new year's eve

this is a very small, almost telegraphic post about 31st of December, the last day of the year.

it's a post about friendship. I would like to thank all of you that I'm honoured to call friends. nothing more than this.

Dr. Whoot for Xmas

Meet Mindy

Hallo, I'm Mindy, Eva's best (canine) friend. I'm a rescue geyhound, a shy Irish lady, well mannered and just a litlle bit lazy. Well, not a little bit, I am a sleeping beauty most of the time, but that's my karma and I have no regrets - races were pure hell and I was happy enough to be adopted by a family I had successfully enslaved in no time at all.

Shopping in Ljubljana

Today I had the opportunity to make a very short trip to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. It sounds great, doesn' it? An european capital that's less than an hour drive from the place where I live. I have to tell you that I love Ljubljana right in this time of the year - full of autumn colours, the lazy river, the yellow and red leaves... But I had a mission. I was heading right to the new yarn shop NitiNiti.......
Inspiring, that's the word. The lady owner was there, not really knitting at the moment I entered the small and minimalistic place, but wearing one of her simply yet effective creations. Just have a look at her place on the internet or on Fb and you'll see the entire story. After a nice chat I followed the bright red rope that is the distinctive sign of the shop and went on shopping  - this time at the Soven d.o.o. where they sell natural sheep wool and hand knitted or weaved items from organic slovenian wool.
Home again I'm sharing with you the content of my wool bags. At the Niti Niti I bought some fine Kilkarra tweed from Donegal yarns - three future hats to be - and two precious japanese yarns from Ito. Ok. I love pure sheep wool, but semel in anno licet insanire... so I'm cuddling a cone of pure silk lace weight Kinu and an even thinner yarn made of silk and mohair Sensai. I have in mind a cozy cowl mixing both the yarns.Mmmmh.....
At the Soven I had this nice surprise of new and modern colours for the yarn that used to be just ecru', grey or dark brown. I pointed out an orange and a red and came home with three pairs of mittens. Why knit if they are nice, hand made and have a really nice price? Winter, come in, I'm ready!

Knitting something useful

November,. It's raining outside and I'm happy as a kid. That's because I know what to do out of a rainy day (apart from everyday business, of course): this morning I cleared my small laundry place, then I finished a scarf for my son n.2, now I'm at my office desk and I'll stay here till 9 PM, but I have my knitting with me, because you never know, maybe you'll have the chance to knit a stitch or two (ogni lasciata e' persa, for those of you with an italian heart). Then I'll knit while watching Tv .... dreaming about all the knitting I will/could do in the next few days while at home from work and the announced rain outside.
Now about the project I have with me today....for the first time in my adult knitting life I made a scientific cast on. I needed a deep brown, plain chestnut vest for everday use and I just started one. Where you see a ruffle, there is a future pointed border... I'm going to knit it in the round cutting the central steak at the end and I'm including a bit of shaping where you see pieces of fancy yarn. As you can see the 3 mm needles are different, one plastic red one woody knitpics. It's not because I'm stylish or original, It's because my dog broke one of the wooden needles sleeping on my work  and I was forced to rescue the entire work.
Oh, and the wool is pure cashmere, bought at a fair from a man who is a sort of yarn pusher for knitters in my area. I don't know how very cashmere is this cashmere, but it's very soft, does not cost a fortune and the colours are lovely. More than this, the yarn was tested by Tibisay and since she is a cashmere guru and there were no objections, I'm going luxury this time.
I also feel rather creative those (rainy) days, so - maybe, m-a-y-b-e  - I'll write down the pattern for a small project I've almost finished. We'll see.

Halloween arts and crafts

 Everybody carving pumpkins out there? My son also made his Jack'o lantern yesterday and we surely will eat a pumpkin cheese cake or soup or tortelli in the next few days, but right now I'll post  something about my work. I've finished my Buckland cardi and I'm very happy with it. And I've also finished a pair of super easy mittens for my son, using a fabulous yarn Sonia gave me the first time we met. I have enough yarn for another pair of plain mittens

Have a look, fellow knitters!

I wish all my knitter friends will enjoy those ladies....... When I was much younger I had the opportunity to pay a visit to the Zagreb film studios - the realm of prof. Baltazar. Hope you'll find him interesting too.

Presents for kids and friends

 When I have time, I knit - that's an old story.
I've just made a pair of socks for my son and another (this time slightly modified) version of the Snapdragon Tam for my friend Mima.
I've also finished a cardigan, but I still have to take some pics.

Paulie, Aliens, Socks.. and an ancle distorsion

One week at home due to an ancle distorsion..... arghh.
I'm knitting. knitting and knitting - reading and knitting - nothing else to say.

lovely capelet

The weather is changing slowly, but it seems like the hot summer is over at least. I have to take care of my flowers, so madly in love with my scented carnations, but I also have to dig deep into my stash and finish some wip.
One is here, catching afternoon sun after washing.   The colours are really nice and the row I've added - purple Lana grossa Secondo, a blend of cotton, polyamide and silk - adds a bit of zest.
I also have to share with you that I've baked and decorated my very first dozen of cupcakes with italian meringue butter cream. Pure heaven - I just have to take some pictures before they disappear.

