JLog

Cotton, two months old, about 30cm tall





Dirty rhubarb =)

Back in March I bought tickets for the Depeche Mode concert at Arena Zagreb, Croatia. We planned a three day trip via Upper Austria (kind of a kids storage at my parents) to Villach (to spend the night as cheaply as possible) and then to Zagreb to see the concert.
Well, this part worked well. We sent the night at Villach and arrived at Zagreb around 2pm last Thursday, found the concert location



and decided to spend the afternoon with sightseeing.





A beautiful city with lots of cafes, bars and architecture rather similar to Austria.

Around 6 we arrived at the concert location just to be told that the event had been cancelled. Well, we might see DM in Austria this December - I've waited years already so another few months will be no big deal at all. Just 1500 kilometres for a pizza and a beer. My dear.

Five out of ten cotton seeds made it out the dark within the first week. The other five are geminating as well but did not break through yet.

... came out yesterday. Ha! Piece of cake, I told you! ;)

I got the book Mason Dixie Knitting from a dear friend last summer and immediately fell in love with a bathmat, for which a pattern was included. For the knitters amongst you: I talk about "Absorba, The Great Bathmat" by Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne. Intended yarn is Peaches & Creme Ombres (a Bulky weight) holding three strands of yarn together.

As I do not know about a bulky cotton yarn available locally and I always wanted to grow my own fibers, why not try cotton? Should be a piece of cake to grow enough fiber for the sort of mat that will absorb two or three gallons of bathwater.

Okay, it's pure megalomania. But I might at least try! So the cotton diary starts today: I just watered my seeds.

I also started some herbals today and yesterday, the flax already started to geminate.

No time for anything, but that has to be said: thank you for the nice box! The buttons are very special and will look perfect on a sweater for Josie!

I got a lovely box full of surprises from my secret pal yesterday! All I can say is WOW - thank you so much!

I got six skeins of yarn which cries it wants to become some mittens, finnish soap & candy, a cross stitch work handmade by her, Addis in sizes which are so hardly available here I could kiss you a thousand times for sending them (thank you!) and a gorgeous book about mittens which is told to be very rare (thank you!!) and stunning. All those patterns! And how cool is it to have a finnish book on the shelf? (It will reside in the neighborhood of Leili Reiman, I decided.)





And last, but not least: her son made me a lovely picture. Thank you! It now brings color into our kitchen:



I cant wait to knit some mittens! Thank you so much SP, you really made my day!

I got a lovely cup showing knitting bunnies from my secret pal recently. It did not survive the transport - the handle broke.

But I hope I can use it as a handle-less mug, it's too cute! Thank you SP!

if (KERN_SUCCESS != kernResult) {
printf("IOServiceGetMatchingServices returned %d\n", kernResult);
goto exit;
}

I'm sorry I did not write so long. I had the flu, and my whole family with me.

Thanks, secret pal from Finland! I had no time to take photos but I loved everything! Some of the roving from the last box is already spun up and will become a cowl soon.

Lindsey finished the test knit of my newest pattern, Alpine Fuchsia. It's been quite awhile since we started this project. A lot of useful hints later, I'm very proud of the result.



The pattern is available now - currently via Ravelry only.

I got a box full of fiber and treats from Finland today! Teemu if you read this: the Lakritsi is yours ;)





Thank you Secret Pal! I'm especially happy about the Ramie, I had no chance to try it yet.

Birgit finished her test knit of Eliane a few days ago. It came out almost as I imagined it, except the border looks less impressive than I thought. Nevertheless it looks stunning.



The pattern will be available soon, I need a few mre days to finish the written directions. Birgit's test knit was done using Colormart Cashmere Laceweight, the pattern will call for either this yarn or Posh Yarn Cecilia.

Another thing on my needles right now is a cabled turtleneck sweater using Lana Grossa Pashmina, a beautiful Aran weight plied Merino/Cashmere blend. Birgit will testknit this soon using some Colormart Worsted weight if I got this right.

I'm in love: