Knittacias blog

All handmade things on Etsy!

2009-08-02T13:47:00.007+02:00

It is great looking at all the wonderful things people are making at Etsy.com. Like these cat-beds in Likekittysvill´s shop. That is so much more stylish than the regular cat-beds I see.

And IndyRtist have these adorable children´s Adirondack chairs.

These pretty earrings was spotted in friedasophie´s shop.

The clothes from gaiaconceptions are among my favorites. I have a two of her pieces.

Knitting and sewing in July!

2009-07-28T18:41:00.004+02:00

I have been quite optimistic when I made myself a sunhat early this month. Not a lot of blue sky I am afraid. Maybe sometime soon.

But I was very happy with how it turned out. It is a great design and the pattern was well written. But there is more work than I thought it would be. I would maybe have done it in a larger size cause the fit is quite tight,

I have done some weaving, too. This is my third scarf/shawl. And I used a lace/cobweb handpainted yarn in merino and silk on the 12 dent reed on my Schacht Flip.

Almost a year has gone by!

2009-04-09T10:08:00.002+02:00

Not much going on in my blog this past year I´m afraid. Why? There have been a lot of other activities and I have sort of not been inspired to post. Also, I have not been knitting all that much. I am not going to dwell on this - just state that I just did not have much blog luster this past year.So how about knitting? I have actually done some knitting, but haven't publish

ed any of it. So I am not going to try remember what I´ve made, but go straight to what I´ve knitted these past weeks. This is it:

In the norwegian yarn from Garnstudio - Eskimo, I have knitted a cardigan for myself. I did not use any pattern, but made a top-down construction so that I could try on as I knitted to figure out the right shaping. I knitted on 6 mm needles, witch is a bit small needles for this yarn. That makes the cardigan very compact and a bit heavy I´m afraid. I did it this way because I have experienced this yarn to not look good after some use. It is extremely warm, so it is nice to put on when I am cold. I have done a crochet edging and made loops for buttons. Also on the arms.

My next garment is also a cardigan for me. It is a Kim Hargreaves design from her book Amber. The design is named Beth, and it is an A-line coat in double moss stitch. Knitting this I used the yarn suggested in the pattern - Rowan Big Wool. Actually I frogged a sweater I made in December 2006 that I pictured here. It was not a good design for me - too big and it looked awful on me. But I did not have enough yarn to make the cardigan so I made shorter arms. I would have liked them to be longer because it looks better, but it is very practical to have the shorter arms.

I also have finished finger mittens for my daughter, and for myself. I used the book "the knitters handy book of patterns to make them. For my daughters mittens I used my handpainted yarn that I have for sale in my shop Spinnulla. And for the adult mittens I used Baby Llama yarn from Mirasol. The adult mittens was knitted with my own addjusted pattern.

Also I made "blånissevotter" - blue felted mittens for my daughter. And since she was in the bath tub trying out her new swimsuit when I wanted to take a picture, that gives a really odd situation for wearing mittens.

My sister gave birth to a baby girl a few weeks ago, so now I have been inspired to do some baby knits. First was a pair of booties, pictured together with the purple cardigan.

And just recently I finished the fames Elizabeth Zimmerman pattern Baby surprise Jacket in my handpainted yarn. And on my needles right now is a matching hat.

Oh, yes, right! It is once again that time of year when we are decorating with yellow.

Knitting and glutenfree bakeing

2008-06-06T08:11:00.006+02:00

By now you should think I had finished quite a lot of projects, but unfortunately I did not. I finished my handspun socks a while ago that is on display in my spinning-blog, and I started on a knitted dress for my daughter in a new yarn named Føn from Gjestal in bamboo/cotton yarn.

When I had reached the waist my daughter asked me what it was. Then I told her it was going to be a dress for her, expecting her to be happy. But her response was: "Mom...I would like it to be a skirt, because I want a skirt..." Oh well....I guess I will have to make it into a skirt then. So now I have been thinking about how to knit the waist. And I just think have found a solution for it. I will do some experimenting and show off the outcome later on.

Todays good knitting-news is that we now have 50% knitters in our home, because my daughter has learned how to knit. She is doing very well I think and I am mighty proud of her (off course). She wanted to knit a skirt for her doll Fia. So we picked out a fun yarn from Lornas Laces that I had in my stash and started on a easy square. I did some rows in between so that she would not lose her motivation. And then I added a row of k2tog, yo before casting off. When I told my daughter she needed to make one more for the back, she said to me: "Mommy, you can do it, because I can´t knit that fast yet. and it is taking a long time before it is done. When I am older, then I can knit faster!" So I finished the back. Sewed the two square together and made crochet ruffled edge in a solid pink alpaca and a band for the waist.

My daughter was happy, I was too, but Fia still have that same surprised look on her face :-)
Obviously, she need something on the upper body!

My adjustment to a gluten free, dairy free, yeast free life have it´s ups and downs. Some days I am very much upset and screams for a magic pill so that I can eat whatever food I want. And other days I look at my options and make something tasty. Like the waffles above. I bought a new waffle-maker, and it has been very popular. The big French waffles tastes awful good.

Our celebration of the Norwegian National Day was a food-success as well. On the picture above is my daughter and a friend of ours (Hilde), and you can probably tell that they are looking into another camera than mine. Eating out on this day would be a bit troublesome with all the needs I have, so we invited some friends to our home. I made brownies, rullekake, marsipankake and kromkake (I don´t know any English translation for does cakes). For the marsipankake I have used soya-cream inside, and it worked out very well.

Here are all the kromkake I made to go with the ice-cream and strawberry's we had for dessert.
And everything was safe for me and my son (who can´t have dairy) to eat.

Here is another picture of our daughter in a "bunad". But unfortunately it is not a real one, but one of the many you can by in a regular shop. She will have a real bunad when she gets older.

And finely, here is a picture that illustrate what beautiful days we have had recently. The summer all of a sudden arrived and the kids are enjoying them selfs outside. Here we have one of those rare situation where they are sitting quietly and reading books. In the middle is our neighbors daughter.

A new blog!

2008-04-21T19:54:00.002+02:00

I have a new blog in Norwegian dedicated to spinning yarn and related subjects.
As for now I will be writing it in Norwegian, but I might do a mix later.

The new blog is at www.spinnulla.wordpress.com

Work, work, work!

2008-04-05T19:47:00.004+02:00

That is way I´m not blogging.
It was supposed to be a small part-time job, but it has been a very uneven distributed work hours. Because almost everything is happening during a 2-week period it has been more than a full-time job. But from now on I will not be working crazy hours. Maybe I can even have some time knitting and spinning....

My shop is still up and running, but the technical part is a challenge. The new blog and the pages I made at www.spinnulla.no with mac software is really hard to update, so I am not able to do anything with the pages before my DH find a way of solving it, that is - have the time to figure it out. Maybe I will have to hire someone to do it...or I might just have to give up the iWeb software and do it "the hard way". That is do my own programming in Dreamweaver or something. It is just that I have not been doing much of it the last 5 years, so it will take a lot of time to learn and figure out. That is what I like about mac-software. It is so easy to make smashing looking pages with no hassle. The problem seems to be when you want to publish or integrate with something that is not part of the mac-family. At least that is the case for iWeb. When it comes to iWork it is doing pretty nice exporting and importing from Office.

OK, this is supposed to be a blog about knitting and not software! Anyway I have not been knitting much, but I have done some crochet. I am trying to make one of the new Stitch Diva designs "Hourglass jacket". This is a fun design, and I had to buy 15 mm knitting needles to be able to do the broomstick stitch. For some reason I started making the smallest size thinking it was size Small, but as I connected the fronts to the back I realized it was very tight around my arms (this is a top down construction). Then I looked at the pattern and found out I was following the instructions for a size XS. So I had to start all over again. And now I am down to the waist. The picture is me working on the jacket outside in the beautiful days we had during our Ester vacation. It was a bit cold so I tried crochet with gloves on, but that really complicated it all :-)

My shop is opened!

2008-03-10T09:03:00.004+01:00

It has been a very long journey to put together my shop www.spinnulla.no. The whole thing started in the Fall 2005 and the Company was registered February 11 2006. But at this time my health got a lot worse and I had to put the whole project on hold, for a while. I have been a little back and forth on weather we should open it or not, but since we already had invested quite a lot of money in it we came to the conclusion that we would give it a try.

The reason I in the first place wanted to start Spinnulla, was that back in 2005 I could not find much information about spinning in Norway and there was no shops where I could buy equipment. Since then, things have happened. There is one other shop and even a Spinning Community. And I can see a growing interest for the art of spinning. Witch is good!

So this is why my knitting and blogging has been so far behind. I would not have dreamed of how much work it would be to start a shop and all the challenges that comes along. If I knew what I had gotten myself into....

Spinnulla is meant for Norwegian spinners so everything will be in Norwegian language. There is even a new blog there.

But now I will need to call the doctor, because the fever I have had for the last 6 days don´t seem to go away.

A 107 year long life has come to an end!

2008-02-28T13:04:00.003+01:00

My mother said "we can´t expect having her around forever", but somehow she has become the one we always expected to have around. When my great grandmother turned 100 years old we had a big party for her and thought it was amazing she had turned the 100. Then the years went by and she had her 101, 102, 103, 104, 105 and 106th birthday. I was lucky to go visit her this past summer, together with my kids and parents. It was just amazing meeting her again. She still had a good sense of humor and a very charismatic personality. According to an article in the newspaper in 2004, she had 33 greatgreatgrandchildren. Above is a picture of her from July 2007 next to her granddaughter (my mother) and one of her greatgreatgranddaughter (my daughter).

And here is a picture of me, the kids and the amazing 106 year old Hilda. I am very thankful for having her around for such a long time. A bit sad that she has spoken her last words, but happy for her because she was very tired now. Thank you for all the good years, greatgrandma!

After that it is a bit hard to go back to the crafts. But here is a picture of my new spinning wheel. I will talk more about it later.

And her is a picture of my daughter hiding behind a skein of yarn I have dyed. She wanted me to start knitting from it right away.

My handdyed yarns!

2008-02-17T17:31:00.005+01:00

I just re-skeined the pink yarn and figured it was time for some pictures of my handpainted BFL. I like these colors and it is the first time I have dyed with Landscape dyes.

I will be doing some more dying this upcoming week.

Thank you, for all the comments on the January-post. I was not aware of them all.

Yes, I will be selling a little yarn soon. I will get back to that soon!

It´s about time I blog...

2008-02-17T13:57:00.014+01:00

So where do I begin...I think I will start with my only finished knitting. It was started in October. The pattern is easy and I only used two skeins, but I have not been very good at finishing anything lately. I have started working and I am busy with a spinning-related "event". I will tell more about it, soon.

Pattern: One Row Handspun Scarf by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

Yarn: Artfibers Kyoto in green (don´t remember the color name/number)

Needles: 5 mm straight rosewood Lantern Moon.

I have been looking at all the lovely fibers and yarns over at Ravelry and finally had to ´ trow in the blanket` and order some lovely hand blended batts from the redhead and her shop Red Stone yarns. The purple is 20% silk, 80% merino and a dash of Angelina. And the green is alpaca and silk. They are very lovely and I could just keep them like this without having to do anything with them, but then again I really wanted to try them, too.

And here is the purple spun and made into a 2ply. It is skeined up on my new Niddy Noddy I made myself. I am very happy with this new home made accessory. It does not have the looks of the more fancy ones, but it works just perfect. It gives me 180 cm long skeins.

I have done some spinning lately. Here is the purple 2 ply from above and the other bobbins are commercial blended merino-silk, too. The pink is very bright pink and my daughter want me to make her a scarf from it. What a surprise :-)

Here is another picture of the purple 2-ply.

And the Seamist colored 2ply.

And the so very pink 2-ply.

And here they are again together with a few other skeins of handspun and the last two at right is handdyed yarns. All hanging to dry. From left to right: 2-ply white merino (16 micron and unbelievably soft), the three skeins of merino-silk from above, 2ply bulky Norwegian wool, almost solid handpainted and last a handpainted in shades of pink (both DK weight Blue faced leicester). I hang them up in our office and HE pointed out "I guess I will have to move out of here soon". I do like having him around, but it sure would be nice to have more space here, too.

And so the spinning goes on...

2008-01-21T20:06:00.001+01:00

It has been a lot of fibers and spinning lately. I have done one more dyeing-experiment.

This time I tried out the "kettle-dyeing". I was thinking having a shaded bright red, but ended up with a solid red. It is a nice color and the wool came out very nice and not so compact as the first time I dyed. I think I can get better at this with time.

Some new things has reached my home, too. Here is a new ball winder, from the fabulous Strauch Fiber Equipment Co. Along with it came a drum-carder:

So as soon as the kids where in bed I started exploring it.

First I tried out a 50-50 blend of blue merino with natural white alpaca.

I just did one pass trough the carder. It was so fluffy and weightless, that I just had to try spinning it right away. What can I say - I was in spinning heaven. My first batt of wool gave me stars in my eyes :-)

The single of alpaca/merino was plyed with two strands of the blue merino into a 3-ply.

But I was still very excited about the batt-making, so I dug in my wool-collection and found a horrible wool top from Lornas Laces that I bought almost two years ago. The reason for it just laying there was the colors and the fact that it was very hard to draft. So I separated the colors and spun up the parts with blue, purple and a little bit of yellow into this purple-blueish fluffy wool.

and the pink and yellow into this candy batt:
I used ´theredhead`s tutorial to make it into roving today:

I have spun some of both blends.

The purple colors does´nt come out right in this picture. I will be make a 2ply of this.

This color is not so accurate either. I will take some new pictures when it is a finished 2-ply.

My first handpainted spinning fiber!

2008-01-10T20:53:00.000+01:00

So I have been planning on doing some dyeing with Jacquard dyes since November, but there just haven't been time for it. It sure takes some time getting all set up for the first time. If I am doing this a lot, I will set up a more permanent room for it. You will need a large table of some kind (my workspace in the kitchen is 1,8 meters long and 0,9 meters deep). This you will have to cover up with plastic unless you want to dye your table as well. Mixing the dyes involves mask and gloves and using cups, and teaspoons and warm water. You also need vinegar. I used only two colors this first time. Yellow and blue. To get the green I mixed equal parts of the first two solutions. I used a sponge to paint with. One for each color. I left some white between the colors thinking it would look nice, but it sort of disappeared when steamed. So if I want the white between I have to leave longer unpainted stripes. This is the first time, so I am supposed to learn from the experience.

