I Have Knitted A Necklace

Can you knit a scarf necklace? Well, apparently you can. But this is a different kind of knitting a necklace. 

I had a beautiful necklace with me home from the Dead Sea and the colors are so striking. They are like the colors of the Dead Sea and of my eyes. 

The necklace is the pattern for the scarf. Each bead color is knitted into the scarf in the same order.

The necklace is made by Ofry Friedman and is called Bombona (means ocean). It is made from organic material found in the rain forrest in South America and hand dyed. You can read about that here.

I loved the color combination and I decided to knit a scarf in the same colors and in the same order as the beads are put together.

I planned the scarf to be 250cm long. The necklace has 16 beads. That made me knit 15cm for each bead in the according color.

The colors are not as bright as I normally would chose but I actually love the way they came out.

They are so lovely together and is great with my red coat. This is very special to me - and it holds a lot of memories from the Dead Sea. A place that is so magical that it is impossible to even describe.

I used my design Lifelines as a base for the knitting. Those scarves are great neck warmers and giving them a lot of colors makes these grey and cold winter days a lot brighter. And colors are after all my biggest inspiration.

I wish you all a happy and bright new year. May your days be colorful and may you be blessed whit good days in the new year to come.

Colors hydrate my mind and soul

Lone Arnsted

The Stitch Story
Yarn: Rauma Finull Pt2
Needles: 2.5mm
Free Pattern: Lifelines
My Ravelry Page: Ahava

Ambivalent Mittens Knitting

Winter: Dark, cold and rainy weather calls for hand knitted mittens. 

First of all: Hand knitted mittens are artwork for your hands. But, I have never been very successful and the skill. They always get too big and I have to felt them.

Mainly because my gauge always is off and most mittens have a lot of stitches. 

So, if I am to knit those really lovely mittens I have to use 1.25mm needles - and even knit two of each - I end up never getting started.

I got some help from a skilled mittens knitter and she told me to find mittens with a gauge that fit my kind of knitting. And so I did.

Now, I have actually knitted a pair of mittens that fit. They look great and they did not take forever to knit.

I am so happy to have come over that obstacle it always has been to knit mittens.

These are of course knitted in Rauma Finull.

The pattern is from the norwegian book Eventyrvotter - fairytale mittens. It is an amazing book from very skilled knitters. You should check it out. All mittens are inspired from Norwegian fairytales.

Anyway - I may have to knit more of these to get some more colors to match the huge amount of scarves and shawls I have... LOL! These are my two favorite colors. A great beginning.

The Stitch Story
Yarn: Rauma Finull Pt2
Needles: 2.5mm
Pattern: Eventyrlauv
My Ravelry Page: Heartfelt

If you find a path with no obstacles, 

it probably doesn't lead anywhere

Frank A. Clark

How Many Blessing Do You Have?

I think most people would be surprised by how many blessing they have in their life. 

I mean, even if everything is bad there are always something to bring a sun beam into it. If you meassure your life from what others have, their social media shining wonderful self and the constantly demand on being perfect you may think that you have nothing. 

Well, it is all about how we see things. And believe me - most of what we show online is facade.

It may seem perfect, but do you know anyone who is perfect? I have not found anyone yet...

Anyway, I have started counting my blessing every day. And there are a lot. They are not postable in social media.

No climing mountains, achiving large things in work life, being rich or being popular. But they are there with all the light, hope and love.

One of my blessing is that I am able to knit. To transform thread into colorful creations that gives me so much joy wearing.

And they even keep me and others warm from it.

This scarf is one of them. I have knitted another with the same text before.

But I wanted one in my favorite colors. The pattern for the scarf is genius. You simply cast on 36 stitches and knit whatever text or number you want.

I have knitted the Lords blessing yet again. I do not think I can get enough of them... A knitted blessing is 4.5 meters long. I knitted 1.198 rows and 116 letters. It is so much fun to see the scarf grow word for word. Blessing for blessing.

So, will you join me in counting your blessings every day? See life in another way? See what you really have in your daily life and be happy about it? Even the smallest thing matters - at least to me.

Better to lose count while naming your blessings 

than to lose your blessings to counting your troubles

Maltbie Davenport Babrock

The Stitch Story
Yarn: Rauma Finull Pt2
Needles: 2.75mm (magic loop)
My Ravelry Page: Counting Blessings
Pattern: Ticker Tape

Give Me Stripes

Give me knitting needles, yarn and stripes and the world comes in balance. Or something like that... What is it about stripe knitting that just draw me to it? It is fun to knit, makes a colorful statement and there is some childish joy in it.

And if life is hard stripes ease it up. Just one stripe at the time, one step at the time and just keep those stitches count as blessings in a storm.

