Hello, all of you! It's been forever! How have you been? I know I've been off the grid for a while, but as the title of the post tells you, this time I have a valid excuse. I've been off sick from work for almost two months now, with a very messy stomach. Basically, my IBS stomach doesn't handle changes in my life very well, and we've been going through some major changes here these past months. Actually, in March, me and Thomas are going to be parents!
Yes, that's right. I'm pregnant! It's very exciting, but the hormones are really bad, and I've been constantly nauseous since the beginning of July. I don't have morning sickness, I have round the clock nausea! I'm getting really fed up with that, but I actually think it's starting to get a little bit better. I'm at almost 20 weeks, so I might actually have to feel like this all through the pregnancy, but now at least the rest of the stomach issues seem to have settled a bit. So I've been back at work for 1.5 weeks now, and it's ok. I'm tired as crap, but I might as well feel nauseous there as at home.
So other than feeling like crap, I've done almost nothing these past two months. I've been feeling too bad to knit much, but I have made some progress on stuff. The experiment socks I showed you last time are done, and I'm very pleased with them:
They're made with Friday Studios Saturday yarn (80 % superwash merino/10 % cashmere/10 % nylon), in the Hunger Games club colourway The 75th Arena. I really liked how the experimental pattern (every other stripe is stockinette, and every other stripe is seed stitch) turned out, and these socks are super soft! Now I kind of wish I had saved that skein for a baby item instead...
I also started a new pair of socks to bring to work (which I've barely touched, as I haven't been at work!), in Fibernymph Dyeworks Bounce yarn (80 % superwash merino/20 % nylon), in the colourway Rainbow Riot.
I'm making the Hermione's Everyday socks pattern, and I'm enjoying them, I just haven't felt good enough to work on them. Right now I spend my breaks at work eating stuff to try and stave off the nausea, so I have very little knitting time at work, and when I get home I mostly collapse on the couch. I call them my Pride socks, as I coincidentally started knitting on them around the same time as all the gay riots in Russia reached the media. It was purely by happenstance, but I firmly believe in everybody's right to love whomever they wish, so I don't mind.
And that's about all the knitting I've done! Once I start to feel better I'll start churning out baby clothes, and I really want to finish my Parcel sweater while I can still wear it. But right now, I've mostly gotten stuff in the mail. We have started putting more money away in preparation for increasing the family, so I haven't bought any yarn since I found out I'm pregnant. But I'm still in a couple of yarn clubs, so that yarn is still arriving.
I've actually gotten two new skeins from the Knitting Goddess, in the 7 Degrees of Kevin Bacon sock club. First, at the end of August, the colourway Tarnished Crown (which is from The King's Speech movie), arrived:
Then at the end of September, I got a skein in the colourway Bruise (which is from Fight Club), which is a little more purple than in the photo:
Both are, as usual, in the Knitting Goddess 4ply merino sock yarn, and I like them both a lot. The patterns that go along with them are as usual very pretty (the designer, CoopKnits, is amazing). I don't know if there will be a new club next year, but since we're saving up money I won't be joining. I'll probably get the patterns once they are released to the public though.
I've also gotten the last two shipments in the Mad Color Fiber Arts Mad Geek Tour yarn club, this time with the Into the Black theme (which I think I've told you is Firefly). The August shipment was a skein of Slink (75 % superwash merino/15 % nylon/10 % tencel), and the colourway is called She'll Fool Ya. It's nice, but a bit too colourful for me, especially since it's not striping but variegated. I've no idea what to make of it, but it will probably mature in the stash for a while.
Last week I got the September shipment from this club too, and as this was the last shipment there was also a JessaLu project bag with it. The yarn is Tasara (80 % superwash merino/20 % silk), and the colourway is called Fruity Oaty Bar.
It's insane! I like this better than the last one, but I have the same problem with this skein. It's too much clown barf, so it'll also sit in the stash for a while. The best part of this shipment is that the bag actually matches the skein!
It's got all the characters from the Fruity Oaty Bar commercial from the movie, and it's so much fun. I think that the next club round will be Alice in Wonderland, but I'll skip this one too. I've liked to be in this club, but I think too many of the yarns have been a bit too colourful for me. I'm just not that into variegated yarns, I've come to prefer striping sock yarn.
The last skein of yarn to arrive was the October shipment in the Cookie A sock club, and this was a skein of Pagewood Farm Glacier Bay yarn (100 % merino), in the colourway Cape Cod Cranberry:
It's a very pretty, deep brownish red, and I like it a lot. It's a 155 g skein, so there is a lot of yarn! The patterns are really pretty this month too, which I'm very glad for since I've found that the previous months haven't been really what I had expected. I'm a big fan of Cookie A, but I think I've found that to my taste, there has been a bit too much lace in this club's patterns. I won't be joining this club next year either, as it is pretty expensive, but if you're interested I think the sign-ups starts some time in November.
I'm also in a new club that I'm not sure I've told you about. At the beginning of the summer I found the Bling Your String shop on Etsy, and she has a project bag club. It wasn't very expensive, and it runs for three months (August - October). I've gotten my two first shipments, and the theme is animals.
The first one is a little bit pale to my taste, but the second one (with a matching notions pouch included!) is gorgeous! It's a very fun club, although I think I might not have signed up if I knew that we needed to save more money, but I'm enjoying it. The last shipment will be here at the end of the month, and then I only have club yarn coming until the end of the year.
Oh, that turned out to be a long post! And considering I have been doing almost nothing, I managed to babble on quite a while. At the end of September I spent a couple of days at my parents' house, and we went to a Queen tribute concert with a Swedish musical star named Peter Johansson. My sister also joined us for the weekend and the concert, and we managed to get to a local market fair as well. I made my very first baby purchase:
Yes, it's going to be a Metal baby. Are you surprised?
I'll try to be back sooner next time, but depending on my health I'm not making any promises. But now you know why!
/ Jenny
