Two FO's to show off!

I've finally started knitting again, I think I've started to feel a little bit better so I don't get motion sickness when I knit! I've also been feeling a little bit more energized, so we've done some stuff these past couple of weekends (I'm still too tired after work during the week). On the 8th of November one of our best friends had his dissertation (which we didn't go to, as it was during our working hours), followed by a big dissertation party. It was so much fun, and we got to see some of our friends that we haven't seen for a very long time. I think we were home by midnight, so we didn't stay for all of it, but I'm just glad that I can do stuff like that at all again.

Then the following weekend I went to Västervik (a tiny town on the east coast of Sweden, about two hours' drive from Mantorp where we live), to visit my sister in her new apartment. She moved away from Linköping this summer, at the beginning of August, but I've just been feeling too crappy to go there until now. We mostly hung out and played Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii (we've been playing it forever, but it's still fun), and it was very nice. I had also gotten her a small ice cream maker for her birthday, so we made raspberry yoghurt ice cream on Sunday before I left. Yummy!

This weekend has been spent mostly cleaning the house and hanging out with Thomas, and we also watched the 50th anniversary Doctor Who episode. It was SO GOOD! I already love John Hurt, and it was so much fun to see David Tennant as the doctor again. It's a shame we have to wait until Christmas for more episodes! Of course I know that Tennant won't be there then, but he's still my favourite. We've actually started watching all the new seasons again (beginning with Christopher Eccleston), just because it's such a good show.

Ok, on with the knitting! A couple of weeks ago, about a week after I wrote last I think, I finished my Parcel sweater!

It's made with Drops Lima yarn (65 % wool/35 % alpaca), which is super warm, and I really like it. You won't get to see it modelled though, as it is already too small! I really hope I can get back to my starting weight after the baby is born, so I can wear it!

This past week I also finally finished my Hermione's Everyday socks that I made with Fibernymph Dye Works Bounce yarn (75 % superwash wool/25 % nylon), in the colourway Rainbow Riot:

I am very pleased with them, and I wore them to work on Thursday. The yarn was really nice to work with, and as of last week I have one more skein in my stash. On Monday, I think it was, I got a skein in the Tardis colourway that I managed to snag in an update several weeks ago (it was a pre-order buy):

This yarn is so much fun, and Lisa is such a talented dyer. As we are trying to save up some money, I don't buy much yarn at all right now, but this skein had to be mine when I actually managed to catch the update. I almost used it yesterday to cast on for a new pair of socks, but I changed my mind and chose a skein of Friday Studios Monday yarn instead, that I got in the Hunger Games yarn club this spring.

I think I might have told you last time, but the Hermione's Everyday socks were actually my October pair for the Stockinette Zombies Striped socks KAL, so I was feeling a little bit behind. So yesterday I decided I wanted to start a new pair, so that I'll have time to finish all twelve pairs this year. I skeined up the Friday Studios yarn, in the colourway Girl on Fire, and started the Show-off Stranded socks. And today I'm already half-way through the foot!

They are going super fast, and I really enjoy them. If I keep this pace up, I might be able to finish them in November too!

I also decided, while I was packing for the trip to my sister, that I wanted to start another sweater or cardigan. I already had one of my Wollmeise DK skeins in the Pesto colourway wound into a ball, so I chose the Gnarled Oak Cardigan by Alana Dakos. So far I've only knit the bottom ribbing and a little bit of stockinette, but I'm still enjoying it. The yarn is very nice to work with, and I hope to have it finished this year. 

I got two more packages in the mail since I wrote last. The first was my last shipment in the Bling Your String bag club, and I think the fabric is cute this time too. It was a fun club, but I won't be doing any more bag clubs like that. I think I enjoy picking the bags myself more, and right now I have so many bags that I don't know what to do with all of them! 

I also got my November shipment in the 7 Degrees of Kevin Bacon sock club from the Knitting Goddess. This was the second to last, so only one more month to go. The yarn is called Twin Set, and it's from the movie Enid about Enid Blyton. It's very pretty, and as usual the accompanying pattern (called Watzisname) by Rachel Coopey is very pretty. I won't be joining in next year's club, but I'll probably buy the upcoming patterns as they are released to the public.

