Si, more yarnshopping and Queen Parr Progress

OK, I admit. Ihave been shopping. Was it blogging around, and remembering that I had not bought GOLD in Bohus? Or was it the very special letter from Nina (Nysta) about the sale? Well, I did it. Both, I got Gold and the "grey mist" in Bohus. Bless you Solveig. And then I strutted to a surprisingly empty Nysta. Hey this is the real yarn deal. 20% off ALL, and 30% on some!. So, a bunch of odd balls Kureyon. Some silk-garden, one Malabrigo etc...
You can see how this goes on and on. And I realized that Mary had that great Malabrigo picture... I so got that and it fits like yummy icing, when it so go with Kureyon. That is the Male Japanese colourful and Sensual Peruvian Indian softness in a mix. What a marriage. Two souls. I just love them together.So 7 Kureyon, that is interesting to create something from. Anyhow, I so missed one sweater in my 12 sweater rally. So I think I will have a 14 sweater rally. But month of January is going to be long, Im so knitting Queen Catherine Parr for the Tudor Roses- Along, and it looks great, is fun but slow. Ohh so slow. It is working it every row,and just breaf rows. Also, it is BIG, I mean BIG. I think it will hide every resturant visit I ever had.
But please. Say something Nice. I have actually worked between 1-3 hours EVERY day on it. And, I have not so much time to blog. I will KNIT it. I want it so bad that there is not room for anything else. Well, alittle something something is there always room for. Like Yarnshopping, blogging and generally surfing and kissing my sick hubby.

12 sweaters in 12 month. I luve Knit-alongs.

This is the time of year to do a Knit along or be a Knit alone. All KALs are found on this page for this year. And, as I discussed the other day, even if I want to knit from my stash, and also want to finish UFO's they all had this rules and confessions etc. Like it would be BAD to buy yarn? That is the best thing there is, why not enjoy every fiber? I just believe people who brag about having none are jealous (they must be! every day I go to my yarn room and get blissed). So, a better motivator for me would be the Sweater A Month KAL. Of course, this does not say you cannot finish UFO's or use your stash, or prevent you from any yarn bargain. So, I have made up my mind. Im IN! IK knitting finally arrived. The KAL for knitting the front page, already shows how someone is finished. That makes me boil. But, they are nice enough, every page was so filled with great sweaters I gasped. Hey, Of course, what a combination of KAL's of sweaters, finishing UFO's and KAL'ing about it. I did not do a good list of what I finished last 2006. I couldn't remember and was too lazy to go through my blog and count. But this year. I will flaunt it. (first pic. is Angora from luxury yarn shelf).
OK Here is the list of planned 12 sweaters.
1. Tudor Roses KAL - Catherine Parr. Ok, will definitely take time. done 20 dm on body, and grows by 1 cm a day at max.
2. Circular nono, I mean Twisted Floated Shrug KAL!, ok. technically it is only one half sleeve and blocking (and a million of threads to fasten). But, then, I have a big belly, so Im going to add short-rows in the front. Definitely a brain-problem there, or is it? Im walking "almost" every day.
3. Hanne Falkenberg KAL Studio 9. I have done one triangle. 99% needs to be done.
4. Green Silk- Definitely the summer knit sweater, started, sleeves done. Simple and nice.
5. Bergå- brown swedish with embroydery and take-away sleeves. Done west, and both sleeves half-way. Now I need to figure out how Im going to attach them, so it is both with, and without sleeves and look great. Then it needs embroydery, and maybe add extra length...own pattern, so nothing is for granted.
6. Of course I will finish a BOHUS this year. The yellow lace-collar. I have just started on the neck, so it is 2 month hard work.
7. Enterlac one (matchmaker merino) that needs a clever solution on last sleeve, since it is uneven and squares do not match!

8. Enterlac Noro- Malabrigo - Working on getting neck ok, then sleeves. but should be for I should be able to do it rather quick.
9. Then I have my Spinning sweater. I spin, and I knit a square, and I attach it.
10.Ohh I almost forgot my Färgkraft Patent (brioche) two-colour on one-thread cardigan (my forever shirt, named after one row (twice) took 40 minutes!). one half front, two sleeves, collar. A month with hard work.
11. Ishager sweater in Östergötland Wool-spinnery yarn. Also a summer month knit. See picture:
12. Definitely finish my TWO but at least one of the machine knitted sweaters, and fix it to a wearable status.
12 (oops) The Noro Shinano-sweater. Sleeves done,. Might rip them when body is done...This is th
e UFO list...
but, I also have a "if time is given" extra list of new stuff: X1: Faroese sweater - have not chosen which. X2: Islandic cardigan. Patter ok, but color? X3. IK Winter is just great. Which.. or is it another Bohus?
I will do my best. I will not promise order. I might do anything inbetween, like the Faroese shawl, like the Birch to my Aunt, like finishing my alpaca Lavian mittens, like a couple of great socks. But, Ill try to be a good girl and do this challenge. That would be fun. AND Im doing Project spectrum KAL 2.0. Í will just GO for it. What a year.At least the following trips are planned: Marseille (France). Korea, London (UK), Montreal (Can), Dusseldorf (Ger), and US.

