Eh...
Hello...
Anyone out there still?
I´ve had problems accessing my blog lately. It´s been very frustrating. And sometimes I can be very impatient.
So when I couldn´t post to this blog, I started a new one. It´s also called Born to knit but it is hosted by Blogspot.
You can find it HERE.
I´ll be having a little housewarming party in my new pad this week. So welcome on over.
See you there! I hope.
I have had a few questions about my patterns – like are they for sale and where can they be found?
Most of them are for sale – but I´m always behind when it comes to writing up the patterns. Like with these mittens – they´ve been finished for a while and I meant to have the pattern ready for Syfestivalen last weekend. No such luck.
Made to match the hat called Liv Ullmössa. Ages ago.
Sometimes I think that I´m lazy when it takes me a long time to finish a pattern. But when I´m in a kinder mood I remind myself that I have a full time job and two kids that need a bit of attention every now and then. Plus I need my beauty sleep – and plenty of it (not that it helps).
But enough of the lame excuses and back to answering the questions.
My patterns are available both in English och på svenska.
You can buy the patterns in English at The Loopy Ewe.
Och på svenska finns mönstren hos Nysta – men de säljs också i garnaffärer över hela Sverige. Och om jag inte vore så lat så skulle jag ha gjort en lista över vilka affärerna är. Men i stället har jag suttit i min sköna fårskinnsfåtölj och stickat...
Og i København kan du finde mine opskrifter på Sommerfuglen! Det er dog kun på svensk.
Since my friend Pinneguri made a Maja hat last week a few nice Norwegians have asked for the Maja hat pattern. Unfortunately there is no Norwegian shop that carries my patterns and it´s probably quite expensive to send for them from Sweden. But what do you want with Swedish patterns anyway – your Norwegian patterns are far superior!
I missed Syfestivalen last week because I was working next door at Antikmässan (the Antiques Fair). But I bought something at Antikmässan that made me very happy – two old leaflets with embroidery patterns.
These are both from 1953 and made in Östersund.
This is my favourite pornography source of inspiration. I can feel that the mere sight of a page such as this is bad for my blood pressure.
Good thing that the best medicine for high blood pressure must be to start a new knitting.
There – I feel much better now!
This is a new Dragon sweater for nine-year-old Ludvig. As usual I´m using the sleeve as a swatch.
The wool is Karamell from Östergötlands ullspinneri, but Ann at Anntorps Väv has dyed it for me.
I think it´s close to magical that you can just walk into her shop and ask for a dragon coloured yarn and two weeks later she´s got the perfect yarn in dragon colours ready and waiting!
I got a big packet in the post today.
Ten chubby skeins of Loopy Ewe Solids, my new favourite fingering yarn.
There are so many colours it´s almost a problem to pick out the ones you want. When you see the shade card you want them all.
Until I start using them I´m going to make the most of these lovely skeins and put them on display in the book yarn cupboard in the living room.
Yes, it´s hard work – but someone has to do it.
Who would have thought that I would become a "model" at the age of 45?
Certainly not me.
To be honest, I don´t like being photographed that much.
But this is my new hat Lotte. And someone had to model it.
If I ask my daughter Elise - who is both younger and prettier - people will think that this is a pattern for children. So in order to show that this hat also can be worn by old hags middleaged women I have to sacrifice myself. Sigh.
The hat is named after my grandmother Lotte who used to knit a lot (her second name was Johanne so I was actually named after her).
The yarn I´ve used is Cashmere Queen from Schoppelwolle. Now, I think I´d better issue a warning about this yarn. It´s like knitting with butter. Soft and smooth. It´s extremely addictive. But not very cheap.
I fear that my children will be fed up with eating only porridge long before I have grown tired of knitting with Cashmere Queen...
But a little hat is the perfect, affordable project. If you can stop after one hat. Apparently some people find that hard.
This is my second Lotte hat, it´s a slightly bigger size and different colourway. But the pink one is my own personal favourite.
