FO :: Chouwa Socks

My mom had a skein of Sandnes Garn Mini Palett and I offered myself to knit a pair of socks for my sister :) 

Pattern: Chouwa by Judy Sumner Published in Knitted Socks East and West
Yarn: 67 g Sandnes Garn Mini Palett #0964  

Needles: 2,5 mm

I'm here, just being busy

Enjoying the sun

Tending the vegetable garden

Painting pallets.

I've knitted a few rows every now and then too, so I'll stop by to show you a pair of socks soon :)

Weekending

Weekending, my favorite part of the week. A time to relax, live, love, just to be.
Joining with Amanda.

- Finally some summer feeling, 20 C, lots of icecream, suncream, bare feet and the smell of sunny skin
- Taco
- Some more planting in the kitchen garden
- Hysteria
- Evening hike
- Mosquitoes bites
- A few rows of knitting

On the needles and between the pages

 

Yarn Along :: WIP Wednesday :: Keep Calm Craft On

 

The weeks seems to fly by here. The kids have just one week left at school before summer leave :) Looking forward to be able to sleep a little longer than 6 in the morning ;)

 

Knitting: I have finished clue #2 on the TTL Mystery Shawl. The beautiful turquoise colour is hard to capture in photos...  So far it's an easy and fun pattern to knit. Looking forward to see what the next clue looks like. The pink is the summer top I started on last week. I had to rip it and start over with smaller needles as it got to loose. It felt ok as I hadn't knitted more than I have now ;)

Reading: Taking a break from the Dark Hunters World and have started the first book in a new series by Jan Guillou - Brobyggerne (Bridgebuilders). I have just read a few pages, but I hope it is great.

When the sea took both their father and their uncle, the three boys in the small fishing village on the west coast had to travel to Bergen to try to support their family. The three young apprentices turns out to be exceptionally gifted technically and through Bergen's benefactors the brothers graduated rail and bridge builders at the University of Dresden. The plan is that they will return to Norway to help the most magnificent Norwegian engineering project ever - the construction of the railway between Oslo and Bergen. But love turns everything. One brother runs away, betrayed and ashamed, into German East Africa. The other brother fled also because of love, he ends up in London. Only Lauritz, the eldest, is returning to Norway. In gratitude for the education he joined the railway construction on Hardangervidda. In the new century the future of optimism was big. The breakthrough technique would make all wars to be extinct. Little did man know that the world faced the bloodiest and most dramatic century ever.

♥ Happy Birthday Eirin ♥

I know I say this every time one of the kids have their Birthday, but I really don't know where the time goes... 10 years already. It seems like it was just a few days ago I held her for the first time...
With a mix of your father's stubbornness and your mother's temperament, we have our moments ;)
But you are caring and kind, knows what you want, good to help out and your smile is never far away. You love to create things, but I have yet to convince you that knitting is the thing ;) 
Hopefully the summer will be filled with happy days, lots of hiking and good memories!
We love you so much  ♥

Weekending

- It's finally starting to somewhat look like spring here, with flowers starting to pop up and the trees getting green. But it really could have been a little warmer. 10C and a cold, cold wind from north makes us have to wear a second layer of clothes...
- Managed to trick Hubby with me to the local garden center ;)
And yes, some plants went home with us, including some raspberry bushes
- Lots of time spent in the kitchen baking
- Finishing clue #2 on the TTL Mystery Shawl :)
- Casting on a new project
- Eating curry and watching Burke and Hare with hubby
- Finally have my kitchen garden ready and have started
to plant out some of the plants. Will make a post about that later ;)
- ♥ Celebrating Eirin's 10th Birthday with lots of cake, icecream,
happy faces and friends and family ♥

FO :: Wingspan

Wingspan is done. And Eirin got herself a new shawl/scarf.
I had hoped to have enough yarn to knit more than 8 triangles so the shawl would be long enough to wrap around my neck, but it was not.... But it fits Eirin perfect and hopefully she will wear it next winter. She do thinks it itches a bit though...

