Keeping count

I've been in a flurry of knitting lately, so to recap:

In March I went to visit the friend I was making the poncho for, and in a fit of crocheting I managed to finish the poncho in time. I decided on a crocheted edging called the cathedral scallop, and I think it turned out rather pretty. Luckily my friend did too, and since April was unusually cold, hopefully she even got some use out of it before the season was done.

Then I turned my attention to my dad's cardigan, and somehow managed to finish it two days before going to Norway. Not that I was getting nervous there or anything!

I went to the haberdashery and bought some buttons. I tried this nifty buttonhole using kitchener stitch, and it looked really nice I think. I'm going to be using that another time too! Then I went to back to the haberdashery as the buttons were suddenly too small, but the new buttons were even nicer, so I call that a win.
Then when I got there I tried it on... and it fits! I just needed to add a little bit of edging to the sleeves to tighten them up, but luckily I brought yarn and needles just in case. He looks pretty happy about it too!

I'm so relieved, not least because I can actually knit other stuff now without feeling guilty about this project!

Then I decided to make a little side trip into some sandals for me for the summer, and some lacy top for those boiling summer days, both for me! I've done the sandals, I just need to finish the top now. It seems to work up reasonably quickly though so hopefully I'll get it done in time for the big heat waves.

In between I managed to go to the spring yarn festival in budapest and picked up some goodies:

In March I was in a bakery and got talking to a woman who had just had a premature baby. I'd heard of these little octupuses (octopi?) for preemies, so I decided to make her one. Last week I saw her again, with the baby out of the hospital! It's so nice when the little ones turn out healthy!

And of course I had to make a 17th May bow for Petike. If he doesn't have a bunad, at least he can have a bow!


I also finished two little angels, but I forgot to take pictures before I gave them away… of course. I think that puts my current count at 20 projects to go?
One of these days I'll even rip out the ones I really don't like :-)

Hungary visit, Norway visit, 17 May and more

Hey guys!

So I've arrived safely back from Norway now, caught up on work and I've actually got some energy to spare. Today I seem to have too much energy actually, I went for a run at lunch time (very happy with that run actually... "I dun gud" (",) ) and I'm still sort of bouncing off the walls so I thought I'd spend some of the energy on a long overdue blog post.

Since the last post I’ve been to first Hungary, then Norway. The Hungary visit was wonderful as always, but then that’s not difficult when the people there are so much fun to spend time with. (“,) This was back in March but that didn’t stop us from going swimming... outside... in naturally heated mineral water. I still remember the look on the faces of the kids who tried the pool next to ours, and their incredibly hasty retreat. I guess that one was not heated! I also added a few dishes to the ever-increasing list of Hungarian food I’ve tried and I still love all of them. Maybe I should be careful saying that – they may try something really unusual next time!

Just recently Peti and I both went to Norway. I still think he was brave for that but I’m very happy that everyone got along so well. Even Bella gave him an enthusiastic welcome by jumping into the bed one morning and trying to sniff his face... but I’m not sure if he enjoyed dog breath in the morning quite as much.

On 16th May we went to Oslo to visit Knut André, Tina and Julia. We had a walk up Akerelva and Peti was chosen by Julia to get to play with her. Luckily he’s very good at that and seems to enjoy it! After dinner we went down to Aker Brygge and then went to the roof of the new opera house in Oslo. I’d never seen it before, I was impressed!

We went onto the roof and took pictures of Oslo and important things like me taking a picture of Peti taking a picture of me, or Knut André describing the sights.

17th of May was great, it was reasonably warm, the sun was almost breaking through and it was so nice to see everyone again! Philip had the cutest suit on and Emilie was beautiful as always, wearing a bunad. She seemed very happy about the pink dolphin balloon she received while Philip was in heaven, being held by his Bestefar. And of course the ice cream and hot dogs is traditional... and joyfully received! I even got Peti to wave a Norwegian flag, and I took the picture to prove it (“,). You're honorary Norwegian now hunni!

After the parades we went back to Odd Martin, Ingeborg, Emilie and Philip’s house where my dad was selected by Philip as his playmate and Emilie decided that Peti would be the perfect target for tickling and being “scared” with whistles. I helped her with both tasks. I’m very kind like that (evil grin).


On the 18th we went down to Nordbytjærnet just by where my dad and his wonderful wife lives. It’s about 5km walking around and it was so nice and warm that day. At least in comparison to the other days – it seems like nothing compared to the 30 degrees we had in England this Monday but I must admit I’d rather have the cooler temperature. I guess I’m a viking!


On the 19th we both went back to our respective countries and probably we both slept very very well that night. I know I did.
So back in England, I’ve been told by my helpful running trainer that we’re going to increase the distance we’re running so by the end of June we’ll run 10km, end of July we’ll run 15, end of August we’ll run 20 and then we’ll be all set for the Windsor ½ marathon in end of September. I’m nervous about it of course but if Leo says that I’ll be able to do it, I have faith in him. After all, he’s gotten me this far!
This is a long catchup post but I’ll sign off now. I hope you all had a wonderful 17 May wherever you were, lots of love to you all!