Back to reality

Easter has come and gone and tomorrow Andreas starts working half-time again. He's been home for 5 days, which probably saved me from an insane asylum.

Every day things are getting easier, I think.. Love is getting the hang of breastfeeding more and more, and I'm also finding my rythmn. It's going to be hard once Andreas starts work full time but my dad will be here for 2 weeks so I still have 3 weeks until I will be alone 8 hours a day. By then Love will be 5 weeks old; things should be easier.

We are trying to keep Love more awake during the day so that he sleeps more at night. So far - mixed results. You can only push a baby so far, and we have to respect his schedule to a certain degree. The worst is that he often makes noises when he is in a light sleep, so half the night he is bleating like a sheep and grunting.

Tomorrow we have another check-up for Love, where he will be weighed.

Goals for tomorrow:

Do my körkort teori for 30 minutes (review trafiksgrundregel, högerregel, and the classes of vehicles.) Write down new words and their definitions.

Practice Swedish from Språkportal for 30 minutes

Walk with Love for 20-30 minutes. Do kegels. Do some arm exercises

Practice napping with Love. (Try feeding on the bed when I want a nap).

10 minutes of belly time on the floor

2 weeks old!

...And we got very little sleep last night. Andreas let me sleep 8:30 - 12:30 am, and then we snoozed together the rest of the night. Andreas is much more able to sleep through all of Love's noise than myself. Even still, it was a long night.

Thursday I met all my goals, yesterday I don't think I got my walking in, but I did clean the house for an hour while Andreas and Love napped. I laid with them for an hour and contemplated life, unable to sleep. Then I decided to get up and have some me time while I had the chance.

Today we are going to the grocery store. Then farmor and farfar are showing up to visit for a few hours. Busy day.

I think I'm slowly adjusting to less sleep, but its hard. I used to sleep 9 hours a night, and I found those 9 hours very important for keeping myself stable, especially with regards to anxiety. Daily exercise was also super important to me. Right now I'm not getting enough of either of these and its definitely affecting me. Hopefully these iron pills and my antibiotics will make me stronger soon so I can manage more.

First BVC visit

Yesterday a nurse from the BVC (child care clinic) came to check out Love for the first time. The first visit happens at the parents home, and after that we go in to the clinic. The visit was really pleasant, except that Love hadn't gained any weight in a week. I felt pretty awful about it, because I was so worried that he was over eating. This worry planted itself because my friend had that happen (her child was born 7 weeks before mine), and I felt like I was feeding so much already. But it turns out it wasn't enough, so we have to double up our efforts. I'm spending ~6 hours a day breastfeeding, another hour pumping, and then sometimes Andreas supplements with a bottle of pumped breast milk. A lot of work, in other words.

Love seems happier with the increased amount of food, and I'm confident he'll start to gain weight. I'm trying to not feel bad about the lack of weight gain, instead trying to look forward and how we can better it. But these are rational thoughts and I'm a new mom, so I'm not always successful.

Yesterday I managed a 20 minute walk with Love in the carrier. My abs hurt a bit afterwards so I need to be careful that I don't damage my abs. I also managed to read my driving license book for 30 minutes. I did not manage to do my pelvic floor and tummy/back exercises though, except for some simple squeezing of the pelvic floor exercises.

This morning we were up at 6 am, which was ok since we went to bed at 7pm. I just completed my exercises, and after blogging I'm going to read my driving theory book. I'll wait until it's warmer out to go for our walk. Another goal I want to add to the list is tummy time with Love. We are going to try to spend a bit more time on his tummy. He does get quite a bit of tummy time on mine and Andreas' stomach/chest, but I'd like to do a bit more on the floor. I have the play mat out today so we will see how that goes.

The house is clean after yesterday and I've decided I'm not doing any house work today. I need a break. I'm still getting very dizzy so I started on some iron pills - hopefully that helps. I'm trying to make sure I eat enough as well, but that can be challenging. I think we are getting quite a lot of sleep for being parents of newborns. I think we both got about 7-8 hours last night. Andreas napped a few times through feedings, and then I mostly slept through our 4am feeding (he got a bottle).

