Back to our regular schedule!

Knitting and Crochet Blog Week was fun and awesome as always, and I'm really glad I managed to participate all week last week! Mimi over at EskiMimi Makes is an awesome person, and her blog is one of the prettiest I know. It's so cool of her to organize this event each year, and I be even bigger next year, when it's the fifth anniversary.

Yesterday was something which is called Valborgsmässoafton (according to my dictionary, it's translated into Walpurgis Night, which is a German term originally), which is celebrated in the northern parts of Europe. I think that in "heathen times", this was a rite to celebrate the spring equinox, but once the Christians arrived and started baptising people, it got mashed up with the celebration of Saint Valborg (which is the swedification of the name Walpurgis). Now we just light big bonfires and have fireworks. It's supposed to be to frighten away all the witches that fly away on their brooms to celebrate with the devil. In the western part of Sweden, where I come from originally, we don't really celebrate Valborg much, but we have the fires and fireworks on Easter instead. Here in the eastern part of Sweden, Valborg is celebrated much more, and is unfortunately intimately connected with teen drunkenness. Well, actually, that part we have in western Sweden as well..

And today, the day after Valborg, we have the day off. It's a national Union day, and when socialism took it's hold of the country in the beginning of the last century, this was a day for demonstrations. It still is, to a big extent, and there are often May 1st walks in many cities, to protest against different stuff. I have never taken part in any, but it's nice to have the day off from work. It's supposed to get pretty warm today too (around 15 Centigrades), so Thomas has planned to barbecue. I plan on sitting in the sun knitting, and possibly do a little bit of gardening.

And speaking of gardening: In January we got connected to the communal sewage system (we had our own well before that), which meant that we got the hole garden dug up. Since then it's been either snowy and cold (so we couldn't see the ugliness), or wet and incredibly muddy (so we couldn't start fixing it). Now it's starting to dry up, and hopefully the digger guys will come back to help us fix it (we're just waiting for an estimate, to see how much it will cost us). I can't wait to have a pretty lawn again!

Ok, on to the knitting! I've actually been doing stuff this past week, I've just been too tired after work to make double blog posts. I haven't finished any more stuff since the last time, but I have started something. As I was writing about the Carousel socks, I decided that those needed to be my May striping project. I cast on early last week, and I've already finished the first one!

It is knit with Regia Design Line Kaffe Fassett yarn (75 % superwash wool/25 % nylon, 210 m/50 g), in the colourway Exotic Pool  04453. I'm not too sure that I like the colours knit up, but they are ok I guess. I love knitting these socks though, the design is pretty ingenious! They are turning out just a little bit long in the foot, so I'm going to give them to my mom when I see her next. She saw the photo of the socks from the pattern that I posted last week and really liked them, so I think she'll be happy. Although mine are nowhere near as nice as the pattern ones!

I also got some yarn in the mail this week. I finally got my Fibernymph Dyeworks yarn that I ordered a while ago (and there might be one more skein coming...), and I am very happy with it. Both skeins are in the Bedazzled base (75 % superwash merino/20 % nylon/5 % stellina, 401 m/100 g), the first one is in the colourway Leprechaun socks:

Can you tell why I love this skein! I'm a sucker for green, and this skein just screamed my name. The next colourway is Froot Loops, and it is just so much fun:

The stripes in this skein are just so silly and awesome! I'm very, very pleased that I managed to get both of these skeins, as it is really difficult to catch any at the updates. I think one of these might be the next stripy socks, if I don't decide to start with the Friday Studios Hunger Games yarn I got a couple of weeks ago. Me and Tammi over at Life and Yarn or Yarn and Life have been talking about a KAL with this yarn, so that might start soon.

I also happened to see that Garnkorgen had finally gotten a new shipment of MadelineTosh yarns last weekend (I get their news on Facebook. Which might be a bad idea...), so I also got four skeins of Vintage (100 % merino, 183 m/aprox. 100 g), in the colourway Copper Penny:

I'm thinking of making a February Fitted Pullover with this, but I haven't really decided yet. As I think I might have miscalculated a little bit, I'm not sure if I'll have enough for a full sweater, so I'm actually contemplating getting another skein or two. I actually have a birthday coming up at the end of May, so maybe I'll wish for some yarn money. As if I need more yarn...

This past weekend I picked up my Parcel sweater again, it has been neglected for quite a while now. I made it past the bottom ribbing, and I have just started the waist decreases.

It's made with Garnstudio Drops Lima yarn (65 % wool/25 % alpaca) in DK weight, and I really like it. I was afraid that the alpaca would make it too fuzzy to see the cables, but that doesn't seem to be a problem. As I haven't gotten back to my Gördes socks yet, the sweater will probably become my evening knitting for a while.

Now I think it's time for breakfast, and I think I'll go outside and eat as the sun is shining. Let's hope spring is here to stay this time!

/ Jenny