Kopitoto, February 2025

Today's was a quick, but very satisfying hike from Zlatnite to Kopitoto and back through Momina skala. The round trail is one of my favourites, when we are looking for something short in the higher parts of the mountain. 

The day was cloudy, but warmish, even at the 1500 m altitude. To my surprise the snow at the skirts of the mountain had completely melted, at the higher altitudes there's still plenty of it, but the trails are well trodden and easy to hike.

Hike info:

Date: 28 Feb 2025

Destination: peak Kopitoto (1345 m), lowest point of the hike

Mountain: Vitosha

Total length: 9.5 km

Elevation gain: 140 m

Total duration (plus picnic): 2 and a half hours

Average difficulty: 3 / 10

Although the trail is easy and fairly popular, there were no other people but us on it. Maybe because it is Friday, a work day, maybe because of the forecasts for rain, which turned completely false, maybe because it is the long weekend here in Bulgaria and most Sofia residents are travelling further to take full advantage of the holiday.

Me-made items, worn on this hike:

 

Husband: men's boxers, Burda cargo pants, Burda longsleeve, Orange Hat

I:  lingerie, socks, Sinclair Lotte blouse, CC copycat hat, gloves

Without blue skies, the pictures look mostly black-and-white :)

We had our picnic on our favourite bench on the meadow, with a view to the city down in the distance. It was so satisfying to be back in the mountains, I hope the cold weather is behind us and I'm looking forward to our spring hikes.

Purple Sinclair Lotte Blouse

Sinclair Lotte is a hoodie pattern, which I've once made as a hoodie and already twice as a longsleeve blouse. I like the hoodie, but I find that the fit lacks enough easе for a sweater, designed to be worn over other blouses, although I did cut my size according to the sizing table. 

On the other hand, the fit is just perfect for a blouse and my previous color-block viscose Lotte longsleeve is one of my favourite blouses. I especially appreciate its thumb-hole cuffs - they are perfect for hiking in spring and autumn, when my hands get a bit cold when I'm holding a hiking stick. 

Last year I came to the conclusion, that I needed another hiking staple, both with cuffs and a hood. Initially I planned to add some hood and the cuffs to my basic Burda long-sleeve pattern, but then I decided that it would be an interesting experiment instead to make the Sinclair Lotte, but in solid color.

I had to create the front of the blouse out of the four separate color-block pieces, that the original pattern consists of, but apart from that, I followed the pattern without much modifications, I only shortened the sleeves by 2.5 cm

Pattern: Sinclair Lotte Hoodie

Size: Petite (152-160 cm) XS (US 2)

Fabric: stable cotton knit

Time to make: 5 days

The snow from the previous week has almost melted and I hope spring will be here soon,
probably a bit later than last year.

Apart from the hood and the cuffs, the pattern is a simple longsleeve. The hood is very unusual, its two parts completely overlap at the front, covering the neck and creating a polo-shirt effect. When up, the hood reminds me a bit of a headscarf Grace Kelly-style.

The thumb-hole cuffs are very cleverly designed and super-comfy and they can also be "unhooked" from the thumb and folded back, to turn into normal cuffs.

The hood is deep enough, but not too big and it doesn't drag down, as some hoods tend to do.

I plan to test the blouse on our next hike and if it proves to be comfortable, there might be more of these.

Pink Sweater with Half-Zipper

 I am finally ready with my third project of the Make Nine plans for the 2025 - the pink sweater.

Last year I made a pink hoodie for Gaby out of a big piece of sweatshirt fabric and I had quite a significant amount of it left - and I hate wasting fabric. My plan for it was to make another hoodie for myself, using the same iconic Burda pattern. 

Once I took out the pattern pieces, it became obvious, that if i didn't want colorblocking and insisted on having a solid color sweater out of this piece of fabric, I had to make quite a lot of changes and compromises. I could not have a hood and the cuffs and hem had to be cut out of ribbed fabric. I also had to shorten the sweater a bit and then also narrow it a bit - this was not a big problem for me, as I am petite and the pattern is quite wide. Finally, either the front or the back had to be cut in two separate pieces. I decided to make it a simple sweater with ribbed cuffs and neck, so I cut the front on fold and made the back with a seam. Luckily, I had some ribbed fabric, which was almost perfect match to the main fabric. 

