Friday catchup and finishing things

I am still busy making more of these Lisbon-times from drops for a special lady's birthday this summer, I hope I will finish, the yarn is a bit of a hassle to work with, but it is so fluffy and soft. I am sure the shawl will look beautiful whilst being warm but still light.

Still chugging along on my ripples baby-blanket, little miss E is already born, so I better finish quickly!

And then there is the finish. I gave my friends a Easter egg (well to be honest it was a yellow paper bag with while dots on it, but it was Easter-y) and in it between some candy and a small handlotion was a crochet basket and bunny eggwarmers also from drops. And, I am quite proud, done all by myself, i read the pattern, and then just knitted and I did not make a single (big) mistake! I think it is time to level up on my knitting adventure!

I have been going to our new shiny library and borrowing loads of books, and crocheting a little and chatting to the friendly librarian. I have no idea how many books I've borrowed this month, but quite a few.  Yesterday I was so into the book I was reading that I did not quite go to bed... Oops.

I had my friends over for an Easter-lunch and Christmas dinner and workshop. We decorated eggs, sowed some seeds in decorated milk cartons. I love doing seasonal things.

 

E and I went to a lecture-thing about Roald Dahl which was very interesting. I am now on the waiting list for his autobiography. 

Oh, and I bought some yarn, I have been quite good lately and not bought a lot, some for specific projects, but this I bought just because. I love the colours.

More finishes

I am still helping my mother with the move and the end is in sight, but that means sporadic blogposts, but here are some finishes... All in knit!

My hands are also slightly sore from the late minute crochet baby blanket I made, so I decided to knit for a while, then maybe I will get a little better too.

For my friends at Valentines, they got a set of mittens each.

But as usual I stared a little late, so they got them first now, oops.

Pluviôse by Solenn Couix-Loarer 

in Blue fabel from Drops and Alpacca from Nille in the purple set. The pattern is really easy, but I thought I could need some pattern reading comprehension and also I made a buttonhole by myself. 

So yay me.

I made a hat for my cousin, here sported by husband, my cousin likes her hats big, so I bought two skeins, I used 54 grams so I made one for myself too.

This pattern is also really simple, but hey, let's do simple for a while and build up my jishin so that I will feel more equipped to tackle more knitting and continue on with my knitting adventure and then one day I will make a dress and some shorts. One day, but the day is getting nearer, I can feel it!

Pink Alpacca from Sandnes I think.

And a picture of the bunnies fighting for resources because that is what they do most days. And molt, and beg for pets when I am going to bed or going out the door. Bunnies!

This months stash busting is in plus, I only bough 600 grams of yarn, but so far I have used up 909 grams... 

Yay me again.

Finished Friday again and more baby gifts

Are you tired of baby-things yet? I hope not, because in my endeavour at getting better at crocheting and designing things I though it good to start small and you don't get any smaller than with baby things...

As I told you earlier, I used one of the baby jackets as size measurements and started on a sort of vest for a baby. It was supposed to be a jacket, but I didn't have enough yarn for the arms and I kind of had no idea how to make it as I wanted so I opted for cute litte wing-like things instead.

Here I am sporting a lovely bracelet of Drops Merino. It was rather useful to hang my yarn on my and when I was halfway through the yarn so it didn't fall off the sofa as often.

#yarnholder

Here I was the other day.

And here it is finished, tadah!

I have no idea what size it is, because small babies are hard to come by for size comparison, but I am guessing 3 month?

As you can see it is pretty much the same size as the jacket. Now it only needs a button and a fastening hem thing. And a baby inside, but for now I will just put it in my baby-gift box and hope someone comes a long to wear it. And in the meantime I am making more clothes so that I will get better at it, because this is rather sorry looking even if it is kind of cute. But hey, I designed it, sort of so I am kind of proud of it anyway.

The jacket weighed 78 and the vest 95, so almost two balls of Baby Merino from Drops...

Now what to make with the leftovers....

Friday Finishes and creative adventuring in a handy dress

After blogging every day for a month I suddenly had trouble thinking about what to say, so I didn't say anything. But now that I have a finish I thought I could talk about that.

My friend *Kio and I are very creative and usually when we spend some time together we start some crazy adventure together with more or less success. This week our adventure resulted in a spur of creativeness and we made a pattern. We are in the middle of making it up and finishing it and making a real pattern and maybe later we can show it to you. When we do it will be found over at our new adventure-land.

This is my finish, all 28 grams of yarn and I do say I like it. Do you? if you would like to make one stay tuned to this space.

