Small knits for small people

I've made another sweet baby cap/djevellue for a friend's baby. It's made of Inca alpaca by Rauma, a yummy yarn!

Quick to knit, and I'm satisfied with the flower as well. Hope it fits the new owner!

I've also started a little scarf for my girl, using yarn I've dyed and spun myself. Like how it turns out, but some parts of it is a little hard. That might dissapear after washing it, hopefully. If it turns out ok, I'll make a cap too.

Tomorrow we're off to Lofoten on holiday, and I need some easy projects to bring with me. This scarf, and the matching hat is perfect. I think I'll even bring a stitchery and some fabric and beads to make a cute little brooch-thing for the scarf.
Happy Easter!

Addicted

About a month ago I made a pair of purple and white mittens for Elina, but they turned out to big, but at the same time they turned out to good to throw away.
So I had to make her another pair, also purple and white. A combination I adore.

I used 3 different pattern to make them;
The cuff is the pattern from Mermaid Socks by Lucy Neatby
At the back of the hand I've used a part of graph 39 from the book Latvian Mittens
Inside the hand I've used the Manly Mitts pattern from Knitty.com
I really do enjoy putting together different patterns to make something unique!

The mittens are 14 cm long (everything included), 7 cm wide and are made of Dale and Gjestal Babyull on needles 2.5 mm. The purple yarn is a handdyed, blogged about here

What is all this white stuff?!

Books, books, books!

Finally, they have arrived! I put in my order February 6th, and I've got them "already",from Amazon.co.uk. That's not on the other side of the world! But it doesn't matter. I love them!!

1: Intertwined by Lexi Boeger. Came across this book at Bloggspinner, another Norwegian spinner who's yarn is featured in the book!
And what a book! 300 pages of pure inspiration for the novelty and artyarn spinner. She spins everything. And by that I mean EVERYTHING. One of my favourites is an old AC/DC tape spun together with a commercial yarn. This felted sushi isn't too bad either. This will lay on my nightstand for a very, very long time. I even think I have to bring it with me on vacation next week!

2:Doodle-Stitching by Aimee Ray.
The cutest and most naive stitcheries, just my cup of tea! The author's got a great blog as well

3:Creative Spinning by Alison Daykin and Jane Deane
They're inspired by nature, and have taken the colors of it, and put it into handspun yarn in various qualities. Great pictures!

4: AlternaCrafts by Jessica Vitkus. Many projects, using many different materials. I fell completely in love with the button mosaic flowerpots. A great book for the not so experienced knitter wanting to learn too.

5: The Crafter's Companion, editor Anna Torborg
Subtitle: "tips, tales and patterns from a community of creative minds"
Lots of great stuff in this. It's my Eastern reading, I love to read about designers and how they get inspired. The projects are a big bonus too.

Purple Perfect

The perfect yarn, color and thickness. Why didn't I get yarn from Rowan before? It's fabulous! Sigh... yes, it's called sigh. The color.

A Dyslectic Moment.

Haha, the stupidest little quilt! My first attempt to make a new heading for the blog. I made it yesterday, put on the buttons, and mixed together the "blood" (it's Jaquard acid dye).. Then I took pictures of it, and put it into my blog. And I had it as a heading for over 3 hours before I saw the missing letter!

Pink.

Another yarn is completed, and it took a while to get it done. I span for ages, and thought I had a huge lot of yarn, and put it on the weight.. It's about 110 grams! I thought it would be at least twice the weight, but spinning so thin can really trick you.

It's about the same thickness as Rauma Finull. If I keep it, I'll make a shawl or a stola, and put some beads, sequins or something on. Maybe a lace and velvet ribbon would look good as an edging?

This is a mixed yarn, made out of Blue-faced Leicester (my favourite kind of fiber to spin), alpaca and shetland.

It's also handdyed, by me.

15 minutes every day

Is what I'm planning on spending cleaning up this mess! It should be fun and inspiring to go in to my studio, not a struggle to climb over boxes, mess and fuzzy balls of I don't know what.

So! E-V-E-R-Y day should be used to organize and clean a little bit of it, and maybe someday...Maybe I know where all my buttons are, maybe all the thread is where it's supposed to be, and maybe the yarn is organized by type?

This is one of the things that has been laying on the shelf for ages, and I've finally realized that it will never be completed. Never! Luckily someone else wanted to adopt them.

Pretty Petite..

