Bye bye Sweden

Yesterday was the last day at work and today I've returned laptop, phone and keys. It felt a little weird to say goodbye to my work since 5 years, both sad to leave such a fun job and excited about what's to come.
Sat on the bus I'm starting to feel bubbly excited! I'm not sure I've taken in what I'm doing. I'm leaving my country, my job, my family and my home. I'm going to become an immigrant, lost in a new world. Even though Sweden and UK are fairly similar western countries there are so many differences, not many big ones, but endless of small ones. The word 'please' doesn't have an equivalent in Swedish and I might appear rude because of a cultural difference in our languages. I'm trying hard to remember to say 'please' all the time.

There's a lot of snow on the Swedish west coast and I think I'm going miss it a little, even though my feet are constantly cold in the winter. I enjoy winter for about two weeks a year, then I it's time for spring. I've had my two weeks now and it feels ok to leave it. I'm also leaving rain from the side (backside of living on the coast), I might even get an umbrella now. Umbrellas are useless when on the windy coast but handy in London.

The (not so) glamorous hotel life

I've now been living in hotels for the last week, except for the weekend when I slept on my brother's sofa. I long for a home. I wouldn't mind staying in a hotel for two weeks on a vacation, but between flats while moving is not a glamorous existence.
I have a very limited amount of space in my bags, and thus very limited choice of clothes. I have my book, my knitting and a couple of tv channels to keep me company. The extra blanket turned out to match my knitting perfectly.

I've started to think about things I'm going to miss when I leave Sweden. Not much springs to mind, except lingonberries!

Sweden and UK are a lot similar or at least near similar in many ways. There's no big differences, but a lot of small ones. I'll probably find a lot of things that I either miss or absolutely don't miss. It'll be fun to see what actually makes that list. And some things I'll just have to bring, like lingonberries and semlor. I had to buy a semla today to make sure I got one before I leave.

Homeless

I left my flat to my tenant 4 days ago and I'm now staying in hotels and on my brother's sofa for the reminder of the time until I fly over to my new home in London. It's mixed feelings leaving my home of 5 years and letting someone else use my furniture. It feels great to be on my way, but I feel a lot more vulnerable as I don't have my own home for two weeks. I choose to do this myself and it feels very good to not having to think about the flat anymore. All I have to do now is finish up at work and then I'm ready to go in 9 days. Excitement overload!
Luckily I have my Nutkin socks to work on in the evenings. First sock is 2 rows from bind off and I'm very pleased with the result. It's the first time I'm knitting socks and it's surprisingly easy and fun. Hopefully the second sock will last all the way to next Friday because I can't get toy other yarn or needles to start something new.

Podcasts

I've been trying a bunch of podcasts to find a couple of them I like. The first one I stumbled upon was the Swedish podcast Stickpodden with Elin and Karin on the Swedish east coast. It's knitting, it's life, it's what's on their minds and it's great. After a long period of no doing anything yarn related I found Stickpodden and got my inspiration back. I often laugh at similarities with my own life since their in my age and in the same part of life as me, makes me wish I did a podcast as well.

Recently I've also started to listen to the Yarniacs podcast, two women in California talking about their knitting and what kinks and tricks they've found on their way. When I've looked at their finished knittings at Ravelry I'm amazed how they manage to juggle job, family, home, training and amazing knitting on only 24 hours a day! Very sweet podcast that's easy to listen to while knitting or on the commute. Right now I'm having a podcast marathon while packing my flat into boxes, it's 50+ episodes to catch up on!

Those two are my favourites right now, although I need to find more podcasts to listen to and I should probably diversify a little and find a podcast about something else than knitting and yarn. There's a lot of podcasts out there, takes a lot of listening before finding the pearls.

This weekend I'll try out the iMake podcast. A girl from the Channel Islands talk about various crafts in a lovely Brittish accent. Hopefully it'll keep me focused on packing and emptying my flat. The new tenant arrives next weekend.

Distracting needles

My needles are very distracting while packing. I'm just done with the body on a Sprig sweater and started the first arm but put it down for a week because my gauge was slightly off when I got on the doublepointed needles. 

I also needed the time to knit the hat Lina for A for xmas. Lina was an easy knit that took just a few days to knit, the pattern wasn't selfexplanatory and I had to look for notes in other projects to help me get it right. A was very pleased with the hat and so was I. Great project when short on time and in need of a gift or a hat for yourself.

I've been knitting on an easy side project for a while, but I'm not very fond of knitting with this yarn, it slips off the needles way too easy. Entrelac is a rather fun technique but the yarn is not fun to knit with. I've just finished my second Grey Gardens headband, I love that pattern. Entrelac and a turban twist makes it exciting. Now I'm just waiting for some snow to match it with.

Countdown

The new year has just about started and the countdown for my move to London has hit T-27 days. My flat is being packed down into boxes, everything I own is sorted into bring, storage, charity, trash or 2nd opinion. The first bag of my stuff just landed in London, the remaining bags are on the floor in the living room, waiting to be filled. The hardest part will be to choose what yarn, needles, patterns and various yarn related tools to bring along.

This blog is intended to be about my adventures in London, mainly yarn related but also dancing and exploring a great city and being an expat and possibly other exciting things coming my way.


Checklist

A place to live - check
Letting the flat - check
Flight booked - check
Temp leave from work - check
Pack all stuff - in progress
Find a knitting group - check
Job in London - searching

On my needles
Sprig sweater
Snow white entrelac headband