The Impulsive Knitter...

Well, first of all I finished my Bigger on the Inside shawl:

I love it! The Tardises (Tardi?) are gorgeous, and the shawl is really warm and cozy. The past few days have been kind of super warm here, so I haven't worn it yet, but come Autumn I see this one on my shoulders a lot! It was a fun, quick knit that more or less flew off the needles in the sport weight yarn (pattern originally calls for fingering, but this was close enough), and it's HUGE! 

Anyway, as I was casting off, I started thinking about what to knit on next, other than my Urdr shawl and the Faramir socks (which I still have no photo of!). I had been thinking of starting a new cardigan, but somehow that didn't really appeal to me right then, so I went browsing through my stash. I came upon three sport weight skeins that I bought last summer, in rabbit angora and lambs wool, and I was instantly re-smitten. 

I went on Ravelry to see if I could find something to knit with about 600 m, and I found the Put Together vest. I immediately cast on (well, I started with swatching three times first), and I'm using the pattern as a starting point. It is originally meant to be in reverse stockinette, but I prefer plain stockinette so that is the first thing I'm changing. I'm also going to make some colourwork at the chest area, in my leftover blue yarn from the Tardis shawl, which I'm designing myself. It might have something to do with the Doctor as well... I know, I know, but that blue colour just screams Doctor Who!

I've been knitting a lot on this at work, as it's been pretty slow in the afternoons these past few weeks. Since a lot of the doctors at the care unit where I work have vacations right now, we get a lot fewer patients at the lab too, so less for us to do. Which means a lot of knitting time! Last week, this week, and two weeks after that I am spending at the lab here in Mantorp (yay for being able to ride my bike to work!), where I'm alone at the lab, so I've also been listening a lot to audio books and audio dramas. I just wish I could sit outside when i don't have any patients, but the patio is on the other side of the building so that's not very practical! Maybe that's just as well - after all I AM there to work...

Our tiny little Toki (yes, we've been watching way too much Metalocalypse...) is doing very well, even though Hobbe is still not overly thrilled. Toki has SO MUCH energy, and his prime play time is between four and six in the mornings. Which means that we don't get very much sleep then either, it's almost like having a little baby! But he's adorable anyway, and I hope he will settle down once he gets a little bit older. He's four months old now, and once he gets to be about six months we'll have him neutered, and that should slow him down a bit. Right now he's sleeping in my lap, which is super cozy!

Oh, and last weekend my cousin got married! Thomas couldn't make it, but I went with my sister and my parents, and it was such a lovely time! Here we are, all four of us :)

I sang at the ceremony, which was very much appreciated, I think. The woman who played piano was really terrible, she played the wrong notes several times in both my song and the song that the sister of the bride sang. But after some editing I've come up with the verse that sounded best, so if you want to, you can listen to me sing! The song is originally by Andrew Lloyd Webber, but I'm singing it with Swedish lyrics :)

If you don't like it, please don't tell me!

Finally, I also bought some more yarn. I think this might be the last skeins this year, as I've bought quite much yarn this past month, but since I actually managed to catch a Wollmeise update, I couldn't resist. Three skeins came to live with me last week:

Pure (100 % superwash merino) in colourway Fuchsia (with extra Toki picture!)

Pure (100 % superwash merino) in colourway Teddy

Ever since I saw the colourway Teddy for the first time, I've wanted it! And now I have two skeins, that will eventually become a shawl I think. I haven't decided which one yet :)

Ok, now I need to get something to eat and then go to bed! I'll try to get some more photos of socks, shawl and vest (hopefully with some colourwork going) this weekend. See you!

/Jenny

Last day of vacation

Yes, tomorrow I get back to work again, after having had three weeks off. After preparing for the big party for the first week, then having a house full of people for almost all of the second week, the last week has been spent mostly on the couch or out by the pool. I just wish we could have had more days with nicer weather! But I've gotten a lot of knitting done!

