Mother-in-law Poncho

Isn't it great. Mother-in-law's fitted poncho. It started like the shadow knitted shawl, and she wanted it to be in place, so it became a poncho. In this picture you can't really tell the "shadows". But does that matters. Well, we were sailing today, and I got coffe too late last nite, so I have just slept for 6 hours. So, I'm soooo tired.
But I'm with you all World wide knitters in public! Bullandö Marina has a great resturant, I must say. I also took this great picture on a Tree-peony from my garden. It is so beautiful. So much is blooming right now. Lilacs sweet sent. Sweden Tobago, still 0-0. Not much for soccer-knitting. But it confirms that I do not like small red and yellow dots running back and forth and hurting themselves. Ohh dear. Time for bed!

More knitting... what a week.

So, one day cold. One very long day in Ronneby (yepp, plane again). Knitted on Ronneby Square (people turned their head). Taxi did not want to drive me to airport, but had me wait for 40 minutes (that is small town rude for you!) But, met an ex-co-worker that took over the local yarnshop. Into Garnstudio, Idena and not much more. Some nice knitted sweaters. Some linnen cloths. But, just not that "umpf" a yarnoholic like me look for. And maybe she was not enlightened by her surroundings, that was (according to her) an acrylic set of old ladies. Small-town. Sigh. So, today my long awaited package from Vienna was picked up. A friend carried: a pair of Birkenstock in pink flowers "Papillon" (great sandals!) a whole bunch of dirty clothes, and: One box (10 balls) of Filatura di Crosa, 100% mercisered cotton in a beautiful blend of lime and greens, and purple and blues. Also, some hot pink turquoise (3 balls) and a yellow,pink small ball. Great! Like Christmas in the midsummer!
Mother-in-law was reading the Poetry of Stiches and agreed they were "my colour". Ahh, but her comment is always - I have yarn until I die. She returned the Shadow Knitting book (Vivan Höxbro) and I realized that she has greatmodels for wellbuilt women like me. As always, m-i-l had knitted a shadow knitted poncho. It started like a shalw,but she liked the idea that it stayed on, and was fitted. I will definitely sneak a picture of her. Well, the light struck the train (or some other heat) so I was stuck 1.30 min on the train from Västerås.
And, I hear all sighs and complaints, and, as a knitter, I know, the stop is not long enough...Again, I was stuck without a pattern. That is so weird. But, at I'm passed the division of front and back. Now comes my real hurdle. Deciding if I should stick with the Julia pattern, make a band and a round neck. Or... should I rework it to a V-neck more flattering to my figure? Hey. I need help. And tomorrow is day-sailing (with knitting?) It MUST BE PUBLIC ON World Wide Knitting day!

Knitting with the wind...

Strange long weekend. I'm such a cool chick. Hey I'm the captain!Maybe I like it best at home. Nothing like a short sailing adventure, to realize how great it is drawing weeds out of the garden. Cleaning up the guest room, mother- and father in-law is coming! Cleaning meaning- throwing out about 15 large pots with geraniums from the guest room and washing the entire place, throwing out some house spiders of fist-size (ok, not THAT big, they just felt big), nothing like the huntsman we had in our house when we lived in Melbourne, Oz!
After a good long sleep, and a lot of cleaning inside, and outside. Realizing our WC is so dead (ok it is from 1959) we ordered a new one. The shower room leaks through the floor, now having us go outside down to the cellar, where of course I created a flood - the drain was not draining! I also realized that pasta sauce without leek is not as good as with, a bit sour - but lets look at the positives, a new Scrubs series on TV(finally) and HUGE progress on Julia - and a quick sneak off to Maria G's , yarnshop. Beautiful wrist-warmers exhibition and her hand-painted yarn. Wow! Well, life is getting better. Everyday and everyway. I do feel calm and cool. I'm pondering about if Yorkshire Tweed 4ply would be good for doing a Katherine of Aragon... And if the Tudor Roses Kal are wondering what the heck is going on (I will start my Catherine Parr, promise).But Julia is so seducing. Well, it is like knitting with the wind, it just flows. This is what I call knit-trance. You finally learned the 12 row pattern. Suddenly, you long for the purl rows, (notice, I have been trying to avoid purls for years), the lace just feels fun, and you know how to correct any mistake. The yarn is soft, and... you have succeeded with the size enlargement, the pattern reworked to circular.. you know what I'm talking about, doesn't matter if the life is giving you a hard time, your knitting is going great! Please let me have this bliss until Julia is finished. That would be great...

