Sagavoll, Sovereign and Don't Take Your Water For Granted

I've picked up my Sagavoll kofte again and hopefully I'll finish it before I cast on a new sweater. I feel like casting on all the sweaters the last few days :) The last time I was knitting on it I was also reading about the lawyer Matthew Shardlake. I really enjoyed the last book and have now started the third book in the series Sovereign.  I am also reading a non fiction book about how the start of educating midwifes started here in Norway in the late 1700.

Last time I knitted on this I actually finished the yoke and have just the steeking, button bands and the neck left to knit. But it seems to be the hardest part to knit though...

What are you knitting and reading this week?
I'm joining Nicole at Frontier Dreams for Craft On and Ginny at Small Things for Yarn Along.

This is my third pair of Prism socks. They are so addictive to knit and great for using up leftover yarns! I'm sure it won't be the last pair I'll knit.



As I mentioned last time we hoped for some great weather during Easter. Well that didn't happen. It snowed almost every day and we ended up getting over 50 cm of snow. So a lot of snow shoveling and not so much of skiing in other words. But on Monday, the last day in the break we woke up to some wonderful weather :) Yesterday was also sunny and warm, so my youngest and I went for a ski trip after school.
We have had a strange winter weather wise this year. All January, February and half of March has been cold, windy and dry with no snow or rain. So that means the ground as well has dried up and our water well is almost empty. Someone compared the weather we've had to an arctic desert. So for the last two months we have been almost out of water :( Hubby have to fill up big water cans twice a week and we have to do the laundry at my moms. So I am SO ready for spring now and for all I care it can rain for weeks now so we can get our water back again. 10 years ago we were out of water from late January to June, but that time the water froze and I remember how strange it was to have running water again after all those months! Fortunately this time we have running water, but it's not enough of it for normal day to day use... But that's life on the country side in the arctic and it is strange how fast one adapt to not having enough or no running water at all ;)
But people - Don't take your water for grated!

Prism Socks & Easter Crime

Since it's Easter I had to start reading a thriller or crime story as we like to call it here in Norway. I've just read a few chapter in The Marsh King's Daughter by Karen Dionne. And so far it seems to be a good story. Reading and watching crime series on tv is something we Norwegians typically do during Easter. Even our milk cartons has a cartoon crime mystery we can solve and win a prize if you send in the answer ;) This year Hubby and I are watching the last season of Shetland on tv and we really like it. They are showing the last two episodes tonight, so I guess we'll have to watch something on Netflix the rest of Easter. We started watching some episodes of the Frankenstein Chronicles a couple of weekends ago, so I think we'll pick that up if we don't find another good crime series instead.

My knitting mojo isn't what it once was due to the things happening in life at the moment. But socks seems to knit them selves. This is a pair of Prism socks, a free pattern and I'm using some leftover yarns together with some plain white. They are not going to be matchy as the two balls of pink/orange yarn didn't start on the same place, but I don't care ;)

What are you knitting and reading this week?
I'm joining Nicole at Frontier Dreams for Craft On and Ginny at Small Things for Yarn Along.

I've also finished some socks the last month or so. I'm not going to post them all here, but you can find them on my Ravelry page. This is however the latest pair I finished as part of the only kal I've joined so far this year - 12i18, a sock kal hosted by Garnbutikken Fortuna, a Norwegian yarn store and podcast. We are knitting a pair of socks each month from Norwegian designers. This pair is designed by one of the owners of Fortuna and it's called Parus Major, which is the bird Great Tit or Kjøttmeis in Norwegian. Mine does not look like the bird as I have used pink and purple instead of yellow and black.

Ravelry project page
Pattern: Parus Major
Yarn: Sisu pink #4517 and Ida Strømpegarn white #300 and purple #336
Needles: 2,5 mm / US 1.5

Dark Fire & Sagavoll Kofte

What are you knitting and reading this week?
I'm joining Nicole at Frontier Dreams for Craft On and Ginny at Small Things for Yarn Along.

We are still waiting for the sun so my photos are a bit dark and gloomy today. I bought a new teacup on sale after Christmas. It's from Porsgrund and it has a traditional Norwegian pattern on it. It's also available in red.
I loved the first book Dissolution in the Matthew Shardlake series and I have the rest of the series in my bookshelf, so this year I have decided to read them all. The series is set in the 1500 and I love this type of story! I've only read a few chapters in the second book Dark Fire, but I just know it will be a good read.

