Goodbye, The Ark

On Friday evening, me, my sister and her two friends Tess and Johanna went to Stockholm, to see the last concert ever with the swedish pop band The Ark. If you haven't heard them before, they are well worth a listen, they are a very good band! They have decided to quit as a band while they are still on top, which I can respect. The concert was a two hour long line of all their big hits, and was really amazing! Ola Salo, the lead singer, is a very flamboyant, theatrical person (he's also played Jesus Christ in the musical Jesus Christ Superstar here in Sweden), and the band has an extraordinary stage show! I wish they were better at english though, because I think they could have made it big internationally if they had tried a bit harder. Anyway, the concert was very good, and it was a very nice evening! The concert was at an amusement park, Gröna Lund, and before the show started we went into the "Ghost House"! Four grown-up (more or less) women screaming like little children :)

The video is fimed with my tiny camera, and the quality isn't the best, but you get a feel for the show a little bit at least

Then yesterday one of my best friends, Klara, had invited me and Thomas for a birthday brunch, and she had made home-made lemon curd, lots of jams and marmalades, and pancakes, and omelett, and pie with custard, and... We went home about three kg heavier I think! It was very nice, and we got to meet some of Klaras friends that we don't see very often too.

And yesterday evening I finally tried on the Baby Cables sweater. I've been knitting on this at work, so I haven't had a chance to try it on for a while. It was HUGE! So I frogged about half of it, to put the sleeve stitches on hold a lot earlier than the pattern said. I've almost knitted to where I was before the frogging again, at least lenght-wise, but I've used almost a whole skein less! But now it fits me better, so I'm very happy I did this. It's looking really good, and I love the yarn!

I've also knitted a little bit on the Brandywine shawl, as I'm currently KAL-ing this one with Anna! She's using the angora rabbit yarn that she bought on our wool crawl the other weekend, and it's looking soooo good (go have a peak at her project page). I think she will probably finish a lot sooner than I though, as she seems to knit a lot on hers! But that's ok, I' in no hurry. I think I've finished about three repeats of the main chart (out of fifteen in total), so I have a ways to go...

I think today will be spent mostly knitting. I've made some changes in my movements at work, which seems to have improved my arm pain a lot, so now I feel I can knit almost as much as usual again!

/ Jenny

Teeny Tiny perfection!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

/ Jenny

Wooly Saturday!

I had the most amazing Saturday! This weekend has been the time for Östgötadagarna here in Östergötland (the cuounty where I live in). Östgötadagarna are two days where lots of farms and local shops have extra opening hours and you can go around visiting animals and buying from farm shops and stuff like that. Me and Anna went to a place called Brink Hantverk, about 30 minutes from here. The link goes to their swedish site, but it's an alpaca farm! They have about ten alpacas that they use for wool , they have two angora goats (you know, where mohair comes from), and angora rabbits. Oh, and some merino sheep as well! They spin their own yarn, which they sell, and they also sell a lot of knitted stuff. It was such a wonderful place!

 

 

The woman who owns the place was so friendly and nice, and told us lots about the farm and the animals. We didn't get to pet the actual alpacas, since they were a bit shy of strangers and didn't enjoy being touched, but we fed some goats and bought some yarn! Anna bought some lovely angora yarn, made from the very cute rabbit named Celine:

The yarn is 100 % rabbit wool, and OH SO SOFT! It didn't end up in any photo, but it is a very soft grey colour. I brought a lovely skein of alpaca yarn with me home, made from the very pretty lady Geisha:

It's 60 g/195 m, and the loveliest chocolate brown you can imagine. It was so cool to get to see the actual animal that the wool came from! I know I wasn't supposed to buy any more yarn, but I see this as more of a souvenire (thank you Maria for that idea!)!

We then went on to Vadstena, where we visited a yarn shop that was located smack in the middle of nowhere! It's called Vadstena Ull & Garn (yet another swedish site, sorry), and it was a lot bigger than the yarn shops in town. It was located on a farm as well, and I guess the locale costs are pretty low if you have a shop in one of your own out-houses. It was really lovely and there was a lot of yarn! 

I didn't get any photos here (we were just too busy looking at yarn), but I borrowed this one off their website. I hope they don't mind the free advertisement! The women who run the business didn't spin their own yarn, but they dyed a lot instead, and they also had a lot of commersial yarns. I didn't buy any yarn here, but a shawl needle got to come home with me instead:

We then went on to the last crafts place that we had planned, Hantverksboden Drottning Omma at Omberg (this shop doesn't have a website). It's a pretty small crafts shop that sells yarn and lots of other locally produced crafts, like pottery, some woodcrafts and stuff like that. The woman who owns the shop has angora rabbits as well, and the yarn they sold were mixes of angora and lambs wool or merino wool. Apparently, she shears the rabbits and sends the wool off to Östergötlands Ullspinneri, which spins the wool into yarn for the shop. Very nice! I bought three skeins of a 50 % angora/50 % lams wool that seems to be about sport weight (there is no length stated on the label, so I can't be completely sure, but needles 3-5 mm sounds about right for heavy fingering/sport, right?):

It's amazingly soft, and the colour is very pretty and natural as well. This was also a souvenire, right?! Anna also brouht home three of these skeins, in a lovely off-white colour that will become a winter shawl for her.