I'm enjoying this experience but I don't know that I could do it again. It is hard. I can't even imagine having a newborn with a toddler around.

Need a place to post my thoughts

I'm going to start writing here again so that I can have a place to keep some thoughts, goals, and progress.

10 days ago I gave birth to my son, Love. I had a pretty bad infection after the birth, but my antibiotics are doing their job and I'm feeling much better already. Which means I want to start setting up a plan. A plan for how to keep myself from going stir-crazy out here on the torp. I'm a bit isolated with no car and a newborn, so I need to have some sort of goals and routine.

There are several important things I want to accomplish over the coming months. The single most important one is getting my driver's license. Getting a driver's license in Sweden is no joke - I have a 300 page theory book, and then there are all the lessons and other required bits. I want to start now by spending at least 30 minutes a day studying theory.

Another important thing for me personally is getting back into shape. I want to start slow and build up my body back to where it was. I've already lost 20 lbs at 10 days PP, with 4 pounds to go to my pre-pregnancy weight. The only thing is, I am much flabbier now than when I got pregnant. All my muscles have dissolved and my body is of a much different make up than it was before the pregnancy.

A list of daily goals for the coming week (April 15 - 20th):

- Spend 30 mins studying driving theory
- Go for at least a 20 minute walk
- Do pelvic floor and tummy exercises

I'm going to start with this small list of goals and go from there.

And suddenly there's no free time

I've been incredibly busy, which is saying something since I'm normally busy anyways. My second week with the Masters swimming group is coming to an end and it's been a blast. Entering a group in Sweden is always a bit of challenge as Swedes can be a bit reserved in the beginning and it takes time to get to know everyone. After 2 weeks I'm finally on a talking basis with 3-4 of the swimmers, and I'm loving the social aspect, something I was really missing. My colleagues are great but they are also 20-25 years my senior which makes topics of interest limited at times. The people swimming in the Masters group are between 25-35 for the most part, with some exceptions. Most seem to be PhD students.

With Andreas attending Art on Tuesday and climbing on Wednesdays and Sunday, and me swimming Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays, we only have Monday and Saturday nights together. That means most cooking has to be done in advance now, and bigger portions for more leftovers. A bit of an adjustment but it's fine.

We received our growing lights yesterday so this weekend we will set up tomatoes and peppers inside. I'm really excited about this seeing as we've never had much luck with tomatoes. They usually end up way too tall and scrawny, with a very small harvest.

This weekend will be spent indoors seeing as the weather is still icky. It's cold and all the slush from last week's melting has formed into difficult-to-walk-on ice. Hopefully next week some of it will melt away, but we are still having very cold nights so I doubt it. Biking is completely out of the question at the moment as it is too dangerous with my bike tires. I think this weekend I'm going to try and get some knitting done, as I haven't knit at all in 2 weeks.

Lastly, we had a nice lunch out yesterday with Andreas' parents. They were passing by on their way home from Uppsala so we grabbed some lunch in the city! We are going to visit them in the beginning of May, just a short holiday which I am really, really looking forward to. I haven't had a proper holiday since I started working.

Oh that's right, this is supposed to be a knitting blog..

Last night I went to a local knitting group which takes place every tuesday after work. There were between 10 and 15 of us, which apparently is a large number and we were lacking a bit of space. Cozy, in any case.

I've been working away on my baby blanket that I started last year. I think I seriously underestimated the work involved. I have 8 skeins of yarn, and each skein makes ~10 squares, so 80 squares total. Each square takes about an hour, if I'm completely focused. That's 80 hours of knitting! I have about 20 squares completed... not much to show for my efforts I suppose, but the knitting goes a lot slower if I am watching tv or talking with Andreas while knitting.

On the other hand, this is quite a small baby blanket compared to what a lot of people knit. That'd be more comforting if I didn't know myself better... let's see how long it is before I start on the next baby blanket..


