Testing My Patience

Right… The first month of 2010 is gone and the second one will disappear even quicker, as 28 days isn’t much, is it? So I’d better start doing something interesting and useful!

We are still snowed under and an ordinary day starts with me lifting my shovel higher and higher (it’s because the snow piles are growing!). The situation on the roads isn’t good, so to tell the truth it’s so easy to give up and just stay at home…

Don’t get me wrong, nothing has stopped – children go to schools, their parents to work, shops are open and cafes at dinner time are quite full, it’s just that to get from A to B you need to put in twice as much effort as you’d need in the summer. (By the way, I have no problems with snow piles, with these you just have to lift your legs, but icy pavement is a disgrace!)

With blizzard behind the window and several seasons of English “Most Haunted” on DVD (people hunting ghosts all over the UK) my recent favorite activity in the evenings has been crochet. I’ve decided I want a proper granny square blanket! (I think that’s what they are called.)

I bought lots of colourful wool and started on the squares. After doing just one square I realized – it will take me ages… (4 per evening – need at least 16 for one row – how many rows? – maybe 7? – 8 would be better) So I guess that’s why these blankets look so nice – so much patience goes into making them.

The pattern for the squares I got from Vanessa’s blog: do you mind if I knit: http://doyoumindifiknit.typepad.com/ . There’s a tutorial with loads of photos, so it’s perfect even for an absolute beginner.

I guess that’s all for now, as I need to make at least 4 squares in an evening and I need to stick to my plan!

Oh well, I hope I can finish this blanket before Easter…

A Few Signs that it’s Nearly Autumn

A week or so ago I was thinking that summer will leave us soon, but at the same time believed that there are still enough days to enjoy the rest of it. Now I’m noticing that everything’s changing quite fast – we get more and more rain, the sky is turning cloudier and I have to push myself hard to get out into the open. No, it’s not cold (yet), but my mood is somehow different – I guess I’m turning into a rodent (not literally!) who wants to prepare its den for the winter.

Since last April I haven’t touched my knitting needles, but now in just three days I’ve managed to make a new jumper! No need to think I’m some “SK” (superknitter) – it’s just a small jumper for my 2 year old godson, but still it’s a garment that will have to keep him WARM.

What do you make of it? I’d say that my biological clock is working well (apart from the fact that I’m 29 and think that I’m FAR too young to have children). Anyway, let’s shout “hurray!” for the knitting season. And here’s one more knitting pattern.

It isn’t difficult and looks good, can you ask for more?

Please use the diagram below.

Hopefully one day I will be able to post some photos of my nephew actually wearing the jumper – it’s hard as he lives 300km away from me; but it seems that my niece likes hers a lot! She couldn’t put it down while spending a week here with us. By the way my nephew is in one of the photos below – he’s the stripy one on the horse.

The 1st of March - 3 Steps for the Future

It’s the first day of spring and the sun is shining brightly as if supporting the illusion that it’s really warm outside! Trust me winter in Lithuania doesn’t want to retreat without a fight. When I took the dog out in the morning the grass was crisp and the ground beneath it – frozen. I’m sure we will still have dark days with grey skies that will make us feel that summer is not yet close – maybe it is somewhere like the Mediterranean coast… Nether the less I’m in a hurry to bring more colour into my dull life.

The first step was to get some blossoming flowers. I don’t think I will manage to keep them alive for long (maybe my fingers are not green enough?), but at the moment they are helping us to sustain good mood!



The second step was to start making a jumper for colder summer’s days. I couldn’t resist buying that colourful pure cotton yarn!


And of course I started knitting something new without finishing my old half made jumpers… Not good at all. Hopefully I will manage to force myself to finish them sometime soon… Please keep your fingers crossed!


After flicking through some old German knitting magazines I decided that the finished product should look something like this:


(This image can be found in a 2003 January issue of “Verena”; You can find this magazine online, please click on the link: http://www.verena-knitting.com/)

And the last and probably most interesting third step was to get involved in a new photography project. I still haven’t finished my old one (how very me!) – a brief summary with all of the images from the February diptychs will appear on this blog next week.

Anyway, this time I’m not the one who decides what the rules are… it’s down to Kel, a kiwi guy who lives in Klaipeda (I find this miraculous) with his wife Sharon (even more unbelievable – why did she agree to come here and suffer our cold winters without having hot water or heating in their bathroom?), who were “found” by me accidentally while browsing the web and “adopted” by Andrew as his closest link to English speaking population here, in Lithuania (but that’s another and even more unbelievable story…).

Anyway, I just got a message that today’s word is “soviet” and if I remember correctly the photo has to be taken inside…

The Sense of Completion

A few days ago my friend asked me about my latest ‘projects’. She knows that I’ve always got lots on the go… it’s also not a secret that many don’t get finished – I have so many half knitted things hidden behind the sofa that buying some more yarn is always a sin! After telling her about the latest unfinished ‘creation’ I suddenly felt so guilty… I forgot my usual excuses and just got on with it!

Here’s the result, a jumper for my beloved niece.

I must admit it felt so good to have finally have it DONE, that hopefully it will inspire me for some more finishing stitches (my most famous excuse – I can’t nicely sew the knitted parts together). And then I also wondered – if the sense of completion is so satisfactory when you knit a jumper what did my father feel when he finished building our house?

Pattern

The knitting pattern that I used for this jumper is really easy and it gives it a nice soft effect.

For reference please have a look at the diagram below.