Unpicked all the stitches I made at the last embroidery club session, because I really didn’t like working with this fabric. I don’t know if I’ll ever want to use the fabric for anything, but I want to reuse the thread for a new attempt.

Two pairs of gift socks all done and ready to be given away.

I briefly considered making standard toes on these (maybe they will think these look weird) but there is just no world where a symmetrical sock toe will fit someone’s feet better than a more foot-shaped one. Even if their toes are at a different angle or their second toe is longer than their big toe, or whatever odd shape they may have, I am absolutely certain that they will be closer to this than to an equilateral triangle.

Today was a getting things done day. Three loads of laundry, two hours of cleaning, baking hazelnut cakes, setting a bread dough, and sorting through half the drawers in one of the closets in my bedroom, finishing the embroidered name sign. None of which makes for good photos, apart from the name sign. (The hazelnut cakes taste great but look kind of bland.)

The plan is to get all the must-dos checked off the list today, and then I can go out for a photo walk tomorrow without any time pressure.

Started on the metro tile wall embroidery.

I had a piece of Aida cloth in my stash at home, which I thought would work for this. Now I’m regretting the choice. It’s a bit of a pain to work with – not very stable, and tricky for longer stitches that tend to glide in between the warp and the weft. A stiff, stable canvas would have been much easier.

The stitches don’t cover the fabric entirely. That also bothered me at first, but I mind it less now. I don’t need a faithful reproduction of the wall, just an impression of it. I could fill in the gaps with some dark gray wool yarn to imply the grout between the tiles. Or it could just be as it is.

The embroidery club has agreed on the theme of “Stockholm metro” for this term. I was dithering about whether to join the project or not – figurative embroidery, trying to depict something, isn’t my favourite kind. But the more I think of the ceramic wall art at Stockholm Central station, the more I want to try and translate it into a textile version.

I bought embroidery thread for it today. I like working with wool yarn, but this really calls for the glossy shine of cotton. Or silk, I guess, but covering the fabric with silk thread would be rather expensive.

Third attempt. The second one came out too small. I’m not entirely sure about this one either. Should I make them looser? Well-fitting socks need to be tight but not too tight.

It’s a good thing that socks are small; I have time for a fourth attempt if needed. Maybe I’ll put this one to the side and start a slightly larger version in parallel and then see which one I believe more in.

There are two birthdays coming up in April, for people who deserve hand-knitted socks.

I’ve knit so many everyday socks for myself that it takes no effort. Knitting socks for someone else – whose foot I don’t have access to, for trying them on for size – is a whole other matter. I’m also using a thicker yarn than usual, so the numbers I’ve learned by heart don’t work at all.

This is my second attempt of the first sock. The label on the yarn suggested using 3 mm needles. The fabric came out way too drapey and floppy with those. Could have worked for a cardigan or something, I guess, but it was absolutely not right for socks. This is a sock yarn, both by fibre content and by name. Why would they suggest a needle size that won’t work for knitting actual socks? Argh.

The worst of it was that I discovered this at the knitting meet-up. And, trusting the label, had only brought my 3 mm needles. Luckily another knitter had extra 2.5 mm needles that they could lend me for the evening. I brought the sock home with the stitches on a piece of scrap yarn.

The embroidery club is planning for an exhibition, and we were encouraged to make name signs as part of preparing for it.

Sweden (and maybe some of the other Nordic countries) has a concept of studieförbund which are a kind of national umbrella organizations for study circles and educational groups. There are eight of them according to Wikipedia. Many were established over a century ago as a means to educate those who didn’t have access to higher education. These days they organize classes and workshops mostly in the domains of arts, crafts, humanities and social sciences.

In addition to “top-down” courses they also provide support for self-organizing study groups such as our embroidery club. We get access to rooms, including a kitchen and toilets, for no charge. We are also invited to participate in the parent organization’s events, and the exhibition is one of them. Within the framework of Stockholm Culture Night, Sensus Studieförbund will hold workshops, exhibitions and other activities. We and two other similar embroidery clubs were invited to arrange a small one-room exhibition and a workshop on the theme of “free embroidery” – to inspire more people to start embroidering.

The name signs aren’t going to be the focus of the exhibition (that will just be whatever past works everyone decides to bring) but just a fun way to make it more personal for the visitors.

I unravelled the bottom half of the first sleeve and re-did it with decreases. Now I’m on the second sleeve, and I made good progress during today’s knitting club session. Plus I’ve found a good method to pack it in a project bag so that I can work on it without taking it – and its five balls of yarn – out of the bag at all, so I can bring it with me to work etc.

I’m enjoying knitting this, but I’m still not sure if I’ll actually like wearing it. Maybe? Hopefully?

The plastic cover on the driver’s side mirror on my car fell off at some point. It’s done that before, and then Eric found a replacement – for a juicy 900 SEK. Now that replacement has fallen off again and gotten lost, without me even noticing it happening.

When I had the car serviced, the mechanic wasn’t too worried about the mirror being all open to the elements, but it seems like a good idea to keep water and ice (and gravel and dust and whatnot) out of it as much as possible.

This weekend I DIY’d my own side mirror cover out of a plastic folder that I cut to shape and fit into the grooves of the mirror, and then fastened and covered with duct tape. Not entirely watertight, of course, but it seems solid.

Do I feel silly driving around with a duct-taped mirror? Yes. Is it worth 900 SEK for me to have a car that looks whole? Nope.