Anyways..
Just to spite myself and the title of this post, I thought I'd talk about the upcoming SM (Sweden Championships) that I will be attending. I signed up for the  following events:

Saturday morning: (tentative, if I can make it to the pool):
50m freestyle
50m backstroke
4x50m free relay (mixed gender)

Saturday afternoon:
100m medley
4x50m free relay (womens)

Sunday morning:
400m freestyle
50m butterfly
4x50m medley relay (not sure which stroke I will swim yet)

It feels fun being all grown up... I can do what I want and what I think is fun. I actually think butterfly is a lot of fun, hoping I can improve my stroke. I think swimming the 400m will be an awesome challenge and a walk down memory lane. I like the medley. And as you can see, I skipped my possibly least favorite event, the 100m free. Well... second least favorite, 200m free takes the cake. I hate sprints that are actually not sprints, just a prolonged painful sort-of sprint where you are just wishing you'd drown or finish basically the entire way, because you actually did sprint the first 50m and there's no juice left.

Tonight I'm going bouldering/rock climbing indoors for the first time. I'm really sore but hoping my body will forgive me.

Back in the Pool

Yesterday was my first day with LASS - Linköping Allmänna Simsällskap (Roughly translated to Linköpings General Swim Society?). I'm swimming in the Masters group which is about 20 swimmers. I think my coach was impressed once he saw me get in the water. As Andreas put it, I'm "very penguin-ish... not always graceful but damn you can swim".

My coach is actually an American from Minnesota. Him and his wife (who swims with us) moved here 1.5 years ago. I'm still not sure why they are here, I didn't get a chance to ask. I'm really glad he is American (who ever thought those words would leave my lips??) because it's very loud in the swimming hall and my hearing is so bad with background noise. Not to mention I'm blind as well. Sheesh... maybe time to invest in some prescription goggles if I really get into this. Luckily he was able to tell me what I was supposed to be doing.

We train 4 days a week, with 30 minutes strength training/boxing 3 days a week before we swim. There is a tiny gym attached to the pool area, really cool. I also learned yesterday that Swedish Nationals for Masters (25+) is in 5 weeks, and it's open invitation, so my coach wants me to go. It's 15-17 March in Södertälje, which is about 1.5 hours from here. It will be fun to hang out with my teammates and get to know them more, and I think this swim meet will be a great opportunity for that.

All in all, I had a very positive first practice and I am so glad I took the step and joined!

P.s. Today I'm running home from work (8km)... wish me luck ;) Wednesday Andreas is taking me indoor rock climbing too, so my week is absolutely full with activity. I'm going to kick everyone else's ass in this 12 week competition!

Food pics from the last two weeks

Some pictures of food we cooked over the last two weeks (Sorry for my poor food photography):

Chickpea and spinach soup... the color is crazy! It was delicious. 

 Here is the appetizer we ate 2 Sundays ago. It's sliced baguette which was drizzled with salt flakes and olive oil, and then baked in the oven. Upon leaving the oven, homemade mayo and fresh scampi meat was applied. 5 stars to this - it was incredible.

 A picture of the champagne we enjoyed. It was really nice but a bit acidic for my tastes.

And here is the result of our hard efforts. Beef tenderloin crusted

with pistachio and bacon, and side of crisp sweet potato chips.

Carrot Banan Muffins 

Fresh salad

Vanilla ice cream topped with almond biscuits

and cherry sorbet

Making pirogis (stuffed with cheese and root vegetables)

Pirogis right out of the oven

12kg in 12 weeks challenge

One of Reddit's subforums is the "Body Transformation Fitness Challenge", hosting over 10,000 people looking to improve themselves. Several times a year they hold a 12 week challenge to see who can become the fittest. A new challenge is starting this Friday and I've decided to participate. My goal is a lofty 1kg (2.2 lbs) a week of weight loss, for the next 12 weeks. It's a high goal and I'm going to take it a week at a time, focusing on the here and now, everyday decisions that make or break weight loss. I already lost 3-4kg in January and I wasn't exercising all that much, so I think I can do it.


The cornerstone of my plan is of course healthy eating with calorie counting. No more than 1500 kcal a day, no less than 1200. I assume I'll be sitting more around 1500 a day which is fine. Eggs for breakfast, sometimes with a whole grain compliment, chicken salads for lunch, yoghurt and fruit for snacks, and then whatever for dinner. I'm already doing this and I'm pretty satisfied/happy with my diet.

