Hurra for 17.mai!

Regular posting is interrupted by the wearing of national costumes.



Hopefully everything will be back to normal newt week.

(I have a 5 hour train ride to look forward to tomorrow. I think I will be able to squeeze in some knitting during my trip.)

(Thanks to DD, Marie, for taking two lovely pictures without my knowing)

Monica

You think the straps look a bit long? This is why:

"Hey mom, this is almost like a kangaroo-pocket!"
-No, it's not...

We'll be working on "How to wear Monica" after it's been shrunk a bit in the dryer.

Pattern: Monica from Knitty
Yarn: Sachnmayr Nomotta - Bamboo. 6 skeins
Modifications: Knit in the round.
Verdict: Easy, fast and wearable for at least two summers. Yay!

That Monica...

Monica is washed and is undergoing some kind of blocking. I must say; she does take her time getting dry! Seems like bamboo sucks up a lot of water and does not want to get rid of it. Once she is dry and the weather permits an outside photoshoot in summerwear, I will show you what Monica looks like and how much Marie loves her new little summer tank.

While I'm waiting for the opportunity to show you Monica I'm knitting on the baby stuff in my WIP basket. One of my cousins is now four days past her due date, and the cardigan I'm knitting for her baby is missing a sleeve and the right front. I have not been paying enough attention to that cardigan. It's just a small piece of knitting, and should have been done a long time ago. But it's also what seems like an endless garter stitch project and I think thats just killing my will to finish it. So I've been paying attention to Trellis instead. And that is so much more fun to knit. No garter stitch at all. The sleeves are done and I started the back last night.

Message to self:

FINISH THIS! (and if recipient turns out to be a little girl, make these to match)

And then there are the projects I want to knit, but am a bit hesitant to start:

• Cute, naval top in Brilla, but how on earth does it stay up?
• Grace, but I'm afraid it will be too itchy in the summer heat (thoug I do intend it to be something to keep the evening chill away) and how on earth will it stand up to constant washing and not so much blocking.
• Green tea raglan from Spring 2007 Interweave Knits, is already swatched but then I read somewhere that the fit is not great. The arms are too tight and the body a bit short (I know how to fix that). I'm also trying to do some math and thinking on this pattern to convert it to knitting in the round with added fake seams. And the seed stitch is going to bore me silly!
• Summertime tunic(pdf) from the present issue of IK... Am I oddly drawn to boring projects?
• Then this months socktopia socks. Stripey socks for me would be neat, but a quick glance in my WIP basket and my leftover sock yarn box tells me this month is going to be stripey baby socks month. Hopefully lots of them.

Where did spring go?

Monica is done, but the weather has turned cold and windy, so I have no good FO pictures to show yet. She needs a wash and block too. I have not had a chance to do that yet, since Marie has been wearing her a lot.

We went for a nice hike in the woods today. But it was much colder outside than we thought it wold be. The warm spring sun was nowhere to be seen.

Marie had to wear handknit wool socks


Petter got the chance to wear his brand new Shedir for the first time.


He looks a bit thoughtful (unhappy/cold) in the first photo, but he really does like his new hat!

See:

Smiling Petter!

Shedir was a fun knit. My first big cabling project and my very first time knitting (fondling) Rowan Calmer.

The pattern is very well written and easy to follow. And I did follow it to a tee. I managed to knit most of the cables without a cabling needle. And I thought it was going to finish it with just one ball of Calmer. No luck on that, unfortunately. I had to get a second ball for the last 10 rows of the hat. So now I have a nearly complete ball of Calmer in the stash, I think I only used 15 metres of it.

With my ability in knitting cables new, and my will to do more of them strong, I cast on for the first of two Trellises last night.

Another fast project

At least I hope it is another fast project. It sure seems like it. I started knitting Monica for Marie yesterday around lunchtime, and I'm already well into the third ball of yarn. A day of knitting outside in the sunshine was marvelous. I even managed to get some colour on my body.

I showed Marie the pictures in the Monica pattern. She was very pleased with what she saw.



I showed her this picture first and showed her the yarn at the same time. I'm using green and pink Bamboo (from Sachenmayr Nomotta), it's 70% bamboo/30% cotton. Very yummy to work with and the fabric is gorgeous. Marie got to decide which colour to go where. She was very proud that she gets to "take part" in the project.

When I thought I was done showing her what I was going to knit for her and got up from my chair to go out and start the knitting she quickly grabbed my hand so I would not leave, scrolled down on the screen and said "But mom, what I really want is this!"

This:


Then there was the long and sad story about why her mom does not sew much, nor does her grandmother. But she's very welcome to ask her dad... (insert evil grin)
Does rage against sewing machines run in the bloodline?

Hopefully there will be FO pictures of Monica the coming weekend.

Sunshine Shimmer

The Shimmer Socks for Socktopia in April are done. Just in time, on the last day before May.


