back ...

from a wonderful week in some lovely places, in which we ...



visited lots of Christmas markets



became addicted to Glühwein and Lebkuchen



took a boat trip on the beautiful Konigsee



ate lots of apfelstrudel



played in the fresh snow





and even managed to catch a nice day of skiing



more photos to follow in the next days :)

see you next week

... and we're off to check out some of the famous German Christmas markets.

(p.s: for those who have asked, yes I will have a few bookcovers available for sale before Christmas, probably next week)

off the needles

so I needed some instant gratification knitting wise, and decided to cast on for Shalom a couple of weekends ago. And using one of my favorite colors, too.

Mostly I followed the changes made by Ishi (this is why I love Ravelry so much) and made it shorter since I wanted a sort of cropped cardi. It took me exactly one week, and I love the result, so I might make at least another one sometime soon.




Pattern: Shalom, by Meghan McFarlane
Yarn: Brancal Manchester (the same I used here)
Needles: 6.5 mm

on the needles

This has actually been on the needles for a while now ... the body part is very fast to knit, took me about a week or so, but then I got lazy and couldn't get myself to start the sleeves, so I started another project instead (I'll show you that next).

But apparently this gets Maggie's approval nonetheless ...

Lago di Como - part II

The next day was foggy and cold, and we set off to explore Bellagio.





We then took the boat to Varenna ...









... and visited two other gardens there: Villa Muonastero, which is more like a botanical garden







and Villa Cippresi, which is actually a hotel (there was a wedding going on, but we sneaked in anyway)






Finally, we took the boat to the opposite shore and visited Mennagio and the fabulous Villa Carlota at nearby Cenobbio. This one was another favorite, it's just amazing.










More photos at Flickr:
Villa Cippresi
Villa Muonastero
Villa Carlota
Varenna