Grisselholmen and sailknits

What a weekend. We took our lovely boat out for the first sleep-over in new islands. The sun was shining, and the wheather report was wrong about the wind direction (it turned the wrong way in the night!). So we were weaking up 7.00 sharp by one of our ties, had loosened up to from the cliffs. Well, lets just sum the ordeal up with my beloved took a dip in the very ice-cold water. And we got sunburned, and I have been knitting like a frantic. Great sailing home, but now both of us just fell asleep for hours in the sofa (it is a big one). So, now Julia knitting has reached 40cm, and should be parted into back and front (sleeves starting). And - we are one experience richer. It is cold in the sea in Sweden beginning of June, and do not trust the weather report- Tie good - And - if you only have one knit with you - bring the pattern along ;-) I'll return with some fresh pictures and more progress. But the sofa is still floating. (A common aftermath of being at sea!)

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!)

So short update before taking off tomorrow!

So, the studentjubilee, interesting statistics...8 from our bunch of definitely above 25 some, zero (!!) from parallell and 5 from the other parallell. Just a very lousy outcome. Then I realized, Hey, it is noisy, we can't really speak with each other, the food is good, but I know noone outside my class, since I went to the US as an exchange student (Fresno, CA - class of 80!) so, I went only one year with them. I understand that it would be more fun just to meet. without the surrounding. Wow, how your memory goes after 25 years. So. Dear N3b in Karlstad (find your way here yet?). You were amazing! I think I got back some great memories of that time, and it is such a warm smart gang of people. Of course my throat choaked, and I feel that ache coming on at night... so I was early (around 2ish in bed!) Well, good hotel breakfast (a picture from Statt - my room) and then I went to the Värmland museum, which had a GREAT exhibition on.
A lot of knitting.... I do not want to spoil the fun, so I only give you one picture! Unfortunately the knittingkits were still not in the museumshop so... Sorry. No business from me. But the Latte was great, and after knitting on the train back home, hosting our australian, indian, malaysian friends I'm packing. So- It will be VERY quiet in this webspace until 30th of May or so - but then, this blog will be jammed packed with strange yarn-chasing stories from the world (and picture of all I knitted on the 11 hours flights! and all conference). Enjoy

Planning, throat, and studentjubilee

Ohh, so summerish outside. My throat aches and my eyes are swollen from the birch pollen. I'm still thinking about Catherine Parr, but, you have learned by know, I'm a bit crazy with both yarn-shopping, and cardi planning. I have about 15 hanks of linnen yarn. Here is the Karin Öberg spun from Holma Hälsingland in my favourite green. Also, the orange was one of those crazy internet sales, where I bought 10 hanks Rowan summer tweed. And I do not even like the colour, but I guess Im trying to get used to it. In the latest Rowan magazine is a fantastic pattern for summer tweed. Im definitely thinking about that one. Fair-isle and much more intrecate slip yarn in front to make pattern. Also you can see my new turquoise linnen yanr (yllet?) just on the edge. Yummy. Linnen knits up like cotton. No elasticy. But having only linnen means it is durable, and after a few washes and wears, it just gets more and more soft and beautiful. So, in right bottom corner there is one hank colinette, and very vague in the lower left corner is the Patagonian thick cotton in green and blue. In the middle is the Garnstudio silke-tweed. All from my stash.
Anyhow, I went to IKEA today (a place I never go (do not like bad quality), and, bought curtains to our library (yepp, we have dedicated a room to - the library) being bookfans that is a great idea. Very calm pattern by Katarina Breiditis, very Swedish. White sturdy cotton with thin blue/black strips. But, the real reason was, I really got fed up with the mess in the yarn room, and bought 15 (!) semi-transparent yarnboxes (with lids). I hope that will bring some order in the stash mess. So, this weekend I'm taking the train to meet my Student friends at Sundsta in Karlstad. 25 years is a long time. And Monday, the flight goes to Vienna. And it will be soo quiet at this very busy blog. So, planning. Hmm. I'm still thinking that maybe Yorkshire Tweed 4ply could be used for Mrs Aragon. And I have to hunt fo some "gold" or colour myself.. hmm that was not a bad idea. But in Rowan Yorkshire I have 14 balls of 25 grams, but there is of course no info about the weight of the sweaters...Well, that could be great figuring out! Maybe do a slink summertop "inspired" by fair-isle? Wouldn't that be cool. I have being too holy. I have decided that I will buy the yarn for the Henry VIII in any case. So, the colours for them are great.