It is 1540, and Henry VIII has been on the throne for thirty-one years when Matthew Shardlake, the lawyer renowned as "the sharpest hunchback in the courts of England," is pressed to help a friend's young niece who is charged with murder.
Despite threats of torture and death by the rack, the girl is inexplicably silent. Shardlake is about to lose her case when he is suddenly granted a reprieve - one that will ensnare him again in the dangerous schemes of Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII's feared vicar general.
In exchange for two more weeks to investigate the murder, Shardlake accepts Cromwell's assignment to find a lost cache of Dark Fire, an ancient weapon of mass destruction. Cromwell, out of favor since Henry's disastrous marriage to Anne of Cleves, is relying on Shardlake's discovery to save his position at court, which is rife with conspiracy. -from Goodreads-

I'm knitting on another traditional Norwegian kofte pattern - the Sagavoll kofte. I started it back in the beginning of November, but it has been lingering in my knitting basket until yesterday when I finally joined the sleeves to the body and started the fun part aka the yoke. The yarn is Tove from Sandnes garn and it has become one of my favorite yarns lately. It's perfect for both sweaters as well as for mittens.

It's hard to capture the oker colour of this project with the little to non daylight we are having these days. But this was the best I could to.

Yarn Along

What are you knitting and reading this week? I'm joining Ginny at Small Things for Yarn Along.

Knitting: Now and then I ask my youngest to pick a skein of yarn from a box I keep all my pretty skeins in. And last time he picked a beautiful skein from the Painted Tiger. It's been wounded up into a ball of yarn for a while and my plan was to knit a shawl, but I just couldn't decide on a pattern... So when I saw that there was a Mystery in March kal going on I cast on for it. So far I'm loving how the yarn is knitting up!

Reading: I finally managed to get on top of the waiting list for the Shadow Sister at the library! I've been waiting for months to read this. I loved the first two books in the Seven Sister series and this one seems to be another favorite :)

Star D'Aplièse is at a crossroads in her life after the sudden death of her beloved father - the elusive billionaire, named Pa Salt by his six daughters, all adopted by him from the four corners of the world. He has left each of them a clue to their true heritage, but Star - the most enigmatic of the sisters - is hesitant to step out of the safety of the close relationship she shares with her sister CeCe. In desperation, she decides to follow the first clue she has been left, which leads her to an antiquarian bookshop in London, and the start of a whole new world . . .
A hundred years earlier, headstrong and independent Flora MacNichol vows she will never marry. She is happy and secure in her home in the Lake District, living close to her idol, Beatrix Potter, when machinations outside her control lead her to London, and the home of one of Edwardian society's most notorious players, Alice Keppel. Flora is pulled between passionate love and duty to her family, but finds herself a pawn in a game - the rules of which are only known to others - until a meeting with a mysterious gentleman unveils the answers that Flora has been searching for her whole life . . .
As Star learns more of Flora's incredible journey, she too goes on a voyage of discovery, finally stepping out of the shadow of her sister and opening herself up to the possibility of love. -from Goodreads-

Yarn Along

What are you knitting and reading this week? I'm joining Ginny at Small Things for Yarn Along.

Knitting: For my birthday back in January I got sock yarn in five different colours from the same brand. One of them was blue and are my current socks on the needles. I plan to knit up all the other colours too and post them all at once :) I have knitted a pair of purple socks in the same yarn last year and they have been used a lot lately.
And I have finally knitted on my kofte. The yoke is almost done - just a few more rounds. I had to try it one today and it fits perfect. The sleeves are long enough and the same is the body. So I cant't wait to wear it soon.

Reading: I'm taking a little break from the crime/thriller genre and have picked up The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton. I enjoy it. It's an enchanting story and I'm wondering how it's going to end...

On a brisk autumn day in 1686, eighteen-year-old Nella Oortman arrives in Amsterdam to begin a new life as the wife of illustrious merchant trader Johannes Brandt. But her new home, while splendorous, is not welcoming. Johannes is kind yet distant, always locked in his study or at his warehouse office-leaving Nella alone with his sister, the sharp-tongued and forbidding Marin.
But Nella's world changes when Johannes presents her with an extraordinary wedding gift: a cabinet-sized replica of their home. To furnish her gift, Nella engages the services of a miniaturist-an elusive and enigmatic artist whose tiny creations mirror their real-life counterparts in eerie and unexpected ways . . .
Johannes' gift helps Nella to pierce the closed world of the Brandt household. But as she uncovers its unusual secrets, she begins to understand-and fear-the escalating dangers that await them all. In this repressively pious society where gold is worshipped second only to God, to be different is a threat to the moral fabric of society, and not even a man as rich as Johannes is safe. Only one person seems to see the fate that awaits them. Is the miniaturist the key to their salvation . . . or the architect of their destruction? -from Goodreads-

