My husband's sweater

Finally it is of the needles.
It has taken me almost a year to make it.
Not that it was that hard.
I just lost my mojo at times I guess.
After two days of monogamous knitting I finished it.
The pattern is one of my own and I have not written it down.
You can do this in any plain sweater.
Just adjust the cabling and you'll be fine!
Can't wait for hubby to come home and see what he thinks of it now.

I have knitted the sweater bottom up and started with a "ribbing".
Normally I knit stockinette and do one purl row in the middle and then I fold and knit as many rows as I did before the purl stitch and pick the life stitching.
This was not the best way to go. It formed like a skirt.
Hubbies do not want to wear skirts so when i knew what I wanted on the ribbing on the sleeves I decided to do the same ribbing on the the bottom of the sweater. That involved massive ripping.
The ribbing is a 1,1 twisted rib and the binding off is a I-cord bind off.
So now the result is very satisfying to me.
Hope he will have the same opinion.
Let's move on to the next project!

The yarn is from Kia Gabrielsson and was lovely to knit with.
I am sorry for the different colors and the most accurate color is the first picture.
Very grey!

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Dumb dumb dumber

Last Wednesday it was BIM-day.
BIM is a friend of mine and it is her nickname and every Wednesday I drop by because she is recovering from an operation that took a long time to take place (since the summer) and have visited her (almost) every wednesday since summer.
We always have fun and lately I always forget something at her place.
It is not a drama just inconvenient.

Like last wednesday.
In my podcast last week I talked about having way to many WIP's and UFO's, so the plan is to finish every week and this week it should be my Tunesian crochet cardigan.

I brought it with me to BIM to show her the cardigan. (The cardigan just needed to be sewn and I broke all my needles on the sewing machine.)
To make a very long story short I was able to sew at her place and would take it back home to make the button band.
I had with me another project as well, this one so I had other things to do during my stay.
When it was time for me to go home, I packed my things, took the dog with me (she always comes with me) and left.

When I got home I had a wonderful idea: to clip up my cardigan and lock it with my locking machine.
So the whole shabam was on the table and I couldn't find my cardigan!!!
A sms came through with a picture of my cardigan at my friends place.
And that is not all!

The next day on Facebook.
We have a online knitting café and on Thursday we had a theme called weaving in the ends and I had a lot weaving to do on the cardigan so I was so happy about untill I realised (it sometimes takes a while) that my cardigan was at BIM's.
Big bummer.
So I knitted on my tunic instead and adjusted my new adition to the spinning wheel family and spun and watched podcasts as well.

It has not been my week I suppose.

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Att lisa's

Last Saturday Lisa opened her house for a knitting gathering and because it is for me a 3,5 hours drive I wasn't feeling up to drive back and forwards so Ulrika offered me a bed. Thank you so much Ulrika and I had a great time.
My journey began Saturday morning with some packing and this I put my IPhone on "not to be disturbed" just to check out if it was working and it did.
I decided to make a stop at Trolhättan's shoppingmall to do some shoppings and I noticed that Paulina and my daughter rang me when I was driving and haven't heard a thing.
I must say that it was more relaxing this way.
Pauline wondered if we could grab lunch and we should meet in Alingsås and what a nice place.
My daughter just wanted to tell that they won a basketball match in Poland. Very proud of here!
After lunch we drove up to Lisa and soon everyone was dropping in.
It was so nice to meet other people that hadn't seen before.
We disgusted everything and changed Apps as well.
There are things you cannot be without and the App Knitcompanion is one of them as far as I'm concerned.
Time flew by like always and 6 pm it was time to go home again. First I had to rearrange everything in the car to give everyone a seat. It wasn't a long drive to Ulrika and I had the drivers seat so I wasn't complaining.

Once at Ulrika's it was time to make some diner and after diner knitting of course. What else!
We went to bed like 1 am. Far too late.
Ulrika was given a spinning wheel by her kids and of course I had to try if it was working.
With a few adjustments and a good night sleep it was working.
Steel wire and sheabutter did the trick this time.



The next day I met my daughter in Gothenburg and we had a great time.
After the holidays she forgot a couple of things so I got a list of what to pack for her.
We had lunch and after that I drove home again.

I came home with no one to greet me and that felled a little strange but it didn't took long before our dog walked through the door.
Reunited and very happy. The both of us!

Thanks everyone for making this a great weekend.
No I am of to Örebro for another knitting gathering.

Have a good knitting time!