I'll start by showing off my most recent purchases though. A couple of weeks ago I bought myself a new sock book (like I needed more!): Folk Socks by Nancy Bush. 

The socks in this one are really gorgeous, and there is lots of technique talk in it as well. 

I also got myself a book that I've been looking for for a while: Think outside the Sox, edited by Elaine Rowley.

This one is just so much fun! There are so many wonky techniques in it, and many, many gorgeous patterns as well! A lot of it looks pretty difficult, but the instructions seem very clear, with lots of explanatory pictures as well. Plus, there is always YouTube!

I also caved in and bought myself even more yarn this past week! I was just itching to cast on for the Bigger on the Inside shawl, and I didn't have any fitting blue yarn in the stash. Believe it or not! But blue is one of those colours that I very rarely use, other than jeans, so I don't have very much yarn in that colour either. I was going to get myself some Cascade fingering yarn, but the colourway I wanted was out of stock, so I bought some swedish yarn instead, Kampes 2-ply wool (300 m/100g, 100 % wool, colourway Cobolt Blue). And the colour is just perfect!

It is almost perfect TARDIS blue, even though it looks a bit bright in the flash photo (rainy days here), and I'm already almost half-way through the shawl! It's sport weight and just flies off the needles. Although the picking up of 431 stitches didn't really fly by...

It's hard to see what it looks like, since my only 3 mm needle is a bit short, but it will be gorgeous. I don't know what I'll wear it with, as I don't really own much that match with this kind of bright blue, but I'll solve it somehow.

I've also been working a lot on the Urdr shawl, and that too is looking like a bowl of wet noodles as it's still on the needles. I'm not sure that this yarn (Garnstudio Drops Lace, 800 m/100 g,  70 % alpaca/30 % silk),  is working with nups, but the problem is that I don't think that they'll show up so it won't matter if they're there. I'll do them anyway and hope that the blocking will sort it out.

This past week I've been trying hard not to sleep too long in the mornings, since I need to be able to get up for work next week, and I've been listening to a lot of podcast novels on iTunes while Thomas has slept. I really love the concept of free podcast novels! I've listened to a lot of Scott Sigler before, and I really enjoy his books! Right now I'm listening to The Leviathan Chronicles, by Chrisof Laputka, which is really more of an audio drama (think of the old times radio shows, like War of the Worlds!), and it is very good. If you're into sci-fi and audio books, I really recommend this one. I think it might be available on Audible as well, but I haven't checked so I'm not sure. I know that Scott Sigler is on Audible, at least.

Oh, and I actually have some pretty important news too! We've added another person to our little family! Let me introduce you to Toki Wartooth, our brand new little Devon Rex kitten:

Isn't he gorgeous! He's 16,5 weeks old, and completely crazy and energetic. When he's not sleeping. Hobbe hasn't really decided what to make of this little hurricane yet, but they're getting friendlier and friendlier. They only hissed at each other the first day, and now they're chasing each other around the house and playing together. As they started washing each other the other day I think they'll be good friends eventually. We're just so thrilled to finally have a little kitten again! I'm just trying hard to teach him that yarn is NOT a toy in this house!

Now I need to go wind some more yarn, as my first skein of Kampes is almost used up. Let's see what Toki makes of the ball winder and swift...

/ Jenny

House Guests

It's been a couple of busy weeks here at our house! On Friday last week we had a huge Midsummer's party, and we had over 30 guests here. 

I think 14 of them stayed over night, so we had people sleepeing in every corner! But it was a great success, the weather held up so we could have dinner outside (potatoes with sourcream, pickled herring and grilled meat, with strawberries and ice cream for dessert), and a lot of people swam in our swimming pool as well. Then Thomas' four brothers, two of their girlfriends, and two additional friends stayed one more night, and we played board games and watched movies for the entire Saturday (it was raining). 

Then on Monday afternoon my best friend Christine, her husband Martin and their three little boys came to visit for two nights, and let me tell you: We are not used to the kind of energy needed to keep three boys under the age of 10 entertained for two days! It was a blast to have them here, and I hope we get to have them back next summer too, but we are kind of exhausted right now!

