here be dragon

I need to practise my crochet, and I was bored. Hence, a dragon.
Totally improvised last night, and totally tiny. Whaddya think peeps?

fuzz monster

Is it a beret?

No! It's a Fuzz Monster!

It was supposed to become a funky beret. It's becoming a Fuzz Monster.
I'm still finishing it one of these days and honestly, I can't wait to see the result. It could still be a successfully Very Funky Hat. But I'll bet my money on a Fuzz Monster...

Fabulously wonderful

Done. It fits absolutely Perfectly. I Love Love Love it!
Made it up as I went. Now I want ten more of these. Only took me a week and a half too!

Ånäset Cast On

Here it is: Tutorial for a traditional cast on from a village called Ånäset in northern Sweden. This lady said her grandmother taught her to cast on like this and she says she's never found a cast on method she likes better. You end up with an extra "rope" along the edge, and a little purl-pearl row on each side. It is a complication of the ordinary long tail cast on, but the result is far more decorative, flat and stretchy. I like and will use. Now - pictures!
(All images are clickable for bigger versions as usual.)

You start with a loop around your needle as usual, tail hanging down, ball of yarn above.

With thumb and index finger between threads you tilt your hand to create two loops. One around the thumb and one around the index finger.

I'll refer to these two loops in this tutorial as shown above. Thumb loop in red, index loop in yellow. In the photo the needle tip points to the Upper half of the Thumb loop.

Bring needle under both halves of thumb loop.

Come back above the upper half of the thumb loop and dip needle into it.

Bring the needle up over the thumb loop.

Dip into the index loop fetching the lower half of this loop. This thread will be the stitch saved around the needle. Now you just need to find your way out of the thumb loop again, bringing the thread from the lower half of the index loop with you.

Tilt your hand and bring the thread over the lower half of the thumb loop.

This photo isn't as clear as I'd have wanted but what you do is: Wriggle the stitch out of the thumb loop by bringing it through the loop from the backside. Coming out around the upper half of the thumb loop. (With your hand tilted like this you should be able to see "the way out")

Now just release and pull, and you should have one stitch on the needle. Now repeat a few times and you should have a neat row looking like this:


Please try it and let me know if this tutorial was understandable! (If not I'll try a movieclip next time).

Edit: I was just told that this might be a cast on presented in books as a "traditional Norwegian cast on", and it certainly sounds credible. However it may be, it's a clever one.

new cast on!

I learned a new way to cast on today and the edge becomes really neat! I must put my camera in somebody elses hands to photograph my own hands doing it to share it with all of you. I will! Promise!

The lady who taught me said she learned from her grandmother when she was a child. Now she was past 80 years old. She came from northern Sweden and claimed this was a traditional cast on from her parts of my beautiful country. Now it will live for a few more generations, because I'll use this a lot!

I met her, and seven other wonderful little ladies today as I was the hostess of a mini knitting café at the museum I work at. We had a cosy little chat about tradition, today, knitting, yarn and inspiration. I dare say it was one of those rare moments where nine people around a table really teach each other something new. I came away from that event with inspiration, a new cast on method and a big smile.

((opening fanfare))

I saw a movie the other night ("Catch me if you can" - actually very entertaining despite low expectations) and had it subtitled in English, as I often do. The problem is, it's often subtitled "for the hearing impaired" which makes me laugh my head off every once in a while. This time, the background music was subtitled too (!), and in between my fits of laughter I thought that this would make for a humorous and very illustrative way to blog! Blogging with background sound! Blogging with a soundtrack! I just have to try it...

In the beginning of the movie the subtitles explained to us that the background played a "jazzy saxophone in accelerating melody". After a while "orchestra picks up melody" and later still "solo guitar". Sometimes we apparently listened to "stressful beats" and sometimes "flutes in calm melody"... My question is - How does this help a deaf person? All input welcome.

One thing I am certain of though ((Dramatic crescendo)) - it does help a blogger!

So here we go: My latest knitting adventures accompanied by music for the hearing impaired! ((Duh-duh-DUMMMM))

((solo guitar building mood))
I cast on a shawl that might Blow My Mind if it turns out the way I hope! ((flutes join a romantic fantasy)) I chose a chocolate brown merino and cast on Elann's Aran Weight Victorian Lace Shawl and I can't wait to see how it goes! Pictures to come when I have more than three rows to show.