So then I rolled the painted wool up and steamed it in a pot with a rack at the bottom. Left it there for about 45 min.

Then I soaked the wool in hot water with some liquid soap. I sure was happy to see these nice colors, because it sure doesn't look nice when you paint the wool.

Following some instructions on line I put the wool through a spin cycle in my washing machine.
It came out looking like it had gotten a perm....and I was worried that I had felted the wool.
This wool is blue faced leicester (BFL) and from what I read this is common for this wool - curling up.Finished drying and rolled up! I am looking forward to spinning this!

And I have done some spinning at the beginning of the new year, too. Here is a collection of some of my handspun! So far I just enjoy looking at it, but I will knit it up eventually.

This is a skein of 1ply Norwegian wool with lanolin. I think I probably need to ply!

I have not done much yarn-shopping lately, but I did order some Harmony Options! I still have not tried them. Soon, very soon, I will!

Knitting progress - not much, but I forgot to tell about my finished Koolhaas in Wollmeise worsted wool. It was finished at least a week before Christmas.

This scarf in Artfibers Kyoto (silk and mohair) is also coming along. It is half way done!

Happy New Year!

2007-12-31T18:01:00.000+01:00

I am still here! It's been rather hectic these last weeks. As usual I was a bit late starting with the preparations for Christmas. And this year we for the first time had guests at our house for the Christmas Eve dinner. Unfortunately we had a not so welcoming guest showing up two days before the big day. It was the Noro Virus! First out was the daddy, and on the Christmas Eve it was our son. So he missed both the dinner and opening presents. Then early morning on December 26 it was my turn and the same day also my daughter got ill. Two days ago was the first day all of us was feeling OK. And what happened with our guests. Well they came and had a great time on Christmas Eve, but 3 out of 4 of them got the virus, too, I am afraid. Oh, well that can happen! And now we are all just fine and really looking forward to the Fireworks.

And now, there has not been as much spinning and knitting as I was hoping for, but I have done a little knitting. I am working on the Log Cabin blanket and I have made a neck warmer for my son.I just knitted this without a pattern. Here is some info about it:
Yarn: Lornas Laces Swirl DK
Color: Lakeview
Needles: 3.75 mm circular for the rib and 4 mm double pointed for the raglan front and back
Casted on 72 sts.

I also made these two cat mouses that I sent as a Christmas gift for my sisters cats. They have been knitted with some yarn I have spun.

The coming year is going to be very exciting I think. I am in good shape and have big plans for the coming months.

I wish you all a Happy New Year!

Spinning fun with colors!

2007-12-11T09:48:00.000+01:00

I have done some more spinning. Who knows what happens with Christmas this year...there will be nothing but wool for decorations this year :-) The Concord colored marino-silk yarn came out very nice. It is light fingering - almost lace weight yarn. 59 grams and 210 meters with about 16 WPI.

It is very hard to describe the color. I t is blue with purple and some silver spots, I think. Very different and pretty. Will be interesting to try out a lace pattern with this.

So I have been spinning so much that our cat figured she just had to jump in on my lap while I was spinning. She probably loves the movement, but it makes it a bit harder for me to spin!

Have I had some fun with colors or what? This is the hand painted BFL I bought on Etsy a month ago. I split the roving into about 8 pieces and spun onto two bobbins. I used my slow flyer with the 7.5:1 ratio.

Then I plied it on my Jumbo flyer with 3.5:1 ratio, but that was a bit too slow. I had to treadle fast to get enough twist! But it sure gave me a larger skein.

This is the finished skein, washed and dried and re-skeined. It gave 107 grams and approximately 157 meters with 10 WPI.

I am spinning on my drop spindles, too. They are great for testing new fibers. This is my first go on Soysilk!

And while I was doing some moving around things here, I found some of the Norwegian wool I bought a while ago. When I spun with it I soon realised there was a lot of lanolin in it. My fingeres got very nice and soft :-)

So then I could spin again!

2007-12-04T11:54:00.000+01:00

Why do I not believe that I will be a "full-time" quilter? There is just too many operations involved. And it makes more mess. There is like a lot of different stations you have to move between during the process. Ironing - drawing - cutting - sewing - then back to ironing. There where a lot of small pieces in this project and it took some time sewing it all together, but is was the stitching that was the most time-consuming part.

Late evening the day before December 1 I had it hanging with two wrapped gifts. It is not quite finished. I still need to sew on pearls and buttons and it was supposed to have some more quilting around the edge. But I had a hard time doing the actual quilting, because I had never done this before so I might do it by hand for next year. The kids are happy. I am afraid they are more (or maybe more correctly ONLY) interested in the gifts than in the calendar. But I am so happy I made it and I am even more happy that I can do other crafts for the rest of this year.

For two weeks ago we went to a Christmas market at one of our neighbors house. There was a lot of nice handcrafted items for sale and we ended up buying this gingerbread basket. Someone is reaching for yet another gingerbread.

And then I could spin again. First up is some sample of angora that I got from one of my new spinning-friends Rhonna. I used a Cascade spindle weighing 20 grams and it gave me a 2 ply yarn with 18 WPI. So this is my first lace-weight yarn.

Here it is lined up with the single tread at the right, the two-ply in the middle and the full skein on the left. I would really like to try out more angora.

Next I spun some ecru BFL( Blue Faced Leicester) that I wanted to ply with some multicolored merino I had spun earlier. For plying two full bobbins of 1-ply, I will need to change to the Jumbo-flyer. And it means some effort since I will have to change the front maiden as well, so I end up spinning half full bobbins instead. Oh well, I guess these are less than half-full.

I think it looks nice. It is like a modern version of raggsokk-yarn (one white and one gray traditional Norwegian sock-yarn).
And here I have winded it on the home-made Niddy-Noddy I made this weekend. I have a nice wooden Niddy-Noddy but it make very small skeins. But I guess I was over-doing it for this one :-)

After washing and drying it was time for weighing the final skein of yarn. Not very much - 43 grams. And I measured 12 WPI, so it means it is a light worsted weight yarn.

It is hard to capture the colors in a photo. But on this close up you can see that there is a lot of different colors in this yarn.

When one project is off the wheel, I off course had to start a new one. This time it is with a merino-silk blend in a very attractive color-blend called concord. It is bluish purple with silver I think. I am excited to see how the finished yarn will look like, but this time I will spin a full bobbin. One last spinning update from me: This very small peace of yarn is very special. I was cuddling my cat when I noticed that there was some shedding. So I groomed her and had a very small amount of wool in my hand. Being a eager spinning adventurer I of course had to try spinning it. And so I did. With a lite weight Greensleeves Loki spindle I made a 4ply yarn. I will try to keep grooming my cat and maybe have some more Turkish Angora wool for spinning.

Spinning adventure and more!

2007-11-22T12:09:00.001+01:00

Thank you all for the comments in my last post. There has been little time in front of my computer lately. I went to Lillehammer this last weekend for a spinning class. It was just perfect and I learned a lot and had a great time together with all these enthusiastic spinners. The people at Spinnvilt are very nice and our instructor, Tove, is a very experienced and talented spinner. I tried to pick up as much knowledge as possible.

This is some bouclé yarn made from Mohair, a sewing machine tread and a thin handspun merino. It was so much fun and I am happy with the result. But I had some difficulties with the yarn getting stuck when spinning it.

Here are some more spun yarn. I will need some more practice before I can handle all the methods. It is so amazing how much you can create with a spinning wheel. There are a lot of possibilities. If you would like to find out more, take a look on Toves blog.
Shopping in Lillehammer was very limited. I had to buy something for my kids off course. The only thing for me was this 2008 callendar from Norges Husflidslag. There are one pattern for each month of the year. Oh, I am sorry, almost forgot that I bought some spinning supplies. I will have to take pictures later. It is some acid dyes, wool-cambs, Majacraft Diz and some exotic fibers (soya, bamboo, tencel, ramie...)

Before I went to Lillehammer I finished my third Foliage hat in a child size. Again I am using Wollmeise yarn. To get a smaller hat I used worsted weight yarn, but followed the instructions for the bulky yarn version in the pattern. It is a tight fit, so I could have made it with a larger needles.

Last week I also received another knitting gadget. Its a Knitzi! The perfect storage solution for socks in progress on double pointed needles.
Two days ago another package from far away arrived! More yarn I am afraid :-)
It is a Ravelry-friend, Katrina, that was so nice and bought some yarn for me at the Blue Moon Fiber Art sale. Five skeins of Socks that rock medium weight in very pretty colors. And two skeins in a "grab bag" that I don't know what is. I have never seen anything like it. The shiny one is a ribbon yarn but thinner than I have ever seen before. The other one looks like brushed leather that have been cut in a paper shredder...well it is hard to describe. I will try to knit it to see what happens :-)
Thank you for shopping for me, Katrina!

So what is this? It is my ongoing started-project-without-thinking-nightmare!
A local quilt-store announced a workshop for making a Advent calendar. There is an awful lot of stitching for this project, and I am very, very fed up. But no way this is going to be another UFO. Next Wednesday is our last workshop so I have to finish all the stitching and cutting buy then. And I want it to be finished before December 1! So If I am not blogging so much the next week, you know why!

A guitar for my birthday!

2007-11-11T22:15:00.000+01:00

Today is my birthday , but turning 34 is not so special. Even so I got a very nice birthday gift - a new guitar. The old one has not been playable for a very long time . I am not good at playing, but I am able to play easy things . With some practice I hope to do better and being able to play when other people are around without getting too embarrassed. No I do best when I am alone. I also want to play and sing for my kids. They like that. I want to inspire them to learn to play a n instrument them self as they grow up.

In this picture you can see some progress on my modern log cabin blanket. I am on block 4 and was very happy with the colors, but when I saw this picture I was lifting my eyebrows . It looks like block 4 is knitted in two different colors. I have used two skeins, and I thought it was the same dye-lot. But it sure does not look like it. On Friday I went shopping for more Drops yarn for this blanket, but I had difficulties finding the colors. I went to almost every store in town to find the natural white, but when I came home I realized that it was yellow that was the color for block 5. And I don't have more than one skein of this. But now that I see the different shades in my purple I don't feel like mixing dye-lots in one block.

So today was my birthday, but I have not been having a lazy day. We have put together some book shelves for our living room and then I also had to do a little cleaning up afterwards. But in the afternoon we went to a restaurant for a nice dinner with our kids and our parents .
On the top shelves on this one someone has placed his favorite reading - they are all about Computer science. He is such a geek, and everyone that comes to our home will find it out right away...Oh well, then it is OK that I am a yarn-geek, So maybe I should have my knitting books underneath his books :-)
The three skeins on the table are Drops Silk alpaca in dark purple. I have never tried this yarn, but now when they where on discount I figured I would try making the Koolhaas hat from it.

Last week I got these two lovely handpainted rovings from an Etsy-shop. It is Shetland wool and Blue Faced Leicester. Look forward to spinning with these two, but I will wait until after next weekends spinning-workshop. I hope to be a better spinner after the weekend.

I got some more Wollmeise worsted weight, too. Three colors: Dornröschen, Rosenrot and Campari Orange. I am thinking hats and Christmas-presents :-)

Halloween!

2007-10-29T13:14:00.000+01:00

On Saturday we where invited to a Halloween-party. It is nice when we adults get the chance of dressing up in costumes from time to time. So I bought some simple costumes on a toyshop. I was amazed at how much there is to buy in stores now. It has not been very common to celebrate Halloween in Norway, but during the last years there has been a growing interest for it. So I was trying to look a bit scary.

But that is not so easy to do. And it does not come naturally for this man behind me :-)

He tends to smile...I guess that is a good thing! Not very scary are we?
We had a very fun night and came home late. Sunday was less fun, but I managed....

On Thursday we had a knitting-get-together in Trondheim. And where? At a quilt-shop!
We had a good time, and some even left the place with some new fabrics.

At the Firestarter socks was finished Friday night. So I tried to take some nice pictures of my feet, but that is not easy....
And you can't really see the pattern very well either. But they fit perfectly and I am very happy with the result.
I also finished two other small projects, but I will have to show pictures of them sometime later when the new owner gets it. But I have started on a blanket. I will be my first. It is the pattern form Mason Dixon Knitting. Not really a fun project, so we will see how this ends up.

October sock kit!

2007-10-25T17:24:00.001+02:00

Little spiders on my yarn -iiiik! Puh...they are not alive. This is really the yarn of darkness. I really don't know what I think just yet! It is very much black.

Bad, bad ear - you better start behaving!

2007-10-25T14:34:00.000+02:00

Yes, about that ear of mine. I had to go back to the hospital because the pain was getting worse during the last weeks. It was a reason for that off course. I have an infection in there, so now I am using some ear drops. Hopefully that will help. I do not want another bad infection that will need to be removed by surgery! So, I am telling you my right ear - behave yourself!

I have been doing some cleaning and tidying my home. The old kitchen is full junk I need to get rid of, so that we can start making the room into a useful space. During this process I found a bag with Kool-Aid....yam yam....I want to dye some wool soon. Maybe next week.

Outside my window it is getting rather crowded today. We have hired a company to change our roof. So for the next 2-3 weeks there will be very little privacy around here with people looking inside our windows. So now I was making sure a took pictures of my knitting whitout them seeing it. What would they think? "Why is that woman taking pictures of her feet?"

So the other night as I eagerly was getting closer to finishing my socks something very bad happened. For the first time I had bamboo needles that snapped. These where brand new, too. It is so frustrating....
But soon after it was time to change to larger needles, and then I did not thing much more about it.
I have now finished the pattern and only have a few inches left to knit before casting off. I don't have a lot yarn left either, but enough to finish.

I have done some swatching for another project to.....These colors are supposed to be green, but they look more like grey in the picture.

Weekwnd progress!

