We have had freinds from the UK staying with us over the weekend so not much knitting got done. We did how ever have lots of fun showing off Stockholm at it´s finest. The weather has been really cooperative and the kids could even go for a "swim" in the play pond at the park near where we live! Lots of fun :o)
So for knitting; I have an almost finished item and some socks. The almost finished is a baby hat from Baby bloom by Erica Knight. It is knit in Rowan Wool cotton and is really quick and fun to knit. I just have to weave in the ends and add the i-cord strings and then its done. It is a gift for a freinds new baby girl.




Then on to the socks. I want to get this pair out of the way for the summer sock knit along. I have started the second sock so it should be very do-able. Here are some pics and more info will come when they are a FO! On with the sock knitting...

Reading this blog I found a knit along that is just what I need. I went on a little yarn-crawl about a week ago and ended up with some very nice summery sock yarns and woulden't you know; there is a summer of socks 2007 knit along! There really wasn't any choise but to join in on the fun (if you want to join too you better hurry on over there, the sign ups close tomorrow)

This is the sock yarn I "found" last week. I also bought some lace yarn and wool for sweaters for the babies. If you click on the picture it will take you to my flickr account and you can see mor pics there.





I started a pair of socks already but I am almost finished with the first sock so I think I can get those of the needels befor the KAL stars at June 21. There is also a very lonesome single sock in my WIP basket that needs a freind. I might be able to pull that one of as well if I get in to it... This is going to be FUN!

Baby E and I just gor back from taking the hubby and A to the airport. They are going to Legoland together wiht another father and son this weekend. A was thrilled by the ide of flying, I don't even think he cares what happens when they get there... So my plans for this evening are very clear. Catch up on blogs and podcasts and hopefully get som knitting done. I have started a new dress for E. Same pattern as the other one but bigger size and different color. And my feather and fan shawl is stil not finished so I may knit a row or two on that as well. We'll see how it goes

Light, light, light, that is what I long for during the long dark and grey days of February and March. I love Sweden but winter here is VERY dark. But now it is spring and the sun doesn't set until eight in the evening and everthing seems so easy and wonderful :o) (even when it is raining, like now...).
In the spirit of spring we have been busy redecorating our house and also getting some new furniture. We finally got our new sofa delivered last week and it looks really good in our livingroom. It is seen here modelled by little E and with the new cushions. I am very pleased with the way it turned out.

    

After this taking thees pictures I got a little crazy looking for other spring/summer things to take pictures of. Suprisingly enough I got som help from A who acctually wanted to try on som of his new summer clothes. This is him beeing a "Beach boy" and also a pic of his new summery t-shirts.

      

and then I found this orchid...

     

it was fun playing around with the camera as well. I will try to do it more often I think but for now enough with the pictures and on to some knitting instead.

I have bought some new yarn over the past month or so. It is so easy just slipping in to a yarn store when I am out with the baby for a walk... and I have some FO's so I think I am alowed, don't you?
First of is some Rowan Tapestry that I thought might look good as I Clapotis. I haven't tried knitting with the yarn but I think the colors are just wonderful and would be great for a summer shawl.


   

Then ther is some cotton acrylic blend that I found at Garnverket the other day. It is a bit on the chunky sida but I think it would make a cute summer cardigan for E. It should be a quick knit if I can find a sutible pattern. I have some Rowan books that I think have what I am looking for but any suggestions are very welcome :o) The yarn is HP's Bellevue and it is 50 gr to 84 meters so as I said, a bit on the chunky side.

       

Another pastell colored spring project that I am working on at the moment is a feather and fan (yes, I am using the same pattern again, five mohair christmas scarfs was not enough!!!) shawl. I am using I yarn from Colinett I bought over a year ago that I haven' been able to figure out what to do with until now that is. I think t is turning out ok and it also gets the yarn out of my WIP basket which is always good ;o)


   

So, after 6 weeks of beeing four we're finding it hard to belive it hasn't been this way forever. Babygirl just fits in to all the daily routins and even sleeps most nights and in her own baby cott at that... Her big brother never slept in the cott and just 3-4 months ago stoped coming over to our bed during the night. Here are brother and sister when she was about 1 week old and then some pictures from our adventures this easter. We were out at my parents summer house in the archipelago. Lots of food, fun and sun all around.





