First class travel is half price for the summer and I had even collected enough credits from recent travel to pay for my very cosy seat with points instead of kronor!

I took advantage of being trainbound for 6 hours northward (at my air-conditioned, extra wide seat and table, hoorah!) to learn the basics of overlay crochet. I registered with the very helpful website, Lilla Björn Crochet, and that prompted a free pattern for a “macaroon pin cushion” to my in-box. Using scraps of yarn I tried my hand at this technique and really enjoyed both the process and the result! It can bit a more tiring on the hands to negotiate the hook in less easily available stitches from previous rounds. As I have suffered with repetitive injury in the past I made sure I didn’t work too intensely without a break.

Of course, living in Sweden (and fluent in the language) I immediately recognised “lilla björn” to mean “little bear.” The blog is not actually written by a Swede, just someone who appreciates Swedish things. A nice connection for a swenglish girl anyway.

I did make a few first time errors a long the way but quickly adjusted my work (fudged it!) to make the stitches add up. It was mostly just getting used to following a different pattern in terms of terminology and techniques and also trying a useful but new (for me) joining technique for each round.

All in all not a bad first effort and I am looking forward to trying other overlay patterns. I can definitely recommend a little bear to get you started as I did. 🙂

I am happy to use up bits and bobs of leftover yarn for the actual pin cushion and yarn tails and a very small piece of test knitting as stuffing. Very green and thrifty all in one. First class, eh?

By the by, the drawstring bag (pictured) was something I made in tapestry crochet – another technique I intend to work on in future.

And travelling 6 hours northward from Stockholm takes me to Jämtland, where the sun is up around the clock making it hard to sleep and where the landscape is very beautiful…

Happy summer!