winter

this is how my neighborhood looked on the winter solstice day:


beautiful, right? as of today, the day is 1 minute 22 seconds longer, what gives a whole 6 hours and 10 minutes (give or take) of sunlight. ouch.
to beat (?) the gloom AND to be able to use the camera in the cold, i am making these:


they are actually knitted now, need some extensive finishing, though.

now, some finished stuff! these socks were done sometime in the late summer, and have been used since. the owner really likes them (i know, 'cause he tells me often). basic sock with ribbing, yarn from the stash. actually, it's one of the first sock yarns i purchased, when i was still living in Freiburg.




and a hat. for me.


pattern: cabled hat by Woolly Wormhead
yarn: malabrigo worstead in pagoda
needles: 4.5mm (as recommended)
it's my second version of this pattern. this time i replaced purl panels with moss stitch panels in between cables. the hat definitely needs blocking.

my current in-progress knits:

summer in the city

the city and the sea, what a great match!

an award, a milk box, and a new hat, so a total mix

I got awarded the Kreativ Blogger by Gosia from the Organic knitter! This came as a really nice surprise, thank you! it's very motivating to know that somebody is reading (ok, mostly watching i think, because there is not so much to read here) this little blog of mine and even likes it :-). Dziękuję!

As a part of a game, I'm suppsed to nominate other blogs. And it ain't easy, man... So, here they go: kuchnia nad atlantykiem , kropki nad i, kgirlknits , ztworzonka. All of them certainly very creative, and inspiring!

--
Environment... Don't ask what it can do to you, ask what you can do to help to maintain it in the proper state! And perhaps even improve it. That's actually a story of a milk box, the usual thing. Not so ordinary this time, because... it came in a totally different and unexpected colour:

All for a reason. (Truly, I couldn't find the milk in the grocery store that day... mind you, I was looking for a box in the usual white-and-green stripes, similar to these two in the picture). That white square close to the bottom... This is the light switch, actually.


But WHY? We all should switch off the light bulbs for 1 hour (not all electricity, oh no, nobody wants to deal with the thawed freezers' contents). Saturday, 28th of March, 8.30-9.30 local time. Do you think you can do that? At least try to reduce the amount of artificial light in your surroundings. We all can do that! And we should give that hour to the Earth!!!



--
on top af all the news, i have one more. i have a finished knit! in the meantime, between the morning coffee and the breakfast (during about two weeks... not just one coffee and breakfast), i managed to knit this:


and it's been used already, since we have a (hopefully) last attack of winter this spring ;-)


Rollin' Beret by the one and only Woolly Wormhead

it's more a beanie-hat than a beret, and i did not block it, ´cause i like it that way.

yarn: hummingbird (artesano) 100% alpaca in the peregrino colourway
needles: 3.5mm
mods: i cast on more stitches (88) to compensate for the differences in gauge; i guess for a real slouchy beret feel, i should have started with more stitches. anyway, i like it as it is.

wintery glimpse

opportunities for pictures such as this one do not happen everyday. a view from the window of the living room. and a huge zoom of my camera.

today was one of the very rare days with sunshine. so, we had some dayLIGHT in Sweden, finally. the last of such days was the day when i shot this photo. 22 of November. the fact that the daylight is so scarce here these last weeks of year kind of justifies lack of blogging. no photos = no blog posts. this, and the fact that i'm sick, and thus home during daylight time, allowed me to take some pictures! :-) so, stay tuned for the side product of the flu and a nasty throat infection with severe cough. here a little preview:

autumn

autumn like this is gone and not to be seen until next September. days are short (sunset at 3 pm), air is (very) crisp and it's been snowing twice. despite having not so much time for blogging i do knit sometimes.


a vest for my friend's daughter:


pattern: my own creation; i imagined the baby garment should be seamless for comfort in wearing and minimizing bulkiness - the only "seams" are the three-needle bind offs that join fronts to back at the arms
yarn: Paris (100% cotton) 75m/50g in raspberry (Drops)
needles: 4.5mm


i was told the baby Ania wears her vest without any complaints and even likes the buttons :-)

one more good-bye-autumn pic, and also a living proof that i actually wear my knits! (one at a time)

second hat, starburst

pattern: starburst by Woolly Wormhead
yarn: malabrigo worsted (which becomes my default hat yarn, it seems) in lime blue
needles: 4.5 mm addi lace circs (hopefully on their way to become default ones)
modifications: none at all




Can you tell that I r e a l l y like this hat? I've taken the pics myself this morning (one can tell, none of them is really well composed, hehe), and it only is 52 of them. When I tried to choose the ones that actually show the hat, not my hands or the kitchen table, I still could not decide which would go to the blog, and which to the garbage (Recycle Bin, pardon). But then, there are pics like this one, sort of cute, but somewhat not exactly what I intended. Hiccups of photographing oneself ;-). You can see the pattern well on this one ;-).


Starburst has been in use today. The weather of the first day of spring was rather wintry:

I know, you can't see much. This is because it's been snowing so hard. Should have been like that in January. Spring, where are you?

waiting for ... sunshine

short grey days, 4 degrees Celsius, windy - this was the weather in Sweden in January. disappointing.

there is some knitting going on, but i fail to photogrph anything. waiting for (enough) sunshine, I picked some designs for spring, by DROPS. looking at these makes me think i should have booked a trip to Spain or wherever is sunny now.

glimpses

of Gamla Stan in Stockholm.





luckily, both sunny weather and weekend have been combined today. what a change after weeks of greyness and darkness. added bonus was the camera i had in my bag :-). others were also enjoying the sunny sunday.

sunrise

just before:

(stats for today: sunrise 8.45, sunset 14.45)

dude, it does not happen often that i have an opportunity to take a picture of the SUNRISE.

officially, it has come!

winter, that is. yesterday's view from my window:



my blogging sucks. more importantly, my work sucks. the amount of ~free time sucks. there is some knitting going on, and finishing, too. i made some sort of resolution (hehe) to finish the in-progress stuff this month. most of it.

glimpses (walk in the forest edition)

i love autumn!!!!!!







the mitts are finished, as is the battery of my camera (currently charging). stay tuned for the pics!

shopping, at last

I've been shopping for yarn, the first time in Stockholm (the local poor textile shop does not count, it is not in Stockholm)! It seems that I've found a nice store with a good selection of the Garnstudio yarns. Pity that it's rather far from my ~usual shopping route. Anyway, here's what I bought:
Yarn for a shrug (Muscat, 100% cotton) in beautifuuuuuul rich dark red.

Needles (3.5mm) to knit the shrug (what a banality).

Sock yarn (Regia Bamboo). In a ~very rainbowy colourway. Knew it would look strange, bought anyway. Am I crazy or what? (no, just couldn't stop myself)

But then, all in all, that's lovely yarn, isn't it?