WIP Setesdal's mittens!

Since the 14th of october marks the first day of winter on the runic calendar, I decided (along with the rest of yarnster Norway) to work on mittens this day!

Now, I've had this pair of Setesdals mittens in burgundy and ochre/gold lying around that I started in mid august but never really finished. I do love this colour combination (no, it does not stand for Gryffindor, that's red) and I love the Setesdal pattern, so of course I needed to finish them up! But looking at my stitches, I decided to frog it and start over. I do prefer to work fair-isle on circular needles, and I started these on DPN's since I didn't think my 30cm circulars would be small enough. But they just about worked, and my stitches are way cleaner already!

I can't wait to have these finished! I really should have been making more mittens before christmas...so I think perhaps I need to wait with my sock and sweater fever and get some hand wear out of the way first. It's kinda annoying with mittens, they have more ends to weave in than socks... Danged fingers...

Giant ball of yarn and socks!

My parents came over for a visit yesterday. It's recently been my boyfriend's birthday and my sister-in-law's birthday is coming up, so they went over to Nord-Trøndelag for a double birthday visit. Not only did they bring Bård a birthday gift, but my mom also brought me some stuff! She gave me a giant ball of yarn!

This is Verdi from Drops, a yarn I've been looking at several times in webstores, but never really seen in real life. The price was very off-putting...but I didn't know how big it actually was and how much yarn its worth! There is actually a whole sweater in there! Believe it or not!

The details say it weights 350g (12,35oz) which equals to 1225 meters (1339 yards)! That's crazy! I've already picked out a pattern that I want to spend it on, but I need HUGE ASS needles for it!

Pretty pretty! I know it seems impossible that there's enough yarn in there for that jacket, but after looking up the yarn amount needed for it, comparing the yarn they suggest using (which is Vienna, but the pattern says that Verdi is a good replacement), it looks like it might be enough for TWO jackets in this skein! Crazy time! Might not actually happend though... We'll see. Need to get the needles first!

She also brought a book filled with patterns of iconic "barne-TV" characters, both old and new...mostly new... Barne-TV is a TV-show made for kids only in the evening just before bed time. It lasts for about 30 minutes (atleast so it did back in the day) and had colourful doll characters that spoke to the kids inbetween cartoons or other small shows and sketches. While I couldn't care less for the first 3/4 of this book, seeing that they are mostly current characters, the last quarter makes me very nostalgic and I've GOTTA make some of these, even though they're mostly crochet...and all norwegian patterns... I'm most familiar with 'Murican crochet therms.

For dere norske. Boka heter Lag favorittfigurene fra Barne-TV og er skrevet av Lise Nymark. Utgitt av Cappelen Damm med ISBN nummer: 978-82-02-43118-1.

Over to something different. I finished up the ugly scrap socks last night. Weaving in the ends was a nightmare though! That's always the worst thing. And as I said yesterday, there was 20 ends on each sock! That's 40 in total! If I use 1 minute on each end, that's 40 minutes! For gods sake!

Stupid flash washed out the colours... I tried to use the short row heel instead of the one I usually use. Figured it would feel better for this type of sock. I also tried to make the leg longer than I usually do on these...which ended up in using more scraps...and then more ends to weave in... *sigh* But they're done now! Gonna probably make more of these! My 'Murican friends love them!

And while we're still on socks... I've started making Christmas stockings! Another one of my 'Murican friends have commissioned two Christmas stockings from me! I'm so excited cause Christmas Stockings aren't usually a thing over here. And the ones she asked me to make are so pretty!

 I'm gonna enjoy making these so much!

Marius sweater with raglan done!

It is finally finished, washed, blocked and ready to be worn! Actually Bård is wearing his sweater right now!

So this sweater is long overdue. I did promise Bård that I'd be making him a Marius sweater last year, but I kept putting it to the side for other projects. It is now finally done though, and I'm so happy about it! I didn't end up doing the traditional sweater since my sewing machine is old and doesn't want to cooperate with me, so raglan it was! I do not mind working in raglan, I feel like it gives a better fit than both sewn in sleeves and rond yoke, and it doesn't clump up and feel bulky either. But the traditional one looks better in general...and it is traditional... You know? I've only seen a Marius with raglan once before, so it's very untraditional indeed.

Endless nightmare!

The worst thing with the ugly scrap socks is the amount of ends that needs to be weaved in... With this pair, there's 20 ends on each sock... Ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff...

Weaving in ends is probably the thing I dread the most with a project... It takes too long and you need to secure the ends good... But I rather sew them in good than to just tie a knot like I see several amatures do.

gly scrap socks!

Woop! Finally finished the Marius sweater earlier today! Worked all night on it cause I had to redo the neckline because Bård wasn't happy with it, so now I'm done with it and there will be pictures soon enough for you guys to see.

So as a little inbetween project, I decided to get a little relief for my sock urge with some ugly scrap socks! My bag of wool scraps are getting rater full, so I need to clear some out. The easiest way is ugly scrap socks.

We'll see how many pairs I'll make before either starting the next commission (that's in no hurry min dyou) or working up a new pair of fair-isle socks for myself. Both of those options make more scraps, so it's a good idea to clear out the old scraps first!

