Monday 28 March 2011

Knitted Dreams Of Spring

I know it´s coming every year. And I wait for it every winter. Finally, spring is just around the corner. And with that, hope of summer and strawberries.

I´m so excited about this that I decided to speed things ahead. So here they are: My knitted strawberries of wool. Who said that strawberries don´t freeze? LOL!!!

Anyway, they kept me warm knitting them. And I enjoyed it so much that I most certainly will knit a lot more. The next ones will be with long stems and leaves for bookmarks. I found a free pattern on Ravelry for them - thank you so much dear knitter whoever you are. You can find the pattern here.

Expecting something nice, like spring, is so good. In fact, I believe that it lighten up frozen minds. And the thought of fresh strawberries with cream on a hot summer day brings out the sun. We just need to find our own "strawberries".

You know what I mean - keep on going. And expect summer, sun and strawberries.

Monday 21 March 2011

Woolly And Sheepish

Woolly bangles to live it´s sheepish life with my scarf.
Some of my new woolly bangles meant to catch up with the colors of my thousand hearts. Now I can wear my scarf and have bangles in the same colors.

Very easy knit with seven stitches and some turns in the washer. I sew on some sequins and wrapped some of the alpaca yarn used in the scarf. Voila - there we have it.

Sometimes it´s so delightful to make something really easy and enjoy it so much.

I´m going to make a lot of these bangles. They are great for gifts  - both for me and others.

And as I recently read, knitting is very healthy. Keeps the stress and worries down.

And new projects keeps the brain cells rambling around in colors, stitches, patterns and yarn. Yes, knitting is great. So is keeping it easy - most of our worries comes to nothing.

The ones I´ve made so far - still have some to wrap yarn around.

Friday 18 March 2011

I´m Not Going to Complain

Just outside my window.
Just as spring was on it´s way it all turned white. And I thought, oh no not again. I filled my head with negative thoughts. But, it all ended on my journey in blogland where I found this video. It´s the most amazing and lovely piece ever seen on youtube.

I wish you a lovely weekend - and that you can see what you have in your life. I´m pretty sure you´ll be surprised about what you actually have. I´ve started - and I can´t stop beeing grateful.

Visit Diane Rose - a quilter that are blind. She can see everything:

Sunday 13 March 2011

I Heart My Scarf A Thousand Times

There are over one thousand hearts on this scarf in alpaca wool. Well, it took some time to get the two meter long scarf finished knitting on tiny needles. But, I´m so happy about how it came out.

I like the colors and the feel of it around my neck. Alpaca is the highlight of yarn: Soft, varm and nice to look at.

I chose eight colors and after one meter I turned the colors around. What was the pattern color would then be the background color.

That way, it would look like I´ve used a lot more colors. At least it does to me. I knitted in the round - my favorite.

After hours of thinking and trying different ends to the scarf, I ended up crocheting a border. Quite simple, but it made the effect I wanted.

I was so inspired after making my alpaca scarf with all the dots on that I found out that this would be fun to make. And it was.

I love knitting and everything about it. Standing in front of all the yarn in my local shop I get so excited. An enormous amount of possiblities goes through my head. So much yarn and so little time...

I get so happy when I´ve finished a piece and can nearly not understand that I made it. That´s the wonder of creating isn´t it?

And now this scarf has been featured as number one (out of 66) in "Yarn it all" - and I´m so blessed!! Check it out here. Thank you so much Mandy for this honor!!!

To create is almost having a second language without any options of translating what you´ve said.

It speaks to people in so many different ways. Even to us who made it. Let´s create and make the world a nicer place to live.
I made this collage of the different

Thursday 10 March 2011

I Felt A Bit Woolen

My crafty life is wrapped around fiber at the moment. I can´t believe how much you can do with some yarn and knitting needles. After I joined Ravelry I discovered all the things you can actually make. And it inspires me a lot.

These bangles are made of Rauma Vamsegarn, a norwegian yarn great for felting. I knitted 7 stitches for 23 cm and sew the ends together. After a couple of times in the washer they were ready for whatever kind of yarn for the wraps. I also found some polymer clay beads I sewed on.

A really fun and easy project. The original pattern is written by Mags Kandis in her book Gifted.

I´m also getting my scarf with the hearts finished (seen to your left here). And it´s just around the corner.

My next project would be some strawberries with stem and flowers. Well, more about that later.

I´m also in for a knitted seahorse. So you see, knitting has captured me in it´s colorful and creative world. And I love it!

Hope you´re allright and are having a lovely day.

I hope you´re doing something you love - whatever that is. Crafting makes us happy - if we follow our hearts.

I give you this qoute by Tony Curtis:

It's such a human condition, whether you're a great track star or a great knitting person or you paint watercolors - someone knows who you are

Thursday 3 March 2011

Be(e) Whatever You Want

  
I have a friend who is the most giving, loving and creative person you can think of. She brings light into my life. And I wanted to show her that.

So I made this box to her with a knitted bumblebee inside. It all started when she asked to see my poem about the bumblebee that are not supposed to fly. But did anyway.

I glued the poem to black and yellow carton and wrapped it in cellophane.

The original wooden box and the legs.
I took a wooden box, some wooden legs for it and painted and decoupaged it.

I took off the original lock and made my own in polymer clay with the words Hope and Courage on it.

In addition I found some qoutes.



In the lid I decoupaged this qoute: Courage is not about beeing fearless. It´s about acting inspite of the fear.

 
And in the bottom of the box she found this qoute: Hope is the only bee that makes honey without the flowers by Robert Ingersoll. 

I think this is one of the best qoutes I´ve seen. It says it all. After all hope is what keeps us going. I glued in a bumblebee as well.


Here you can see the lock I made in polymer clay. I used white clay and textured it and stamped in the words courage and hope. It made the box more vintage I think. 

The lock is made in polymer clay, stamped and antiqued after baking.

I really love these kinds of projects where mixed media is used. 

And where I can use one thought to lead me through the stages of making something.

The bumblebee is knitted and then felted.
The bee has this text on it: Be(e) what you want.





 On the bee my friend found a paperheart with this text: Be(e) what you want. 

Something I wrote out of my head.

The best thing of all this is she was so happy about this gift. The joy of giving is so big and I was excited to send the bumblebee to a new home. 

Handmade gifts are so precious and we all put our hearts into them. And giving them away is like giving a little of ourselves as well. 

I´m blessed to have a friend who appreciate my little handmade things. And for being her friend. That is after all the best thing ever: To have a friend like that.

Thank you for your love, light and hope. You are the best!!!!!

The box with the decoupaged lid and it´s golden legs.

Wednesday 2 March 2011

Another Gift From OWOH

I was the lucky winner of three doorprizes and now the last one has arrived. And check this one out. An altered bottle from Kelly over at Dreaming of Vintage. She loves altering bottles and everything vintage. You should check out her blog and dream your self away in her colorful vintage style.

Thank you so much Kelly. I love this bottle!!!

You can check out my other prizes here.