Bringebær og Bunday

Bunnies are once again chilling. We have not, it is not yet vacation time here in the burrow and Mister M is busy working still. Last weekend we helped my cousin move and we were at friends yesterday watching Harry Potter and eating dinner. We also got berries and caramel popcorn which was delicious!

Oh, and yeah, I have played a little Pokémongo. So it seems like we have another little critter in our house.

An Eevee. She was cute...

I have finished staining outside, or rather our neighbour kindly did it for us. I did do some which meant I couldn't leave the house for 24 hours as I had done outside the front door and I had to let Mister M go out of the side door which doesn't have an outside lock. Since there was less painting than I had thought I bought some more and have started on the doll cradle, I bought a very soft purple which I really like, I just wonder how many coats it will take before the dark blue is gone.

Look what we have in our "yard",  a raspberry bush! The bunnies got some and were delighted. Mister M got the last and was also delighted. I hope it sprouts and grows more, I love raspberries.

I have bought these little trolls a clicker so we will see how easy they will learn new things, I am hoping Mimle will have fun with it at least, she is quite bright. Valmin is more like his coat shade, not so bright but soft and fluffy. And they are still not done with the molting!

-Please Sir, May I have some more?

These days we are watching J-drama again, and I have rediscovered Full house which is a hoot, I love old shows, and we are watching Quantum Leap. Also we are still decluttering and going trough things and throwing away and donating stuff, it is weird how much one accumulates, but I will not become a horder!

I am still chugging away on the next gacha pattern, the reveal is so close now, but you have to wait a bit more. So I can't show too much yet, but here is another little peak, what do you think we are making?

The Wedding Blanket Squares Twenty-Two

Crown Jewels by Melinda Miller

Now this square was hard! Firstly I am not very good at popcorn stitches, and for some reason my rounded shaped dark purple round just did not want to become round! And then there was those palm-like green things, I tried and I tried and had almost given up, I had to start another square just so I would feel like there was progress because the deadline seemed to be looming, then *Kio had to come to my rescue, and she helped me quite a bit. I have no idea why this square was so hard, the pattern wasn't har d to read, the walkthrough was good with pictures and all, but it just wouldn't click. Still I am not sure what I did, but I muddled my way through, and I did the same spacing as the walkthrough suggested in that row and not as the pattern stated because it would be more symmetrical then.

This might be the one square I would not recommend anyone to do, sure it looks good, I like how the palm-like green row looks now that I have the whole ordeal a little behind me, but I can tell you this is one square I did not like making and felt looked horrible after. Now though I think it looks fine, a bit wonky and I am not sure about that dark purple, and I wish I could do popcorn stitches, but hey, it is finished and I did it! And it only took me a little over a week and several froggings, yes, several, all in all I might have made this square ten times or so;) It was a good thing I did some on another square too I think or I might have become too discouraged to finish.

21x21 cm and 31 grams.

*Kio's square. I adore her colour choices and I wish I had grouped that purple/blue more with the dark purple, it looks smashing, and that thin dark purple line almost at the end looks superb.

I think maybe I need to have *Kio teach me how she does popcorns because hers look stellar just like in the patten. Whilst my square resembles more a boat wreck *Kio has mastered a mermaid like feel in her square, The dark popcorn row looks like that fish that makes nice round patterns at the sea floor to attract a mate....

Btw, sorry these wedding blanket updates have been a bit slow, I will try to do better, but I am not making any promises because then I will surely forget again. Hehe.

Tuesday Tunes again and counting down

Where I count down to the concert and show off some of the songs I love which they will sing.

Ora wa ninkimono by Kobushi Factory

I am a genious. hehe. A cover song from an old anime, I love this song, I haven't listened to the original though. I love the dance and video, although the longer pants look less than adorable.

The video reminds me of old Berryz when they were tiny goofballs, this group can do genki goofballs which H!P have lacke for a while since Berryz grew up and disbanded.

This song will be in the concert I think, it is not my favourite from this single, the Samba one from last week is, but it is good, better than the last one which I haven't shown.

 

Shabondama by Morning Musume.

Shabondama, an oldie but a goodie. It is hard to think I wasn't even a fan when this song was made and that all the members here have graduated. Look at how small Gaki is, and Sayumi and Kame.  Aww.

