I feel so lazy!

My stomach has been acting up a lot this week, so I have been home lounging about and feeling a bit sorry for myself. I haven't really been doing too much knitting, as I've been so tired, but I have re-organized my queue and my favourites on Ravelry :) But I have actually managed some knitting at least.

I'll start with the Baby Cables and Big Ones Too sweater/dress. It was finished a while ago, and I wore it for the first time last weekend, when my sister had her birthday party. I'm very pleased with it!

I haven't got any make-up at all in the photo, so excuse the somewhat shiny face. Just look at the dress instead! It's made with KnitPicks Capra yarn, in merino/cashmere dk weight. I love this yarn! It is so soft, and it really shows off the cable pattern. I have two skeins left, and I decided I didn't want to waste them, so yesterday evening I cast on for a new hat, the Romy Beret:

I have just started the cable pattern today, so it's not much to look at yet, but as it's just a hat in dk weight, it is really flying off the needles. It shouldn't take long to finish! So far, we've had a pretty warm autumn with temperatures around 10 centigrades, but last year the snow arrived in the middle of November and stayed until March at least, so we might be in for a nasty cold surprise next week if we're unlucky. Then it will be nice to have a new, warm hat!

I've also knitted a lot on the Lothlorien socks, in the Malabrigio yarn. I've finished the first sock, but I discovered today when I tried it on that I have bound off a bit too tightly, so I think I'll redo the cast off. The second sock is well past the heel, so I guess I don't have far to go on this one either. It might get finished this coming week as well!

And as I finished the Cable dress, I wanted to start a new sweater project, and this time I chose the Silken Scabbard pattern. I'm knitting it in Rowan RYC Silk Wool, which is a discontinued dk yarn with 50 % merino/50 % silk, and I know it is another cabled sweater... I just love this pattern too! I'm almost ready to divide for the sleeves.

The yarn is very lovely to work with, and the stitch definition is awesome! The sweater seems to eat yarn however, as I've already used up four whole skeins! This made me worry that I might not have enough, as I want the sweater to be pretty long, so I searched around on Ravelry and found a woman in England who had four more skeins for trade or sale. Yes! I bought them very swiftly, and the shipping took no more than two days! So now I have 16 skeins in total (minus the four I've already used), and if that's not enough I'll just have to make it a bit shorter.

I also got some yarn in the mail this week, that I won in a raffle in the European RAK group on Ravelry! Handywoman from Greece gave away three hand-dyed skeins of sock yarn, and I won one. I LOVE it, it is just so bright and happy!

It's 75 % superwash wool/25 % polyamid, 420 m/100 g, so well enough for a pair of socks. I think I might knit some colourwork with it, together with some black yarn, to mute it down a bit. I'll let you know what I decide!

And I don't think I told you about the iPad stand I bought from Etsy a while ago, did I? It's hand made by the store Comfy iPad Creations, and basically it's a cushion with velcro, but it's exactly what I wanted. And, it's pink! The shipping is free everywhere, which is amazing, and it arrived in a week or so. I'm using it practically every day!

Oh, and I have something awesome to tell you! A while ago, a telemarketer called me to ask me some questions about people who had gotten money from Trygghetsstiftelsen. Trygghetsstiftelsen is a foundation that is made to make life easier for unemployed researchers that used to work at a university. It is very hard to find a job here in Sweden if you've got your PhD, and what Trygghetsstiftelsen does is that if you get a new job with less pay than at the university (like I did), they give you the pay difference as a stipend for two years after you leave the university. Awesome, right? Anyway, when this telemarketer woman called me, I realized that I never sent in my papers! When I left my previous job, I was just so completely miserable, my stomach was sooo crappy, and I completely forgot. So I sent them in a couple of weeks ago, meaning that I got all of that money retroactively! Yay! Since we bought the new car this summer, we haven't really had any saved money or any real buffer, and it feels so good to be able to put all of that money into the savings account.

Well, not all of the money. I get to have some fun too, right? I splurged on myself yesterday, and made a new, small order at Eat.Sleep.Knit. So now, some new yarn is on the way! I'll tell you more about that once it arrives, which should be in little more than a week or so. 

I also bought a circular needle holder from Etsy today, from the shop sarahkincheloe, which i also guess will arrive in a week or two. I have great holders for my interchangeables, and for all my dpn's, but no good one for the fixed circulars. So I figured it was about time. I'll show that one once it arrives too.

Ok, now you know what I've been up to these past two weeks. Tomorrow we are going to Borås for the day, to visit Thomas' grandparents who celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary this weekend. 

See you next weekend!

/ Jenny

Back to the ordinary blog world again?

It's been a while! I've just been updating with snippets from my new iPad, which I LOVE LOVE LOVE! Thomas was looking for an iPad2 while we were in the States, but they were sold out everywhere (of course). But he just spoke so much about how awesome it would be to have one, that I kind of fell for it. Then I read a blog post from The Knit Witch, where she told about an app called GoodReader, where you can read your pdf files and make comments and doodles on them! That was the sell for me, let me tell you. So we sent out and found the cheapest iPad1 with the least amount of memory and no 3G (let's face it, I wouldn't use that very much anyway), and it didn't cost too much. Now I'm downloading apps right and left!

