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!

Selbugloves

After almost three months of beautiful, but oh so cold weather (-20 C) we got some fresh snow and milder temperatures. Perfect for Easter break. We've been out snowshoeing, skiing and made food over the fire several days now and I really hope the great weather will continue as long as the Easter breaks last.

I made my youngest a pair of gloves with moose on at the end of last year, but they are already used up (he has worn them so much they got holes..) so he requested a pair of new ones. This time I made them in a thicker yarn which is superwash, so hopefully they will not wear out so fast. I really like the little pop of green on the cuffs :)

Ravelry project page
Pattern: The pattern is from a booklet from Viking Garn, but is also available free from their website here - 0907-2.
Yarn: Rubin #441 green, Mor Aase #1088 and #1032 dark and light grey
Needles: 2,5 mm / US 1.5 and 3 mm / US 2.5

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.