Pattern: Wingspan
Yarn: 100 g Ripples Crafts Hand Dyed Yarns Sock #Assynt Jewels
Needles: 3,5 mm

Friday Flickr Favourites

1. Lakeshore4, 2. birdie, 3. TSTL. Golden Storm, 4. Sock Progress, 

5. strawberry and cream biscuits, 6. Gangabobs, 7. i stayed, 8. Sea Otters_MG_2240, 

9. /, 10. holding love, 11. bunty, 12. Dandelion, 

13. I spun some yarn!, 14. Untitled, 15. Swallowtail, 16. Simple pleasures

On the needles and between the pages

Yarn Along :: WIP Wednesday :: Keep Calm Craft On

Finally sun and warm weather (+17C) came to our part of the world. So that's why there haven't been any blogpost here - I've been soaking up sun and we've been building a plat in the garden,(photo below). There's still some left to do, so I'll take a better photo when we're done. As you can see in the photo, we still have some snow left in the mountains, but the forest is finally starting to get a hint of green! The boards you see laying on the ground is my mess,  as I try to figure out how my vegetable garden should look like ;)

But now on to knitting and reading.

Knitting: First of all, Thank you so much for all your nice comments on my Octopus Mittens!! I said that I was going to cast on the TTL Mystery Shawl. Well, that didn't happend for the same reasons as I haven't blogged ;) So I'm just going to wait until clue 2 comes on Friday and then I'll knit both clues. Still knitting on my Wingspan - and I hope I have enough yarn to make it as long as I want it...

As we spent most of the morning out i the sun, I needed something new to knit on. I found some pink cotton in my stash and asked Eirin if she would wear this top. She said yes, and I casted on. Time will tell if she will actually wear it though....

Reading: Oh, I'm so lost in the world of Dark Hunters right now... This is book 4, Kiss of the Night.

"Wulf is an ancient Viking warrior with a useful but extremely aggravating power—amnesia. No one who meets him in person can remember him 5 minutes later. It makes it easy to have one-night stands, but hard to have a meaningful relationship, and without true love he can never regain his soul.

When he finally meets Cassandra, the one woman who can remember him, she turns out to be the princess of the cursed race he's sworn to hunt—and forbidden to him. The two of them must face ancient curses, prophecies, and the direct meddling of the Greek gods to find true happiness at last."

FO Octopus Mittens

Love, love, love these mittens!!
The pattern, the colours and the soft feel of the yarn!

The cuff is double and if I am to knit this pattern again (which I think I will as I would love to have a pair in pink & brown), I might knit the whole mitten double to make them really thick and warm.

Pattern: Octopus Mittens by Emily Peters
Yarn: Orange - 25 g Ripples Crafts Hand Dyed Yarns Sock Colorway Muirburn & Blue - 30 g Sandnes Garn Sisu Colorway 6733

Needles: 3 mm

As some of you know the first mitten got a little too small for me. So I was going to give them to Eirin. But I have knitted this second mitten with a looser tension...
So the mitten on the left fits me perfect and the one on the right is too narrow and a little too short *sigh* Blocking did't help either.
And there's no way I'll knit a third mitten to see if they will match in size, so I guess Eirin and I might have to share them ;)

On the needles and between the pages

Yarn Along :: WIP Wednesday :: Keep Calm Craft On

  

Hmm, looks like there's more reading going on than knitting, 

but that's just on the photo ;)

I am knitting quite a lot as I am trying to finish the mittens by friday, so I can cast on the TTL Mystery Shawl :) I got the skein of yarn from Candy Skein today - and it's such a beautiful colour!

Knitting: Well, obviously it's the Octopus mittens on the right. I'm past the thumb on the second one, so not much left. Eirin is just waiting for me to finish them so she can have them :)

The purple/pink is my wingspan. I casted on yesterday and are halfway through the second triangle. So it's a fast and easy project to work on, perfect for tv knitting.

