The excited knitter...

And how to avoid becoming one...

What's wrong with being excited... nothing really. It's just that I see a lot of knitwear design intended for people who knit them self, that are just too much and why is that ? Well a lot of knitters are quite interresting people who wants patterns, colours and interesting techniques. But will it be wearable, or did they get carried away when choosing yarn and design? Just a quick look around Ravelry always makes me wonder... Not a lot of wardrobe stables there. That's sad... I myself am trying not to become to excited, and think more in the sense of knitting for wearing... Its a luxury to have a basic silver grey cardigan in cashmere...so why not knit that !?

A knitwear designer that does a fine job is Helga Isager. I like they way that her designs are understated but still very interesting. Her designs feels very finished like she has looked at it over and over... asking herself: "Is this it ? Is it they way it should be? Would I wear it? and what will it look good with ?". To me it seems she is a person interested in fashion and design in general, and it shows.

I have never knitted any of her designs since I mostly make my own designs, but she is a great inspiration for how I think it should be done. One day I have to knit one of her designs just have to decide which one...

Her fall collection is beautiful and it only makes me smile when I read any criticism about her designs being boring. She is very much a nice fresh breeze so needed in the danish world of knitwear design.

she applied for the danish school of design and was rejected, and just started on her own. I would love if her collections would include sewn pieces. I am sure she would do a fine job. in some of her past collections she had some clothes but I never really figured it out... Was it something one could buy? And where ?...





Here is a little look at some of the swatces I have made and my quick little sketches done with a child in my arms ( So please don't be too hard when judging them... )

Another thing that has been very much on my mind... Does knitter think about the fact that when knitting they are actually knitting a fabric. Do they ask the question how does it feel?, how will it drape ?. Does the thickness and warmth fit to the design? It doesn't really make sense to knit a sleeveless top in thick wool. It might look good but is not functional.

There are so many patterns available for knitters (Go buy Barbara Walkers books on knitting patterns...) Every single pattern does something special to all these things mentioned. Some patterns are thick and sturdy but still very open in the knitting like a lattice. So it is thick but will not drape but hold its shape like corrugated cardboard. It will look sturdy but not at all keep the wind. Do I make any sense? So now it is time to mention the most important thing in knitting a garment...swatching

Here is what Barbara Walkers write in "Treasure of Knitting Patterns - Volume 1":

"Even the best of illustrations are often deceptive , and no one can visualize the total effect of a pattern by reading it, any more than the reading of a recipe can give you the exact taste of the finished dish. it is essential to see and feel a knitted pattern before you really know how, or whether to use it."

I find that something as simple as choosing different gauge for plain stocking stitch can make a big difference and be used for great effect in the final piece.




My last word today is going to be from Barbara Walkers:

"So-don't just knit something. Knit something beautiful."

Having a baby with colic...

I am so happy. We have the most wonderful healthy little baby girl. Being pregnant makes you worry... Will this baby be just another normal baby ? And of course she is just fine... BUT, She has colic...! The first three months was horrible, now it is tolerable, and it seems as if she is doing better every.

That's not really serious stuff, but it can make you rather insane. She has been crying in my arms a great part of the day.

That is quite a test for someone who doesn't like to get her mind and hands kidnapped ( If you know what I mean...). So how did I deal with that ? I got myself some earplugs since my singing would help not only Dea but also me to calm down. I tried using a sling but it still couldn't really free my hands since she moved too much around. so there was not much to do, I just had to accept the situation.

But I did find a way to cope with some of the boredom... My mood board... I simply put up little notes and ideas, make a couple of sketches and look at combinations of colours. Then when walking around I have this visual extension of my brain to look at. So I spend my time walking, organizing and planning what to do when life gets back to the normal. I change it all the time and let's just say I think my future projects will be very well planned...

Today I have to go out, get myself a pair of Birkenstocks to wear in the apartment while carrying her because my feet and legs are really hurting.

Grey Cardigan...

Sorry, I have been gone for a while, but my computer crashed, not really a big problem since I had just made a backup. But you see the screen was a bit broken from one side and therefor could not be closed, and I had to make a decision. Get a new one or try to repair and re-boot the old one. After a bit of asking around, I decided It was time to get a new one. So I did and here we are...

Right now I am mending a cardigan. A cardigan that I never blogged about, but as you can guess, I have been wearing it a lot.




The design is a simple yoke cardigan with a not too narrow opening at the neck. The yarn is Supersoft bought as Holst Garn here. The main colour is silver grey and the yoke is made with a lot of shades of green. While knitting with two colours on the same row I used both continental knitting and English knitting. It takes a little practise but really makes two colour knitting easier and more fun... Thank you Elisabeth Zimmerman...




All in all it was very pleasant knitting project. It had a perfect ease for wearing over a thin cotton T-shirt and it still looks okay and well fitting. Now when my waistline is showing again I might knit a little belt in some of the green shades and maybe even one in silver grey.

Something about taste...