After this intense yarn crawl, me and Anna went back to my place and made dinner, and after that Alexandra and Maria showed up for a real girls-night/knit-night! I served apple pie (that Anna helped to make) and chocolate cake, and we just sat here and chatted about all sorts of stuff, and knitted our hearts out. 

It was so much fun, and it's been way too long! I very rarely get to go to the knitting cafés any more, since I commute so much and am not back in town until late in the afternoon/evening, so this was a real treat for me. We definitely need to plan more of these weekend meetings!

Today I'm spending my day on the couch, possibly not knitting very much as my arm is bothering me a bit. I think I've figured out what movements at work has been bothering me, and I'm trying to correct those so that should help. I don't think that the knitting is actually the cause of the pain, as I tend to move my left elbow joint or wrist very little when I knit (I pick, that's continental knitting right?), but I'm guessing that it doesn't help either. I've cut down pretty much on the knitting in general though, so I think I'm doing ok. I've almost finished with the first of the Spring socks (from my 10 models collection), but Thomas has brought the camera with him to Austria this weekend so you'll have to wait to see photos of it!

/ Jenny

First Knee Socks - And what a nightmare!

I finished the knee-high Wrought Iron Socks today, and the finishing was a real horror! When I made the first sock I decided I would knit it until I had about 50 grams of yarn left, which would mean that I had enough for a second sock. I've learned today that it's apparently a good idea to weigh the full skein before you start. Because this skein of Unplanned Peacock sock yarn must have held more than 100 g, since my 52 g that I had left after the first sock wasn't enough to finish the second one! So yesterday night I had to rip back the entire ribbing, and a little bit of cable pattern on the first sock. I counted how many rows I ripped back, and decided that I had enough yarn to make 10 rows of ribing. This is all the yarn I had left from the entire skein!

So you can see how close I was! I was so nervous, since this yarn is a little bit hard to come by, and I really didn't want to have to buy a whole new skein too. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore this yarn, but I have gone two months now without buying any new yarn, and I'm doing very well with knitting up my stash that I didn't want to break my "yarn diet".

Anyway, the socks are absolutely gorgeous:

No pooling what so ever, and very very soft and squishy! I can't wait to get to wear them with a skirt to show them off! I just have to wait for a bit cooler weather first, we haven't gone into autumn completely yet and I plan to squeeze out every ounce of summer before it does!

Yesterday we had a very nice, warm summer day, and me and Thomas and my sister went to a local farmer's market and bought way too much locally produced veggies. Thomas made roasted root veggies with grilled beef and goat cheese, and it was amazing! Thomas is going to Austria with his work next weekend, but I think I'll probably go back to the market for more vegetables next weekend by myself. We also bought some goat cheese, and I found gluten free swedish cheese pudding (that's a bit hard to explain, it's a very swedish traditional cake/pudding made with whey, milk, eggs, flour and almonds, and you eat it with jam and whipped cream. It's amazingly good, and I haven't seen any gluten free since I got the gluten diagnosis in 1999. So I was quite happy yesterday!

Today we've spent the day on the couch, knitting and playing video games, since the weather isn't very nice today. I'm trying really hard not to knit too much, to spare my arm, but I can't keep off it completely. It's just too much fun, and such a relaxation for me.

I also got about 5 kg of apples from a co-worker of mine the other day, so this afternoon we're going to make apple jam!

/ Jenny

Oh no!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

/ Jenny

Busy Holiday!

Wow, it's been a busy couple of weeks! I've been off work for 2.5 weeks now, and it's been full speed ahead all the time! The first week I spent at my parents' house, as I told you the last time. I've had time to visit some friends, and the closest relatives at least. I also managed to finish the Mystic Star shawl!

This is my first Knit & Knag pattern, and I have to say I'm even more smitten. I love almost all of Anna Dalvi's designs, and now I can say that they are very well written and easy to follow as well. I can't wait to cast on for another one! She has just published her first book, Shaping Shawls, and it has sooo many beautiful designs! I just want to finish the purple Panama shawl first though (designed by Monika Eckert, also a very talanted designer whose patterns are very easy to follow -  I'm a real fangirl today!).

