Pink Scarf

Finally blocked & finally enough daylight to get a half decent photo of this scarf... I spent the remaining Manos del Uruguay 100 % merino from hat # 7 (picture below) so now I have a matching hat and scarf. Pretty pretty in pink! Just like the hat (#7) the scarf was knit on 6 mm needles, and the pattern is a 2 x 2 rib with a narrow plait over the k2 stitches. The length is around 140 cm; just enough to keep my neck cozy and warm!

PS: The pirat hat from last entry was based on the free "They call them pirats" pattern (try googling it and you´ll find the free pattern). I just separated one repeat and knit that piece on dpns and the rest of the hat in the round.

Hat # 8 & 9

I had no idea I would produce this many hats during 2008! # 10 is on the needles... And if I count the baby hats in...! Well, it´s a few. These two are knit up from Debbie Bliss soft cotton. The photos make the colours look even duller than they do in RL, but trust me; the hats look quite cool when worn ;o)

The big grey is veeeeery close to being finished and there is also a pink scarf laying around waiting to be blogged. I hope to post a couple of times more before I go away for 3 weeks from December 16th. And my personal wish/aim for 2009...? Make more hats, maybe?? Well, I could wish for more time, but time is an abstract. Time can not be produced. It can only be spent. So my wish and aim is to spend as much as possible of my time on whatever feels rewarding and meaningful. The remaining time I will fill with meaning as best as I can. This demands a very rare and hard achieved skill: the ability to make wise choices and right decisions. AND the will and courage to say "yes" and "no" at the right time. This is the direction I choose for my heart, soul and mind.

Time flies!

I am most certainly alive and kicking - my level of activity in real life is incredibly high but not very blogable. There has been some knitting going on too and I will post some of it as soon as I have the photos ready. Being so busy AND waiting for daylight to photograph is not the best combination, but stay tuned! The Big Gray is about 2/3 done - maybe I can sew the buttons on during this weekend?

Swatching for the Big Grey

This is the first and last swatch for a new raglan I am working on. The idea was to design an intriguing but simple construction for a long cardigan for me. I was looking for the right yarn for several weeks and ended up with the frog-unfriendly Mohair Lux and realised I will have to save my cool construction for another project and another yarn quality (read: a smooth, fuzz free one) in case I have to rip some of it in the process of turning my clever design idea into an equally clever garment... Even though I had pictured a solid coloured simple wool I love the subtle colour changes in this deep, bluish grey. On 5 mm needles it knits up as a light, soft fabric. I have been browsing the web, my knitting books, fashion stores and knitting magazines for pretty plaits and so far I am happy with my choices. This swatch is just that. The interesting celtic-like plaits will be revealed in later entries so stay tuned!

Signs of the season

These pretty purls and pearls and drops and stripes were made by the morning dew on my window, late October ...and the sweet rose hip hearts were easy and qiuck to make. They greet us and our guests as we come and go.

Shetland Silky Triangle

The Triangle in all its glory in back light

The big, beautiful Shetland Triangle is finally blocked and dry and ready to wear! I am actually wearing it right now and it feels wooooonderfully soft and cozy. It measures 88 cm from the top/neck to the point, and 176 cm across the shoulder/neck. Thank you so much for the pattern, Supernøtt :o)

Simple but beautiful pattern

The colours are quite accurate in these photos, but the yellow is a bit richer and a tad more green in RL. The yarn is the Italian Filatura di Crosa WAVE which contains of 75% wool and 25% silk

The Scwarmer again

Some of you might remember my Schwarmer (SCarf + shoulderWARMER) from a few weeks back. At the time I just had the frontal photo to show you, so here are a few more, showing the Schwarmer both as a shrug and as a scarf.

Still my own, very simple pattern. Still two skeins of Noro Blossom. Still 5 mm needles. Still MANY (35 to be exact) heart shaped and coloured mother of pearl buttons.

Shetland Shadows

The bumps and repeating pattern of the Shetland Triangle makes a beutiful, tactile surface just as they are - and the different light in the pictures tell totally different stories about the colour of the yarn. The TRUE colour is something in between. I am still determined to block this baby though. Just have to wait until Sunday as I don´t want to risk that our guest bed isn´t dry when our guests arrive on Saturday ;o)

Hat # 7

Yet another hat - this one is also for me, but modelled by Princess with a funny face!

