I hate being sick!

Ok, these past couple of days have been a bit of a drag. I'm just going to tell you about it quickly, and then be over with it! Last weekend I woke up with a stiff neck, and could hardly move for two days. I was in so much pain that I had to skip Linköping Knitters' birthday party on Saturday, which sucked big time! Work on Monday was a bit hindered, but I managed.

Then this past weekend, I woke up - and I mean litterary, it woke me up - feeling incredibly dizzy. As soon as I moved my head the whole room was spinning. It didn't pass for two whole days, so yesterday I called in sick and went to the doctor's. Apparently, I have some loose particles that have ended up in my balance organs, that aren't supposed to be there (in swedish this is called Chrystal disease). It is treatable with physical therapy, as you need to do some movements to dislodge the pasticles and move them from the balance tubes to the ear instead, where they will do no harm. It is supposed to be very uncomfortable, and I've got an appointment with a physio therapist tomorrow to do it. At least this time I have a real diagnosis!

Now on to some more fun stuff! I actually have a finished object to show you! I finished the Wanida socks, and I'm really happy with them!

They actually work pretty well with the yarn, and they are really soft and comfy. I've worn them once already. I haven't really done much other knitting (last weekend I was in too much pain, and this weekend I was too dizzy), so I have nothing else to show you. I can tell you that I'm working on a secret Christmas project though, so you'll have to wait a month before I show it to you.

We also had our kitchen redecorated the other week! I don't have any really good pictures of how it looked before, but it was pretty much all white. 

White cubbord doors and white benchtops. It wasn't really completely white any longer though, as white has a tendency to stain. And all that bright white made the room look pretty sterile and impersonal. So we decided to change it, so now the cubbord doors are oak, and the countertops are black!

It looks so much more warm and cozy! A real incentive to actually keep it clean (which we're horrible at), and so much nicer to be in. We love it!

Other than that I haven't really done much but work. The coming weekend (second in Advent) I'm going to have some of my girlfriends over for a day of yarn dyeing and general fun. It's going to be a blast (if I get to stay healthy, that is...)!

Did you wonder about my novel writing during the NaNoWriMo month? Yeah, I gave up on that one almost from the start... I managed to write almost 3000 words (out of 50 000), lost my mojo, and decided to put the book on ice for a while. I don't have any energy when I get home from work, mostly I just fall asleep on the couch, and I didn't feel like stressing it out during the weekends. There will come a time when I finish it, just not right now!

And finally, this is what I see when I look out through the kitchen window:

Yeah, that's snow (and no, we haven't put away our garden furniture yet!). About half a meter of it. And it's -12 Centigrades today, so it looks like it's not going anywhere anytime soon either. Yay...

/ Jenny

Busy busy busy!

Yep, it's been a couple of busy weeks lately, but I'm going to start by telling you the most awesome news: I got offered to stay on at a permanent possition at my job! YAY! I was so excited I even forgot to ask what the pay would be, I'm just so glad to have a permanent job! Especially since I love the job, and I love my co-workers, and I couldn't be happier.

Yesterday I went on a shopping trip with my sister, Sanna, and our friend Anna. We were out for about five hours, and I finally managed to find a new winter coat (and you won't see it modelled today, as I'm still wearing my bathrobe and yesterday's make-up).

I've had a brown one for a couple of years, and I can't for the life of me remember why I bought it in the first place. It's too tight, it's got a very unflattering fit, it's pilling, and it's BROWN! So it's going into retirement (I think I'll give it to goodwill), and tomorrow I get to use the new one. We've had our first snow these past two weeks, but it's more or less rained away this weekend. But it's still cold enough (barely) to warrant the winter coat.

I've also been doing a little bit of knitting, with emphasis on little. I'm now up to 560 stitches on the Evenstar shawl, and every row takes me forever. It's continually growing though, although I doubt I'll finish it this year (can you believe it's Christmas soon!).