Anyway, I love the Mystic Star shawl, since I finished my Evenstar a while back I've come to realize that I really like the circular shawl shape. And the yarn I used, Chili Gredelin Madame (45 % cashmere/55 % silk) is absolutely dreamy. I find that the edges of the shawl don't want to stay in their perfect, pointy shape, and I'm not sure if it's the yarn or the pattern, but I don't really mind. It looks awesome anyway :)

Me, my sister and my parents also took a trip to Gothenburg to visit Liseberg, Sweden's largest amusement park. Gothenburg is about 60 km from where my parents live, so when we grew up, me and my sister used to visit Liseberg at least once a year. When we were young we rode every attraction, but as I've grown older I find I can't handle the things that rock or spin. So now I just go on the roller-coasters that go fast. But this time we didn't go on any rides, just played the different game wheels and did some people-watching. And we came home with some chocolate winnings...

That's 2 kg of milk chocolate, 2 kg of Toblerone almond chocolate, 2 kg of Dumle chocolate (toffee filled choclate pralines), and assorted smmaller winnings (including a stuffed panda!). We are now set for chocolate for the rest of the year, I think! Sure, we spent some money on the wheels, but all in all I think we came out ahead :)

On Saturday 6th of August, my best friend Christine got married! Me and her two sisters were bridesmaids (I was the maid of honour!), so we spent the entire day with Christine. We met up at the hair-dresser, who fixed Christines hair beautifully, and the make up girl came there a bit later and made Christine even more pretty. 

Me, Madde and Michaela (the sisters) made each others' hair and our own make-up, and made sure Christine had everything she wanted (like chips, grapes and soda). It was really nice, and we were in no hurry so we all felt pretty relaxed when we finally arrived at the wedding venue (including Christine, I think). Once at the set, we met up with the groom, the best man and the two ushers, and had our photos taken. I managed to get some photos, with my own camera, of me and Christine, and she's wearing the shawl I made for her!

The ceremony went very well, and Christine even managed to sing a song for Martin (the groom, obviously). I tell you, there weren't many dry eyes in the room by then! The dinner and party afterwards vas very nice, with lots of good speaches and LOADS of great food. I even managed to get a few laughs during my speach (Intentional, of course!). All in all, I'd say that the happy couple was very pleased with the day!

The day after we were finally back in Linköping, and the week after was spent fixing things in the cabin. Thomas' father came here to help us this past weekend, and we've managed to clean out all the stuff we didn't want to keep. When we bought the place, we got it with all the furniture and stuff in it, and let me tell you that the woman who owned it before us had probably never thrown anything away before! We shipped a full truckload of stuff to the waste station, and another truckload to a local flea market. But it felt very good! Now it's almost spartan in there, but we will remedy that once the renovating is done. We've started to put plaster on the walls, and tomorrow we're going to start painting the walls. Thomas and his father have also started to pull up the flooring in the attic, to try to pinpoint where the leaking water is entering the house! So far, we don't know, but we're still searching. I'll show you photos once we're done with the cabin!

I haven't managed to knit very much lately, since my left arm has started to hurt. I think I have some kind of inflammation in the elbow joint, and the arm is pretty much useless. I have a doctor's appointment on Friday, hopefully they can tell me what's wrong. I want to knit! I've made some progress on the Rusted Root t-shirt, I have about one more repeat of the lace pattern until I start the ribbing:

Then it's just the collar ribbing and the arms left, so it should be done pretty quickly. Then I think I'll focus on some socks! I still haven't finished the Wrought Iron knee socks, but I'm passed the heel on the second sock so they should be finished pretty soon. I think I forgot to tell you, but I also started a new pair of socks to have something more mindless to work on, the Spring Socks form the 10 patterns collection. There doesn't seem to be a ravelry link for the individual socks, so you'll have to look at the 10 patterns page. It's the 7th sock photo from the top, the bright pink ones. I'm making them in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock yarn, colourway Aslan. It's the same yarn I used for my Kai-Mei a while ago, and those socks are fabulous! Still amazingly soft after lots of use, and pretty much no wear and tear. I think these will be a good work-knit when I go back to work next week.

The other night while me and Thomas were having dinner in front of the TV, we were watching the show Dirty Jobs, with Mike Rowe. In this episode, he visited an alpaca farm and helped with the shearing, and I was reminded of my bag of wool! I got it from my parents the Christmas before last, and I started taking care of it last summer. It's about a kilo of completely untreated wool, more or less straight off the sheep. So last summer I washed it, and started with the teasing (teasing means separating the locks in preparation for carding). But it's a sort of fussy job, and you almost have to sit outside to do it since there is a bit of shedding involved, and since the weatehr wasn't fabulous last summer I just didn't finish. The weather has been pretty sucky all of my vacation, with pretty low temperatures and not much sun, but yesterday I sat down anyway to make some headway. I have finished teasing at least two thirds of it, and that doesn't bother my arm too much either. I just want to get it done so I can start with the carding! I bet carding would really hirt my arm right now though, si I think I'd better get that sorted first. The wool is white and pretty, and I bet I'll have a great time dyeing it as well!

