Photos, finally, and Ayyam-i-Ha! (and owls)

I know that it is about time  for a post with some pictures, and not just some pictures, lots!  And it’s finally here!

Now, to prepare you for this post, I have to tell you that I love owls.  I LOVE owls.  Anything owly and I like it.  Automatically.  And I’m incredibly thankful that they are “in” right now because they are everywhere!  So I am busy collecting as many owl things as possible, so I have enough so that when they’re not stylin’ anymore, I can still have my owls.

So, it’s Ayyam-i-Ha!  I know that doesn’t mean much to a lot of people, but for the Baha’is, it’s party time!  It’s sort of our version of Christmas, although there’s nothing specifically religious to observe or celebrate.  In the Baha’i calendar, there are nineteen months, with nineteen days in each.  This leaves four “leftover” days in the year (five in leap years!) that fall on Feb. 26th through March 1st which are earmarked for Ayyam-i-Ha, a time of celebration, being with loved ones, doing service, helping others and anything else nice you want to celebrate.

This year, I hadn’t had much planned.  To be honest, I got a bit caught up in Valentine’s Day, and the end of February really snuck up on me.  My family did a “Secret Camel” (it’s a long story, but it’s basically the same as secret santa) exchange, but I sent my gift off weeks ago, to make sure it got there in time, and kind of forgot about it after that.  To help out our camel-partners, we each made a list of things we’re interested in/would like to get as gifts and sent it to my mom who was doing the coordinating.  Somewhere in my list was, of course “anything with owls.”

My parents have had a box of some things I left behind when I moved that I’ve been wanting recently, mostly because my laptop battery was all but dead, and I ordered a new one to their place to send to me (because even with the shipping, it’s less than half of what a laptop battery would cost me over here).  So I was really excited when the box came, and it also had Ayyam-i-Ha goodies in it!

Now that I had some little gifts, I wanted to make sure Andreas had something to open, too, so I whipped up a quick little surprise…Let’s start with that one.  To preface this, I made this, for Andreas’s sister and her husband when they were expecting their little girl:

It was big and bouncy and…well, big.  Andreas loved it.  So, for Ayyam-i-Ha, he got:

This little guy!  He’s maybe eight inches tall, very round, and bounces off of everything Andreas throws him at.  The most impressive part is that I knitted him up from start to finish in less than four hours.  You can just call me Speedy Needles.

Anyways, this was only the beginning of the owly goodness!  The package included this lovely lady (which Andreas also loves):

So sweet!  And her eyes have cellophane in them, so they crinkle.  I have a feeling the baby will enjoy this one.

But that’s just the beginning!  What the package mostly consisted of was the afghan I crocheted after Andreas and I got engaged, which we are now using to cover the couch, since the couch is not a particularly pretty color…

If you don’t want to cuddle up onto that couch with those owls and all the pillows, I think there’s something wrong with you.  But wait!  The owls aren’t finished yet!

We’re pretty excited about our new calendar!  Especially now that we actually have social engagements and have things to write on it!  Another gift consisted of this, and Skittles (YAY! Skittles!):

I’ve been looking for a good candy dish for a long time now, but haven’t really found the “perfect one.”  Luckily, my mom did!  It’s owly AND green.  That gives anything double-score in our eyes!  We also got some candles which was wonderful!  We’ve been candle-fiends recently, partly because we don’t have any little lamps in the living room yet, and partly because we just love them.  We got some nice simple candle-holders from IKEA (where else?) and I’m falling in love!

And last, but definitely not least was my present from my secret camel!  The day before we opened the presents, we went to visit Andreas’s sister because she had cake leftover, and what better reason is there to get together for an evening than cake?  Anyway, she gave us the lovely gift of a baby-book!  It’s something we both wanted to do, and knew we wouldn’t keep keepsakes or write mementos if we didn’t have a structured book to put them into, so we were so happy!  And my secret camel (my little sister!) included the following in her gift! (along with a generous skein of green baby yarn!)

Baby’s first presents!  I keep cuddling the sleeper.  I can’t help it!  And finally, there was also two more big skeins of wool from my mom, which I already have plans for!  But first, I have to finish this little number:

Everything is so exciting right now!  Happy Ayyam-i-Ha!

Moving Right Along

We’re in the middle of moving (for the sixth time in one year, but who’s counting, right?)  and I think I might just be getting better at it.  Maybe.  Anyway, I’m less of an emotional mess than I was for the last two weeks or so, so I’d consider that progress, even if the kitchen floor has yet to be scrubbed, and every time I go to cross something off on my long to-do list, it turns out it wasn’t even on the list.

We’ve moved the bulk of our things now, and set up our room in the new apartment (we’re renting a room in my sister-in-law’s place) and it’s looking really cozy!  We have a tall white bookshelf, and we ventured out and bought some baskets and things to put on the shelves to hold our things, and it looks great!  I’ll share some pictures when it’s a bit more done.  One thing that cheers me up significantly is that now my yarn has a home!  A real home, unlike its stuffed-into-plastic-bags-and-shoved-in-the-space-between-the-couch-and-the-well home it has had for the past few months.  Even just having my yarn so organized and accessible has made me feel a bit more inspired.  Also, we’ll be finding out the sex of our future niece or nephew in about two weeks, and I’m planning a few projects for that little baby, as well.

