Scrap yarn - solving tiny problems

Last year, when we went to Japan, my suitcase died. Sadly. For obvious reasons I had to go buy a new one. Moe never owned a proper suitcase, so he wanted one as well. As it is with most suitcases mine is black and therefore completely unrecognizable. I have tried to come home with somebody else's suitcase once before (when I opened the only thing I saw was dirty boxershorts and 'chocolates for mum' - rather dissappointing when I hoped to find my toothbrush and such!), so to prevent that from happening again, I thought a wee bit of my scrap yarn would come in handy.

When Moe saw my new 'gadget', of course he wanted one too ;) I pointed out to him that since his suitcase is bright orange it wouldn't be hard to recognize at all. But then he pointed out that that wasn't really the point :)

And as always, Moe prefers stripes!

I quit

Sometimes things just don't work out the way you planned. For 16 months I have tried to like my job - it didn't work out. I still enjoy being an accountant just not at my present workplace. In fact, I sort of hate it. So I quit. It's crazy since I don't have another job waiting for me and unemployment is off the chart right now. But I reeaaaaally can't stay there much longer. And now it feels good to know that it will soon be over - almost like when you decide to unravel what you've spent hours knitting because you realize you made a horrible mistake :)

P.S. If you have a job for me, do tell ;)

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.

Summer

The past week or so has been very warm and sunny. For once I've had time to enjoy life a bit. Last Friday I went down to my granddad's. We chatted away for a good three hours - he's my favorite person in the whole wide world, and we always have things to talk about. And the man understands and appreciates sarcasm along with a lame joke like nobody else :)

A rose in my granddad's garden - isn't it lovely?! :) He had several of them - and he actually dug one up and gave it to me. It's now in my garden struggling with the heat and such. I hope it survives!











Summer in Denmark is the best! I would never dream of going anywhere else on days like this one.

Satisfied Costumer - Lea

I believe the cap I made for Lea last year is stuck to her head for good - I've seen only one picture where she does NOT wear it :)



Lea, cute with and without the cap, and her dad :)

Oh it's such a perfect day

Today I found time to get a good chunk of work done in the garden, bake a little and knit. If only all days were like this one :)

Award

Else was kind enough to grant me this very nice award - much appreciated, Else! :)

The Lemonade Award is given by a previos winner to 5 bloggers who have shown great attitudes and/or gratitude this week. It’s a great way to show these people that you appriciate them. All you have to do is:
1. Put the logo on your blog or post.
2. Nominate at least 5 blogs and be sure to link your nominees within your post.
3. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
4. Share the Love and link to this post and the person from whom you received your award.
I would like to pass this award along to the following:

Favorite Fibers

By Elin

Knifty Red

Rose-Kim Knits

Lille-ursus

WTF?!

So I called bladkiosken.dk to ask about my Vogue Knitting magazines.
I suspected they would tell me that a) my magazine was lost in the mail, or b) it's on its way. However, that's not exactly how it went.
The guy from bladkiosken.dk tells me that they have had a lot of problems with Vogue Knitting; about 50% of the magazines never reached the end-user. And because it had been such a hassle for such a long time, they didn't even sell those magazines anymore. Great! :(
Originally Vogue Knitting was sent directly to me from the UK. The weirdest thing is that some 'clever' person in the UK decided that 'no, I won't send the actual Vogue Knitting, I'll give her this 'Knit 1' instead - she obviously likes knitting a lot, so I guess she won't mind the least freakin' bit'.... or something.
I should probably mention something good by now....
Okay, the good thing here is that they never charged me for these random magazines.
Back to the bad stuff: I still want my Vogue Knitting!!!

