Gee, it's winter here. We have tons of snow and I've shoveled the driveway and around the mail box 4 times in the past 1½ days. In fact, I shoveled the end of the driveway twice this morning. You see, the snowplow went through and I needed to leave for work, so after I had cleared away that plowed mess and was working to clear in front of the mailbox (you see I am expecting yarn in the post any day now and if they can't deliver mail because there is too much snow in front of the box I would be so very sad...), the stinkin' plow came through for a 3rd pass and covered up the end of our driveway, AGAIN! So, twice in 15 minutes I got to shovel the end of the driveway. Fun, or not!

Here's a photo that I just took right outside my door at work, so you can see that I'm not telling tales.



Work is busy, as always, so break is over, as there are things that need to be done!

Oh, BTW, in case you were wondering, if your furnace/heater in your house is not working right, like maintaining a temperature of 14-17C (57-62F) inside so that you must burn wood pellets in your wood stove constantly just to get the temperature to a more reasonable 19-20C (66-68F), it might be a good idea to check the filters. I'm just sayin'...

Last fall, my friend, Ingrid, organized a group of ladies who wanted to learn some fiber/yarn related skills. Saturday, January 16th was our first meeting and we dyed yarn. Loads of fun!

Here are my meager attempts at dyeing yarn, right before they went into the microwave.



Not sure what I'm going to do with it, maybe a felted bag or something.

Here are a couple of the other ladies, working their magic. Lovely!





Our next meeting is this Saturday, when we will learn to spin yarn with a spindle, if we want. Otherwise, there are plenty of other things that we could get into. The classes are in Gothenburg and I'll be heading down on Friday to spend the weekend with C, another friend who is also in our circle of friends.

It's darn cold here! In the past 3 weeks, we've had a day or two where the temperature has been in the upper 20s F (-2 C or so), but never above freezing. The rest of the time I've been freezing my butt off! The temps have ranged from the low teens and single digits to as low as -10 F (-10 to -23 C). Brrr!! And our lovely electric furnace doesn't do so well when the temperature goes below 5 F (-15C). We've been supplementing the heat by burning compressed wood pellets in a basket in our wood stove. It helps to bring the temperature inside the house up from 62 F (17 C) when we've been at work or first wake up in the morning to a balmy 67 F (19.5 C). Mostly, I just want to curl up in bed and sleep. Perhaps I should finish knitting the fingerless gloves that I started the other day...

The day before I left for Gävle to visit the straw goat that they burned down BEFORE I arrived my daughter for Christmas, I got a package in the mail. It was from my secret pal from "Hemlis 6".

( Click here to read more... )

Thank you secret pal!

In other knitting news, I finished 2 pairs of socks this week. One was for me (Socktopus Sock Club socks from October '09) and one pair as a gift. ( Can you tell which is which? )

Just wanted to let reebert and carrieb know that I arrived home safely. The weather, albeit cold, was fine. The last half of the drive was foggy, but the roads were not slippery.

In case anyone else is wondering, we all met up (including the two young boys and carrieb's husband) for dinner in Gothenburg this evening. And, yes, same_sky, it really did happen and you will have to wait for the photo evidence, as Carrie has it on her camera. Not sure when/if she will post it. Oh, and btw, we talked about all of you, yes, every single one of you! ;)

... from the town where the giant straw goat has been lost to fire, once again! Man, they couldn't even wait until I got here to see it before they set it ablaze. We drove by the bare frame yesterday.

H and I are headed off to the store shortly to pick up a few aluminum baking forms. We will be going to her bf's mom's for dinner this afternoon. Our contribution is turkey, gravy and stuffing. It's in the oven, as I type and we need the aluminum containers to put the pieces of the cooked bird in for transportation purposes.

Here's wishing you all a very, very MerryChristmas!!

So, today I was fairly productive. Lots to do before Christmas. Packing, cooking, planning... lots and lots. Here's a list of what I managed to get done today, with a few pictures below.

