Last weekend we celebrated my son's 9th bithday. How the heck did that happen? While the very first weeks and months after he was born time seemed to crawl by, as I suffered from massive fatigue with his constant nursing, gulping up, and general lack of sleep. As his tummy and mood improved time seems to have gone into hyperspeed.
Now he is less than a head taller than me and he borrows my sneakers.
My dear boy, would you please slow down the pace of your growing up?
Look! I won another give away! I feel very lucky. Rachel was the hostess for this give away of these sweetly decorated bobby pins by Carmenesque.
Thank you so very much, these are really pretty!
She put them on right away.
This weekend I put my new BariJ fabric to use.
Fru Hokstad (sorry she is now sold) and Fru Skeie are now in the shop.
Fru Godthumør is also in the shop.
We had such a nice weekend, but it sure went by awfully fast... Wishing you a happy week!
The dark and cold evenings are such nice times to get together with friends to chat and do a few stitches of one sort or another.
My clever friend was working on making these pretty embroidered and soon to be stuffed ornaments, pattern by Rosalie Quinlan.
We sat stitching away enjoying the light of the candles which are nearly always lit in homes in Norway during these dark months.
(Translation: Award to a fantastic blog friend who spreads happiness in my daily life)
I would like to thank Mette for the lovely award!
I have three special friends in mind to pass this award to:
Michele of Calico Daisy
Corry of Dutch Blue
Jan of Where is my brother?
I began blogging as a way to be in touch with other creative people who like to make things. I had no idea how rich my life would become with inspiration, friendship and the feeling of community. Really I have many friends now all over the world whose friendship I cherish and whose work I admire.
Have a delightful and hopefully creative weekend!
These are my new mittens, knit in the same Berroco Ultra Alpaca yarn that I used for my husband's mittens, but in a pretty Gordoba Grape and Winter White. They are so warm and soft. My big regret now is not buying more of this yarn while I was at home in the US.
I used needle size 3.5 mm so it went fairly fast.
The pattern once again is pretty old, near vintage maybe. It comes from a Sandnes Uldvarefabrik pattern book, Peer Gynt PG 1819.
It isn't black and white but this is the pattern book that I have used countless times for mittens, socks and hats.
Kelly wrote me today to tell me she had received the gift I sent to her. I made her a flowery appliquéd face cloth for her.
First I cut out two squares of fabric. On the blue checked fabric I hand appliquéd a scattering of fussy cut fabric flowers and made red french knots in the centers. I cut out a strip of red and white dotted fabric and made bias tape with it for a loop which I hand stitched together.
Then I pinned the back and front together with right sides together with the loop pinned onto the inside of one of the corners.
For the backside I used a bright yellow cotton flannel. The final step was hand stitching around all the sides of the cloth with 3 threads of pink embroidery thread.
I think these would make nice Christmas gifts and hope to be making more soon.
This is just what I needed after days of cloudy and chilly weather: a big dose of color and beautiful patterns!
The generous and sweet designer, Bari, sent them to me herself - all these wonderful fat quarters for me to have fun with!
The colors are so lush and pretty...
The teapots and cups surrounded by blossoms are pure bliss!
These little birds among the pussywillows are a great reminder of the coming of spring just a few months away.
If all goes well I will be cutting into these this weekend and making a few dolls and perhaps other things as well.
Thank you Bari for this breath of spring from your lovely fabric!
I obviously did very badly two posts back when I didn't give any details about my husband's freshly knitted mittens, both Anne and Syersken asked for more information about the yarn and pattern book that I used to make them. Hopefully, this post will fix that!
This is the cover of the Dalegarn pattern book which contains the mitten pattern I used. I am sorry, but it doesn't seem to be in print anymore. I think it is near vintage!
Here is the image of the mittens I made.
I don't think I will ever make these patterned leggings or tights, but aren't they wonderful?
I have made several pairs of socks using these basic sock patterns. As you probably noticed, the book is very well used - a true sign of a good pattern book! I am so sorry it is no longer in print for those of you who wanted it!
The yarn I used for the mittens was the super-soft and warm feeling Berroco Ultra Alpaca, half alpaca, half wool. The mittens are very dense, warm and soft. However, I notice that they are already felting quite a bit on the palm after what seems very little use. My husband is so happy with them though.
This red hot pair of gloves is my current project, from Vogue Knitting the fall 2009 issue. Here is the magazine with the pattern. This issue as well as other back order issues are available on the VK site.
In case you want some more knitting fun, you can thank Woo for the fabulously inspirational website, here.
This manhole cover number 40 would be an interesting way to do a quilt, wouldn't it? With lots of small circles or squares radiating out from a circular center. I ponder whether or not this is beautiful. I like patterns.
I took this shot in the mirror today. Just me goofing around and trying out a hint of a self-portrait.
I'd rather plaster my creations everywhere, rather than images of me, so take a look, my doily garlands turned up on the interior blog Apartment Therapy yesterday.
Moonika contacted me to let me know that she had featured one of my doily needlebooks on her blog, thank you so much!
Finally, awhile back I had mentioned to my friend Vivi that I was reading A Wrinkle in Time aloud to Sebastian. She told me how much she loved that book and so I sent it to her when were were finished along with a few small things. It is always so much fun to see the gifts in their new home!
It was definitely my husband's turn for something handknit.
Not only did he wait patiently for them to be finished,
but he even took the time to model them for me.
He had me in fits of laughter over the funny poses and faces he made. Many of the photos were just plain goofy, in others he ended up looking like the bully on the block when he did his impression of a model's scoul. I think I will make him more things to model right away because it was just too much fun, meanwhile he'll be all toasty warm ever time he goes out!
Autumn's bright, vivid colors and rapidly changing foliage provide fabulous inspiration.
Soon the leaves on the trees will all be on the ground and in my desire to prolong this pretty seaon I decided to get crafty. Ever since making the leaf garland last year, with limited success, I have wanted to make a prettier one...
I imagined it with a bit of a 3-D effect, not just flat. I cut out piles of leaves from various fall colored felts. Then I cut out browns for tops and bottoms of acorns. I sewed the tops onto the acorn bottoms using a whip stitch.
Then, one by one I sewed the leaves onto a crochet cotton yarn by hand. Funny, the stitches don't really show. I made sure to bend and scruntch the leaves together a bit so that they would stick out.
Happy day to you whatever the season where you are!
I didn't have time to do this post on Monday as I had intended. I am sorry about not posting much lately. The children are still sick and I have little time for anything. I did go out for a long walk on Sunday though.
While fall has been bursting with brights: gold, red, rust, yellow, and browns it is challenging to see the beauty in the lights and darks of the season.
The past few days there has been ample opportunity to catch shots of the flowers all dappled with raindrops.
As I said, I donned my cold weather gear Sunday and headed off for a much needed walk in the woods. Oh, this hour to myself after weeks of tending to flu-ridden children was pure bliss.
The trees look pretty stripped of their foliage after the recent frosty nights.
This fine creature posed for just a moment before scampering off. I have to admit that my photography hobby is helping me get out of the house this time of year when the living room's warmth and comfortable sofa is so very appealing.
Fru Sort is the last in this latest black and white series of matryoshkas and she is now in the shop.
The children are home again today, but I seem to have gotten a second wind after long talks with friends on the phone last night. Today is starting off very cozy, looking at bird books all together in bed, and now we are going to play go-fish (again).
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