MIA

It's been a while since I wrote, hasn't it?! I didin't realise that it had been almost two weeks until yesterday, so I think it's definitely about time for another post. I've been back at work for almost two works, and I'm just exhausted when I get home in the afternoon! Most days I just collapse on the couch and sleep for an hour or so before I'm remotely human again. But work is a lot of fun, and I meet so many nice people (about 50 patients each day...). I just think that I might not be cut out for a full time job, maybe I should aim for a 75 % employment in the future.

Anywhoo, I haven't done a lot of knitting these past few days. I knit a bit on the Paper Dolls sweater when I have breaks at work, but the corrugated ribbing took me forever! I'm done now and have started the waist decreases, so now it's going a bit faster.

Did I even tell you that I cast on for this one last week? I needed something with lots of stockinette that I could knit on at work, and this suits me fine. I love the pattern, and I'm knitting it in KnitPicks Palette yarn. The main body will be black, the paper dolls will be bright pink (the colourway is called Lipstick), and the other patterns will be pale green (the colourway is called Edamame). 

I'm using 3 mm needles, so it's going to take me a while! I'm not completely convinced that I like the I-cord cast on though, it's made my first row of knit stitches look really loose and sloppy. Maybe it will be better after blocking?

I've knitted some on the India Stole as well, but not as much as I'd like. I'm almost done with the fourht chart, out of twelve in total (well, actually there are only six charts, but as I've cast on provisionally, I knit those six charts again to make the other half of the stole). I love, love, love the pattern and the yarn, I just don't have the energy to focus on those charts when I get home from work!

Last weekend we had a really thorough cleaning session in our apartment, which was way overdue. And this weekend is looking to be busy as well, but with lots of fun stuff instead. Tomorrow me and Thomas are going to our friends Jenny and Tomas (nice coinsidence, right) for dinner, which is going to be so much fun! Jenny moved to Amsterdam this past March, and I haven't seen her since. Our great friend Klara and her boyfriend Micke is also coming, and as Klara has been living in Liverpool for the past year I haven't seen her since March or so either. I miss them both so much, they are two of my best friends, and it's going to be awesome to get to see them!

On Saturday me and my friend Anna are going to visit Ulrika for a knit-night. Hopefully Lovisa will be able to come too, but she got sick today so it's not certain. I haven't seen any of those girls in forever either, as my health isn't really top notch (as you all probably know by now), so it's going to be a very fun-filled evening as well.

Me and Thomas are also going out to the cabin on Saturday, earlier in the day, to do some slight fixing. The last time we were there (which was almost two weeks ago, as the weather haven't been too good and we're too tired to go in the evenings after work), Thomas found a BAT in the attic! I'm sort of terrified of bats, so it's going to be a hassle to get it out! Bats are also a protected species here in Sweden, as they are becoming more and more endangered, so we can't just set a trap for it. If it's just the one I guess we could leave it, but there might be more!

I'll leave you with two photos of my latest finished objects, as promised. I'm sorry about the somewhat pale photo of the Owls sweater, but as it's been pouring douwn here today I had to get a flash photo.

The photo of the Guinevere gloves is better:

Both these FO's make me long somewhat for a bit colder weather, so I can wear them!

/ Jenny

It's Alive!

Yey, I've finally gotten my own computer back on track! Well, I say I, but really it was Thomas who fixed it. I bought the hard drive, and he put it in and installed windows for me. Other than that, I've fixed everything else (like, installing openoffice and google chrome...). Now I can FINALLY add photos to the blog again!

So, just to get you up to speed: Here are the two yarns that arrived for me this past week:

Chili Gredelin Madame, colourway Forest Berries (55 % silk/45 % cashmere, 366 m/50 g)

Nyansera Halo 2-ply, colourway Spring Grass Orchid (100 % baby alpaca, 800 m/100g)

Pretty, right? I didn't notice until I got the second parcel that they are actually pretty similar in colour, but the Halo yarn has more orange tones in it, and the Madame one has more pale pinks.

I'll also show you some of the photos from my wool washing. Here is the basket with wool right after I pu it in the tub with HOT water. Notice how the dirt sort of seeps out from the basket into the water?

Here it is after three washes with shampoo and two rinses with water:

I haven't gotten a photo if the teased wool yet, but I'll show it to you once I've got a little bit more done. For those of you who don't know (I dodn't know until about three days ago), teasing is when you pull the locks of wool apart, to make carding a bit easier. It's a great way to remove any left-over vegetate matter that's still in the wool after the wash, and also to remove any matted or otherwise damaged wool.

