One mitten down, one to go!

Yes, that's right: I've finished the first mitten that my grandfather is going to get for Christmas! It turned out quite nice, even though it's a bit wonky-looking as I haven't blocked it yet. I think I mentioned that I want to block both mittens at the same time, so they turn out similar.

The second mitten will also probably look a bit better, as I now know about yarn dominance (as I told you before, the yarn held furthest to the left is the one that will be most prominent). But I think the two mittens will look like a pair anyway.

I've also knitted a bit on the green bolero, and I'm now down to the point where I'll put the arms on waste yarn (well, I use the cables from my KnitPicks cable needles, but you get the drift), and I'm really excited to see if it fits better this time! I'm sort of putting this project on hold for a bit though, to make sure that I finish the mittens before Christmas.

I'm thinking of starting a sock when I've finished the mittens. I think I'll pick a pattern from my Sock Innovation book, by Cookie A. I love her sock patterns, and I've got a lot of sock yarns to use up too. I'm guessing that next year will be the year of shawls and socks! I think I'll start with my Jitterbug yarn from Colinette, I love the hysterical colours!

I've spent a LOT of time on Ravelry the past days, favouriting a LOT of shawls! I think the hard part of knitting 10 shawls in 2010 will actually be to decide which shawls to knit! I think I'll try to make mostly free patterns, as there are a lot of beautiful free ones out there, but I might cave in and buy some later in the year as well. I'll also try to knit mostly from my stash, and I know that right now I have the yarn to make 6 shawls allready. I had planned to use the Drops Delight yarn for shawls as well, but Anna told me that it is very unevenly spun, so that might be visible in a delicate shawl pattern. I think I'll probably make some gloves for myself out of that yarn instead. I could really need some fingerless gloves right about now, as it is very cold here today. It's snowing outside, and it's a bit cold to just sit still and knit. I'm always cold about my hands, so fingerless gloves, or gloves with half fingers, will be perfect for me to wear when I knit!

And today is the third of Advent, as well as Lucia day here in Sweden. On Lucia day we celebrate with a sort of singing festivity: A Lucia procession. A woman dressed in white with a crown of burning candles goes first, followed by any number of other singing, white-dressed girls (and sometimes boys) carrying candles in their hands. They sing Christmas and Lucia songs. It's a fiest of lights, designed to light up the darkness outside. I used to sing in one of the University Choirs here in Linköping, and we always did a lot of Lucia performances. I even got to be Lucia one time, and it is so much fun. Very traditional and solemn. This is a photo I got off the swedish Wikipedia of a traditional Lusia procession.

Now Hobbe has calmed down after running wildly through the apartment for some time, so I think I'll light some candles while he sleep. After all, it is the third of Advent!

/ Jenny

Funny coincidence

Yesterday at the knitting café I asked around if someone could recommend a good book on spinning. As Ulrika was there, she metioned the new book "Respect the Spindle", which she had also recommended in the comments to my post a few days ago. Tonight I was surfing on Ravelry (yes, I know, the hours just fly by...), and I read a lot on the forum for the "10 shawls in 2010" group right now. We're up to 663 members right now, which means almost 7000 shawls next year... Many posts are very inspiring, and I think I've favourited about 100 shawls that I want to knit! But one thread is about favourite types of shawl yarns, and the discussion mentioned some handspun yarns. Sophiphi137, who is also a member of my knitting group in real life, commented and said she wanted to learn how to spin, and a woman answered by posting an instructional YouTube video with an introduction to spinning. I watched it, and loved it, and feel so much more motivated to try it out now (I'll do it tomorrow, though, I'm just too tired right now)! As it turns out, the woman who made the video is Abby Franquemont, the author of "Respect the Spindlle"! So I'm definitely adding that one to the growing list of books I'm getting after Christmas! So much fun!

Now it's almost time for bed, and I plan to knit 7 more rows on the Moose Mittens, then I can start the decreases tomorrow. Thank God the working week is almost done, I'm exhausted!

/ Jenny

Slow day at work

I apologise in advance for a photo-less post, but I'm at work and don't have a camera with me. Or anything interesting to photograph either :)

A couple of months ago my work-computer started acting up and sometimes refused to start at all. I've since then mostly used my small, pink computer instead, which is fine most of the time. I haven't invested in an Office package, but work a lot with OpenOffice instead. The only problem is that the reference management program I use, EndNote, doesn't work with OpenOffice. SO now that I'm going to do a lot of revisions to my second article (we've decided to turn it into two publications instead, as it is so large), so now I'm really going to need EndNote. So this past Tuesday the office computer guys were here to install Word on my pink computer, which of course didn't work. The program just won't start, and no-one seems to know why. So the whole thing ended up with me now working on my VERY SLOW, old work computer. I should really be getting a new one, but my work situation is a bit complicated. First of all, my main supervisor had a stroke this spring, and we don't know when he'll be back, so it's hard to get the large purchases through. And second, I'm not sure that I will be here longer than the end of March (which also more or less depends on what happens with my supervisor), so it might be stupid to actually buy a new computer that I won't use for more than a couple of months. But this computer is SO SLOW!

On a much happier note, I was a t a knitting café at Garnverket yesterday, and it was very nice and cozy. It's so nice to sit in the yarn store, surrounded by all that lovely yarn and all those lovely knitters, and just talk (and knit) the night away! I'm almost up to the finger decrease on the first Moose mitten, and now that I'm not knitting any lace I can focus more wholeheartedly on these. I've learned a lot about yarn dominance since I began these, because it was very obvious this time. I'm a continental knitter (a picker), and I hold my yarn in the left hand. And when you knit like this with more than one colour, the yarn you hold the farthest to the left will dominate over the other colour(s). Unfortunately it took me more than half of the first mitten to realize this, so the second half looks a lot better. I hope I can fix this at least a little bit with blocking. On the other hand, the second mitten will look terrific! I really should knit them the same way, but it also feels stupid to do it "wrong" now that I know how to do it right.

I'm also knitting away on my green bolero, and this is such a fast knit! I'm almost down to the end of the arm holes, so I'll son put it together. I'm basically only knitting on this in public when I need to not concentrate on a pattern, or when I'm very tired. I doubt that it will be done before Christmas, but I'm ok with that. I hadn't planned on wearing it on Christmas eve, or on New Year's either, so it can take as long as it likes.

