Knitted on the edge

Last year I bought a knitting book with lost of different edgings, knitting on the edge, by Nicky Epstein. This lace was started then, trying out one of the edgings And finally turned into a little cowl by adding some stripes and ribbing. Gifted to a little niece. 

And how about the book?

There are lots of nice edgings, many of them are not just edgings, so it can be used as a stitch dictionnary also. The lay out and photos are beautiful, and there are some patterns too, one for each chapter, using one of the edgings in a garment. 

What I didn't think of when I bought it, but that I missed when I started knitting from it, are charts. There are no charts, and for me, who much prefer charts to written instructions, that's a drawback. I would also have liked more edgings knitted topdown, so you can easily add them to an existing garment, or use them in top down constructions. 

But exept from these two things, it's a very nice resource. 

Today's favourite books

 Working on a sweater design. But just forget you read that, I have so many other projects going on, so it'll take ages befor I can show anything. But I love these two books! The one on the top bought in Shetland during the wool week, the other found in a second hand book store in Edinburgh on the way home.

Details: 
200 fair isle designs by Mary Jane Mucklestone
The Complete Book of Traditional Fair Isle Knitting by Sheila McGregor

Thursday treat

Hot chocolate with marshmallows and Arne&Carlos' new craft book, "Håndarbeid fra hagen", at Lykkelige dager

♥ 5 ♥ Christmas theater- for children and others ♥

Last night, at Maihaugen, with Riksteateret.

Great fun!

If you don't know "Pulverheksa", you should get to know her. 

She lives in "Pulverskogen" with her cat and crow. 

There are several books about her.

I have not found that they've been translated. 

The author's name is Ingunn Aamodt, 

you can read abour her on Wikipedia in Norwegian 

and in Faroese (!) but not in English.

Pulverheksa is played by Maj Britt Andersen.

If you have the chance to see this before Christmas, it's highly recommended by me!

"Eplas Jul" - book in hand!

I have received my copies of Eplas Jul!

And of course I had to look at my own pattern first!

Looks nice, doesn't it?

The book has a lot of ideas and tutorials for Christmas decoration of all sorts. There are also some recipes for Christmas cookies and other goodies. And  some knit and crochet patterns - check out this amazing crocheted ginger bread house by Hege.

 Huvanlua by Kristin is cute, looks like a quick and easy knit.

 I must admit, I don't put a lot of energy into home decoration (too busy knitting...)

But I fell in love with these Christmas balls. Made by Kari Anne.

And here is a link to some other Christmas balls in the book.

ETA: The mitten pattern is available both in English and Norwegian in my Ravelry store if you're not interested in the rest of the book, or if you don't read Norwegian.

Crafty tourism

Earlier this summer, we visited Sjølingstad Uldvarefabrik. A beautiful place on a sunny summer day, where they make yarn and beautiful woollen blankets.


I came home with some yarn, of course. Wool and mohair (but not the fluffy type). I do have some plans, even a small, secret wip.




I could not resist buying a book either, "Invisible threads" by Annemor Sundbø. It's not a pattern book, although it does contain some patterns, it's more a book about knitting history, culture and symbolism in knitting. I like it. There are also charts with old motifs, which is always nice to have.

You can see some more photos on Flickr.

New knitting book

My husband seems to mean I don't need another knitting book. The book shelf tends to agree with him...

But this is a wonderful book with so many nice patterns. I fell for this one, bot knitted and crocheted.

This cute top is a fave, too:

These were the patterns that prompted me to order the book, but there is so much more (59 patterns in total, to be exact).

What about these?

Or this one, in ribbing? I have not casted on for anything yet, having way too many WIPs at the moment, as you can see in the sidebar.

The book is "A Stitch In Time, Knitting and Crochet Patterns, 1920-1949 Vol. 1" by Jane Waller and Susan Crawford (aka justcallmeruby), from knitonthenet. I baought the book from their online store.

Winter holiday

Same procedure as last year...

Skiing...

Knitting...

