Due date

Today is my due date, but baby doesn't seem to know that. Or care. I do hope s/he decides to be born soon though. My tummy is huge.


And so are my feet (no pic of those!). The only shoes that fit me are flip-flops and Crocs. Summer has finally arrived, with frequent thunderstorms, so here's hot and humid and lots of mosquitoes. We have no AC (almost noone does here, you don't need it very often) so the little buggers get in through the open windows at night and eat us. Bleh!

We visited friends yesterday, and their new baby. A tiny two-week old girl. So cute and sweet and I got to hold her and she fell asleep in my arms :-) My own baby didn't get the hint though.

I've got mail! From Germany. This:


Yes, that's a feather.


Could it be from the elusive wool tit? Yes! Wollmeise yarn!

Yummy, no? Five heavy 150 g (about 5,5 oz) skeins of superwash sock yarn in luscious colours. Each skein is 525 meters/574 yards, so it should be enough for two pairs of socks, at least if one pair is short!

The colourways are (left to right): Red Hot Chili, Drachenblut (dragon blood), am kalten Polar, Vergeissmeinnicht (forget-me-nots), Zenzi. All are in the medium variety (you can chose between light, medium and dark) The Loopy Ewe carries Wollmeise now but if you live in Europe it's better to order diectly from Claudia. Lower price and no risk of extra taxes at Customs (if you are in the EU) And the yarn don't have to cross the Atlantic twice.

I finished the first one of H's socks:


That piece of yarn at the top is all I have left from that half-skein, 25 cm/10". Not bad, eh? Now I dearly hope that I did start with the smallest ball, otherwise I'm in trouble. I'm almost at the heel of the second sock so I'll find out soon enough.

The Loopy Ewe sock club package arrived last week and I just had to cast on immediately.

The yarn is from Claudia Handpainted and the pattern is called Pheasant Run. It has fun triangles of twisted rib. I could probably have knit them toe-up without problems but I'm doing them as written for a change (almost anyway, I changed the heel a little)

The colourway is really similar to H's yarn:

The sock club yarn is a muddier version version of the Carousel. Even H commented on it, "That's the same yarn!" Here they are knit up:


The package also included a little accessory bag that matches the Loopy Groupie tote and the sock club project bag we got in the last package, lollies, stitch markers, hot cider drink mix (which I will try when it's not 26 °C outside) and a knitting reference booklet.

All packed in orange tissue paper. Very autumny :-)

The last week has been too hot to work on the Mystery Stole. Sweaty hands, lace weight yarn and Addi Lace needles apparently don't mix very well, everything just get stuck. I'm about halfway through Clue 5, the start of the wing. Clue 6 seems to be more of the same so I'm very curious about Clue 7, the last one. I'm hoping for feathery shapes on the edge.