Busy Holiday!

Wow, it's been a busy couple of weeks! I've been off work for 2.5 weeks now, and it's been full speed ahead all the time! The first week I spent at my parents' house, as I told you the last time. I've had time to visit some friends, and the closest relatives at least. I also managed to finish the Mystic Star shawl!

This is my first Knit & Knag pattern, and I have to say I'm even more smitten. I love almost all of Anna Dalvi's designs, and now I can say that they are very well written and easy to follow as well. I can't wait to cast on for another one! She has just published her first book, Shaping Shawls, and it has sooo many beautiful designs! I just want to finish the purple Panama shawl first though (designed by Monika Eckert, also a very talanted designer whose patterns are very easy to follow -  I'm a real fangirl today!).

Anyway, I love the Mystic Star shawl, since I finished my Evenstar a while back I've come to realize that I really like the circular shawl shape. And the yarn I used, Chili Gredelin Madame (45 % cashmere/55 % silk) is absolutely dreamy. I find that the edges of the shawl don't want to stay in their perfect, pointy shape, and I'm not sure if it's the yarn or the pattern, but I don't really mind. It looks awesome anyway :)

Me, my sister and my parents also took a trip to Gothenburg to visit Liseberg, Sweden's largest amusement park. Gothenburg is about 60 km from where my parents live, so when we grew up, me and my sister used to visit Liseberg at least once a year. When we were young we rode every attraction, but as I've grown older I find I can't handle the things that rock or spin. So now I just go on the roller-coasters that go fast. But this time we didn't go on any rides, just played the different game wheels and did some people-watching. And we came home with some chocolate winnings...

That's 2 kg of milk chocolate, 2 kg of Toblerone almond chocolate, 2 kg of Dumle chocolate (toffee filled choclate pralines), and assorted smmaller winnings (including a stuffed panda!). We are now set for chocolate for the rest of the year, I think! Sure, we spent some money on the wheels, but all in all I think we came out ahead :)

On Saturday 6th of August, my best friend Christine got married! Me and her two sisters were bridesmaids (I was the maid of honour!), so we spent the entire day with Christine. We met up at the hair-dresser, who fixed Christines hair beautifully, and the make up girl came there a bit later and made Christine even more pretty. 

Me, Madde and Michaela (the sisters) made each others' hair and our own make-up, and made sure Christine had everything she wanted (like chips, grapes and soda). It was really nice, and we were in no hurry so we all felt pretty relaxed when we finally arrived at the wedding venue (including Christine, I think). Once at the set, we met up with the groom, the best man and the two ushers, and had our photos taken. I managed to get some photos, with my own camera, of me and Christine, and she's wearing the shawl I made for her!

The ceremony went very well, and Christine even managed to sing a song for Martin (the groom, obviously). I tell you, there weren't many dry eyes in the room by then! The dinner and party afterwards vas very nice, with lots of good speaches and LOADS of great food. I even managed to get a few laughs during my speach (Intentional, of course!). All in all, I'd say that the happy couple was very pleased with the day!

The day after we were finally back in Linköping, and the week after was spent fixing things in the cabin. Thomas' father came here to help us this past weekend, and we've managed to clean out all the stuff we didn't want to keep. When we bought the place, we got it with all the furniture and stuff in it, and let me tell you that the woman who owned it before us had probably never thrown anything away before! We shipped a full truckload of stuff to the waste station, and another truckload to a local flea market. But it felt very good! Now it's almost spartan in there, but we will remedy that once the renovating is done. We've started to put plaster on the walls, and tomorrow we're going to start painting the walls. Thomas and his father have also started to pull up the flooring in the attic, to try to pinpoint where the leaking water is entering the house! So far, we don't know, but we're still searching. I'll show you photos once we're done with the cabin!

I haven't managed to knit very much lately, since my left arm has started to hurt. I think I have some kind of inflammation in the elbow joint, and the arm is pretty much useless. I have a doctor's appointment on Friday, hopefully they can tell me what's wrong. I want to knit! I've made some progress on the Rusted Root t-shirt, I have about one more repeat of the lace pattern until I start the ribbing:

Then it's just the collar ribbing and the arms left, so it should be done pretty quickly. Then I think I'll focus on some socks! I still haven't finished the Wrought Iron knee socks, but I'm passed the heel on the second sock so they should be finished pretty soon. I think I forgot to tell you, but I also started a new pair of socks to have something more mindless to work on, the Spring Socks form the 10 patterns collection. There doesn't seem to be a ravelry link for the individual socks, so you'll have to look at the 10 patterns page. It's the 7th sock photo from the top, the bright pink ones. I'm making them in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock yarn, colourway Aslan. It's the same yarn I used for my Kai-Mei a while ago, and those socks are fabulous! Still amazingly soft after lots of use, and pretty much no wear and tear. I think these will be a good work-knit when I go back to work next week.