2007-10-22T11:45:00.001+02:00

So this weekend has been very good, I think. I have to start this post by showing a picture of my son in a crown he made (with a little help). On Saturday afternoon grandma and grandpa came for a visit too. The kids love to have there grandparents around. Grandma thinks this little one is getting more and more charming for each time they see him. And I will have to agree. He has these amazing face-expressions, so I am thinking he could go into comedy when he grows up! On Saturday I did some more sock-knitting - The Firestarter. And last night I finished the heel-shaping. I am very pleased with how the heel lookes, and it sits very nicely on my feet.

I must admit that I struggled a bit with the cables, and the gusset was going on for a boring long time, when knitting both socks at the same time. The result is awful nice though, so I might do it again.
I have had some more books arriving in my mailbox lately. Creative spinning and Creative weaving has very pretty colorful pictures. Inspiring, but you can't expect to learn so much from these books. I did not expect so either, I have other books for that purpose.

One last none-knitting weekend project to add: Cleaning our house! So what is the big deal about that. Well, I have not been able to do it in a month because of the operation. Our home was a dirty mess. It feels so good having it done, and now I might be able to move a step forward and finding room for all the things that have no place to be. And then next I might be able to organize my knitting stash in a better way.

Foliage in Wollmeise Uluru!

2007-10-17T23:19:00.000+02:00

Finished my Foliage number two. This yarn worked out very well for this!

Some more pictures was taken with a nice happy smile, but the tired red eyes is not so flattering so this one it will be. Since I finished this I have had it on my head. It is very comfortable to wear.

Thank you, Rhonna, for clearing up the confusion about the California Variated Mutant. I should have remembered, it is an awful silly name for a sheep. It makes me think about those Ninja Turtles...

Spinning yarn

2007-10-16T18:04:00.001+02:00

On Friday I went to Kate for a nice social knitting night. I brought my camera but forgot to use it. We had a very nice time. Some progress on my socks, but I have struggled a bit. For some reason I do mistakes all the time. Now I have started on the gussets, so then there will be no cables for a while.

To have something easy to knit while talking I started on a scarf in green Kyoto. I did start on a different pattern very long ago, but no started on another one. This is the third scarf pattern I am trying for this yarn. I think I will just stick with this one.

Saturday I went to Rhonna spinning and talking about spinning. That was so much fun. I had some issues with my spinning wheel, and when trying Rhonna's Majacraft Rose, I felt like I was in spinning-wheel heaven. When I came home I realized there was a piece missing. But it is NOT a Majacraft! I will consider buying a new wheel. Maybe HE can give me one for Christmas?
Rhonna has really gotten into the art of spinning yarn, and had a very large selection of different fibers. She was so kind to make a sample-pack for me, so that I could try some of the fibers I have never tried before.

So here it is: alpaca-corridale, merino-mohair, adult mohair, Shetland, Gotland, New Zealand Lamb merino, Bambyx silk, cvm (don't remember what this was), Blue Faced Leicester, silk caps and Angora. Yes, that is 11 fibers to try out :-) Thank you, very much, Rhonna!

Today I spun the first one. It is a very pretty blue merino-mohair. I used a light-weight spindle. Later I will make a 2 or 3 ply. The wool was fine to spin when I did a little pre-drafting. This was my first time spinning on a spindle in a very long time. It was fun! I am very happy that I can manage to spin both on a spindle and a wheel.

I had another Wollmeise delivered yesterday. The sock yarn in the pretty Poison nr. 5 and the worsted weight in the brown-read Uluru color. I new right away that the last had to be knit up as my second Foliage Hat.

And today I have done some progress. Not far from finished. I am guessing the Ravelry really makes me want to knit. I have done some update on my Ravelry-notebook, too!

Wollmeise yarn, Oktoberrosa and snow!

2007-10-12T11:14:00.000+02:00

What a surprise - I am building up my stash - for the winter maybe?
This is my first Wollmeise yarn. And there is some more coming

These Selbu mittens was made by Kicki for the Oktoberrosa auction 2007. I ended up winning them - lucky me! The money from the auction will go to supporting Breast Cancer research.

The pattern can be found in the same book as for the girl mittens I am making. They have been knit in Rauma 2 tr. gammelserie strikkegarn.

I guess we need warm mittens these days. We had a small amount of snow coming yesterday.

Some of us was more happy about it than others. She wanted to make a snowman.
A bit early for that, but I can really feel the need for warm socks, mittens and hats.

So I have finished the first mitten (except the thumb) . I am not really happy with it. The pattern says it is a size 5-7 years, but it is very close fit for my daughter. She likes it like this, but I am worried for what will happen when they get wet. Pattern call for 2 mm, I used 2.5 mm but my gauge is still a bit tight. Maybe I will need to try 3 mm. Yes, I know I should have made a swatch.

I have also done some sock-knitting, but I have really been messing up the thing doing one mistake after the other. Finally I had to rip it two pattern repeats. That is not so fun when you are doing two socks at the same time! But now at least I am on the right track.

Knitting and ravelry!

2007-10-09T17:08:00.000+02:00

Finlay I got the invitation I have been waiting for. I am now a member of Ravelry.
I have the same name there as well.

So I finished the hat. I tread Gjestal Silja and 1 tread Du store alpakka Babysilk worked out pretty well. It is a good idea to use solid an multicolored yarn together. In this hat I used a solid dark blue Babysilk that matched the darkest blue in Silja. This gave me a darker color than if I had just used the multi yarn alone. I also could have made it lighter by mixing with the lightest blue. I will try this again for sure.

When I saw the Firestarter pattern, I realized that I had to cast on a pair of socks. I did not think I would like my last Rocking sock club yarn. But now I have changed my mind. The colors looks great. In the free pattern over at Loopy Ewe there is a picture of these colors, too. This time I definitely wanted to knit both socks at the same time. I really do not like to start on sock number two.
I had just started on the socks when my daughter came to me and asked if I could knit her mittens. Since I had just bought the Selbustrikk- magazine I was not too hard to convince. I found some pink alpaca from Du store alpakka and casted on. Selbuvotter is very pretty, but I am struggling with color-patterns. It is so hard not to pull the tread to tight.

I have done some progress on my Kidsilk project this weekend. Am I looking forward to wearing this? You bet I do! I love the colors and the yarn.
I have started spinning again. Have been thinking about it for a long time now. Rhonna over at Trenchwork was asking if someone would like to start up a spin-group here in Trondheim. Then spinning all of a sudden got very tempting. I thought I was the only one around here spinning yarn. I started out with some silk/merino fiber, but soon realized it was a bit too hard to start with. So I found some Ashland Bay Corindale in purple, blue, read and white. The colors was not very nice in the wool-tops, but it sure looked nice when spun and plied. It is most certainly not a balanced yarn, but it was not too bad. It has been a while since last time, and I feel like I got better pretty fast.

So today I did a bit more. This time I grabbed the silk/merino again. It sure is harder, but I think I managed pretty well. Will need to spin another bobbin before I make a 2 ply.

Removing stitches gives me the right to buy more yarn!

2007-10-01T13:48:00.000+02:00

Okey, so it was not really that bad, but it is a pretty good excuse for shopping!
The doctor lost track of how many stitches she removed. Something around 12. For the most part I did not feel a thing, that is...there was 2 or three stitches that was kind of hard to remove. But even then it was a small amount of pain. What I did not like very much was the part where they was "vacuuming" inside my ear. It did not hurt, but it makes me very uncomfortable dizzy and the sound inside my ear is uncomfortable. I will have to go back in two days to do some more of this, unfortunately. Oh, well....I can look at the bright side - then I have another good reason for some more shopping :-) I will need more Calorimetries or something similar in the far future to cover up the part that is shaved. It looks very strange, and I don't feel like shaving off the rest!

And here is a picture from my very short shopping-trip today. I was rather dizzy, so I just did the fast yarn purchase and then some ear drops at the pharmacy.

To skeins of 100% baby Llama - Miski from Mirasol. Two different purple shades. Quite expensive, but lovely. It is 75 grams/82 yards on 50 grams and knits on 5 mm (US 8) that will give 18 sts and 24 rows. At least that is what the label says. Then there was 1 skein of Fabel sock yarn from Drops design in blue, green and purple. And I am thinking of mixing this with the one skein of Alpaca silk in purple.

I also bought some more knitting needles in size 4.5 mm. That is a size I use a lot and because I have multiple projects going on I need more than one....I think I have 4 circular now. But the double pointed sock needles are actually my first in this size. I have 4 mm and 5 mm, but not 4.5 mm.

The sock needles will be needed soon, for my latest cast-on. My dear one has told me that he would like to have a new hat for the winter. So he has kind of told me how he want it to be. So this is a pretty simple design. 2x2-ribbing. I finaly desided to give up my Clapotis and ripped it. So now I am using this yarn together with Alpaca silk. The solid blue together with the variegated blue looks very nice.

Knitting and healing!

2007-09-29T14:12:00.000+02:00

Hello - I'm back! And look how handy my knitting is right now. The day I had my surgery, at hospital in bed I started knitting another Calorimetry from a skein of self made handspun yarn I have had in my stash for a while. I went home the next day in the afternoon and then I had finished it. One of the nurses was rather interested, so I gave her the pattern. This one is so perfect for covering up my bandage. And it will be nice when I remove the bandage, too. Covering up the scars and the space with no hair.

A wooden heart button was added. It is one of my favorite buttons. I really like the wooden ones.
My daughter tried it on, too. Here, you can see I have been doing some knitting. That is about the only thing I have done the first week after surgery.

The yarn Lucca in 100% merino knitted up very nicely, and it is just as soft as kids like it.

I have also started on a Kidsilk Haze adventure.....For now I have 38 cm of pure heaven...I will say now more for the moment.

Realising I need a lot of things for my head I knitted myself a hat yesterday. The pattern is from the latest Knitty - Foliage. I made it from one of the skeins of yarn from Handpaintedyarn.com. I knitted on 6 mm and 5.5 mm needles. Next time I will try to make one in worsted weight yarn.

Here is the finished socks for my son to. I have had the first finished sock laying around since June. It was about time I made the second one.

And I have been shopping again. Two days ago, when I had to go to the drugstore I bought 15 skeins of a beautiful purple colored Eskimo. I just felt like making myself a purple jacket. The pattern is in my head. I am trying to make my own design for this yarn.

Surgery tomorrow!

2007-09-18T11:00:00.000+02:00

Tomorrow morning the surgery on my ear will take place. I am not exactly looking forward to it, but I guess I will be happy when it is all done. Maybe not right away, but when I am feeling better. I do not know how I will feel afterwards so I do not know how soon I will update my blog.

Time pass by so quickly. Feels like not too long ago since we got this very adorable little white kitten. And look at her now. She is almost grown up, but still very adorable. She is beginning to grow a winter coating as well.
I went to the last of two stitching-class-night this Monday. Had a hard time figuring out how arrange the fabrics. Tonight I sewed it together - almost. I could not decide what fabric to use for the edge.

Something pink?Or yellow?
It is maybe a bit too much chocolate and lollipop :-)

Last Thursday I also went to a one evening sewing-class. I am using Japanese fabrics and everything is stitched together by hand.

Just had to show you - at last...my daughter agreed on buying a dress that is not pink! She wore it to a birthday party this last Saturday. I think she lookes great in these colors.

Oh yes...I have finished the Textured tunic, too. And I like it...but (there is always a but) I do not know if I like the wholes on each side. I can feel a bit cold air coming in there.

I have wanted to make a Chevron scarf for a long time. I tried out with two skeins of Lornas laces Swirl DK that I bought on discount. But I do not really like the color-combination.

I have made some Plum-jam this week, too. Now I need to prepare for tomorrow and try to get some sleep.

It is Fall for sure!

2007-09-10T10:48:00.001+02:00

It is an awful lot of rain these days and I am worried our plums will be damaged if it don't stop sometime soon. The weather-forecast is promising, but only time will tell if it is right. Anyway - I really feel in the mood for knitting, because we need warm clothes now.

I finished the Textured Tunic on Friday, but I still need some buttons to finish it.

I have also started knitting with my new merino-yarn. There was a pattern for a very nice striped sweater, but knitting all those peaces that I need to sew up was not so tempting so I am doing it in one piece. I do not have a pattern. I just casted on for the neck and use the experience from the sweaters I have made (Fitted Knits), and it is not very hard to figure out! I have not tried it on yet, but I think it will be fine.

Yarn delivered to my door!

2007-09-06T10:20:00.000+02:00

Is that maybe one of the greatest things? When the doorbell rings and there is yarn delivered to you!
I was pretty excited, but so was Sari! Yammy - some gorgeous purple and turquoise skeins of yarn. 210 and 213 grams in each color! So what is my plan for this yarn? I have no idea...
I went to a "Stitch n' bitch" on Tuesday. The hostess happen to have a new webshop Mer Garn. And I could not resist buying some skeins of this very lovely Merino yarn Lucca. The purple will be something for my head, neck or hands. The two purple will be a sweater for my girl.

For not to long ago I received another yarn kit from Blue moon fibers. I must admit - this was a pretty strange color combination. And I would most surtenly never have picked this skein myself. The pattern for these socks looks lovely .
When looking at the key chain it is probably a better indication on how the knitted sock will look like. But I am still not convinced!I was so excited about my new yarns that I forgot all about my knitting. There is another finished object coming up soon. I will take pictures when it is finished. It is a sweater from Fitted knits that I did not feel like finishing in the hot summer weather. But now I am knitting the last arm. Also I have been to my first Stitching-class. I will update on that one, too.

Calorimetry in Noro Kureyon no. 95!

2007-08-28T14:54:00.000+02:00

I have made my very first Calorimetry from Knitty.
And I figured my very much loved Noro-yarn in the amazing color no. 95 was right for this project.It got a bit big... I will do the cast-off all over again - it needs to be tighter.

Never easy to take a picture of yourself. My hands tend to be to short :-)

Knitting, sewing and now stitching!

2007-08-25T00:21:00.000+02:00

Cooking without wheat and milk means that I can not eat much of the ready-made food. The good thing about this is that I now make both better tasting and healthier food. Last week I made some chicken nuggets that tasted absolutely wonderful. They tasted even good when cold so I kept eating them later that evening and the next day, too. I use gluten-free corn flakes instead of ordinary bread crumbs.

I also finished the socks last week. The colors are a lot nicer than I can capture in a picture. The last days I really have felt the fall weather coming sneaking in on us. I think this girl will appreciate the warm socks - here watching television in the morning.

