Sewing Festival 2010

My oh my. The Sewing Festival in Borås this year was absolutely fabulous! I went to Borås on Firday evening, to stay with my parents. When I came into my room (It's more of a spare room, the only thing that's really mine in there any longer is the bed), I was greeted by an insanely strong smell of cat pee. Turns out one of my parents' cats had peed on the couch in there. Yay. We removed the wet pillows, but the smell prevailed all through the night. The next morning we found out that the stupid cat had also peed on a pillow that was on the floor underneath the bed. No wonder it smelled! Once we removed that pillow too, the smell disappeared! Stupid cat.

Ok, on to the festival. This year I went with my mother, and I didn't partake in any of the workshops. There weren't that many of them that I was interested in anyway, but it was fun to just walk by them and see what they were all about. And let me tell you, the festival was a bit bigger this year than last! There were so many yarn vendors! And before you say anything, let me tell you that I actually didn't spend any of my own money! A month or so ago, my sister got a pair of insanely expensive boots and a new autumn coat as a gift from my grandmother (well, she got the money for them, and bought them herself). And even though my sister and I are 25 and 30 years old, my grandmother still thinks that all gifts have to be equal, so she gave me the same amount of money. So I decided to spend it on the sewing festival, which I did!

And I tell you, the harvest was bountiful this year! I didn't get as many skeins as I did last year, but went more for quality this year instead. I still managed to come home with 14 new skeins of yarn! I had my camera with me, but I only remembered to take two photos the whole day, on my favourite booth. It was the swedish dyer Färgkraft (which translates roughly as powerful colours, or strenght from colours). One of my LYS's here in town, Garnverket, carry some of this yarn as well, but this booth that was run directly by the Färgkraft people had such a huge selection! If the yarn wasn't so expensive, I would have bought the whole inventory!

All the yarn is made from swedish sheep, and dyed by hand. I walked away with three skeins of gorgeous lace yarn called SoftBlend. Two in a gorgeous dark pink/fuschia colour called Cerise:

And one in a lovely green colour called VarmGrön (warm green):

I love them all so very much! The pink is destined to become the Butterflies and Flowers shawl, and the green will become a Troll Forest shawl. I have to say that I'm very proud of myself, because I almost only bought yarn with specific projects in mind! I even wrote down a list of patterns that I have in my pattern stash, but that I don't have any yarn for yet, so I would know what to look for. 

Next we came upon a booth that only sold Opal sock yarn (the link goes to the booth people, the swedish vendors). This is a German company that only make sock yarn (I think), and in so many crazy, self-striping colours. Since I mostly knit patterned socks, I didn't think I'd want any of this, but it turns out that they had a lot of solid colours as well. So I bought five skeins in total here:

Pink

Purple

Wine

Green multi-coloured (because I couldn't help myself)

And crazy multicoloured (one crazy skein is all right, right?)

All of them except the green will be socks from my 10 patterns collection. The green skein was bought so I can make a pair of socks for Christmas for my youngest brother-in-law William (he's 14 years old, and my husband's brother, not married to my sister...). He asked for a pair of socks a while ago, and I'm going to make the Manly Aran socks from the Toe-Up Socks for Every Body book by Wendy D Johnson. All the Opal skeins have 100 grams in them, so they should be enough to make at least a pair of socks from (I think the socks for Willie will be a bit more though, as he has bigger feet than me). The yarn is 75 % superwash wool/25 % nylon (which seems to be a standard for many sock yarns).

The next booth I shopped in was Limmo Design, who also has a web shop. She had soooo many gorgeous, hand-painted sock yarns, it was hard to choose! I walked away with two skeins of gorgoeus skeins that were 100 g of 75 % wool/25 % polyamide:

Colourway Sun

Colourway Rosebud

These skeins will also go to the 10 socks pattern collection. With these skeins, I actually have ten different yarns that I'm planning to use for this pattern collection, so hopefully I will make all of them! I'm sort of in a sock zone right now (I'll tell you more about that later), so this suits me very well!

Oh, and at Limmo Design I also picked up five bags of Kool-Aid! It's a bit hard to come by here in Sweden, so I was very pleased to find it here. I have five different colours (or flavours, really): Grape, Cherry, Slammin' Strawberry/Kiwi, Black Cherry and Pink Lemonade. I realized yesterday evening though that I might actually need more than one bag to dye a whole skein, but I think I might be able to get more bags from the Limmo Design web shop. 

Next we went to the booth where GarnGalleriet sold it's wares. I got to fondle Hand Maiden for the first time, and of course I couldn't resist. One skein of AMAZING Lace Silk (100 % silk, 900 m/100g) in a beautiful, lustrous copper hue went with me home. 

