Half-way there!

Yes, that's right. I've gotten past the half-way mark on the wedding stole!

It's a bit hard to photograph with a flash, the colour looks a little muted, but I think it's turning out pretty good. I just hope Christine likes it too! I finished the seventh chart (out of twelve) yesterday, and hopefully I'll finish another one today. I'm going to make her a small purse/string bag as well, in matching Palette yarn, so I really want to finish this one so I won't feel stressed about finishing the bag in time as well.

I've also knitted a lot on the St James sweater the past few days, at work, and I'm almost done with the hip increaes. Which means that I just have to add the ribbing at the bottom, at the arms, and a collar! Yay! I actually like the colour more and more, so I think I'll skip trying to overdye it. I haven't gotten any newer photos of it yet, it's such a hassle to put all the stitches on string and try it on! But it looks like this photo, only it now reaches below the waist.

Today we have a national holiday here in Sweden. It's Ascencion Day (the day Christ ascended into heaven), and although we officially have no state church any longer, we still have this day as a holiday. So I'm off work! And on Monday it's our National Day (our equivalent to Independence Day, I guess), which is also a day off work. Unfortunately I have to work on Friday, but I can live with that. Two extra short weeks in a row!

Yesterday after work me and Thomas went to our cabin for the first time in quite a while, to mow the lawn and just enjoy the weather. I got to sit in the sun and knit for over an hour, which was really nice!

The flowers are really starting to bloom now, I just have to figure out what everything is! I think we'll probably go back this weekend to do some weed cutting as well ( I just need to figure out which plants are weeds and which are actual flowers...), and just hang out for a while. It's supposed to be sunny and warm (although today is pretty overcast so far), so I think we'll just do lots of barbecue and relax. Perfect! Hopefully I'll get lots of knitting done as well.

Oh, on Monday my book package finally arrived too! I got myself five craft books. The first one was Crochet Happy Amigurumis, by Mia Bengtsson.

This is her third book on amigurumis, and they are all super cute! I still suck at crochet, but I plan on learning eventually. I save all my yarn left overs so I can eventually use them for toy-making.

The second and third books were the First and Second Books of Modern Lace Knitting, By Marianne Kinzel:

These aren't filled with lots of patterns, but there are lots of techniques and pattern construction in them. I really like them so far, even though I've more or less just flipped through them, but I think they will be used a lot!

The last two books were pattern books, New England Knits by Cecily Glowik MacDonals and Melissa LaBarre, and Wrapped in Lace, by Margaret Stove. 

I've been eying both of these for quite a while! I think you know how obsessed I am by Stephen King books, and as most of his books are set in New England I have a pretty big obsession about this area as well. Some day I'll go see Derry in real life, and have Maine Lobster! Oh, and the patterns in this book are really pretty as well :)

I also got all of the Jack Whyte books on Camulod as well (Fantasy/History books, not related to knitting in any way), I've just started on the second one. Lots of people think I'm really weird and un-girly to read horror and fantasy as much as I do, but I really don't see it that way. Why should fantasy be a boy thing?! It's way too good to allow the boys to hog this genre. I guess I'm just a nerd at heart :)

And speaking of Fantasy: I subscribe to monthly audiobooks from audible.co.uk, and this month I got Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon. Has anyone read this series? Is it any good? I haven't started listening to it yet, I'm still on a collection of short stories about Vampires, called Fangs, edited by Otto Penzler. This is the third collection on Vampires he's edited, the first one is called Bloodsuckers and the second one is called Coffins. All of them have been really good! I love short stories in general, and these books contain lots and lots of really good authors. I mostly prefer my vampires to be scary and nasty and evil (as opposed to loving and erotic - although I like Anne Rice and her Lestat series), and there are lots of really nasty vampires in these books :)

Yesterday when I got home from work I had gotten a very, very lovely package in the mail, from TessVintageKnits in England:

She had RAK'ed me (you know, the Random Acts of Kindness group I'm in on Ravelry) an awesome box filled with Reese's Peanut Butter Chocolate! Yay! I just can't seem to get enough of this chocolate, it's just sooooo good! Otherwise I mostly prefer dark, not so sweet chocolate, but I think the salty combination of peanut butter and super sweet milk chocolate has seduced me. It will last me a pretty long time (I hope...), and I'm so grateful!

Now Thomas has finally woken up and I think we'll have some breakfast (for him) and lunch (for me)!

/ Jenny