To blog or not to blog

So how and where do I go from here? The photos are from a wonderful week in Madeira, late October. It´s been five months since my last post and only time will show if todays entry is an end or a beginning. This time of year is normally top season for blogging as preparations for Christmas provide many visually attractive topics - so maybe, baby?

Sommerutstilling på Tjøme

Inger Lise Libakken; Republikker på en snor. Halssmykke med frimerker og granat

Jubileumsutstilling – Galleri Gudem 10 år sommeren 2011.
Åpner Søndag 26. juni kl 14.00. Adresse: Fynveien 9, 3148 Hvasser

Åpningstider fra 26. juni til 14. august.
Juni og august fra 12-16, med søndager fra 12-18.
Hele juli fra 12-18.

Det blir musikalsk underholdning fra to artister fra Nederland: Christine Sweet og Tiedo samt lokal underholdning av Eva Jeanette Kristiansen.
Flere av kunstnerne vil være tilstede åpningen, bl.a. Tom Erik Andersen, Kristian Finborud, Unni Skurdal, Anne Ka. Munkejord og Inger Lise Libakken.

Deltagere:
Ina Kristine Hove:skulpturellt glass
Irene Harvik:glass
Unni Skurdal:sølvsmykker
Tom Erik Andersen:maleri
Julia M. Pelikhova:tegning
Unn Borchgrevink:maleri
Anne Ka. Munkejord:glass
Ane Sand:smykker
Kristian Finborud:grafikk
Marianne Gudem:grafikk og keramikk
Maria Øverby:skulptur
Tove Åshammer:Tekstil
Runi Langum:litografi
Maj-Lis Uller:tekstil
Inger Lise Libakken:tekstil
Hilde Holmer:tekstil
Anne -Gry Ranchil: smykker
Roald Jostein Tellnes:litografi

Yellow to green - May to June

So what is this yellow-green-blurry stuff all about? Well, obviously it is another mobile camera shot. To me it is a lot more. The photos were taken last week, on a rainy day, so the colour truly shouted out for attention and definitely caught mine. The thousands of little maple flowers contrasts beautifully with the charcoal colour of the pavement, seen below. Sights and moments like this make me feel happy and even make me understand myself better and knowledge who I am. Strange and peculiar, you say? Oh, well, I guess it takes one to know one :o)

Redesign

Another of last weekends projects: an old - and far too small - wrap skirt from my glorious Bergen days was turned into a flary top for Princess. She has actually claimed she will wear it for her junior highschool photo. A very convincing and effective way of proving the little redesign project successful! :o)

Growth... hopefully!

Already halfway through the week! Last weekend was a very active one, proving several topics to blog. Today I just wanted to post this (mobile camera) photo to document this new little rockery flowerbed. In time I will probably expand it, and also make the edge prettier adding nice(r) stones. This modestly sized patch alone actually involved a serious effort with hoe and spade, to get rid of the turf and all the unwanted roots from various weed. I added cow dung/compost for some of the plants, and a generous layer of fresh fertile soil. Only a few of the plants are real rockery plants, but hopefully they will all thrive and make this little spot of the garden a bit more welcoming and exuberant! A follow-up post in a few weeks time will reveal my gardening skills...

Hommage a Purpur

Last weekend I finally got around to visit Purpur, a truly wonderful shop at Grünerløkka in Oslo. The owner is just as nice and likeable as I imagined. I have been "visiting" the shop online many times by following the blog. As it turned out I almost missed the real life experience as Krista is now closing down the shop. I know she has got a lot of regular clients and customers regretting this fact - but on the plus side, there is a closing down sale going on... I was lucky enough to get this BIG quilted Rie Elise Larsen blanket and pillowcase at a very good price. A bargain, I would say! Thank you for all the nice glimpses into the Purpur ("Purple") world, Krista, and good luck with all your future creative projects. I hope you will enjoy this new freedom and I am sure your enterprice combined with your delightful personality will bring you success and happiness :o)

PS - the mobile camera is still my everyday camera - some shots are OK, some are awful. The camera is only partly to blame, as I have been too lazy to explore its possibilities. Right now the choice is between blogging crappy photos or not blogging at all, so as you can see, I go with crappy ;o)

Fancy Granny

Digging into my stash again... This time (as always) the yarn is a mix of most fibres. The ply and chunkyness varies too. I adjust the size of the squares by alternate the crochet stitces; single crochet and double crochet. This makes quite an uneven grip to the finished fabric, but as usual I trust the beauty and livelyness of the colours and yarn qualities to provide charm enough to make me (and you) bear with the lumpyness that comes along ;o) I still have quite a few scrap balls of yarn left, so this might end up as a cozy not-so-little blanket. Un-edited photos by my mobile camera again, by the way.

Cabin Fever

The weeks have just rushed by lately - it is about time to slow down and get into the blog-mode again. Thank you for nice comments while I have been away :o)

Well. This is a decoupage-project I did just before Easter, for our bedroom in my parents mountain cabin. The mirror is my old pine framed from my teenage bedroom. It was painted off white and decoupaged with clippings from paper napkins. The wild life/nature design is the same as for the cabins Fauna tableware.

Instead of insisting on demonstrating my own taste in decorating the cabin (I am a guest there, after all ;o) ), I try to add my personal touch by adapting and mixing the elements at hand. As I also did almost exactely a year ago, making this big granny square throw . The photos below are all taken with my mobile camera - no editing at all; just plain old laziness ;o)


Hm... I must say I think this mirror/drawer-arrangement looks better in real life!