Also I'm working on a top down raglan that I'm improvising as I go and so far it's going great! ((Be bop improv scatting)) I'll try it on again tomorrow or the day after and I hope to show you photos this weekend... I love my top downs.

((A single oboe lingers in a jazz mood for the finale))
With that I leave you for now. Even if you know the language, turn on the subtitles sometimes, for that extra jazzy flavor! But having tried it, I can't really recommend subtitles for blogging...

happy hooker

I went nuts! Look! I mastered the flower first...

So I made an mp3player cosy and a mitten too! Just one mitten to go. (And I improvised it!) I'm hooked! (Lamest joke ever)

Knitfest

There was this Knitfest this weekend. There is this Knitfest actually but I had to leave early. People gathered around exhibitions, workshops, yarn, wool and fibre out in the archipelago outside of Gothenburg. I had the BEST time!
And I finally learned how to crochet properly. Still got a long way to go, but I mastered the sample bits we made, and it made me go and buy a new hook. The kind with a light in it! Just for fun of course, but unless there was the fabulous stuff to go along with your hobby... It's half the fun isn't it? Funky needles, hooks, markers and measure tapes! At least to me.

Let's go shopping! But, oh wait... Lemme just earn some new money first.

let's try it a stitch at a time ok?

Yet another try... I'm not doing too good keeping this blog am I? Well, there are many explanations to why, but since they're reasons I don't write I hope you can understand if I don't explain too much.

I haven't been too hot for quite a while, and a lot of it has to do with my own demons, fears, worries and insecurities. A lot has happened because of them, and a lot of them have happened because of things. Yes, it's that complicated.

I have an idea however:
I just got in to Ravelry - the knitting community online, so here's a thought..
I'll try and make this a pure knitting blog. You won't get into my head too much or my everyday events, but it might get me writing again. I'd like that.
I got knitting again, and tomorrow I'm even giving a lecture about how easy it is to knit according to patterns in English... Can you believe it?

Well, I'm visalisa at Ravelry, so if you're in there - look me up and come find me! Poke me! Knit with me!

I knit - therefore I am (a blogger again)

not an actual post

Just an important link! (click the whole post)

Apparently prestige really is more important than world peace.

buttons

I promised Jodi I'd tell you all about how I wear my buttons. I have tons, but I've chosen a composition which I update to and fro (very Carrie Bradshaw somehow). This started with the same Jodi sending me some gorgeous ones she'd made quite a while back now, and those are still some of the absolute favorites. These are the buttons I wear and how I wear them on a certain cardi, or as today on a certain "hug my fat-top" that I so like.

I hope you recognize the little figure at the top - it's my own. Next to it is a black and white button from the Architecture Museum in Stockholm. It's a pattern taken from the facade of a building in Jönköping (a Swedish town). Below that is a pink pig with the word "sötgris" (cute pig) under it. It's a gift from one of my best friends and the cute pig is me. Next to that is a green map, composed onto a button by Jodi (She has to tell you in a comment why the green map). This one I occasionally switch to a knitting pattern template-button also made by Jodi. Then it's the other Jodi-button where the word Knit is in a classic tattoo-heart. A button like this has been featured in a knitting mag (Knit 1. Go Jodi!) and all my knitting pals envy this one so much. All that's left is the broche from grandma. It's probably from the 20s and the design is so... so... ME!

There. All buttoned up.

I'll try

Writing in this blog has been difficult for many many reasons lately (or for the past year) and I will not write about them all. But This is a promise of an attempt to write some in English again. Two people have wished so the last few days and who am I to argue with people I admire myself!
Today is the first day of the rest of my blog.

found in translation

The Vikingùr Vantùr mittens are now availible in English! Enjoy! Share! (And tell me if you find any weirdnessessesses*... It is my first pattern after all... )

*Note: Lisa knows how to start spelling weirdnesses. She just doesn't know how to stop.

mitts and cups

I haven't written in English in quite some time, and there are many reasons why, yet none at all, so let's just say I haven't and be done with it: I haven't.
(Though I wish I would more often. A lot of interesting things happening, going on and so forth - one of which is that I believe in my knitting abilities enough to SHARE IT now! Yes, I have designed! (Save the applause!) Unfortunately, the two patterns so far are still only availible in Swedish, BUT, (you can start cheering again) I plan on translating them!
It is all availible here:

And yes, I'll try to write more soon. Some of you have personal emails, letters or phone calls coming your way, and for the rest of you I can only quote a square jawed governor on this one: I'll be back.

scar tissue

The nurse that has been looking after my wounds couldn't keep it bottled up any longer today. She just had to say something about how stupid my doctor was not to have been more careful when closing and stitching up the wounds. "Now you risk getting grotesque scars!" she said.

