Yarnlove

I’ve had the busiest week ever. It’s been my last week at the authority where I’ve had my internship and summer job, and I’ve finished everything I should and was thanked with cake, speech and a bottle of wine. I’ve been to three parties this week, including the season’s specialties: surströmming and crayfish. Surströmming is fermented Baltic herring, and quite an experience. We had a good laugh when we asked the guests if everybody had tried it before, and one of them said “I think so”. You don’t think. You know. It was quite a success if you ask me (but then I’m a fan), and I think everybody could enjoy it on some level.

This week I also received, and sent, the very last SP8 package. I was thrilled to find yarn, both three balls of merino in matching colours and 380 metres (!) of the designer yarn used for my birthday Jaywalkers, and a circular bamboo needle in the last package. I was overwhelmed by the big package just a little while ago, I had completely forgotten that my SP had promised one final package where she’d reveal herself. Now the thing is, that wasn’t really necessary. On my birthday package from Germany, the postal stamp read “Burgoberbach”, which coincidentally is also the place where my packages have been sent to, and I realized that my spoilee is also my secret pal! I sent her an email stating that I’d figured it out, and asked her if she had too, and she claimed to have known it was me since my second package! I was stunned, thinking I've messed up and that this whole secret thing is not for clumsy people like myself, but she said she found out when I sent her a note on a piece of paper from a notepad she had sent me just a week before...

I’ve been very confused by this arrangement, at the same time as I’m very happy to have gotten to know a person who has also gotten to know me during the same time, which I guess isn’t the normal thing during Secret Pal. My secret pal AND spoilee is Theresia, also known as Schnüffeltier. Pop by and say hi! We've had such a great time during these last months, and I'm very happy to have a new knitting friend, even though we probably won't meet for coffee and knitting for a while... Thank you, Theresia, for this wonderful secret experience! You're a real darling, and I'm very happy to have gotten to know you! It feels very odd not to be supposed to keep sending things to you anymore. I still see things that makes me think "hm... I wonder if Theresia would like that..?"

Despite my busy schedule, the Stockholm-Uppsala trains still take 40 minutes, and I've used that time wisely. I've reached the yoke on my cabled cardigan, and the rows are very loooong... I've got 5 centimetres to go, then sew sleeves to fronts and back, and then bind yoke off together with the rest. The pattern says to sew it together, but that seems messy, and when you learn something clever you want to practice. And make your cardigan as pretty as possible.

Lately I've been given some very nice green yarns, both the yarns Fi gave me for my birthday, and the alpaca yarn I won in the SP posting contest. It struck me how beautiful they are together, and I'm thinking about using them together. I think they add up to 700 metres, and apparently they all make 24 stitches/ 10 cm. Chouette! If I complement with maybe a white kid mohair, possibly with gold (like Kidsilk Night 607), I could make a striped beret and scarf. Or should I make something more colourful, adding a darker green instead? Fi?

Oh well. Time spent blogging is knitting time wasted.