Manastirishte 2020

My blog/diary would be incomplete, if I didn't include pictures of our hike on Plana to its peak Manastirishte this Sunday. It was one of those extraordinary winter days with crystal visibility, when the views to Rila literally take my breath away. And it was also one of those rare cases, when Alex was hiking with us. Unlike Gaby, he's not an outdoor person and easily suffers from travel sickness, especially on a car ride, but from time to time we manage to tempt him out into the wilderness :)

New Crochet Balls Earrings

I've been so busy knitting, crocheting and sewing lately, that I barely find the time to document my new makes. I sewed a dress, two cardigans, a new pair of boxer shorts and two tailor's hams, I started a new sweater and I also made half a dozen pairs of earrings, one of which was already gifted and I don't even have a picture of it, but never mind.

: One of my favourite pairs - double balls:

: A bright red pair (the red is somewhat lost in the picture), which suits Gaby magnificently:

: A yellow pair for another of Gaby's friends

: This one goes nicely with the gradient necklace I made for Gaby last month

: I bought a string of small quartz balls and turned it into a necklace with a pair of purple earrings with small quartz balls to go with it:

: This was a another string of semi-precious stones - carnelian chips, which I turned into a necklace, bracelet and earrings:

: And another string of semi-precious stones - agate chips, again turned into a necklace, bracelet and earrings:

Baylovo 2020

It is really stunning how the geographic location determines so much the landscapes we roam, especially in the transitional periods of the year. While it was still winter on Tumba, in sunny Baylovo, located between the Balkans, Vitosha and Lozen mountains, it was almost springtime, with crocuses in blossom and green fields of crops. We love our spring hikes around Baylovo so much!

Some of the fields are ready for the spring seeds, others have already growing autumn crops

The day was so nice, warm and sunny, with picturesque white puffy clouds scattered in the sky

The track was very muddy and not easy to walk along

The snow covered peaks of the Balkans  in the distance

The village of Baylovo

St. Spas chapel on top of Spasova mogila

The fields of Baylovo and the village of Golema Rakovitza in the distance. We continued our hike downhill and along the tracks between the fields

The southern side of the hill was covered with hundreds of yellow and purple crocuses

Spasova mogila from the southern fields

Baylovo and the white cap of peak Murgash in the distance

Rib Knit Teal Tunic

My latest and probably last long sleeve tunic, at least for the foreseeable future. I had been eyeing a piece of rib knit in a gorgeous teal color and last week I succumbed to the temptation and bought it. I love the color, but the fabric itself is very thin and structureless and seems more suitable for men's tops or pajamas, than for dresses. I had at least two meters of it and I wanted to make a long sleeveless dress for Gaby out of it, but first, to test the fabric, I cut a short sleeveless top.

For the pattern of the blouse I used my go-to knit T-shirt pattern -  Burda 2/2011 shirt #106 B. But the difficulty with the fabric was that I didn't know (and still don't) how to cut it, what was to be considered the width of the pieces - it changed drastically with the stretch of the ribbing. The short sleeveless top when sewn turned to be wide and formless and nothing like the item Gaby had hoped for. So, to save the fabric, I added the long sleeves, a wide and long neckpiece and a bit of ruffle to turn the thing into a passable tunic.

It is still shapeless, but I consider it wearable at home with yoga pants. The fabric is 100% cotton, very breathable and soft and it is quite comfortable, I'm actually enjoying wearing it at home.

And if you are a bit bewildered what I am doing barefooted in a house tunic and yoga pants in the fields - I'm posing for this blog post :) I knew the place we hiked today was not widely known and I could change easily into my photosession attire and back without being observed by other than wildlife, so I took the tunic and leggings in my backpack. However, I drew the line at carrying additional shoes for the photos, and my hiking boots were all covered with mud at this point.

New Makes for My Boys

Last night I finished another pair of men's socks - these are for my son. I had two skeins of Alize Superwash 50g in grey and I dyed one of the skeins striped, keeping one of the stripes in the original color. I'm quite happy with how these turned, though it would have been smarter, if I had made the number of stripes even. As it was, I had to cut the skein in the middle of the stripe sequence, to make both of the socks look the same.

The pattern is my usual recipe for toe-up men's socks, only this time I decided to do the afterthought heel. However, next time i knit socks for Alex, I might reduce the number of stitches to 62, as his feet, though long, seem to be a bit slimmer than my husband's and the socks are a tiny little bit wide on him.

Pattern: Toe-up vanilla socks with afterthought heel (personal recipe), 64 sts
Yarn: Alize Superwash, 50 g + 20 g
Needle: 2.5 mm
Time to knit: one week

And this is what I whipped up last night for my husband. I found a free pattern for woven fabric men's boxer briefs and I took out two larger cotton fabric remnants from blouses I have made for Gaby and myself. The polka dot one was my muslin, which husband approved of as for size and comfort, though I doubt he'll ever wear them, and the grey ones I did because I was on a roll and I wanted to keep sewing :)

Though he had initially embargoed the fabric, he actually liked it in the form of finished product. However, for my next men's boxer briefs I intend to buy not very stretchy thin and soft cotton knit fabric in more manly colors :)