Pósturinn "Allur pakkinn"

Ranting mode on:
Here in Iceland the Post Office, Íslandspóstur has this slogan, Pósturinn, allur pakkinn, roughly translated it means the Post Office "All the package" supposedly meaning their very good service. I would like to offer them a new one, Pósturinn "where is the package?"
What happened is this, in October I ordered two skeins of lace yarn from the Wollemeise, one for a Mystery KAL that started late October and another one just to pet :-)
In late October there was no package and I had to use another yarn, I just figured out that there must have been some delay, this often happens with packages from Germany, since they send them more often than not by ground mail.
In November I was getting pretty tired of waiting and still no package, then I got an email from Claudia the Wollemeise asking if I had not wanted the yarn after all because she had just gotten it returned to her.
I told her that I had been waiting and that the Post Office had told me it had not arrived. She gave my the tracking number and armed with that I phoned the Post Office information desk, where I was promptly told that a package with this tracking number hand arrived and since they had not gotten any invoice for the goods they had returned it to sender after the required waiting period.
When asked who was the recipient they told me a name of a person that I have never heard of and was certainly not written on the package. The conclusion was that by some glitch the package had been entered into the computer system wrongly and they were really sorry.
I wrote to Claudia and told her what had happened and she was so kind to offer to send my the package again without me paying additional postage. This was on December 4th, on December 17th I received a request for invoice and send it right away, thinking that I would get the yarn the next day. Not so, after the package was processed for delivery on the 17th of December no one has seen it and it can't be found anywhere.
Now they have given up on looking for the package and are filing it as lost and if I am lucky I will get a dollar or two in compensation.
I wish I could change to another service but oh no, this is the only one here for regular mail so I am stuck with it, their service is going so fast downhill that you have to be on your toes to actually get your package delivered, six times this past two months the delivery people have not bothered to ring the bell and actually deliver the package but have put a notice in the mail box that nobody was at home, witch was not the case.
I would suggest that the overzealous marketing gurus would try to get familiar with the workings of the system they are peddling instead of coming up with empty slogans that promise everything and deliver little.

Ranting mode off:
on the knitting front I have finished clue #4 of the Spring shawl sureprice and it is looking very pretty, the photo is lousy as usual but this gives at least the general idea.

Progress Report and RSC 2008 here I come

Regarding my January goals I am managing slowly to work towards them, since they include a lot of lace this is no speed knitting so I am fairly happy about my progress so far. I have started and finished the clues that are up on Spring Shawl sureprice, I have started the Civil War Shawl and I am also current on that one, I have knit more then the riquired sock for January and they where knit from stash.

I am also knitting on the Peacock feathers shawl but not much progress there and I have found both yarn and pattern for an Aran sweater that is going to be either for my brother or my oldest son. I am also knitting a hooded baby sweater for my grand daughter out of Smooshy from Dream in Color and I opted for the 2 year size since she is a big baby ( 10 kilos at 6 months ).

I also managed with the help of one of my best friends to buy the membership for the Rocking Sock Club 2008, she is a great enabler and since I was feeling sorry for myself and my now closed CC she put up the bulk of the money for the club, ( Note to self: Remember to knit her a lot of goody things this year )
No pictures of my knitting this week only of the cat where he demonstrates his excellent taste in yarn by taking up residence in a basket with balls of cashmere and silk yarn.

camouflage socks

My oldest son wants a new hunting sweater, he accidentally put his old one that I knit many years ago into the washer at much to high temperature and it now would fit a 10 year old. He was asking about camouflage yarn but I am not going to buy yarn for a sweater so I said that I could knit him socks in such yarn and here they are.

I have also started the Spring shawl sureprice and I am 20 rows into that one using Creme Brulee yarn in Spring grass from the Yarn Chef on Etsy.

Two red monkeys

I just finished the red monkey socks I was knitting, so more yardage towards the January knit a mile goal. Now I have to decide on what to do next...

January knit a mile challenge

In the Stash Knitdown in 2008 there is a January knit a mile challenge, actually it runs for six weeks ending on February 19th. I started the challenge with Monkey socks and then moved on to Garter Rib socks and now I am off to knit more Monkey socks. When they are done, I am casting on more of the shawls I have in my January coals and I guess I end up with more than a mile in the six weeks of the challenge mixing shawl knitting and sock knitting.