And I think that's it! Next weekend is the first in Advent, so we'll be decorating the house with lights and some of the Christmas ornaments. Thomas' younger brother Adam is moving next weekend too, so Thomas will probably be tied up all weekend. Then the weekend after that we're going to a concert with the Swedish band Ghost, which will be so much fun (they're awesome!), on the third of Advent some of our friends are coming here for a visit, and then the weekend before Christmas we'll pack up our stuff and go home to our parents. I can't believe it's only a month left until Christmas!

/ Jenny

For once, I kind of have a good Excuse...

Hello, all of you! It's been forever! How have you been? I know I've been off the grid for a while, but as the title of the post tells you, this time I have a valid excuse. I've been off sick from work for almost two months now, with a very messy stomach. Basically, my IBS stomach doesn't handle changes in my life very well, and we've been going through some major changes here these past months. Actually, in March, me and Thomas are going to be parents!

Yes, that's right. I'm pregnant! It's very exciting, but the hormones are really bad, and I've been constantly nauseous since the beginning of July. I don't have morning sickness, I have round the clock nausea! I'm getting really fed up with that, but I actually think it's starting to get a little bit better. I'm at almost 20 weeks, so I might actually have to feel like this all through the pregnancy, but now at least the rest of the stomach issues seem to have settled a bit. So I've been back at work for 1.5 weeks now, and it's ok. I'm tired as crap, but I might as well feel nauseous there as at home.

So other than feeling like crap, I've done almost nothing these past two months. I've been feeling too bad to knit much, but I have made some progress on stuff. The experiment socks I showed you last time are done, and I'm very pleased with them:

They're made with Friday Studios Saturday yarn (80 % superwash merino/10 % cashmere/10 % nylon), in the Hunger Games club colourway The 75th Arena. I really liked how the experimental pattern (every other stripe is stockinette, and every other stripe is seed stitch) turned out, and these socks are super soft! Now I kind of wish I had saved that skein for a baby item instead...

I also started a new pair of socks to bring to work (which I've barely touched, as I haven't been at work!), in Fibernymph Dyeworks Bounce yarn (80 % superwash merino/20 % nylon), in the colourway Rainbow Riot. 

I'm making the Hermione's Everyday socks pattern, and I'm enjoying them, I just haven't felt good enough to work on them. Right now I spend my breaks at work eating stuff to try and stave off the nausea, so I have very little knitting time at work, and when I get home I mostly collapse on the couch. I call them my Pride socks, as I coincidentally started knitting on them around the same time as all the gay riots in Russia reached the media. It was purely by happenstance, but I firmly believe in everybody's right to love whomever they wish, so I don't mind.

And that's about all the knitting I've done! Once I start to feel better I'll start churning out baby clothes, and I really want to finish my Parcel sweater while I can still wear it. But right now, I've mostly gotten stuff in the mail. We have started putting more money away in preparation for increasing the family, so I haven't bought any yarn since I found out I'm pregnant. But I'm still in a couple of yarn clubs, so that yarn is still arriving. 

I've actually gotten two new skeins from the Knitting Goddess, in the 7 Degrees of Kevin Bacon sock club. First, at the end of August, the colourway Tarnished Crown (which is from The King's Speech movie), arrived:

Then at the end of September, I got a skein in the colourway Bruise (which is from Fight Club), which is a little more purple than in the photo:

Both are, as usual, in the Knitting Goddess 4ply merino sock yarn, and I like them both a lot. The patterns that go along with them are as usual very pretty (the designer, CoopKnits, is amazing). I don't know if there will be a new club next year, but since we're saving up money I won't be joining. I'll probably get the patterns once they are released to the public though.

I've also gotten the last two shipments in the Mad Color Fiber Arts Mad Geek Tour yarn club, this time with the Into the Black theme (which I think I've told you is Firefly). The August shipment was a skein of Slink (75 % superwash merino/15 % nylon/10 % tencel), and the colourway is called She'll Fool Ya. It's nice, but a bit too colourful for me, especially since it's not striping but variegated. I've no idea what to make of it, but it will probably mature in the stash for a while.

