happy vests

some nice and soft alpaca baby vests, in my itty bitty tiny shop.
love, love, love the colours! now all i need is a baby to model them...

green gift

not all goals are accomplished in time. this jacket for a 3-year old i know was meant for x-mas, but didn't finnish until yesterday. i'm sure it will be appreciated anyway. 

pattern and yarn from Nøstebarn (pattern no 1921, Voksejakke - norwegian only).

blue

she loves blue. i don't. imagine the annoyance when i decided to make her a sweater from stash yarn only, and that 'only' contained a large amount of blue and only a small portion of other colours. it took me a while to like it. but i'm pleased with the result. still have enough of that blue to make her another sweater, though. 

may is here, and so is my son's big day; the rite of passage, leaving childhood behind. big family party, quite solemn the whole thing - and this mum is trying to wrap her head around unfamiliar things like damask table cloths, silver cutlery, matching napkins, candlelights and so forth. how much i didn't know! and how much i didn't care! and how much i still don't care! no, it's not true that i don't care, i just don't care for common etiquette. but i'm getting the hang of it now, i feel i'm bonding with my inner, conservative, traditionalist soul, and it's actually fun. we're doing it this way because i discovered my great grandparent's wedding table wear, inscriptions and all. i just HAD to use it, it's beautiful.  

off to do some more planning....   

the down side to compulsiveness

well, one of them, at least; the 'knitting arm'. the pain that follows three weeks of intensive knitting, and leaves you with a knitting and computer ban for weeks and weeks, as they both hurt like hell. and with that comes the shivering, the shaking, the agony and sweating of withdrawal. but there's no way around it, but to go cold turkey. 

but hey, i finnished it! in three - 3 - weeks! i have to admit, i'm rather impressed with myself. the bonus is i got rid of my facebook addiction - temporarily, at least.

i still don't know whether it will fit my husband. it's just a bit too big for me, but the he's not that big either. and knitwear is stretchy. i'll keep my finger crossed. 

and try to wait just a little bit longer before i start my next sweater project - for me, this time. 

(did i just do that? yes, i did. i erased the mess from the background in picture no 3. pathetic. hirr.)

hey hey, my my

... it's starting to look like a sweater!
My first big knitting project ever, and my first knitting-from-an-english-pattern project ever. (Ok, I admit it, I've had some help translating it. Takk Lise!)
Luckily, I don't have to knit this in secrecy; I'm knitting it right under his nose. He wouldn't notice if it had his name written across the chest.
It's going so fast, that even if it turns out too small (which I am afraid it will), I will have time to knit a bigger one in time. Yay! Compulsive works. Another bad news story now and I'll have one ready for my son by x-mas too.

compulsive cobblestone

so, one might ask, what's the wit saving knit she's up to?
it's a cobblestone. i've nick named it the compulsive cobblestone, re my last post. i've had it planned for two years, for my husband, but was too scared to start - i've never knitted anything adult sized before. this one, i plan to have done by x-mas, as a gift. i sure hope it turns out like the picture here - isn't it great?

may is...

...enjoying the sun inside.

not a political post

a week ago, i wasn't sure what was the worst of things - that our world leaders decided to ignore basic scientific facts and experiment with the future of the human race, or the fact that i hadn't sent any yule cards yet.
hm.
well, since this is not a political post, i'll skip right to the essentials;
never, ever, ever be tempted to think that you have everything under control if the calendar says 'december'.
you don't.
don't be tempted to try out your newly aquired stress management skills. they don't apply in december.
i did try that out, only to wake up to (literally) "Holy Shit!" on the 18th. i've never had so little preparations to do, yet never had such a stressful pre-yule time as i did this year.
to me, the beauty of yule is in all the handmades, and this year there just were'nt enough of it to make me happy.
i managed to squeeze in this little project for my daughter - a last minute project made the night before.

this is something i was inspired to make last year, after a friend sent me this link. i decided i could do it myself, and bought a ready made cardboard suitcase.

i only had a few hours, so there was no time for fancy decoration. i didn't have any shiny new objects to put inside either, so i used the stuff that was already hers - only making a tiny needle book and giving away my own measuring tape.

i'd love to have given her some proper knitting needles and some embroidery thread, but that will come later. so far, she's thrilled and loves it very much. i put a new piece of linen on her embroidery hoop, and she immediately started embroidering a bright yellow sun. out of ordinary sewing thread, but still - very appropriate!