Then, when I was almost ready with the sweater and was debating with myself whether to add the kangaroo pocket or not, I googled cropped sweaters and came upon plenty with half-zippers. At this point I had only cuts of fabric left, but the idea of adding a collar and half-zipper kept gnawing at me. I abandoned the project for a while and let it stew.

Meanwhile I bought three more or less suitable zippers, watched probably a dozen of videos on sweaters with half-zippers and in the end constructed my own collar and lining. I was able to cut four pieces of the collar and two triangular shaped pieces of lining for the zipper out of the fabric remnants. Thus the inside of the zipper and the collar came out very neat. I am really pleased with the result and plan to make more half-zipper sweaters in the future, as I quite like the style.

Pattern: Hoodie 102 Burdastyle 03/2022 plus elements of Burdastyle 113 09/2020

Fabric: sweatshirt knit

Size: 36, - 6 in width, -3 cm in length

Time to make: one month

The collar can be worn turned, opened or fully closed, but I think I like it best half open and up. I made the collar curved, wider at the base than at the top, using the collar from Burda 113 09/2020 as a model. However, most of the video tutorials I watched used simple rectangular collars, so next time I make this type of zipper, I might try it that way, to test the difference.

The kangaroo pocket is also from the Burda 113 09/2020 hoodie, which I've already made twice. However, because my sweater is cropped, I had serious doubts about adding it, as in its full size it went almost up to my bust. In the end I decided to cut off 5 cm from its height and add it anyway and I am pretty pleased that I did it, as it brings the ribbed cuffs and the body together and adds some interest and sports vibe, which I like.

Despite all the compromises I had to make, I am really pleased with how this sweater turned out and I expect to wear it a lot, especially with ashes of roses being one of my favourite colors ever since I read Thorn Birds at the age of 14 :)

We took these pictures today in the yard of the local monastery - yes, we have a small monastery in the area. Our residential quarter was once a village right at the outskirts of the capital, with its own church, school, market place, community center, a monastery and even its own graveyard. Most of the houses are long gone, replaced by apartment buildings, but the focal points of communal life are still preserved, snuggled between the tall buildings. In some respects, despite the wide boulevards and subway station, it still has the vibe of living in a village and we love that.

Urvich 2025

As planned, this week we travelled to Kokalyane again, but this time we hiked across the road, in the Lozen mountain, around the Urvich fortress.

The day was sunny and even pleasantly warm (6-7 C). Because the gorge of the river Iskar there lies in the shadows of the two mountains, the river was still frozen and the ground was still partly covered with snow.

The path at the beginning of the trail was cleared of debris and fallen trees and easy to walk. I believe this is the path that most visitors to Urvich know and walk and I wouldn't be surprised that a lot of people do not even suspect the existence of other walkable paths around.

After the detour for the monastery, the path seems abandoned, with lots of fallen trees, blocking it and requiring going around. To be honest, it had a very Blair witch vibe today and gave me a bit of the creeps.

Hike info:

Destination: Urvich

Mountain: Lozen

Total length: 6 km

Elevation gain: 90 m

Total duration (plus picnic and rests): 2 h 30 min

Average difficulty: 2.5 / 10

Me-made items, worn on this hike:

 

Husband: men's boxers, Burda cargo pants, Burda longsleeve, Burda hoodie, hat, (scarf in the backpack)

I:  socks, lingerie, Grasser sweater, Central Park hoodie, CC copycat hat, gloves, (scarf in the backpack)

I was just commenting with husband, that there were still no spring flowers on Kokalyane and Urvich and we came upon these snowdrops and hellebores :)

After doing the full circle around the hill and returning back to the river we followed the hidden path along the rocks to the Urvich fortress. We found this path last time we were here and it is probably the most exciting part of the hike.

The excavations of the fortress were closed and covered for the winter season, but the works have gained some progress over the past three years since we were here.

The grounds of the Urvich fortress are now like a museum in the open, with a number of information boards, elucidating the history of the place and the unearthed artifacts. This was definitely the most interesting and informative part of the hike.

After visiting the excavation works we went down and then up the opposite hill to the functioning monastery, where we had our lunch on one of the sunny benches. It was a short but nice hike and I am so glad we chose Urvich for our visit today.