Frogging is Good For The Soul?

I can just hear my friend, Julie, saying "It's about time you blogged something." So here it is, my dear.

So I finished the body of my February Lady Sweater, which I posted in a previous entry, and as I suspected it is way to big for my body (and I even knitted the small!). Oh well, no matter. With all the lace I have been knitting lately, worsted weight yarn feels like fat-arse rope so I am fine with frogging it out and reknitting it with some modifications that I read about on the FLS thread on Ravelry.

My bus and S-Bahn knitting is the ever-lovely Anne Hanson Lighthouse Gansey Sock which was posted in Knitty some seasons ago. I'm knitting it with Louet Gems fingering weight in colorway Indigo on US 1's. The pattern is originally meant to be knit with a heavier weight yarn for a man, but you can make it for a woman's foot using smaller needles and lighter weight yarn.
For a history of ganseys, or guernseys, see this entry.

I also finished the Fiddlehead Scarf, also an Anne Hanson design, and wore it to Bruges, Belgium this past weekend. Hubbo took me there for my birthday. Did you know Bruges is a UN World Heritage Site? The whole town seems to be surrounded by a double moat. We went to Choco-Story, which is a museum dedicated to, you guessed it, the chocolate trade. But best of all was the brewery tour at De Halve Maan (The Half Moon). For 10 Euros you got a tour of their brewery and a beer afterwards. Not only did we learn a lot, but the beer was incredible. If you ever find yourself going to Bruges, I would skip Choco-Story (which is not worth the 6 Euros at all) and do the brewery tour.

For yarnies, I did find a yarn shop in Bruges, called Stikkestek. You can go to Knitmap.com and enter in Bruges, Belgium for the info. I did manage to pick up some discounted Angora and some neat buttons, but on the whole I was not impressed. The stock they carried was mostly what I can get in Germany, plus some Rowan.

One place that was a wonderful surprise in the yarn department, though, was right near De Halve Maan (hey nothing like good beer + yarn) called "Couture Marie Brat". From the outside of the shop it looks like they sell shawls and tapestries, but in one corner I saw a skein hanging near a knitted hat. I went inside and there was an old man sewing something. I saw to his right a box full of local yarn (score!). Turns out the yarn is from Belgian sheep near the coast, and he had it in all colors. I picked up two 100-g skeins--one in blue and another in green to make some mittens. Here's the address for this place:

Couture Marie Brat
Walstraat 12, Bruges 8000
Tel: 050/33.18.76