The issue of UFOs

I'm talking about those pesky, unfinished objects, not ET. Since we're going to be gone for 3 years, I've been approaching the stuff in the house with this question in mind: if I don't bring it with me to Germany, will it be relevant in 3 years when we get back? This has helped me part with stuff like magazines I thought I'd get around to reading and electronic gadgets that I don't want to bring but will be very obsolete in 3 years. It's also made me face my UFOs. Many of these projects have been sitting idle for years now already, do I really want to condemn them to 3 more years?

For example, there's the Burda jacket I started over 5 years ago and never got back to. I don't know why I put it aside so long. Maybe I thought that since I'd gained a little weight it would be too small, so why bother, or maybe it just seemed too complicated. But I tried it on and it will fit (I have lost a little weight), the style is still OK, and I must say that my workmanship on it was very nice, so I think it is worth finishing. It's coming with me and I will get it finished.

There's a myriad of knitting projects in various stages - three sweaters need blocking and seaming and a little finishing work and there are a couple of single, unfinished socks that either need to be frogged or finished (along with a mate). All are coming with me. It's going to be a UFO marathon!

But there is also fabric, yarn, and fiber for new projects, however not as much as I thought I would bring. After reading Rose's comment on my last post I realized I was way too ambitious in my thought of what I could use up in my projects. I probably still am. With a desire to sew, knit, weave and spin I have to accept that my project-time has to be split among these activities. It also made me realize that I have far too much fiber for spinning. I must, must, must resist buying more no matter how soft and tempting it is. At least fabric, yarn, and fiber can fit in my suitcase so if by some miracle I actually use up what I bring I can shop my stash during a visit home.

That is all...back to packing!

Maximum stash anxiety

I have a problem. It's what could be called a  princess, 1st world, or champagne problem, but it's a problem for me none the less. You know from reading my blog that I haven't been sewing much over the last few years. Except for my annual Christmas party dresses and some home dec, the sewing machine has been pretty idle. Well, now I have time while I'm taking a break from work to live in Germany for a few years. At least I'll have time for sewing during the week - our weekends will be spent traveling as much as possible. But that week will have to split among my many interests as well as my desire to learn German and explore the local surroundings. That's princess problem #1: too many hobbies, not enough time.

Princess problem #2 is that I have too much fabric. Selecting what to bring is giving me anxiety. I had a crazy idea to create a huge SWAP (Sewing With A Plan) to cover the next few years, but there's just not time or energy to do that. I am only home for a few weeks to gather what I want to have packed and shipped to Germany. It's totally out of the question to bring all the fabric - there's far too much, but at least I don't have to get rid of what I don't bring. Most of my fabric is stored in plastic bins and swatched on cards so I know what I have, but confronting it sort of feels like you do after you eat an entire box of cookies. I'm sick to my stomach that I acquired more than I can really use, but I want them all. There's some really great fabric stored away that I'd like to bring, but I think the best strategy right now is to bring the fabrics that aren't stored. Some of the fabrics are ones I pulled out because I had intentions of actually make something with it (ha!), and some are purchases from over the last few years that never got stored or swatched. It's all good stuff, and while I don't have exact plans for all of the fabric, I have some ideas of what it can be used for. I think this way I'll have fabric to sew and hopefully I won't have to buy fabric locally, where it's expensive and probably redundant to what I have at home. I will be making some trips home so I can bring some fabric back with me if I really need to. Hmmm, should I bring all my swatch cards to Germany or will that just make me nuts because I didn't bring the perfect fabric with me?

Princess problem #3 is too many patterns. Darn those sales at Joanns! I also have a sizable collection of Kwik Sew, Jalie, and independent patterns. Burda? I have 13 years of Burda magazine patterns. Thirteen years. And lets not forget the other foreign magazines - Patrones, Diana, Ottobre, a few La Mia Boutiques. I've done a bit of traveling and buying them is one of my weaknesses. So my plan for patterns is to bring a selection of envelope ones that I think would work with the fabric I'm bringing and to bring the last two years of Burda magazines. I still get Burda delivered to my address in Germany and of course I can go to any newstand and buy Burda and other sewing magazines (Ottobre, Patrones, Diana), so I don't think I will have a shortage of patterns to use. And if I really want a Big-4 pattern for some reason, I can probably have someone (mom?) mail it to me.

Princess problem #4. I also knit. So problems #2 and #3 apply to yarn and knitting patterns/magazines as well.

Princess problem #5. I also spin. At least fiber is squishable.

Princess problem #6. I also weave. My 4-shaft loom is somewhat portable and the rigid heddle folds up, so that's good for space issues. And I can weave with the yarn I spin, so there's a bonus! Well, at least the weft - I still need the right warp yarn.

Ok, my head hurts now, and I need to get back to deciding what to bring. I haven't even touched my notions. Scissors, thread, elastic, zippers, buttons...this is going to be harder than I thought.

Regensburg

Regensburg, a set on Flickr.

