Obligatory post: the finished objects of 2009

All in all a good year I think. Starting to get a hang of the larger projects, and crocet.

Now we'll see what 2010 brings... I know I have a buttload of works in progress to finish. And they're all pretty nice. And of course there are plans. Plenty of them! Like cardigans and the colour red and more lace and crochet.
I also just knit one pair of socks in 2009, yet "Knitting vintage socks" lives on my bedside table, and I have plenty of sock yarn.

Happy bright and shiny new 2010 to all!

In the mail

Today was the "deadline" to get holiday presents in the mail in Norway. I am lucky enough to be able to hand deliver most of my presents this year, but I still managed to send a few things off.


(Ravelry link)

Two Snugs. Going to two different parts of the country, for two little girls born this fall and bearing the same name.
I really liked knitting these hoodies, and I think they look super cute. I do wonder what they'll look like with a baby inside though. I hope one of the moms will send me a picture.


(Ravelry link)

And an Ishbel. For my favourite aunt. She turned sixty in January and this is her very late birthday present. I love how it turned out and I just know she will too! I've gotten some responses on Flickr that I should keep this for myself. But I have plenty of Rowan yarn in an even prettier blue for me, for a sweater, and plenty of other nice blue yarns for more shawls for me too. This is definately an auntie shawl.

I'm quickly working on my final knitted holiday gift for my brother. Then I'm all done with gift knitting for a while and will spend the holidays and beginning of 2010 knitting for ME! ME! ME! (or at least I hope so).

Will I have to fight her for my stash?

M mastered a new skill last night. She even found the hook in the right place by herself. She's paid attention to where I keep my good stuff.



The yarn... I can no longer remember the name of, but she picked it out by herself the last time I went yarn shopping. At least for the time being we have very different taste in yarn. If her fondness for funfur and multi-coloured, syntetic tape yarn ever passes I guess she'll sneak into my stash yarn. Maybe it's time to hide the Baby Cashmerino and Sea Silk?

What it's going to be, you wonder? Christmas tree garland... A very, very long one!

"Mom, why are you knitting with sewing thread?"

...said M a few days ago.



This work in progress has great drape and feel. And I love the colour. But it's knitting up ever so slowly. I love working on it though.
It's nothing but plain old garter stitch now. 150 stitches a row on 3mm needles. But there is a plan for some spruceing up with a crisp white crochet border and some lovely blue seed beads. I have never tried adding beads to crochet. I hope I can make it work. And if I can make it work without pre-stringing the beads I'll be very, very happy. There's still a fair bit of knitting to do first though.

Most of my time these days are spent with a paint brush in hand. I hope I'm all done before mom and dad come to visit next weekend. Before that, I hope to finish the border on a shawl for mom too. If I do, mom will bring me back my purple Shetland triangle shawl. She kidnapped it last time she was here, telling me I would get it back when I finished the shawl for her. So far, it looks like it worked...

And because it's Saturday, and really dark and wet outside, I baked.



Aniseed buns. I've had a craving for these for about a week now. They're cooling down at the moment, I've only had one to taste, but we'll dig into them for real as soon as P and M comes back from a few hours of swimming. Yum!

Mid day snack

I don't care if it's snowing outside. The fire place is lit and I have time to sit down and enjoy a mid day snack.



Home made banana bread and dried apple rings. Accompanied by my favourite tea, sweet coconut thai chai.

Another one

Another hat craving, another hat, another pompom.





Using up stash yarn in a fast way.

White is maybe not the best colour for a young girl who tends to get moss, leaves and mud on everything she wears. We'll see how it looks a month from now... I'll also take care not to mention that I personally think the yarn, Alfa, is a bit on the scratchy side.

Worked this up as I went along, using the cable chart from the Yellow Harvest mittens in last winters Vogue knitting. M helped out with the pompom. If she had her way she would probably pompom everything.

Whose idea was this anyway?

I only have myself to blame...



Yesterday afternoon I found a half empty can of paint in the garage and had the idea to spruce up the closet doors in the hallway. Things kind of escalated (another half empty huge bucket of paint was found) and I've been prepping and painting for 10 hours straight today... In a couple of hours (a third coat is needed) our hallway is going to be gorgeous, white and bright. No more dark and dingy wood paneling.

In addition, a carpenter is working wonders outside on our porch. More white paint lies in my future, but it's going to be sooo awsome in the end.