     

We have had some wonderful winter weather the last few days and since the kids have their winterbreak this week, we've tried to be outdoors a little. Not so easy to drag them off their ipads and mobiles... but at least my eldest son accompanied me on a snowshoe hike the other day :)

    

    

Yarn Along

What are you knitting and reading this week? I'm joining Ginny at Small Things for Yarn Along.

Knitting: I haven't knitted a single stitch on my Setedalskofte since last week... No mojo to knit on it at all. So instead I have knitted lots of small things. I have finished the hat I just had cast on last week and a pair of socks. More on that in a later post. Right now I have a pair of Norwegian Mittens on the needles. It's an easy mitten pattern and I have plans for a couple more in other colours. I'm trying to use up some of my sport weight yarn and mittens seems to be the perfect project for it. And since we today woke up to -17 C and it has snowed nearly 50 cm the last couple of days, mittens is much needed!

Reading: I seem to be completely lost in the world of DI Jack Caffery... But Mo Hayder writes SO good and I can simply not put the books down. Skin is the 4th book in the series and it looks like it's going to be just as good as the others!

When the decomposed body of a young woman is found near railway tracks just outside Bristol one morning, all indications are that she's committed suicide. That's how the police want it too; all neatly squared and tidied away.But DI Jack Caffery is not so sure. He is on the trail of someone predatory, someone who hides in the shadows and can slip into houses unseen. And for the first time in a very long time, he feels scared.Police Diver Flea Marley is working alongside Caffery. With the traumas of her past safely behind her, she's beginning to wonder whether their relationship could go beyond the professional. But then she finds something that changes everything. Not only is it far too close to home for comfort - it's so horrifying that she knows that nothing will ever be the same again.And this time, no one - not even Caffery - can help her ... -from Goodreads-

Yarn Along

What are you knitting and reading this week? I'm joining Ginny at Small Things for Yarn Along.

Knitting: My Setesdalkofte is slowly getting done. I'm almost done with the yoke decreases and then the buttonbands is all that is left to knit. I must confess that the type of buttonbands that this pattern calls for, is not my favorite to knit. It looks great, but I either knit them too long or too short... But you know, practice makes perfect ;) In between knitting on my kofte I knit on various small projects. I finished a pair of socks some days ago and have made a couple of sockhead cowls that needs to be blogged. But today I needed something mindless to knit on and since my goal this year is to not just knit socks, I decided to cast on a hat. I had my youngest to pick out a skein of yarn earlier this month that I shall knit a project from and he decided to pick out some beautiful merino Hacho from Mirasol. The hat pattern is Barley, a great mindless knit. Hopefully it will be a pretty hat.

Reading: I'm still reading The Orchard of Lost Souls, as I had started last week. But last night I felt the need for a good crime/thriller story, so I picked up a library book by Mo Hayder -  Birdman. It's the first book in a series and it SO good. I had to force myself to put it away and go to sleep last night.

Greenwich, south-east London. The Met's crack murder squad, AMIP, is called out by nervous CID detectives to a grim discovery. Five bodies, all young women, all ritualistically murdered and dumped on wasteland near the Dome. As each post-mortem reveals a singular, horrific signature linking the victims, officers realize that they are on the trail of that most dangerous offender: a sexual serial killer.

Detective Inspector Jack Caffery - young, driven, unshockable - finds himself facing both hostility within the force and echoes of his past in this, his first case with AMIP. Haunted by the memory of a death long ago, he employs every weapon forensic science can offer for he knows it is only a matter of time before this chaotic, sadistic killer strikes again.    -from Goodreads-

Yarn Along

What are you knitting and reading this week? I'm joining Ginny at Small Things for Yarn Along.

Knitting: My new needle finally arrived. So after some measuring I could start the yoke on my Setesdalkofte :) Sorry for the bad photo, but the light is not working with me today...

Reading: I'm still working my way around the world and today I am in Somalia in The Orchard of Lost Souls. I'm halfway through and I'm hoping for a happy ending..