WIP: Marius raglan!

I should do more of these WIP posts... They are way far and few between...

Thought I'd share a few pictures of the Marius sweater I'm currently working on! I'm not that pleased with the raglan, but I guess it's my only choice since I don't have a working sewing machine... The tradisional Marius sweater has sewn in sleeves as I've stated before.

As you can see in this picture, I get these white stripes in the raglan... It's really annoying, but can't be helped since there's rounds in all white in the pattern. I'm not using any pattern for the raglan decreasing though, so I'm more or less winging it all. I do 8 decreases in total every second round. We'll see how it looks on him when I'm done. I might just have to redo it, work it as the traditional version and ask my mom for help with the sewing...

As the contrasting colour, I'm gonna use a lighter blue. The original has a red contrasting colour, but I figured I'd use blue instead since it's Bård's favorite colour (original, right?).

WIP raglan Marius sweater!

Time for another WIP update! I've now almost finished the first sleeve.

 

This is really boring in the long run... Nothing really interesting happends and there's not much to update until I finish a bigger piece...if you understand... Posting WIP's for every 5cm isn't really worth it... But while we're at it, here's a snapshot of the finished body as well!

 

 After my last blogentry, I decided to give my sewing machine a try... It didn't go too well... The underthread kept messing up and tangeling... So I don't trust my own abilities, nor my sewing machine to be able to work a knitted sweater. Bye bye pretty traditional Marius sweater, hello raglan Marius sweater!

Third time's the charm!

Last year, I promised Bård a Marius sweater. I had bought the yarn and I started it right away, but at the time, I was working on two other sweaters that were of the same colour, and just grew tired of it. I put it on the back burner for quite some time before I picked it back up and decided to frog it, just to start over again. Then I put it to the side again! And I didn't pick it up until july! I worked a few inches before I ended up frogging it a second time! Now, I've just finished two sweaters and I'm on a sweater roll! And seeing as it's Bård's birthday in a couple of weeks, I decided to pick it back up again now. This is the third time starting it, and dang it if I'm not to finish it this time! Two-three days have now passed with my knitting being focused on this sweater alone, and I've already surpassed my two earlier tries!

It's uneven and full of cat hair, but that's how it works when frogging has taken place in my home. It'll tidy itself up after a wash, so there's no worries.

The traditional Marius sweater do have cut and sewn in sleeves...

But since I haven't had much experience with a sewing machine together with my fear of cutting my knitwork with scissors, I think I'm gonna try and work it in raglan instead. It gives a better fit and it's less feminine than the round yoke one. BUT! There's not really many Marius sweaters with raglan...so I'll have to do a bunch of trial and error to get it to work, and hopefully it'll look good...

And for those of you wondering, I'm gonna do this sweater in navy blue and white as the traditional one, but I'm switching the red out with a lighter blue.

Grey Marius sweater DONE!

And it's done! Sorry for the lack of updates on this one... The lazy blogging syndrome came over me again...

Took me 10 days to complete this one! Excuse me while I give myself a highfive!

The yarn was a treat to work with! ...even though I didn't feel too much of a difference from the yarn I usually work with... Luckily, I did end up with some scraps, so I'll probably do some research on it compared to other, cheaper brands.

Yarn: Smart from Sandnesgarn
Needles: 3-3,5mm
Size: Adult size M

Close-up

Yarn wreath! Finally?

I've had this idea in my head for about a year now, and I were supposed to make it real life for last christmas, nothing really turned out as I wanted them to.

You see, I saw this picture and fell in love with it right away.

I knew I had to make something like it, and my hope was to make it christmas themed. But as things has it, the styrofoam balls I had bought wasn't really good for this project. They weren't styrofoam at all, but rather compact packed papermache...which made it impossible for me to actually do anything with them. First off, they were kinda heavy and second, it was impossible to get a wire through them.
I ended up ordering a lot of new styrofoam balls from eBay (for just 1/10 of the price of these papermache ones), but when they arrived, christmas was just about over. Now they've been lying underneath my crafting chair for 10 months soon, and I thought it was about time to dig them out and see if I can do anything with them!

Along with these balls, I've got a bag full of crappy acryllics I can use! So I'm gonna have some fun and waste some yarn! Cross your fingers that I'll be able to make something out of all of this!

Grey Marius sweater WIP!

So, since Lupo (John Rambo) is done and over with now, I'm using all my time on the grey Marius sweater commission for a person my aunt knows. I've shown this off a couple of times already if I'm not mistaken. Currently, I'm working on the body, which is just mindless knitting...

Fun and interesting update, right?

Lupo the Lamb!

Just finished up this little fella!

So glad to have him finished, and in good time for the contest on dA as well.

He was quite the challenge for me and he took what seemed like forever to make. Doing the bobble stitch with such a small and crappy hook was not a good idea...
The pom-poms also gave me a bit of trouble... Seeing how small they actually were, my pom-pom makers didn't quite cut it. After several tries with a fork, I had to go to a different yarn to make them pretty and poofy, and they're also the only thing acrylic on this little fella.
You can get the pattern over at Lalylala!

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!