Call me Mrs Santa

I am trying very hard to finish up two knitting projects in time for Christmas. One has been in the works since July, the other since October, and both were left off just where the necklines would go.

It would have been helpful if I had written down a blueprint with the number of stitches and measurements for each one, but well, I did no such thing as I really didn't plan to abandon them. Do we ever? 

(The white is just a piece of paper to get the brown colour look right)

So, now I have counted and recounted and measured and remeasured and stitched and restitched the necklines and am ready to bind the second off. It feels a bit dekadent working on this in the middle of the day, but proper light is a must to get this right and decent looking. 

I'd better get on with it; our young ones might be stopping by this afternoon and I need to finish up by then. Thanks for stopping by!

Frog, repeat

I have yet to turn on my sewing machine since coming home, but I have almost finished knitting my daughter's sweater and half of grandson's. He has wished for one in Norway colours which would be red, white and blue.

I have knitted half of the first sleeve three times now to get the increases right. Add that to the three times I started all over again to get the number of stitches right in the beginning, and I could have four finished sleeves by now.

Why, oh why, did I decide to make it up as I go instead of using a pattern!

And just a little reminder on how different the red photographs without the white sheet of paper..

Tonight is the monthly meeting in my little guild, so I'd better find a project on which I can work before I head out. It's slippery here today, so I need to get my winter tyres on which takes forever as everyone else also needs their tyres.

See you later:)

Of three times and charm

I am not sure where the expression regarding the charm of the third time comes from, because more often than not the third time is far from charming. Consider yourselves warned, there is rambling ahead, it was that or nothing.

My quilting mojo has yet to resurface after the rather long and tiresome June. I had some news about the state of my respiratory system that threw me off my game, like all the way onto a different court. It's not all bad news though, more of the on one hand there's is this and on the other hand there is that kind. Still, there is quite a lot to take in, which I would normally do through stitching it out. I will get around to it sooner or later though, the image is right here in my mind ready to connect my heart to my fingers.

I did however finish the fleece edges of a scrap quilt last week and I will be posting pictures as soon as I actually have some. The weather has been too sunny, weird huh, there is such a thing. I however, am sticking to my fabulous greyish indoors look, which especially stand out next to our young ones who just came back from 2 weeks in Spain. 

In the meantime my hands have been itching, or rather I have been itching to go yarn shopping. I'm craving raspberry yarn, but I have way too much yarn stashed away already. The yarn factory outlet 15 minutes from here often sell out bags of 1-2 kilos of discontinued or flawed skeins of yarn really cheap. Oh yes, I have indeed purchased quite a few of those bags over the years, and, surprisingly enough, 2 kilo yarn goes a long way.

This afternoon I frogged the beginning of grandbaby's woollen pants first started back in October, frogged (too big) and restarted during the winter months just to be recovered somewhat dusty in my knitting bag months later and still too big.

Although lacking in the raspberry departement, I love the colour combination, maybe third time is the charm after all.

Thank you for stopping by and letting me ramble.

Day off

On Tuesday I surprisingly got a day off. Between dropping grandson off at kindergarten around 09:30 and an evening meeting at 19:00, I had the whole day to myself. No plans at all. Whatsoever. After the first excitement settled, thinking of all the things I could have, should have, would have done, I decided not to do any of them. Instead I took at trip here

to the yarn factory outlet and bought alpaca for another sweater for daughter and knitted a small test sample for her to see the colour combination.

Feet up, telly on, in the middle of the day. Brilliant. Daughter has approved the colours, but I need to knit another sample on thinner needles to get the right gauge.

Then I spent some happy hours in my sewing room quilting the doll quilts from this post – 7 quilts, 7 different quilting patterns, all done with the walking foot.

I thought I knew how to finish them off easily, but it did not work out, so instead I dug out readymade bias tape in different colours – one colour for each quilt.

To spruce them up a bit, I decided to use one of the decorative stitches on my machine, and it worked well - for a couple of inches. Every now and then my machine would zig but not zag. I tried everything; all sizes of needles, rethreading, rewinding, recleaning, but with no luck. Finally I gave in and let the zags skip wherever they wanted.

I was almost done when I remembered one of my other machines probably would have the same stitch and it did. Why didn’t I think of taking pictures of settings years ago; it would have saved me a few trials & errors when picking up where I left off.

The last two bindings were done perfectly; zigging and zagging on all the right places.

Oh well, the dolls won’t care.

Monday morning

Monday morning started quite grumpy. A cold hit our household last week, and add a teething baby to the mix, well, some of us did not sleep very well. Fortunately things lightened up very quickly. A peaceful morning with the boys, doing the kindergarten run with the oldest, a good breakfast and realizing I’m actually ahead on the preparations for upcoming classes, I am happy to say all’s well.

I spent a few hours in my sewing room yesterday and after I excavated the area around my sewing machine, it was fun.

My project did not turn out like I envisioned at all, but that’s fine, sometime quilts have minds of their own, don’t they. Only a few threads to finish and it’s done.

I made a few kits with bits and pieces at the same time; better to do it when everything is out already.

Daughter is very happy with her new, super soft alpaca sweater and would like another one in dark brown. We’ll see.

Right now MIL is taking grandbaby for a stroll and won’t be back for an hour. Hmm, what to do, what to do. Knit? Sew? Lunch? Laundry? Nothing? Oh yes, like the sound of that…

Task of the day, September 23

Daughter's soft and wonderful alpaca sweater is finally finished. Soaking in the silence of an empty house, I spent a few relaxing hours on the couch assembling the parts. I don't know why I have been putting it off for so long, but I have started 2 sets of wool pants for the grandkids since the sweater parts were finished and finished grandson's jacket.

