I know, I know

I know I already posted today, but I just had to show you this:

My very first, real amigurumi! It's a mushroom (or toadstool? I really don't know the difference...), and I think it turned out really great for a first time. I really don't count the little french guy I showed you a little while ago, since that one was done in scrap yarn and stuffed with another yarn... I added a key ring to the top of the mushroom, but I'm not sure if I'm going to keep it for myself yet. Possibly I'll give it to my uncle, he has Down's syndrome and is basically like a little kid. I gave him the little french guy (but without the hat, so I guess i gave him a cat), and he absolutely loved it. He has been quite sick lately, so anything I can do to cheer him up is fine. He lives in Borås though, and I don't really know when I'm going to visit there again, but I guess sometime this fall. That just means I'll have more time to make more of them.

Now, I'm going to watch Watchmen with my hubby! Happy Saturday night to all of you!

/ Jenny

Knitting (and frogging) progress

I've finally approved the printing of my thesis book, so now I have almost nothing to do at work (except planning the seminar, of course). So I've been able to knit a lot. Unfortunately, I've also frogged a lot... I decided to add some cabels on the tunic, because after knitting the lace shawl I felt I would grow bored with that much plain knit knitting (it's knitted in the round so there aren't even any purl stitches). Stupidly I didn't check the pattern closely enough, so I placed the cables too close to the sides, where the increases for the waist would go. So after knitting at least 10 cm, I had to frog everything. Again. I think that was the third time. Or fourth. Now I've done about 5 cm, and it looks like this.

I also have avid help from Hobbe, who doesn't mind getting some yarn in the face every now and then. He has himself to blame for curling up in my lap while I knit. I'm not complaining, though, it's really supercozy. Although I have to say that it is kind of hard, because Gizmo used to lie in my lap while I knitted, and this reminds me so much of him. I just can't believe how much I miss that little cat, and it's almost been a year since he died.

On a much happier note, the socks are coming along nicely. I haven't finished the first yet, probably because I've spent so much time on the tunic, but it looks like this now. I think it is very pretty, and I can't wait for the weather to cool down so I can wear them (although I have to finish them first...).

Yesterday I inventoried all my yarn as well, and except what is on the needles, this is all my yarn:

I actually don't think it's very much, at least not compared to what many other knitters in the blog world seem to have. I have aslo decided to get rid of most of my acrylics, and since some people on my RAK (random acts of kindness) group on Ravelry whished for just acrylics, I figured I could kill two flies with one stone and send some of it to new, loving homes. I think I will just save enough to make the colour pattern swatches in the knitting book I'm using to learn techniques. If I don't save enough, I always have an excuse to buy more yarn :)

I have also decided to start a new project: A needle storage unit I found here. I think it was very smart, and the only problem is that I don't own any 100 % wool that is not superwash, so I don't have any yarn that will felt. Oh well, another reason to visit the yarn shop soon. I don't think it will be before the end of the month though, as I don't have very much money left.

As I've probably mentioned, the museum where my husband works has an exhibit on knitting during the summer. And to support this they also have various knitting activities like knitting cafés and such. This Tuesday they had a "learn to crochet" class for two hours, which I promptly joined. It was so much fun, and I finally understood what I have always done wrong. When you knit a piece and turn it, you do some extra loops, to gain the hieght of the new row. I always thought that this meant that I had to skip as many stitches when I began the new row, which made me lose stitches every row, and everything I crocheted came out as triangles instead of squares... Stupid, but now I know. So when I came home I found an easy pattern for grandma squares (are they called that in english? I don't really know), and proceeded to make one. It turned out pretty great for a first time, if I say so myself! So now I don't think there will be any problems crocheting some more amigurumi toys!

I'll keep knitting on the tunic now, I'll be back another day with progress (hopefully)!

/ Jenny

Transformer

I just had to show you: Do you remember the first crochet ball I made a couple of days ago? My husband found it, and immediately decided it would lok good as a beret on the crochet cat I made... So now it's not a cat any more, it's a little french guy! The fringed whiskers I gave the cat actually looks more like a moustache anyway, so this little beret just completed the transformation!

Now we (and by we I mean husband) are going to turn on the barbecue and cook up some meat!

/ Jenny

Stuffed animals

I haven't really knitted anything more since yesterday, but I got inspired by my crochet success. So I proceeded with the little ball I made yesterday, which was actually a head, and made this!

The photo is a little dark, but it's an amigurumi cat, and I actually think it's pretty neat. I didn't have any cotton or similar to stuff it with, so right now it's stuffed with more yarn (a cheap grey wool yarn I had in my stach), but I think it looks ok anyway. It wasn't at all hard to do, so I think I will have to buy more acrylic yarn to make the rest of the figures in the book.

