Picked a bouquet of dahlias when I was rumbling about my kitchengarden the other day.

I love having fresh flowers in the house but I prefer picking them in the garden instead of buying them in a flower shop. The cut flowers that forists use are often heavely treated with pesticides and other chemichal and not seldom flown across the world before they ens up at your closest florist.

So for me, summer is the time for fresh flowers, picked straight from the garden!

 

 

 

 

This morning I've been working on finishing a new pattern, writing everythin down in a document, thinking about the best way to explain what I need other knitters to understand and so on.

Now my brain has had a bit of a meltdown so I'm going to shake things up in my kitchengarden before a to the last bits of the pattern!

 

 

This Lilium was left behind by a man from Slovenia who has worked here at de Hessenhof.

Now it's in full bloom and a joy for us everytime we go out on the patio to have coffeebreak!

 

 

 

 

 

A sneak peak of my Honey Bee cardigan that I finished yesteraday!

More pictures will be taken when I come to Gothenburg i two weeks!

 

We have alot of new Echinacea hybrides at work.

Echinaceas like you've never seen them before!

 

You've seen my accidential capture of a butterfly.

This weekend I saw them feasting on the Allium sphaerocephalon so I thought I might try to capture some on purpose.

 

Using a macro lens while taking photos of butterflies makes it so much more exciting - because you really have to get close to take a good picture. No cheating with a telescope lens!

 

Some pictures turned out more than great, if I may say so.

 

 

 

It's great to have such an overflow of vegetables!

It's even greater to be able to go outside at seven in the morning and pick what I need.

This'll make a nice dinner!

 

 

When you're not quite well, having a low fever and a throat that hurts, and you're living in a country where you are not alowed to pick what the forrest offers like you a used to be able to do..

 

..then it's kind of awesome to have an extra grandmother to look after you and who brings you a big bowl of huge homegrown American blueberrys with hopes that you will be better soon!

 

I took this picture last week when I was walking around the motherplants to increase my photografiq plantencyclopedia.

When I made the adjustments to take the picture, there was no butterfly.

When I had taken the picture, there was a butterfly!

 

 

 

This will probably be my last contribution to TDF 2012.

It's 100 grams of single mohair doving, dyed by Mia in the color-clue I gave her Stormy Pink

This was my challange this year, since I've never spun kid mohair, or any mohair before. And I tell you - it wasn't easy! I know my spinningwheel really well but it was almost impossible to get the settings right. I treaded as slow as a snail on ice but I still got to much twist. I tried back and forth and I'm still not sure if I got i right..

But I guess I'll just have to try it some more and see where it takes me.

 

It's 100 grams heavy and 247 meters long.

After steaming it to get the crink out I think I can knit something really pretty from it!

 

This is Stormy Pink

 

 

 

 the yarn

Finished my thrid TDF project some days ago - two skeins of 2 plyed yarn in a lovely semisolid blue.

150 grams and 530 meters.

 

I dyed the wool at my friend Dinekes studio in den Haag. It's a lovely mix of silk/baby alpaca/baby camel/merino and something more..

A pure pleasure to spin! Now I'm just gonna figure out something really pretty to knit!

 

This is Atlantis

 

 

 

 

 

Got my self a nice package yesterday, with Swedish stamps and a very nice scent about it.

I ofcourse ripped it open as fast as I could!

 

In it was the book The knitters Book of Socks which was a birthday gift from my younger brother and the nice smelling thing was 200 grams of my favourite tea (thank's mum!).

There are soooo many pretty socks in this book and the book it self is so pretty I could die.

I want to knit it all, now, at once!

 

 

 

Today the first clue of the WestKnits Mystery Kal was released, and I'm a little dissapointed.

 

The first 10 rows are to be reapeated 32 times, that's over 300 row in the FIRST clue.

I think that is very un-Mystery-KAL-like.

And the fact that it looks like another WestKnits shawl called Spectra doesn't make it funnier.

I think a Mystery project should be something new, and exciting, something original.

 

But hey, it's only the first clue, I hope the next one is more interesting!

 

 

 

 

Today I feel more like this Echinacea, than like yesterdays busy bee.

A little limp and exhausted, but tomorrow is another day.

 

 

 

 

Right now I'm feeling like this bee, so many flowers to visit and so little time!

There are so many things I need to do and even more things that I really want to do.

I'm trying to do it all and I just keep whishing that the day had more than 24 hours..

 

 

 

This is my first, own sockpattern - Elizabethian

It has been an adventure to create and I'm so pleased with the outcome!

I think making patterns is a little bit like what they say about tattoos - When you've done one, you will want to do another one and another one and..

 

The pattern is now being testknitted and I'm looking forward to publish it on ravely soon!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amazing in many way!

Amazing beacuse my friend designed it

Amazing beacuse it's so darn pretty

Amazing beacuse I knitted it with my own handspun yarn

Amazing beacuse it's acctually the first real laceshawl I've knitted

 

I call my sample Inca Sky

 

 

 

 

Now is the first skein of yarn from the wool I ordered from Mia spun!

It resulted in 322 meters of 2-ply yarn, and I'm really happy with it!

I've been working on spinning fairly thin but yet soft yarn, since I've earlier tended to get to much twist which has resulted in very uncuddly yarns.

 

But this turned out just the way I wanted it!

Two balls of yarn, steamed and ready to be plyed

 

These are the skeins of sockyarn I dyed this weekend in Dinekes studio.

One skein - which after dyeing was split in two - of selfstriping sockyarn, one skein of delicous pink, red and orange and one skein of musty winered happiness.

 

They are all 100% merino wool and I'm really looking foward to start knitting some new, colorfull socks!