I made another dishcloth for a very long time ago and forgot all about it.
Pattern: Garterlac Dishcloth by Dave Ottawa
Yarn: Anchor
Needles: Maybe 4 mm - don't really remember

My fabric collection is also growing...I have fallen in love with some fabric lines. Amy Butler, Heather Bailey and Anna Maria Horner is among my favorites.Above is some of Amy Butlers fabrics from the Lotus and Belle collection.

This is Heather Baileys first fabric line - Freshcut. I have some plans for some of the fabrics. And it might end up under someones Christmas tree as well :-)

Here are some more fabrics intended for home decorations.

I have finished this pillow. It was not all that much fun because I had some difficulties with sewing it together when adding the cord edging. So I ended up sewing it together by hand. I will not try to do this again before I figure out how to do this with a sewing machine!

I need something to cover my head after the surgery. So I made the Sunflower Tam from Knitting Nature.
I used the yarn listed in the pattern and had the right gauge, but it got way too big! Maybe I could try felt it.... I don't feel like knitting with this yarn again - it was giving me an allergic reaction.
Last night I started on something I have not done before - stitching. I am even attending a stitching-class in September. It is fun to try something new.

A summer silent blog!

2007-08-14T14:15:00.001+02:00

Now I have had a really long blog-brake I guess. Just have not felt like blogging. There have been a lot of other things to focus on, and I have tried not to spend a lot of time in front of my computer. My right arm is aching and it got a lot worse after I did some painting in our living room early this summer. I have sort of been in much better shape these last months, so living on a gluten free and dairy free diet is really paying off. But at the same time I have gotten worse when it comes to my ear-problems. I have been to the ear-specialist once a week this summer because they have had difficulties getting the infection to "calm down". I also have more difficulties with my balance. Now I am really looking forward to the surgery - it is scheduled in mid September.

On July 4 my son had his third burthday - and I made him a cake - it is supposed to look like a tractor - it is the first time I have tried making a Cacas-cake. Not the easiest thing I have done, but the kids where happy!
The good thing about having birthday this time of year is that we can have the party outside.

The big event for us this summer was our first vacation ever - to the Moominworld in Finland.
It was a great trip and I took 270 pictures on the trip. The picture of me and our kids is taken inside the blue Moomins house. This is probably the only picture of me. I like to be the one
taking the pictures rather than being in front of the camera.
My daughter hugging her favorite - Snorkmaiden.

My sun was closing in on the Moomins slowly.

So what about my knitting and sewing! I made a pair of Amy Butler pants in May that I have not been using a lot because they are too big. So I have to make them smaller! But I really like them. I will take a picture me wearing them when I have made the adjustments.

I have bought lots of fabrics - like this Anna Maria Horner fabrics:

I have almost finished socks for my daughter in the June Rocking sock club kit.

I really like these colors and the pattern was both easy and pretty.

What else have I been up to? I have bought some new things for our home. Like this bench.

And this old dining table with 6 chairs - a real bargain. The fabrics on the seats was old and worn out so I have started making new ones.

And a new kitchen aid...
...that I used to make my first successful gluten free bread.

I will try to update my blog regularly again from now on

A new dress for May 17!

2007-05-18T22:57:00.000+02:00

Thank you for all the nice comments in the previous post. It has been some crazy weeks, and I am trying not to tear all my hair off my head when I sort of can not control my anger . The word "doctors" is kind of giving me the chills these days.

I am trying to figure out what to eat and what to nor eat. It is hard to figure out this no wheat and no gluten way of living. The pre-made foods seam to have a lot of wheat in it, so now I will have to make almost everything from scratch. That is healthy I guess...but it takes time to figure out of everything.

My knitting in progress! I have now finished the front and have started on the lower back of this Textured tunic.
For a week ago I got this for my kitchen! I already have three Gluten free cooking books in there.
I have done some more sewing. It really is a lot of fun! This time it was my daughters dress for the Norwegian Constitution day. I had my pattern and fabrics ready for along time ago, but because of a lot of happenings lately I did not get started until May 16. That is rather late for a beginner sewer to finish a dress!

At five o'clock in the morning on May 17, the dress was finished! And I was very pleased with how it turned out. This is the specs:

Pattern: Farbenmix "Anna" for the dress and Farbenmix "Hannah" (some adjustments) for the top.
Fabric: Heather Bailey Freshcut for Free Spirit

I think these fabrics are so beautiful. The colors and the patterns!

The ribbons on the shoulder straps is from Tilda.

My daughter was very happy with the dress as well, and she wanted to put it on right away.

And the cat was very interested in catching the ribbons at her back!

She was feeling very pretty when she went to town with her Norwegian flag in her hand.

At home with a matching pink balloon-horse - watching TV. She was tired!
And the dress had done its mission for this time.

My daughter and son is kind of different in so many ways. She looks like this and gets rather quite when tired.
But my son looks more like this! Getting very silly and giggling. He is such a trouble-maker, but boy, he is so darn quite!

Tonight I did a fast sewing project. A small bag for my new cell phone. It was easy except from the button. I struggled a bit, but that was because I did not really read the instructions for how to do it. Pink on the outside and green on the inside.

And inside is my new phone that I bought today. A Nokia N73 in the color pale pink!

And I really did need a new one. My old Nokia was falling apart - more than 3 years old! That poor thing has had some rough treatment!

So what is next?

2007-05-10T21:36:00.000+02:00

I have not talked so much about it lately - my health issues - I have been rather fed up with it. For more then 1 year ago a doctor at my local Hospital told me I have Celiac disease, so I started on a gluten free diet. But two months later he gave me a rather nasty combination of antibiotics to get rid of the Heliobacter Pylori, because he did not think it was Celiac disease after all. So did my shape get any better after this? Now - it got worse. In August last year I was in such a bad shape that I would rather not think about it. They had done another test for Celiac disease and some other tests, but this time it did not give a positive result for Celiac disease. One doctor told me the test was taken too soon - that I needed to eat food with gluten for a longer time, because I had stopped eating it for a period of time. But after the weekend came another doctor who figured I did not have it and sent me back home. He was suggesting I had Fatigue syndrome.

I started the process with my family doctor finding out if it was this Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. In between this I suddenly got a letter in my mail for another appointment with the "Celiac-specialist" (I am not really convinced that they even know much about this disease). When I came there I was told that I probably did not have Celiac disease, but to be sure they needed to do another intestinal biopsy . So in February I had to do that not-so-pleasent biopsy. When I came back for the appointment to this "Celiac-specialist" the test result was not there yet. But he also did not remember that he had ordered another test, because he did not think it was needed. I was told that I did not have any Celiac disease, but that he would call me. I went to my family doctor this Monday and then I was told that this result is positive and that they now think I DO HAVE Celiac disease. And this is something the "Celiac-specialist" knew in March, but did he call? Of course not! So now my family doctor sad that she would find out what was happening. Today I got a letter telling me I have an appointment with this very same "Celiac-specialist" on August 1. That is it?!? So should I start on gluten free diet or should I just eat as normal and be in bad shape this summer too?

And this is not the only thing. My right ear has been bothering me lately with drainage from it and it has been more aware of that my dizziness might come from this. I had a surgery when I was 7 years old to remove a Cholesteatoma. Not going into the story of this...it is too long, but now I need another surgery. I am not so trilled about surgery inside my head, but I know I have to do it! So this week has been hard... It is nice to finally have some proofs that I'm really not alright and answers on why I'm not alright. But I am also rather upset that they spend several years to figure it out. And along this way, I have not always been treated very nice.

Then back to my knitting and sewing. I will update with my Fitted knit progress later this weekend. For now I will show you my sewing - a strawberry and a pear :-)

My son had to try to taste it, but was figured it tasted a lot better with the real thing.

Another book arrived...a brand new one. This must be the first knitting book my boyfriend felt like looking inside - wonder why :-)

A lot of nice pictures inside it. And I think I will try to make some of them.

But it is not all lingerie. This skirt is so nice. And there are socks and and other things, too.

My Husqvarna was broken!

2007-05-05T10:14:00.000+02:00

I had so much problems with the machine that I went to the store where they are selling and fixing sewing machines. And he figured out right away what was wrong. This piece was broken. I do not know what it was called. But it was the reason for everything. So now my Husqvarna is okay and I could start sewing again.

So I finished my daughters skirt, and she was very happy.

I guess I will need to practice how to zig-zag....Not perfect!

I did the waistline a little different from what I first planned. Instead of one wide elastic I made three casings and three elastics. I think it worked out pretty well. And it is comfortable to wear.

While I waited for my sewing machine to be fixed, I did some more shopping. Most of it I got in the mail. Like all the Amy Butler patterns. I really like her things and have a lot of her bags on my mind. Her fabrics are also stunning! At Panduro I bought buttons for my sons pants, Tilda book and Tilda thin box for sewing storage.

In a quilting store in town I bought fabrics for the strawberries in the Tilda book.

This is two fabrics from Amy Butlers Belle collection.

And this is from her latest collection Lotus.

So what happened to my knitting?
It is there, but I have not done all that much. I did progress on the yellow Textured tunic from Fitted knits, but I think I will have to rip it because I need to do some adjustments to make it fit.

Pirate pants finished!

2007-05-01T10:35:00.000+02:00

It is Mai 1 today and the "workers day " in Norway. So we are having a quite day at home. Last night I finished the Pirate pants for my son. I had some issues with the sewing machine and tomorrow I will take it to the Husqvarna shop to get it fixed. I plan to sew a lot and need a machine that works.Pattern: Designed by La Møf for the Magazine "Kreative kvinner" nr. 4 April 2007.
Fabric: Dark denim. Also need vlieseline, thread and buttons.
Size: 110 (they are supposed to be shorter).

I am very happy with the fit! And the instructions was okay to follow. There was one error, but it was pretty obvious. I am planning to make more of these in different fabrics and colors.

When I wanted to take pictures I first had to play a paparazzi, because he was just running away, but when I but him one the table he started posing...or at least dancing. The back pockets still need buttons. I need to buy some. Maybe some soccer-balls!

I really like the shape on the hem, and this is where I have used the interfacing (vlieseline).

They are curving in the opposite directions at front and back. I was kind of worried this was going to be hard to sew, but it wasn't.

I have winded up my Rocking sock yarn. First I had to take pictures of the different colors on the Umbrella swift. Browns and greens.

Brown, lilac and green.
Green, purple, brown and lilac.

But when it was made into a ball the colors was a total mess! I have been swatching a little and I am not sure what to do with this yarn yet. I was thinking a Chevron scarf, but maybe I will end up making socks after all!

The ballerina is dancing, mummy is sewing!

2007-04-29T21:32:00.000+02:00

We have had a some exciting days lately. Our daughter was dancing on stage for the first time. The dance school had a very big show last night. She was one of the youngest participants dancing in a Smurf-costume.

Afterwards the had a pyjamas-act! She and all the others did very well, and we are already looking forward to next years show. She is in the blue pyjamas, that I had to modify to fit.

Yohoo...so I managed to figure out of the pattern sheet. Here I have just finished all the pieces, ready for sewing it together.
And in a little while I finished this far. It is starting to look like pants. Not bad!
But at this point I had to take a pause. I could not understand the next instructions. Guess I need to sleep on it. After all - I am not very experienced when it comes to sewing.

I have started on my #3 Fitted knits (these projects are really fast). This time it is the Textured tunic. I am looking forward to seeing how this one will fit me!

I have also received my second Rocking sock club kit. The colors are such a beauty and the yarn is a very soft and luxurious blend of merino and silk. I just can not see myself knitting socks from this yarn! Maybe some kind of scarf.

I am sewing, too!

2007-04-24T12:08:00.000+02:00

Finely I had made some space for the Husqvarna 2000 on my working space. A heavy weight orange machine. It belong to my mother in law, but unfortunately she can't use it because she is very ill with MS. It must have been a very expensive machine when she bought it. With the fancy Colormatic system. But I have no idea how to use this because I do not have the instructions. So if someone have the manual for the Husqvarna 2000 model 64 30, I would be happy to buy a copy.

My first sewing was the crochet-weaving-sewing bag in Rowan yarn. I have finished one side. Sewing on all edges to keep the weaving in place. But when finished this bag I am NEVER doing something like this again. It is very hard to get the crocheted nicely weaved together.

It is not turning out very nice either.

Enough about that....I bought the book Home-Made Vintage a while ago and had decided on making a bag for my first sewing project. But when my daughter saw the sewing-machine when she came home yesterday afternoon, she insisted on I started sewing something for her right away. And so I started on a simple and easy skirt. But it is not finished yet because I want to buy a contrasting fabric for the pockets.

So today I started on the bag. The first parts was easy, but when adding the bottom I had to stop and think :-)

But I managed to figure it out - And here it is - my first sewn handbag!

Sari likes to take part, too. A timer- picture that did not turn out as nice as I was hoping...I like the leaves. And I wanted them to point upwards.
I am into sewing now. And my next handbag will be made out of this fabric:

I am also sewing a dress for my daughter in these fabrics: But before that I am trying to figure out of this pattern-sheet. What have I gotten myself into?
I am sewing a pair of pants for my son....hopefully I will figure it out. It looked so simple, but that was before I looked at this...

Boatneck Bluebell finished!

2007-04-22T21:55:00.000+02:00

I just finished my second Fitted Knit - Boatneck Bluebell.
For this I used some yarn I have had in my stash for a while. A discontinued yarn Angora Tweed from Garnstudio. Luckily the now have started to sell this again. It is a very nice yarn.
Needles I used was 5 mm as called for in the pattern, but the yarn has 145 meters (158 yards) per 50 grams so my stitches are a bit loos. I had 8 skeins of yarn in this color and I still have 2 and 1/2 left.
And of course the cat likes to take part in the photo shoot!

Two finished - more to come!

2007-04-18T20:51:00.000+02:00

Finely I have some FO's to show. I finished the Rocking socks from the Blue Moon sock club two days ago. Not much yarn left...

And the owner was very happy. It is very nice colors for him, too.

The other finished project is the perfect periwinkle turtleneck tube west from Fitted knits. Rowan Calmer was a nice pick for this project. And it is lovely to wear next to skin. Maybe I could have knitted it longer...oh well!

My daughter has been trying out weaving. She thought it was fun and did a very good job.