Pattern: my own Yarn: 100% wool by Manos del Uruguay, a bit over 100 g Needles: 6 mm

A matching scarf is on the needles too, but so are the start of an interesting and long planned project, so the scarf is a bit neglected at the moment... But I DID finish my first ever Shetland Triangle the other day, and I will post it as soon as it is blocked

Calomietries

A couple of Calomietries were perfect projects at the Gardermoen gathering (I think most of us broke our own chatter records that weekend... I knew better then getting distracted by too complicated knits!) The green/blue with the Noro edging was made to match this jacket.

The other one is made from a scrap of 6 ply Regia - and left me with an even smaller scrap, maybe for the edge of another Calomietry? A pony tail would make a convenient brake to prevent this thing to slip off my scull, but my hair is too short... My daughters hair is, as you can see, long enough for a pony tail, but she couldn´t be bothered to put her hair up for the shoot. And no, her facial features don´t normally appear this messy ;o)

Gardermoen/Garn-demonen (Yarn-Demon??) 2008

200 g MANOS DEL URUGUAY, 100 % wool. Hat finished, scarf started.

What a great way of spending a weekend! Happy knitters, spinners, crocheters to the left and to the right and in every corner of Moreppen Grendehus. All women. What about that? Well, women can do more than one thing at the time. We all proved our multi tasking skills, resulting in ears ringing (from the talking), full and happy bellies (from the food and the yummy cakes some of the ladies provided us with), red eyes (from staying up all night knitting), new and wonderful acquaintances (as most of us met "live" for the first time), laughing (because some knitters are also born-to-be performers), learning (because we all love our craft and happily share the shortcuts and tricks of the trade), and of course badly afflicted wallets and accounnts (because of numerous yarn-buying possibilities throughout the weekend). It has been great, and THANK YOU SO MUCH ARIELLE and the rest of you who made this possible. Hope to see you all again soon :o) Here are the reasons I am excitedly awaiting my next payday (2600 g of great yarn makes it worthwhile!!!):

350 g purple MISKI (100% baby Lama), Du store alpakka. Bought to match the Noro Cochoran to the left. Jacket to be!

100 g OPAL BAMBOO (50% virgin wool superwash, 35% bamboo, 15% polyester + a glass heart pendant, gifts from Mauds garn

100 g FIORELLO (100% polyamid), Filatura di Crosa

600 g BABY SILK (80% alpakka, 20% silk), Du store alpakka

150 g HACHO (100% merino wool), Du store Alpakka

200 g MANOS DEL URUGUAY silk blend (70% merino, 30% silk)

500 g ROBUST (80% wool superwash, 20% polyamid), Idéna

250 g WAVE (75% wool, 25% silk), Filatura di Crosa

450 g MOHAIR LUX (60% mohair, 40% acrylic), Idéna & some mother of pearl buttons

Blurry but more or less colour accurate photo of buttons

100 g OPAL COTTON (48% cotton, 39% virgin wool superwash, 13% polyamid)

Hat # 6

Look! ANOTHER hat...?!? This one is for me and I am selfish enough to say that I would NEVER give this one away... because the wonderful yarn was spun by Supernøtt and given to me as a x-mas gift last year. What a great present! I kept the yarn in a mini greenhouse hoping it would grow while I spent the winter (and spring and summer and fall) trying to figure out the perfect project for these yards of beauty. I think this hat brings out all the pretty shades and details of colour combinations prety well, and it sure looks good on me (This said by a hat-o-phobic, mind you!) ;o) To make the design as big and baggy as I pictured it I had to add some other yarn. A scrap of unidentified burgundy coloured wool (or acrylic blend?) and a strand of purple Plumet did the trick.

This weekend will be spent at Gardermoen in company with MANY other dedicated knitters/blabberers/giggelers - in about 2,5 hours I´ll be there!!! I am so exited and the only thing that could calm me down this morning was to hunt down my little scrap of Noro Silk Garden that I plan to use to trim a Calomietry... I´ve been digging through all of my baskets and bags over and over without finding it - and then, finally this morning there it was, in the very same basket I first searched through a week ago... Why is this important...? It is not. But it describes my excitement about the weekend. I got Fiberfeber (Fiber Fever)... and what cures the Fiberfeber? Well... FIBER?!? This is the skein of wool as it revealed itself as last years x-mas gift from Supernøtt.

Colours quite accurately reproduced in this blurry day light photo