Then, she continued, that it's up to me now. I need to maintain it. I need to tape it up. Scarring takes up to a year and if I keep those scars tight it might be ok. So now I need to tape my feet for a year. Yee ha.
Or, I just don't, and I get monster feet to scare small children with. Hah! It's almost as if I don't care anymore. Stupid feet.

On another note I've knitted a gorgeous shawl, and I'm starting my secon Baudelaire sock tonight. Pictures soon. I just need to block, photograph and well... get around to it first.

seasons change

I can smell the rain from where I sit on the couch when the balcony door is ajar.
The weather is as ambivalent about the season as I am about life, but right now everything is the way it is supposed to be. Tea in a big cup, a blanket, a lit candle that flickers in the draft from the rainy outdoors... It all says autumn. October. The present. And me. Right here.
My foot is healing. I cleaned up the biggest mess. I wrote all those emails and I finished that text. I’m calm. I got a grip on that economy chaos that had me tossing and turning in the night before. I’m handling it. I’m handling this year and I’m handling me. It’s about time.
It is finally the way it should be. No more summer heat in October and no more me being lost within myself, thank you very much.

Now let’s pray it keeps raining. Just for a while at least.

crikey!

I feel very weird about Discovery Channel's tribute to Steve Irwin today. They show him "juggling" crocs while telling the audience over and over about how close to being killed he is again and again. It gets very... uncomfortable to watch. Yet, I am human and pretty much tasteless right now. I can't stop watching!

And I'm giving myself all sorts of excuses not to clean my house, but all I can come up with is knitting away at my first pair of socks ever - the beautiful Baudelaire I started Friday.

yuk.

Warning: If you want to hold on to your lunch: Do not read more than the last three phrases.

A lot circles around my bandaged foot and treating it well. It's still swollen around the wound and I wear a support sock kind of bandage - all the time. It's three layers of Tight Sock. My leg has the striped pattern of the textile texture and my foot ITCHES. Bad. I take it off at night and I sleep with my foot on a pillow, but there is still the yukky factor to be considered... Having been bandaged tight for a long time, my foot sheds its skin. It looks like a flesh toned fish's back under my sole. I feel disgusting.

Apart from limping and grossing myself out I started my First pair of socks yesterday. I'm making a beige version of the Baudelaire and it's turning out beautiful! Photos to follow eventually (of socks. Not of gross foot).

a quick bolero

It was fast and fun. But it did have the same problem I encounter with all short shrugs - It was too wide in the back (due to some feminine curves of mine). But hey, I'm a knitter now! I solved it. A little i-cord and a waist later, I look fab in my new shrug. Even though the light in this blurry photo is very weird, and my stomach looks as if I'm pregnant... But the shrug looks guuuud.

swollen

Sorry I haven't been writing. I think I try to deal with stuff in the real world without pouring it out online, simply because I don't want to phrase it all. I knit, I work and at the moment, I also hurt.

I hade surgery done on my right foot last week. Yes, I finally had my surgery done. They opened me up to clean up around the nerves in my foot, because I've strained my feet so bad, my blood vessels were the same size as they would've been on a limping 75 year old. It'll be better soon. But I'm swollen. More so than they had expected. I had my bandages around the two wounds redone yesterday, and it turns out they put the stitches really far apart to give the foot space to be swollen before it mended itself. It was still very (very) swollen.
Imagine a shirt that is simply too small, but you have forced all the buttons together anyway. Now imagine that same image, but with blue stitches and skin, with a bleeding foot being shut in behind it. Yes, that's me. Or rather my foot.
They promise it'll be better in another week, but I'm already tired of the crutches, of limping and of saying excuse me and asking for help all the time.