As far as exercise, I had hoped to join the swim team but they are being coy and not writing me back, alas. So for now I'm going to focus on biking to and from work as much as possible, even when it's shitty out. This will be supplimented with running, hiking, and DDR when I feel like it.

I'm going to try and stay away from sugar as much as possible still, although I plan to allow myself occasional dessert, as long as I don't spiral out of control. Easier said than done, so that part will be tricky, but it's important because it leads to healthy maintenance later on.

I really just want to get rid of the rest of this weight. Andreas and I are thinking about kids again (Andreas will be 30 this year!), and our child deserves a healthy body to grow in. I'm hoping that thought alone will propel me towards my goal. It will also be great to be better able to keep up with Andreas, hike longer, do more, and feel better about myself.

Wish me well with the hard work ahead of me!

I did it!

I signed up for the swim team. Well, sort of. I made an account on their website and signed up for the Master's group, although according to their website, there is a queue. I also emailed, inquiring about the cost and training times, and if there actually is a queue... which would suck.

I'm proud I took this step. I am quite nervous about joining, for several reasons really. The largest one is that my ears are very sensitive and get easily infected, so I've been swimming with ear plugs for the last 5 years now. Which is great, except I can't really hear anything with them in, and I've never tried to be in a group training while wearing them. This would be scary enough, except add onto that, that the instruction will be in Swedish, and I'm wondering how that will work. Especially since I don't know any swimming terms anyways in Sweden. The ear plugs are pretty easy to pull slightly in and out, so that I can hear a bit. I was also considering that I can wear a plug in one ear, and switch for each swim practice, giving one ear a rest each time. Still, I'm worried for infection and pain.

Of course another reason is because I'm not that fit and I'm large. I should just get over it and feel awesome that I'm taking steps to get in shape, but that is easier said than done. I won't let this particular reason stop me either.

The last big reason I can think of is that it is a large time commitment... they train 4 evenings a week, which is a lot. And the times aren't always exactly convenient, meaning that I'll have to eat dinner at my office and work late some evenings, etc.


BUT, today I conquered my fears, and signed up anyways. Because if I don't even sign up, I never gave it a chance. There are so many benefits if I do start swimming!! Meeting a bunch of cool people, getting in shape, feeling good about myself, and getting to compete again. Huge reasons why I should do this.

We'll see what answer I get back from them!

Skirt: check! (maybe??)

I "finished" the skirt. When I say finished, I really mean that I ran out of yarn, and decided that this skirt has a chance of fitting me one day, so I wouldn't need to buy another skein (which possibly wouldn't match). When I say one day, I mean one day when I have a 31 inch waist...  maybe I should buy another skein? I don't know, I can't make up my mind. And I also realized I need to rip out about 6 rows if I truely am done, because I skipped the instructions at the end for the button band. Kind of important. Anyways, I marked this thing as done on ravelry and I'm going to let it sit while I contemplate what to do.

The skirt probably looks very small but it is extremely stretchy because of the type of stitch and yarn.


Meanwhile, I have decided to work on the baby blanket I had started. I have a lot of yarn sitting around for it, and it's actually a fun project. At the time I started doing it, I really wanted to learn to continental knit, and the patterns made that difficult. Now seems like a good time, at the beginning of the year, to finish up projects I have laying around.


On the sewing side of things, I've committed to finishing this box bag I started. It's not a simple pattern as it also includes special material for strengthening the bag sides (can't think of the name right now!). But I have already cut the fabric for the bag, so I might as well get on with it..

.. so that I can start my other sewing project...

(This fabric is for the kitchen)

(and this is for the living room)

 Curtains for the kitchen and living room!It should be simple, except that it is a lot of fabric and might be tricky getting straight lines through the sewing machine. Luckily curtains will be forgiving. I mean, I assume they will? Whatever, it'll work it. We bought cute fabric that will let some light shine through.

In other news, we watched a really fantastic film yesterday, "Kyss mig" ("With every heartbeat" is the American title). http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1859522/ The scenery and music complemented the story beautifully, and the acting was phenominal in my opinion. I highly recommend it. It was released in the U.S. in October last year, subtitled I believe. Check it out!

New House

We finally moved to Linköping, where I currently work. Our new house is wonderful; built in 2008 and shiny. Very shiny.