The photo on top shows the teased wool, that's the one in the paper bag. The photo on the bottom shows the washed, but un-teased wool beside the paper bag, in the white basket.

Tomorrow me and Thomas have our fourth wedding anniversary, and we're going out for a restaurant dinner, and possibly a movie too. We know for certain that it will be a relaxing day without renovating!

Until next time!

/ Jenny

Back in Borås again

I'm on vacation! Friday was my last day of work, now I have three weeks off, and it feels really good! We have no trips or anything planned (Thomas also has these weeks off), we're just going to have a relaxing time and hang around in our cabin. But the first week will be spent at my parents' house in Borås, as I have two weddings to attend! Yesterday me, my sister and my parents all went to the wedding of one of my childhood friends. It was a very nice wedding, and the weather was amazing (maybe a bit hot, but I'm not complaining as long as it's not raining).

Me and my sister before the wedding (I haven't asked the newlyweds to pot photos of them online yet)

Next Saturday my best friend is getting married (you know, I made the green Scheherazade stole for her), and I'm going to be a bridesmaid. That should also be fun! Although I'm getting a bit nervous about the speech I'm giving. But I think it will be fine. I'll be back with the full scoop on that wedding in a week :)

Last time I posted, I completely forgot to tell you that I finished my Jaywalker socks! They've been done for a while, and I really like them.

They were made with a Nordic yarn, Hjertegarn Sock, and they just about fit me. I was worried that they would turn out too big, but they're almost too small instead. They are a little bit tight to get on, but once they're on they fit me very well.

The same is true about the Hokie Socks (which are actually the Wrought Iron Socks from the Toe-Up Socks for Every Body book), which I've been working a lot on lately. I think when I told you the last time about them languishing away, I realized I missed them, so I've picked them up. Since they're toe-up, I decided to knit the first one until I reached half the skein, so they turned out to become knee-socks!

Please excuse the weird sun pattern...

The first sock is done (obviously), and I'm passed the heel on the second one too. The leg part is kind of sow going with all the cables, but I'll get them done eventually. I can't wait for fall to arrive, so I can wear them with a skirt!

I've also been working a lot on the Mystic Star shawl, by Anna Dalvi (Knit & Knag), I think I have about half a chart left. It's over 500 stitches now though, so each row takes me forever! But I really, really love it so far. The yarn (Chili Gredelin Madame) is a dream to work with, I think this is my favourite yarn of all time. I might have said this about lots of yarns, but this time I actually think I'm telling you the truth. At least of all the yarns I've worked with so far. And at least for lace yarns. Anyhow, the shawl is scrunched up on the needle, so you won't get a photo of it until it's done.

Last week I finally finished the wedding purse too. I got my sister to sew the inner lining bag in white silk fabric, and I attached it to the knitting with a bit of left-over yarn. I think it's really, really pretty!

I hope Christine will like it too, I'm going to take it to her this week for final approval. I think the white fabric really worked, I was a bit worried that it would be too bright, but it really shows off the knitting.

Ok, as I'm a bit hung-over after yesterday's excellent party, I think I'm going to spend today in the shade, knitting away. See you all in a week (as I'm at my parent's house with the incredibly slow internet connection, I won't be online very much, but I'll try to get back next weekend with the next wedding updates :)

/ Jenny

I don't know what to say

It's just that horrible. There will be no knitting content here today, I think I'm in too much shock. I guess most of you have heard, but yesterday a car blew up outside the government building in Oslo, Norway. Killing at least 7, injuring lots more. Police and rescuers are still searching the building. And a short while after the bomb went off, a presumably lone nut-case entered a youth camp on the small island on Utøya, outside of Oslo, and killed at least 85 youths in cold blood. The kids were there at a political youth camp with the socialist party, and the crazy guy entered by being dressed as a police. He shot and killed 85 innocent kids, and injured lots more. We're still in shock here, I can't even imagine how the people of Norway must feel.

The police has the shooter in custody, and they're trying to find out motive, and whether or not he was alone. Apparently he was a sort of right-wing nut, but nothing much has been confirmed about him otherwise. He has admitted to the crimes, so he'll definitely be going away for a long time. 

My heart goes out to all the poor kids and their families today, we can't tell all of you how much we're grieveing with you. I've been crying in front of the TV all day, I can't even imagine how bad it must be in Oslo today. All the people of Norway are in our thoughts today.

/ Jenny