Lots of random musings

Hi all! I hope you're having a great weekend! I've had a really relaxing weekend, with lots of fiber-related stuff happening. On Friday afternoon I first went to the post office to pick up my last Christmas book. I present to you: The Enchanted Sole, by Janel Laidman.

This is of course a sock book, and all the patterns are based on different fairytales and stories. I love it, and the socks are all so beautiful! I'll have to finish my Cookie A. socks soon, so I can cast on for another pair from this book :)

Then on Friday night I went to a knitting café, and although I didn't have time to stay very long, it was so nice to meet all the knitters and just chat for a while. I love having a knitting café on Fridays, it just feels like you get to wind down a bit after a whole work week.

And yesterday me, Ulrika and Lovisa went to Anna for a wine, cheese and knit-night. We had so much fun, and we ate so much cheese it was practically coming out of our ears :) And our Fairy Godmother Ulrika had brought some yarns that she was never going to use, and gave it to us other three to split. So I went home with two wonderful sock skeins:

Cherry Tree Hill Sockittome

Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock

Aren't they lovely! I'm thinking I should at least be able to make a small pair of socks from the Lorna's Laces skein, and the Cherry Tree Hill skein is 100 g so that should be enough for a bigger pair. Ulrika is just the sweetest thing, she very often bring us gifts like these :) We are just so grateful!

We've had a real cold spell here for a few days, but amazingly the sun has actually shown itself for a short time every day. So yesterday I went outside and got some photos of the Aeolian shawl in natural daylight! Finally! I just love this shawl so much, and I've almost finished the fingerless gloves as well. So next week I'll get to wear the set together.

On a more boring note: I'm not all that happy with the green cardigan after all. First of all I've made the collar a bit too wide, but if this waqs the only probem I think I could have lived with it. But it's just so soft that it's sort of shape-less, so when I wear it without buttoning it, it just flops around. And I think I've added too few buttons, as there are huge gaps between them when I close it. I got a tip that you can make a single chain of crochet on the inside of the button bands, to add some strenght to it, so I think I'll try that. Otherwise I think I might have to frog it. Again. Maybe I should just work from a pattern instead ? Here it is during blocking:

I'll get back to you and tell you what I decide, ok?

And finally: Tonight I close the competition, so tomorrow I'll draw a winner and tell you about it. Very exciting!

/ Jenny

Soon I get to go to a knitting café!

But first I thought I would share a small update with you: I'm now on Flickr! I know that my brother-in-law set up a Flickr account so that all our wedding guests could view some of our photos, but I've never used it personally before. But Kate set up a Flickr group for the Adventures in Lace KAL, so of course I had to join! I only have the cheapo-version, so I can't upload very many photos each month, but I've selected a few goodies to start with. I think all of them have been shown here on the blog as well, but if you want to see them all in one go, feel free to have a look around!

This morning I went to listen to a dissertation that a study-budy from my time at the university was having. She was so calm and very good, and I think she could answer almost everything that the opponent threw at her. It was a very good dissertation, plus I got to knit for 2.5 hours! So now I've made 5 repeats of the first chart on the Echo FLower shawl, and can I tell you I LOVE this pattern! I think I told you yesterday, but it bears repeating. If you haven't seen this one, go have a look and knit it for yourself!

And in an hour, I get to go into town to meet up with all the other knitters! It's just so much fun to have a knitting group, and I've really made some new friends there (especially Anna, but Lovisa is getting closer and closer too...:) It's such a relaxed and mixed group, you really get all kinds of people in a group like that. The only thing all of us have in common is the love of fiber :)

/ Jenny

Knitting-intense week!

This is a very intense knitting week! Yesterday Anna showed up for lunch, and we ended up hanging out from noon until 19.30 in the evening, just chattering away and knitting all day long. It was so much fun, and so relaxed to just hang out and actually get to know one another a bit better. We only met this september, I think, so we really haven't known each other for long. But it's funny how close we've gotten in this short time, we just have so much in common! Oh, and while she was here the mailman came by and handed me two package notes, so we took a walk to the post office to collect my two yarn packages. I got a small one from The Scandinavian Knitting Desigh shop in England, containing two more skeins of the Symfoni yarn from Lövegarn (100 % Merino wool), that I'm using for my top-down bolero/cardigan that has been hibernating for a while, waiting for the yarn to arrive.

