The fourth in my Game of Thrones series is Winterfell, a top down yoke cardigan which is perfect for the intermediate knitter.

Winterfell is available as a standalone pattern for 5 EUR:

Or as part of an eBook with three other yoke and raglan style women’s garments for 15 EUR:

Which is the lovely Lauren who commented:

So I hope this gets you motivated to learn to knit socks Lauren – watch your inbox for an email asking for your address.

[For those that are new to my blog, the closest city to where I live is Geneva, Switzerland. Switzerland in general, and Geneva in particular is a ridiculously expensive place to live. The real estate prices are off the charts  - a 1 bedroom apartment in Geneva center can easily cost over 700 000 CHF (The Swiss Franc is just about at par with both the Canadian and US Dollars). Food is also expensive due to rules about local production and health insurance is privatized so also very expensive. There are a lot of expatriates earning large salaries who can afford to pay these prices but there are also regular people who have quite a tough time of it. "Suburban" Geneva is mostly in France so there are a lot of people living in France and commuting to Switzerland every day and frequently people who live in Switzerland will come to France to shop.]

Anyways, we found just about the only cheap place in Geneva. Emmaus is a community run thrift shop which has a branch in Geneva. Things are reasonably priced and because this is a wealthy city with a lot of people who move frequently, there is good stuff going. I was really excited about this because I thrift shopping isn’t really so much of a thing here as it is in North America. Flea markets, yes. Thrift stores, not so much.

We missed some gorgeous speakers by just a few minutes but we did have time to check out the furniture, books, records and clothes. Really we aren’t in need of anything and I am doing my best to control the level of stuff that comes into our apartment. [I am very supportive of the new vinyl hobby though even if it involves more stuff because a) it is inexpensive because everything is coming from thrift and flea markets (for now) and b) it makes me and my yarn look less crazy]

Still a few things came home with me:

A few books. Two French classics I am ashamed to say I haven’t read yet and a James Clavell book in English.

And in the little baggie, some buttons that I fished out of the two large drawers of unsorted buttons. I could have spent hours with the buttons but I restrained myself.

We will be going back, I am sure.

This time the prize is from my stash. This lonely ball of sock yarn needs a new home!

It’s a self-striping 75% Wool, 25% Polyamide Woll Butt yarn from Butinette in one of the Rostock colourways otherwise known as colourway 3387. 420m/100g – Plenty to make any kind of socks!

Anyone from any country is eligible to win this yarn.

There are two ways to enter:

1. Leave a comment on this post and tell me what your favourite thing to knit is!

2. Subscribe to follow this blog.

Contest will end Thursday August 16th at midnight (GMT+1).

Random.org helped me generate the following number!

Which is the 116th comment, the lovely Shannon who commented:

Shannon will be receiving the delicious yarn from Sternenstaub plus a few extra goodies!

If you are Shannon, check your email and send me your shipping address.

We are especially spoiled for food choice around here because this is a town with many immigrants – mostly from Morocco and Tunisia so not only is there french food there are other delicious options as well. Our market has also been saved from the chichi farmers’ market phenomenon that has happened in some of the villages around here so it’s a delight and really affordable.

My favourite lemon seller.

This market has a lot of dried goods which I really like because I haven’t really seen them in bulk like this elsewhere.

These radishes looked so good – unfortunately they give me a tummy ache (probably because when I have them I eat all of them) and the Mister doesn’t like them so none of them came home with me.

My haul – lots of peaches because they are so good right now. Some sweet corn – I love it and 1 EUR! Cucumbers and some berries because the Mister has been bugging me to buy some. They are really spendy though this year. I wonder if it was not a good year for berry farmers. And of course the ubiquitous baguette.

The green on the left is Sternenstaub GentleStar in the Greenwood colourway. Her yarn is luscious and I am offering some as a giveaway right now. Check out this post for the details. I’m working on 3mm needles and it is destined to become this cabled pullover. I am really enjoying knitting this but am finding that I need to take more breaks that I usually do from my knitting because the cables hurt my hands. Nevertheless I have about 10cm/4in knit on the body!

The red is DyeforYarn‘s wool/ silk fingering (75% Merino Superwash and 25% Mulberry Silk) in the Hot Desire Colourway. I’m working on 3.5mm needles and it is destined to become this lovely pullover. I love. love this yarn – so smooth and this is working up quickly. I have almost finished with one sleeve. I always stall on knitting the sleeves of a sweater, so I decided that rather than knitting a whole bunch of sleeves all at once, I should stagger my sleeve knitting.

I am reading We Are All Made of Glue by Marina Lewycka. which I am really enjoying. I laughed so hard when I read A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian and this seems to be along the same lines of humour. I am only a few chapters in but I think this goes on the recommended list.

I am also reading Le Magasin Des Suicides by Jean Teule. I am liking it but I think that it would have been much better as a short story. I am about 3/4 of the way through and I feel like telling the author “Yes! It’s a satire, I get it! No need to shove it down my throat anymore.”

Now back to writing patterns – I have one that I am bound and determined will be finished this week!

Describe your business briefly (Is it just, you?; Do you work from home?; What do you produce? etc):

Sternenstaub, in English Stardust – fine hand dyed yarns is a one-woman business. So yeah it’s basically just me. I dye/paint different yarns, sell Knit Pro products, project bags and spinning fibres. I have a little workspace at my grandmum’s mill where I dye and dry the yarns and fibres.

