Today I forced myself to get out of the house and cycle to a yarn shop on Söder. (I have enough flex hours accumulated that I can easily take half a day off when I want to.)

I want to knit another cardigan, so I need yarn. Sock yarn I can buy on the internet but a cardigan is a larger investment. I want to see the yarn up close and touch it before buying.

I’m planning to knit a black cardigan. Black. Unimaginative and perhaps a bit boring, yes. When I’m wearing a colourful skirt or a patterned dress, the rest of the outfit sometimes has to take a step back.

The yarn shop Litet Nystan was full of lovely yarns. The ones that my eyes and hands kept returning to were the colourful, variegated, hand-dyed ones. I will have to find a project for these, after the black cardigan.

Among the black yarns I couldn’t find any that quite felt like what I had in mind. The merino wools were too smooth and bland; the plain Swedish and Norwegian wools too thick and not soft enough. I came home with a wool yarn and a mohair blend that, when combined, will hopefully work out. The wool will provide thickness and body and the mohair will soften it.

I had a restaurant lunch (somewhat disappointing) and bought some mini Sarah Bernhardt cakes for myself, before spending almost an hour in the yarn shop and then cycling back home. By the time I was unlocking my bike again to head home, it was twilight.

It felt good to get out of the house and see and do something new. I needed this.