"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?

Hooray for cross-global mitten knitting fun!

I was very lucky to have the talented and experienced mitten designer Elli, from Elliphantom knits, test knit the English version of my Blomst mitten pattern. That was very helpful indeed. The mitten pattern is now available in English as well as in Norwegian. They have also been test knitted by ocbchick.

The English version of "Selbu meets Holland" mitten pattern is also ready for sale, test knitted by MaryjoO and janebowman . Thank you, test knitters!

And I was lucky to test knit Elliphantom's new mitten pattern, Sprig mittens! A fun, cute and quick project, one mittten took me about five hours to finish.

Details: Needles 4.5 and 5.5 mm

Yarn: Green: Tykk entrådet alpakka from Du store alpakka (discontinued). White: Misti from Du store alpakka (incredibly soft)

Size: My size! My stitch gauge was a little tighter than called for in the pattern, but the yarn is wonderfully soft and the resulting fabric is stretchy, so they are a prefect fit. My row gaug ewas right, and they are long enough for my medium sized hands.

Hooray for cross-global mitten knitting fun!