I've also knitted a lot these past few days, but I haven't gotten around to blocking anything until today. Here is my Owls sweater drying upstairs:

I haven't pinned this one out as I don't want to increase te size. I just patted it a bit into shape, just to get the stitches more even-looking. You can't really tell in this photo (stupid flash photography, we're having grey skies and wind today), but the eyes are some purple oil-coloured beads I found in my stash. I'll get a photo of me wearing it once it's dry.

I'm also blocking my Guinevere gloves right now, but I think I'll wait to show a photo of those until I can get a photo of me wearing them. The bright blue colour of this yarn made it almost impossible to photograph, and the tiny lace pattern was completely obscured by the flash. They are really pretty though, and I am almost looking forward to Winter so I can wear them!

I've also made some progress on my India Stole:

I've finished 3.5 of the 12 charts, so a quarter done at least. I love, love, love this yarn (Chili Gredelin Simone, colourway Sheer Apricot, 30 % silk/70 % alpaca, 800 m/100 g)! 

And if you haven't noticed, there is also another project lurking among my WIP's (as you can see in the right column): The Evenstar shawl. I haven't really started this one yet, as I think I want to finish the India Stole first, but I can just barely keep myself from casting this one on. It is just so pretty, and I'm going to use my Wollmeise Lace yarn in colourway Sabrina for this one. I made a swatch a couple of weeks ago, and talk about stitch definition! It is going to be awesome!

Other than that I've not done much this past week. I actually managed to come down with food poisoning Thursday night (I think it was te pizza), which wasn't much fun at all, but it was over pretty quickly at least. I've also gotten a pretty boring cold, and I'm almost coughing my lungs out, but I think it's marginally better today. Which is good, as I'm going back to work tomorrow, and I can't call in sick as I'm very, very needed. I think I'll have to be almost dying to actually get a day off these coming weeks :) But it will be good to get back to work, and get some steady routines again.

Ok, back to knitting! I'm so enjoying having finished all my non-lace WIP's, so I can focus on the lace shawls again :)

/ Jenny

Still no sign of the new hard drive...

... So I'm going photo-less today too. I just have some fun stuff to share, and I just couldn't wait any longer! For starters, I've finished another project! Yesterday I finished my Owls Sweater, and I couldn't be happier with it. It fits me like a glove, I've never made a piece of clothing that fits me this good before. It's knitted in super luxurious Rowan Coocoon yarn, and I used some beads from my stash for the owl eyes. I haven't blocked it yet, but I think I'll do it tonight, so hopefully I can get some photos of it to show you once the hard drive arrives (it was ordered at the beginning of the week, so it should be here tomorrow).

Second, I've started taking care of my wool that will eventually be spun into yarn! Do you remember that I got lots and lots of wool fleece from my parents this Christmas? I got a huge bag of completely unprocessed fleece that is sort of straight off the sheep, and it's just been laying around in a box since then. This week I've finally gotten around to washing it, I've washed about half of it, and today I started teasing it. Hopefully I can start carding it this weekend too! I have to do the teasing outside though, as it is really shedding, so I'm hoping for more good weather (right now it's raining). I just can't wait to show you all the photos I've taken!

I also got some yarn in the mail this week, and before you start, at least some of it was my monthly shipment from Nyansera's yarn club. The yarn is called Halo 2-ply and is a lace weight alpaca yarn. The colourway is called Grass Spring Orchid, and has gorgeous shades of pink and purple. I'm thinking of using it for the Windsbraut Pergamon shawl eventually.

The second yarn package I got was from Chili Gredelin. This was my one and only allowed exception from the yarn diet (remember, I'm saving all my money for the upcoming USA trip this coming Spring), as the store was updated with my all time favourite yarn Madame. I ordered three skeins, so it should last me a while. The colourway is called Forest Berries, and has lovely shades of pink. Absolutely amazing! This will become the Mystic Star, another lovely design from Anna Dalvi.

So, I'll have lots and lots of photos to show you once I get my own laptop up and running again! Until then!

/ Jenny

My computers are cursed, I tell you! Cursed!

Yep, Thomas' old laptop that I've been using since my pink one broke down, died on me this past Monday! Can you believe it?! It's the second computer that went dead on me since April! Luckily I've since my pink one died gotten Dropbox, so I've saved most of my files there. This time I don't think I lost any patterns at least!

So now I'm borrowing Thomas' new laptop, but I'm a bit scared that I'll curse this one too. Also, this computer has a newer Windows version than what I'm used to, and it can't read my camera memory card, so you'll get no photos from me today. I'm going to cave in and buy a new hard drive for the pink computer, so hopefully it will be fixed some time next week or so.

