Wow, when things are moving, they really are....

What an intense day. Yesterday was a bit lazy, but hey today, an intensive supervision meeting, enjoying my first paper acceptance... work work... but then late I finally went to the machine-knitting group, I have wanted to attend for such a long time at Stickbutiken, now owned by a new cheerful owner,and the yarn content is slowly being more updated. Really great. We looked at the art of machine knitting with this extra bed (wow, now my machine-knitting english really is limited).. that in swedish is called "resår-bädd", (in principle, lets you do purls....) what a trick. Do not think machine-knitting is easy, oh now,hand-knitting is so much easier. Do not think it is faster, well it will definitely take some time and a lot of experience to get faster. If you are lucky you might to some great squares. So Machine-knitting is like a sewing machine. Does not make designer outfits by itself. And this wonderful group, I just blush. I realize I am such a beginner. But, I might finish the christmas sweater on time to this christmas ;-) But Ann-Sofie had knitted in the round, with shetland yarn. And I must say, I feel more and more sure that I will do my Catherine Parr in some other yarn. Gee how difficult it is. So difficult..But I think I really want to think hard about this decision. Very hard. I love thinking about it. When it is started it is different. I want to linger in the moment of decisiontime - all options open. So, curious about the sweater? It is "old" more than 15 years... one of my "free patterns". It also have a long cotton skirt in green to it. But, I have never been happy with the neck, so I'm ripping it up to fix it. One of the summer projects. And soon it is a long holiday weekend in Sweden (again). That is wonderful. Really great. A knit-weekend on the boat.

Jetlagging - fiber sleeping

Big decision time. Time to lay my Rowan Julia aside, and get into the Tudor Roses KAL! Winding up the Catherine Parr yarn. This means, go go go! I'm still totally in the air with yarn, but hey... inspired by... Then the jetlag hits me and my brain zoomes out to a dragon- Chinease - red red... and gold. In my dreams I see silk being spun and how this becomes a beautiful silk sweater, and I rembember that I also have started a green recycle silk sweater. It is in my yarn room. It knits fast. But, I only knit on it for a few rows each day. Swatch swatch...Hmm.. Still need to finish my muscat. And my circular (Anne Modisitt) from Vouge. By the way, what happened to my Vouge subscription?
Confusion, tired, jettlagged. No time for serious knitting decisions.

So, two posts a day ;-)

Missing some blogging action, so, here is more reports. Hardly any time to knit on my busy trip, but it was morethan 11 hours on the plane, which made some slow progress to my Rowan Cottonsoft 4ply Julia, that I knit in my size which means 1 extra pattern on each side. Of course I also change the pattern to circular. I laugh at myself, I thought I should finish it before I was coming home, and planned for a second knitting... but I restrained myself. So, have I knitted 30 cm?

Anyway it is soft and nice to knit, and excellent for travel. Im worried as always that my yarn is not enough. And I was about to drop it, and start with my Catherine Parr. But I really got a problem. I'm not happy with the yarn I have chosen. I will definitely do one more sample before going for it. So, like the Shanghai Pearl Tower? I was up there and it has a turing resturant. Beautiful city, it really felt safe and exotic. But not for the weak hearted. On one menu I found Peng quain and after really saying that a few times I realized it was Penguin! (Yepp, they provided a picture!) So, stuck to the dim sum and Shanghai noodles. (Anyway. Sorry, Suzanna if I sounded rude about the mittens) I didn't mean to, of course you wouldn't.. but it is a common and published pattern on them, what made them great are the colours. I'm still into the lime... so what about Catherine Parr in brown with a yellow/lime border? Gold is not the easiest colour to reproduce.
Well Julia close up (yes you can enlarge the picture by a click) really show how endless this knitting is going to be. I have a bad habit of starting knitting that goes on "forever". So when the colour is totally out of fashion, then they will be ready. Please comment, it is so nice to have contact with the world.
Any summer knitting plans??

I'm back from Vienna (Austria) and Shanghai (China)

I will give you a long review of Vienna yarnshopping, but this is an exiting picture from Shanghai. And I must say, what an exotic place. Thanks for the global Starbucks that at least gave me great coffe in both Vienna and Shanghai. And the dim sims were fantastic. And the wheater. I passed ONE yarnshop in the taxi near Deng feng road, But, when the taxi driver does not understand one word, it is hard to ask them to stop and wait. The Vienna shopping was better. It started horrible (but a great dome)...but it turned out when I gave up yarn chasing I stumbled into MANY exotic yarnshops. And when my dear friend volunteered to carry some of my stuff back to Sweden (since I was going for Shanghai shopping), it was a given hit. I just got some great cotton from Filatura the crosa). To remind you, the shops are close and around the west station..... Neubaugasse had two shops and Maria Hilfer Strasse had some (according to rumour- since I had my whole research bunch on the lookout for me ;-) WEll Taylor won American Idol, and his last performances were fantistic (I saw Elliot leave in China!) so, good choice. But I think if I would buy a record it would be Chris'! Anyhow, now it is time to check the sailboat, and kiss my hubby a bit more, the heart really grows fonder with a bit of distance. But I will be back with my progress on Julia! And pictures of my new yarn (when I have got it from my friend!)