kareina

My friends Nick and Jess caught the train south a week ago Monday morning, I worked Monday and Tuesday, and bright and early Wednesday morning my friend Aurelia arrived. I took her to the lab with me, and she kept me company while I fought with the machine till it would pass a performance report, then, while it ran an experiment we went to Gammelstad for a quick look around, and lunch at the cafe. Then back to work to shut down the machine and get the data before heading home to cook food (Västerbottensostpaj, raspberry-almond tartletts, and flatbread), and pack for the event.

Thursday morning was more packing, and we went out to site just after 14:30. Since we have only had the new configuration of the sunshade up for one event (Cudgel War last August) I didn't have clear memories of how it should go when we started putting it up, but, luckily, David remembered far more than I did, and as soon as we started putting it up, it all came back to me. It was a bit of a challenge doing it in the wind, but we got it and the pavilion up, and then had some hours to be social before I got too tired to stay up, and went to bed way early (21:30), clearly I had stayed up way too late the night before Aurelia arrived.

Luckily, getting the extra sleep Thursday night meant that I had plenty of energy on Friday, so after a nice morning hanging out with people, working on a sewing project, and teaching a couple of people nålbindning,I then sat down to carve on the soapstone pot I started last summer and didn't manage to finish before the snow flew (and didn't want to work on in the house, nor yet in the shop, since rock dust gets everywhere if you let it). I managed to do 5 hours and 35 minutes of carving that day, in four sessions (ranging in length from 5 minutes to three hours), and by the end of the event the pot was starting to look like it will one day be round, once I finish removing corners

I made it to bed just after 01:00 Friday night, and woke at just after 07:00 on Saturday. Since breakfast wasn't served till 08:00, that gave me time for a short walk around the island before food was ready (there are some lovely views across the river. Saturday was another lovely day of socialising, soapstone carving (5 sessions for me totalling only 3.5 hours of carving, plus another hour or two of Julia doing the carving), attending Aurelia's interesting and well attended class on the Medieval uses for bodily fluids (she managed to cover all of them), and making use of the Sauna tent, including four of us running the rather long way to the river, and then across the rather wide shallow bit before we could immerse ourselves into the water (I also took a Sauna on Friday, but without the river excursion).

Sunday we broke camp and went home. Aurelia rode with Caroline and they picked up sushi on the way. David and I stayed on site a while after our camp was loaded into the cars to help with some of the site cleanup, and then joined them at the house to eat sushi. Then I put away some stuff before curling up on the couch with a book and a bowl of popcorn with nettle-butter and nutritional yeast, followed by a short nap. Then a bit more putting stuff away before getting distracted with conversation with Aurelia (D & C had headed back to her apartment by then). However, by 19:00 I was already pretty tired, so I did yoga soon after, and was in bed by 20:30!

I managed to sleep (other than a couple of trips to the toilet) till 06:00, at which point I got up and did more unpacking and cleaned and oiled the feast gear and wooden food boxes. Then I went back to bed and slept for another half an hour before getting back up, enjoying Aurelia's company over second breakfast, then managed about 1.5 hours of work and more than twice that flaffling around on the computer accomplishing nothing. At which point I decided that we may as well go on an adventure if I wasn't working.

Therefore we left the house at 13:30 and drove north to Åsker's house in Bondersbyn (just south of Kalix), and then we joined him and Maria in his car (mine still had most of the seats out from the event, so we wouldn't have all fit) for a drive to Torino in Finland. I had never actually stopped in Tornio before, and Aurelia had never been there before, so it was a good adventure. We went to a restaurant, where we ate too much yummy food (reindeer featured heavily, along with potatoes and lingon, and, in her case, barley risotto, since she is allergic to potato), followed by a really yummy desert of Leipäjuusto with a buttery sauce, ice cream, and cloudberries. Then we wandered around a nearby grocery store where we bought a variety of things one can't get in Sweden (and a few things we needed at home that one can, but why make two stops?).

Then it was back to Bondersbyn, where Åsker played with his gadget that can read the fault codes in a car on my car, and we girls went for a walk to say hello to the neighbour's goats (and feed them the bouquets of flowers we picked for them along the way), and then on to admire the view of the Kalix river from the old saw mill (where we were greeted by two resident reindeer). By the time we left his place and returned home it was already 22:00.

Now it is pushing 02:00, and I really should do my yoga and get to sleep...

I would like to start this post with a formal complaint about the weather. I did not move this close to the Arctic Circle because I thought rain in winter was a good idea. Yet, here it is, 4 December, and instead of the half meter (or so) accumulation of snow we should have on the ground here not only do we have no snow at all, but it has been raining off an on all day. The sidewalks are covered in puddles full of water, and there is no sign of any of the water freezing any time soon. I was ready for winter and real snow back in September, but other than a light dusting of snow a couple of weeks ago (which vanished after being rained on two days later), we haven't had any.

However, my complaints about the weather being too warm is the only thing wrong with my life at the moment, so I guess it is all good. I have a great relationship, a great job, good friends, and way, way too many fun things to do with my time.

This weekend we had considered heading to Piteå for the folk festival there, which would have been fun, but we didn't make it, and instead filled our time with other fun things. One of the diversions was attending the holiday market in Gamelstad this weekend,where, much to my delight, we found some juusto. I happily bought two packages--one for this week, and another for the freezer (because if I didn't freeze it I would eat both of them this week, and I rather like being slender, so therefore I will save the other). Sure I could make it myself, but it takes time and a rather lot of milk to do so, so if they are going to sell it to me at a reasonable price I will just say "thank you".

After we left the market we stopped by a second hand store, where we picked up yet another project (as if I didn't already too many of them I am in the middle of). We got two fur coats (at a reasonable price) and have already taken them apart, One of them is almost certainly mink. I don't know what the other is--its fur is shorter, but it doesn't feel like rabbit. They are both brown, though the mink is a bit darker. Last night I attached the collar from the mink coat to the black wool coat that lord_kjar made me, and tonight I started cutting the body of that coat into pieces which I will sew together to make myself a fur-lined hood. This will be good to have if winter ever arrives (though it looks like I will have plenty of time to finish the project the way the weather has been behaving). The second coat will be a hood for him (I get the warmer one, because I get cold easier). I plan to turn one of the sleeves into a fur-lined muff, and once I know which bits aren't needed for the hood I will do the cuffs of the black coat, too, since with the collar being fur the cuffs need to be as well.

So far I have cut out the two main rectangles for the hood and started sewing them together (a seam on the top if the head is necessary in order to have the fur pointing the same direction on both sides of the hood). Once that is attached I will mark the point where my neck meets my shoulder, and measure it to see how long the triangle insets need to be to sit just there. Then I can cut them out.

In addition I have taken apart the failed attempt at a sprang tights and have started that project over again. Hopefully this won't take too long, as I now have the project spread out across my living room. Granted, if I had spent the time I have been working on the coat entangling strings for the sprang project it would be closer to done now. So many projects, so little time! Ok, time to return to stitching...