I've been visiting my parents for a few days this week, and got A LOT of knitting done. I've finished my Guinevere gloves, and they are gorgeous! Of course I can't show them to you, as I can't load any photos, but you'll have to take my word for it. I'm going to make lots more of the gloves from Laris design in the future!

Other than that I haven't really done much in Borås, other than hanging out with my mother. I got to meet Christine (my best friend from home) and two of her boys, but unfortunately the youngest had already fallen asleep for the night when I got there. Alex turned one years old on Wednesday (he's our godson), and he looked like a real cutie pie in his bed! It is always my priority to visit them when I'm in Borås!

Now we're going to fix us some food, the heat is still here so we're barbecueing tonight. I'll see you all next week, hopefully from a working computer!

/ Jenny

Another FO bites the dust!

Or rather, another FO done! I just cast off the Kai-Mei socks! 

I love them! And they are just for me! They are made with 1.1 skein of Lorna's Laces Shepherd sock yarn, in colourway Aslan. I have another 1.9 skeins left of the yarn, which means I can make another pair of socks from it. Yay! Anyway, the socks are really comfortable and soft, and I bet they'll get incredible after I wash them. I generally don't block my socks, as they just get unblocked every time I need to wash them, but these look really good even fresh off the needles.

Yesterday my mother-in-law and youngest brother-in-law came to visit, so we spent last night at the cabin just barbecueing up some ribs with salad and corn on the cobs. The weather has been so great these past two weeks, so we're really taking advantage of it. Unfortunately my stomach gave up on me last night (again), so I've spent the better part of today just hanging out in the shade with my knitting. At least I've got a FO to show for it! Thomas, Annika and William went to Ikea and bought a couch-that-turns-into-a-bed (I don't know the english word for it, someone please educate me?) for the cabin. I'm very excited to go there to actually see it in person! 

However I'm planning on visiting Borås for a few days this week, as Thomas is going back to work tomorrow. I have some friends that I didn't get to see for Midsummer, so I thought I would g visit them while I still have some free days left (Christine, I'm looking at you). Also, our god-child Alex is turning one on Wednesday! I can't believe how fast time has gone past, it seems like it was just the other day that I got to see him for the first time! Apparently he's running around at full speed already! I'll try to get some photos of him and his brothers this time so I can show you the incredible cuteness that they are!

Now I'm going to hang out with my brother-in-law (who actually asked if I could knit him a pair of socks, isn't he adorable! He's fourteen and just simply awesome), who's playing AVP on our X-box right now :)

/ Jenny

Hot hot hot!

I think we've had around 30 Centigrades today, it's been a real scorcher! Me and Thomas have spent the day at the cabin, just hanging out in the shade. And you know what: I finished the Gala shawl last night! It's been blocking today while we were away, and I just unpinned it!

It was a real hell to pin out! I love the look of it, and it feels ok to wear even though it is a little scratchy, but I think that will disappear with wear. I did hate working with the yarn (Pälsull from Östergötlands Ullspinneri) though, it was sooo splitty and shed a lot! It was a bit rough on my hands too, and I'm very glad to be done with it! It looks really pretty though, and the colour is probably my very favourite shade of green.

Now that I finished this one, I spent the afternoon working on the Kai-Mei socks. I'm just about to work the heel, so if I plug at it I should be done tomorrow or so. The FO's are just flying off the needles! I think that the India stole that I begun a while ago will take a little more time though. I'm really looking forward to working on that one again, as I really love that yarn (Chili Gredelin Simone).

Oh, and I almost forgot! My last yarn order for a while arrived in the mail on Thursday! Three gorgeous skeins of Wollmeise 100 % fingering weight, 150 g in each skein. 

Colourway Aquarius

Colourway Minze

I ordered these last Friday morning, just before we went to the cabin and I got my surprise party and gift, so I didn't know that I actually need to start saving my money! But this was my last purchase for a while! The only exception will be if Chili Gredelin updates her shop with some Madame yarn that I can't resist. So far the colours that have been up for sale this summer haven't really spoken to me though, which is just as good. Maybe there won't be any colours I like at all? I'm not sure which to hope for!

I spent the day photographing some of the amazing flowers that grow at the cabin. I just can't believe it's all ours! The greenery is just so pretty out there, and I'll share some of it with you now. I have no idea what any of them are named, especially not in english, but I know they are pretty!

/ Jenny