This will become a Lirio shawl, which is a pattern that I've had in my queue for a while now but never got around to buying. The other day though, I got it as  RAK gift from Pyttan, and I couldn't be happier! The yarn is just so incredibly soft and shiny, it's going to be a real treat to work with it!

We then moved on to Nysta's booth, and this was also a real treat! She had lots of yarns from Colinette (although I didn't see any Jitterbug), and some Debbie Bliss and Heaven's Hand. This is the booth where I bought my only impulse yarn, that I didn't have anything planned for. Two skeins of Debbie Bliss Andes went home with me:

It's 65% alpaca/35 % silk, and oh so soft! The colour is a pale purple/grey, and I think they will become a pair of mittens for me. It's 100 m/50 g, so DK weight. 

Finally I also bought a pair of DPN's from Marks & Kattens (a swedish manufacturer), but I can't seem to remember which vendor I bought them from. They are very pretty wooden needles (you can see them in the photo of the Kool-aid above), and I'm very curious to work with them as they're not as smooth as the KnitPicks Harmony needles I'm used to.

Oh, and one more thing: I've finaly gotten my mother back on knitting! When I came home on Friday she showed me a scarf she had knitted! She used to knit a lot of sweaters and cardigans for me and my sister when we were young, but she quit some time in the late 80's. And even though I started obsessing about knitting about a year ago, she hasn't really picked it up again until now. So she went with me to the festival yesterday, and she bought some Caron Simply Soft yarn to make a sweater for herself! 

Yay! I doubt she will become as crazy as I am about it, but I love that she has finally started again. The 100 % acrylic yarn ws really, really soft, and as she wanted a white sweater I think she made a good choice in going with a washable yarn. 

There were of course LOTS of vendors that I didn't shop at, and it was so much fun to just look around! I stood a long time at Ullcentrum's booth and finally decided that I would wait with that! After the festival we went to visit my grandmother and uncle for a short while, and yeaterday afternoon I went back to Linköping again. Thomas and his friends went to a metal concert last night, so I had the apartment all to myself. I just sat in bed listening to my new audio book and knitted a bit (and Skyped with Sarah for 2.5 hours!). And fondled all my new yarn, of course! 

Ok, I'm actually going to talk a bit about my own knitting too. I finished my secret Christmas project the other day, so I decided that they would become a birthday present instead. My mother has a birthday coming up in October, so she got her gift a bit early on Friday evening. A while ago I found a free sock pattern on Ravelry called the Rosalie Socks. This was really funny, as my mother's name is Rosalie! The match was ment to be, so I knitted her a pair using KnitPicks Stroll yarn in the Saphire Heather Colourway:

She loved them, and put them on right away. Once I got into the zone knitting them, they went really fast, and as soon as I finished them I had to cast on for another pair of socks for myself! I just enjoy knitting socks so much right now! I chose the Wanida socks, from the Sock Innovation book by Cookie A. I'm using a yarn that I bought at last year's Crafts day in Old Linköping, it's Zitron Trekking XXL. 

So far I've only gotten past the cuff, so I don't have any photos to show you yet.

I've also been working a lot on the Tunic Dress, and I've finished the skirt part and just picked up stitches for the top part. Now I'm starting the pattern though, so it's become a bit too challenging to bring to work. I need to find another stockinette pattern that I can have as a work project! But today I think I'm actually going to knit some on the languishing India Stole! I'm more than half-way through it, and I really want to finish it so I can start something else :)

/ Jenny

Drumroll please!

I got the job! There were 28 applicants, and I got it! Yay! So now I have work until the end of December, with a probable possibility of prolonging it then! I'm so happy! It's exhausting to work full time, but I love the job and I'm glad to have an income again. The job will be at different primary care units in Linköping and Motala (which is located about 40 minutes' drive from here), and I'll be doing the same type of work as I'm doing now in Mjölby.

I'm thinking of celebrating by buying some yarn, but I've decided to save the money for the upcoming USA trip. Also, my grandmother offered to sponsor my visit to the sewing festival at the end of September, and there will be yarns galore there (last year I walked out with two full gorcery bags of yarn after that visit...). So I think I'll try to hold out until then :)

I got into a bit of knitting slump after frogging the Paper Dolls sweater this weekend, but I've cast on for the Tunic Dress from the Debbie Bliss Magazine.

Photo borrowed from Ravelry

I'm using the awesome lilac bamboo yarn for Sout West Trading Company that I got from Ulrika the other week, and it's working out great! I've done some modifications to the pattern, the main one being that I'm knitting the skirt part in the round (as I hate sewing). I think I'm going to try to knit the body in one piece up to the arm holes as well, then I will just have to seem the shoulders toghether. And now that I think about it, I could just kitchener those stitches together too, and eliminate all sewing! I have no photos of my progress yet, but I'll try to get some this weekend!