This year has been f-ing (yes, the f-word) unbelievable. I don't like it, but I'm getting through it. And of that - I'm actually proud.

balcony

My balcony is a lovely place.
My eight-year-old cousin is asleep on the couch and at first I felt... obligated to come and sit here to give him some peace and quiet. But now, I realise that this is where I should spend the end of each summer day. It's been warmed up all day, so I can sit all night in just a t-shirt. I light some candles (hardly needed. Swedish summer nights are bright.) and I brought my laptop and my knitting. It's this perfect little place! I'll spend half an hour here before I join my little cousin and go to sleep. We've been at a pool all day and we're tanned (read: burned up) and exhausted.
A few breaths of night air and a couple of stitches later I hopefully will have turned "exhausted" into "at peace".

ehum... hello.

I'm back. Sorry I've been... away.

Ehm... How do I start? I mean I haven’t blogged in a while. I could start with... no, if I tell you that I must first tell you about the... or when I... But that wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t... No wait... Let’s try this again:

I’m back.
There. I’m blogging again.

I have tried to write some in Swedish, but it was hard. Rewriting it in English felt... even more difficult. But here I am again! Yay! But now, where to start?

It’s been tough. I’m learning a lot about myself and my behaviour patterns. How and why I shut down about some things while others have to come out. How the walls I build to protect myself aren’t at all as strong as I thought. And I’ve learned that I have some really wonderful friends. They’re there for me no matter how weak I need to be sometimes. My pride refused me to see that before.

Now some knitting: I’m making this.

It’s a Shetland Triangle Shawl made from some really cheap cotton yarn. I think the pattern looks great in this tougher material! But the purl rounds are boooooring...
So in the meantime I made these for a friend:

And they were so much fun that I made a pair for me too. Those are the hands of my friend T trying a few stitches on my pair in the photo. We were at a medieval festival and boy did we look picturesque when we settled down for the evenings' concert... Me knitting and him fiddling with some chain mail art stuff... Just look at us:

So, I’m hanging out with friends. Drinking an occasional beer and laughing with dear people in my life trying to live in the moment as much as I can. Also, the snail mail system has brought me real treats as of late. First, there was a care package from Spencer... Filled with love and care, and Longview Jerky, and Dentyne gum and Celestial Seasonings Bengal Spice tea... and a new mic for the computer. Spencer cares. And knows what I miss from Canada. Thank youuuuuuu! (Howling)

Second, there was an amazing surprise. Jodi. No, I don’t mean Jodi was pushed through the slot in my door, but she sent me a present. Jodi is amazing and we’ve been reading each other’s blogs for ... a while... long while now. (Hello Jodi!) She sent me an email, just caring for me when I’ve been so ”quiet as of late” (as was the subject to her email). Then – She sends me this:

Can you believe it? It’s the book from A Softer World and some buttons she made. I never met Jodi. Jodi cares. And Jodi is wonderful and sends me a perfect gift. Thank you Jodi! SO much.
She also wrote that she missed my blogging. So has a few more of you. Thank you. It has been a most warming thought, that my words mean something to someones. Thank you guys! I’ll try and be back as a blogger now.

This week my little cousin is visiting. I’ll give a report from my week as substitute mum when we’ve had our amusement park adventures...

This has been a very rambling and a very... uhm... kind of... uhm-kind of blog entry. I'll get the hang of this again soon...
Until then: tata!

gone

My little grandmother is never waking up again.

She slept for a week before she, or something, or someone, decided it was time to leave.

cute pain

I can't believe I never thought to use this little darling as an illustration when my eye was hurting... Oh, well.

The eye is much better at least and I'm working up to the day I have enough inspiration to write something inspired again.

sven göran eriksson

Now all I need is someone catching him on tape saying: "Eeeeeeexcellent..."

weather

Picture borrowed from Jay Leno's "Headlines"

no.

My beloved grandma is unconscious. They say she might not wake up.
I'm numb. Tears don't help.

All I feel yet is that it has to be enough soon. No more bad news for a while. Please.

Now, I'm going to feel nothing for a while until I explode in a fountain of useless tears again.

Tears sometimes help, but after the exsessive use of tears the last month I find them completely useless now.

Fuck this. (Yes, I actually said fuck this. Pardon my English, so to speak.)

not-so-good

So I went back to the hospital to show them how my eye is so much better. It is. I need to continue with the cortisone for ever and ever it seems (at least two months), but it looked really good.
The blood work was back too. You see, inflammation to the iris can be connected to a number of chronic diseases. The very kind and very nice doctor showed me paper after paper that said negative. That's good news. But she saved the best for last.

