Incoherent Scribblings

In a renewed attempt at integrating into German society, today I have finally abandoned another one of those sure-fired signs that was always giving me away as an American.

Have I stopped eating french-fries with my fingers? Well, yes (in public at least), but that isn’t it.

No, what I have done is much more significant: I have chosen to renounce a particular thing that is such a fashion faux-pas that practically anywhere in Europe it will scream to any observant eye that you are an American.

This blunder is something that I was aware of even before I moved to Germany, but at the same time something so ingrained in my psyche that even though I have tried in the past to refrain from purchasing this particular object, I just couldn’t do it.

However, today when I went in search of this particular item once again, I made a concentrated effort to make sure that I did not choose that which would doom me repeat the mistakes of the past… Today when I went shopping, for the first time since my childhood, I did not buy a WHITE pair of tennis shoes (aka sneakers, trainers, etc.)!

Yes, I know: Since I knew that it was such a fashion no-no it really shouldn’t have taken me four years to buy a pair of tennis shoes that wasn’t white, but I had my reasons.

The first pair of tennies that I bought in Germany weren’t completely white: They had colorful side designs and I decided that counted. However, I knew even as I bought them that they stood out. But being that I am not a complete fashion slave and I liked them, I went ahead and bought them anyway.

About a year and a half later I was in need of a new pair of sneakers and at that point when I went shopping I obediently looked at lots of shoes that were anything but white. However, in the end, the pair that I purchased were once again white (with shiny silver stripes).

Even though I knew that white sneakers would point out my American ways, I couldn’t resist buying them. When I looked at red, purple, or green shoes the only thing I could think of was what the red pair would look like if I wore a pink T-shirt or what the green ones with yellow stripes would look like if I decided to wear lavender socks. My reasoning was even though white was “American” at least they would go with anything that I might decide to wear.

This time around however, not only did I almost completely ignore white, I also decided to skip the screaming red, purple, and green tennis shoes. I focused on ones a bit more neutral in color such as brown, black, or even navy. And this new strategy produced results: I am now the proud owner of an attractive pair of navy tennis shoes. (Adidas, if you must know.)

So now, based solely on my new sneakers, you can just go ahead and hand me honorary European citizenship, because you can no longer pick this American out of a crowd based on her goofy bright white Nikes.

I know it doesn’t look like much yet, but yesterday I started the final square on Dawn’s Seasonal Round Robin. Her theme is “chairs” and we are stitching Janlynn’s “Four Seasons Chairs” pattern for her. My chair is the spring chair and when it is done it will have a gardening feel to it with flowers and gardening tools surrounding the chair.

I have had the fabric for a while now and was even going to start it before yesterday, but when Dawn told me they were going to move she asked me to keep her fabric until they get settled. I used that as excuse to stitch the unicorn last weekend instead of starting her square, but then I promised her a progress picture before they packed up so I decided I better start on it yesterday!

I just hope she gets a chance to check in before they disconnect the computer and everything… And I hope all my readers will join me in wishing my very best friend in the world and her family a safe moving journey.

Stitched on Today: “Above the Clouds”

And that is exactly what the “G” in the “Spring” lettering of “Celtic Spring” gave me this evening!

The thing that started it all was that there was an error in the chart: The letters are stitched in solid colors (in the case of the “G,” it is 550) and the symbol indicating the color is a filled-in triangle. However, on the left-hand side of the “G” next to some beading there was a completely different symbol. I knew this to be an error as soon as I spotted it, but I couldn’t figure out if the spot should be left without a stitch or filled with one of 550.

I looked through Marilyn’s chart error page, but this error wasn’t mentioned anywhere so I decided to go ahead and fill it with 550. Well, as soon as I finished the letter and stepped back for a look I could tell that I (as the knight in Indiana and the Last Crusade so eloquently put it) “chose poorly.” It should have been left blank. So I had to go back and frog most of the letter to get rid of that stitch and then refill it with 550.

It only added about half and hour to my stitching and it was at the end of the evening, but still… after stitching the other letters I think if I would have thought about it, it would have been obvious that it was supposed to be stitchless.

However, it is a good thing that I checked Marilyn’s chart correction page because there are some other “Celtic Spring” errors that I found out about while I was browsing around. I haven’t gotten to those places in the design yet, but now I have a heads-up about them when I do.

Otherwise I think that all in all Mae is coming along rather nicely and I am having a blast stitching her!

I am sure that after missing the SBQ last week some of you are probably wondering if I just had SBQ-block or just completely forgot about my meme-commitments. Never fear! Neither is the case. I was coerced by Hubby to take a very last-minute trip to the in-laws and just didn’t have time to post anything. However, this week I am ready to go so here is the SBQ:

Do you stitch “on the go?” (On the commute to and from work, during your lunch break, waiting for the kids, etc.) If so, do you have a specific “travel” project or do you just grab whatever you happen to be working on and take it with you?

In all honesty I prefer to do my stitching in the comfort of my own home. I have tried on occasion to stitch on the train while commuting to downtown, but I just never really felt comfortable doing so.

However, whenever I go on a trip I do take some stitching with me. Because I don’t stitch a lot away from home I don’t have a specific “travel” project, rather I just take whatever calls to me when I go somewhere.

That’s how I describe my stitching right now… just zipping along!

Yesterday I started “Above the Clouds” so now my Monday rotation slot is finally occupied. I am stitching AtC on some of the fabric I dyed a while back (Turquoise Sky) and as of last night I have finished the castle.

Today I worked on “Catch the Wind” and this evening I passed the half-way mark on both Anna and on the piece as a whole! I am not quite ready to predict when I might finish CtW, but maybe, just maybe, I can look at a finish by the end of the summer. (Keeping my fingers crossed!)

As you can see, I have gotten in some good stitching time (on average four hours a day) the past few days. And let me tell you… when you stitch for four hours at a time you can sure get a lot done! I don’t usually stitch for four hours non-stop though: Typically I stitch for an hour and half to two hours and then take a break for a while before sitting down and stitching again for another two to two and a half hours.

In between stitching blocks I have been pretty busy getting the next installment of the SBRR set up and so far everything is going well. We are still discussing fabric, themes, post dates, and everything else under the sun, but in my opinion that is nearly as fun as the actual stitching itself!

Tomorrow I plan on starting “Four Seasons Cats.” This will complete my rotation so in the next week or so I should finally see if the daily rotation is truly working for me.