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Fattigskogen

Is it possible to have that much fun with a knitting camp?
The answer is simple: Yes !!
The whole party started with Heidi and Paulina coming over the day before and we had full house with B&B guests. Birgitta came by as well and decided spontaneously to stay over and we had a great time.
Paulina and I did some shopping in Arvika and we picked up Heidi.
The weather was fine and we sat outside to BBQ, a little wine.........
And I had some packing to do.
A bit late, I agree, but sometimes that is what it is.
With a watching eye from Paulina I did what I had to do and packed everything and was not allowed to do anything else until I was ready. Thank you so much Paulina! Sometimes I need that :)

The next morning we were all excited to go on our way.
The car was packed and ready to go and we went through a little checklist and that made me run into the house 3 more times. Sorry........

Finally we were on our way!!
It was a 2,5 hour drive and I did not do that much of knitting.
I ripped out something and have not finished it yet.

And finally we were there!
A warm welcome from all knitters.
We made ourselves at home and install everything (I slept in a caravan, which was fine) and then back to the main building for some knitting.

The catering was very good, nothing to complain about as well as the hosts.

The next day I had a spinning course and I must say that I am very proud of my students.
Here some pictures.

We started with some very fine sliver and later on they spun from tops.
I hope my students had as much fun as I did. I loved it.
It was nice to see everyone being satisfied with the results.

Some of the students tried out the Ashford Joy spinning wheel as well and they were very good at it as well.
Some people took private lessons all by them selves and the results were stunning!

The following day it was time for a Afghan crochet course or a Tunisian crochet course.
I use for the course a thick 1 ply yarn and in this case it was Odin Superwash by Viking.
It makes a lovely, fluffy look at your garment and I love the way it looks this. A bit like if it is woven.
Every thick 1 ply yarn can be used.
I showed them the basics for this type of crochet and something beautiful came out.
For me it is all about letting your imagination go and make your own creations and some students really did!

On Saturdagnight we had a lottery and this is what I won:

All too soon it was time to go home again.
What a lovely long weekend I have had.
Made a lot of new friends and I hope to see you all again very soon.

I have not covered everything that happened because that would mean writing a whole book.
Still hope you will have an impression of Fattigskogen.

Thank you Ulrika från Stickamera for a wonderful camp

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Knittingmeeting

Last weekend we had a knittingmeeting at my place.
We were with three in the beginning and later on P joined us.
It was a lot of talking, spinning, knitting and a lot of fun!
S tried out my Majacraft Little Gem and was delighted with it. She also brought her Majacraft Rose and so did P and BM had her Ashford Traveller with her which I am going to fix asap.
My living room looked like this:

I was working on a project and was not quite satisfied with it. The project was to spin 100 grams of black angora wool.
The thing is that I had to give it away as a price and I wanted the yarn to be equal and balanced and unfortunately that did not happen. I begin with spinning on my Ashford Joy just from the fiber as it was and that gave a very uneven yarn. The next I tried with rolags and that was much better.
Here a picture of my rolags, the two bobbins and the skein.

S learned me a wonderful trick. As you have two bobbins to ply with and have some left on one bobbin just make some preparations as if you would andean ply your bobbin and then ply them together again. Isn't that wonderful? Then you have no left overs!

And what is life without a Chai Latte?

Today I have some spinners coming over for some lessons.
So I have to hurry now.
Have a nice weekend with a lot of crafts!

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What to do?

It has been a wonderful Easter and I was home alone with my eldest daughter and I should just count the buttonholes I knitted on my Tant Kofta's Kofta when I discovered a mistake and I cannot live with mistakes.

Second Easter day I had a wonderful knitting meeting at Ateljé Norrgården/Ostbiten and decided to take out just the stripe were the mistake was but that was more complicated then I thought (it took the whole afternoon and a part of the evening) so I ripped out the whole cardigan and have now began again from the beginning. I lot of people were chocked by me doing it but I would not been satisfied if I left it that way. 

So today I have begun again.

My daughter and I went to the yarn store today and bought some yarn for her shrug for her ball dress.

This is the one I am going to knit.

I am not knitting it with the recommended mohair yarn but with Drops Lace (alpaca with silk) and it is very nice to knit in and I have to say fairly easy knitting and not a job to be done in front of the TV.

My third project to start up is to spin 100 grams of black angora for Rebecka who won a lottery at the online knittingcafé.
So I have a busy week ahead of me and I have ordered a mini washer to wash my wool in. They are expected to have them in at the end of April and was kind of a bummer because my husband is in the Netherlands and it would be perfect for him to pick it up. Unfortunately not meant to be!

Bye for now!

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Home again

I have had a wonderful weekend at Grötö.
I picked up Marianne at Rasta in Grums and continued our way to Grötö.
Time goes very fast chatting and driving at the same time and in Sweden you cannot drive all the way without having a fika.

