Oh no!

I went to the doctor today, and as it turns out, my elbow pain is actually tennis elbow. That means that the muscle attatchments to the elbow joint are inflamed, and I need to get on anti-inflammatory drugs and do lots and lots of physical therapy. Yay. The doctor told me to be patient, as it can be a loooong process to get rid of the pain, and he also told me to try and not over-exert the joint. Which means NO KNITTING!!!!

Let me tell you: I won't be able to survive that! But I figured that as long as I cut back, I should be ok. I can make some changes at work as well, and not spend as much time at the computer at home either. Then I should be able to knit a bit, right? RIGHT?!!!

Luckily, I finished another project yesterday. Let me introduce you to my Rusted root top:

I love it! It fits me perfectly, and as I seem to have lost almost all of the anti-depression pill weight gain, I think this is the body shape I'm destined to have. Which means I'll be able to wear this top lots and lots! I've actually worn it today :)

Of course, as soon as I had woven in all of the ends, I had to cast on for something new! Because let's face it: Three WIP's are just not enough (two pairs of socks and a shawl, that's nothing!). I chose the Brandywine Shawl, and I'm making it in a very pretty rusty pink yarn I bought in Stockholm for my 30th birthday last year, Wetterhof Silla (70 % Wool/30 % Silk, 250 m/50 g). It's very soft, and just a little bit shiny from the silk.

Excuse the bad photo, but it's very dark and rainy tonight, and the camera flash and I are NOT best pals! I haven't gotten far on the shawl yet, and as thing stand I bet it will take me ages!

As I couldn't knit a lot today, I've filled my day with other fiddly stuff. First, let me tell you about my Fimo Clay adventures! A while ago I found this etsy store, Wee Ones, that make hand made stitch markers out of clay. I got very impressed, and a bit inspired to try it out myself, so I bought some Fimo Clay at a swedish crafts site, Panduro Hobby. I tried it one time, wasn't very good, and put the clay in a bag and more or less forgot about it. But today I took it out again, and tried it one more time. I'm still not very good at it, but why should I be? I've never sculpted anything before in my life! But it was great fun, and two figures got cute enough to put in the oven:

I love my little sheep! The teddy bear is a bit unstable, and doesn't want to sit up straight, but I'll just put him on double-sided tape in the book shelf. The sheep is more stable, and I'm very proud of him! Both figures are very much too big to become markers, they're about 4 cm high I would guess, but at least I'm on the path, right?

I also pulled out my old stash of Hama Beads this afternoon, which is a hobby that I haven't aired out in years! Me and Thomas made a bunch of TV-game inspired bead coasters a couple of years ago, but as I learned to knit I more or less forgot about the beads too. It was great fun to make some today! Game characters are often very easy to make, as they are often very pixelated from the start:

I'm very proud of Bert and Ernie! I just can't seem to remember which character is which... 

So, that's my knitting free day. Tomorrow we're hanging out with some friends and I'm guessing there will be lots of board games involved, so probably not much knitting then either. But what shall I do on Sunday?!

/ Jenny

Sunny days

This weekend was a long one for us! I think I told you in my last post that I had both Thursday and Monday off, so Friday didn't feel too bad working. We've spent lots and lots of time in the cabin, just soaking up the sun, firing up the grill and just generally enjoyed ourselves. Lots of knitting for me as well!

It's been a bit too hot to knit on the wool shawl though, so I haven't gotten much progress on it this time (don't worry Christine, it will still be finished in time). But I managed to finish my St James top!

I'm very pleased with it (although in the photo it looks like my boobs are very uneven. I blame the bra), and I think I've come around on the colour as well. It's been to warm to wear so far, it's made with KnitPicks Palette yarn held double, but I think it will be a perfect spring/autumn top.

Since I finished this one on Saturday, I needed to have another mindless project that I can bring to work, so I decided to start another pair of socks. Yes, I know, I haven't finished the Wrought Iron Socks that I'm manking with my Hokie yarn, but those are anything but mindless with all those cables! Don't get me wrong, I love those socks, but they're a bit on time out right now until I finish the stole. Anyway, I started the Jaywalker socks!

I'm using a pretty old yarn that has been in my stash since 2009 at least. It's Hjertegarn Sock, which I think is a Danish yarn, and it's 75 % superwash wool/25 % nylon (as almost any sock yarn!), and pretty nice to work with so far. I love the long colour repeats, and I think it will work very well with the pattern. I'm not sure if these socks will fit me though, as I had to cast on 76 stitches! That's a lot of stitches! I usually only use about 60-65 stitches for my socks, so these might be too big. Oh well, then I have to find someone to gift these with :)

I also decided that I needed to work on another sweater, as the St James was done. So I also cast on for The Rusted Root top. I'm using another pretty old stash yarn for this, Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, that I got as a gift from the wonderful and overly generous Ulrika. 