When I took the photo of the cat, I remembered that I had actually made a stuffed toy before. When I just started knitting, I found a kit for knitting Shaun the Sheep, from Wallace and Gromit, and it turned out ok. It is a little bit floppy, but for being practically my first knitting object, I'm quite proud.

Now, I'll continue with the shawl. I only have little over a week left of my vacation, so I have to finish it before I start working again, otherwise I think I will never finish it.

/ Jenny

Work in progress

Hi again!

I managed to get some photos of my shawl in progress. I read a discussion on Ravelry about different tips and resources related to knitting and crocheting, and someone suggested using bits of cut drinking-straws as very inexpensive stitch-markers. I tried it yesterday, and I found it worked fairly well. The one drawback is that the stitches have a slight tendency to slipping over the markers, so I think I might need somewhat larger markers after all. But the pieces of straw work for now.

I also started reading my two books on crocheting today (I picked the indroduction one up from my sister's earlier today), and made my first attempt at knitting a ball-like thingy (it was actually the "how-to" description in the Crochet amigurumi-book) in a very cheap acrylic yarn I had in my stach. And it was a complete success, I couldn't be more satisfied with it! So now I'll have to find some more, similar yarn that is not minty green, to make all of the little animals in the book! And this fall there will be a swedish translation of this book, which tells you how to crochet zombies, robots, ninjas and other similar stuff! Talk about picture perfect for me! So I guess those will be my winter crochet projects.

I'll leave you with a photo of the finished potpuri bag I embroidered a while ago. I bought a tube of nice-smelling foot-cream and put in it, and gave it as a gift for my grandmother. She loved it and said she would put the bag up on the wall, so I'm pleased. I don't know that I will make any more embroidery-only projects, but now I know how to make the cross-stitches if I want to embroider something onto a knitted project. A friend of mine embroidered space invaders on a pair of dish towels, and a similar TV-game related project might suit me as well. That is the major advantage with the old-school TV-games: All the characters and stuff are very pixelated, which translates well into both embroidery and knitting. Here is the photo of the finished bag.

/ Jenny

Lazy...

Hi all!

I've not written anything for a while, I've just been too lazy. On Friday 17th, my parents came to Linköping, and on Saturday we all helped my sister and her boyfriend move. It was really exhausting, so yesterday I did mostly nothing. Me and my husband went to the post office and picked up my new knitting books, and they are great! They actually arrived at the post office last saturday, but since I had ordered them in my husband's name, and there is an ID check to collect the books, I couldn't pick them up until he came back from Borås.

I am most pleased with the Crochet Amigurumi book, it actually doesn't look that hard. So I guess I will be filling our apartment with little stuffed animals from now on, and all my friends and family will probably get one for christmas as well! The learning how to crochet book immediately migrated to my sisters new apartment (which I guess is ok, since we now live about 20 meters from each other, we're neighbours), so I guess she liked them too.

The shawl is coming along nicely. I think I have a little over 500 stitches on the needles now, and I saw yesterday that there will be 700 when it is finished. I only have 2 1/2 skeins of yarn left, however, so I think I will have to bye one or two more or I will run out. The pearls are looking great as well, and I went and bought some more on friday when my parents were in town. They are actually intended for scrap-booking and such, and I've bought them at the paper store so they are really cheap plastic I think, but they fit perfectly with the purple yarn so I don't care.

Oh, on Friday when me, my mom and my sister walked around in the center of the town, we found a new shoe store! So I immediately proceeded to buy two pairs, because they were REALLY cheap as well, and my sister bought three pairs for herself. Unfortunately, I now have blisters underneath my feet from another pair of shoes, so I have to wait for them to heal before I can use the new ones. But they were really nice, a pair of really bright red slippers with a tiny, 2 cm heel, and a pair of gorgeous green stilletoes with white dots on, that were open in the toe, with maybe 7 cm heel. I guess I have to throw out some old pairs soon, to find the space for all the new ones...

I'll see if I cant finish the shawl this week, so I'll have some photos to show you soon. Each row takes me forever now, since there are so many stitches, so I might be overly optimistic about that time frame.

/ Jenny

Just a quickie

Ok, so I just had to show off my bargain I found at Biltema (a swedish store selling tools, car-parts and hobby items, among other things): Now I can block everything I knit!

They are made in some foam-like material, and will be perfect for putting pins in.

Another summer project of mine (no rest for me during the vacation!) is to learn how to crochet. I think it looks like fun, and you can make such cute soft toys from crocheting. Also I bought my first embroidery kit today. It's a potpuri bag, and the pattern looked quite easy, some kind of lavender flower I think it was. It was a very cheap kit, which included the potpuri bag, a grid and all the thread needed. So my summer is really packed!

Now, for continued writing. And also, Anne of Green Gables is on TV...

/ Jenny