So with all of those people staying here, we had a lot of cleaning and fixing to do around the house before they came, so the entire week before was spent just making sure everything was ready! We've finally got curtains in all the windows, we've unpacked the last moving box, we've bought new guest beds for the guest room and a pull-out sofa for the computer room, we hung the last lamps from the ceiling, and stuff like that! This last 1.5 weeks we have left of our vacation will probably be spent doing as little as possible :)

I did manage to finish some knitting though! First, on the weekend before midsummer, I finished the Ethereal Triangle shawl:

It's made with an entire skein of Madelinetosh Prairie yarn (100 % Merino), and I think I had less than a meter left when it was done! I actually had to redo the bind-off, as I ran out of yarn the first time, so I ended up skipping the last purl row and bound off directly instead. It's not huge, but it's pretty big, and I'm very happy with it! I wore it at the party, but since I held the camera I haven't ended up in any of the photos! But I'm going to wear it to my cousin's wedding in the middle of July, and I'll try to sneak in some actual action shots then.

On midsummer's day I got to sit down and knit while the board games were being played, and FINALLY finished the Silken Scabbard sweater! It's gorgeous!

It's made with 10.5 skeins of Rowan Silk Wool, and it's very comfortable and cozy, while the silk gives it a very glamorous sheen as well. I love it, and I almost wish for autumn so I can get to wear it!

Now that the house is finally empty (and don't get me wrong, it's been great to see all of our friends and have so many guests, we're just a bit tired), I'm going to knit a lot more! I'm currently only working on a pair of socks (Faramir socks, I'm using Opal sock yarn) and one shawl (Urdr shawl, I'm using Drops Lace yarn from Garnstudio), but once I get a little bit further on the shawl I think I'll start a new cardigan. I'm choosing between the Peanut Butter cardigan and the Austin Hoodie. I'll let you know which one I decide on.

Oh, and I also want to make the Bigger on the Inside shawl. I'm currently completely obsessed with Doctor Who, and I want my very own David Tennant! Too bad I can't knit me one of those...

/ Jenny

Socks in record time!

It took me five days to finish these socks:

Can you believe it! I spent all five of those days doing practically nothing but knit, as I was home sick with a cold, but even so. Five days for two socks!

The pattern is called Pippin Socks, from the Fellowship of the Socks e-book, and I made them in Cascade yarns Heritage Sock yarn, colourway Raspberry. And this has now officially become my new favourite sock yarn! The stitch definition is absolutely incredible, and the colour is awesome! It is so rich and saturated, and the yarn is available in quite a lot of colours as well. And it's pretty cheap too, making it perfect for every day socks. I love this pair, and I have another skein in colourway Spruce, which is a deep teal green.

Since I finished the socks, I've mostly knit on the Ethereal Triangle shawl, and I'm almost half-way through the edging, so I hope to finish it some time next week. Then I might get to wear it on our Midsummer's Eve party :)

I also started a new pair of socks last night, in my other new yarn Opal sock yarn, colourway Powder. I chose the pattern Faramir Socks from the The Road Goes Ever On e-book (also by author Claire Ellen, I really like her!), and I enjoy them a lot too. I haven't got any photos of this sock yet, but so far it's mostly ribbing. I'll get to it next time!

/ Jenny

Birthday Yarn!