I also have my very own knitting/sewing room now!

On the knitting front... well I completed many, many projects since my last blog post and I don't really feel like detailing all of it. But what I am currently working on is a very fun, quick project.. the Carnaby Skirt from Knitty Deep Fall 2010.

This thing is gorgeous! I'm using Rowan Pure Wool Aran in the Ember (679) colorway. I'm a little over 1/2 of the way done. It's difficult to find time to knit with the move, but I'm hoping to complete this thing within a week or two. Andreas is in Holland right now so I have some time on my hands while he is away.


Besides the house and I'm knitting, I'm trying to move more in general, be it cooking, walking the dog, or cleaning. I developed some bad habits when I started working in September, and I want to get fit again! I really enjoyed this article I stumbled upon recently. The message is change who you are, not how you look or appear to others. I like that, it resonates with me. I hope I can change myself for the better this coming year.

Wishing you a merry 2013 from Sweden!

Food! Week 3 of 2013

I really like cooking, and I love food. We often plan out a week menu, which rarely has the same dish  on it except for some tried and true favorites. So I thought maybe I'd start putting that here on the blog in any case, as it forms a fairly large part of my life and day. I usually start the week from Saturday because that is when we go shopping.

Week 3 food:

We are going fancy on Saturday, lobster bruschetta with roe mayonnaise as a starter, followed by grilled beef tenderloin crusted in bacon and pistachios, with sweet potato crisps. Recipe source: Allt om Mat, Nyårs, Nr 1 2013. For dessert, a red currant pie, from "Alltid hungrig", Renee Voltaire. It has virtually zero sugar added which is great since I banned myself from sugar for the rest of January.

Rest of the week:

Chickpea soup, Alltid Hungrig, Renee Voltaire
Polenta cake with spinach and red onion, Alltid Hungrig, Renee Voltaire
Bell pepper pasta with prosciutto, Allt om Mat Nyår Nr 1 2013
Mexican Stuffed Shells, The Girl Who Ate Everything
Burritos with spanish rice, Fatfreevegan

I'll post some pictures of this week's food with next week's post. This is just a start. :)

Zombie Monster Pants

I know.. I suck at keeping this blog updated. I guess I'm just not a true blogger at heart. Or maybe it's that I don't have enough time for the 1,001 things that Andreas and I do on a weekly basis. Either way, I figure it's still fun to post from time to time.

Lately we've been very busy with the garden. Everything is growing nicely, even though it's been a rainy colder summer. Nothing like Holland of course, but not exactly perfect growing weather either. Andreas is building a greenhouse from scratch, which will hopefully be ready in another month or so. We won't get much use out of it this year, but next year will be nice.

When we aren't in the garden, we've been taking long bicycle rides and hunting for mushrooms in the woods. So far we've only found a few large edibles, but the famed golden yellow chanterelles are poking their squishy hats up already. In another week or so I expect we'll have our first batch of these beauties, and then we'll be simmering them into some delightful dish or another.

The rest of my time I spend learning Swedish, programming, running (I'm training for a 10k race a month from now), reading Swedish books, cooking, cleaning, more Swedish, applying for jobs, feeling sorry for myself and lack of money, scheming on ways to make money, and bothering Andreas ;)

On the knitting front, I've accomplished two projects. The first is a soft, washable baby blanket for my friend Prathiba, who is about to deliver a beautiful baby girl any day now.

The blanket:

The pattern was really simple, using single, double, and triple yarns overs which were later dropped to achieve the cool effect you see. It got a little repetitive at the end but I was so excited about finishing and giving the gift that I made it through it. The pattern is from Pickles, a Norwegian yarn company who has some patterns for free. You can find it here: http://www.pickles.no/breezy-winter-baby-blanket/ 


Funnily enough I used similar colors to their example but that is a coincidence. I asked Prathiba to pick out some colors she liked from Cascade 220 Superwash (the yarn I used) and then I came up with these three colors). The orange-ish one you see is actually pink but I'm a horrible picture taker. In any case, the baby shower is Saturday so that will be fun.










