Too hot to blog

Summer is a great time for taking pictures, but less so for sitting on a computer. They keep promising a thunderstorm, but where is it?! All I'm able to do nowadays is lie very still in as few clothes as possible.

Well. That's not exactly true. This week I took a trip to Tallinn for a day, to the city's infamous wholesale craft store Karnaluks, a mecca for all who like to stitch or glue shit together. I went in with a plan and came out with everything I need for the next month, shit-wise:

And for a fraction of the price I would have paid in Finland.

I will show you how everything turns out when the time comes.

Despite the heat I have managed to get some knitting done, too. The second I saw the first pictures of Cladonia (links to Rav), I knew I had to knit it like RIGHT NOW. So I did, with some subtly self-striping sock yarn from my stash.

My dress form is always so fancy.

To my surprise, even though I'm quite happy with it, I really love the versions other people have knitted with very pastel palettes. I'm usually all about the dark and muted colors, but this could be a good pattern for some experimenting, quite like Daybreak, which I've already knitted twice. I'd also love to knit this again in something extra luxurious, something silky maybe.

The echo shawl of insanity has made some progress, too. It looks like some sort of a skin condition right now, but you just wait until it's all finished and blocked!

Then it will look less like a disease.

I also had a bit of a scare recently when the little cat went missing for 29 hours. She is not very bright or capable of taking care of herself so I was beside myself with worry the whole time. When she was found 9 months ago I promised her she would never have to be lonely and hungry and scared again, and obviously I felt like I let her down massively. She had never been outside since so I had no idea how she would act and how to find her.

What eventually cracked the case was this, and I cannot recommend it enough. It's a web page with details about what a lost cat probably does based on her personality. That and many statements from friends encouraged me to keep looking near the house, because a shy and timid cat like her will most probably not stray far. She was finally found hiding on a neighbor's yard, scratched and miserable but all right. I've never been quite as relieved, for a moment I thought I would never see her again. As soon as we got home she was back to her own self.

Normal = unable to decide whether to play with a roll of tape or lick butt.