More of that 2nd Luxury yarn-(book )case

You see more of that islandic yarn top shelf. Really itches to do the cardigan free pattern on that. Islandic sweaters are really quick knits and all on cicular with very rewarding pattern.On the second shelf to the right, you see the lime colour in the Lett-Lopi, pre-fabricated. You know Im so into Lime. And my plan was to use that with any left-overs from the other yarn (if it fits). The rest of that shelf is so filled to the brim. There is from top left: Angora merino from Gepard in Lime, Angora.merino from Henrichsens wool spinnery (in Denmark). There is also a little yello plastic bag with fur-thread from Norway. And I found a whole bag of angora hording collection I showed most of you yesterday. Then there it is a FIND. First from dearest Gudrun in Enköping. Where I learned how to spin. She raised angora-goats for a while. This is her colouring (she also does colour courses), and it is spun by Wåhlsteds many years ago. It is turqoise and white, and to my luck she said she sold some to "Hemslöjden" and I think it was just one week later, I found it in Uppsala Hemslöjd, just on that little corner, on sale. I just bought it all! How fantastic (red!). Snuck to the Lett-lopi are those Cashmere yarn from La Drougerie. In perspective, it did felt like a rip-off. But how soft it is. Below is scatterd finds from yarnsales. I think I was rather early in capturing the great yarn, before the knitting-boom have caught on. Next shelf is a lot from my UK shopping spree at Knitting and Stiches show.. Some alredy winded, some wating for what to become. In plastic are the Egg - Bohus pattern, and the Yellow-lace colour (divided to left yellow and right white), Bohus pattern both from Solveig of course. Here is all sorts of silk, yak, Nikolaj yarn and Lornas lace hanging in front.In that mess, who probably would look great if spread out, is quit a collection of Solveig's practice colouring yarn. Practice makes perfect is so true in her case! You know she is trying to recreate the original Bohus, and she has really become a master of colouring, thus she does not quit until she got the right colours. She sells her experiments, and I definitely buy them. Great to have a very nuanced colorscheme to work with. Underneath you can get a glimpse of the handcoloured Kempe yarn from Gammelvala. For years I have been dragging my husband and his family (who lives in Arvika) to this event nearby, and really gone mad in their colours.Well, here is the last two shelfs. Both my color experiments, but most from Gammelvala. The yarn they use are not the best, but ok, it is Kempe's. It is all done in the old ways. With collected dye from plants. I guess, purple is something else. But here are at least 3 great sweaters waiting for their making. I have planned one in purple (only) aran. One in the "fall" teal, yellow, mustard colours, and one in the green nuances with some yellow. The next shelf is my Mohair from Svalan and Älands Mohair. Both looped in lime and blue, and then the kid-mohair in purple and so on. On the right, hey, what is on the right there in plastic? Don't know (yet). The bottom shelf (hardly visible) are 20 packs of Jaeger Shetland Tweed woold in some weird turqouise light blue (for the rinding cable jacket in LoopdLoop). To the right white? And below for sure is Alpacka from Garntjänst, in blue (sale). One of the cheapest internet providers of yarn. But occassionally great finds (too much acrylic blends for me though).Finally in yesterdays blog-hopping, I found 2007 Project spectrum (Lolly). Im so in. Difficult colours, but that is a challenge in itself. "Must finish the Queen first"...Also thinking about "Knitting from Stash 2007". Do you not agree that would be good for me?? But a short quote from the rules (and the fact I just mailed Solveig for more Bohus knit-kits):
"We will not buy any yarn during that period, with the following exceptions:
2.a. Sock yarn does not count. What? You think we are made of stone?
2.b. If someone asks for a specific knitted gift that we really and truly do not have the yarn for, we may buy yarn to knit that gift.
2.c. If we are knitting something and run out of yarn, we may purchase enough to complete the project.
2.d. We each get one "Get Out of Jail Free" card -- we are each allowed to fall off the wagon one time....."
You can see how I fail on the first sentence of the rules. Now you have seen my really "expensive" yarn book-case...Somehow I know there is a stach of Camel yarn in-there in brown from Italy. But Im a bargain shopper. Yarnvulture. That is my name. And maybe Yarn dragon would be better, since I cherish every ball like my jewels in my collected treasure. So, Yarn-cave was quite a good name Mary!