The other night while me and Thomas were having dinner in front of the TV, we were watching the show Dirty Jobs, with Mike Rowe. In this episode, he visited an alpaca farm and helped with the shearing, and I was reminded of my bag of wool! I got it from my parents the Christmas before last, and I started taking care of it last summer. It's about a kilo of completely untreated wool, more or less straight off the sheep. So last summer I washed it, and started with the teasing (teasing means separating the locks in preparation for carding). But it's a sort of fussy job, and you almost have to sit outside to do it since there is a bit of shedding involved, and since the weatehr wasn't fabulous last summer I just didn't finish. The weather has been pretty sucky all of my vacation, with pretty low temperatures and not much sun, but yesterday I sat down anyway to make some headway. I have finished teasing at least two thirds of it, and that doesn't bother my arm too much either. I just want to get it done so I can start with the carding! I bet carding would really hirt my arm right now though, si I think I'd better get that sorted first. The wool is white and pretty, and I bet I'll have a great time dyeing it as well!

The photo on top shows the teased wool, that's the one in the paper bag. The photo on the bottom shows the washed, but un-teased wool beside the paper bag, in the white basket.

Tomorrow me and Thomas have our fourth wedding anniversary, and we're going out for a restaurant dinner, and possibly a movie too. We know for certain that it will be a relaxing day without renovating!

Until next time!

/ Jenny

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

What a weekend!

Well, I can definitely say that I don't feel rested after this weekend! But it was soooo worth it! On Friday me and Thomas went to dinner at our good friends Jenny and Tomas (very original name combo, don't you think?). Jenny moved to Amsterdam this spring, and I haven't seen her since and it was so much fun to catch up! The other guests were Klara and Micke, and Klara has been living a year in Liverpool, so I don't see her very often either. Seeing the both of them made me realize just how much I miss them! We sat and chatted and laughed until 2 a.m., which is really late for me! Especially as I get up at 6 a.m. to get to work... I forgot to bring my camera, so no photos from this evening.

Yesterday I slept in a bit, and in the evening me and Anna went to visit our good friend Ulrika for a knit night. We had wine (well, I drove my car, so I didn't have any wine) and lots and lots of great cheese and crackers, and knit a bit too. It was so much fun, it seems like I haven't seen either of them in way too long! Ulrika is just the most giving and generous person I know, and she had gotten me a belated birthday gift. It was a beautiful, silky project bag, filled with goodies!

First, I got two skeins of GORGEOUS silk yarn that I'm still a bit overwhelmed about. They are just amazing! It is Alchemy Silk Purse yarn, in colourway Persephone's Pomegranate. It is 100 % silk, 150 meters/50 grams.

Isn't it just to die for! The colour name is really great, as it really looks like pomegranate juice. I'm thinking of turning it into this:

Marmalade shawl

Photo borrowed from Ravelry

The next thing I picked up out of the bag was a very cute pattern keeper! These are two magnet strips that are covered in fabric, and you clamp them aroud your pattern chart to know where you are. I've been eye-ing these at various Etsy stores, but haven't gotten around to buying any yet. This is awesome!

Then there was a very pretty fragrance pouch filled with lavender, that immediately went into my yarn stash:

Next there was a needle case in a very pretty, pale green silk fabric. I've put all my KnitPicks Harmony dpn's in it, and it is just perfect! I love that I don't need to bring my big plastic bag that I got from KnitPicks along with the needle set everywhere I go! This case is so much more portable and a lot smaller.

Finally, there was a super-cute key-charm: The VooDoll Princess Lalita. 

There was a card with the doll that explains what she does: "Princess Lalita will give you fabulous magnetism. She is hot and mysterious like an arabian night. She can be seductive and adorable but also ruthless against her rivals. She is an exotic Femme Fatale who always appear in men's dreams. Her beauty will make them mad with desire." Then there is a spell that you can read while holding her, to transfer her powers to yourself. Absolutely awesome! It's currently attached to my cell phone, but I think I'll put it on my purse strap instead as I tend to put my phone in my back pocket and it kind of hurts when I sit on the doll :) Plus, I don't think that she will lend me her powers if I sit on her all the time!