My beloved two top shines here, I love the Ai's, and that both the Ai's get to sing Ai many times. Very pfunny. I love the dance and the rolling of the R's, from the days where their videoes actually got some money put into it, all look fierce and it is refreshing that they all have different clothing on and dance seemingly randomly. Tanaka surprisingly looks very yanki, maybe not so surprisingly really. I remember that one performance where Sayumi danced her mic off, she is almost as butterfingered as I am.

Shabondama!

In other news I have been staining the walkway outside and am stuck inside for 24 hours while it dries, I will have to let husband out the patio-door when he goes to work. Also I may have been singing out load whist painting to my mp3 player so that my neighbour closed her window, oops. Oh well, I had fun at least. Also we are playing pokémon, even though there are hardly any around here, and I am busily crocheting the next pattern for gachastitches.

The Wedding Blanket Squares Twenty-One

Winter Dream by April Moreland

Here we got to practice our Magic Ring which i am rubbish at, and clusters and you could do a standing Dc and Sc or a regular one. Clusters are fun I think, the standing stitches are a bit more confusing, *Kio really liked them and have started using them instead of chain three as the first stitch sometimes, I need more practice;)

It was very useful in the walkthrough that Dedri tells us that at round 3 your work will curl up into a bowl but that it will straighten itself out later.

I love round eight, it was so much fun making the chain three skip two, sc in next that round sort of just whizzed past.

21x21 cm and 31 grams and four hours again since I didn't do any frogging.

*Kio's square.

I love how she made all those soft blue/purple tones the main colour and used them for so many rows, I think my row 4 in medium blue stands out too much and minimises the small star shape in the middle that I love.

Tuesday night fever

night fever, yes, I have a slight fever and I have Kobushi Factory's last single stuck in my head, but there is another song from this group which I really love lately

-Samba- Kobushi Janeiro-

 

Hashire- dashx3   Takaku-Jumpx3   Odore-Dancex3

I love this song, makes me kind of want to watch the Olympics, I wish this song was the official Olympics song! This is again a three song single, but this one is my favourite! 

-If you keep dancing you'll get it eventually-
#words to live by

This song will be on the concert, the next few weeks until the concert I will show some of the songs that I love hat will be on it!

Also this is another song I have had on repeat for the past few days, 

-Berryz koubou, Succha ka Meccha ka-

This dance is awesome! And the song is so happy, I want to dance. さすが Tsunku-san

keru-keru-keru

Yes, and another swimming gesture whilst dancing, Hello!Project is really good at that.

Also the last song I have had on my repeat which I blame completely on my fever is Caramelldansen.

Please watch at your own discretion. XD

I have not been idle even though I have spent my time mostly sleeping and getting sympathy licks from Mimle, I have tried watching TV and not remembering anything, reading and having the same problem and crocheting and really using the yarn. i.e., having to frog and start over several times due to not having a working brain, but it is progressing.

Natsu/Netsu Bunday Party

Bunnies are happy since we cleaned house today again. Although Mimle does not look very happy here but that is because while we clean she has this face on. I may or may not have accidentally pulled their cardboard house off the carpet to vacuum and marvelled at how heavy it was since all the clean clothes was on it, and then first one bunny left and then another with quite a disdainful flick of the feet towards me. I am still in the doghouse I think. 

I also may or may not have purchased some yarn last month and this month, because there may or may not have been a sale. First on wool and then on cotton, how could I refuse. And since I am a sucker for a sale I buy just above the minimum limit to get free shipping even though I did not plan on buying that much... I haven't had the heart to do the maths, but, three balls of yarn in there are *Kio's and some are for gachastitches so it is not all me. 

On the plus side, I found a use for my mothers old doll cradle. 

and there is still room for more.

And I have finished six of ten squares in the cotton gachastitches and three of nine in the wool gachastitches pattern, so it is getting closer to revealing, so far I haven't found any trouble. *knockonwood*

I also may or may not have started packing for our summer vacation, there is after all less than a month to go. Also I may or may not have packed a pair of wool socks, I know, where we are going it is going to be warm, but I made that mistake in Barcelona and almost died of hypothermia under the aircondition and will not make the same mistake again. Now I need to think about books and most importantly what crochet/knitting supplies I will bring. Something easy but which might take a while, like another knitted scarf, and perhaps something more challenging, like the gachastitches pattern we are testing? Need to think about this some more...

