Happy New Year!!

It's New Years eve and I really can't believe how fast 2009 has gone by. It's been a year filled with both good and bad things. I hope you all will have a new year filled with great experiences, great memories and lots of knitting :) I have been knitting a bit through December, but haven't had the energy to blog about it ;)

Erlend wears out his mittens fast, so I knitted him a new pair in mid December. Luckily he got two pairs of Selbumittens for Christmas too :) I have a grand mother who knits and Hubby's aunt always give the kids mittens or socks for Christmas :)
Pattern: Vante i gåsögonmönster from Vantar, mössor, sockor & sjalar
by Anita Gunnars.
Yarn: 100 g dark brown and 50 brown Trysil Garn Superwash Ullgarn.
Needles: 2,5 and 3,5 mm.

I needed two presents that I could knit up fast, so I made two pairs of fingerless mittens :)
Pattern: Strata from Knitting New Mittens & Gloves
by Robin Melanson.
Yarn: 50 g Trysil Garn Superwash Ullgarn & 50 g Mor Aase superwash.
Needles: 3,5 mm.

And I managed to knit up pair #21 in the 52ppiii along before the year was over. I am way behind and I'm not sure I'll manage to knit 31 pairs before May 31st.... There is so much else I want to knit ;)
Pattern: Just a simple k2, p2 pair of socks with a short row heel. 64 st.
Yarn: Lana Grossa Meilenweit 100 Colortweed #1011.
Needles: 2,5 mm.

And last, here is all the stuff I've knitted during 2009 :) I still have projects that are on the needles and I've froggd a few too ;)

Merry Christmas!!

Sleep well, little children.

Sleep well, little children,

wherever you are;
Tomorrow is Christmas
beneath every star.
Soon the snowflakes will fall
and tomorrow you'll see
Every wish, one and all,
waiting under the tree.

Sleep well, little children,
pleasant dreams through the night;
Tomorrow is Christmas,
all merry and bright.
Soon you'll hear the bells ring,
time for dreams to come true
As the world wakes to bring
Merry Christmas to you.


A.Bergman, L.Klatzkin (c) 1956

Advent :: Day thirteen

"Bake lussekatter."

We have baked lussekatter today :) Yummy!
Here you can read more of the tradition of Santa Lucia in Norway and Scandinavia. And it's the 3rd Sunday in the advent too today, so we light three candles :)




Each year we have a serie on tv for the kids that goes from 1st to the 24th of December. This year it's a wonderful show called "Jul i Svingen" (Christmas in Svingen), and this is the Santa Lucia version from todays episode :)

Så tenner vi tre lys i kveld,
tre lys for lengsel, håp og glede.
De står og skinner for seg selv
og oss som er til stede.
Så tenner vi tenner vi tre lys i kveld,
tre lys for lengsel, håp og glede.

-Inger Hagerup-

We light three candles tonight
We light it for our heart's wish,hope and happiness.

Advent :: Day eight, nine, ten, elleven & twelve

Oh my!! It's been one of those week... I've had a mild cold and it has felt as the kids have drained me for energy. On top of this it has been COLD. We've had down to -15 C this week, so there has been no playing outside to get those ants out of their pants either.... So I know I've been a bad blogger this week ;) When the kids have been put to bed at night I've cuddled up in the sofa with my knitting and True Blood season 1 on dvd instead of uploading photos and blog about our advent calendar ;) But we have made playdough, made pizza (the kids made thier own favorites), decorated the tree, made oranges with cloves and watched The secret of the Moonacre :)

I'm SO looking forward to these films!!!

Lawrence Talbot's childhood ended the night his mother died. After he left the sleepy Victorian hamlet of Blackmoor, he spent decades recovering and trying to forget. But when his brother's fiancée, Gwen Conliffe, tracks him down to help find her missing love, Talbot returns home to join the search. He learns that something with brute strength and insatiable bloodlust has been killing the villagers, and that a suspicious Scotland Yard inspector named Aberline has come to investigate. As he pieces together the gory puzzle, he hears of an ancient curse that turns the afflicted into werewolves when the moon is full. Now, if he has any chance at ending the slaughter and protecting the woman he has grown to love, Talbot must destroy the vicious creature in the woods surrounding Blackmoor. But as he hunts for the nightmarish beast, a simple man with a tortured past will uncover a primal side to himself-one he never imagined existed.







Edward Dalton is a researcher in the year 2019, in which an unknown plague has transformed the world's population into vampires.



A post apocalyptic fantasy nightmare in which humanity's legacy is threatened. Takes place in a parallel universe, where a race of oppressed rag dolls fights for survival.



A darker, more sophisticated version of Sherlock Holmes and his trusted number two, Dr. Watson.