We visited Regensburg, Germany earlier this month. It's one of Germany's oldest towns, founded in 179 AD by the Romans. A lot of the medieval city center is preserved, so there are lots of skinny, winding streets to explore. 

Generations and Generations

I’ve been researching the genealogy of my family for a number of years now and have quite a lot of information. I love puzzles and solving things, so hunting down ancestors fits right in with that. I know that many of my ancestors came from Germany so I was hoping to be able to do some further research while I am here. When I reviewed my data I was thrilled to see that one family came from Stuttgart, Germany, which is where I am living right now! Even better, I was able to attend a seminar here on how to search for your ancestors. We had a personal tour of the Landeskirchliches Archiv in Suttgart, where most of the “church books” are held that contain all the names and birthdates of people who lived in this area. A German genealogist helped explain how to go about our research and also helped to decipher the German script on the microfilms of those church books. We were a small group of five visitors at the archives but I was the lucky one who actually had ancestors from here and knew the town they were from, so the genealogists where able to help me with real research. You must know the name of the town when searching because there is no index of surnames to help you. Based on the town name (Fellbach), the German genealogists were quickly able to locate my ancestor’s name on the microfilm and confirm that he was born here and immigrated to America. He’d changed the first letter of his last name so I wasn’t confident of other research I’d found that linked him to a long family line here in Germany, but now I feel I can link to it. Assuming this other research is correct (I don’t have definitive sources), I can go back 14 generations:

me
father 
grandmother – Coxey (1892 – 1978)
great grandfather – William C. Coxey (1866 – 1939)
2nd great grandmother – Elizabeth Edler (1829 – 1906)
3rd great grandfather – Jacob Lange Edler (1782 – 1852) <<<< he’s the one I researched
4th great grandfather – Johann Caspar Idler (1742 – 1815)
5th great grandmother – Anna Maria Schäfer (1709 – 1763)
6th great grandfather – Johann August T. Schäfer (1672 – ?)
7th great grandmother – Anna Fridle (1639 – 1693)
8th great grandfather – Martin Fridle (1607 – 1669)
9th great grandmother – Apollonia Rebmann (1586 – 1634)
10th great grandfather – Hans Jacob Rebmann (1557 – 1597)
11th great grandfather – Jakob Rebmann (1525 – 1575)
12th great grandfather – Hans Rebmann (1500-1565)

I can also go back 12-13 generations on many other paths, including the Idlers back to 1536. Pretty neat, but also amazing when you think about how if just one of those people had died as a child, like so many of them did, I wouldn’t be here. It’s also mind boggling when I start realizing how many ancestors I have. I decided to calculate the number of people in the early 16th century (around 14 generations ago for me) that were needed to pair up to create the offspring that eventually led to me.

Are you ready?

One generation is 2¹ = 2: mother and father
The next generation is 2² = 4: two sets of grandparents
Three generations back is 2³ = 8: four sets of great grandparents
...and so on
So 14 generations is 2¹⁴ = 16384 or 8192 sets of great-great-great-great-great…ok, 12 greats in there…grandparents.

Somewhere there has to be some duplication because if you keep going you’d need more people than were alive. I obviously don’t have all the names of my ancestors, but I do have quite a lot. I started seeing the same name in different generations that weren’t in the same line, so I’m sure that if I did have all the names, I’d see that I don’t actually have 8192 different sets of 12th great grandparents. Also, this number includes people in other parts of Germany and also Norway and England, where I know I have ancestors from as well.

And then there’s the other direction. How many people are the result of Hans Rebmann being alive from 1500 to 1565 and having children? A lot, and I’m sure he was just happy that his son, Jakob Rebmann, survived.

But back to the Idlers. They all lived in Fellbach, which is about 6 km from where I am. I am definitely going to make the short trip over there and walk around, take pictures, and imagine my relatives living and working there.

Burda vs. Burda

Melk

More travel photos! But this post is short. I have a lot of photos to go through - it's easy to click, click, click and take hundreds of photos but not so easy to sort through them all. At least it's not film! I remember those days - the smell of the film, lead bags to get through the x-ray machine, and then the price of having to get those rolls developed! But I digress...

On our way to Vienna in July (goodness, it's been that long already!), we stopped at the little town of Melk, which is about 50 miles (86 km) west of Vienna, on the Danube river in Austria.

 

 

We stopped here because my "Off the Beaten Track Austria" book explained that the large building on the hill was a Benedictine abbey and that you couldn't miss it from the motorway. So we thought we'd get a closer look and stretch our legs.

 

The pictures don't do it justice. It was a gray day, getting late and we didn't have a good vantage point. Click here to see a much better photo from someone else.



 

But we did have a nice little stroll through the quaint town.

 



 

 

There are few more pictures on Flickr.com

Sheep!

 

I like this photo my husband took on his work trip to Sydney and Singapore. I think this was in Sydney, as I doubt they'd allow "wall art" in Singapore, but I could be wrong.