I’m also feeling really good about running!  I have to keep reminding myself that I’m a beginner (a real beginner, not someone who’s like “oh, I’ve only been running for about a year, and I only did one marathon”) so I try not to expect too much from myself.  The C25K program has been doing wonders, and at the beginning of every week so far I’ve thought “can I really do this?” and then I do it, and I feel great, and then I do a little more.  I know you’re not supposed to do more than it says, but I started the program by run/walking for 30 minutes every time instead of 20 by accident, so now I feel like I can just…adjust it according to how I’m feeling.  So far it’s been wonderful, and I feel really proud of myself, and every time I come back to my apartment, I feel great!  I always really feel like talking to someone when I come back, all exhilerated and thirsty, but unfortunately, Andreas is always at work, and the time difference makes it so no one back home is up to talk either.  But I usually just talk to myself instead, so it all works out.

I just realized that this is also a bit of a rambly post, which is probably lingering after-effects of how good I felt this morning.

We’ll be all finished moving by sometime tomorrow, as long as I can finish the packing and cleaning without getting distracted as I have been.  Does anyone else suffer the “I-need-to-reminisce-about-and-touch-and-try-on-everything-I-am-trying-to-pack” syndrome while moving?

Time to make Nutella cookies to leave behind for our “host” and finish cleaning and packing up the kitchen!

Candy and Yarn Exchange

My mother-in-law (I refuse to use the acronym of MIL because that is far too close to another acronym) sent me a link to a group on Ravelry that she thought would be a perfect fit for me.  As usual, she was right.  It’s an international candy and yarn exchange group, and every few months, they organize an exchange that you can sign up for.  They try to match up people from the states with people abroad, and I got paired with a woman from Oregon.  My love of candy and my love of knitting were combined, and I was excited!

I was especially excited because my exchange partner loves licorice!  There is so much more variety in licorice here in Scandinavia (which makes sense, given their extreme love for the stuff), and even though I don’t really like it, it’s fun to be able to buy it for other people.  I would always stock up when I visited, and bring some home for my mom who loves licorice, but since I don’t have a trip to the US planned anytime soon, it was nice to do it for someone else.

***This paragraph is slightly off-topic, but isn’t extensive enough to warrant a post of its own: I’ve started to like licorice.  I know, I know, who AM I?  But it all started with these strawberry-and-licorice medallions that my husband popped into our “loose candy” bag.  He wasn’t sure it was licorice, so he had me take a bite.  It was licorice, but it was extremely mild and sweet, and you know what?  I liked it.  Next time he picked one up, and asked if I wanted to share it, I said yes.  I said “yes” to licorice, albeit what we’re calling “gateway” licorice.  We’ll see how long it takes me to get into the “hard licorice,” aka salted licorice. ***

Anyway, it was a lot of fun to pick out candy and yarn, and even though the postage cost almost as much as the contents of the package, we sent it off to the US.
I included some “normal” candy bars (center), some “fancy” candy bars (salted almond and licorice), some gummi-mix, Dumle (which are sort of like chocolate-covered toffee candies), Bilar (marshmallow-y car-shaped candies, and assorted hard candies.

When I got mine, I was thrilled!
Skittles!  My exchange partner asked me if there was anything I especially missed from the states, and I do miss Skittles the most, but I didn’t say so, since I wanted a complete surprise package.  I guess she’s good at mind-reading, though!  The little chocolate bars decorated like mail are not only adorable, but really, really good, and the yarn is exactly something that I would have chosen for myself.  I’m really excited to find something to make with it, it’s a deliciously soft Merino wool.

I’m savoring the candy and have only eaten a teeny bit of it (so far).  It was such a fun thing to do, that I’ll definitely try to do another cycle of it in the future.  Not only was it fun to pick out candy for my partner, but I, like every other person on the planet, love getting packages in the mail, so it was really just a solidly fun thing to do.

Catching Up!

It turns out, that I’m the kind of person who has to “play catch-up.”  This is why I haven’t yet posted my last week of May’s photo-a-day challenge (that coupled with the fact that I’m pretty sure that it’s not June yet because 1) how on earth could it already be June? and 2) it’s grey, cloudy, rainy, and cold.)  It’s also why I haven’t posted any of my recent knitting projects, but I am here today to fix that!

I’ve actually been knitting a lot since we’ve moved to Sweden, although before I joined the knitting group it was a bit of an off-and-on activity.  However, I’ve been on quite the kick recently and have managed to actually finish quite a few projects, so I thought I’d give a run-down.