Do you have a specific business philosophy?

I absolutely love what I do. I’m a knitter from the heart! I love yarns, browsing through new patterns, writing up all my ideas for projects and the shop. The best way starting a day for me means, getting up, grab a coffee, snuggle back to bed with my knitting and enjoy the sunrise. After that I check the shop for new orders and answer e-mails. I love driving to the mill and diving into colors, to choose new yarns and fibres for the shop and so on.

I believe that the best way to run a business is just loving what you do!

What inspires you to make what you make?

Inspiring is what surrounds us.. nature, travelling, art. A lot of people walk around without really noticing what surrounds them – without really looking at things and people! There is so much beauty in every detail.

What is your favourite product currently in stock?

Aww hard question, I love them all! My favourites today are the new spinning fibres I added to the shop yesterday. It’s really hard to give them away sometimes. If Bluefaced Star #13 is still in stock in 1 week, I’ll grab it!

Look at it.. isn’t it just stunning?

Are you a knitter/crocheter? If so, what is your favourite thing to knit or crochet?

I’m a knitter! I love knitting fair isle socks and pullovers. I love shawls, cardigans, lace..

Her site is in German but the handy-dandy Google Translate button will fix most of your problems. She also speaks perfect English and is wonderful to deal with if you email her with questions.

Sternenstaub Yarns has kindly offered this delicious skein of BambooStar (80% Wool, 20% Bamboo; 400m/100g) in the colourway Unikat 56. To me this looks like the highlighters I used to get so much use out of at school.It is delightfully soft and squishy!

There are two ways to enter this contest:

1.  Visit the Sternenstaub website, take a look around and come back here and post your favourite product of hers to the comments of this post.

2. Subscribe as a follower to this blog.

Anyone from any country is eligible to enter this contest.

Comments are now closed for this giveaway.

I worked the morning outside the town, mostly giving people directions on how to get to the major ascent. I was really surprised to see how many people wanted to go and cycle the big hills themselves. No way I would be on one of those hills on a bike – I’d have to downshift in a car to get to the top! But there were a lot of Australian and English cyclists who wanted to go. Unfortunately I don’ think that many of them got the chance because the roads were closed off to get to the ascents. They will just have to come back to fulfill their crazy cycling desires.

I was really happy to be able to meet more people from Bellegarde. We’ve been here a while now but it’s a small town and it’s a little challenging to get to know people. A lof of the people from here have been here for all their lives and they have friends that they have known forever. So it was really nice just to get to meet some people.

The experience was great but the race itself was sort of anti-climactic. I was close to the finish line and there were tons of people yelling. But as soon as the maillot jaune pack had gone by, people started to lose interest and leave. The bulk of the cyclists actually arrived 20mins later and many people had already left. So much work for two minutes! But still tons of fun.

So here are some videos of the cyclists. This is the winners and the Maillot Jaune pack:

And here are some stragglers after the pack. That’s me in the yellow shirt on the sidelines:

10 Things on my Mind Today

1. My camera appears to be broken. It’s not a very good camera and for my photo shoots I can borrow a friend’s but it is impeding my ability to write blog posts.Which is frustrating because:

2. The Tour de France is coming to my town tomorrow. I’m volunteering and very much looking forward to it all.

3. I have been working this week firming up my design schedule and yarn support for the rest of 2012. It looks like I am going to be very busy. Which I love! This also means that I will be introducing a couple of sponsors to the site. So keep your eyes peeled.

4. I have been thinking a lot about my designs. I love designing and my favourite thing to design is sweaters. I love cardigans and pullovers but I think that accessories are what sell best so I am torn as to what to do to make my designing more financially viable. I’ve decided that getting the answer to this question is probably going to be more drawn out than I had anticipated. I’m using the next couple of months to try out different types of patterns. We shall see if my beloved cardigans are as successful as hats and mittens. Not that I have anything against hats and mittens mind.

5. I am so sick of monogamous knitting. I have been working full out on the last sweater for my Game of Thrones Winterfell collection. I’m making progress – yoke and first sleeve are done but I am sick of working on the same thing all the time. My projects for #3 are looking so much more appealing right now. Good thing that I don’t have the yarn yet.

6. Due to all the knitting, there has been audiobook listening. I’m reliving my teen favourites – I’ve done all the Harry Potters and now am listening to Garth Nix’s Abhorsen series. (Read by Tim Curry who has such a dreamy voice).

7. I have revived my inner nerd this week by returning to my reading of Will Durant’s Story of Civilization. I gave it up there for a little bit – not quite sure why. But now I’m back and very nearly through the first book. I am hoping that it gets slightly less condescending once I make it into more Western history. I get that Durant is a product of his time and is actually more positive about the importance of non-Western civilization than many of his contemporaries but there are still some things that really irk me about this book.

8. My little vegetable garden is growing like gangbusters. I have some baby zucchinis starting to look edible and some tomatoes starting to ripen – yummy!

9. I need to destash some yarn. I love having a stash but sitting at my desk I feel like it is just too much.

10. It is time to make homemade pizza. I am having serious cravings!