1. Cooked bacon and eggs for breakfast.


2. Did two loads of laundry, including the folding and putting away.


3. Emptied and loaded the dishwasher, cleaned off kitchen counters.


4. Wrapped Christmas presents, *most of which are going with L to Malmö.


5. Rolled LCHF meatballs (low carb, high fat from Doktor Dahlqvist och Airams LCHF-kokbok till fest och helg) for L.


6. Balled up all of the yarn for M4's baby blanket.


7. Ripped 4 Christmas CDs to my computer.


8. Presently, I'm getting ready to knit on the aforementioned baby blanket or a pair of socks that I started last night.

( Pictures with explanations... )

*We'd both planned go to Malmö to spend Christmas with L's kids/grandkids. There was a request this year that we not bring the dog, and since we're pretty sure that she's in heat (which means that we can't leave her at a kennel, plus they were too freaking expensive over Christmas) I was going to stay home with her, but Haley said that I should bring the dog and come to her place. So, L's going south and I'm going northeast.

I have completed my second dance project in the So You Think You Can Knit challenge. I think that I'm going to have to be satisfied with the socks and the 12 point star/toy. Christmas is coming soon and I have things to do around here.



For the most part, I like this style of knitting. Generally, I don't mind weaving in ends, but it did get a bit tiresome at the end. Now that they are done, I'll be able to wear the socks to work tomorrow.

So, the 2 skeins of yarn arrived while I was in the States, so this past weekend I was able to start my second domino sock for the Poppin' & Lockin' knitting challenge. Here you can see me picking up stitches for one of the diamonds. I am on the 5th row, a little over halfway through the leg. If I get a chance to work on it this weekend, I might be able to finish it. I really love these socks and can't wait to wear them.

Yesterday evening, while watching tv, I saw this and I loved it! For those of you in not in Sweden, ICA is a grocery store chain, like Ralph's or IGA or something. Their commercials are often very entertaining, but when Jamie Oliver shows up, you gotta love it! Oh, and by the way, the older gentleman's name is Stig (pronounced Steeg).

A couple of months ago, I signed up on the Knittyboard for a Secret Pal Swap. Big surprise, right?!?!? Right before we were due to send out our packages, I decided on the last minute trip to the USA to celebrate Thanksgiving with my daughters/grand daughter. More on that later. In any case, I gather my swap package contents and packed it all in my suitcase to mail when I got to the States, since my recipient lives there, and let my spoiler know that she could send mine to Indiana. She was grateful to save a few dollars in postage and a package arrived for me the day after I did.

See... it's wonderful!



There's some yummy Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn that will be socks for me, variegated blue Sugar 'n Cream cotton for dish cloths (matches the kitchen!), kool-aid for dyeing yarn, leftover balls of sock yarn for my blanket project, a neat fruity measuring tape that my grand daughter wanted to play with, a tiny bag of peanuts from an airplane (my grand daughter ate them before I could even take a picture), and a defogging cloth. Thanks so much, Stephanie!!

Oh, and btw, Thanksgiving was great! It was a wonderful 10 days with my daughters, son-in-law and grand daughter!

Packing is as complete as it can be until I throw the last things in my bags and put them in the car. But, that's not for 8 more hours. So, I will knit a little, read a few blogs and watch the special extras on my 75th Anniversary Edition of The Wizard of Oz. I need to head to bed shortly, 04:00 comes quite early!

Well, it's taken me a whole month and I'm still not done with my second project for the So You Think You Can Knit Challenge. But, I do have one sock done...



It fits great! And I love it! I only had two 50 gram balls of the yarn in my stash and the first sock took about 75 grams, so I am now waiting on 2 skeins of the same colorway to arrive in my mailbox. There just happened to be a lady on Ravelry that was looking to sell her skeins, and even though they are a different dye lot, I went ahead and bought them from her. They will be used to make the second sock, so I'm hoping that the probable color difference won't be so obvious when whey are on my feet.

Oh, and btw, every one of the ends are woven in on the inside. There were a heck of a lot, but I didn't want to take a picture until the sock was totally done. Psst, idahoswede, this is the Kaffe Fasset yarn that you gave me for Christmas last year. Looks nice, huh? Thanks!

