The last few weeks my life was a high speed train, buzzing from one topic to the next.
Somehow we have arrived in November now and it feels like I did a non-stop trip from summer to autumn... Now let me write a blog post to summarize what happened in the last couple of weeks (or better months?).
Time is flying...
In August I was busy searching a new appartment. My renting contract was running out by end of September due to a planned demolition of the building. Luckily, I found a new place in a nice calm area, well connected to public transport. Finding affordable appartments to rent in the city of Zurich is a really hard and tiring thing.
By the beginning of September my boyfriend arrived. We haven't seen each other for eight months (long distance relationship), so this was quite a change (a good one though!)
Right after he arrived, we had to start packing boxes and getting ready for the move. Luckily it went all very smoothly, thanks to my great dad, brothers and friends!
One secret truth was revealed to everybody who helped though: I own more wool than shoes, clothes and bags all together...
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| my life in boxes (half of them contain wool). |
Soon after the move we travelled for a weekend to Stresa, Italy to attend a wedding. This place was just amazing!!
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| Borromean islands in Stresa, Italy. |
The weekend after that I had to leave for a conference to Rio de Janeiro to give a talk about my research project, and all the weeks before this trip were already filled with a loooot of work, "last" experiments, more last experiments, confusing results, burning fuses in my brain, ....until I was ready for the talk.
The trip itself was also quite exhausting... 15hours of flying, commuting from hotel to the conference and searching food in a bustling city....
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| View from the roof top of my hotel in Rio. |
I was glad to be back home in the end!
And then October was here... no crazy travels anymore this month, but still a lot of work while starting to set up the new home and enjoying times together with my boyfriend :)
This is how we finally arrived in November.
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| (photo taken by my adorable boyfriend) |
Time was standing still
... when it came to my crafting activities.
I am so sorry for everybody who is waiting for something they ordered from me :(
Somehow I just couldn't move on even with the most simple projects, and I was too exhausted in my free time to pick up spinning or knitting. I think every crafter knows these phases, don't you?
There was this short-sleeve raglan jacket I finished already in August. It is technically finished, but I should secure all the ends of the stripes with sewing thread, because unfortunately i cut the threads too short :(
Promise to myself: leave enough thread for darning ends in the future!!!
The yarn I died myself with indigo, and the jacket will be for my mum:
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| indigo cardigan |
Then there is this "birch tree" shawl I am designing, using yarn died with birch leaves and indigo. I made quite fast progress in the beginning, but the last weeks it was just lying around. It travelled to Italy and to Brazil with me, but I didn't even pick it up once!!!
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| birch tree shawl |
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| birch tree details |
Then there was an old friend of mine asking me to make a hat for him and one for his daughter. He wanted simple, stockinette stitch hats, in greens or browns. Simple and fast, you think? It took me weeks to get it done, I really don't know why... But finally I managed to finish the second one and then I shipped them so quickly that I even forgot to take a picture :D
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| hat knitting |
Spinning projects.... My wheel was just turning just a veeeeery little bit.
There were these gradient rolags I handcarded myself out of a kettle dyed Merino roving. In July I spun more than 3/4 of the rolags on one weekend, but since then I could never do more than one rolag a day (about 1-2g). So it moved on veeeeery very slowly.
It is the bobbin on the right, and I hope to get to ply it soon (I honestly forgot which colors are hiding under the purple):
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| spinning |
(The bobbin on the left shows the single spun from a handcarded tweedy batt back in July. I didn't get to ply it yet.)
I don't want my crafting timeline to stand still anymore, and hope to be able to put more work into my wooly projects in the next couple of weeks!
Happy autumn to everyone!
