Dream Stripes Shawl

I think this is one of my favorite knitted projects so far. It's soft and warm, it has beautiful colours, it was so easy to knit and it's one of those pattern I know I will knit again.

Ravelry project page
Pattern: Dream Stripes (free pattern)
Yarn: Drops Delight #06 and Drops Flora #5
Needles: 3,75 mm / US 5
Modifications: Instead of slipping the first stitch at the beginning of each row, I knitted the two first stitches on each row to make a little garter edge. I also wanted a bigger shawl and to use up the delight yarn, so I increased to 345 sts before I started the lace.

The only "issue" with this shawl is that the stripes makes the edge were you change colours to be less stretchy. So on my shawl there is a difference in about 30 cm if I measure from the center stitch. And by looking at the other projects on Ravelry I saw that I wasn't alone ending up with one side being longer. But it doesn't bother me ;)

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.

The Arctic Shawl

I've been test knitting this shawl for Nordic Stitches and as summer finally arrived this week I will not need it for a while. But it's big, warm and soft so it will be great to wear when it gets cold again.

I used various types of babywool and sisu, so it's a great pattern for leftovers. The pattern was easy to memorize and perfect for tv-knitting :)

Ravelry project page

Pattern: Arctic Shawl

Yarn: 177 g babywool and sisu, see my project page on Ravelry for the different colours

Needles: 3,5 mm / US 4

Close To You Shawl

I might have mentioned it before, but I have a box of skeins that can not be used for socks as there isn't any nylon or polyamid  in them. And at the beginning of each month my youngest pick one skein that he likes. In May he picked an old skein from Spunkey Eclectic. It's a 100 % merino yarn and the colourway is Kentucky Derby. I knew it had to become a shawl and I have had the Close to you shawl in my queue since it came out, so it seems like the perfect match.

It's the perfect size for this type of scarf shawl. And I think it's a little bit more elegant than i.e the Hitchhiker because of the lace part.

Ravelry project page
Pattern: Close to you (free pattern) by Justyna Lorkowska
Yarn: 110 g Skinny Sock #Kentucky Derby
Needles: 3,5 mm / US 4

A very unstyled photo of how I wear it ;) The colours are not right here, they are more like the photo above.

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-

FO :: Nurmilintu Shawl

I have had a skein in my stash named Zombies since 2009, too pretty to knit whenever I took it out and had a look at it. But a while ago I decided that I need to knit up these pretty skeins I just seem to store in a box. The funny part is that the skein I have saved for years suddenly wasn't as pretty as I once thought knit up...  It's ok, but some yarn is prettier in the skein.

Ravelry project page
Pattern: Nurmilintu (free pattern)
Yarn: 1 skein of Superwash Corriedale Top #zombies
Needles: 4 mm / US 6
Made for: Me

FO :: Reyna Shawl

First I have to apologize for the bad pictures! The light is terrible now so all the colours fade out and the white turns into a light blue... But that's just how it is around here these days - and I can't wait until spring to take pictures again ;)

Anyway - my Reyna Shawl has been off the needles a long time. I just had to sew in a couple of ends and you know how long such a small task can take... It was a fun and quick knit and I might knit it again. The pink is more brighter - so if you look at the picture on my ravelry project you get a better idea of how it looks!

Ravelry project page
Pattern: Reyna  (free)
Yarn: 100 g Squooshy Yarn #LOVE
Needles: 3.5 mm / US 4
Made for: Me

This used up all of my yarn, but I wish it was a little bit bigger. So if I am to knit i again I will use more yarn and add some lace or garter ridges at the bottom.

I've also knittied some socks since last time i posted something knitted. The colours turned out not good in this light... They are black and purple with stripes of green and yellow neon. They are on my ravelry page if you want more details.

Fall is here

It's been a month since I posted last. And it's been a month with some wonderful fall weather, the first frost and drizzle of snow on the mountains, but it's also been a month with me having one of my periodes of dark moods... I seem to get a little sad and low on energy when winter and dark days comes, but this year it hit me early and hard... Hopefully it will not get any worse and I have decided I need to fill my days with thing that makes me happy :) Blogging used to do that, so I'll have to try to find back the joy of doing this.

But enough about me and my troubles. How are you, have you been knitting beautiful things the month I have been gone? I have been knitting, although not as much as I usually do.. There have actually been several days in a row without knitting *shock*, but those days has been spent with a book in my lap instead. I'm reading the Outlander series and are currently on book four, Drums of Autumn - Love this series and cant wait for the second season of the tv series to come out!!

Some of the things that have been on my needles are these socks. I've knitted a few other socks, but they are not as pretty as these ones ;) You'll find them on my Ravelry page.

Pattern: Plain vanilla, cuff down with a short row heel.
Yarn: 68 g Thoug Sock #Emerald City
Needles: 2,5 mm / US 1.5
Size: 64 sts

In the beginning of this week I dugged out this jacket I started back in March.
It's a Saga Eskimo kofte for Eirin and I just have the second sleeve to knit before the scary steeking can begin... I'm hoping to finish it during the weekend and hopefully she will use it. She's known to not like wool garments very much as she thinks everything itches. But I'm knitting this in Duo which is a merino/cotton blend so it should not itch a bit.