Have you ever seen knitting needles smaller than this? I can't imagine how they're possible to knit with, but I'm pretty curious to find out.. They're 0,7 mm or US 6-0.And only 4" long!

Got some various sizes from Knittingzone, 0,7 mm, 1 mm, 1,2 mm, 1,5 mm, 1,75 mm and 2,75 mm. And every pair of DP's comes with a needle for weaving in ends, and they're all HUGE compared to the knitting needles. Funny! ;)

Åååå-ååå-ååoah! I just dyed in your arms tonight!

Dyeing rovings is fun, but dying yarn is even more fun! It smells like roasting rats while it's wet, but now that they're dried the smell is gone. Puh! This blue/green skein is my second attempt, and it turned out even better than I dared to hope for. It's really that easy to use acid dyes!!

This is the first batch. Two balls of Dale/Gjestal babyull (The blue/green-ish is Gjestal) in different shades of purple. I split the balls to get smaller skeins for experimenting.
One other fun thing about acid dyes. I use a spongebrush-thing to paint the yarn, and once it has sucked in all the moist, you can squeeze out clear water! All the pigment is stuck, right a away! That's pretty weird...
I've already started knitting something. A tiny mitten using one of the purple skeins, plus white. Latvian style, of course!
And since you're wondering; no I'm not drunk. I just like weird titles and lots of exclamation marks.

Eyelet Yoke Cardigan

My very first jacket, finished without handing it to my mother for her to complete what I've started. It's a size 3/4 years, and Elina is only 10 months. That's probably why it's a little too big for her ;)


I've used Drops Garnstudio Silke-Alpaca, a pretty heavy yarn. I love the sheen and look of it, but it's not the best yarn for small childrens garments. I made a shorter and wider cardigan since the yarn is so heavy, I'll get I have to wait until it fits her to see how it turned out.

The pattern is from Berroco, and it's free. You have to sign up to get it, but it's worth it, as there's more patterns, and some of them are pretty good as well! I don't know what to think about this one. I had to skip a decrease row at the end, as I ended up having 66 stitches when I was supposed to have 80. So there's probably "something fishy" about row 29 ;)
The jacket is also knitted in 5 pieces before the arms, back and fronts are beeing placed on a circular needle. It would be SO much simpler to knit it in one piece. But after all, I'm quite satisfied with it. But mostly because of the yarn.

A Little Bit of Everything

Why is yarn so hard to photograph?! It's almost impossible to get the right color, and I always end up a little disappointed with the pictures.. After taking about 50 I give up, and start to look for the best.. which sometimes is difficult. Anyway, here is what I've spun. A pure merino, where I've mixed a solid hot pink/purple with a multicolor purple/orange.

The latest from the wheel. A BFL/shetland/alpaca mix I've dyed myself using acid dyes. This will be my first yarn using only handdyed, so it's pretty exciting!

I've also got my second block for the frendship quilt, this time from Madir. Thanks for the pretty block!

Ups and Downs

Finally! The first mittens I've ever made using two colors and a diagram. Had some trouble shaping the edge, but now I know what to do, and what not to do next time. I've just made "something" for a cuff, and wrote down what I did. Made some easy cables, and put one some beads as well. I've also used a part of a diagram from the book "Latvian Mittens"

Quite happy with the result, I think it's okay for a first knit on 2 mm size needles.
I'm already planning more mittens, but I think they will just have to wait. These took 10 days, and they're small as well. Think they're about size 3 years. The yarn is pure alpaca, from Drops/Garnstudio, and the same colors I've used for the cap I blogged some days ago.

Floor Knit

When you have small children, it's convenient to have a small project to work on while sitting on the floor rolling toys back and forth to entertain as long as possible. This has been knitting on the floor, and amazingly enough, it took two weeks! That's pretty slow knitting... But I've made some other things too!

Extremely simple pattern, I borrowed the decrease from Jaywalker (slip two stitches as to knit, knit one, pass the slipped stitches over the knit stitch) and worked 5 stitches between the yarn over/double decreases. I like how the decreases is "pushed" and makes another pattern.

I am a very lucky girl

I did a swap on Ravelry, and gave away 3 balls of Noro Aurora. This is what I got back, I couldn't believe my eyes when I ripped the paper of the parcel! I've never tried bamboo needles before, but I will do very soon. They're so smooth and light and pretty and and and...! And the size is printed on each needle, that's a plus too. Really glad I've got 3.25 and 3.75 mm, as they're sizes which hard to find in regular yarn stores in Norway. Bamboo is pretty expensive here too!