In all this creative-ness I have gotten a bit further on some of my more long-term projects, I finished the purple and pink and started on the second purple on the baby bunny blanket. When this baby is done I am hoping that all that Novita Acrylics will be gone. I have found that although acrylics are soft and pretty they are not my preferred yarn so I doubt I will re-stock my acrylics stash anytime soon. But it is good to have another baby-gift ready in case anyone have a kid or two.

Mimle as usual is busy eating. Today we had craftsmen over who worked a little on our porch, they smiled at the buns whilst the buns were a bit shy and hid from the workers and their loud noices and fresh air.

This week we have been busy de-cluttering our house and Mister M's childhood things,  I have been swimming with *Kio and our muscles were not as sore as last time and I spent a day at the library picking out books for this month and sketching my pattern.

 I also had this handy dress to put my yarn in whilst wandering over to talk to the librarian when there were no others there. I wasn't planning on wearing that dress, but when I tried it on I realised it was too small and couldn't take it off so I had to wear it the entire day. Oh well, another thing to donate later and more room for yarn;)

 So very busy indeed, but a very fulfilling week, I hope you will continue with our adventure.

....but I will miss that pocket to stash my yarn in when crochet on the go...

Don't forget my giveaway on Sunday. The chances of you winning are quite high at the moment. All you have to do is to comment on that post. And on Monday I am going out shopping so something more might be added to each prize.

Giveaway Bunday

I finished the A-Z challenge and in the middle of it I realised I had made 555 posts so I thought a giveaway would be in order. You can enter the giveaway by commenting on this post and I will let random decide who wins. I have three different prizes.

The first bundle is two skeins of wool yarn and two alpaca in purple and three buttons.

The second bundle is a Winnie The Pooh cross stitch kit, a Tinkerbell cross stitch kit and a small cross stitch Christmas bell with frame. A scissorfob with scissor, a coaster, a pattern book and some Madeira thread.

The third bundle is a pair of mitts I have crocheted, two balls of Merino Wool from Drops and two red cotton balls from Søstrene Grene, some crochet hooks and a reflector made from in the shape of knitting needles and a ball of yarn.

And I can say I like all the yarns I give away.

I may add more things in the bundles if I find any when I go to the store;)

The giveaway ends next Sunday at midnight.

Just comment on this post.

And I have a finish! Mister M and I walked with our neighbour and his dog today and donated some sheets with holes in them for recycling and I took the opportunity to take some photos. 

This baby blanket weighs 400 g and consists of eight balls of yarn, it is 79x89 cm and is made of acrylics yarn so I have a bit less in my yarn stash now.

 And since it is Bunday, here is where the buns have been napping today, and yes, it is shedding season again, which might not come as a surprise, yesterday it was snowing and today it was hot and shiny at 12 degrees, if the weather can't decide how can you expect the bunnies to know when molting season is over?

Not quite awake, Valmin is even falling to his side a bit, his big head too heavy to hold up.

Look at that big pouffy tail!

And then there is Mimle asleep in her fort, or at least she was sleeping until I ruined her nap. Look at that disapproving glare I am getting.

Good Luck!

Back to normal

Now that Easter is over I can tell you that I did finish my goals, and you might know how I like to make myself goals and some of the time actually finishing them. But I have gotten better at making goals that I can finish so that might be it. I finished my Florida shrug, did a bunch on my knitting adventure, was social, read four books and spent lots of time in the sofa with Mister M and the buns.

But look, it is finished. It weights 111 grams so I did get to use up some of my acrylics that was leftover from my pink granny square blanket.

Pattern here.

Today I also went to my LYS for their opening, the paper was there too. I got some balls of yarn on sale that I wanted to start a shawl with and I wanted to have one with changing colours and shockingly I didn't have any in my stash so it was good the store had some for sale.... (excuses, excuses, I would have found some way to justify any yarn I bought)

I love zombies, this was a picture from a friend of Mister M where we were social this easter you know but I forgot to show you then.

And another reason I sort of had trouble keeping with my one in two out yarn policy: My friend *Kio came by with some leftover yarn for me...  Over 350 grams and with the yarn I got from Mister M for our anniversary and the yarn I bought on sale for the kitties in a row blanket I have so much yarn I can't see that I can make twice as much as I've gotten in this year. Hehe. But I will still try.

Here is my ongoing Knitting Adventure. I L O V E the colour in this, and the price was awesome if you remember, 30 kr for two balls of 100 grams, they are on sale on Panruro now too, 50 kr for one ball of 100 grams of yarn, you can see why we couldn't pass the opportunity when it was presented?

 I still have plenty of yarn before I start the decrease and it is already longer than the orange one, so using a bigger needle really did do the trick, I can't wait to start the next one.

Bunnies are napping as usual.

*

And I have joined the A-Z challenge.