I'm also working on the Wanida socks, and I've almost finished the first one. The yarn is working great with the pattern, and I really want to wear them, but I'm usually too tired to knit when I get home in the evenings, so I rarely knit on them. I'l get them done though. Probably this year too :)

And finally I'm knitting on the Paper Dolls sweater, and it's coming along nicely. I've finished the waist decreases, and I've almost finished all the increases too. It's looking really good, and this one is probably the one I'm working the most on. I'm working on it at the coffee breaks at work, so I usually work a little on it every day. I know that the ribbing fits this time, but I think I'll have to try it on soon again, to see that the waist is ok this time.

Oh, and I'be bought myself some new books as well! I first picked up a copy of the new Cookie A. book, Knit. Sock. Love. (Ravelry link). I LOVE this one! Cookie must be the most talented sock designer there ever was, and I want to knit ALL of the patterns! Too bad I've still got lots of patterns in the Sock Innovation book left to knit, as I want to knit ALL of those too! 

I also bought the Brave New Knits book (Ravelry link), and I have to admit that it was mostly for the new Ysolda Teague pattern, the Orchid Thief Shawlette. However, this book is a real gem, with lots of mini biographies about all the designers. And there are lots more patterns I would definitely consider making for myself other than the shawlette too, which is really nice. I think I'll read it all through once I'm done with what I'm reading right now (I'm getting to that in a minute).

I also got two books with amigurumi crochet patterns: Välkommen till Virkligheten (It's rougly translated as "Welcome to the Crochet Reality, but it's a pun on word in swedish that doesn't translate) by Annika Messing, and Virka Roliga Amigurumis (Crochet funny amigurumis) by Mia Bengtsson.

These are both swedish books, with lots of cute patterns in. I own the first amigurumi book by Mia Bengtsson too, Virka Amigurumi - Söta Små Glädjespridare (Crochet Amigurumi's - Cute Little Joybringers), and I just need to find the time to actually learn how to crochet properly...

I also picked up some fiction literature, the first being the new Stephen King book, Full Dark, No Stars. I finished it today, and boy was it good! I know, I'm a bit biased when it comes to mr King, but this one was actually a lot better than the last couple of books he's written. It contains four novellas, all dealing with how ordinary people deal with different kinds of catastrophes. I particularly love how mr King writes character descriptins, and these four novellas all contained some pretty awesome character portraits. Just an Awesome book.

I started a new book today too, a graphic novel by Neil Gaiman. I think I've told you before that he's my second favourite author, after mr King, and I LOVE that he does comics as well as "normal" fantasy fiction. The book I'm reading now is Marvel 1604, which is a story about what it would have been like if the Marvel Heroes (X-men, Fantastic four, Daredevil and lots of others) had lived in the 17th century England. I've not gotten very far yet, but I like it so far. Bear in mind though that I've not read any Marvel Heros comics before, so I have nothing to compare it to.

I finally bought the newest Discworld novel, by Terry Pratchett. It's called I Shall Wear Midnight, and I haven't started it yet. But so far I've loved all of mr Pratchett's books, I think he's hillarious with just a bit of edge to the satire he writes, so I'm really looking forward to this one too. I read somewhere a year or two ago that mr Pratchett has gotten diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, and it will be a huge loss for the literary world when he quits writing. Hopefully it won't be for years and years!

Now that I've been on Ad Libris (the swedish book site) looking for pictures of all the books, I just realized that there are TWO books by Joe Hill (Stephen King's son, he's almost as brilliant as his father) that I don't have yet! Maybe I'll just have to place a new order tonight...

Today has been a really lazy day! I've just been sitting on the couch reading and having a very nice skype chat with Anna and Sarah! I wonder if anyone knows if you can have a video conference with more than one person at once on Skype? We couldn't find that function, so we've just had audio chats today, but it would be fun if we could all see each other as well. I don't think it should be impossible, right?

Now I'm going to pick out my food from the oven (fishsticks and french fries, nothing healthy for me tonight!), but I'll try to be back next weekend with a new update. I hate that it's been two weeks since last!

/ Jenny

Another long absence

Well hello there! I'm amazed I still have any readers left, since I seem to take longer and longer breaks from writing here. But now I'm back, at least for today! 

