I'm not even going to bother making excuses

It's just been one of those months. I feel like I haven't had a day to relax in ages, which means that the blog has suffered a bit. Let's see if I can remember everything that has been happening around here since I last wrote (which was almost a month ago!)

On the last weekend of November I got a terrible cold, and spent the entire weekend knocked out on the couch. I was even too sick to knit much! No fun at all. I spent Monday at home too, but then got back to work. 

Then on the first weekend of December we went to Borås to watch the Christening ceremony of one of our friends' baby, Gustav. It was a beautiful ceremony in Brämhults church, and we got to see lots of friends that we don't meet very often at the celebratory gathering after the ceremony. Then that evening we visited my grandfather, who had a birthday party, and on Sunday before we went back to Linköping we visited Thomas' father and had a lovely dinner. A really busy weekend, without knitting practically anything.

Last weekend, which was the third of Advent, my mother came to visit. When she had her birthday back in October, me and my sister bought her concert tickets for a Christmas concert with two swedish musical artists, Peter and Matilda (who are cousins, by the way).  That's their official fan page, but I recommend watching one of their YouTube videos to actually hear them sing instead, this is by far my favourite one. They have had a Christmas show for three years running, and the past two years I've been there with Anna. This year I went with my mother and sister, and it was an amazing concert! Even though the weather has been war and rainy (and by warm I mean not below freezing), we aren't getting much in the way of Christmas spirit here. But the concert helped.

Then on Sunday, third of Advent, me and Thomas went to Mantorp to look at the house we want to buy again, and meet with the seller. We stayed for over two hours, and went through stuff like the heating system, water pumps and other such fun inventories. Anyway, it ended up with us signing the purchase contract on Monday, so now we're just waiting for the building inspection to pass, then we will own a house! This house, to be exact:

The inspection will take place on Tuesday this coming week, and if everything is ok we will be moving in at the beginning of April. I can't tell you how excited we are about this! It still feels a bit unreal, but the house is just so pretty and exactly what we want. I will be a lot closer to where I work, and Thomas will be very close to a very convenient train commute. Perfect! Plus, the house has an extra guest house in the yard, so if you ever want to come visit us in Sweden, you will have a place to stay :)

Then finally, this weekend, we spent yesterday in town buying the last Christmas gifts, then went to the cabin to close it  up for the winter, and then me and my sister made chocolate candy the entire afternoon and evening. Today has FINALLY been a day of rest, we've spent the day lounging on the couch watching the first of the Lord of the Rings movies and playing video games.

Last Christmas I got an unfinished Santa doll from Thomas' aunt. Her mother had started knitting it before she died, and Aunt Kerstin asked if I wanted to finish it. I felt really honoured by this, and as I really only needed to knit a small hat and finish the face, I of course accepted. So this past week I've been knitting a small red hat from stash yarn, and today I glued on some wool for hair and beard. I think it looks really cute!

And please excuse the harsh flash photography, it's just so dark here these days! As the weather is really crappy (it's not snowing, it's slushing), it's almost dark all day long too. Thankfully, on Thursday it will all turn around, as that is the longest night of the year on the northern hemisphere, and by the end of January I bet we will start to see the difference! January feels like a long way off though.

Oh, on Tuesday it was St Lucia day here in Sweden, which we celebrate with Lucia processions. This year too, the swedish TV station SVT aired a very pretty version of it, you can go and watch it here. The show will be up until the middle of January, so you have a while to enjoy it! I kind of miss my choir days, when I participated in lots of Lucia processions, but I enjoy it enough just to watch it too. And I get to sing along as much as I want!

Ok, Christmas next weekend! We will be going to Borås for the weekend, trying to squeeze in all of our families in the puny three days off from work we have. I'm not anticipating lots of rest, but hopefully some at least. And we will celebrate New Year's Eve here in Linköping, at our friends' Klara and Micke, which will be super fun! I'm really excited about that evening as we see them way too seldom!

There has been exceptionally little knitting this past month, but I've accomplished some at least. The first of the Ookuru socks is done, and the second is just past the heel:

I know I said I wanted to make these knee-highs, but I changed my mind when I saw the... interesting... pooling on them. Once again I'm making socks only a crazy knitted could love! So I think I will be able to make a third pair of socks from this yarn eventually. I have to admit I'm not overly fond of the yarn though, but the socks I made about a year ago have worn very well and they seem to be incredibly durable, probably due to the bamboo content in the yarn. But even after lots of wear, the socks are a bit on the stiff side. And they still bleed something terrible every time I wash them. But it sure is pretty though!

I also decided on a whim to start a new pair of mittens, and I chose the Ramona mittens by Laris designs. They are double knitted, and I'm making them with KnitPicks Palette yarn in colours Cream and Teal:

I'm a bit obsessed with double knitting right now, I've never done it before and it is so much fun! I love that the mittens are reversible, and twice as thick as ordinary. I'm almost up to putting the thumb on waste yarn, so about half-way on the first mitten. I'm very glad I started these though, as yesterday when we were out at the cabin, I managed to break my Cat mittens!

There is a huge hole on the thumb on one of the mittens, and as I have no idea how to darn it with two colours, I think I will rip the thumb up and re-knit it. I'm definitely not ready to throw the mittens away, as I LOVE them! But that will be a project for after the holidays, when I will hopefully have a whole weekend off some time!

I will try to get back to you with at least a short post about how the building inspection goes on Tuesday. And to wish you a Merry Christmas too, of course!

/ Jenny