The yarn is 80 % Cotton/20 % Merino wool, and incredibly soft! The colourway is called Green Olivette, and is probably one of my very favourite colours ever. I think the top might be a little bit too big, but I haven't added the ribbing to the edges yet (naturally), so it will probably fit me better once it's finished. I'm making the smallest size, and I'm going to add some extra waist decreases on this one too, soit will fit me better. I'm also changing the collar, so the neckline wil be a bit deeper and suit my body type better as well.

Ok, that's the knitting. I also got some yarn in the mail yesterday. Yes, I know. But I actually had a reason for this purchase as well. You remember me telling you how I really didn't fancy Wollmeise Lace yarn? Well, it turns out that the Evenstar shawl that I made from my skein is the shawl I wear the most. It's incredibly comfortable, and the prettiest one I own as well. I still am not overly fond of the other colourway I have (Sanguinello, bright red):

I don't really wear red against my face, as it makes my skin look really blotchy, so I didn't know what to do with this one. Now I've decided to sell it, or possibly trade it. Sadly it isn't one of the most coveted colours, so no one seems to be interested in giving me a green skein for this one. That's why, when I found myself actually being able to catch one of the store updates the other week, I decided to buy a green skein of my own. And another skein just happened to fall into the shopping basket as well...

So yesterday I picked up these two gorgeous skeins at the post office:

Wollmeise Lace-Garn (100 % superwash merino, 1590 m/300 g) in colourway Pistazie

Wollmeise Lace-Garn (100 % superwash merino, 1590 m/300 g) in colourway Maus Alt

The green one is just perfect! I still haven't decided on the Maus Alt one, it might be a little too blue for me, so I might put that one up for trade as well. We'll see. I just have to decide what colours I want now that I have my own green skein :)

Anyway, the red one is going up for trade or sell soon. It's too bad that the dollar is so weak, as I think I might have to take a loss on this one. But maybe I can trade it instead :)

/ Jenny

Half-way there!

Yes, that's right. I've gotten past the half-way mark on the wedding stole!

It's a bit hard to photograph with a flash, the colour looks a little muted, but I think it's turning out pretty good. I just hope Christine likes it too! I finished the seventh chart (out of twelve) yesterday, and hopefully I'll finish another one today. I'm going to make her a small purse/string bag as well, in matching Palette yarn, so I really want to finish this one so I won't feel stressed about finishing the bag in time as well.

I've also knitted a lot on the St James sweater the past few days, at work, and I'm almost done with the hip increaes. Which means that I just have to add the ribbing at the bottom, at the arms, and a collar! Yay! I actually like the colour more and more, so I think I'll skip trying to overdye it. I haven't gotten any newer photos of it yet, it's such a hassle to put all the stitches on string and try it on! But it looks like this photo, only it now reaches below the waist.

Today we have a national holiday here in Sweden. It's Ascencion Day (the day Christ ascended into heaven), and although we officially have no state church any longer, we still have this day as a holiday. So I'm off work! And on Monday it's our National Day (our equivalent to Independence Day, I guess), which is also a day off work. Unfortunately I have to work on Friday, but I can live with that. Two extra short weeks in a row!

Yesterday after work me and Thomas went to our cabin for the first time in quite a while, to mow the lawn and just enjoy the weather. I got to sit in the sun and knit for over an hour, which was really nice!

The flowers are really starting to bloom now, I just have to figure out what everything is! I think we'll probably go back this weekend to do some weed cutting as well ( I just need to figure out which plants are weeds and which are actual flowers...), and just hang out for a while. It's supposed to be sunny and warm (although today is pretty overcast so far), so I think we'll just do lots of barbecue and relax. Perfect! Hopefully I'll get lots of knitting done as well.

Oh, on Monday my book package finally arrived too! I got myself five craft books. The first one was Crochet Happy Amigurumis, by Mia Bengtsson.

This is her third book on amigurumis, and they are all super cute! I still suck at crochet, but I plan on learning eventually. I save all my yarn left overs so I can eventually use them for toy-making.

The second and third books were the First and Second Books of Modern Lace Knitting, By Marianne Kinzel:

These aren't filled with lots of patterns, but there are lots of techniques and pattern construction in them. I really like them so far, even though I've more or less just flipped through them, but I think they will be used a lot!

The last two books were pattern books, New England Knits by Cecily Glowik MacDonals and Melissa LaBarre, and Wrapped in Lace, by Margaret Stove. 