I just felt completely overwhelmed by all these gifts! We had a blast the entire evening, just chatting about everything and even managing to get some knitting done too! At the end of the evening Ulrika's 13 year-old daughter Kajsa sat and chatted with us too, we talked a lot about the Twilight books and movies as she's a die-hard fan. I listened to the audio books a while ago, very reluctantly, but I have to admit that they kind of grew on me. I'm not much for that kind of pining romanticism, but the vampire parts of the story was ok. So we discussed those books, and vampires in general (as I really love vamp-lit, I'm a sucker that way). It was a real treat, and we ended up staying until almost 2 a.m. (again!). So another late night for me.

Cheese and crackers galore!

Ulrika and Anna knitting away

When we were just about to leave Ulrika remembered that she had a bag of yarn that she wanted to give away, and Anna immediately said that she didn't wear that colour. So I went home with seven HUGE skeins of 100 % Bamboo yarn in a lovely, lavender colour!

I think this might be South West Trading Company Bamboo yarn, as that is the only bamboo yarn on Ravelry that fits the information on the bag! The bag is bought at discontinued yarn brand store, and there were no label bands on the skeins. It's 1600 meters in total, and I'm going to use it for the Tunic Dress that I got the pattern for in the summer edition of Debbie Bliss Magazine.

Photo borrowed from Ravelry

The pattern is written for a 100 % silk yarn, but that would be a bit out of my price range. bamboo seems to behave a bit like silk, and I swatched this morning to see if it would be a good substitute. I had to go down a needle size (from 4 mm to 3 mm), but that just made the knitted fabric look better. It is going to be soooo pretty, I'm almost itching to cast on right away! But I think I want to finish the Paper Dolls top first.

Today has been a slow day, but we managed to get to the cabin for a few hours to mow the lawn and just check on it. It seems like the rain we've been having hasn't leaked through the roof too much, which was good. I also picked almost two litres of gooseberries, so tomorrow I'll make a pie with them (I've been too tired today). 

When we got home Thomas made the best fish soup that I've ever tasted, which was absolutely awesome! I crashed on the couch and slept for an hour or so, and now it's almost bedtime for me. It's been a busy busy weekend, but I think I haven't had this much fun in ages!

I'll be back later next week with some knitting-related news!

/ Jenny

Another FO bites the dust!

Or rather, another FO done! I just cast off the Kai-Mei socks! 

I love them! And they are just for me! They are made with 1.1 skein of Lorna's Laces Shepherd sock yarn, in colourway Aslan. I have another 1.9 skeins left of the yarn, which means I can make another pair of socks from it. Yay! Anyway, the socks are really comfortable and soft, and I bet they'll get incredible after I wash them. I generally don't block my socks, as they just get unblocked every time I need to wash them, but these look really good even fresh off the needles.

Yesterday my mother-in-law and youngest brother-in-law came to visit, so we spent last night at the cabin just barbecueing up some ribs with salad and corn on the cobs. The weather has been so great these past two weeks, so we're really taking advantage of it. Unfortunately my stomach gave up on me last night (again), so I've spent the better part of today just hanging out in the shade with my knitting. At least I've got a FO to show for it! Thomas, Annika and William went to Ikea and bought a couch-that-turns-into-a-bed (I don't know the english word for it, someone please educate me?) for the cabin. I'm very excited to go there to actually see it in person! 

However I'm planning on visiting Borås for a few days this week, as Thomas is going back to work tomorrow. I have some friends that I didn't get to see for Midsummer, so I thought I would g visit them while I still have some free days left (Christine, I'm looking at you). Also, our god-child Alex is turning one on Wednesday! I can't believe how fast time has gone past, it seems like it was just the other day that I got to see him for the first time! Apparently he's running around at full speed already! I'll try to get some photos of him and his brothers this time so I can show you the incredible cuteness that they are!

Now I'm going to hang out with my brother-in-law (who actually asked if I could knit him a pair of socks, isn't he adorable! He's fourteen and just simply awesome), who's playing AVP on our X-box right now :)

/ Jenny

Hot hot hot!

I think we've had around 30 Centigrades today, it's been a real scorcher! Me and Thomas have spent the day at the cabin, just hanging out in the shade. And you know what: I finished the Gala shawl last night! It's been blocking today while we were away, and I just unpinned it!

It was a real hell to pin out! I love the look of it, and it feels ok to wear even though it is a little scratchy, but I think that will disappear with wear. I did hate working with the yarn (Pälsull from Östergötlands Ullspinneri) though, it was sooo splitty and shed a lot! It was a bit rough on my hands too, and I'm very glad to be done with it! It looks really pretty though, and the colour is probably my very favourite shade of green.

