Second Advent

Yes, today is the second Sunday in Advent, so we light another candle in the Advent candle holder. At least we will when it gets completely dark, which should be in about half an hour (it's 15.30 now). The candles are about the only thing I like about this time of year, except Christmas itself, as I really hate that it gets dark at four in the afternoon, and I hate the cold.

But today it wasn't very cold, I'm guessing somewhere around +5 centigrades in the middle of the day. So my sister and I went outside and walked over to Old Linköping where there was an advent market today, for the second Sunday in a row. We bought some sausages that will go on he Christmas food table, and I found two adorable tote bags to hold my knitting. THe first one is small, and will hold a small project like mittens or socks:

The figure on it is a Swedish comic book character, called Bamse. I read a lot of Bamse when I grew up, and I still love the old comic books. Bamse is a very kind bear, who when he eats a special honey that his grandmother makes, becomes super strong. It is a very moralising story, because Bamse is always kind to everybody, and never uses his strenght for personal gain. But when you're a kíd you don't care about that, do you? Then it's just fun to follow the characters. Anyway, this bag is currently holding my Moose mittens, which I haven't made much progress on since last time. But I'm getting there, and I'm not worried yet that they won't be finished in time for Christmas.

The second bag I bought is larger, and pink:

It looks a bit paler in the photo than in real life, but I think it's beautiful. I love pink, if you hadn't noticed that :). This bag is currently holding my green bolero, and even though that project isn't very big yet, it will grow significantly before it's done. I'm thinking that I will use these two bags primarily as project holders in my bigger knitting bag I got from KnitPicks. That way the yarns won't tangle when I transport more than one project in the big bag!

So what are you guys wishing for for Christmas? I've told my parents that I would like a new bathrobe, as mine is wearing a bit thin. And I would prefer one in pink, too. Did I mention I like pink? When I held my thesis presentation this September, one of my opponents actually commented on my computer. He said it reminded him of the movie Legally Blond, with Reece Witherspoon :). This is my computer:

I guess you can't blame him, can you? I also have a pink calendar and a pink cell phone :)

The second thing I'm wishing for is more project bags. My sister dabbles a bit in sewing, so I asked her if she wouldn't make some smallish fabric bags with a drawstring on top, for me. We'll see if she does them or not.

And I guess I've told you that Thomas and I are going to order books together after Christmas, instead of buying each other gifts this year. As of yesterday I've added some books on spinning to that list, as I plan to learn this after Christmas. I actually ordered myself a start kit from Spinspiration yestarday night, that includes a wooden spindle and 150 grams of different wools to learn on. I'm sure that will be here before Christmas, but then I can start learning that, and move on to the spinning wheel when I get home to my parents for the Holidays. It will be so much fun!

And tomorrow Anna will come here, and we're going to try out the KoolAid yarn-dyeing for the first time! We were supposed to do it last week, but Anna had to cancel because she wasn't feeling well, so hopefully it will get done tomorrow. This is also something that I'm really looking forward to try out, although I think that this first time we will just dye all of the skein solid. But if we succeed, and if I think it's fun, I might have to invest in more undyed fibres eventually, and do some more dyeing. I've seen that one swedish online yarn shop, Karma Garn, has KoolAid for sale, so it shouldn't be hard to get after all.

Now I'm going to slip into my pyjama pants and knit for the rest of the afternoon :)

/ Jenny