/ Jenny

Frogging the tunic

So, I decided to finally frog the tunic. I got the suggestion to elongate it to make it into a dress instead, which I think might have worked, but to me it was too much work to pick up new stitches at the bottom hem line. So into the frog pond it went. I spent the better half of my Saturday evening rolling the yarn into balls, which was a real hassle since I'd knitted with two yarns (alpaca and cotton viscose), and the two strands kept tangling! But I finally managed to salvage all of it. I think I've found another pattern for the alpaca, a long sweater with cables, but I'm not sure what I'll make of the cotton viscose. It might turn into some kind of shawl eventually, but that will have to wait a while until I find a good pattern.

Meanwhile, I'll try to finish my thick, cabled socks, maybe some time next weekend? I've got a lot of reading to do next week before the seminar, so I guess I'll not get a lot of knitting done, but I'll make up for it the week after.

So, no interesting photos today. I'll try to take some of the socks once I finish the first one.

/ Jenny

I've got so much to do!

This week has been very busy for me, I've had stuff to do almost every day. On Tuesday, two of our friends came over, and we barbecued and watched a movie. Then on Wednesday lunch, my sister and I went to another aerobics pass at Friskis&Svettis, and in the afternoon I went to a knitting café with Linkmaskan at Garnverket. Before the knitting café I went to visit progg (that's her Ravelry name, I haven't asked her if I can use her real name here on the blog, so for now she will remain progg) at her apartment, to look at some patterns. And let me tell you: I now have a knitting idol and a goal to work for! She had a whole bookshelf full of knitting books, and she told me I could borrow anything I wanted! I want a bookshelf like that of my own some day! I borrowed some patterns from her, as well as the book "Custom Knits" by Wendy Bernard. So I have a lot of projects planned for the future, I just have to find the time to make them all.

Today, my sister and I are going to a Yoga pass. And tomorrow is another knitting café, this time with Linköping Knitters at Waynes Coffee. At least I'm getting some knitting done!

I finished the gloves for my husband this past weekend, and I think I posted some pictures the last time I wrote. But here is another one of me modelling them in actual daylight, although it is a bit cloudy here today.

I guess I forgot to tell you, but I frogged the red/green/blue/yellow zig-zag sock I was making from the Hjerte Sock-yarn. They were also turning out too small, although this time I think it was mainly due to the fact that I had cast on too tightly. I've found a pattern on garnstudio where you knit the socks sideways, and I think I will try this with this yarn instead. I'll just finish up the thick cabled ones I'm working on first. They are going slowly, but I'm almost at the heel on the first one, so maybe I'll finish them this weekend? I'm not promising anything, though.

I'm also thinking about frogging the tunic. When I first saw the pattern, I envisioned a light, airy summer tunic. But the yarn suggested, which I'm using, makes it anything but this! It's very heavy and thick, a real winter garment, and I'm not sure I like this tunic model as a winter sweater. So I'm not sure if I will wear it? So maybe I could find some better use for the yarn. What do you think? I can't make up my mind, so for now it's just sitting in the knitting bag.

Next Friday, on 11/9, I will have my licenciate seminar! I'm working right now on reading up on the subjects that I might get questions about, and I'm actually getting a bit nervous. This last Monday I had a practice seminar for my supervisors, where they could give me feedback on the presentation, and also comment on what types of questions I might expect. It actually went really well, so that made my nervousness fade a bit. But the closer I get to the actual date, the more nervous I get. So I might be very stressed out next week, which might either mean that I fell I don't have the time to post on the blog, or it might mean that I procrastinate and post every day... We'll see.

For now, I'll continue readin though. I'll try to keep you updated on my knitting progress next week.

/ Jenny

I've got followers!

I'm so excited it's almost silly! But I've been posting for two months now, and it's so much fun to know that someone other than my mother or my sister is actually reading what I write! So of course I had to add the "Followers" widget on the site, so If you are reading this blog and haven't found it before, now there is a button where you can choose to follow me as well.

I also updated the blog list, as I'm constantly finding new and exciting blogs to read. Be sure to check some of them out!

I tried to take a photo of the tunic yesterday evening, when it had reachd the bust line. This is where you divide the circular knitting into two pieces, and start to knit them separately, so this was the first time I could actually try it on (as my circular needle was a bit too short to fit around me...). I think the size will be quite ok, maybe a bit big but that might change with some blocking. Although I'm not sure if the cotton/viscose yarn will block? Anyone who knows? The photo is really crappy, since it was a bit too dark and I didn't want to use the flash in the mirror, but here it is:

I'm afraid that the cables will flatten out if I block it, but I'm going to have to wash it eventually anyhow so I might as well try.

