Hippocampes français - - - French sea horses

Pour mes lecteurs français, mes moufles hippocampes en français! – traduit par Christine, Christine73 en Ravelry. Ravelry Download -vous le trouvez ici. (Même si vous n'êtes pas membre.)


Merci beaucoup, Christine!

Christine asked nicely if she could translate my hippocampus mittens to French. So I'm happy to announce that the pattern is now available in French also! The English pattern can still be found on The Inside Loop, winter 2008 issue.

Football hats

A new addiction - designing football hats!

I made the Barcelona hat first, and decided to sell the pattern to raise money for a football ground in the neighbourhood. Then a friend said " If you make a Milan hat, I'll buy it!" So I did, and got two more square meters of artificial grass. And I've made the pattern available for sale. Then my sister wanted to buy at hat for a Viking fan (Norwegian club in Stavanger). And then came Manchester United (there are lots of ManU fans in Norway, I could probably sell lots of hats if I made more, but it's more fun designing new hats, than knitting the same twice.)

Liverpool is on the needles (also a big Norwegian fan club). And people have asked for Juventus and Lyn (Norwegian club in Oslo), so I'll be busy... The ManU and Milan patterns are available in Norwegian, I'm going to translate the ManU pattern to English, the Viking pattern is coming (probably little interest outside Norway)... When I tire from this, I'll finish the Owl sweater...

This is our current football ground....

....and this is what we want!

What's wrong with this hat?

I needed some small projects to bring on easter holiday. This was one of them. And what's wrong with it?

First, I've been told the colours are wrong.
Second, the pattern is too big, and covers more than half the hat, so you don't really see what it is. Or do you?
Third, the text should have been placed under the gun, in stead of over.
Fourth, I don't remember..

Otherwise, the hat is ok. The receiver is happy. And so am I. I have learnt a new stitch pattern that I used for the border. Found it on Liselotte's blog (Danish). She calls it "vævestrik". I don't know what it's called in English, literally translated it would be "weaving stitch" or something like that. It's quite simple, you only use one colour at a time, slipping the other stitches. Liselotte has made a nice photo tutorial. It gives a nice firm border.

As for the pattern, I'm thinking of remaking it using a thinner yarn, so you see the text and the motif more clearly. But my to-do-list is getting long... And spring is here...

Astronomist's hat

My mother is an astronomist (not to be confounded with astrologist!) - and this hat is designed for her. Cassiopeia in the front, the Big Dipper (or the Plough in Britain) in the back, and the North Star on the top.

The pattern is for the moment only available in Norwegian. It’s sold to raise money for a football ground for the children in the neighbourhood.

Yarn: For the main colour, I used to strands og Rauma Lamullgarn held together, and for the contrasting colour I used to strands of Kauni effektgarn.

Sizes: The pattern gives instruction for three sizes, small, medium and large, by differences in gauge (23, 24 or 26 sts per 10 cm)

Vaila verde

Today I finished my green Vaila by Gudrun Johnston.


I'm so happy with the result!! My swatch gauge was 17, and I knit size 38, thinking that I would end up with a size between 38 and 40. But it turns out my actual gauge was 18, as called for in the pattern. No harm done, the sweater fits perfectly.

I used Du Store Alpakka Tynn Alpakka (100% alpaca) and Rauma Lamullgarn (100% wool), one strand of each held together. The result is a warm, but not too thick and heavy fabric. I think there are lots of mistakes in the lace part, but I don't believe anyone will notice. And if someone does, we can probably have an interesting chat about knitting..

I highly recommend the pattern! It's very well written, easy to follow.

If I should have made any new year resolutions this year, one would have been to try new knitting techniques. This pattern taught me two: Spit splicing (why haven't I leart that before??) and Old Norwegian cast on (a version of long tail cast on, that gives you a purly look). Probably noone will notice that I have used that cast on for the purl part of the ribbing either, but it's nice anyway.

Amiga pentagons

Inspired by the March bonus crochet along in the fingerless glove fanatics group on Ravelry, I made myself a new pair of Amiguitas. The other brown pair is sold - one more square meter of football ground!

I also used the Amiga pentagon to make a hat. I had som left over Fritidsgarn that I used, and the hat is slightly felted. For sale here.

It's been snowing lately, so hopefully people still want to buy hats!

Green

Green is one of my favourite colours. I like most green nuances, exept the pastel ones. This dress is made of green fabric from a second hand shop and some green, flowery fabric from my childhood, I think it was a pillow case my grandmother made me. The pattern is from Stoff og stil. I think it's a nice pattern, but I had to enlarge the arm openings quite a bit, otherwise it's a nice fit. I love to relax with my knitting, but sometimes it's nice with the instant gratification you can get from sewing.




My knitting at the moment is green too: Vaila. I'm working on the raglan part, so it will soon be finished! The photo is from the start.