Pink and Barbara

Laminaria!

 
I am on my way to the airport but just wanted to show you the Laminaria ...that I against all odds finished before my trip. I made it out of silk-cashmere about 800 meters and the Laminaria is 1.10m long and 2 m wide (43 inch long and 80 inches wide. I did make another border..didn't like the border that sometimes looked like skulls...

Ok...have to run! Airplane leaves in 3 hours and we have a 1,5 hour drive left to make...!

Bye!

(ps will try to blog from Holland)

Happy Halloween or All Saints...

I love Halloween with the pumpkins and the witches so I decorated out porch yesterday afternoon.

 

I also hung my little witch. She hangs from a string  and when she spins around sitting on her broom you can look under the skirt and see her naked butt...it is so funny...

At the moment I am working on finishing the latest Pink and Barbara Patterns, so the will be printed at the printer on Monday. Also I will have new cards printed, it is so exciting. All the Pink and Barbara pattern sheets have been professionally re-done.

So when all this is done I will have one full week off the rest before I leave for my big trip to Holland. I am so excited about that! I have some projects that I would love to finish to take with me to Holland.

First I am knitting a pair of felted slippers. They are so cute. This is the test one.  

Here you can see them. The first picture shows the big slipper. You then wash it and it gets smaller and thicker...

The second project are a pair of mittens called Podster. You can find a link here. They are wonderful you can remove the flap so you can use your fingers and stick out your thumb so you can operate your ipod. I love them, and they knit up so fast...

Here is a picture of the original:

They are great christmas presents as well!

And the last project is my dream project. I know there is now way that I can finish on time but I am dreaming about it. It is my Laminaria shawl

She is turning out so lovely and I am hoping she will come with me on the trip...but...I need to do some serious knitting if I want to make that work in  a week..I will let you know how it goes...*smile*

Tonight I am having some guests over so I am making something called Croustade aux Pommes for desert, which was featured in the latest County Living Magazine.(UK)

Oh before I forget..I made a little quilt for Quilt-it and Dotty's Doll quilt Club . Here is a sneak preview of the fabrics I used. This will be this months quilt.

 

Have a great Halloween!

Testing one, two, three

I fell in love with this pattern...The fountain pen shawl from Interweave knits

So I bought the magazine:

Some wonderful yarn:

And then...nothing...it wasn't pretty at all...so I redid it in thicker needles, smaller needles, other yarn and so on...

So after 3 days of trying all I got is this....

Such a lovely plan....but sorry to say...it isn't working... So time for a new project....

Lace Class

Last Saturday I and my knitting group went Stockholm and took a class at Maria's Garn. We had so much fun. You can see more pictures here. 

We learned about knitting the edging onto shawls.  This is what I made. It isn't finished jet..it was just a test piece:

I have this amazing lace book but couldn't work out how to make the borders onto the shawls so never made one from the book. But now I feel confident about starting one...who knows I might do it soon since my other lace project is turning out to be a disasters, but more about that another time!

This is what I bought. Some brown yarn for making a cardigan again and some laceweight yarn. I think this will be the Laminaria shawl

A Shawl

When I was in Holland I started working on a shawl for my friend Sasha who turned 30 last month.

It was a lot of fun to knit. It is my own design and I sent it off to her before I went home. It was made out off black Silkebloom yarn and knitted on needles 6,5 mm.

It's melting...yeah!!

Hi!

It is such a beautiful day today, the sun is shinning. It is still cold here but the snow is melting bit by bit. I am so happy about it. (you can see the snow still on the background of the picture)  I can't wait to start on my garden. I have already planted some seeds that are now in my windowsills, some have already started to grow!

The free give away party is now. Thank you all so much for entering. It was lovely to read! Tonight I will draw a winner and the 5 extra winners. The free pattern you will all be getting is being test-sewn now, just to make sure that everything is OK, so you can start looking for it on Sunday!

I am still working on my Tangled Yoke cardigan and it is looking wonderful.

 I also finished this 2 weeks ago.

It is called Serpahim by Miriam Felton and it is made out of Handmaiden Sea-silk yarn. The color is called Rose garden I  really like it but it got a bit too big. I drown in it ..but think It will be wonderful on a cold summers night sitting outside.

 

I am also working on some new designs for the upcoming show The Open  European Quilt Championships in Velthoven, Holland. It is from the 30 of April until the 3th of may. I will have some spoiler pictures coming soon, but that is why it has been so quiet on the blog...

Talk to you soon again...take care!

Finished things last weekend

I had this great weekend this last weekend. You know the kind of weekend where you don't have to do anything and find the inspiration to finish some things. I had a friend over for some crafting and finished a great trilogy of books, and just relaxed....

I finished DH socks that were supposed to be a Christmas present but didn't quite work out like that, since I took the knitting with me to Holland. I then send it back to myself because I only had carry-on on the plane and didn't want to loose it.

It took more then 4 weeks to get here!..and then it was to late for Christmas. But they are done now and he loves them!

The pattern is called: thuja

I knitted it in Lorna's Lace Shepherd Sport 100% super-wash. Color 304 Black Watch on 2.75 needles.

It was kind of a boring knit since my DH has enormous feet! I am so happy to be done.

I also made these Baby booties for a friend who just had a little baby girl.

The pattern can be found here. In Dutch as well! 

I made it in 100% cashmere, it is so soft. On 3 mm needles.

I also went to the book sale that we have every end of February and I bought these books.

I can't wait for spring and digging in the garden. 

Tangled yoke cardigan

On Wednesday I was at Maria's garn. I always love going there. Maria is so nice and knows everything, which is so important for a beginning knitter as me.

I found this beautiful yarn. I love it. It looks like a tweed but not as rough. It is so soft. I love it.

The cardigan I want to make with it is the tangled yoke cardigan.

I will be making some adjustments. Since if you measure the sweater measurements and compaire it to how it looks on the model ...she must be 2 meters long at least.

Yesterday I went to a extra knitting group meeting. We had so much fun and buckets of tea. I didn't get so much done. It is always more talking then working. 

Japanese Feather and Fan shawl

I made the Japanese Feather and Fan shawl by Izzy. It is a free pattern. 

I used Malabrigo Lace yarn in the Cactus Flower colorway on needles 4mm.

I loved knitting it. The shape makes it stay on your shoulders.

Notes on making it:

I loved knitting this. It took me a bit over 2 weeks to do. I have knitted some lace before, but did feel that a bit more explanation would have been great. As soon as you get the idea that there are 8 wedges it becomes more clear. Also understanding that there is a middle and you need to mirror the lace chart is good to know...so a ssk on one side becomes k2tog on the other. I also added some beads to give it some more weight.

I didn't get the lace edging to work, so I did a row of k2tog, Yo before I bound of which gave me a nice edge. But I do love it!

My Clapotis

 

I finished my Clapotis! I am so happy with it. It is free pattern at  knitty.com. I loved making it! It was very easy to make and lot of fun.

I used baby alpaca and mulbärs silk which I bought at Maria's Garn in Stockholm.