I actually frogged the whole cardi last night, as I found several little things about it I didn't really like. The arm holes were too wide, the button holes were ugly, it was a bit too wide and so on. Iäm definitely going to remake it though, as I loved the design, and since the yarn is so chunky it knits up really fast.

The second package I got was from a woman I met on Ravelry, pixie-knitter, who sold me 18 skeins of Ivory-coloured KnitPicks's Main Line yarn (75 % cotton/25 % merino wool)! It was such a fun package, and I love the yarn. I'm going to use some of it to contrast my green Main Line that I got from Ulrika a while ago, and make some scandinavian-patterned knee-high stockings, a hat and gloves for myself. I just have to finish some of the projects I'm currently working on first... The best part is that this yarn was one of the few exceptions I was allowed to make from my yarn diet, as I thought it might be a bit hard to get as Knitpick's has discontinued this particular brand.

This afternoon there was a knitting café at Garnverket, and I tell you we were so many that we filled up the whole store! It was so much fun, and so cozy! The two hours we were there just flew by! I bought five more skeins of the Sarek yarn from Marks & Kattens, the yarn I'm using for the lettuce coat (as I've run out after finishing both arms, and it still hardly reaches my waist... And this doesn't count as breaking the diet either, as it was bought to finish an on-going project. The same goes for the Symfoni yarn!), and another GORGEOUS lace skein managed to follow me home. I present to you: Pälsblend yarn from Färgkraft:

It's a single-ply 100 % nordic wool that is hand-dyed in Sweden as well. The colour is called Trollskog (Troll forest), and it was just so gorgeous that I couldn't resist, yarn diet be damned! Eventually it will become a gorgeous shawl for me (I've heard that a girl can't have too many shawls, and seeing as I never wore a shawl until this summer I think I have some catching-up to do in the shawl department :)!

Oh, and this last Monday I cast on for my very gorgeous Candle Flame shawl that I told you about last time. I LOVE the Garnpaletten yarn, the subtle colour variation is so gorgeous, and the pattern is perfect for the yarn as well. I managed to find some tiny beads in my bead stash (yes I have a bead stash too) that were a perfect colour match, and although you can hardly see the beads in the photo, I'm telling you that they just hit the spot. As they are very tiny and perfectly colour-matched they are actually hardly visible at all, but just show up as sparkles. It looks so beautiful, if I say so myself.

And tomorrow we're going to have a sort of crafts-day with all the PhD students at our department, so I'll get to knit socially tomorrow too. We have had some evenings like this before, but it was a while ago now and it will be a lot of fun (especially as I'm now considered the expert knitter among us :), and probably a lot of eating as well. We're going to make scones and there will be lots of goody cheese and marmalades, which is perfect for a knitting evening! And on Friday there is a knitting café as well, so as I said: A lot of knitting this week. Maybe I'll even finish some projects this week (knock on wood)!

/ Jenny

New project started

This weekend was really great! Me and my husband went to a spa in Vadstena, a town about 3 miles from Linköping, and it was so relaxing! They had saunas, a hot-tub, and a very nice relaxation section where you could just hang around in your robe and eat fruit and drink juice. I also got a hot stone massage on Sunday morning, where the massage therapist used hot lava stone to rub my body for an hour. It was just amazingly comfortable, and I'm definitely going to do that again some time. On Saturday night we also got a four-course dinner which was absolutely fabulous! We sort of rolled back to our room afterwards, we were just so stuffed. I didn't get any good photos, especially since I really don't want to show you any photos of me in a bikini :)

You remember the knitting contest I told you about last time? Well, we didn't win, the team with the grey and white birds won (which I think was right, their contribution was the best), but we got a consolation prize anyhow: We each got a skein of Plassard Spirale yarn, which is a novelty yarn that you can make spiral scarfs from. I think I'll make a thin scarf from it and give it as a gift to someone. I wonder who would want it? I'll have to think about that.