My favourite is of course GoodReader, but I'm also using the iBooks app to read ebooks. I had no idea there were so many free classics available! There are so many I haven't read, and I just started The Portrait of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde. I also have Rudyard Kipling's Junglebook and Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe in the queue :)

I also bought an app called Knitting and Crocheting HD, which is a kind of knitting (and crocheting) tutorial. It's pretty good, with lots of photos, but I'm a bit surprised that they don't list Ravelry among their tips for knitting online. What's up with that? Is there anything bigger knittingwise online?

I of course also immediately got the app called XComics, to read comic books online. Just Awesome! The only problem is it's so easy to just buy more and more comics, it gets a bit expensive after a while...

I think I told you that I got an app for blogging too, BlogPress. It's ok I guess, but I haven't figured out how to turn the (swedish) autocorrect off yet. And it can't edit the layout of the post, so I can't change the margin alignment into what I like. Or change fonts. But I guess it's good if I'm in a jiffy. Actually, my little pink laptop has started to get very hot when used (I think the fans might be giving up), and it's starting to make a small, whining noice every once in a while. Plus, the other day the charging cord wouldn't work either. I've transferred all my files to Thomas' external hard drive, so it wouldn't be the end of the world if it gave up. At least now I can get by with the iPad!

Oh, I geeked out a bit further last weekend too, and got myself a new Scanner! It's a Cannon Lide 110, and was dirt cheap, but it works just fine. 

(And yes, I know I souldn't flaunt all my electronic devices here online. Please don't rob us)

I'm aiming to not having to print any more of my patterns, but I hate lugging my knitting books around. They get all scratched and worn, plus I don't want to draw in them or make notes, so I always end up with lots and lots of post-its instead. Now, I've started to scan my books and save them to the iPad, which will be the only thing I need to bring! Gotta love a paper-less society :)

Ok, are you waiting for knitting? I actually have a finished object for you! When we flew to the States, I cast on for a new pair of socks, the Terrebonne socks from my 10 patterns collection. I started them in Opal sock yarn, the same colourway that I used for the socks I knitted for my brother-in-law this Christmas, on 2.5 mm needles. They turned out HUGE for me, and instead of frogging them I just decided to make them for Thomas instead. I finished them the weekend before last, and he's alread worn them a lot. I think he likes them!

Since then I've knitted a lot on a pair of mittens that I also cast on for on the plane over to the States. This is the first one finished, I'm about halfway finished with the second one too. It's a pattern called Chtulhu mittens (unblocked):

If you don't know who Chtulhu is, you need to read up on you occult knowledge in general, and H.P. Lovecraft in particular. Chtulhu is evil, let's just leave it at that. I'm making these for Thomas to match his scarf that he has (it's storebought), but I'm planning on making another par for his older brother too, who also loves Lovecraft. He and the other brothers (there are five of them in total, Thomas included) are coming here to visit for easter weekend, so I'll ask him then what colours he'd like. I'm making them in KnitPicks Palette yarn, so I have some colours to choose from!

Work has been kind of crazy lately, there has been so much to do! I wonder if people are getting sicker? There has been some co-workers on vaccation, and one girl has broken her arm and is off work for at least six weeks, which means that us that are left get to work a little bit more. It's still fun, and I prefer having lots to do to not having anything to do, but I've just been to exhausted in the evenings to post here! Today though, my stomach decided to revolt (for the first time in about a month, so I'm not really complaining too much), so I had to stay at home. The perk about that is that I get to catch up on the laundry, and write a bit here :)

Oh, were you wondering about lace? Yeah, me too. I guess I've just had too much to do lately! I haven't gotten half-way through the first shawl of the year (remember, I'm officially partaking in the 11 shawls in 2011 challenge...), so I'm thinking I'm not going to bother even trying to make 11. I'll just knit where my fancy takes me, and have fun with it. Knitting is supposed to be fun, right?

Ok, now I think I'm going to wathc a movie on the iPad (yes, I've got an app for that too) and actually do some knitting while the washer finishes it's current load. See you all this weekend, hopefully with a finished (and blocked!) pair of mittens!

/ Jenny

New app for my ipad

I've just installed a new app on my iPad called blogpress, and I'm trying it out. So far I'm loving the ipad, and it's so much fun to browse for fun Apps! I've downloaded an app called goodreader to read pdf files, so now I can view all my patterns on the iPad as well. The best part of the goodreader app is that it allows me to make notes and draw in the files as well, so now I can mark and cross over stuff in all the charts I'm using. Yay!

I'll just try to upload a photo as well, to see if it works. Then I'll be back this weekend with a longer post :)




This is me and Sarah having lunch at the Cracker Barrel, somewhere on the road between Washington DC and Clifton Forge.

/ Jenny

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Wohoo, I have an IPad! It's an IPad 1, but still. Now I just need to play around with it so I learn how to use it! I'll be back this weekend with more info and à little knitting too.

/ Jenny