This is for my Secret Pal in Hemlis 6...

1. Vilken sorts garn tycker du mest om? (Ull, akryl, bomull osv.) Är det något material du absolut inte tycker om?

I like most yarns and find that there is a use for them all, even acrylic.

2. Vilka är dina favoritfärger?

My favorite colors are blue, purple/plum and black.

3. Är det någon färg du absolut inte tycker om?

I don't much care for yellow, red or orange, but even they are fine in a variegated yarn, as long as they are not the main color.

4. Vilken sorts stickor tycker du bäst om/använder du helst? (Trä, metall, plast? Rundstickor, raka, strumpstickor?)

I almost always knit with circular needles.

5. Hur länge har du stickat? Anser du dig vara nybörjare, avancerad eller mittemellan?

I've been knitting for about 26 years and would consider myself somewhere between intermediate and advanced.

6. Dricker du kaffe? Te?

Only coffee, never tea.

7. Är du allergisk mot något?

No allergies.

8. Vilken slags musik tycker du om?

I like most music, except heavy metal, hiphop and rap. I even like Swedish folk music.

9. Favoritgodis?

The only candy I eat is small amounts of 70%+ dark chocolate. We eat LCHF (low carb, high fat) and don't eat sugar.

10. Håller du på med någon annan "skapande hobby", förutom stickning? (Spinna, scrapbooking, virkning osv.)

I mostly knit these days, although, I have been known to crochet, quilt, cross stitch, embroider and tat.

11. Vad tycker du är roligast att sticka? Mössor? Sjalar? Tröjor? osv...

Socks, socks, and socks.

12. Prenumererar du på någon sticktidning?

Interweave Knits and The Knitter.

13. Har du något drömprojekt på önskelistan?

There is a sweater/coat that I have been wanting to knit for sometime now.

14. Använder du pulsvärmare/handledsvärmare? I så fall, vad är ditt handledsmått?

No, not really.

15. Tycker du om att sticka pulsvärmare?

They are okay and I have a pair on my needles from a Bohus knitting course that I took earlier in the year.

16. Stickar du sockor?

See question #11.

17. Vad har du för fotstorlek? (T.ex. längd, omkrets på tjockaste stället.)

I wear a size 42.

18. När fyller du år?

July 17th

19. Stickar du med pärlor?

Not yet, but there is this shawl with pearls that I have been wanting to knit.

20. Vilken slags böcker (ej stickning) läser du helst? (Deckare? Fakta? Romaner?)

I listen to audiobooks, mostly classical and romance, so that I can knit while listening.

Shhh, don't tell anyone, but in 1½ weeks I'll be leaving to spend Thanksgiving in Indy with my daughters and granddaughter...

YAY!!!

So, yesterday, an American friend of mine in Sweden was interviewed by Sweden's Radio P4 in Malmö about Halloween. So, if you are curious about what day is really Halloween or how you should dress or if you must have candy on hand to give to begging children, go HERE and give lizardek a listen. The broadcasters begin talking about Halloween about 19:40 into the program, then Liz's interview starts runs from 20:25-23:20, or so. They cut right to a song after the interview, but do continue to chat about Halloween after the song. Definitely worth a listen!

Well done, Liz!

I've started the domino socks for my next project in the SYTYCK (So You Think You Can Knit) challenge.

See...



In other knitting news, I finished a couple of pairs of socks in the past week or so.

These are for my daughter, she turns 25 today...



These are for Socks For Soldiers...

Well, my dears, I have completed Celestine Sox. I liked picking up stitches around it instead of sewing it together. Don't get me wrong, I'm a seamstress from way back and don't mind doing some stitching, but it comes together more smoothly this way.

( Here's a photo display of yesterday and today's knitting and finishing. )

I'm making good progress on my first poppin' and lockin' dance project. Tomorrow night I'll have to dig out my polyester stuffing, because I will be knitting the 6th point on the Celestine pointed ball toy. I wonder if I have any bells around. It might be fun to have it make a bit of a noise. In any case, it needs to be stuffed before knitting it together with the final point. I'm lovin' it!