Go East!!

A week ago the snowdrops were fighting their way up from the frozen earth, through the snow and ice, towards the sun. It´s the same miracle every spring: when the winter seems to drag on forever, suddenly the snowdrops quitely has used the warmest spots in the garden and are standing there, the first flowers of the year! While writing this I hear Pet Shop Boys´"Go West" playing in my head. But we went east, my daughter, my sister-in-law L and me! We took the boat to Riga, the capital of Latvia, and spent a day there. Riga is an old city with a long and interesting history. Our short trip of course didn´t give us time to make the city justice so we spent our time walking round in the Old Town.

We had left a cold and wintery Stockholm and arrived in a likewise cold and wintery Riga, where a very fierce and icy wind forced us to take shelter in cafés. And in one of them we had a chocolate-cake that will live long in our memory!

Splendid knit-wear was on sale everywhere, togehter with amber and Russian dolls. L had her mind set on Russian dolls while I tried to take in as much of the hand-knits as pissible. Since my daughter had forgotten her mittens at home, I had a very good reason to buy her a pair.

Riga seen from a Ferris wheel.

I gifted myself with a pair of knitted socks. Knitted in thin wool they are very comfortable to wear and they have a very interesting toe, of a kind I have never tried.

A Study in Red

Or a study in knit and purl stitch. Just before Christmas last year, some balls of Rowan Silk Wool Dk was turned into a Christmas-present for my mother: a simple scarf out of just knit and purl stitches. With a thin black edge, in a sewn tubular cast-off, just to add something a bit dramatic to the red.

I made a sort of "lock" that is often used on scarfs knitted to small children, where a knotted scarf can be to bulky around a small throat.

To me, red and black are my mother´s colours.

The Silk Wool was nice to knit with and it blocked very well. This project was totally ad-libbed; I started without no clear plan and it soon turned into a study in knit and purl. And that was all that was needed.

SpringWinter

We are in the transition between winter and spring, that wonderful time of the year called vårvinter (springwinter). During the lovely sunny days the snow and ice melts visibly, everwhere you can heare the sound of dripping water. The children are busy playing in the streams of water that are flooding down towards the lowest points in the landscape, and they came home dripping wet everyday. This time of the year it´s hard work to be a tumble-drier!The birds are singing. And the other day I found the first snowdrops in the garden! Growing up through the snow they came, so brave, so lovelly! Not long after that the aconites started to shine their yellow joy in another part of the garden.

But the night still belongs to the winter! The temperature rapidly drops below zero when the sun sets and soon all the streems of water freezes to ice again. And while the wind is howling around the house, I`m cosy inside with my knitting, a mug of tea and maybe a doughnut...

These are knit in Rowan Pure Wool DK and the pattern is from "Knitted Cakes" by Susan Penny.

Time to Exhibit