You have to take two ferries to get to Grötö and the first one is to Björkö and the yellow ferries are free of charge.

We met Paulina and a whole bunch of other people at Björkö, Framnäs.
I took a lot of fiber with me and the last ferry is only for people so we had to leave the car behind and this is what came out of the car:

We made it save and sound to Grötö and checked in in our accomodation and look what we got as a welcoming present:

And this is what I bought. Not much but enough to keep me busy for a while.
The bright ones I am going to knit a cardigan of from TantKofta and the purple ones I bought from Lenas garn and I still have not decide what to do with them. I just could not resist.















And I want to thank everyone who has made this weekend as wonderful as it was both for business and pleasure.

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Podcast

Last monday I thought it was time for my first podcast and so I began to talk to my computer.
I have never been more nervous!
How can you be nervous by speaking into a webcam on the computer, well I was.
The recording took a little (read, a long) time before I was kind of satisfied and then the whole circus began.
I thougt it was just easy peasy and it was not.
Untill today I have been struggling and searching and asking how to do it.
Finally I came to a very good friend and he told me what to do.
Thank god for that.
I was beginning to lose hope and I allready mad another blog for only my podcasts.
So I was thinking that I was well prepaired.
I hope, with the help of my friend and Vimeo, to have this podcast up and running by tonight.
I really, really hope so.
And all off my big plans went up in smoke because I have not knitted a lot, only a view rows, but tomorrow is open house and everyone is welcome to come to craft at our house and I think I am going to knit a lot.

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A nice weekend/Een goed weekend/En härligt helg

You will find the dutch and Swedish version below the English.

The girls were alone this weekend because dad had to work in Finland and mom was off to a spinning-weekend.
E was celebrating her birthday and we were expected to be there Saturday at 18.00!
I drove south at 11 am or so and as I did I called P to ask if she wanted to meet me earlier on and that we could drive together to E and so we did. I was almost when my oldest daughter rang to tell me that I forgot a black bag and that bag was my weekend-bag with all of my clothes, toothbrush etc.
So P and I went to the nearest store to buy me some knickers, T-shirts, toothbrush and deodorant.
I had my important stuff with me, read knitting-projects, spinning-wheel, E's present! The rest you can buy and so I did.

We were welcomed at E's with some nice recipe of wine and I am not fond of wine and I liked it very much and no, I did not get drunk!
I met some very nice people there as well.
I had a great time. Everybody was knitting and chatting and it was over 1 am when we finally went to sleep.
Thank you E for a nice birthday party!

The next day we had breakfast and a nice walk and then it was time to drop off P again at home and I was of to my next visit to S.
I arrived in the afternoon and began knitting almost directly. S has so many nice knitting-books so I spend some time looking in them and got inspired once again.
During the evening we looked at several podcast which i normally do not do and definitely  are going too and I spun in the meantime my yak project. It is finished so all what is left to do is plying. That will be a job for tonight.

Een heerlijk weekend is weer achter de rug. De meisjes waren deze keer alleen thuis, want papa was naar Finland en mama was ook de hort op.
E vierde haar 30ste verjaardag zaterdagavond en aangezien P in de buurt woonde had ik eerst met haar afgesproken zodat we later samen naar E haar verjaardag zouden gaan.
Ik was bijna op bestemming toen Sanne belde dat ik mijn weekendtas vergeten was.
Lekker bijdehand, al mijn kleding en toiletspullen, maar goed, het belangrijkste had ik bij me: mijn breispullen, spinnewiel en E's cadeautje!
Voordat ik en P op weg gingen heb ik dus nog wat T-shirtjes, toiletspullen en een pyama gekocht en ik vergeet eigenlijk nooit wat!

We werden bij E verwelkomt met een wijntje waar iets speciaals mee was gedaan. Ik hou niet van wijn en dit was erg lekker en nee, ik ben niet dronken geworden. Na 1 glaasje lekker over op water!
Het was hartstikke gezellig en al gauw zat iedereen met een breiwerkje gezellig te kletsen.
Zo heb ik nog nooit eerder een verjaardag gevierd en beviel mij prima en weer leuke mensen ontmoet.
We lagen om 01.00 uur op bed en ik ging voldaan slapen.

De volgende ochtend ontbeten met degene die bleven slapen en een wandeling gemaakt voordat ik weer vertrok naar mijn volgende locatie, S.
P op de weg daar naartoe thuis gebracht en ik was ongeveer 14.30 uur bij S.
Erg gezellig. Ze heeft een heleboel mooie breiboeken en kon natuurlijk niet nalaten om daar lekker in te snuffelen. Heerlijk, 's avonds lekker het spinnewieltje erbij om mijn Yak projekt af te spinnen en vanavond ga ik die navajo twijnen en een heerlijk weekend is weer voorbij!

