Unexpected Things to be Thankful for

That´s definitely a headline that would make me go bleurgh! If I hadn´t written it myself.

But the truth is that this week I´m very greatful that I still have my day job – believe it or not. 

Because my knitting seems to have reached a dead end.

I haven´t even bothered taking photos of all the knitting projects that have gone wrong lately.

For instance, I started a second sleeve that became a LOT bigger than the first sleeve. I ripped and started again. And the same thing happened again. 

I´ve also come to the conclusion that I picked the wrong yarn for the lace cowl that I started knitting a little while ago – after casting on about 500 stitches and knitting one pattern repeat of 20 odd rows.

So that is a gonner, too.

So last night I decided to knit something completely different and cast on for a cable cardigan in some old Rowan denim that I´ve had in my stash for ages. After five rows it still seems fine – but I´m holding my breath.

Before my knitting became a sworn enemy I did manage to finish two hats though. And last weekend on Edö I even managed to take some photos.

I have made a new version of my Maja hat in yarn from Östergötlands ullspinneri. I think that Ann at Anntorps Väv dyed these colours especially for me some time ago.

The yarn from Östergötlands ullspinneri is quite a lot thicker than the original yarn that I used for the Maja hat and I had to change the pattern quite a lot – or the hat would have become enormous. The re-designed pattern will be available at Anntorps Väv.

And I´m glad that I managed to finish a new hat before all my troubles started.

It´s a hat that matches my Märta mittens.

I think the Märta hat will become one of my favourites the coming winter.

It has a different shape compared to my other hats.

And I think that it looks slightly old fashioned. But as a friend pointed out - most of my designs look slightly old fashioned.

It took a whole week of my holidays to make this hat. It took a lot of ripping and re-knitting. 

Yes, life can be pretty tough even when you´re sitting on the jetty in the sun...

Home After the Holidays Part 1

Half of my holidays this summer are already over and I´m back in town to work.
I think that I manage fairly well not to feel too sorry for myself – even though husband and children are still enjoying island life.

If I were to rate last week I would give the weather 7/10 skeins. I almost got burnt in the sun.

The temperature in the water was quite enjoyable – 20 degrees Celsius. So that´s 9/10 skeins.

My attempts to grow salad, dill and possibly some radishes (hard to tell in that wiltered state) were – as the kids would put it – an epic fail. 1/10 skeins.

Nope, I can honestly say that I have never  ever considered giving my day job up to become a gardener.

But I can make pretty mean kanelbullar.

8/10 skeins – if I may say so myself.


I also tried my hand at knitting. I got fed up knitting the lace cowl (nearly 500 stitches in each round) in record time. So then I started on a new hat. Inspired by the folk costumes in Dala-Floda I picked red and green from my stash of Loopy Ewe Solids. It´s very nice to knit with.

I was happy with the border, but I didn´t think it suited the rest of the pattern. 

So I ripped it and went back to the drawing board. 5/10 skeins.

And that was all that I had time to do last week. 

This week I´m so busy meeting friends in the evenings that I have NO time to stay at home and tidy up the flat – which was my original plan. Shame isn´t it?

But if I have done my sums correctly the result of last week allows me to buy a total of 30 skeins.

Go me!