Pink? Me?

I'm not a pink person.

But for a while I borrowed a pink shawl from my sister,

and after she got it back, I missed it.

Now I've made myself a new one:

Pattern. Sweet Pea Shawl by Amie Hirtes
Book: Happy Hooker (also available online, see pattern link)
Hook: 3.5 mm
Yarn: Araucania Ranco Multy

I've been working on the shawl for a couple of years, actuallY, picked it up from time to time. The pattern is easy to remember and get back to after a pause. But the log rows were a little boring - so there were many pauses.. But with each row beeing shorter than the last - it sort of went faster and faster. And finally I have a pink shawl !! Yeah!! (The weather forecast indicates I won't need it for the next fortnight - I don't mind, really, knowing I'll get plenty of opportunities to use it later.)

Knitting in colour - t u r q u o i s e

A new post in the "Knitting in colour"-series inspired by Judith.

Now turqouise. The colour that we traditionally call turquoise in Norway ("turkis"), is, in my head anyway, a little colder than the colour of the stone. I do like the colour, although I prefer the darker and warmer versions.

When I looked after turquoise projects, I realised I should have called the post "Crochet in colour" - all the projects I found were crocheted. Maybe it is a crochet colour?

Anyway, here is what I found:

Top left: Queen Anne's Lace Scarf (ravelink) by Khebhin Gibbons, details here.
Top right: My pattern, not written down.

Bottom left: My pattern, autumn hat, free pattern (see left sidebar)
Bottom right: At The Back of My Mind Choker by Marnie MacLean

Christmas gift along - M a y

The May gift is a pretty, white neckwarmer.

I fell in love with this cowl the moment I saw it. I bought the pattern as soon as it became available. The designer is a talented Norwegian knitwear designer who opened her online pattern store last year, I think.

While knitting, my feelings for the cowl cooled. The pattern is well written, easy to follow and easy to remember, but for some reason it took me several months to finish (as usual, other projects came in the way).

Now that it's finished, my old feelings are back, it's just lovely!

I have decided to give this one away for Christmas, but I'll have to make one for myself too, I think. It should be a quick project, after all...

Pattern: Roots (Røtter) by Tora Frøseth design

Yarn: Juvel, white.

Needles: 3,5 mm

Made for: Secret, to be revealed on December 24th 2010

Constitution day

Nearly 200 years ago, the Norwegian constitution was signed on the 17th of May. The day is celebrated every year with children's parades. If you have a traditional costume, a so called bunad , you wear it on this day. Every district has its own bunad. Mine is from Gudbrandsdalen, where I live, but that is just a coincidence, really: My grandmother grew up in Oslo, but her family came from Vestfold. She didn't like the Vestfold bunad. And Oslo had no bunad of its own, the bunads beeing a rural tradition. She then chose to make herself a bunad from Gudbrandsdalen. And my parents chose to move here when I was little - and I was lucky to inherit this beautiful heirloom:

I would never have the pacience, or the skill, to embroider something like this. As I told you before, my grandmother was a very skilled crafter.

Don't you just love Ravelry

and their lovely new front page!

May pot holders

I had decided not to start any new projects before finishing some old... But I could not resist when Annepålandet came up with a pattern for her gorgeous pot holders! It's free, and so far only in Norwegian, but will be translated she says. The other one is Disc-Disc (ravelink) from ChickenBetty.

Thanks, Anne, it's a lovely pattern, I will make more!

(I fear pot holder crocheting can be a bit addictive...)

This was a nice pattern, too!

And this is what they look like from behind:

Latvian tunic

I've finally finished my "Latvian tunic". Latvian because I've used Latvian stars from various sources: mostly this mitten book and this fabuolous site .

The yarn is Mirasol from Du store alpakka, a super soft DK alpaca yarn. It's a lovely yarn, and it's nice to know that when you buy this yarn, you contribute to the Mirasol procject.

I'm not so happy with the yoke and the sleeves, I didn't have a pattern, and was (too) eager to get to the stranded part, which I'm very happy with. But altogether, it's ok.