Today I've been to a knitting café with Linköping Knitters again, and it was so much fun! I got a demonstration of magic loop, which is a method I've never tried myself before. I think I might give up dpns alltogether! It is such a smart method, I wonder who came up with it? I also made plans with Anna, so on Friday we're going to hang out and make some dinner and drink some wine (wow, that sounds like a date... I wonder what our husbands/boyfriends would say about that?). That will be so much fun! Thomas went to Borås this Monday, to build his video-game exhibition there, so he will be gone for two weeks. So I'm all alone with Hobbe now, which is ok. I miss Thomas, but it's nice to be alone sometimes too.

And finally, I've started a new project! I grew a bit tired of the thick socks, so they're hibernating for a while. I started my first Ishbel yesterday, a small scarf that I'm making in my new favourite yarn: Kunstgarn from Hjertegarn. It's a Danish single-ply yarn in 75 % superwash wool / 25 % Nylon, in a lot of colours. The colour repeats are very long, and I think they will make a nice effect in a scarf. I'll try to take some photos of it tomorrow, so you get to see the awsomeness of this yarn for yourselves

/ Jenny

Knitting contest

I had planned to update on Wednesday this week, but things got in the way. That day, 30/9, it was a year since my darling cat Gizmo died, and although the day didn't turn out as horrible as I had imagined, it was still a kind of difficult day for me. I've thought a lot about him this week, and I really miss him a lot! He was the sweetest cat in the world, and he left a large hole in my heart. Thank God I have Hobbe still, he is the snuggliest cat I've ever met (even though he is incrediby shy to strangers - when my parent visit he sits under the bed or in the wardrobe until they've left), and I can't imagine my life without a cat! Hobbe is an asymptomatic carrier of the virus that killed Gizmo, FIP (Feline infectious peritonitis), and as long as he has it we don't want to get another cat and risk him getting the disease as well. Hopefully Hobbe will be negative for the virus soon!

Today I participated in a knitting contest with a literary theme, at Garnverket. It was so much fun! We got a handout with 4 descriptions of four different swedish books, and then had two hours to knit something related to one of the books. The books were "Men who hate women" by Stieg Larsson, "Nils Holgersson's wonderful journey through Sweden" by Selma Lagerlöf, "Pippi Longstocking" by Astrid Lindgren and "The Emigrants" by Vilhelm Moberg. We chose The Nils Holgersson book by Selma Lagerlöf, which is a story made for swedish geography students, and tells the tale of a boy named Nils Holgersson who gets shrunken by the house gnome as a punishment for being naugthy to animals. He then joins a flock of geese on their travel through Sweden, from south to north, and the readers follow him through all the landscapes, thereby learning the geography of the country.

Me and Anna made a team, and we decided to knit a Sweden. Sweden is a very long and thin country, so we knitted that form, and made the two largest lakes in a blue contrast yarn. We also made some birds and a small Nils that we attached, as well as a swedish flag. It turned out pretty great, if I may say so myself! This is Anna, holding our tiny Sweden (the whole photo looks a little bit yellow, but that's because I didn't want to use the flash: with flash, everything turned so ghastly pale that Anna looked kind of like a zombie...)!

We were only three teams that participated, and I think one of the others will win, as they had a very artistic take on the same Nils Holgersson story. They had crocheted triangles, symbolizing a flock of flying geese, and on the white one (which is a tame goose that runs away with Nils, and carries him on his bach throughout the journey) they made a very tiny Nils Holgersson doll. It looked like a finished piece of art!

The third team made a version of Pippi Longstockin's clothes, which also looked very pretty. One member of this team is a grafitti knitting artist, and she actually taught her team member to knit for the first time as they competed! I was so impressed by this, and they managed to finish in time too.

The winners will be announced tomorrow, and Anna thought that she might have time to go then. Me and Thomas are finally going to the spa this weekend, as we didn't manage to get away two weeks ago, as we had originally planned. It makes no real difference if we win or not, it was just so much fun to participate!

This week I've actually managed to finish a knitting object as well! I present to you: My winter sock!

