Ta da!

So here they are; my news! I hope you did not hold your breath waitng, Moan... he he! It is my 11 year old Princess modelling the vest and the armwarmers. I hope to get some photos of myself wearing it later, as the construction of the vest is a good one to show off grown female curves! All in all an intriguing project as I started off h o p i n g my 200 g would be enough for a slightly cropped U-neck vest. Previously I had knitted a couple of Ishbels from 100 g balls of this yarn, and learned that the yardage of the beloved Silkblend is substantial. When I still had 70 g left from the vest I was hoping for regular wristwarmers but the arm warmers just grew and grew - and this is what I got... I am pleased! Both patterns were made up as I went, using 5,5 mm circulars and 200 g of Manos del Uruguay - and I still have a few yards left, for a crochet flower or something.

News on hold

Knitting is a bit slow, but the biggest blogging obstacle is the lack of daylight and TIME to take pictures during the few hours of mid winter daylight that we have in this part of the world... The photo above is a reminder that spring WILL come (in a while...) despite the winter wonderland look outside. I´ll be back with a few little FOs soon - I hope...

Yard after yard

The rest of the autumny Manos del Uruguay silk blend turned into yard after yard of neckwarming softness for my dear father - the last xmas present to be finished in 2009. Just a couple of hours before the presents were unwrapped, to be precise ;o)

Hello 2010! Hello Ishbel the 3rd!

This Ishbel was pure bliss to knit - the same wonderful silkblend Manos del Uruguay on some speedy 6 mm circulars, and the pattern well memorized from making Ishbel the 1st and Ishbel the 2nd. This autumn leaves coloured version was a xmas gift for mum.

Branded hat

A cute, warm and hopefully cool enough hat to wear for a little hero!

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)

Off the needles

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

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

Ishbel the 1st

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!)

Santas little helper on duty!

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)

It´s better to light a candle...

This beautiful little pale pink heart candle was made for ME by my Princess! She has added some dried rose petals - they are sparkling and fragrant. The candle is even embossed with an M for MAMMA (mum)... this is what I call heartwarming :o) Thank you so much, sweetheart <3

Reload

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)

Preparing for Christmas

The weekend was a real good one - as it included some surprise yarn shopping :o)) I have known about this yarn shop in Fagernes for a while, but never came around to go there, until this Saturday. It was a sight for sore "rakfiskfestival"-eyes! All natural fibres and a few exciting brands as well, wich I did not expect - so I was surprisesd! I shopped a bit for Christmas presents; this was NOT surprising, though... time will show what these beautiful silk/merino-skeins will turn into. I have a few plans - also for the alpaca ball.

Below: a quick update on the Ishbel: I finally cracked the code for the lace part after searching the Ravelry groups dealing with this specific pattern. I think what really helped was discovering the hundreds of knitters grinding their teeth over this one... as the pattern is not really complicated at all, I mean. It is just good and encouraging to be among equals in such trying times ;o)

Waiting for Ishbel

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!

Blurry pictures will be more common than sharp ones for a few months - winter is coming and daylight is going! But the colours turn out quite accurate and to a colour-freak like me that emends the fogginess :-))

Recycling a recycled yarn

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: The full summer of 2006-post with more glorious pictures shows this yarns potential - and I have already cast on and off on the new Silk Sari creation... Stay tuned to find out if this time it turns into a success :o)

Fall in the garden

Tada! The finished scarf measures 180 x 14 cm and drapes several times around the neck. I must admit that this sort of knitting bores me long before I am half done - but still it is worth the effort when it is finished :-)Please forgive the sensational bad airbrushing om the photo below - loooks like my testosteron level is a tad high... the idea was to show how the scarf looks; not to confuse you about my gender ;-)))

Back in Business

Finally a few words and stitches from the Baglady again. Unlike at Vriddrett/Supernøtts there has been no rumours (to my knowledge) that I or my blog were dead - anyway, I am just practising VERY SLOW living, or at least very slow blogging... and knitting! My yarn-shopping in London in August is turning into knitwork Daisy-stitch by Daisy-stitch, and it looks like this quite narrow scarf will be long enough to wrap nicely at least two rounds around the neck. The yarn is Crazy Zauerball Sock Yarn; 75% wool, 25% nylon, and the needles are 5 mm circulars

London Calling - again!

London was great! The U2 show was beyond great! The We will rock you-musical (based on Queens music) was cool and fun, the company was the best, the weather was nice, the shopping (including a few hours at Camden Market - hadn´t been there since 1994!) was excellent... and my long awaited visit at Loop ended up with a surprisingly modest yarn purchase shown below. The shop itself was super cute and the staff very friendly and welcoming. This will definitely be a regular stop on my London visits. All the yarn is available from the online store, of course, but nothing compares to the real thing ;-)

Crazy Zauerball Sock Yarn; 75% wool, 25% nylon

Isn´t she lovely

Supernøtts Little Miss arrived on July 14th, and I must admit I´ve been awaiting her arrival with impatience and excitement! I hope she will enjoy this little warming and welcoming Lazy Daisy Baby Jacket (and I think it will match the blanket from granny...?!?). For once I finished the garment BEFORE the baby was born, but of course I didn´t want to spoil the surprise by blogging it before the wee one (and her mum) had seen it "in person". So here it is in all its scrappy glory :o))

PS - if anyone is still in doubt: the headline applies foremost to Little Miss. Even though the jacket came out pretty cute too ;o)

No cabin fever for Fiberfeber

We are going to stay at my parents cabin for a few days. My happiness is not weather dependent - I´ll be knitting and crocheting in sunshine or rain :o)

The only new project I am bringing is this one; a halter neck top for Princess. Yarn: Cotton Viscose by garnstudio. Needles: 3,5 mm. Pattern: my own (2 x 2 ribbing is hardly a pattern design - but there will be more shaping involved later, I promise!)

The lace stola is still growing; a few more repeats and I am ready for the edging.

The never ending story II... (the first one was the hexagon blanket). Still around 50 cm of rippling to go.

Ripplin´ progress

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...