Fair Isle Love

As of late, I am still working on my knitting.  I have been focusing on fair isle knitting primarily.  This pattern is called the 'Inga Hat.'  I fell in love with it when I was searching ravelry and just had to knit it.  I thought it would be a fantastic Christmas gift for my grandma.  After finishing though, I thought otherwise.  The hat would probably fit a 13 year old child.  My gauge is correct and so I have no idea where it came out wrong.  Anyway, it's a beautiful hat and I will find a youngin to wear it.  Who knows, maybe I will save it for a child of my own !  I think it could go both ways (male or female)  What do you think ?

 I now have two Christmas gift's finished and am working on a beautiful cowl for myself.  I am making it in the same colours as the hat above.  A tweedy creamy beige and brown.  It is GORGEOUS!  I have been wanting a cowl for such a long time and fancy this one ever so much.  I have become so obsessed with fair isle (knitting two colours per row) and am stashing many many patterns containing fair isle designs.  The cowl is about halfway finished ( I started it yesterday) and I cannot wait to wear it outside.  The weather is in the mid 30s here and is FREEZING !

After knitting on my cowl and relaxing around the house this morning, I met with my friend Meadhbh (from Ireland) for some good old holiday shopping !  We went to the Galeria Kaufhof Lafayette in Alexanderplatz because I knew they were stocking up on their Christmas decor.  Galeria Kaufhof Lafayette isn't a mall, but more of a large department store.  The store comes from France and is filled with yummy perfumes, chocolates, candies from around the world, clothing, home decor and much more !  The Galeria is 6 stories high and is a site for the eyes !  The first two pictures are of the ceiling of the shopping center!  It's huge and is covered in these windows so that one can look up at the sky from the inside !

Here is a picture while standing on the escalator looking down at the fourth floor

Here is the 6th floor where all of the Christmas decorations, porcelean, dining-ware, cooking utinsils, and kitchen appliances such as espresso machines, coffee machines, baking mixers, etc are !

The tree is quite large and is so beautifully decorated in ribbons, glass balls, as well as some traditional German wooden ornaments.  I find it really seasonal, however, I would never choose to decorate my tree at home this way.  I am so much more into home-made decoration rather than store bought ornaments.  They definitely have their place, but to have an entire tree based upon store bought ornaments isn't my thing.  I can definitely appreciate it in a beautiful department store such as this though !

This is a view while standing on the sixth story escalator in the Galeria.  It goes down, down, and down some more.  They have these pretty poinsetta's on every level in celebration of the holiday season :)

I didn't leave empty handed and bought nothing I originally went there for.  I intended on purchasing two holiday stockings for Robert and I, but decided it was silly to purchase them when I could simply KNIT them !  However, I bought a beautiful norwegian table runner which I will feature later when December rolls around   !

This evening, I will tend to my knitting while Robert is at Handball practice and find something tasty to make for dinner !  Enjoy this lovely day and cherish each moment :)  Maybe even find something creative to do !