Progress report.

A post about how my knitting is going? I do say, is that not what this blog was supposed to be about? Well yes but... let's just say I had a lot of other things to tell you...
But here it is the the status report on the sally cardigan! This is a KAL and I am behind on it. Well I am by no means last ,some people haven't even started, but I am not on schedule and seeing as I don't have a job I should be.

So this is how far I have got on the cardigan. I was not sure it would fit since I didn't try it on after the big divide, but am very happy to see it did! I would say I am about half way down the body and if I am being completely honest it has been slow work lately since I have been doing other stuff. Presents for my mom  and stuff for the apartment and so on it is a problem I have I never seem to finish the stuff that is for me. So this time I am and I am not bailing out and making it cropped or short sleeved or something.

 So I have decided to make at least one pattern repeat a day at this until it is done. Just keep going no matter how slow. and no matter how many other project I can dream up. Because lately I have been coming up with way to many projects at once. And they are not all yarny ones...

So what else have I been up to? I have finished more cushion cover fronts even though they are not completely sewn on yet. 

And I will leave you with this mystery project and you can just guess what it will be...

Meet my yarn, part 3. The fuzzy drawer.

Ok, so you didn't get you yarn fix last week and I know some of you are just shaking with anticipation. (yes my idea of a joke) But there was so much going on last week , the pillows, the bohusruta and such I just didn't get around too it. But today is the day!



 The first of the fuzzies is not a finished yarn, it a super thin roving from Estonia a wool and fox hair mix that they make mittens out of, or so I thought before I understood that it is rowing, not yarn. If This is spun it must make a super thin yarn, right? I have actually knitted a pair of slippers in this and then felted them. It worked ok.

Next is the first of the mohairs, the lavender kitten mohair.this was bought for  Christmas present project that never happened. it is super fuzzy though and oh, so soft! Love it!

And the other kitten mohair, a cute spring green. This is two full balls that I have started way to many projects on that have then been frogged. I have learned that mohair knits up to a much bigger gage than you'd think from its thickness, so not completely in wain, huh?

The luxury mohair! this is one of those yarns I have been lucky enough to get from somebody else’s stash it is very thin and super fluffy, I would guess there is no acrylic at all in this. And the colour is just heavenly.

And then the last of the mohairs, this is "POP with mohair" and I think that is a great explanation of it it is 80% acryllic and just 20% mohair but it is fuzzy all the same. It is not as soft as the lovely little number above but it is a very stylish charcoal grey and I do have quite a bit of it. It could become a shrug for me, perhaps? Even though projects for me seem to never get done...

Then we have the "not fuzzy at all but still in the fuzzy drawer because that was the only place they fit"-yarns. They are first the plastic something, that was going to be flowers for the edges of my rubber boots but I never got the new rubber boots so I think I still have a bunch of flowers somewhere but now there is only the blue and the yellow left... I honestly have no idea what too do with this.

And lots of black ribbon from this weird shawl thing I used to have, it is all cut up into pieces but this I do use quite a lot. horrible pic though now that I look at it... oh well....

That's all for this time...
Oh, and the coffee cups are sorted chilli seeds, I really like the way they look so they are still out.

The cushion covers!

 

So I told you about the cushion covers and Tah daa! Here they are! they are all made from the tutorial Jacquie posted over at her blog Bunny Mummy.

 But I didn't crochet a border on them I just left them with a oversized blanket stitch. I think it makes them look kind of childish and like they are even smaller than they are. Like big miniatures... dose that make sense?

 Anyway, I love them they make me happy just as they are now but they are gonna get even prettier they are all getting crochet fronts, all granny variations. But the first four will look sort of the same...

These are the start of a big blanket for me but first of all It was taking way to long to make and second it was cotton and even though cotton is washable it would just be to heavy to put in the machine and with a baby coming, well that just wouldn't do. So the full size blanket for me have to wait... Maybe that's what I'll do with the Indian acrylic... Anyway, there where four of these sets of four so I just put borders on them to make them fit the cushions and sew them on. I have made one completely finished and one that is done but needs to be sewed on to it's cushion.

But I have been doing something else today too.. What is that, can you guess?

The dog knows but he ain't telling...

 

It is a bohusruta, and it was not as hard as it looked! 

I have taken photos of the entire process and started writing up a translated pattern /tutorial. I also tweaked the pattern a tad because there was this one thing I found strange so I changed it. But you will get a tutorial soon!

The bohusruta! or the long lost pattern.

Yesterday was one of those wierd days that seems touched by faith. It all started with me finding the lovely blog  myrosevalley written by Annette. She had a lovely post about the bed thow her grandma (I think) gave her when she was sixteen, and wrote about how she found it again now that she was a crocheter herself and could not even figure out exactly how it was made.
I liked this post so much I even showed it to my husband and he liked it too and like me thought the throw was a genuine work of art.

Yesterday was also the day of the cushion covers! well today is also... we bought ten(!) cushions the other day at IKEA and they all need covers (but more on that in a later post) And when they all have covers they al need pretty fronts that I am gonna crochet, I have four sort of done, but I want them to wary so I was thinking out loud to my husband about this,
-One with stripes, one with zigzags, one big square, oh and one with tiny squares... what else?
-Could you make one that's a spiral?
- umh.. don't think so... but I have seen a spiral granny pattern somewhere.

So thats why when I was brushing my teeth I was trying to remember where on earth I had seen the spiral granny pattern and I remembered I have a small collection of patterns for crochet squares that I bought at a thrift shop up in Örnsköldsvik and maybe thats where I had seen a spiral? I went and got it from the shelf and just stood there staring at it cause there on the front was the pattern from the bed throw!

 The small booklet is from 1973 and called "crochet stars, a collection of old and new patterns". It says on the first page that the old patters in it are mostly from the 1800's and the year of 1900 and was sent in to the magazine as contenders in the Swedish national crochet competition.

And inside it is; the pattern for how to make your own Bohusruta! It is in Swedish and if you can read that you can just click the pick and read it of of there. but I am gonna try to make one and make a translation too English for the rest of you though I must admit I don't think I would ever make more than one of these they look HARD!.

All the colours of the garden!

 My home is mostly white even if all my stuff in it is a lot of colours. I like the light feel of it since we are in a basement, really. And all the colour I bring to the place sort of need a light background to work. 

 There is fog in the egg-terrarium today but outside the weather is better than it has been all week so out we go.

 And there is one of us who thinks there is only one sensible reason for going outside. Can you guess what he wants?
The egg cartons are Z's babies there are three kinds of chilli seeds in there and two more kinds inside in the window. My husband loves chilli and for the first time he is just as exited about growing something as I am. Tomorrow he is gonna try planting lime seeds and we'll see if we can get a lime plant to have in the window.

 The house we live in is a big one (we only live in a small part of it) and it has a big garden. The garden is K's, she is one of the original owners of the house and although all the owners of the apartments it has been turned into actually own it together (as I have understood) she is the one who has planted it and who looks after it and makes it the wonderful thing it is.

 Since I am out there a lot and always am super fascinated at how there is always something new happening I thought I'll share whats happening right now with you! And right now is colourfull!

 The small red tulips are in full bloom! They are soo bright. I get happy every time I see them. They are such a happy little beacon of colour and brighten up any place they grow.

The same goes for these beauties! They make me think so much of spring even though these are the slightly later big ones, the first was the mini versions that have passed already.

 

And speaking of yellow! There are three of these big bushes in the garden and they bloom beautifully! spectacular oceans of yellow! I am all giddy from joy and they were all buds just a few days ago they just exploded all of a sudden.

 The pink ones! There is always the pink ones these are bright and they grow everywhere Is you don't look out. But the flowers are great and they bloom long into summer.

 

Then there is the ferns I like them best just now when the are still uncurling, they make me think of a nightmare before Christmas and such films...

And then there is my favorite of all the flowers right now. I have no idea what it is called in english But it is a checkered flower! How cool is that! I am completly stunned!

The last act will be this tiny violet, there are only three of these small wonders in the entire garden but I love then they are so delicate and the blackline and the shape makes me think of orchids. Lovely little flowers!

That was all the colours of the garden right now thanx for stopping by and tomorrow I will try to photograph another drawer for meet my yarn, that is mostly for me I know...

Meet my yarn, part 2. "the Indian acrylic"

Here we go: this weeks Meet my yarn!

Today we meet the acrylic my sister got me from her last four mounths stay in India. Well ok she got it for herself and acctually knitted a hat from it but when she got home she realised this was a bit more than she would ever use. So she (bless her soul) passed it on to me.

It is, according to her, what all the Indian women knit cardigans with and use to make pullovers for their husbands. At least the ones that were kind enough to teach her a little knitting (if I remember correctly). 

This yarn is a very "glittery" acrylic I have never seen this kind of glittery yarn in Europe. It has absolutely sublime colouring though I just love the deep but still bright colors. And it is soft to touch, softer than it looks. So becouse of that and the fact that it is a washable yarn (lets hope) makes me think of baby stuff. .

But I need too make some sort of test wash becouse everything from India I have washed so far has bleed like nothing else. I think they just don't use the same washing methods we do.

First I would like to make something small like a baby-hoodie maby this one. And then I wanted to make a big blanket in intarsia, I have a dream of using vintage embroidery patterns and transforming them into intarsia. 

But if that turns out to be to big a challenge I think I will just knit squares in garter stich and alternate the direction of them when I stitch them together. I hate seeming though so we will see what I feel is more of the pain in the but to me.

As usual, thanx for letting me ramble about what I think I might like to do with my yarn. And please feel free to comment...

Birthday party! Sofa and skull cake.

I am a little behind on my knitting this week and the reason is we had a birthday! Z my husband, a.k.a "the best man ever", turned 28 so now we are the same age for a few months. We had set the birthday gathering as the "last day too finish" and that of course meant we had a thousand and one things to do this easter week. but on the other hand the place looks fab! Ok, you wanna see what took the most time?

 Yes we sewed a cower for the sofa! And I like so much I have made little dances in my living room.

 

As you understand I did not have any money too spend on this project. But I had a lot of fabric laying around. No piece big enough to cover the entire sofa and the two pillows we had stored away for later, But it was definitely enough all together. So I started my first ever quilting project and I'll tell you we were not friends the entire time. I am so happy to have a husband who is better at sewing than me and can save me when I get in over my head. And the result is a lot etter than I ever thought it would be!

Oh so you spotted that baby blanket did you? well I made that a few years ago for me but now we will actually have a baby for it!

And I just had to show you the sandwich-cakes (do you even have that word in english) me and my mom did for the birthday-boy. creepy I know...