Unbelievably hot

It is like walking into a wall of heat, getting outside these days. But I am a polarbear you see. I love sunny days, if there is a shady spot for me. Or a wind at least. But I can´t handle this kind of numbing heat. Despite the heat and me being super-tired it has been a great couple of days! I worked until four this saturday, and then I met up with B and left for Jonas in Eskilstuna. First we had some dinner - or tried to in the heat. Earlier that day I passed by the Beirut Deli in Östermalmshallarna and bought some Mhamara (paprikarelish with walnuts and pomegranate), Fatayes (pirouges containing fetacheese and spinache), hoummos, Bulgursalad and Jonas served some great wine, grilled halloumicheese and icecream. Needless to say, that was a great meal. Later we went to listen to Sofia Karlsson by Rademachersmedjorna. Great concert, as usual - although I find it quite petty to sell tickets to a prize of 250 sek and don´t offer seats to more than a third of the audience. It would have been OK if 1) there had been a note anywhere, describing the seating situation 2) if I had not been standing behind the counter for six hours 3) If we had not been so darn polite and had gone fetching your average park bench as some of the senior citizens did. Well, the concert was great and the location beautiful, much resembling an traditional swedish "people´s park" - Folk park. In short - we did not get seats.

Afterwards we gave J a lift home and went to Näshulta and Vidåsen. As always it was great meeting Eva and Nicke. We spent the major part of yesterday by lake Näshulta, swimming and by Vidåsen. Later we went home and today I was back at work.

I have been knitting at my Lady Eleanor entrelac stole lately - but this is a far to big and warm a knit to knit daytime. I have also sewn a - according to me - fully functional and useful skirt inspired by angry chicken´s 5-minute skirt. I used this wounderful nigerian wax batik and no F.O.E. but a zip. Get some picture up later.

And, I have been reading. First "Kite Runner" and "Thousand splendid suns" by Khaled Hosseini, then "Bitterfittan" by Maria Sveland. Great books all three of them. Coming up is "Världens mått" by Daniel Kehlmann and "The Inheritance of Loss" by Kiran Desai. I am so looking forward to reading them! Reading is a great way of spending exhausted summer eves.
Any suggestions of summerreads? I will need a new one by thursday or so.

And! I almost forgot! Nicke made us a great summer´s lunch after bathing the first time yesterday: a great potatosalad - roughly based on this recipe by Ernst (quite famous interior decorator in Sweden) and a GREAT beansalad - roughly based on this:

1 can of large white beans
1 can of black beans
1 can of kidney beans
finely-chopped leek
sliced pickled garlic
chopped tomatoes
salad - any kind fresh!
curry (powder)
raisins
olive oil (a "light" one)
salt

Blend and rest for five minutes - enjoy!

Now, it is time to rest. We are actually not that happy tonight. Bs father and his family had to put down their 8 years old Leonbergerdog earlier today. I met him - Folke - the first time long before his new family did and have always loved him. Leonbergerdogs are particulary bred to look like lions - not to live, so they are often sick and Folke was.. We will miss him. Mother told Valdar this evening, that he would not meet Folke ever again and Valdar said "I will not pat Folke ever again, grandad will be sad".

That kind of sums it all up. Rest in peace Folke.

Birdbag

This is a cliffhanger. The birdbag is finished. And I must say that I am quite pleased, and somewhat smug. But - there will be no pictures tonight. Actually, there won´t be any pictures until sunday. Well - perhaps, but do not count on it. The embroideryclass ends tomorrow and me and B will leave for Näshulta and stay there until sunday. There will be knitting, embroidery, walks in the woods, concerts, dear friends, food, wine and SLEEP. I will leave you with a borrowed picture of the lining of the bag - it might be familiar from a previous post. Then it is time to pack. And I have not even written packinglists yet. Do you write lists? I do. Every day. It keeps me kind of calm, and kind of sane.

Tomorrow I´ll also send a couple of mitten-kits to their keen and able knitters. I really hope that you will enjoy them.

A calm and, well, CALM weekend to all of you!

The lining, ladies and gents - the lining. "My Folklore" by Lecien.
Provided by dear, dear Satoko.

Home again.

I got home from Eskilstuna this afternoon. I had a wonderful time; long walks, a workshop with textileartist Pasi Välimaa at the library in Kumla this Saturday, time to knit at my degreeproject, to sketch and to attend a quiltmeet at Haneberg. I dived into Evas scraps, stripes and threads and made something, quilted it by hand and made a cover/cozy for my PC. I think I caught the bug. The quilt and patchworkbug. Perhaps it was always there, but I sure have seizure at the moment.

I will post some pictures from the workshop later.

Valdar got me some flowers when I was away.

Birds, baskets and a whole lot of knitting.

Above: Wirebaskets by Eva snd a kingsfisher carved by Nicke. Pictures from Hand och Tanke

Yesterday I left Stockholm to spend a couple of days in Näshulta outside Eskilstuna at the Svensson-Helldorff residence. I will be back late this weekend, hopefully showing you a handcarved bird or two, some of my knitting-in-progress and some wirework by Eva.

The hightlight of the day was having lunch outside on the patio. Spring! Finally!