HLA-B27 positive. It has to do with what kind of anti genes I have. It's like knowing my blood type. But being HLA-B27 positive combined with having problems with an aching lower back, and having had the problems since I was about 20 years old, and having had that pain climb up towards my chest from time to time... Yes, all the symptoms matched.

I still need a back scan but the diagnosis is:
I have Bechterews disease.

Logically I actually do look at it this way:
I've had problems with back aches for quite some time, and now, with the right diagnosis I will get the right help. Finally. I will get physical therapy and I will finally start exercising again. I mean, I have to. I can actually get better and have less pain than I do now for many decades, so by many means, this is a good thing.

But emotionally I have to deal with being a person with a chronic disease. Once again a number in the statistics. And I do appreciate (logically) that people care, ask me questions, give me advice, tilt their heads and say stuff like "poor thing". I know it's loving. But it drives me nuts. Since I'm trying to deal with this, understanding what it means to me, I hate everything that forces me to react to it, deal with it, in any other way than my own.

So I am sorry for not being the most communicative person in the world right now. I'm being a jerk for a while until I make logic and emotion merge about all this.

i-cord trim

I had an anonymous comment on my i-cord trim. Since I don't know where to reply I have to do it here. I-cord is not sewn on, it's all knitting. And you can learn how to do it HERE. Though I think I did it a little bit differently.

You make a trim with it by knitting the last stitch of every row together (and twisted) with a stitch along the trim. For my purple and lime sweater I did this:

I picked up a full row in lime along the neckline, then cast on an extra three stitches to make the i-cord from.

Knit two stitches
Knit next two together through backloop.
Put three stitches back onto left needle.
Repeat.

colorful

I've had almost complaints that I knit too monochromatically, and mostly in dark and earth tones. So last time I was in the yarn store I think those complaints echoed in my head when I chose my yarn for my next top down free style sweater. I'm going nuts with this one, both in color and pattern, you'll see. For now, there's only a peek at the beautiful i-cord I made around the neckline. Plum and lime ladies and gentlemen! And don't you ever call me boring again! *laughs loudly*

overload

I was ill for two weeks. Then I had to catch up a lot after having been almost blind. Lots to do last week, even if the doctor told me to try and take it easy. Sunny weather and me stuck indoors. My beloved bookshelf crashed and I built a new one. Then I had dad here for a visit and then I organized a knitting event. Then came planning this autumn with different projects at two different jobs. Tax papers to clear and sign. Finally there is making my balcony into the cosy summer hang out that I want it to be. And pondering my future economy situation. Medicating with eye drops every hour still...

Suddenly I had one of those "It's just too much"-moments and I just dried my tears off my cheek. I've been crying almost hysterically for fifteen minutes. I think I needed it. Badly.

I think I just let some of it go. It sure felt nice.

I'll be puffy eyed tomorrow.

hit by a rainbow

Sometimes beauty just hits me.
These pictures of rainbows just did that to me.

WWKIPD

The World Wide Knit In Public Day Knit-nic was a great success! Enthusiastic knitters gathered on a lawn today, knitting in the sun, smiling at people passing by who nosily wondered what all this yarn was doing in their park... Everything was sunny and wonderful, except the fact that I had to wear a baseball cap. I hate baseball caps. I look ridiculous in baseball caps. But it's even more ridiculous to not wear a cap because you look silly even if you're crying your left eye out because of the light, so I chose to be a grown-up about it and wore the stupid hat. Except for when I posed for this photo:

Yes! I got to show off my finished Top Down Free Style Raglan! Isn't it GREAT? I totally love it and I actually think it is the best sweater ever. At least knitted and on me. Best ever. I promise! It's because of my evil eye that I squint like that and wear glasses, but with this sweater on, I still manage to look totally cute! (Thanks Mia for taking the picture for me.)

Yes, my left eye is still very sensitive to light, but I am doing much better. I can knit, which is a huge improvement from my audiobooks-as-only-hobby-state of illness.

After todays' knit-nic in the park, two wonderful knitters followed me home to watch Sweden's first game in the soccer world championships. Trinidad & Tobago fought well, but damn the Swedes were... lazy almost. Nothing to nothing is a very disappointing opening to these championships. But hey, I brought out my Tubey for it! It's been a while since I even touched it because I'm not sure it's becoming what I wanted it to be... But I'll give it another chance.

