Favorites Friday: German Knits

Greetings from Tübingen Germany! It's been a long week with travel and work, but I'm finally catching up. Fortunately just in time for Favorites Friday, which will appropriately be German-themed.  First, let me set the scene...

The view of some mountains from behind the guest house I'm staying in.

View of the river in the downtown Tübingen.

Sunset behind my work building.

Quaint little cafe in downtown :) Maybe I'll have a coffee from there just to see if it tastes the same, but for now I'm enjoying my  espressos and cappuccinos. 

These are just the few pictures I've taken so far. Trust me there will be more. The one thing I like about Germany is that it is still quite traditional. All shops are closed on Sunday and typically closed during lunch hours as well. In Bavaria, which I visited during my last trip, women still wear dirndls on a daily basis (think women at Octoberfest). So this week, I picked out two traditional German-themed favorites for this week.

Traveling Stitch Legwarmers by Lisa R. Meyers

Traveling Stitch Legwarmers by Lisa R. Meyers

The Traveling Stitch Legwarmers are tight-fitting legwarmers with an intricate pattern of made with twisted stitches. This style is very common in Bavaria (Southwest Germany) and Austria, either on sweaters or high socks (again, think men at Octoberfest). I love the idea of wearing these with leggings and an oversized sweater for fall.

Frosted Ferns Doily by Herbert Niebling

Who doesn't love Herbert Niebling lace? Most of his lace patterns are in German, but the few on ravelry with English translations are all in my favorites, including this Frosted Ferns Doily. This is one pattern that I REALLY hope to get around to making, because I think it would look so pretty on dining table. Michael and I don't have a dining table in our apartment yet, so that means I still have some time to make one!

Frosted Ferns Doily by Herbert Niebling

I hope to dedicate most of my time this Memorial Day weekend to knitting. I'll admit I've been slacking the past few days on my Caramel Cardigan. More progress (and pictures) next week!

New England Knitting -> German Knitting

As I mentioned in the last post, I am headed for Europe! When? Oh, tomorrow. Have I packed? No way... I haven't even finished unpacking yet. First stop will be Tübingen, Germany for about 3 weeks to work in the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems on a human behavioral/robotics project. Just before I started this blog, I was there from July through December, so it will be nice to go back for a little bit and see all of my German friends again. Plus, after being away from Michael for 6 months, 3 weeks will be a breeze!

Sheep in Tübingen

My neighborhood in Tübingen

Lemberg in Autumn

Me at Rhine Falls in Switzerland

Neues Rathaus in Munich

My dad and the view from Schloss Lichtenstein

Michael and I on FaceTime and just so happened to be wearing matching shirts

One of the best parts about staying in Germany is that I have so much extra time.  Where I stay, I don't have to cook meals or clean... basically no responsibilities besides work and knitting. During my last visit, was when I really started playing around with designs, including the two hats I freestyled.

This project was dubbed the "German Ski Hat" because of the colors.
This pattern requires using 3 strands at once... so I'm thinking of publishing an easy
 and advanced version of the pattern with different numbers of colors.

Thanks Apollo for modeling!

This one is the "Swiss Hat" because I made it for a Swiss guy. How original....

This time around, I want to write these patterns up! Plus come up with a few more :) After Germany I'll be off to Valencia, Spain for one week of conference and then one week of vacation, which Michael will join me for. I'm sooo excited for this! I just happened to find this blog post listing all of the yarn stores (tiendas de lanas) in Valencia. But besides perusing yarn, Michael and I plan to enjoy some relaxation time biking along the coast and drinking wine.

Right now, the most important thing I need to think about in terms of packing is what to bring on the transatlantic flight... that's some good quality knitting time. Currently, I'm working on the Caramel cardigan I'm working on, which I need to get some progress pictures of. I also thought I would bring along some yarn to play around with designs. And by some yarn, I mean almost all the yarn I bought last week. Maybe that's too ambitious, but I think it's better to be over prepared than to be stuck on a plane with no knitting.

I'll have one more post tomorrow, Favorites Friday, in New England. I better be packed by then!!