“The ankle was an arch enemy of the heel because the heel had a sole that could neither toe the line nor keep instep.”

This isn’t my first garter stitch heel. What I neglected to ever mention that time, however, was that I didn’t knit the second sock. I just wasn’t sold on the idea. Anyway, here I am, halfway to the knee and hoping that my leg increases will work out.

There was a lot of painting and recarpeting while I was away so we’re taking the opportunity to clean out and reorganise. Ikea was visited and flatpack was assembled. Laundry has been washed and dried, washed and dried. I expect to get most loose ends tied up today but really, all along, I’ve been thinking about this wrap (such a quick knit!), this cardigan (squishy garter stitch!) and wondering when the Second Fall issue of Knitty is going to come out.

…just in time for September! I was chipping away at Arielle on the road and have nearly finished it up. The sleeves need to be sewn in and I need buttons for it.

Since getting home, I have been consumed by the desire to cast on everything I see. You see, I’ve been here many, many times and have already initiated what can only be classed as damage control:

The 16-Sixteen Cables hat in Rialto Aran.

I’d forgotten just how squidgy Rialto Aran is. I can’t wait to have this done. It is already getting into hat weather a little.

I picked this yarn up in Delft. It’s been a long time since I knit a pair of socks and I just fell in love with the colour. For no reason at all, I have decided to knit these toe-up (my first proper pair!) and if I can keep going, turn them into knee socks.

The ‘only’ other yarn I got on my travels is this beautiful New England Shetland from Harrisville Designs. It is slightly heathered and I think the colour will match a lot of my other clothes. Today I plan to swatch and cast on for Peasy (ravelry link)! I am extremely excited.

I’ve been on the road for the last three weeks and got home on Friday. Directly after my last post, I flew to Finland with my violinist where we toured west, played some concerts and had a week of masterclasses. It was my first time to Finland and although I was so involved practising and playing to take any photos worthy of note, I really enjoyed it. We hope to return to a chamber music festival in the east next summer. It was a very quiet, interesting, beautiful country. After the masterclasses, we parted ways – Elina to Stockholm and me to Helsinki and on to Cologne, where I met Alb.

I didn’t know anything about Cologne before I went so it was interesting to visit! It’s in the far west of Germany and lies on the river Rhein. It was a really influential city back in the day due to trade coming and going through it. These days, however, it is a bit like any other big Germany city. It was bombed to bits during the war, which is a shame because the parts that survived are really well preserved. Unfortunately all other construction that happened since the war has not been in the same style and so the city does not have as much character as it could. All that considered, it does have this:

The Dom, or cathedral, was one of the only things to escape unscathed from the war. Apologies for the dullness of the photo; the weather was very dull when we were there. This is but one side of it. It is absolutely enormous. We spent three nights in Cologne and had seen pretty much everything worth seeing by that stage.

Bruges was completely different.

All I knew about Bruges was gleaned from the film In Bruges and even then, my memory was patchy. For a start, it is in the northern half of Belgium, which is dutch-speaking. I was very surprised because it is much more Dutch-looking than I expected, with tall narrow houses and many canals throughout the old part of the city. The old part is quite small and enclosed by canals but the city with its environs is large, with about 250,000 inhabitants. Add on top of this many, many tourists and you get a jammed-pack centre on Saturday. We escaped when we could!

We stayed in an amazing little hotel, Hotel Fevery, which saved my life with its hearty gluten-free breakfast and quiet-yet-central location. As we stayed four nights, the hotel made a big difference to our stay. We were lucky with the weather so last Sunday, we rented bikes and cycled the canal route to Damme. It was only about 5km away and proved to be a popular watering hole for cyclists en route elsewhere. We took a scenic route through the countryside further north and eventually looped back home.

Onwards to Delft then, which is in south Netherlands and is much smaller than Bruges. Although my photos of Bruges, Delft and Leiden do not differ much in terms of tall, narrow houses and many canals, Delft had its own feel. In this part of the Netherlands, Belgian beers have a strong influence and the eager tasting sessions continued! Delft is obviously famous for its delftware – the blue and white ceramics – and it was nice to see potters and ceramic artists still active within the field in the town. Its other claim to fame is that Vermeer lived and painted there his entire life. The Vermeer museum there unfortunately did not have any of his original paintings but gave a very interesting look at his life and small body of work.

