Wedding Blanket Squares Thirty-One

We are getting closer to the end, this pattern is another one that is no longer available for free, but as with Firenze I made it anyway following the photo tutorial here since I really liked the pattern and wanted the wedding blanket have something that would bind the flower and sea motifs together with a lovely waterlily.

Waterlily by Julie Yeager

I love waterlilies, when I was younger my grandparents cabin had a small lake where we used to row a lot, and I remember the waterlilies and it fascinated me how long their stems were, they seemed to go on forever...

Me and my mother out rowing on the lake one summer, I was allowed to row the smaller boat out by myself but I didn't have a photo of that nearby so you get this little gem. I loved rowing and today Miss Evi and I went to the gym and I did some rowing there and I had a lot of fun but there were no waterlilies there.

Mimle for size comparison, both bunnies were super interested in the blanket and had their opinion about where the squares should be placed, obviously we didn't listen XD

It does look like a waterlily don't you think? And I could not resist using the dark green to make a leaf and some purple and white for the flower on top of the turquoise water.

I want to go rowing again, I wish I had a lake to do so in, and a boat.

 Waterlily had a lot of interesting stitches and I had to keep my tongue in check whilst reading the walkthrough, I have no idea how well the pattern is written, but I had to frog this a couple of times and start over, I might have fudged some parts but I was adamant to finish this as I loved it so, since this pattern is no longer free it is on my to-buy-list, I just have to wait a little longer as we spent rather a lot in Japan XD

The wedding blanket finished, can you spot the waterlily?

Thrifting Tuesday

Last week I spent at my mothers and I helped her clear out some clutter and things we didn't need anymore to give away to the flea market. And we filled two cars and the flea market came and picked up some furniture and my old bike and things like that.

After we had been so good clearing out so many things we decided to take a small trip to the flea market and look. After all it is somewhat of a tradition for us.

And so we did.

And we had a lot of fun, I came home with a bag full and my mother was really good and only came home with a small hand sewn table cloth in Hardanger.

I bought some yarn

And got some pottery, a tea bag tray, a suger cup like I have been looking for, a tray from Japan for our sushi, four green cups for a friend and a small horse.

Just like the one we had in my childhood Christmases, my mother broke it and I felt heartbroken. But now I have my own. I will fill it with treats this Christmas. Which is getting closer and closer, need to get a move on with the presents!

Some table cloths, a brown retro Easter one, a set of skin-coloured crochet doilies and a machine made doily in a lovely red shade.

And it all cost me hardly anything. I think we were quite good!

Our house is full of childhood things to go through, but I have been good and went swimming and have take this little teddy out for a walk a couple of times as his parents were unable to.

Wedding Blanket Squares Thirty

Cygnus by Chris Simon

I love my colours in this one, I guess turquoise is a colour family I really like which might have contributed to the slippery slope of actually starting to like green. But anyway, this square was fun and my favourite part is those back loop only that happens at round eight which makes it pop around the turquoise square part.

*Kio's square

Again, our squares look complete different but somehow they match, it might be because we yet again have chosen to switch colours around the same rounds but I don't know.

I look forward to seeing the wedding blanket in the new bedroom of the happy couple once they actually tackle that part of the house, apparently they had already decided on colours before they got the blanket and the colours were blues that matched the blanket. But I love interior decorating so it might not come as a surprise that I wonder how it will look in the interior of the recipients....

Last request, tuesday tunes

The other song from the single I showed last week. I love how the Japanese can have such sad lyrics and happy tunes, and it shows that they are spending money on this group, both videos are stellar.

Namida no request, another cover, this time from The Checkers, an older group of all men.  Another thing I love about Japan is it seems like they don't care that much if the song seems to be made from a male perspective and have girls sing it...

And my new oshi (and mister M's too) is the sax girl, she is adorable and seems smart and talented.

And I really want their shoes XP

Yarn in Japan

Picture taken by Miss Felt.

We spotted some yarn-bombing near Enoshima.

Mister M and I are decluttering and trying to live with not too many things, so when we were in Japan we tried to buy only souvenirs that were useful or edible. One of the things I like to do when I am in a new place is to buy some yarn and make something from it. That way I can remember my trip whilst making the thing and when using it...

So this trip was no exception, since Tokyo is huge we did have some trouble locating places that sold yarn, we where also a bit pressed for time so we needed the stores to be close to one of the places we were going to be at anyway which proved quite a challenge.

On day two of the concert we were at Nakano again and wandering about in their shopping street and randomly chose one of their small exits through sort of a back alley to get to the concert hall. And lo and behold what did I see? Yarn! I was ecstatic, although the yarn were acrylics and huge and cheap and not really what I wanted. And the store didn't seem to sell any more yarn. I sort of thought the yarn was sold at a store that seemed to sell all kinds of cheap objects, like t-shirts and socks and clutter, but then Mister M said that into a small opening there were knitted clothing so maybe there was a yarn store inside?