Her brother was more into banging the loom into my head, and that was the end of his weaving. He is not even 3 years old and are more interested in using a hammer...

I got another book.....Debbie Bliss - there are some very nice patterns in here. The jacket on the front for starters. But there is also some other goodies in there.

A new book and some more yarn!

2007-04-10T20:17:00.000+02:00

Today I received two things in the mail. Yarn for the Textured tunic in Fitted knits and this book:I was very curious about this brand new book. It did not really take my breath away at first glance, but there are a lot of nice patterns for men and women in it. And at least one pattern made my blood pump faster. "Intoxicating" on page 55 is a stunning mosaic and lace sweater in pure silk. The colors are just so very much me. And the name on the green color - birches in Norway - is so lovely. It really looks a lot like the leaves on Norwegian birch, too.

Because I had never heard about this yarn, I googled it up. This yarn is really luscious...$ 49 a skein - and for the smalest size in this pattern you will need 5 skeins. In Norwegian kroner $245 will be around kr 1500.

Some nice, but less expensive design - this is Cables and Os on page 107 in a cotton and linen yarn.I also thought Eileen on page 43 was quit - it is knit in Euroflax - 100% linen. The front is stockinette sts and the back is in lace.
Sari likes to sleep in my arms, and inside my wool sweater was also comfortable for a while.

I took some new pictures of the boatneck. The cat was trying to block the view so I had to grab her before the timer on the camera went off. Maybe it won't look so bad after all....with arms it will probably look a lot better - I hope so.

The last day of Easter!

2007-04-09T21:59:00.000+02:00

Today and yesterday we have had the perfect Easter weather - melting snow in the sunshine.
But before that we have had awful weather - like on the picture above. Last weekend there was no snow around the house and I was stupid enough to believe that we had started the spring early this year. But I was so wrong, and got very disappointed when it started to snow, and never seamed to stop. But I should not be so surprised. After all I do live in Norway!

Because of the weather - I have had time to do some knitting. The boatneck from fitted knits - I did rip the chest part, but now I have finished all except the arms. But I really don't know if I am satisfied....I will take some new pictures wearing it. This was very bad pictures.

I did also rip my turtleneck, but now it is closer to finished. I have reached the very fun part - 3x3 ribbing that looks like it will never end.

I just have to ad some Sari-pictures, too.

Fitted knitting - not a perfect start!

2007-04-04T17:48:00.000+02:00

It is that time of year - This is the closest thing we got to Easter decoration in our house. But I really liked it! I hope you all have a nice holiday. Right now I look at the heavy rain outside my windows. Not the best weather for a Norwegian Easter, but then there is always knitting :-)

So everything looked okay with my turtleneck, until I suddenly realised that I had done too many increases. How could that be - it did not look like the upper front was long and wide enough. Then I did a count on my stitches and rows. I had 22 sts and 34 rows on 4X4 inch. Ups....It should have been 18 sts and 24 rows! And I did a swatch that looked right....I guess I must have used some other needles and knitted less tight.

Not the best start. And then I just wanted to knit on a different project. So now I am down to the waist on the boatneck. But look at this....the ribbed columns are starting too soon. A new gauge check - 19 sts and 26 rows. It should have been 18 and 24. I think I will do a little changes here....if I don't change my mind.

I also had to untangle some of the yarn - a little white kitten had some fun with my yarn!

Cat Show and casting on turtleneck

2007-04-01T20:28:00.000+02:00

Not a lot of spare time for knitting today, but I did cast on this morning and I have almost finished the neck.

We have been to a Cat Show today and yesterday. The kids are excited, but they really are not much fun to bring to this event - I am hungry - I want to hold the cat - I want to buy toys for Sari.....

On this picture: " I want chocolate cake."

Sari was adjusting well - The decoration is something Exxon used, but it did not really fit her that well.

A lot of beautiful cats in the show. This girl was Best in Show. It is a Norwegian Forest Cat and on this picture she is together with the breeder Linda Reiersen - (N) Fodnaheia's.

This is a pretty white Maine Coon.

Sock-progress and more

2007-03-31T20:17:00.000+02:00

I have finished the heel on both socks and started on the leg. I do not have an awful lot of yarn left so I think they will be rather short. So maybe I should just skip the cable-pattern.

Tomorrow I am casting on my first Fitted Knits project. It is the turtleneck, and I am knitting it in Rowan Calmer. I am so looking forward to it!

In the mailbox yesterday was another Magazine. Spin-off this time. The socks on the front-cover is knitted in Kool-Aid dyed hand spun yarn. So now I am dreaming about dying and spinning,too. But then it is the problem with finding time for it - and the energy!

I will try to post again tomorrow with my turtleneck on needles and with pictures from the Cat Show that Zari participate in.

This past week I have...

2007-03-29T21:43:00.000+02:00

...ordered wallpaper for the living room in a pretty dramatic pattern from Cole & Son. I am talking gold! I am looking forward to seeing how it will look up on the wall!

My other project was getting some more light on the kitchen. For some reason I have not gotten myself into doing this job. Wonder why.... I was not really looking forward to it. Cause it looked rather hard. But then I just did it...
...and it worked out perfectly!

And it looks good, too. (Except from that wire hanging down i n the back....will need to fix that as well)
We got lucky with the camera this week, too. I must say he is a pretty handsome young boy.

And I have finally been able to get him to wear the sweater I made for him. I am not really satisfied with it dough...The tractor should not have been so low.

I have some new knitting supplies too. Needles for my first two Fitted Knits projects and a skein of very beautiful Rialto from Debbie Bliss. It is a test-skein, and I just love-love-love this color. The yarn is very soft, too. 100% Merino 105 meter per 50 gram.

I think the color is more right in this picture!

Rocking socks and more

2007-03-23T12:29:00.000+01:00

Two socks at the same time on one circular needle. For the toe I used 3 mm dpn and now I am knitting with 2.5 mm. They are too big for me but looks nice on my boyfriends feet. But what about the amount of yarn. The scale shows me that I have 112 grams left. That's like 4 oz - do you think I will need more yarn? I might end up with a rather short leg.

I was using my umbrella swift and ball winder last weekend when Zari figured she wanted a ride! The kids really liked that! I have done some swathing on one of the skeins - the pink angora/merino blend. It is very nice and soft when knitted on 4 mm needles. I don't know what to make out of it yet.

I did knit a lot on the camisole in Pure silk, but then the sock-kit came....I have almost finished three pattern repeats.
Some more books came....Rowan and Debbie bliss. A lot of nice patterns, but I already have to many projects on my needles. So these will end up in my book shelves for now.

The fabric for the dress also came the other day. I guess I should not be surprised when the color turned out to be different from what I toughed. On the web-shop it looks like this:
A lot brighter then the real thing! So I don't really know if it will turn out okay, but I guess it is worth a try.
And it always helps to eat some chocolate!

Rocking sock club!

2007-03-17T13:21:00.000+01:00

On Friday afternoon I got my first Rocking sock club kit. So now I can start to knit a new pair of toe-up socks.

Nice colors for the man in the house. It will probably be made for him.

Look at this - a key chain, Isn't it adorable?

The Queen of Yarn

2007-03-14T13:42:00.000+01:00

This is the Queen of yarn. She likes to take a nap on my yarns that I have. On this picture she is cuddling up on a skein of Merino-Lambswool from Askeladden that I ordered at Nøstebarn.
Underneath was also a skein of Angora - Merino from the same shop. The last one was very soft and nice.
When I finished my socks I just had to cast on something new. I looked through my yarn and found 4 skeins Debbie Bliss Pure silk that I bought a year ago. Then I found a pattern in Vogue Knitting Spring 2005 that I have wanted to make. A lace Camisole in purple.

I also did some Magazine-shopping this morning. In a magazine from Denmark I found some patterns I would like to try out. It does not require yarn and needles, but rather fabrics and a sewing machine. What a challenge.....

I want to make pants for my son and a dress for myself. On the Internet I found a shop that sold the fabric for the dress. But I will make it in Yellow-brown colors in the same pattern as the red-orange dress.

Rock and Weave socks finished

2007-03-14T04:29:00.000+01:00

My first Blue Moon fiber arts socks are finished. It was the sideways cuffs in linen stitch that made these socks a bit out of the ordinary. That was also the most time-consuming part.
When I state that the socks are finished, that is not really true. I still need buttons on them, but I will have to buy some first.
Just can't get this color right on the screen.
I have 34 grams of yarn leftover that I can use for something else. Maybe together with solid sock yarn.

A blog facelift and some plans ahead!

2007-03-08T21:12:00.000+01:00

I did an update on my blogger-blog. So this is how it looks like now. I was a little quick, so I lost all my links. Will put up some new blog-links sometime soon.

I have joined a knit along for the book Fitted Knits. Today I have done some swatching for a turtleneck. It is Rowan Calmer from a project I started last summer , but I found out that I did not want to make it after all. Hopefully it will work out for this project.

I have also ordered yarn for a beautiful Tunic form this very same book. It is a really nice design.

Kleenex-time and a happy birthday girl!

2007-03-06T12:46:00.000+01:00

On Saturday (March 3) my daughter had her 4th birthday. I managed to finish the Piggle. And it fits her just perfect. Unfortunately we have had a lot of fever this week. First her little brother - he also had an ear infection - and then me on Saturday and my princess on Sunday. So we had to cancel the party that we had planned for Sunday. Today it's Tuesday and the three of us are still haven's a fever. And we are using a lot of Kleenex.....

On Mars 1 I received a Secret Pal gift. Some patterns for sewing doll clothes, fabric, Kool-Aid, Gedifra-yarn and some very beautiful wrist-warmers. I have never seen the pattern, and I really don't understand how they have been knitted!

Thank you to my secret pal. This was really a generous gift.

I did some weaving, but because our new little kitty is crazy about all the loose ends I have not gotten much further with it. I will have to close the door to be able to finish this.

I have a finished sock! But this picture really makes it look rather ugly. The colors are not right and it looks very nice on my foot. I will try to take a better picture when I have finished the second sock.

It is this cuff that takes time....it is linen stitch pattern with a picot bind off. I am in a hurry finishing these socks now, cause my first Sock Club kit has been shipped and I would like to start knitting them right away.

I have done some shopping.....Rowan magazine for my membership. It is some nice designs in there, but I don't really know if I will be making anything from it. But when it comes to the new book "Fitted knits" I would really like to knit more than one of the designs.

For some time ago I also finished my second Ballband dishcloth.

Crocheted hat and progress on my weaving!

2007-02-22T11:18:00.000+01:00

Our new family member Sari, is very happy with being in our home. She likes to cuddle in mummy's knitted sweater.

She also think it is okay to be a model, when mommy looks too awful to be in any pictures. I have made myself a crocheted hat with the new Easy-yarn form Sandnes. I added some Eskimo-yarn from Garnstudio on the flower and edging. It fits on my head perfectly. At least it feels good, but I am not so sure it looks as good as it feels :-)

I am doing some progress on my crochet-weave-project...I have finished the crocheted chains and are now doing the weaving. Not an easy thing to do I must admit. Yesterday I also received a magazine - Interveawe Knits! Some very nice projects in it, but I don't know if I will make any of them.

My celebrity look-alikes!

2007-02-16T10:01:00.000+01:00

I have been in Virtuellas blog again and got inspired...

I do not look like any of these girls - do I :-)
The most fun part is that i got the best match with the Japanese girl!

The new kitten has arrived!

2007-02-15T12:05:00.000+01:00

Last night on Valentines day I went to pick up our new kitten. And there was a change in plan. Instead of the boy we ended up with choosing one of his sisters. Her name is Sarisin Kadin! She seems to adjust to her new environment very well.

She is white with a little grey on top of here head and she's got some very beautiful blue eyes. She is very playful and can play for hour's and she likes us to sit down with her all the time.
You can see a knitted blanket that is made by one of the breaders daughter. We are all very happy having her around.

When it comes to knitting.....I just bought some yarn.....oh well....not again...I just could not help myself. It is only three skeins of Easy from Sandnes Garn. I will crochet myself a hat!

I am freezing cold!

2007-02-09T09:24:00.000+01:00

This picture shows the cold but very pretty snow outside my window. But it is - 16 degrees Celsius (3 Fahrenheit) and we have been having some difficulties keeping the house warm enough when we currently don't even have a fire place. But there is always wool sweaters and blankets.... Me and the kids went to see our little kitty on Monday. The where trilled, but my daughter had a hard time leaving it there. I am really looking forward to having him here next Thursday morning. Meanwhile I can look at these cute wooden cats.

I have finished my Alpaca shrug. A Garnstudio-pattern. It is very nice, but I think it needs a button or something to stay in place.

A closer view to see the pattern. Hard to see when the yarn is dark brown.

Yesterday I received the smallest package ever! And inside where these two skeins .

It is Rowan Holiday. I was supposed to have two skeins Cotton Braid in the same shipment, but they are probably coming in a little while. I am making something out of the ordinary. So far I am making Crochet-chains that are 36 cm in length. When I have 16 of every color I will start weaving...I will let you try figure out what I am making!

Life must go on - a new cat, a new kitchen and snow!

2007-01-30T13:26:00.000+01:00

I sometime feel like I have the most bad luck in the entire Universe. But then I hear about other people in a lot worse situations than me, and realize that my life is not so bad after all. Okay, so my health is rather crappy - but not life threatening. And I have lost my two dear cats in just 5 months, but at least I have a lot of nice memories to look back on. Life must go on, and I decided that the best thing was to bring a new cat to our home.

And here he is - (N) Sirena's Mustafa Kemal. He is a white Turkish Angora. He will move in with us on February 16, when he is 12 weeks old. We look forward to having him here.
Mustafa Kemal(right) together with his sister.
We also have our new kitchen up and running. Just a few details left. And then we will start with our living room.And outside we suddenly have a lot of snow....a lot in very little time... So we have a white cat, a white kitchen and white snow :-)

My knitting is very slow know. But I finished my socks a week ago. They have been on my feet a lot too.
And then I started on some new socks. But because my right hand is very painful I try not to knit (that's easy....) so that it can get better.

A sad day - Exxon died!