I really like this stitch pattern, and I've been getting some very nice comments on them while knitting them too.

I have no idea what yarn it is. I found it in my Grans yarn chest, it's probably 30 years old, and a nice wool blend. It was a kind of bland and boring light peachy colour. I had fun dyeing it with some pineapple KoolAid and the result was just perfect for this pattern and the Socktopia theme "Sunshine on my shoulders". The peachy colour is nearly the same colour as my skin (in winter) and the pineapple is a lovely sunny colour. (The resemblance to my skin colour can be seen well where the bind off and my legs match so nicely in the top picture.)

Since I'm no contortionist I will not give you a photo of me with my feet on my shoulders. I do however have this:


The colour is a bit off in this picture. You do, however, see that the nature of the stitch pattern used in these socks bias a lot. About 1/4 of a round on the leg. It does not matter in socks, and I think it even adds something good to these socks.

I have by no means been faithful to my sock knitting this month. I've made a Shedir beanie for hubby, and a pair of Denim drawstring pants for a friend who's having a boy in June.
The Shedir will have it's own post when I manage to talk Petter into a wearing the hat for a photo shoot outside in the nice and sunny spring weather. The pants have had an airing in my favourite tree at the moment. Wonder what I'll hang in that tree in August when the wild cherries are ripe. A woolen sweater maybe?





It's the 3-6 months size. I was able to make it with just 3 balls of Rowan Denim bougth for the project and then some leftovers I had for another pair I made was used for the last 6 rows of of the lining. So now I have a single ball of Rowan Denim. Anyone have any project suggestions?

Also, I started them Thursday and finished yesterday. I like it when things are finished fast:)

Spring

Outside in the sunshine all weekend: trimming the hedge, weeding a lot, hanging a new swing for DD, oiling the porch and the outside furniture, washing and waxing the car, putting bark in all the flower beds, and wondering if it's time to start pruning the roses, washing the clothes line, changing tyres, picking all the gravel and sand out of the winter tyres and putting our christmas tree through our chipper.

In the end I treated myself to some new, spring themed stitch markers. Now it's time for a cup of tea and some knitting.

Hope your week end was good too!

Guess what...

If I show you this old picture



And then I show you this new picture



You all know what happened. Right? Frogfest...

So I'll let you know that Chrystal Palace Merino Stripes does not frog as well as I wanted it to. And knit into a ruffle scarf, it looks more like a mangey poodle rolled in dust bunnies. There was no way I was going to give that to my friend Kris. So I sent her an e-mail that started out with the word "damn", closely followed by "I give up". And then a promice to knit her something much nicer than poodle fart out of that yarn.

To comfort myself I bought my first ball of Rowan Calmer today. I'm already 6 rows of ribbing into Shedir (Knitty brest awareness issue) for hubby. I told you I would find a better pattern for him than Lacecap. The LYS only had five colurs of Calmer, so I had to go with the only one I know we both like - black. The other four, in case you're wondering, was pink, beige, lilac and orangey red. He's just not that kind of guy.

I know a girl who likes pink though.



Yup, that's another Lacecap. Her wool one. We had to dig that out on Sunday. About an hour after I snapped that pic (in the Botanical Garden, Oslo), it was snowing. And then it kept snowing for the rest of the day.

The Sunshine Shimmer socks are coming along nicely. I've turned the heel and knit about an inch on both legs. One sock is tucked nicely into my bag and follows me to and from work.

Happy easter!

I have special easter socks!



I knit them last year. They were finished just before easter. The colours are very appropriate for this holiday I think. I don't wear them much at other times of the year.

I'm also working on the April Socktopia socks. "Sunshine on my shoulders" theme.



We're spending easter at home this year. Just relaxing (knitting for me) and doing a bit of gardening. We took a walk in the woods yesterday. Marie is very happy that spring means no need for wool hats, cotton is great!



That's Lacecap from Knitty. She loves it. Hubby asked me yesterday if I could knit him one too. I'll gladly knit him a beanie, but maybe not from this pattern. I'll dig up a lace free pattern.

Stash flash

Spring 2006, my stash looked like this:



That is all of it. There was nothing else. No random balls of yarn hideing in places you would not expect.

Then we moved Marie into the room we used to use as our office, and the office became significantly smaller. The stash had to move. It needed a bigger house anyway.



Let's just say there is not much room for more yarn. It's nearly full to the brim.



You want to see the yarn party I had when I emptied my stash chest, and then invited all the yarn that lives in strange places in my house too (see my profile)?



The top of that heap of yarn was knee high. I tried to find time to take proper photos of all of it, yarn type by yarn type, but I had no success in that department.

If you read this post and it is no longer April 2007 there might be new additions to the stash. You might be one of those people who like to look at yarn. You can take a look at various pictures of yarn in my Flickr set called Yarn.