Friday 25 December 2015

Gift Knits

I love giving handmade gifts. Wish I could manage to make more of them. This year I have given a cowl and a shawl away. 

The cowl is knitted in Pus alpaca. So soft and light and a dream to wear. 

The pattern is Millwater and I have of course knitted some of them. They are great gifts, easy to knit and still looks quite lovely.

The other gift is a shawl knitted in yarn from Holst: Supersoft and Titicana alpaca. 

I was really surprised how little yarn I used for the shawl. 80 grams of supersoft and about 60 grams of Titicana. 

The shawl is light and soft. I put it into a tote bag and it was a great success.

So, off eating chocolate and rest. Enjoy your christmas days where you are. 

Thank you so much for your christmas wishes in my last post. So nice of you!!

Tuesday 22 December 2015

Merry Christmas From My Heart

I wish you all a peaceful and merry christmas. 

I just want to thank you all for your visits and comments on my blog. 
Without you, there would be no blog.
Take care of your self and the ones you love.

Sunday 20 December 2015

Totally Stripy Love

Can you guess my favorite color? 
It came out just as I wanted it. I love the colors and that I knitted stripes all the way up on the sleeves. This is going to be a favourite just alongside the red one I knitted. 

I had a little trouble about choosing colors for the stripes as you may have seen in this post. The unraveling was more that worth it. 

Stripes on the sleeves and a part of the body.
Now, all those sweaters and jackets I have knitted through the years with drop down sleeves are never used. 

Too big, too boxy, too everyhting that I do not like in a garment. Just the fact that we learn to measure our boost and not just under the arms for circumference has been the answer to why all of them are too big. 

Also figureshaping for women has been totally absent in knitting patterns. It is on its way in, but mostly you decrease on increase on the sides of the garment and that will not give the effect that decreasing two places in front and two places on the back, like in this sweater. 

The designer Amy Herzog has given knitting pattens and altering something for every body shape. I salute her and her work. 

I have learned so much from knitting this sweater - and I have a pattern I can use and alter as I want. The sweater fits perfect, without me looking like a sausage. LOL!!

This is in fact just what I wanted for christmas. A woollen hug is just what I needed although there are 13 degrees outside and snow is not in sight. Which is just perfect to me :-)

The Stitch Story
Yarn: Rauma Finull
Needles: 2mm for rib, 2.5mm for body
My Ravelry Page: My Favorite Color
Pattern: Mix No. 31 (altered a lot)
The Perfect Fit with decreases in front and back. 



Sunday 6 December 2015

Now We Are Talking

Finally I am happy with the stripes on my new sweater.
I should have made a swatch. But I dislike knitting swatches so much. All that time going into something that will lie there with no use. No way. I loose interest in a project if I have to knit a swatch first.

Before unraveling - did not like the outcome of the stripes...
So, as always, I found my colors and started knitting stripes on my new sweater.

Almost done before binding off for sleeve holes - I realized that the stripes were not at all what I was looking for.

The project ended on the bottom of my box of other unfinished projects. Until I found out: Unravel and get the move on that sweater. So I did.

Unraveling is after all a very fast task. Over in a minute and the sweater was ready for some new and more likeable stripes.

This is my fourth from a pattern that has been highly modified to fit a thinner yarn. You can see the one I use the most here.

I love the colors in the stripes. I have started one sleeve and will knit stripes on both sleeves all the way up.


I think this is going to be a really cool sweater - after all, one is never too old to be cool... Or something like that.

You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream
C. S. Lewis

The Stitch Story
Yarn: Rauma Finull
Needles: 2mm and 2.5mm
Pattern: Mix No. 31
My Ravelry Page: My Favorite Color

Sunday 22 November 2015

Never Say Never Again And Again

I always say never: I am never using alpaca again and end up knitting cowls in it because I finnally get the right color.

I am now saying: I am never using handpainted overpriced yarn again.

When I discovered handpainted yarn I was in overwhelmed. All those gorgeous colors I could create with. I bought too much of it at prices I would never pay today.

A variegated yarn together with an orange painted yarn.
Now this is my experience with most of it: The yarn pills after very little use due to the merino.

Some of it bleeds so much I have to wash it before knitting with it, which I find extremely annoying.