I've been eying both of these for quite a while! I think you know how obsessed I am by Stephen King books, and as most of his books are set in New England I have a pretty big obsession about this area as well. Some day I'll go see Derry in real life, and have Maine Lobster! Oh, and the patterns in this book are really pretty as well :)

I also got all of the Jack Whyte books on Camulod as well (Fantasy/History books, not related to knitting in any way), I've just started on the second one. Lots of people think I'm really weird and un-girly to read horror and fantasy as much as I do, but I really don't see it that way. Why should fantasy be a boy thing?! It's way too good to allow the boys to hog this genre. I guess I'm just a nerd at heart :)

And speaking of Fantasy: I subscribe to monthly audiobooks from audible.co.uk, and this month I got Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon. Has anyone read this series? Is it any good? I haven't started listening to it yet, I'm still on a collection of short stories about Vampires, called Fangs, edited by Otto Penzler. This is the third collection on Vampires he's edited, the first one is called Bloodsuckers and the second one is called Coffins. All of them have been really good! I love short stories in general, and these books contain lots and lots of really good authors. I mostly prefer my vampires to be scary and nasty and evil (as opposed to loving and erotic - although I like Anne Rice and her Lestat series), and there are lots of really nasty vampires in these books :)

Yesterday when I got home from work I had gotten a very, very lovely package in the mail, from TessVintageKnits in England:

She had RAK'ed me (you know, the Random Acts of Kindness group I'm in on Ravelry) an awesome box filled with Reese's Peanut Butter Chocolate! Yay! I just can't seem to get enough of this chocolate, it's just sooooo good! Otherwise I mostly prefer dark, not so sweet chocolate, but I think the salty combination of peanut butter and super sweet milk chocolate has seduced me. It will last me a pretty long time (I hope...), and I'm so grateful!

Now Thomas has finally woken up and I think we'll have some breakfast (for him) and lunch (for me)!

/ Jenny

Procrastinating

I really need to go clean the kitchen after dinner (Thomas made Salmon with quinoa and broccoli - very good), but it's more fun to finally get a new post under way! It's been a while - again - but now I'm finally back!

I had my birthday on Monday, but since I was going to work the entire day we decided to celebrate on Sunday instead. I got some good food and some nice presents, and I got to sit outside in the sun for a while too. We were planning to go to the cabin, but after doing some grocery shopping and realizing that I had a ton of laundry to take care of (and don't give me any feminist remarks saying that Thomas could have done it. We do equal stuff around the house, I think he even does a bit more than me, and laundry is my chore. Plus, that way I get it done the way I want to!), we decided against it. Thomas put some meat on the grill here at home instead, and we had a very nice dinner, with rhubarb pie for desert.

Thomas got me a bunch of comics, which was an awesome present!

And my sister had made me a new needle roll, that I had been asking her for for a while:

I love it! And she made me a matching project bag too:

Also, the project bag was filled with this:

Reese's Peanut Butter Chocolate! I got seriously addicted to this stuff when we were in the States, but there are only a few stores that sell them in Sweden so it's kind of hard to get. Sanna got her hands on some of it when she was in Gothenburg the other weekend, and I'm so pleased! It won't last long, I tell you!

My parents were talking about coming to visit, but we finally agreed that this weekend wasn't very good for either of us. I'll see them later this summer, so it's ok. I turned 31, so it's not that it's a huge day to celebrate! I was just happy to get to spend the day with Thomas and just relax (even though the laundry did get done too).

Oh, this week we're having one of our bathrooms re-done! Finally! When we moved in three years ago we noticed that the floor in the downstairs shower had sort of sunken around the shower drain. The plastic mat was whole, so there wasn't any leakage, but it was pretty uncomfortable to stand on, plus it meant that the concrete underneath was crumbling. Now, finally, we convinced the landlord that there was a lot of water damage under the shower, as it has only gotten worse with time, so we get a whole new bathroom. Yay! Unfortunately, this means that I'm without a washer and dryer for about a month, but we'll just have to use the neighbourhood common laundry room. We'll survive. We have a smaller bathroom with a bath tub upstairs, so those things we won't have to go without. I of course forgot to take any before-photos, so you'll have to wait about a month to see the finished result.

Oh, and knitting? Actually, I've been slacking a bit the past few days. I've knitted mostly on the wedding shawl, and I'm done with five charts (out of 12) so almost half done. It's going faster and faster too, which is nice, and I've actually been able to knit a bit on it at work too. I  haven't gotten around to taking any new photos yet, so you'll have to wait. Hopefully the next time I get back to you I've finished the first half at least.

I've also knitted a bit on the St James top (I think it felt a bit neglected after I mentioned it the last time), and I'm almost half done with that one too:

I still haven't decided on the colour, if I like it or not, but it doesn't look as bad on me as I had feared. I'm pondering whether to put a black bow and black ribbing on it, to sort of mute it down a bit. I'll see what I decide. I think once this one is done I'l probably try and finish my Hokie socks, I really miss those!

Oh, that's right: I also got some birthday money from my grandmother, so I ordered myself some books! When we were visiting Sarah and Chris in the States, Chris bought us a book that he said we ought to read, and I've just finished it. It's Skystone, by Jack Whyte, and it's the first in a series of seven or eight books. I LOVED it! So I've ordered the rest of them (in paperback, I'm not made of money), along with some more knitting books. I think I'll wait to tell you about those until they actually arrive.

Oh, and Sarah: We finally tried the Astronaut Ice Cream. And we both loved it! So you can tell Chris we can still be friends :)

/ Jenny