It is 1988 and Hargeisa waits. Whispers of revolution travel on the dry winds but still the dictatorship remains secure. Soon, and through the eyes of three women, we will see Somalia fall.
Nine-year-old Deqo has left the vast refugee camp she was born in, lured to the city by the promise of her first pair of shoes.
Kawsar, a solitary widow, is trapped in her little house with its garden clawed from the desert, confined to her bed after a savage beating in the local police station.
Filsan, a young female soldier, has moved from Mogadishu to suppress the rebellion growing in the north.
And as the country is unravelled by a civil war that will shock the world, the fates of the three women are twisted irrevocably together. -from Goodreads-

And in Mexico in Me, Who Dove into the Heat of the World. I haven't read more than a few pages and I see that this might be a book you either like or don't like. So I'm eager to find out!

Karen Nieto passed her earliest years as a feral child, left alone to wander the vast beach property near her family's failing tuna cannery. But when her aunt Isabelle comes to Mexico to take over the family business, she discovers a real girl amidst the squalor. So begins a miraculous journey for autistic savant Karen, who finds freedom not only in the love and patient instruction of her aunt but eventually at the bottom of the ocean swimming among the creatures of the sea. Despite how far she's come, Karen remains defined by the things she can't do—until her gifts with animals are finally put to good use at the family's fishery. Her plan is brilliant: Consolation Tuna will be the first humane tuna fishery on the planet. Greenpeace approves, fame and fortune follow, and Karen is swept on a global journey that explores how we live, what we eat, and how our lives can defy even our own wildest expectations. -from Goodreads-

I've finished a pair of socks since last time.

Ravelry project page
Pattern: Silver Dream Socks (free pattern)
Yarn: 102 g of some leftovers in Sisu And Fabel for the patterning on the leg. The rest of the sock is knitting in some unknown yarn that I hope has some nylon in it...
Needles: 2,5 mm / US 1.5
Size: eu 39

Yarn Along

What are you knitting and reading this week? I'm joining Ginny at Small Things for Yarn Along.

Knitting: When you are waiting for new needles and can't knit on your Setesdalkofte, you cast on a new big project like a Marius sweater. Makes perfectly sense, right?! :)  I'm knitting this Marius sweater in a discontinued yarn called Kaprifol by Marks & Kattens. Its a cotton and nylon blend and it's a weird yarn, but the fabric of the sweater turns out very soft. I am about to set away stitches for the sleeves and then the body and sleeves will be in plain white. My only issue it that I'm not sure I have enough of the white...

Reading: I've decided to focus more about my project Around the World in Books this year. So when we went to the library last week I had made a list over books to look for that had settings from different countries. I came home with lots of books I'm eager to start, but these two is my current reads. Baking Cakes in Kigali set in Rwanda is a wonderful warm and funny story!

In Kigali, Angel runs a bustling business: baking cakes for all occasions—cakes filled with vibrant color, buttery richness, and, most of all, a sense of hope only Angel can deliver.…A CIA agent’s wife seeks the perfect holiday cake but walks away with something far sweeter…a former boy-soldier orders an engagement cake, then, between sips of tea, shares an enthralling story…weary human rights workers…lovesick limo drivers. Amid this cacophony of native tongues, love affairs, and confessions, Angel’s kitchen is an oasis where people tell their secrets, where hope abounds and help awaits.

In this unlikely place, in the heart of Rwanda, unexpected things are beginning to happen: A most unusual wedding is planned…a heartbreaking mystery—involving Angel’s own family—unravels…and extraordinary connections are being made among the men and women who have tasted Angel’s beautiful cakes…as a chain of events unfolds that will change Angel’s life—and the lives of those around her—in the most astonishing ways. -from Goodreads-

The Blue Between Sky and Water set in Palestine is also a great story. Has made my eyes tear several times...

It is 1947, and Beit Daras, a quiet village in Palestine surrounded by olive groves, is home to the Baraka family. Eldest daughter Nazmiyeh looks after her widowed mother, prone to wandering and strange outbursts, while her brother Mamdouh tends to the village bees. Their younger sister, Mariam, with her striking mismatched eyes, spends her days talking to imaginary friends and writing.

When Israeli forces gather outside the town’s borders, nobody suspects the terror that is about to descend. Soon the village is burning and, amidst smoke and ash, the family must take the long road to Gaza, in a walk that will test them to their limits.

Sixty years later, Mamdouh’s granddaughter Nur is living in America. She falls in love with a married man, a doctor who works in Palestine, and follows him to Gaza. There she meets Alwan, the mother of Khaled – a boy trapped in his own body, unable to wake up from a deep blue dream. It is through her that Nur will at last discover the ties of kinship that transcend distance – and even death. -from Goodreads-

Yarn Along

What are you knitting and reading this week? I'm joining Ginny at Small Things for Yarn Along.

