At first I couldn´t decide what color combination to choose. The brown-green
or the brown-pink? Both seemed O.K.
So I flipped the coin and made the shawl brown-green. It turned out acceptable. It felt great to knit Cashmere Island again. Though I love the yarn I never know what to do with it. I fell in love with it two years ago and bought twenty skeins or so. It was one of the reasons why I learned to knit - crocheting is wasting material and this yarn didn´t deserve to be wasted. And of course it was expensive. I used it to make a hat and a cowl and then I put it away till the day I come up with a spectacular cashmere-island-worthy project. This day never came so I decided to use the yarn for projects less spectacular yet decent.
But back to what I did this summer. I had quite a lot of spare time and the weather was mostly awesome so I spent the time being outside or reading or, most often, reading outside. I bought myself the Game of Thrones and I reminded myself how great it is to spend whole days in a garden with a book. Or in a hammock.
This little fella and some of his friends went through three chapters with me on a boat trip in Slovakia.
It was a pleasant trip. We were in the Inner Danube Delta. Not as breathtaking as the "real" Danube Delta in Romania (MUCH more beautiful nature, less people, more birds, more adventure, cheaper beer and muffins) but it took us two hours to get there. It takes 30 hours by train from Brno to Tulcea. If you´re lucky. And romanian trains are 200% creepier and smellier than czech trains.
Besides who needs Romania when there are soothing sceneries every fifty meters in Slovakia too.
And I was not neglecting handcraft completely. I baked a bread on fire for the first time! It was yummy. And surprisingly not much burnt.
I should change the needles for a cooking spoon and a mixing bowl sometimes. There is something fulfilling about baking a bread or a cake (not that I didn´t know this before but since I don´t have a proper oven I rarely get a chance to savor these activities).
Hi Ada! Welcome back!
OdpovědětVymazatIt is funny that a couple of days ago I was thinking about you... it had been quite a while since you posted for the last time! Now I understand!
It looks like it was a good, good summer!
The picture of the lake(?) is stunning! It looks so perfectly still! And the bread looks yummy!
I totally agree with you about knitting for others is much more fun than knitting for one's self. I have rarely knitted something for myself. It is always fun to see people's reactions when getting an unexpected knitted present.
Steeking looks scary... but it is not! The pictures you saw were from my first time steeking all by myself... and it went ok :)
The northern lights are just wonderful. And I cannot stop thinking how lucky I am to have them right where I live.
I would really like to see more photos from your trip! I am very curious about this side of Europe that is the one that not everybody visits. I have been to Europe just once, Spain, and I am planning to visit the Baltic countries next year... I really don't want to see the typical Europe. There is something about central and east Europe that call me... well... this is getting way to long!
Hi Rod! Thank you for a nice welcome after such a long time. It feels good to be back and it feels good to knit again. :-)
OdpovědětVymazatThat is a picture of a river, not a lake. And yes, it was pretty still. :-) That day was no wind at all and in some places the river was so slow that you couldn´t even tell in which direction it flows. The water was like a mirror which was really beautiful but you had to paddle hard if you wanted to move to some other place. :-)
I would gladly post some other photos but they are practically all the same - trees, water, birds, birds on the trees, birds in the water... And they are not of a good quality. I am not very good at taking pictures in nature with a compact so it is mostly a mess. :-) But I´ll try to pick some more. And I could post some pictures from Romania! Some of them are very nice (it was not me who was behind the camera that time). I just don´t know where they are and will have to find them. Hopefully this week.
Baltic countries are excellent idea! Go to Estonia - everybody says it is a beautiful country and you could learn some new lace knitting tricks (but I guess you already plan that). :) My man tried to lure me to go with him to Finland next year but he´s a little bit (well... more than just a little bit) more extreme than I am and wants to spend all the time in a kayak on Finnish lakes. Nothing for me really. But I will think of him when drinking my mojito somewhere south. :D