For cold climate I do not get the warmth I need from the garments. I have also seen some of it color fading when used. So I am never going to buy it again...

Anyway, when I buy overpriced yarn I think of it as very special and I need a special project for it.

Totally rubbish of course, but that is how it ends up in loads of stashed yarn.

I took most of it out yesterday and found my pattern Lifelines and now it is going to be a very long scarf. At least I can use it during spring and summer - and summer is short in Norway and the pilling will not be that bad...

I like the color schemes though. And I will enjoy that thinking that I got a lovely project from all that yarn.

If you beleive in yourself and never say never
you can achieve whatever
Siel


The Stitch Story
Yarn: Various skeins, odds and ends from handpainted merino yarn
Needles: 2mm
Pattern: Lifelines
My Ravelry Page: Life In Stash

Friday 6 November 2015

How I Love It

The photo do not do the color justice. But it is gorgeous live. I promise :-)
The color turquoise is my absolute favorite color. That pacific turquoise blue that you almost never come over in yarn. I am not a fan of alpaca. I avoid it beacuse of very bad experience and that it does not keep me warm as wool does.

Sweater on my needles.
But never say never - when I saw that gorgeous turquoise I have been looking for for years, I was lost.

The yarn is fairly new with a little nylon and viscose in it. The tread is kind of a very small and loose i-cord.

The synthetic elements will make it keep a little memory so it just dont gets longer and longer in use.

Not easy to see that heather color in the photo but I promise you, it shines.

That gorgeous thing is going to be a cowl with a reversible cable on. The pattern is called Millwater.

Well, this is not the only turquoise knit I have going right now. I am in that "start a new project and then start another one" mood. So I have started on a sweater in turquoise.

That will also be the object of an experiment with stripes in the middle of it. Very excited about that.

So, turquoise it is. Just like the colors of the Pacific. Oh, I wish I was there right now. But soft wool is not that bad instead.

A turquoise given by a loving hand carries with it happines and good fortune
Arab proverb
One of my stitch markers makes the knitting more fun.

Tuesday 27 October 2015

Love At First Sight

You´ll never find a rainbow if you´re looking down. Charlie Chaplin
One could think this is about human love. But it is not. It is about two colors that were living apart. When they saw each other, they instantly formed a match.

A perfect match that will last for the rest of their lives. The one was born in Norway and the other in Latvia. They formed a sunrise just before winter came - and the beams will warm up a knitters heart.

Anyway, do not get your yarn to tell stories. You will end somewhere where people wear white coats... LOL!!

So, this is my fifth Red Katana scarf. See the other ones here. I had all this red Finull yarn lying around in half and quarter skeins in different dye lots.

And a lot of orange yarn from a trip to Riga which actually was a part of a six kilos purchased on the market.

This orange is infact not just orange. It is THE ORANGE. It is brighter, more hued and simply what I needed for my scarf.

Finull yarn has a lovely orange but it is too dark - and their brighter one is too yellow. That is how it works for me - the color has to be right or I will find another.

The whole thing is knitted in garter stitch and in six different sections. I add a lot more repeats to them as I use thinner yarn than suggested in the pattern.

There is enough concentration to to not fall asleep while knitting and not more than you can watch TV or whatever.

I am so happy about this scarf. Just what I wanted colorwise, garterwise and tasselwise. Not to mention knitwise.

The Stitch Story
Yarn: Rauma Finull, Yarn from Riga
Needles: 2.5mm
Pattern: Red Katana
My Ravelry Page: Sunrise
Autum is nearly over and all I needed was a knitted sunrise to get me though winter.

Sunday 18 October 2015

Birds In A Bottle

How are you suppose to fly if you are made of polymer clay and your maker did not make wings on you? And the worst of all is that you are stucked inside a glass vial?

The flock is out.
Well, since my new polymer clay stitch markers are uable to speak as well, we will never know...

It is all about knitting and my box of birds were suddenly empty. 

I simply had to get my clay out and make more of them. I love creating with polymer clay. 

I will never regret all the work that has gone into learning and failing with it.

These birds are formed, textured, baked, washed, painted, baked again and coated with floor polish. 

Stitch marker in use.
And of course they needed wire as well - I was so happy I found colored tiger tail. 

That makes them more colourful to meet on my way on a row of stitches. 

I think I will make more - they are great gifts and very personal. Handmade is just the best no matter what people say.