I've gotten all my birthday yarn in the mail, and I thought I would show them to you. I'll start with the yarn from Garnkorgen. I got only one lace skein, from Madelinetosh:

Tosh Lace (100 % Merino, 869 m/114 g) in colourway Grove

Then I got some sock yarn:

Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock (80 % Wool/20 % Nylon, 398 m/100 g) in colourway Manzanita

Opal Sock yarn (75 % Wool/25 % Nylon, 425 m/100 g) in colourway Powder

Cascade Yarn Heritage Sock yarn (75 % Merino/25 % Nylon, 400 m/100 g) in colourway Spruce

And Cascade Yarn Heritage Sock yarn in colourway Raspberry

I like all of the yarns, but I am absolutely, completely in love with the Heritage yarn! The colour of these skeins is absolutely amazing, they are both so very saturated and deep. I found I could not help myself, so on Saturday I wound the Raspberry skein and immediately cast on for a new pair of socks. As I didn't have any socks on the needles right now, that was completely fine, but I have been a bit obsessed with them since then. I'm fighting a really bad cold right now, so I've been home from work today, and I've almost finished the first of the Pippin socks:

The stitch definition is soooo pretty! I think I like this yarn a lot better than I like the Wollmeise sock yarn, and this one is cheaper and more easily available to boot. Perfect! The yarn isn't as soft as the Bugga! yarn I used for the Owlie socks, but it is definitely soft enough. I won't be buying any more soon though, as I've more or less used up this year's yarn budget on this one purchase...

Well, that one purchase, and the last purchase from Chili Gredelin as well (that was included in the birthday money!). I got myself two skeins of the lovely Madame yarn (55 % silk/45 % Cashmere, 366 m/50 g) in colourway Black Forest:

I thought these skeins would be a lot darker, more black, but I kind of like this grey cololur as well so I'm happy. It is always a gamble to buy yarn off the internet, and so far I've very rarely been displeased. Maybe I'm not too picky about yarn!

Ok, now I need to go blow my nose and lie down for a bit. We'll see if I make it to work tomorrow. On Wednesday there is a national holiday here in Sweden, as it's our National Day (I guess that is somewhat like independence day in the States, only we don't celebrate as much, we just get the day off work), so we'll see if I think it's worth it to go and feel sick tomorrow or stay home and cure myself for one more day. The weather is really cold and rainy, so it's not much fun being at home either.

 Jenny

Summer!

We've had amazing weather with over 20 Centigrades here in Linköping for the past week. Actually, I need to stop saying "here in Linköping", as we've actually moved from there! We are now in Mantorp, which is a small town of about 3000 residents, and we're actually right outside Mantorp too. Almost in the country! I bet anyone who knows me is rather surprised about the fact that I moved away from the city, but I LOVE our new house!

We've finally gotten pretty settled, even though there are still a few bags of books to unpack. But I have finally gotten around to taking a few photos, so I'll start by showing you the living room:

We renovated this room as soon as we moved in, as we hated the wall paper that was there. It was red, black, blue and white, with HUGE flowers and birds in a really garish pattern. We chose white instead, and we still need to get curtains up in the second window, and the paintings hung on the wall too. That will get done before midsummer's eve though, as we're having some people over.

Then there is our gigantic, light kitchen:

We actually didn't really realize how big the dining area was until we started putting our tiny furniture in. As you can see, we have room for two arm chairs and a second table by the windows! We sit there and eat breakfast all the time. I really like the kitchen, but we need to get the final curtains up here too. We want to buy a new set of dining furniture, but we can't afford that right now. Maybe when autumn comes around!

Then we have our bedroom:

We decided to keep the walls white, and when we can afford it I really want a new wardrobe. The ones we have now are really ugly, I want that entire wall filled with homogenous closets with sliding doors that don't hit the bed when we open them :) But that will also be a question for a later day!

Then, I'll show you two quick photos of my crafts room:

As you can see, the walls are black and red, and this will be changed as soon as we can afford it. I dare say this will be our next renovation project! I hope we can get to it after our vacations are over, because I hate these colours! But I'm thinking a really pale grey, or possibly pale olive green, and I want a new desk for the sewing machine, and a really comfy arm chair too. I really like having a separate room for all my crafts supplies, but I have to admit that so far I spend most of my knitting time in the living room, as always.

Finally I snapped this photo today of Thomas cleaning the pool outside on the deck (he's to the far right of the photo, almost hidden in the shadow). 