Now that I finished this one, I spent the afternoon working on the Kai-Mei socks. I'm just about to work the heel, so if I plug at it I should be done tomorrow or so. The FO's are just flying off the needles! I think that the India stole that I begun a while ago will take a little more time though. I'm really looking forward to working on that one again, as I really love that yarn (Chili Gredelin Simone).

Oh, and I almost forgot! My last yarn order for a while arrived in the mail on Thursday! Three gorgeous skeins of Wollmeise 100 % fingering weight, 150 g in each skein. 

Colourway Aquarius

Colourway Minze

I ordered these last Friday morning, just before we went to the cabin and I got my surprise party and gift, so I didn't know that I actually need to start saving my money! But this was my last purchase for a while! The only exception will be if Chili Gredelin updates her shop with some Madame yarn that I can't resist. So far the colours that have been up for sale this summer haven't really spoken to me though, which is just as good. Maybe there won't be any colours I like at all? I'm not sure which to hope for!

I spent the day photographing some of the amazing flowers that grow at the cabin. I just can't believe it's all ours! The greenery is just so pretty out there, and I'll share some of it with you now. I have no idea what any of them are named, especially not in english, but I know they are pretty!

/ Jenny

The cabin is ours!

Yesterday me and Thomas signed the papers for the cabin, so now it's officially ours! I feel so grown up, owning a property, but it is just so much fun! We're going to start with fixing a small leak in the roof, and then move on to tearing down all the 20 layers or so of old wall papers to put up some new ones. It seems that all the previous owners have just put up new wall paper on top of the old one, and now it's really showing. We're thinking white in the main room, and probably something blue and possibly flowered in the kitchen. Tonight we're going to buy some cleaning gear and stuff, and spend all of tomorrow just cleaning and fixing stuff.

I also got some yarn in the mail this week! On Monday my latest purchase from Nyansera arrived. Jenny, the owner of Nyansera (doesn't she have a beautiful name?), is going to publish her new shawl pattern in the near future, and she posted a photo of her first finished prototype the other day. She had knitted it in her new line of yarn called Takino (80 % merino/20 % bamboo lace yarn) in a colourway called Enchanted Forest, and I immediately fell in love. So I ordered two skeins, and the first arrived on Monday.

Isn't it gorgeous?! I love it, and the yarn is very soft and very shiny. I'm going to turn it into the Mystic Roses shawl, another of Anna Dalvi's designs.

Photo borrowed from Ravelry

Today my latest purchase arrived too. I ordered 7 skeins of Rowan Silk wool DK yarn from Garnkorgen that I intend to turn into the Silken Scabbard sweater. The yarn was on sale since it will now be discontinued at Garnkorgen, so I bought all the skeins they had. Unfortunately this won't be enough for the whole sweater, so I've also ordered some more skeins from Colourway in the UK.

Siken scabbard photo borrowed from Ravelry

Other than that I haven't done much but knit on the Gala shawl this week. I've almost finished the first skein, so I'm almost ready to start the edging. I can't wait to finish it so I can block it and show it to you, as the unblocked shawl looks like a frumpy lump right now.

/ Jenny

Long absence!

It's been almost a week since I wrote here! All I can say is that I've just been too busy and tired. Work is starting to get crazy now that the summer has started, so I'm just so beat when I get home in the afternoons. But work is also lots of fun, and I'm starting to learn the ropes now so it's becoming more intuitive. 

This past Friday I got some yarn in the mail (are you surprised that I'm buying yarn?)! I got my first shipment of the Nyansera summer yarn club. The yarn is Sundari 4-ply silk yarn (100 % silk, 400 m/50 g), and the colourway is called Spicemarket:

I love this yarn! And I really like the idea of a yarn club, where I don't know what yarn or what colour I will get. I think I'll see if I can buy another skein of this yarn, to get a bit more yardage and make a larger shawl of it.

I also got my latest Wollmeise purchase, two GORGEOUS skeins of 100 % superwash merino sock yarn (526 m/150 g) in colourway Sabrina:

I can't begin to tell you how much I love this colour, the photo doesn't do it justice at all. It's a greenish turquoise, and it is very very soft. I haven't decided what I'm going to make from it yet, but I'm pretty certain it will be shawls. Probably more than one shawl, as I have 300 g of it!

