Yarn update and TV-series

Yes, it's time to tell you a bit more useless information about me. But first I'll talk a bit about yarn-related stuff. After all, this is supposed to be a knitting blog! I got an early Christmas gift from my parents, that arrived in the mail today. Let me present to you: Three GORGEOUS skeins of Chili Gredelin Simone (70 % baby alpaca/30 % silk, 800 m/100 g).

This yarn might possibly be even softer than my Madame, the green yarn I have that I previously bougth from Chili Gredelin. And I have so much of it, 300 g, it's going to make at least two large shawls! I can hardly wait until January 1st, so I can cast on for some lace!

In the same package was also two skeins of Chili Gredelin Geisha (100 % silk, 500 m/50 g). This is also super soft, a lot softer than I imagined pure silk would be, and it has such a shine to it! This will also become a shawl for me. I imagine I'll probably drown in lace shawls before next year is done!

I got another package in the mail today too, via the RAK in Europe group. The wonderful Hinayana sent me some tea, some drink chocolate and best of all, a gorgeous project bag! I think I've told you that I love pink, so this little bag is perfect! I love it so much!

Right now it's holding all my Chili Gredelin yans :)

And I've finally finished all Christmas gifts for my side of the family (except for the mittens, but I thin I'll finish them on Thursday or so. Not much left now), I just got in from a trip to the city center where I bought the last gift for my sister. Now we only have to think of something for one of Thomas' brothers (he has four brothers, but the other's are taken care of allready), and I think I'll let Thomas take care of that. It feels really good to be done with the Christmas shopping! Now we just have to focus on the New Years Eve party we're throwing, and then we can relax...

Ok, on to the Jenny trivia! I thought I'd tell you a bit about my favourite TV series that I like to watch. There aren't that many, so I'm guessing it won't take that long.

My absolute favourite is American Dreams. It's about a girl growing up in the 60's in Philadelphia, and she dances on American Bandstand. The series follows her and her family for three years, and I really wish that it had continued for a lot more! I love the 60's music and clothes, and the characters in this show are really great and captivating too.

I also love Gilmore Girls, and I wish it had continued too. Although I have to say that the last season wasn't as good as the previous ones, when they changed writers. It's funny that I like these types of drama/comedy series, as I'm not a fan ov drama when it comes to movies, but there is something in Gilmore Girls that just rubs me the right way.

I also have the whole DVD box of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the series, not the movie), and this is probably my second favourite. This show is SOOO cheesy, but it doesn't matter because it's also very good. I like Sarah Michelle Gellar in this role, and I think all the characters are very well cast. I think this series is the reason that I actually kind of like Bones, as David Boreanaz is playing Angel in the Buffy series.

There are also two shows that I follow right now. The first one is Flash Forward, a sci-fi starring Joseph Fiennes. It starts with every person on Earth losing consciousness at the same time, and while they're out, they have visions of what they'll be doing for a few minutes on April 29th, 2010. joseph Fiennes plays an FBI agent who during the blackout sees himself investigating the blackout, and the series follows him and his team while they struggle to understand what has happened. It is really intriguing!

The other show I'm currently watching (and boy do I hate that all the shows take Christmas breaks!) is Supernatural. This series is really goofy, and doesn't take itself very seriously, but it's still very good. It follows two brothers, Sam and Dean, who are demon hunters (you see why I like it, right?), and I like it a lot. When it finally gets cancelled (and lets hope for many more seasons!) I think we will invest in a DVD box for this as well, as my husband also loves this show.

There are several shows that Thomas watches, that I don't mind seeing either (including Sons of Anarchy, Dexter, Stargate Universe, Battlestar Galactica), but the five mentioned above are my favourite ones. I used to wattch Friends when it was on, and my sister has the whole DVD box, but I've found that I really don't enjoy watching those episodes again and again. We also often watch The Simpsons, Family Guy and Southpark, but those are shows that you can catch an episode of if it happens to be on, not something we actually follow. My sister watches Scrubs and How I Met Your Mother as well, but for me those are also shows that I can watch if they happen to be on, not something I need to see every episode of.

Ok, so now you know a little bit more about me! Now I think I'll play with my new yarns, althoug I think I'll wait to wind them into balls until I'm actually going to use them. But I can fondle them as much as I like until January 1st, at least!

/ Jenny

Beads!

I wasn't really planning on updating the blog today, as my knitting hasn't progressed very much since the last time. The gloves are still not completely dry, so I can't even show you a photo of them. And I've already showered and put on my PJ's, so I can't take a better photo of the Lettuce coat. Plus, Thomas isn't home to help me either... I'm knitting on the Candle Flame shawl though, and that I can show you! I'm almost out of yarn, we'll see if I run out of beads or yarn first. I decided to show you the photo taken without flash, as this is the one that shows off the pattern best. What you can't see in this photo are the beads, as they are so tiny. I've placed one bead at the top of every flame, and it looks so good (If I say so myself :)! I can't wait to be finished so I can wear it!

I also got a RAK package in the mail today! I think I've told you before, but I'm a member of a group on Ravelry that's called RAK in Europe (RAK means Random Acts of Kindness), where we send gifts to each other. It is not a swap, so everyone just posts a wishlist every month, and you chose for yourself which ones you want to fulfill. I got a package from Germany today, from a woman named Lisa, and she sent me four bags of beads that are just lovely. And I'm telling you, there must be at least 1500 beads of each kind!

Just look how tiny they are!