But I am not bringing the bunnies no matter how much they sit in my suitcase.

Also we got the pokèmon game, but since I have a fever we decided against going out to catch them all for now. I want to get better first.

熱があるんです｡

Picture from Miss Felt

AND AND AND

I have tickets! I am fulfilling one of my decade long dreams! I am going to Japan to see Hello!Project. I get to see Morning Musume16, Cute, Angerme, country girls, juice=juice, kobushi and tsubaki factory and I am so happy! The tickets went for sale today and our friend Miss Felt in Japan fixed some for us and she is coming too, she used to be a fan and somehow I got her hooked on the new factories. We are going to Japan and we are going to karaoke, shopping, eating and sightseeing but the most important part in my book was the concert which is why we had to go in the warmest seasonXD 

Today's song, Kiss, summer party.

Fits well with having a fever.

Too bad they are all graduated.

But at least I get to see Masaki.

Friday Fancies and Finishes

It is Friday and I have not only one, but two finishes!

A dress and a skirt! One for me and another baby finish.

I had a hard time with the sewing, luckily for me I had a good sensei teaching me, although I finished I am not yet confident enough to make one on my own so I am hoping A can come by and sew with me some more. But I do love my skirt, not as much as the original, and there are a lot of room for improvements, but still I love it and it fits too, even after several bites of cake.

My knitting adventure is still not quite finished, I still have 18 or so rows to go before doing the weird sewing together and coupling and what not before making the lining. But I wanted a finish first so I stuck with these two which payed off.

The Angel Wings pinafore with the Angel Pop over dress. I like both patterns but I think a merging of the two might be more useful.  The first is open all the way down with lots of buttons which I don't think is particularly useful and the latter might have too small an opening for a baby head.

I made my Angel wings pinafore closed by sc-ing up each side and then sc-ing them together up to the neck lining so that a big baby head can fit through. I need buttons still, but I didn't have anything that fitted, so that and the jacket is not quite finished yet, but that can wait a bit I think.

As you can see this dress is shorter than the other but wider.

I used 119 grams to finish this.

I prefer the dc's in this dress over the trebles in the pop over dress but I like the neck lining a lot better in the pop over dress. So I am thinking making a third dress with elements of both, and I want to make an opening on the side where the increases go if possible...

And I still have two and a half balls of pink yarn from Mister M going yarn shopping.

Other things I am making is another gacha stitches pattern. I am making two in fact, one in cotton and one in wool, one with each square separate and the other three in a row.

Can you guess what we are making?

Bunnies are chilling, we need more chilling in this world I think.

Mister M and I had sushi again whilst watching QI.

And I have been doing lots more board games this week, when we finally understood it, elevenses was rather fun, not as fun as Zombie Fluxx but still more fun than sewing on the sewing machine which does not want to do what I want it to do. And btw E2 didn't know why the underline thread thingy misbehaved so last time either, so there.

Oh, and Mister M had a lot of fun with his aunt and apparently I am approximately 67,19% Norwegian, 18,75% Sami, 13,28% Swedish and 0,78% Dutch and one of the Swedish prosents may be Belgian or something. Rather amusing if you ask me, Mister M seems to have almost as many nationalities in his family history as I do.

The Wedding Blanket Squares Twenty

 Mandala by Chris Simon

This is my square, I quite liked making this one too, and as always the squares chosen in this cal all look good. It was rather fast crocheting this square only at about five hours with minimal frogging so it must have been easy enough, before the added rounds. It was  31 grams and 21x21 cm.

My friend *Kio's square.

I love that we both have lots of darker blues in our squares, but mine seem icy because of all the white and ice blue, whilst *Kio has more calm Dutch blue as her main colour with the darker blue. Once again our different colour palettes give off a totally different feel to each square and I really like it. My square also seems smaller because I switch into the darker blues earlier then *Kio so mine looks like it has a big drama and small square whilst *Kio's look big and bold. If I remember correctly I was almost out of that icy blue at this point. Luckily we bought some more later. And now I still have a few balls of that colour left, I loved it so I had to restock.

