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.

Loppa

I hope you all have had a great summer! The kids are back to school this week and things are slowly getting back to normal. I've been knitting a bit this few weeks finishing a kofte and casted on a couple of new projects, but mostly I've been crocheting on a forgotten project. More about that later this week :)

So more about my kofte. It's Loppa or the Flea cadigan by Pinneguri. Skeindeer Knits and Voolenvine have been hosting a knit along for this cardigan this summer. And they still haven't set an end date so you have time to cast one on.

I knitted mine in leftovers from my Setesdal kofte. It's the same grey, but it looks so different with purple instead of pink.

Ravelry project page
Pattern: Loppa
Yarn: Dark and light grey and pink in Tove, purple and blue in Ask and dark blue in pt2
Needles: 2,5 mm / US 1.5 and 3 mm / US 2.5

I decided to do my own twist on the patterning at the bottom of the sleeves and the body and picked two of the colours I liked best.

I did the waist shaping and I think it looks good. The photo was taken on a really sunny day so the colours are more true in the above photoes.

We have been hiking a bit and spent time in the forest at our lean-to picking cloudberries. And I really hope we will have a great autumn so we can do more of it! It's in the outdoors and in nature I feel that I can build up new energy and gather inspiration.

Loppa :: Flea Cardigan

I have had the pattern for the Loppa cardigan in my queue for quite some time. So when I saw that Skeindeer and Voolenvine was going to have a kal for it I knew it was time to cast it on. I decided not to buy new yarn for it as I want to knit down my stash. I had some grey and pink Tove from my Setesdalkofte I knitted earlier this year so I'm hoping it will be enough grey for the main colour. I am going to knit the sleeves first and what is left will be the body. I don't mind if it will turn out to be a short kofte. And with some Ask and some other unknown wool from my stash for the fleas and the yoke I think this will be a warm and cozy kofte :)

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: 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-

On The Needles :: Saga Eskimo

Knitting: I have been wanting to knit Eirin a cardigan for a while now, but she is in that age where everything I suggest is stupid... But when I showed her Saga Eskimo from Kofteboken (a norwegian knitbook with new designs on old jackets or kofter as we call them) she nodded and agreed that it would be a nice jacket for her. But not with yellow and it had to be in a yarn that didn't itch... So when I found out that Sandnes Garn was about to discontinue the yarn Duo, which is a cotton and merino blend, I searched the net for a sale and found a shop that had it for half price :) She picked out a purple instead of yellow and now I am just crossing my fingers and hoping she will like it when it's done.

Drinking: Today I am having a cup of one of my go to teas - Blackcurrant tea from Twinings.

Reading: I picked up a stack of books at the library last week, and one of them was Looking for Me by Beth Hoffman. It was one of those books where the cover drew me in, but as I started reading, the story had me after a couple of pages too!! So I will have to check out her first book too - Saving CeeCee Honeycutt.

Teddi Overman found her life’s passion for furniture in a broken-down chair left on the side of the road in rural Kentucky. She learns to turn other people’s castoffs into beautifully restored antiques, and eventually finds a way to open her own shop in Charleston. There, Teddi builds a life for herself as unexpected and quirky as the customers who visit her shop. Though Teddi is surrounded by remarkable friends and finds love in the most surprising way, nothing can alleviate the haunting uncertainty she’s felt in the years since her brother Josh’s mysterious disappearance. When signs emerge that Josh might still be alive, Teddi is drawn home to Kentucky. It’s a journey that could help her come to terms with her shattered family—and to find herself at last. But first she must decide what to let go of and what to keep. - From Goodreads -

What are you knitting and reading this week?
Joining Ginny and Nicole