Feels like summer :)

We've had some wonderful spring weather the last days :)

Endre got the hang on how to enter the hammock after a while ;)

But it was good to take a break in the shade now and then too. The "blankets" are two old sleepingbags from the seventies ;)

The bird cherry makes promises of loads of flowers.

I've started on my christmas knitting ;)

And today we've been hiking.

First spring hike

The weather has been great the last days and today was no exception.

So we packed our backpacks and hiked up to our lean-to :)

::Climbing trees::

::Explore the forest::

::Find small treasures from last year::

::Watch plants break their way up from the ground
- these ferns do look kind of ailien::

::Find small flower spuds ready to bloom::

::Soak up the sun and enjoy the view::

Ha,Ha,Ha :)

Chocolate chip cookies socks :)

It's been raining during the night, so we woke up to a foggy world this morning. But the clouds blew away and the sun came out after midday :) So out we went. I brought my knitting and manage to finish up this pair of socks for hubby.

Pattern: 60 st, k2, p1.
Yarn: 104 g Mellanraggi #28014 from Järbo Garn
Needles: 3 mm.

Endre and I went to look for coltsfoot, and we found one tiny one. Bad picture, I had to hurry to snap a picture before Endre picked it...

And with all the warm days we've had, the trees are finally starting to turn green :) The snow is almost gone due to the fast melting. But the fast melting has it's bad sides too... A lot of roads have been closed due to flood, landslides and ice in the rivers.

Maybe this little man could help ;)

Seems like we've got ourself a nest in the garden too ;)

Hurra for 17.Mai!

17.Mai is over. My feet hurts as h**l due to a bit too small shoes... But we've had a great day. The weather have been splendid! Almost to hot, with 23 C and no wind, it was very warm to walk in the parade. But with some icecream afterwards we get cooled down ;)

Endre starting to get a bit tired and hot. The other two kids was further back in the parade walking with their classmates.

Back home again, finally we're having "shorts weather" :) We just have to enjoy it while it last. The forcast have rain for the whole next week. The snow is melting so fast due to the warm weather now, that the rivers is flooding and the road further down where we live is washed away. So the kids have to take a very long detour to get to school :( Hopefully they'll fix it soon. We have a "shortcut" road over the river, but the road there is starting to wash away too... So it means I'll have to take the long way when driving Endre to kindergarden as well.

Eirin and I are wearing Nordlands bunad. You can read more about bunads here.

Ready for 17th of May - our National Day

Ha en strålende 17. mai i morgen!

We're ready to celebrate our
national day tomorrow :)

Tappan Zee Cardigan

This have been my "outdoors knitting" the last week or so. I was a bit worried that I would ran out of yarn, but I had enough. It's my first top down jacket and I really like to knit this way. So much easier to measure the length.

Sorry about the poor pictures, but I didn't like the pictures hubby took of me... So you just have to see it un-modelled ;)

Pattern: Tappan Zee Cardigan.
Yarn: 355 g Mor Aase superwash. The colour on the first picture shows the colour best.
Needles: 4 mm.
Size: 42. It fits perfect. I have to block it a bit to prevent the edges to curl though ;)

I only had three of these buttons in my button jar (which was enough), and I think they look great on the jacket.

And we've had a really warm day with 15 C, so the spuds on the trees are starting to peek out :)

Serendipity socks

I've knitted 30 pairs of socks in almost a year . Since the 52 Pair Plunge III ends this month, I have not been able to knit up 52 pairs. But I don't care. I think 30 pairs of socks is great too. And I might manage to squeeze out one or two pairs before May is over ;)

Pattern: Serendipity sock from Sock Club - a great book! And the pattern was so fun and easy to knit. Perfect tv-knitting ;)
Yarn: 77 g Regia Color 4-ply #4157.
Needles: 2,5 mm.