I haven't had much time to spin either, only a little bit. I think I'm spinning the yarn way too tightly, as the yarn almost curls up on itself, but I'm not sure yet how to fix this. I need to find a balance between the too tight spin and the too loose (where the yarn comes apart). I think I'll go on YouTube tonight and see if I can't find some good tips. And Ilsefin had commented on my last post, so now I know which wool is which! I'm so happy that I had actually guessed right: The brown and white fiber is the Shetland Humbug, the white is Coriedale, and the grey is the Gotland wool. So now I don't have to wonder any longer.

Oh, and yesterday at Garnverket, Ulrika was working, which was so great. I haven't seen her for a very long time, and it was fun to get to talk to her a little bit, even though she had customers almost the whole night. Which of course is great for Garnverket, I think it's going well for that store! But she had read my last post here (and she apologised for commenting in swedish, apparently it was early in the morning and she was in a hurry), and offered me and Anna some undyed yarn that she had gotten a while ago and never used. So now we have four or five hanks of undyed Lion Brand Wool (I think it was worsted weight) that we can play around with! She is just so supernice, and always thinking of others! Anna and I are so grateful, and we will have so much fun dyeing these! I think that we'll probably not use as many colours on each skein this time, but that will be just as fun!

Ok, now my lunch break is officially over, so I guess I have to get back to work. I'll see you this weekend!

/ Jenny

Yarn and fiber

This afternoon the yarn we dyed yesterday had finally dried, so first I wound them into hanks. And let me tell you that I am very pleased with the result!

After hanks, I brought out my swift and ballwinder, and turned them into balls instead:

Don't they look professional?! Almost like "real" sock yarn! And I know I didn't actually spin this yarn, but I'm very happy with the colours. I have no clue what to do with it though. The silk yarn that is orange, green and blue could have become very fancy socks, but the yarn is so coarse that I doubt that it will feel any good. Maybe it gets softer with wear? And the other skein is not a full skein, and won't be enough for something big. Maybe I could stripe it with white and make a crazy hat? But whatever I decide, I know I really enjoyed the dyeing process, so the next time I buy yarn I will probably look for some undyed wools too!

And I got a package in the mail today too: My swift and wooly fibers had arrived! Just look at the beautiful box it arrived in:

I think it's a box intended to hold a bottle of wine, but it fit this package perfectly. And I got 150 grams of fiber too, 50 grams of wool from Gotland, a swedish Island off the east coast where they raise very nice sheep, 50 grams of Corriedale and 50 grams of Shetland Humbug. The only thing is: I don't know which is which! I've never spun before, so I've never really looked at fiber, so I have no clue! Maybe some of you readers can help me?

Of course I had to try the spindle out as soon as I got it out of the package, and let me tell you: I'm no good at this! I hadn't counted on being good either, but it didn't really matter. It is so much fun, and it feels like it is very possible to improve with some practice. And 150 grams seem like PLENTY to practice on! I will spin as much as I can now until christmas, because then I'll get the spinning wheel too. This is what I got so far:

It's wonky and uneven, and the thickness varies very much. But I somehow feel like it's sort of supposed to look like that the first time. And I WILL get better! Oh, and speaking of improving: I would rally like a good book on spinning so now I'm wondering: Do any of you have any reading tips? I'm interested in spinning with both spindle and spinning wheel, so any tips will come in handy!

Now I'm going over to my sister's for dinner. They had bought too many pork chops, so they asked if we wanted to come over and eat. Thomas declined, as he has a beginning gastritis and tries to eat as little fried food as possible, but I'm very glad for the offer as I'm getting really hungry. Sometimes it's extra nice to have your sister as a neighbour!

/ Jenny

Yep, it's frogged!

Anna was here tonight, and we made our first attempt at dyeing yarn. I'll tell you more of that soon. But I'll begin with telling you that I got her help with frogging the Aeolian. We looked at it together, and I decided that I had made too many mistakes to be pleased with it. So while I very carefully frogged it over a bucket, to collect all the beads, Anna wound the frogged yarn back onto the ball. This way we managed without any visible harm to the yarn! It's a bit kinked, as it has been knit, but otherwise you can't tell that it's been used. So I guess that the Aeolian will be my first project in my "10 shawl in 2010" challenge, I'm guessing I'll cast on first thing in the morning on January 1st!

Ok, now onto the dyeing! I had an undyed skein of silk yarn that I got as a RAK in Europe gift a while ago. It is made from the outer parts of the silk cocoon, so it's sort of coarse and scratchy, and I'm not sure what I'll make from it. But it was perfect to try out the colours on! We began with the KoolAid, but I think that we might have diluted the colours too much because the colour on the yarn turned out very bland, But I also got some easter egg dyes in a RAK, so we used them instead. And wow did the colours pop!

We then also tried to dye one of the Ivory KnitPicks Main Line yarn, and we weren't sure if this would work as it is part cotton (KoolAid apparently only dyes animal fibers). But the yarn took the easter egg dyes really well, so now I have two skeins hanging over my bath tub!

This is what my kitchen looked like two hours ago:

Me hard at work

My kitchen table

Me with the first yarn, right out of the microwave

Me (to the left) and Anna

It was so much fun, and now that we know how to do it, I'm guessing that we will try it out again. It will probably look even better after some practice, and I think that the next time we won't use so many colours on each skein :)

And at work I'm currently re-writing my last article, to turn it into two separate articles, and that is quite boring work. So to keep yself from falling asleep, I hang out at Ravelry between writing paragraphs :). So today I've been trying to match my lace yarns in my stash with potential shawls for next year! I have a lot of lace yarns, at least so I can make six shawls, but I'm guessing that I will have to buy some more lace weight yarn next year. Oh no, poor me ;) But I'll try to start with the ones I have and knit them up first.

I'll leave you with this beautiful photo of our newly-dyed yarn!

The yarn to the right is the KnitPicks Main Line, and we dyed it in green, blue, red and yellow. The yarn to the left is the silk, which is dyed in green, orange and blue. It will be so much fun to wind these into balls! Not to mention knit with!

/ Jenny

Thinking of frogging :(

I sat knitting on my Aeolian yesterday, and I suddenly realised: I've done ALL of my double decreases wrong! I had read wrong in the pattern, and instead of doing a "slip one, knit 2 together, pass the slipped stitch over" decrease that the pattern told me to do, I had made a "slip two together as if to knit them together, knit 1 tbl, pass the slipped stitches over". It's not a big difference between the decreases, but the difference is visible. Also, I'm pretty sure that I've managed to not knit some of those stitches tbl too.

