It has been a cold winter

...and it´s not over yet! Another hat and neckwarmer was finished some time during November as far as I can recall. The Norwegian winter can be quite cold, at least for some weeks at the time. These brown goodies came to use as the temperature reached - 28 before Christmas...

Again my own very simple pattern made up as I went. I used:

5 balls of Puno alpaca from Rauma (a bit more than 2 balls for the hat because of the very long rib)

Needles: 7 mm circulars

Hat knitted back and forth:

Cast on 56 st and knit a 12 cm 2 x 2 rib

From the reverseside; knit one row

Knit another row while increasing to 108 stitches

Knit another row

Knit blackberry stitches (click for tutorial) for 12 cm

Decrease: place a stitch marker every 15 st.

1st row: *knit 13 st, knit 2 tog*

2nd row: knit all st

Repeat 1st and 2nd row until 7 st left on needle. Pull the yarn through the remaining sts and saw the hats edges together using a blunt needle.



Neckwarmer knitted back and forth:

Cast om 132 st and knit blackberry stitches (klick for tutorial) for as long as the yarn allows. Make sure you save a few yards for the binding off. Bind off.

First FOs 2013

Who would have thought it should be more than a year between my previous post and this one? I most certainly did not intend to make a blogbreak at all, when posting the patterned paper eyecandy post on january 27th 2012... The latest few weeks I have been discussing with myself: Am I ready to start bloggingg on a more regular and frequent basis again? I guess this post is my tentative answer :o

The first FOs of 2013 was this calorimetry and neckwarmer - and eventually wristwarmers. The yarn is Mirasol handpainted, a 100 % alpaca quality from du store alpakka.

I found a pretty and colour-matching button in my stash - praise to the generations of thrifty women! Free Calorimetry pattern here

My own pattern for the necwarmer is very simple:

2 balls of Mirasol
Cast on 112 st on 3,5 mm circular needle
Knit a 2 x 2 rib for about 4 cm
Knit double moss stitch the next 25 cm
Knit a 2 x 2 rib for about 4 cm
Bind off. Voila!

My own pattern for the wristwarmers is equally simple and would be easily adapted for a bigger amount of yarn (= longer armwarmers). I just divided my remaining yarn into two balls and made the wristwarmers as long as the yarn allowed. As you can see, I left a button hole when seaming up the wristwarmers. Again, I found a couple of matching vintage buttons in my stash and fastened them securely on the inside of the wristwarmers, allowing just enough space for the thumb.

Eyecandy - more pretty patterned paper

These sheets of paper make me so happy! The cool, fun, pretty, elegant, colourful pattered paper at Papirgalleriet needs no further comments.

Pretty patterned paper

I have no idea why, but it has been impossible to upload photos around here. I´ve been trying for more than a week, and it still did not work. VERY annoying. My not-so-frequent posting is bad enough - rare posting with no photos is useless. So this is such a happy day - Blogger is back in photo-business! Here we go with some pretty paper goodies from Papirgalleriet in Oslo. If the photo uploading still works, there will be more patterns soon :o)

Tower of power

I want POWER!!! Well, what I mean is that I really need energy to empower myself to make the most and the best out of this (still) new and fresh year. So why not indulge in these colourful vitamine bombs+ This is truly my tower of power :oD

A good and fine start

This is the start of my Rowan Fine Tweed project. It will be a sweater for me, based on a pattern ("Halla") by Marie Wallin
-only, I will totally change it ;0) It was the colours of the original sweater that caught my attention, so I just wanted to buy the patternbook and the yarn and get started. When it turned out the store did not have the sufficient amount of 4 of the 5 colours in stock I was actually not annoyed. It was more of an excuse to start some serious wool squeezing and creative colour juggling. I think I emptied all the Fine Tweed shelves six times before I finally - all sweaty and rosecheeked - managed to settle for the 16 x 25 g that came back home with me. My main alterations to the actual construction will be to knit in the round, and to make a ragland instead of inserted sleeves.

As for the photo; it is taken by using the toy camera effect which turned out to reproduce the colours of the wool quite accurately.

Goodbye 2011, welcome 2012!

Finally a quick report from the land of big dreams, free wishes and high hopes! It has been more than a week since New Year and everyday life is really kicking in over here. That´s OK though - it will just take some adjusting of the habits and schedules that were established with no resistance during the holidays... I have only just started experimenting with my new camera - so far the results first and foremost illustrates my lack of consentration and stamina. I am too eager to get photos for the blog to be fumbling with the camera, reading the very detailed (and probably excellent) manual etc... So here we go - the final remnants of Christmas literally wiped out leaving me ready to dive into the new year with all its possibilities and adventures waiting :o)

2011 cavalcade

JANUARY was the colourful start of 2011 - these are the sleeves of a cardie for Princess that was finished in March

FEBRUARY was freezing and this Arwetta Classic hat Arwetta Classic Hat was often worn


MARCH came with signs of spring and the story of The Magic dress the story of The Magic Dress


APRIL brought the longed for light back and provided enough guts to finish The Domino Baby Blanket


MAY made my fingers itch to get started on some new crochet project and I was unflinching when passing the local yarn shops. Digging deep in my stash and scraps I came up with this Fancy Granny which is by the way still not finished...