I found some glass vials and they are great to put them into for safety - and to avoid them flying away to more exotic places. 

Monday 5 October 2015

Nothing Is What It Seems...


Is it normal to fasten a scarf in the back of your head and hold to others up with your hands at the same time?

Now, I had this idea about how to get my three scarves photographed. This is how it came out... I had fun and you can hopefully see the scarf madness of the repeated pattern Red Katana.

Made as a gift.
I have in fact knitted four of them - and gave one away as a gift. It was a success.

They are fun to knit, comfortale to wear and the shifting in the two colors gives a great effect. Will I knit more?

I expect as soon as I find two colors that scream: Knit us together, please.

Colors often do that. Just lying there in my stash or in a yarn shop screaming at me.

It must be quite normal to hear it? Or maybe it isn´t? Maybe I should get my head checked... LOL!!!

Well, there you have them. I love these scarves. An easy pattern that is fairly mindless. It is originally knitted in a thicker yarn. So there has to be extra repeats in every six sections and there will be more stitches. But that do not bother me - it is fun to knit no matter what.

The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world
are the ones who do
Steve Jobs

The Stitch Story
Yarn: Rauma Finull apart from Kauni (the green color)
Needles: 2.5mm
Pattern: Red Katana
My Ravelry Page: See them all here
The latest one in the Red Katana family that seems to grow by the stitches...

Sunday 20 September 2015

Let´s Take It All Out

Three Viajantes at the time - nothing less can do it...
If you put on three Viajantes for a photo session and your nabour sees you - there would be some consern about your sanity. Well, I did not see any men in white coats... Yet...

I needed to get those Viajantes photographed and what is better to take it all out in the open. 

It was a challenge to get them all on, and it got kind of hot in there. But it was fun. 

They are all knitted in Wollmeise lace.

The purple one is knitted too tight so I have started knitting them with 2.25mm instead of 2mm needles.

I am not that comfortable with purple. It is a great color but I seldom wear it. But this one is lovely.

But hey, when a skein of Wollmeise lace appears in purple - it simply jump into the mail. Funny things about all those skeins that just do that...

So here I am in all my Viajante repetative knitting. These are three of ten finished and I am working on one more... Too many colors in the world to not to.

I wear them a lot though. Either as a scarf, a shawl or a poncho. They are excellent for a party or for a visit in a cold theatre location. Oh yeah :-)

When you stop doing things for fun you might as well be dead
Ernest Hemmingway



Sunday 13 September 2015

New Yarn In Town

Who would have thought that just an hour away there is a whole new brand of yarn available in 72 colors? No, this is not a joke. Nor is a dream. It is true all the way to the knitting needles.

I have always been missing such a yarn here. Now it is here. Karmin Supersoft is not unknown as yarn type. It is mostly the same as Holst Supersoft and most of the other supersoft yarns you can find.

Photo from the shops Facebook profile - 72 colors
But the color range is spectacular. 72 colors are not available other places than online from Denmark.

And that has been so great - but the photos of the colors are mostly not correct and shipping to Norway is a whole other story.

Anyways, I give my salute to Karmin who dare do something that other yarn shops are far from doing. Especially in smaller places. Knitters around here are lucky indeed. You find the shop in Kristiansand.

I found a red orange color, sort of. I cannot decide what color it is as it shifts with the light. Maybe it is called burnt orange - or not.

Anyway, I have started my 11th Viajante with it and just love the feel of the yarn. Thin wool yarn is perfect for almost anything and the garments gets so light.

And no, I am not sponsored. I would never have said this if I did not mean it. I am just happy that this yarn is available near by. The list of knitting projects suddenly turned extra long...
Started on my 11th Viajante...

Thursday 3 September 2015

A Cat On A Bag


A cat person deserves a bag with a cat on. I tend to find totes on Etsy to use as gift wrapping for my knitted gift. Most of all to make the gift even more personal but also to honor the work I have done.

I have stopped bying additional gifts when giving away something knitted. After all, a knitted gift is not only yarn. It is a lot of planing, hours of knitting and blocking.

I knitted a Viajante this summer during Tour de France as a gift. An exceptional perfect knit for keeping up with the riders while knitting.

I did a lot of research before chosing the color and finnally finding it in the online shop. And it turned out to be perfect for the receiver.