Sometimes I ask my sister Emelie to model my hats. She does a much better job of it. And so does her boyfriend, Per Dahl, who is a real photographer.
This is the hat Greta, also made in Cashmere Queen.
I think that Greta is one of the best patterns I´ve ever constructed. It´s sort of complicated and simple at the same time. That is why it comes in only one size. It´s terribly hard to add even one stitch without having to change the whole design.
These two patterns will be ready for Syfestivalen (The Knitting and Sewing Fair) that starts on Friday.
I will not be there on Friday, because of my other job, my real job. But I won´t be far away, only next door at Antikmässan (The Antiques Fair) doing what I do when I´m really working.
This is what my husband would do. If he REALLY loved me.
A blog reader found this on a website. Thanks, Lenor!
Are you reading this, mr B?
Remember that our second child had a hundred percent natural birth (ouch).
How. Did. This. Happen?
Me and my big head.
My best friend wanted a Karin Kurbits hat so I decided to knit her one.
And I had this new lovely American sock yarn from the Loopy Ewe that Wendy gave me for Christmas that I wanted to use.
What? Check the gauge? Who – me?
You must be joking.
I designed this pattern and I´ve knit it sooo many times. It always turns out great.
Besides. Knitting swatches is for wossies.
Or so I thought.
The hat didn´t look quite so appalling on my friend because her head isn´t as stupidly small as mine. That might be because she – unlike me – has a brain.
But it still kept falling down over her eyes.
Apart from the little problem of it being too big I think that this is the best Karin Kurbits hat that I ever made.
Luckily I still enjoy knitting this pattern and now I have an excuse to start yet another one.
And this has hopefully turned me into a much humbler and nicer person.
I may live in the middle of a big city but I´m a flower child at heart.
Okay, so I have to confess that I hate gardening. But I love flowers. I think they have healing power. Along with cats. And babies. And chocolate. And...
But let´s get back to the flowers, shall we?
The thing is is that I´ve made another flowery hat. And this one is very flowery indeed. It´s as flowery as a greeen summer meadow in full bloom.
I wanted a hat that would match my hippie mittens called "Winter of Love (and Peace)" – and carry a message of peace and love but without spelling it out in letters – if you follow me.
First I made a green hat and then I changed my mind and made a brown hat – because my winter jacket is brown.
I then had to decide what to call my new hat – because I give all my designs old fashioned Swedish girl names. But I got stuck so I had to ask my friends for help and got lots of brilliant suggestions.
In the end I opted for Maja, because to "maja" used to mean to dress something in flowers and leaves. Very appropriate, no?
So this is Maja, the hat.
And this is my daughter Elise modelling the brown Maja. Notice her purple fringe?
This is me taking a photo of Elise modelling the new hat.
My new "brother-in-law" Per Dahl took these photos. He´s a real photographer.
We swapped hats and Elise modelled the green Maja.
The purple fringe looks slightly better with the green hat I think.
Maja comes in two sizes and the green one is slightly bigger. On me it´s a slouchy hat.
So I can wear it when I want to be down with the kids.
Real groovy, baby.
Before I became a one-woman hat knitting factory I managed to make a warm sweater for my 12-year-old daughter Elise. It was the Owl sweater designed by Kate Davies. You can find the pattern here.
Kate is such a talented designer with a great eye for colour and I love everything that she´s done.
There is a reason why the sleeves are a bit extra long.
It was a quick knit. Or it could have been a quick knit.
Thick alpaca yarn and 6 mm needles – for me who usually knit with 2 mm needles it was almost a shock to see the progress. But then...
I was almost done with the body part when Elise came home from school after the annual visit to the school nurse.
Not only had she outgrown me – which admittedly isn´t that hard since I´m only 159,5 cm tall - but the school nurse also predicted that Elise would grow another 7-8 cm in the next two years.
So I decided to rip and add a bit of extra length to make the sweater last more than one season.
And it was still a fairly quick knit.
The owls are so cute!
I´ve got a thing about owls and I have to confess that I´m very close to starting an owl collection.