Reading...

There are more important things than mittens...

... but this December has been unusually cold, and mittens are crucial. I also got two mitten books for Christmas (well, one of them was from myself...).

So here we go:

"Norske vottar og vantar" by Annemor Sundbø - a gift from my in laws (they might be getting mittens for next Christmas..)

I modified the pattern on the front page of the book, Fuglevott i fargar, to fit a child. I'm quite happy with how they turned out. The fit my big handed five years old. I used Gjestal Superwash Sport, Gjestal Vestlandsgarn, and Gjestal Østlandsgarn from my aunt's stash. Details on Ravelry.

Most of the patterns in the book are copies of old mittens from Annemor Sundbø's collection. Some are modified patterns from machine knit mittens, others are direct copies from handmade mittens.

The book is full of inspirational photos and text, and there are several patterns I'd like to knit, like the Fugl Fønix, Olivenvott and Damevott med liljer.

Some of the patterns are also found in Terri Shea's book about Selbu mittens. Among them the Hugin and Munin mitten, that comes both in child and adult size. Most of the mittens only have one size. I would have liked more details about the sizing of the mittens. There is a list in the book, but it would be nice to see the measurements for each pattern, I believe. And as Pinneguri wrote on her blog a while ago, the patterns could have gone through a better tech editing.

But all in all, it's a very nice book, agreable to look in, with pretty lay out. But if you never have knitted a mitten before, you should probably choose a different pattern. And so far the book is only available in Norwegian. Here are my Hugin and Munin, btw, almost finished:

Details on Ravelry. For some reason, the pattern on the palm is not symmetrical (probably because the original mitten did not have a symmetric palm pattern.) I don't always love symmetry, but when it comes tom mitten palm pattern, I generally prefer symmetry. Here, accidentally, I made a mistake on the 2nd mitten. The result was a symmetric palm pattern! So a happy mistake.

Can you see the difference?

I've also casted on for a new pair of Pepperkakevotter. This time with lamb, cat, snail and pig, and a peasant thumb. I'm just about to upload new charts, if you're interested.

The other mitten book is this: Colorwork Creations by Susan Anderson-Freed. I haven't made any of the patterns yet, but there are several lovely ones, I especially like this little fellow.

Giveaway - 1000 fabulous knit hats

I finally received my four books for beeing a runner up in the 1000 fabulous knit hats contest.

1000 hats are a lot of hats! It was so fun to look through the book, lots of inspiration. And it was really nice to see my pattern in a book!

If you want to win a book too, just leave a comment on this post before October 15th.

You can see the book's page on Ravelry. If you have a photo in the book, you can post that in this thread in the 1000 fabulous hats group on Ravelry.

My pattern in "1000¨fabulous knit hats"

Remember the 1000 fabulous hats contest? My Scrap Gnomy , or Pointy Striped Color as it is called in the book is a runner up. The book is now available! Clicking on th photo will bring you to Amazon.

The first reviews on Amazon, were bad. People were disappointed there were only 10, and not 1000 patterns! Well, $ 16,50 is not a bad price for ten patterns, I would say. (And I never saw a book with thousand patterns.).. Other reviews have come later, and are better. I myself have not seen the book yet, I'm waiting for my copies to cross the Atlantic..

I have been able to have a look inside the book, though, on Amazon. I knew I had one patttern in it, obviuosly, and that I had at least one additional photo, so I was quite curious too see. I found three photos, this, this and this.

My pattern has been updated with another size after the book was made. This is done just by changing gauge, so there is no problem to follow the instructions in the book. Details about sizing, yarn requirements and gauge can be found below.

1. Hat in the snow, 2. Easter gnomy, 3. Scrap gnomies, 4. Scrap gnomies

Sizes:
Toddler: suitable for head circumference 45 – 50 cm (17 3/4 – 19 2/3 inches).
Child: for head circumference 49 – 54 cm (19 ¼ – 21 ¼ inches).
Adult: suitable for head circumference 52 -58 cm (20 ½ – 22 ¾ inches).