Wollmeise Lace is not hard to come by but if you want a specific color you have to be online every friday morning.

It is actually fun to do that. I have spent a couple of months getting the right color for another gift, also a Viajante knitted during last years Tour de France.

Anyway - this is my 9th of this garment that is so versatile.

I cannot describe the reaction from the person who received this. But it was so appreciated. And this is after all the best thing.

She deserved something special as she has made my life brighter and better.

The Stitch Story
Yarn: Wollmeise Lace
Needles: 2mm, 2.25mm and 1.75mm
Pattern: Viajante
My Ravelry Page: Tour de Vamp

Friday 28 August 2015

A Sudden Woolly Overload

A start on a new jacket in spite of infomation overload and too much digital knitting going on...
You know when you have eaten too much. But in the digital world we eat and eat every day until we are so full of adds, facebook and all other things going on online, that we cannot breathe.

I suddenly hit that wall - the one that stop all creativity and urge to knit. It has never happened before. What was inspiration and learning in the beginning suddenly became too much.

Sweaters, socks, jackets and mittens just floaded my news update. I did not realize it until someone else said it - and I just found out that it was time for an autumn clean and to log off from that constant float of information and adds I simply can do without.

Colors for my jacket.
Do not get me wrong - sharing, learning and helping is some of the best things about internet.

Without it I would have been lost. But all good things can also be too much to digest...

Now, it has to be said that reading blogs are a joy. It has always been. It gives something, it adds something to internet that you cannot find anywhere else.

That is the creativity out there where you share who you are and what you do.

Well, enough of all that. My interest for knitting is not entirely gone.

I simply had to stop thinking of it as a production line, a way of being inthere with all the other knitters that knit 1.500 sweaters in two hours.

And all the knitting books that we are constantly reminded of to buy. Every single day. I have to get back to my basic joy and fun of knitting. Just keeping it simple and relaxing.

Right now I am knitting a gift, and have started on a jacket you see the beginning of in the photo. And of course my Viajante.

What do you do? How do you manage the balance between getting inspired and drown in information?

One of the effects of living with electrical information is that we live habitually in a state of information overload. There is always more than you can cope with. 
Marshall McLuhan  

Wednesday 29 July 2015

Sword Knitting In A Flash

Tour de France takes three weeks. As my Viajante was finished early I managed to knit this sword before the riders ended up in Paris.

Garter stitch is perfect for tour knitting - it does not take any effort and one can keep track of everything that happens in the race.

Now, you may think you have seen this scarf before. I have knitted another one, only I changed the colors a bit.

I simply wanted a red and turquoise one. Both yarns are Rauma finull.

The pattern is straight forward and gives a really nice scarf. Fun to knit and nice to wear - the perfect combination if you ask me.

Since I use a thinner yarn that the pattern ask for, I add one extra repeat of each section for a larger scarf.

The pattern is called Red Katana. The Katana is a japanese sword used by the samurai.

I would have a hard time using this for cutting anything. But I can cut the freezing short this summer. Coldest since I do not know when.


The Stitch Story
Yarn: Rauma Finull
Needles: 2.5mm
Size: 236 x 58cm
Pattern: Red Katana
My Ravelry Page: Repeatedly Red

Sunday 19 July 2015

Tour de Woolly Repeat

The perfect cup for this years Viajante knitting. The shawl need blocking.

This may qualify for some sort of craziness. I am a part of my own Tour de Fleece. That is a spinner event during Tour de France - cycling by the best of the best.

As I do not spin knitting is fairly close. As long as others do the spinning.

Last year I knitted a Viajante for a friend in 13 days during the race. I did the same this year as well.

Not for the same friend - for another who will receive it late August.

I was so lucky to find a cup on Etsy to sort of underline this knitting madness.

On the back of it the word Viajante is written as well. Oh yeah, I love this.

Well, since Tour de France lasts three weeks, what do I do the rest of the time?

I knit another Viajante... This is my 10th and in my absolute favorite color, turquoise.

Both are knitted in Wollmeise lace. And I have gone from 2mm needles up to 2.25mm needles. My 8th Viajante got a little too thight.

