Warm Summer Days

This is going to be another warm sunlit day spent outside up at the Arctic Circle. This - mostly - was the sky yesterday.Since these days are so very rare up here, all the work that can be interrupted, will be done so, and lazy summer day mood steps in. And we move outside down by the lake.Here is my summer kitchen. (If you'd like to see the picture of the seller of this iron kitchen, click this link..)

I am not sure if I have mentioned this before or shown pictures, but since we are down by the lake, this subject seems appropriate. Finns love saunas. Today when most people have showers and well equipped bath rooms, saunas are for spiritual healing mostly. Some people go to church, some people find their peace in the woods following little unknown paths there, some people rest their souls in saunas. The place is sacred in many ways. Heating it up is tedious and careful business, the wood has to be just right.

I am dreaming of mittens. The timing is perfect, no pressure, plenty of time to dream and plan, and no need in the near future. I have now two(!!!) - blame the sale season, I know, I had plans not to buy anything, but my daughter, she is to blame, she insisted and I bought - and totally love - coats with short sleeves and knowing that these warm days will be - hopefully later than sooner - history and I will need mittens, long ones, for these coats. Both coats are black black, so here is the time to play with colorful, long cuffs. This book is my inspiration.

Progress on the Fan cardigan is good. One sleeve to go and then to seaming and finishing. But today, I will not knit, I will dream of knitting only. Maybe. Or then I will knit.Lene

(PS. I don't have any difficulties sleeping when it is light, I think that I might even sleep better in summer than in winter. Sleep is short but intense, if you know what I mean.)

So good all around!

All is very well up here. It is June already! June keeps adding up the hours to my day and for now the light is ever present thus making it possible to keep the needles clicking up to 24 hours if need be without having to turn the lights on. (Few days ago I checked that the sun sets about 0103 am and rises about 0128.) The knitting progress is slow but steady, I still have many projects on the needles, two of the previous five have been done and one of them has been frogged and two new ones have been cast on. I finished Wendy Knits Rivulets socks and yep, I quite enjoyed the toe up process and am very happy with the result. Beautiful and comfortable little socks! I added little detail to the cuff, little folded stockinette edging which is showing up in very many projects of mine and becoming my signature so to speak. I used 2 mm needles and yarn Trekking Tweed. I have now Wendy's new book and am looking for a new pair of socks from there, there is plenty and they are all very lovely. This is a new swatch and now you can probably guess the cardigan... (For time being Marina is frogged to be cast on later on with different yarn and this has taken up the vacancy.)

Some time ago I bought Marianne Isager's Japanese Inspired Knits. I really like this book a lot. The designs are interesting and beautiful but that is not all there is to this book. Once I started to read the patterns I felt like getting a knitting lesson with every single design. There is double knitting, there is entrelac, there is intarsia, there is stranded two color knitting. There are clever constructions and very interesting yarns. Many designs are knitted with two yarns held together and this adds dimension and depth to the fabric and makes the fabric alive. I got very interested in swatching different combinations and while this adds interest towards my knitting, it at the same time makes me very curious about spinning again.

I have visited Marianne Isagers web site to see the list of yarns she uses and the quality and thickness. So this has been a very challenging read. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for something new that would add up to one's skills and something to take one up to a new path. I finished what started as Picovoli, but ended being little bit of something else. I cast on fewer stitches for the neck opening, making it a bit smaller, added few Japanese Short Rows to get some shaping to the neck, instead of waist decreases/increases, added ribbing to in order to have a bit of shaping and finished off with a few purl rows in the bottom. This little heart with a small blue bead (a gift from a good friend, she made it herself) has a perfect frame now. And the little scarf that I got as a present quite a while ago has finally a companion. It is such a lovely scarf and ever since I got it, I have been wanting to pair it with something. And these two just go together so beautifully. You can pin it closed in the front or in the back.I don't know why I have not known of the Craftlit Podcast and you all probably are familiar with it by now but I have just recently started to listen to it. What a treat! This is a great way to learn English. I have uploaded all the episodes of The Scarlet Letter (all the ones available) and I had this old copy in my library from the high school year in the States and I have began my slow process of pushing through this again with the help of a dictionary. Very slow but so rewarding! I remember this book being taught then but have forgotten almost all of it. There are some little remarks and underlinings here and there in my old copy and while I read this now again, 30 years from the first time, I am enjoying it thoroughly. I managed to score these vintage buttons some time ago when I was shopping locally (almost locally, not quite).

I guess this is about all at the moment. June will be busy month up here but by the mid July everything should calm down a bit again.

Light needles with you,
Lene