Knit 1 vs. Vogue Knitting

No, this is not a review on the two knitting magazines Knit 1 and Vogue Knitting. The thing is that a few days ago I got this Knit 1 fall/winter edition in the mail. It came from bladkiosken.dk from where I usually get my Vogue Knitting. The strangest thing is that I really don't recall having ordered this otherwise nice magazine. I checked my account to see if I did it in my sleep. No such thing seems to have happened. The next strangest thing is that the Vogue Knitting winter edition hasn't arrived yet. Did bladkiosken.dk run out of Vogue magazines and then decided that I would do just fine with a Knit 1 instead?
For obvious reasons I want the magazine I actually ordered. If I can have the Knit 1 for free I won't say no. I'll call bladkiosken.dk tomorrow.
Plant and view of the morning - say hello :)

Val Gardena

January 10, I went on ski holiday with Moe and my dad. My mother was left behind since her knee was badly damaged last year and she's still recovering.
The three of us went to Val Gardena, Italy; same as last year, the year before that and so on. I love those holidays.
Before heading out to the airport I made sure that all knitting related stuff was packed carefully in my suitcase. Arriving in the Dolomites I suddenly came to realize that my brain had left the building while the rest of me had been packing! I forgot yarn for my scarf in progress and I failed to bring the wires for my Knit Pick needles!! Fortunately I still had my Spring Forward sock and another unholy sock on the needles with me.
The whole thing did make me feel sort of naked, so I went into town and asked around for knitting needles. In St. Christina there's this store called Maciaconi and in the downstairs shop that carries kitchen utensils, books and magazines, sewing gear and toys, the most grumpy lady ever seem to spend most of her working hours (please retire, please!). This time around she was as grumpy as ever but I was prepared! Without hesitation in my mind, in German I asked her if they also carried knitting needles and if not, if she knew where I could find some. For about a split second she looked up and answered my question in a harsh tone: "Ortisei!!".
I quietly thanked her and skedaddled.
Ortisei is not too far away from St. Christina but you have to drive there. It meant that I would have to convince my dad and Moe that our holiday would be ruined if we didn't go.
We actually did go to Ortisei a couple of times: Sunday and all shops where closed. Tuesday and I still didn't know what knitting needles were called in Italian.
I never did get to buy any Italian knitting needles, but I did find out what chose seemingly forgettable tools are called in Italian (ferri da maglia). The person who was kind enough to enlighten me on that subject was from Scotland! The chances of meeting someone from Scotland in the Alps who even lives and works there must be 1:1,000,000,000. I felt so good to be able to communicate without searching for words all the time.
After all this one should think that I finished both pair of socks, right? Not even close. I hardly knitted at all.
Instead I did this:

Yup, it's me with my arms out in the air.

Goals for 2009

I thought that if I make a top ten list of the things I must do in 2009 I won't forget to actually do them :)

In random order.....

1) Destash at least 5 kg of yarn. It's especially important that I knit up a great deal of my sock yarn since our house is flooded with sock yarn. Must knit socks, yes.
2) Complete the Hamburg Marathon in April. I've started training; today I'll do a 10 k run though it's freeeeeeeeeezin' cold!
3) Work less, knit more.
4) Visit Shetland. I can't wait to go! I'll arrive on April 4 if everything goes as planned - and leave a week after.
5) Knit the Spiral Yoke Pullover for Moe before spring is here. The yarn is on its way from the US.
6) Take more knitting classes. I sort of know how to knit but there's so much I don't know and I'm longing for someone to tell me :)
7) Finish an object each month. I've joined the '12 Projects' group on ravelry, you see. This is also a part of my destashing plans.
8) Knit something special for my mother; right now I'm thinking bag or shawl. Either way the end result must be fancy and flawless.
9) Knit a dress for myself. Hello Phildar.
10) Try vegan fibers. I want to be able to provide vegan friends with all the great things you would normally make out of wool.

Happy New Year

First of all I should let you know that I didn't know if I should write these words or not. But I decided that this blog is almost like a marriage; we share it all. So here goes.

More than anything I've been looking forward to 2009. Not because great things will happen in 2009 - though I'm sure they will - but because 2008 has been almost intolerable, I'm afraid.
Had it not been for good things such as knitting I would probably have lost my mind :)




From left to right in three rows:
1) Susanne eating a watermelon. I had to say goodbye to her when she passed away in March. We have done so many things together; worked together, lived together, traveled together, everything. It still breaks my heart that she's not here anymore.
2) Susanne's 2 and a half month old baby was baptised four days later; the party was canceled.
3) My granddad, and his common-law wife. My granddad - one of the best people I know - was diagnosed with parkinson's disease and now he is in constant pain.