So now I'm thinking: Should I frog it and start over? If I do that, I can start it on January 1st and include it in my 10 shawls in 2010. I'm a bit worried about frogging witht his yarn though, as the cahmere has a tendency to be a bit sticky, and I'm afraid I would inadvertently break the yarn. On the other hand I really want to make this shawl perfect, and if I leave it as it is I'll always know that there are mistakes... I'm also inclined to frog it because I don't know if I can finish it before New Year's, and I don't want to have to put it on ice due to the other ten shawls I'm going to have to knit next year. And if I frog it I can focus more on the Moose mittens too.

So what do you think I should do?! Any advice is welcome!

/ Jenny

I forgot...

I have to tell you about a group I joined on ravelry: 10 shawls in 2010! It's a challenge to knit 10 skawls during 2010, and I promptly joined! The only probelm is that works in progress doesn't count, so I have to finish my Aeolian before I cast on for these ten shawls (I'll not make all of them simultaneously, though). It will be so much fun, I think I might allready have enough yarn to pull this off. Maybe. Or maybe I'll have to buy more :)

I think I'll start with the Echo Flowers shawl, and I think I'll make it from the burgundy KnitPicks Shadow yarn I got a while ago. Oooh, I want to start now!

/ Jenny

Second Advent

Yes, today is the second Sunday in Advent, so we light another candle in the Advent candle holder. At least we will when it gets completely dark, which should be in about half an hour (it's 15.30 now). The candles are about the only thing I like about this time of year, except Christmas itself, as I really hate that it gets dark at four in the afternoon, and I hate the cold.

But today it wasn't very cold, I'm guessing somewhere around +5 centigrades in the middle of the day. So my sister and I went outside and walked over to Old Linköping where there was an advent market today, for the second Sunday in a row. We bought some sausages that will go on he Christmas food table, and I found two adorable tote bags to hold my knitting. THe first one is small, and will hold a small project like mittens or socks:

The figure on it is a Swedish comic book character, called Bamse. I read a lot of Bamse when I grew up, and I still love the old comic books. Bamse is a very kind bear, who when he eats a special honey that his grandmother makes, becomes super strong. It is a very moralising story, because Bamse is always kind to everybody, and never uses his strenght for personal gain. But when you're a kíd you don't care about that, do you? Then it's just fun to follow the characters. Anyway, this bag is currently holding my Moose mittens, which I haven't made much progress on since last time. But I'm getting there, and I'm not worried yet that they won't be finished in time for Christmas.

The second bag I bought is larger, and pink:

It looks a bit paler in the photo than in real life, but I think it's beautiful. I love pink, if you hadn't noticed that :). This bag is currently holding my green bolero, and even though that project isn't very big yet, it will grow significantly before it's done. I'm thinking that I will use these two bags primarily as project holders in my bigger knitting bag I got from KnitPicks. That way the yarns won't tangle when I transport more than one project in the big bag!

So what are you guys wishing for for Christmas? I've told my parents that I would like a new bathrobe, as mine is wearing a bit thin. And I would prefer one in pink, too. Did I mention I like pink? When I held my thesis presentation this September, one of my opponents actually commented on my computer. He said it reminded him of the movie Legally Blond, with Reece Witherspoon :). This is my computer:

I guess you can't blame him, can you? I also have a pink calendar and a pink cell phone :)

The second thing I'm wishing for is more project bags. My sister dabbles a bit in sewing, so I asked her if she wouldn't make some smallish fabric bags with a drawstring on top, for me. We'll see if she does them or not.

And I guess I've told you that Thomas and I are going to order books together after Christmas, instead of buying each other gifts this year. As of yesterday I've added some books on spinning to that list, as I plan to learn this after Christmas. I actually ordered myself a start kit from Spinspiration yestarday night, that includes a wooden spindle and 150 grams of different wools to learn on. I'm sure that will be here before Christmas, but then I can start learning that, and move on to the spinning wheel when I get home to my parents for the Holidays. It will be so much fun!

And tomorrow Anna will come here, and we're going to try out the KoolAid yarn-dyeing for the first time! We were supposed to do it last week, but Anna had to cancel because she wasn't feeling well, so hopefully it will get done tomorrow. This is also something that I'm really looking forward to try out, although I think that this first time we will just dye all of the skein solid. But if we succeed, and if I think it's fun, I might have to invest in more undyed fibres eventually, and do some more dyeing. I've seen that one swedish online yarn shop, Karma Garn, has KoolAid for sale, so it shouldn't be hard to get after all.

Now I'm going to slip into my pyjama pants and knit for the rest of the afternoon :)

/ Jenny

Slow night

Hi all! I'm having a relly slow Saturday night, which suits me just fine. I cleaned a bit during the week, so I don't even have any of that to do this weekend! I've done this weeks laundry today, but as we have both a cleaner and a dryer in the apartment, that's not a very heavy job. So now I get to knit for the rest of the evening! Thomas is hanging out with a friend, and I think they're going to play x-box soon, so I will get completely uniterupted knitting time!

I don't have any new photos to show you, but I've made some progress on the Moose mittens. I've knit about half the first mitten, and so far I think it looks ok at least. It's hard to be sure before blocking, and I really don't want to block the first one alone as I'm sure that I would block the two mittens differently.

I've also made some progress on the Aeolian shawl. I've knit three repeats of the first chart, so I'll soon go on to the next chart. The yarn is heavenly, and I'm sure it will look fabulous when finished. I can't wait to wear it! I love to knit lace, and usually I'm in no hurry to finish as I like the knitting process, but this project is one I can't wait to finish!

I also finally decided which sweater to cast on for, and you'll be surprised to know that I actually chose the green bolero that I started in the middle of October, but frogged as there were some details that I wasn't completely satisfied with. So today I've finally started over, and I've knit almost a whole skein of the yarn (Symfoni from Lövegarn, 100 % chunky merino). I think I'll need five skeins to finish, and I now have six so I think I'll be fine.

So now I only have to decide which socks to cast on for! But I think I might have to start with the knee-high ones that I've been talking about for so long, the ones that match my beret. They will also be knitted in KnitPicks Main Line yarn, which I really love! It is such a great combination of wool and cotton, and just feels so soft. The socks will be super warm, but they will suit me just fine now that winter seems to start showing it's claws here in Sweden. But I don't think I'll start them today, maybe tomorrow?

Oh, and by the way, Kate of Lazy Kate Creates is having a great give-away on her blog, to celebrate her 50th blog post! Be sure to drop by and say hi, it's a great blog that is well worth reading!