2007-01-12T17:00:00.000+01:00

How long was Eve in paradise?
We did not have a happy ending on January 11. Our cat did not come home and after some seartching our neighbor found him. He was dead. It was a shock. He was okay in the morning. Today an autopsy showed that his heart had collapsed. He was probably born with a heart disease.

Only 5 months ago we lost Aphrodite. And now that I was settling with only havens Exxon, then he is gone too. So Christmas 2006 was the first year without Dite and the last one with Exxon.
He was born on September 3 2001. We will miss you!

And then the new year begins!

2007-01-11T10:34:00.000+01:00

This picture must be the best one from 2006. The ones I love the most in a precious moment.

The year of 2006 was not a very good year for me, so I am happy to have started a new and hopefully better year. At least it feels like it will be at better year. At the end of 2006 I have been feeling better and I have done a little knitting, too. Our home has been a mess, and I have not had access to our office because of the mess.

I have been knitting a hat and mittens for my girl that I will be felted once they are done. But I have sort of "forgotten" to finish this project...hum...

The Dale sweater was finished before Christmas. If I could only get my son to wear it!

And my princess has used her flower-scarf a lot.

At Christmas Eve the children enjoyed opening all the presents.

My son was happy with the new Firetruck.

And my daughter was happy with the Amazing Amanda doll. But Amanda is sort of driving us all crazy with her talking...

This sweater was my Christmas project and was finished in 2006. It is knitted in Rowan Big wool on 12 mm needles. A very fast knit!

I am almost finished with my Baudelaire socks too! It takes time....

A big happening for January 2007 - We have a ballerina in the house. Starting her first ballet lessons next week.And no....the Kitchen was of course not finished in 2006, but next week we will be very close to finished. The new kitchen cabinets are arriving on Monday!

I still do a little knitting!

2006-12-08T11:52:00.000+01:00

The Dale sweater for my son is almost finished. But I am not satisfied and I am considering some changes. The neck is too wide and the sweater is too long. I think I have some tension-problems....I don't feel like ripping it, so that is why I am not doing anything with it!

My daughter have made a lot of comments on my knitting and have been asking if I could make her a princess - scarf. I has been hard to understand what she really wants, so I just have to try making something. It is not a scarf, but a shawl. And I am making ruffles around it. But, what was I thinking....that's an awful lot of stitches... And I will add some flowers in purple and pink I think!
I have not bought much yarn lately, but yesterday I received this very nice yarn and pattern from Blue Moon fiber arts. They have very beautiful sock-yarn and I have now made reservation's for the 2007 spring sock-club! So I have more yarn to come.

The colors on this skein of yarn is just amazing!

This scarf is not my creation. It is a gift from my third Nordic secret pal. It is very nice and in my favorite color green! Thank you, very much. Right now I can't find the note, because of the mess in our office. So I don't remember who gave it to me.

And yesterday my last Nordic secret pall gift arrived. And what a gift....
There was a big bag of yarn - 5 skeins - 100 grams each!

Two skeins of Big wool - I have already one more in the same color and same dye-lot! So then I can make something out of 300 grams!
Two skeins of 123 Silk Tweed - one is green and one is purple. I have never tried this yarn, but it looks great, and I think it would be very nice for a cabled hat or mittens! I like the colors!
One skein of sock yarn form Austermann with Aloe Vera and Jojoba Oil!!! It Should be nice for the hands to knit with this yarn. And the earth-colors are awful nice and hard to describe. The picture does not do it right!

Thank you very much fuglemamma :-)

And then there was silence!

2006-12-08T10:58:00.000+01:00

The days are passing by and I did not realize that it's been this long since I have updated my blog.
I am not going to try to explain, but in short I can say that I still have a small amount of energy to use and these last month's I have used all (and more) to handle the reconstruction of our house. We live in a house from 1928, and we are doing some major changes and upgrades. The second floor was finished less than two years ago, and now we have started with first floor. And it's a mess...and not easy to keep the 2-year old away from "the mess". But some times he has been allowed to take part. First we had to tare down everything.
And now we are seeing some progress. There will be a new kitchen here. Now the plumbing is in place and the electrician is now doing his job.
We have built up a temporarily wall so that we can keep the mess away from the rest of the area where we have to live.
I was hoping to have a new kitchen and dining are for Christmas, but it looks rather optimistic. We have had a lot of delays, so I don't think it will be finished until January. The kitchen cabinets are supposed to arrive on December 18, but I don't think we have the windows, walls and floors finished until then. So we have deadline-problem.

Late Harvest sock yarn and 4lb Jelly Belly!

2006-09-28T12:08:00.001+02:00

I have received my first yarn from Mama-E's Sock-club. The color is called Late Harvest and is lovely.

I have gone crazy for shore....I bought a can of Jelly Belly...1.8 kg...what was I thinking :-)I have done some knitting on my socks...

and on the Dale sweater....I am looking forward to get passed the Tractor pattern. I have almost finished the tires on GrÃ¥tass.

To knit or not to knit!

2006-09-26T10:44:00.000+02:00

I don't want to talk so much about the health, but it has not been good. And I have not been able to do much knitting. It is hard to follow patterns when my head is spinning a lot. And concentration and memory has not been very cooperative lately. I have not even bothered looking at yarn on the internet.... But for a while ago I got the Maison Dixon Knitting Book and after a while I started knitting the Ballband dishcloth.That was really a perfect pattern for me right now. It is very easy, and a nice project for a dysfunctional brain :-) I have done a little progress on the socks, but the pattern is still hard to follow. And the Dale sweater has a very big chart that I have a hard time to follow, but I do a few rows now and then. In between my sleeping.....yes, I have done a lot of sleeping.

Yesterday we made 6 kg of Plum-jam! And it tastes good :-)

Still knitting, but not very fast!

2006-09-11T10:36:00.000+02:00

Before going to the hospital I received a gift from my secret pal number 2! It came all the way from Denmark, and I really love the sock yarn. The colors are in different shades of blue, white and blue-green. It is always nice with chocolate, and the tea saved us yesterday when we had visitors. We did not find any tea, but then I remembered my gift :-)

Staying at the hospital was boring, but I was very tired so I did not do much knitting. But on Friday I finished the Opal socks for the big feet in the house. He was very happy with them!
I have started on Icosa Welt Ball, but I am not sure that colors turned out as nice as I was hoping!
This is how much I have knitted on the Dale sweater for my son!
When I had finished one pair of socks, I felt the need for a new pair right away. So now I am knitting both socks at the same time on one circular needle.
Yarn: Cherry Tree hill Supersock
Pattern: Baudelaire from Knitty.
Needles: Addi bamboo 2.5 mm

So what can I do...eat my plums!

2006-09-11T09:05:00.000+02:00

...when the doctors don't agree with each other or change their mind several times?
And why can't they just give me an answer to my questions?

My one week at the hospital was a very strange experience. I have been diagnosed back and forth. The first doctor told me that there had been some bad judgment from my doctor when giving me treatment that I should not have had, and that I after all would end up with the Celiac disease.
The next doctor asked me all the questions that I have answered a hundred times, without giving me much answer. But he was also puzzled by the fact that I had been given antibiotics. Then the chief doctor came together with this doctor and told me that "You give us quite some problems". And this was of course related to the mess that my previous specialist doctor had caused. The problem was that my first Celiac-test was not giving a 100% result for the disease. Then I shouldn't have started a gluten free diet, like I did. Then when they took a new test in august I got a "better" result, but that could be because I had been on the diet and had not been eating food with gluten for a long enough period of time. The chief doctor told me that I would have to eat normal food for a while longer and then take a new test.
But at the same time they did a lot of blood-tests and sent me to a specialist in Neurology because I have had so much problems with being dizzy all the time. And this doctor put me up for a MR.

Then came Saturday and Sunday, and nothing happens then. On Monday there came a new doctor. He was telling me that he would have to take a closer look at my case and get back to me. For some reason he found out that I "probably did not have Celiac disease". I was diagnosed with "Irritable bowel syndrome", and told that they would put me up for a new evaluation in one year. So then I could go home....

The MR of my head was done on Friday, so I have not had any result from it, but I don't think they will find anything wrong.

So what is my plans now....Oh well, I will just have to figure this out on my own I guess. I have started taking vitamin, mineral, herb and fiber powder. It is supposed to do me good. Then I am starting an exercise-program. Then time will show....

Today I will try to start all over again - I will try to make some plans for myself and how I can get myself in shape again. I took a closer look at our plum tree and found two big plums that was ready for harvesting. And they turned out to be very tasty :-)

Going to the hospital...

2006-08-30T09:21:00.000+02:00

My doctor figured it was time to send me to the hospital, hoping it will lead to some progress.
I don't know how long I will stay there. Two hours, two days or a week. Time will show. Do not really look forward to this, 'cause I don't really have a lot of good experience with doctors and hospital....

My knitting goes slow. Some progress on socks, Clapotis, Dale sweater and rib warmer.
I have also started the Icosa.

Rib warmer and a Dale sweater for my son

2006-08-22T10:01:00.000+02:00

On Sunday we went to Munkholmen - the prison island! The weather was just perfect for a boat-trip and bathing. The kids was very excited and my son did not really want to leave the boat.

The water was not warm enough for us grown ups, but the kids did not care and had a very nice time . It was a very nice trip, but afterwards I was very tired and slept for 3 hours.
I have done some progress on the rib warmer this weekend. The back is finished, and I am now working on the left panel. It is fun knitting short rows. But I have now experienced the bad thing about knitting lace in dark colors. I really need a lot of light to see what I am doing....

I have a new project that I will start on soon. When the supermarket had a discount on Dale-yarns I could not prevent myself from buying even more yarn. But Nkr 15.90 (US$ 2.54) is a very good deal and this pattern is very nice and my soon will like it a lot. What I did not think trough is that this projects means knitting with a lot of colors and size 3 mm needles....ups!The sweater has a hood, but I will probably not make the hood.

One new and one lost-but-found!

2006-08-17T20:33:00.000+02:00

I have wanted to knit this since it appeared on the Drops pattern-pages. And two days ago I started knitting. The pattern is not giving a very good explanation, but I think I have figured it out. It is a rib warmer and I am now knitting the back panel. The construction of this garment is pretty much the same as for pattern 28 in the latest Vogue knitting. The difference is that this one has lace and the one in Vogue has cables. And the yarn is also different. I think this will be a fast knit...but when having more than one project on my needles it still might take a while finishing it. I believe it was sometime early December I started knitting my first Clapotis. And then very soon after it sort of disappeared. When I was organizing my yarns and knitting- stash not to long ago I found it. So now I have been knitting on it again. This might take a while I'm afraid....
But it was inspiring getting to the part when it's time to drop stitches. I have so far dropped two times!

Life is hard, but knitting helps!

2006-08-15T09:06:00.000+02:00

Thank you for all nice comments. I have been struggling since my last posting. It is not so easy for others to understand how much love there is between a cat and its owner. The fact that I have had all my health issues this last year makes it very hard. When you are stuck inside alone all day, the cats are a big support. This was a not a good time to live me, Dite.
But I am trying to put it all behind me, and think about all the good things I have in my life. I have two healthy and beautiful kids and a lovely "husband" (we are not married, but maybe sometime soon....DO YOU READ THIS!!!!!). And I have my knitting.... I have now finished my fingerless gloves from the latest Knitty. And they might come in handy soon, cause now we have some heavy rain and the fall is approaching very fast.
You remember my Hexagon adventure....It was too big for me, but it looks great on my mother. So she is the lucky owner. I gave it too her on Friday when she drove for one and a half hour just to keep sad me with company and make dinner for my family.

The first of the socks for my "husband" (Yes....I am giving hints here) is finished. They fit perfectly!
yesterday I received my first magazine from Interweave knits. There are some nice things, but I think I liked the fall Vogueknitting better.

Dite, please, come home!

2006-08-10T09:00:00.000+02:00

This is Aphrodite. Born on August 5 2000. She was not outside our door this morning, and I did not see her yesterday. Please, Dite, come home! I miss you so much!

Early this evening she was found not far from our house. She was alive but injured, so I took her to the Vet. Unfortunately she had several broken bones that could not be fixed so I had to let her go. I am so sad, it is hard to describe.

This beautiful girl was Aphrodite, and she has been in my life for the last 6 years. Thank you for all the good years. I will miss you a lot!

Surf stripe pullover and future happenings!

2006-08-09T20:21:00.000+02:00

I have finished the surf stripe pullover in Rowan natural silk aran. I think it looks nice and I like the colors. There was an awful lot of loose ends.
Two days ago I received another pattern. It is a very special pillow-pattern. I was inspired when I saw bent B starting on this one. Now I need to figure out what yarn to use!
There is so much exciting going on for knitters around the world. And I get very easy tempted. I would have loved to go on the Sea socks cruise and yarn Expedition, but unfortunately it is a very long airfare to LA. But I have joined the Socks for All Seasons club with Mama-E's yarn.
And, if that wasn't enough.... I have also bought tickets for the 2006 Knitting and Stitching Show in London. So now I need to get myself a new passport, book flight and hotel. And....I need someone to join me...

I have been a very good knitter lately - finishing two projects, so now I have casted on Fetching from the latest Knitty.

Basalt tank is done!

2006-08-07T11:30:00.000+02:00

I forgot to tell about the arrival of the Fall Vogue Knitting. You can look at all the projects at here. For us Norwegian it is fun to see a nice sweater in Dale yarn. That means there is at least one project we can buy the same yarn as in the pattern. I have now knitted the front neck and straps all over again and it is now all finished.

It looks very nice, but I think it's too big for me. And I have not even blocked it yet!
So I will have to consider giving it to someone bigger or maybe put it up on eBay... I don't know!

A fever does not stop me from bloging...

2006-08-05T17:29:00.000+02:00

At least not today. I just felt like bloging and I need something inspiring to do. With a 39.7 degrees Celsius (103,46 Fahrenheit) I have been staying in my bed most of the day. My kids had a fever a few days ago, so I guess it is the same thing. They got well after just one day, so I am hoping for the same for me. And now I am sitting here in middle of the night sweating and bloging.

I have done some knitting this last week. I sort of finished my Basalt tank (the Hexagons).