I was sceptical, it seemed like a private residence, but we entered anyway. Mister M is my hero, because...

.....it was a craft store, and they sold... Sewing supplies. I felt betrayed, but I did ask in my limited japanese (why don't they teach the really important vocabulary like: yarn, knitting, garter stitch, crochet, chunky yarn, thin yarn, pattern or the like in school? I know none of those were in my books at least...), luckily I know that knitting and crochet is ami (as in amigurumi) so I asked if they had any ami-mono, or knitting/crochet things... Whilst doing arm movements as if I was knitting. The lady at the counter was very pleased to tell me we could just take the lift to the fourth floor and the ami-mono would be there! Yay!

She followed us to the lift, pushed the button, made sure we were safely inside and pressed for number four. She waved smiling as the doors closed and we ascended up. I love japanese people, they are always so helpful. 

And I think they were astonished foreigners actually wanted to buy yarn and were not simply lost... As the lady at the maternity clothes store thought, she was adamant that this was a store only for pregnant people and doing the hand movement to show a huge belly and patting it... I said I understood but she still wanted to make sure I knew that store was only for pregnant people... no, I am not pregnant, although she did not know that, I could be pregnant, or I could try to get pregnant or could simply be buying for someone else or for me because I do like maternity clothes since they fit me an all the clothes in Japan were super small. Somehow I have bought several dresses and skirts here in Norway not realising I bought them at the pregnant section. But who cares? Clothes are clothes.

Just look at all that lovely yarn! Rows upon rows of thin crochet yarn in the lushest colours, and then lots of other yarns and hooks and everything you need when you are crochet-crazy.

Btw, the store was playing one of the songs that were going to be in the concert too so I felt like it was divine intervention that helped me find some yarn. ;)

The lady in this floor were trying to understand what we were looking for, now how do you say, I would like to purchase some yarn made in Japan to make a souvenir from my trip? Well, I did my best, and she showed me some yarn, sadly they didn't have Noro yarn, or Noro-san as the clerk said, apparently Noro is rather big in Japan, hence the -san part.

I showed her pictures of my homemade wedding dress, and she oohed an awwed, I told her the pattern was Japanese and that we were on our honeymoon and she said congratulations and I asked if I could take some pictures, which I could.

I loved these cute little homemade things. Maybe I need to buy a water bottle just to make one of these... I wish I could work in a crochet store. Knitting I have no idea what I am doing and since most stores here are both I have put this thought on the shelf. But if I could work on just the floor where the crochet yarn was I think I could do an ok job.

I didn't find any crochet books either, but I am thinking I could ask Miss Felt still in Japan if she can send some to me.

 I never did find any Noro yarn. But I don't care, because I got 25 x3 balls of thin crochet yarn in pink tones and two double hooks.

So that was a little more from our Japanese adventure, but there might be more coming later. I still have plenty to tell you if you are not tired of it yet?

Here are my other Japan posts, the bun-things I bought and the concert I went to and concert stuff I bought.

Fast and easy gifts sort of in the last minute and shameless self promotion

I don't really have anything new and exiting to show, because most of the things I am working on at the moment are Christmas presents, even though we have bought loads there are still plenty to make... And making takes time, even something as simple as a knitted hat.



But I do have another finish here are the headbands I finished for two small boys (well, eleven and nine years old so rather big small boys). I made them simple since I didn't have much time and the boys really don't care that much for soft things. Both are the made the same way, except the darker one is a bit bigger.

Well, anyway, both boys get some money, a star wars rub-on tattoo and a reflective headband. 

When the pattern is simple I think it is important to use some yarn with a flair, and things that glow when the cars drive by so they see you is kind of nifty I think. And maybe the boys think it is kind of cool? I don't know, I have never been a ten-ish year old boy so I have no idea what they think is cool.


I also want to talk about packaging a bit. You know those leftover threads that are too small to really do anything with? I use them to wrap gifts in... And suddenly the two gifts are different.

I do sometimes buy real wrapping thread, but I do think it is somewhat wasteful so I try to buy the paper or twine ones rather than the plastic ones. But I think using up leftovers is nice.

*

How I made these super simple headbands? I can tell you, however remember that I am no knitting expert so these are super easy and don't really need a pattern, but hey, at least then I will know what I did if I have trouble remembering.
These are also so easy that a child can make their own ear warmers, but these boys are even less interested in crafting than wearing something handmade so it is better to make things for them.

I finished one during a movie this weekend so they are easy, fast and fun to do, if you ever need a quick present.

I used a 6mm needle and cast on 10 stitches for the small one and 13 stitches for the slightly bigger one, then I knitted ribbing back and forth for about 30 cm (or as big as the head that will receive the ear warmers) and cast off and sewed the ends together. (If you leave your ends a bit longer than needed you can use them to sew your headband together.) And Voila, a finish or two, in time for autumn and darker days.

