Hello dear friends!

I hope this finds you well, as well as can be during this Covid-19 spring.

I am fine and my loved ones as well. I am not sure what can be said that has not been said many times during the last weeks. We have been staying home, only getting to town to buy groceries and taking the dogs for walks. I am sorry that I have been away from this blog for a long time, but somehow it has taken me weeks to adjust to this new world. But… it is about time to try to return to life again.

I have nothing to complain about, all is as well as can be, and I am thankful for that. My sincere thanks to everyone who is working out there during these difficult and dangerous times. Thank you!

Spring has been slow coming, we still have lots of snow, so much was dumped on us during the winter months that I do not remember ever seeing so much snow in my life. It is vanishing by the day, but even though there is progress, there is still a lot to go. Today the sky is beautiful blue, the sun is out but it is windy.

I do not have wise words or anything that really matters to write about, but I will tell you about my knitting.

I have finished one sweater: Stonecrop by Andrea Mowry. When she first published the pattern, I was amazed, it is so beautiful. But, because me and my wardrobe are of simple nature, I knew I would not wear it myself. So, daughter to the rescue… she liked the sweater too and let me choose the colors and knit her one.

The ends are not woven in, as I might need to change the length of the sleeves or the body and I will finish it when she comes home in the summer and then will take good pictures. I think this one deserves them.

It was quite labor intensive, but not as much as I dreaded beforehand. I was afraid that I would hate knitting the sleeves with the colorwork, but even though, I did not enjoy knitting them much, the process was smooth and relatively quick (!).

The sweater feels thick and warm and the yarn, pure Finnish farm wool by Vanhalan lammastila

for the main color, makes it special. I hope it will get years of use. The contrast color is by Ruskanlehti, her mohair stranded with Polwart fingering in colorway “Hempeä persikka”. This colorway is sweet and lovely, I just love it and want to use it in everything. But again… not my color. Last summer I knit Zweig with this color and had one skein left from it and used it here. I think I still have some mohair left which is good, as she does not dye mohair anymore.

There are three shawls, all by Stephen West. First, I finished the Building Blocks

that was on the needles for months (all yarns leftovers from previous works).

Then I knit Fantastitch, which took quite a while with its looooooooooooooong rows.

I was totally off my comfort zone with the colors, I think of cherry blossoms when I look at it.

The third shawl in a row was Vertices Unite,

and I can see in the color choices and the way of executing the pattern (there are more mistakes than I care to count and point out), that I was already quite tired of shawls, knitting one after another, and should have done something in between to have fresh eyes and hands. I might yet knit another Vertices Unite, it was such a quick knit, one small unit at a time.

As much as I love Stephen’s shawls and the fact that they always bring back the joy of knitting, I am going to take a break (a few days maybe??) before I start another one…this might change any day as I love the way I can use my stash to knit them. I highly encourage you to knit Stephen’s shawls, if you have not so far, they are addictive and fun.

You might be interested to know how my little creatures have managed during this pandemic spring.

The Cats.

They have been a handful, there is no way I can impose any restrictions on them unless they feel that it is after their own choosing. Believe me, I have tried to be one step ahead all the time, but as times goes by week after week, it has become incredibly difficult. There is always one little rascal who is rebelling and thus gets a few alongside. They have been very innovative finding out ways to cope with the situation. The other day they were building walls with Flexiglass. As the restrictions are being lifted gradually,

today I saw them sunbathing, but they were all keeping social distance… so I really could not complain. I just coughed with my coffee when I looked out of the window.

Then the bears. No problems at all. They just woke up and did not have a clue what was going on. They have slept through most of the spring and when I explained what has been going on in the world meantime, one of them said nothing and I saw him crawl back to bed.

The rabbits. No problems there either. They mostly skip around the forests, and timid as they are, they avoid all the contacts. You occasionally see them sitting amongst the trees, but once you take steps towards, they are all legs and gone suddenly.

One of them confessed to me how he feels quite burdened with this social distancing. Usually he is left alone, but now everybody keeps calling him, even the old friends with whom he has not talked to for ages.

The foxes. Most of them are loners, and as much as they would like the company, it seems that nobody wants to be with them. When they appear, everyone takes a leave, which is so sad. It is as if they were transmitting the virus, which is not the case. It is social distancing always.

I wish people would beware of the virus, but would not avoid little foxes, not now, not tomorrow.

Mr. Baa misses his crowds.

(I still need to figure out his ears, he does not have them…) He is a mellow creature and quite easy to reason with. He seems sad on most days, but even under normal circumstances, he seems sad on most days. Lately he has discovered YouTube and emojis. He watches all sorts of sheep videos and adds emojis 😀😃😄 to everything. (Which is good, because now I know when he is not sad.)

My little polar bear is happy (he is, take my word on it!) about the impact on the environment, he enjoys the blue skies and the clearer waters.

Be well.

Wool with you,

Lene