here’s a round-up of what’s been happening…
my contribution to the pay it forward and my surprise for rigmor
norah gaughan’s mayer (taking a break here because i realised i have to frog my way back a bit…)
before-christmas presents to my friend’s children, with a bit of raw edge applique and free-motion quilting 🙂
the lovely selbumittens on 2 mm needles…
a pillow for a friend
evilla variegated yarn
turning into the ten stitch blanket
now back to mad men…
i FINALLY figured out how to quilt the quilt 🙂 cut out with acrylic templates (custom made here), sewn by machine with a 1/4″-foot.
it will be 4 squares bigger than this, originally i thought even bigger, but having spent a lot of time and fabric on testing techinques i’ve run out of the green fabric – and so has the fabric shop! i am very happy to have figured out how to machine piece this – this way it may get done sometime in the near future 🙂
some intense googling has also given me the name of the pattern – flowering snowball.
and yes i did – last month i bought a new sewing machine! for some reason i just decided i needed one – after having used my mom’s husquarna machine since the 80ies.
since last time, i have also made 3 christmas ornaments from the book julekuler by the designers arne & carlos. the pattern calls for wool filling, but i put glass balls on the inside to give a better round shape, and gave’em a bit of rub with soap and hot water to tighten them up. very quick little project, but a bit fidgety with two colors, 5 needles and a glass ball…
just not blogging about it. having had a few lazy days of holiday i found it’s finally time to get blogging! i will try to catch up since last… which is a long time ago 🙂 i’ve been better at keeping my ravelry projects updated, so feel free to check it out. For you non-ravelers out there i’ll get it on here as well. some projects are photo-less at the moment, i’ll try to get more pics in this post in the coming few days.
this is what i’ve been working on (in random order):
boatneck bluebell by stephanie japel (sorry, no finished photo, but it is finished!)
yarn: garnstudio drops alpakka held double
needles: 4 mm
i FINALLY finished giselle!
i participated in ISE8 – recieved a scarf from wendy in singapore and made one for karrie, the host of the exchange. will post pictures later. for karrie i made lace fichu in wollmeise twin.
i finished the first pair of brainless and made another pair in black
i made prinsesvøbet for isak – my friend’s baby born february 20th
i made my coming niece a pair of stay-on baby booties for christmas
i recently started still light tunic…
but was interrupted when i suddenly realised there was a baby birth coming up! had to start another baby blanket, somewhat inspired by pinneguri’s latvian garden.
i’ve tried to pick up the rustic circles afghan. didn’t work.
and the biggest project of all since the beginning of february – a kitty! a red-tabby british shorthair cutie born november 5th ’09. (age 3 2/2 mos in pic)
he got a custom made climbing tree, designed and built by yours truly! couldn’t bear the thought of ready made plush craziness in my (small) apartment… Check out this link for more in-the-process pictures.
and a bigger cat – age 8 months:
another pretty big project – the birth of my niece on april 22nd – of course i was a bit behind, but started a quilt that i finished a couple of weeks ago. it was well recieved by the parents!
niecie had of course gotten another baby blanket before she arrived – she got the original puffed rings.
and with the good weather we had in june – inspired by margrethe – i made a summer favorite skirt from my old worn out favorite diesel jeans. margrethe linked to a tutorial.
i started an entrelac project – think it will be a shawl or scarf – with the wonderful koigu kppm. have to order more yarn, though…
AND – i recieved a surprise in the mail from solveig at sols(tr)ikke! about a year ago i signed up for pay-it-forward in her blog and then i recieved this in the mail (sorry, solveig, i’m ripping off your picture as i haven’t taken one yet):
the bag’s size is perfect – you can even fit a binder in it! it’s been in use pretty much since i got it 🙂 thank you solveig!
another fun thing – i bought a new camera! what a great excuse to get blogging 🙂 so far i’m very happy with my choice – a pentax k-x, got a kit with an extra lense (50-200) at japanphoto 🙂 i actually chose pentax because of the good grip, didn’t like either the nikon d5000 or the canon eos 500d. (my hands are a bit big…) and the pentax was cheaper than both…! so picture quality may get better on this blog, some of the pics above have been taken with my new camera (you can probably guess which ones?)
since my poor blogging probably has made my readers a bit… well, absent, i’d appreciate it if you leave me a comment to let me know if some of you are still out there. tata for now!
it seems i’m not able to focus on one project these days, so here are the three that share my attention:
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the brainless socks from yarnissima in shibuiknits sock, needles 2,5 mm.
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the edging for the starstruck shawl from pickles in the yarn merino super fine from garnstudio. i didn’t want fringes som i’m testing i-cord edging. not sure yet, though…
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and when i saw monai’s potholders, i had an urge to learn to do double knitting. now, looking at monai’s post it seems they’re knit in the round, but i see how double knitting is very suitable for a project like this. i got some help from stitch diva’s tutorial on the subject. i do have a hard time knitting double tight enough, though, so this first one may get – frogged 🙂 we’ll see.
i’ve been gone from blogging for half a year! for quite a while there i wasn’t doing much crafting either, but it’s picked up over the summer. i’ll just have to face it – i’m a periodical person. a project person. so i apologize for the inconcistency, but i think that’s the way it’s going to be. hopefully i still have some readers, but i have to agree – i probably don’t deserve it after all this time 😀
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Anyway, what have i’ve been up to – craftwise?
(the pictures are linked to my projects on ravelry)
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well, the houndstooth cardi is done!
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and i’ve made 5 baby blankets since last. only two of them have found owners so far, but again, i have a few friends with a bun in the oven…
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pattern: design 201-15 from dale
yarn: dale babyull, 9 skeins
hook: 3,5 mm
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pattern: starflower estonian lace baby blanket (ravelry link)
yarn: tuva from europris, 6 1/2 skeins
needles: 4 mm
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pattern: design 201-15 from dale
yarn: baby merino fra nille, 9 skeins
hook: 3,5 mm
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pattern: knitty’s opart
yarn: tuva from europris
needles: 3,5 mm
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one of the blankets is actually of my own design, and i’m about to post the pattern for it! it’s been test-knit by a few of you, so i just need to to the polishing of the pattern before releasing it (i’ll come back and link it when that’s done).
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oh, and the yarn-eating catherine wheel blanket has found it’s place on my couch, finally having reached it’s completion. i lost count of the amount of yarn used, but i think between 40 and 50 skeins… yikes! but i like it all the same!
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i also made a silk shawl/scarf. i don’t think i mentioned it on the blog before.
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pattern: a wide triangle from victorian lace today
yarn: morbærsilke, 1 skein, 100 g
needles: 4 mm
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and of course i was bitten by the bug – starstruck shawl (stjernespekksjal)- as the pattern was released from the talented girls at pickles! it’s a bit boring, but works up reasonably quick, and i love the daisy stitch – it was only about time i learned how to do it! i’m actually almost done, but this is a snap shot from last week:
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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!
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!
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)
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!
‘member this? this is something i cast on for when i saw this clever thingy. i started the bag but i changed my mind and thought i’d make a storage basket instead. so i did. as opposed to the ishi, i knitted it in one piece as entrelac, but it would be just as easy to knit the squares and then sew them together. as you can see, i also ran out of red yarn 🙂 it went through the washer twice on 60 degrees, and shrunk from approx. 32x32x22 to 25x25x18. i’m very happy with the result, great stash-buster and i can never get too many bins for my yarn…
unfelted
felted
yarn: rauma vamsegarn, double gjestal ullteppegarn, double rauma finull
needles: 5,5 mm (i mistook here, was planning to use 7s…)
pattern: own, inspired by this (ravelry link)
mille makes... 