Also, don't forget the competition over at gachastitches, you can win both the pattern and a pair of lovely crochet wrist warmers V for finurlig. And there is a free rabbit crochet square pattern up too.






Multe the rabbit is a free pattern, but we at gachastitches are in the process of making a baby blanket using several other bunnies. If you do want to make a bunny blanket using only Multe you can, but here we made a potholder using the pattern...

Multe is Norwegian for cloudberry.

Wedding Blanket Squares Twenty-Nine

Mystery Anticipation by Margaret Mcinnes

 Another week another square, but we are almost done now I think, around ten to go from this cal and then some more that we added, like the letters and heart in the last picture. Here is the whole blanket in case you have forgotten what it looks like^^

I have misplaced my notes so I can't tell you how much it weighed, but it was 21 x 21 as all others and took about four hours. *Kio helped a little with this square as I didn't trust myself in that the white was on top of the other rows... I was so done with frogging that I would rather ask her what she did than try myself and fail.

But can you see the hearts? And that this square is really 3d?

*Kio's square

There wasn't any good pictures of this square, I guess I somewhat forgot, but above the D is *Kio's square, her is in purple and blue tones whereas mine is in green and white, with the darker purple under the white which I think made the white stand out more.

Tuesday Anyway you like it

Dou datte ii no, Country girls.

I love this video and I love the heart sunglasses.

Oops, I may have slightly forgotten what day it was, and I owe you lot a Wednesday Wedding Square too, but in the meantime, listen to another strong single from Country Girls.

With C-ute soon to disband, Momoko is the last of the Hello Project kids and the last of the era I started liking.

Yellow Newbie chan looks really scary at times, but the cameraman sure likes her, but Nanami in purple is my favourite after Momoko. And she plays the saxophone in the other video and I heard she does in the recording too? Also Mister M though she was super funny in the concert (I did too) but with Momochi-senpai guiding this group I am not surprised they are good at talking and being funny.

But anyway, this and it's coupling song Namida no request seems fun and strong and still in the fifties mode which suits them nicely. Look at how much higher heels Momoko has than the kids.

I am thinking Country girls or Kobushi Factory might be my new favourite group after C-ute....

I am not sure who started this picture, so I can't credit them. But this picture makes me sad. Good thing June is still a way off... I sure hope C-ute will go to Europe before they quit so I can go!

Bunday and a post

It is bunday again and time for some shots of the little trolls.

Around the internet I have some friends and one of them were saying she wanted to give away some of her stitching things as she had stopped stitching and I kindly volunteered to receive some and in exchange she will get some Norwegian yarn.

Here is the parcel and Valmin would not leave the box unopened and was giving me the look to get it open.

 He even tried jumping on top of it and scratching it open himself, so I took the hint and started opening it, wondering what on earth this little guy was so keen on.

Nose hard at work.

Come on human, open iiiit!

And inside I could see why he was so interested! Some lovely herbs that smelled wonderful, I almost fancied a bite myself.

But look at all that stuff! Some magazine cut outs with bunnies (I had none of those), some patterns, some small freebie kits, and lots of beads and fabric, thread and thread keepers! 

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I feel like stitching again!

*

Other than that, me and *Kio started doing water gymnastics again this week, we attended a book reading at the local pool which was fun, I had forgotten how much I like Roald Dahl, maybe that will be this months reading (which I have not forgotten, I am just a little behind, more on that soon), Mister M and I did some house chores and started cleaning our new (old) grill and we have watched 3/4 Jurassic Park films.

Also since it is bunday, here was a sweet picture of Mimle with Valmins ear protectively over her head, but I disturbed them so I got this picture instead. But they do look adorable nonetheless.

Also I have started the gifts, you might be wondering why there have been so few post with me ranting about gifts yet, but we did buy loads in Japan, and I have finished quite a few already. But in a few days we will be attending my cousins two boy's birthdays so I needed something quick and fun. I am knitting ear warmers to go with their presents, just because I found some reflective yarn on sale!

I am thinking making a few of these, in varying difficulties, but we will see, I have promised to make some more of those bearded beanies this year so I need to start that soon, I am not the fastest knitter...

The Wedding Blanket Squares Twenty-Eight

Katharine's rose by Melinda Miller

I loved the greens in this, and I particularly like the light green portion with going back into a stitch before, it really makes for an interesting effect, I think it looks like grass.

But the rose itself, well, I had a lot of trouble with that, mine looks completely different from *Kio's and both of ours look different than the cal one. I have no ode which is the most "right" one. Not that it matters. I like my flowers colours but *Kio's shape. But both squares look impressive I think.

This might have taken me about six to eight hours because of all the frogging and doing over I did on the flower, but the rest just whizzed by.

*Kio's square.