Red seduction

Finally my summer vacation has started. Has been working hard this week to get everything finished at work with a cold on its way. When I got home on Friday I slept for twelve hours, but woke up to find this behind a curtain, where it should have rested quietly until Christmas.















I'm not sure what I'm doing right, but I've had this amaryllis for four years and it usually gives me two stalks with 6-10 flowers each every winter. This year I've treated it worse than usual by forgetting to give it new soil, and this is the result.

However this is not why I named this post red seduction. In between extra naps yesterday I completed the Sockklubben sock for May, which was Seduction Socks by Ann Budd in red Opal Bambu. They are a bit small, but improved with blocking. The pattern is nice, but not that special. The best part is the yarn, which is really great; soft, durable and beautiful. I will be looking for more!















Finishing the socks I should have turned to Unwrapped, which is in its finishing stages, but my brain capacity wasn't good enough. Instead I made a few more rows on Cheshire Cat Stole, which was a better choice for this yarn than the Laminaria I tried earlier but decided to frog.















Now I'm just waiting for my brain to start working better again. Slept another nine hours tonight, but my sinus infection isn't gone yet and tomorrow MrP has to go to work so I'll be home alone with the kids. I hope it gets better by then, and that I can finally get my new top done.

Family holidays

It's really been a busy couple of weeks. First my mother had a big birthday party with the family and some of her old classmates from Iceland who where making a trip to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their graduation. I finally got a chance to deliver the top from Poetry in Stitches that I made for my sister-in-law a while ago. It's a little too big, but I think it will work.




















I also managed to get a picture of a shawl I made for her a couple of years ago, before I had a decent digital camera. It is the pattern "Langsjal ad vestan" from Thrihyrnur og langsjöl, a book on Icelandic lace that I bought in 1991. In the book the shawl is in solid white, but I had a selection of Icelandic kambgarn in diffrent shades and used up what I had in natural colours. By felting the ends together when changing colours I was left with minimal finishing and a neat result.




















When I got home from that great weekend it was time to prepare for the next party. I've spent countless hours this past week getting the Rainbow Blanket ready for the Christening of my husband's niece. When the week started I still had one section and the edge left, but I made it! The final meter of I-cord was done in the car on the road to Stockholm last Friday, but I had blocked the coloured parts the day before.















The blanket measures 110 x 110 cm and consists of five sections knitted in rainbow yarn from Kauni on needles 3.5 mm using the pattern for the Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf. I've knitted the pattern over 70 stitches. The second section starts with a stitch picked up at a courner of the first stripe and the pieces are knitted together by slipping the last stitch before the joining, picking up a stitch through the ridge on the previous stripe and then lifting the slipped stitch over the picked up stitch. The blanket is reversible, but with a slight difference along the joined edges. Finally the blanket was edged by a black line of I-cord over four stitches on 3 mm dpns in a similar quality to finish of the edges and hold the design together.

A happy knitter

I have never been this quick to start knitting a sweater! I just knew I had to make Unwrapped, and since my LYS owner went away on a long vacation the day I wrote my last post I rushed there to get yarn, and kept them 5 min passed closing… Anyway I’m using Garnstudio Lin in 100% linen and I got 10 balls at 120m to be on the safe side for a size 46. I've been busy working on a present that needs to be finished next week, but today my daughter was ill and I could stay home from work and finish the top down raglan yoke.
















The yarn is soft and easy to work with, considering it is linen. It will be great to wear. I don't make much clothes, but this is quick and fun as well as technical and timeless. Today I saw a preview of the next Knotions raglan pattern, and I think it will be next on my list.

The next picture is what I got in my two birthday presents this morning. The yarn is a bag my father picked up at a charity auction and it is mostly Garnstudio Paris. It was accompanied by an invitation to a boat trip to a nice restaurant on an island that I really like, Ulvön off the High Coast a couple of hours drive north of here. The yarn found a home in the bowl my husband got for me. It is Swedish Grace by Rörstrand and the pattern is supposed to be wheat, but I think you can all see why it is my favourite porcelain design.