Now onto the real task of the day - preparing for Vestlandstreffet at Voss in a week and a half. I'll be teaching 2 different classes and still have a little work to do for one of them - making kits and a new sample. Being a family of 5 these days, I'd better make the off duty weekends count...

Knit, frog, repeat

With hand knitted clothing being all the rage this year, my daughter agreed to me knitting her a sweater. It’s quite funny, I knitted one just like this back in the 80-ies, and maybe it will resurface when we finally clear out our house. It had different shades of blue and even came with leg warmers and was ever so warm and comfy and fashionable.

I used to be excellent at getting everything just right back in my knitting days, and I would draft intricate patterns and get a perfect fit each time. Maybe it’s all the quilting or maybe it’s my age, but I actually knitted a test sample to measure the gauge and measured my daughter so I could calculate the number of stitches needed and so on. It was all looking good,

the back was done in the blink of an eye. So were the sleeves. So was the front. Wait a minute, after finishing one side of the neck, there were too many stitches on the other side. Maybe I should count the stitches? Huh, 8 stitches too many? How did that happen?

So, I frogged (unraveled to you non-knitters) the whole front. Having knitted with two strands of yarn, there was no way I would waste time separating the different threads and ended up with one giant ball of yarn containing 4 skeins. It doesn’t look that big in the picture, but trust me, it was huge.

So, I started on the front, again,

and the front was done, again, in the blink of an eye and daughter stopped by for an impromptu fitting. Wait a minute, the sleeves were too short. How did that happen? Whatever it was that killed my knitting mojo this week, the cast off on both sleeves were frogged and the sleeves made longer.

I am almost afraid to start the next step which is assembling the pieces. Who knows what will happen. Thankfully I absolutely love knitting with this yarn – Mini alpaca from Sandnes garn – it’s ever so soft and wonderful and the two shades of beige look lovely.

And I am happy to say that the week ended in a rainbow of colours. There was an evening with my fabulous quilting friends, an evening with two fabulous colleagues of mine from way back, and an afternoon with fabulous grandson playing games and just being silly and even a fabulous rainbow in the sky.

Wishing you all a weekend filled with rainbows!

Worth it

It doesn’t matter how warm wool yarn feels between your fingers in the summer

or how many times you had to go shopping for another colour of yarn

or how many yarn ends you have to weave in

or how difficult it is to photograph colour,

 



or how many times you had to frog those finishing stitches;

when you see the finished garment on your little model/recipient

it’s all worth it.

Summer of Murphy

This summer has been quite a ride. Lots of things have gone wrong, but overall, a good summer indeed. Be warned though, a little whining and lots of pictures coming up.

It all started with the toe woe which basically was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Trying to keep my left foot elevated, I spent a lot of time sitting with my left foot crossed over my right. Not a god idea. Not at all. Something in my knee popped during a visit to my physical therapist and there it was, a brand new knee injury and an inflammation to go with it. For the first few days it would not bend, it would not straighten out. Ouch.

After a week and a half of limping around with two half functional legs, I invited grandbaby for a sleepover. Two halves do not always add up to one whole; you can take my word for it. As I was moving his bouncy chair, I accidentally dropped it onto my foot. Heavy bottom plate, on edge, my bare foot, cut & bruises, husband in China, foot gigantic and sore, no shoes again, class samples to be quilted, lots of fun.

Then it was time for a new visit to the foot therapist to check up on the toe and she accidentally cut into my foot. At this point I finally caved in, paid a visit to the doctor’s office and got some anti inflammatory painkillers (insert huge sigh of relief here). You may laugh now.

Now onto the good part – spending time with family.

Husband, grandson and yours one-legged truly spent 5 wonderful days at the cabin. The weather was so and so, but it wasn’t too wet and it wasn’t too cold. Here are some highlights:

Our usually peaceful little river was foaming after lots of rain upon arrival.

Fun bandy games on the patio using 2 plastic kiddie sticks and a broom. We get quite competitive and I broke the ball on the first day. No problem; wool yarn and a screw to the rescue and the ball was stitched up and ready for the next match in no time.

Board games – hours and hours of board game fun with “The missing diamond” on the top of the list

and Mastermind on the second.

Walking in the stream with both feet and getting wet as the cold water ran into my rubber boots. Being happy getting the boots on in the first place.

Launching a new toy boat, watching my guys having fun.

My serenity flag still there; most of the water olours washed away by rain, but still bright and beautiful.

Enjoying a few hours of sun.

Husband and grandson extending the patio underneath the cabin, the space being more suitable for the 5 year old.

Balancing on a cattle grid.

Knitting an itchy scarf.

Enjoying both manmade colours and patterns

and nature’s.

And then, on the last night, I got sick. End of vacation.

Finally bug free, I have spent many hours in the company of my young ones.

Daughter will be back in university in January, so I’d better spend time with them now.

Grandbaby was 6 months on Friday; such a happy, smiling baby and lots of cuddles and fun.

Grandson and I finally got around to take the bus into town and had lunch at a café. Who knew a ride on the bus could be such an adventure.

Sometimes I cannot believe my luck being blessed with such bright souls with whom to share my life – the perfect remedy to get through a summer of Murphy.