Knit and Crochet Blog week, day five

Today is the fifth day of the Knit and Crochet Blog Week. Today's topic is: 

"Location, Location, Location

Where do you like to indulge in your craft? Is your favourite arm chair your little knitting cubby area, or do you prefer to ‘knit in public’? Do you like to crochet in the great outdoors, perhaps, or knit in the bath, or at the pub?"

Well, I have knitted a lot in public during 2009, when I joined Linköping Knitters. We are a group of people who meet up once or twice a week and knit at different cafés in town. I love this group, there are so many different people, and if we didn't have knitting (or crocheting) in common, I would never have met them. 

But to be honest, my favourite knitting spot is the corner of our living room sofa. I have most of my stuff set up on the long end of the couch (the swedish word for this part of the sofa, the one that is almost like a bed, is called divan. I can't seem to find a translation!), and I have my laptop on hand, as well as the TV. I have all my stash "hidden" in giant bags next to the sofa, so everything is convenient. 

It's a mess, but I clean it away if we're going to have company who cares. Most of my friends don't care, they know that I'm knitting obsessed, and I don't care what most of Thomas' friends think either :) Thomas is just happy if he can have the other half of the sofa (the half without the "divan")!

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In knitting news, I actually have some updates to show you! I'm steadily knitting away on the Sari Lace shawl for Nanna, and it is gorgeous! Maybe I shouldn't say that about my own work, but what the heck: I love it! I think I will have to make one for myself as well, I love the pattern so much. I'm getting over the huge charts too, or rather I'm getting used to them, so they are no problem any more. Which is good for when I decide to tackle the Heere be Dragone shawl, as that pattern is about 6 pages wide at the top... Anyway, here is the first half of the Sari Lace shawl: 

I now have six days to get it done, and I'm quite certain that I will make it. Now that there are only decrease rows left, it will feel like it's going a lot faster too. 

My sister has also finished two more bags! One she has decided to keep for herself, and she made it a bit bigger so that it can hold her shampoo bottles and such stuff when she travles. The shape looks a bit odd in some places, but it is actually symmetrical and very pretty. It's about 40 cm high and 30 cm wide and deep, I think. 

I love the model, and the fabric is very pretty too. As I said, Sanna is keeping this one for herself, but bags like these will soon be available for purchase, I'm guessing in the price range of about $20? We are currently looking in to different webhost for webshops, and we still haven't figured out a name. 

The second bag Sanna made is going to be for sale as soon as we get a shop up and running, and it's a simpler model: 

It's 33 x 18 cm, so quite long, but very pretty. I'm guessing these will be priced somewhere between $10-15, and the forthcoming versions will probably be a little bit wider. This one will easily hold a skein of yarn and a sock project though. 

This morning I was searching for a european retailer (because the shipping from the States are killing me) of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock yarn (we have one in Sweden, but she doesn't have the colurway I was looking for). I got one skein of this yarn in colourway Aslan as a gift from Ulrika a while back, but it's not enough to make a whole pair of socks from, so I wanted another one. 

I found the online store Get Knitted in the UK, and boy do they have much fun stuff! Me and my sister ended up ordering lots and lots of new fabric, so we're now set for LOTS of bags! And I know you're all thinking: Wasn't Jenny on a yarn diet? Isn't she unemployed and poor? 

Well, let me tell you: It looks like I've got a summer job! Yay! I will be working four weeks at a lab at a physicians office in Mjölby (Mjölby vårdcentral, for my swedish readers), which is located about 30 km from Linköping. I'm going there on Monday for a visit to determine that I'm suitable for the job, so I haven't actually landed it 100 % yet, but I'm feeling pretty confident! I'll have to learn how to draw blood from patients though, and I'm a bit scared about that, but it will be fine. So I celebrated today by buying some yarn. And I have to say I was very restrictive, I only ordered the two skeins of Lorna's Laces I needed. Well, and the tons of fabric too, but I was restrictive on the yarn front! 

And today me and my sister are going to pick up her new sewing machine! She ordered one yesterday, and it has already arrived, so she'll get to play with it this afternoon. I'll be sure to take some photos of it and tell you more about the make and model of it when I see it. I will probably take over her old one that is somewhat defective, to use as practice. Her old one is called Tråckla, from Ikea, and I doubt that they make it anymore, so she was really due for a new one. 

Now I think I'll get dressed so we can go pick up the package! 

/ Jenny