Friday 19 February 2010

Home again, home again, jiggity jig!

Hello again! I'm back from Poland, and it feels soooooooo good to be home. I love going away, but it's always nice to be back home, surrounded by all my familiar bits and pieces. We had a very relaxing time in Lodz. It's a fascinating city. There are some absolutely stunning buildings. I especially like this one on the main street, Piotrkowska. It's covered in beautiful paintings.

Lodz buildings

Lodz was the birthplace of the pianist Artur Rubinstein, and there's a statue outside the house he was born in.

Lodz February 2010 014

We spent a couple of hours wandering around the cemetery on Ogrodowa Street. It's a vast place, split into Catholic, Evangelical and Orthodox sections. We have yet to find any graves for Mr JK's ancestors, but it's rather like looking for a needle in a haystack! Despite the snow, many of the graves had fresh flowers on them, and burning oil lamps too. It seems that you can get a lamp for any occasion - Valentine's, Christmas.....

Lodz graves

There are some rather impressive graves complete with statues.

Lodz February 2010 031

I did manage to squeeze in a trip to a yarn shop. It's a really old fashioned shop, the sort that doesn't exist in the UK anymore. A wall of buttons, another of ribbons and trimmings, and loads and loads of wool; sadly most of the yarn is 100% acrylic, but I did buy some cotton in sugared almond shades to make myself a little bag for the summer. It's going to be crocheted, and based on this one from Attic24.

Lodz cotton stash (2)

I also bought some buttons there for my Rainbow cardigan. It's for baby Ida's first birthday next month. I need 4 in total, and I couldn't decide on what colours to get! I ended up buying 2 of each colour! The pattern I'm using is from Drops Design, and the yarn is a Trekking sock yarn. Once I got my head around how the pattern worked, I quite enjoyed knitting it. I needed to read ahead the whole time, because there were great chunks of instructions, followed several times by the words 'AT THE SAME TIME'!! Luckily I didn't miss any of these out. It's knitted in 2 halves, and then joined mid-back. Here is the first half, all stretched out.......

Rainbow cardigan WIP (1)

and here it is folded in half, so you can get a better idea of how it's going to work out!

Rainbow cardigan WIP (2)

And here are those buttons I mentioned earlier. Which do you think go best? I can't make up my mind at the moment! Let me know which you prefer. See you!

Rainbow cardigan WIP (5)

8 comments:

Helsie said...

I love the idea of using all the different colours in the buttons to match the different colours in the jacket. It looks terrific.
Cheers
Helen

barra said...

Just discovered your blog, love the cardigan. The different buttons look fantastic and any child would love and a great way to teach colours. Go with them.

Bevarian

Northern Monkey said...

When I first looked at the buttons laid out on the jacket I thought the plan was to use all the different colours! I think that would be just lovely.

melissa said...

what a wonderful trip you had!! thanks for sharing all your beautiful pictures!! i love the one of the piano statue in the snow... gorgeous!!

the cardigan is coming along just perfectly! love the colors, so sweet!!

Jennyff said...

I too agree that one of each colour button would be brilliant. The trip sounds good, I'm quite partial to a cemetery myself, and of course a wool shop. Great purchases.

snoopydogknits said...

Glad you had a great trip. I just love that little cardi. I think , maybe, one of each of the top four colours :) They all look lovely against the yarn, so it is really hard to choose. Speak soon! XX

knittingsandwich said...

hooray for a great trip! your pictures are wonderful, i especially love the one of the pianist in the snow, so lovely! your sweater is looking really beautiful! i made a similar sweater some time ago and had so much being perplexed by the pattern along the way. but in the end, whoa-la! it will be wonderful!

M.E. Greene said...

Well how lovely! I'm always intrigued by the cemeteries in Europe... so much lovelier than the ones we have here in the U.S.

Your project looks whimsical and fun. :)