Reading: I finished Labyrinth last night. After a (very) slow start, the book got more exciting, but it never gave me that feeling of "I just can't put this book away". . .  I have the next book in the trilogy, Sepulchre, in my shelf, but I'm waiting a bit before I read it. And hoping it will be a bit more exciting to read ;) 

Endre and I have also finished Hugo Cabret. I think he liked it better than me, and I acyually think the movie might be better than the book . . .  We have started to read a new book before bedtime -  Ottoline and the Yellow Cat. I like this sort of books for reading out loud :) Eirin have read the two first ones and she liked them a lot. I think we have to buy the third one as Ottoline travels to Norway in it!

As I didn't start to read Sepulchre, I felt the need for a guilty pleasure book. So I picked up Fantasy Lovers by Sherrilyn Kenyon. I have read book 1 and 2 in the Dark Hunters series in norwegian, but they only translated those two books. . .  When I look on Goodreads I see that if I shoul try to follow the figures in this series I have to read two, maybe three other series at the same time as they seem to merge into each other. . . Not sure if I bother though.

Anyway, I also have a lighter book I can take with me and read everywhere without loosing the tread ;) Storm Warning by Nora Roberts.  So far it looks like it's going to be a little bit of mystery and a little bit of love. Perfect combination.

And last, a new book that came in the mail today. It's a crochet book by Tove Fevang. It's mostly potholders, but some other things too. And it's a bit of Tunisian crochet there too. I have tried Tunisian crochet, but can't say I am any good at it. So maybe I finally can learn it and at the same time I might get to use up some cotton stash ;)

I have two FO's too today. Two bright pink dishcloths to brighten up my day :)
Pattern: 55 st. 1st row knit all st. 2nd row p1, k1.
Yarn: Løve Garn Kick Multi in two different shades of pink.
Needles: 3 mm

Snowing

I know there's been a lot of squirrel photos lately, but I just can't resist as they are so cute. . .
And yes, it is snow you see. . .  It's been snowing big, white, fluffy flakes this morning and the temperatur is bearly above 0 C. So I am wearing two pairs of wool socks, have a good fire going in the wood stove, hot tea in my cup and are about to cast on Wingspan :)
Have a great Tuesday with or without snow :)

FO Hubby's Socks

First of all - Sorry for the crappy photos!
I think it's a mix of my camera not capable of focusing on the pattern and bad light. . .
I might try to take some better photos when the sun comes back ;)
Anyway. Hubby's socks came off the needles today. They fit great and I'm happy with how they turned out.

Pattern: Cuff down, 68 st, short-row heel
Yarn: 82 g BlitzColor #02536 from Regia
Needles: 2,5 mm

Weekending

Weekending, my favorite part of the week. A time to relax, live, love, just to be.
Joining with Amanda.

It's been a quiet weekend here.
Playing, knitting, a bit of bickering among the kids, mud paths and muddy clothes, jumping on the trampoline and icecreams.
Some time have been spent watching our squirrels :)
They are so cute and I really hope we will have squirell babies this year.
The south part of Norway are having some wonderful summer weather,
but we just try to ignore that here in the north ;)
Today the rain have been coming down more horizontal than vertical due to strong wind
... which is good in a way because it makes the ice on the water thaw and crumble.
Scones with strawberry jam and cheese, hot tea and a good heat from wood stove.
Watching all my plants grow and planing our garden.
Compare prices on the materials we need to fix the house and garden.
Really enjoying Labyrinth after a slow start:) 


How's your weekend been?
I'm going to watch Miss Marple and knit on Hubby's socks :)

Self-Improvement Sundays

A few days ago I found Ashley's blog Geoknitology and she has a link up each Sunday called Self-Improvement Sundays.

"Self-Improvement takes many forms. The post could be about your goals for the week. These could be fiber related goals, or just things that you want to get done for the week. The posts would consist of a picture of anything that inspires your, or your current work in progress. A picture of the knitting design that you are currently playing around with or designing."

I like this idea about setting goals for the coming week.
So what to do...
Well, I plan to finish Hubby's socks. Think that should be easy as I just have the foot left on the second sock.
I hope to cast on Wingspan with the skein you see under here :) Love the pink and purple and brown together, so I hope the pattern will go great together with the yarn.