Last weekend my mother came to visit, for the second weekend in a row, and her, me and my sister went to a concert. The swedish musical artist Peter Johansson, who has held the lead roll in the We Will Rock You musical in London, has toured Sweden with a tribute show to Queen. I don't know if you know this, but I was pretty much brought up with Queen along with my baby food, so I've listened to them my whole life. When Freddie Mercury died in 1991, it was one of the biggest tragedies in the history of mankind, according to me. 

The concert was really, really good! Of course Peter is no Freddie (no-one is), but he did a fabulous job (alnog with two female guest artists). I was very glad that I went, and pretty satisfied that my stomach held up long enough for me to acctualy go. The stomach actually seems to be back on track again, but I'm not going to say it out loud yet or I'll just jinx it.

The past week I've just been working, and it feels so good to be back at work again! And yesterday I had a very spontaneous day in town with Anna, as she needed to buy new shoes and asked me for advice. We spent a couple of hours browsing stores and had tea and chocolate at a café as well. A really nice day, and it was so much fun to hang out with Anna, we don't see enough of each other anymore, now that we both have full time jobs. And Anna lured me into buying two skeins of sock yarn that I "really needed"...

Actually, I think I really needed this, as I don't have any turqoise sock yarn. That I'm going to use for socks, anyway. I have some teal and turqoise Wollmeise sock yarn, but those are all destined to become other stuff than socks. These will probably become the Summer Sliding socks, as I was RAK'ed the pattern a while ago.

Today me and Thomas are just hanging out at the apartment, taking a slow day off from everything. We're going to make lasagna and apple pie later on, but that's about it. I'm spending most of the day on the couch knitting, which is awesome! Right now I'm knitting on the Evenstar shawl, and I think I might finish the first half of chart 2 today. I'm using my Wollmeise Lace yarn for this shawl, and the colour is just amazing! Although I have to admit that the yarn is a bit stiffer than I had anticipated. I think I might not buy any more Wollmeise, as I have several softer yarns in my stash already. I actually have some more Wollmeise as well, and I definitely think I'll use all of them as the colours are so wonderful. But there are several other dyers doing great work as well!

Oh, and I cast on for the Paper Dolls sweater again. I've been working on it mostly at the coffee breaks at work, so I haven't gotten very far yet. But I've changed the ribbing from 1x1 to 2x2, as it gets more flexible then (at least when I knit it), and I'm doing more decreases for the waist as well. I'm also decreasing more frequently than the pattern calls for, as my last attempt gave me a very long sweater. I hope it will look better this time around. I know for sure that I'll try it on more often this time!

I've also been working some on my Wanida socks, from the Cookie A book. They are looking great so far, but I haven't gotten any photos of it yet. You'll have to wait until the first one is finished I think!

And last weekend when my mom came to visit, she had knitted herself a very pretty cowl in a beautiful, autumn-coloured acrylic yarn. She brought me a skein and asked if I could knit her a pair of mittens, as she thought it would be too complicated for her to make herself. As it was a buly yarn, and I knitted the mittens in garter stitch on 8 mm needles, it took me about three hours to complete both:

I think I've knitted a few more rounds on the ribbing on one of them, but I don't think that will be visible when they're worn. My sister is going to Borås for a visit this coming week, so she'll bring them down to mom then. We had some very cold days last weekend, whit temperatures just below freezing, but it looks like it will be a bit warmer at least for a few more days now, so I don't think mom needs the mittens desperately yet. But I bet they'll feel great come winter!

Tomorrow is the first of November, which kicks of the National Novel Writing Month. I have to write 1667 words each day to get 50 000 by the end of the month! I actually doubt that I'll finish, but at least it might get me going on writing again. Stephen King says in his excellent book On Writing, that it is very important to write every day if you want to become a professional writer. So maybe I'll get there some day too :) Probably not in mr King's caliber, but at least I can make a start, right?

Now I'm going to go have a snuggle with Hobbe, as he's stanging beside my lap hadbutting my elbow. I'll try to see you again at least next weekend (hopefully with some updated photos too)!

/ Jenny

Suckety suck suck (and a lot of knitting!)

