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.