It's hard to capture the cable pattern in this hysterical yarn (Red Heart Damaris, 50 % superwash wool, 50 % acrylic), but it actually turned out pretty good. I've only finished the first, and I've knitted about 5 cm on the cuff of the second one, but as the yarn is very thick and chunky, I imagine the second sock will be finished next week. If I don't cast on for something else as well. I think the next thing I knit will be some gloves for me, I have some pink Drops Alpaca that I think will look great as mittens!

I got my knitting books this week as well! I bought the Creepy crochet book by Christen Haden, Custom Knits by Wendy Bernard, More Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch, and Fitted Knits by Stefanie Japel. I think I'll start with some socks, as I have a lot of gorgeous sock yarn, but I also have a cardigan in mind from the Custom Knits book that I'll make from my 10 skeins of Marks & Kattens Sarek 100 % wool yarn.

I also bought a fiction book when I ordered the knitting books. Seeing as both me and Thomas loves horror films and zombie literature, I really couldn't resist this: "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies". I haven't actually read the original, as I really don't like chick-lit, but this will be fun!

Wow, I've knitted a lot this week! On wednesday there was a knitting café with Linköping Knitters, which was so much fun! Then Anna and I decided to visit Garnverket together on thursday, as they've just switched owners (Congratulations, Maja!), and we wanted to check out the new interior design (and squeeze some yarns as well, of course). We ended up staying there for about two hours, just knitting and chattering away! It's just so much fun to hang out with Anna, even though we've just met we both feel that we get along exceptionally well. We've decided to hang out next week as well, especially since Thomas is leaving for Borås on Monday with his exhibition. He will stay in Borås for two weeks, building the exhibition at one of the museums there. So I guess I'll be a little lonely, thank God I have my knitting to keep me occupied!

I'll be back after the weekend with a report on the spa!

/ Jenny

Going to the sewing festival!

Today me and my sister is going south to Borås to visit my parents over the weekend, and tomorrow I'm going to the sewing festival there! Yay! It's going to be so much fun, and thankfully I get my paycheck tomorrow so I can actually shop a little. There are going to be a lot of yarn vendors there, and I have three goals: I want to buy some yarn of pure silk, I would like some cashmere yarn, and I would like to find some yarn that comes in hanks, so I can use my new swift! I think I might be able to achieve at least two of them (I'm not sure about the silk). There is at least one booth that will sell some banana fiber yarn, and I'm guessing that I won't be able to resist that either. I'll tell you all about it after the weekend!

This past Monday I was at a café in town and had coffee (well, I had hot cocoa, I don't drink coffee) with Désirée, a knitter who found my blog and wanted to meet me. I thought this was so much fun, and of course I agreed to meet her, and we had a really nice time. I made myself a new motto this summer: You're never too old to get new friends. And this meeting really went in line with that! I think us swedes tend to be a bit on the shy side, and I actually don't know that many people who would actually ask to meet someone after just reading their blog like that, and I'm SO thankful that Dési did it! I hope we will see each other again soon!

And yesterday there was a new knitting café with Linköping Knitters. I went there a bit early, because I wanted to go to Garnverket first to buy some yarn that I had ordered. When I got there, Anna was sitting in the store knitting, so we started talking. She is also a new Linköping Knitter, and we get along very well. She had decided that she didn't have the time to go to the café yesterday, she had too much studying to do, so she had sat down in the store instead and talked some to Ulrika (the wonderful progg on Ravelry, who by the way has actually gotten a job at Garnverket - talk about a dream job!). I ended up staying in the store for about an hour, just chatting away with Anna and Ulrika, and of course buying some yarn. I had ordered two skeins of each three colours of Drops Eskimo wool that I'm using for my needle storage unit that is going to be felted, so I bought those. And a small ball of Rowan Classich Cashsoft 4-ply (57 % merino/33 % acrylic microfiber/10 % cashmere) fell into my shopping bag as well. Completely by accident, I swear! But as it lay there, I didn't have the heart to separate it from it's newfound Eskimo friends, so it went home with me as well. I now have two of these balls, and I'm thinking of making me some lace gloves from it.

After about an hour at garnverket, I went down to Espresso House and met up with the other knitters. It was a rally cozy meeting, we weren't very many people, and there were actually three new members there. So now I'm not the newest in the flock any longer! I really love the casual feeling of Linköping Knitters, there is no membership fees, and you don't have to tell anyone if you're coming or not. You can just show up when you feel like it, no strings at all. So I think I sat there for over two hours, just knitting and chattering away with the girls and boys!