That is....it looks like it isn't finished after all. When the front neck and straps where finished I noticed that one of the straps was longer than the other. I guess I must have had a pre-fever condition when casting on. So now I have to this part all over again. That is 151 stitches in 12 rows....I have done a little more knitting on the socks, but not much, because I have been very focused on finishing the Hexagons. I changed to 3 mm needle and have still not finished the first one.
For a while ago I got a free gift with the Simply knitting magazine. A plastic bag, and it is perfect for a sock project.
yesterday the mailman came with two things to me. The latest Rowan magazine and some yarn. I was in such bad shape that I have not even looked inside the mag. There was three skeins of yarn. The Rowan natural silk aran is to finish my pullover. The other two where some discount yarns. One skein Noro Kochoran and one skein Debbie bliss Cashmerino Aran.

Hexagon number 4 finished

2006-07-28T11:46:00.000+02:00

At the trip to the cabin I off course brought my knitting along. Since the Knitting Nature-book is very large and heavy to carry along I made a copy of the pattern. I finished the first two hexagons. But when I came back home and looked at the pictures in the book I realized that I had made a mistake on the inside section. There was an error in the pattern. So I had to fix it!

I have now finished 4 out of 7 hexagons. This project is fun to knit.This is what the front will look like!
I have now started on hexagon 5. Then I found another mistake in the pattern. Good I noticed it very early so I didn't have to rip very much. I really hope the rest of the pattern is right.

Another project was started at the cabin. Opal socks for the largest feet in our house. I am knitting with 2.5 mm needles. But I have been knitting to tight again so I think I will have to use 3 mm instead, except from on the ribbing.
yesterday I did some organizing. I have a lot of yarn, but I am afraid this is just some of it.

To the cabin by the ocean!

2006-07-28T09:55:00.000+02:00

When my sister came for a visit, we asked her to join us for a trip to Ertvågøya. There we could enjoy the beautiful Norwegian coastline at the cabin that belongs to my parents-in-law.
Since my sister was driving I finely could join the kids in the back of the car. And didn't have to worry about being in too bad shape for safe driving. It is a two hour drive to get there.
As usual - this man is pretty relaxed!
On our way we had a very nice view.
The weather forecast was not good, so it was a pleasant surprise to be able to arrive to this great weather. You can see a ferry in the middle of the picture.And in this picture you can see the view from the cabin.
Here you can see the cabin hiding behind some trees a little to the right.
At the next day we went for a boat-trip. My son was enjoying sitting on my lap.
But then he fell asleep!
My daughter sitting on her aunts lap!
It was a very nice trip, but I was very happy to go home after two nights on a not so comfortable bed.

Lucky me!

2006-07-18T14:51:00.000+02:00

I am taking part in the Nordic secret pal 2006, and today I received a gift from a Solveig in Denmark.
Inside there was very nice yarns . Two skeins Alpaca from Garnstudio, one skein handpainted alpaca from Atacama and one big skein of Lana Grossa sock yarn. I have a lot of projects I would like to knit where I can use all the yarn. The handpainted yarn is just lovely. It is 100 meter (110 yards) /50 gram so it is not as thin as most alpaca yarn. I think I will try to design something special for this yarn.

I love yarn!

2006-07-17T14:35:00.000+02:00

I simply love yarn. And I love patterns and accessories, too. So I have a lot of yarn and I buy more than I can ever knit up! But I know for sure that I'm not the only one. Spinning my own yarn is also very exciting, but it certainly takes time to learn how to spin nice yarn that will knit up nicely. But I am getting closer as I am practicing.

I was trying to make sock yarn and was very optimistic when I tried to make a swatch with 3 mm needles. I realized after some rows that I at least had to go up to 4 mm. The color is at least very nice, but the yarn is once again over twisted.Accessories is fun and useful. I bought myself this Lantern moon needle case for a while ago. And still I have a lot of free space in it. It is not that I don't have enough needles, but I just have not gotten to it yet.

Yesterday I finished a 1 year old UFO. A crocheted bikini in green and chocolate for my milky white body. Today the sun is gone - again, so I guess my skin will stay this white.Not a very impressive peace of work, but it is okay.

The front and back of the pullover is finished, and I am ready for sewing up and making the edgings for arms and neck. But I have a problem. The last skein of white is missing , and I don't know where it could be. So I will probably have to buy a new skein on the web.
I had a package in the mail today. Seven skeins of Rowan wool cotton for this pattern:
It is from the very beautiful Knitting nature book. I think this hexagon tank top looks gorgeous and the first time I saw it I just new that I had to make it.

In the same shipment from Get knitted I received two skeins of Opal Prisma in green and blue. So there will be more socks on my needles.And today I bought the Simply knitting magazine and one skein of alpaca .This has been a good day for a yarn lover :-)

Not much blogging!

2006-07-14T21:26:00.000+02:00

Not much blogging....

My health has been like a rollercoaster and I am so tired of the health problems so I am not writing more about that right now.
So what have happened this last month!
On July 4 my son had his birthday - 2 years old. He is such a fun and charming boy.

We have also been able to put on some hot weather clothes. But not today....now it is raining and not at all nice and warm outside.
Oh, yeh....my knitting. I finished the Jaywalkers a long time ago. And I have done some progress on the pullover. This photo is not a fresh update, because today I finished the front piece. I have also done some more spinning. It is so fun with the colors, but this wool from Lornas Laces was not easy to spin. So I don't think I will use this fiber again.

Time for some sunshine in my life!

2006-06-15T13:42:00.000+02:00

I started on my medications last Friday. It was very inspiring to finely have something happening that probably will make me better. As the doctor had told me the medication was very strong and that I might have even more stomach ace. And I did, but that I am quite used to after more than half a year of pain. But at the same time it made me feel more tired and dizzy, so I have not been doing much knitting this week.
To make myself feel better I went shopping on Monday. And look what color I ended up buying! Yellow!!!! And I almost never have bought myself yellow clothes because I didn't think it would look good on me. It was the lady in the shop that thought I would look good in bright yellow, and she was right. And the fun thing is that I have always liked yellow. This really brings some sunshine in my life. I was so inspired by the new color-option that I got myself an appointment to a hairdresser the next day. But that was not really a success. The hairdresser did a horrible job and she just made my hair look awful. I was so unhappy that I went to a new hairdresser the next day. She agreed with me that it was not looking good, and the reason for it was a combination of last years dyed blond stripes together with the bad haircut.

So the solution was a mini-color (or whatever they call it) in my natural hair-color and a new cut.
And I was so much more happy this time, even if it cost me a lot of money.

Foe a few weeks ago we had to buy a new sofa when the old second hand sofa we had collapsed.
At the same time we bought an Ekornes Stressless exclusively for me. When having a lot of pain in the stomach, it helps to sit in an adjustable chair, and this one is absolutely the best one I have ever tried out. A lot better then all the reclieners I have tried. But unfortunately I have some competition. The kids and the cats like it, too!You bad, bad boy!

Oh, yes, this is a knitting-blog. I have started on my second Jaywalker, but it has been hard. My ability to concentrate have been bad because of the medication, so I have made mistakes all the time. I feels like I have been knitting just as much backwards as forward.

I also have started knitting with the new RC Natural silk aran. It will be a pullover for myself.
The yarn is very nice to knit, but the smell is not much better than the Summer tweed.

Tomorrow morning is the last time I have to take the antibiotics, and yesterday and today a have been having some progress, so if the doctor is right I should not have any more pain in a few weeks! I really hope he is right, 'cause that will make me and my family so much happier!

Change in diagnosis!

2006-06-08T10:52:00.000+02:00

I do not know what to say about the Norwegian health-care. We live in this very wealthy Nation, but still - people are waiting and waiting and waiting for help to find out why they are having pain and discomfort. And if they do not find the cause of the pain, some doctors have a tendency to think that it all comes from our head and that we are just lazy people! And too often people also get a wrong diagnosis. I hope for some changes soon!

In my case it has been a lot of waiting and change in what it is and what I should do. For more than two months now I have been on a Gluten Free diet because they suspected me of having Celiac Dicease, but for more than a month ago they found that I had the Helicobacter pylori. I was supposed to have received a letter about this and a prescription for an antibiotic treatment. When I went to my family doctor two months ago she had received some papers from the hospital that sad that I should NOT go on a diet. For that reason I called the hospital, and that was when I found out about the Helicobacter pylori. Then for two weeks I have been waiting for the specialist doctor to return two work. It has been two very long and painful weeks, but know I finely have some progress. I do not need to go on a Gluten Free diet, and I will probably be in a lot better shape in a few weeks. To bad they have used 8 month's to figure it out, and that I for that reason do not have a job-position after the holidays. But, at least I probably will be perfectly healthy and that is what really counts right now!
And then back to my knitting....I have finished the sparkling green summer top. I just need some buttons! The color in this picture is not showing the right color - it looks a lot nicer.
When finished I did not have much yarn left. When I was getting closer to the end I was for a while worried that I would not have enough yarn, but luckily I did.

Some progress and lots of action

2006-06-01T13:50:00.000+02:00

It has been a lot of action this week. Monday my daughter had a fever and had to stay at home with me. The next day she had an appointment at the hospital to have her ears checked. She had a lot of fluid in her right ear so the doctor decided to sign her up for surgery today already. And Wednsday was the day for a visit from an architect and a house-cleaning-agency. We have come to realize that we need to get things done. Need to do some restoration on our house and we need to have someone clean our home!

But today was the day for my daughter to have a tube-surgery. Since we did the same thing with the other ear in September, it was not so scary this time. They finished the surgery in half en hour and she woke up right away. She was not happy with having a needle in her arm and the next two hours was stressful. When we finely was allowed to go home she was very happy.
And it was time for gifts!
And waffles and more....
I have started a little crochet-project and with a plastic hook that ended up like on the picture.
There is a chance that I am crocheting rather tight!!!!
I have finished the first Jaywalker sock, and I just need the other one. That is....it is not exactly the same as the pattern. I have added a big-toe!

So when I have finished the left sock I can wear them in these slippers!

The sparkling green Colinette Giotto is turning into a halter neck top. This is the finished back-piece.

Casting off 1350 stitches - Froth scarf finished!

2006-05-26T12:27:00.000+02:00

The edging just needs 4 rows before casting off, but when knitting about 1350 stitches just the cast off-part takes forever. But I finished it last night and I am very happy with it. I might make another one!

Regia bamboo for Jaywalker

2006-05-24T11:13:00.000+02:00

I did some more online shopping , and this time it was 2 skeins Regia bamboo.And then I had to start knitting the socks all knitting blogers have made - Jaywalker!
But I only have alumnium needles in size 2.5 mm, and my fingers are aching. So I have ordered some bamboo dpn.
I have done some progress on the Froth scarf as well. It is an easy pattern, not calling for a whole lot of concentration. And that is good right now when my head tends to start spinning!
It is now 53 cm in length, and that means I have 37 cm left before I can start on the edging.
Some more books arrived, too. And the books are all very nice, but now I have even more things I would like to make....and I do not need more projects!

Finished Flowery Bag - at last...

2006-05-18T13:14:00.000+02:00

We had a very nice weather yesterday when celebrating May 17. My daughter was very excited about the day, but it just did not live up to her expectations. After about 15 minutes watching the parade and with her brothers balloon disappearing up in the air, she was very sad and wanted to go home. She was much more happy staying at home eating chocolate cake and beading with some new beads I bought on May 16.

And she was very happy when her grandmother and grandfather came for a visit, so that she was able to show off her pink dress. But she was also impressed with grandma's 'bunad'.

When the kids went to bed I returned to the Flowery bag. Now I had to get to the sewing. So I struggled and got the sewing-machine on the table and started sewing the lining section. The machine belongs to my mother-in-law, and is a n old Husquerna, but it is working just fine. But it is very heavy.
At noon today I finely finished it. I am very happy with it, but it was defiantly a lot more work then I thought it would be. I guess, adding the zippers made it a lot harder, but then the content of the bag will be much safer from falling out.

Outside of bag is finished!

2006-05-16T23:29:00.000+02:00

This is a lot of work!
I have blocked and done a whole lot of sewing. The flowers....puh....the 66 beads....and I did not think my beads was right so I went shopping for some larger and came home with the Same size, so beads will not be any larger!
No I need to do the inside of the bag - that really scares me, 'cause I have never done this part before. And I am doing a change in the pattern and are adding zippers instead of fasteners.
That will not be tomorrow! May 17 is the Norwegian National day - a day to celebrate.

Flowery bag, Bliss, Froth Scarf and ....

2006-05-15T12:33:00.000+02:00

I have finished all the knitting on my Flowery bag, but now come the part I am not very found of - blocking, cutting fabric, sewing and adding beads! But I will start doing it today so that I can start using my bag on May 17!

When I had finished the Flowery bag, I went back to the Bliss-pattern and finished the left front. But I am not very happy with it, 'cause I think I might have done something wrong. I will start on the right front, and then I probably will notice if the left does not match the right - at least that is what I am hoping for!
When shooting these last two pictures, my daughter came along and started posing. She most defiantly wanted me to take pictures of her, too.

When finishing one project (even if it is not quite finished), I have a hard time not starting on a new one. So then I just started knitting the Froth Scarf - the free gift for my Rowan membership. It is a very easy pattern, and I think the scarf will look very nice - once finished - whenever that is...
When it comes to my Gluten-free living, I still am struggling. I have had some days with awful pain and I don't feel that I get enough to eat. Today I decided to make a very generous salad, hoping that I for once would not hunger for more food right away like I do with Gluten-Free bread. And as you can see - I made a lot, too much. From now on I will eat a lot more salad.

This is pure love!

2006-05-10T20:56:00.000+02:00

Yes, I know that I have already posted today, but then this yarn was waiting for me in the mail-box and I just can't wait until tomorrow to show of this yarn. The last week has been rather unpleasant, but this yarn really made my day. I love green, but this green just takes me to a higher place!

This is pure love - I love this color, and just had to try it on!

I also had to use my skein winder, and as you can see, even my cat liked the yarn - Purrr!

Clover Wonder Knitter

2006-05-10T10:08:00.000+02:00

A new gadget has arrived - the Clover wonder knitter!
Since I didn't have any tool for making i-cord, I decided to try this one.
I was also considering buying the Inox knitting mill, but ordered the Clover instead because it had both a 3-pin and a 6-pin disk. But I did not look very closely, cause I now realized that the Inox is a automatic machine! That would have been a lot faster I guess!

