Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year to you and your family!
We spent the last hours of 2017 out in the forest at our tiny cabin in -15 C under the stars and the northern light, keeping warm by the fire while watching the fireworks.

When it comes to crafting I managed to knit (and a bit of crocheting) 66 projects. You can find all my projects from last year on Ravelry under the 2017 set on my page.

As always it was mainly socks ;) And I knitted up 34 pairs. Next was 13 pairs of mittens, 4 sweaters, 3 shawls, 3 blankets, 2 kofter (cardigans), 2 cowls, 2 hats, 1 pokemon dragon, some hearts with selbu pattern and new sleeve cuffs on my Heart Yoke cardigan that I made back in 2010.

My favorite knits and the ones I have used the most are these :)

Dream Stripes Shawl and Setesdalkofte

Endre's Blanket

Haukeli and Bøvertun sweater

Night Owl and Julehjerte mittens

Northpole mittens and Cosy Morning mitts

Ludwig and Stripy socks

As you know we like to be outdoors so here are a few photos from last year. You can also head over to my Outdoor blog and see more. 

My goal was to read 60 books this year. I managed to read 73 :)

You can see my 2017 Year in Books here.

My favorites

- Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton

- The Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas

- Harpiks by Ane Riel

- The Fiery Cross (Outlander #5) by Diana Gabaldon

Countries visited for my Around the World in Books

- Rwanda in Baking cakes in Kigali

- Palestine in The Blue Between Sky and Water

- Pakistan in In Other Rooms, Other Wonders

- Somalia in The Orchard of Lost Souls

- Netherlands in The Miniaturist

- Afganistan in A Thousand Splendid Suns

First Snow & Bøvertun Sweater

The days just fly by and all of a sudden winter came over night.

The snow makes for a beautiful background for my Bøvertun sweater!
The pattern is from Kofteboken and is originally a kofte (cardigan), but I wanted a sweater. And I think this is my favorite sweater so far and it's going to get a lot of use this winter :)

Ravelry project page
Pattern: Bøvertun from Kofteboken
Yarn: Kauni brown pp2 and yellow-orange nn4
Needles: 2,5 mm/ US 1.5 for the ribbing and 3 mm / US 2.5
Size: large
Modifications: I made short rows in the back to get it higher in the neck

    

It's winter and time to knit new mittens. My youngest flipped through one of my mitten books and wanted these mittens with owls :)

Ravelry project page
Pattern: Nattugla  / Night Owl mittens
Yarn: Rauma Finullgarn black #410 and white #400
Needles: 2 mm / US 0

   

I also managed to finish my Bousta Beanie just in time for the first snow.
Ravelry project page
Pattern: Bousta Beanie (free pattern)
Yarn: Tove
Needles: 2,5 mm / US 1.5

Knitting By the Fire

This year Summer came in September!
We have had a whole month of wonderful autumn weather. We have tried to be out in the forest each weekend and there is something special about sitting in the dusk knitting by the fire at night :) And when it starts to get darker it's great that the project is something easy and mindless like the Dream Stripes shawl.

Due to some frost nights almost all the leaves has fallen off the trees, but there is still lots of vibrant colours in the forest.

The last couple of months I have had a pair of thick woolen socks or "læsta" as we call it where I live, in my knitting bag when I have been out in the forest. It's great to have a mindless project stuffed away in my backpack if I feel the desire to knit a few rows here and there. And as you can see it ended up being three pairs, one for me and two for Hubby.

Haukeli Sweater, Lingonberries & a Hike to Kvalnes

The forest is full of lingonberries at the momet and I've been picking lots of it. Here in Norway we use ligonberry jam with our meat dinners. A typical norwegian dish is meatcakes with gravy, potatoes, vegetables and lingonbery jam. I guess it's the nodic version of cranberries.

This is the Haukeli sweater and I think it will be my warm and cosy go to sweater this winter :)

 

It's knitted top down and I'm starting to like to knit sweaters this way. It's great to be able to try it on and I find it easier to shape the waist and find the right length for both sleeves and body.

Ravelry project page
Pattern: Haukeli genser from Kofteboken
Yarn: Cascade 220 Heathers #9546 Deep Sea and #8011 Aspen. The colours are most true in the photos were I am wearing it.
Needles: 3 mm / US 2.5 for the ribbing, 4 mm / US 6 for the body and the sleeves and 4,5 mm / US 7 for the colour work.
Size: Large
Modifications: I made short rows in the back to get the neckline higher.

We are having a wonderful fall this year. We've had several days with temperatures around 15 C and no frost yet, so the leaves have had the chance to change colours and stay on the trees and it's so pretty! On Saturday we went hiking to Kvalnes an abandoned place after a big rockslide in 1959 were several people died. Some of the old houses is still there and the view is beautiful. We saw a cople of eagles, picked raspberries and watched tiny fishes in the sea. There are more photos here.

Looking for fish

We started walking at the end of the road in the middle of the photo

The only old house standing. The rest are just ruins.

Wild raspberries :)

Ludwig, Fishing and a Hike To Varto

After finishing my Not so matching stripes socks, I decided to use the remaining yarn for a pair of Ludwig socks. The pattern is from the Op-Art socks book by Stephanie van der Linden and it's my first time knitting mosaic knitting. Which I thought was complicated, but it really isn't as the effect is made by slipped stitches. So I think I 'll have to find another mosaic pattern to try out because these socks was really fun to knit - its almost like knitting a self striping sock, just one more stripe ;)

Ravelry project page
Pattern: Ludwig
Yarn: Eventyr #901 and #903
Needles: 2,25 mm / US 1 and 2,5 mm / US 1.5 (for the cuffs only)
Size: 72 sts

The gusset decreases was knitted under the foot, a type of decrease I tend to like more and more as it doesn't interrupt the pattern as much.

We have been out fishing again. Still no luck catching some big fishes yet, but the boys had some fun time anyhow :)

After we tried our luck fishing we went on a little hike to Varto a small hilltop 216 masl nearby.

   

We walked by a few horses that was trying to find some shade up among the trees.

This Weekend

The weather has been wonderful this weekend, so we went camping at our camp in the forest one night.

 

And of course I had to bring some knitting :) I'm knitting on a pair of thick wool socks that we call "læsta" in my part of Norway. They are the kind of wool socks you use as a second layer over a thinner pair of socks and I used them all winter to keep warm!

On Saturday we decided to go on a hike. We even managed to drag the teenager along!! But the forest was so full of mosquitoes that we had to give up halfway to the top :( It was horrible and we ended up with so many bites... But we'll try again later this fall as it was an easy hike and I know the view is great.

So instead we ended up buying some shrimps and spent the evening outside at home (where we had no mosquitoes!) enjoying the warm weather. How was your weekend??