There are more important things than mittens...

... but this December has been unusually cold, and mittens are crucial. I also got two mitten books for Christmas (well, one of them was from myself...).

So here we go:

"Norske vottar og vantar" by Annemor Sundbø - a gift from my in laws (they might be getting mittens for next Christmas..)

I modified the pattern on the front page of the book, Fuglevott i fargar, to fit a child. I'm quite happy with how they turned out. The fit my big handed five years old. I used Gjestal Superwash Sport, Gjestal Vestlandsgarn, and Gjestal Østlandsgarn from my aunt's stash. Details on Ravelry.

Most of the patterns in the book are copies of old mittens from Annemor Sundbø's collection. Some are modified patterns from machine knit mittens, others are direct copies from handmade mittens.

The book is full of inspirational photos and text, and there are several patterns I'd like to knit, like the Fugl Fønix, Olivenvott and Damevott med liljer.

Some of the patterns are also found in Terri Shea's book about Selbu mittens. Among them the Hugin and Munin mitten, that comes both in child and adult size. Most of the mittens only have one size. I would have liked more details about the sizing of the mittens. There is a list in the book, but it would be nice to see the measurements for each pattern, I believe. And as Pinneguri wrote on her blog a while ago, the patterns could have gone through a better tech editing.

But all in all, it's a very nice book, agreable to look in, with pretty lay out. But if you never have knitted a mitten before, you should probably choose a different pattern. And so far the book is only available in Norwegian. Here are my Hugin and Munin, btw, almost finished:

Details on Ravelry. For some reason, the pattern on the palm is not symmetrical (probably because the original mitten did not have a symmetric palm pattern.) I don't always love symmetry, but when it comes tom mitten palm pattern, I generally prefer symmetry. Here, accidentally, I made a mistake on the 2nd mitten. The result was a symmetric palm pattern! So a happy mistake.

Can you see the difference?

I've also casted on for a new pair of Pepperkakevotter. This time with lamb, cat, snail and pig, and a peasant thumb. I'm just about to upload new charts, if you're interested.

The other mitten book is this: Colorwork Creations by Susan Anderson-Freed. I haven't made any of the patterns yet, but there are several lovely ones, I especially like this little fellow.

A Christmas gift, from me to you

There will be a proper pattern later, to buy.

At the moment, I’m giving away the charts for free, for you to play with at Christmas. If you are familiar with stranded colourwork and mitten knitting, you should manage just fine. The cuff has 42 sts. The rest of the mitten 48 sts, so you should increase 6 sts. With my gauge, 24 sts per 10 cm/4 inches, they fit me, woman medium. With thinner yarn they might become nice children mittens. Have fun!

download now

Merry Christmas, everyone!

This looks weird....

Ready to cut the steeks.....

Button solution!

Remember my button problem? I followed Mary Lou's advice, and got new buttons.

The beautiful, vintage, etsy buttons found a new home on my old black coat, in stead of boring black plastic mittens.

Then I needed a hat to go with the buttons - so I made this:

Well, actually I was going to make a small cowl, working in the round. But as I was trying it on, I saw it wanted to be a hat in stead. The pattern was gifted to me through Ravelry from a blog friend, Josefina Knits from Chile. She makes pretty cabled cowls and other accessories - and is looking forward to autumn..

The pompom was quickly made with a little bit of yarn, fork and scissors, learned from EskimimiKnits.

Edited to add information about the cowl/hat pattern: It's Flowers and leaves cowl, by Gabriela Ordenes. She also has an Etsy shop.

Christmas knit along - December

Two gifts in December: Surprise, surprise, two pairs of mittens!

Another pair of Elliphantom's Sprig Mittens. Yarn from my aunt's stash.

And one pair of football mittens, for the local fooball club, Lillehammer Fotballklubb, LFK. Yarn from the same source.

I don't think any of the receivers are following this blog.

Hooray for Free pattern testers group

This must be one of Ravelry's nicest group! I reedited the pattern for the hat I made for my mother last year. And put up a request for test knitting in this group. Within a couple of days I had six test knitters. Some of them have already finished their hats. I decided to make another hat along with my test knitters. Here's my "snow gazing hat". I ran out of green yarn, but I think the blue on the top worked fine.

Here's the big dipper:

And here Cassiopeia, one of my favourite constellations.

The pattern has been updated with one more size, so now you can make it for a toddler and up to adult large.

The pattern is available both in English (Stargazing hat)

and Norwegian (Stjernekikkerlue)

Btw - I didn't get anyone to test knit the Norwegian version of the pattern, so if anyone is interested, just make a comment, send me a Ravelry message or send me an e-mail!

"I think it's more than thousand"

said my five year old. And he was right - there are 1.300 Christmas balls on this year's designer tree at Maihaugen, Lillehammer.

Read about their "Julekuler" book here (in English).

We went to have a look at the traditional Christmas market. It's always nice to visit the market.



Yarn from Leine Merino.

And before leaving, we even had a chance to say hello to Arne and Carlos!

Have a nice weekend, everyone!

Thursday afternoon in Lillehammer

The Christmas decoration is up...
And look who I met...

...Arne from Arne & Carlos and the "julekuler".

Carlos was not feeling well today, so he wasn't there.

And Arne was surrounded by all these elderly ladies, less shy than me,

so I didn't get the chance to say hello.

Never mind, they served waffles...

