Going OFFF Again

The big weekend started with a little get together with some friends we RARELY see.
Richard, against the backdrop of a favorite diner, The Roxy.


The fabulous Gary, taking pictures as I was.

Barb and Duffy taking photos at the same time! (Roger was so animated, his picture just came out as a blur.)

Here is Barb, in front of her Journey Wheel, showing a youngun' how to spin fiber by just rolling it on your knee.
Here's Bobbie, organizer extrodinaire and queen of the buttons.A lot of folks LOVE these baskets and buy them in the bunches.
This is the first time I've bought kid mohair locks, dyed. I'm not a big mohair fan but the kid is much softer.
This is the same fiber, picked by hand into clouds for spinning.

Deb bought this sweet bunny, but much to her and our sadness, Liesel didn't make it through the night. To her left is Michelle LB and Tammy on her right.

This is my little old wheel going home, safely in the backseat, all strapped in.

This is the only picture of me knitting in my newly finished cardi, posted in the Oregonian knit blog.

Projects are Bustin' Out All Over!

It has come to my attention that my UFOs have reached critical mass.
In an effort to stave off knitting disaster, and make myself look like an aimless, slovenly knitter I have taken on the task to plow through as many as I can.

Here we have some finished Merino inpaled with a swawl stick that I picked up a the the TNGA show.

This is the start of my spinning the fiber I got in Sweden. It's really got a lot of noils, and I'm using it as texture to my advantage

This is my Prepster jacket. The first garment that I've ever crocheted, featuring buttons made by my dad many years ago.
This is a sweater that should be done today, from IK Fall 2003, Lace-Edged Raglan by Deborah Newton, knit in Ella Rae Classic
This is the first completed Nutkin sock in Wollmeisse, with the second to be finished this week.
This is sock one of a design I'm working on, using Araucania Ranco Multi.
This is something I haven't touched in a while but will go back to next week, a Trident Lace sock by Gardiner Designs in Koigu.

There are other major UFOs out there, but these are the ones I am plowing through right now, before I'm allowed to start something new.

Yah!

Crafts in Sweden

This is "Old Linkoping", kind of like a local Colonial Williamsberg recreated village right in the main city limits

I liked the architecture and this red paint on many of the buildings is particular to Sweden, iron ore, I suspect.
Here is a nice tea garden within the village, overrun with sparrows, searching for leftovers.
Very interesting sunburst design above carriage entry door.
What I mostly knitted on was this sock, Nutkin knit in Wollemeise. I took the picture in bright late day sunshine and it just didn't nearly translate in a picture.

This is my final installment on the Swedish trip. I didn't mean to let this go, but I wanted to cover the most important part to my readers, which was the fiber related stuff. I put off the trip to this craft museum/store: Hemslojden (HemSLAden). Before I knew it, it was my last day, a Saturday. Little did I know that shops there close early on Saturday or I would have set out earlier for this adventure.

Simply, it was heaven. I'm sure that many folks who visit this place just love to look around and there's probably not that many actual crafts people who make it to this corner of paradise.

They had some localy produced wool yarn, some roving meant mostly for felting and some linen embroidery kits. The needlework in terms of costumes used so many techniques, including hand felted wool used as trim for mittens and such and then embroidered. Just amazing!

This is what I ended up buying: green heathered locally spun mohair wool blend, still a little oily, some red wool for spinning (a bit rough) and two 50 gram batts of what I expect is Polwarth! These sort of details were unavailable at the shop.

It seems from the abundance of old spinning wheels in second hand shop windows that spinning is a familiar thing to Swedes, but not something that many people actually do there today. Nothing like the US. We've got it going on, people! Of course, learning and being inspired by their tradition is what it's all about though.

This is the onsite barn/cafe with freshly made waffles.
Me, having a blissful moment knitting at the crafts center. When I was taking the picture above of my fiber purchases, a woman who works there, Gudrun actually came over to talk to me. In my whole THREE WEEKS in Sweden, it was the first and only time a stranger came over to talk to me. And, did we ever talk. It was great fun and she was excited to talk about knitting and spinning.

Leave it to the fiber folks to make the connection.

I also ended up purchasing two sweaters from a second hand shop. The tan one is at least 20-40 years old and the other is an old Dale of Norway that was really worn (but not worn out) and needs a little repair. Both fit perfectly and I'm excited to put them into use this Fall.