Tjererna har varit hem ensam denna helgen. Papa reste till Finland och mama åkte till en födelsedagkalas/stickfest.
Innan jag åkte till E's födelsedagskalas åkte jag till P en liten stund och tillsammans åkte vi till E.
Jag var nästan när min älsta dotter ringde att jag hadde glömt reseväska.
Det var typiskt. Den viktigaste hadde jag väll med mig: Stickprojekter, spinnrock och E's present. Resten kan man köpa som jag också gjorde.
Vi fick jättegot mat hos E och vinet var något alldeles speciellt. Jag gillar inte vin och det här var jättegott. Mums, får fråga efter receptet.
Där var några som jag inte hadde träffats förut och vi hadde jättetrevligt.
All stickning kom snabbt fram med mycket prat och skoj.
Tack E för en underbart kväll.

Frukosten morgonen därpå började med vaktelägg och dem är så fina och gott också!
Efter frukost tog vi en promenad och åkte vidare till nästa destination, S.
Jag var där rund tvåtiden tror jag och efter en kopp te gick vi till vardagsrummet för att prata och sticka.
Hon har så många finna böcker så jag tid att kolla på alla och fick såklart inspiration också.
Har inte bestämmt mig en vad nästa projektet blir!
Tack alla för en underbart helg!!

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A new year has began!

For everyone all the best wishes for the year 2012.
I hope dreams come true with a lot of joy and happiness.

The new year started off with nothing to knit.
That does not happen very often and suddenly I remembered that I had a dress to knit.
I bought the pattern at the weaving fair in Borås last year:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/37-violet

Mine will be knitted in silk and Cotton in a kind of brownish color.

This week I cannot knit because I have a big translation job to do.
I have to finish it this Friday and then I will be on my way to a birthday on friday.
It seems to be a big party and I am looking forward to it. 

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A little sweater with big consequences

In oktober we (my husband and I ) went for a trip to Denmark and bought some wool and a description of a hoodysweater at Rasmilla in pink. This is what it is going to be:

I began knittin almost immediately and after I lost my countings several times I got tired and threw it in a corner!
But christmas is coming and it is after all a christmaspresent so last week I decided to gather courage and began again.
The same problem again: I keep losing track of my countings. So I decided to make a knittingchart and looked on google and I found a knittingfont !!! Have you ever heard of that? I certainly did not!
Here are some links to a view:
http://home.earthlink.net/~ardesign/knitfont.htm
https://sites.google.com/site/kauriknitsfont/
I used the Kauri font.

 With the chart it was so much easier to keep track of knitting and my cables untill I found out that one of my cables were not right! I did not take out the whole sweater, just the cable and fixed it. You can see it on the second picture.
But now thinks are looking good and I have come so far and only have to cast off for the neck:

I hope my brothers daughter will keep warm in it and I keep you posted here on my blog how I am getting on.

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Decision is made or not?

I decided to go for the Fichu  pattern by Fadenidylle and I do not get it.
I think I started the right way:

The triangle is exactly how it is supposed to be, I suppose and then I had to go over to the short rows!
Man, what a strungle!!!
This is what it looks like:

It should look like decreasing instead of staying the same the whole time!
What am I doing wrong?
I want to give up !!!

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My new project?

This morning I wook up early and decided to block my Multnomah shawl and here it is:

On the Siv fest a couple of months ago I won 3 skeins of Noblesse in blue/grey and that was not enough for my feather and fan border so I bought 2 skeins of Alpaca from Schachenmeyr and that worked like a charm. I am very happy with my shawl!

Now the question is what to start for a new project?
I have some lovely alpaca in a rustlike colour and about 300 grams of it!

Any suggestions?
So far I like this and cannot decide:
Fichu by Fadenidylle
Cladonia by Kirsten Kapur

All suggestions are welcome!

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Cosy !

It took awhile to settle down for her and I was able to continue spinning at Ashford Joy and my alpackawool!

I tried to knit the other day and found a cat in my basket.
You see to she is enjoying it!!

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Update!

What have I done the last couple of days?
I offered a friend to take care of her shop this month on thursdays and fridays and I really did a lot.
Thursdaymorning I had a busy morning!
No knitting just selling and serving and then I had my chance after 13.00 o´clock.
I had two shawls waiting for me to be finished so I did. It was kind of a project and I managed.
A purple I had knitted an I-cord on the knittingmachine and was not a great succes.
It was tight and not at all comfy so started again by hand and it turned out beautifully.
The otherone is also nice but not as soft as the purple one.
Pictures of the shawls will follow.