And for those of you who like to knit lace: I have a pattern tip for you! The swedish site Slöjd och Hantverk is having an advent calendar lace pattern on their website for free. It will be like a mystery shawl, and you get one clue each day in December until Christmas! The pattern is available in both swedish and english, just scroll down the site until you get to the right sidebar where it says dag 1/day 1, dag 2/day 2 and so on. When you click on the links you get the swedish pattern, but if you just scroll past that the english version is written underneath. It will only be available until December 25th, but if you can't keep up, or if you just don't want to knit it right now, you can copy all the pattern pieces into a word document or similar. After christmas the whole pattern will be available to buy, but only as a kit toghether with their very expensive yarn, and I think that shipping outside of Sweden will probably be very expensive. So make sure to check it out before it's too late!

And now I think I'm out of stuff to rant about. I'll try to get some photos til next time, I know it's not as fun to read an entire post without photos...

/ Jenny

Lots of jambled stuff

I'll start this post by taking a moment to think about Gizmo, my dearly departed cat who died last September. Today would have been his fourth birthday, and I miss him a little bit extra today. It's funny that animals can leave such an impression on us. And I think Hobbe might sense that I'm a bit sad today, because he is extra snuggly today since I got home from work. Which I really apreciate! This is one of my favourite photos of Gizmo:

The photo is taken with my cell phone camera, so the quality isn't all that good. But he looks so cute standing at the table, I think that it's vanilla custard that he's stealing from my plate :)

As you might have noticed, I don't have as much time to update the blog now that I'm back to work again. And of course I don't have as much knitting time either. But it's ok though, it feels good to get back to the work routine, and I had a very fruitful meeting with one of my supervisors this Wednesday, so now I have stuff to keep me busy until Christmas, at least.

I'm starting to feel ok again about everything else, too. The antidepressants have finally kicked in, and the three weeks I had to rest did the trick. I'm going to have a few days of vacation between Christmas and Ney Years Eve as well, so I'll try to get plenty of rest then too. Last year I had no Christmas spirit at all, as it was only three months after Gizmo passed away. But this year I'm looking forward to spending Christmas with my family, not to mention all the good food!

What Christmas food do you non-swedish readers eat? Here in Sweden there are several traditional dishes to eat on Christmas Eve (yes, we celebrate on the 24th): The most common is boiled and glazed ham with mustard, Janssons temptation, which is a potato gratin with tinned fish (is the english word also anjovis?), meatballs and tiny sausages. My family on my father's side comes from Denmark, and there they eat a lot of duck on Christmas. I guess duck can be hard to find on Sweden at Christmas, at least when my grandparents moved here in the 50's, so they changed their tradition to turkey instead. So in our family we have the traditional Swedish Julbord (sort of a smorgasbord, only with the Christmas dishes instead) at around 14.00, and in the evening we eat turkey together with my uncle and his family. So a LOT of food on one day! We usually roll over to the sofa afterwards and just relax.

My husband's family on his father's side is from England, so they usually have turkey on Christmas day instead. So if I play my cards right, I get turkey for two nigths in a row! This is the only time in the year that I get turkey, so the more the better :)

Ok, so maybe a littel update on the knitting front? After all, this is supposed to be a knitting blog... I finished my pink Candle Flame shawl on Tuesday night, and I love it! I blocked it overnight, and wore it the first time on Thursday, when it had dried completely. And in the photo you also get to see the finished beret as well:

Pleas excuse the colours galore, this is my sweater I wear to and from workout... There isn't much daylight to talk about today, with really grey skies as well, but my sister kindly helped me get some photos outside. Thomas' first reaction to the hat was: You look like a cooking lady at a school (I think he associated it with a hairnet...). The next time he saw me in it he said: "You look like Toad on Super Mairo"... So maybe I don't really look all that good in a beret, but it is so warm and snuggly I'll wear it anyway! I don't look that stupid, do I?

And the shawl turned out gorgeous, I really LOVE the yarn. It's Garnpalettens single-ply 100 % wool, and the woman who owns and runs Garnpaletten does all her dyeing herself. He daughter is also a member of the Linköping Knitters, so that makes this yarn extra special. And look how beautiful the pattern turned out:

It was so easy, but although it was repetitive and I learned it by heart after just two repeats, it wasn't the least bit dull. And it was great to get to take a lace knit to the knitting cafés as well, as it wasn't that demanding. I have three skeins of this yarn in a lovely green/lime colourway, that I plan to turn into the Heere Be Dragons shawl sometime.

I've also started two new projects. I don't know if I mentioned last time that I began the Moose Loves Roses mittens for my grandfather? Well, I did, and I've finished the first cuff:

They look pretty good, and even though they are a little bit wonky right now, you can imagine that they'll look great after a bit of blocking. I LOVE the yarn, KnitPicks Palette (100 % wool), and I'm sure I'll order more of it sometime after New Year. I've planned to knit the Cat Mittens for myself for a long time, and I think this yarn will be perfect for that. And when I bought the pattern for the Moose mittens (both those and the Cat mittens are designed by Jorid Linvik), I saw that she also has a pattern for Cat Socks, so I think I'll buy it too after Christmas. Don't you just love the paw print at the bottom of the sock! I'm so happy that I have ten skeins of this yarn in a lovely pinkish colour, that will turn into some kind of sweater for me!

And last night I started the Aeolian shawl, with my Chili Gredelin Madame yarn. I've only done a little bit, but it looks SOO good so far. The yarn is absolutely stunning, both the quality and the colours, and the beads work perfectly with the colours as well.

I'm not sure if I'll do all the nups that the pattern asks for, as I couldn't make them look good when I swatched, so maybe I'll just place extra beads there instead. I'll be sure to put in a lifeline before the nup section starts, then I can try it with nups first, and if they still don't look good I can just rip that section out.

Oh, and I have some great news (for me at least)! After the Linköping Knitters' bithday party I spoke to my mother about how fun I thought it was to spin. As some of my family on my mohter's side are sheep farmers, I asked her if she thought that there might be some lonely spinning wheel standing in an attic somewhere, that I could rescue (I told you this part before, didn't I?). She said that she didn't think so, but at the school where she works they have several spinning wheels that are hardly used. She then proceeded to ask the woman in charge of them if she could buy one of them for me at a dicounted price! The woman thought about it, and then suggested that I borrow a spinning wheel for an unlimited time, as long as I bring it back to the school once a year when they have an Open House for potential students! So after Christmas I get to take home my very own (borrowed) spinning wheel! Wohoo! So now I just have to buy some fibre to start learning!

