…scarf exchanges… February 26, 2009

i’ve been participating in the first annual facebook handmade scarf exchange and the international scarf exchange 7 for the last few months. that’s of course nothing much to blog about along the way, since it’s supposed to be a surprise for the reciever, but since it’s all done now, i’ll tell ya…
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i made the housatonic her reversible cable scarf for kryssie in british columbia, canada:
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(kryssie’s daughter with the toothbrush…)
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and then i made this delta stitch shawl/scarf for allison in massachusets, usa:
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(me modelling)
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and YESTERDAY – i got this bunch of treats in the mail from martha in texas:
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the looong cool scarf (soft malabrigo):

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the hot sauce (as put on everything in texas):

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the chocolate (yummy):

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the yarn (about to turn into the grrlfriend market bag):

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and such cute knitter note cards:

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thank you thank you martha!

back to sewing February 1, 2009

this post is dedicated to elite. see, she dropped me a comment about wanting to see the make-up pouches in RL. well, thing is, they were christmas presents. and christmas is over… well, it doesn’t take much to get me off track, so with great plans to work on the cw blanket, i took out my sewing machine today….
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and made this

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somewhat similar of the make-up pouches actually, but the folding before sewing is sort of reversed. saw it done on a friends little tote from japan. as you can see on the pic, it haven’t covered up the fringy inside seam yet, had to get a picture taken while it was daylight!
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i might leave the sewing machine out and continue this spree a few days, maybe it will result in a make-up pouch or two that i can bring to the snb and show elite

CW blanket February 1, 2009

well, this is how far i am now with the catherine wheel blanket:
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it measures 133 cm wide by 44 tall. so far. i started with about 230 chain stiches, and with 8 rows per 10 cm it seems i will have to crochet some 160 rows… 35 down.
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and about the yarn EATING: used maybe 12 skeins so far. i’m not even gonna do that math…

1st annual facebook handmade scarf exchange February 1, 2009

look what i got in the mail this week!

lyn(ravelry link) from england was my designated scarf knitter for the 1st annual facebook handmade scarf exchange (puh! facebook link) and sent me this scarf along with a pair of wristlets and two skeins of her handspun merino wool! thank you lyn – i like it

i knitted a scarf for Kryssie in Canada (ravelry link), and was of course late and didn’t have the time to take a picture of the finished scarf! Hopefully Kryssie will and send me a pic. anyway, i knitted her scarf from housatonic his and hers reversible cable scarves (ravelry link). available as a download at webs. i knitted it in sandnes alpakka, needles 4 1/2, colour green, very similar to the colour above!

catherine wheel – continued January 31, 2009

as i blogged about here – i fell in love with the catherine wheel stich. and it’s been running around the back of my head until i finally decided that i wanted to make a blanket using the stitch. i had to do a little swatching, though, as the pattern EATS yarn like crazy and in order to figure out hook size, gauge, colour, pattern etc. here’s a glimpse of the swatch, i’ve gotten a leap longer, but have to wait for daylight tomorrow to take a picture!

yarn: alfa from sandnes garn 85% wool, 15% mohair
hook: 7 mm
gauge: 1 pattern repeat = 6 cm

i don’t know if it’s possible to see in the picture, but i started with the brown/white/green and the regular pattern, but tested reduced number of stiches in the wheel with the blue/green/white. the original pattern calls for a combination of 3 single crochet and 7 double crochet in the wheel, but i reduced 7 to 5 in order to save yarn and time.

kusudama January 31, 2009

actually, before pulling out big old sewing machine before christmas i got into 5 paper squares into a flower, then gluing 12 flowers together to form a ball. the picture shows the 4 half-balls. unfortunately, i forgot to take pictures of the finished balls before they went off as presents for my aunt and grandma. i had to think a little extra about who to give these to, as, well… it’s quite a bit of work…
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you can find the tutorial here: part one – part two.

sewn christmas presents January 30, 2009

last year i made my girlfriends quilted totes for christmas, and since i’m always way to slow to start thinking about making presents, i turned to the sewing machine again this year, and spent a sunday making these 5 makeup pouches.

the short one is the first one, as you can see, i decided it was a bit too small, and changed the size for the next ones…

i’m quite happy with them, especially the way the fabric gathers in each end, something i noticed on a leather bag once, and had to go home and figure out how to fold

once i had the sewing machine out, i also made my aunt a knit sack, pretty much the same, but a bit different than the one i made a while back. i struggled a bit, again with the plastic, so i changed it this time to be a narrow “window” all the way ut the side instead of the bottom.

and some pin cushions as extra presents, ended up giving my mom one, and my grandma one, still got four on my shelf.

i’m in love December 5, 2008

WITH MY NEW BAG!

 

can i? all i can say is moopshop.com.

you go, look, buy, wait, open, smile

great handmade quality and wonderful bagdesign.

 

this is the porter in color provincial blue. (sorry about the colors here, it’s freckin’ dark here in the winter…) it’s a pretty big bag, just what i need since i always seem to carry two or three somethings around…

i ordered this the day i got my last pay, before moving all the money around to where it should go. good thing i did, otherwise this sack of joy wouldn’t be in my closet right now.  (i’m a bit poor these days…)
it took 2 1/2 weeks for it to get sewn up and travel from new york to oslo.

 

and how in the world did i end up finding this bag? well, modish told me! And if you wan’t to spend hours and hours with your laptop, one pretty thing and whipup are two great start off sites for us crafters.
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who actually gets anything done with this thing called the internet around anyway?

back to houndstooth cardi November 9, 2008

yup, it’s cold. and i was working on this about a year ago. time to pick it up and finish it? i’m trying. I did finish sleeve number two this week, and last night between 0030 and 0330, i got this far on the body:

here are the sleeves:

and as you can see…. it’s not a good idea to knit one arm, wait a year, and then knit the other. i’ve had to frog a bit as it seems i’m knitting tighter now that last year.

did i tell you it’s quite a fun knit, though? the pattern is worked in different colour combos of 3+1, but it is enough variation not to go mental. (…she says as she has about 98% left on the body. maybe i’ll have to get back to you on that)

selbu modern November 9, 2008

i finished this about a week ago, another project that popped up at ravelry that i just had to start. check this (ravelry link) out to see how many versions it’s been done in…

folded in four

yarn: tynn alpakka from du store alpakka

needles: 2,5 mm

pattern: selbu modern by zeitgeist yarns. it’s free!

i have a thing with multi colored knitting, it doesn’t seem to work out as even as i want it. but i do think it’s getting better, and i appreciated elite’s comforting words at oslo snb, that this yarn isn’t the easiest either… i think there’s something in it too though

and another thing – it turns out, this hat doesn’t look too good on me, so i think what we have here is a christmas present!