Knitting: Both sleeves on my Setesdalkofte is almost done and I'm just waiting for a longer circular needle to come in the mail so I can put all the parts together and start the yoke :)

Reading: I really enjoy books that has a story about books or a library. The People of the Book has been on my shelf a few years now after I found it at a sale in my local bookstore, just waiting to be read. It's inspired by a true story and it's great!

In 1996, Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, is offered the job of a lifetime: analysis and conservation of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, which has been rescued from Serb shelling during the Bosnian war. Priceless and beautiful, the book is one of the earliest Jewish volumes ever to be illuminated with images. When Hanna, a caustic loner with a passion for her work, discovers a series of tiny artifacts in its ancient binding—an insect wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair—she begins to unlock the book’s mysteries. The reader is ushered into an exquisitely detailed and atmospheric past, tracing the book’s journey from its salvation back to its creation.In Bosnia during World War II, a Muslim risks his life to protect it from the Nazis. In the hedonistic salons of fin-de-siècle Vienna, the book becomes a pawn in the struggle against the city’s rising anti-Semitism. In inquisition-era Venice, a Catholic priest saves it from burning. In Barcelona in 1492, the scribe who wrote the text sees his family destroyed by the agonies of enforced exile. And in Seville in 1480, the reason for the Haggadah’s extraordinary illuminations is finally disclosed. Hanna’s investigation unexpectedly plunges her into the intrigues of fine art forgers and ultra-nationalist fanatics. Her experiences will test her belief in herself and the man she has come to love. -from Goodreads-

Yarn Along

What are you knitting and reading this week? I'm joining Ginny at Small Things for Yarn Along.

Knitting: I'm still knitting on my Setesdalkofte and the body is almost done and waiting for the sleeves so I can start the yoke. I haven't knitted as much on it as I had planned because I got hooked on a pair of sock... Which is done and will be blogged soon. This morning I casted on a new project - a pair of North pole mittens with polar bears.

Reading: Another library lend picked up just because of the beautiful cover. Do you do that? Read a book just because you think the cover is pretty? I'm sure I'm not alone ;) I'm not always lucky with the content of the book, but this time both the cover and the story is good.
Burial Rites is a true story set in northern Iceland, 1829,.

Agnes Magnusdottir is condemned to death for her part in the brutal murder of two men. Agnes is sent to wait out the time leading to her execution on the farm of District Officer Jon Jonsson, his wife and their two daughters. Horrified to have a convicted murderess in their midst, the family avoids speaking with Agnes. Only Toti, the young assistant reverend appointed as Agnes' spiritual guardian, is compelled to try to understand her, as he attempts to salvage her soul. As the summer months fall away to winter and the hardships of rural life force the household to work side by side, Agnes' ill-fated tale of longing and betrayal begins to emerge. And as the days to her execution draw closer, the question burns: did she or didn't she? -from Goodreads-

Yarn Along

What are you knitting and reading this week? I'm joining Ginny at Small Things for Yarn Along.

Knitting: Kofter (a jacket with traditional norwegian stranded knitting) is the thing to knit in Norway and has been for a long time. And with several new knit books with kofter and patterns getting a modern update the last couple of years, the kofte knitting is bigger than ever!
I have so many I want to knit... I have even found an old pattern named "Hege", so of course I need to knit it some day ;) But right now I have the Setesdalskofte on my needles. I am having a little gauge trouble... so after a bit of ripping I found out I had to go down in the size to get it to fit me. It's the first time i am knitting with Tove yarn and it's a little bit on the scratchy side, but I think it will soften after a wash.

Reading: I've wanted to read this thriller since it came out years ago, but there has always been another book to read or it has been lent out at the library. But last time we went to the library The Boy in the Suitcase was in the shelf and I knew it was time to read it. I've read about 1/3 and so far it's good. It keeps me turning the pages with it's short and action filled chapters.

Nina Borg, a Red Cross nurse, wife, and mother of two, is a compulsive do-gooder who can't say no when someone asks for help—even when she knows better. When her estranged friend Karin leaves her a key to a public locker in the Copenhagen train station, Nina gets suckered into her most dangerous project yet. Inside the locker is a suitcase, and inside the suitcase is a three-year-old boy: naked and drugged, but alive.