Besides that, I finally finished the monster pants (now called 'Zombie Monster Pants'.. you'll see why shortly). I took the plunge and figured out how to duplicate stitch. A friend of mine from my knitting group suggested I use a thicker yarn so I first started by trying to use some white worsted weight yarn that I had on hand. That was a disaster though, so I reverted back to the white yarn in the same brand and size (Drop Baby Merino) that I used for the pants themselves. Some of the green and pink shows through a little bit but for a first time, I'm satisfied. 


Here they are!

These are going in a tightly sealed box for a while yet, but I look forward to the day when we have a little cute butt and legs in these things, walking and crawling around. :) 




What's next? I'm learning how to crochet, so that is fun. Nothing serious yet, just learning the basic stitches. An added twist is I'm learning it both in Swedish and English, since you know, just learning something in one language isn't challenging enough! ;) I also want to start again on the Dane shawl, that tricky tricky piece of work. I know I can do it though! And there is the baby blanket I was making for myself, which I really should just finish already so it's out of the way. And I really want to knit a pair of socks. There's also that skein of yarn I bought to make Andreas a matching winter hat to go with his scarf....

Guest Post #1: Hiking the Sörmlandstrail (episode 1)

Go here for the photo album without narration

The snow was mostly melted, the frosty air had given way to a chilly breeze (warmth is relative!), and the ground was much too solid for the gardener's trowel. Hiking plans were forged, maps were printed, soup was cooked and poured into a thermos, the GPS unit was charged, and we were ready to face the first of many sections of Sörmlandsleden: the Trail of the South Man Land.

Placenames sound pretty cool when translated literally.

We (Jessica, our dog Björn, and myself) took a train to Flen and followed signs from the train station towards the trailhead. The landscape in and around town was fairly hilly, with many exposed granite buttes and boulders, so we were excited to get started. It was nearly noon when we reached the trailhead.

Being overconfident as we always were, we calculated 20 km (12.5 miles) to our destination, and about 6 hours of good daylight (7 hours before the train that would bring us home left). That equates to "easy", in our book, so we started off at a relaxed pace and enjoyed the surroundings.

The recent thaw left the boulders embedded in the trail oddly sunken, probably the results from expanding water ice which subsequently melted away. Interesting effects, whatever the cause!

We soon encountered an enormous pile of boulders, left there by a long-gone glacier from the last ice age. It had delightful cracks and crevasses, ideal for wild animals to use for shelter or to hide from predators. I'm glad we did not encounter a wolverine (järv) there, because a human with our feeble fingernails and teeth would stand no chance against the fearsome claws and bone-crunching jaws of these creatures. Very glad, indeed.

Having exhausted the entertainment options offered by the boulders, we carried on with the hike, realizing our average pace was significantly lower than anticipated. That's fine, we still had plenty of time! As long as we pick up the pace a little, that is.






Picking up the pace is difficult when there are so many enticing distractions. For example, in one instance we turned right when we should have turned left. We quickly realized our mistake and turned back, and were surprised by a giant Ubo ubo, the Eurasian Eagle Owl, probably the largest bird found in Sweden. It made a slight noise when it dropped from its perch about 5 meters ahead of us and 5 meters above our heads, which is what caught our attention. Its camouflage was so good that we had passed right under it without noticing. Its nearly 2-meter wingspan scarcely made a noise as it swooped over our heads and turned into the forest. Stunning. To my great dismay, I was unable to take a photo of the animal.

Look at these frozen lakes, sprinkled amidst the now-verdant forest. The melting ice painted convoluted  patterns in psychedelic monochrome. Look closer, and you realize there's a galaxy of tiny worlds hiding within - secret constellations of suspended bubbles were responsible for the varying shades and textures of the lake.

At this point, we started to realize that 20km was not a realistic approximation of our hiking distance. It would be closer to 25, and our average pace would put us at our destination long after dark. Stupid, stupid hikers, we were! Rest stops were ruled out, food and drink could wait. We had to move.

But wait! These frozen marshes offered such a cheerful alternative to the inky black waters to which they would return in only a few short weeks. Treacherous pools were a pristine white, and solid through and through. They brightened up the forest like beacons. Remarkable!





