Hunger Games yarn club spoilers!

Yep, I got my first shipment in the Hunger Games yarn club from Friday Studios today, but I think I'll start with some knitting instead. I don't want the photo of the yarn to be the one that shows up in the Blogger list for anyone who hasn't gotten the yarn yet!

I think I told you that I have Thursday, Friday and next Monday off from work, and yesterday I spent a lot of time cleaning out our storage shed. Not much fun, but very needed! Today I drove to the recycling plant with all the stuff that I cleaned out, and I had planned on cleaning out the garage today too, but it's sleeting and freezing outside. I just couldn't stand staying outside in the freezing winds, so I decided to wait for better weather. Hopefully tomorrow!

So, I've also been knitting a lot these past two days. I knit a little bit on the Glacier gloves, and I have about half of the second cuff done.

I think I'll knit on these for the rest of the day today, as I really want to finish them. They are turning out very pretty, and as the weather took a turn for the worse I think I might actually get some use out of them this winter too. I still have more than half the skein left, plus the other one that I haven't even started on yet, so I think I'll make some socks later on. That won't be for this KAL though, I have too much other stuff I want to knit first.

I've also made lots of progress on the Scylla socks, and I adore these!

I love how the pattern is making the red slipped stitches cross the white stripe on every stripe repeat, especially since it is totally by coincidence! The yarn is still amazing, and I can't wait to wear them. These will be my May socks for the Self Striping KAL, so I have plenty of time to finish them, but I'm sure it won't take me that long. I'm making an afterthought heel on these, to keep the striping continuous, as opposed to the pattern that has a heel flap design.

The project I've been working most on, however, is the Mandala II shawl.

I'm using MadelineTosh Tosh lace yarn, in the colourway Rose, and it's turning out so pretty. I know that what you're seeing in the photo looks like a bunch of wet noodles, but it will be very nice once I block it. I'm making it a little larger than called for, so I've made an extra repeat of chart 2 so far. I just started chart 3, and if I finish it before I run out of yarn I might make an extra repeat of that too (as I have two whole skeins to play with).

Ok, that was the knitting. Now to the club yarn! The yarn is Friday Studios Monday Base (the same as I'm using for the Scylla socks), so I already knew I would love that. I am completely smitten with the colour too, which is called Capitol Couture:

It is based on all the insane colours that the people of the Capitol wear, and I think Frida has captured that perfectly! It is so bright it almost seems to glow in the dark, and it will make some crazy socks! The yarn came with a bag of tea and a set of amazing mockingjay stitchmarkers:

Aren't they adorable?! I wonder if she's made them herself? I'll have to ask her on plurk. Anyway, I am very satisfied with my first shipment in the club, and I love that it's a Swedish dyer so I get the yarn early!

/ Jenny

Teeny Tiny perfection!

Do you remember that I told you about the very cute etsy shop for stitch markers, Wee Ones? The woman who runs that shop, Jillian, makes the cutest stitch markers out of clay that you could possibly imagine, but as it's based in the States and the shipping is kind of expensive to Europe, I hadn't actually bought any yet. Well, apparently you, my dear readers, increased the traffic to the shop after reading my blog, which Jillian noticed! She sent me a very nice message on Ravelry, thanking me for mentioning her shop. And as a thank you she also offered me free shipping on my first order! YAY! Of course I couldn't pass this up, and a couple of days ago I picked up the package from the post office. And let me tell you, the markers are even more pretty in real life! I bought three sets:

Wee tiny sheep (there are four markers of each set, but as they are already in use it was kind of hard to capture all the sheep at once. Three white ones and one grey were in my set)

Wee tiny orange tabby cats (which reminds me of Hobbe)

Wee tiny owls (I seem to have a thing for owls lately)

They are maybe 1 cm big, so they are really small! I love them! Thank you so much Jillian for sending these to me, I really appreciate it. And I will definitely be coming back to the shop, I already have several sets that I want as well...

I haven't been knitting very much this past week, but I've managed to cast on for another project. I chose the Baby Cables and Big Ones Too sweater pattern, and I'm using KnitPicks Capra yarn (85 % Merino15 % Cashmere) in colourway Hunter:

The yarn is really really soft, and the cables seem to be pretty visible as well. I really like working with a heavier yarn as well, as I seem to use mostly thinner ones as I make lots of shawls and socks. Although the shawl knitting is going a bit slowly right now, I have completely given up the idea of finishing 11 in 2011. So far I have two finished and two on the needles, and as both of them are kind of wasting away in my bag, the 11 goal seems a bit unlikely. I don't mind though, I'm happy as long as I enjoy the knitting!

I've also been working on my Spring socks, and I've finished the first one and cast on for the second one. Unfortunately, it seems like I've got two different dye lots (I knew that I had two different lots on my three skeins, but I couldn't remember which skein was which after I wound them into cakes), and the second sock is actually a lot darker than the first one.

It's not terribly visible in the photo, but I think it will be pretty visible once they're done. Oh well, I think I don't mind too much. They're pretty anyway, and considering how many socks I have where the colours are differently spaced on the two socks, I can live with these ones being different too.

Yesterday morning I got a text message from my best friend Christine. She asked me if we had any plans for the day, and wondered if we'd like some company for the day. Luckily we didn't have anything settled, so Christine, her husband Martin, and their three boys Lucas, Leo and Alex, came to visit! We all went to the Air Force Museum, which they boys seemed to enjoy, and then we went back here for dinner and some video games. It was a very fun and energetic day (we're not used to keeping up with three kids!)! Both me and Thomas fell asleep on the couch before nine o'clock yesterday evening...

