Best. Weekend. Ever.

Ok, I probably shouldn't be so pleased with my weekend, as my poor Thomas has had to work the entire weekend (and we're talking about 16 hour days here, his new exhibition is starting on Sunday at the museum. He's an exhibition producer, not an artist, and it's an exhibition on the computer history in Sweden), but I've had all weekend to just sit around and knit! I've mostly worked on the Percy shawl, which I've found a rekindled love for again, and some on my socks and mittens too. I feel like I haven't had a completely undisturbed weekend for way too long! 

Anna tipped me off a while ago that the city library has some audio books that they stream, so you can listen to them from the web. Today I investigated their inventory, and I've started to listen to the Twilight books. I think they are a bit too adolescent for my taste, but they're ok so far so I'll probably listen to all of them. I think that my main problem, as usual, is that it is the swedish translation I'm listening too, and most books actually lose a lot in being translated to swedish. I mean, you all know how the Swedish Chef sounds, and let me tell you, it's not too far off the mark... I also saw that all of John Ajvide Lindqvist's books were on the list (He's a swedish horror writer, who is AMAZING! He's written Let the right one in. which has also become a movie that is quite good), and I'm hoping that the versions at the library are the ones where the author himself reads the books.

Ok, time for some photo updates. I'll start with the shawl, I think. I've made about half the first repeat of chart B (you know, the dreaded one with patterning on both sides), and I'm actually pleasantly surprised. It isn't that difficult! I've done a lot of cable knitting, and then you learn to read a chart from both sides, and this is just the same! So this far in, it's going really well, so I'll probably add at least three repeats of this chart too, before moving on to the edging. I've also remembered to put in a lifeline before my first B chart, and I'll probably add one after every finishe repeat to be on the safe side :)

I've also almost completed the first cat on my Cat mittens. I love working with this yarn so much (it's KnitPick's Palette), and I have so much of it right now! I'm going to try and make lots of the mittens from the Selbuvotter book from this yarn too, hopefully I have enough to last me all year :)

I've also completed the heel and gusset on the Glynis socks, but I think they are still a bit too big around the foot, so I'll probably add some extra decreases there. It's looking really good, and this yarn is just so soft and wonderful! I just can't get over how elastic it seems, even though it doesn't contain any nylon or similar (it's 100 % merino). I hope to give them to Christine (my friend) for her 30th birthday at the end of March. She already knows that she's going to get them, but even so it would be nice to have them finished by then.

Anna is actually making a shawl in this yarn, in a green colourway, and it's going to be so much fun to see it completed!

Oh, and I have to tell you about one more book find I made this past Friday! I got my hands on my very first cook book by Jamie Oliver: The Jamie at Home book. I like this TV series a lot, and I really appreciate that he's growing so much of the ingredients in his own garden. And the book is just so beautiful! And filled with lots and lots of yummy recipes (is that spelled like that?). Hobbe seems to like it too...

Now I'll continue listening to the Twilight book!

/ Jenny

Shopping week

Ok, today I'll show you all the patterns I bought yesterday! But first, I'm going to show you a find I made today. Every year in February, Sweden has a huge book sale in all the book stores. If you're reading thrillers or classics (at least Swedish ones), you can usually find something. We've found very nice prints of Tolkien, and most of our swedish classics were bought at the sale a cople of years ago. This year I'm trying to save money, so I hadn't planned to buy anything special. But my sister dragged me with her to the stores today, and I fuond this amazing book:

The titel is in Swedish, and says something like The Art of Swedish Crafts. It's simply gorgeous, and it talks about lots of differnt crafts, from wood-carving, to knitting to metal-arts. I'm so pleased, and it cost me less than $10!

Ok, now on to the pattern-bonanza I had yesterday :) I bought the following patterns:

1) Knitting Goddess

2) Little birds cardigan

3) Paper Dolls sweater

4) Eisblumen gloves

5) Tallula's heart mittens

6) Cat socks (to match my cat mittens I'm currently working on :)

7) Brandywine shawl

8) Princess of Maya shawl

9) Scheherazade stole

10) Shetland Garden Faroese shawl

All photos are borrowed from Ravelry. I don't know when I'll have time to knit all of my patterns, but I bet I'll be glad to have them when I get unemployed and can't splurge like this :)

I'll also show you my projects I've worked on since yesterday. I'll start with my Glynis socks, aka the Amazing Pooling Experience...

I like them even though the yarn is pooling a lot, and I'm almost done with the heel. I think I'll work some more on them tonight, as well as the Percy shawl (I really want to finish that one soon!).

I'm also working on the Cat mittens, and I've finished the first cuff. Kate over at Lazy Kate Creates is making a pair of GORGEOUS colourwork mittens, and I got so inspired by her work that I had to start a pair too. I just LOVE making mittens and gloves, they are such fast projects!

Oh, and I have a guilty pleasure to tell you about too. The series The Vampire Diaries have started to air on swedish television, and I can't help to actually kind of like this show! I know it's sort of Beverly Hills 902 10 with vampires, but it's actually sort of captivating. I feel like such an emo to like this one, but I do it anyway :)

Now I'm going to re-heat yesterday's dinner, and then get on with all my knitting projects. Have a nice weekend evereybody!

