Sorting through all the paper that Adrian has produced during this school year. Archiving some for nostalgia; throwing out the rest.

Perhaps I’m more nostalgic and inclined to storing memories than most people. I like having the ability to go back and re-visit old memories, and not just in my head but with the support of pictures, words, and objects. I’ve saved a few baby clothes for both Ingrid and Adrian, and my favourite baby-wearing wraps, and material from my own years at high school and university.

I wish I had more from my own childhood. I’d have loved to show my school uniforms to the kids, because that’s just so different from how things work these days. Or my handwriting exercises, again because things are so different now. Fountain pens (not pencils), with a jar of ink on the desk, and exercise books with lines after lines of uniform, tidy copies of the letter “m”.

Twenty years from now, the idea of even having paper in school could be a quaint memory, so these might be fun to look at. Maybe Ingrid and Adrian won’t care when they’re all grown and have their own children. But maybe they will.

Bonus cat, because of course every flat surface is a cat bed.

I still say yes to strawberries when they’re in season. Also raspberries and blueberries, for those who prefer those.

Splurged on extra nice strawberries for today. The supermarkets here usually have a single kind, and it’s whatever they can buy in bulk. The veggie stand in Spånga Torg often has several varieties, sometimes named ones. Today they had “Malwina” strawberries. Intensely red all the way through, and super delicious!

I’ve been gently suggesting that we could retire this pillowcase, because there is not much left of it, but didn’t get any agreement because “it’s so soft!”

Now that it has actual rips in it, though, I’m throwing it out. But it deserves a mention here for its long and loyal service.

I remember using it in high school, so about thirty years ago. I also remember the colours being *a lot* more vibrant. The top half of the photo shows the fabric on the outside of the pillowcase; the bottom is the folded-in section that hasn’t been sun-bleached. The original colours were of course even stronger than that.

This year’s deer kids are old enough to be walking around with their mums.

When mum jumped over the hedge and the chain link fence behind it, the baby instead found the cat passage under the fence and used that.

Life is good when you’re a cat. And when people kindly provide cat beds in all sorts of places.

In the middle of summer, I am knitting the thickest, warmest, woolliest sweater I’ve ever made. With every sweater or cardigan I make, I realize another gap in my winter wardrobe; this is filling the one for something simple and rustic to wear at home on the coldest days. Not that it won’t be stylish enough to wear to the office! But it will be bulky enough to be somewhat difficult to fit under a coat.

I’m not fond of ribbed hems, and I’ve also learned that rolled hems are not my thing, so here I tried a folded picot hem. Quite nice.

I ran out of the dark gray yarn just after the fold, so there’s a hidden, secret red stripe on the reverse side.

It looks like the sleeve will turn out too narrow. I think I underestimated how much the bulk of the fabric itself would affect fit. My gauge swatch grew a little bit in blocking, so the sleeve *might* be OK after blocking, but I’m sceptical. Nevertheless I blocked just the half-finished sleeve, to check, and now the living room smells like wet sheep.