Goodbye 2013! Welcome 2014

Happy New Year!!

 

Somehow I can't believe it's 2014 already. On the other hand, lots of things went on in 2013. I finished my teacher traineeship from hell, we move to Dortmund and I found a lovely new job. Also, I really got into crocheting and started to do more things than blankets! In 2013 I realize that crochet is my kind of yoga... And intent to keep it up in 2014 and get even busier!

 

I realized that I had far too much stuff lying around in the bathroom – so I threw some out and others got a new home. How convieniend to have a crochet hook and some zpagetti yarn lying around… I whipped up this darling in less then 30 minutes. The pattern is fairly easy:

 

Easy Zpagetti-Basket

 

Use any color of Zapgetti Yarn and a 12 hook.

 

Start with a magic circle and chain two (Counting as one DC*).

Rd 1: 11 DC in the circle. Close with a slip stich in chain 2. ( 12 Stiches).  

Rd 2: Chain two and make one more DC in the same stich. 2 DC in each stich around.  Close with a slip stich in chain 2. (24 Stiches)

Rd 3: 2. Rd 2: Chain two and make one more DC in the same stich. 2 DC in each stich around.  Close with a slip stich in chain 2. (48 Stiches).

RD 4: Chain 2. DC in the back loop of each stich around. Close with a slip stich in chain 2.

RD 5-8: Chain 2. DC in each stich around. Close with a slip stich in chain. Fasten off.

 

* I always use two chains instead of three for a DC-subsitute. I like it better this way. With three chains, the „hole“ looks too big for my eyes…

 

I made several of these baskets for christmas – they are lovely gift bowls. For some I changes the color for the last row (no photo unfortunatly) and I weaves some zpagetti straw through the top loops and finished with a bow. The possibilites are endless!

 

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Apropo christmas: I am a very lucky girl and got a lot of presents! A new camera for example – don’t the pictures look far more awesome now?! My parents gave me a yarn color set among other things. The one Lucy from Attic24 used. Unfortunatly the yarn hasn’t arrived yet. Sigh. Hopefully soon! We also have a new housemate:

 

We moved to middle Germany from the nothern part last year and we miss the seagurls. So my parents gave us a wooden one. I love it!

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New Years Eve came fast! On Monday I realized that there were only two days of 2013 left… Woah! Still, we managed to whip up a wonderful new years eve dinner. We had raclette and of course there was too much food… We will be able to live of it for several more days!

 

 

 

 

We had a quite night in with lots of good food and wine. Yummy! Of course we also had to watch „Dinner for one“ which is a German tradition (even though the short movie is in English). Wouldn’t be New Years Eve without it…

 

At midnight we just had to step on the balcony to see lots of wonderful fireworks. Man – there where tons of it at the sky! People must have spent a fortune on all this firework. We on the other hand didn’t buy anything. Didn’t need to after all…

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2014 greeted us with brilliant weather! Lots of sun, little clouds and nice temperature (6 ° C). How lucky are we?!

We took a talk around our part of Dortmund. Lots of people think Dortmund is a dirty, industrial town with little green. They are very wrong! And I have to confess – I was one of these people when we moved here but I really start to love the city!

 

 

 

Some relics from 2013.

 

 

 

The river is getting recultivate at the moment. It already starts to bloom!

 

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The first projects for 2014 are already set:

We will join the gym tomorrow for one. Phew, it’s about time.

Also, we bought these lovely chairs via Ebay small advertisements yesterday. 5 chairs for 25 € total! We plan to sand them down and put press oil and wax on them. Perhaps paint them too. We’re not sure about that yet…

 

 

 

 

Other than that my plans for 2014 are:

 

Be happy,

Enjoy life.

Take it slower.

Laugh.

Crochet.

 

Sounds doable, doesn’t it? :-)

 

I reckon this yummy cake is a good start…. Mmmhhh. Smells and tastes so good! I used this recipe.