This winter I have finally started adding the "brand-tags" on my work, to make sure the recipient remembers who knitted the gift with love ;o)
Soft and pretty alpaca wristwarmers adorned with little beads - Santas little helper is quite pleased with theese, despite the evidence of lacking concentration on the hem of the second one... Yarn: Fingering 100 % alpaca from Du store alpakka. Needles: 3 mm bamboo. Pattern: My own. Ornamental beading strongly inspired by a pattern for a babys hat in Solveig Hisdals Dikt i masker/Poetry in stitches
Ishbel the 2nd has been waiting for some decent daylight to be documented for blogging. Decent or not; one should not keep a lady waiting, so here she is anyway. The Ishbel pattern is now kinetically established in my hands, so Ishbel the 3rd will probobably materialise before Xmas. Yarn: Silkblend from Manos del Uruguay. Needles: 6 mm
Here she is, in all her glory - my dear, little Ishbel (that actually turned out to get even bigger than the largest size of the pattern - the yarnage of the Crazy Zauerball Sock Yarns was impressive!) 
The gift-making has started - finally! My ambitions are big enough... time will show how much this little helper will actually produce. As usual my gifts will be a mix of homemades and readymades. I love the planning, shopping, producing, wrapping and tag-making - but despite this I always have at least 2-3 gifts to give that really challenge my creativity. Every year I wrench my brain to come up with something nice or/and useful that the same few recipients will appriciate... is this a familiar "problem" to any of you bloggers?! I guess I´ll have to surrender to gift vouchers yet again... ;o)
Here she is, my Indian Princess! She still needs some support to keep her shape - some stiffening up beneath the handles. The Sari Silk makes a heavy fabric, so the bag is drooping from its own weight. The red lining and matching flower look good though. As soon as the desired support is added I am ready to take the Indian Princess out and about :o)
Ishbel will be around pretty soon, I hope... The stockinette stitch part is done and both of us are ready for the lace adventure! This version of the Crazy Zauerball Sock Yarn is a 2 ply which creates a speckled variegation. I can´t wait to see how it will work on the finished Ishbel!
This beautiful scarf made of Silk Sari yarn (and a bit of cotton chenille) no longer exists... Sometimes looking good simply isn´t enough! The scarf came out too heavy and too scrolly to drape well around the neck - so I just gave up on wearing it. However, the yarn is faaar to pretty to be put in a corner (ref. Dirty Dancing!!!). So I turned it back into this:
2 good 2 b 4gotten! The ripple blanket has been resting peacefully in its basket all winter and all spring. I brought it with me to a knitting café a few weeks ago, trying to gently wake it from its long slumber. I think I finished one single row that night. Finally, this weekend, the time was right for some serious ripplin´ again! I think I still have 76 or so rows to go - but I´ll get there! Eventually...
The pretty lace stola for Princess grows quickly. I think it measures 60 cm or so right now, so I am fairy optimistic about finishing this one in time. Also considering there will be some timeconsuming dressmaking during the summer. Of course I have plenty of UFOs and ideas for new projects too. And what do you know - there´s a sale at my LYS this month... No idle hands!
Detail from Jacob Weidemans home. Lillehammer
South Park, Lillehammer
Detail from Jacob Weidemans home. Lillehammer
More details from Jacob Weidemans home. Lillehammer
At Hoel Gård, Nes
...and one last detail from Jacob Weidemans home. Lillehammer We also visited Sigrid Undsets home, Lillehammer. At noon we had a very nice lunch break at wonderful Skafferiet, Helgøya