Lately

Lately I've been sitting at home and studying. Sort of.
In fact I'm sitting at home, browsing my books, discovering that I already know a nice bit of stuff so as a result I'm sitting at home, listening to the radio and knitting and working out (my knee is finally okayish so now I need to get my muscles to shape).
I knit a lace sock. Yes, yours truly knit a lace sock. I'm not a sock person and neither am I a lace person. But I wanted to know whether it's possible to use bamboo yarn for socks. It is, with a few precautions. If you want the pattern (easy), yell in the comments. Or I can send it to knitty.com, if you yell that not only you, my few dear readers, want the pattern but that the whole world needs it. The yarn is Linnaeus, made by me, 100% bamboo, will be available in my etsy store if you yell that you want it. Well, it'll be available anyway, I guess, but I have no time for dyeing.
Well, the sock doesn't have its mate, I just started and there's not enough to cover my big toe. I just hope the second one will be easier, I ripped the thing like ten times. And still, it looks like there is a plenty of mistakes but I have a bit uneven tension when I knit, I guess. I particularly love the detail on the heel.
The bamboo yarn is not as stretchy as wool. So the sock looks pretty large even when not on my large paw, even the stitches look large although I used 2mm (or 2.5mm) needles instead of 3mm which I normally use for socks (Mental note: get the gauge thing.) I needed to make the upper part (from the heel up) wider than what I would do with wool, I used my usual way to knit socks and then I couldn't put it on - I discovered this halfway on the plane from Stockholm to Vienna, the Swedish guy who was sitting next to me seemed to be mildly puzzled but he kept it low profile and pretended to be deeply immersed in Dagens Nyheter.
I finished the Selbu sweater. I almost ran out of yarn (white alpaca, double strand, half a kilo, Silk garden by Noro, I cut most of the green pieces out, I didn't like them in the large areas of colour so I used 11 skeins but there are lots of leftovers) and I still need to do the finishing but it's so absolutely beautiful. And my floats are almost a masterpiece. Floats are the loose threads on the reverse, if you happen not to be a knitter.
It is heavy and thick, after all, it's actually double/layered and it fits nicely. I tried it onand even tried to take a pic in the bathroom mirror but it came out too dark. There's a mannequin in the attic so if I manage to remove all that dust, I'll put it on that one because the sweater is just absolutely stunning and the details on the shoulders which are hard to see when laid flat are just nice... I usually make this shape with a boatneck but it isn't too handy for heavy winter sweaters so I had to invent something. I made the back part a bit longer so that it fits better and... and anyway, it's a masterpiece. I have to do some finishing, there are those hanging threads and the ends of the sleeves rolling in but in a few days it will be posted on Etsy. Should you want a totally cool Christmas gift, then it's Italian size around 48 (idiotic but it's just my size and I know my sizing only in Italian numbers. It is something between 42 and 44 in the German sizing - Italian sizing fits me exactly, the German one falls usually in between and since the tags contain usually both... well, what the heck), it weighs just under a kilo, it is very warm - not recommended for your Portuguese aunt, I guess - and the price will be around $700, maybe a bit more, I have to do the counting.
Lately, I've been trying to get rid of my flatmate. Hopefully she goes soon, I told her to go by next Tuesday, I even gave her a few urls to look for something. Her cartons remain unpacked so her intentions ofnot staying seem to be clear but she is still there...I went to Prague because I needed to do some paperwork so I checked.
The police had called me, that's it. As they are perfectly organized, one guy called when I was just slamming the door before leaving for Vienna, telling me that I should come and pick my lens and my necklace. I told him that I'm leaving and he said okay, maybe you can come and pick it now? Well, I'm leaving just now, sir, I cannot... The other guy who worked on the same case called me when I was in Arlanda, waiting for my Helsinki flight. No, sir, I cannot come now or tomorrow, I'm in Stockholm... Oh, are you? sigh.
Anyway, they caught me on the phone just when I was leaving a bakery where I sought some consolation for my stressed stomach after having finished, printed, bound and submitted my thesis and we fixed the appointment on Aug 3. I went there, picked my lens, my wonderful, most useful lens. There is still the tag from the second-hand store. 13 500, it says. No matter whether it's drilled cowrie shells or some other currency, the original price was 44 000. (Okay, czk. Around 30 of them for euro, if you need to know). Bastards. Anyhow, I have my most favourite lens back. They cleaned away the plum marmalade (had got it somewhat mixed up with my lunch) but the sticker covering the metal stayed. They couldn't find the necklace, though. After searching, arguing who is responsible for the loss and several excuses, they discovered it in the bag with my name and the accompanying papers.... it's like my mom who calls the service guy before checking that the damn not working thing is turned on:D
Well, time of good pictures is coming.