New hobby

I have been planning to go to my nearest yarn shop for a while but because I’ve been working quite late in the past two weeks, it’s always been closed by the time I get home. Yesterday I was at work as usual, when I realized that it was quarter to five and the shop closes at five thirty. It takes me at least half an hour to get there from work, so I didn’t think I’d make it and went to the shop web page to make sure that they’re open on Saturdays. (As a side note, the other yarn shop I go to is closed during the whole of July due to summer vacations – that is strangely a rather common thing here in Finland.) On the web page of the shop I find out that it’s closed on Saturdays during July, and as if that’s not enough, yesterday was the last day it’s open until the end of July. People gotta have their summer vacations. Usually this would not have been too big of a problem but I’ll be leaving to Iceland on the day that the shop reopens, and I need yarn for a wedding present for a wedding I’m attending while in Iceland. So off I ran to catch a bus, a metro and another bus, and I arrived at the shop, out of breath, five minutes before closing time. I was pretty pleased with myself, although my lungs were hurting like hell!

When I had found the yarn, I went to pay for it. I told the girl who’s working there (and knows me by now, hah!) about my running there and even acted being all out of breath. Then she replies that well, you know, it’s only going to be closed for two weeks and that goes by quite fast. Somehow I felt really silly, and I couldn’t even gather up energy to explain all the business about my going to Iceland etc. So now she just thinks I’m crazy.

I have acquired a new hobby. On Tuesday I bought myself a book on card (tablet) weaving (spjaldvefnaður) and after making some cards out of cardboard, I began doing the first assignment in the book. I’ve got to say that this is a seriously cool technique and I am extremely impressed that someone back in the days figured it out. See what I’ve made

Now I am a pretty impulsive and impatient person. I usually don’t learn things linearly, going from one level to the next. More often I just read a little bit to get a rough idea about how things work, and then I jump ahead and do whatever I’d like. This can cause disappointment, but I just can’t help it and frankly I don’t care too much. Mistakes make you learn. Regarding card weaving, I can’t patiently read the whole book page by page and go through all the exercises, because I have this idea of a strip I’d like to make and I can’t wait. Really I can’t. Anyways, if I’m that excited about something, even if I’d read the two chapters that come before the one that describes the technique I’ll need to make the design I want, I wouldn’t really pay attention so why bother? Now the only thing standing in my way is that I’ll need to make 24 more cards, and that’s a pain in the butt for someone who’d like everything to have happened yesterday.

Today I’ll be going to Hämeenlinna which is an hour train ride from Helsinki. My friend Halla (from Iceland) is participating in a modern dance performance that’s being shown there tonight. That should be fun.