My sister and I are going to Friskis&Svettis today to work out, so I better get started on adding the photos to this post, otherwise I might run out of time! I'll see you after the weekend!

/ Jenny

Yarn diet be damned!

Yes, that's right! I went and bought myself some yarns today! I just couldn't resist. GarnNetto, one of the local yarn stores in Linköping, has just gotten the new Drops yarn from Garnstudio, it's called Delight. It is probably very trendy, as it is very similar to both Kunstgarn from Hjertegarn, and Fame Trend from Marks & Kattens. But as it is a new yarn line, GarnNetto has an introduction price on it, which I'm guessing was almost half of what it will cost full-price. So I had to buy it now, while the low price lasted. I bought six skeins in two different colourways. The first one is a purple variegated yarn:

Drops Delight (75 % superwash wool / 25 % polyamide)

The second is a gorgeous green variegated yarn, and I'm so happy that is seems to be all green hues and no browns or beige hues:

Drops Delight (75 % superwash wool / 25 % polyamide)

Just so you can compare, I'll show you the photos of the Kunstgarn from Hjertegarn (75 % superwash wool / 25 % nylon, top photo) and the Fame Trend from Marks & Kattens (75 % superwash wool / 25 % polyamide, bottom photo):

You get the similarities, right? I'm guessing these types of yarns are sort of a temporary trend, but I love them anyway. I made my first Ishbel (I can definitely see more of them in the future :) with the Kunstgarn (oh, and by the way, garn is the swedish word for yarn, kunst means art), and I love it but for one ting: The nylon content has made it pull together again after the blocking, so the lace pattern isn't as obvious anymore, I'm thinking I will probably have to block it again, and then steam it afterwards to block the nylon too. I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

I also went to Garnverket today, which is one of the other LYS'es in Linköping (we seem to have at least five that I know of... That must be a lot for a town of 120 000 inhabitants, right?), and two gorgeous wool skeins in lace weigth that I've had my eyes on (yes, both eyes) for a while now. I present to you Pälsull (it means fur wool) from Östergötlands Ullspinneri (Spinners of Östergötland, the landscape where Linköping is situated):

Unfortunately the photo had to be taken with flash, so the colour doesn't really show, but it's a really dark green, and the wool has a shine to it that I haven't actually seen on any other pure wool yarns before. It has 650 yarnds/100 g, and will make a good sized shawl for me in the future. I just couldn't help myself, I love this yarn so much!

I've also finished my Drops Beret that I started this Saturday! It was such a fast knit i the rather chunky KnitPicks Main Line yarn, so I finished it up last night. It is currently blocking around a dinner plate:

Bottom view:

Top view:

I hope that it will still fit after blocking, but I've tightened the ribbing a lot while blocking it, so hopefully it won't grow. I really like the yarn, which is good as I have 9 green skeins and 17 white skeins left... I'm going to make the knee-high socks and gloves (which I think I'll turn into mittens instead), and I think I'll try to make a sweater from it too. In the Custom Knits book there is a pattern for a cardigan called Updated Old Classic, and I'm thinking of adapting this to fit the Main Line yarn, and also change the pattern yoke to the snow flakes I've made on the Beret. That way I'll have a complete set of snow flake clothes!

Oh, and today was my first day back at work. It went really well, and I had a lot to do, catching up to all the email correspondance that I've neglected while on sick-leave. Since Klara left work in September to go work in England, I've had the office to myself, but now I've got two male students as roommates. I think it's a good thing, as I found it a bit boring to sit by myself. As long as I get to set the termostat as I want to (I'm always cold so some of my coworkers refer to my office as the Sauna Room)!

Tonight I think I'll knit some on the pink shawl, and possibly start the Moose mittens for my grandfather as well. I'll tell you later this week what I chose!

/ Jenny

LKPG Knitters 5 years!

Today we have celebrated the 5 year birthday of Linköping Knitters! We are a group of knitters who meet at least once every week on a café in the city center and knit and talk and just generally hang out. I joined this september, I think it was, and I love that it is such a laid-back, easy-going club. There is no official membership, and you can just show up whenever you like and stay for as long as you like. There are a few of the girls who manage a blog as well, but I think that's also voluntarily. And today we gathered to celebrate that the club has existed for five years! We had some mini-workshops where some of the members showed the others something interesting they had learned, and we had lots and lots of coffee and cakes. And knitted a lot too, of course!

Helene showed us how to spin, both wit a drop spindel and on a spinning wheel. I tried the drop spindel, and it certainly isn't easy! But it feels like something that is difficult in the beginning, but not impossible to improve at. This is Maria, showing her own spindle in action:

Helene said that there are starter kits available quite cheap, where you get both a spindle and some wool to practice on. I think this might go on my christmas wish list, I thought it was really fun!

Helene also showed her spinning wheel, and here is Lovisa trying it out for the first time. It also looked fun, but I believe that one of these things might be a bit more expensive than a spindle... However, since some of my relatives on my mothers side are farmers, and some even raise sheep, I think I'll have a look around to see if there isn't a lonely spinning wheel in an attic somewhere gathereing dust, that I might rescue? It would be so much fun to actually own one, as I think they are very beautiful too.

We also had a workshop in stitch marker making, and I made myself ten of them. You can never have too many, right? Well, that turned out to be only too true, as I actually broke one as soon as I got home... I guess I hadn't tightened the end enough, so the beads came off. But that's all right, I still have nine of them that I'm going to use for everything from now on!

These are some of the Knitters gathered round the huge table where we sat for most of the day. There was also a small workshop in how to wrap gifts in a Japanese style, and Gunvor who showed us had brought some extraordinarily beautiful wraps to show us. Unfortunately, the battery in my camera died before I got a chance to take any photos, but I'm sure they will be up on the Linköping Knitters blog soon enough.

Maria also showed us the technique for short-row toes when knitting socks from the toe up. I've read about this method before, but never really tried it, and it wasn't that hard at all! So I guess it's time for me to start knitting some socks soon!

I had also brought my new knitting project along, which I worked on in between the workshops. I finally decided to start with the Drops beret, that I will make in my KnitPicks Main Line yarn. I actually finished about half the beret today, but I was stupid enough not to try it on until then. It was about two sizes too large! So I frogged the whole thing, and started over just now. I've made about 2 cm of ribbing, so I'll wait to show it to you until I actually have some colourwork to show off! Talk about annoying!

Oh, and we also got to buy the new Knitting Bags at the party today. They are canvas tote bags with the Linköping Knitters logo on, and they look fabulous! And they're qiute large, so you can fit a lot of yarn, or projects, in it.

