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.