Is the boy a victim of child trafficking? Can he be turned over to authorities, or will they only return him to whoever sold him? When Karin is discovered brutally murdered, Nina realizes that her life and the boy's are in jeopardy, too. In an increasingly desperate trek across Denmark, Nina tries to figure out who the boy is, where he belongs, and who exactly is trying to hunt him down. -from Goodreads-

Yarn Along

What are you knitting and reading this week? I'm joining Ginny at Small Things for Yarn Along.

We are in the third day of cold weather here, the second with -25 C, so I'm feeding the woodstove and are drinking tea today.

Knitting: In one of the Norwegian groups on Ravelry we are trying to knit up our stash. And one way of doing it is by picking out about 600 g of yarn and try to knit it up by the end of April. Here's a photo of the yarn I found in my stash. and one of the balls of yarn I found was a ball of Freedom Spirit I have had in my stash for years. I think I got it in a swap and have never known what to knit out of it as it's just 50 g. But after some browsing on Ravelry I decided to cast on a pair of Nalu mitts. And they are turning out great :)

Reading: Last night I finished The Ice Twins. And what a heartbreaking story it was! So if you haven't read it you must. Tonight I'm starting The Husband's Secret.

Even though it's freezing cold outside, it's so beautiful and the sky makes promises of a returning sun.
It was cold, but still refreshing when I went for a walk yesterday. All bundled up in wool ;) But despite wearing a woolly tights, my butt and thighs were SO cold when I got home. I might have to knit a pair of Majas Mamelucker to keep warm ;)

On The Needles :: Totoro Mittens

What are you knitting and reading this week?
I'm joining Ginny at Small Things for Yarn Along and Nicole at Frontier Dreams for Keep Calm and Craft On.

The days just seem to flew by and suddenly it's Wednesday again... It's raining today so what little daylight we have is dark and gloomy, so sorry for bad photos. Anyhow, I've brewed a cup of tea, have the fire going in the wood stove and my knitting trying to ignore the lousy weather.

Knitting: It has been cast on all the things lately... There is so much I want to knit! And I'm sure I'm not alone feeling like that now and then ;) Right now I'm trying to finish up my daughter's Totoro mittens before christmas. It's going to be a part of her gift. Which means I need to knit the boys something too - not sure what yet, but I think it will be socks or mittens. I have my needles ready - just need to find the right yarn.

Reading: I've picked up The Land of Painted Caves (Earth's Children #6). It says on my Goodread page that I started reading it in April 2011... And I know that I was SO eager to get it as I loved the previous books in the series. But somehow this one didn't keep my interest long enough to read it through. I have been reading a few chapters now and then during the years and was almost halfway through it when I picked it up a few days ago. I have decided to finish it this time and it does seems like the story is getting a bit more exciting.

As the story opens, Ayla, Jondalar, and their infant daughter, Jonayla, are living with the Zelandonii in the Ninth Cave. Ayla has been chosen as an acolyte to a spiritual leader and begins arduous training tasks. Whatever obstacles she faces, Ayla finds inventive ways to lessen the difficulties of daily life, searching for wild edibles to make meals and experimenting with techniques to ease the long journeys the Zelandonii must take while honing her skills as a healer and a leader. And there are the Sacred Caves that Ayla’s mentor takes her to see. They are filled with remarkable paintings of mammoths, lions, and bears, and their mystical aura at times overwhelms Ayla. But all the time Ayala has spent in training rituals has caused Jondalar to drift away from her. The rituals themselves bring her close to death, but through them Ayla gains A Gift of Knowledge so important that it will change her world. - from Goodreads -

I have finished a couple of things since last week. First is a pair of Bird mittens. They turned out a little to small for me, so I'll have to knit another pair using a needles size larger and in the colours leighsideknits used for her mittens.

Ravelry project page
Pattern: Bird Mittens from Norske vottar og vantar
Yarn: Mor Aase superwash
Needles: 2,5 mm / US 1.5 and 3 mm / US 2.5

Trying to photograph purple in the light we have now is almost impossible... but you get the idea. And yes, I have used two different yarn dyelots as I am trying to knit up my stash.

Ravelry project page
Pattern: Fidelio (free pattern)
Yarn: 107 g Ida Strømpegarn #336
Needles: 2,5 mm / US 1.5
Size: small

On The Needles :: Snow Lily

What are you knitting and reading this week?
I'm joining Ginny at Small Things for Yarn Along and Nicole at Frontier Dreams for Keep Calm and Craft On.

