Happy Thanksgiving!

It's been a week of adventures for me. I spent last week in France, celebrating my brother's 21st birthday, exploring his world there, meeting up with two online quilting friends, and enjoying a good deal of cheese, bread, and carotte rappée. After a short visit to Bonn on the way home, the real adventure began! There was snow everywhere and after circling Helsinki, we were diverted to Düsseldorf (also stormy). After an unscheduled night there, I found myself stranded in Stockholm the next day, but I finally made it home to Vaasa, followed later by my luggage. Now I just need to get caught up with life here again! Whew! I swear I'm never traveling again (but don't hold me to that...).

This evening, the adventures continued when a friend and I ventured into the wilds of snowy Österbotten in search of Solbergs Kalkongård for a turkey for Saturday's Thanksgiving celebration at my place. After some searching (and some nearly incomprehensible dialect spoken by the helpful folks we found along the way), we eventually realized we were on the right road, but in the wrong town! Luckily, the right Långmossavägen was not too far away and there is now a large, dead bird living in my usually vegetarian fridge!

I'll post more soon about my French adventures, but here are just a few crafty images to leave with you for now: my mom's birthday socks, finished while standing in a four-hour line at the Lufthansa desk in Düsseldorf (I really cut it close with that darker purple yarn!) and my November 6-12" mini from QuiltinKimmie in Oregon. I love how the colors of the socks and the mini are so similar!

Ja, det kan vi!

Watching/listening to all the US election coverage has given me some good knitting time this week (my poor students are still waiting for feedback, but I hope they'll understand). I've finished three socks since I got back from Germany two weeks ago. The skinny one was my first attempt at a toe-up sock and I think I like doing it that way, although today I'm casting on another pair cuff-down. I have a lot of November birthdays in my life - makes it tough to get started early with Christmas gifts!

I got a treat in the post this week - my October mini swap quilt from 1/4 of an inch. The hand stitched flowers are adorable! Thanks (and for the extra treats, too)!!

I'm finishing up my two October mini swap quilts today, too, and really hope to have them and one pair of socks in the mail tomorrow. I have some ideas for my November one, but I'm not sure my stitchery skills are up to it!


Ruth nominated me for an award this week and I thought I'd play along.

Here are the 'rules':

1. The winner can put the logo on their website/blog.
2. Add a link to the person who gave you the award.
3. Nominate at least five other websites/blogs.
4. Provide links to the nominated websites/blogs.
5. Leave a message at each blog/website telling them they’ve been given the award.

Wow, as Ruth said, choosing just 5 is hard… Here are five of my favorite quilting blogs (by no way a comprehensive list), in no particular order:

Syko's blog is fabulous - she's a Finnish crafter/artist with roots here in Vaasa. I had the pleasure of meeting her in September. You might want to do a little holiday shopping in her etsy store!
Be*mused is another one of my favorite reads for both quilting and knitting content. I'm totally smitten with her latest robot creation.
Taniwa is another one of my favorite reads, because of the insights she provides into life in Japan, a part of the world I know very little about. She's also such a very prolific poster!
The Jettstream is another blog read regularly. Jane Ann is really a talented writer and I especially enjoy it when she writes about her childhood memories.
and I'll round out my five with
Dordogne Quilter, whose Quilts 4 Leukemia Project I truly admire, and whom I'm going to meet for the first time next week!

November 4, 2008

In keeping with the apolitical nature of this blog, here is my political statement for the day:

I made this back in September 2007 and Oh Fransson's post (and give-away) inspired me to post a photo of it again today. It hangs on the wall of my office. It's going to be a sleepless night here seven hours ahead of East Coast time!

Quick Update

Here's a quick update on some current knitting and quilting exploits:

Socks in progress (a pattern I bought in Germany, windowpanes with yarn purchased at Stundars, and my first attempt at a toe-up sock - notice the cool wooden needle holders I got from my neighbor's mom last week!)

A finished scarf using this great pattern, I think it would look great in a self-striping yarn.

The September 6-12" mini received from Eggmoney for the mushroom/owl theme, complete with adorable homemade notecards! Thanks, Eggmoney!!

And finally a sneak peek at one of my (somewhat late) October 6-12" mini (out-of-the-box theme).

I'll leave you with a few more photos from my recent visit to Freiburg, nestled in the southwest corner of Germany, between the Black Forest, Switzerland, and France.