Two U.S. Marshalls are sent to a federal institution for the criminally insane located in Boston's Outer Harbor to capture a violent female escapee.

Advent :: Day seven

"Play board games."

I lost every single game ;) But it was fun though.

Storm Trooper hat

Erlend is a BIG Star Wars fan, so I have been planning to knit him a hat with something Star Wars related for months now. And when I digged through my stash and found some balls of Davos in the right colours, there was no need to wait ;) And I think I'll cast on for a similar hat with R2D2 for Endre.

Pattern: I casted on 80 st and knitted a rib (k1, p1), then I increased to 85 st. Knitted a few rounds with black before starting the chart.
Yarn: Davos by GGH. 50 g black, small amounts of grey and white.
Needles: 4,5 mm.

Advent :: Day six

"Make santa magnets for the fridge."

Cute little santas to brighten up the fridge :)

( I know it's the same photo as last year... I'm a bit lazy today ;) but we
are using the same table runner and the same candle holders this year.)


Så tenner vi to lys i kveld,
to lys for håp og glede.
De står og skinner for seg selv
og oss som er til stede.
Så tenner vi tenner vi to lys i kveld,
to lys for håp og glede.

-Inger Hagerup-

We light two candles tonight
We light it for hope and happiness.

Advent::Day five

"Go for a spark ride"

When I was a child the spark was in use almost the whole winter. It seems we had more snow and less ice on the roads then... So with some ice on the road we just had to take out our sparks and go for a ride today :) Usually they sand the road, but its part snow part ice here now, so it's not that slippery. But perfect surface for spark rides :)

But it was a cold ride. With -12 C and dry weather Endre had to wear his "Jonas mask" because of his asthma. It has a filter that warms up the air before he inhales it.

Advent :: Day three & four

Day three.
"Decorate the gingerbread house"

Day Four
"Watch Iceage 3 on dvd :)"

It may not be the prettiest ginger bread house, but it has it's charm ;)

The kids also decorated some of the "pepper kaker" we made the other day.

And finally, my trio with red noses :) With all the spending of money now in December, at least I get some bad conscience... So I desided to buy the kids a red nose each and support "Rødnesedagen" or Red Nose Day.

Barn som lever i frykt for vold, overgrep og død. Barn som sviktes av sine nærmeste. Barn som har opplevd ting selv voksne burde slippe. Barn som aldri har fått lov til å være barn.

Pengene fra Rødnesedagen går til å gi nettopp disse barna fotfeste. Noe så enkelt som tid og rom til trygg lek, kan redde dem fra å miste livsgnisten for alltid. Hjelp til å bearbeide traumatiske opplevelser, trygghet, beskyttelse og vissheten om at andre ser dem og er der, gir barna tro på en ny framtid.

Med din støtte kan vi hjelpe mødrene i Uganda som selv er barn. Og barn i Bosnia uten hjem. Vi kan gi enda flere barn i vanskeligheter grunn til å smile igjen.

From helping a child growing up with domestic violence, a dad living with mental health problems or a lonely older person with dementia living down the road in the UK, to supporting orphans and desperately poor communities in Africa – your cash really does make a difference to their lives.

Advent :: Day two!

Todays envelope had just
"Gingerbread" written inside :)

1 dl water
300 g milk free margarine
1 tabelspoon natron
8-10 dl flour
4 dl sugar
1,5 dl syrup
1-2 teaspoon cinnamon
1-2 teaspoon clove
1-2 teaspoon ginger

Mix water, sugar, margarine, syrup and spices in a saucepan and let it melt. Mix natron with half of the flour. Add in the liquid. Mix to a soft dough adding flour to it's not sticky. Cover it and let it cool. If you have time let it cool over night.
Cut out biscuits and bake at 150 C for about 10 minutes.

Endre and I made the dough while Erlend and Eirin were at school. You just have to get in Christmas mood when the whole house smells of ginger, clove and cinnamon! It's funny, because we call gingerbread for "pepperkake" - iterally, pepper (as in black pepper) biscuits here in Norway. I'm not sure why, because there isn't any pepper in them ;)

The boxes are not full anymore - the kids have been eating all afternoon ;) So I better find a secret place to hide them! And don't forget to check out the 25 days of Christmas and Desember links on the top :)

Advent :: Day one!

In the first envelope in the advent calendar was it written:

"Make snowflakes to decorate the kitchen window"

And don't forget to check out the 25 days of Christmas to see what's been in other advent calendars and Desember 2009 to see how others are counting down for Christmas :)

Here are a few links ;)
Paper Snowflakes
Lots of paper snowflakes!
Make a paper snowflake

I just have to post a pair of socks too ;) My 20th pair.
Pattern: The outdoorsman sock by Tama - for the Sockamania knitalong
Yarn: 100 g black Regia and 50 g green sisu
Needles: 3 mm