I have joined the TTL Mystery Shawl that starts the 1st of June.  For this shawl I'm waiting for a skein of this beautiful blue shade of Candy Skein Sock Yarn Club. Speaking of Candy Skein. Her shop has it's 1st birthday this month and she is having a contest were you can win a lot of beautiful yarn, witch ends on May 31st. I have bought some skeins from Candy Skein and have yet to be disappointed. She makes beautiful colourways and the yarn is soft and great to knit with! I have knitted a cowl and a pair of socks with two of the skeins I have bought. I have one skein in green that I also think will become socks :)

Remember this mitten??
I had planned to finish them so I could use them this winter, but that didn't happend. . . And it looks like they won't fit me either. So I guess Eirin will get them instead. Anyway, I plan to knit on the second one and try to finish the pair this week. Need some bright and happy colours to knit with to brighten up the days as it just keeps on raining and raining here. . .

No knitting goals.
I think I can pack away our winter clothes and shoes now even though it's cold and not much that reminds about spring or summer here. . . So a second layer of clothes is still needed some days :( 
If the rain stops I might go and work in the garden. Since we had to dig up almost the whole garden last summer, I need to get rid of those big stones before we can make a new lawn and vegetable garden.

FO's - Market bag, blanket and a hat

It feels like all of my projects have been stuck on the needles lately... But I have a few fo's to show you today.
You can read about more FO's here on FO Friday :)

When I went through my stash last weekend I found out that  have A LOT of cotton... And I can't make dishcloths woth all of it, so I browsed through some market bag patterns on Ravelry and found one I liked.

Pattern: Grrlfriend Market Bag
Yarn: 100 g Tuva # 600 and 25 g Mandarin Petit # 6200
Needles: 3,5 and 5 mm
Moderations: I decreased until I had 116 st. Made 12 rows of  garter stitch before I knitted the handle.

In Norway we have a project called The Amanda Project - stitches with meaning! We knit for preemie babies at our local hospitals. I have some babywool in my stash, so I hope to knit 5 blankets and 10-15 hats. I have the first blanket and hat off the needles :)


Pattern: My own. 100 st.
Yarn: 81 g Spunky Eclectic Super Nova # Rubber Grapes

Needles: 3 mm

Pattern: My own
Yarn: Candy Skein Yummy Fingering Superwash Sock # Blackberry

Needles: 3 mm

Bury nuts ;)

Wordless Wednesday  ::  Outdoor Wednesday

On the needles and between the pages

Yarn Along :: WIP Wednesday :: Keep Calm Craft On

 

We are having a taste of summer today :) Sun from a cloudfree sky, buds starting to sprout, but still not hotter than 11-12 C and a bit windy.  Yesterday was spent thinning out my seedlings, so no knitting done... So there haven't been much progress on my knitting projects this week.

Reading: Started Labyrinth by Kate Mosse a few days ago. Thought it was slow and a bit boring the first 150 pages or so, but it looks like it's starting to speed up on the mystery and action now.

Knitting: The preemie blanket from last week is done, but I haven't taken any photos of it yet. The market bag is almost done and I have a pair of socks for Hubby too on the needles. Almost done with the first one. I had hoped to cast on Wingspan, but that didn't happend... Maybe until next week ;)

Weekending

Weekending, my favorite part of the week. A time to relax, live, love, just to be.
Joining with Amanda.

It's been a weekend filled with food...
Cupcakes, shrimps and chocolate cake :)
We have had a bit of spring cleaning here
and I even went through my yarn stash.
So good to know what I have and where to find it ;)
Have a few plans for new projects soon.
Wingspan, Hüttenschuhe, Wingfeathers shawl, Liseron 
and Three Flavor Delight Top-Down Cardigan

It's been a very windy weekend with a bit of rain as well.
But it good as it makes the snow melt.
The kids have defied the elements and jump for hours on the trampoline
and have just been indoors to warm up and grab something to eat.