Monochrome

Lately it has seemed like anything and everything I make is blue. Over the past coulpe of weeks I have seen that this is in fact not true. There is a great deal of black/white/gray going on too. And that feeling of never finishing stuff has gone away too.

Evidence 1: Mojo vest

This spring I gave my brother the promise of a vest for his birthday, and though I'm a little late delivering (his birthday is in July) I could finally present it to him this past weekend.



It fits him perfectly and he's very happy with it. He's even told me later that he receives a lot of "cred" for the vest. Wich I suppose is a good thing, and the correct lingo to use in hip musician circles.
I've named the vest "Mojo" because my brother really needs to get his mojo back. He's been unfortunate enough to breake his legs three times in less than a year (one car crash in Dec.-08, one fall accident in July and one bicycle accident in September). Absolutely not good for a guy who plays the drums for a living. He's doing amazingly well and is able to work almost full time. And he's been lucky enough that the two last breaks were in his left leg. He can work his music magic without that apparently.
Ravelry link to Mojo

Evidence 2: Big pom-pom hat



Knit with the left over yarn from the Mojo vest. During the last leg of the vest knitting I got a very strong hat knitting craving. This was just the remedy for it. An awsome pattern, though a little bit fiddly with two cable needles in use at once, I really loved this pattern. And the pom-pom is just so fun to make and wear.
Ravelry link to pom-pom hat

Evidence 3: Living room chairs / reading corner

Making this


(grandma and grandpas old chairs, where they used to read me stories as a child)

into this



It's taken me about 1.5 years, and I've had the chairs for 5 years but they're finally all done. Except a little bit of help with wrapping and holding the fabric in the end (thanks BIL) I did this job all by myself. I've spent a lot of hours sanding the wood down on these! All the old sticky varnish was sanded off and then colour and oil was applied after. The old fabric was also a bit of a hassle to get off. I think there were about 500 staples and nails to take out.
Everything was finished in time to surprice my P when he got home from a week in Poland last Thursday. He's really happy too.

(Norwegian readers; if you go see the movie "Knerten" pay attention to the carpenters sofa, it is upholstered in the exact same fabric these chairs used to have. That is: if you're able to take your eyes away from all the gorgeous knitwear going on in that movie)

Evidence 4: dining room chairs



I bought wayyyy too much fabric for the reading chairs. Twice as much as I actually needed. So I put new covers on all six dining room chairs. I love how everything matches now...

Evidence 5: zebra leggings are in use
(and an excuse to post a very cute picture)



M is wearing these leggings almost daily now that colder weather has hit us. She loves them.
Ravelry link to leggings

Is gray my new blue???
I don't think so. This is blocking as I type.



That's for next time...

Cocoon

Finally, something is finished, wearable and bloggable.

A few weeks ago I finished my modified Cloud Bolero. Started sometime last winter (can't exactly remember when) and put in the "naughty corner" for a very long time due to some serious issues whith the transition from body to sleeve. When I picked it back up in September the sleeves just flew off the needles. No problem at all, and I can't really remember what it was I got stuck on either.



I was a bit worried that I would not have enough yarn to make it long enough. I used three balls first for the body, then knit the sleeves to desired length with the fourth and finally, with the remaining yarn I knit two more pattern repeats at the bottom and bound off. The possibility to do this, and try on as you go is my favourite thing about top-down patterns.

Once the knitting was done the vest(?) reached my waist. Once washed and blocked it had grewn lenghtwise to just below my butt. Great! It's a perfect fit. Only problem with this is that the button holes grew a bit too. I need to crochet them more snug I think.

The yarn, Rowan Cocoon was great to work with. An excellent candidate for wet splicing means less bulky ends to weave in and it's kitten soft and has great drape. Only downside to it is that it sheds. A lot! I know loosely spun singles do, but it seems like it's never going to end. I hope it does.

As I was wearing it for the first time P commented that it looked lovely. "When did you knit that?" I guess it's hard for him to keep track of months old works in progress. And it truly is lovely.

Not knitting

For the past couple of weeks a tendonitis has tried to take me away from anything crafty. And by craft I mean knitting and crocheting. So I've found room to do a lot of other things instead.

Mushroom picking.

Baking.

Painting.

And last, but not least

Spinning.

A little bit of the wool Theresa gave me when we went mushroom hunting (successfully), has been transformed into lovely sock weight singles that will be transformed into a shawlette at one point. I'm thinking something along the lines of the lovely Multnomah.