I'm back for a few days- Valencia report

Wow, I dipped my feet in the Mediterrian.. sunshine, tapas, and cerveza, por favor. Americas Cup (sailing) in the background. Wow, My conference speach went great. I walked around the city (all closed) on sunday- then you cannot see any shops. Working all monday, and some morning hours before the flight back, I found (with bad spanish, and help from hotel) a shop. The owner's nose was so high up she was falling backwards (I suspect she did not like foreigners, and did not like to talk to non-spanish). She sold 100% acrylic yarn for 1 Euro (Yikes; it was terrible!).
But, I tried: Angora???? yepp, for 4.50 Euros for 10 grams I got some small ball's with me home for a fortune. Hmm..I'm sure there are better shops. This is not recommended... Lana something on Christina street (just between townhall square and market). Safe to write, since no-one understands english ;-( Well, I needed something in the yarnhole (did not buy ANYTHING elseok, some tapas and beer!)... But I saw a lot of really nice knitted sweaters.
Great inspiration, but as always I think (I can do that better!). So, grabbed one of my knits (the lightweight one). CashCotton 4ply from Rowan - I'm knitting Julia from Summer Collection nr 11. And, after 4 boring hours in transit (Madrid airport) I got one the first pattern (lace) of 24 rows. I have of course changed the pattern to circular needles, and added an extra 20 cm (Rowan sizes are pygmy women that do not eat, sorry I mean models ;-) not REAL women.

So... I was knitting until 3 a clock last nite - and note, I was ALMOST finished with the rib when I started. Will this be a slow knit? You bet.
So I think it is my next long trip (Vienna, Austria and Shanghai, China) so, yarnshops anyone??? (well, it is work again ;-) But, lots of time to knit on the plane and airports ;-)

Mmm...Valencia - Spain Knitting? Help?

ok, the full length handspun. Some neckline can be spotted... You get the idea. Wow, I noticed how many spellingmistakes I did yesterday. That is me being tired, no glasses on, and rushing.So, I'm off to Valencia. Many years since I was there last, remember that I chased ceramics then. They have a great museum. Now it will be different. Dear hubby will tag along. And Spain is our honeymoon (week) place.So it just gets that romantic feel.
So, hmmm mmm hmm.. Say no more... it is actually WORK . So.. I probably be rather stressed. Hopefully some hours to knit.

So, looking through Tudor Roses again...

The first day of sunshine in spring. It is wonderful, and my heart sings. I left my cotton summer knit (picture) in the sailboat (yes, now the mast is on, and the sails!) and I'm just thinking about what in the Roses knitalong I should knit. Is that not just the best thing? Planning for a knit.
So, I decided that I would go for a good Finish 2-stranded wool yarn (Piirtin Villalanka) with some tweed- feel - in brown. (Hello finish people, give me the full story about this yarn!) So, the big discussion is, what is the contrast colour? One good thing is that it has a large size (which of course is not true of the ones I really would love to do). But hey, I can change a pattern...Secondly, If it is a knitalong, I should at least go for more than one (that is how I usually cheat myself into doing one. I would really love to do one of the fairisle patterns but in shetland yarn. I do not have shetland yarn. So Catherine Parr? Good start. So I have choosen brown (Syksy = Autumn = that is when it is going to be ready ;-) (not like the original). Need a second colour ..."gold" so what colour is really "gold"? bronze? I have yellow, and 4 shades of orange, but no bronze...So,I'm really looking through my stash, and of course I have GOLD - I mean REAL GOLD coloured yarn. Its from Jaeger. and it is so fabulus and soft, cashmina or something. Hmm.. Or should I really chase another wool yarn? Those hunts are the best. To get the colours "just right". I think the gold will be a bit bleak to the brown, so maybe lighter, like beige? or should I be bold and do RED? or does brown and turquoise work? Hmm. The last one sounds interesting. Secondly, these are knitted back and forth? I really like changing the pattern to the circular, so, I have to check if it fits. (some patterns actually is better back and forth).. So. Wish me luck! Anyway! Tudor friends, here is my wishlist and rating of the patterns in the book. (where I alread have decided for Catherine Parr! -Sweater with both a two-colour pattern,and an Aran part.)

1. Henry VIII is colourwise the one! Will probably fit me too.
2. Anne Boleyn Is great - but will not fit. so, there is a problem..
3. Mary Tudor is also ok in colour, but I would alter it slightly, the problem here is, too small
4. Kataherin of Aragon (great name ;-) is also a good fairisle,but but again, sould alter the colours somewhat.
5. Then the Katherine Howard Jacket/Cardigan is just fantastic. Wrong size of course, and wrong colours, I would do bule with lime and light blue braids.
6. Anne of Cleves fits, But color..Hmm. A great Aran! Seems like a lot of yarn! but here Size is great. This one is very useful!
7. Elisabeth I is a great summersweater in white, beautiful, and probably a fast knit, but, Again too small, and then is narrow waiste does not work for me. So, this is something to ponder about.
8. Jane Seamour is nice, but I would really like to understand what original yarn that is. It just looks like two different qualities. and the colours should be more constrast.
9. Margret Tudor has buttons that just look odd, but the Aran is probably ok, as well as the henry VII and the Elizabeth of York. But, they are not to very high up.

