Magnolia Time

Last year my mognolia didn´t bloom. It had buds, and the leaves came, but no flowers. I put this down to the very hard winter it had just lived through and was happy just that actually all of my plants in the garden hade survived. This winter was also very hard, and two of my roses definitely throwed in the towel. But the magnolia had big buds and some days ago they started to open. How can I spend so much time inside an office, when there are so much beauty to enjoy in my garden?

The shawl is growing. The pattern is actually quite boring, but the yarn is lovely. I´m still unsure wether there will be enough yarn, and have the stupid feeling that if I just knit fast enough the yarn will last. I´ll be starting the lace border tonight and I hope that will be more interesting than the long main part of stockinette (rätstickning).

For Someone as Newborn as the Spring

A sweater knitted for someone unborn, who decided it was time to enter the world last Saturday. A new little life, born when the spring is newborn.

Snowdrops are my favourite flowers. They are such a miracle every spring when they resist the frost in the ground, the snow and the ice and suddenly stand there, just when I though the winter was going to last forever. This year spring was very late. Now the snowdrops have almost finished their blooming-time, the first part of spring is already over.

Irresistable!

This Rowan Colourscape Chunky was totally irresistable as a skein and when winded it looked even better. Unfortunately I´m not very good at taking photos. Now I need to turn this yarn into something that makes the yarn justice... When I heard that they had made a new tv-series about Sherlock Holmes, set in the present, I decided that I was not going to like it! No Way! It could only be bad! I mean, Jeremy Brett i THE Sherlock, no one can match him! And the stories are so very Victorian, it could never work in the modern world.

But somehow I ended up in front of the tv - knitting in hand, of course - and I was totally hooked after a few minutes! It was totally irresistable! It was so well written and so much of the original stories was incorporated. Both Holmes and Watson were very credible - this was actually my favorite Watson! But how on earth could they make only three episodes???? What were they thinking??? I´m addicted - I want more, I need more, I must have more!! So Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, what ever you are doing at the moment, stop doing it immediately and start making more "Sherlock". I´m waiting!!!

The Thing

I´ve just read in a fashion-magazine that ponchos are The Thing this spring and that reminded me of a poncho I knit some years ago. My daughter was invited to a birthday-party and I had absolutely no idea what to buy for a gift. I started to play with some yarn I had at hand and - voila! - a poncho!

The friend liked her present and the rest of the summer I often had the pleasure of seeing the poncho around in the neighbourhood.

Warm Wrists in the Cold Wind

Spring is finally here in all it´s glory! We have had some lovely days with sun and clear blue skies. The birds are singing, the insects are returning and the humans are busy in their gardens. It´s nice and warm in the sun, but the winds are icy and it´s blowing quite a lot. There is some snow left on north-facing slopes still. Not really mitten-weater, but still one needs keep warm. It´s wrist-warmer season!

My daughter wanted a pair of wrist-warmers and of course I provided a pair, out of some RYC Silk Wool DK and KidSilk Haze. They really became a success: she wears them at school!

I treated myself to a pair as well, out of a skein of Louisa Harding "Grace", a lovely mix of merino and silk. To that I added my belowed KidSilk Haze.

I wonder if I can wear these at work? Are they financial enough? Or do they signal that this person is only pretending to be a legal councellor, she´s actually spending this business-meeting dreaming about a liasion between a pair of knitting-needles and some nice wool.

Finally

If one has the yarn, the pattern and the needles, the project should have been started a long time ago. But no. After some hours work on a triangular shawl, Icarus (Ravelry-link), I remembered why I had been so hesitant to start knitting - is there enough yarn??? The yarn is from Färgkraft , a very nice and thin wool-yarn, with that lovely "snaggy" feeling that I love in wool. I think I have about 700 meters and according to the pattern I need about 800 meters. Hmmm... Well, mabye this is one of the moments in life when it´s time to be a little adventurous and just see how far the yarn will take me! I can buy more yarn if there´s not enough and not care if there will be a slight change in colour. Or I could end the shawl in a totally unexpected way when the yarn ends. Some people climb Mount Everest - I knit into the unknown!

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.