Knitting: I cast these on yesterday and somehow knitting colourwork goes so much faster than knitting a plain sock... The pattern is Snow Lily, a free pattern from Drops I've had in my queue for years.

Reading: After finishing The Book of Speculations a few days ago, which was a good read, I picked up Hålke at the library since it seems like everyone is reading it here these days. Not sure if it will be translated into english, but who knows. So far the story is good.

The streets are covered with slippery ice, inside are Ebba and Karl. 

Ebba and Karl have been married for almost a lifetime. They have shared their joys and sorrows, they have raised children together, loved, betrayed and deceived. Wounds have arisen, bruises are healed. Now they are pensioners, with aging bodies, it is winter, and when the world one day is glazed in thick and hard ice, when the municipality can not afford to sprinkle the ice with sand, when a broken femoral neck could mean the beginning of the end, so they stay inside. 

Ebba and Karl are a married couple who may still feel the tensions between them, both as erotic attraction and as a quivering and sometimes unsettling undertone. In one day, two days, several days, they have only each other. The coffee runs out, and the bread. The feeling of being trapped, the insulation, the marital dynamics ... during some winter days are past betrayal, brutality and uncertainty in living and traveling the dangerous and impossible question: What is love worth? - from Goodreads -

On The Needles :: Leftover Socks

What are you knitting and reading this week?
I'm joining Ginny at Small Things for Yarn Along and Nicole at Frontier Dreams for Keep Calm and Craft On.

Knitting: While I was looking for yarn for my Fidelio socks (which is in a timeout right now due to some mistake involving ripping back cables...), I saw that I have a lot of solid sockyarn leftovers and single 50 g balls. So I decided I needed to knit them up and went pattern browsing. The first one I wanted to knit was a pair of Socks with pattern from Drops. And I quite like how they turned out :) I might have to knit them up in another colour combination.

Reading: I've been waiting for this book - The Book of Speculations at the library for some time. And I must say it was worth the wait. It SO good!! I am just a few chapters in, but I love the ones set at the circus. A must read if you haven't already.

Simon Watson, a young librarian, lives alone in a house that is slowly crumbling toward the Long Island Sound. His parents are long dead. His mother, a circus mermaid who made her living by holding her breath, drowned in the very water his house overlooks. His younger sister, Enola, ran off six years ago and now reads tarot cards for a traveling carnival.

One June day, an old book arrives on Simon's doorstep, sent by an antiquarian bookseller who purchased it on speculation. Fragile and water damaged, the book is a log from the owner of a traveling carnival in the 1700s, who reports strange and magical things, including the drowning death of a circus mermaid. Since then, generations of "mermaids" in Simon's family have drowned--always on July 24, which is only weeks away.

As his friend Alice looks on with alarm, Simon becomes increasingly worried about his sister. Could there be a curse on Simon's family? What does it have to do with the book, and can he get to the heart of the mystery in time to save Enola? - from Goodreads -

On The Needles : Latvian Mittens

What are you knitting and reading this week?
I'm joining Ginny at Small Things for Yarn Along and Nicole at Frontier Dreams for Keep Calm and Craft On.

Knitting: Nothing has come off the needles since last week... But it seems like I can't stop my self from casting on new things *sigh*. I'll have to admit it makes me fell a little stressed having so many projects on the needles at once. So I have decided to not cast on anything new until some off them are done. The project that I love to knit on right now is a pair of Latvian mittens from the book Latvieša Cimdi. There is SO many beautiful patterns in this book, but I think the one I have on my needles is my favorite.

Reading: After finishing Belgarvia, I picked up another book from the library, The Moonlit Garden by Corina Bomann. I am about 1/3 in and are hoping it will start to get a little bit more exciting soon.

Lilly Kaiser had come to terms with her solitary, uncomplicated life after becoming a young widow. So when a stranger delivers an old violin to her Berlin antiques shop and tells Lilly it belongs to her, she’s completely bewildered. Why should she be the one to inherit such an exquisite instrument?

Together with her best friend, Ellen, and handsome musicologist Gabriel Thornton, Lilly sets out to explore the violin’s legacy. From England to Italy to Indonesia, she follows its winding trail. Along the way, she learns of Rose Gallway, a beautiful woman of English and Sumatran descent who lived among Sumatra’s lush gardens more than a hundred years earlier. A celebrated and sought-after musician, Rose once owned Lilly’s violin and regularly played concerts for Sumatra’s colonial elite—until, one day, she simply disappeared.