 

Friday Flickr Favourites

1. Happiness does not depend on outward things, but on the way we see them., 2. The Potential for Sock Knitting is Great, 3. Brioche, 4. IMGP4698, 
5. 4.6: Done!, 6. tiny snapping turtle, 7. Had to get these beauties in early tonight., 8. Winter Dream Tea, 
9. Untitled, 10. pointelle, 11. Weekend, 12. The Mist at sunrise, 
13. Untitled, 14. Tufted Titmouse Closeup, 15. Tiffany mittens, 16. Springtime Blues.

Spring - finally :)

Wordless Wednesday  ::  Outdoor Wednesday

On the needles and between the pages

Yarn Along :: WIP Wednesday :: Keep Calm Craft On

 

Knitting: The blue square in the front is the start of a Grrlfriend Market Bag. I have some cotton yarn I need to use up, so I'm going to give this bag a try and see if it is any good.

The green and pink/purple project is a baby blanket. I am knitting hats and blankets for the local hospitals preemie babies.

The skein of yarn in the back is my newest and I am looking for a shawl pattern so I can make it my next project :)

Reading: Still dreaming about a kithen garden, but so far I'm just reading about it while I look at my seeds starts to sprout indoors. Hopefully we will have some carrots, leeks and potatoes at least when fall comes ;) The other book is Sacrifise by S.J. Bolton. And it's very good! I am almost done with it and are just waiting for the plot to unveil... Endre and I are still reading The Invention of Hugo Cabre and I think he likes it just as much as I do ;)

So, what are you reading and knitting/crocheting this week?

I am going to my lys with mom and my sister a little later today. Not that I need any new yarn, but you know. . . 

Weekending

This photo was taken on Saturday.
Today we woke up to 10 cm of fresh snow. . .  All melted now.
But we are used to it here up in the north. We call it "reinkalv ria" =  The snow that comes when the reindeers gives birth.                   

So all our little plants that are starting to sprout still waits indoors before I can plant them out in another month or so...
If you like you can follow my garden on Folia. It's a kind of ravelry, but for plants ;)
But we have had a great afternoon with sun and playing outside today :)
The kids have been at my mom this weekend, so hubby and I have had the weekend all by ourself.
Great to sleep a few hours longer in the morning!
We started to watch the second season of Sanctuary.
A new skein of yarn came in the mail :) And some new knitting projevts was casted on :)

Hope you had a great weekend too :)

On the needles and between the pages

Yarn Along :: WIP Wednesday :: Keep Calm Craft On

Reading: Endre and I are enjoying a couple of chapters each night before bedtime with Hugo in The Invention of Hugo Cabre. I think it's a wonderful book so far. So, those of you who have seen the movie - is it any good? I really hope so, but I often think the books are better than the movies...

The other book is The Alchemist's Daughter, which I find a little hard to get into. Hopefully it will get more exciting after a few more chapters.

Knitting & Crocheting: I'm still knitting on the jacket for the book project. The sleeves are done andI have an inch or so left on the body. The body is knitted in the round, so I must get help from mom to sew seams for sleeves and in the front. I don't dare to get a sewing machine close to it....

I have a few small projects to switch to when I get bored with the jacket. A preemie hat and circles for a new sock yarn blanket.

Weekending

Weekending, my favorite part of the week. A time to relax, live, love, just to be.
Joining with Amanda.

It's been a weekend with lots of time spent indoors due to sick kids.
Endre has been home from school since Wednesday as he has had a sore throat...
Hopefully the rest of us will not catch it...
We've been to the library picking up a load of new books.
I started to read The Invention of Hugo Cabret to Endre
- and we are so looking forward to get the film on dvd :)
Nachos
Winning some yarn :)
Snowstorm - yes I know we are in May, but snow is not unusual in my part of the world...
Rayman
Chilly mornings so we have had to fire up the wood stove.
Apple cake
Frogging a knitting project as I didn't have the right gauge :(
But then again, knitting with larger needles makes it goes faster ;)
Many cups of tea
Lego building