Last week I got the September shipment from this club too, and as this was the last shipment there was also a JessaLu project bag with it. The yarn is Tasara (80 % superwash merino/20 % silk), and the colourway is called Fruity Oaty Bar. 

It's insane! I like this better than the last one, but I have the same problem with this skein. It's too much clown barf, so it'll also sit in the stash for a while. The best part of this shipment is that the bag actually matches the skein!

It's got all the characters from the Fruity Oaty Bar commercial from the movie, and it's so much fun. I think that the next club round will be Alice in Wonderland, but I'll skip this one too. I've liked to be in this club, but I think too many of the yarns have been a bit too colourful for me. I'm just not that into variegated yarns, I've come to prefer striping sock yarn.

The last skein of yarn to arrive was the October shipment in the Cookie A sock club, and this was a skein of Pagewood Farm Glacier Bay yarn (100 % merino), in the colourway Cape Cod Cranberry:

It's a very pretty, deep brownish red, and I like it a lot. It's a 155 g skein, so there is a lot of yarn! The patterns are really pretty this month too, which I'm very glad for since I've found that the previous months haven't been really what I had expected. I'm a big fan of Cookie A, but I think I've found that to my taste, there has been a bit too much lace in this club's patterns. I won't be joining this club next year either, as it is pretty expensive, but if you're interested I think the sign-ups starts some time in November.

I'm also in a new club that I'm not sure I've told you about. At the beginning of the summer I found the Bling Your String shop on Etsy, and she has a project bag club. It wasn't very expensive, and it runs for three months (August - October). I've gotten my two first shipments, and the theme is animals.

The first one is a little bit pale to my taste, but the second one (with a matching notions pouch included!) is gorgeous! It's a very fun club, although I think I might not have signed up if I knew that we needed to save more money, but I'm enjoying it. The last shipment will be here at the end of the month, and then I only have club yarn coming until the end of the year.

Oh, that turned out to be a long post! And considering I have been doing almost nothing, I managed to babble on quite a while. At the end of September I spent a couple of days at my parents' house, and we went to a Queen tribute concert with a Swedish musical star named Peter Johansson. My sister also joined us for the weekend and the concert, and we managed to get to a local market fair as well. I made my very first baby purchase:

Yes, it's going to be a Metal baby. Are you surprised?

I'll try to be back sooner next time, but depending on my health I'm not making any promises. But now you know why!

/ Jenny

It's almost June 29th!

...Which is the official birthday of this blog! I have lots of fun contests and give-aways planned, so make sure you tune in this weekend! My mother is coming here to visit on Friday and Saturday though, so the celebrations will probably not start until on Sunday. Just so you know.

I've been going through my stash and picked out some very nice prizes for you all to compete for! I've come up with the following:

Prize no 1: 1 skein of Colinette Jitterbug (100 % merino), in the colourway Jay.

Prize no 2: 5 skeins of Rowan Silk Wool DK yarn (50 % merino/50 % silk).

Prize no 3: 1 skein of Cascade 220 Superwash (100 % superwash merino), in the Dark Aqua colourway.

Prizes no 4 and 5: 2 ChiaoGoo Red Lace metal circular 24 inches, 3.5 mm needles (these will be divided into two prizes).

Prize no 6: 1 set of Addi Click Bamboo 3.5 mm needles with three cables (24, 32 and 40 inches).

Prize no 7: The book Folk Socks: The History and Techniques of Handknitted Footwear, by Nancy Bush.

Kind of neat, right?! Let's have a party! Be sure to check back on Sunday to get the details on how you can win any of these prizes!

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On Friday we had the day off, since it was Midsummer's Eve, and my mother-in-law, two brothers-in-law plus one girlfriend, and two of our friends came over for a traditional Midsummer's Party. We had pickled herring with new potatoes and clotted cream (which is a traditional Swedish Midsummer's dish), with schnapps of course, and we also had some barbecue and quiche, followed by strawberries and ice cream. We were very lucky with the weather, so we got to have a swim in the pool too. All of them stayed over, and we all had breakfast together on Saturday morning. It was really nice!