Endre has been home all days this week. Due to playing in the water his been down with a cold and have been a bit asthmatic... So despite the sun is shining, we've been playing inside the last days. He's all into games now, or rather the bits and pieces of all the games ;) He sort out and counts the money and all the other pieces. Right now we're watching The adventure of Clutch Powers ;)

Tomorrow is Ascension day, and that is a holiday here in Norway. The school have a day off on Friday and we have our Norwegian Constitution Day on the 17th of May, so we are having a long weekend with 5 days off :) I managed to squeeze myself in my bunad today (it's been some years since last time I managed to do that...), so I don't have to worry about what to wear on Monday ;)

Ponyo

I'm not very fond of Japanese cartoons like pokemon and so on. But the films by Hayao Miyazaki are just wonderful! The kids and I have seen Ponyo today and we absolutly loved it! Eirin wanted to watch it one more time, right away. But I told her to wait until tomorrow ;)
She has borrowed My neighbour Totoro at the school library so many times, that I might have to buy her the film ;) And I defenitly have to knit her some Totoro mittens and Totoro.

I've seen
Kiki's Delivery Service, Nausicaa and Porco Rosso.
But there is so many more I have to see - Haku and Chihiro, Tales From Earthsea, Laputa: Castle in the sky, Howl's Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke and Whisper of the Heart.
I've been browsing a bit at youtube, but it can't beat watching the film on the tv, cuddled up in the sofa - with my knitting ;)

Do you have any favorites?

Outdoors Sunday :)

After staying inside the whole day yesterday due to some wind and snow, it was great to soak up some sun again today.

Endre & Eirin played hopscotch :)

We went out to look for coltsfoot's, but we didn't find any. I guess we'll have to wait another week or so.

I've turned the heel on this ;)

And hubby have made a couple of benches to have in the garden.

Spring is coming, slowly...

We had a big snowfall last week... We got about 50 cm of snow, so spring got a bit belated. It's been cold and grey for days, but today the sky turned blue and we had temperatures around 8 C :) The snow is melting again and this water puddle is like a magnet to Endre.

We brought our lunch with us out, and food do taste better outdoors ;) We could here water stream, small birds singing, a grouse in the forest and a bunch of seagulls. When the seagulls have come it's definitely spring. But waking at 5.30 in the morning because one of them are yelling right outside our bedroom window is not fun!

With Endre in sight in the water puddle, I could knit some rows on this. See, it's not a sock I have brought out with me ;) I'm kitting a Tappan Zee Cardigan, hoping I have enough yarn.

I've been using glasses since I was 8, and I got my first contact lens when I was 16. After I had kids it was just easier to put on my glasses, so the last five years or so I haven't used lenses. I have very, very bad eyesight... I have high myopia with -6 and a bit on both eyes, so I'm practically blind without them ;) When I put on my make-up I'm so close to the mirror my nose almost touches it *lol* But for each kids I have got, my eyesight have become a little better. Anyway, since I'm using glasses, the sun has always been bad to my eyes. They don't make sunglasses with more than -3 or -4, so I've been going for years squinting my eyes to the sun. But not anymore :) With the huge sunglasses which are populare now, I can put them over my glasses ;)

So now as it looks like spring is here to stay, we're hoping that out water will get back soon too. It was 3 months without water yesterday... I'm so fed up of carrying water now :/

Knitting & Crochet Blog Week :: Day Seven

There’s one love that we all share: yarn. Blog about a particular yarn you have used in the past or own in your stash, or perhaps one that you covet from afar. If it is a yarn you have used you could show the project that you used it for, perhaps writing a mini ‘review’. Perhaps, instead, you pine for the feel of the almost mythical qiviut? You could explore and research the raw material and manufacturing process if you were feeling investigative.

I love sock yarn in every way, but there is some other yarns I like too ;)
Like Sisik, which sadly is discontinued. This yarn is so soft and the colors is so rich. It's a Worsted / 10 ply Rayon, Acrylic, Mohair, Wool mix. I only had two skeins in red, two in green and one purple. The red ones became a pair of fingerless mitts.

The green bacame a neckwarmer.

And the purple a headband. I really wish I had enough red or green to knit me a sweater in this yarn, but I guess it would be hard to find now...