I aslo made my husband take a photo of me wearing the shawl. As you can see it is VERY big, but at least I have managed to fold it so it doesn't drag on the ground. And as you might have seen, I own LOTS of high heeled shoes, so I guess that will help too.

Please disregard the shining eyes on Hobbe, I swear he is not really a zombie cat...

I haven't made much progress on any of the socks, but it seems like the weather is turning out quite nice today so maybe I can sit outside and knit some today. I like to sit in the sun for a little while at least, to try to get some colour onto my whiter-than-white face, and then it is more comfortable knitting on a smaller project. Having a heavy sweater on your lap in the sun makes for some lovely sweat pools...

I'll see if I can go wake my husband up (it's 11.00 in the "morning") so I can get some company. Also, the tiny lawn needs mowing, which I don't consider to be my job...

/ 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

Knitting (and frogging) progress

I've finally approved the printing of my thesis book, so now I have almost nothing to do at work (except planning the seminar, of course). So I've been able to knit a lot. Unfortunately, I've also frogged a lot... I decided to add some cabels on the tunic, because after knitting the lace shawl I felt I would grow bored with that much plain knit knitting (it's knitted in the round so there aren't even any purl stitches). Stupidly I didn't check the pattern closely enough, so I placed the cables too close to the sides, where the increases for the waist would go. So after knitting at least 10 cm, I had to frog everything. Again. I think that was the third time. Or fourth. Now I've done about 5 cm, and it looks like this.

I also have avid help from Hobbe, who doesn't mind getting some yarn in the face every now and then. He has himself to blame for curling up in my lap while I knit. I'm not complaining, though, it's really supercozy. Although I have to say that it is kind of hard, because Gizmo used to lie in my lap while I knitted, and this reminds me so much of him. I just can't believe how much I miss that little cat, and it's almost been a year since he died.

On a much happier note, the socks are coming along nicely. I haven't finished the first yet, probably because I've spent so much time on the tunic, but it looks like this now. I think it is very pretty, and I can't wait for the weather to cool down so I can wear them (although I have to finish them first...).

Yesterday I inventoried all my yarn as well, and except what is on the needles, this is all my yarn:

I actually don't think it's very much, at least not compared to what many other knitters in the blog world seem to have. I have aslo decided to get rid of most of my acrylics, and since some people on my RAK (random acts of kindness) group on Ravelry whished for just acrylics, I figured I could kill two flies with one stone and send some of it to new, loving homes. I think I will just save enough to make the colour pattern swatches in the knitting book I'm using to learn techniques. If I don't save enough, I always have an excuse to buy more yarn :)

I have also decided to start a new project: A needle storage unit I found here. I think it was very smart, and the only problem is that I don't own any 100 % wool that is not superwash, so I don't have any yarn that will felt. Oh well, another reason to visit the yarn shop soon. I don't think it will be before the end of the month though, as I don't have very much money left.

As I've probably mentioned, the museum where my husband works has an exhibit on knitting during the summer. And to support this they also have various knitting activities like knitting cafés and such. This Tuesday they had a "learn to crochet" class for two hours, which I promptly joined. It was so much fun, and I finally understood what I have always done wrong. When you knit a piece and turn it, you do some extra loops, to gain the hieght of the new row. I always thought that this meant that I had to skip as many stitches when I began the new row, which made me lose stitches every row, and everything I crocheted came out as triangles instead of squares... Stupid, but now I know. So when I came home I found an easy pattern for grandma squares (are they called that in english? I don't really know), and proceeded to make one. It turned out pretty great for a first time, if I say so myself! So now I don't think there will be any problems crocheting some more amigurumi toys!

I'll keep knitting on the tunic now, I'll be back another day with progress (hopefully)!

/ Jenny

Very intense knitting weekend

So, this will be a very pic-intense post. As I promised, I will show you photos of the shawl. The first one is when I just laid it out to see if it would fit on my blocking-squares. It did not, by the way...

As I started covering the foam squares with towels, to avoid potential staining from the squares, I placed needles at the corners to hold the towels in place. Hobbe then proceded to pull the needles out with his mouth, prompting me to place the blocking in the only room we can close: The bedroom. I then discovered that the shawl would not fit on our bed, so I've blocked it half at a time. The next photo is just a detail of the shawl during blocking. I pinned out all the little holes in the center of the sjawl, to make sure tehy turned out nicely. I probably used around 400 needles all in all...

