Lucky mail day!

A while ago I joined Annepålandet's blog lottery. And last week I learned that I was one of the lucky winners! I've entered several blog lotteries, but this is the first time I win. And what a beautiful yarn! A wonderfully soft hand painted sock yarn, Marilyn from Chili Gredelin, in one of my favourite colours. It arrived in my mail box on Saturday.

(Annepålandet has a small crisis, btw, maybe you can help her out: She needs some yarn from Pickles: Abuelita Tjukk Merino/Worsted, colour Lavendel 2440, Dye lot 98.)


For me, there was more to come - this yummy yarn was waiting at the post office, sent all the way from the US.

Remember the Mystery mittens? Not a mystery for very long. But the shop only take payment from a Norwegian bank. So the problem still wasn't solved for my Ravelry friend who wanted to knit these mittens. I offered to buy the kit and send it to her (she does have someone to translate the pattern for her, because it's only available in Norwegian). In return I suggested she send me some yarn - which she did. Look at this yumminess - lucky me!

Thank you!

Tusen takk for stemmene deres!

Thanks for your votes!

Merci pour vos votes!

You can now knit your own hat!

Use yarn that gives you gauge 23 for a big hat, 25 for a medium sized hat and 27 for a small hat (per 10 cm or 4 inches, in stranded pattern, that is). I used Rauma finullgarn in colours grey, blue, red, green for contrasting colours, and white for main colour.

Co 112 sts. Use needles that are 1 mm smaller than the needles you'll use for the stranded pattern.

With grey: Ribbing k2, p2 for two rounds.

With blue: Knit one round, then k2, p2 for two rounds.

With red: Knit one round, then k2, p2 for two rounds.
With green: Knit one round, then k2, p2 for two rounds.

With white, knit one round, increasing to 126 sts like this: k8, m1.

Start working according to chart.

The chart is 42 sts wide, work the chart three times each round.

Click on photo to get a larger version.

If you want a shorter hat, beanie style, omit the first row of stars and skiers.

If you want a pointier hat, continue decreasing every 3rd round after then 2nd decrease.

If you want a less pointy hat, decrease every round after the 4th decrease.

Good luck, and have fun!

The Ilsetra hat needs your vote!

The hat was made during a seminar in gastroenterology at Ilsetra, Øyer, hence the name.

Do you like it? You can vote for it here. The competition has been going on for a while, some hats already have several thousand votes, so I do need some help! You can vote, and you can upload your own hat, till the end of the Championships, which will be on the 6th of March.

More photos on Flickr.

The hat is knitted in Finullgarn on needles 4 mm. It was a fun knit. I think if you omit one pattern repeat, you can get a nice beanie type hat. I'll finish the charts and share them for free as soon as I get the time.

Edited to tell my non-Norwegian readers that "STEM" means vote. And you can vote four times a day till the end of the championships :-)

Not just knitting

Hat in progress

Destined to make a hat?

Mary Lou commentet on my last post earlier today:
"Sweet! You should make a hat with those skiers on it."

And then Judith asks on her blog:

"Want to join the world cup hat competition?"

(FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2011 in Oslo, that is).

I think I might have to make a hat..

You can vote for the hats here, or post your own hat.

While I think about the design, you can enjoy this photo of (ice) roses:

Fretex skier

I saw this sweater in a thrift store today (Fretex). Isn't that a nice little skier?