First:

These were a few things I knitted for my nieces (one who is five and one who is…about negative four months old).  The hairband and giraffe were birthday gifts for the five-year-old, who enjoyed them even though her aunty Zeta sent them over a month too late for her birthday.  Oops.  The…other thing…is a sort of lovey for the new baby.  When I started making it, the sex of the baby wasn’t known, and it began life as a lion.  However, after realizing that a baby would probably eat most of the lion’s mane within its first few weeks of life, I decided to nix the mane and let the animal be whatever it felt like being, which is sort of a mix between Winnie-the-Pooh and a mouse.  While it definitely didn’t turn out how I envisioned it in the beginning, at least it was give-able, and I’ve learned valuable lessons for future lovies made for future nieces and nephews.

Next, I started on a pair of socks I found while browsing Ravelry, my first attempt at a color pattern:

I’m pretty happy with how they turned out (although one is noticeably more loosely knitted than the other) but they’re a bit small for me, so they’re going to make the trans-Atlantic flight and become a gift for my little sister, who is the only person I know whose feet are smaller than mine.

After that, I received a huge amount of yarn from my neighbor, and a request for a sweater for her (absolutely adorable) baby girl.  This one knit up rather quickly, as I just did a few changes to a sweater I had already made a couple of times for a couple of different babies in the past.  I added the heart design, the scalloped neck-line, and the buttons on the shoulder.

Luckily, I had just finished this before I managed to chop my yarn-holding finger and had to put my knitting on hold for a bit.  However, my mother-in-law, about whom I can never, ever say enough good things, knitted me a “dimsidut” (the Danish equivalent of “thingamajig”) to protect my finger so I can knit.  Check it out!
(photo courtesy of my chin)

Now I’ve just started a pair of socks for my mom, but I’ve run into a snag.  For some reason, every time I have to knit ribbing, it ends up looking great on the inside and pretty awful on the outside.  I’ll play around a bit more with it before I start the actual pair of socks, and continue looking around on forums for any tips, although I haven’t found anything applicable yet.  Any advice?

Next up: catching up on May photo-a–day…don’t worry, it’s coming!

 

Bob Marley (in yarn)!

I feel like I’ve been waiting weeks to post about my secret Bob Marley project!  The doll was a gift for my brother-in-law for Ayyam-i-Ha, and so I had to hold off posting pictures, just in case!  Then, when I finally could post pictures, I was suddenly……..busy!  After two months of being basically on vacation, being even a little bit busy is refreshing!  I finally feel like things are moving, and hopefully forward.  Next step: Andreas gets a job!

Anyway, now for the main attraction: Bob.  Marley!!!!!

Bob Marley! Complete with dreadlock-compatible hat!

When I received my brother-in-law as my “secret camel” (Baha’i equivalent of Secret Santa) I wasn’t sure what to get him.  I didn’t know him all that well, so I browsed his Facebook.  Unfortunately for me, he doesn’t use it much, and all I ended up getting were a bunch of Bob Marley quotes…and thus, the idea was born.

I started looking for basic doll patterns to use, but I ended up just making it up as I went along which turned out quite well!

Here he is, dreadlocks and all!  I actually wrote the pattern down, but it still needs some editing, so I figured I’d hold off at least for a while, and maybe until I get another doll under my belt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I deciding during this project that it was kind of nice to have a “deadline” (I only had about a week and a half to finish him) and that, while I’m on this forced vacation, I should try to deadline more of my projects, as a way to stay rather busy.  Now that the Fast has begun, I feel like having things to do will help speed along the long, foodless days (hopefully).  Sitting around doing nothing, waiting for sunset, is: 1) probably not what fasting is about in the first place, 2) definitely not what fasting is about in the first place, and 3) about as much fun as grating your knuckle instead of the carrot.

Starting Over

I’ve been working on a pair of legwarmers for a while (I’m an avid knitter, for those who don’t know).  They started out as socks, but for some reason, turned into leg-warmers.  Sixty rows after that, I realized I was doing the pattern wrong, and though everyone said it looked fine, and it did, I had to restart anyway, so I decided to re-start with some new yarn (yay! new yarn!) and decided to learn a new cast-on method (that you can find here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf8cY_djTRI )

At this point, with my new (slightly larger gauge) yarn, the legwarmer was too big (way too big) so I started over with fewer stitches and now, a hundred or so stitches in, it’s too small.

Nuts.

I sometimes feel like I have the same problem with my Danish, but it’s probably just all in my head.

In other news…….
I won the Danish version of Monopoly (Matador) and felt terrible, taking everyone’s money.  How do real businesspeople do it?!  Probably by not looking their debtors in the eye.

Also, I’m pretty excited that I don’t get to see *any* of the political campaign ads on television for the next eight months.  Go me!

Today is the only day this week that Andreas doesn’t have to leave, so I’m hoping to enjoy it.  I know I am not completely alone, since I’m living with his family, but in some ways, that makes it even worse when he’s not here because I lose my “safety net” and feel slightly uncomfortable being in someone else’s house ALL the time.  Only about a month until we move to Sweden, though!