Without a little craziness, life would be very boring indeed
Bittle
Finally a Viajante in my favorite color turquoise. My tenth Viajante :-)



Sunday 12 July 2015

Wacky Woolly Summer

Woolly: Dressed for this years summer :-) 
Some people think that there are polar bears walking around every street in Norway. Well, that could be the case this summer. The weather alternates between freezing wind and sun or rain and even more rain.

Scarf marked for life...
For a woolly knitter that is sort of perfect. In that sence that wool is used even in the middle of July.

Yes, I am not kidding. Although, I have to mention that I may be a little freezy type. So, what do I do?

I knit. In wool. Since I knitted my red sweater I could not enter the world without a matching scarf.

After all - appearance is everything. Or something like that.

The scarf is knitted in the same colors as the sweater although with a bit difference.

The turquoise and the green domininates with the red as a eye catching finish.

Sliding stitches back and forth for this effect.
I really like how this came out.

I did not plan much, just knitted and alternated colors and stripes as I liked.

Of course, one should mark ones knitting properly. In a 100 years someone will find my scarf with my name on... LOL!!

I alternated the three colors with one row of each. Easy peasy when sliding the stitches back and forth.

I enjoyed that and it gives a fun effect on a project.

Unless the summer really turns up this year - I am properly dressed for the weather.

With my wacky woolly umbrella from Ireland.

Can you remember who you were, before the world told you who you should be?
Danielle Laporte

The Stitch Story
Yarn: Rauma Finull
Needles: 2.5mm
Pattern: Lifelines
My Ravelry Page: Simply Red Scarf
Size: 250 x 30cm

Thursday 18 June 2015

Never Underestimate The Color Red


- Oh, I can never wear red. That is not a color for me. I would stand out too much.
That is beeing said all over the place. I have never understood why so many women think of red as an enemy in colors. Everybody looks faboulous in red - if you find the right scheme.

So, here I am. In bright red and thinking I really love wearing that color. It makes my face a little more colorful and take some years of me - or at least that is what I imagine. And guess what? In Norway that color is called christmas red. Also called color limitation in my world :-)

Green and turquoise are spit spliced into the sweater.
The sweater is the third in a row of three, so far. I have knitted a green and a teal one before and loved them. The design is simply perfect. A small upper body and enough room to eat as much chocolate as possible without any visible sign.

Simply Red is knitted in Rauma Finull with some stripes of green and turqoise spit spliced in. That makes the whole design a bit livelier and interesting.

It is knitted bottom up. I have some issues about the upper body because it seems to get a little too long. But then again, the photos of the design also have that. Anyway, I love wearing it. And in this really cold weather it is perfect. Seems like we are having a woolly summer - also called perfect for a knitter... Or not?

When in doubt, wear red
Bill Blass

The Stitch Story
Yarn: Rauma Finull
Needles: 2mm for rib, 2.5mm for body
Pattern: Mix No. 31 
My Ravelry Page: Simply Red
- My owner also wears red shoes. I wish I could wear shoes too...

Sunday 7 June 2015

I Am Clasp Free

So much better with buttons. 
They look so nice when I stand still and stay that way. Since I find that hard, especially when the only purpose is to have a nice looking jacket, I found the pewter clasps so annoying that I had to remove them.
One front edge and the neck line was cut off and knitted again with button holes.
Now, this is the third time I knit edges for this jacket. After knitting, sewing and adding clasps the first time I realized that I had picked up too many stitches so it all had to come off. It worked fine knitting them again - and I was pleased with them.

Only to find that I never used my jacket. Cloak clasps looks so lovely but they never ever stay closed no matter how many times I squeeze them. I addition the jacket is not properly closed and the front bulge too. The front is still open and cold wind and weather blows right through it.

Clasps are out - buttons are in.
So, the only thing I could do was to cut the neckline and one edge off, again. I did actually think of a zipper that opens both ways.

But I do not sew well and I have seen a lot of knitted jackets with bulging zippers.

Sewing button holes with a sewing machine would be risky business.

It is important though, to consider solutions that demands the least of effort. LOL!

I must say that I had to use all I got to persuade myself to knit 11 button holes - on both sides of the edge.

Not fun at all. But now I can use my jacket and have the comfort buttons give. No draft, bulging or heavy clasps dangling when I move.

Sometimes it is best to take a step back, find a new solution, and just keep knitting. Or something like that.
My Gismo loves company outside.