This summer seems to be bad for my knitting content - I just can't knit when it's over 30 degrees, not even cotton or bamboo. So it was in Finland, too, where I spent last week (I came back today) on holiday visiting my family with my DH. It was so hot I spent my days swimming and drinking juice in the garden. I'll post a few photos of the Finnish summer soon (courtesy of Nick), plus my new yarn goodies and a recycled sweater bag I finally lined on my Mum's sewing machine! Watch this space.

On Saturday we had a WWKIP (World Wide Knit in Public Day) meeting in Bochum, which is a neighbor city to Essen. So I packed myself up well (it was freezing) and took the train to Bochum. I first went yarn shopping a bit (more about that later) and then at three headed to the meeting in the cafe in Bochum city park.

There were a few knitters I knew from Essen, and many I didn't know from Bochum, Dortmund and surrounding cities. Plus, there was the amazing camel Dumistvieh, whom you can see in the third picture!

The weather here has been good for the last weeks - the weekdays are cold, but come weekend, it's 20 degrees and sunny! As today was the same, clear skies and warm enough to wear a t-shirt, we (= me and DH) decided to take advantage and take the train to Oberhausen, a neighbor city, and visit the Gasometer, which was also one if my 101 in 1001 list items.

Sorry for the silence for the past two weeks! Maybe you'll forgive me when I tell you that I've been on my honeymoon in Japan, and frankly blogging has been the last thing on my mind!

Me and my husband had a truly wonderful trip! Here are a few impressions of the many, many things we saw and marveled at. I hope you'll give me a few days to get back on the knit blogging rhythm - I just got back yesterday and am still very much jet lagged!

Some impressions from Finland this September.

My mother's flower garden.

A sunny day in the garden swing, looking through the oak leaves.

My second home - my mother's house.

I wrote a long text about the "long night of the museums" in Düsseldorf, which we attended a few weeks ago, but it mysteriously (ok, ok, I admit, I messed up) disappeared. So instead of writing it all again, I'm just going to show you the pictures.

For info, during the long night of museums many museums, churches, galleries and exhibitions are open until 2am and there are many special happenings throughout the night.

We saw some modern art, Chinese ink drawings, short films about cinema, a remake of an old video art work "Il Nuotatore (va troppo spesso ad Heidelberg)" by Studio Azzurro and a very lovely Iranian golden peacock (see picture below).

Here some more impressions from Creativa, the gorgeous craft fair in Dortmund, which I visited last Wednesday.

First the coolest ones. A lovely picture, no? But look at pic two: it's made with cross stitching! This was part of a Latvian stitch art exhibition, and I must say I was really impressed!

There were many interesting pieces from Latvia, but I just photographed this one, because I found it so fascinating.

The third and the fourth picture are similar: you first see some nice pictures, and then you come closer - and you notice they are knit!

How marvellous is that!

Now, click "Read more" to see some mathematical quilting!

I had Wednesday off work this week; I still had a day left of holidays 2008, and if I don't use it by the end of March, it's gone. So we originally thought, Nick and me that is, thet we'll go to Düsseldorf and see some sights. However, Nick got ill and stayed in bed that day.

I had read about the craft fair Creativa on Ravelry, and it happened to start on the Wednesday. And when the weather decided to very sightseeing-unfriendly, I made up my mind and headed to the fair in Dortmund.

Finally I get back to my normal blogging rythm, I hope. Vacation and the Sudan project have taken up all my time lately - we spent 8 days over Christmas in Finland. I was so happy to meet my family and see some familiar surroundings. I like Essen, but one does get homesick from time to time! Here are some impressions from the trip.

First, the Helsinki harbour.

Picture number two is the Christmas tree at my Mum's.

It's been so hot I haven't been knitting much. I am doing other stuff, however - worrying about the new job a bit (the employer's expectations are quite much higher than in Ireland), and visiting the local sights on weekends. Last weekend (sorry for not posting earlier - the job...) we went to Zeche Zollverein, the "most beautiful coal mine in the world" and an Unesco world heritage sight is just 20 minutes tram ride from Essen city centre. What a lovely, interesting, historical place it is!