Busy busy busy!

Yep, it's been a couple of busy weeks lately, but I'm going to start by telling you the most awesome news: I got offered to stay on at a permanent possition at my job! YAY! I was so excited I even forgot to ask what the pay would be, I'm just so glad to have a permanent job! Especially since I love the job, and I love my co-workers, and I couldn't be happier.

Yesterday I went on a shopping trip with my sister, Sanna, and our friend Anna. We were out for about five hours, and I finally managed to find a new winter coat (and you won't see it modelled today, as I'm still wearing my bathrobe and yesterday's make-up).

I've had a brown one for a couple of years, and I can't for the life of me remember why I bought it in the first place. It's too tight, it's got a very unflattering fit, it's pilling, and it's BROWN! So it's going into retirement (I think I'll give it to goodwill), and tomorrow I get to use the new one. We've had our first snow these past two weeks, but it's more or less rained away this weekend. But it's still cold enough (barely) to warrant the winter coat.

I've also been doing a little bit of knitting, with emphasis on little. I'm now up to 560 stitches on the Evenstar shawl, and every row takes me forever. It's continually growing though, although I doubt I'll finish it this year (can you believe it's Christmas soon!).

I'm also working on the Wanida socks, and I've almost finished the first one. The yarn is working great with the pattern, and I really want to wear them, but I'm usually too tired to knit when I get home in the evenings, so I rarely knit on them. I'l get them done though. Probably this year too :)

And finally I'm knitting on the Paper Dolls sweater, and it's coming along nicely. I've finished the waist decreases, and I've almost finished all the increases too. It's looking really good, and this one is probably the one I'm working the most on. I'm working on it at the coffee breaks at work, so I usually work a little on it every day. I know that the ribbing fits this time, but I think I'll have to try it on soon again, to see that the waist is ok this time.

Oh, and I'be bought myself some new books as well! I first picked up a copy of the new Cookie A. book, Knit. Sock. Love. (Ravelry link). I LOVE this one! Cookie must be the most talented sock designer there ever was, and I want to knit ALL of the patterns! Too bad I've still got lots of patterns in the Sock Innovation book left to knit, as I want to knit ALL of those too! 

I also bought the Brave New Knits book (Ravelry link), and I have to admit that it was mostly for the new Ysolda Teague pattern, the Orchid Thief Shawlette. However, this book is a real gem, with lots of mini biographies about all the designers. And there are lots more patterns I would definitely consider making for myself other than the shawlette too, which is really nice. I think I'll read it all through once I'm done with what I'm reading right now (I'm getting to that in a minute).

I also got two books with amigurumi crochet patterns: Välkommen till Virkligheten (It's rougly translated as "Welcome to the Crochet Reality, but it's a pun on word in swedish that doesn't translate) by Annika Messing, and Virka Roliga Amigurumis (Crochet funny amigurumis) by Mia Bengtsson.

These are both swedish books, with lots of cute patterns in. I own the first amigurumi book by Mia Bengtsson too, Virka Amigurumi - Söta Små Glädjespridare (Crochet Amigurumi's - Cute Little Joybringers), and I just need to find the time to actually learn how to crochet properly...

I also picked up some fiction literature, the first being the new Stephen King book, Full Dark, No Stars. I finished it today, and boy was it good! I know, I'm a bit biased when it comes to mr King, but this one was actually a lot better than the last couple of books he's written. It contains four novellas, all dealing with how ordinary people deal with different kinds of catastrophes. I particularly love how mr King writes character descriptins, and these four novellas all contained some pretty awesome character portraits. Just an Awesome book.

I started a new book today too, a graphic novel by Neil Gaiman. I think I've told you before that he's my second favourite author, after mr King, and I LOVE that he does comics as well as "normal" fantasy fiction. The book I'm reading now is Marvel 1604, which is a story about what it would have been like if the Marvel Heroes (X-men, Fantastic four, Daredevil and lots of others) had lived in the 17th century England. I've not gotten very far yet, but I like it so far. Bear in mind though that I've not read any Marvel Heros comics before, so I have nothing to compare it to.

I finally bought the newest Discworld novel, by Terry Pratchett. It's called I Shall Wear Midnight, and I haven't started it yet. But so far I've loved all of mr Pratchett's books, I think he's hillarious with just a bit of edge to the satire he writes, so I'm really looking forward to this one too. I read somewhere a year or two ago that mr Pratchett has gotten diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, and it will be a huge loss for the literary world when he quits writing. Hopefully it won't be for years and years!

Now that I've been on Ad Libris (the swedish book site) looking for pictures of all the books, I just realized that there are TWO books by Joe Hill (Stephen King's son, he's almost as brilliant as his father) that I don't have yet! Maybe I'll just have to place a new order tonight...

Today has been a really lazy day! I've just been sitting on the couch reading and having a very nice skype chat with Anna and Sarah! I wonder if anyone knows if you can have a video conference with more than one person at once on Skype? We couldn't find that function, so we've just had audio chats today, but it would be fun if we could all see each other as well. I don't think it should be impossible, right?

Now I'm going to pick out my food from the oven (fishsticks and french fries, nothing healthy for me tonight!), but I'll try to be back next weekend with a new update. I hate that it's been two weeks since last!

/ Jenny