Yep, my stomach issues have come roaring back with a vengance this past week. I was home from work four days last week, and two days so far this week, as I can't go very far from the bathroom. My sister had her 25th birthday on Sunday, so on Saturday my parents came to town to visit, and we were all supposed to head out to an amazing spanish restaurant for the evening. I stayed at home instead, watching lots and lots of Angel episodes (I have a thing for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but haven't actually seen Angel until now. Silly me). Today I think I'm finally starting to feel like myself again, but so far it has gotten worse in the evenings, so I'll not count my eggs yet.

Anyhow, having stayed at home for so long, I've actually gotten lots and lots of knitting done. Last Monday I finished my lilac Tunic dress, and I couldn't be more happy with it!

It fits me very well, even though I did a LOT of tweaking to the pattern to be able to knit it in the round. It's supposed to be knit in two different parts and then sewn together, but I really hate sewing. I also opted for kitchenering the shoulder seams (which I think makes me an expert on kitchener stitch now, all in all about 180 stitches kitchenered together), and it worked out great. I wore it on Sunday when my sister and her boyfriend were here to play some board games on her birthday (she and her boyfriend and my husband had chinese food. I had water). 

I've also FINALLY managed to finish the India Stole! I started this one on June 4th, so it took me over four months to complete. I've done some other stuff in between, but it still feels like ages!

And do you know what: This is my tenth shawl this year! I've actually managed to knit 10 shawls in 2010, just like the challenge was! I'm very happy with that! And I love the stole too, it turned out great. It will be perfect to wear around the shoulders once the winter is over. The yarn (Chili Gredelin Simone) is a bliss to work with, and I actually have 2.2 more skeins of this same colourway, which will last me for at least another shawl. Possibly two!

Today I also cast on for the Evenstar shawl, which is going to be awesome too. I'm knitting it in my Wollmeise Lace yarn, in colourway Sabrina, and so far I love the yarn! It's great to work with and the colour is amazing! 

Although I have to admit that I probably love Chili Gredelin's yarns more, because they are even softer. And Kia who runs Chili Gredelin is also an amazingly talented dyer! I wish she would hold a course in dyeing, I would travel the 500 kilometers to her city for that :)

I'm also thinking of starting over on the Paper Dolls sweater. I really need a more or less mindless stockinette knit to bring with me to work, and the body of that sweater should be just perfect for that. I've decided to make a lot more decreases for the waist, as well as making a 2x2 rib at the hem instead of 1x1. I'm also going to knit the I-cord edges on after the thing is done, as I couldn't manage to get the I-cord cast-on to look good. I'll see if I pick it up tonight, or if I get too immersed in the Evenstar :)


Oh, and finally: Did you notice a new linky on the right side column of the blog? the NaNoWiMo? It stands for Nationla Novel Writing Month, and I signed up a couple of days ago. This means that I'm going to try to write a 50 000 word novel in just the month of November! I actually signed up before my stomach crashed, so I'm feeling a bit less motivated right now, but hopefully that will sort itself out before November comes around. I've wanted to be a fiction writer ever since I learned how to read at the age of 5, and I figured this might just be the kick in the but that I need to get me going. I've only written scientific papers for the last couple of years, but since I'm done with research I figured I would pick up my fiction writing again. Wish me luck!

Now I'll see if I can find something mild to eat. Hold your thumbs that I can go to work tomorrow again, I really miss it!

/ Jenny

I've missed you!

I can't believe it's been two whole weeks without blogging! And I don't even have an excuse, I've just neglected you all. I'm completely beat when I get home from work, but I should have written at least something last weekend. Oh well. I'm back now, and I've got pictures to prove it!

Last Saturday I went and visited Anna and Peter for a lovely coffee break. The first and only completely gluten free bakery has opened up its doors about 5 minutes from where Anna lives, so we took a walk over there and just went nuts. I was like a child in a candy store! I can't remember the last time I had actually freshly baked bread! And we of course had to buy some cookies too:

These were, from upper left and clock-wise: Brownie, Chocolate Balls (and yes, there is a less politically correct name for these that I won't repeat here...), Cream-filled chocolate cookie and a vacuumer (that's the swedish name for the green and brown cookie). 

The three of us split all of the cookies into three (and Peter showed us just how to do that completely fairly), and had lots of tea with it. Me and Anna knitted and we all just chatted the morning away. It was just so nice, I haven't had a chance to hang out with anna for a while now so it was so much fun.

