Finished, and I did it yet again

Remember I told you I was set for the baby shower? I was, and I intended not to start anything else because there was four days left until the big day. And then I was myself, and I sort of started another baby blanket. But I did finish in time. Crocheting the last stitches before I went to bed and ironing it minutes before I had to leave...

I made 20 of the Victorian Lattice square by Destany Wymore.

I managed to make them all and a border in four days, my finger is still hurting.

So this week i have been only knitting.

The border is a simple sc row and then a dc row and lastly I made a scallop edge of three chains and two dc stitches in the same stitch, skip three stitches and repeat all the way around.

I was in such a rush that I forgot to take a picture before I gifted the blanket so blocking pictures will have to suffice.

Husband and bunnies helped me with the arrangements, in the end we decided on the five colours used the same in each row but not in the same place.

I bought a matching bag and gave the blanket with the dress and bonnet and the mother to be was happy. I hope the dress fits.

30x24 cm big and 304 grams of Drops Baby Merino.

I loved the pattern, and after I had made just one I knew the pattern by heart. It was a fast, but easy square to do and it looks very nice. I am contemplating making use of some stash alpaca yarn and make myself another blanket, in pinks and purples... I just have to make a practise square to see of it looks as good in alpaca as it does in wool...

Friday Finishes

Another week another Friday, another finish.

Another one of our friends is having a baby and the baby shower looms even closer, the mum-to-be has made a wishlist and on that list were wool clothes, so I whipped out my trusty hook and made a matching set for the little bump. 

Dress pattern found here and bonnet pattern found here. 

I have made both the dress and bonnet before, but then in pink and cotton and the mother wanted not pink and not cotton so I had some fun and made another one. This time I added a little decorative collar in a very pale yellow to the dress and kept the front a bit more open and added a lady-bug-button. I hope the mother will like it. And I hope I don't start something new with the leftover yarn (almost two balls left, plenty to make matching blommers or booties) because the date of the baby shower looms ever closer.

I am trying to stay strong, but just look at these cute little clothes...

They would look good with the rest of the gift. 

Wooly britches by Jennifer Halsted

Lucy Layne Sweater by Betty Fay Wallace

Friday finished

I was gone for a bit these past few days and these guys do not approve. Mimle keeps hovering over me to make sure I am ok, but I smell weird so they would rather not I touch them, but don't worry bunnies, I will shower soon and then I will smell like me and not the hospital! 

And then there better be bunny kisses is all I am saying. 

And we have rather bought the best bunny present for Christmas this year so they better be good.

Also I have a finish as after all that is what Friday's are for,

the lizard shawl,  Which I started way back in March, then it looked like this:

I bought some balls of yarn on sale when my lys started out but I know I have added quite a few more balls of yarn since crochet always consume more yarn than you think...

I did some #crochetonthego in Japan on the Shinkansen.

Crocheting while waiting at the dentists office soon it was growing so much I couldn't take it out of the house anymore...

And then it was done, I added two rows of sc instead of just one but it was still more a ball of something crocheted than a scarf. So I started blocking. One section that could fill my blocking quilt at a time.

And it went from this...

...to this...

 to this, all done, blocked an ironed and modelled on my pretty haired friend who matched her outfit quite coincidently with my finished object. ..

I love the variegated thread. Viking Frøya in colour 274.

243 grams, so five balls of yarn.

It is quite long, longer than my arms when I stretch them out I think, I like the effect of this pattern and it was easy to follow but somehow it didn't really flow all that well for me. Perhaps it would be better in a different yarn? But I am quite happy with it and now that something is finished I can start something new with a clear conscience.  

and I feel a lot better now and am healing quite well so I guess I will be back into mischief with the bunnies soon.

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.

Painted Finishes

It is Friday again and Mister M has finally started his vacation so this post comes a bit late, but better late than never. This week I want to show my finished painted doll cradle which is about fifty years old that I recently got from my mother. 

Here it is in our house and as you can see the colour is a bit dark and faded and my mother and I agreed it needed a new colour.

I have started using it for yarn, and here is the haul from this summer. Drops had a sale, first on wool and then on cotton, but now I might have enough for a while. Maybe:P

Some of these balls belong to *Kio and gacha stitches.

So here it is finished, with a very light purple, I think it might have benefitted with a bit more colour and a bit less white in it, but I still like it. When alone it looks white, but put it next to some purple or white and you see that it is indeed purple.

And my stash has decidedly decreased. Although I must confess not all of the yarn has been used yet, I have used about ten balls and given *Kio around ten that was hers.

What do you think about the colour?

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.

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.

Superstars and Cannonballs and Friday

TGIF!

It is Friday! And I do have a finish...

I made this bolero, in Viking Nordlys, I bought a 100 gram ball at the old local shop which started selling yarn after we moved. Buu. This bolero used up 66 grams, so I have some left, I wanted to make one for me, but this is too tight a fit, so my plan is to buy some more of the same yarn and use this as a template to make one in my size.

So now the question is if it is a size XS of a child's size... Do I know any children this would fit? Not really. But it was a fun make, I made it with a 4 hook and spent two evenings on it.

I should have made more Maybelle flowers those nights, but my finger was a bit sore from using such a small hook so I took a break. But I do think I have tripled my flower yield since I picked them up again. 88 flowers done now and since I only had 17 when I picked them up I am quite pleased. If I can make 16 flowers out of every skein I will have 256 flowers when done and that might me enough...

Although not if the yarn continues to be stupid, here I had to cut off almost a meter because one of the threads was cut off and made knots at each end.

#Stupid yarn!

Here is what I bought at the MiddelalderFestival we were at on Sunday in the rain, a small beautiful little basket that my flowers have already grown out of...

And I have used up another two colours on my stash busting acrylic baby blanket the light blue and pink at the left end were done yesterday. But Nille where I bought the yarn are saying most Nille stores now have discontinued the yarn so I guess I can't buy any more blue and it will become a mostly pink blanket since I still have a lot of that... And I wanted a candy themed blanket with soft colours of all kinds.... I guess I have to look around for some more blue...

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.