First stint completed

And just like that the first two weeks of my new job in the north of Germany have passed and I have been back with my family for six days already. Things up north have developed nicely and I am beginning to think that it was indeed the right decision, despite the fact that many people (including my own mother) are more sceptical than as exuberant about the arrangement than I am.

I even found an apartment already - I agreed to take the first one I looked at because it was so absolutely convenient in terms of distance to the clinic and the lake and the town center and the bus stop for the bus to Hamburg that I would have been very stupid had I not taken it right away. It will be a few weeks until they have exchanged the windows, before I can move in. Until then I will stay in the nurses' dormitory, which is nothing to write home about, but a place to stay, and also very conveniently located in terms of distance to the clinic, the lake, the town center. The main question that is still open concerns the ease of commuting as reliability of the German rail system, once known for its punctuality that was even incorporated in a saying 'as punctual as the train', has severely deteriorated during the years since privatization of the organization, and that may be a special training in resilience. But we will see.

So far I have been enjoying the lake, and the long walks I take there after early shift.

Stitching has been limited to a good amount of knitting and I have finally finished (the body of) a shoulder wrap that has been years in the making, I am certain it was started before the big plague, and now there is only a long i-cord left to finish it completely.

When that is done I am allowed to start a new knitting project!

I took many pictures when walking along the lake and have decided to use one of them to make my personal entry to the current EQA-challenge on birds.

Although I haven't quite figured out where I am going to include the fabric heart that somehow came along home with me from FoQ last year, and Susan Vogel of PatCh Swiss and I had rashly said we would include those in our contributions...

Since I came home I have finished my entry for Brno, made a decision about how I want to enter SAQA's Wide Horizons (time pressure! deadline!) and made plans for my bobbin for the Swiss-EQA Round Bobbin that I had said I would participate in (but haven't done a stitch for yet - more time pressure!). Sleeves to be sewn on. Things to be sorted... But I am content with my decision and optimistic that things will develop nicely.

A full week

 This past week, inbetween jobs, years, with lots of changes coming up, has been a bit emotionally draining. Original plans to do the first commute by train were all worked out, but the German train engine drivers are threatening a major strike, plus we had one day when the local line we live on was completely without service as all their engine drivers were all sick. And I had already been receiving messages from the train people that my original connection wasn't possible, I should check the new suggestion. Two days ago I finally decided that I would go up by car, canceled the tickets, and have been feeling a bit better since then.

I worked on clearing my cutting table and made a lot of progress, even though the result is not completely and entirely satisfying yet.

 

I could stitch a bit, working towards a completion of the piece I want to enter at Brno Festival.

It has progressed so far that I can proceed to deeper layers of my design wall that were hidden.

And I started swatching for a new sweater I have been wanting to knit for about a year now, the Spot Sweater by Anne Ventzel.

But I am not yet allowing myself to take the yarn with me when going north, as there are two other knitting projects that must be finished first. 

Tomorrow I will leave, and it will be an entirely new phase in life.