I don't like dark chocolate... or let's say I used to not like dark choolate, but now I do... I guess it's what they call an aquired taste... We all know that it is important to let children taste a lot of different things, so they will develope their sense of taste. But really, it shouldn't stop there... I am 40 years old and I am still capable of aquiring new tastes... that's not a bad thing.

I am a coffee person but still I know that there are so many interesting tasty teas out there, and I would like to develop my tasteskills in that field. A good way to do that is to buy these little tins with just enough tea to get to know the taste.

And yes, the cans are beutifull and as empty, they are perfect for storing earrings.

Lots of earrings...

I have a tendency to complicate things just a bit... Or so it might appear to other people. That's, not really what I think... As a matter of fact, I want to simplify things and in order to do that I need to know everything about the subject in order to extract the important stuff. For me that's a good way to work, but lets face it, once in a while it can be really nice to just do something without thinking too much. My father use to have this cap with the text " get the job done ". So one day I let that be the motto and decided to make some earrings for myself. I am not an expert at this, but should that stop me... no... I sat down and created a bunch of earrings thinking I might use some of them a lot, other less and some I might even never wear, but for now don't think about it... just get the job done... Now it is time to wear them and maybe make some alternations down the road.




They are a combination of pearls, semi precious stones, and some beads, my parents have brought home from their holidays. I made most of the hooks myself and hopefully in the future they will be the base for some ceramic earrings, because thats really what all the tools and wire is for... good to make some practical test on myself... like will they get angled in my hair ? ( I hate that ) How easy are they to put on ? and will they be irritating when taking a nap in the middle of the day ( The one you never have the time for anyway... ) ?









So that was that... one day with earrings... no more no less.

So it WAS Christmas...

And what happened ? I guess December just goes by so fast. It seems the same thing is happening with the month of January, so who ever it is that has pushed the time accelerator, please slow it down...

I am not much of a Christmas decorator. I normally just put up some extra candles and light chains, and allow myself to splurge in fresh flowers.

But as we all know, kids love Christmas and they also love decorating, so I decided to put up a "tree" in the kids room. The idea was to make some ornaments with Seth and put that on the tree together with all the stuff he brings home from kindergarten. It was perfect. We only made what time allowed, and avoided any Christmas stress.

It started out with the mother approaching it the aesthetic way, and since she believes in not controlling kids too much, she let the child colour the leaves green, which of course ended with the child who( luckily has his own ideas ) went to get his other crayons and coloured them blue, and suddenly decided to draw some boats... I mean boats... just can´t seem to find the Christmas connection.... or is it just me...?

Now the "tree" has been taken down and a new year has started. Happy New Year everyone...

In the storage room we keep a giant roll of sturdy drawing paper, which is great for projects like this. I will let this be a reminder to never put anything on that wall, so other projects like making background for his kitchen/shop or theater will be possible.

So it is Christmas time again...

I am not a huge fan of Christmas decorations. Don't get me wrong, I love entering other peoples homes decorated with candles and ornaments, but in my own home I get frustrated, it gets in my way: I have to move it all the time to wipe the table or to get some space for work. And those fresh pine branches has a tendency to start looking very sad and dusty in few days. I would rather treat myself with more fresh flowers and leave the pine outside... preferable with snow on them. But then there are the kids and of course we have to have a calender candle for countdown to the big eve. very stylized and simple things don't seem to look good here anymore. Somehow it makes our home look like we need to clear the floor for toys, the tables for yarn, fabrics and other rather colourful things. So for the decoration to blend in it has to have some of the same ( rather casual ) feeling...




So, I took a trip around the house and collected one of the old red tea tins from the kitchen, some toys from Seth's room, and some porcelain mushroom and plastic berries, I had bought a couple of days ago.

That's when I had the idea. Maybe after Christmas I should keep the decoration things inside the tea can for next year, and since I have one more of the tea cans I could make one for Seth and one for Dea and let them have some of their small toys or even a pacifier that they don't use anymore.Inside the tin could also be a little piece of paper telling the story about each of the things. If I do that the same way every year they might get that sentimental Christmas feeling about it, and isn't that what it is all about...

This year it has a spinning top bought for Seth on a holiday in Sweden, a little wooden tree from his railway set, a green pipe cleaner bought for making his
costume last years local spring feast (Shrovetide), and a little snowman that was part of a snowman bowling set (sic!!) that came as freebie with his weekly Donald Duck.

Taking a stroll...

During the pregnancy, one of the things I was looking so much forwards to, was taking a stroll with baby Dea. I have such good memories of walking with Seth. It really feels good after all these hours, I have spend during my pregnancy, lying on the coach with no energy and the constant nausea... I always bring coffee, or (since this is my second child and time is not plenty) get a coffee to go and lucky for me, a coffeeshop making the best café latte ( Illy ), is just around the corner. Very often the destination is the local library. Often I leave home in the morning and return mid afternoon. Once in a while John calls me... "is everything all right ?" he says ... Oh yes, I am more than fine... He still finds it hard to believe that anyone finds walking to be such a pleasure... Some of my friends might be quite surprised if they read this as I am known for getting a little irritated when the `"lets take a walk..." thing comes up. But it is not really true. I realize now that normally I walk a lot while working in the studio and I often have my coffee outside, so fresh air and physical activity fills plenty in my life.




