Tie it up in an ending

When I bought this un-marked skein of yarn in Sweden in April, I never thought that I'd be wearing it back in Sweden, before the year was out.  But that's exactly what happened.

Mr Knitty was supposed to be working on New Year's Day, until he wasn't.  Since we didn't celebrate Christmas together (he was on nights), we decided to go back to Sweden for New Year.  The original plan was to go back to Stockholm, until we found that flights to Copenhagen were cheaper, so we went to visit friends in Southern Sweden instead.

Knitting for the trip was the stockingette section of Eyeblink (Ravellry link), started on the train to the hotel we stayed in, the night before we flew.

In the last gripping instalment of the scarf, the yarn had snapped after I'd finished the cast-off and I didn't have enough to weave the ends in.  The solution to this was to knot the good yarn to the snapped yarn and felt the two together, giving me a tail long enough to weave in properly.  True, I wasn't expecting to be doing this in a hotel room at gone 11:00 at night, but sometimes needs must.

We saw 2016 in at the Malmö fireworks.  After being used to the London fireworks for so many years, it was very strange to be such a small event.  I was expecting to be waiting for hours beforehand.  Friends of mine were planning to arrive at quarter to midnight.  Oh, and they had Land of Hope and Glory, in Swedish.  The guy next to us was bobbing up and down, as if he were at The Proms.  

I have no idea what the words mean, but friends tell me that they had been re-written for the event and were very pro-immigration and welcoming to newcomers.  I find it slightly amusing that it's the total opposite of what it actually means in English.  If anyone is able to give a translation, that would be really helpful. 
New Year's day was lovely.  We travelled from Malmö to Lund and had a walking tour.  (Only one row on the train, as I found a knot and had an impromptu splice of the two ends, by felting them against my jeans.  Thank goodness for 100% wool yarn).  I got to meet-up with more friends and introduce them to Mr Knitty.  We ate pizza, played games and generally had fun.

The day after, Mr Knittiy and I had a look round the Malmö museum.  I bought a postcard of a woman knitting, to give me a 5k coin for the locker.  We took photos of the windmill which appears in the opening credits of The Bridge  

And I wore the scarf again:

Swedish Stash

Please reassure me that I'm not the only knitter who's planned to get a couple of balls of souvenir yarn, and then come back with slightly more than planned?  Yeah, that.

The first place we visited was Litet Nystan, Sankt Paulsgatan 20  (No photo as it was behind scaffolding).  Of course, I forgot to write down which number of the road the shop was located at, so we did a bit of going up and down.  Once I saw a yarn bombed tree, I knew I was going in the right direction.

Loved this shop.  Quite a lot of cotton, some Italian made sock yarn and lots of stuff with no labels - which I found quite exciting.  I got this:

I did think about getting a second ball, but I couldn't assume that they were both of the same dye lots.  I could have bought more, but the husband was with me, and was already questioning what I was going to use the one skein for. 

The next shop we looked for was Sticka & Virka which has now closed (although the website has only just updated to confirm that). We spent some time going up and down the street to make sure. 

The next lot of yarn was the linen yarn I bought at the Nordic Museum (Yes, they sell knitting yarn in the museum shop). One hundred percent linen yarn,which I've never knitted with before.

Then, on the last day, I went yarn shopping on my own.  Again, I couldn't find Anntorps Vav - I suspect that it's shut down and is internet only.  Gamla Stan (Old Town), the part of Stockholm where it is/was located is beautiful and I wish I had time to look round more.
And you know what, I was!


The thing I love about Stockholm is the way the signs show you which block you're on. So, if you're looking for Ljungqvist Garn, Odenplan on Karlbergsvägen 10, then you know you're getting close:

And do you know what ?  I was. 

And in the absence of my husband, I may have lost a little control - to the point that the lady behind the counter asked if I needed a basket, as I was dropping stuff all over the floor.  (I only went in for enough for one project). 

First, I wanted something for the Easy as Pie shawl from Ravelry.  (There were others,but they needed longer lengths of yarn).  So I got this one from Marks and Kattens:

Marks and Kattens Fame

It was available in purple, but as I'm trying to expand the colours in my stash, I went for the grey and black.

Then was the sock yarn I saw, and bought for my husband. I keep telling him I'm going to knit him something.  He wants a dark red jumper, which I've promised him at some point.  I thought the dark red and black sock yarn would be a good start for a pair of socks for him.


Finally (and trust me, I could have bought the same again), was this, which I loved because of the colour.  There is a cuff-down sock pattern on the inside of the yarn band, which I may not use for knitting - but may use to help with learning Swedish.

The final yarn I bought, I bought because I loved, loved, loved the colours.  No idea what I want to knit with it, possibly another shawl/wrap or socks.  (There are apparently 12 projects on Ravelry, so not a lot of inspiration there, at the moment)

The colours in the yarn bring to mind the yellow and blue in the Swedish flag, which feels kind of appropriate for souvenir yarn. 

What's your favourite souvenir yarn, and what did you knit it into ? 

Prepping for Sweden

We're off to Stockholm soon, to celebrate our tenth wedding anniversary.  Although every time I think of ten years marriage, my immediate thought is, 'how the hell did we manage that?!'

Anyway, I have no idea what we're going to be doing.  Thanks to a hiccup with the hotel not being able to fulfil the booking after all, we didn't know where we'd be staying until last night.  (As an aside, we're not going to be using Expedia to book any more trips.  We've used them twice and both times the husband's card has been stopped on suspicion of fraud).

I do however know what knitting I'm taking with me.  And which knitting shops I want to visit.  After going to York , I realised the joy of having a travelling project; every time you wear the finished article, you remember the trip.  This time I really, really want to master socks.  I've got yarn, I've got a pattern (although cannot find the link) and I've ordered some bamboo circulars for the plane, to minimise suspicion from security.

A quick internet search brought up this blog post about yarn shops in Stockholm, mentioning Sticka & Virka (Knit and Crochet), Anntorps Vav and Litet Nystan (Little Ball), so they're all going to get a visit.  Thanks to the Planet Purl website, I've got a mini knitting dictionary in Swedish.  (I know, isn't the internet great!)

I've also got the telephone number for my mother's childhood au pair, who was known for her knitting.  I learnt her long tail cast on from my mother, and it's still my favourite.  I just don't know if it's strange to phone somebody I've never met and say 'hey, I hear you're into knitting. Fancy meeting for coffee?'.

Have a good weekend.