I've also been spinning, using a midnight blue merino roving, plus my own dyed, also a merino. The yarn is ok, but it would look better if I plied it a bit more. Not exactly an eye-catcher, but perhaps suitable for a manly project? ;)
Will put it out for adoption/swapping on Ravelry.

Amy who...?

I DO love Amy Butler fabrics. It just took a while for me to realize that they can be used for actual projects, not just beeing looked at. A quick peek around Flickr should get you enough ideas to use all her gorgeous fabrics.
I've planned some projects, a sunbonnet and dress for Elina, a couple of quilts and a little bag for my knitting project (Look at Felisis amazing knittingbags!)

I know this isn't very good fabric dieting. I go through different phases when it comes to fabric. Over the past year I've went through japanese taupes, reproductions printed with small figures, polkadots, 70's retros, secondhand and Amy Butler. I already have some of Heather Baileys Freshcut collection, but something tells me that it will grow too.. Anna Maria Horner is even making a new collection!
I also got the first block for the friendship quilt I'm attending. This cute one is from Petrine. Thanks!

Lost in Translation

In Norwegian, this patterns is called Djevellue.. which means devil cap. In English, it's called Sweet Baby Cap. That's kind of fun, I think! I started this on Sunday, as an easy car knit on the way to a dog show about an hour driving from here. I like to have a simple and small project to knit while we're driving, and I like circular needles better than double pointed, as they're easier to put away in the middle of something.
I've knit this hat once before, when Elina was just a couple of months old. I think I made the 6 month size then, and could use it for just a few weeks before it got too small. Now I've made the 2 years size, and it fits now when she's only 10 months. I thought it would be big enough to fit her during spring/summer, but it seems like that won't happen. Quite happy with the result after all, I think it's cute and girly without giving anyone diabetes.

The Intoxicating Smell of Wet Sheep and Vinegar..

Yesterday I finally got my Jacquard acid dyes, after waiting for nearly a month! And I had them for almost an hour before I soaked some fiber in water, and started preparing for handpainting. The process is so easy, it's difficult to get it wrong and it's extremely exciting to open the plasticwrapped fiber rolls after they're done steaming for 45 minutes. I followed this tutorial, I think she explains the process pretty well. And pictures is always a plus!
I've dyed some different fibers, The first dye didn't turn out too nice (number 3 from the left) since I used too much color and liquid, so the colors blended too much together, and turned out greyish. Merino and two kinds of silk in this batch.
After that I made the other purples, in two different rolls. Tried to dye merino, alpacka and BFL this time, and they turned out much better. I LOVE the alpacka, it's incredible soft! It didn't take the color as well as the wool, but it's okay to have a lighter shade when I start to spin as it will make the yarn more interesting. I also tried to make a lime green alpacka roving, but it turned out more yellowish. I also found it difficult to mix different shades of blue, so the last rovings is experimenting with different shades of blue (and some green/yellow)
I think I have to get some more dyes, in hot pink and turquise, as I had some trouble making these. From when I went to school I'm used to mixing cyan and magenta, not scarlet and skye blue, which could mean almost everything.
Now there's only one problem.. I'm out of white roving!

Doh! You little....!

Sometimes I get some kind of "knit-kicks", and I actually make something. This time I'm making tiny Jaywalker-inspired socks, and I've used Regia sockyarn

And it looks like I'm not the only one enjoying this yarn ;)

I've had a few knit-kicks over the last few months, and they're all because of Ravelry. It's so incredible inspiring to see all the nice things everyone is making!
I think I'll stick to small things for a while, tiny socks, hats and mittens are great! And I actually get a chance to finish them before getting too bored. My knit-kicks never last more than a week or so, I'm afraid..

Gift from a Secret Friend

I joined a swap/secret friend thing at Hobbyboden and here's the gift I got! Beautiful fabrics (one of them is a red metallic perfect for the art quilt I'm planning), the others beautiful red and white holiday fabrics with gold prints. I also got some cute little heart buttons, I adore them!
I already have planned a few projects for some of these things, and I think I have an idea who sent this to me as well ;)

Fleamarket Finds

Fleamarkets is one of my HUGE obsessions, I always find loads of things to bring home. If there's some 70's fabric, I'm in heaven!
This is my last find, artwork and blue hyasinth-vases. I adore them! I put the art on the shelf just as a place to keep them while waiting for the frames to be painted (yes, I got some frames as well)
But now I think they look so good up there that I'll just keep them there.