We had a day and a half in Leiden before flying home but unfortunately the weather turned wet and windy. Despite that, we soldiered on and visited Rembrandt’s birthplace as well as one of the main museums, the Lakenhal. There was nothing to see there from Rembrandt himself as most of his paintings are in bigger museums, but it was extremely interesting. Back in the day, Leiden was the epicentre for cloth production, dying, grading as well as import and export and the Lakenhal was sort of the cloth customs house for all of this. The building has been excellently preserved and is full of art from local painters of the Golden Age, as well as more recent local painters.

Of course, wool was found and there was much sitting on the suitcase to get everything in. It was worth it, though, and I have lots more to show you now that I am home.

Summer is floating along. Elina and I played at the Boyle Arts Festival last week. As you can see, we are starting to keep good company!

Next week, we’ll be in Finland (where Elina is from) for some concerts and then masterclasses at the Turku Festival. Founded in 1960, this is a renowned chamber music festival and I am very excited to be going. Also, it is not often you get to be shown around Finland by a Finn. You can expect to hear more about our adventures in the coming year! After a few months of playing together, it became very clear that this is a good partnership and, surprisingly, exactly what we both wanted. Most pianists and violinists are interested in just solo playing or, for the violinist anyway, orchestral playing. Most dip into chamber music now and then but rarely pursue it singularly – in Ireland, anyway. For us, we came to the conclusion that we are both good but far, far better together. Together, we will probably achieve much more than would be possible alone (and have a lot more fun doing it). So to Finland we go!

I have a lot of knitting to show you but I am going to try and spread it out because I don’t expect to have a lot of computer time for the rest of the month. Happy knitting, everyone! (Did you see the Autumn issue of Twist is out already? I love this time of year!)

Obsessed? Moi?

The hap shawl continues to grow. Amazingly, I have used only half of my Malabrigo sock so I am thinking about adding a big squishy border at the appropriate time. I followed the instructions (mostly) but my increases have gone a little awry so this will probably end up being bigger than the pattern intended. I don’t really mind: our weather is really bizarre right now. It is very hot in the sun (this is where the hap can be used to lie out on) but then a hurricane of wind and rain can come out of nowhere (and this is where it can be used to cover head and upper-body whilst fleeing for cover). And all other times, it can be used to shield against Evil Air Conditioning.

In a few weeks, I’m going to travel to Finland with the violinist that I play with. She’s Finnish, you see, so she has arranged a concert in her home town as well as some masterclasses with her old teacher. (A masterclass is a public lesson with a teacher that you don’t normally study with. People can come in and listen to the lesson. It’s a good way to get to know a teacher that you might like to study with or, at the very least, get a another opinion on what you’re playing. I had a masterclass once about ten years ago with a very famous French teacher who despaired of my Beethoven playing. She completely destroyed my score with her small, charcoal pencil. There is something uniquely excruciating about an old French woman’s despair. All the same, everyone later agreed she was insane. My best masterclass was when the teacher pulled a chair right up beside at the keyboard and we worked through three Debussy pieces and I got to ask all the questions I wanted, and he completely ignored the audience. Which was awful if you paid in – but great for me.)

Errr, I digress. The bottom line about going away to Finland is that they actually have a season called summer there. Insensible though it may seem, I have cast on for a short sleeved cotton top.

The pattern is Arielle from Kim Hargreaves’ latest book, Misty. I’m knitting it in a white 100% cotton called Safran from Drops. It’s not a mercerised cotton so it’s quite nice in the hand to knit with. I picked white mostly because it will match lots of my clothes. I think the top is a style that I can wear with jeans or with a posh skirt for playing in. I tend to wear very light things to play in all year round because I get very, very hot when I play.

The pattern leaves a few things to be desired, unfortunately. The border is stupid. I don’t like using that word but here, I think I am right. It’s a border that you knit lengthwise and then pick up the stitches along the edge of the strip for the body. Getting that border to sit just right is a fine art. In my mind, it’s like the nightmare of buttonbands grown to take over a quarter of the garment. Add to this situation the Rowan requisite that everything is knit flat. Both of these things were quickly discarded and replaced with a simple baby cable rib knit in the round.

I went hunting for buttons today for my Audrey cardigan but alas, to no avail. I also have no pictures of my green alpaca cardigan even though I have been wearing it since yesterday. My resident photographer has been feeling a bit sleepy. Take my word, though, it is perfect for this gusty, changeable weather. I think I will knit another in charcoal for autumn.