Btw, I didn't have much time either.

Button problem

The buttons are too heavy... Do you think it will help to add a non elastic button band on the back? As it is now, I can not wear this cardigan unbuttoned...

Icelandic goodies

My parents went to Iceland, and look what they brought back to me:









Létt-Lopi...

Kristin, my mother's friend in Reykjavik, meant I should also try Loðband Einband (Icelandic Laceweight).

I want to go to Iceland too! Maybe next year...

Christmas knit along - N o v e m b e r

November gift for the Christmas knit along: A hat made from my aunt's stash. Pattern from Vogue Knitting/Designer knitting, Fall 2010. "Fair Isle Hat".

This is my thank you christmas present!

I omitted the 2nd leaf motif, as I don’t think my aunt wants such a baggy hat.

Nice pattern - with endless possible colour combos...

"Oda a los calcetines" - Ode to socks

If you've followed my blog for a while, you'll know that I'm not a sock knitter. And I never thought I'd own a sock blocker. But look at this!

The pattern is Pinnguri's Jernverk sokker (Socks Wrought Iron Work).

It's a lovely pattern. I've used sock yarn from Ninukka and Black cat fiber, both Etsy shops. Needle 2 mm (I'm quite impressed by myself, I must admit). But I won't make it a habit....

When the first sock was finished, I felt a sudden and surprising need for a sock blocker, an item I never thought I'd want. I looked around, and I saw that Annepålandet was looking for the same thing. She got several answers, among other a tuorial for making one yourself. But knowing myself, I knew I'd never get around to do that. So I ended up buying from Projo. I actually expected I'd get two blockers for the price, but when I looked closer at the order, it was only one. But I won't be finishing two socks at the same time, I reckon.

The blocker is is quite thick and heavy, so if necessary I can use it as a weapon. A boomerang, maybe...

And here's the proof - two finished socks!!

On Pinneguri's blog I also found a link to Knit Picks' podcasts, and listened to a post about knitting and literature. There was a beautiful poem about socks - and I learned it was by one of my favourite poets from Chile, Pablo Neruda. I found the original version somewhere on the Internet. You can find the English translation here.

Oda a los calcetines

Me trajo Mara Mori
un par de calcetines,
que tejió con sus manos de pastora,
dos calcetines suaves como liebres.
En ellos metí los pies
como en dos estuches
tejidos con hebras del
crepúsculo y pellejos de ovejas.

Violentos calcetines,
mis pies fueron dos pescados de lana,
dos largos tiburones
de azul ultramarino
atravesados por una trenza de oro,
dos gigantescos mirlos,
dos cañones;
mis pies fueron honrados de este modo
por estos celestiales calcetines.

Eran tan hermosos que por primera vez
mis pies me parecieron inaceptables,
como dos decrépitos bomberos,
bomberos indignos de aquel fuego bordado,
de aquellos luminosos calcetines.

Sin embargo, resistí la tentación
aguda de guardarlos como los colegiales
preservan las luciénagas,
como los eruditos coleccionan
documentos sagrados,
resistí el impulso furioso de ponerlas
en una jaula de oro y darles cada
día alpiste y pulpa de melón rosado.

Como descubridores que en la selva
entregan el rarísimo venado verde
al asador y se lo comen con remordimiento,
estiré los pies y me enfundé
los bellos calcetines, y luego los zapatos.
Y es esta la moral de mi Oda:
Dos veces es belleza la belleza,
y lo que es bueno es doblemente bueno,
cuando se trata de dos calcetines
de lana en el invierno

Pablo Neruda

I'm so proud of these socks! Maybe I should frame them? No, I'll wear them! And I will not knit another colourwork sock on 2mm needles in a long, long time!

Red beauty

I'm so happy to have finished my Vine yoke cardigan in time for Christmas! The yarn is just wonderful, and I love the colour.

I had this pattern queued for a long time. In Gothenburg summer 2010 I found the perfect yarn at Strikk: Malabrigo baby merino.. Wonderfully soft, beautifully red, (and a little more expensive than the yarn I use to buy...)

Vintage buttons found on Etsy - a perfect match, I think (they're a little heavy, though, that's the only problem). I always think nice buttons are hard to find. And if I find them, they're way too expensive. I found some in my yarn shop that cost 42 N kr (almost 7 $) each! But on Etsy I found several nice vintage buttons, and a lot cheaper. And since I love parcels in my mail box, that's a perfect solution - I even had them in less than a week, from the US.


The pattern is well written. Easy to follow. It took me a few minutes to figure out how the button holes were supposed to be made, but when I just followed the instructions, they came out beautifully. Very clever (not me, Ysolda...) And I've never done provisional cast on for a real garment before, just for hats and wristwarmers, but it worked just fine (for the sleeves). I always have to take a look at this tutorial first, though.

What else to say? Yes, I lengthened the sleeves by ten stitches. And did size 36. My gauge was, for a change, perfect. It's a big size 36, really, but I'm between 36 and 38, so thats's perfect too. I'm amazed about how the pattern kept telling my on what row of the yoke pattern I was supposed to be, after several steps of short rows etc - and I was! I made the neck opening quite a lot bigger than the pattern called for, I think it would have been way too tight if I hadn't - that's my only question about this beautiful pattern. And I used less yarn than the yardage in the pattern said - I have 1 1/2 skein left. A hat, maybe?