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

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