It's almost Christmas!

I can't believe how fast time goes by these days! It's only 12 more days til Christmas (here in Sweden we celebrate on the 24th)! And I sound like I'm 100 years old when I say it like that too.

My health finally seems to be back on track! My stomach is behaving (knock on wood), and the treatment I got for my dizziness really helped, and 24 hours after I was back to normal again. It was a really weird treatment, that consisted of moving the dislodged particles (you know, the ones that had ended up in my balance bows in my ear) back into the liquid sack where they belonged. This was done by moving my head in a specific order, and then I had to keep the head completely still for 24 hours. And let me tell you, those 24 hours were no fun, but it was worth it! After sitting up the whole night I got a few hours of sleep in the morning, and when I woke up I wasn't dizzy anymore. Awesome!

So how is the Christmas shopping going? Me and my sister picked up the last gift yesterday, for our dad, so now I'm all set. It feel good to be finished already with that, as it can be a huge pressure! I'll finish the first knitted gift today, and hopefully the second (and last) one next weekend. I can't wait to get to tell you about them, as I'm very pleased with both of them! 

Last Saturday, on the 4th, Anna, Lovisa and Alexandra came here for an evening of yarn dyeing together. We had such a blast, we ate some quiche, drank lots of wine (now that I'm off the antidepressants I can finally have some wine again, and it was sooooo good!) and dyed about 14 skeins of yarn! 

Alexandra is winding yarn on our kitchen cabinets!

Supplies

Lovisa is dyeing yellow yarn

Anna's purple and blue yarn

Lovisa's blue yarn

Alexandra's blue, red and orange yarn

Anna's orange and pink yarn

My green yarn

Anna knitting

Me and Anna got a bag of undyed sport yarn from Progg a while ago, and we divided these skeins between us, and both Lovisa and Alexandra had brought their own, so we ended up with some skeins each. I kept three skeins, one lace skein that I dyed green and two sport skeins that I dyed pink.

We used mostly KoolAid, but I also had some easter dyes that I got in a RAK gift from Ravelry a year or so ago. I think we were all very pleased with our skeins! I went for the solid colours, but the others mixed it up a bit, as you can see in the photo of the drying yarns (unfortunately, Annas skeins of gorgeous, blue-purple skeins are missing from that picture, but you'll have to make due).

I actually caved in and bought some yarn last week too, but only because I was running out on one of the Christmas gifts. A couple of days before the order Thomas had actually told me that he'd maybe like a pair of hand knitted socks after all (he's been refusing them for a while now, as he prefures regular, store-bought, black socks), since they look so warm. So I ordered two more skeins of sock yarn, Opal in black and green:

I think I'm going to make his black, as I think one skein should be enough, and keep the green one for myself. I haven't decided which pattern to use for his socks yet, but I don't think I'll start them until after Christmas anyway so I'll have some time to think about it.

Oh, and I have to tell you about this awesome package I got in the mail yesterday! I got a RAK gift from bastelwastel in Germany, which held a whole package of gluten-free cookies! I'm just overwhelmed by the thoughtfulness, and they taste amazing too! Yay! I also got a Christmas card from Fabie in the same group on Ravelry (RAK in Europe), and I just love this group so much!

And finally, I wasn't sure if I was going to mention this here on the blog, as I try to keep everything political and religious and stuff like that out of the blog. I'm not a very political person (or religious), but this just can't go by unnoticed. Yesterday it seems like we had the very first suicide bombing in Sweden, in Stockholm. A car blew up at around five in the afternoon, and shortly thereafter the police found a man who had blown himself up. Next to him was a bag full of nails, and apparently there were more bombs which hadn't gone off. Only the bomber died, and a few people were lightly injured, and the police is calling it a failed bombing attempt. The police got an e-mail about 10 minutes before the deed, where someone blaimed Sweden's involvement in Afghanistan, and our support of the artist Lars Vilks, who made the Mohammed charicatyrs a while ago. The last part is a bit scary, as Lars Vilks was in Linköping holding a lecture at the University just a couple of weeks ago. I thik we Swedes have just felt a bit too safe from these sorts of deeds, as we're such a small and sort of unimportant country. The Police is holding a press conference right now, butthey don't know very much yet. It's just terrifying, and I really feel for all those people in for example Palestine and Irak who live with this threat every day. Just horrible!

And to end the post on a bit more cheery note, me and Thomas are going to have breakfast together no, and light the third candle in aour advent candle holder. I'll try to be beck next weekend, so I get one more post in before Christmas!

/ Jenny