It is pretty cool to have a pool, and it's finally getting almost warm enough to swim in too. Unfortunately it seems like the nice weather is going away on Tuesday, so we're hoping for a really warm day tomorrow too.

Oh, and I have some news too: We sold the cabin! We decided pretty much as soon as we bought the house this Christmas, that we don't have time for both a house and a cabin. The house was built in the late 19th century, so it's pretty high maintenance, and we decided to keep our focus on that. So the past two weekends we've spent most of our time in the cabin, fixing it up for sale. And on Thursday last week, a couple from the south of Sweden came to have a look, and wanted to buy it for our asking price! Yay! So on Wednesday this coming week, we're signing the papers, and it's out of our hands. We are very happy about this, as it means we can pay back the loan we took to buy it in the first place, meaning we can put more money aside each month for the house upkeep funds!

And would you believe that I've actually managed some knitting these past weeks too?! I've finished a pair of socks, The Owlie socks, in The Sanguine Gryphon Bugga! yarn:

I really, really like them! Even though the eyes on the last pair of owls by the toe tend to hurt a little bit when I wear the socks in shoes, but beading a pair of socks was an experiment for me anyway so I'm ok with that. The yarn is incredibly soft, these are by far the softest socks I've made. So I'm happy! I bought the yarn from Eat.Sleep.Knit a while ago, and I think I might not buy any more until I find a supplier in Sweden.

I've also knitted a bit on my Ethereal Triangle shawl, that I'm making in Madelintosh Prairie yarn:

I'm almost done with all the repeats of the first chart, so I hope to move on to the edging some time next week or so. I'm not overly impressed with the yarn, as I find it a bit stiff to work with, but I hope it will soften up when I wash it.

And yesterday I actually picked up the Silken Scabbard sweater again! 

It's been "resting" since way before we moved, and I'm not sure why. I really, really enjoy working on it, and the yarn is amazing! It's Rowan Silk Wool DK, which is discontinued, which is a real pity. The sweater fits me well too, so I finished the body yesterday and started the first arm too. I hope to finish this one soon too, so I can at least wear it once autumn arrives.

I thought I would show you a photo of the Urdr shawl I'm also working on, in Garnstudio Drops Lace yarn:

I haven't worked on this one for quite a while, and I think I'll try to finish the Ethereal Triangle shawl first as I want to wear that one for a wedding this summer. I think I enjoy this one too, but I haven't decided if I think the yarn knits up prettily yet. I think it looks like it doesn't have very much stitch definition, but I haven't been able to stretch it out properly yet either so I think I'll leave that unsaid.

Oh, and last week I had my birthday too! I turned 32, and we didn't have a big celebration or anything. My mother, father, sister and grandfather visited last Sunday, and we had dinner and cake outside on the deck. I got a new bike from my grandfather, which is perfect now that we live in the country! And I got two sun deck chairs from my parents, and a rhubarb plant from my sister, so almost only stuff for the house. Which was almost the only things I wished for! Thomas, on the other hand, gave me the new Zelda game for the Wii, so I got to feel young too :) We've only just started playing, but I adore the Zelda games! We even had Link and Zelda for our cake dacorations when we got married :)

And Thomas told me to order myself some yarn as a present too! As you might have noticed here on the blog, I've been really good about knitting from the stash for quite a while! I haven't stashed any new yarn on Ravelry since November last year, which means 6 months without buying yarn! I'm very proud of myself. But I ordered some now, and last week I got myself three new skeins from Chili Gredelin. These are Anastasia, 100 % alpaca in fingering weight, in colourway Chartreuse:

I plan to turn them into either this cardigan, or this sweater (if I can get the pattern, it's been removed from KnitPicks' website, and the designer hasn't answered my PM on Ravelry). I haven't decided yet. Right now it's resting on the book shelf!

I also got some spending money from my father-in-law, and I've ordered some yarn and some wool wash from Garnkorgen as well. I think it won't arrive until maybe Wednesday, so I'll try to get back to you next weekend to show you. Then I'll try to wait until Christmas until I buy any more...

