Birthday hat #1

The coming months I'm planning three hats for birthday presents. First out is my brother in law, then a friend, then a colleague.

My brother-in-law plays the saxophone, he likes Egypt and arabic music, he will turn 40 shortly and his name is … تريجوا I hope he likes his new hat!

I'm very happy with the arabic lettering. I don't know arabic myself, but I do hope it’s legible! I had a university Arabic teacher write it down for me in an Arabic font. And I copied it quite accurately, I think.

And I'm happy with the top (I made the hat top-down) and the ribbing.

Not that happy with the saxophone and the camel, but that's in the back, anyway.

The yarn is Schachenmayr nomotta Alpaka, from my stash, worked on needles 3,5 mm.

"Un cadeau de Paris"

- a gift from Paris!

One om my French readers, a lady from Paris, and test knitter of my Ginger Bread Mittens, Marguerite, has sent me a gift. It's a lovely recycled silk yarn from Nepal, that a friend of hers is selling, Namaste Sathi.

It's such a lovely yarn, beautiful colours. I have to think very carefully to decide what to make. Some kind of scarflette? Or a contrasting colour on a summer tee? Ideas, anyone?

Football hats for free

All the patterns are now free, and can be downloaded here or on Ravelry.

Thanks to all those of you who have contributed for new football fields, it's been greatly appreciated!

Easter exhibition vernissage at Pellestova

Vernissage today! It was fun. Nice dresses, photos and paintings. And music and wine. Sorry to Lars Erik and Thor-Arne that there are mostly dress photos... you see, dresses are my main interest :-)

Thor-Arne is in a blue period...

Lars Erik, some of his photos and some of his daughters.

The redesigner and a customer! Nice fit!

Another customer!

I bought a something too!

I think the designer needs to do some more sewing...

More photos on Flickr. Or on Facebook.

Spring in Oslo

Although I love winter and snow, and would like to wear my new mittens, I do appreciate that spring is here! These photos were taken in Oslo this weekend.

We also visited a cool exhibition by Nick Hlobo at Samtidsmuseet (Nasjonalmuseet for kunst, arkitektur og design). It was fun for children and adults.

Great fun to walk into a labyrinth of ribbons, and say "buh" and scare your mother.

My Maya Mittens

Am I not the luckiest swap participant?!

These mittens are just perfect, and very much me!

Thanks, Laura!

You can read more about the mittens on Laura's blog.

And there was chocolate (was...!), tea, yarn and more - as you can see. I've never joined a swap before, it was fun!

I do realise that to get this result, you need to pay attention to yarn dominance...

Aren't the colours lovely and glowing?!

"Twilight" swap mittens

When I was invited to join a mitten swap on Flickr, "Stranded Mitten Swap aka Quit Yer Bitchin, Knit Some Mittens", I said yes without much thinking. Then I realised this was quite scary, making a colourwork mitten for a knitter you don't know.

I chose a pattern by another Norwegian designer on Ravelry, "Little town mittens" by Sigrid Rogne. My swap partner liked blue, green and purple, hence a twilight version of the town. I used Rauma 3ply Strikkegarn and needles 3,5 mm. And for the first time, since this was for such a scary swap, I paid attention to yarn dominance. But I can't say I noticed any difference from my usual results, it just made the knitting less relaxing and comfortable. So, unless someone can convince me this is crucial, I'm back to my usual way of knitting. (I'm a continental knitter, btw.)

I know my mittens have arrived in Massachusetts, so I can show them here now. I also know my mittens have been sent from Laura Nelkin, so I'm waiting impatiently for the mail man...