So having a new tool in my hands I just had to try it out. First I tested the 3-pin disk with some light weight cotton yarn. It works just fine, but I think the i-cord ends up being too loose knitted. I also tested with the 6-pin, and the result is the same. When I tried some DK weight wool yarn I think the i-cord looked a lot nicer. So I learned that this tool don't work well with light weight yarn.

Flowery bag!

2006-05-09T12:55:00.000+02:00

Not feeling to good last night I was not able to update.

I started on the Flowery bag last week. The pattern is from Rowan Classic summer book eleven.
The yarn is Cashcotton DK and 4 ply. It is a lovely yarn to knit, and I look forward to knitting the 4ply lace sweater "Julia" from the same pattern-book.
I have now knitted the sides, handle and gusset, and now I am working on my first out of three flowers.

I have also bought some very nice fabric that I think was a perfect match for the yarn.

Holding hands!

2006-05-08T11:18:00.000+02:00

The pullover and top fits very well, and they look very friendly on this picture.
But I am afraid that is not very often the case, 'cause they tend to fight a lot of the time.

I will give another update on my new project Flowery bag later today.

The summer tweed nightmare...and pink elephants

2006-05-03T13:16:00.000+02:00

I don't know what to do with this summer tweed project. It is supposed to be a jacket, but it just don't think it will look nice on me. I sew side and shoulder seams on the back and left front and tried it on. The shape doesn't look to good. Maybe it will be better with all the pieces in place, but I don't know if I will go on with this project. It is also boring to knit and the yarn have an awful smell!
And on a day like today, when I am not allowed to eat (because I am doing another medical examination tomorrow), I would rather do something more fun. Back to my Bliss-pattern...

yesterday, me and my daughter went shopping for buttons. She saw these elephant-buttons, and then I just had to buy them. So now the very pink top have some very pink elephant-buttons.

I have two finished projects - not bad!

2006-05-01T14:57:00.000+02:00

I had not finished my sons pullover before I went away, so that was the first thing I wanted to do when I got back. It was the very boring part with fastening loose ends and do the neck- and arm-edging. My daughter was really pushing me, 'cause I showed her the pink Colinette yarn and told her I would knit her a top with the yarn. She was constantly asking me when I would start knitting her top. So then I had to finish her brothers pullover. I think it looks nice, but I haven't tried it on him yet.

When the pullover was finished I placed the skein with the very pink Giotto on my umbrella swift and my skein-winder was filled to the edge with only 50 grams of yarn. And with my daughter constantly asking me if her top was finished soon, I have been knitting all evening yesterday and most of this day , too.

On size 8 mm needles and size 4 year it knits up pretty fast. And it also helps to knit in the round up to the arms. I finished the top with crocheting picot edging. On each shoulder I will need 3 buttons. When finished I had 6,4 meter yarn left. I haven't decided what side of the top that looks best, and I am also thinking about adding some crocheted flowers.
But now my daughter hopefully will be satisfied, so then I can go back to the Bliss-pattern.

Knitting and shopping!

2006-04-28T10:52:00.000+02:00

We have had some very nice days traveling to Stockholm and Helsinki. Most of the time we where taking it easy - doing a little sightseeing and shopping. We did not joining the party-people on the boat, when falling asleep at ten in the evening - that is what tired parents do when they take a brake. At least that is what we do. He did some reading ( he started and finished "The Da Vinci Code" of 600 pages...) and I did some knitting. I brought 3 skeins of Calmer and started knitting "Bliss" from mag #39. Three skeins was rather optimistic, 'cause I did not even finish one skein.

And then it was the shopping....I do not know how much money I spent, and I most certainly do not want to know.... In Helsinki I did not see any knitting-shops, but we found a very large book-store. They had a lot of titles but I just bought "Scarf Style" and the Crochet magazine.
In Stockholm I went to two shops. The first stop was Wincent who sell Rowan yarn. I sort of had some ideas on what to buy, but I had some difficulties deciding. The yarn I finely bought was 7 skeins Cashcotton 4 ply and 9 skeins of the new Natural Silk Aran. Then I went to Nysta and bought 4 skeins Debbie Bliss Pure silk in purple and 1 skein Colinette Giotto in a very bright pink.
I also did some shopping for my kids, our home and for skin-care. The mug and cups are from the Finnish Marimekko design. It will be great for hot summer days. I also bought a green t-shirt from marines. For the kids we bought several things with Mummin (not pictured here). We are also considering going back to Finland this summer with the kids to visit the Mumminworld.
There are a lot of Clinique here....that is because I tend to have an allergic reaction to a lot of other products. So now my skin will look just wonderful and will not get burned in the summer because I have the sun-care products in the yellow bag. Time will show how much sun we will get.....

Knittacia Returns!

2006-04-24T10:36:00.001+02:00

I am sorry that I have not updated my blog this last month. It is because I have had a lot on my mind and not felt like writing. My health is still giving me a hard time, but now at least I have received some test results. There is still some more testing going on, but it looks like I have the celiac disease. That means I have to give up eating everything with gluten. And that is a lot harder then I thought, 'cause there is a lot of things that contains gluten that I would not suspect. I bought myself two books about cooking without gluten. So far I have only tried baking one bread. That was not a success, but I will probably figure it out after some practicing.

okay - back to knitting. During the last month I have done some knitting and some shopping. With some Svale from Dale that I had in my stash I crocheted this summer-top. The pattern is from Knit.1, but I did some changes. I like it a lot, but I had some difficulties figuring out the pattern.
When my top was finished I found a 1 year old project in my stash. It is a jacket in Summer Tweed. It is boring and I don't like the smell of the yarn but I think the jacket will look good when finished.
New books and magazines: Knitter's, Simply Knitting, Vogue Knitting, Knitsimple, Knit.1, Spin-Off and two spinning-books.
A few days ago I could no longer stop myself, so I just had to buy some yarn. The new Bamboo from Idena was very tempting. It is 70% bamboo and 30% cotton and is knit up on 5 mm needles. I bought 4 skeins in different colors so that I could knit a slipover for my son.
And this is a very fast project. And I have made the pattern myself. I think it will look great on him.And there was some more yarn coming to me. My better half went to London for a few days, so I made a shopping list and he went to Liberty.
Some more magazines and some Rowan yarn.

And there will be more yarn added to my stash soon, 'cause tomorrow I am flying to Stockholm.
I will give an update on Friday.

Socks and bag!

2006-03-24T09:17:00.000+01:00

Yep....I have been a bad blogger again.
I have been feeling bad and have had high fever some days.
And my kids have been ill as well...that is how the story goes on....

When it comes to knitting I finished my lace socks for a long time ago.
I have used them and washed them once - and I love them!
Warm and pretty at the same time.

I also ended up knitting a bag that I felted - a very fast project, but I still need some handles on it. I don't know what du use. And I am not overexcited about the result.

Handpainted wool top

2006-03-01T13:56:00.000+01:00

I ordered some wool top from Lorna's laces. They have very nice colors. This one is called watercolors.

I was not sure how to spin this wool, but I ended up pulling off one length that had 1 repetition of all colors and split them into smaller sections. Then I ended up with rather short sections of each colors. It spun up very nicely. It is a 1 ply yarn with some variation when it comes to thickness. I would guess it will be 4-5 mm needles that will be right for this yarn, but I am not sure.

With my umbrella swift and skein winder I ended up with this 43 grams skein. I am happy with my spinning-progress.

90 grams of handspun

2006-02-20T08:52:00.000+01:00

This has been a very good spinning weekend.
On Friday I spun my kool-aid-wool (20 g) and on Saturday and Sunday I went to a 12 hour spinning-class and spun 70 grams Norwegian wool in natural colors. It was a lot of fun and now I am really hooked on the art of spinning.

Spring patterns, socks and kool-aid

2006-02-16T12:46:00.000+01:00

Not much bloging lately. All members of the family have had another stomach disease.
For the last few weeks I have bought two spring pattern-books from Rowan.
I have also finished one sock, and have finished the toe on the second sock. Slow progress, but they are turning out very nice.
For a week ago I also did some kool-aid dyeing. And the resulting spinning-fiber looks like it is on fire! It will be fun to see how the spun yarn will turn out. It is Cherry, Orange and lemon.

Opplæring i fra tå og opp sokker (Sock-instructions)

2006-02-16T10:34:00.000+01:00

In this post I will give a Norwegian instruction and pattern on how to knit Falling leaves from Knitty.

Etter at flere har vist interesse for å lære seg å strikke sokker ved å starte med tåen og strikke opp, har jeg forsøkt å lage en "oppskrift" på dette. Jeg kommer til å ta utgangspunkt i mønsteret Falling leaves, men det går jo ann å strikke et annet mønster. Spesielle teknikker jeg kommer til å bruke her er: opplegg med hekling og rundstrikk ved bruk av 1 lang rundpinne. Det går ann å kombinere ulike teknikker. Det kan strikkes på strømpepinner for de som vil det, og du kan legge opp på vanlig måte og ta opp masker i stedet for hekle-opplegget.

Utstyr
I denne oppskriften kan det brukes rundpinne 2,5 mm og garn som passer til dette, som f.eks. Regia og Opal. Jeg har strikket med Alpaca fra Du store alpakka.
For hekle-opplegg trenger du litt garn i annen farge og en heklekrok.
Jeg brukte hvitt bomullsgarn.

Oppskrift

Tå

Lag en rad med luftmasker noe lengre enn antall masker som skal legges opp (Ca. 45).
Ta opp masker i løkken på baksiden av luftmaskene. Hopp over de første luftmaskene og start i nr 3-4. Legg opp 36 masker på denne måten.

Rad 1: Strikk vrang ut pinnen.
Rad 2: Strikk 35 m rett, snu.
Rad 3: Kast på pinnen, strikk 34 masker vrang, snu.
Rad 4: Kast på pinnen, strikk 33 masker rett, snu
Rad 5-24: Gjenta rad 3 og 4 med 1 maske mindre for hver vending for hver rad (32 vrang, 31 rett, 30 vrang osv).
Rad 25: Kast på pinnen, strikk 12 vrang, snu.
Rad 26: Kast på pinnen, strikk 12 rett, rett opp neste maske (kastet fra forrige omgang), strikk 2 sammen (kastet og neste maske på pinnen er strikket sammen), snu.

Nå er undersiden av tåpartiet strikket og herfra vil vi forme oversiden av tåpartiet. Det er viktig å være konsentrert i denne delen av arbeidet, da det er veldig lett å glemme et kast eller en sammenstrikking (Jeg har rekt opp 3 ganger).

Rad 27: Kast på pinnen, strikk 13 vrang, ta neste to masker løst av en etter en som om du skulle strikket dem, før disse maskene tilbake til venstre pinne og strikk dem vridd vrangt sammen (k2tog tbl), snu.
Rad 28: Kast på pinnen, strikk 14 rett, rett opp de to neste maskene, strikk 3 masker sammen, snu.
Rad 29: Kast på pinnen, strikk 15 vrang, ta neste tre masker løst av som for rad 27, strikk de 3 maskene vrangt sammen fra baksiden av maskene, snu.
Rad 30-47: Gjenta rad 28 og 29, men strikk 1 maske lengre for hver rad (16 rett, 17 vrang, 18 rett osv).
Rad 48: Kast på pinnen, strikk 34 rett, rett opp neste to masker og strikk de siste tre maskene sammen.

Tåpartiet er nå ferdig og fra nå av skal det strikkes rundt.

Den heklede tråden skal nå fjernes og maskene settes på den andre enden av pinnen. Du skal da ha 35 masker på denne pinnen.

Nå begynner teknikken Magic loop.
På Knitty-siden finner du 2 linker som forklarer denne teknikken. På den andre av dem er det også en video. Det er litt uvant, men veldig enkelt.

Maskene fra opplegget er nå på pinnen du ser i fremest på bildet over. Og for å kunne fortsette å strikke må du dra ut den bakerste pinnen fra maskene som sist ble strikket. Det vil komme tydelig fram hvorfor rundpinnen ikke kan være for kort.

Nå er det bare å begynne å strikke over de 35 maskene.

Lag en maske til slutt slik at du har 36 masker på pinnen. Jeg strikker 2 ganger i siste maske (forann og bak).

På bildet under ses hvordan rundpinnen er kveilet når det strikkes. Når pinnen er strikket ut, må du dra ut løkken til høyre for å få maskene på baksiden inn på pinnen som er ledig.
Strikk videre på samme måte.

Neste runde: Strikk 3 vridd rett sammen (k3tog tbl). De siste kastene på første pinne er da strikket sammen og det er 72 masker totalt. Strikk ut pinnen.

Nå begynner mønsterstrikk på oversiden av foten. Jeg har brukt diagrammet for Falling leaves, men det kan jo strikkes med andre mønstre også.
Symbolforklaring:

ssk = ta neste to masker løst av som om du skulle strikke dem, før de tilbake til venstre pinne og strikk de sammen
k2tog = strikk 2 rett sammen
k = rettstrikk
YO = kast på pinnen

Neste runde: Gjenta mønsteret over de 12 maskene i diagrammet 3 ganger, 36 masker er strikket. De neste 36 maskene strikkes i rettstrikk.
Fortsett å strikke mønster over de 36 første maskene og rettstrikk over de neste 36 maskene helt til sokken er ca 5 cm kortere enn total lengde på foten.

Hel
Neste runde: Strikk 36 masker i mønster, sett disse maskene på en tråd/maskeholder.
Strikk helen over de resterende 36 maskene på samme måte som tåen helt til og med rad 47.

Rad 48: Kats, strikk 34 m rett, rett opp neste to masker, strikk 3 rett sammen. Sett maskene fra tråden/maskeholder tilbake på pinnen og fortsett å strikk mønster over disse maskene.

Neste runde: Strikk 3 vridd sammen (k3tog tbl). Strikk ut pinnen.

Neste runde: Nå strikkes mønsteret etter diagrammet på begge sider. Gjenta mønsteret i diagrammet 6 ganger. Fortsett å strikke mønster til sokken er ca. 2,5 cm kortere enn ønsket lengde eller tidligere hvis du ønsker en lengre ribbekant. Avslutt med en ribbekant (1 rett+1 vrang). Fell løst av.