/ Jenny

Finally pay-day!

Yep, all our money this past month seems to have been spent at the party last weekend! Which is kind of funny, as the food and booze wasn't really all that expensive, but as the party was pretty late in the month, we sort of helt on tight to the money before that, so it would last for certain. So when I got my paycheck today, I went sort of nuts... I've bought about 10 patterns from Ravelry today (because I was bored at work), and it was so much fun! It wasn't very expensive either, so I haven't really spent very much money, but it was very nice to be able to buy some of the patterns that I've been wanting for a while. And I might as well do it now, before I become unemployed!

And speaking of that, I think I mentioned last week that I had to use up my vacation days before I leave. Well, it turns out that I have 15 days to use up! That means that I acually leave work on March 12th, which is just so wonderful! I'm really tired of it right now, so it suits me just fine to be able to leave a bit early. I'll have to go to the unemployment-office and make myself available as soon as I get off, but I don't think I'll actually get a new job for at least a month. Hopefully I'll et back to school this Fall too, and then I don't think I'll get any work before that :) Just imagine: Five whole months of free time!

Yesteray when I came home from work I was really itching to knit, but I wasn't really in the mood for the Percy shawl. So I decided to actually work some on my Glynis socks, you know the ones from the Sock Innovation book by Cookie A. I've almost made the whole first leg, and I'll start on the heel tonight I think. I really love this pattern, and the yarn (Colinette Jitterbug, 100 % superwash merino) is just to die for! I originally planned to make these socks for myself, but they are a bit too tight around the leg where I cast on (even though I've frogged these ones and started over, this still isn't really fixed!), so I'm going to give them to my best friend, Christine. she is very petit, and should have no problem with the skinnier leg part. And as she has three kids under the age of 7, it is a good thing that the yarn is mashine-washable too :) I'm actually the godmother of her youngest son, Alex!

And when I tired of the sock last night, I cast on for some mittens too! I've started the Cat Mittens, by Jorid Linvik, the same designer who made the Moose mittens I made for my grandfather before Christmas. I've been wanting to make these for quite some time, and as I got the yarn for them from KnitPicks this week, I just had to get started. I'm using the Palette yarn in colourways Cream and Currant. They are going to be sooo beautiful!

Ok, Now I'd better get back to work! Pics will come tomorrow, I promise! And tomorrow I'll show you all the patterns I bought today too, so you'll definitely have something to look forward too :)

/ Jenny

What Anna and Lovisa bought from KnitPicks!

I don't think the girls would mind if I post their yarn here, and as there were several of their yarns i would have liked also, I decided to show them to you. At least now I know what to order the next time, although as I'm going to be unemployed in the spring, I don't really know when that order will be. Not that I need more yarn, you know :) Anyway, these are Anna's yarns:

Alpaca Cloud in colourway Cha Cha (I want this sooooo bad!)

Gloss Lace, colourway Fiesta (I want this one too)

Gloss sock, colourway Burgundy

Palette, colourway Bark

Palette, colourway Bison (I want these too)

Palette, colourway Clover (I have these too)

Palette, colourway cream (I ordered these too)

Palette, colourway Currant (I have these too)

Palette, colourway Eggplant (I want!)

Palette, colourway Forest Heather (I have these too)

Palette, colourway Ivy (These are my favourite ones!)

Palette, colourway Lantana (I want this!)

Palette, colourway Mulberry (I want these too!)

Palette, colourway Orange

Palette, colourway Tumeric

Shadow Kettle Dyed, colourway Clementine (I want these!)

Telemark, colourway Chestnut

Telemark, colourway Deep Navy

Telemark, colourway Northern Green

Telemark, colourway Poppy

Telemark, colourway Tangelo

And this is what Lovisa bought:

Palette, colourway Hazelnut (I want this!)

Palette, colourway Orange

Telemark, colourway Caution (I want these too!)

So you can guess how big those boxes of yarn were! Anna also ordered a ball-winder, but it didn't really take up any space. The rest was just yarn, yarn yarn!

I promised Nalamienea when she sent the yarn to us that I would take a photo of me in the bath, covered with all of our KnitPick's yarn. Unfortunately Anna took home her first shipment of yarn this Saturday, so when the next box arrived yesterday, I didn't really have enough to cover myself. But never you fear: I just cheated and poured all of my stash yarn into the tub with me. I have A LOT of yarn!

It has been about -20 Centigrades here for the past few days, so I really didn't feel like taking all of my clothes off when I crept into the empty bath tub. It isn't -20 degrees inside, but it's still too cold to sit in the cold tub naked. Therefore, I have clothes on in the photo :)

I subscribe to a swedish knitting magazine, Kreativ Stickning (It means Creative Knitting). It is filled with patterns, and almost nothing else, and some of the numbers have been really good. I got a new issue today, and I have flipped through it this afternoon. There are four issues every year, one with patterns for the whole family, one for babies and children, one for men and women, and one for only women. Needless to say, I'm not that interested in the baby-issue (I gave my issue to Anna), and I have decided to not keep subscribing to this one next year. I'll just buy the issues separately that interest me instead.