Half past supper and a finish sort of Finnish and a start again

 Well I did finish the bunny blanket yesterday! And I only had a little of the middle pink yarn left! Yay me!

 (But there is still plenty hot pink left...)

So today I made a small border of single crochet all around and declared the blanket was finished!

The size is 103X63 cm so more than enough for either a baby or a lapghan.

I used this pattern and the yarn was a Finnish acrylic yarn I bought in Sweden about five years ago (so that is how long this poor blanket has been neglected) called Helen by Novita.

 (why I only find Finnish yarn in Sweden and Swedish yarn in Finland I have no idea, the grey yarn I thought was Finnish that I bought in Finland called Ville Viking is actually Norwegian but exclusively sold in Finland, very confusing I know...)

Valmin on the blanket for size comparison.

The blanket weighs 534 grams which means I can now buy 10 skeins of wool yarn for my kitties in a row afghan. 

I haven't stretched it or anything yet so I hope it turns a bit more symmetrical after that but honestly I am just happy I finished it.

And I remembered I could download the pattern onto my iPad and use that to finish so I didn't have to wait until M bought more ink for the printer which I feel a little ashamed I didn't think of sooner, hehe. *sweatdrop*

 But the bunny looks good, I am really loving this pattern, it is the yarn that irks me, I have to have the TV on quite high so I don't hear the yarn squeek whilst I am crocheting because that is so bothersome.  Now I remember why I hate acrylic yarn. Too bad I still have 13 skeins of it....

I know I used the grey to make a Stark Trek ship for M. So if I have any left when I am done I will perhaps make another...

You may ask when you are done with what? Aren't you done with the bunny blanket? Well, yes, I am, but I kinda started another and I hope to use up the rest of the acrylic yarn too. Oops, atleast until I can go to the shop and buy the yarn for that other blanket I started, which I am hoping means I can buy 23 skeins of yarn... *Drool... more yarn....*

Tada, I made another start

Bunnies are appalled by my lack of will power and bending of rules and whatnot. 

- Did you hear that Valmin, yesterday she said she would finish two things before starting one, but she clearly did not. Humans are so dumb. Why do we even keep them?

- They have the food dear.

- Right, where is my supper? It is clearly half past supper already!

Tjuende Desember

Yeah, again with the cakes for breakfast, since it is the last Sunday in advent I took out my Christmas mug, today my tea was green with cinnamon, ginger, rose and peppermint.

M went out into the wilderness AKA his parents yard and cut down a three for us. I am sure the bunnies will love it because it is for chewing.

I finished TWO presents today which I am wildly proud of. The last washing cloth for my aunt and the first pair of wrist warmers. So today we have been mostly making our guest room ready for a guest, making presents and wrapping presents.

Sorry about the blurry photo, but holding the iPad whilst trying to push the button was hard. But it is finished, and this was the hardest of them all with a very slow-going pattern.

There is only four days left until Christmas, and I have four presents left to make, think I will make it?

But at least one of the people will get a pair of wrist warmers;)

Niende Desember

Today's tea was delicious, black tea with cinnamon, ginger,cardamom, cloves, nutmeg, pepper, orange peel, vanilla and apple. I like vanilla.

I didn't really sleep much last night, so today I have basically sat on the sofa all day trying not to fall asleep, I think I need to capitulate soon XD

But I was a bit productive!

I finished the last of the hats, fixed the threads after i took the picture of course and forgot to take a proper photo. But you can really see the cat ears in this one, here is the pattern if anyone wants to give it a go. This is the third hat I make out of this pattern, really easy, looks good and takes about an evening, at least when you have co-operating fingers.

Speaking of co-operating fingers, on Monday I did water gymnastics, and last time I was sore for a week, this time, nothing. Maybe because there was a different program or I didn't give it my all. It was hard though.

 I made ten hats this year, four crocheted and six knitted.

Also I can see I am getting better, yay me.

And I have another semi-finish! One half of a pair of mitts, or wrist warmers, this time I tried to make a half thumb. I got the pattern from somewhere, if I find it I will share it, but I think it is on the iPad and I am on the computer... But I have heftily modified it, but honestly I think it looks really good. Making the body took forever though, so I hope I have time to make another, it is not really good etiquette to give away half a present is it? Unless the recipient only needs one mitt?

I have two more pairs of wrist warmers to go, although keeping with tradition I could finish the one for my cousin next year, since he is getting his hat from last year this year?

And I must confess making proper knitted mittens is alluring, but I must be strong, knitting still takes me forever and I won't have time to make the rest if I start any knitting gifts (other than the last knitted wash cloth that is). Although apparently when you master socks, mittens are pretty much the same, so next year, next year I will make socks and mittens!