Swedish Knitblogger who loves spinning, knitting, dyeing and yarn. I will do some other roundabouts about life too.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

From 90 years, Jössefröjda and to Grenoble!

Swedish Smörgåstårta (sandwish-cake) is the starter of getting 90! Hubby's granny on the right (yep, she had baked all the other real sweet rasperry cake and all small cakes and buns).. Im sure to use some pics of them when have a dry-spell. After digging into this twice. Yummy! So I have had a FAB Yarn experience in the fantastic city of Arvika. They have a jippo called "Jössefröjda" which is like happy hour in all the shops. I went 9 sharp saturday morning and bought myself 11 skeins of Noro Silk Garden, Nr 203 (!), 2 others in an odd colour and some PT2 (Per Tyving 2) a Norweigan honest woolyarn. What a blast - was it 30% off? That is what I like a lot. And that is how I end up with yarn shortage... 11 skeins is plenty. So that will be no problem. I have already knitted one and a half sleeve in that (just on my was home from Arvika). Anyhow, after this I packed and went with my research group to Grenoble in France "Rhone-Alpes". Just a fab city... of course I casted on a short top directly when the airplane was locked. I started a Ballet Tank top from Loop-d-Loop book, which I had scribbled notes of the pattern in my carry-on of bag 4 balls of Patagonia Cotton and some big wooden circular needle. Anyhow I can share my secret trick of knitting on planes: Thick wooden/bambu needles- circular - put with lap-top cords, and pens - passes 99% of all security - and then you do not show your needles until take-off. Noone will say anything if you are discrete, lady and passionatly safe and focused). They are not sharper then a pen, and not more strangling than any belt or lap-top power cord. So, if you are on -you are safe. And Im not asking for a no. Cost? The risk of loosing a pair of needles. Ill take it. It is still less than a boring magazine (they NEVER have knitting magz on swedish airports!) Anyhow: Helen (local swede in Grenoble) joined us for dinner - and draw a map to me. Result - I will desperatly try to get to a yarnshop tomorrow (Phildar), but I suspect they keep us busy. Now when I have revealed my very secret alias to this blog to my research collegues - I also expect some comments from you. I suspect my yarntalk will bore them quickly. Hi guys ;-) ok, and gals (ok we are two..) Anyhow - we visited both Chartreause liquer distillery (hey, it is GUYS that plan this trip), but I ended up with raspberry liquer (like candy). We also had time to see THE monestary where this secret liquid is created (see pic above), a gang of "total silence".... looks isolated in the hills. Fantastic stone and story- All in pouring rain of course - and the busride was excellent knitting-time, except to my surprise I knitted a whole ball of yarn - and the other ones were in the hotel. Some math have me calculating that one ball is three hours, so it is max a 12 hour knit. Goal: To be finished by saturday. Of course I have the Bohus yellow lace collar as reserve with me, but that is not airport friendly. so Im counting the paranoia is on liquids at the moment ;-) Today weather has cleared up (and the reports of 28C at home in Sweden - and all roses and peonies in full bloom mad me....) -it better is nice here! Anyhow nerds as we are- we are all booked at a hotel with internet connection, so I got challenged into writing on my blog (should I not do that EVERY DAY?) well, sorry folks.
Im not THAT interesting. Anyhow- All knitters - sorry for this people late nite wine bubble talk.... I will surely get back to Knit, fibers, spinning and many sweater progress. I feel Im getting 2 ready very soon, and 2 more in great progress so.....I leave you with some great pics of flowers... and not hero-supervisor paying the taxi-driver! Anyhow, FYI, D. next to My roomie, sideways and wears wine-coloured shirt - announces he is single. Does not cook, luvs food, and I vouch him as a great potential sincelast year he was kind enough to 1. follow me around for many yarnstopps without complaining and also carrying bags and patiently (and with curious questions) waiting in yarnshops and 2. Actually carrying home yarn and stuff in my overpacked luggage - since I was going directly to China last year..... So, a great catch ladies. Recommended. Lives in Karlskrona - but probable moveable as any software nerds ;-) /Ha - NOW Im in trouble... for this posting;-) There you have it for sneak peaking at my blog!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I smell a conspiracy plot, have you been in contact with my mother? :) I will have to keep an eye on you now "garngamen" but it was a nice summery of our trip so far and I hope that you will find your yarn shop on the last day as today was a busy day.
BTW Really gutsy of you to make this post, you do know my research area ;)

HPNY KNITS said...

great fun! sounds like they keep you busy enough. love a good Noro sale here and there as well!!
grandma looks very good for 90, and she still bakes. nice.

Anonymous said...

What a lovely trip. All that knitting and liquer tasting. You lucky thing. Happy Birthday to Grandma.

We have had nothing but rain, rain, rain. Hope it holds off for tennis in next week!!! :)

Anonymous said...

now you will need to include recipes for the Smörgåstårta and the real sweet raspberry cake...I'm sure you are all working on cooking software. Karen

BertandFelix said...

Happy birthday to your Grandma!!! What a nice trip!!

Oh, about your single friend...you do have lots of single blogger friends...hint, hint. Och jag kan prata svenska...I really can.

gail said...

You had a busy time. I love the sandwich cake. A few years ago we visited friends in Bjarred in southern Sweden, in the Skane area. The birthday cake was a very tall confection that I had never seen before. I forgot the name and precisely what it looked like. Very, very different from our cakes here. By the way, you are a prolific knitter. Your ballet top turned out very nicely.