Then on Sunday I got to do lots and lots of knitting. First, I finished the Mind the Gap vanilla socks:

Even though I didn't really enjoy knitting with this yarn, I really like the finished socks. The colours are awesome, and they feel nice and durable on my feet. I haven't washed them yet, but I hope they soften a little bit. I used just over half of my skein, so I guess I might have enough to make something else small with it. I'm not sure I will though. Maybe I should offer it up as a prize this weekend too? Please, leave me a comment to let me know if I should!

As I was really in a sock zone, I actually picked up the Gördes socks again too, and I finished the first one!

These socks I really love, they are turning out very pretty and the yarn is great to work with (it's Shibui knits sock yarn). They are going to my mom, but I doubt I'll finish them for this weekend. She'll probably get them later this summer. They are a lot of fun though, and I'm really enjoying the cables now that I'm really into them.

And as I finished the vanilla socks, which were my work knitting, I had to cast on a new pair of mindless socks. I picked up the Mad Color Fiber Arts Trance yarn that was the May club yarn (the colourway They Church at Auvers, the Vincent van Gogh colours), and I started a pattern from the More Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch which is called Spaced Checks.

It is really easy, and I really love how this crazy yarn is spiralling! I know that you can't really see the spiralling in that photo, but I'm almost at the heel after today's day at work, and I'm too lazy to take a new photo. You'll have to wait until next time! I chose to make these toe up, as I want to use up most of the yarn, and I think I'll make an afterthought heel. The colours are completely insane, and they really shouldn't go together, but somehow it works. I love the yarn, the base is really soft and nice to knit with. Especially after knitting with the Trailing Clouds stuff, which was really stiff. I think I'll probably finish these pretty fast.

Yesterday I got the final shipment in the Doctor Who club from Mad Color Fiber Arts, and once again I love the yarn. This time we got a skein of Fugue (100 % superwash wool, 375 m/100 g), and the colourway is called The Fall of the Eleventh:

I really like the colours, but I think the coolest thing this month was the JessaLu bag that came with the yarn:

It has the Doctor's Foes on it! Me and Thomas sat for a long while yesterday evening trying to identify all of them, but I have to admit that my geek-dom isn't deep enough. There are several that I don't know, but the main, coolest ones are on there. I love the bag, this is my fifth JessaLu bag, and in three months I'll get one with Firefly on it too. But there's no such thing as too many project bags, is there?

Ok, I think that's it for today. I haven't knit anything on the Parcel sweater since last time, I think I lost a little momentum on it when I had to frog half of it. But I'll finish it soon! I might try to finish the Gördes socks first though.

Be sure to come back this weekend for an update on all the prize drawings and contests!

/ Jenny

More Club Yarn, and another HO

The other day I finished the first of my Jeck socks, and I'm very happy with it so far:

This is the yarn that I dyed myself, and I love how the stripes are coming out! I'm not really enjoying the yarn, as I think I told you, but I'll finish them and wear them proudly only because of the colours.

Today when I got home from work I had gotten the last shipment in the Mad Color Fiber Arts Mad Geek Tour yarn club (sign-ups are open for next round right now!), and once again I am blown away by the yarn! 

It is the Bling base (63 % superwash merino/20 % silk/15 % nylon/2 % sparkling aluminum coated poly fiber), and the colour is called Petrichor (which is what Idris defines as the smell of dust after rain, I actually had to look that up :). This tealy green is really me, and I love it! This will make an awesome pair of socks, although not right now.

Since it was the last shipment I also got the JessaLu bag that was included in the club, and of course I love this as well.

The fabric has all of the Doctor's companions on it, and the swirly things in the background is Galifreyan and says "Hello Sweetie"! It is awesome, and it will be exclusive to the club in the future too! Another version of the fabric will be offered, but it will have a different wording on it. I am very happy that I decided to join in for another three month round in the club, and that theme will also be Doctor Who. Heather of Mad Color has decided to only offer one theme each round, so the Battlestar Galactica theme was postponed indefinitely, at least for now.