And I'm not sure if I dare say it, but I'm starting to feel a bit fed up of mindless sock knitting!! But I still enjoy having something mindless on the needles so I casted on a Reyna shawl. Love the colours and it's so fun to knit :)

And lastly a blurry mobil photo of the wonderful Aurora we had last night.

It's been years since I last saw so much and so bright northern lights. I need a better camera and to learn the skills to take some better photos of it!

You can see some beautiful photos from last nights Aurora here - enjoy :)

FO :: Settler Shawl

My Setler Shawl has been finished and off the needles a month, but didn't get blocked until a few days ago.
I really like this shawl. It's long and scarflike and can be wrapped several times around my neck to keep me warm. It's a grey day so the lightening is not perfect. But the colours are most true in the first photo.

Ravelry project page
Pattern: Settler Shawl
Yarn: 100 g Serenity Silk Singles #Water Lilies
Needles: 4 mm / US 6
Made for: Me
Started: September 6, 2014
Completed: September 15, 2014

On the Needles :: Settler Shawl

Sorry for the blurry photo... The reason can be found further down ;)

It's another rainy and windy day here in the north.
Perfect for breadbaking, knitting and tea drinking indoors :)

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

Reading: I finished Shadow of Night last night - and I really need to buy the third book soon. Because it's such a great series!!
I needed another genre, so of course I picked out another chunk of a book - The Distane Hours by Kate Morton. I have loved the other books I've read by her, so I hope this too is a good one.

A long lost letter arrives in the post and Edie Burchill finds herself on a journey to Milderhurst Castle, a great but moldering old house, where the Blythe spinsters live and where her mother was billeted 50 years before as a 13 year old child during WWII. The elder Blythe sisters are twins and have spent most of their lives looking after the third and youngest sister, Juniper, who hasn’t been the same since her fiance jilted her in 1941. 
Inside the decaying castle, Edie begins to unravel her mother’s past. But there are other secrets hidden in the stones of Milderhurst, and Edie is about to learn more than she expected. The truth of what happened in ‘the distant hours’ of the past has been waiting a long time for someone to find it.  - Goodreads-

Knitting: After I finished the Hitchhiker my knitting mojo seemd to come back, and I looked through my ravelry queue and found the Settler Shawl by Truly Myrtle. And I found the perfecy yarn to knit it with in my stash - a skein of Serenity Silk Single from Zen Yarn Garden. A skein I've been saving for the right project for years. I have a few more rows before I'll start the body pattern. Can't waiy to wrap this soft smooshy shawl around my neck!

And then, a couple of photos from behind the scenes :)
Alaska SO wanted to play with the yarn...

FO :: Hitchhiker

I'm going to apologize right away for the bad photos...
It's a grey and rainy day outside and the daylight is getting shorter each day now. Which means fall is here.
But as you can see I've made a Hitchhiker. I first used this yarn for a Nurmilintu which I frogged because it become a little small. I know I'll knit Nurmilintu again, just need to find the right yarn.
The yarn is soft and is as shine as it looks and it is quite true to colour on these first two photos.

Ravelry project page
Pattern: Hitchhiker
Yarn: 107 g Shine #Eclectic Jam
Needles: 3,5 mm / US 4
Made for: Xmas gift
Size: 33 teeth
Started: September 4, 2014
Completed: September 7, 2014

FO :: Menehune

My Menehune shawl is blocked and ready to use when it gets colder.
The pattern can be found by watching the first four episodes of the With Mel podcast or here on Ravelry.
I made it a tiny bit bigger as it's more a shawlette than a shawl. But even though I just added a few more garter rows it's still big enough to wrap around my neck as I like it  :)

Ravelry project page
Pattern: Menehune
Yarn: 108 g Supersock Select by Cherry Tree Hill Yarn #Foxy Lady
Needles: 4 mm / US 6
Made for: Me
Started: August 15, 2014
Completed: August 26, 2014

On The Needles :: Shawls and socks

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

Knitting: My Nurmilintu which just had a few rows knitted last week is almost done. I just have the last lace border left to knit, but I'm thinking about frogging it... Yes, that's right. Frog it. I like the colours and the pattern, but it's not long enough to be a scarf one can wrap around the neck the way I like it. So I think I'll use the yarn for a Hitchhiker instead.
I watch some podcasts and I found out that Mel from Singlehandedknits can use both her hands again and have started a new podcast - With Mel. And we can knit along with her on one of her new shawlette patterns Menehune. So of course I had to find some yarn and cast on when I watched the first episode :) I'm going to make it bigger and use up most of my yarn, so I'll have to do a little math before I start knitting the edge.
And of course there is a pair of socks on the needles too ;) I've decided to use up all of my pretty skeins I've been saving, before I can buy some new ones. And sometimes the yarn are prettier in the skein than knit up as a sock... But then again I've never been a hugh fan of yarn that pools... But Erlend is happy for a new pair of socks and doesn't care, so I just knit to get them off the needles so I can find another skein and cast on another pair ;)

Reading: The same books as last week. Shadow of Night is great and I manage to read a few chapters each night in bed. And I'm almost done with City of Ashes and I think it's just as good as the first book City of Bones.