Today we were planning on going to the cabin, but the weather is really grey and cold so I think we might skip it. I'm guessing there will be laundry and some general cleaning instead, but the apartment actually looks ok so not too much tidying I think. Maybe even some knitting for me!

/ Jenny

First bag up for sale, and other stuff

I will start with one thing I forgot to tell you about yesterday. Mia over at En kreativ liten blog (the blog is in swedish, but you could read it with google translate or similar) is having a wonderful amigurumi-themed give-away! Mia is the fabulous author of the amigurumi book "Virka amigurumi - Söta små Glädjespridare" (which translates as "Crochet Amigurumis - Cute little joy-spreaders" or something), and to celebrate the publication of her second amigurumi book "Virka roliga amigurumis - lätta att göra, svåra att släppa" ("Crochet funny Amigurumis - easy to make, hard to let go of") she's having a give-away where you can get a very well-filled package with stuff to make amigurumis from. All you have to do is go there and leave her a comment, and you can also post about it on your blog like I'm doing now. Good luck!


Ok, on with my own stuff. Let me first say that I was probably still a bit mellowed out yesterday when I wrote that post, as I forgot to post about lots of stuff. I also learned that you shouldn't go to the food store while pumped up on tranquilizers and you haven't eaten for more than twelve hours. I have never bought that much candy in my whole life! Can you say munchies, anyone?! 


Anyhow, here's what I forgot yesterday. Me and my sister have finally gotten some stuff that will be good enough to sell! She's finished a cube bag and a small tote that are looking very good. Here's the small tote, I'm calling it the Face bag:

It is 24 cm wide and 26 cm high, excluding the handles. It's lined with a very pretty red fabric that totally matches the outside. I think this one will be somewhere around $12. Anyone interested?


The second bag is the cube, which is 13 cm high, 18 cm wide and 18 cm long. It is lined with white fabric, and is very pretty (if I can say so myself). This one will probably be about $20, but I'm telling you that the prices aren't set in stone yet. Maybe no-one is interested!

I've also kept myself busy with things to sell, although my stuff is a bit on the smaller side. I've made lots and lots of stitch markers, and I'm thinking I could sell these for $1 with purchase of a bag. I could very well sell them separately as well, but the shipping will be almost as much as the markers will cost, so I think the customers (well, eventual customers) will loose on that. Anyhow, this is the markers I've made so far:

(Stupid blogger turns my photos around!) All of them are sets of five, and they are displayed on a set of 7 mm needles, so they fit on pretty large needle sizes. They are very light-weight, and shouldn't snag.


If any of you should be interested in buying any of this stuff, just leave me a comment here or send me and e-mail at jenny(dot)m(dot)clifford(at)gmail(dot)com. 


I've actually got some knitting to show you too, although it isn't much. I know I said I would work on my Haruni, but this poor shawl is still sadly neglected. I chose to work on the Eunice SOcks I'm making for my friend Christine instead, I really wish I could finish these in time for next weekend, when she's having her 30th birhtday party! But as I'm starting my new job on Tuesday, I'm not sure if I'll have time. This is what I've got so far anyway:

I've turned the heel and almost finished the gusset decreases, and if I work really hard I might be able to finish the first sock today or tomorrow. I love the design, and although you can't see it in the somewhat crappy flash photo, it contains both cables and lace. I think I'll just keep plugging on and make all of the patterns in this book, I just love Cookie A's patterns!


/ Jenny

More mail

I got a small package from Handlas Hantverk today, with a very beautiful shawl needle and some stitchmarkers, that I ordered the other day. If you've seen the KnitPicks Harmony Wood needles, it's pretty obvious that the shawl needle is also from KnitPicks... The colours are just so beautiful, and I guess it goes with anything. And I can wear it in my hair too, awesome!

Tomorrow is the dya of the knitting festival in Linköping, and I can't wait! There will be a tight schedule, because there are so many things I want to see. I don't know yet if my mother-in-law is coming for a visit this weekend, but if she does, I think she will go with me.

I'll be back on Sunday with a full report on the knitting festival, and on the crafts day in Old Linköping on Sunday too!

/ Jenny

Work in progress

Hi again!

I managed to get some photos of my shawl in progress. I read a discussion on Ravelry about different tips and resources related to knitting and crocheting, and someone suggested using bits of cut drinking-straws as very inexpensive stitch-markers. I tried it yesterday, and I found it worked fairly well. The one drawback is that the stitches have a slight tendency to slipping over the markers, so I think I might need somewhat larger markers after all. But the pieces of straw work for now.

I also started reading my two books on crocheting today (I picked the indroduction one up from my sister's earlier today), and made my first attempt at knitting a ball-like thingy (it was actually the "how-to" description in the Crochet amigurumi-book) in a very cheap acrylic yarn I had in my stach. And it was a complete success, I couldn't be more satisfied with it! So now I'll have to find some more, similar yarn that is not minty green, to make all of the little animals in the book! And this fall there will be a swedish translation of this book, which tells you how to crochet zombies, robots, ninjas and other similar stuff! Talk about picture perfect for me! So I guess those will be my winter crochet projects.

I'll leave you with a photo of the finished potpuri bag I embroidered a while ago. I bought a tube of nice-smelling foot-cream and put in it, and gave it as a gift for my grandmother. She loved it and said she would put the bag up on the wall, so I'm pleased. I don't know that I will make any more embroidery-only projects, but now I know how to make the cross-stitches if I want to embroider something onto a knitted project. A friend of mine embroidered space invaders on a pair of dish towels, and a similar TV-game related project might suit me as well. That is the major advantage with the old-school TV-games: All the characters and stuff are very pixelated, which translates well into both embroidery and knitting. Here is the photo of the finished bag.

/ Jenny