What a beauty

Last weekend I spent most of my time helping my granddad move his stuff to his new home not far away from the old one. The parkinson's disease is taken its toll on him and making it impossible for him to do any gardening, driving, walking the dog and such. In fact it's making life something he has to overcome most days. Anyway, his new home is a lot smaller than the old one, and that meant leaving a lot of things behind. Some of them were a little difficult to part with (for me, that is - my granddad is not too sentimental :).

One of the things that he couldn't find the room for was this lovely piece of furniture. I'm not sure what the correct term would be, since it's the kind of furniture you'd have in your bedroom 40-50 years ago. The top is a lid that holds a mirror, there are two small drawers and spare room for one's hair brush, makeup and such. Below, there are three regular drawers. Fancy, I'm telling you. It's made with palisander and he made it himself..... 'during lunch hour'... as he put it ;)

When you look up 'perfection' there ought to be a picture of this particular furniture in the dictionary. In case you don't have a dictionary, here goes.



I cleaned it and gave it a bit of teak oil. The wood thanked me for that.

Christmas Stocking Swap on Ravelry

Last year I was invited to participate in a so-called Christmas Stocking swap. It's a thing on Ravelry. A huge group of people knit Christmas stockings - one each - and when finished and stuffed, each member of this swap group sends his or her stocking to another group member. My stocking was sent to Jeniffer last year, and this year she chose to make my stocking. Really nice of her! And she did good! Take a look at all the things, beside the stocking itself, she sent me. I'm spoiled rotten :)

There were more sugar sticks to begin with, but somehow they just vanished... strange....

Spinning Lesson

About a week ago I asked around for some info on spinning. Ulla (aka vanadia on rav.) volunteered to teach me the basics. I warned her that I knew absolutely nothing on beforehand. I didn't even know the Danish word for fleece (how bad is that!). Ulla did great. Soon after she arrived I was spinning away! She left me with a spinning kit, which gives me the chance to see if I should invest in a spindle myself.

Ulla showing how it's done.

About one hour's work! Not much and not pretty, but it's there! :D

I think I'll buy my very own spindle in the very near future. I'll keep you posted.

More socks

Last year I decided that this year I would knit more socks. I really enjoy knitting socks; they are fast, new patterns are easily applied, and they are perfekt if you want to bring your knitting with you at all times. Last but not least: once you've gotten used to wearing homeknit socks, you have also reached a point of no return. I love my homeknit socks :) If you happen to know another equally perfect type of project, please let me know.












The green socks are Embossed Leaves Socks by Mona Schmidt in Shibui Sock. The yarn has seemed to be cursed, so I'm just very relieved that it has finally been turned into socks.

The crazy coloured socks are Cookie A.'s Lindsay. At first I wasn't sure if they would turn out to be the most hideous thing ever but I kept on knitting. And I love the result. The yarn is Regia Silk Color - so soft.

The light blue pair is Wanida by Cookie A. I managed to misunderstand one tiny bit of the pattern, and I only realized it when I had finished the first sock already. Oh well, I just made the other sock match the first - regardless of what the pattern dictated. I knit them with the Regia Cotton I got in one of the lovely Ravelry swaps :)

You may have noticed another pair of socks in the first picture - the plain, beige ones. It's a Christmas present. Not really that interesting.

Preparations

Christmas will be here before we know it. And this year I'm doing what I usually advise people against - don't ask. I've decided to knit a bunch of Christmas presents, so I thought it would be a good idea to start now. Or may months ago, but the fact is that I've only just begun.

I plan to knit and crochet socks, hats, scarfs, etc. for most people in my family. For once it's a good thing that my family isn't that big. Right now I have 7 things on my to-do list. One down, six to go. I might add a few things to the list - it all depends on how well this is going by the time we leave November :)

I'm also working on a Christmas stocking for Emily in the US. It's one of those swaps on Ravelry.com that I'm participating in. So much fun.

When I find the time for it I'll begin knitting the little elves I presented to you a couple of weeks ago. I bought the things needed just the other day, so no going back now :)

Are you doing any Christmasy things yet?

Berlin

Another 42.195 km / 26.24 miles equals one medal :) The 36th Berlin Marathon is over. I didn't win (I know you're surprised now!) but it was still great. I'll come back next year. Meanwhile I'll find other races to participate in. I have to have my pain fix, ya know.

How could they!

Our house was broken into. We were robbed big time. They took everything we had worth anything. I feel angry and disappointed. And some nights I wake up wanting to stab them in the head and have them begging for forgiveness! Other nights I'm terrified to even be in the house.

Fortunately, my awesome stash wasn't good enough for those sad f******s, so I still have my yarn.

And they couldn't take away my passion for knitting. Thank God for knitting.

Moe struck gold!

The other day Moe decided to go through the stuff we keep in the garage. Not my kind of fun. We had two huge boxes with things from when I was living on my own. I guess that makes them just my things. In one box a mouse had found a warm place to live... and poop! Spiders and other not so nice creepy crawly bugs seemed to enjoy life there too. That box or its content never entered our house. The other one was full of magazines, Donald Duck ones mostly. And in the middle of hundreds and hundreds of magazines a few sheets of paper popped out. I was watching Moe as he was cleaning and searching through it all (I'd rather be cleaning the toilet than having to do with all the spiders and that). He pulled out the paper and handed it to me, and oh glorious heaven! He had just found the patterns for some knitted Christmas Elves that I've been looking for forever and ever. These patterns have been sitting between two Donald Duck magazines for years. Why? Dunno! Of course this little piece of gold was allowed into the house, and I can't wait to begin knitting those little guys and make clothes for them out of felt.

Ready for Christmas? I think so! :)