I also finished twining my baby Alpacka from Lena on my Ashford Joy.
Yesterday evening and this evening I span coloured rami to twine it with the alpacka and turned out lovely.

My Alpacka with coloured Rami.
Maybe I will take a better picture tomorrow in daylight !

I was thrilled by the mail yesterday!!!
Ordered to books at bookdepository and have been waiting for them all week long.
Finally I have them and now I can take on my next project.
I have been invited to a springfair in May and the themes is....: FOOD!!!
So I am going to knit and crochet food.
I love them and hope it all turn out well.

And I have to finish some other projects as well.
Only one foot left of my dragon so I better be moving on!
Hope I have time tomorrow.

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What a day !!!

Today I have been sitting behind my desk to try to build a webshop and I most say that I am on my way !!!
I have a long way to go and I hope to publish my site next week.
Time flies sitting behind my desktop and creating everything.
Tonight I wanted to crochet something and got very irritated about a pattern.
In swedish it is called vikmask and I do not have a clue how to do it or what they mean.
Tomorrow we will be in the car most of the day to pick up Noortje in Västerås and no computer for me tomorrow!!!
I am doing some knitting or spinning I think.
Good night everyone !!

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A white world again !!

It looked like it would be lovely weather today and I was so wrong!!
Pieter told me so and I would not listen.
It began round 11.00 c´clock, big white snowflakes and I was thinking about springtime!
Pieter had send me a picture of our boat on the trailer

Isn´t she lovely?

Nothing to do about the weather and I decided to have a look at what I took with me.
A whole basket full of stuff.
Some knitting, some crochet and a spindle with wool.
Where to begin first?
Opening the shop ofcourse...... how could I forget? :)
I hadn´t much to do so I did a lot of handcrafting.
Mostly spinning on Lena´s spindle I must say and when I came home I did a lot of Navajo plying with the wool I had spun, because Pieter already made diner so I didn´t have to do much.

It looks like my camera has had it´s time.
I will make some better pictures tomorrow by daylight.
Not bad for one day´s work. So I worked and I didn´t !!!!!!
Good night you all and sweet dreams

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My first blog

Last weekend has been great !!
I was invited bij Dineke van "de spinners" from Holland to help her to give courses at the Siv (Stickfest i Väst) on an island which is called Grötö in Sweden.
It has been a marvelous weekend!!!

A week before I found out that it was on an island and had to take two ferries to get there.

I can say that it was a small adventure!

First of all there are now cars allowed on the island so we had to park our car at a parkingplace nearby the ferry and get our stuff (and Dineke had a lot of stuff) on the pier and later on on the ferry.

This is the ferry to Grötö

Mostly Dineke´s stuff and a little bit of Marianne and me

Luckely there where a couple of women who helped us carrying everything on the boat.

We got a little extra because the ferry had to go to another island first before he would take us to Grötö.

The weather was excellent as well as the accomodation.

An electric car was waiting for us to get all our stuff to the Västerhav.
 We had to walk the small road to Västerhav.

The key to our small cottage was arrange very quickly and we made ourselfs at home and went to the mainhouse for a lunch.

And during the afternoon a lot of knitters came to the island.

I think we were with about 100 people.

Everywhere you looked people were knitting. It was very cosy.

The food was by the way excellent.

We listened to a speaker and then it was time to have diner and after diner it was time to set up the workshop and Dineke´s shop.

Marianne´s silk scarfs and handspun embroidery yarn 3-ply

A part of Dineke´s shop

Dineke´s shop

We turned in late and tired after all the impressions.

The next day was an early morning because the lessons started at 09.00 am.

Lena on the electric spinningwheel from Ashford

Mia making a beautifull thread with silk on the workshop

Dineke and Marianne had 1 workshop in the morning and 1 in the afternoon and I took care of the shop which was very nice.
On Saturday the workshops were all about spinning silk.

It was amazing how everybody picked it upp so quick.
On Saturday evening their was a knitting contest and Marianne and I participated.
Their were a lot of nice prices to win and everybody went home with something.

Marianne at participating in the knitting contest

Elin and me casting on as preparation on the contest

We made a lot of new friends and we had a marvelous evening with a lot of laughter!

Sundaymorning Dineke and I gave spinning and twining lessons and that was also a succes.

A lot of people went away with a lot of inspiration.

And we went home with a lot of inspiration as well.

Today is a day to reflect and sitting out the cold I got.

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