And when I came home I finally finshed the cabled scarf I've made from the Eco-Alpaca. It is just so incredibly soft! I've decided to give it to my mother-in-law as a too-early christmas gift/too late birthday gift (her birthday was on Sept 3, but I've actually not seen her since then). I'm having a little bit of a hard time separating from this yarn, but I figure that this gives me an excuse to actually buy more of it!

I think I've discovered why my arm has been hurting as well. I think I've sat in a very bad position when I've worked on my tiny laptop, especially as I've been using it a lot before the seminar. I have now changed my position, and I've also found a mouse to use, to relieve my left arm some (otherwise I use it to right-and-left-click on the mouse pad), and it actually feels a bit better. My sister dragged me to a spinning class this last Tuesday, and I have to say that the arm hurt quite a bit afterwards. I've never done spinning before, and since I haven't gotten the technique yet I tended to lean a bit too much on my arms. I'm not sure spinning is for me thouhg, as I actually hate bicycling, but I guess I'll give it antoher shot. The start classes are free until the end of october, so I guess I'll go until then at least.

Now I'm going to start packing for the weekend. I wonder how much knitting stuff I can bring without seeming totally crazy? I wonder if I care?

/ Jenny

Time for new photos!

I slept for most of Tuesday, and felt much better in the evening, so I guess I wasn't really that sick... It was probably fatigue from when the stress left me after the weekend. I went to work as usual yesterday, and today I'm working from home, mostly reading articles about macrophages and gold absorption. Interesting, right?

I'm really glad I felt better yesterday, as there was going to be a knitting café at Garnverket. I went there very anticipating, only to arrive and find out that it had been cancelled. The girl who was supposed to fix coffee and cake, and keep the store open until 19, was sick witht he flu, so the store had to close at 18 instead. We were very welcome to stay until then and sit and knit and talk, but there were no cakes available. Most of the knitters then went to Espresso House instead, but a few of us who weren't really that hungry for cake anyhow (I'm intolerant to gluten, so I don't eat a lot of cake at all) stayed. I was really happy to get a chance to talk a little bit to Ulrika (alias progg), who is just the most generous person I've met! She had brought another batch of yarn for me that she said she had no use for, so she gifted me with 9 skeins (thats right 9 SKEINS!!!) of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in a lovely caramel colour, one skein of Noro Silk Garden, and some left-overs Malabrigo lace in a dark blue, almost charcoal colour. I unpacked them when I came home and just sat on the couch petting them for a while! Thank you so much Ulrika, you are just the sweetest peach!

Cotton Fleece:

Noro Silk Garden (which is already turning into a shawlette):

And Malabrigo Lace:

I think I mentioned in an earlier post that I bought two skeins of a very lovely Viking of Norway Eco Alpaca. I'm turning this into a slim winter scarf, and it's such a fast knit with this chunky yarn. I'm thinking of giving it as a christmas present to my mother in law, if I can bear to part with it. It's just so incredibly soft! And I think the scarf looks pretty neat too.

I've started antother project as well, I think I might suffer from starteritis. I'm using my Drops Eskimo wool for a needle storage unit. This part is knitted in plain stockinette, and will be felted to prevent the needles from poking through so easily. Then I'm going to knit two cables and attach them, which will function as the actual holders. A finished version of this can be found here and here. Unfortunately I ran out of yarn, and Garnverket didn't have the colours right now (I ordered two skeins of each colour yesterday), so this is hibernating for a week or so. This is what it looks like so far (of course blogger insisted on turning this picture too. It isn't oriented this way in my computer, anyone knows why blogger turns it around?):

And what about my socks? Well, they are also hibernating, but I think I'll pick them up again once I finish the scarf and the shawlette. Maybe.

/ Jenny

I've got so much to do!

