Congolese tunic and Mama's lace

I bought this lovely fabric in Congo (Brazzaville) in 1988. I made a dress, that I used to like a lot, a big sack with shoulder pads, as you might guess, at some point I stopped liking it. But I still loved the fabric, so I decided to turn it into a tunic. I sort of removed the central part of the dress; I cut it right under the bust, and then sewed on the bottom part of the skirt. I made a V-neck and added a velvet ribbon and some flower buttons. It was still a bit wide, so I knitted a lace to hold it in a bit, and add to the cuteness. I found the lace pattern through Ravelry, it's from Janine. I thought the story of the lace was sweet, so I'd like to share it with you. Here how Janine describes the pattern on Ravelry:

"I was recently going through my late Mom’s craft things when I found this knitting pattern.

It is the pattern my Grandmother used to make lace. She was a simple country woman. A farmer’s wife and mother of four children.

I can remember her making quilts and knitting lace.

She used this simple lace to edge all of her pillowcases.

I am not a knitter but I wanted Grandma’s lace to live on so I decided to share the pattern. "

The pattern is easy, and gives a simple but cute lace. It's worked from one end, so you can make it as long as you wish. Thanks for sharing, Janine! I added a crocheted cord of chain stitches to the lace in this tunic.

Seminar knitting

I used to knit during classes, at school and in university. Nowadays I sometimes knit at conferences and seminars. This is the result of two days of seminar and a train trip:

It's a child version of my Scrap Gnomy , or Pointy Striped Color as Annie Modesitt called it in her book project 1000 faboulous hats. I love using left over yarn, and putting together colours. I'm quite happy with how they're turning out so far. They're going to be Christmas presents for two little sisters, I think.

I started the blue one when the pink reached the point where I wanted to change to double pointed needles. There is too much jingling with dpn's, I don't want to annoy people. And I don't want everybody's look on me when a needle falls to the floor...

There's another hat on the needles, too.

Can you guess what football team it is?

Fretex tunics

I come from a family who seldom threw things away. At a time, reuse was a necessity, but still now, when we have everything we need, I like the idea of reuse. We throw away too many things in this part of the world.



These tunics are made from one sweater from Fretex, the Salvation Army's second hand shop in Norway. The rest is fabric, ribbons and buttons from my stash. By making the two "flowers" with buttons, I managed to use the whole sweater! The darker green turtle neck is from the bottom ribbing. The rest of the ribbing was turned into a flower (see collage).

I don't have a photo of the original sweater, beeing too eager to cut it up. There were some stains in the front, those are now hidden behind the cuffs.

I intended to make a sort of tutorial. for the flowers. But when it came to finishing, I got to eager, and the last steps went without photographing. But you can probably work out how they're made, it's quite simple. Here you see the first steps, anyway.

Then you just sew the cutted edge with tack stitches, pull tight and fasten. Hide the stitches with a button. Voilà!

This little girl wanted to help sewing, too!

Knitting in colour - p i n k -

Judith 's challenge this time is pink. Which is not my colour, but when I had a look, I found several projects, so obviously I use more pink than orange! All of these have been given away, though. Most of them are free patterns, maybe you can get some inspiration.



Top, from left to right

• Stella Polaris hat, my design, free charts and notes on my blog (I'll make mittens and write down a proper pattern and put it up for sale - some day..)


• Amiguitas wristwarmers, my design, free pattern


• Amiga neckwarmer free pattern in The Inside Loop (my first published pattern)

Middle, from left to right

• Pink version of my Phantasy hat


• Free form crochet and knit necklace


• Modified version (baby size with earflaps) of Staceyjoy's headigan

Bottom from left to right

• Selbu modern hat, free pattern from Zeitgeistyarn


• Pudorosa neckwarmer from the Spanish online knitting magazine Tejemanejes.


• Tiffany mittens from Knitty

One skein of Noro and two free patterns

I used to consider myself an experienced knitter. But the more I read and see on Ravelry and on knitting blogs, I understand I'm just average. There are so many different techniques that I have never even heard of, and I discover new things all the time. Which is why I love Ravelry and the rest of the knitting world on the internet. It's so fun to see all the new possibilities!

I bought two skeins of Noro sock yarn in Gothenburg this summer. One of them is now turned into a pair of fingerless mitts for myself, and a cute little scarf for a friend.


Ysolda's garter stitch mitts were not my first project with provisional cast on and short row shaping, but it would be a perfect first project for these techniques, and kitchener stitch, of course.

The pattern gave a nice link for a provisional cast on tutorial. I can now do the kitchener stitch without watching a tutorial, but I have used this one.

Modifications: Needles: 3,5 mm. Had to repeat the last rows twice (or was it once?) more than indicated in the pattern - otherwise followed instructions for smaller size.

The Queen Anne's Lace Scarf by Khebhin Gibbons did not offer any new crochet techniques, but it's a very nice little project, and a clever pattern, that is easy to remember. I think it works very nice with a colour changing yarn like Noro.

To my Norwegian readers: What is the Norwegian expression for provisional cast on - and short rows? Foreløpig opplegg? Korte rader? Or what?

New pattern: Lullaby love

I fell in love with the Rainbow Kauni yarn in a small yarn shop in Copenhagen. I had no idea what to make, but I just had to buy a couple of rainbow skeins. I soon realised that this yarn would be perfect for a baby blanket (at least esthetically, maybe not practically..it’s handwash only). I've seen some shawls made of this yarn, that's a bit too much, even for me..

I finished the blanket last autumn, but I haven't showed it till recently, because I was trying to get the pattern published. I first submitted it to The Inside Loop, who published my first patterns, Hippocampus and Amiga. But sadly, the magazine had to close down this spring, as I told you before. Then I tried Knitty, but was again nicely rejected. Amy suggested I submit the pattern to Petite Purls, "a magazine that specializes in baby and children's knitting patterns". And so I did, but no... So here is the pattern - self published - for sale ($ 7). Hope you like it. More photos on Flickr.

SKILLS NEEDED
Basic knitting skills
Stranded colourwork
Steeking
Fabric lining and binding

MATERIALS

MC Kauni Effektgarn wool; 438 yd/ 401 m per 100g skein; color: Rainbow;
(The Kauni skeins come in different sizes. I used just over one 160 g skein.)

CC Rauma Finullgarn wool; 360 yd /330 m per 100g skein; color: white; I used appr 125 g (Rauma Finullgarn is a Norwegian fingering wool yarn.
You can use any other fingering wool, f. ex a solid coloured Kauni.)

1 24-inch US #2,5/3mm circular needle
1 24-inch US #4 /3,5mm circular needle
Fabric for lining.

Time for wool...

...we had the first snow today!

RUNNER UP! 1000 Fabulous Knit Hat Book

Remember I told you I had sent photos of some of my hats to Annie Modesitt's book project 1000 faboulous hats? I thought I could have a chance of beeing one of thousand by submitting photos of six hats, but it turns out I'm one of the seven runner up hats, and my pattern will be published in the book!! You can see the hats here. Isn't it amazing?!? Can't wait to see the book.

(Some of you, like me, might not be familiar with the expression "Runner-up". Here's what Wikipedia says: "Runner-up is a term used to denote a participant which finishes in second place in any of a variety of competitive endeavors, most notably sporting events and beauty pageants; in the latter instance, the term is applied to more than one of the highest-ranked non-winning contestants, the second-place finisher being designated "first runner-up," the third-place finisher "second runner-up," and so on.")

The pattern is for sale, $ 6. (Until the new football field is a reality, the money goes to this project.)