Spring Break & Deutschkurs

April is over?  Is that possible? Happily, two weeks of April were spent with the kids home from school on their extended (European-style) spring break.  I managed to catch a nasty cold at the beginning of the break, but by Thursday night of the first week, I was functioning OK and we joyfully welcomed Doug's brother and his family for a visit.  The very next morning, we headed off on a road trip to an area of Germany we hadn't visited before: the Romantic Road.  Doug has posted a few pics from the trip on his FB photo album.  The castles, the walled city, the lovely countryside and church steeples -- they were all straight from a fairy book.  I may need to make some princes and princesses....  All too soon, we returned to Berlin and explored some of the city with our family, including some fabulous falafel and ice cream in Little Istanbul (Eastern Kreuzberg - a neighborhood of Berlin).  Then our family had to go.  I guess all good things must end, but we really hope they will visit again!

As you may imagine, I wasn't able to knit quite as much as usual during those two weeks.  In fact, there were DAYS when I didn't knit at ALL.  Of course, on the car trips I did a little knitting, including a birthday pair of slippers for my sweet sister-in-law Helda.  Just before the holiday, I received two larger orders that I am just completing now!  Luckily, they understood the timeline beforehand, but I still feel bad about how long everything is taking.

Despite how busy I am, I decided to take the plunge and go ahead with the intensive Deutschekurse -- German language course.  Four hours a day four days a week is only, officially, 16 hours a week.  Yet, those are my most productive hours, as they are 9-1 -- when the kids are gone and the house is quiet.  Fortunately, the teachers seem mostly amused and entertained by my knitting in class.  I can manage to knit simple objects there, which leaves all the sewing, needle-felting, felting and more complex knitting projects for home.  Learning Deutsche seems important enough to slow down production.  For now (the next four weeks), I will see how it goes.  If I can manage, I will probably continue in the fall.

My Etsy shop hasn't been seeing a lot of business lately, but I have been selling some things out of my work room.  Here are some new items that I have made and sold recently:

Gnome Mobiles

A Pod full of Shapes (with squeakers, rattles, etc.)

Thanks for reading and looking!  I hope to blog again soon!