Thursday 29 September 2011

Joyful Heart Of Yarn

How about that. I got more and more happy as the pom pons were sewn on to this rather strange scarf. It´s knitted in Malabrigo Rasta and has pom pons from Rauma Finull in eight different colors. It´s sort of clownish and I love it.

It really made me smile - and it made me excited about what I can do with some yarn and needles.

The pattern is from the norwegian book "Strikk i en fei" - or "knit in a hurry". I knitted the scarf in two days total.

It´s about 2.20 meter long and has 16 tips wich are about 18 cm long. Read more and see progress photos in my corner of Ravelry.

This is going to cheer me up as the winter is on it´s way soon. I´ve never figured out why we are supposed to dress in black, brown and grey during winter.

Those are great colors - but not all of us are created to fit them. Just as all people don´t like dressing in colors.

That we are different and like different colors makes our world even more colorful.

But why do we have to put away all our colors and wait for them to come out when spring arrives in about eight months (sigh)?

So lets go for it and get outside the narrow box: Colors in loads to hold on to the summer and the joyful feeling of running along a beach without shoes. I feel like that wearing my new scarf.

Saturday 24 September 2011

The Sweetest Face

It was almost like a dream. In the center of Mandal, the town where I live, there were alpacas with their cute faces and the wonderful wool on their backs.

They were just standing there in a small alley by the pedestrian zone of the town. They are absolutely adorable and you just want to bring them home. Or not...

They were invited by a local yarn shop for people to see them.
They live on a local farm in Øyslebø where they provide their precious alpaca wool, and where they are sheared once a year. These three is a family with mother, father and a baby alpaca.

They are not happy about beeing touched, but I got a chance to feel the thickness and softnes of the wool. Oh, this visit made my day. And the thought of alpaca yarn is even more wonderful now. Like wearing my meadow scarf on a cold day.

In fact it´s always the little things that make us the most happy - isn´t that great??

Thursday 15 September 2011

Giving My Heart Wings

The first rounds of a big shawl with birds.
For a very long time I´ve wanted to knit one of Christel Seyfarth wonderful shawls. When I saw the one with the birds, I was in love.

I bought the kit in Oslo here in Norway - and I´ve finally knitted the first rounds. It´s a huge work - and need a lot of preparation.

Some day it´ll look like this - photo from Christel Seyfarths homepage.
I had to make a chart and copied the pattern and glued it into a new large paper. It was about 80 small pieces I think.

I got six colors for the pattern and seven colors for the background in the kit.

I´m randomly changing colors while knitting. In that way there are no order in color changes and that makes the shawl fun to knit and to look at.

Starting at the bottom with only three stitches there should be nearly 600 stitches when i reach the top of the shawl. You get the picture? I´m knitting in the round all the way up, and then sewing with machine and cutting up the shawl. Easy that way.

This is a huge challenge for me. And if I hadn´t been on Ravelry to see, learn and to ask experienced knitters it would have been so much more challenging. But here I am - with my knitting needles and a lot of patience, yarn and love for this wonderful shawl.

There are no such joy than to create something from the heart  - the one of yarn:
Yarn from the kit. The red ones are for the pattern, the rest for the background.

Wednesday 7 September 2011

A Seahorse Stitch By Stitch

Knitted seahorse in Sereknity merino yarn.
I actually knitted this. I found it extraordinary to see it shaped stitch by stitch on my needles. Kahra Grae has designed a lot of great patterns and you can find the seahorse on Ravelry here. This pattern is very well written and easy to follow.

It was so much fun knitting this one. I used some of my yarn from a previous scarf, a merino yarn from Sereknity.

I was actually planing to use it as a pendant but it got too big. Or maybe not - I´m not quite sure yet. It would be a great statement to wear.

I used 2.5 mm needles and will find some lace yarn and a lot smaller neddles for the next one.

Before joining Ravelry I would never have dreamed about knitting something like this.
But seeing all the projects there on this seahorse, I found out that anything is possible if you try it out.

Why do women tend to think that they can´t do a certain thing? Gosh, it´s really a waste of time and energy. I think I´ll rather use that energy in trying things out. This time it was a seahorse. Kahra has pattern for some turtles too - I may have a go. NOTHING is impossible!