I have been able to get some knitting done during the past month. Not as much as in the weeks prior to E's birth but still enough to keep me content. Last week I even snuck of to tuesday night knitting at Ginos and then a meet-up with some other knitting mothers and babys at thursday. It was so much fun to see everyona again and also make some new friends.
So for knitting updates I have som FO's to show of. They where all finished befor E was born, as I said, a lot of knitting was done waiting for her.

       

Thees are the plain socks that I knitt up in the jitterbug yarn. I managed to graft my first toe and I must say it makes a very neat toe. Fun and easy to knit and warm and cozy to wear.

       

Another pair of jitterbug socks. This is the Lacy leaf sock that can be found in Favorite socks - 25 timeless designs. I got bit by the sock bug pretty hard in the weeks before E came along. I have seen a lot of patterns I want to try out but it is hard to find interesting sock yarns in Stockholm. I know you can always get it on line but I like to fondle the yarn before I buy it and that is still a feature tha internet can not provide... so on to the next sock

       

This is not acctually a FO. It is just one sock. The pattern is Conway from Knitting on the road by Nancy Bush. I need to get the other one on the neelds soon before the second sock syndrome really gets bad. I will tyr to get my act together some time this week. We'll see...

I also finished the last knitting on the Puck sweater I have blogged about before. It only needs to be sewn and we all know how long that can take. I guess I will do that when I get too anoyed with how much space it takes up in my WIP-bsaket, but that is not today, or tomorrow for that matter. Here it is in all its unfinished glory, I will go and get some scarf-knitting done, no seems!!!

Little E arrived friday and is now happily snoozing in my lap. Both the little one and I are ok and all is well. Will be back with a more thourough update and some knitting later.

Still knitting, still waiting. Just same old, same old... So I thought I share some of my knitting
First off is the FOs of the past week

    
Fetching from Knitty in Malabrigo               Travellers socks by Nancy Bush from VK

I feel really good about the socks since it is my first pair of "thin" socks. I have already cast on a new pair and I am planning to cast on for a third pair, so the sock-bug has bit me hard... but I will have warm feet at least. The wrist warmers are the second pair I make and they are, as I think I said befor, super soft and wonderful. Very good for Swedish winter.  

Then on to the new projects and plans that I have.



This is a plain stockinet stich sock knit up in the Collinet Jitterbug that I got the other week. This is soft yarn. It knits up so nice and thees socks are going to be warm and cosy. I love them. Since this picture was taken (earlier today) I have managed to turn the heal and I am now half way down the foot. It is VERY nice to work with is all I can say...



Here we have my plans for another sock. This is Conway from Nancy Bushs book knitting on the road. I have cast on but not started the actuall knitting yet but as I said, sock knitting has me in it's grip!



Also in the pipeline is a sweater for the new baby. That is to say f I can come to terms with her not beeing out yet. Maybe if she knows I am knitting for her she will hurry up and come out sooner. I will have to try that tomorrw and be sure to tell her what I am doing. The yarn is the Eko cotton from Huskroken, same specs as for the dress butt different color (as you can see).



Finally here is a picture of my prgres on the Puck sweater. The back (or the front...) Is done and I have gotten quite some knitting done on the front (or the back) as well. I am acctually sone going to start the decreases for the arm hole and I think I am going to to it exactly the same as I did on the other one. Even though I no I miss calculated and the top of the sweater is a bit wider than what is called for in the pattern.

Other than knitting there has been some looking at sports here in the house thees past few weeks. The World championship in alpine skiing is going really well for Sweden so it has been a lot of fun watching all the races. This has influensed little A  a lot to say the least and last weekend he acctually got his own first pair of skis. He LOVES them. I think he would sleep with them if he could. So now he is in training and with this picture I bid you good night and happy knitting!

... for the baby. So I am still knitting. But frankly, I would rather have the baby out then knit just now. I heard someone saying once that the last weeks of pregnancy where longer thatn the whole 9 months put together and that is SO true. Especialy the second time around I guess. It doesn't help that I am in a super bad mood and when anyone tries to ask me how I feel I just bite their head off. I am very not pleasant to be around thees days... So I stay home in my comfy chair, knitting away on UFOs, WIPs and new projects. Here are some pictures of where I am!

                
this is where I sit and knit                  this is my view

Yesterday I did venture out for a couple of hours though. I took the car in too town to go to a new yarn store I have been meaning to go to for quite some time now. It is called Maska mera and the owner has a blog called Kristallklara . She sells mostly sock yarn and since I think I might like to knit more socks in the future I had an urge to go there and see if there was anything I liked. So I went, and I liked, and I bought...


