teaser

i just wanted to give you a little sneak peek of the zimmermann sweater i finished a while ago. i will take pictures of the recipient wearing it asap. we never got down to it as i mentioned but i am sure we will.

a sweater and a cool cat.

this is my newest fo. actually i have two other to show off but it seems life is at such a fast pace now and i am so preoccupied with work and somehow many old friends have emerged all of a sudden and new friends too. work is a bliss. i haven't felt so happy going to work for years and i feel i fit in where i am.

the new fo is a cardi in brioche stitch for my niece designed by danish designer helga isager and slightly altered by me. the pattern is poorly written and i knitted one for myself too in the original yarn isager 2 and it looks so poor as well since the yarn is pilling like crazy. i don't like that in a yarn. for my niece's i chose a better and cheaper yarn in my favourite colour- a khaki green.

i am still a zimmermaniac too. i finished meg's shaded aspen leaf sweater and cardiganized it. the result is stunning but when i gifted it to my friend we had a lot of wine and forgot to document it. this will happen later.

the little boy in the picture is my grand nephew a, who is probably the happiest person i ever met. everything that happens to him is seconded by a yipee or yahoo. that is so nice. and i think he looks so cute in his manly jacket. yipee for a. he is adorable.

delightful, delicious, de lovely

here is my wee little niece, just a few days old. born on one of the first days of march, and i don't think she has a name yet. but that really doesn't matter, because she i enormously cute and i cannot wait to get to know her and knit for her.

sorry for the long hiatus. actually i have knitted three sweaters since january but i haven't photo documented any of them yet.

one is the shaded aspen leaf yoke sweater in lopi lite by meg swansen.

the other two are helga isagers pine.

one for me and one for my niece. my older niece. the mother of my two little great nephews.

there will be much more about this a little later.

and i am planning to knit amanda by lisa lloyd in some shetland wool.

the reason for my hiatus is that i have been so busy at the school. it is a lovely job i have got there. i love teaching and how motivated my students are, although their lives are quite miserable in many ways. being an asylum seeker at the tender age of 17 isn't any fun. especially when you miss your mother your country like hell. and on top of that you have a history of human smuggling and a crazy travel from say iraq to europe to keep quiet with. when i look at my students i cannot stop thinking that those parents must have sent their brightest children with the best genes for survival out on that journey in a fragile hope that they will face a bright future here. i sometimes doubt this will happen. but i cherish their energy and trust when we are together in the classroom and feel so sorry for their parents who probably doesn't even know where their children are....

but i am so impressed with the humanistic way the people who work in my new school are. not in theory which is pretty easy but in practice. and i dare say this now as i have passed the invisible border of being there longer than the last two places i worked in. that was a great day. i so much feel that hard times are over, over for a while as john lennon used to sing, and that i am finally doing something i love and that i am good at. more than knitting.

and the winner is.....

and the winner is ...... mary lou. mary lou send me your adress and i will send you some greenish yarn in return. i suppose greens and browns are my favourite colours too...

i am happy to sending yarn to minnesota after i saw a bbc series today with pics from minnesota in the winter. i suppose one needs one's woolies.

and speaking about colour. i thought michelle obama's colour choice yesterday was quite daring. ochre with lime gloves. she looked quite pretty although i think the dress was a bit much with the bow. i don't think she is a bow woman. and i loved the colours.
it was very touching to be in the thick of festivities via satelite. i wonder how he can carry the burden on his not so broad shoulders. but i am amazed how captivating he is when he speaks.

there will be knitting soon again. i do knit. but i don't have it in me to download pictures.

congratulations mary lou.

blogoversary

it is my 2nd blogoversary today. i am very happy having hosted this space for two years now. and for several reasons. it motivates me to knit. i love to knit, but i also love to knit and exchange ideas with others. and your nice comments inspire me to knit more, i am sure. i have met many nice people in cyberspace. i am continually intrigued by all the friendliness a mutual interest generates. look at the top picture. it is the loveliest little japanese tea box fra kent , a very skilled knitter, living in kent, washington. he had the courtesy to send me this tea plus a large chocolate santa for christmas. i gulped the chocolate. but i am a little tight with using the tea. and when i have finished it, i think i will keep my sewing thread and needles in the box remembering a wonderful knitter friend on the other side of the globe.

the hat (lousy quality) is fern glade by megan marshall from knitty in the left overs from st. brigid. a nice toasty hat and a fun knit. i use it all the time along with my three poroms. i love wearing a hat in the winter. there is a certain cosyness about it.

oh well, i think i should host a little competition. the rules are easy. leave a comment stating your favourite colour and i will send you some yarn of danish origin in that colour, if you win. enough for a nice little project like a cowl or mittens or something. i think colours are half the knitting. for many years i loved blue and i thought i'd never fall out of love. but the last many years i have been falling for greens, browns and even ochre. i also have a dream of knitting a primary yellow slouchy hat at some point.

oh and for those of you who have been following my blog. i cannot begin to say how much i love teaching adults again. one of my classes are illiterate people and i get happy seeing their joy of learning the alphabet and writing the wobbly letters. it is so worthwhile.

i will leave this little competition open until the 20th. good luck.

a warm jacket

a while ago i went with my niece to my lys to buy yarn for another ponchito. she looked in the drops pattern magazine and fell in love with this drops jacket which i incidentally already had thought of knitting for her to make use of my rowan yorkshire tweed in the colourway wild plum which i bought from jannettes rare yarns a few years ago. the colour is a deep wine red with emerald, fuchsia and rust flecks. the colour is a bit difficult but my niece's colours are so good that it suits her. this is what happens when you buy yarn online. you end up with a whole different colour than you had expected. the pattern is a bit difficult to follow. if i didn't have a lot of experience i wouldn't know what to make of it, and i think the translation into english is computer generated. it says, for example, sew the collar tight..... and i thought why, until i realised this is the expression we use in nordic languages to sew something tight.

it wasn't exactly a joy to knit, but mostly because the colour is a bit difficult when you have to work in electric light all the time. there is very little contrast.

i am pleased with the result as i think it fits her perfectly. much better than i expected and i think it will be a winner in her wardrobe. i love the a line and i wouldn't hesitate to knit one for myself after i have finished what i have planned to knit the coming months. i plan to knit fern by alice starmore in the colourway tormentil. the kit was a present for myself and a shetland shawl for the new baby in the family who i think will be a girl, and then there will be no end to the knitting.

this week i started my new job. it is great. i love being a teacher again, and i am in awe of my student's ability to tackle their situation as asylum seekers. it is a very uncertain future they face.

happy 2009

i just want to say happy new year to all my lovely readers. i am happy for each and every one. and i am always happy for comments as it makes the whole blogging thing seem so real. it has been an eventful year, the one that just passed, and i tell it good riddance. it was not a bright one, but i move on with hope and confidence. i am sure this one cannot be worse. as a matter of fact i expect it to be lovely. waking up on the 1st. was lovely, i was hung over, to say the least, but i felt refreshed at the same time. i spent new year's with people i love and the first day in the new year with people i love. and i spent the last day in the year with some one i care a lot for. and it felt like good omens for the year to come. i am an optimist.

and it has not been bad all the time of course. nothing ever is. there was good knitting, good music, caring friends. and i never ran out of yarn. i grew to know myself in a way i hadn't expected. which will be good from now on and forever. there were lovely and generous blogging friends. there were irl meetings with blogging friends. there were snow storms, thunderstorms, the mediterranean and the north sea. there was little friends to knit for and big friends to knit for. there were introverts and extroverts.

i suppose there was life.