This and another square (Cygnus I think) were almost impossible to tell apart, I hope I have not added the wrong square. Mostly I had a hard time telling some squares apart, but two in particular were hopeless since they share the first ten-ish rounds, might have been this square though, I can't remember:P

Edit, it is the Sadie Square and Addie Square who share the same seven rounds.

Vilje Gjør ting hun ikke kan

or

Vilje does things she does not know how to do

like knitting,

My knitting adventure is slowly progressing, I am not so sure I am getting better at it, I might just do too little to have any real progress to show regarding skill and confidence. But I am progressing in the sense that the jacket is nearing completion. I have under thirty rows left to do on the body before I am to something with the stitches on the threads and then sewing together under the arms before picking up stitches on the sides and arms and then somehow it will be finished. Sometime this year I hope....

I do like knitting I just don't feel like I have any clue about what I am doing and why,

sewing

Other things I am doing that I have no idea how to do is sewing, somehow I have got it into my head that I can sew a skirt, one of my favourite skirts are dying a little so I wanted to make another... Encouraged by sewing friends I somehow ended up with buying lots of fabric and with the help of my one my friends I have sewn all the panels, trouble is I have no idea how to continue, I am a total n00b. But I did get the hang of changing the under thread thing since I had to redo it about a  hundred times because somehow I did it wrong and I made a lot of knots and mess.... 

I love my fabric choices. Apparently I like flower prints, but they didn't have any geometric-like fabric designs, I wanted something swirly or wavy with the flowers but I had to settle for the bunnies.

And then I am still doing some on the things I can do, which I am good at. Another baby dress is started and the second baby cardigan is finished, just needs buttons and I am not sure if I want to sew on the pink ones I already bought, am thinking about something white... So a proper finish will come when the buttons are all on and done!

The baby cardigan weighed 100 grams so exactly two balls of yarn in hot pink from Drops Baby Merino, that pattern was Flower Power Cardigan by Nicki Trench.

socializing

Regarding life and other things I have done lately here is an update. 
Mister M is coming down with something, but we have been busy these past days, playing board games, FLUXX is a ton of fun, family dinner with sushi and prawns, out shopping with friends twice, eating pizza, making strawberry jam, and having a knit and natter session or two and listening to the rain inside with a cup of tea is always a treat.

So that is what I am focusing on, finishing my knitting jacket, baby dress and sewing something. Possibly also one of the ongoing baby blankets.... Also I do want to play more Zombie Fluxx.

What are you up to?

The Wedding Blanket Squares Nineteen

Lemony Lime Citrus by Donna Mason-Svara

Once again you start with a round something that looks a bit like a flower and then it turns into a square like magic. A lot of these squares did not start as squares and I like that, how each round shapes the product and you never really know how it will turn out. Sometimes the squares were hexagon shaped or something similar which was amusing.

This was another rather easy square I remember, but I had a lot of fun making it which means I probably didn't do a lot of frogging, some squares make me uneasy when I look at them and when I try to think why I am sure it is because I had a hard time making them with lots of ripping and mumbling under my breath. For a while I thought I didn't like the colours of the Grandmas heart (24, coming soon), but I have realised it is not the colours but my memories of making that square which colours my feelings about the the square and my colour choices.... But anyway, I like the colours in this one, but once again I think *Kio's square is more interesting, I LOVE her colour palette. The greens really look like some soft sea but if you look at my colours there aren't that many differences, she has both the dark and light turquoise whereas I only used a little of the dark one. My main colour is purple and hers is two green tones alternating with some other soft hues in-between. *Kio's square is soft as I said and mine is more demanding. Very interesting I think.

*Kio's square.

Again this square was 31 grams and  21x21 cm and finished in about four hours.

I think this would be a great potholder, just add a plain back to it.

A Happy Hooker Hooked on Yarn

Remember I started a new cardigan and dress? Then I ran out of yarn on both?! Luckily my LYS had the dark pink for the cardigan but I needed to get into town to buy more of the light pink and so I asked Mister M nicely if he wanted a happy wife and he did. He was going to town anyway to go to the movies. 