Still we pressed on. My GPS-enabled phone reported our pace, and we pushed and we pushed until it told us we were doing alright. I checked our progress by comparing our position with landmarks I had copied down previously, on a morning that now seemed very distant. How far is 0.02 degrees, again? Can we make that in an hour? Mental arithmetic kept me sane, while wife and dog plodded on breathlessly behind me.

Finally, we reached our destination - a village with gunpowder mines and a trainstation. It took an additional 2 kilometers to reach this trainstation, because the village roads were apparently designed by the village idiot. No matter, we had reached the platform with our tickets in hand, and finally unscrewed that thermos of soup.






It was heavenly.

Spring.. a time of intense knittyness

Hi hi! It's been a while... I didn't come back as I had promised in the fall. That's because life has been busy - learning a new language, working full time, and well... knitting. Yes, lots of knitting. But I feel inspired this evening to write a blog post, so here it is: projects I've completed in the last 6 months.

Josiah's cross stitch:

It took me an entire year to complete this, but I finally did it. It was worth it in the end and considering I was a novice cross-stitcher when I started, I'm pleased with the result.

Mug cozies:

I made two different mug cozies: one to go around the mug, and one that holds the mug. Unfortunately I don't have a picture handy of the finished product for the holding one. The pattern for the first one is the "We're just that Awesome mug cozy" which can be found on ravelry. I thought the diagonal stitch was finicky and didn't look that nice after all. The second one I sort of made up, but it was loosely based on this pattern. It was my first time not strictly following a pattern so that was pretty fun, and for a porcelain mug it is much more practical.

Irish Hiking Scarf:

Next up I worked on a cabled scarf for Andreas, for Christmas. This was a fun knit and it was my first time making cables.. ridiculously simple to do and I was fearful for no reason it turns out. Even though it was simple, it still took ages to finish as it's fairly thick and it had to be long enough for my husband to wear it the way he likes. Project page with more pictures and pattern here.

CanCans

These were so much fun that I was sad when I finished them. I frogged them the first time I started on DPNs; things went much better with circulars. I really like the fake cable motif and they fit perfectly. Project info and pictures here. Link to pattern here.

Monster pants (Monster byxor/bukse):

As you can see, they are still in progress. The pink bit there is going to be the monster mouth. These are knit top down and I'm doing them in size 1 year old. The pattern is from duBedåre on Ravelry, pattern here. Check out her super cute monster pants!

I actually am farther than in the photo above; I just did the increases for the legs. I can't find my 40 cm knitpro cable though, and since I only owned one set of 3mm needles for the knitpro circs, I went ahead and ordered two 40cm cables and another set of 3mm needles. I think I'll set these aside for a week while I wait for those to arrive. I'd rather wait and knit on the circulars than going ahead with DPNs.. I'm just not that comfortable on them. I end up with laddering and tend to have a too-tight gauge.

Other projects I'm working on but aren't far enough yet to give you a picture are:

• "Textured Blocks Baby Blanket" on ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/textured-blocks-baby-blanket
• Hermione's Everyday Socks also on ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/hermiones-everyday-socks

Bonus pictures for this post:

My mother-in-law's cat, very silly. She likes me for some reason..

Three things I love: programming, knitting, and Andreas ;) On the right, a picture of me having just bound off my first CanCan on the train home.

Homemade pickles from our garden in the Netherlands, and a glimpse of the nature surrounding us here in Katrineholm.

In February we went skiing in Austria, Zell am See. A picture of us at the airport in Innsbruck, and a picture of us on the slopes in Zell am See. It was my first time skiing.

Random cuddling with Björn, whom I missed very much all autumn. I was happy to see him in January.

Our garden plot, where we will be planting this year, and the beginning of the garden - a bunch of newly planted seeds in our windowsill.

Other news:

I'm getting a sewing machine! I've been wanting one for over a year but we couldn't really afford it. I've been saving my pennies and I finally ordered a Bernette 15 (a review of the features here). It will arrive Friday and I'm so excited to try it out. I signed up for a apron swap on Rhonda's Down to Earth blog, which sort of prompted this entire purchase. I'm not sure what I was thinking when I signed up, but I guess I needed a little extra push to finally go out and buy the machine.

I will try to update soon. I promise.