Yule berry

 

I am not a big shawl wearer but I do have this dress and really it could do with some cover when it is a bit colder. A cardigan would of course work, but sometimes one ones something just a little bit dressier, a little bit more festive. So a shawl would be it, but just not too go too much in dainty territory, a shawl in worsted wool. I had the yarn reserved for this project for quite some time, a nice rustic tweed ( Brooklyn Tweed Shelter) and the pattern is the Juneberry Triangle. A nice thing about knitting lace with worsted weight is that it is very very fast to knit it. I started last week, I had the luck to have to attend a 2-hours audio-only telephone conference for work, and I just could knit away during that exercise. So in less than a week, ready for Christmas, my Yuleberry...

The colour is hard to catch, it is closer to the colour in the photo below, a purple with hints of red and a bit of white. Some subtle buds and a very nice border finish this one.

 I could make some time for making some photos, in between the baking that is on-going in our kitchen. The youngest made lussekatter yesterday, the oldest is making a Chestnut-Flavoured Cheesecake for dessert, mmmm

And yes we did another Christmassy thing yesterday, we went to see Star Wars… I never saw the original trio in the cinema, instead there was one year during my PhD that we hired all three (good old-fashioned videos)  and watched them all within a day or so… Ever since that Star Wars is for me linked to Christmas, even with my own children we saw the first three during a Christmas break… so going to the cinema last night was real good fun!

But still, at heart I am a Star Trekkie, those I did watch ( & rewatch) as a child, I guess first impressions have a life-long hold….

Hat On

 

Sometimes a small project can be so rewarding. This hat is such a project, soft yarn, a good colour and a nice cable pattern. Just the project for these dark days.

The pattern is Kathleen, the yarn some Malabrigo merino worsted in Jewel Blue.

Rollercoaster

I am having one of the strangest weeks of my life...

To start somewhere, my workplace is moving. In itself not a big thing, but my workplace is this big laboratory which gives researchers from all over the world (literally) access to highly advanced instruments. It has been doing that for 30 years and I have been attached with it for now 15. We are building a brand new laboratory so that the old one closes is not strange or overly sad, the last couple of months have been hard as things were old and misfunctioning and one was fighting an up-hill struggle. So on Sunday we had this huge party to celebrate the lab, it 30 years existence and in a way its funeral as we switched the machine off and we were happy, real real happy. It was one of those parties that one will not forget. Now a couple of days later when we are actually dissecting the lab, it just feels strange. We need to separate things we want to  take and things to go to the dump, it is chaos and hectic and I just sometimes don’t know where to start… Coming to the new lab, with my shiny new office with a lovely view, is of course good, but it feels still a bit un-known, it is not “mine” yet, so I am kind of drifting. I know it will be OK, plenty to do and look forward too ( a new machine, new instruments and toys and lots of possibilities for research), but just now I have bouts of melancholy… 

The main part is however that one of my cats, who was born during the first summer we came here stopped slowly with eating. In the beginning he just got picky and switching food made him eat again, but during the weekend he just stopped eating, so on Monday we called the vet and on Tuesday came the verdict, intestinal cancer… This morning we let him go… we had a nice evening with him yesterday, as he came to me and sat next to me on my chair at the kitchen table. This was our thing, he sat next to me at the kitchen table. He was a gently and nice red cat who sometimes could bite me gently to tell me that I should pet him. I will miss him and I know we had to let him go, but right now I am just very very sad.

So yes it is Wednesday today and I feel this week has been a month….

 

November blues

In this part of the world, November is the worst month of the year. Grey skies and so little light. Of course December has even less day-light but at least the Christmas lights are out and somehow with the busy social calendar that comes with December it doesn’t feel so bad. January is the new year and also feels kind of better, but November… This year has been grey and greyer and on the plus site, slightly warmer than usual. That is until this weekend since today snow has been falling and suddenly it is cold and real winter. It is not snow that will keep, probably it will be gone by tomorrow but still. My husband is travelling today for work, so not so good either to have this weather.

But the mittens are in use, so that is good, and I am wearing the cardigan that I just finished. A nice warm cardigan with lace. Woolly (Extra fine merino by Sublime) and soft, just what is needed for a cold day like today. I didn’t change much of the pattern, made it longer as it was pretty short, but no other changes. The lace is pretty easy to remember, easy enough for a commute anyways.

I have more winter knitting lined up, a fast Cowl for S. A nice modern stranded knitted pattern Fusuma. I am subbing silky wool for the original yarn and some small gauge issues aside (row gauge is off but not the sts gauge) it is working pretty neatly. This will be a warm cowl, double “double fabric…. Let’s see if we get a cold winter after all….

 

 

A handful

 

So the new set of mittens is done….This was quite fun and yes I hav written it all down. But before I bring it out in the world I do want to make another pair, of the bigger one, different wool and colours, just more experimenting with needle size and such…I am happy with them but they are slightly tight. I guess knitting with three colours did that as the cuff is a bit more relaxed. So just playing around to get it right is what is needed. I am kind of happy that I am not a cookbook writer, as I think for refining a recipe eating weeks on end small variations on a dish would make me grumpy, but two sets of mittens I can face…..

A bit of work

 

I love stockinette, but every now and then one needs to set themselves a challenge. So these mittens are that for now, own design for my youngest…. I like knitting mittens, they are small and easy to transport while knitting, so normally a good project for in the bus to/from work. But these, not so much so, so not a good design in that sense at all. But they are rewarding as they proceed, quite slowly. On thing will be true, they will be warm, with basically three layers as many of the rows contain three colours and the stranding is quite dense. The colour pattern comes from 150 Scandinavian Motifs, quite a nice little stitch-pattern book. The wool is pure Shetland, 2 ply jumperweight from Jamieson & Smith. Perfect wool for this kind of thing! The colours are spring-like which just fits M very well. I have the hope to develop these in a pattern, with using different weights yarn to obtain different sized gloves, hope fully that will work out nicely as well.

In the bus I am still knitting, a bit more cumbersome to carry around, a cardigan, but an easy lace repeat and quite a bit of stockinette make up for the “bulk”.

Happy Halloween

Last week was Autumn vacation for the schools here, which meant that my children had the week off and as a good parent I did take them on one day to an modern art museum. The place is Louisiana some 30 km north of Copenhagen. It is easy to travel too as one takes the train from the nearest station and no changes or anything, just a 5 minutes walk on the other side. My eldest one wanted to visit it as there is an exhibition dedicated to Yayoi Kusuma ongoing right now which she wanted to see. I can really say that we all enjoyed it very much, the artist is a very interesting person and  learning more about her was worth the visit. On topic though as one of her “obsessions” nowadays is pumpkins, what better to leave an impression today of some of her works we saw…..

 

Have a nice Halloween Weekend!