Vivian

Thank you everyone for your congratulation messages and well wishes :)
Naturally we are very excited about this, and although I can't promise I won't be posting a lot about baby projects and such, I hope I can continue to blog my usual about crafts, travels, books and so on.

Speaking of which, we are spending a few days in Berlin this next week, so if you have any good recommendations for us they're very welcome. It's my first time there, so no doubt I'll be doing the touristy thing and hopefully some yarn shopping. I know I haven't even posted about the most recent trip to Switzerland yet (or from the Pyrenées last fall), but I'll get there soon.

In the meantime I do have a lot of new sewing and knitting projects to share, which I only had the chance to photograph recently.

I've been particularly anxious to show you this one, since it's probably one of the most lovely pieces I've ever knitted. It's Vivian, of course, and I've been wanting to knit it since I first saw the pattern. I started it last December and finished it in about three months of more or less intensive knitting, but then it took me a while to find the right zipper and sew it in.



Of course, by the time I finished it I already had a belly bump, and even more so when I took these photos, but amazingly it still fits well even though I made the smallest size. The yarn and cable structure make it quite an elastic knit, I guess, which seems to accomodate for a larger size.

I haven't blocked it yet, since I quite like the way the cables stand out at the moment, so I'm hoping it stays the same after a good washing. The knitting is probably a bit more difficult than the ones I usually do (a lot of cabling and an ingenious seamlesss construction), but after the first rows I found it easy to keep up with the pattern.

I didn't make a lot of changes, but for the record here they go: shortened the length on the body and sleeves at the beginning (which I'm so glad I did or it would've looked ridiculously long on me), and added a few more waist decreases. The hood was done exactly as the pattern described, although I briefly considered doing some changes to it since I'd read it could come out too small, but happily it didn't.



Pattern: Vivian, by Ysolda Teague
Yarn: Garnstudio Drops Alaska (color 11), 15 skeins
Needles: 5 mm
Size: 32

22 weeks

(now you know why I haven't been posting much recently :)

snow shoeing ...

One of the best ways to explore the area was to go snow shoeing. At first we tried to stay near the cross country tracks, but soon we realized it was best to just wander about (although a few times some of us got lost).

It was so quiet and peaceful, we hardly met anyone else on these walks, and the scenery was like a magical winter wonderland. Lapland in winter is definitely a place we want to go back to ...

Well, no sooner do I finish posting about one trip and we're off on another one ... A. has a conference next week in Crans-Montana (Switzerland) and I thought I would go to keep him company. So, expect more travel photos soon. Have a great weekend !

Lainio Snow Village

One of the main attractions in Yllas during the winter are the snowmobile excursions. There's plenty of alternatives on offer, but we ended up choosing just one, which was the excursion to the Lainio Snow Village.

Snow Fun Safaris runs this on Thursdays, and they had the most competitive price, so that's who we chose to go with (and their service was impeccable). In the end I ended up not going, but A. and our friends did and they had a fabulous time.

It was really cold that day, but they were given suits to wear on top of their regular clothes, so their only complaints were freezing hands and feet (although the snowmobile had some sort of heating pads on the handles).

The snow village is not very far from Yllas, but the excursion first takes you up to the Yllas fell, and then onto to the village, where you have lunch before heading back.

The village itself is mainly just the ice hotel, some ice sculptures outside, and a small chapel. The interior seems stunning, but I'm not sure I could really spend the night here ...



:: at the top of Yllas fell












:: snowmobiling


:: inside the ice hotel at the Lainio snow village






:: ice hotel room




:: the ice bar

Skiing in Yllas

The resort is small (compared to others we've been to) and not very high, but it was perfect for our beginner friends. The slopes were mainly beginner/intermediate level (the blue runs were very easy, and the reds would probably be equivalent to blue runs in the Alps). The advantage of being so cold is that the snow conditions were very good, no icy parts anywhere at all.

There's only one or two gondolas, very few chairlifts and plenty of drag-lifts in this resort, which would've been OK because we went during low season and there were very few people around, but being so cold it really wasn't the most comfortable. Halfway up the drag-lifts our hands and feet would be freezing, not to mention our poor noses. Thankfully they had the brilliant idea of putting up some fireplaces at the bottom of some of the slopes, so I think I spent more time by the fire than actually skiing :)

The views, however, can be stunning ...



We were lucky to have had sunny days through most of the week, and were really able to enjoy the scenery.