And, I have a new bookshelf. I'm trying to write something poetic about bookshelves and my love of books, so I won't say too much about it yet, but it turned out great. I love my wall of me. Come to my house and browse through my bookshelf and you'll get to know a lot about me. That is for sure...

light of life

Yesterday I had a wonderful evening on my balcony with my lovely friend S, with coffee, my waterpipe and conversation. Truthfully I did most of the talking. As usual, I guess, but in my defense I have been craving human contact for some time now.

Today my eye is watering, but hey, I opened my blinds! First time in over two weeks. Daylight and my life is coming back into my livingroom. Two knitting friends are coming over today and I can't wait to feel like I'm in the loop again.

Knitting, talking to friends, reading (I haven't picked up a book in two weeks!) and living! In your face (actually in my face) stupid watering eye!

timber!

My home designed boók shelf finally collapsed. Only the bottom shelf, but still, it's where I kept all my very heavy art and architecture coffee-table-book-meet-phone-catalogues-and-the-village-bible type of books.

I knew I had miscalculated the shelf construction, but I really like it all the same. And it did hold up for almost four years. However, it needs to be replaced, redesigned or rebuilt. Preferably yesterday, unless I wish to die a booklovers' death being buried under my book collection.

Why do everything happen at once? I was going to redecorate my kitchen when I had the money, and now I have to rethink this whole thing. If only my life was less shaped like a sine wave and more... mellowed out... Or not. Did I just make a wish for boredom? Slap me.

I'm back

I'm getting better. It's still one eye drop an hour, but I get to do it to myself, by myself at home.

I spent three nights in a hospital bed. Every hour, around the clock, shuffling feet came sneaking into my room, then somebody turned a light on and put a drop of Isopto Maxidex in my left eye.

I had an aggressive version of irit, which is an inflammation of the iris. My kind made me blind on my left eye, but I saw white instead of darkness. There was a milky white membrane of illness in between the different lenses and layers that constitutes the eye. And the pupil got stuck in the inflammation, and that is painful if you didn’t know.

However, there are qualities about a stay at the hospital that needs to be recognized. I got to lay down and relax without feeling even a shred of guilt about not doing something else. My stressed out self really valued this time out in my life.
People showed up and told me they care. I know I havce some fantastic friends, but having them come to the hospital still was a very sentimental treat.

warning:
On a completely other note there is a warning to be issued:

On June 9, the soccer world championships will commence. I will then turn into soccer freak Lisa, a Lisa not many of you know. I already have all the game dates written down. A .pdf of the schedule is saved on my desktop. I have translated it into an excel document to tally scores and calculate and do prognoseses (Plural how?) on how Sweden would get through with the best possible line up of opposing teams...
I warn you now, because I will not be accountable for the rambling sports fool I will become during these glorious soccer summer weeks of 2006...

dark waters

If you haven't tried taking a shower in complete darkness I suggest you do.

A soothing experience for my still very swollen eye, and a peculiar experience for me. It's amazing how well I've worked in my grooming routines. My hands recognize every bottle, every tile and the taps in my shower. My body seems to know the distances perfectly. I put my foot on the stool I keep in my shower to soap my leg and it didn't occur to me until afterwards that I might just as well have kicked the wall... Except I couldn't because I knew exactly where the stool was. As well as where the walls were.

An eye infection can sometimes give you unexpected lessons about yourself and about your senses. I am so dependant on my eyesight in many other areas, but with just some routine, I can actually make do without it. I'll remember that.

I should probably mention I have an unusually large shower cabin, and that turning the lights on was like stabbing myself in the eye, so I didn't do this as an experiment. It was out of necessity. Even a sick girl needs to keep clean right?

Now I have to take a break from the computer again. Even with patch my eye starts running after looking at the screen for about 10 minutes.

ay ay eye

This post was written in a very whiny voice. Read it as such.
Remember the cute girl from Sweden with the big blue eyes?

She is temporarily replaced with sick wreck of girl, with swollen, hurting lump instead of left eye.

The doctor says it'll pass. I sure hope he's right. In the picture I'm struggling to have it opened at all. I am wearing a homemade eye patch. I look ridiculous and it hurts. It hurts bad.