And as you can see in that photo, I'm happily wearing my Lettuce coat! Here it is in all its glory, blocked and finished:

Please disregard the sweatpants... I've added some invisible clasps on the bottom half, so it can be closed all the way down, but I like it this way. Otherwise the only thing I changed is that I made the collar a little bit rounder at the front. Doesn't the yarn look gorgeous?!

And finally: Here are the finished Kingdom Gloves:

It is really hard to take a photo of them indoors at night, without using the flash, but with a bit of juggling with the reading spot light Thomas finally managed. They are still a little tight, but I think that will be all right after a bit of wear. I love the yarn, Zitron Noblesse (70 % Merino/30 % silk), and the grat thing is that I have almost a whole skein left! I made one whole glove, plus the had part of the second glove, plus one finger, with the first skein so it's very durable. I'm planning on making myself some lace-y fingerless gloves from the leftovers, but I think that will have to wait.

I haven't knitted much on the pink shawl, but I think I'll finish it some time next week. Oh, and speaking of next week: I'm starting work again on Monday! And it actually feels ok, I think it will be fun to see all my co-workers again. These three weeks of rest has really helped me, and I'm starting to feel a lot better generally. I went to see my councellor yesterday, and she said that I look much better already. We talked a lot about life goals and such, and I've realized that I've felt a bit adrift for a long time. When I had finished my Masters Degree in Medical Biology in 2003 I didn't know what I wanted to do at all. So when this PhD position came around I didn't think very much about it, but accepted. And I've realized that all this time I've never been sure that I actually wanted to work in research! I'm still not sure that I do, but I'm not sure that I don't either. So that's something I have to think about. But just knowing that I actually have a choice (I think I told you about the idea I had of going back to school to become a biomedical analysist) has made me feel a lot better. And the pills have finally started working too, so now I think I can handle work again!

And tomorrow is the first of advent, which we celebrate at least here in Sweden. We have Advent light stars that we put up in our windows, and candle holders with four candles that we light one on each Sunday until Christmas. It makes all the houses look so cozy and light-filled, which is nice as we have so few hours of daylight here in the Nordic countries in the winter. So tomorrow I'm going to the storage closet and try to find all my christmas things... Hopefully they are somewhere in the front, so I don't have to move everything around for too long!

Happy First of Advent to all of you!

/ Jenny

Beads!

I wasn't really planning on updating the blog today, as my knitting hasn't progressed very much since the last time. The gloves are still not completely dry, so I can't even show you a photo of them. And I've already showered and put on my PJ's, so I can't take a better photo of the Lettuce coat. Plus, Thomas isn't home to help me either... I'm knitting on the Candle Flame shawl though, and that I can show you! I'm almost out of yarn, we'll see if I run out of beads or yarn first. I decided to show you the photo taken without flash, as this is the one that shows off the pattern best. What you can't see in this photo are the beads, as they are so tiny. I've placed one bead at the top of every flame, and it looks so good (If I say so myself :)! I can't wait to be finished so I can wear it!

I also got a RAK package in the mail today! I think I've told you before, but I'm a member of a group on Ravelry that's called RAK in Europe (RAK means Random Acts of Kindness), where we send gifts to each other. It is not a swap, so everyone just posts a wishlist every month, and you chose for yourself which ones you want to fulfill. I got a package from Germany today, from a woman named Lisa, and she sent me four bags of beads that are just lovely. And I'm telling you, there must be at least 1500 beads of each kind!

Just look how tiny they are!

And remember I told you that I was going to make an Aeolian shawl without beads. Well screw that, now I actually have green beads that will go perfectly with the Chili Gredelin Madame yarn! So there will be pearls in my Aeolian too, I just like shawls with beads in them! I'm not sure yet what I'll use the rest of the beads for, but I'm sure I'll come up with something.

In the package were also included three packages of KoolAid powder, and one package of Easter Egg dye, that I will use to try my first dyeing (Is it spelled like that? I didn't just write that I'll try to die, did I?) experiment with! Last month I got some undyed silk yarn that will be perfect for this. Now I just have o find out how you do it, but I'm guessing that won't be too hard when I have Ravelry at hand! KoolAid was the only thing I wished for this month, and I'm so pleased that I got some. Me and Anna will definitely have a fun time trying this out!

And today my sister and I went for a long walk and went shopping in the middle of it :) She was going to get some Glögg (you know, the swedish version of Glühwine I told you about), and I went looking for winter shoes. I know what you're all thinking: "Doesn't she have enough shoes?", but alas, my winter boots from last winter hardly fit me anymore. I've gained so much weight the last year due to my antidepressants, that my boots barely zippered up when I wore pantyhose. And I was planning on wearing them over my skinny jeans... And the jeans definitely won't fit over the boots... And I really don't need any more excuses to buy shoes, so I bought these today:

They were super-cheap too, as they were half-price-off, so I really made a bargain! I'll try to take a photo of me actually wearing them some day too...

Thomas is drinking beer with his friends tonight, so I have the apartment for myself the whole evening. I'm just knitting away and watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which is awesome!

Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving, to those of you who celebrate that!

/ Jenny

I'm knitting like crazy

Yes, that's the main perk about beeing home all day on sick-leave! I've been knitting like crazy this week, and finished the cabled gloves! Anna was here almost all day yesterday, and it was so much fun! We ate sweet potato soup that I made, and then we knitted the rest of the day. She finished a gorgeous triangle shawl that she had knitted with two yarns together, one green and one white single ply wools. It turned out so good, and so thick and cozy. I'm betting she will use it all winter.

And as I said, late last night I finished the cabled gloves! They are blocking right now:

As you can see, I used almost every pin I own... I like them a lot, and I'm hoping they will grow a little bit while blocking. I've pinned them up quite hard, because they were a little bit tight when done. They look so advanced and complicated, but I actually didn't find them very difficult. Only time-consuming, as I did all the cabelling with a cable needle. I'm not comfortable with the method of cabelling without a cable needle, I always seem to drop stitches when I try. But the gloves look really good, and tomorrow I'll try to get some photos of them outside in daylight, so I don't have to use the flash. The flash just bounces off the yarn, and makes the cables really hard to see, but they look good to me :)

So, now I'm only working on the pink Candle Flame Shawl. That's right: I haven't started any other projects yet! I think I'll probably cast on the Moose gloves tomorrow, as these are the ones I've decided to start with. I don't think my grandfather will wear them while hunting, but he can wear them otherwise when he is outside.