And remember I told you that I was going to make an Aeolian shawl without beads. Well screw that, now I actually have green beads that will go perfectly with the Chili Gredelin Madame yarn! So there will be pearls in my Aeolian too, I just like shawls with beads in them! I'm not sure yet what I'll use the rest of the beads for, but I'm sure I'll come up with something.

In the package were also included three packages of KoolAid powder, and one package of Easter Egg dye, that I will use to try my first dyeing (Is it spelled like that? I didn't just write that I'll try to die, did I?) experiment with! Last month I got some undyed silk yarn that will be perfect for this. Now I just have o find out how you do it, but I'm guessing that won't be too hard when I have Ravelry at hand! KoolAid was the only thing I wished for this month, and I'm so pleased that I got some. Me and Anna will definitely have a fun time trying this out!

And today my sister and I went for a long walk and went shopping in the middle of it :) She was going to get some Glögg (you know, the swedish version of Glühwine I told you about), and I went looking for winter shoes. I know what you're all thinking: "Doesn't she have enough shoes?", but alas, my winter boots from last winter hardly fit me anymore. I've gained so much weight the last year due to my antidepressants, that my boots barely zippered up when I wore pantyhose. And I was planning on wearing them over my skinny jeans... And the jeans definitely won't fit over the boots... And I really don't need any more excuses to buy shoes, so I bought these today:

They were super-cheap too, as they were half-price-off, so I really made a bargain! I'll try to take a photo of me actually wearing them some day too...

Thomas is drinking beer with his friends tonight, so I have the apartment for myself the whole evening. I'm just knitting away and watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which is awesome!

Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving, to those of you who celebrate that!

/ Jenny

I got mail!

When I came home from work today, I had gotten two packages in the mail, from my RAK in Europe group on Ravelry (you know, the random acts of kindness, where you give away things to other people)! it was almost like a birthday to open them, and the contents was great! From Ballee in Holland I got some (what I preseume is) homemade stitch markers that were absolutely gorgeous! They are a bit small, so I guess I will have to start a new lace project soon so I can use them.

And from JudyK in England, I got some stitch markers and a bar of dark chocolate. Hobbe really loked them too...

This afternoon I'm going to my third knitting café this week! It's great to get that much knitting time, as I'm really making progress on my projects. The tunic is almost up to the bustline now:

I really like the yarn combination, as you can see the cables really stand out! However, when looking at the Drops photo of it, it looks like a very light summer tunic. This is everything but light, and will be a quite heavy and thick winter pice of clothing... I'm not sure how much I will use it, since the design seems very summer-y, but maybe it will look beautiful on. I'm thinking of making full-length sleeves, as opposed to 3/4 as described in the pattern. Maybe that will make it look more like a winter sweater?

I'm also making two pairs of socks: One with size 2 mm needles and very thin yarn, so they are taking very much time. Although as you can see in the photo, I've at least made the first heel, so now it's just the foot part left (and the second sock, of course.

And one with a very thick yarn, that flies off the needles, I just haven't knitted on them for a few days. The main reason is that I don't own any 5 mm wooden dpns, and I have come to have the feel of plastic needles. Which is actually rather funny, since I hadn't tried anything else until july this year. but now I'm totally addicted to wooden needles. When the paycheck comes in on tuesday, I will order some additional sizes of the KnitPicks Harmony Wooden needles. The immage turned out a bit blurry, but I can't be bothered to bring out hte camera once again just to take a progress-shot. Also, blogger is not my friend today, and insists on posting the image turned 90 degrees clockwise...


Now, I'll keep knitting on the tunic. I think that is what I will bring to the knitting café this afternoon.

/ Jenny

It's official: I LOVE socks!

So, I've finally finished the lace socks (pattern can be found here), done in 100 % milk fiber from Viking of Norway yarn. It is an absolutely amazing yarn, soooo soft and cuddly. And the best part is that the socks only required 1 skein, so I have a full skein left! I think I will have to buy a sock book, to get some other patterns. Another perk is that I'm not sure if I have any shoes that will work with these socks, so I probably need to buy a new pair for this autumn. Yeah, I really need more shoes...

Since it was so much fun to knit these socks, and they only took a week, I will definitely make more socks eventually. I have already decided that these two skeins that I bought a week ago at the grand re-opening of Garn Netto in Linköping will become two pairs as well.

However, I have decided that I actually don't like having more than one projects going at a time. I feel like a mule between two haytaps: I can't chose which project to work on as I want to finish all! So now I'll focus my energy on my cabled tunic, and my next projects will probably be something from the "Sticka klassiskt" book I bought at the beginning of summer. I'm at least making some progress with the tunic, it's about 25 cm long now, I think.

Today I organized my stash on my ravelry page. I entered all my stash skeins, and even took photos of all of the skeins, so now I at least know what I have in my drawers. I am lousy at saving labels for the skeins, so a lot of them are now labelled "Mystery skeins", since I have no idea what they are. I think I told you that I joined in in a random acts of kindness-group on ravelry, and yesterday I sent out three packages with acrylics and two with beads to different people all over Europe. I could only send out the yarns that I knew were acrylics, and I actually saved some that I know I'm going to use, but the yarn drawer was actually considerably emptier afterwards. And I know that I have two packages coming my way, but since I didn't wish for any yarn, I think it's only little things in the packages, like stitch markers and such.

Ravelry is thus very good for many things! I organized my needles the other day, and you can print out the little table with all your needles on it and bring with you when you go yarn-shopping, so that you don't buy any duplicates (which I've done many times before). That is a great idea! And now I can keep tabs of all my yarn as well, and if I only remember to enter every new purchase, losing labels won't be an issue any more!

Now I think I will do some actual knitting, which I haven't sdone so far today.

/ Jenny