I've never successfully spun singles before, but a couple of days ago I stumbled upon a tutorial for how to full singles. I just had to give it a go!(I can't for the life of me fint my way back to that blog, I'm sorry...)

I have been doing a teensy bit of knitting and crocheting over the past weeks too, just to see how much I can do before I have to "listen to the hands" and give them a rest. And I've been weaving in ends and doing some clearing up in the huge UFO-pile too.

Tomorrow I'll be back to the knitting again tough. I have a funeral to go to, and with that a 8 hour bus ride. I'm packing easy stuff and hope for the best. If what I take with me really does not suit my hands, my home town has a really nice yarn store... So I know I can keep myself occupied on the 8 hour bus ride back home too. Then, if time permits it I'll be going on a road trip with my father in law on Monday, and will most likely get some knitting done then too.

Right now though, I'll head outside to see how my brand new vest is doing, it's drying outside in the sunshine :)

Comfort food

I think the tendonitis monster is trying to sneak up on me.

I'm more than a little bummed out about this, since I have three things almost finished, a new pattern in the writing and too much time on my hands.

I guess I'll just have to keep baking, and eating!

These oatmeal cookies are the best I've ever tried. I found the receipe here.

I had to wing it a bit though. My pantry could only come up with six walnuts, so I put almonds in instead. Not too bad, almonds are my third fave nut. And I've heard they're healthy too... I don't know if walnuts are?

Now we match

I've practically used up all my very blue Falk yarn that I had a drawer full of just a few months ago.

About three weeks ago I finished knitting "Sundog" for M. And a few days ago I pulled myself up by the ear and wove in the last ends and blocked it.

Now M has a new wool sweater that matches my Pioneer.

I'm very happy with it. It turned out great, and was also a super holiday project. The yoke is fun to knit and is well constructed, the whole thing is seamless and the sweater is designed to grow with the child.

The cuffs are turned up, and I knit extra length to the body, so I am pretty sure we'll at least get two seasons wear out of this.

(Ravelry project page here)

While checking that I had not squirreled away even more blue Falk yarn I actually found yarn for and started another blue project. This time with added gray. More holiday knitting. This time it's a "how to avoid cabin fever"-project. And for me!

The blue Falk is as good as gone. When I finish up this latest project I'll have used up a whole drawerful of blue yarn this summer.

Something blue

This

(Picture taken last summer in Bolnäs, home of Växbo Lin)

Made into this

(Bridal garter by Lisa Hamblin, Ravelry link)

My childhood best friend gets married the coming Saturday. She asked me to make her a blue garter, and I was never one to refuse. How could I? Even though I really don't understand the point of a garter. It's our our joint understanding that this is mostly a gag gift and something that might turn into something fun in the very late hours of the party.

It turned out pretty though. And i did not spend much yarn or time on it. I hardly made a dent in my huge cone of laceweight linen. It was very inspiering to crochet with though. So I'm thinking of it as a swatch of sorts...

A brain in holiday mode

Something was very, very wrong in the longies pattern I'm working from at the moment. I'm slightly pissed, at the pattern and at myself.

"Work down leg decreasing one stitch each side of marker every 1,5 cm 22 times. When leg measures 14 cm change to ribbin."

Guess how long it took me to figure out something was wrong... I guess I'm sort of lucky; it was after 14 cm and not after 22 decreases. Now I have not been able to knit anything for two days, because I can't decide wether to fudge it or frog it.

Two weeks of nothing

Back home for a few days to tendt to the garden and mail. For the past two weeks I have been doing close to nothing. Or rather - fishing...


Being in a boat for most of the day takes time away from knitting, and I've got absolutely nothing to show. It was even too hot to knit much in the car driving to and from this part of the holiday, a total of about 14 hours of driving...
The weather has cooled down now, and I've got a few hours in the car to look forward to in the days to come. Things will be finished soon I hope!

Kris-bel

The Ishbel for my friend Kris is finally done.

M was very helpful during the photo shoot.

I knit this in the small (shawlette/scarf) size. There was not enough yarn left to knit a full repeat of chart A and B to make it bigger. I'm very happy about how it turned out. And actually, the size is perfect.

Christmas 2007 (eek!) I gave Kris a gift card of something hand knitted by me. She requested something chocolate brown, soft and for the neck. I made 3 false attempts and I'm so happy I finally found a pattern and yarn that works together. I'm sure she'll love it as much as I do. At least I hope so.

