Doing research!

While my internet was gone, I decided to do a little research on some garments I've been dying to make for quite some time now. Ever since my friend Bale made a "langnisselue" for her friend back college (2010-11), I've been wanting to make a similar one for myself. These hats belong to the little gnome "nisser" we got here in Norway. They are super long with (usually) a folded brim and often a big tassel in the end. They're all in one colour, usually a slightly darker christmas red.

These particular hats that I'm interested in making comes from a christmas advent TV-series called "Amalies Jul" (and also later "Jul på Månetoppen"(and maybe even "Jul i Blåfjell"? I have no idea cause I don't like the ones with the "blånissene")). Here we follow a little family of "rødnisser" (aka the red gnome "nisse") that lives in the stables at a big, old manison where Amalie spends her christmas that particular year (this all was aired on TV for the first time in 1995). Amile doesn't know of the "rødnisser" and they can't show themself to Amalie.

Anyway. When the "rødnisser" are of a certain age, they have to earn their "langlue" at the "langluefesten". Normaly their pointy hats are quite short and stubby, symbolising that they're still kids and then they get get the "langlue" which are these long, pretty and adult hats. They are slightly felted and have a nice and clean look to them. No pattern, no fancy cables or stuff, just plain knit.

My friend Bale once gave me the pattern she used for the hat she made, but I have no idea where I managed to put it. I might just have to freestyle it at the best of my ability to make this kind of hat. I've already got my hands on the yarn my friend used, so I'm ready to start it any minute, really.

BUT! That's not all! What I've REALLY been wanting from this series is the hat Amalie recieves from "Nisseungen" on her birthday. It's the same shape as the normal "langlue", but it's more colourful with some kind of pattern to it. I've been drooling over this hat for quite some time now, and my friend Bale gave me the pattern originally for me to get started on that particular hat, but it was kinda impossible to find a good picture of it and also get the right yarn. This Ullteppegarn yarn above does not carry all the colours I need for her hat.

For last christmas, I managed to get the TV-series on DVD, so now I can get clearer pictures and realy study it. The colour pattern itself is actually quite simple. I've drawn it down and would be just about ready to work this hat up...if only I had the yarn...

It has five colours; red, purple, dark purple/maroon, moss green and light grey/beige. The Ullteppegarn doesn't have a good green colour. For some reason, they carry just about all kinds of darker, natural colours, but green they decided to keep in the shade lime. Other yarn types I've looked at doesn't have good purple tones, or they don't carry beige or a clean grey.
Already, I've been struggeling with this task for a few years, but it doesn't look like I'll be able to solve it in due time for this winter either... Maybe the red hat, but not this colourful one.

Ah! And one last thing! Amalie also recieves a pair of mittens and long socks on her birthday. These I've never bothered to actually take too much notice of, but on near inspection, they're quite pretty! I've just launched a wanted sign on these on a knitting group on Facebook. I doubt if anything will show up, but who knows. To be fair, I haven't done much research on these yet, so they might be a quick little fix...or it nothing else, I'll just have to try and trace the pattern...

Now I'm in a crazed christmas mood! Please excuse me while I spray down the appartment with my marzipan perfume, sprinkle cinnamon in every corner and drag the tree and decoration out!

Pullover sleeves!

The sleeves for the pullover are comming along nicely! I've finished the increases and right now I just have to knit around and around until they're long enough. Haven't really decided if I'll be making them 3/4 or full lenght yet, but we'll see after I'm done working up this grey part.

 They might look short on this picture over here, but they're really poofy and fluffy that they actually reaches far above my elbow.

If I were to stop them now, I'd have short 3/4 sleeves. If I finish up the grey, I think I'd have a good 3/4 lenght going on. I am still discussing it with myself though, so only time will tell what I'll end up doing.

I'm designing patterns!

Yeah! You heard right! I am currently in the progress of designing, testing and writing up my very own patterns!

This is something I've been thinking about doing for quite some time now, but never really gotten around to do it...or found the courage to actually dive into it. I'm more of the "working from patterns" than "creating my own patterns"... But lately, mainly starting with Batman I guess, I've been redesigning my own things, so why not actually start designing new ones? And I'm starting small, with dishcloths.

Last night, I kicked my own ass and started with the first one. I drew up a chart, then worked it out with yarn and wrote up the description, designed the layout of the pattern and fixed some errors and now I'm just about done!

 What else, I've started a second one too! That one is just in the designing stage still though...

But I will be releasing these on Ravelry pretty soon! I will be selling them, but they will be fairly cheap. I'm not planning on ripping people off, but I kinda want to make a tiny bit of money on the side, so hopefully I won't get too much hate for not publishing these for free.

Also, they will be easy to make, atleast this first one should be possible for a beginner to work up.

Are you as excited about this as I am? Let me know in the comments if you would be interested in getting dishcloths patterns from me!

My Ravelry account is LARvonCL BTW.

Tired of stitching...

I never learn. I haven't done this on many projects, but damn, I really should learn NOT to do this on future projects. My mind thinks that it saves time and yarn, but in reality it takes more yarn and more time...and more of my sanity...if I even have any left...

Sewing any kind of image, letters, decorations...what have you on any kind of knitwork (or crochet for that matter) is boring and it really takes forever. Since I'm not that good with sewing to begin with, it feels even more tedious and turns out even uglier than if I were good at it.
Except from doing the thumb, this is all progress I've done today...and that's saying something! I'm still on the first glove for Joe Pesci's sake! Please don't look too closely on the stitching... I know it's uneven and ugly... hopefully the felting will even it more out and hide the uglyness...

 

For being the first fresh project of the year, it sure is a nightmare. It is litterally giving me a headache and it's grumping me out...not to mention the lack of winter outside are making them kinda worthless and a waste of time... I need to start a different project before these end up in the blender...

Bottom line: no snow, no cold, Americans complaining about having "too much snow and cold" and a tedious project doesn't sit well with me when mixed...