did you make any gifts this year? please leave me a link to your blog so i can admire it and get inspired - i'm always hunting for good, homemade gift ideas!
(btw, i have to admit, that by now, i actually really miss blogging - and you guys!)

the little things

i was so happy yesterday when i managed to harvest a loadfull of elderflowers from the garden just in time before the rain came. now i have a big bowl of elder/lemonade ripening in the fridge. it'll be done in a few days time, we can't wait, it smells heavenly!

i finally got my hands on the crocheting yarn that i plan to knit another kitchen towel out of. on needles size 2,5 (according to my measurer, that size doesn't exist in the u.s. but it's between u.s. sizes 1 and 2). let's just see how that goes.

the flowers me and my girl picked on our way home from the shoe shop just down the road. the kids both needed new shoes, and we all needed this lovely bouquet. it's the little things, you know.

eat, craft, give

i keep forgetting about my lunchboxes. i want to show them mainly for inspiration; i know i love to see others lunchboxes to get some new ideas! in this one, there's white rice, tandoor chicken, whole grain 'knekkebrød' (crackers) with cheese, mango chutney and a salat mix of lettuce, paprika, cherry tomatoes and feta cheese.

another friend had her birthday, so a new gift was made. i knitted two cotton dish cloths, made a set of six linen napkins (stamped, like the previous gift - i got a bit hung up on these, i guess) and added a small jar of homemade chocolate spread. did she like it? yes, indeed.

today

in the garden:

in the house:

new knits

{she's always so serious when modelling for me, so i tried to make her laugh}


i finnished the catastrophic sweater a little while ago. i simply repeated the stripey pattern several times to make it longer, but had i not been such a lazy knitter, i would have unraveled it and done it differently. i probably would have unraveled all (i already did re knit the sleeves); the two (!) times she has tried it on, i've heard yarn ripping.... it clearly exceeded my skill level.

i've also done some knitting for a newly arrived baby girl; a bib and a vest. the vest is knit with some wool that i plant dyed with rowan leaves a year and a half ago - actually the only piece of yarn that i've dyed all by myself. (the sticks are lavender to make it smell nice).

the baby is also getting these wonderful, soft leather mittens that i found at the thrift store.

and i've made myself a new pair of socks.

and now she knits

me knitting. she looking.
long stare.
- show me.
- ahh, honey, i'm not so sure, remember last time you wanted me to teach you? you'll get to learn how to knit in the fall, at school.
searches through my knitting stash, finds her own two needles which we purchased two years ago - the last time we tried this, and repeats:
- show me.
sigh.
-ok.
i cast on 10 stitches, knit the first row, then, rather unenthusiastically:
- hold needles like this, yarn over your finger there, needle through here, pick up yarn, pull through and slid off.
does it. and proceeds to knit 5 rows.


wow.
two years ago she almost bit me, she got that angry and impatient when i tried to show her. bad tempered, that girl. it apparently helps turning 7.



and there's absolutely no limit to her selfconfidence (she writes, enviously); the following day:
- can i knit on the sweater you're making me?
- ahm - uh - ok..?
does it. looks good, even.





(she even inherited my 'finger-out-in-the-air-for-no-reason pose)

and even if it didn't look good, i don't think there's much she could have done to ruin that sweater. it's become rather - uhm - i think catastrophy is too strong, but somewhere along that line...

F.O. - Finnish Off, or Fuck Off?

i'm having a serious go at decluttering my house these days. really serious; not only get rid of, organise, but finnish off started projects. this sweater is a clear winner in any procrastination competition: i started it 11 years ago.

i bought the pattern and yarn in copenhagen when my boy was still a baby, and started knitting size 3 y.o., so i should have a fair chance at finnishing it. it was my first several-colour, patterned knit.

it was a drag.

a serious Fuck Off. on needle size 2,5 and 3 (european sizes..).

several failed attempts to get friends and mothers in laws (just one, really) to knit it for me made me stash it. until i got pregnant again, 5 years later. here we go again. i did the arms this time. still a serious Fuck Off. i stashed it again.

so, when tidying up the house a couple of weeks ago, i dug it out from the stash and decided to make it a Finnished Off instead. if not for my kids, then for someone else's. but you know what? apart for the sweater and arms being too short, it fitted my girl. and in a true 'make it proper this time' manner, i unravelled the arms and knit them again, cause they were seriously bad knits (old arm pictured above, old and new below). i made them longer, and am now knitting the neckline. all i need to do now is to make the 'body' itself a bit longer as well, and sew the thing up.

and even if it's never worn by anyone, at least i discovered this: i've become a better knitter than i was 11 years ago.