Postcard From the Edge

 First, just let me say that it was not my fault that I didn´t post to the blog for the whole summer.
When we changed what we in Sweden call bredbandsleverantör (broadband company?) in the building that I live, I suddenly couldn´t read my emails, upload Facebook and or access my blog.

So a big thank you to Ownit for this long break!

I used the time wisely and went off to Italy to soak up some sun. I had certainly soaked up enough rain on the first two weeks of my holiday that I spent in Sweden...

Italy was fabulous. First we stayed a couple of days in Florence/Firenze and then we rented an apartment in an old farmhouse in the Tuscany hills. We had a little pool and a great view.

 Back then I was knitting on a lace cardigan from Wendy´s book "Wendy Knits Lace" in some lovely silk and seacell yarn from Tilli Tomas, called Voile de la Mer in a burgundy colour named "American Beauty". It is lovely to knit with, even in hot temperatures.

A close up of the first sleeve:

 All the pieces of the cardigan are finished but I did such a bad job of sewing them together that I had to take it apart again. And doing so I cut off the wrong thread, had to rip back a bit of the body an re-knit. I still haven´t had to courage to try again.

The funny thing is that it was I who actually knit the sample cardigan for the book. It´s called Garden Party Cardigan and looks like this. And I didn´t have any problems knitting that at all.
But I tell myself that small disasters like this happen to make me more humble, so it´s all for the best.

To distract you from my knitting failures here is a photo of the farmhouse that we stayed in.

 There might have been a pool party or two with the other family that we holidayed together with.

It was one of the best holidays we´ve ever had and I put it all down to the good company. It was so relaxing and such fun!

Torremozza by night. Photo by Mats Fogeman.

But we also made friends with some of the locals.

 

 If you go to Florence/Firenze looking for yarn shops there is one that I can recommend: Filati Campolmi at Via F. Portinari, at the back of the Dome in the centre of the city. Lots of different yarn and the best of all – big boxes of cheap and luxurious yarn that were mill ends from the local spinnery (I think). I nearly bought some angora, but settled for a skein of black laceweight merino that cost only one Euro.

I noticed that in Italian yarn shops they keep all the yarn in big plastic bags on the shelves and you have to ask before you touch anything. But they are very helpful when you ask – even if you don´t speak any Italian.