Livin' la Vida Linkoping

I was first introduced to this town through an American's blog, Linkoping Livin'.
It was cold and rainy and a Saturday I think when we took a walk to get out of the house and came upon this gated courtyard spilling with music. It was a small operetta with a mixture of Verdi and Gershwin and more. Apparently the mayor's wife is an opera singer (in the fur coat) and the mayor joined in as well (in the black hat behind her).
The best part is that there was a small orchestra who was first in one room of this building, and then moved from room to room to change the sound and emphasis of action. Interesting concept, especially since it was cold and REALLY rainy.
This is the fella who did something galant to create this settlement of Linkoping. Look at that face! I'd run too.
A really old building.

Directly above these bikes is a speaker system. Every hour, it plays the sound of a Jackdaw bird, dying a terrible death. Yeah, like the soundtrack from The Birds. These birds have made a mess of the town squares, in particular this one and the only thing that seems to keep them at bay if this awful sound. Of course, I was sitting here alone, wondering what the hell??? I didn't see any birds and couldn't figure out where the sound was coming from. When it was explained to me I thought, okay, how bad can these birds be?

The next week, at sunset we were walking towards the square and saw masses of these large, raven like birds it honestly, it WAS scary. We changed our path down a side street to avoid confrontation with the feathered masses of menace.

Here, a mixture of the old, next to the new architecture.
A lovely cafe to enjoy, but oh, the stairs!

A Break in Our Programming for a Politcal Message

I am now going to break with tradition and make a political comment.
I've been watching the Democratic Convention for the 3rd night in a row.
I've just seen Obama's acceptance speach and I am in awe.
He's right. It is about us. We need to vote for this guy and put some of our own elbow grease to help create that change.
I originally hoped that we'd see Hillary up there, but my mind is changed.
Obama MUST be our next president.

(We will now resume with our previously scheduled programming and I would ask for no comments if not positive. I'm allowed. It's my blog.)
Thanks

Can You Tell I'm Not Swedish?

Here are some reasons I am easily identified as a non-Swede:
1. I like to smile and talk to strangers.
2. I don't ride a bike everywhere.
3. Buses like the ones below look like really long insects to me.
4. I am always saying "excuse me" and "thank you" to people in stores and on the street.

5. This sign looks like a call to run, run, as fast as you can!!! instead of the "walk don't run to your nearest exit" sign that I was raised with.
6. That I think this country is full of Presbyterians instead of these little markets that sell candy and bus tickets.
7. Last but not least, I can make a mean meatloaf!

Stockholm Syndrome?

(Folks actually live on these boats here, with all the city folk and tourists walking by.)

No, afraid not.
There were no captors and I visited Sweden for 3 weeks on my own accord. I'm afraid Sweden returned the favor with mostly bad weather, but in the midst of many cold and stormy days, there were a couple of sunny ones.

This blogging is starting now that I'm home, although I wanted to do it while I was there. Thing is, I had quite a hard time with the Swedish keyboard. Not the same, always hitting the wrong key and searching for the question mark. And, to top it all off, I feel as if this whole trip could be in the form of novella. But, being a woman of relatively few written words, I'll let the pictures do much of the talking. So, still jet lagged and a bit out of it, here I go:
The main day in Stockholm was raining torrents and we visited the Nordic Museum mostly and walked to the old town area for a glimpse of the boats and had a bite to eat. The pictures above are in the main hall of the museum.
There was a shoe exhibit and these are some needlepoint men's boots that were just amazing.

Then there were trays and trays of archived textiles to view, although difficult to get good pictures of with the glare on the glass...

Classic lace pattern
A lace trim sampler that was just amazing!
A lace baby top.
A knitted bodice with the date of 1840.

The view from inside a very crowded cafe. The restroom was actually back outside in the rain, through a small doorway into a stone cellar. Ughhhhh. Yeah, quaint.

And now you can see that the window of the shop next to the cafe was nearly obscured by the rain splashing on the windows. Still not used to the currency conversion, it was a look and leave quickly kind of shopping experience. And, had I understood the conversion, I still would have left quickly. Yes, the dollar is VERY weak overseas. Later, you'll see my big nordic sweater score was actually in a second hand shop...

And here we have the streets of old town Stockholm, better known as Gamla Stan. Stockholm was, to my surprise, a group a small land masses surrounded by water, connected by bridges.

Next stop Linkoping (lean-show-ping), my home away from home.