"Chauffe-jambe points mousses et boutons"

Challenging Emmanuelle to knit legwarmers! 

Easy, peasy! 

Just garter stitch, yarn overs, a few increases and k2tog!

Et voilà!

Perfect for skirt loving girls in the climate of Lillehammer.

And if you want something more complicated,
I'm happy to announce that
the Lollipop legwarmer pattern is ready.

This pattern is available for $4.50 USD, 

in English and Norwegian.

 

Thanks a lot KNITnGLO, HarpaHauks and galinaf for test knitting. 

Stockholm

I've been meaning to tell you about our trip to Stockholm. But it is taking time, with four football playing boys, May is probably the most busy month of the year. Not good for blogging, nor knitting. 

But Stockholm was great! Weather was nice and sunny, leaves were green, flowers pink. 

We walked a lot, in "City", "Gamla Stan" (Old Town) and Sødermalm. There were lots of tourists. Which is no surprise, because Stockholm is a beautiful city. And although I love Oslo, I must admit, Stockholm is something else.

Before leaving, Johanne ("Born to knit") sent me several ideas on where to go for crafters. Here's one yarn shop in Gamla Stan. The shawl is just beautiful! But I am not patient enough...  

Also in Gamla Stan we came a cross a fun and colourful yarn shop: HappyColor. I just had to make some photos, only to see afterwards that photographing is forbidden. A bit weird, I think. But I won't break the rule, so no photos from me. But someone else has taken photos, allowed or not. Have a look here.

Of course there were coffee breaks!

The last day, we went bananas in this ribbon and button store!
Mattsons Band, thanks Johanne,  we would not have found it if it weren't for you.

Paradise for buttons lovers!

Buttons and ribbons, for a coat - when I find the time....











Looking for the king!

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.

Snella and Petronella button

I read a while ago on Pinneguri's blog, that you could win a button if you send Snella and Petronella a photo of a project with their buttons on. So I sent a photo of my Piper hat. And look what I got in the mail the other day!!

Ready for a green winter

And a white one, I hope...

Droplet hat from Norah Gaughan's book Knitting Nature.

I searched for projects on Ravelry when making this hat. And found Tora's post about it. I totally agree with her that there's no reason what so ever to work this hat flat. (Unless you don't find a suitable circular needle and want to start knitting straight away, like i did.) And like her, I had to add more rows to make it fit, at least ten more rows.

About the book: Coming from a family of mathematicians and phycisists, I enjoyed reading about how she has been inspired by math and geometrical and fractal figures from nature. I read all the chapter introductions with interest (I often skip them in knitting books). Except for the Droplet hat, there were no patterns that I immediately wanted to make, but there are elements I might use later, and maybe a cardigan or a sweater somewhere in the future.

The yarn is Kilcarra Aran Tweed, bought from Koolkitten destashing. I had almost two skeins left from my Loppem, also by Norah Gaughan.

Owl mittens, "Give a Hoot", free pattern by Jocelyn Tunney fom Kelbourne Woolens.

A nice and quick project. My gauge was too tight, and I had to make them longer and block them quite a lot to make them fit not too tightly. So they're not my warmest mittens, but very cute, I think. The black and white buttons were just coincidence, I only found four buttons in my stash that were small enough.

Libelula Piper

I knew I had the right button when I saw the Piper hat in Twist Collective Autumn 2009 .I first saw these buttons in an Art and Craft Fair in Oslo last August. Later, I saw that the museum shop at Maihaugen had started to sell these buttons, and that's where I bought this pretty dragonfly button. I tried to find a link to the museum shop, but couldn't find one. (You have a job to do, Tove! Here is a photo from the museum pharmacy.) You can see more buttons at Snella og Petronella. And here is my hat:

I used Garnstudio DROPS Silke Alpaca. It's very soft and nice, but lacks a little bit in elasticity. But I think I'll be happy with the hat. It's a great pattern, well written, and easy to follow. You can read about the design process on the designer Christa Giles' blog here.

I started out with the larger size, but I realised it would become to big. I'm so used to stranded colourwork, so I forget that stockinette stitch is much more elastic. So I omitted the last increase round, and it turned out ok for my 56 cm head (22 inches).