Conclusion, the 1-8 is knittable, and all but nuber 1 and 6 needs pattern altering. All fair-ilse should have specially bought yarn. So, they will not get knit until I can visit the Shetland Island on my own. (Probably very many years in the future!) Sigh... But Catherine Parr, I hope you are interesting.

Need of a knitalong ;-) Tudor Roses!

Im a looser in the Latvian mitten knitalong. But hey, it was fun, and I'm struggling with the next mitten. Anyhow, I was bored (it actually was fast doing my taxes), and I feel like a knitalong - so i joined this one what a great idea. I will thought that I should get into the stash and find some yarn, maybe also join the STASHsaving knitalong...called stashalong ;-) well. Also thought about the Tubey.. but I guess I will go for a project that will keep me busy in the summer. If you find a UFO/WIP-along for me, comment here.Too busy to start and one myself. If you have any yarnshopping hints for VALENCIA in SPAIN please tell me, what is yarn in spanish? I will go there for a few days.

Mayday May day!

I have had this hanks for years. They were my first spun yarn, that I did. So, it is fat and uneven. Of course I just had to play with the colours. But, now I got an idea. Make all the homespun into one cardigan. Buttoned. The greenish bottom, with some purple in the top, is the right front. And the blueish grey is the left front part. Just pick up and assemble. I like this yarn. Thíck uneven and so fat. I will also have to add the sides, sleeves, and a back, and of course button brim. More spinning. Blogger is slow today, which means you will have more pictures during the week. But, the one part starting with blue is already upto the back neck. So, now, I need to spin more thick yarn. I remember I was told, once you have learned how to spin thin, it is hard to spin thick again, and I have done superthin in my brown shetland fleece. Mayday, May day is that I need more grey (light and dark) but mostly it refer to catastrophic fantasies, we were about to sail allday, bu - we did not sail our boat into summer harbour - too windy , almost storm (kuling!).Also mayday is really about TAXES: last nite now. Still have not started. Panic is creeping up. But the garden got a few hours before collapsing (to much hard work this 3day weekend). An office rat like me is not use to fresh air. I think when you dread doing something,I do something else. Like gardening or knitting. At least I'm excellent in finding good excuses. Are you?

Patterns and colour, homspun knitting

My favourite colours changes during life. When I was small I was blue, but I loved small flowers patterns. Liberty if you know. Then, I was in love with red. Dark blood red. The reason was, my little welsh mountain pony was black, so red was great. Then, I moved to yellow and brown in the beginning of the seventies. My room had a seagrass brown wallpaper, and all my lamps and my favourite chair was dark yellow, tiger yellow.
My second pony was a fux, so his light brown was great to yellow. Then, growing out of my english winner pony, my next size pony was welsh arab, a schimmel (grey?), and by then I reused my yellow. Now favourite colour was blue. So, my teenage years was blue blue blue. I learned about Klein blue, and dove blue, and sea blue. Then I was blurring around in different colours, fashion victim.
Settled down for Lime about 10 years ago. Any green, but best was the first spring green. Wow, how that (lime) sneaked into fashion. Just when I was giving up, it was everywhere. I have more yarn in lime than any other color. Then, I allowed my self to become purple, lilac, like the settling sun on dark coulds. Not to much red in the blue. Blueish purple.
So, that was a long comment on accent.Now I'm into turquoise. Trying to not fall too hard. So, I have no black yarn. (You know that most black yarn is overcoloured for a colouring gone bad), You can feel that in the quality of black yarn. So I have white (great to dye yourself!), and lime, and purple. And (behold a range of orange - fall is beautiful!)... Anyway, the mast is on the boat. and, polyester sounds good. I took the picture Wanja's designed sweater at Grebbestad, Knitting symposium. So, I knitted up my first homespun. Its so fat, it was like knitting gue (sv. klet!) But, confirming: Grey and white, with some purple blue and green tints. Haha! Already a favourite! Need to find more yarn to spin with in grey. And quick. Time for visiting Gudruns Ullbod again! PS! All naturals are always great. Btw. Purple sweater is not mine. It is Anne-Maj Lings Two-endedfab fabfabsweater.