JUNE was a good month for self exposing as I participated in an art exhibition with my jewellery

JULY, AUGUST, SEPTEMBER & OCTOBER came and went with no blogging energy, but a few glimpses from this period can bee seen here


NOVEMBER was the turning point for the nearly dead FiberFeber blog


DECEMBER was a wonderful month with plenty of memorable moments and blog posts. What will 2012 bring? I wish the best for all of you and also for me: Peace of mind, good health, courage, love and friendship.

Happy New Year!

Just a couple of glimpses from the peaceful Christmas we have had around here. These will be my last photos for the blog for 2011 - taken with my mobile phone camera.  And maybe I will regret mentioning the poor quality of my photos so often during 2011, making you (and me) believe I could do sooo much better with a new camera...

...and my wish came true this Christmas - I got this little darling (shown below) from my darling husband, but as expected it came without any guarantee for photograper skill improvement ;o) I hope I will see you around in 2012 anyway and that you will find my rambling readworthy with or without improved photo skills. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Behind the scenes

The story of our christmas tree turned out to be longer and more complicated and exciting than expected. We DID have more trouble than usual getting the tree straight and steady into the stand, but did not suspect the tree to give up and litterally bend over in front of us after just a few days... The mint green nylon string came very handy as a mooring for the tree. In the top picture you can see how the tree has been tied to the book shelf pillar. Not very elegant, but the best option at the moment!

A serious christmas tree stand hunt began the next morning - and what a challenge! This was on December 21st so I was not exactely surprised that most shops were out of stands. I found the supposedly practical, but ugly, stand shown under. No way I was going from impractical but solid and traditional looking cast iron to practical but incredibly ugly and garden tool-looking plastic... so my hunt went on. And on...

...the tree unpatiently waited for its glorious future in a proper, beautiful AND practiacal christmas tree stand...

...more than ready to say goodbye to the sturdy but yet deceitful cast iron one.

And VOILA! After a thorough hunt I found this Design House Stockholm version that I have secretly wanted for years and years (secretly because I was a bit embarrassed to admit I was tempted to replace a (at the time) perfectly well working christmas tree stand just because I fancied this cool, expensive one more...) Well, I have always wondered what colour I would choose if I ever should be frivolous enogh to buy one. Red? Green? White? The decision turned out to be much easier than expected, and it was not even really a choice as this pretty thing was the very, very last in stock at Husfliden in Hamar. It was actually in use in the shops window display, and this is probably why it was easy for me to realise how perfect a red christmas tree stand would be. So after a couple of tough rounds of haggling over the (VERY high) price with the manager I could carry it home, concluding this was an investment for life and a happy ending for the tale of the christmas tree stand of 2011 :o)

Merry Christmas, all :o)

Merry Christmas, all! :o) This year the tree has been decorated and lit unusually early, on December 18th. Our family tradition is to do this on December 23rd. This year we did an exception make sure we all have plenty of time to enjoy it :o)

Garter stitch all the way...!

These are my latest garter stitch projects, cast on during this fall. This was the only kind of knitting that would have a fair chance to be finished as my usual knitting grit dissappeared some time last spring and have not yet fully come back. The blue stack above is going to be a (quite) long coat for me - one sleeve/yoke and most of the second is finished. The yarn is one thread of the fingering weight Alpaca (du store alpakka) and one thread of  the lace weight Kid Silk (Drops). This mix on 5,5 mm needles makes the most beautiful, light and soft fabric and the hues blends to a lilac kind of pale blue.

The below photo shows a baby blanket that only needs the ends woven in and a suitable trim. probably a crochet scallop or something. A little bird told me the baby I have in mind is a girl, so maybe I will go for a shade of pink to match this beautiful subtly variegated beige alpaca?

Both are cosy projects to work on during the holidays - and m a y b e the knittting grit will return in large enough quantities to get me started on a couple of new projects too? Like the Rowan Fine Tweed-sweater or/and a fair isle vintagy scrap/stash alpaca cardigan...? Oh, blissful jooltide!

More eye candy - from John Lewis this time

As I confessed in an earlier post I had a great time at John Lewis diving into the shelves of Rowan yarn. 16 balls of Fine Tweed came home with me... The feeling of guilt for not sticking to the de-stashing plan is minimal though - because of the 10 % discount that day... On the other floors of John Lewis, however, I managed to stay cool and pass all kinds of goodies, like the fabrics, the shoes, the craft supplies... and I even passed all the trimmings below a l m o s t without a flinch...