More non-knit

I am actaully knitting a bit, but it is ugly and the colours are hideous. It was a lovely skein of pink/brown/white variegated, and many of you will know where this is headed - Yes, I wanted to knit a raglan for my Niece that is not yet born, and Yes, it came out pink/brown/white camouflage.


So. My non-knit is (again) quilting - it is hard to resist a craft that is so pretty, can be easy, and that makes really usefull things. I wanted a cover for my bed at my parents house (Yes, I am 24 and still have my own bed at my parents house.), because it so often is dirty and icky when I go there and want to sleep in it - the dog jumps on it, my SIL uses the room (She is living with my Brother on 8 m2 - I have 12 m2 I'm never using). So, she and I bought 4 metres of blue cotton and 2 "Quilt Packs" with 7 colour sorted fabrics in blue and yellow, ½ Fat Quarters. I used 4½ pieces from each of the bundles and the same amount from the blue cotton, made 45 squares from each group, and grouped them as you can see - the easiest way. It is bordered with the blue cotton. There are 6 different prints - Two swirls, roses, random lines, marbles and a spotty fabric. The swirls, Roses, Random lines and Marble is in both colours, since they were from the same line.

I rather like it, but I didnt finish quilting it when I was at my parents last weekend, because

• I had cut it and sewn it within 20 hours.
• I had a church mass in the morning and it was late.
• The back was totally crinckled, and I found myself not caring (!), a warning sign that I was tired and ready to do anything just to be finished.
• I really like it, and dont want to mess it up, seeing as how the piecing it, not flawless, but very very good.
  

The colours washed out. It is a strong, medium blue in reality, and the prints are also darker. I need more natural light, but it is overcastr and rainy.

You can sort of see how I started quiliting it in "blocks" of 3*3 (It is 15*9 blocks, not quite 5" large - 12 cm). I did not photograph the back, it is horrendous and proof that the pins I stuck in (You can see their reflections) did not do their work well enough. Plus the fact that it is horribly hard to quilt a big quilt on a small machine without puckering.

Have a really nice day

/Lene

Nephew Socks

My nephew is growing, so it was time to warm up the knitting needles in anticipation of the coming winter. They turned out quite narrow, sadly, and a little long. I hope he will get a little wear out of them anyways. Maybe his little sister can wear them one day :)



Size 23-24, on top of Daddys socks that he will get for his 26th birthday.



Nephew socks.

Regia Ringel Colour, "Atlantik".

Have a nice day

/Lene

I have a confession....

I have no idea how to reply to people who comment in my blog, here! That annoys me, because I really want to reply to you, tell a bit more about the project etc.

Until I find some way to do that, I just want you to know - I appreciate all comments, even if you do not get a reply back, I have read them and added them to the website (I have set the comments on moderation because there is a person out there who seems to care a lot about me and constantly post(ed)s comments on here that were not fit for your wieving.

Oohh, and another confession: I have bought yarn, from KnitPicks! All excited, wee wee happy dance... I am doing a joint order with my mother, a friend and whoever has also joined in since I last asked.
I will get 5 balls Palette in Blue Note Heather to make the Rose Leaf Tunic from A Gathering of Lace, and 10 balls in assorted colours to make the Rainbow Shawl from the same book. Both are things I have wanted to do, and since my knitting has effectively stopped because of lack of needles, yarn, pattern... I will do something new.

/Lene

Sorry abou the delay

Sorry about the delay. Somehow, weather turned bad, and then study kicked in and everything rotated around my studies, and not handicraft. I have not knitted for weeks.


This is the whole shawl. It was hard to photograph. It is also huge, 260 cm across the wings and 140 down the back. I have seen shawls half that size!


Semi-close-up. You can sort of see the variegation in the handspun in this picture. It is gorgous, in my opinon, and looks really good in the clover leaf pattern (I believe it is also called Rose leaf?)


Clover Pattern. The transition between my mothers yarn and mine happens in this picture - I can see it because my mothers yarn is a tad thinner, but I am pretty sure noone but me, who has had it in my hands and stared at it for hours and hours can see it.


Leaf pattern. Again, the variegation. I am amazed at this shawl because it turned out so well, even though I almost despised it at several points in its creation.


Bonus picture!

Ditlev, my first and oldest piggie, and probably the cutest I have ever met.

Have a really nice day

/Lene

Jacket

Modeled picture of the Jacket/Cardigan:





It was hard to get an acceptable shot of it, this picture is the only one where the colour is right, and that I like.

/Lene

Must... knit...

Why is it that the most important news are always delivered in the most casual tones?

We were discussing how many we were, and if we'd fit around the kitchen table when my brother said - we're xx - but in a year we will be one more. (Insert heart and joy smilies here).

I am so happy for them, and hope the little baby will be a girl (They have ordered a boy), so that I can go wild in pink yarns and little frilly things instead of more traditional and blue stuff - been there, done that!

Come April, they will enlarge the family again - maybe my little brother will "Join in the fun", too? His girlfriend is one of my best friends, and certainly a nice person - so a few kids...

I will welcome all nieces and nephews with OPEN ARMS :D

(Excuse me, I must go find pink yarn...)

/Lene

Smelling the stable

This was my shawl this morning - I recieve more yarn yesterday (Thankyou mom) and had knitted two repeats already this morning after washing the yarn late evening.





This is my shawl now - unblocked, but FINISHED. I felt it like a holy moment when I had it finished - finally. It has been long coming.




