LunaKnit

We are back from the holiday in China. As you might know the censorship in China has blocked Google as well as many other websites, so I wasn't able to log in and make updates during our trip. Here are some photos from the Shanghai-part of our trip. I will post more photos as soon as I get the chance to go through them and pick the best shots to show you. (I'm a bit tired at the moment, horrible jetlag and had to go to work today even though we came home at 9:30 pm yesterday evening...)

Evergreen sweater Yarn: Garnstudio DROPS Alpaca, shade #7815 green/turquoise Needles: 2.5mm & 3.0mm

I  got two plastic bags filled with rhubarb from Magnus’s father. He has it growing in his garden but doesn’t really use it himself. He has numerous bushes of different berries as well but doesn’t have the energy to tend to them or pick the berries so I’ve had the privilege of emptying his garden for the past few years. We had only a minimal freezer in our last apartment (you could fit like 4 litres of ice cream in it and that’s about it) so saving berries and other produce for winter has been impossible until now. We have a bigger freezer now and I’m enjoying the opportunity to receive more produce from Magnus’s father than we can eat in the next few days. So now I have about 5 litres of chopped rhubarb in the freezer waiting for winter. Our friends came over yesterday. They are house-sitting and taking care of our cats while we are on vacation and we went through everything they should know while we are away. I decided to use some of the rhubarb I had and make a pie. I

Yesterday evening we were at a beachside wedding. Magnus was the best man as his best friend was the groom. The ceremony was held on a beach by the sea and they had rented a nearby restaurant for the dinner and party. A lovely and small wedding, so much love! I will publish more photos if I get the permission from the bride and groom.

I finished the Evergreen sweater tonight and it’s now blocking. Meanwhile I want to show you some other projects I have been knitting in the past week or so. I know I said I would try not to cast on anything else besides Evergreen because of the forthcoming vacation of ours, but I couldn’t help myself. I should know me already by now: my mind jumps from one thing to another and when I get inspired I must get to work immediately or otherwise I get really fidgety and can’t concentrate on anything. So let me show you what I have been up to besides the sweater. The Evergreen sweater reminds me of fir trees. I felt every forest needs its woodland creatures and made a little fox brooch. Since the sweater is not yet ready I have been wearing him with a scarf or as in the photo below with the Keiko sweater. And that’s not all I’ve been doing. I knit these simple and easy color-block mittens (I named them Horizon, no explanation needed, I guess?). I have been admiring this type of

I read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho for the first time a couple of years ago. There was a lot of hype around it and many famous people listed it as their favorite book of all time, so I thought I should read it. First of all I was surprised how small and thin the book was: based on the reviews I was waiting for some kind of epic odyssey, a door stopper/paperweight type of a heavy opus. I was a bit taken aback by the simple and non-descriptive style of Paulo Coelho’s writing, the childish fable-like narrative and the ending, which I won’t spoil for you but I thought was too happy-happy-joy-joy and not very credible. So I put down the book disappointed, because I felt it was nothing I had expected. Then something started to happen. I found myself thinking about the themes of the book over and over again. I started to dig deeper into the philosophy and aphorisms behind the story and felt some kind of new-found hope, inner peace and courage. I started to think the book was a

I was so happy about finally succeeding with a gluten free pie crust that isn’t either brittle, grainy and dry or so sticky that it’s impossible to get out of the form that I made another pie, this time with mushrooms. I’ve been trying to empty our fridge before our vacation and refrain myself from buying too much groceries that we don’t have time to eat. The champignons needed to be used but we didn’t really have anything to serve them with, so I decided to make them into the main course.  Pies are good in the same way as pizza: you only need to make the crust and add bits and pieces of other stuff from your fridge (that wouldn’t alone be enough for a full meal) over it and you have a delicious dinner ready. Almost all combinations work and you can have as many or few ingredients as you wish (or actually have). MUSHROOM PIE WITH FRESH THYME one pie crust with this recipe 300 g of sour cream (crème fraiche) 400 g mushrooms, roughly chopped (I used cham

Being allergic to wheat and other cereals means that I have to check very carefully every ingredient list in every product I buy from the grocery store. Most of the items including wheat are clear: no bread, no biscuits, no pasta, and so on, but even many of the candies, ice creams and yoghurts have it in their ingredient lists. I once bought a jar of jam and got really bad stomach cramps after eating it: wheat! I never thought they would but wheat in jam but apparently they do. Checking the ingredients has made me realize how many e-codes, preservatives and other additives our food contains. It is quite unappealing and unappetizing. If the only thing in candy I can recognize is sugar and the rest of the list is different codes and chemical names (thickening agents, colors, man-made flavors, citric acids and carnauba wax) I’m not quite sure if I want to put it in my mouth. The same applies to potato chips and other snacks. For example Pringles has onl

I’ve mentioned our cats quite a few times here, they have been visible in my photos and the blog is even named after one of them. So I thought it’s high time to introduce them to you. At the side of my blog, above my blog archive there are three photos of my cats and by clicking the photos you get to read more information about each one of them. They are all just regular domestic short-hairs, nothing fancy but I adore them over-the-top anyway. I have always loved animals and wanted a pet for as long as I can remember. Long story short: I never had a pet as a child. My grandmother had cats and every time one of them had kittens I begged my parents to let me have one. I was never allowed. My dad hates cats. He used to say : “You can have as many cats you want when you live on your own, but there won’t be any cats in this house.” I tried to change tactics and ask for a dog instead because I know my dad likes dogs but that didn’t work either. When I first moved away from home