Anyhow, there was actually one pattern in this latest issue (with patterns for men and women) that I think I'm going to knit. It's a knitted dress with cables on the upper part, and actually looks kind of sweet. I just took a photo of the magazine page, so you'll have to excuse the glare from the flash. I think you get the idea anyhow, right?

And I finally have a photo of me wearing the Echo Flower! I of course forgot to take photos at the party, but when my sister was here yesterday to help me with the bath tub photos, she took one of the shawl as well. I really like it, and I like it even better as I discovered yesterday that it can be worn around the neck as a scarf without problems as well. I think I will use this one a lot!

Tonight I'm going to work some more on the Percy shawl. I've made 14 repeats of chart A, out of 16 in total, so I hope to start on chart B (which has patterning on both sides: How the hell do you do an SSP (slip-slip-PURL)?!) tomorrow. I don't think I'll finish this one in February, but perhaps I can make three in March instead, to make up for that!

/ Jenny

Mastodont post!

Yep, prepare yourselves for a long one! I'll start with a short report on the weekend. On Satruday morning we woke to about 50 cm of new snow, and more falling all day. Great weather to drive in, don't you think?! I'm very happy that my brothers-in-law and Thomas' best friend from home decided to brave the icy roads and take the two-hour drive over here (I think it took them about three hours this time though), just to celebrate Thomas' birthday. We had about 10 people here on Saturday night, eating lots of good food and drinking way too much beer and wine :) I went to bed about 1.30 I think, but Thomas and our night-guests (there were four of them), and my sister's boyfriend, stayed up the whole night and didn't go to bed until 6.30 in the morning or so! So I tin Thomas was very happy with the party. And we finally got to give him his gift, so now I can tell you all about it: All of his friends have chipped in to give him a new tattoo! He's already got one whole arm, and he has been talking about getting the other one done for so long, so I figured this would be a great gift. I don't think he'll get it done until maybe this fall, but he liked the gift a lot.

And now for the stuff that's going to take up A LOT of space today: Our KnitPick's boxes have finally arrived! And let me tell you, there is so much yarn! I'm just going to show you what I ordered in this post, as I think that if I included Anna's and Lovisa's parts, there would just be no end to it... So here's what I bought:

Three skeins of Shadow Kettle Dyed (100 % wool), colourway Begonia

Three skeins of Alpaca Cloud (100 % alpaca), colourway Papaya

Two skeins of Alpaca Cloud, colourway Cappucino

Two skeins of Alpaca Cloud, colourway Autumn

Ten skeins of Palette (100 % wool), colourway Black

Ten skeins of Palette, colourway Cream

Six skeins of Palette, colourway Clover

Two skiens of Palette, colourway Lipstick

Two skiens of Palette, colourway Forest Heather

Two skiens of Palette, colourway Semolina

Two skiens of Palette, colourway Fairy Tale

Two skiens of Palette, colourway Silver

Two skiens of Palette, colourway Edamame

Two skiens of Palette, colourway Currant

Two skiens of Palette, colourway Masala

Two skiens of Palette, colourway Garnet Heather

Two skiens of Palette, colourway Grass

Two skiens of Stroll (75 % superwash merino/25 % nylon), colourway Firecracker Heather

Two skiens of Stroll, colourway Saphire Heather

Two skiens of Stroll, colourway Forest Heather

Two skiens of Stroll, colourway Burgundy

Two skiens of Essential (75 % superwash merino/25 % nylon), colourway Grass

Two skiens of Essential (75 % superwash merino/25 % nylon), colourway Sarge

Ten skeins of Telemark (100 % wool), colourway Aubergine

As you can see, I don't need to buy yarn for the rest of my life! I'm not saying I'm not going to, I'm just saying I don't NEED to do it :) I'm so incredibly happy about all this yarn, and I can't wait to get to knit with it!

I have two other news that are not as much fun though. I actually frogged the Twinkle Twinkle shawl again last night. I made a mistake and tried to correct it, but it only made it worse. So I decided to frog all of it (because I hadn't used any lifelines: Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!), and I'll start over some day soon. I really liked it with the Chili Gredelin Geisha yarn, so I'm just going to do it all over again.

The other, much sader, news I have is that Chili Gredelin is putting her store on ice for a while! She has too much other stuff going on in her life, which I completely understand, so she felt that she just had to prioritize. And her yarn shop should be connected with fun stuff for her, so I completely understand her. There is a possibility that the store will be up during the summer again, but she won't know unti we get a bit closer to it. I just hope that she can find some relaxation in her life as well, and hopefully a bit less stress now that she doesn't have the dyeing business hanging over her! I'm also very glad that I have some of her yarn in stash already, it ought to last me a while!

I'll try to be back tomorrow, and then I'll show you all the goodies that Anna and Lovisa bought form KnitPick's as well!

/ Jenny