/ Jenny

Getting settled

Hi everybody! It's been a while! I was planning on participating in the Annual Knit and Crochet Blog Week this year as well, but as it took place during the last week of April, right after we moved, I just didn't have the time. We're finally getting a bit settled in the new house, and we love it! It's an old house, probably built sometime around the end of the 19th century, but it's been renovated in 2005 and 2009, when two new parts of the house were added as well. On the ground floor there is a HUGE kitchen, with lots of light and air, a living room which we've painted these past few weeks, a big bathroom, a small guest bathroom, the laundry room and our bedroom. On the second floor there is a small hallway, Thomas' computer/music room and my very own crafts room! You won't get to see any photos of anything just yet, as I haven't gotten around to taking any! But we are very pleased with the whole thing.

Once the living room was painted and finished, we could finally move all of the furniture out of the kitchen and into its proper place, and since then I've managed at least a small bit of knitting. On Tuesday I finished my seventh pair of socks from the 10 socks collection I'm working on, and I'm very pleased with them. These are the Blue Lagoon socks, made with KnitPicks Stroll yarn (75 % wool/25 % nylon) in colourway Saphire Heather:

I adore this gorgeous blue colour! I made a pair of socks with it for my mom about a year ago, and now I finally have my own pair as well. I wore them to work yesterday, and they are very comfortable as well!

Since I hate not having a sock on the needles, yesterday I cast on for a new pair. I chose the Owlie Socks, and I'm making them in The Sanguine Gryphon Bugga yarn (70 % Merino/20 % Nylon/10 % cashmere), in colourway Oleander Nymph, and this is how far I've gotten so far:

I decided quite late on Tuesday night that I wanted to bring the yarn to work on Wednesday to cast on there, and went upstairs to wind the skein into a ball. Let me tell you: This yarn was a NIGHTMARE to wind! It just kept getting tangled in itself, and I ended up having to wind the whole thing by hand, just so I could move the growing ball around the tangling skein. I then re-wound it with my ballwinder to get a center-pull ball, and it took me almost an hour! But now that I'm knitting with it, the yarn is totally worth it. The stitch definition is to die for, and it is incredibly soft.

I also chose to bead the owls, and I've settled on a set of yellow/orange beads from my bead stash. I'll make sure to post photos of it once I get so far on the knitting!

I'm also knitting a bit on the Ethereal Triangle shawl I'm making in Madeline Tosh Prairie yarn, and this one is turning out very pretty. The colourway, Oxblood, is incredibly beautiful, and I really enjoy the pattern as well. I think the yarn feels a bit stiff though, but that might change once I wash it. In the middle of July my cousin is getting married, and he asked me to sing something at the ceremony. I plan to wear this shawl then, so I better get a move on!

Ok, I plan to hang some curtains before it gets dark here, so I think I'll leave you for now. I hope we get some sunshine this weekend, so I can get some daylight photos. I want to show you all my crafts room!

/ Jenny

We've moved!

After living in complete chaos among moving boxes for almost a month we're finally in the house! We moved in officially last Saturday, and this weekend we're painting the livingroom walls. That means that all the livingroom furniture is currently sitting in the kitchen, and we still have tons of stuff to unpack in the rest of the house as well. I have no idea where my camera is, so you won't get to see any new photos. But I'll start taking some once we're more settled. Suffice it to say that I love our new house!

Anyway, as we've had so much to do, I haven't gotten any knitting done worh speaking of (although I started a new Knit and Knag shawl the other week, Urdr - and as I'm on the iPad I can't link it so you'll have to look it up on Ravelry yourselves) in Drops Garnstudio Lace yarn. More about that one when I find the camera!

Ok, now you know I'm still alive. I think I'll go and do some more unpacking in my new crafts room :)

/Jenny


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

At least I'm getting some knitting done...