Anna has just discovered sock knitting, and these are her very first attempt:

They are knitted in Colinette Jitterbug, and are oh so soft. Anna is a VERY talented knitter, she's just tried fair isle for the first time and I don't know a knitter that won't turn a little bit green with envy at the perfection of it! The stranding was just perfect, and all the stitches were so incredibly even. I'm just amazed!

Last week I started my job at two new work places too. I'm still doing exactly the same work, just at two new locations. I now hava almost an hour to commute to both places, which is a bit dull, but I can manage. The work is still just as much fun, and all my new (and old) co-workers are all very nice. I just hope that I get to continue after new year! The long workdays means that I'm even more tired when I get home, but I'll get used to it soon.

Yesterday Me, Thomas, my sister Sanna and Anna went to a flea market that is held by the parents of one of our good friends. This is the same flea market where I bought my spinning wheel a while ago (and no, I still haven't taken up spinning, I just can't seem to find the time!), and they have lots and lots of fun stuff. I picked up these adorable, tiny candle holders/candles for practically nothing. I thought I would include my phone or something to show you the scale, but I think Hobbe managed that instead :)

Thomas found a complete stereo set for about $40 dollars, including speakers. This was awesome, as one of our speakers just recently gave up its last breath! He's trying them out right now with lots and lots of metal... I dare you to ask me how much I enjoy this!

I've actually acomplished quite a lot of knitting these past weeks, and for once I've actually got something to show you! I still haven't managed to finish anything, but I'm almost done with the tunic dress:

I think I'll finish it during the coming week. I've sort of had a new spark with this project this past week or so, and it's going really well so far. I think it looks great, and it is quite heavy so it should have a great drape as well.

I've come about 60 % on the India stole as well:

This is constructed by casting on 115 stitches with provisional cast on (I used the crochet chain one), and then knitting all the charts in one direction. You then pick up the provisional cast on and knit all the charts in the opposite direction. I've knitted almost 2 out of 6 charts in the second direction, but I haven't picked this one up for almost a week. I think this will get a lot more attention once the dress is finished.

I'm also knitting on a pair of socks, the Wanida socks from the Sock Innovation book by Cookie A. I haven't really made any progress on these, as they've been lying in my purse for the past two weeks, but once the stole is done I'll get to these too.

That's the knitting. And you know what else: Yesterday I took my very last anti-depressant pill! I've been decreasing my dose for two months now without any depression emerging, and yesterday evening was the last pill. Thank God! And once I started decreasing my dosage, most of my stomach problems seem to have disappeared too! I couldn't be more thrilled about that, and hopefully they won't come back. I asked the doctor if he thought that the stomach issues could simply be side effects from the pills, but as I had been on the pills for almost a year before the stomach spazzed out, he thought it unlikely. I think he dismissed the idea a bit too fast though, and I really, really hope I will be ok now! Yesterday I had a little bit of set back with the stomach, but one time in two months is ok. I can live with that!

Now I'm going to attend to the laundry. I'll try to be back sooner next time!

/ Jenny

Sewing Festival 2010

My oh my. The Sewing Festival in Borås this year was absolutely fabulous! I went to Borås on Firday evening, to stay with my parents. When I came into my room (It's more of a spare room, the only thing that's really mine in there any longer is the bed), I was greeted by an insanely strong smell of cat pee. Turns out one of my parents' cats had peed on the couch in there. Yay. We removed the wet pillows, but the smell prevailed all through the night. The next morning we found out that the stupid cat had also peed on a pillow that was on the floor underneath the bed. No wonder it smelled! Once we removed that pillow too, the smell disappeared! Stupid cat.

Ok, on to the festival. This year I went with my mother, and I didn't partake in any of the workshops. There weren't that many of them that I was interested in anyway, but it was fun to just walk by them and see what they were all about. And let me tell you, the festival was a bit bigger this year than last! There were so many yarn vendors! And before you say anything, let me tell you that I actually didn't spend any of my own money! A month or so ago, my sister got a pair of insanely expensive boots and a new autumn coat as a gift from my grandmother (well, she got the money for them, and bought them herself). And even though my sister and I are 25 and 30 years old, my grandmother still thinks that all gifts have to be equal, so she gave me the same amount of money. So I decided to spend it on the sewing festival, which I did!

