Malvina, meet everybody. Everybody, meet Malvina.

She was very fun to knit, impossible to put down, I'll just knit one more thing kind of addictive. Malvina will have lots of brothers and sisters, I can tell.

Since I was knitting with DK yarn and 3.25 mm dpns, I had to make some adjustments. I also didn't want to sew the two halves of the sweater, so I knit it in one piece. It came out a little bit too tight in body because I reduced the length too much. I'm thinking of knitting a top-down raglan next. I have lots of acrylics in outrageous colors to make lots of clothes for her.

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The Interweave Knits landed in my mailbox today. That was fast — I didn't expect it to get here in less than a week. The Alhambra Socks by Ryan I begun over the weekend will be stalled for a little while, I'll be playing with the doll pattern.

I love the pattern, it is ingenious how the decreases and yo's create the lace. I chose this Regia yarn because it reminded me of marble and it felt appropriate for this pattern. Unfortunately, even going down to 2mm needles, I didn't hit the gauge so they are a little loose. They are beautiful, though.

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The Making Waves are finished!

I apologize for the poor quality of the picture, I will try again when the sky is not overcast.

I've been meaning to show you the progress of the landsknecht stockings.

I mismeasured my stitch gauge and I'm afraid they won't fit the recipient. They fit me, though. The recipient is very slim, so our measurements were surprisingly close. Until I can get hold of him and he can try the stocking on, I will start knitting on the second one. If they don't fit him, I'll knit the feet my size and begin again for him. If they fit him, all's well that ends well.

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I'm this -> <- close to finishing the Making Waves for Six Sox Knitalong. I only need to knit the toes on both socks.

This time I am knitting both socks at the same time. Well, not exactly at the same time, I alternate between the socks. I usually have problems with finishing the second sock — I've already done one and all the exitement of new is gone. So, unless I have only one skein, I knit both socks in one go on two sets of five dpns. This method prevents the SSS, but there also are fewer photo opportunities. I apologize for the lack of pictures lately.

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Okay, that does it! I have to have the pattern!

First Kerstin knit a really cool doll, then Laura went wild and knit several. Now Hanne is knitting one and I can't take it anymore, I want to knit some too!

So I went to the Interweave Knits site and ordered the Summer 2002 issue.

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Since there are no news and nothing is really happening, I will show you another photo of Stockholm.

The Liljeholmen bridge opens to let tall ships pass.

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This site is what I've been working on for the past two days: The Diaries of a Venetian Courtesan. It is up and I can return to knitting.

I have turned the heel on the first Making waves and cast on the second one. The heel turn is kinda special because I had to decrease from 64 to 48 stitches to make the foot fit me. On the heel side I decreased every round until I got 16 sts on each needle; at the same time on the instep side I decreased every other round until 12 sts remained. Then I decreased every other row down to 12 stitches on the heel side, thus ending up with 48 sts total, 12 on each needle. The ankle is kinda loose, but the heel and foot fit.

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Yesterday I cast on for the Making Waves once more; 64 stitches again, but on 3.25mm. So far so good. The yarn is a little bit thicker than I estimated — it should be knit on 3.5mm instead. At 3.25mm it is a little bit hard on the hands, but the resulting fabric is worth it.

You can play “spot the mistake” with this sock, I twisted one cable the wrong way. Fortunately it's not very obvious and I decided to leave it.

I have also decided to knit the pattern on the heel flap, but not on the instep. If the winter is not very cold or wet, I wear clogs and the pattern on the heel flap is spot on.

It was about time I put the link to the Bad-Ass Knitter's Manifesto on my blog. I heartily agree with everything Wendy says in the manifesto. The button comes from pixelFiber.

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The test went relatively well. Everything was ok until we got to the last part — knowledge of Sweden. If I got 50% right I'm lucky, but I'm afraid I might fail the whole test because of it. For example I'd forgotten which lake is the biggest Vänern or Vättern. I'm not interested in sports, how I am I supposed to know if someone is a sportswoman or not? Etc. I am hoping that I'll pass, even if I didn't do so well at the last part.

Tina asked what went wrong with the Making Waves.

The pattern is fine, I just cast on an incorrect number of stitches. At the gauge I was knitting, the socks would not have fit me or anybody I know. At 64 stitches and on 2.25mm needles, the sock measured 15 cm in circumference. I should have cast on 88 stitches to fit my foot, which is 21 cm around. Other than that, the pattern is very easy to remember and knits up very well.

Since I don't want to knit these socks at that gauge, I went and bought some local yarn today after school. It is nameless natural silver 4-ply, smells strongly of sheep and looks a little uneven, almost like handspun. I love the subtle color variations in the yarn.

It is beautiful and will make excellent winter socks. We'll see if I can get the number of stitches right this time.

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Today I wanted to show you my progress on Making Waves, the current Six Sox Knitalong sock. Unfortunately I can't do that, I've had to rip everything and I havent cast on again yet.

Tomorrow I will have the C-test. The Swedish course is divided into two: C and D level, C is beginners and D is advanced level. The test will determine if I am ready to go on to the D level. Hopefully everything will go well and I won't panic too much.

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Last Saturday we spent the day in Kolmården Zoo with a couple of friends. It is situated 150 km south of Stockholm and we rented a car to get there. The grounds are huge and there's lots to see. First we visited the main Zoo area which houses most of the animals, then we had a little break and a picnic. After taking the Safari tour we visited the Tropicarium and drove home. We got back to Stocholm around 9 PM very tired and happy.

I will make a separate album for all the photos I took (~100), but now I'll share a few highlights.

