weekend was spent wandering around the city, listening to the drum groups. There were drinks with my boss from the US, I attended a Mass at the Catholic church, and lunched in little outdoor cafes. no surprise to the euros, but it has me charmed.

Sunday night I was back in Bamberg, and the Italian fans were out all night chanting about how they won the World Cup. I got very little sleep. then I had the pleasure of attending an 8 hour meeting in technical German (the TTT, door sytem technical day). It was a hotel conference room without A/C, filled with 35 shooters in suits. And me in a skirt and sandals. heh. So it was hugely warm, I got to give my presentation early, and then spend the rest of the day figuring out what was being said. We had a delicious heavy german lunch and went back into our technical sauna. by the end of the day my brain was a gloopy dribble coming out of my left ear. Dinner at a biergarten on the hill and a nice long walk home helped restore me.

Tuesday I hosted a meeting of people who design a certain plastic component. There were maybe 20 of us, it was at the Hallstadt office, so it was at least partly air conditioned, and it was a daylong open discussion. I think everyone was really engaged, and they decided to have this meeting again, in connection with the TTT. w00t. i'm a trendsetter.

Tuesday night Pia took me to the wooded area and set me loose with the bike. She said, "when you want to go back, go in the direction of Gaustadt." So, instead I went towards Mühlenburg. I learn the most by getting myself lost. So I took these fire roads, up some pretty steep hills. I didn't take any of the side trails (though i hear there's not much singletrack to be had) and rode in the woods for awhile. It was nice, quiet, and refreshing.

The woods abruptly ended, and so began the fields. They grow wheat and barley in this area, and something else i didn't recognize, but I came out in the hilly golden farmland just as the sun was touching the top of the trees. I rode for a bit on the paved path between the fields, then found myself in the little town of Mühlenburg. from there, it was easy to get back. There's a paved bike path a few meters to the side of the road. I pedaled the 7km back to Bamberg, quite proud of myself, not having to ask for directions. It helps taht the cities here all have huge church spires, good distant landmarks.

Wednesday was a visit with HR, talking about the red tape requirements of life in germany. we walked to the cathedral, through the rose garden, and had lunch at the Brasserie. Afterwards we stopped at the post office, and visited an apartment for rent. i think i have a pretty clear idea of how they live here. i can definitely do it.

now i just need to find a job. the org structure wasn't released, so i'm still waiting. but the design manager seems keen to have me, though.

this morning i picked up 2 big pretzels with pumpkin seeds (currently my favorite treat) and a sweet roll with elder berries for 1,5€. cha-heep. i'm currently enamored of the bakeries. and the outdoor cafes, and biergartens. mein Gott! i'm honeymooning. next, by all accounts, comes culture shock. we'll wait and see. i think I'm pretty well suited to life here. train travel is super easy, the work adjustment will be tough, but not like joining a new company, and that language barrier is coming down already.

here's what i've been able to do in German so far:
1. order food
2. chat
3. ask questions
4. understand answers
5. pay and tip
6. ask for things from people at the store (butcher and baker, candlestickmaker is tomorrow)
7. get deposit back for glasses at standup bars
8. get a haircut

my business presentations have been in English. I understood a good portion of the TTT, and the round table the next day was a lively mix of people asking questions in german, answering in english, and coming back again in german. They seem pretty well bilingual here.

though i felt like i lost the game when i was asking for something at the front desk and the lady switched to english on me. rats!

07 July 2006

 

6 inches off

so i'm in germany. and everything is just about 6 inches away from normal. the cars are smaller, the beers are bigger (no complaints there). and everyone wears tshirts with english sayings on them, but have no idea what they mean! way to look smart, kids.

tomorrow will be a new experience. i'm going to the 'friseur', what the germans always call the hair cutter. my shave has been turning into a shag, and i need to be tidied up a bit. i haven't taken my shaved head to a hairdresser before, much less one that doesn't speak english.

good luck to me! viel glück!

in good news: the director of the design team over here is talking about being able to guarantee me a job around the first of the year. so with more luck it'll pan out. *german dance of joy* *deutschefreudtanz*

06 July 2006

 

got my mind right

the night before i left for .de for this trip, I visited my shrink. that lady rocks.

basically i was looking at my life as forking in 2 directions. i'd been to all of these great family events, but they had all happened in the last 2 months. i had a boy saying he wanted to marry me, and start a family of our own. i want a family. really i do. and i plan to be married before i take on any dependents.

but i was seeing my life as being one of two things, 1. marry the guy now, because i'm in the family mood, but still kind of terrified and thinking it's probably not the right thing for me. or 2. flitter off to Europe, be far from my family, ditch this marriageable gentleman, and see what the old Continent has to offer.

It helped to look at it this way: marriage is a dress that i see other people wearing. it looks good on them. i don't know how it feels, but it looks good. it's a dress i've already tried on. it itched, i couldn't really breathe, and it had RUFFLES. i'm a slinky dress kinda gal, ruffles don't suit me.

so last time i tore off the ruffles, unzipped it, and felt a lot better. i'm still not ready for that dress. i can't take long enough strides in it.

Europa it is. and only 6 time zones from most of my family. A quick plane flight over, something I can definitely do, especially with the extra vaction time (27 days/year + 12 holidays), and the guaranteed one flight home/year. 's alles gut.

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