Golo Burdo Mountain

Lately all the sunny and warm days have been happening during the work days, while the weekends are rainy and cold, isn't that a bummer :) But yesterday was an exception, a clear and warm Saturday and though husband had to work, our FB hiking group had planned an event, so off I went to Golo Burdo mountain. We had a phenomenal hike, 16 km from Radomir railway station through most of Golo Burdo, climbing four of its peaks, to Pernik railway station and back to Sofia by train.

:Radomir waterfall - a natural waterfall within a town park

:The fields above Radomir and the peaks we climbed ahead

:The summit of Golo Burdo - Vetrushka peak

:There were lots of purple crocuses all over the mountain

: Rila in the distance

: A flock of geese flew over

:A rare flower - anemone pulsatilla

:Pernik in the distance

: Adonis vernalis

:On the second peak - Kobila

:On the last and probably most steep peak to climb (forgot its name :)

:Down to Pernik and dusty air :(

Lizzy Raglan Dog Sweater

I hadn't knitted a sweater for my little friend Lizzy for a while. She's the cutest cutie and knitting for her is always a joy.

The yarn I used for the sweater is polywool (50% wool, 50% acrylic), which I overdyed. It was originally solid dusty rose color and I tried to add some interest making it multicolored. Unfortunately the colors pooled around the body, but I think the overall effect is nice and better than the factory color of the yarn.

The pattern is a raglan variation of  my old Lizzy Dog Sweater pattern, knit in the round. Now that I have measured it on Lizzy I see a few tweaks I could make to the pattern before I write it down, as I plan, so maybe there is a second raglan dog sweater coming this winter :)

Pattern: Lizzy Raglan Dog Sweater (personal pattern)
Yarn: Linate Multicolor, 70 g
Needle: 4 mm
Time to knit: 3 days

Rusty Socks

Finally finished my second pair of socks, made out of hand-made sock blanks I dyed last month. For this sock blank I had folded the yarn four times - twice for two symmetrical socks and then once more for a symmetrical distribution of the gradient in the sock - that is the sock was supposed to start with dark teal, go through rust and finish back with teal.

However I was not convinced that this was actually a good idea, worried that the rust in between would look like a bandage around the ankles, so I decided to alternate the two ends of each half ball and thus knit up first the teal and then the rust. But the alternating of the two strands every row was such a pain, so it took me almost a month to finish these. Was it worth it - definitely no! Next time, if I ever decide to do sock blanks again, and I might, I'll have a better plan for the dyeing and hopefully less trouble with the knitting.

Pattern: Flying North with FLKH
Yarn: Alize Superwash 50 g, hand dyed
Needle: 2.5 mm

I like the speckled effect sock blanks give to the yarn and in the end I like the final result and the slight patterning. The gradient is a bit disappointing, but it's only socks :)

Baylovo 2018

One of our favourite places for field hikes - the village of Baylovo. Despite the forecasts for bad weather and rain we managed to squeeze a hike in the morning, just before the rain began, and it was gorgeous. We had Gaby and her boyfriend too and everything was just perfect but for my absent-mindedness - I had misplaced the reserve battery for the camera and the one in the camera was empty. So just a few phone pictures, which do not give credit at all to the quiet beauty of this place.

Denim Socks

I finished the denim socks for my husband. They are my favourite kind of socks - vanilla socks with self-striping yarn. I love the repetitiveness and mindlessness of knitting vanilla socks and though I do add a cable here and there in my socks, I'm still not tempted by super complicated and textured socks - that kind of knitting I reserve for sweaters and shawls.

Pattern: Vanilla socks with FLKH, 64 sts
Yarn: Alize Superwash, 70 g, self dyed
Needle: 2.5 mm

As I mentioned in my previous post about the yarn, I forgot to take into account the number of stripes (that is the number of strands I had wound the yarn into) and out of two choices - even or uneven, they turned uneven. So I decided to use all of the yarn and to make the cuffs different - they would never be visible anyway and husband doesn't care about the sameness of his socks that much.

Ever since I bought the Fish Lips Kiss Heel last year this has been my most favourite kind of heel - it's easy and makes for the perfect heels for me. Lately I've been binge watching DunkelGrun's podcast - I love it and I've already seen all of the 17 episodes. In one of them Anna mentioned that in Switzerland sock yarn is sold together with a roll of thin reinforcement cotton thread for the heels and toes. So next time I knit socks I plan to buy and add some matching cotton thread to check this method.