Requirements and gauge:

For toddler’s size: 80 - 100 g of fingering scrap yarn (tension 28 sts/10 cm and 37 rows /10 cm in stranded pattern)
Needles 2,0 mm and 2,5 mm small circulars and dpns (or needles to get right tension).

For children’s size: Appr. 100 g of fingering/DK scrap yarn (tension 26 sts/10 cm and 31 rows /10 cm in stranded pattern)
Needles 2,0 mm and 2,5 mm small circulars and dpns (or needles to get right tension).

For adult size: Appr. 150 g of DK/light worsted scrap yarn (tension 23 sts/10 cm and 29 rows/10 cm in stranded pattern. )
Needles: 3,0 mm and 3,5 mm small circulars and dpns (or needles to get right tension)

Inspiration

When I saw Kristin Nicholas ' new book on Twist collective 's blog, I decided I had to get that book. I ordered it straight away from the author's side. But then got an e-mail about additional payment for postage, which turned out to be 22 $, almost as much as the book itself. I thought that was a bit too much, and Kristin Nicholas was kind to refund what I had already payed.


But I still wanted the book, of course, so I looked for it in Norwegian online stores. It took a while before I found it, because they showed a different front page (I notice it's been updated now). I finally ordered it from Tanum. And the book is lovely! I really like her bold use of colour. The projects are worked at a gauge of 20 per 10 cm, which is an unusual gauge for me. When working stranded colourwork, I normally knit at a gauge of around 25-27. But the book is full of inspiration! And I might make the mittens - or something else.

If you need more inspiration, check out this dress from Kenzo!

Or what about a new tie for Christmas? These ties are fantastic, have a look!

2 pairs in 52 weeks

No, it's not a misprint, I'm not one of those crazy sock people who're planning to make one pair of socks every week for a whole year! Have a look at their Ravelry group 52 pair plunge III and blog. I'm not a sock knitter, I made one sock a couple of years ago, and before that I hadn't made a sock in years. But I must admit I get inspired by all the beautiful socks out there. Pinneguri has already made #4 of 52 pairs. She's also inspired me to buy a German sock knitting book: Socken aus aller Welt.

I did learn German at school, but knitting vocabulary was not part of the curriculum - so we'll see...

My ambition for the next year is, as the title indicates, to make 2 - two - pairs of socks: One in stranded pattern, maybe these or these, and one pair of lace socks, these maybe (photo from the book):



But why does sock patterns have such tight gauge? I'm a loose knitter, and I hate using needles thinner then 2,5 mm. So how the ...... am I going to get a gauge of 36 sts / 10 cm?

Colour knitting books

Thank god for amazon.com!

I fell in love with the sweater on the front page of Color Style. So I decided to buy the book. Amazon told me it wouldn't arrive till end of May, but here it is, full of nice, colourful patterns. But the front page sweater is still my favourite.

The other book, The Essential Guide to Color Knitting Techniques
by Margaret Radcliffe was recommended to me on Ravelry by fibercrone (ravelink). I've loved colour knitting for many years, and when it comes to stranded colourwork I consider myself quite experienced. But there are so many other techniques... I really recommend the book!

And on top of that, I found a book that had been missing for a long time, Maskeball. That's another favourite!

Less is not more...

...in this book by Tine Solheim, Maskeball, one of my favourite knit and crochet books.

The title "Maskeball" has a double meaning in Norwegian, masquerade and "ball of stitches". Tine Solheim combines knitting and crochet; cables, lace and colourwork; beads and colour. So you can imagine, I love this book. Some of the designs are a little too much even for me, but others are great. I have lots of plans. but right now I don't even find the book - grr!

I don't think the book is translated. Norwegian crafters can also find her designs in "Familien" from time to time, this is from their Christmas edition 2008. I love the dress to the left.

I am making a tunic from the 2007 Christmas edition. I'm afraid it's been hibernating for a long time now...but I hope to finish it this winter.