FO: Domino baby blanket

Thank you for the nice response on the previous post - hopefully you will like this one even better ;o)

Pattern: Well, not really, just playing around with basic domino squares and 11 slightly musty colours - and adding a retroish and hopefully manly (as the baby is a boy) touch with the crochet edge.

Yarn: 600 g of Pt5 Sport (80 % wool, 20 % nylon); 50 g of colours 233 (dark brown, discontinued), 327 (lilac, discontinued), 526 (offwhite/beige), 549 (burgundy), 520 (pale pink), 563 (dark plum) and 575 (navy) 100 g of colours 568 (dark blue) and (baby blue)

Size: Finished blanket measures 86 x 86 cm.

My eagerness and motivation has been a bit on and off through this project, which is perfectly normal for me in an extensive work like this one. It is so much fun to pick the yarn, doodle design ideas and get started. It is also a lot of fun to see how it developes and turn into a well working realisation of the initial idea. Then it is quite tedious for a long while; going on and on - square after square - and no more big surprises to look forward to. Then, again, for the last 1/5 or so of the work it is all fun and exhilirating again. This phase is often mixed with an impatient energy that keeps me going, as well as stirring up the desire to start a new project or two or tree right away... And what a great rush of content happiness when it finally comes together as a true FO, and a successful one too! Oh, yes, I am pleased! :o)

At my wits end

"Poor thing, what a job it will be darning in all those ends!" people have told me glancing at the reverse side of the Domino baby blanket, compassionate sighing and a worried tone of voice on behalf of my wit and all these ends - and thereby the end of my wits... What a triumph then, to point out that I have actually knitted or weaved in all the ends as I went along. Of course a few ends did slip my attention, but I counted less than 10 ends of them needing to be darned in when the whole blanket was done - so if my wits are gone, this project is not to blame ;o) To make sure the ends were securely darned in I gave the blanket a good wool wash before blocking/drying and finally snipping named ends off. Stay tuned for real FO-phtos and FO-facts! The reverse side in all its neat and orderly glory

Yummy toadstools

Princess keeps herself busy in the kitchen - she has been making a couple of batches of ice cream lately - a heavenly habit with heavenly results! Cupcakes are still a favourite to her, though - and the toadstools above were particularly sweet in every sense of the word ;o)

Sometimes it snows in April...

...and this April is no exception. Still - this beauty crawled out in the wary sunshine on Sunday - on my birtday :o) My cell phone camera is not the best, but very handy to preserve moments like this. The photo below is just to prove that it IS a bit early for butterflies where I live - the snow is still covering a fair part of the sidewalks, but less every day. Spring is here - HOORAY!

2nd hat for E

Finally; the 2nd hat is ready for departure! The 1st one was blogged here. The Drops design pattern was easy breezy and my only alteration was the yarn. I used Lerke from Dale (52 % merino, 48 % cotton) wich I hope will be suitable for the recipients use. 3 mm needles were aquired to create a firm and dense gauge. We are so happy to be on your team, E! And congrats on your b-day yesterday - hope you had a great day :o)

I have seen the light!

The translucent light of spring is so beautiful - never mind the blur that comes along with the love of natural light and no tripod ;o)

2 good 2 be 4-gotten

I am so consumed with the hat projects and the endless baby blanket project that I completely forgot to blog Princess´ finished cardigan! It was actually finished weeks and weeks ago, even though I didn´t quite make my deadline as it was intended as a x-mas pressie for... Anyhow; Princess has approved the finished garment when it comes to looks, colour and design, but she is still reluctant to wear it. I am not surprised as this has happened before: she approves the chosen yarn to be itch-free in the pre-knit phase just to conclude that the very same yarn is itchy as soon as the project is finished and ready to wear... I still live in the hope for this one, as she has wanted her own version of my cardi (the last picture in this post) ever since 2008... Pattern: My own raglan based on Elizabeth Zimmermans persentage system (EPS), knit back and forth Yarn: Ca. 200 g of Tynn Alpaka # 146 (variegated) (100 % alpaca) from Du store alpakka for the dark aqua parts + less than 50 g of Sandnes Mini Palett (sock yarn; 80 % merino, 20 % polyamid)in a colourway that seem not to be on the chart any more. It was a good match to the Noro Silk Garden I used for my own cardi, as I couldn´t be bother to mail-order the Noro sock yarn Needles: 2 mm for the rib/Mini Palett, 2,5 mm for the stockinette/alpaca

The turtleneck was made longer than the chosen zipper, so a couple og mother of pearl heart buttons were used to close the last few inches. The dotted ribbon was sewn on to cover the rough and not-so-pretty zipper edge + seams. My adult version was blogged in July 2008 - read all about it here

A long, long summer also calls for many, many hats!

The title refers to this post. Our beloved friends in Sydney need hats for slightly different reasons than most Norwegians this time of year - the most important reason being protection from the sun. Even though fall is just around the corner down under, the sun will stay high in the sky all through winter, challenging the fair skin and health of our dear friends. Another hat will be on the needles any minute, so stay tuned in the shade dear E :o)

I used this pattern for size reference. I chose Sandnes´ Mandarin Petite (100 % cotton) and also altered the decrease to my own liking. The colours are 2431 (sand/beige) and 6822 (pale aqua/blue) and I spent abot 25 g of each knitting on 2 mm needles for a dense fabric, (hopefully) providing good protection from the sun. Voila! Easy breezy seaside beanie!