Ravings from a Danish City at Night

Today's the day...

Forget Bastille Day, forget Independence Day, today is the day a lot of knitters have waited half a year for: The Rowan Magazine 46 Day!

I've had a quick look-see through the previews at Colourway. Seven (7) menswear patterns!

Stronsay looks very tempting!!!

Need to talk to my bank manager about a yarn loan...

Edit:

Rowan has its pictures up now. The collections are: Heritage, Folklore and Shadowland.

Now, where was I...

I'm not usually thge luckiest person. I buy a lottery ticket now and then, even though I know that I'm three-times more likely to be hit by lightning than winning the jackpot.

So my reaction to getting a letter from my local bus service providers, NT, was more like, "what did I do now?" As it turned out, I had won a Mini-Cruise for two persons, two crossings in private cabin, just by buying my monthly buspass.

So I asked around amongst my friends and one of them had a few days in his calendar that matched mine. Leaving late night monday to crossover, spending tuesday in the city, then the boat back to arrive early morning wednesday.

So we first took the train to here:

and then the big boat to our destination where I met this fella:

Knitters and cats, why does that combo always pop up? Yes, that is Sunday Best I'm wearing. It is still my favorite sweater, the weather was slightly nippy and it travels with me everywhere! Hopefully it will get to see a lot more places yet.

So my two questions to you all:
1. Where was I?
2. What is the connection to the tiger?

This by the way was my first trip out of Aalborg that didn't involve work or family. You can't imagine how much stress I got rid of on that boat. 

How to really stand out in London...

... if you want to know, follow this link.

I think this is a great idea. You got an empty, excessively prominent spot in the middle of London, so why not use it? You can read more about it here: The Fourth Plinth

Supposedly there are still spots available. Will we see a knitter up there too? Maybe even a Rowanette?

Edit: As pointed out to me by Yvonne, there are several knitters ready for their hour on The Plinth. Ravelry (where else?) sofar lists seven in this forum post.

Times and persons:

July 13 at 6 pm - Mariann Cinnamond
July 13 at 10 pm - Knittabhavana
July 14 at 9 am - gabarama
July 26 at 12 noon - pootlethecat
July 26 at 5 pm - PlinthKnitter
August 6 at 3 am - knitgoddessyarns
August 15 at 9 am - rooknits

So, mark those days in your calendars and go have a look, in person or online.

Heatwave...

1:42 in the morning and still over 25⁰C /80F in my apartment despite open windows and the ventilator on high all day...

Can't sleep... too tired to spin, knit or weave, too hot to handle wool, fibre, yarn fabric anyways...

Actually looking forward to the promised thunderstorms, hope they cool down this place...

Last day at school before the summer holiday

Another school year is ending. As usual with a lot of meetings to plan this and that and everything with a lot of "to do"-lists being created for the next school year.
Which for me will be a double return to school. Or so I was told by my boss.
I'll be studying for my teacher's license in math,chemistry and technology.

We now return to our regular programming...

... or at least that is what I hope.

Frankly, I have no idea what happened. I've taken blogging breaks before, but nothing this extreme. The last six/seven months were just one big "Bleh! I can't be bothered."

Knitting... Bleh! I can't be bothered! Not a stitch in half a year. All my WIPs are still WIPs.

Weaving ... Bleh! I can't be bothered! Not a pick in half a year. My loom is folded away, pushed under the bed with three-quarters of a warp still sitting on the warping frame.

Bookbinding... Bleh! I can't be bothered! My Etsy-store, RedThreadbooks, has been languishing without new product for half a year.

For some odd reason however I could be bothered to spin a lot of yarn. And not just my usual stuff.

I putzed around on Etsy hopping from store to store and found this fibre batt.

Absolutely not what I usually spin. Too disorderly, mixed, unruly, too much yellow and funny bits. No idea why I bought it. Maybe just me being bored and trying for some shopping therapy.

The yarn turned out surprisingly interesting. Two skeins of singles, one skein of two-ply.

Not exactly my usual stuff, and sofar my only inspiration what to do with it is as pattern weft in some future, yet-to-be-declared, weaving. But what ever it gets to be, I'll let you know.

I tried spinning a cable yarn with somewhat mixed success.
To be technical this is a 2x2 cable yarn, (Black Bamboo x Black Shetland/Silk)x(Black Viscose x Black Shetland/Silk). The shetland and the bamboo spun heavenly, the viscose was on the other end of the spectrum... Originally imagined as a sock yarn, its rather dry hand and very bleh! colour have sofar banished it to the stash.

Inspired by the Shetland, I tried some very fine spinning with a Shetland sampler from World Of Wool, currently my favorite fibre dealer, the bane of my bank balance and premier enhancer of my fibre stash. Just what I needed...

Grey, moorit, white and black shetland fibres spun and plied.This is the finest yarn I've spun sofar. Definitely lace-weight with about 25 wpi and over 200m/220yards per 50g/2ounces. Those four skeins and some Icelandic from my stash are planned for some weaving later in the year, so more about them later.

I'm now out of my knitting/weaving/crafting/blogging funk again. And I have a lot to do.

There are several people I owe long-promised packages and accompanying apologies. I have to re-build trust and re-gain readers. I have to put myself "out there" again and show off and tell about what I'm doing. Not an easy job, especially on the trust and readers, but I cannot but try.

So to show that I'm really coming back, here's my first FO, finished object, of the year: the Humbug Cushion from Rowan Magazine 45 knit with the Rowan Denim that came in the Renewal Gift.
It still needs its hot wash and the shrinking tumble in the dryer, but it is done! The rest is easy, I'll cut a rectangle of unbleached muslin for an inner liner, stuff that to shape with some filling, then wrap and sew the knitted cover around it.

You might wonder: why a cushion? I need something simple, straight-forward, no-nonsense knitting. This cushion is a straight rectangle, no shaping, no fancy stitches, yarn-overs or cables, just knits and purls to get those back into my hands and into my brains.

More soon, and this time I mean it.

Ding!!!

As of today, I'm level 41...

And if you get that reference, you're as much a geek as I am. ;)

A warning to cat owners...

From Lolcats:

Congratulations America!

Congratulations America on your new President.

Two good things I see for the immediate future:
1. No more domination of the news cycle by campaign/election news.
2. No more vitriolic campaign/political ads/speeches/robocalls, at least until the next big election.

Nothing like it...

'It' here meaning waking up with a murderous headache and rushing to the bathroom to throw up. It isn't a hang-over, it isn't morning sickness, just a some stupid bug I got over the week-end. It got better over the day, living on weak tea and insipid toast.

It of course hits me when I have the more important classes with my students... All that stuff I'll now have to squeeze in sometime else.

Hopefully back to work tomorrow or latest Wednesday. Can't let them doen.