It was a bold move because Mister M is not the best with colours, but I gave him the dress for comparison and he came back with the right colour. He was lucky though because for some reason there was only one shade of pink in the shop, last time there was four different pinks so he didn't really have any other colours to choose from.

And I was very lucky since he came home with six balls of yarn and I didn't need that much yarn so now I can make another dress and perhaps a baby blanket although I might need more yarn if I start a blanket;)

I gingerly continued on both the dress and cardigan with a goal to finish within the weekend, but with a girls night out, book reading and housework I didn't finish. But I did have a lot of fun on Saturday with friends and reading on Sunday with Mister M in the rain, and we actually managed to take a small walk between showers.... 

(I haven't finished all the June books yet, I am on the last one so that post will have to wait, and there is no Bunday post since it was all thunder and lightning yesterday so we didn't watch TV or sit on the computer all day, sorry E2 who I know loves bunday posts)

but I finished the dress tonight, and a small baby bonnet by Marumin Crochet.

The colour in this picture is off. I made chains to make the thread at the bottom to use up this scrap of yarn, but I still have a tiny bit left, so I may have to make another bonnet. I used a 4 hook, but I think a 3 would have been better, so I had to stop sooner than the pattern said.

I used Søstrene Grenes bomuldsgarn in cotton. Almost three balls for the dress and bonnet I think, will weigh them later. Next time I want to make the shoulder part open and add buttons for closing so that it will be easier to put on and take off. And I am not too sure about the trebles (US), I think it would look nicer in dc's... I used dc in the scallops both on the shoulder trim and bottom of the dress. I love the pattern though and hope to find someone who can wear it. But it would be a nice baby gift so maybe I will just put it in the box. 

And I am on the last arm on my cardigan so that might be finished soon too. You might be getting sick of all this baby stuff, but I am crocheting other things too, honest, just that those things are Christmas presents so I can't show them off yet... ;)

So toodeloo from a happy hooker who might be a little yarnoholic.

Bunnies are happy too and say hello, they are still molting.

The dress weighs 89 grams and the bonnet 29 grams. So it was after all good that Mister M came home with six balls of yarn and not just two as requested.

I will calculate my in and out yarn input sometime later this week, so stay tuned, have I managed to use up any yarn? Or is my running out of yarn and having to buy more ruining everything?

Finished Friday, rebels and buns

Remember I was busy making baby clothes for a gift for little Maru-chan who was born in May, I made booties, a blanket and four bibs and since I finished the Flower Power Cardigan too last Saturday I included it in the gift (with a vintage Postman Pat book) for the next day because we were invited to meet the baby and see the adults and we got cake the next day^^ The parents said they loved the present but because I finished just the day before I forgot to measure how much I used, I know I started one ball of new dark pink and used a little on the next ball and a tiny bit lighter pink... So I am guessing about 60 grams... And three shiny new pink buttons from my LYS. Little Maru-chan looked super cute in her clothes but I do think wool is a bit hot for summer but you never know, for the past week it has been mostly raining. But I would gladly make another when she is too big for her gift;)

 I felt inspired and started another Flower Power cardigan from the book Cute and Easy crocheted Baby clothes by Nicki Trench, and would you know I ran out of yarn :S 80 grams of dark pink, so I started a dress, but what happened? I ran out of yarn again, at 80 grams again, so I need to buy more yarn... Shoganai yo.

So I did. I went to my LYS, in the rain and got soaked.

#yarnaddict

And I got the last two balls of this colour and I will finish my cardigan, I also bought four tiny pink buttons. I wonder what kind of finish I will do on this. The original has flowers, so either that or a pocket I think. But I haven't bought any more of the pink cotton because then I have to go out of town, so maybe next week, unless I can bribe Mister M to go yarn shopping for me;)

In other news, the bunnies, and mostly Mimle is molting again...

The blob to the right is Valmin and the one on the left is Mimle and just one session. They both hate brushing so i try to pluck whilst petting which sort of works better for us at least... But they are still at the point where they run away from me if I come close with a determined look. I swear those bunnies are mindreaders and always know what I am up to.

Also I am a rebel. Using my clothes pin for taco spices on my tea and sporting a Christmas towel in July. But it is Jul-i-gjen i Juli so there, a bad joke for you Norwegians.