I am pretty sure that little ball of yarn is not enough to finish this pattern repeat. Sigh. I was so pleased that I was finally going to finish this lace and hang it up. Now it’s gone back from the “easy work” pile to “it’s complicated”.

The Nordic Museum had posted an invitation today, on their 150th birthday, to share memories of this day, in words and pictures, for the future. I’m posting here the photos I submitted to their collection as well.

The morning was gray and windy, just a few degrees above freezing, but there were glimpses of sun breaking through as I got to Spånga station.

Normally during rush hour the trains here are supposed to go eight times an hour, but the company currently running the commuter train service hasn’t managed to deliver that for quite a while. At least you can generally count on a train once every fifteen minutes. The train this morning was quite crowded but not too horribly crammed full.

I got off the train at Stockholm Central and walked from there to the tretton37 office in the Waterfront building. On the way I stopped by Coop at the lower floor of the station to buy lunch, because I was all out of leftovers at home.

I got a small green smoothie for breakfast 29 kr and a bouillabaisse for 79 kr, for a total of 108 kr.

Many supermarkets have replaced most of their manned checkouts with self-checkout stations. I like it when I only have one or two things to pay for and can get it done quickly, but their occasional random checks really annoy me when they happen.

The entrances to the Waterfront are all automated doors, just like the entrance and exit to the train stations and the supermarket.

The office was relatively empty today. Even though it was almost 9 o’clock when I got there, almost all desks were still empty and I could choose whichever seat I liked.

I didn’t even think of photographs or much else around me during the day as I was working. Then I stood up at five-ish and realized the sun was going down already, glinting off the skyscrapers next to Hötorget.

This street, Klarabergsgatan, used to see a lot more traffic. It has now mostly been closed off for everyone except public transport, and the pavements have been widened.

The folks in the office were gearing up for a Halloween-themed after-work event, with people dressed up as anything from kings to bananas, and a monthly company meeting. I was out of social energy and went home, and will watch a recording of the meeting some other day.

A blip of the SL Access card to take the train home. Costs me 39 kr for a one-way trip. After the most recent price hike, a monthly card costs 970 kr so it is generally not worth it if I only go to the office twice a week.

I got a seat on the train back to Spånga so I could crochet on the way. Much better than randomly scrolling social media. This piece of lace has been my travel project for literally years. I’ve gotten tired of waiting for it, so now I’m working on it more frequently during meetings and such so that I can get it done.

One of the station entrance doors has been broken for the last few days, and for some reason the staff has elected to leave it in the closed position, rather than having it always open. All the people getting off the train clump up in front of the entrance.

On Spånga Torg, the second-hand ladies’ wear shop has filled their windows with warm coats. The florist’s show windows are an odd mixture of Halloween, and pink for breast cancer awareness month.

The first to do when I got home was to feed Nysse.

Then to feed the rest of the family. They would not like pellets from a tin. I made a meal from a Linas Matkasse meal kit – a vegetarian bibimbap.

Reduced the amounts of all chillies and such by a factor of three or four, and some of it was still super spicy. We didn’t manage to eat all the spicy cabbage salad.

After dinner, Ingrid disappeared to her room, while Adrian & Eric watched season 2 of Loki, accompanied by potato chips for Adrian and some leftover lemon merengue pie for Eric.

I attended beginners’ class in freeform crochet today. It was less structured than the embroidery course and more just “let’s try a few things”.

I think the longer format of the embroidery course suited me better – it gave me enough time to actually get a feeling for the process, what directions it could be taken and what angles I could try. But this was also fun. I’m already getting ideas for projects.

The outcome of an evening of freeform crocheting looks much messier than the result of an evening’s embroidery.

My cardigan project is still in need of measuring and fitting, and I need to check my pattern notes for my ongoing sock, and I just haven’t like doing either of those. But by now I am completely addicted to knitting during long meetings, or while waiting for some sluggish deployment process to complete. Luckily I remembered my travel crochet project, nearly pocket-sized and super easy to pause and pick up at any time. Phew.

I really need to get on top of the knitting, though. Soon.

I have no more scarf to knit, so I picked up a long-paused crocheting project to fill the gap.

This started out as a travelling project because it’s small and lightweight and easily transportable. If I left it as such, it would take years to finish, now that there is nearly no travelling going on…

It goes fast because there’s so much air in it. It’s mostly holes, after all. I guess it’s time to start planning the next project right away.

The napkin project is progressing nicely. I’ve ripped the seams along that crocheted ribbon, cut each napkin in four pieces, hemmed them all, and started embroidering.

The embroidery is a bit of an inside joke inspired by the name of the street we live in. I went with a very informal style, free-hand sketching each large star (so they all ended up slightly different and slightly wonky) and then improvising the smaller ones as I sewed. Each napkin will be different, so to reinforce that individuality I’m embroidering each one in a different colour.

Due to my Soviet childhood, I have a somewhat complicated relationship with five-pointed stars. These ones are different enough from the Soviet stars to feel OK, though. The wonky shapes help. But the red one is definitely going to be a dark red and not a “Soviet” red.

(Eric and Adrian are away visiting friends for a few days. Ingrid is at home but sleeps past noon and then spends much of the day up in her room. So I have oodles of time for sewing right now.)

I crocheted a bunch of little bitty buttons for the cardigan. (Which is blocked and otherwise ready to be worn!)

Why not buy buttons? Mostly because I think using yarn buttons will make the buttonholes last longer. My brown cardigan is otherwise in great shape but most of its buttonholes are badly frayed. (Which reminds me to write a blog post about mending those. It’s been fiddly, and I’d be glad to avoid that work on this cardigan.) I also have a much older red cardigan with Chinese-style toggles in the same material as the cardigan itself, and those are not frayed at all. My hypothesis is that it’s the hard plastic buttons that are causing the fraying, not the general fact that the buttons/closures are being used.

That lace edged curtain I finished some time ago.

I finally sewed a curtain to attach the lace to, that I crocheted months ago. I dithered for quite some time between putting the lace in front of the fabric or behind, and likewise between sewing it there by hand or by machine. Finally I decided that the lace is the main thing and has to go in front of the fabric. And because I still wasn’t sure about it, I sewed it by hand so that it will be easier to rip up and redo if I change my mind. Which, honestly, I don’t think I will.

There’s barely any daylight so I only had lamplight for my photos today. Now I hope I’ll remember to pick up my camera around noontime some day soon, so I can get of a photo of the finished curtain as a whole as well!

I’ve been knitting and crocheting most evenings recently, and both Ingrid and Adrian have been inspired to try out crocheting. Ingrid has undertaken to crochet a pouffe for her room.