This week has been very busy for me, I've had stuff to do almost every day. On Tuesday, two of our friends came over, and we barbecued and watched a movie. Then on Wednesday lunch, my sister and I went to another aerobics pass at Friskis&Svettis, and in the afternoon I went to a knitting café with Linkmaskan at Garnverket. Before the knitting café I went to visit progg (that's her Ravelry name, I haven't asked her if I can use her real name here on the blog, so for now she will remain progg) at her apartment, to look at some patterns. And let me tell you: I now have a knitting idol and a goal to work for! She had a whole bookshelf full of knitting books, and she told me I could borrow anything I wanted! I want a bookshelf like that of my own some day! I borrowed some patterns from her, as well as the book "Custom Knits" by Wendy Bernard. So I have a lot of projects planned for the future, I just have to find the time to make them all.

Today, my sister and I are going to a Yoga pass. And tomorrow is another knitting café, this time with Linköping Knitters at Waynes Coffee. At least I'm getting some knitting done!

I finished the gloves for my husband this past weekend, and I think I posted some pictures the last time I wrote. But here is another one of me modelling them in actual daylight, although it is a bit cloudy here today.

I guess I forgot to tell you, but I frogged the red/green/blue/yellow zig-zag sock I was making from the Hjerte Sock-yarn. They were also turning out too small, although this time I think it was mainly due to the fact that I had cast on too tightly. I've found a pattern on garnstudio where you knit the socks sideways, and I think I will try this with this yarn instead. I'll just finish up the thick cabled ones I'm working on first. They are going slowly, but I'm almost at the heel on the first one, so maybe I'll finish them this weekend? I'm not promising anything, though.

I'm also thinking about frogging the tunic. When I first saw the pattern, I envisioned a light, airy summer tunic. But the yarn suggested, which I'm using, makes it anything but this! It's very heavy and thick, a real winter garment, and I'm not sure I like this tunic model as a winter sweater. So I'm not sure if I will wear it? So maybe I could find some better use for the yarn. What do you think? I can't make up my mind, so for now it's just sitting in the knitting bag.

Next Friday, on 11/9, I will have my licenciate seminar! I'm working right now on reading up on the subjects that I might get questions about, and I'm actually getting a bit nervous. This last Monday I had a practice seminar for my supervisors, where they could give me feedback on the presentation, and also comment on what types of questions I might expect. It actually went really well, so that made my nervousness fade a bit. But the closer I get to the actual date, the more nervous I get. So I might be very stressed out next week, which might either mean that I fell I don't have the time to post on the blog, or it might mean that I procrastinate and post every day... We'll see.

For now, I'll continue readin though. I'll try to keep you updated on my knitting progress next week.

/ Jenny

Third time's the charm..

Ok, I know I have already posted two times today, but I have had such a nice evening I just have to share! When I went to the knitting café I picked up the mail on the way, and my needles that I ordered monday night had already arrived! That was such speedy delivery I just couldn't believe it. So I now own the chunky interchangeable KnitPicks Harmony wood needles (size 9, 10 and 12 mm), three fixed circulars (also KnitPicks Harmony wood, size 2, 2.5 and 3 mm), and 7 sets of KnitPicks Harmony wood dpns (sizes 3.5, 4, 5, 5.5, 6, 7, 8 mm). I guess I never have to buy needles again! I'm just so much in love with the knitpicks, and I can't wait until the Zephyr Acrylic become available in Europe too. I will probably have to get a set of those as well.

I thought I would show you a picture of my "knitting accessory bag", where I keep all my KnitPicks needles, and the most used accessories, such as a needle size meassure thingy, scissors, my cord-maker, measuring-tape, stitch markers and such. It is becoming pretty full after today's mail arrivals!

Then I came to the café meeting, and met Ulrica for the first time. We have chatted a while on Ravelry, and today I actually got to meet her in real life. We had discussed some of KnitPicks yarns online, and today she had brought with her some of her KnitPicks stash, which she actually gave me as a gift! So I went home with 10 balls of a beautiful green KnitPicks Main Line (75 % Pima Cotton, 25 % Merino Wool), and three large skeins of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece (80 % cotton, 20 % Merino Wool), also green (as I had mentioned that green is my favourite colour).

