haekelmonster

Last night, I finally (!) finished the second sleeve of my green Tussah silk cardigan. I really want to finish this project before starting something new.

When almost done – literally one row before binding off – I realized that there were too many decreases. One sleeve 12 stitches smaller than the other.

No one will know? Everybody will. I will.

Hence, I frogged it all the way up to the elbow and went to bed. And yes, I was in a bad mood. Lights off at 9:30pm.

Today, I am awake.

It will be a better day. As long as I do not (yet) look at that cardigan …

The sun was wonderful today, the sky was as blue as a sky can be and all of a sudden the Christmas tree in our living room seems to be out of place. Had I not heard a coverage on the radio this morning about the 12 holy nights between Christmas Eve and January 6 (the so-called Twelfth Day) I would have sworn that Christmas is months ago …

Well, it is not. At least not on my blog. After all, I can show you now what I have been working on all through December. Those rubberduck socks for example. My sister loves rubberducks in all their nature and form of appearance and has quite a collection. Of course, I had to cast on a pair of socks for her, when Sophia discovered the pattern. I did it secretly though.

I started the first sock top-down (left) … only to realize that those ducks looked grumpy with their beaks not being a “v” but upside down. Hence, I frogged them and started over – this time toe-up (as suggested by the designer) and all at once they were much better (right).

Thereafter, I kept knitting happy ducks and in due time a pair of socks was done.

My first pair in a two-colored pattern and I have learned a lot. Not only, that one stitch can change everything. Furthermore, I know now that I need to cast on more stitches when knitting in two colors (60, not 48), that stretched ducks look funny and that even for socks gauge swatches may make sense. Because ducks are ducks and could not care less about foot length. Hence, one can only adapt the length of the sock by modifying the toe section or by changing the number of rows between ducks. And it is easier to calculate before knitting the actual sock than while …

What I really like is the variegated yarn. Regia Denim looks like water to me (hard to see in the picture).

What I do not like: pictures of socks. Whether you take them with or without a foot inside – they hardly ever look nice. Usually the wooden feet work wonder but not this time as they are to small (the heel is wrong placed). Sigh …

It all started with a bad cold at Christmas. I had it first. The son caught it 24 hours later. With fevers of 105 F he was really miserable the night before New Year’s. Obviously too miserable to take the team bus to Sweden on Januar 1 for a basketball tournament, too miserable only to think about basketball – and knowing this made him feel even more miserable.

You know what’s next … Starting 2018 with regret was clearly not an option. Hence, we booked a ferry and a room, saddled the car and skipped the fireworks at midnight by going to bed early. The next morning we went North:

by car to the Baltic sea, by ferry to Denmark, then crossing the country, through long tunnels and over even longer bridges to Sweden where we arrived in the early evening.

Just like the team bus. In the country of yarn.

The writing of a school presentation on the French Revolution began on the ferry. Just like a new pair of socks. Looking back, it seems as if the ferry trip was the only relaxing and quit moment of our journey.

Everything that followed was like a dream: the cities of Lund and Malmö between late sunrise and early sundown, houses without curtains and in every window a star, a light, a light arch. Restaurants that would close at 7 pm every night (we loved the Mediterranean and it’s fisksoppa), cafés with delicious carrot cake, Ikea in every detail, very cool design everywhere else.

At Malmö’s FormDesignCenter we came across a very small but very exquisite exposition about Ann-Marie Nilsson (Marc O’Polo’s first designer in 1967 as I know now). At Lund we discovered Tant Hulda, a yarn store so wonderful, it made it to one of the top 10 stores I’ve ever been to. The next day and really by chance we ran into a knitting circle of four charming ladies at Ulletuss outside of Malmö. I can still recall their happy hej hej to greet us, their hej då for goodbye. The very helpful shop owner recommended the Hemslöjden Skane Store in Landskrona to us and I am so happy we went. After all, it was there that I found the perfect yarn for the Birkin sweater I am planning to knit the sooner the better.

In between, there were (of course) basketball games in all of Lund’s sports halls (some were won – unfortunately not all of them), rain coming from all directions (and without intermission) and friendly people everywhere. We had a blast!

Last night we came back to Berlin. My cold is as bad as it was before we left, the son has not played in one single game (too sick) and in our piggy bank is a big hole. We don’t care. We loved Sweden. All three of us did.

All that’s left for tomorrow is to polish the presentation on the French Revolution (son), a book review (son) and the correction of the last in-class test in French (son), as well as testing the new yarn (me!). Maybe another blogpost with pictures of my souvenir yarn. Sounds like any other Sunday.

Daily routine will start on Monday.

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My New Year’s resolution? To write every single blogpost in German and English. Let’s see how that goes …