We have a lot of antique/vintage linen kitchen towels, many of which Eric inherited. We use them daily – they’re no decorative mementos – and they are starting to wear out here and there. I really don’t want to throw them out. Nothing wrong with modern towels (as long as they are 100% linen because cotton towels suck) but these have a history.

I’ve mended plenty of socks, and children’s clothing, and bags, but not towels. Towels seem tricky. They’re thin, to begin with, so I can’t just put a big thick patch on them. I’ve never tried darning anything this fine. And the mend needs to be flat and smooth and not scratchy, or it will make the towels unusable. And ideally it needs to look good from both sides of the fabric, which has never been a consideration for any of my other mends.

I did a trial run on two holes – darning one and patching the other. The darning was super challenging, even though I did it in the middle of the day in the best light. It’s not that I couldn’t see what I was doing, but it was exhausting for the eyes. I think I’d need to work with a magnifying glass if I ever wanted to try this again. But it does look pretty good – from the side of the fabric that was facing me when I worked, at least. From the reverse it’s a bit less impressive.

The patch was so much easier, but also stands out more, and I’m not sure how well it will hold up in use and in laundry. I guess I’ll leave the towel be for a while and see what it looks and feels like after a wash.

(Ten years ago, by the way, I couldn’t imagine spending time on mending a towel. You own and use and care for something long enough and closely enough, and you become attached to it.)

When I last went hiking, the sleeping pad started leaking air. Not much – not so you’d notice anything immediately, but enough so that my hips and shoulders were touching the ground by the morning.

It took an inordinate amount of work to find the tiny leak, with diluted dishwashing detergent and a tub of water and then slowly inspecting all parts of the pad. I found it in the end, and patched it, and now I really hope it was the only one. Afterwards I lay on the pad for fifteen minutes, reading, and it seemed OK.

It feels good to fix something instead of throwing it out and buying a new one, even when we could afford it.

The cardigan colour fade saga continues.

The first fade, from amber to orange, took me two attempts, but the second one was perfect in that it used up the entirety of the amber yarn, except for a small scrap.

For the second fade, from orange to red, I calculated and measured and weighed and triangulated and still got it wrong. I ran out of the orange yarn before it was finished. I was missing only 20 metres or 5 grams of yarn. Not willing to frog the whole fade, I bought another whole hank, so the leftovers this time are 95% of a hank. Sigh.

The third and final fade, from red to a darker and more muted red, I finally got more or less right on the first try. About 20 grams left where I would have preferred 10, so I could have gotten another 5 rows of knitting out of it, but I’d rather err in this direction.

And now there is no more of that! Just keep knitting with no more counting and weighing.

Another one of our Höganäs plates broke. It sounded off when I put it on the table, and a closer inspection showed it to be cracked right across. I could just pull the halves apart.

I have a permanent email alert for “Veronagrön” on Tradera since the day they introduced email alerts (and I used to check manually before then). There are plenty of mugs, and bowls are quite common as well, but it’s been years since one of the large deep plates came up for sale.

Eric and Adrian made my favourite birthday cake for me, with tons of redcurrants and a merengue topping.

The ice cream freezers at ICA are gaping empty. I guess the two-day mini heat wave a few days ago was good for sales? And clearly SIA’s ice cream is not as popular as other kinds.

On long drives along straight roads with nothing interesting to look at, I like listening to music to avoid zoning out. Radio is the first, obvious solution, and I’m willing to listen to boring pop music while driving that I wouldn’t choose at home, but the long ad breaks get really annoying. So now it’s Spotify through a Bluetooth speaker that we bought especially for the car. (And that lives in the car and stays in the car and doesn’t get borrowed for any reason, because that’s how its predecessor vanished.)

There’s plenty of music that sounds good at home but doesn’t work in the car. Some frequencies become inaudible, while others sound unpleasantly sharp. Guitar-dominated rock music is right out. Drums and vocals work well, so sometimes I’ve picked some random Latino or afro playlist from Spotify. On this trip I realized that musicals and Disney movie soundtracks work great. We got through the entirety of the original Broadway recording of Hamilton on our way from Tartu to Tallinn to Stockholm. (Followed by the soundtracks for Moana and Encanto on the back and forth trip to Uppsala to drop off my brother.)

Hamilton is still as awesome as ever. Seeing it live in London was an incredible experience, but even hearing it through a pint-sized Bluetooth speaker while driving sends shivers down my spine. Ingenious rhymes, catchy melodies, great voices, punchy delivery. I’m starting to think of maybe going back to see it live again.

On our way back home, somewhat tired, somewhat sad to be leaving, but also glad to be home soon. The trip could maybe have been a day or two longer, but now we’re leaving on a high note.

Picnic and bathing at lake Pangodi. The weather was warm, the water not so much at first, but OK once I got in and started swimming.

Board game night, with Bang as the main focus. It’s one of the few games I’ve played that becomes much more interesting with more players, so we usually end up playing it when we’re meeting up with our friends in Estonia and have a big crowd.

Over the years they’ve added various extensions to the base game, and it’s becoming hard to keep up with all the additions. I kind of liked the base version better – with all the extras the game is more chaotic and less about planning and strategy. But he kids all prefer the over-the-top chaos version.