Humulus, Bird Boxes & Narwhal

So when Rauma decided to join the two yarns pt2 and Finullgarn into one brand, Finull pt2, my local yarn store put all their pt2 yarn on sale. And I just couldn't buy some of it ;) So this beautiful dark blue came home with me along with some various shades of pink which will be knitted into another sweater or kofte later. It's the first time I have knitted a garment out of pt2, I have just used it for mittens earlier. But after a wash and a soak with some hair conditioner it turned out soft and squishy!

The pattern is Humulus which "everyone" seems to be knitting (along with Zweig, which I am going to cast on this summer). The pattern on the yoke is inspired from the Humulus plant. A plant I really want to get for my garden, it's so pretty when it grows upwards on the walls or on a trellis.

Ravelry project page
Pattern: Humulus by Isabell Kraemer
Yarn: pt2 dark blue #37 and Finull white #400
Needles: 3 mm / US 2.5 and 3,5 mm / US 4
Size: large

And as you could see on one of the photos we have been making bird and owl boxes from old wood planks. We have already put them up in trees around our house and hopefully some birds will move in. We usually get European pied flycatchers in our boxes, which is great because they eat a lot of insects. But we also have other small birds from the Tit family.
We made owl boxes because we have had a little Boreal owl here this winter. It's not afraid of us and have been sitting and singing next to the house. So maybe it will find a mate and move in in one of the boxes :)

When I had finished the Humulus sweater I saw that Sari Nordlund was looking for test knitters for her beautiful Narwhal sweater. I first saw the sweater on her Instagram account a while ago and just knew I had to knit it if see wrote up the pattern! I sent her a message telling her that I would love to test knit and I could. I am using the same yarn as in the pattern - Safran by Drops, and it's going to be a perfect summer sweater!

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

Knit All the Mittens

You can find all the books in my library on Ravelry.

I have decided to join in on the year of the mitten knit along that is going on on several places. So I have found all my knitting books with mitten patterns. There are so many mittens I want to knit, so I guess this is the year!
If you want to join in there are lots of places to do so. We have the I Make Mittens group on Ravelry where they knit mittens all year long and are having the NaKniMitMo which is a kal they have in January. On Instagram p4chen and treehouseknits are hosting a mitten kal this year where you knit a pair of mittens each month. I guess they have some info on their podcasts as well. Skeindeer is also having a mitten kal, the 2018 yearlong mittalong.

As you can see I have almost finished the first pair, they are just missing a bind off at the top and the thumbs. I have wanted to knit these Fox mittens since I bought the book, but haven't had any fox colour in my stash so I had to buy some wool yarn when I was at my local yarn shop last week :)

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.

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.

New Sweater on the Needles

We had the first real frost night and woke up to frost on everything. So it's just right to have another sweater on the needles as the winter will come sooner than later.
This is the Bøvertun pattern. It's originally a kofte (cardigan), but I wanted a sweater so I just didn't cast on the extra steeking stitches at the front. I have cast on with a provisional cast on so that I can pick up stitches for the neck and knit some short rows to make the back higher before I knit the rib at the top. Right now I'm done with the yoke and are about to separate for sleeves. I'm knitting it in Kauni - a yarn I haven't tried before, but so far I really like it!

Not so matching stripes

I had these skeins of Eventyr yarn in grey and purple/orange that I didn't know what to knit. I have tried to knit a pair of socks with just the purple/orange, but as the stripes doesn't match at all, they didn't look good. So I finally just decided to cast on a pair of stripy socks together with the grey (who also didn't have matchy stripes..). And despite one of the socks having more of the orange I quite like them.

Ravelry project page
Pattern: 64 sts, 2x2 rib, 1 row of 1 purple 1 grey, then 3 rows of grey, 1 row of 1 grey, 1 purple, 3 rows of purple and so on. I made a german short row heel.
Yarn: 77 g Eventyr in #901 and #903
Needles: 2,5 mm / US 1.5

With the leftovers I have casted on a pair of Ludwig socks. They are fun to knit and the patterning is made by mosaic knitting, or slipped stitches, which makes a cool effect. 

Macro Monday :: "Coffee Flowers"

Macro Monday :: Nature Notes

Yesterday my daughter had a little birthday party with her friends, so the rest of us went hiking in the forest to our lean-to so she could have the house by herself for a couple of hours. I brought some needles and yarn and casted on a pair of thick wool socks the perfect project to knit on in the forest. Around our fire pit a lot of Dwarf Cornels grows and they are in full bloom right now. We call this flower for "kaffeblomst" or "coffeeflowers" because the black flowers looks like small coffee beans ;)

The white leaves in the top of the plant are not petals but regular leaves that have lost chlorophyll. The flowers are small and black and are seated in an inflorescence. What looks like a big white flower is really a collection of many small black flowers. When the flowers mature, they turn into crispy stone fruits eaten by birds and animals.

Almost too hot to knit

Summer came over night last week and we went from 3 C and snow to 23 C and sun from a clear blue sky! The trees turned green over night and I had to plant the potatoes and get all my vegetables out of the greenhouse and out in the kitchen garden. It's been warm and wonderful over a week now and some days it has been almost too hot to knit. I found some Fabel yarn leftovers and decided to cast on a pair of socks - the perfect mindless knitting project. I am blending the two colours together and I am pleasantly surprised how they turned out :) They are ready for the heels and I am going to make a german short row heel.

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 :)

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 -

Hello Again

It wasn't planned to have such a long blog pause, but it has felt good.
I have knitted a lot this month and a half. All without having the feeling that I need to take a photo of it right away and post it here, on Ravelry and Instagram. And it have felt good to just put the finished project aside (some times without sewing in the ends) and just cast on a new project. Hopefully the mojo to blog again is back and I'll try to blog more regular again. If you'll like to have a look at what I have knitted since last time, check out my Ravelry page :)

Right now I have a pair of Fidelio socks on the needles. Just love the cables!

We've had a very nice fall here up in the north. With warmth weather, almost no rain and foggy mornings. But now as we have November and the sun is about to leave us until January, I long for some snow. 

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 :: All The 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.

I do like to knit socks and I always have a pair or two on the needles, but I never thought I would get the second sock syndrome...
Well, it looks like it's here. Four and a half socks that needs a mate.
So I have decided that I'm not allowed to cast on a new sock until all of these pairs are done!

At the moment I am reading The Peculiar. I'm about halfway trough and it's starting to get a bit more exciting. It's a children's book, but when it's part murder mystery, part gothic fantasy and part steampunk adventure, I am sold!

Don't get yourself noticed and you won't get yourself hanged.

In the faery slums of Bath, Bartholomew Kettle and his sister Hettie live by these words. Bartholomew and Hettie are changelings--Peculiars--and neither faeries nor humans want anything to do with them.

One day a mysterious lady in a plum-colored dress comes gliding down Old Crow Alley. Bartholomew watches her through his window. Who is she? What does she want? And when Bartholomew witnesses the lady whisking away, in a whirling ring of feathers, the boy who lives across the alley--Bartholomew forgets the rules and gets himself noticed.

First he's noticed by the lady in plum herself, then by something darkly magical and mysterious, by Jack Box and the Raggedy Man, by the powerful Mr. Lickerish . . . and by Arthur Jelliby, a young man trying to slip through the world unnoticed, too, and who, against all odds, offers Bartholomew friendship and a way to belong.