My sister helped me print the pattern for the Aeolian shawl today too (our printer is out of ink), and I have a feeling I won't be able to wait to cast on for this until I've finished the pink shawl... I've been wanting to make an Aeolian since I first saw the pattern on Ravelry, and now I have the perfect yarn for it: The Chili Gredelin Madame yarn (45 % cashmere / 55 % silk). This is definitely the most luxurious yarn I've ever felt, and so beautiful! So I've decided it will turn into an Aeolian shawl, I just have to decide what size to make. I don't have yarn enough for the largest size, but I think I like the purple version best anywa. I'll also make it without any beads, maostly because I think 860 beads in one shawl seems a bit much, and also because I have beads on both my purple humongous shawl and now in my pink shawl as well. I think that's enough for now :)

Chili Gredelin Madame

I still have to decide what sweater or cardigan to cast on for! I have so many to choose from, and as I have a rather large stash I actually have yarn enough to make a lot of them. Don't worry, all of the planned sweaters and cardis will probably be made at some point! I just have to decide which to start with! I got a lot of Cotton Fleece from Brown Sheep from Ulrika a while ago, and I have some plans for those skeins that I might want to make. I'm thinking of making This Jacket, from the book Vintage Knitwear for Modern Knitters, by Lise-Lotte Lystrup. In the book it looks gorgeous, even though I actually didn't think it looked that good on the Ravelry page. However, it is knit in four pieces (well, six actually, if you count the sleeves) and sewn together. And since I really hate to sew, I'm thinking of making something similar to this, but to knit it from the top down. I don't think that would be too difficult, but might take some experimenting to get it right.

I also have the green top-down bolero that I started a while ago and frogged recently. I still want to make it like I had planned, but it's hard to get motivated enough to start over again. I love the yarn though (Symfoni from Lövegarn, 100 % Merino), and as it is very chunky it shouldn't take long to finish.

I also have all that blue/turquoise Alpaca yarn from Drops that was supposed to turn into a cabled tunic this passed summer. The tunic turned out way too heavy for what I had planned (it was knitted with the alpaca and Drops Cotton Viscose yarn together), so I frogged it. And now I have six skeins of this yarn in my stash, that I really really love. I was thinking about making this Silken Scabard sweater out of it instead, but as I recently tried to do cables in the alpaca yarn (when I started the cabled gloves the first time I used a pink alpaca. It looked horrible) and failed terribly, I'm not sure this sweater would look good in alpaca. I think it might have a bit too much halo to make the cables look good. Although it might also depend on the needle size used, so I think I might have to experiment some with this as well.

And I also have to decide which socks to cast on for! I have so many wonderful patterns, and so many wonderful sock yarns! Although I think I'll have to start with the knee-high stockings in the KnitPicks Main Line yarn, to get them done. I also want to get that hat done, because I would really like to see what I look like in a hat like that... I haven't done any swatches for these yet, and I'm sensing that the Drops Karisma used in the pattern is a lot thinner than the Main Line yarn. But I think I can adapt the pattern to fit me anyway. It will probably just take a little thinking...

Ok, I'll continue with the Candle Flame shawl for now, and think on future pattern while I knit. I think I'm at least half-way done with it, so it souldn't take that long now that I'm only knitting on that one project. Right?

/ Jenny

Lazy day today

I have to admit I have barely budged from the sofa today! But it has been a great weekend even though we haven't done anything much. Thomas is playing Dragon Age on the X-box, and I like to watch while I knit so it's the perfect combo. The weather has been really bad today too, so none of us felt like going out. Sometimes this is just what you need! I think we'll go upstairs and light a fire in the fireplace later tonight too, to complete the coziness of the day.

I think I told you yesterday that I decided to sew on clasps on the Lettuce coat, so that it can be closed all the way down. I did that today, six invisible clasps, and boy do I hate to sew! But now they're on, and the coat looks so much better now that it's been blocked too. I'll try to take some photos of it tomorrow when I have clothes and make-up on. We'll I'm not exactly naked right now either, but somehow I don't think you want to see me in my pyjama with lots of holes in them (Gizmo liked to climb on people to sit on their shoulders, which led to me not having very many clothes that are actually whole any more...). I doubt anyone would think I'm adorable in that outfit :)

I'm also knitting away at the second cabled glove, I'm done with the cuff at least. And Yeay me for not giving in to the temptation to start something new before one of my ongoing projects is done! I'm not sure this resolve will last very long though, as I'm really aching to cast on for the Aeolian and the Cat mittens... I'm actually thinking that four ongoing projects might be optimal for me: One shawl, one sweater or cardigan, one pair of socks and one pair of gloves. That means that it would be ok for me to cast on TWO more projects today if I wanted to, as I'm currently not making any socks or sweaters. But I think I want to finsih the cabled gloves first, so I can cast on for the Cat mittens.

Oh, and the last time I visited my parents my grandfather came to visit for Father's day dinner. He is a hunter, and likes the outdoors a lot. We talked a bit about knitting and fibers, and I told him I had found a pattern for mittens with Mooses on them. I've seen that there is a similar pattern in the book Selbuvotter (a book that I'm definitely getting sometimes, I love the patterns in it!), and grandfather actually said that he often is cold about the hands when he's out in the woods. So I think I'll make him some gloves too, eventually. I just have to find a good yarn for them. Maybe I should make these gloves for him in the KnitPicks Palette yarn that I had planned to make the Cat mittens in, and give them to him for Christmas. I'm guessing I can get more of the Palette yarn after Christmas if I want to?

Oh, and Thomas and I decided today that instead of buying each other Christmas gifts this year we'll order a bunch of books together after Christmas. This was Thomas' idea, and I love it! I have so many books I want, so I'm guessing the hard part will be to limit myself... I'm definitely getting the books in the Song of Ice and Fire series, by George R.R. Martin, and I know that Thomas wants to read them too so I think it will be all right. Hopefully Adlibris (the online site we mostly order books from) will have gotten the Selbuvotter book then, as it is temporarily out of stock right now. And I'm sure I can find lots of other knitting books as well that I want :)

Oh, another pattern booklet that I really want to get is the Rauma Selbustrikk. I love these Nordic patterns, and I definitely think I have to visit Selbu in Norway some day. I've found a website in the States that sells this booklet, and I'm definitely going to order it after Christmas too. I guess I'm going to be knitting gloves and mittens all next year :). I've told my parents that my main wish for Christmas this year is money to buy knitting patterns, so I'm hoping that is what I'm going to get. Possibly some of that potential money will go towards increasing the stash too :).

