As usual I’m still knitting away on shawls. In December I finished Marie, the first of 2 shawls knitted with the yarn my mother sent me. As I never heard back from Filcolana about the grey yarn I decided to go ahead and knit a smallish shawl that would use skein 1 and maybe a couple of the small balls from skein 2. But breakage was not the only problem with that yarn. It turned out that even though they were supposed to be from the same dye lot, they were in fact a bit different. This was not obvious in the skeins/balls but once knitted up it was noticeable. I guess I should’ve smelled a rat when I saw that the printing style for the colour/dye lot was different on the 2 bands, but I didn’t, and as I was using a short circular needle, everything was scrunched up and I didn’t realise the problem until I was about a third of the way through the sideways border. As to what came out of my mouth when I did, I’ll leave it to your imagination. So, I ripped back what I had knitted with skein 2 and pondered my options for a while. Decided to rip back a bit further to a logical place in the pattern and start the 2nd skein from there, but it still didn’t look right. Fortunately I had a little bit of the same kind of yarn in a lighter grey left over from the Inger shawl, so I ended up using that at the bottom of the main body. It distracts the eye from the fact that the grey in the body and the border is not the same. A picture would be a really good way to illustrate my point, but unfortunately my camera has decided it is in need of a new power port. Since that would cost MYR 746 (we paid a little more than MYR 800 for the camera just 2 years ago) I’m without camera until our budget allows for a new one. Anyway, a second Marie from the brown yarn was completed without any further incidents, and I’m currently knitting on Annelise in Retro, a sport weight merino wool by Gepard Garn (discontnued). It’s wonderfully soft, but quite splitty. My mother asked me to knit these shawls for 2 women who were our neighbours when I was growing up, so once I’m done with the Annelise I’ll ship them off to DK and get started on the Refined Aran for my sister. Maybe. I kinda feel like a bit of thread lace. But I also thought I’d try and write up the pattern for the Anglaise shawl to give away for free.

Tags: Anglaise, Annelise, Marie, shawl, yarn trouble

Mother:”Is it just me or is it a bit cold?”
Daughter:”Why don’t you put on a cadigan or wear one of your shawls.”
Mother:”I don’t have a shawl.”
Daughter:”Didn’t you just make one?”
Mother: “I did, but I gave it away”
Daughter:”You mean that after all those shawls I’ve seen you knit, you still don’t have one?”
Mother: “Yes.”
Daughter: !!!

I’m currently giving a great deal of thought to the future of Yarn Over, especially the web section. I can’t help but wonder whether it has lost its relevance.When I first started Yarn Over, finding all things lace knitting on the web was pretty hard, but this is no longer the case. So maybe it’s time to stop - what do you think?

Today marks the start of a new year according to the Islamic calendar. The Islamic calendar is lunar based, unlike the Gregorian calendar which is solar based, as you probably already know. Like most countries in the world Malaysia uses the Gregorian calendar, but Islamic events are observed according to the Islamic calendar. One of the characteristics of a purely lunar based calendar is that a year is about 10 days shorter than its Gregorian counterpart. This means that even though this year - 1429 - starts in January, 1430 will already start on December 29th. It also means that the Gregorian dates for the two Eid celebrations are not the same every year.
And did you know that every year the people of Malaysia mark New Year 3 times? This year it happens in the space of less than 6 weeks: January 1st, January 10th, and February 7th. The latter will mark the start of the Year of the Rat according to the Chinese calendar.

Idag er det starten på et nyt år i følge den islamiske kalender. Den islamiske kalender er månebaseret i modsætning til den gregorianske som jo bekendt er solbaseret. Som de fleste andre lande i verden bruger Malaysia den gregorianske kalender, men islamiske mærkedage beregnes efter den islamiske kalender. En rent månebaseret kalender adskiller sig fra sin solbaserede kollega ved at være ca. 10 dage kortere. Det betyder at det er islamisk nytår igen allerede den 29.december 2008, og at datoerne for de vigtigste islamiske højtider, nemlig de 2 Eid’er, ikke ligger fast på samme tid af året, som f.eks. julen gør det. Vidste du i øvrigt at man i Malaysia kan holde nytår 3 gange om året? Denne gang endda i løbet af kun 6 uger: d. 1.januar, d. 10.januar og d. 7.februar. Sidstnævnte er datoen for det kinesiske nytår.

Tags: calendar, islam, kalender, Malaysia

To everyone who took the time to read/comment in 2007, I thank you from the bottom of my heart, and hope to “see” you again in 2008.

Many wishes of a Wonderful Christmas to those of you who celebrate. I hope you’re spending it with people you love, and who love you.

Herfra sendes mange ønsker om en rigtigt dejlig jul til dem af jer der fejrer. Forhåbentlig sker det i selskab med dem I holder af, og som holder af jer. Ekstra mange hilsener til Hr og Fru Hansen - jeg ringer i aften!

Not mine, but my sister just delivered the latest twig on the family tree.
Welcome baby girl E - I can’t wait to meet you!

Tags: familie, family

Many wishes of a blessed and joyful Eid ul Adha to all who celebrate, but most of all to DH who won’t be celebrating with us. Selamat Hari Raya sayang - we hope Scotland isn’t too cold!

Mange ønsker om en rigtig glædelig Eid ul Adha til alle muslimer.

Tags: familie, family, islam

I thank you all for your concern and offer my apologies for the previous post. Angling for pity is not my usual style. I hope!

Jeg takker for pust og ønsker om god bedring og undskylder hermed det forrige indlæg. Selvynk er ikke min sædvanlige stil. Håber jeg!

A slipped disk.

Av min ryg!