We started our day with a knitting class in one of the lounges aboard the ship. The weather behaved itself over night and so our voyage so far has been relatively calm, even though we travelled though one of the deeper stretches of sea at breakfast time. However, the mist, fog and clouds (perhaps courtesy of the Norse God of rain ‘Freye’) took a while to lift this morning – making it perfect weather for a spot of knitting needle action!
We have started work on a bag project designed by the talented Debbie Abrahams, and whilst the main part of the bag is made using the fairisle technique, this morning’s challenge was to cast on the requisite 160 sts and work a good couple of inches of moss stitch in the round, adding a couple of button holes into the mix which will later be used to anchor our drawstring and toggles.
We had an early lunch in the restaurant and headed onto shore to investigate Alesund, a lovely busy town with predominantly art nouveau architecture and a nice shopping centre. We have visited our first ‘Husfliden’ – a lovely chain of stores here in Norway, which sells knitting yarn and crafting supplies alongside national costumes and household items, such as candles, mugs and decorations. I was restrained and did not spend any pennies despite the fact that there were many things catching my eye – fairisle printed mugs and beautiful paper cut Christmas decorations among them.
Once back on board at 3pm we returned to our knitting and chatting whilst travelling to the town of Molde, where we are now in dock for an hour or so before dinner. I think I will take a stroll around on the top deck and take in the view of twinkling lights in the hills and might even brave the open air jakuzzi later on if I’m feeling really brave.
The image of the handsome chap with the violin (above) is a portrait of Ole Bull who I mentioned yesterday - the fella with the looks so fine that he made the girls swoon!