This was so generous I was almost overwhelmed! I think the KnitPicks yarn will probably turn into a hat, scarf, over-knee socks and mittens for myself. On the other hand, I've had my eye on a sweater in the Lise-Lotte Lystrup book "Klassisk stickning" (Vintage knitwear for modern knitters), so maybe I'll see if I can get gauge with this yarn? We'll see. The Brown Sheep yarn I'm not sure what I'll make yet, but I'm sure it will be beautiful.

So, as you can see my evening has been very fruitful! I'm so happy, I think I'll knit for the rest of the night now.

/ Jenny

A quick update

I haven't got any new pictures today, I got home so late that the sunlight was gone when I remembered that I had some progress to document. I've knitted some on the tunic, and I've made two half socks. I decided to frog one of the socks I started, the short ancle one, in the cotton and milk fiber yarn. The yarn feels a bit harsh, and has absolutely no give, so it wasn't very comfortable to knit with. So when I saw that the socks were getting about two sizes too large for my small feet, I decided that I need to find something else to do with that yarn. I might do the cables for the needle storage unit in it, we'll see.

The other pair of socks I'm doing in the self-striping yarn are coming along very nicely. The yarn is very thin, and it looks absolutely stunning on the 2 mm needles. I also found out today that it is probably not 100 % cotton as I thought, but rather 100 % wool... Talk about not knowing your fibers!

I also started a third (well, now it's the second) pair of socks, thicker ones on size 5 mm needles, in a 50 % superwash wool/50% acrylic yarn, and they are also turning out great! These will be absolutely smashing when winter rolls around, as I am one of those who's always cold around hands and feet. I'll post pictures of both sock types as soon as one of each is finished (which should be sometime tomorrow, I think.

I went to my second knitting café tonight as well, this time it was Linkmaskornas meeting at the yarn store Garnverket. It was really nice, and I felt very welcome immediately. I think we were somewhere around 10 people, and next time I'll ask if I can take some pictures to post here. I think it looks so cozy and homely when so many people knit together. This is where I learned that my yarn is probably wool, since one of the participants thought she recognized it (I have lost the label, and I really had no idea what it was). Tomorrow there is another knitting café at the museum, and on friday Linköping knitters have their knitting café at Wayne's coffee. Much knitting this week!

And the weekend after this, 29-30/8, will be superbusy! On Saturday there is a knitting festival in town, with lots of fun activities such as fashion shows, workshops on different techniques, and some book sells as well. The hard part will be deciding which events to visit, as some of them take place simultaneously at different locations.

Then on Sunday there is a crafts fair in Gamla Linköping (Old Linköping, a part of town where old bouldings and shops and streets have been restored), and I'm guessing tere will be a lot of yarn-related booths. Linköping Knitters will have a booth where you can come and try some knitting and other stuff. My mother in law is thinking about coming here for a visit that weekend, and I really hope she does! I haven't seen her for a while, so it would be really nice to have her here on a weekend when I don't have to work or do anything else but hang out with her. My husband said that his 13 year-old brother might accompany their mother and also come visit, which would be great because then the boys can hang out together while me and mother-in-law go yarn-shopping! Thank god that the pay-check comes before that weekend!

Now I'll go watch a thai horror flick on TV.

/ Jenny

Blocking

I finished my shawl yesterday! It's huge! In the description it said it would use 8 skeins of yarn, but I had to use almost 10, so my gauge was probably off. I had to do the blocking in the bedroom, because I found out today that Hobbe likes to pull the needles from the blocking mat with his mouth! Unfortunately, the shawl didn't fit on the bed, so I'm blocking half now and will do the other half when this half has dried. I cheated a bit and used a squirt bottle to only dampen the shawl, so I hope it will be dreid by tonight. Otherwise I think we will have to sleep on the couch.

I took some pictures too, but I haven't loaded them onto the computer yet, so I think I will post all of them (before, during and after blocking) when the whole thing is done.

This afternoon I'm going to my first knitting café! One of the knitting groups in Linköping (can you believe there is more than one!), Linköping Knitters, have meetings on different cafés every week, and this week I finally have time to go. So sometime around 16.00 I will be at Wayne´s Coffee and hopefully meet some other knitters too.

Now I'll jump in the shower and then go out to the university to pick up my first printed copy of the thesis book! It's just the trial version, I have a week to make layout changes and such, but it's still very exciting!

/ Jenny