American Idol, sailboat, work -Knitting???

American IdolFan:Chris! Then, Taylor, Then Eliott. Sorry girls, Paris if fab, but I cannot stand the "kidvoice" when she does not sing. McPhee...well, mommys girl (shoot, Im just jealous! I wish I looked like her!) Then, the sailboat is in the water. No mast is on, we totally collapsed after getting my paper in (deadline last nite) and getting up this morning at 5... So, Knitting? back and forth in the CAR to the boat. It is not warm yet, and I realize, it is still too cold for cotton knits. Drag out the winter knits again. A sock, another mitten?Hmm, I'm going to knit HOT sweaters for the sea. My hubby suggested to do fender protectors (hmmm) They sure would be unique. But, I do have some acrylic fuzzy things. That would catch the peoples attention ;-) So, more knitting.. am I loosing my fans? What happends to my knitting? Its there, its peace, tranquillity. Soothing, supporting, comforting, creative. Snuggly cosy yarn.
One stich, another one. Tickety tick. Bloggety blog. No! Hmm, the Wanja Danajeff pattern just hit me. Great sweater for the sea. Look at it. Its GREAT. Its so good, it is just enough tricky to knit. What yarn, hifa? or my Mojärv collection? Colors? hmmm. This really is knitting - dreaming. Black- and white is supposed to be in. And some accent? She is a hot one. Go Wanja!

Intresting meetings,and more confessions

So dearest Britt is a gem (Britt på nätet)! She is also a great Architect, (like my dad was), in the way, she is honest and straight forward, something I apprechiate. So, she took a look at my hub, and I was so enchanted, I totally forgot my manners (no offerings of coffe, snack or anything, which is a must - FIKA if you are a good hostess). Well, this is an example of me not functioning. So, Im totally last in the mitten competition.. (Revoting going on, my mitten tried to escape (feeling ashamed) and did not want to be on the picture. So it is a new vote ongoing. see link below).Also, Mrs Murphy knits too (Heard about Murphys law? Anything that can go wrong will...!) it is a mantra for testers like me. Anyway, since computer bugs is both my friends and my favorit focus for years, they also listned to my inner quantum physics, and decided, that I do have too much yarn. So voting for me is just ego. But, no one can fool great knitting ladies. It is true, I have from this learn that using too small needles compared to the yarn, does make it uneven in a way that cannot be fixed by blocking. It shows. Of course, it adds to the home-made knit, but take's away appearances. So.Live and learn.Thank you anyway for cheering me on. Maybe Dipsy Doodle from Oz, share my colour sense, because I have lived in Melbourne (first off Lygon St, then Nth Balwyn) for a while... Does the sun changes the feel for colours? Yepp. I'm sure of it. More sun - more strong colours. Less sun, mild colours. Finally, this is a swatch of Gotland patterns with a lacy feel, that I did into a glove. Well, that has my name on it (not in picture!). So, I guess I just have to go to Shetland and by my own yarn. THAT could be a trip. Well, you have no idea what is up for me. First Valencia, then Vienna, and then Shanghai. Of course - suggestions of yarnshops can always come in handy, yeah, right, - I DONT NEED MORE YARN ha!)

Vote for the best mitten!

So, friends of Garngamen! Give me your vote on my traditional latvian mitten ;-) Traditional (the rules) meant follow pattern, but you could use any colour scheme you wanted! One mitten is the only requirement. Here is the link to the KAL (the prize is - I hope - some shetland yarn from Jamisons!) Otherwise, my weekend has been about cleaning the sailingboat. Mostly laying double and trying to get some - dirt away from the plastic...My back hurts. Had my knitting (now it is a the cotton summer sweater! - sleeves...) with me.. so some rows it has been. And Actually, I winded up some balls from my recycled silk (handpainted grass-green), that I started up on a circular needle... To be honest, that last knit is in my "yarnroom", just before going to bed. Almost a "bedknit". It is cold in there, so it cools me off before going to bed. They say it slows down the system, and makes one sleepy.. but today. I will stumble to bed. Take care!

Televinken - my childhood idol

This is a picture that I begged my brother to paint for me. Everyone that was a kid in the 60s in Sweden, and heard Televinken and Anita, wow, My brother actually kept a recording when he was playing in the flourbag... and her stern voice "but what have you done"... I also found some on the Swedish TV: But do I wish to see and hear him again. A cd of all Televinken. All my knits are fighting me. One way or the other. So, blogging.. It is so much taxes, research papers due, sailboat and garden clean-up... But, tomorrow is better. I finished a quicky project, a scarf, but, Im not happy. So, rip it or add on? Add on!