(There are more photos and better viewed images in my flickr-album, click on the picture on top to go there)
Ravelry project page

Summer is officially here

School's out today! This years teacher gift is done and delivered today.



Blonde, by Pinneguri/The Needle Lady.
Knit in double stranded Klippan by Mora, five pattern repeats.

The house is full of antisipation. All the laundry is done and the big bags are out of the closet, ready to be filled with all our holiday needs and don't-needs. I've mentally packed all my needed knitting, and it's not a small bag. Starting off with Laredo for my brother. Hoping to get it done by his birthday July 15th.

For the next couple of weeks we're going all the way to the very southernmost part of Norway, to the inlaws holiday house. It's been a couple of years since we've been there and I'm looking forward to it so much. Just look...







We'll be going to the lighthouse for ice cream, sunsets and to hear the great wide ocean crash to the shore as often as possible. It's only a 5 minute walk... And I'll find that one spot in the garden where there's no wind and just knit and knit and knit. Internet access is going to be scarse, but hopefully we can get online at least a couple of times while we're there. And if not I'll be back with finished things and pictures to share.

Speaking of finished things, the wrist warmers were just an inbetween project. I've been wizzing through an Ishbel the last week. Only the two last charts to go, and I'm ready to block. I'll be sharing that before I leave.

Pioneer!

Pioneer is finished!



I love it:)
It fits and everything is good (everything but the curling neck line).

Even the blue, that was so overpowering at times when I was knitting it is now just plain gorgeous.



The cables down the arms and back add so much to this sweater.



I got to wear this on Saturday, and got so many compliments on it. I am one happy camper! I've got some other big stuff coming this summer and I now have confidence that I can actually finish projects that require more than three balls of yarn. The big (big?4 mm needles?) help a lot though. I'm already planning more sweaters for me, and another Pioneer for me, in cotton, with the cables slightly different. We'll see when I get around to that.

Ravelry project page
And please remember that you can click on pictures to take you to Flickr to see a larger version. The cables are tiny...

Tuesday blues

Almost finished with the sweater. Browsing around Flickr to remind myself that blue is indeed my favourite colour. I'm getting a bit sick of that very blue sweater now and want something else. I'll keep going though, because this sweater, once it's done, is going to be very, very good! And blue!

THE dress

Finally, I'm able to show you what I worked on for the major period of May. It's quite possible the cutest baby dress I've ever laid my hands on to this day. Maybe... I could be modest here, but I won't be! A lot of thinking (and thinking ahead) went into the making of this dress. Working from a pattern that was not for this day and age, and not for a knitter who likes to have her hand held by the pattern writer. Also, I started off by provisionally casting on 300 stitches, and I will not do that again any time soon. In addition I'll confess to one and all that I will not be working with Rowan Fine Milk Cotton any time soon. It splits, it has knots on knots and snargles and snafus aplenty. I was very disappointed. When this happens in non-wool yarn I find it especially frustrating, because splicing the ends together is out of the question.

All the brain churning, fear, pressure of time, gazillion stitches on small needles, ends to weave in and fiddly snaps to sew in were so absolutely worth it in the end! The result turned out 99% like I wanted it to. Cuteness galore, and it's not even pink! And today I got to see the happy face of the mom to be holding it, way over in the U.S., and I'm happy I did it all.

And I'll be doing it again (sans the Milk Cotton), and that time I'll be writing down a pattern and it will be without all the things I found frustrating when I knit this one. Just in case you wondered.

Coming up next is the now nearly finished very blue sweater. And in near future I'll be tackeling my very first man garment. My brother has asked me (again) to knit him a vest. And I will! Because I love him, esp. now for being alive and turning 26 in July, and for actually wanting a vest and for agreeing on a pattern with me and choosing his own colour yarn. Laredo, just came out and looks great.

knit flip knit flip knit flip knit flip knit flip knitflipknitflipknitflip

The downside to knitting sweaters from the top down; once you've knit the body and start the sleeves there's a whole lot of stuff hanging down from your needles. And this has to be flipped around along with your knitting or else you get your work balled up in a knot. I've been making excellent progress on a sweater and now the sleeves are bugging the shit out of me. I have to kick myself in the butt and not start anything (small and free dangling) all the time. Also considering making short sleeves, and must remind myself of the stupidity of wool sweaters with short sleeves. I need my long sleeves!