And as I decided to not renew the Sheepy Time Knits yarn club, I found myself having funds enough for another club instead. I have been dithering back and forth about this club that Friday Studios is offering, where the theme is the Hunger Games. I think it could be a lot of fun, so I finally decided to sign up. It will run for three months too, from April until June. Frida will send the yarn out on the 5th though, so if you want to join you need to hurry!

Finally, on April 22nd, the fourth Annual Knit and Crochet Blog Week will start. I participated in the first and second, but last year I missed it since it was just after we moved to our house, and I was a bit busy. But this year I'll try to participate again, as it is a lot of fun! Our Host, Mimi over at Eskimimi Makes, gives us seven topics that we write about each day, and it is so much fun to read other bloggers taking part. I really recommend you to check it out!

/ Jenny

I apparently have no immune system left...

Last week I had to stay at home for four days due to a very nasty cold. Then I worked on Friday, had a lazy weekend, worked Monday, and then threw up on Monday night. Yes, I also contracted stomach flu. Yuck! I've been home for three days now, but tomorrow I'm going back to work again. And then it's another weekend! I haven't gotten as much knitting done this week as I wished either, as I've been too nauseous to do pretty much anything other than watching bad TV.

I am making progress on the Emelie cardigan though, as that is pretty much the only thing I've been working on. I've finished the body of the cardigan, and sewed the shoulders together, and I had finished half of the first sleeve on Tuesday night. Yesterday when I had a look at it though, I realized that I had picked up too few stitches for the sleeve, and it looked all puckered and strange. I took a deep breath, and ripped the whole sleeve out. Yesterday night I had gotten back to about where I was before the ripping, and I think I might finish the rest of the sleeve tonight or tomorrow. It is looking so much better this time around though, so I'm happy I redid it.

I also got a package in the mail this week, but it's not yarn. I bought yet another JessaLu bag the other week, my third one. This is the regenerating Tardis fabric, and I LOVE it!

I'll get another, exclusive bag with the Mad Color Fiber Arts Mad Geek Tour club at the end of the month too, and I'm thinking of renewing my subscription for the club for three more months. The difficult thing is that she has added a new theme for the upcoming months, and now I can't decide between Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica! I really want to be in both, but I think I want to join the Sheepy Time Knits next round of Time Traveler yarn club as well, and I can't really afford all three. I asked Thomas which he thought would be more fun, and he just sighed and had no opinion as it concerned yarn. I'll have to think about this for a while.

Ok, I have nothing more to show you this week. And unfortunately, as I've been so sick, and my friend Christine has had a fever this week too, she and her son Leo aren't coming this weekend either. I'll see if I can churn out a second sleeve this weekend instead, as we have absolutely no plans. I just hope that Thomas doesn't get sick too!

Oh, and I almost forgot to tell you: Our little Toki turned one year old on Monday! Time really flies!

/ Jenny

Sheepy Time Knits Spoilers, and some other stuff too

I'll start with the other stuff, so the photo of the club yarn doesn't end up as the promo photo. When I got home from work today, two new packages were waiting for me! The first contained my very last project bag that I got for my Christmas money. I got this one from JavaJennie on Etsy, and it is sooo pretty!

I love the tiny fairies! And the top is actually a snap closure, which I haven't seen on a project bag before. Very practical, and very pretty. I love it! The size is perfect for two skeins of yarn, which I guess makes it a medium-ish size.

The other package I got was from Sheepy Time Knits, and contained the Time Traveller club yarn for January. So if you are in the club and haven't gotten your yarn yet, please read no further!

The yarn is All Your Base (100 % superwash merino, 448 m/100 g), and the colourway is called Medusa Cascade:

It is so cool! Even Thomas commented and said it was a beautiful colourway. I'm thinking a pair of amazing socks! As I'm not very hard on my hand knit socks, I have no problem making socks without nylon in them either. I'll definitely join this club again if it comes back!

Ok, I think that's it for today. Now I think I'll knit on my sleeve for the Grey Havens sweater, before I have to go to bed!