A very curious wolverine. We think this is a young one, the other one didn't care if there were people gawking.

The bears were taking it easy in the heat. This cub was so cute I had to have a pic. Don't you just want to cuddle up with this teddybear and have a nap?

Chimpansees on the other hand were being fed and were very active. There's one being chased for the branch. Apparently it's safer to drop the branch and fetch a new one, than to try to hang onto this one.

Of course no day is complete without cats. I love all kinds of cats and tigers are some of my favorite big cats.

Lions at the Safari park were cool too. You're only allowed in in a closed car because you drive through the areas animals are contained in. Way cool! I've never seen a moose so close in my life. She was wandering around on the road and didn't care one whit that we tried to drive on it.

And because one can never have enough of cats, here are two tigers for your enjoyment.

The day was magnificent and I am determined to visit Kolmården again next year. Maybe then we'll see wolves too, they were hiding from heat on Saturday.

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Oooh! Look, Vivian made me a button!

How cool is that? Thank you, Vivian!

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After spending a couple more days at the cottage we headed back to Tallinn. There we went to see Kill Bill 2 and shopped. I tried to find a black jeans jacket, but had no luck. I had luck shopping yarn: 4 skeins of Match Strumpf und Sportvolle. Two skeins will be knit into Making Waves of Six Sox Knitalong. The others will eventually become socks too. I picked up my 2.25 mm dpns and discovered that my gauge has changed. I could have used 2 mm's in the first place...

R's mom picked us up at Arlanda after the flight and we headed to her place for the remainder of the vacation.

She lives is a district called Roslagen and it is very beautiful. Her gardening principle is: wilder is better. In her case it really is:

the trees and other plants in the front yard shield the house from the road.

The front yard again. This time shielding against the neighbors.

The back yard descends into a nature preserve area. Beautiful, isnt it?

This concludes our vacation and we return to the regular posts.

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Yesterday I had my first job interview here in Sweden. I passed the first round and will be introduced to some of my (hopefully) future colleagues next week. They will be the ones who make the final decision. The job would be assembling medical equipment, a perfect job, in my opinion. I get to make something and that something will help somebody.

I heard about this opening through a friend of R's who has become my friend also. Thank you, M, for this opportunity!

Now to continue with the vacation.

My brother drove us around in Estonia one day. The first stop was Rakvere Castle. It was built by Danes in 13th century and destroyed in Livonian War in 16th century. Nowadays it is a museum and event site. Near the castle there is a statue of an ancient ox called "tarvas" that used to live in Estonian territory but has become extinct.

Tarvas was a huge animal, the person in black is R and he's almost 2 metres (6.6 ft) tall. You can imagine how big the tarvas bull was.

This is a view of the castle ruins from a road. The yellow building below is an example of Soviet concrete architecture and the spire in the middle of the ruins is a church tower beyond the castle, not part of it.

This is the main entrance to the inner courtyard of the castle, taken from the courtyard.

The courtyard itself...

and the tallest tower.

From the courtyard you have access to the dining hall...

and bailiff's private chambers. You can enter the chapel also, but I forgot to take a picture.

There are many places to explore, for example narrow stairs up...

where one can view the outer courtyard.

After climbing the walls we were tired and getting a bit hungry. So my brother took us to Lake Peipus where local people sell freshly smoked fish and fresh pickles. We bought a whole smoked bream, a kilo of pickles and had a picnic at one of Lake Peipus's beaches. Yummy!

The people who live in that part of Estonia are Russian immigrants from 17th and 18th centuries. They left Russia because of a church reform — they didn't go along with the changes and had to leave to preserve the Old Russian Orthodox ways and their lives. So they have. If you are interested in Old Believers check out this website: Russian Old Believers in Estonia.

After the picnic it was getting late so we headed back to the cottage.

To be continued...

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A quick post to tell that I have made an album with pictures I've taken of Stockholm.

Enjoy!

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I'm back! I have lots to tell and show.

I have some sad news too. Right before we left, R's mom called and let us know her old ex-feral cat Wilbur had died.

The first time I met him I was warned to be careful: he was an ex-feral cat who adopted the household and apparently didn't like anybody. Of course the first time I saw him I forgot all about it, scooped him up, scratched his ears and under his chin. Nothing bad happened. Later when he came in I lifted him to my lap again and I was warned that when he's had enought he'll scratch me. Nope, he just left. Everybody were baffled, how can it be? He's supposed to be mean loner not a cuddly lap cat! Maybe it was that I was never afraid of him or that he was just so surprised to be petted the first time. Nobody really knows why, but he enjoyed my company.

Rest in peace, Wilbur. You were a free spirit and I enjoyed your company too.

The two weeks wacation went fine.

We flew from Stockholm to Helsinki and took a speed boat to Tallinn. Our travel arrangements may seem weird, but they were economical. A straight flight would have cost twice as much and a straight ferry would have cost more also. Anyway, everything went fine and we were greeted by nice weather on the other side of the sea.

Here's a small sailboat just out of Helsinki harbor.

We spent a couple of days in Tallinn doing nothing particular and then went to my parents' summer cottage.

Where my mom grows flowers everywhere

and dad occasionally grills meat.

This occasion was to celebrate my mom's and brother's birthday. That shabby building in the background is the original barn-cowshed from 1920's.

My brother took us also on a tour to Rakvere fort, Lake Peipus and Russian villages near it. After the partying, touring and taking it easy we went back to Tallinn where we shopped ourselves silly. But about all that later.

To be continued...

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