The sweater is gorgeous though, a great fit and very, very blue.



Even more blue than this! When I first started knitting I almost thought it was too blue. I love blue!
Blue like the summer sky, like fjords and the great wide ocean. I long to go to the summer house soon... But first I have to finish the darned sleeves!

Knit flip knit flip knit flip knit flip knit flip knitflipknitflipknitflip

Something blue

I've been rummageing through the stash a lot lately. And also flicking through my "Luxury one skein wonders" numerous times. Conclusion is I have a lot of yarn, and also that this book has a lot of potential.

I've had two balls of baby blue Baby Silk from Du store alpakka buried under a lot of other stuff for ages. I finally found a very nice pattern for it. And it's crochet, wich I want to do more of. My hands were hurting a little bit after speeding through 3.5 balls of cotton on 2.5 mm needles (super secret project for now), and a pair of very heavy pot holders in very stiff yarn lately and I was definately in the mood for something very soft and non knitting.

Enter super simple, fast and nice scarf pattern...



I made three squares yesterday. The first one was a real brain churner, the second just fiddly enough to make interested and the third one was a breeze. Now I just have 7 more squares to go, if I don't decide to make it larger than the pattern states. I think it will be just lovely for summer nights or breezy days (I have a sensitive neck.) Also, I think this pattern will be great for last minute gifts. And that's always a good thing!

I'm really happy about how the pot holders turned out in the end too. They match the tiles in my kitchen and are very thick and squisy and last but not least big enough to cover a hand properly.



Tonight I'll be knitting and going to the movies with Theresa, and tomorrow morning I head up to the mountains with my sister in law. She'll be working out on her bicycle, I'll be working my hook and needles. I'm bringing the baby silk and also the very promising start of a Pioneer in some very nice blue Falk yarn. And sunblock :)

Zebra!

I knit M a pair of legwarmers. Her first pair was getting old and worn and a little bit too short. She requested a "no snag" pair, because the old ones snagged on anything and everything and threads got pulled out. Not nice.

Sometime around easter I started these, frogged the first one half way and started over. I have skinny legs, M has skinnier legs, but aparently not that skinny. After casting on for the second time, with a lot more stitches and more purl stitches it was all smooth sailing.

Though these are originally for M, we have agreed that I get to borrow them, because they go so well with my new wellies. See...



And it's a good thing they go with my wellies, because I don't do much of this



any more. I probably should, but I kinda sucked at it. I'm much better at gardening.

I think I like gray

We finally decided to move one of the wardrobes from the guest bedroom down to M's room. It's long overdue that she gets her own wardrobe. So I had to clear out that one wardrobe. Inbetween all the clutter and nonsense that was in that closet was yarn for three gray sweaters. I'll claim I don't know how that happended...

Other than that; it's raining. A lot!

She can do it!

I'm doing it too, only some of it is secret and the rest is not much to write about. I have a couple of finished stuff undocumented, just waiting for help with the photos.

WE WON!!!

I've commuted with this guy countless times! We won!

It's a Faerytale...

Every day should be like this...

Sun shining, temperature perfect for a spring day, just a slight breeze, bare feet working the wheel, face up to the sun...

Lovely!

Boys, boys, boys

Two of my cousins have given birth to baby boys this week. This is what goes in the mail to the first one. Very boyish and not too cute.



I'm very happy about how this came together. Turns out it's wise to have baby stuff bought on sale, and small baby items lying around in boxes and drawers.



The denim panst are just finished, but the bunny bonnet was knit a year ago and has been stashed away since then. The onsie has been resting in the bottom of my knitting basket for over a year too, for no apparent reason. I can't even remember why I bought it.

I'm knitting a Baby Surprice Jacket for this little baby boy too. But that's another story and blogpost. It's nearly finished, I've even got the buttons ready!

The other baby boy will get a vest or a devil cap and scarf. I absolutely cannot decide wich alternative to go with. All I know is that I have the yarn ready and waiting. Three balls of Drops Merino Extra Fine in a gorgeous sky blue. Decisions, decisions...

Liberated

One WIP off the needles, but backwards not forward.

From a tangled mess of back and sleeves of a bolero sweater:



To a nice and tidy(ish) balls of yarn:



Yarn, five 4mm dpns, a circ, stitc markers and row counter LIBERATED!

Ahhhhh.....