Time for crochet

 Strucked by an You tube video posted on FB by Rosalba Strega (immediatly slurped) I decided the "chaleto" was the right project for partialy destash my sock yarn basket(s). There was this Lana grossa Solo Tono waiting for me to make something out of those 3 skeins. Socks? No way, but a crocheted "chaleto", yes. I added another Lana grossa bargain purchase, a synthetic purple yarn I just don't know why did I bought it. It was really cheap, on sale, that's all I remember. Well, now the yarn has regained in dignity. Just guess how the project will turn out one of these days.  

 Little Cottage Conforts is inviting us to organic holidays! It's a giveaway, but who could resist? Not me, for sure. I love this way of touring and the link she suggested was on my favourite list in no time. To prove that I'm not cheating, I'll share with you the pics of those cute  kittens from a bio farm in Austria  www.liendl.at where we stay  the last two days while arranging al the necessary for our sons attending  school in Klagenfur. 

felicita' pura

 Have you ever heard of something like a big bang of happiness? Sure it was about me opening my swap parcel and finding inside The Socks... owlish, balcanisch, perfect in their knitted performance and fitting like tailor made. I was moved to tears when I saw Erin's masterpiece. It was like she decided to share part of her inner life with me - her Canadian roots turned into marple sweeties, her Icelandic honeymoon turned into tiny buttons, her love for knitting patiently woven into a sample of crossed sts, cables, fancy toes and structurated heels of  a pair of socks I've already elected as a fetish or, better, a totem. Again, thank you gradskoolknitter.

Back from Devon (and Cornwall)

Back from our family trip to Devon and Cornwall I'm too busy with laundry and ironing to write down my impression. So enjoy this small selection of photos and wait for better times......

Yelverton, Devon

Near Plymouth

... delicious.....

Exeter

Sir Francis Drake's home ....

sunset view from our B'n'B in the Dartmoor area

swap socks

Here they are - Brussel's lace socks for my swap partner. I really hope she'll like them, because they are not ordinary socks, but I had almost no informations about her wishes or preferences, so I went my way. At least she'll have a nice piece of knitting in her secret box. What if she dislikes beads? Pazienza....

Those two are made just for me and my delight. I really like the yarn, but maybe not the random colorway. I have to try another pattern, maybe just 2k2p all the way. I have plenty of yarn to make experiments.
What else? Oh, yes, maybe a short not about or short trip to Bad Gleichenberg, a thermal place in the Styria region, a dream place for our little one. He wants to become a chef, you know Ratatouille,no? and even a cheese sommelier like they call people sniffing and serving cheese selections in fancy restaurants. He is far too young, but he was always like this - determinate. Look at him - right on the spot (well, not really, because the school was two bloks away)

 Being there, we decided to visit a castle with a fantastic wiev - I'm sure they could spot the Turks at the moment they gathered on the Bosphor. Alas it was a place of pain and torture for all those people (women and men) accused of sorcery.

But they were prevident and they had their own vineyards, so they could burn those poor souls alive when totaly drunk. he,he
I had bad toughts because every second witch was named Eva..... uh.

Let me come to an end with a much nicer photo - look at those lovely storks, nesting in the very center of a small village near Gornja Radgona.

The fastest wool shipping ever

Bloggin' here, bloggin' there, I came across a post from "a knitting bear..."
The fellow knitter linked me to http://www.ortodegliulivi.it/ , a bio-farm selling pure homespun wool - (on sale, at the time)
I was tempted - both by the offer and by their dyeing tips, so and I ordered 2 kg of their wool - in the 2 and 4 ply version, having lot of projects on the list (a wedding shawl, a baby surprise, some heritage heavy socks for a swap, some home made natural dyeing, things like this).
As you can see from the not so brilliant pic taken with my smartphone, the two cones are already making friends in my (one of the many) knitting corb.
Let me tell you the wool is superb, with a delicate parfume of lavender, soft at touch.
But - most of all - Chiara, from L'Orto degli Ulivi, sent the parcel yesterday morning and I  got the wool today, before noon. Poste italiane being involved, I can assure you it's a WR.
Look, I've seen tons of advertisement about superb yarns, I've even seen people spreading a good word about a seller being rewarded with  hats, mittens, stitchmarkers, pretty soaps... Not at all in this case - I'm totally AD and sponsor free, but  I also feel free to heartly reccomend you L'Orto degli Ulivi farm and their wool. That is.

New knitting

It was so hot outside that I just stopped knitting. Then I went to Vienna and I had such a wonderful evening with Barbara and Kristine, two really skilled knitters, and I was back on needles again.
Here are a small display of my latest efforts.
First of all the socks I'm knitting for my swap partner. Hope she will like them, because the pattern is so really lacy-nice and the strech cotton is just perfect for the project. I'm not sure about the beads, but she can crash them with a hammer, no?  

 This is another version of Fluss des Lebens sock, knitted in one of the really tousend yarns of Tausendschoen , the yellow one are plain socks for my son M., knitted in Opal Hundertwasser.

Of couse I'm not only knitting socks. I'm on a Rowan project knitted with the Lana Grossa's Linea pura cotton-kashmere  blend. I bargain I could not resist.....you know there is no cure for this.