#getyouryarnwishesgranted

A good while ago, I decided to give this little thing over at Instagram a try. It's fairly simple, you just post this picture with the hashtag #getyouryarnwishesgranted and post whatever you want/need in the world of yarn.

 

I've seen so many people getting amazing stuff from this thing. Everything from handspun and dyed yarn to stitchmarkers. Some people even throw in little souvenirs if they send international.

I figured I'd give it a try. I've been looking for camo yarn (in animal fibers) for a good time now without any luck, so why not toss my wish out there. I also mentioned that I wanted wool scraps for my scrap blankets if ayone had some stash they wanted to spare. It didn't take too long until an American person answered me and told me they were going to send me something, though it wasn't too much of scraps. I said sure and gave them my address.

Today the package arrived and I were so overjoyed when I opened it. Three skeins of beautiful green-ish Palette yarn from KnitPicks! I've only had the pleasure of touching one skein of this before, which was given to me by my friend Brooke. I ended up dyeing it with red and pink Kool-Aid, but now I kinda regret it. Just imagine how perfect that white/creme coloured skein would look along side these three beauties!

I will have to figure out something amazing with these. They're just too good looking for any scrap projects!

I've been keeping an eye on the hashtag on Instagram to see if there's anything I could help others with, but nothing has come up so far. Most people ask for special yarn brands from indie dyers/spinners and they're mostly American.

If you as a reader have Instagram, I do suggest you to take a look at it. It's really an amazing idea and it's filled with so many generous and kind people.

Finished projects and a loss for motivation...

I just can't seem to get myself to do anything these days. Both my blog and my Instagram have been pretty quiet lately, even though I've got a handful of finished projects to document.

The kid sweater has been done and over with for a long time now. I've even sent it off and it has reached its new owner. I'm just really slow with getting things out of the way here on the blog. Getting the motivation to sit down and type it in isn't really tempting, but we all know that blogging isn't my strong side... ANYWAY:

And I can also confirm that the christmas stockings has been sent off. Sadly my sewing machine couldn't handle sewing the linings, so I had to send them off without it... Hopefully the commissioner will be able to get that fixed with someone else... But my part is done, I really love how they turned out! It's almost a shame seeing them off.

Other than these, I've been working on christmas presents...which I can't really share much of on this here bloggy sadly... Which is one of the reasons why I've couldn't be bothered to give a damned to update you guys. I've had to frog a present three times now... Once because I managed to spill tea on the white yarn, ruining it totally...

But the KAL I can update you guys on! Part 10 is due today! Actually...any second now. And my scarf is looking pretty colourful at the moment! I do not care which colours comes next. I just pick randomly out of a bag, hoping that the scraps I pull out doesn't colide with eachother or the previous part and also if it will be enough for the whole thing.

 

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

 

Part 8

Part 9

Can't wait to have this scarf finished! I've been working on a little extra design to put in the middle of it.

Mysterious advent knitting!

Yesterday was the start of probably the most awesome KAL (knit-a-long) that'll ever exist!
The big advent mystery knit hosted by dearest Bittami through her Facebook page.

This is so cool and so awesome, I really don't have any words. We started off yesterday, but before that, all we knew was the recomended yarn and needle size and the fact that it'll be a looooong scarf. It consists of 20 parts that we will be handed from now until the 19th of december.

We were supposed to get the first part at 6pm yesterday, but it was released early, so I had to hurry up with my chores so I could get started too. I had used the whole day, digging out scrap yarn and winding it all up into neat yarn cakes.

I finished off the first part fairly quickly, and I'm using SO much scrap yarn for this thing! SO MUCH FUN!

The next part will be released tomorrow, so while I'm waiting, I'm working on a hat for my friend Nina. She asked me if I wanted to make one for her, and then she ran off to buy yarn for it. She's all about that blue!

As soon as I'm done with this hat, I'll move on to a sweater for the baby girl for another friend of mine. I ordered yarn for it earlier this week and it arrived today! Beautiful Merino!

Fair-isle socks!

Welp, I totally forgot to blog the, but the fair-isle socks with Kool-Aid yarn are now finished!
Really not pleased with them, they gave me way too much grief. But they're warm, and they're for me, so I can't be bothered to complain too much or frog them.

I've already planned my next pair of socks actually! Some time ago, I bought this super pretty pattern, and I dug out yarn for them last night!

Can't wait! But it'll just have to... Gotta finish up these Christmas Stockings before I'll do more ego knitting... Speaking of Christmas Stockings, I've finally reached the heel, so it'll be finished soon enough! So far, the charts have worked perfectly with the pattern for the other stocking.

 

Not really Christmassy, but I love how it turns out anyway!

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.

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 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

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!

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!