Yarnlove

I had the strangest dream last night, and I think it's the first time I've ever dreamt of knitting. And it's hilarious! I dreamt I was in the laundry room in our building, and while waiting for the laundry to be done I found my yarn basket (the Ikea wastepaper basket "Punkt" I use to store my WIP's in) with all my ongoing projects in, like the colchique and the striped vest and the finished Mrs Beeton and everything. But the strange thing was, it didn't quite look as I remembered it. The colchique pieces was a bit deformed, like longer than usual, and when I picked them up it wasn't the same yarn anymore, but some kind of velvet yarn. I then realized that it wasn't my stuff, but that I had a secret knitting stalker/admiror in my building that copied all my successful knitting projects but with lousier yarn... How about that?!

Back in reality I stumbled across this outrageously beautiful Norwegian jacket. I wonder if I 1) like it enough to actually be able to follow through with it (since my only experience of 2-colour knitting resulted in a baby hat though it was initially intended for myself) and 2) after finishing would ever like to knit again.

After not too much of a struggle I've accomplished one beadless Mrs Beeton. It was fun little piece to work with, although I damn myself for not bothering to do a proper gauge swatch but just casting on twenty-something stitches, knitting two rows of stockinette and deciding that it must be about 10 cm. I would like to blame it on my shortage of DPN's (strumpstickor), since the choice was between 3.5 and 5, and I went for the 5 for both of the yarns. As a result, the upper bell edging is a bit longer than the bottom one, which really takes a bit of the charm away. Also it could be a bit tighter around the wrist. And I think it would look better with beads.

Oh well. I got a little break from the colchique and will continue with that in front of "ER" tonight. Now I should try and find some empirical stuffing for my 40-page paper still unwritten and due in three weeks. Hooray!

No, it's true, I didn't get any Nobel price this year either (not one!), nor did any other woman. I still feel truly blessed, sitting at home in our lovely couch, knitting and watching my special someone SING at the Nobel banquet with the rest of his choir. On TV! He looked so fine, and they are really really good. Not as boring as choir music normally is. He and three others sang a serenade in front of the camera, I instantly called my mother but the line was busy. She called me back in a minute and had been on the phone with my grandmother explaining which one of the handsome young men om TV is mine. Silly but unavoidable.

To celebrate this joyful event I started a new project which hopefully won't take too long to finish: Mrs Beeton. I'm halfway on the first one, pretty much. I hope my pining for a wearable colchique won't keep me from finishing. I need some variation, and they're quite sweet little thingies. I can't find my beads though, so I will have to do without. I wasn't really up for the beadthreading anyway, so after some serious bead searching in every remaining cardboard box (a few, yes) I surrendered. I'm using Garnstudios Alpaca and Rowan's Kidsilk Haze, both in a sturdy pink. Earlier this fall I made a beret with this combination, wonderfully soft but not really snug enough to fit, and I meant to make a scarf too, just a long k1p1 to keep me warm, but it was severely boring so not much has happened there since September. I think Mrs Beeton will be quite useful, beadless and all. As soon as my handsome chanteur comes home from the fancy banquet (tomorrow morning I expect) I will retreive the camera and let you all know how well (oh well) I'm doing.

Finally, my X-mas-o-holic friend Sofie and I got together for some X-mas crafting, including christmas card creating, santa girls finishing and gingerbread baking. The true christmas spirit didn't really appear, but we did our best anyway, listening to "Lars Christmas" by Lars Vegas Trio. Swedish humour. As for the santa girls, they turned out a bit chubbier than expected (see below), but they're really adorable.

It's now been five days since we moved to our new place, and I think it may turn out quite nice. Early tomorrow morning we shall receive a brand new refridgerator with freezer, something we've been longing for since June, when we first started living without standard kitchen equipment.

Latest news on the colchique is that I'm half-way up on sleeve no 2. I will not be able to make it until Lucia (December 13), but maybe X-mas. It's still a fun project, but I really wish I had enough time to finish and wear it with enourmous pride.

Having finished the first ribbing section on sleeve no. 2 I realized I had forgotten to increase. Frog frog.

We have just been to see our new apartment, which we are going to move to on Saturday. Hurra hurra! Not so hurra was the wallpaper in practically every room. Huge greasy stains in the bedroom, crazy stains from a freezer in the kitchen, ugly wallpaper in the hallway and the wallpaper in the living room wasn't to be seen since there were no lamp in there, but it didn't look too great. We'll try to find the caretaker tomorrow and talk to him, I'm sure it can be fixed.

We are very happy to have gotten such a great place, still. It might sound bad, but the rest was quite OK. Much has been renovated this sumer, so the bathroom is practically sparkling, as is the kitchen sink and tap. The floors are new too. We have a tiny balcony with afternoon/evening sun (although it will be a couple of months before we can acutally enjoy it, as we live in Sweden). I'm quite excited and shall now cease this improductive blogging on behalf of the very necessary packing. Iiix!