This is some rare occasion when I have used white. I normally use it very little unless I need some kind of effect as in this really special scarf.

White is the color that will always dominate, take all the attention and remove balance.

But, I used it anyway this time and I am thrilled about the result.

This is a fun scarf. At least I think so. Really nice to wear and warm. Autumn is coming soon.

Of course, it is knitted in my favourite Rauma Finull Pt2. My design Colorize was just perfect for the color combination.

I got the photos taken on my trip to town to cast my vote in this autumns election. Really important to vote, to knit and stay warm....

Great is the human who has not lost his childlike heart

Mencius

The Stitch Story
Yarn: Rauma Finull Pt2
Needles: 3mm
Pattern: Colorize
My Ravelry Page: Red White Blue

Can Stash Make You Shine?

Stashed yarn is treasure of possibilities. I have had this mohair and sequins yarn laying around for years. I bought it on sale and it ended up in a box. Like so much yarn does...

I also had a lot of turquoise Finull lying around so I found out it was time to let these two get friends on some needles.

The shawl Århus is so much fun to knit, to wear and to let shine with sequins.

Two rows repeating all the way is simply perfect. I really love the shape on this design. It makes a great shawl if knitted large enough.

And I love it as a scarf since it does not get too big around my neck.

Also, never underestimate a pompom - they can make a huge difference.

I had different colors of turquoise and a green leftover I blended in.

I think it worked just fine. I knitted a lot on it on a retreat I attended.

It was fantastic. Quietness, bird song and the only sound was the needles clicking softly.

And I must admit - there are a lot of those scarves going on here. Different colors and a lot of sequins. More about that later...

The Stitch Story
Yarn: Rowan Kid Silk Haze Glamour, Rauma Finull
Needles: 5mm
Pattern: Århus
My Ravelry Page: Stashy Glitter

Those who can´t handle your shine better invest in some shades

Unknown

Knitting While Cycling

Perfect knitting for Tour de France.

I knit. Others are cycling. That is the deal each summer when Tour de France takes over with so much excitement that it is nearly too hard to watch.

Stitch marker to match :-)

Every year I knit while watching cyclists doing something that seems impossible.

This year I knit a new scarf, Red Katana. In fact this is a repeat from one I knitted during another Tour de France. It got too big - I just want one more wearable.

Garter stitch, simple striping and spit splicing is the perfect combination while watching the Tour.

Also, I have started a new Ticker Tape with another blessing. I love those colors and it goes with whatever I wear. So, a new very long scarf.

You can see the first one here. I mostly knit on it while there are flat stages. After all, one has to be able to both knit and watch.

And stranded knitting is more for listening, watch and concentrate on the pattern.

Both scarves are knitted in Rauma Finull. Not any surprise - that is my go to yarn. Or should I say - cycling to yarn? LOL!!

Not sure if I manage to finish any of these during the race. But hey, does it matter? I just finish it when I can. I enjoy the summer I have. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Enjoy your own life whithout comparing with that of another

Unknown

Oh, some meters left of this scarf. One letter at the time. Simply enjoying this a lot. 

Wearing A Seahorse

Bumblebees: Looking at  all the bumblebees... 

Not all sweaters I have knitted have been used as much as the one with the seahorse. A lot of them ended in a charity shop. Mostly because the size was wrong and the fit looked more like a box.

Original pattern

In 1992 a norwegian magazine published the pattern.

I bought the magazine only for the pattern and kept it for years.

When I finally knitted the sweater it was 2010... Sizes were a bit different in the nineties - this is size medium.

That would have been something huge large today.

Anyway, I finally got around taking photos of the sweater while wearing it. A sunny yet cold day was just perfect.

The sweater is knitted from Rauma Finull. The origianlly horse in the pattern was replaced with Tori Seierstads seahorse from her mittens pattern. It suited just perfect.

The fact that my knitting is very limited today makes me appreciate the sweater even more. Strange how we appreciate things more when something is lost.

And the fun part is that new knitting patterns have that same oversized look that was popular in the nineties. So in a way I am modern - or something like that. LOL!!

A short walk in the fine weather. You can see the scarf here.

The Stitch Story
Yarn: Rauma Finull 
Needles: 2.5mm
My Ravelry Page: Horse from the sea
Pattern: Designer Birte Aartun, published pattern in norwegian magazine KK

Floating In Green

Sometimes life gives so many trials that it seems impossible to get through. This scarf is called Hope Floats. Green is said to be the color of hope. I knitted this in a time when I just needed hope to get through a really rough time.

I will not say knitting is a cure, but it certainly helps to just keep knitting and hoping. It is something beautiful, something soft and something creative that is beyond those bad days that never seemed to end. Although they normally do - which they did this time too.