As Lilly unravels the mystery behind Rose’s story—and uncovers other unexpected secrets—she’ll come to see her own life in an entirely new light. And as each shared discovery brings her closer to Gabriel, her heart might finally break its long-held silence. - from Goodreads -

As you can see from this photo I took on my morning walk, fall is definitely here.
It's my favorite season with the smell, the chill in the air and the colors. Right now it's raining and the wind is blowing, so I am just hoping the leaves won't fall of just yet...

On The Needles :: Winter Is Coming Socks

What are you knitting and reading this week?
I'm joining Ginny at Small Things for Yarn Along and Nicole at Frontier Dreams for Keep Calm and Craft On.

Knitting: I seem to be drawn to socks with a mix of colorwork and other texture at the moment ;) This is the Winter is Coming socks. It's the same designer who made the Matrim's Fox socks, so they have the same cable down the leg and foot.

Reading: I am almost done with Belgravia and I love it. Just hoping for a happy ending :)

Julian Fellowes's Belgravia is the story of a secret. A secret that unravels behind the porticoed doors of London's grandest postcode.

Set in the 1840s when the upper echelons of society began to rub shoulders with the emerging industrial nouveau riche, Belgravia is peopled by a rich cast of characters. But the story begins on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

At the Duchess of Richmond's new legendary ball, one family's life will change forever.

On The Needles :: Echoes From Karelia

What are you knitting and reading this week?
I'm joining Ginny at Small Things for Yarn Along and Nicole at Frontier Dreams for Keep Calm and Craft On.

Knitting: I've been wanting to knit a pair of Echoes from Karelia socks since I found the pattern some time ago on Ravelry. I started them a few weeks ago, but after the fun part (the stranded knitting) was done they have been laying in my knitting basket... I have picked them up and have decided to finish them before I cast on a new pair!

Reading: I like a good crime/thriller and have loved the Odd Singsaker series. This is the 4th book - Paradisplaneten, and although it is a bit more fantasy like than the other books in the series, I like it a lot. But then again I really like a good fantasy/mystery book too :) I don't think it's been translated into english yet.

In Trondheim a fireman is hoisted to put the russelua on the head of the Olav Tryggvason statue. By Tryggvason feet they find a human head. The head belongs to a man from Strindheim who have been beheaded.
In London the secretary of the Royal Society is killed the same way. By the body is a message: You will lose the helmet.
What is the connection between these events and a brotherhood inspired by the English philosopher Francis Bacon, who died in 1626?
Odd Singsaker is back - this gray-haired, persistent investigator from Trøndelag. He is on sick leave and prepared for quiet days at home with his young, beautiful wife Felicia Stone. But a gift from the librarian Siri Holm has already wrapped them into the case. Singsaker have no choice, and we are on a journey through the centuries and between continents, where a book is crucial for historical events and time and again triggers murder. - from Goodreads-

On The Needles :: Matrim's Fox Socks

What are you knitting and reading this week?
I'm joining Ginny at Small Things for Yarn Along and Nicole at Frontier Dreams for Keep Calm and Craft On.

Knitting: The Glitter socks from last week are done and off the needles, more info below :) Now a pair of Matrim's Fox Socks are on the needles with the yarn I had picked out last week. It's a fun pattern to knit!

Reading: The Story of a New Name which I was reading last week was so good it was hard to put down at night.., so therefor it became a fast read and I immediately picked up the next book in the series - Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay. This is also very good and I am already halfway through it.

In this third Neapolitan novel, Elena and Lila, the two girls whom readers first met in My Brilliant Friend, have become women. Lila married at sixteen and has a young son; she has left her abusive husband and now works as a common laborer. Elena has left the neighborhood, earned her college degree, and published a successful novel, all of which have opened the doors to a world of learned interlocutors and richly furnished salons. Both women have pushed against the walls of a prison that would have seem them living a life of misery, ignorance, and submission. They are afloat on the great sea of opportunities that opened up during the nineteen-seventies. Yet they are still very much bound to each other by a strong, unbreakable bond. - from Goodreads -

My glitter socks :) They are a bit darker and more glittery in real life. And I managed to make them match on the first try :)

Ravelry project page
Pattern: 64 sts, cuff down, 1x1 rib with a twisted knit stitch, heelflsp with slipped stitches
Yarn: 71 g Opal Happy mit Silbereffekt #9091 Surprise
Needles: 2,5 mm / US 1.5
Made for: Me