Look who came for a visit

Yesterday my son, his wife and my six month old granddaughter came for a visit, since they life in Akureyri in the north of Iceland I don't get to see them too often.


While visiting Dagjört Rós became hungry and was very happy to get some food as you can see.


On the knitting front I have now logged one Ikea box into Ravelry so that part of my January goal is down. I am also knitting a Monkey sock that will take care of my one sock of the month goal.
I have also not bought yarn since the 31 of December, that was pretty hard to resist today as Posh Yarn had their Sunday update and they had some colors and yarn that I really wanted.

A new year and a new post

Happy new year to all my friends near and far and I hope that 2008 will be a good one for all of you.
I have been busy knitting and getting my craft room under control and uploading some of my stash into Ravelry. That task is far from done but I have high hopes to finish it before spring :-)
I finished the Mystic Waters shawl today and it was a pleasure to knit, I knit it in Creme Brulee from the Yarn Chef on Etsy and it was amazing to knit with and came out even prettier than I excpected.
I am on the last clue in the Mystery Shawl #6 from Goddess Knits and it is a very simple and elegant pattern, I choose to make that in Icelandic yarn called Kambgarn and it is a fairly heavy shawl but will be warm.
When I am done with that shawl I will try to spend a little time organizing my future knitting and the KALs and Mysteries that I am participating in.
Everything that requires needles below 3.5 mm or there about is out for now because my hands can't handle any smaller except for my sock needles that I have bent into shape to suite my hands and don't hurt me at all, at least if I don't go overboard on sock knitting.
I have made a few new years resulutions regarding my knitting and stitching and hope to stick to at least some of them, so I didn't make them to hard to do :-) So here goes:

• Don't buy yarn unless I have to, to finish a project or something like that
• Don't buy any cross stitch materials the only exception being the series from SamSarah and Lizzy Kate that have monthly installments.
  
• List my stash on Ravelry and get rid of yarn that I don't want any more. To be able to do this I bought a McMorran scale to be able to estimate the yardage on yarn that has no information about yardage and such on it. This will help me shop my stash as I will know if I have enough for a project or not.
• Finish all my mystery knitting and Knit A Longs that I am participating in as far as I am able to.

For January I made a seperate list with smaller goals sort of sub goals

• Put at least a one box worth of stash on Ravelry from the Ikea storage boxes that I have, I thought that I had only 14 but I counted them and *blush* they turned out to be 18, and I won't start any project with yarn that has not been put into my stash on Ravelry.
  
• Start the Spring Shawl Surprice, I have the yarn ready to go on that one and the first clue is out.
• Start the Secret of the Stole #2 that will start later this month and I am also all set with yarn and needles for that one.
• Start the January Knit A Long on the Victorian Lace To Day group on Yahoo and its sister group on Ravelry. I am not quite sure what pattern I choose but I have yarn for all four of the patterns that we can choose from
  
• Knit a sock in January with my sock a month group on Ravelry, and also use that as the project for the Socks from Stash club KAL on Blogspot.
• Start the Dem fischer sin fru mystery KAL, I have the yarn ready and I am all set to start later this month.
  
• Start the Civil War shawl KAL
• Start the Pretty as a Peacock KAL that is starting now, I have specially dyed yarn from the Yarn Chef and it is just waiting to be started. I am also on the KAL blog for this shawl so I will post there as well.
• Find yarn and pattern for an Aran Sweater for my brother and maby start on that a little if I find anything he likes.
• Start the Peacock Feathers shawl from Fiddlestick that has a KAL going on Ravelry
  

Note that I only said start those things, nothing about keeping up even tho the end goal is to finish along the same time as everybody else or as close to as possible.

Hopefully when the weather gets warmer my hands will allow me to start both the Princess shawl and the Lyra by Niebling, but until then the yarn and the needles for that will have to wait.
Well I will keep you posted on how this goes as far as the goals I have set but I have as always high hopes and there is all of January left so I am optimistic.