But I´m fighting the urge, because we do not really have any room for an owl collection in our already crowded, little flat.
I like it that all the button eyes differ a little in size and colour.
The buttons were donated by my mum, aka the Button Queen.
Mum has a collection of an estimated 600 000 buttons. It that might be the largest one in Sweden, perhaps in all of Scandinavia – but she still does not enjoy parting with any of the buttons.
However, for this good cause she managed to dig out 18 pairs of nearly identical mother-of-pearl buttons for the eyes.
And to sew on all the buttons probably took as much time as it took to knit the whole sweater!
Christmas does have a tendency to take over one´s life. But today we´ve packed away all the decorations and hoovered the last of the pine needles.
Needle felted family made by my daugher Elise.
I didn´t knit many Christmas presents, just a pair of socks for my father-in-law:
But I must have done something good, because Santa brought me some really, lovely presents. Like this set of needle case and purse in Dala Floda embroidery made by my friend Eva-Lotta.
Tack Eva-Lotta! Vilken underbar present.
I love Dala Floda embroidery and I wish I could make a knitting pattern like it. But so far I haven´t been able to get even remotely close.
This little beauty came all the way from the States, courtsey of Wendy:
Thank you, Wendy! You know my taste so well.
I´ve declared 2011 "the Green year" because I think that I´ve finally moved on from pink.
Of course pink and green look very good together- in my humble opinion. So the transition doesn´t have to be too abrupt and painful.
But what I´ve enjoyed most this Christmas is having a bit of extra time to draw new patterns and knit. And that is all I have done this last week – caught in a creative avalanche.
First I made this hat with a traditional star pattern:
I´m going to name it Greta, after Greta Garbo. Can you guess why?
The yarn I´ve used is amazingly soft and lovely to knit with. It´s called Cashmere queen – made of cashmere, silk and merino wool. It´s quite a bit thicker than the yarn I usually use so this hat was a quick knit.
The reason I´m going to call the hat Greta is because it has star quality, of course.
Ha ha ha ha. Ha.
Okay, sorry about that appallingly bad joke.
And on to the next hat. Pink and green!
Same lovely yarn, Cashmere queen.
And here I was thinking that you couldn´t go wrong with s pink and green. But. In this case I don´t think the colours have enough contrast. You can´t really make out the swirly pattern.
It´s a little bit easier to see in this picture. Bit I might have to knit this hat again using different colours, even though it pains me.
My head is very small so the hat looks quite big on me.
The pattern was inspired by an old pen case that belonged to my grandmother Lotte.
I´ve already started a new hat with a different pattern. Multicoloured flowers on a green background. So I´ve got to go.
Thank you for all the kind compliments about my husband, mr B!
Tove, I suspect that bigamy isn´t allowed in Sweden. Though I´m sure mr B would be delighted by your proposal – especially when he realizes that you are younger, slimmer and prettier than his first wife.
But how about if mr B took your boyfriend along as a trainee next time he goes away on a business trip?
And Beth, I´ve been meaning to take a photo of the Latvian mittens he brought back for me – but I keep forgetting.
I did however take a photo of the white yarn that I used for the owl socks. It´s a vintage yarn from Norway, called Triplex.
I got two skeins of this elusive yarn from my blog friend Grete in Norway. Takk Grete!
It´s a sport weight, worsted wool (kamgarn) and has a very special braided texture. I think that Annemor Sundbø explained that it has been plied twice. It´s quite soft and wonderful to knit with. What a shame it has been discontinued!
I still have enough left for a pair of socks for myself and perhaps even a hat. But first I have something else that I need to knit.
Last year when I asked my son if he wanted a new dragon sweater when he outgrew his old one he said yes. But added that this time he wanted a flying dragon – because it was time I did something hard...
So since then I´ve been trying to draw a flying dragon and it sure hasn´t been easy. But I finally came up with something that young master L graciously approved.
Not sure if the dragon is flying as much as sort of hopping along and flexing its wings.
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