Goodbye, Sabrina Cardigan!

Two years ago I cast on a cardigan from Sabrina magazine. I really loved the pattern and worked on it for quite a long time (these wrapped stitches were quite a slog). I had actually two complete sleeves and the back, when I lost interest in the project and discarded it in my overflowing box for unfinished projects and yarn.

With the coming of spring I felt it was time to decide what to do with the Sabrina cardigan - finish it or make something else with the yarn - Performance Cotton Gem, 100% cotton, 50 g / 100 m. It was of course a pity to discard all the work I had put into it, but i just didn't feel like finishing it, when I've got so many new ideas I want to try and knit. So - I pulled the thread.

I  only regret it I was half way through frogging when it occurred to me that I never took pictures and blogged about this cardigan and I had two-thirds of it actually done. So I took a pause to photograph what was left of it. I'm frogging it using steam and though I wouldn't claim that the yarn looks as good as new, I hope blocking of the finished project would even the stitches.

A glimpse at the new cardigan I'm knitting with this yarn:

And to sprinkle this rather bland post with some color - two pictures from the site of the host town of the National Olympiad of Biology, where Gaby won the silver medal. We are so proud of our clever girl!

Black & Gold

Just to say hi! I'm here, occupied with the usual - children, work, house :)
I've resumed knitting the cotton/viscose summer sweater I started last autumn, inspired by Gaby's black Camellia. The process is very slow on 3 mm needles, the splity viscose thread makes the yarn difficult to work with. But I like the result so far and I'm almost finished, half way through the second sleeve.

And though if you ask me I would claim that I don't like black much, I've bought a new sweater worth of black cotton. I've been meaning to knit for Gaby a little black cotton cardi for school, so far I've got my eye on this interesting pattern from Verena 01 2014:

After which I think I'll knit this latest Vogue Knitting pattern, I'm totally smitten with this summer cardi:

And on another front, I can't help myself but tell you how proud we all are with our clever girl - not only did she reach the final round of the National Olympiad in Biology - she won the first place in the junior group! That's really, really huge - ranking first among students from all over the country, most of which study Biology as a major subject (her majors are Mathematics and Programming). Regretfully I don't have pictures from the Olympiad and the prize award ceremony, which was held in Momchilgrad.

Just a picture from the site of her school, with her teachers and other participants from her school in the final round of the Olympiad:

Rousse

Rousse is the biggest Bulgarian town on the Danube River, often called the Little Vienna because of the Neo-Baroque and Neo-Rococo architecture of its main streets. Last week my daughter took part in the final National Round of the Students' Olympiad in Biology, which was held in Rousse. This is the highest (third) level of the Olympiad and I'm so proud of my little biologist, she ranked fourth among seventh graders from all over the country. The hosts of the Olympiad had prepared a great program for the participants, including guided tours through the city and its historical museum, presentations on bird protection and a workshop, where the children made 3D birds and other interesting stuff. We had a great time in Rousse!