Yeah, I've been sick for almost the entire week. On Monday evening I felt an itch in my throat that wasn't supposed to be there, but I ignored it and hoped it had something to do with all the dust lying around the apartment. We're living in boxes everywhere right now, as we move in two weeks, so there's really no point in cleaning. Anyway, I went to work as usual on Tuesday, and just felt crappier and crappier as the day went on. So at two i decided I had had enough, and went home and went to bed with 38.5 centigrades in fever. So that's where I've been these past three days! No fun at all, I've been coughing my lungs out and have a smashing headache, so I've been watching a lot of old TV series and knitted a lot. Today I woke up without a fever, but my temperature is rising as I write this (which I feel by the increasing headache and increasing chills) so I'll probably spend the weekend in bed as well.

Well, yesterday I managed to FINALLY finish my panama shawl! I blocked it this morning (and afterwards I felt dizzy and sweaty, so I probably wasn't ready for that kind of "strenuous" activity), and it's looking very pretty. Here is the usual blocking picture:

It is kind of big, I'm guessing it's at least 1.5 m wide at the top, but it's incredibly thin so I think it will work as a scarf around the neck as well. I started this one in February last year, so it's been lying around for more than a year before it finally got done! I'm so very happy to have this one out of the way!

As I'm currently kind of hooked on lace, I decided yesterday to focus on the Ethereal Triangle shawl now that the Panama was done. But the cable is starting to come loose on the KnitPicks needle, and I got so tired of the yarn snagging at the glitch, I decided to wait until I get me some new needles. I finished the Panama with my new ChiaoGoo Bamboo needle, and let me tell you: I am IN LOVE! The join between needle and cable is incredibly smooth, and the cable itself is incredible. It is completely memory-free, which means that it doesn't coil up at all. So I went and ordered three more of these needles yesterday evening as well, in sizes 2.25, 2.5 and 2.75 mm. I just hope that the tips are as sharp on the bigger needles. I still like the KnitPicks needles, but I think I might just love the DPN's, while the circulars are just ok. The join isn't as smooth as I first thought when I bought them, and the cables do coil a lot. Plus, I've had several needles break on me these past couple of weeks, so I'm not that fond of the quality either. We'll see if the ChiaoGoo ones are any better. The main drawback with these ones though, is that they don't come in any interchangeable sets, so you have to buy a lot of different needles to get different lengths of cables for every needle size. I'm not sure if I'm up to that, so I'll just start with the smaller sizes (that doesn't come in interchangeable version at KnitPicks either), and see how I like them.

Ok, now my energy is running out, so I think I'll go lie down again. I'll bring the Silken Scabbard sweater with me to work on, I think.

/ Jenny

New Needles and New Knitting

Even though I haven't finished anything since last I wrote, I've managed to start something new. It seems like four projects is the perfect number for me! I actually picked up the Panama shawl two weeks ago, for the first time in ages, and found it a real treat. I think I've been bitten by the lace bug once again! It's been a while since I've felt the slightest bit motivated to knit any lace at all, but now it's all I want to do! I've just finished the first of the two skeins I plan to use on this shawl, and it's looking good:

(Yes, that's Hobbe's butt. I couldn't be bothered to move him before the phot shoot) I'm using a yarn that I found on Etsy a while ago, at a shop called Chopped Tomatoes. The owner has since quit Etsy and started her own web shop, which can be found here. Although it seems like she won't be dyeing any more yarn until this summer, so I urge you to take the chance to buy while it's available! The yarn is called Heavenly Infusion (which isn't available any more), colourway Sister Sister, and it's 499 m/50 g of yummy 85 % wool/15 % cashmere. The yarn is very nice and soft, but it is very fragile as it's very thin! I think I managed at least four breaks in the first skein alone, so it means a lot of ends to weave in. But I can live with that as long as the shawl doesn't break.