It is made by an austrian company called Rellana as far as I can tell. It is very soft and I bought it in two different weights (as you can see). It 75% wool and 25% polyamid.

I did how ever feel I earned it since I finished the first of the travellers socks. It was a very close call with the yarn though. I have two balls of the yarn and when I cast of the first sock there was perhaps 15 m left of the first ball... just to add some excitment to my day . In other news regarding the socks I have located the second ball and hence found out what yarn I am using. It is a Marks & Kattens sock yarn. I think it is a little bit scratchy and I wont be buying it again. To my defence it was my first sock yarn and meant as a test round and the color is nice. Well, I will try to cast on the second sock today to get out of danger of the second sock syndrome.

       

When I was in town yesterday I also visited Nysta. I had read that they had a new yarn in store (also a sock yarn) Collinets Jitterbug to be exact. And what do you know, next thing I am walking out of there with two skeins and a copy of the latest issue of VK. Lets call it retail thereapy and pretend I was more pleasant to be around last night...



Other kniting endevours the last few days have been picking up a very old UFO. It s a sweater I blogged about a year ago. The pattern is called Puck and both the pattern and the yarn is from Östergörlands ullspinneri. I love the yarn and I think I will really like the finished sweater but the knitting... It takes for ever. The reason beeing it is knitted in two colors and you acctually knit each row TWICE. One time in each color. Besides this the pattern is formed by way of sliped stiches and yarnovers so it isn't really a straight forward knit.
Needles to say it took me a while to get in to the pattern again, but since I have some (alot) of time on my hands I managed to figure it out and so now I am zooming along... that is to say 'til I was about 10 cm past the armhole decreases and started to think that the top half looked a bit wide. I then started to try to count how many stiches I had on the needles (which is not very easy what whith YO, sliped stiches and two colors...). It took me about an hour to figure it out but once I did I realised I have 6 more stiches per row than I should have. NOT fun. My first thought was that I am not ripping back. I have no idé where to put a life line and just frogging it would mean that I have to cast on again (did I mention that every row is knit twice!!!). My general plan right now though is to stick with it and get a sweater that is slightly larger over the bust wich might not be such a bad thing after all. The question is -should I repeat the mistake on the back or should I make it according to the real pattern and get a smaller circomferenc (as I have learnt that tha back and front of a person is not acctually the exact halfs of a person). Any thoughts!? In the mean time I am knitting away on the front pretending nothing ever happend



Other than this (as if it isn't enough) I have cast on and off a pair of wrist warmers in the Malabrigo I bought reasently. They where a gift for a freind who had her hen night this last saturday. They turned out real well and I think there is enough yarn to make some for myself as well. I will try to get thees done as soon as posible because it is very cold right now. I'll let you now how it goes. The pattern is from Knitty and I used rosewood needles 4,5 mm.

   

I think I will leave you with this for today and I will just go and continue being introvert and grumpy in my own little world of pregant belly and yarn

So, still no baby and more time for me to go through my WIPs and finish things. I did just this a couple of days ago with the cardigan from Erica Knights "Baby bloom". The knitting was all done before the hollydays and then it has just been sitting there, watching me and every now and then giving me the evil eye for not finishing it... so with no further ado let me present

Lacy ribbon-tie cardigan from Erica Knights "Baby bloom"

Pattern: Lacy ribbon-tie cardigan from Erica Knights "Baby bloom"
Yarn: Rowan, wool cotton, color SH900, just under 500 gr
Yarn Source: Wincent, Stockholm
Needles: 3.75mm and 4mm stright needles
Comments: The pattern was easy to follow and should have been a pretty quick knit. For me however it was not. It took almost 8 months from cast on to finished sweater. I reallly like to work with the wool cotton yarn although it tends to split if I am not carfull or kniting to tight. For finishing up I used mattres stich on the shoulder seems, and under the arms and for the side seems. When setting in the sleev I used backstich witch turned out really well I think. I didn't block it before seeming but that was mainly just because I wanted it done...I do think I will get good use out of it even without a pregnant belly under it. So all in all I am very pleased with it

some more pics

     


Since last I posted I have also managed to knit a baby hat from the leftover yarn of the baby dress. Links and specs about the yarn are in the privious post so just go ther for more detail

Quick baby hat