And I tell you, the harvest was bountiful this year! I didn't get as many skeins as I did last year, but went more for quality this year instead. I still managed to come home with 14 new skeins of yarn! I had my camera with me, but I only remembered to take two photos the whole day, on my favourite booth. It was the swedish dyer Färgkraft (which translates roughly as powerful colours, or strenght from colours). One of my LYS's here in town, Garnverket, carry some of this yarn as well, but this booth that was run directly by the Färgkraft people had such a huge selection! If the yarn wasn't so expensive, I would have bought the whole inventory!

All the yarn is made from swedish sheep, and dyed by hand. I walked away with three skeins of gorgeous lace yarn called SoftBlend. Two in a gorgeous dark pink/fuschia colour called Cerise:

And one in a lovely green colour called VarmGrön (warm green):

I love them all so very much! The pink is destined to become the Butterflies and Flowers shawl, and the green will become a Troll Forest shawl. I have to say that I'm very proud of myself, because I almost only bought yarn with specific projects in mind! I even wrote down a list of patterns that I have in my pattern stash, but that I don't have any yarn for yet, so I would know what to look for. 

Next we came upon a booth that only sold Opal sock yarn (the link goes to the booth people, the swedish vendors). This is a German company that only make sock yarn (I think), and in so many crazy, self-striping colours. Since I mostly knit patterned socks, I didn't think I'd want any of this, but it turns out that they had a lot of solid colours as well. So I bought five skeins in total here:

Pink

Purple

Wine

Green multi-coloured (because I couldn't help myself)

And crazy multicoloured (one crazy skein is all right, right?)

All of them except the green will be socks from my 10 patterns collection. The green skein was bought so I can make a pair of socks for Christmas for my youngest brother-in-law William (he's 14 years old, and my husband's brother, not married to my sister...). He asked for a pair of socks a while ago, and I'm going to make the Manly Aran socks from the Toe-Up Socks for Every Body book by Wendy D Johnson. All the Opal skeins have 100 grams in them, so they should be enough to make at least a pair of socks from (I think the socks for Willie will be a bit more though, as he has bigger feet than me). The yarn is 75 % superwash wool/25 % nylon (which seems to be a standard for many sock yarns).

The next booth I shopped in was Limmo Design, who also has a web shop. She had soooo many gorgeous, hand-painted sock yarns, it was hard to choose! I walked away with two skeins of gorgoeus skeins that were 100 g of 75 % wool/25 % polyamide:

Colourway Sun

Colourway Rosebud

These skeins will also go to the 10 socks pattern collection. With these skeins, I actually have ten different yarns that I'm planning to use for this pattern collection, so hopefully I will make all of them! I'm sort of in a sock zone right now (I'll tell you more about that later), so this suits me very well!

Oh, and at Limmo Design I also picked up five bags of Kool-Aid! It's a bit hard to come by here in Sweden, so I was very pleased to find it here. I have five different colours (or flavours, really): Grape, Cherry, Slammin' Strawberry/Kiwi, Black Cherry and Pink Lemonade. I realized yesterday evening though that I might actually need more than one bag to dye a whole skein, but I think I might be able to get more bags from the Limmo Design web shop. 

Next we went to the booth where GarnGalleriet sold it's wares. I got to fondle Hand Maiden for the first time, and of course I couldn't resist. One skein of AMAZING Lace Silk (100 % silk, 900 m/100g) in a beautiful, lustrous copper hue went with me home. 

This will become a Lirio shawl, which is a pattern that I've had in my queue for a while now but never got around to buying. The other day though, I got it as  RAK gift from Pyttan, and I couldn't be happier! The yarn is just so incredibly soft and shiny, it's going to be a real treat to work with it!

We then moved on to Nysta's booth, and this was also a real treat! She had lots of yarns from Colinette (although I didn't see any Jitterbug), and some Debbie Bliss and Heaven's Hand. This is the booth where I bought my only impulse yarn, that I didn't have anything planned for. Two skeins of Debbie Bliss Andes went home with me:

It's 65% alpaca/35 % silk, and oh so soft! The colour is a pale purple/grey, and I think they will become a pair of mittens for me. It's 100 m/50 g, so DK weight. 

