Sweater on the way off the needles

Yes my Shalom sweater is almost off the needles now !!! I only need to try on one more time and decide on a way to cast, a few finishing touches and voilà !! :) I am so proud of this and it will be a pleasure to wear and show my new little treasure of yarn to keep me toasty in a few months... not now for sure we have so much heat these days, it's perfect.

I will only leave you this incomplete picture to keep the surprise for the FO thread very soon !! ;)

On another subject, I just got a brand new car Thursday and I am in LOVE LOVE LOVE !!!!!

Mazda3 Sport GT

Yummy.... what else to say that I even consider to sleep in while it was too hot in my home... ;)

Work in progress

I am currently working on a new wip : the Shalom Cardigan, but that little one did not wanted to be a cardi but a sweater with a leaf pattern on the front. I was inspired by the one Nordly (on Ravelry) made last year with the leaf pattern that hapichick made on hers...

So this one was for a long time on my "to do" list and I bought the yarn months ago, good for me I am currently doing it at a very good pace. I cast on Monday night and I am almost done with the body... and I keep going !

Here it was on Friday night

and now on Sunday night

I did resolve my blocking problem yet so no FO pictures for Swallowtail project and I will work on it by the end of the week to present FO pic as soon as possible !

On another theme I was invited to a beautiful wedding yesterday night and that was awesome ! How it cannot be, dress with a gorgeous dress, being with people I love and having a very good night :) Thanks guys for being there with me !!!

Tuesday's travelling

You all know my great interest in travelling all around the world and since I am looking to do 2 trips 'til the end of the year I thought about making a weekly chronicle about cities in the world that I would like to see one day or another...

Today to inaugurate the whole thing I will talk to you about Colmar, France which I will visit in December. If you follow the "Tour de France" they just went through the city a few days ago and it's a beautiful city.

Colmar by night

Colmar is in the Haut-Rhin department in Alsace (northeastern France). It is situated along the Alsatian Wine Route and considers itself to be the "Capital of Alsatian Wine"

Along the Alsatian Wine Route...

Colmar have a great history as in Alsace they are right next to Germany and Sweden. It was firth founded in the 9th century. It was granted the status of free imperial city of the Holy Roman empire in 1226. Then during the "Thirty Years'War", in 1632 the city was taken by Sewden armies and they helds the city for 2 years. In 1697, under LouisXIV the city was then conquered by France. In 1871 another annexion, after the Franco-Prussian War, Alsace is now part of the newly form German Empire. And finally it's returned to France after World War I in 1945.

Little Venice

Colmar is 64 kilometer from Strasbourg (which I will talk about in another chronicle) and directly to the east of the Vosge moutain. The secret of region for wine it's the perfect climate they have...about 550mm of annual precipitation, the driest city in France.

I will keep some interest point to talk about when I will be back from the city myself... ;)

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4 months later...

Hello ?

...anyone still reading this ??? Yes it's been a very long time since I last blogged here and I apologize to all my previous and new readers... It's been a busy year for me and now I am back to knitting for good ! Since last January, I broke up with ex-boyfriend and moved 3 times so it was hard to keep knitting and blogging, in addition to this I did not had an Internet connection everytime I wish I had one. Also as I bough my new apartment recently I have a LOT of stuff to do : painting the walls, decorate, buying new stuff...

So, welcome back and here are the knitting news for this week :

First of all, I am on a yarn diet since 4 months and it's going good since I did not read blogs and did not look at new patterns it was pretty easy to keep me away from yarn store. Plus, while moving I had my stash in hands 2 or 3 times so I also realize how much cool yarn and cool projects I already have to knit so I will try to continue on my diet until at least October 2009. Wish me luck on this... ;)

The only yarn left on my hand was a Noro Kureyon Sock in the purples, gorgeous one and I did not had many needles neither... So I put my hands on a 3.25mm circular and I decided to try on the Swallowtail Shawl...of which I made more a little scarf version. It's not perfect as the needle combination with the yarn and pattern is not quite adequate, but I am pleased with the pattern, the yarn and finally the whole thing !

I really enjoyed the pattern and I did it straight, I did not touch to any other fiber during the knitting process. You know I am not a monogamous knitter normally but I had no other options and I make it hibernate for 4 weeks in the process because I was busy with my moving. I had a lot of fun with the pattern even if it's an easy one and I am now a member of Ravelry upon the 4719 others that made the Swallowtail ! :)

Now I just need to find a solution to block my stuff here, before there was carpet floor so I used it to block my knitting...but now with hard floor wood and ceramic it's not the same. I will find a solution that is not too expensive. That's it for now and I will show you later my last swap boxes I had in March and I will continue on my Travel stuff too, I am currently planning 2 trips for 2009 !