I decided to knit a green scarf with pom poms and chose to use gradients. Gradients gives a lot of life to knitted garments.

Three colors of green Rauma Finull and green Plum mohair to go with them.

It is just that wonderful combination I surely can not stop using.

I always spit splice when I knit stripes. The edge looks so much better, and there are no more than a few ends to fasten.

I have had a struggle with finding proper thread for my pom poms.

I use a pom pom maker and when I cut the pom poms I need a strong thread to hold them together.

Not a single thread I have tried endured the tightening when the pom pom is finished. They all broke.

I have even bought expensive french linen thread in fancy small boxes that should hold up.

Well, it did not. Thankfully I found thread that is normally used for mending fishing nets. Even had it at home. That thread is impossible to tear. It holds so well. Will never use any other thread for my pom poms. And it is even cheap.

I got through. I knitted a scarf. Sometimes good things can come out of bad days. Remember that.

The Stitch Story
Yarn: Rauma Finull, Rauma Plum mohair
Needles: 5mm
My Ravelry Page: Hope Floats
Pattern: Happy Pom Pom Shawl

We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope

Martin Luther King jr

Wind and fog: Not easy to get the scarf ready in a lot of wind, rain and fog...

Knitting Completed: 1198 Rows And 29 Words

Yes. That is about it. The Ticker Tape is done and it was so much fun knitting it. Everyone says that it seems like a huge effort to put in a scarf. But there are only 38 stitches in one row - that is not much.

As you can read in my previous post about The Ticker Tape the scarf is knitted letter by letter.

I actually thought it would be shorter, but ended up with 4.53 meters. Actually just as I wanted it.

I just knitted and knitted word for word. I just love wearing this.

But I must say: Why did I not knit this in turquoise which is my favorite color? Have no idea. Maybe I could knit another one in that color?

After all, I have the whole pattern ready in Excel. I thought it would take a long time to make the pattern, but copy and paste is easy and so was the making.

I found it easier to knit from a pattern than to find each letter for the words in the pattern.

I could have knitted wrong - and spelling mistakes was not an option...

The scarf must have made it to our local newspaper because I ended up in Lindesnes with the it. Not a lot of people have knitted the Lords blessing I assume... LOL!

So here is the fun facts about the scarf:

• 4.53 meters
• 29 words
• 116 letters
• 10 numbers
• 1198 rows
• 43.128 stitches
• 4 x !
• 1 fish
• 29 word spaces

  

  How do you get photos of something so long??? 

I used three skeins of each color from Rauma Finull. Proper norwegian wool to keep me warm. 

You can check out the project and find the pattern for your own Ticker Tape on Ravelry. The pattern comes with letters and numbers so you can knit something that is just your own. 

Blessing In A Ticker Tape

Norwegian: Writing in norwegian I had to make the letters Æ, Ø, Å as they are not included. Works fine.

For some years I have had this project in my queue. To knit something like this with double pointed needles were simply out of the question. So it was just sitting there until a friend wanted to knit it - and I found the Addi CrasyTrio to help me on the way.

That did not go well - sort of too many things dangling and I finally got hang of magic lopp. I mean, with four meters of knitting that is a lot of trying out. First I tried with KnitPro wooden circular needles. The wire was way too stiff for the magic loop.

Trying Addi CrasyTrio did not go well...

Then I tried my ChiaoGoo lace - and I am never going to knit magic lopp with anything else. Ever! They are the best needles and the cable lays straight no matter how many times you roll it up. It has a nylon coated steel wire. Best knitting needles I have ever tried for this project. I did experience to go op 0.25mm in needles size as I knit magic loop tighter than I did using dpns.

Anyway, I decided to knit the Lords blessing in norwegian. The patterns is fantastic - it comes with the alphabet and one can create the text as wanted.

I am using excel to write the whole text out. Makes it easier to knit. Copy and paste words and letters works perfect - and it did not take a lot of time to get it finished.

It really is a creative design. I just love knitting it and it gets so personal with my own text.

I normally do not use white for my knitting. But this time is different: The color white stands out the most of all colors as it reflex all light and colors. No matter what other color you put beside it - it will take all the attention. In this case that was excatly what I was looking for.

That is why I knit the letters in white, and they stand out perfect. Using white as dominant thread on the letters and blue as dominant on the back of the scarf. I think that made a huge difference for the back of the scarf with a darker dominant color.

I just love knitting this. It has it all: Fun, personal, easy and creative.

Creativity is how I share my soul with the world

Brene Brown

The Stitch Story
Yarn: Rauma Finull
Needles: ChiaoGoo lace for magic loop, 2.75mm
Pattern: Ticker Tape
My Ravelry Page: The Blessing