Oh, and speaking of Wollmeise: I've decided to keep my red lace yarn. I'm going to turn it into an Evenstar Mystery shawl, I'm just waiting for the pattern to be released. Well, I might not start on it this month anyway, because I'm knitting on so many other projects right now. I need to finish some other stuff first :)

Wollmeise Lace garn, colourway We're Different Sanguinello

Evenstar Mystery shawl, photo borrowed from Ravelry

On Saturday my parents and my grandfather and his girlfriend (they're not married, so I guess she is a girlfriend? They've been together for about ten years though, so I would call it pretty serios even though they don't live together) came here for a visit. They wanted to celebrate my birthday and my sister's graduation. She's finally done with her teacher's degree, and she's already landed her first job! She's going to work for a year at a high school (swedish gymnasium) in Västervik, whish is about an hour and a half away by train I think. I'm so proud of her!

Anyway, we all went out to look at our cabin (we haven't actually bought it yet, I'll get to that later), and they all seemed to love it! My father was a bit worried that we hadn't realised how much work that we need to do it, but there aren't a lot of stuff that needs to be done immediately. We're just going to renovate it when we have time and can afford it, so it will definitely be a work in progress. But that's kind of the idea with it, both me and Thomas really feel that we want a project that we can work on together.

The reason that we haven't actually bought the cottage yet, is that Kristina (the current owner of the house, she's Thomas' grandfather's sister) suffered a terrible loss last week as her husband very suddenly passed away. We really feel for her, and of course we're in no hurry to get the deeds to the house. Especially since we can go there pretty much as much as we like already, as we're family. Thomas was actually there yesterday together with the chimney sweeper people, to look at the wood stove and chimney. Everything seems to be fine, so we're happy about that too.

Tthis weekend I got the wonderful opportunity to do yet anohter test knit for Cheri/dartfrog911! Do you remember that I test knitted her pattern Spring Thaw earlier this spring? This is what my finished Spring Thaw lookes like, and I really really love it!

As she had another pattern that needed to be tested I immediately volunteered to do it, so now I've cast on for yet another shawl. The pattern is called Gala shawl, and Cheri's finished shawl looks like this:

Isn't it pretty! I love the edging, but I have to say that the body is really growing on me too. I love the lines of yarn-overs between the leaves, it makes it look really airy. I'm making mine in a swedish 100 % wool garn from Östergötlands Ullspinneri (Östergötland is the county where I'm in, Ullspinneri means Wool spinnners). The yarn is called Pälsull and has 600 m/100 g skein. I haven't taken any photos of my work in progress yet, so you'll have to make do with a photo of the yarn :)

I really really like how this yarn knits up in this pattern! I started the Twinkle Twinkle little Star shawl with this yarn, but it didn't look good with all that stockinette stitch. But in this pattern it works, and I'm really happy with it! The test knit for the Spring Thaw shawl took me ages, as I knitted on it when I was so sick this spring, but I'm hoping this Gala shawl will be done much faster.

And speaking of sick: I bet you're wondering why I'm at home at 8.00 on a Tuesday morning? Yes, you guessed it: My stomach is really on the fritz today. So I had to call in sick, as I can hardly leave the bathroom. Hopefully it will be over soon, so I can get to work tomorrow again. I really hate having to call in sick!

And I almost forgot! This past Saturday was also Word Wide Knit in Public Day (WWKIP)! Linköping Knitters gathered in the city park to have a knit fest, but we actually had to move indoors after a while as it was just too cold to sit outside. So we went to a café that is located in the park, and sat there and just knitted and chatted away. It was very fun, although I only stayed for little over an hour as my parents were visiting.

Finally, I've decided to sort of skip the Creativity boot camp for a while. I'm just too tired when I get home from work, so I've decided to do it next week when I go on vaccation leave for four weeks. I'll have a lot more time then, to focus on my designing skills. And speaking of that, I actually have a finished swatch to show you! This is the first I've done that I've designed myself, and I'm actually pretty proud of myself. I call it The Ivory Tower:

It's knitted in a cheap cotton/bamboo/acrylic yarn called Järbo Tropik, but it's very very soft and I actually rather like it. I could very well use this for socks in the future (although I don't have any more of it, so maybe somday far, far into the future) as the bamboo gives it a very pretty shine. Anyhow, this swatch is the first of may to come, as I have several scetches that I want to try out, but right now I don't really have time.

And speaking of time: I think I'll have a lot of knitting time today, especially as Thomas is already on vaccation so he'll probably sleep until noon or so. I think I'll focus on the Gala Shawl!

/ Jenny