I am almost teary happy to have it off my list / chest. Now I may block it, and tomorrow, if it is dry (and I do not lodge one of the pins in my foot) I will take pictures outside in good light - weather permitting.
Good thing I am finished. School starts tomorrow (YAY) and if I had had to sit until 12 to finish I would have done it - oops. Bad girl.

It is dang HUGE. I just measured it to be 240 cm across the top and 140 down the back as it is blocking. HUGE I tell you. The "Finished measurements" promised me around 200 cm over the top and 100 down the back. Deceit" *grins*.

I Am So Happy

Serisouly, I am so ridiculously happy about this project that I was very tired of and just wanted finished, because then it would be GONE - but now I cuddled up on it, petted it and almost cried when I saw it all stretched out on the floor, in its glory. It makes me all teary-eyed to think that the ugly duckling finally has turned into a swan and that all the work was not wasted, even though it seemed unlikely that it would ever become anything pretty.


Have a really nice day

/Lene

My new cardigan

Here it is. The result many hours of sewing, thinking, ripping and more thinking.



(Relatively true colour)


It has princess seams and a stand-up collar, and is made out of a stretchy, embroidred denim. The sleeves were originally 3/4 sleeves with a wide slit, and the buttons were set differently, but I decided for myself where I wanted buttons and how I wanted the sleeves - and the body lenght. The sleeve openings are less than ideal, but I will live with them. They could be way worse. The neck is also not perfect, the collar is way too small, it wont even go around my neck. I wear it flipped over backwards, making kind of a V neck. (I forgot to do it in the picture below).
The chest part is a little too small, and the lower part is a little too wide - ah well.
Weird though, because this is the smallest size of a pattern only in "Large" sizes - designed for ample women (It was included in a Burda my mother had, and I fell in love with the design).



(Murky Mirror Shot)


Despite all the shortcomings I see in it, two persons have tried it on today, and both requested one for themselves. Maybe!
The next one for me may be in a linen fabric as recommended - and I will either change the collar or just make the neckhole bigger so that it can lie around the neck as it was probably intended. Plus I want to try to make a bigger boob area and slimmer sleeves at the wrists, and eventually cut a little bit of the width around the butt.

Have a really nice day.

/Lene

Craft-injuries

My little accident yesterday made me think about accidents while crafting / because of crafting.

Especially the comment about the needle in the arm.. Whoa! I do believe that the doctor couldnt find anything - the needles are small, and the flesh does not leave traces of being punctured, but closes up around the needle very quickly.

I once read a thread on Craftster about craft related injuries. It was hilarious, but also very disturbing - are we really so stupid? The answer is: Yes!


I have:

• Sewn myself in the finger
• Cut myself silly, 5-6 times, while trying to do Linoleum Carving
• Cut my finger with the rotary cutter
• and with a hobby knife while cutting paper
• Punctured my skin with a knitting needle
• Glued myself to a craft project
• Pinned myself to my sweater, back when I was using my sweater to hold sewing pins
• Gotten a burn mark from pulling a coarse yarn quickly over my wrist
  
• Cut the flesh between thumb and index finger while plying with scissors
• And, of course, my Super Stupid Needle Stunt of yesterday
• Stuck countless needles and pins into my fingers, under my nails and other tender places

Phew! I think those are the most common injuries - good thing. Just imagine if we were all, say, doing Moto-cross driving, we would be filling up ER's and doctors offices all over the world. Of all the "Stupidities" up there, only one required a doctor :)

Have a really nice day

/Lene

PS: I didnt know you read my blog, Nurhanne! I taught myself to knit lace from your website, copying down the line-by-line instructions for little doilies and knitting them with a free, ugly, ginormous ball of Gotland Singleply... Those were the times... ;)

NOT quilting the blankie!

*Insert evil face here*

I hereby wow NOT to quilt the Wolf Blankie - not under ANY circumstances. It hates me!

You know, when you get really frustrated, sometimes you can happen to say "Bite me"?

It BIT me >:-(

I had been drawing a horse on it, and had a spool of yarn with a needle firmly lodged in it with me, in case I wanted to start sewing. I didnt, because the horse didnt show up. So, I took the spool, blankie etc. away with me and fixed to start vacuuming the whole flat. WHAM - and it hurt in my foot. I found my needle, but it was only half! It was missing a whole chunk of the pointy end and a little of the eye, but I think I found the eye part. My foot HURT.

So I did something I very rarely do, after trying to find the piece of needle I suspected in my foot: I called the doctor *gasp*. He looked at my foot and asked if I was sure there was something in it? Oh yes, quite sure, the road to his office was long enough for me to feel it every mini-second. So he started to inject a local anaestethic, and prodded and searched in my foot to find the "tiny piece of needle". Tiny, my a$$ - when it came out it was over ½ inch - almost 2cm!

The best part was that he thought I was a sissy and constantly talked about pain and hurt and how I should go home and elevate my foot and put ice on it - I said yes yes, walked out of his office with the band-aid and all, but then it started to come off, so I took my sandals off, the band-aid off and walked home, barefoot, over grass and summer-warm pavement. That is the way I prefer life, simple and not so fussy.

I am bathing my foot right now, because he had to make a 1" (2½ cm) cut to find the little bugger, and will put on a good band-aid when I lie down in the couch to knit a little. That's the best part. Relaxing because "Oh, ow, my poor foot, poor me, I must be pampered / pamper me".

Have a really nice day

/Lene