4) My brother and his wife; well.... I had to cut them out of my life. They're just not good company.
5) My parents (on silly chairs in Italy) had a hard time too.
6) My co-workers and I after a relay with thousands of participants. It liftet my spirit.
7) A yarn shop in Paris. I had been looking forward to visit this shop - unfortunately it was closed even though the sign on the door said it was open!
8) Moe and I in the Eiffel Tower in Paris in November. It was a good trip and God knows we needed that.
9) My cousin with his newborn baby Smilla. In November Smilla died 9 weeks old. It crushed my family and nothing has been the same since.
10) My parents moved into their new apartment - a huge and fancy place. They deserve it. What a great view, huh?
11) Juster, one of my best friends, who I've known for ever and ever nearly lost his life in the beginning of December, when he had his tonsils removed. Luckily he survived.
12) Ravelry gave me a lot of good times in 2008, e.g. when I received a lovely selection of Christmas goodies in a swap. It made my day.






I'm sorry if I just ruined your otherwise good mood. I KNOW 2009 will be better - I promise!

Mood

The view from my parents' apartment on the 24th of December.

Moe caught me behind a fully decorated Christmas tree.

And so this is Christmas

- and I've decided that I deserve an extra present.... ho ho ho! Actually two extra presents. Ego present no. 1: For the past two-three months I've been looking at Phildar magazines online and I still feel the need to own the Autumn and Winter editions. Ego present no. 2: I luuuuuuve KnitPicks. You see that chart keeper right there at the very top of the page - It's a 'must have'. I can't promise that that's the only thing I'll order from KnitPicks. I'll try though..... ho ho ho! ;)

I've bought another present for myself that will arrive in the beginning of January. It would probably be wrong of me to claim that I'm in desperate need of (more) yarn. However, so many other people are, and I'm just helping them turn some of that lovely yarn into wearable things ;) Beth and Juster - very good friends of mine - are doing a great job carrying all that yarn with them from the US to Denmark. How can I ever thank them enough. Must think.

Not Easter, not Halloween....

It's about Christmas... but that's nearly all I can say ;) You know: presents, secrets, secret presents.... knitting. Let's discuss this sensitive matter on Ravelry - c u there! :)

X-file

A couple of days ago I went down to Ingers - a yarnshop in the centre of Aarhus - to push my luck just a little further. You see, twice (two times, yes) this year I've bought too little of some very nice but also very expensive Rowan yarn and now I'm on the lookout for that same yarn (colour, dye lot, etc.). And since Inger - the shop owner - is the only one around here with a shop that carries Rowan yarn, well, I went down to see her.

While I was in the shop she phoned up shops around the country. After having talked to three or four shop owners, who were all unable to help me out (not only did they not have the right dye lot or colour, no, they didn't even have Rowan Cocoon or Rowan Scottish Aran Tweed DK in their shop). I must admit that I felt somewhat discouraged at that point.

Inger then phoned Sommerfuglen in Copenhagen and struck gold.... or at least the right Rowan yarn! The Scottish Tweed was from a different and (in my mind) wrong dye lot but I suppose it will have to do. Otherwise I have 10 balls of not at all useful yarn aka £65 / $130 lying in a corner that you can't spend on anything else. Anyway, one ball of the Scottish Aran Tweed was ordered (if you have two balls of Scottish Aran Tweed, col. 19, dye lot 308 lying around that you just cannot stand the look of, well.... :)
Sommerfuglen really came to my rescue: they also had Rowan Cocoon! I couldn't believe that after having phoned the entire country, there was still this one shop left that had everything I dreamed of. And - can you believe this - the Cocoon was from the right dye lot!
Yesterday the package arrived :D

Cherry Cheeks

‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘

Yup, this one was found among all the other not so bum-like cherries in the bowl. I'm simple-minded - hence this photo. The tiger in the background? That's Knut :)