Poor, poor me.

softer world

I was reminded I have a personality, and that I let it show, when I got an email from Mandy the other day.

When someone else finds a webpage, then figures out that I would love it and then takes the time to send it to me, I have to realize that they care. And when I do love it just as much as they thought I would, I know that I have let somebody else know who I am.

Don't underestimate the compliments you get. Instead, milk them for all they're worth. That's my new strategy. My old strategy of pushing compliments away saying "No you are!" sucks. I need the compliments so why not actually listen and hear them when they're given to me.

Anyway, Mandy sent me this:
http://www.asofterworld.com/
I am hooked. I want to be the one making this artsy comic. But I'll settle being satisfied that somebody else is. Thank you Mandy.

update topdown

I told you it was going to be the best sweater ever! That promise still stands! Fun to knit, perfect fit... I'm making top down raglans forever and ever if it's always like this. A little decrease there (to show off the boobs) and a little increase here to make it bell out a little. It will go all the way to the hip, and the sleeves are going to be a little bell shaped too. What do you think? Should I add a tiny eyelet lace edge of some sort to go with the fabulous shoulder increase?

boogabag

Soon is now:

So, now I have a cute bag. Then what? (I'm blogging as an excuse for not working at 11.30 pm. Does it actually count and is it really a smart thing to do?) I could just go to bed, but sleep? Who came up with the idea that I'd even be able to? Many curse words later I find myself actually dragging my tired self to the bathroom for some grooming exercises before bedtime.
Oh, or maybe I should refurbish the whole place first? Or solve world hunger? Or save someones life? Or just surf the net for another sleepless hour?
People! Stop me! Tell me to get some sleep! And while you're at it feel free to remind me of the many benefits of eating breakfast...

just a few

... things I'd like to tell you about. I wish I had more words to describe it all, but I seem to have run out of words lately. (To those of you who have actually met me, you know what a disturbing picture that is - Lisa without words - as if! She's a chatterbox... usually) Anyway:
1. You shouldn't try and give people compliments when you're drunk. The guy on the bus was highly intoxicated and referred to me (in Swedish) as "one helluva woman, at least breastwise". I was in a bad mood and felt like punching him, but thinking of it now I realize it's kind of funny somehow.
2. The world's cutest kid can not stand still. I saw a choir of about 50 six-year-olds today. One boy in the front couldn't help dancing to every song they sang. He was on stage! "Look at me!" I actually cried with happiness watching him.
3. I love my job, but I'm damn tired right now.
4. I made a boogabag. It's beautiful and I'll show it off soon.
5. When in doubt - smile. You might get one back that will save your day.

from the top down

I'm alive. I work. I knit. I still haven't cleaned my home. The sun has been shining like it does in the Caribbean right here in our northern corner of the world for several days now, and nobody dares jinx it by saying "I'm too hot". Then it might stop, and we kind of have to love it here.
I still lack inspiration to write something... well, inspired, but I can at least tell you about me being alive, me working and knitting and how the sun is shining on Sweden i May.
And this is what I'm knitting: My first top down raglan. It's going to be the most beautiful sweater in the world. Because I say it will. And oh, it's not this blurry up close. And neither am I. For real.

And I hope all you knitters out there are with me on June 10.
It's Knit In Public Day, and you'll find me in the sun somewhere knitting and purling proudly in front of everybody!

overload

I should blog about a wonderful trip to Glasgow. Much Mackintosh (see one of thousands of wonderful details above) and seriously considering Glasgow as an alternative to place my home in. Some very good people live in Glasgow and some very cool things to do and see are there too. I should blog about a new lesson I'm doing with kids in the city (How many countries can you find right here in Gothenburg). I should blog about knitting being boring sometimes (3+1 rib forever, please! I am not amused. Need to cast on side project. Soon.) I should blog.
But I knit 3+1 ribbing on my tubey and an i-cord for my boogabag when I'm not working or worrying about work. These weeks are not showing the world the best of me. And I want to go back to Glasgow.
Oh, and the world's best Jch turned another twenty-something last week and had the best party Sunday. I came home at half past six in the morning. We were still dancing at four thirty.
Yes, I'm alive and much is good. I just haven't felt like blogging. Yet.
I will be back soon and then I'll blog A LOT. Damnit.