When the blocking was complete, the shawl was huge! It's more than 2 meters wide. I don't really know when, or how, I will use it, but I suppose I can fold it to shorten it at least.


The sun was really in my eyes in the picture, and i made me look very funny, so I cut my head out of the photo. The following photos show details of the shawl after blocking. I am very happy with how the shawl looks, it's absolutely beautiful. It's just too bad with the size.

I really like how the pearls look too. I just put them at all the edges and down the center line of the shawl, so they aren't too "blingy", they just accentuate the pattern in a very nice way.

On a completely different note, this Friday I went to my very first knitting café. It was so much fun, and the six or seven people that had gathered were all so nice and welcoming! The next "date" is on Wednesday, and I'm not sure if I'll have time because my thesis needs to have it's final approvement on that very same day. But if I cant't make it then, I'll definitely go the week after that. My new motto is that you are never too old to make new friends!

Then on Saturday morning my favourite yarn shop had a grand re-opening. They have switched owners, so the new owners had redecorated the shop and bought in some new yarn brands and accessories. Needless to say, I was there at opening time, and managed to buy way too much stuff. Most of the yarn I bought had reduced cost on opening day only, so I don't think I spent too much money anyhow. The first item I bought was this:

It's a shawl holding needle. It goes very well with the purple shawl, and since I'm now a lace fanatic I suppose there will be many more shawls in the future. So I expect this needle to come to great use. If you're wondering, the photo is taken on Hobbe's cat tower. Don't ask why, it just seemed like a good background at the time.

I bought these tow skeins of cotton yarns. Since we've been having such nice weather lately, I figured I would take the photos outside, in the shade. Hobbe was very interested in why there was yarn on the garden table? The yarn on the left is pure cotton, and I think I plan to use it to make some more crocheted amigurumi stuffed animals. The skein to the right I don't really know what I'll make of yet, but I just loved the colours. I'm sure it will turn into something nice. It's a cotton /milk fiber blend that I've never tried before.

The first fifty customers also got to choose a gift from a giftbasket at the counter, and I chose a little snow-woman/mushroom in wood, used for spool knitting! I've seen this method described in the Vouge knitting book, but never tried it, so I thought that was a perfect gift for me! It's really easy to use, and as you can see in the photo, I've already made about 50 cm of cord. It's not for something, only for me to learn a new technique. But I can see it being useful for making cords for clothes and such.

I bought the yarn yesterday too, and it's also pure cotton. It's the same with this as with the last skein: I don't know what I'll use it for yet, but I love the colouring so I just had to have it!

One very nice suprise with the new store was that they actually had KnitPicks needles! So now I don't have to order them over the internet, and can support the local store instead. So of course I had to buy some...

They are 15 cm double-pointed needles in Harmony Wood, size 2, 2.25, 2.50, 2.75, 3 and 3.25 mm thick, and there are 6 of each size! Absolutely wonderful, I think I will have to buy a pair of chunky ones later on as well. I also bought a crochet needle, size 3 mm, in bamboo too, but unfortunately I forgot to photograph it. Maybe it's just as well, it is very plain, but it will definitely come in handy for those amigurumi toys I plan to make.

As you can see in the photo, one pocket is allready empty. That's because I had to start a new project as soon as I got home yesterday: I'm making these lace socks from Drops Garnstudio. This is because I actually made one more purchase yesterday: I bought two skeins of 100 % milk fiber yarn!


I've never even heard of milk fiber before, and I'm itching to find out how it's made (I haven't gotten around to look it up yet). It's super-soft, and I love the colour as well. Unfortunately, it's been a while since I used dpn's, and I've had to frog the socks three times already, because I knit too losely on these needles. I think I've finally gotten the hang of it now, but I think I will use a lifeline when I get to the heel this time. I don't think I have ever used such thin needles before either, so I need a little practice.

I also started the tunic from Drops on Friday, I think, but Iv'e had to frog that one twice as well. The first time I didn't like how the jog turned out (it's knitted in the round), and despite various tries to fix it with slipped stiches and such, it just looked ugly. So I frogged it. The next time around I noticed that the tunic looked a little small. I checked the pattern once more, and realized I had the wrong sized needles. The pattern asks to use two different sizes for different parts of the tunic, and I had picked the wrong ones to start with. So it was only frogging left to do - again! And since the first row is 230 stiches, I haven't had the energy to start again. Maybe I will later tonight.


Now I'll go help my husband to fix the food for tonight's BBQ. Since the weather usually isn't this nice for very long in the swedish summers, we use the barbie as much as possible while we can. Tonight I think it's pork chops on the menu.

/ Jenny