Christmas knit along - J a n u a r y

I'm joining the "Julegavesamstrikk 2011", organised by Annepålandet.

Last year the along helped me finish several Christmas gifts - I was able to post every month except July - quite proud of that, even though some gifts were small.



And the other day, I forgot to tell you that this pair of mittens is the January gift for the along. The receiver is trying them on, they are a little small for a five year old, but will be perfect next winter, I think.

Btw, I have test knitters now.

Animal ginger bread mittens - test knitters wanted

Samlaget (Norwegian publisher) is having a new mitten contest on Facebook. (They had one last year too). This year, it's about mittens with animal motifs, because their new mitten pattern book has several mitten patterns with animal motifs.

And when baking ginger bread cookies before Christmas, I was inspired to make a new mitten patterns - using the cookie cutters as inspiration.

I believe I still have a couple of cookie cutters that have not been turned into a mitten pattern yet, but eight motifs will suffice for now.

I've been giving away the charts for free, and som have made their own versions, like Craftzone's (ravelink). Now the Norwegian pattern is written out, and I'm in the middle of translating it to English. So if you enjoy knitting mittens and like these motifs, you could be one of the test knitters I'm looking for. Just send med an e-mail: torirot (at) gmail (dot) com

Sparkling! cardigan

This was such a fun knit!

I liked the pattern when I first saw it, but had no intention of making a fitted dress. But when I saw Jettshin’s Not Sparkle Dress, I could not get it out of my head. I had quite a lot of white ang green yarn in my stash, so I decided to cast on for a cardigan. (Had to get some more green yarn after a while, but more than half of it was from my stash).

The dress is a free pattern from Vogue Knitting. In the original pattern, the shaping is achieved by different needle sizes. I did not do that, but I used the heavier weight green yarn first, and then went down in yarn weight for shaping. It worked ok for a cardigan, I think.

In the original pattern, the dress is worked flat, in two pieces, and then sewed. I really don't see why anybody would do that! Are there any good reasons not to work this in the round? Exept fear of steeking, which I luckily don't suffer from.






You can see details on Ravelry. Yarn weight ranges from light fingering to DK, 100 % wool.

The sleeves are worked top down, the way I learn from the Audrey in Unst cardigan, with short row cap shaping. I did not plan to make puffed sleeves, but I obviously picked up to many stitches, so that't how they turned out - and I decided I like them that way.

For the front ribbing I then picked up too few stitches, had too unravel, and then picked up a stitch on 3 of 4 rows and from every stitch in the back. I used short rows for shaping. I could have made the a wider shawl collar, maybe I will.

Sorry some of the photos are a bit dark - day light is still scarce. And sometimes you think it's quite light, and when you see the photos, you understand it's not so light anyway. But it's getting lighter each day!

Mystery cardigan

I just saw Annepålandet's blog this morning. She's showing a photo of an old cardigan that was bought as a present for her grandmother more than 60 years ago. She has no inherited it from her mother. And she wonders if anybody recognises the pattern.

The cardigan is very pretty, and I just thought I'd seen it before.
And I have. A cardigan with the same pattern is beeing used in children's TV in NRK (Norwegian Television).
I fell for the pattern and the colours, and I tried to photograph it on the telly, but got lousy photos, of course.
So I sent an e-mail to NRK, and had almost forgotten about it,
when the nice woman who is wearing this cardigan sent me these two photos.

She tells me the yellow cuff has been added later. And that the cardigan is part of NRK's costumes. But it looks like it must be exactly the same pattern as Anne's grandmother's cardigan. But I don't have an answer to Anne's question about the pattern. Maybe somebody can help? I especially like the stars.

If things go as smoothly as in the last mystery, we have the answer within ten minutes...

Have a nice Sunday, everyone!

Mystery mitten from Norway - not a mystery any longer!

My blogging friend Mary Lou has seen this mitten from Norway, and wonders if I know the pattern.
I remember having seen a pair of mittens like these, I just don't remember where.
Does anybody recognise the pattern?

Edited: No mystery - after 10 minutes I had the answer from Monstermønster: It's a pattern from the Museum's crafters at "Norsk Folkemuseum", you can see their mitten here. I've sent them an e-mail and asked if the pattern is available in English.

Happy new year 2011

Happy new year! Thanks to everyone who has visited my blog in 2010, and thanks for all you comments. Hope to see you again this year!
No crafty resolutions this year, as the ones from last year has not been fulfilled yet...
(Well, I believe I did make more mittens and less hats, and I've also tried out new things, but
apart from that, no...)