Sunday 27 April 2014

I Really Did It

This is just such a wonderful feeling - getting the shawl finished :-)
There was something unreal about finishing my large stranded shawl. From the first time I saw the pattern I just knew that one day will knit one. I started over a year ago and after a while it was not getting any attention while knitting my wedding shawl and other projects.

My arms are not long enough to show the whole shawl...
But this autumn I picked it up again. I simply just knitted and knitted. And suddenly I had knitted the shawl and one edge.

So I thought, why not pick up those stitches and get finished. I wrote two sentences in excel and counted my way through over 800 stitches to get them placed right inside the edges.

This has simply been like knitting a sweater only everything takes more time and there are hundreds of more stitches. But it was all about keeping going, and not putting up a deadline to drive me mad.


The shawl is knitted on 2mm needles. I used 750grams on it and after wash it was so soft and light. I can not describe the feeling putting it on for the first time. I was so happy that I finished it.

The only thing I regret is that I should have knitted all three edges at the same time. That would have made the corners so much better looking. But in the end it does not matter - on such a large garment the errors seems minor. If you want to read more about the project and see more photos visit my project page on Ravelry.

The Stitch Story
Yarn: Kauni effektgarn
Needle: 2mmSize: 233 x 120cm
Pattern: Stjärnhop
My Ravelry Page: Shining Star
I knitted text into the inside edges for a personal touch. And much more fun to knit this than stripes.



Monday 21 April 2014

Color Catcher


Color for my next scarf - and my cat is rather uninterested... 
I do not think I have ever knitted a swatch. Of course I should have done that a couple of times - but knitting back and forth to find out how my gauge will be knitting in the round makes no sense to me. Maybe that is wrong?

Anyway - when I try out colors I usually put them together in a scarf or a shawl. That makes my swatches over two meter long and wraps nicely around my neck. In this way knitting a swatch is extremely fun and satisfying.

And these are the colors for a new swatch scarf. When I saw this project from my design Lifelines on Ravelry I simply had to try out that way of using colors. It is based on the Natural Color System (NCS) developed in Sweden. The colors are arranged different from the color wheel and that appeals to me. Using colors in different ways is very exciting - and this is more like a rainbow. You can see the wheel here.

I am using my pattern Lifelines again for this project. There will be about 30 colors in it - and this is going to be so much fun. Oh by the way - this is all stash yarn. Say no more...

You can learn new things at any time in your life if you´re willing be be a beginner. If you actually learn to like being a beginner, the whole world opens up to you.
Barbara Sher
- Oh dear, not another scarf....


Sunday 13 April 2014

Happy Knitting Easter

Two edges with about 820st picked up. Fun to knit. See more about the shawl on my Ravelry page.
I wish you all a very happy easter and also a big thank you on the podcast interview about color.

This is my favorite time of year with both spring and easter. I love the brighter days and the quiet time during the holidays.

And what could be better than to pick up about 820 stitches for a little edge on my rather large shawl?  It took some time to pull myself together and now I am so happy to finally have those two edges on my needle. I picked up with a 1.75mm needle and changed to 2mm for the first round and the rest of the edges.

The plan is to knit regularly as I did on the top edge and then to knit words into the inner edges along the sides. I have used excel to get it right.. I could of course just knit with a little less effort. But then again - this is a large work and I want it to be the best I can.

With so many stitches it takes some time. I am thankful to Anne who publish her tutorial for edges for free on her blog. Without that I would have been lost.

So off eating chocolate eggs, knitting some rows and eat more chocolate eggs.

Have a blessed easter!


Wednesday 9 April 2014

I Am Podcasted

I am not afraid to say this: The iPod is old - but the color is surely great :-)
I was honored by the invitation for the podcast med pinner or with needles in english. Ann Myhre is a well known knitter in Norway and she is also known as a great designer. I was so lucky to meet her this weekend on the knitting event where my exhibition is on. And unfortunately I forgot my camera, so no photos from that wonderful day.

She had the theme color in this podcast and I was invited to talk about how I use colors and everything around that. Well, it seems that I can talk a lot about that... I am so happy that she came up with that topic - color is after all a big part of knitting and our lives in general.

The podcast is in norwegian. Lucky for me - I would have been too nervous in english. Or so I think...

Anyway - enjoy! And let me know what you think.


Friday 4 April 2014

Stripes Are Healthy


I am not kidding. Knitting stripes must be extremely healthy. And when I knit them in colors bubbles of spring floats from my toes and all the way up to the sky. I get so happy knitting stripes. It must be that mindless color flow of stitches and the freedom to choose exactly the colors I love.

My name and year of knitting.
Well, enough of all that babbling. This scarf is another way of knitting my design Lifelines.

I did a picot cast on in green and continued in orange and magenta. I found out that four rows of each color made a more harmonic scarf than only two rows of each.

Also, the colors comes out very different after how many rows of them there are.

When half the scarf was finished I added more green and continued in turquoise and purple.

I did a picot bind off. That green color sort of bind the whole scarf together. I loved knitting this - totally mindless and in colors that made me so happy.

So, I do as I very often do - make a bracelet in polymer clay to go with it. I like those colorful accessories to go with my knitted garment. It make a little sparkle to it all. Never underestimate the joy in small things.

I find I´m so excited that I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it´s the excitement only a free man can feel. A free man at a start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain
Red in Shawshank Redemption


The Stitch Story
Yarn: Pt2 from Rauma
Needle: 2.5mm
Pattern: Lifelines
My Ravelry Page: Come Out And Play
Polymer clay bracelet in the same colors as the scarf.