However, as I was happily knitting away on this one two weeks ago, I went up to pick up something from the kitchen, and when I came back to the living room, Thomas had managed to sit on my 2 mm needle, and break it. It was one of my fixed circulars, from KnitPicks, and as it was the wooden one, it snapped like a twig. Luckily, I had another, shorter one in my case, so I just switched needles (while muttering silently to myself, at least I didn't yell at Thomas as I know this is an easy mistake to make). Then, on Sunday, I sat down on the second needle as well... Darn! So I ordered two new ones from Garnkorgen, and they arrived last Tuesday, almost two weeks ago. I haven't had time to knit very much on it the last couple of weeks though, as I've been too busy at work and too tired in the evenings, but now I at least have a needle for it!

While I went two days without a working lace project, I of course had to start a new one to keep me busy. I chose the Ethereal Triangle shawl, and I'm knitting it in Madelinetosh Prairie yarn (100 % merino, 768 m/114 g) in colourway Oxblood:

This is a nice pattern, and the first chart is really easy. Which means I can sometimes work on it at work! These past few weeks have been super busy at work though, so I haven't really had a chance to even look at my knitting while there, but it's nice to know that once it slows down I have something perfect to pick up! I'm knitting this one on 2.75 mm needles, which are at least a little bit sturdier than the 2 mm ones. Let's hope I don't break these as well!

Oh, I have to brag a bit as well! About two weeks ago I had my annual salary talk with my boss at work. As I've taken on some extra tasks at work this past semester (I'm going to tutor biology students who do their internship at our lab, among other things), I managed to negotiate a bit of a raise! Yay! It will come in effect on April 1st, which will be perfect for when we move (that is only one month away now, it's going so fast!). To celebrate, I decided that I wanted to try out a new brand of knitting needles, to see if I couldn't find one that was a bit more durable than the KnitPicks ones (I bet you thought I would buy yarn, didn't you?). I finally settled on a bamboo needle from ChiaoGoo. 

I chose a bamboo one, as I don't like metal needles, although I've heard terrific things about their Red Lace metal ones. I ordered one 32 inch circular needle, in 2 mm, and it seems very nice and slick, with a very sharp point. However, I think I maybe should have ordered a thicker needle, to evaluate the sharpness, as it's almost impossible to make a blunt 2 mm needle! Oh well, maybe next time! I bought mine from the Etsy shop Grandma's Knit & Crochet.

While I surfed around looking for a shop that would ship the ChiaoGoo needle to Europe for a reasonable price, I came across a new type of needle: The Blackthorn Needles. They are made from Carbon Fibre, and look Oh So Slick! They are insanely expensive too, but I actually splurged on one set of 6 inches long, 1.75 mm thick needles. I bought mine from The Little Knitting Company in the UK, so the shipping was practically nothing. And amazingly enough, both packages came after only three days in the mail! And let me tell you: These needles are everything they are said to be. Very sharp, incredibly hard but oddly enough a little bit flexible, and warm to the touch. I LOVE THEM! 

I wish I could afford one set in each size! But when you think about it, as these needles are so incredibly hard and will probably last longer than my lifespan, it is probably a pretty good buy as you wouldn't need to buy any more dpn's for the rest of your life. Does it sound like I'm trying to justify another buy? Yeah, it does to me as well. I won't order any more right now, but I thought I might wish for some for my birthday in May!

Last Sunday, Anna and I spent the day together for the first time in ages! We both agreed that we probably hadn't seen each other since September! That is five months ago, which is WAY too long! But we had a really nice day, we knitted a lot (altough Anna mostly frogged), we made a bit of food, and we ended the day by going to a yoga lesson together with my sister. I'm not convinced that Yoga is for me, since I really suck at it and spend most of my energy trying to get the motions right. But I might give it one more chance, we'll see.

Other than yoga, I have really kept the exercise going this semester. At least so far. I've been going twice a week since January, and even though that isn't very long, it's more than I've exercised for the past two years! And I think it's pretty fun too, and I already feel that I have a little more energy. Win-Win!

Ok, Thomas has been out of town for a week now, he came home yesterday night, so I'm going to spend the weekend with him. We'll mostly be packing, but I think we can manage to sneak in some movie-time tonight as well. See you all soon!

/ Jenny