The pram is from an old friend ( thank you Kirsten... ) who bought it back in the 80´s for her son . The fabric of the hood had very 80´s like pastel coloured flowers which was not really my thing, so when we had Seth, I painted it and treated it with leather grease. It was fine, but after 3 years of intense use, it was not any more in a good shape. The colour had faded and it even had a hole in the hood. And this is how my brain works... off course I will just make a new one... How difficult can it be...? I will just take it apart and figure out how it was made. When one starts a project like this, you take the first step ( which in this case involved my father and extremely many tools... ) and then there is really no way back. At the same time I had the nausea to deal with. During a week when the nausea was not too bad, I finished sewing the hood. Then time went by ( with me lying on the couch ) and finally two weeks before due day it was time to mount the hood to the pram...




That's when the trouble started... Lesson number one... When one starts a project of this kind, finish it when everything is fresh in your mind and you can actually remember how to put this thing together. ... my father helped me, but all the time we ran into problems, most of them dealing with how to fix the fabric to the table when we were working on it. All the time my belly got in the way, I got frustrated ( read hysteric ) and we quarreled like fathers and daughters can do. At the same time we cracked up in a big laugh, since the situation was rather bizar...

All in all we succeeded. The pram looks beautiful and gets lots of comments on our strolls, but I am happy I don't have to do it again...




Now it is time for a walk...

Meet Dea...




Here she is 3 weeks old, and tomorrow she will be 4 weeks old. In one way it seems as if she was born yesterday and in another it seems as if she has been with us all the time.

She was born the 28 th of September, 6 days later than expected. Her weight was 4040 g. and her length was 55 cm.

This first month has been hectic. All of us are trying to get accustomed to the new situation. It sure feels a lot different to get the second child than the first one. This little girl has a very different temperament than her big brother, and as a baby, she demands a lot more attention than Seth ever did... But she is just so wonderfull. I still remember that moment two days after giving birth to Seth, when I looked into his yes and fell completely in love. The same thing happened with Dea.

I have spend this first month trying to fix some of those things that weren't taken care of during my pregnancy... and believe me, that's a lot of boring and not quite bloggable stuff... But I have to tell you that life feels wonderfull again. For the last months of my pregnancy the hyperemisis got really bad again, but that is all history now, and the coffee tastes good again, I can cook and is no longer haunted by strange smells.

My Christmas present...



Yes, I know this is a little late...

There are parts of my personality that is not concidered paticularly normal feminine features... one is : I don't know how to multitask... Once in a while I am incountered with a male person saying "you can do that you are a woman and multitasking is just your thing..." But no, I can't... I stick to one thing at a time, I focus and concentrate... Another is : I like gadgets. Not mobile phones ( They bore me crazy, and normally I have a hard time to remember to bring it with me, which is kind of the idea with a MOBILE phone ). But give some specific tool for the kitchen, my studio or even plain woodworking tools and I am thrilled.

This christmas I got an e-book reader... The kindle... And I was one happy girl. I spend hours reading the manual and testing and trying all kind of things. Now half a year later The things I partivularly like about this kindle is, that it has not a light screen. It uses the rather new technology called digital ink, which makes it possible to read outside in bright sunshine and also makes it very little powerconsuming ( It only uses pover when "turning pages" ). The result is this thin, cool to the touch 280 gram book, that can contain up to 1500 books. The digital ink, It is not (yet) in colour and therefor not particularly good to use for beautiful artbooks and other graphic heavy books, but for reading it is eminent and leaves you with a nice relaxed feeling of reading, that a computer just doesn't provide. But if you want to read about all its features, go check out Amazons Kindle website




I wanted to make a soft cover to protect my kindle, so I can have it in my bag and bring it with me everywhere. Some years ago I made a big piece of felted wool by knitting a big loose piece in Shetland wool on my knitting mashine. I washed it in the washing machine, and voila, I had the nicest thick piece of felt. I thouht that it would be great for this project. It was very easy and quick to make and I like the way the edges of the felt will soften over time. It has allready rounded the buttonhole to a nice teardrop shape. The big button is one I found secondhand and I sewed it to the cover with a thich warm yellow piece of cotton thread. I like the combination grey- yellow a lot. I made a tiny little bag for holding the cords and headphones ( I also use my Kindle for listening to podcasts...) I have made quite a few of these little bags, but seems never to have have eneough... I always make them with dobble fabrics, since it give it a not so floppy feeling. I always make the inner fabric white, since it just makes it a lot easyer so find the things inside than if the lining was dark. It has a dobble string system so opening and closing it is really easy.




These small, practical, pretty and nice-feeling solutions really make me happy and I am so glad, I finally got the time to treat my kindle with respect...