Monthly review: November 2016
Here is a summary of the following sections:
Lolita-related
* German Christmas sweets sent to Bookish Beauty
* lolita meetup to see "Fantastic Beasts and where to find them"
Other events
* attending the Spielwiesn
* monthly evening with board games
* family gathering
* visited the Christmas markets in Regensburg
* job search: I found a new job!
Knitting
* purchase of knitting accessories
* neck warmer in Entralac pattern
Sewing
* Aster Cafe skirt
* Innocent World anniversary skirt
* cookie brooch
Lolita-related
I follow a lot of lolita blogs, one is Bookish Beauty. Back in winter 2015, I offered to send some German Christmas sweets to her and she agreed. She even posted about my parcel. ;)
Back in November 2016, I have sent another parcel to her. ;) I selected some of her favorite sweets and added new items, too.
I have sent to her three different kinds of Lindt Weihnachtsschokolade, 3 packages with Cinnamon Stars and a metal box with Printen. I selected the box mostly for its look. ;)
We had a private lolita meetup in November and watched the movie Fantastic Beasts and where to find them together. I already wrote a blog post about it.
I attended the Spielwiesn, a trade fair for board games. I already wrote a blog post about it.
Other events
We had our monthly evening with board games at my apartment, as usual. This time, we decided to cook pasta with three kind of sauces: tomato sauce with meat, tomate sauce with vegetables and sauce with three kinds of cheese. The three kinds of cheese became one chunky block of cheese... My boyfriend removed the block, and the remaining part of the cheese sauce still tasted good. ;)
We had fruit salad for dessert.
We played the new games that we had bought at the Spielwiesen trade fair:
"Isle of Skye" and "Colt Express". The picture shows "Colt Express". Everybody plays the role of a robber of a train, and the player play against each other and against the sheriff. I like the game items and the concept. ^__^
My boyfriend and me found new owners for our Tassimo machines. We had one Tassimo for coffee and one for tea, but then Tassimo "improved" the recipies and everything tasted really bad...
I am still sad about it. The Chai tea tasted really good, and even contained liquid milk. The new recipe uses only one capsule, but it uses milk powder and adds a strong cinnamon flavor... ;_;
A lot of people wrote to Tassimo and asked to bring back the old Chai Tea capsules, but Tassimon refused. So off they go...
We always meet for a family gathering in November.
This time, it was in the apartment of one of my brothers.
We ate and exchanged gifts.
- My brother gave to me Serrano ham (it is in the box on the top).
- My mother gave to me a store-bought scarf from mohair wool because she cannot wear it. It turned out that this is the same for me: after 5 minutes of wearing the scarf, tears came into my eyes, so I gave the scarf to a colleague...
- My mother gave to me the three issues of knitting and crocheting magazines. These are special issues with pattern collections.
- The sweater was made by my mother for me when I was in Kindergarden. It is Paddington bear with a pot of honey ;)
On Sunday, November 27, 2016, we visited the Christmas markets in Regensburg with a group of friends.
There are five Christmans markets in Regensburg, we visited four of them. We did not visit the fifth one because it was not for free and at the same time, it did not look very interesting...
First, we visited the Regensburger Dom.
This shop sold candles made from bee wax.
I would say that this is a very typical stall for a German Christmas market.
I bought an owl candle (3,50 €) and a bee pin (0,50 €).
The bee wax candle smells sooo good! And the owl is very cute, of course. ;)
One ice cream shop was still operating... It was 5°C, so I did not buy ice cream...
By the way, I would have selected pumpkin and haselnut. ^_~
Bobbles for the Christmas tree, including gherkins. o_o
An American soldier had first hang a real gherkin onto his Christmas tree and then it became some kind of tradition. It must be a very local tradition, because I have never heard of this and I have never seen gherkins as Christmas bobbles at my friends' houses ;)
I found a new job in November 2016 as a software tester. ;) The new company is related to the automotive industry.
I was fired from my previous job as a software developer for a medical devices company in September. I would work in the current job until December 2016 and start the new job in January 2017.
Knitting
I purchased a lot of knitting accessories:
I have bought circular needles, 80cm long in different thicknesses:
5mm from olive wood by addi, 10,95 €
6mm from bambus by Lana Grossa, 7,95 €
8mm from birch by Knit Pro, 5,90 €
6 balls of "Alta Moda Cashmere 16" by Lana Grossa in color "medium gray".
Each ball was 6,95 €, together 41,70 €. I want to make a tube scarf from it.
Back in July 2016, I bought a Woodland stitch marker set in brass by Hana Paimen for crocheting. Now a bought another Woodland set, this time for knitting. (The hooks are different for crochet and knitting markers.) I ordered a bigger ring size (1cm) so that they can fit on bigger knitting needles. The set was 12 € (= 6 € for the marker + 6 € for shipping).
I did my first online order for yarn instead of buying it in a local store.
I ordered 6 balls of "Malabrigo Rios" in color "Whales Road", 2 balls of "Malabrigo Rios" in color "Frank Ochre" and Knit Pro knitting needles, 80cm long, 4.5mm wide.
I used the opportunity of a sale going on at http://www.lanade.de for the yarn and used a 10 € gift certificate that I received for my birthday. ;) The order was 77,55 €, 10 € each for the yarn and 7,55 € for the knitting needles.
I was a little bit surprised because the yarn is not rolled up into a ball, it is just a big slipknot (Schlaufe)...
With the newly bought yarn, I made a test knit for the project. It turned out to be quite big in comparison to the default 20cm x 20cm size, so I decided to knit a little bit more and make a neck warmer. The pattern is called "entrelac" in English and "Flechtmuster" in German. I learned it from nadelspiel.com
Sewing
"Sewing" in this month means "modifications". :)
Aster Cafe skirt
I have cut off the upper part, folded it over to the inner side and sewed it all together. This was a quite easy modification because I did not need to create a new waistband.
I finished the skirt in time to wear it to the Hogwarts lolita meetup. ;)
I did another modification to a Innocent World jumperskirt and turned it into a skirt. The series is called Innocent World Anniversary Happy Pie.
I will wear the skirt to the lolita Christmas meetup in December.
I received a cookie brooch as a present with one order. I removed the ruffles around the brooch because it was a little bit "too much" for me.