/ Jenny

Shopping weekend

I feel like I'm only writing about getting new stuff lately, but to be honest: Most of the stuff I've been telling you about lately were all ordered around Christmas. It just takes stuff a while to get here from the States! At the beginning of the week my two AWESOME geek bags from JessaLu arrived, and I could not love them more. The first one is from Vincent and the Doctor, and features the Starry Night motif, with a tiny Tardis added:

It is just so completely full of win! I immediately transferred my Aquaphobia socks into it, so now it goes with me to work every day. I've finished the first sock, and am about half-way down the second leg. I think I might actually finish these before the end of the month (which means they will count in the Stockinette Zombies' self-striping KAL).

The second bag is a bucket bag, which I think technically is more for spinning, but I'll use it as a project bag anyway. It has Daleks on it!

It is so cool, and my inner Doctor Who nerd is melting in a puddle of happy goo just looking at it. At the end of March I'll get the last shipment from the Mad Color Fiber Arts yarn club, and as I'm in the one that's Doctor Who themed, I'll also get another JessaLu bag then! Yay!

I think it was the day after the bags arrived, that I got some more yarn in the mail. I managed to snag two skeins of KnitPicks Felici sock yarn from Great British Yarns, and I think these might have been the last two in the Time Traveler colourway because they don't have it listed any longer. It is a self-striping sock yarn in the same colours as the Doctor's scarf (do you notice a theme here?), and as KnitPicks don't have it on their website either I think this colourway is discontinued. So I'm very happy I got them!

I think these will probably become my February self-striping socks.

On Friday, my mother came to Linköping for a short visit, so on Friday evening her, me and my sister went to dinner at a lovely tapas restaurant. It was so much fun, and the food was amazing (and I haven't had breakfast yet, so I'm getting really hungry just thinking about it). She stayed with my sister for the night, and then yesterday we all went on a huge shopping spree for almost the entire day! Here in Sweden there is always a big sale on clothes right after Christmas, and now the shops are selling a lot of stuff for half of the sales prices. So both my mom and my sister got some clothes (I got some too, but mostly pyjama pants and boring stuff like that), and then we went into the crafts store. My sister needed to get some embroidery thread, as she's working on a HUGE Super Mario hanging. My mother offered to pay, and to be fair I got two skeins of sock yarn too :)

The first one was a skein of Four Seasons Gründl Hot Socks Nil yarn, in lovely teal colours. I haven't tried this yarn before, or even heard of it, but it seems like a standard, 75 % wool/25 % nylon, 384 m/100 g sock yarn. Sort of like Regia or Opal I think.

The second skein was Austermann Step sock yarn (also 75 % wool/25 % nylon, 420 m/100 g) in a lot of mixed colours. 

I think I might need to stop buying self-striping yarn for a while! My plan to buy only sweater yarn this year held out for almost an entire week... But technically, these skeins were gifts (even though I picked them myself), so maybe they don't count? I'll try to do better. I don't think I have any yarn money left for January at least, so I'll try not to get any more this month.

Oh, and while we were in town yesterday I also upgraded my phone! I've had a pink Ericsson for a couple of years now, and I've been pretty happy with it. Lately though I've found myself wishing I had a smartphone instead, so now I finally got one. It's a Samsung Galaxy, the mini version, and so far I'm very happy with it. I've got apps for Facebook, Plurk, Ravelry and blogger (the important stuff), so I think I'm set. I decided to actually pay for the Ravelous app, as that was the only one I could find for Android (I have the Wooly app for my iPad, and I like that a lot, but that one is only for Apple) that had my stash in it. I like it, and it really has all the important features of Ravelry that you might want on the go. 

Ok, on to the knitting: I've mostly been working on the Grey Havens sweater, and it's finally coming along nicely. Later today I'll get to start the sleeves, as I'm up to the arm holes on the body. 

The pattern actually tells you to start by making the sleeves, but I feel more comfortable starting with the body. I really, really love this pattern, and the yarn (Madelinetosh Pashmina) is heavenly! I'll definitely get more of that in the future. 

Other than that I've worked some on the Aquaphobia socks that I showed you above, and that pattern is great to bring to work. It's more or less mindless knitting, so I can chat during the coffee breaks, and I really like how they are coming along.

Now Thomas has finally woken up, so I think I'll go make breakfast for us. Today will be spent mostly cleaning, as the house desperately needs it!

/ Jenny