At the end of February there will be another Sewing Festival, this time in Stockholm, and some of my fellow knitters in the Linköping Knitters group have been talking about making a field trip there. I think that if I go, I'll try to not buy so many kinds of yarn, but rather more quantity of the yarns I buy. I have so many yarns in my stash that I bought at the Sewing Festival in Borås this September that I only have one or two skeins of, and if I don't make socks of it all I'm not sure what to do with it all! Especially since I've had a hard time finding more of some of them. So I'll try to think about that when (if?) I get there (easier said than done, I was like a donkey between two hey taps the last time!).

I think I'll stop ranting now, and continue knitting on the gloves so I can start something new soon!

/ Jenny

Blocking day

Tank you all for the very kind comments on my previous blog post! I'm actually very happy with the lettuce coat, and it's really nice to know that it's not just me :) I think I look a bit chubby in the photo, but I can't really be bothered! It was the best one we could manage, so it had to do. The coat looks good, though.

Today has been a tough day for me, I've been thinking a lot about Gizmo and generally been missing him a lot. He was such a sweet and social cat, and I loved him very much. He was just under three years old when he died last year, and it seems very unfair that he should be taken from us at such a young age. I'm very grateful that we still have Hobbe, who is the sweetest, cuddliest cat you can imagine. I wish we could get him a little kitty friend, but unfortunately Hobbe is an asymptomatic carrier of the FIP virus that killed Gizmo, so we don't dare take home another cat and risk having to go through all this again. So we have decided that we will test Hobbe every year when he gets his vaccinations for cat plague, in october, and as long as he stays positive we won't get another cat. This is one of my favourite photos of Gizmo:

Now onto some funnier stuff! I actually think that my three weeks of sick-leave from work will help, as I kind of think I'm starting to feel marginally better. This might sound weird considering the last paragraph, but that is just grief. That won't go away even when the anti-depressants start to kick in, I'll always miss Gizmo, but generally I'm feeling a lot more relaxed and content. I'm actually thinking that going back to work at the beginning of December won't be all that bad. And that is great, as work has been really tough lately, but I guess I just needed some time off.

And today I've finally gotten around to blocking the striped Alpaca scarf I finished a while ago (Hobbe helped me). I sat down this morning before breakfast and blocked the lettuce coat, and I thought: "Why not pin down the scarf while I'm at it?" So now my living room floor is filled with my blocking foam pieces. I think the coat will look a lot better once blocked, and I've decided to sew on some clasps so I can button the whole thing. I got some with a sewing kit I bought a while ago, and I think they'll work like a charm.

I just have to show you: I ran out of pins just as I was finishing pinning the scarf! So, you take what you have at hand (Anna: Man tager vad man haver...), and I finished up using five safety pins! It looks kind of funny, but they work. I think the scarf will look a lot better once finished blocking, and hopefully it won't curl up so much. It is soft as heaven, and very cozy to wear now that the winter cold is coming. Well, the winter cold hasn't actually arrived yet, we still have rainy autumn, but after Christmas the cold usually arrive for a few months to really rub it in that it is a long way to ge until Spring... I'm planning on getting a lot of use out of both the lettuce coat and the scarf!

Oh, and yesterday night I actually finished the first of the cabled gloves I've made! They are a little tight, but I will fix that with some blocking. I'm waiting to do the blocking until I've finished both of them though, as I'm sure they would turn out very different if I blocked them at separate times. I'm very pleased with the first glove at least, it looks really elegant and advanced! There was a lot of cabelling going on, but otherwise they were not difficult. I love the charts for the cables, they were so easy to read and relly logical. If you want the pattern, it is Kingdom Gloves from Knitty.com. And to think I was terrified to try knitting from english patterns just this summer! Knitting terms are just so much more logical in english than they are in swedish: If you already know how to knit basic stuff, then you kind of understand what a yarn over or a ssk means. I think I might actually start to use the english versions of the Drops patterns as well (which I've been using a lot up until now).

Oh, and I forgot to tell you about the two knitting books that came home with me together with the Stephen King novel! The first one is Socks from the Toe Up, by Wendy D. Johnson. I've wanted to learn this technique for a while, and even though I could have found instruction videos online, I thought that this book had so many beaufiul patterns in it that it was worth it.

The second is Sock Innovation, by Cookie A. I've seen a lot of her patterns on Ravelry, and I think I love each one, so this book was a given for me. I've got a lot of sock yarns in my stash, so I'm thinking I will have at least ten pairs of socks from these two books before I have to fill up on sock yarn again. When I do, though, I think I'll splurge and actually order some yarns from The Knit Witch. I love her yarns, and as I got my yarn bowl from her a while ago, I figure I should have some yarn from her to put in it, too. But it is so darn expensive to get shipping to Europe, so it will have to wait until next year some time. Or when I become a millionaire :)

I think I want to finish one more project before I start a new one, so either the gloves or the candle flame shawl will have to get done. I'm not sure what I want to start first though! I definitely will start some socks, probably from Sock Innovation. I also want to make the Cat Mittens, and I bought some KnitPicks Palette yarn in green and cream colours to make these. I also want to use the KnitPicks Main Line yarn that I got from Ulrika, now that I finally got the white contrasting yarn from Pixie Knitter. I've planned to make a set of gloves, hat and knee-high stockings of this yarn. There is also a cardigan to go with the pattern set, but I'm not loving the model so I might improvise a sweater with the same snowflake pattern on it. I have enough Main Line yarn that I can swim in it (10 green skeins and 18 ivory skeins)! I also want to start the St James top I told you about last time, and I have some pink Drops Alpaca yarn that is screaming at me to become a pair of gloves for me. And I want to make some kind of fingerless gloves that I can wear while I'm knitting, as I always seem to feel cold about my hands! Oh, and I have a ton of shawls I want to make, including the Aeolian (I think I've decided that this is what the Chili Gredelin Madame yarn will turn into). What to do, what to do?! I certainly have no lack of patterns that I want to make!

Oh, and of course as soon as I had mentioned that I might put up a list of favourite books I had to do it. It's in the right column if you want to know what I read!

Now I think I'll go heat up some glühwine (you know, black-currant wine with Christmas spices in it, like Ginger, Cinnamon, Cardamom and Clove, we have it all the time in the winter here in Sweden, it's celled Glögg) and eat some gingerbread cookie dough! I'll leave you with a gorgeous photo of Hobbe!

/ Jenny