Finally I also bought a pair of DPN's from Marks & Kattens (a swedish manufacturer), but I can't seem to remember which vendor I bought them from. They are very pretty wooden needles (you can see them in the photo of the Kool-aid above), and I'm very curious to work with them as they're not as smooth as the KnitPicks Harmony needles I'm used to.

Oh, and one more thing: I've finaly gotten my mother back on knitting! When I came home on Friday she showed me a scarf she had knitted! She used to knit a lot of sweaters and cardigans for me and my sister when we were young, but she quit some time in the late 80's. And even though I started obsessing about knitting about a year ago, she hasn't really picked it up again until now. So she went with me to the festival yesterday, and she bought some Caron Simply Soft yarn to make a sweater for herself! 

Yay! I doubt she will become as crazy as I am about it, but I love that she has finally started again. The 100 % acrylic yarn ws really, really soft, and as she wanted a white sweater I think she made a good choice in going with a washable yarn. 

There were of course LOTS of vendors that I didn't shop at, and it was so much fun to just look around! I stood a long time at Ullcentrum's booth and finally decided that I would wait with that! After the festival we went to visit my grandmother and uncle for a short while, and yeaterday afternoon I went back to Linköping again. Thomas and his friends went to a metal concert last night, so I had the apartment all to myself. I just sat in bed listening to my new audio book and knitted a bit (and Skyped with Sarah for 2.5 hours!). And fondled all my new yarn, of course! 

Ok, I'm actually going to talk a bit about my own knitting too. I finished my secret Christmas project the other day, so I decided that they would become a birthday present instead. My mother has a birthday coming up in October, so she got her gift a bit early on Friday evening. A while ago I found a free sock pattern on Ravelry called the Rosalie Socks. This was really funny, as my mother's name is Rosalie! The match was ment to be, so I knitted her a pair using KnitPicks Stroll yarn in the Saphire Heather Colourway:

She loved them, and put them on right away. Once I got into the zone knitting them, they went really fast, and as soon as I finished them I had to cast on for another pair of socks for myself! I just enjoy knitting socks so much right now! I chose the Wanida socks, from the Sock Innovation book by Cookie A. I'm using a yarn that I bought at last year's Crafts day in Old Linköping, it's Zitron Trekking XXL. 

So far I've only gotten past the cuff, so I don't have any photos to show you yet.

I've also been working a lot on the Tunic Dress, and I've finished the skirt part and just picked up stitches for the top part. Now I'm starting the pattern though, so it's become a bit too challenging to bring to work. I need to find another stockinette pattern that I can have as a work project! But today I think I'm actually going to knit some on the languishing India Stole! I'm more than half-way through it, and I really want to finish it so I can start something else :)

/ Jenny

Slacker Saturday

We're having a stay-in Saturday today, just enjoying the fall rain outside and listening to audio books and actually spend some time together for once! I'm knitting on my first Christmas project, which I won't show until the recipient gets it. I'm about 25 % in the project, and hopefully I can finish it this week.

I also have a finished object to show you: I finished the St Hyacinthe Socks this week! 

They are made with 1.6 skeins of Drops Fabel, and I love them! I've already worn them to work once, washed them, and now I'm wearing them today again! As usual, I had to decrease some extra stitches in the gusset decreases, as my foot circumference is a lot smaller than my leg circumference. Thus, I need fewer stitches over the sole than most patterns call for. But other than that, I made no changes to the pattern. It was easy to remember, but lots of fun to knit!

I'm also working a lot on the Tunic dress, and I think I will finish the skirt part some time this coming week. I'm knitting on it almost exclusively at work, so it's a bit slow going, but it's looking great. I have no new photos to show you, as it is still scrunched up on the short circular needle, but I'll take some once I cast off the hem.

Now I'm going to have me some lunch, and knit some more. And to all my swedish readers: Don't forget to vote tomorrow! It's a very improtant election (for the swedish government), and we MUST get a change of governing parties! So please, vote with your heart and not with your wallet!

/ Jenny