Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Third time's the charm!

Last year, I promised Bård a Marius sweater. I had bought the yarn and I started it right away, but at the time, I was working on two other sweaters that were of the same colour, and just grew tired of it. I put it on the back burner for quite some time before I picked it back up and decided to frog it, just to start over again. Then I put it to the side again! And I didn't pick it up until july! I worked a few inches before I ended up frogging it a second time! Now, I've just finished two sweaters and I'm on a sweater roll! And seeing as it's Bård's birthday in a couple of weeks, I decided to pick it back up again now. This is the third time starting it, and dang it if I'm not to finish it this time! Two-three days have now passed with my knitting being focused on this sweater alone, and I've already surpassed my two earlier tries!

It's uneven and full of cat hair, but that's how it works when frogging has taken place in my home. It'll tidy itself up after a wash, so there's no worries.

The traditional Marius sweater do have cut and sewn in sleeves...

But since I haven't had much experience with a sewing machine together with my fear of cutting my knitwork with scissors, I think I'm gonna try and work it in raglan instead. It gives a better fit and it's less feminine than the round yoke one. BUT! There's not really many Marius sweaters with raglan...so I'll have to do a bunch of trial and error to get it to work, and hopefully it'll look good...

And for those of you wondering, I'm gonna do this sweater in navy blue and white as the traditional one, but I'm switching the red out with a lighter blue.

Monday, September 29, 2014

Grey Marius sweater DONE!

And it's done! Sorry for the lack of updates on this one... The lazy blogging syndrome came over me again...

Took me 10 days to complete this one! Excuse me while I give myself a highfive!

The yarn was a treat to work with! ...even though I didn't feel too much of a difference from the yarn I usually work with... Luckily, I did end up with some scraps, so I'll probably do some research on it compared to other, cheaper brands.

Yarn: Smart from Sandnesgarn
Needles: 3-3,5mm
Size: Adult size M

Monday, September 22, 2014

Yarn wreath! Finally?

I've had this idea in my head for about a year now, and I were supposed to make it real life for last christmas, nothing really turned out as I wanted them to.

You see, I saw this picture and fell in love with it right away.

I knew I had to make something like it, and my hope was to make it christmas themed. But as things has it, the styrofoam balls I had bought wasn't really good for this project. They weren't styrofoam at all, but rather compact packed papermache...which made it impossible for me to actually do anything with them. First off, they were kinda heavy and second, it was impossible to get a wire through them.
I ended up ordering a lot of new styrofoam balls from eBay (for just 1/10 of the price of these papermache ones), but when they arrived, christmas was just about over. Now they've been lying underneath my crafting chair for 10 months soon, and I thought it was about time to dig them out and see if I can do anything with them!

Along with these balls, I've got a bag full of crappy acryllics I can use! So I'm gonna have some fun and waste some yarn! Cross your fingers that I'll be able to make something out of all of this!

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Grey Marius sweater WIP!

So, since Lupo (John Rambo) is done and over with now, I'm using all my time on the grey Marius sweater commission for a person my aunt knows. I've shown this off a couple of times already if I'm not mistaken. Currently, I'm working on the body, which is just mindless knitting...




Fun and interesting update, right?

Saturday, September 20, 2014

Lupo the Lamb!

Just finished up this little fella!

So glad to have him finished, and in good time for the contest on dA as well.

He was quite the challenge for me and he took what seemed like forever to make. Doing the bobble stitch with such a small and crappy hook was not a good idea...
The pom-poms also gave me a bit of trouble... Seeing how small they actually were, my pom-pom makers didn't quite cut it. After several tries with a fork, I had to go to a different yarn to make them pretty and poofy, and they're also the only thing acrylic on this little fella.
You can get the pattern over at Lalylala!

Friday, September 19, 2014

Doing research!

While my internet was gone, I decided to do a little research on some garments I've been dying to make for quite some time now. Ever since my friend Bale made a "langnisselue" for her friend back college (2010-11), I've been wanting to make a similar one for myself. These hats belong to the little gnome "nisser" we got here in Norway. They are super long with (usually) a folded brim and often a big tassel in the end. They're all in one colour, usually a slightly darker christmas red.

These particular hats that I'm interested in making comes from a christmas advent TV-series called "Amalies Jul" (and also later "Jul på Månetoppen"(and maybe even "Jul i Blåfjell"? I have no idea cause I don't like the ones with the "blånissene")). Here we follow a little family of "rødnisser" (aka the red gnome "nisse") that lives in the stables at a big, old manison where Amalie spends her christmas that particular year (this all was aired on TV for the first time in 1995). Amile doesn't know of the "rødnisser" and they can't show themself to Amalie.

Anyway. When the "rødnisser" are of a certain age, they have to earn their "langlue" at the "langluefesten". Normaly their pointy hats are quite short and stubby, symbolising that they're still kids and then they get get the "langlue" which are these long, pretty and adult hats. They are slightly felted and have a nice and clean look to them. No pattern, no fancy cables or stuff, just plain knit.

My friend Bale once gave me the pattern she used for the hat she made, but I have no idea where I managed to put it. I might just have to freestyle it at the best of my ability to make this kind of hat. I've already got my hands on the yarn my friend used, so I'm ready to start it any minute, really.

BUT! That's not all! What I've REALLY been wanting from this series is the hat Amalie recieves from "Nisseungen" on her birthday. It's the same shape as the normal "langlue", but it's more colourful with some kind of pattern to it. I've been drooling over this hat for quite some time now, and my friend Bale gave me the pattern originally for me to get started on that particular hat, but it was kinda impossible to find a good picture of it and also get the right yarn. This Ullteppegarn yarn above does not carry all the colours I need for her hat.


For last christmas, I managed to get the TV-series on DVD, so now I can get clearer pictures and realy study it. The colour pattern itself is actually quite simple. I've drawn it down and would be just about ready to work this hat up...if only I had the yarn...

It has five colours; red, purple, dark purple/maroon, moss green and light grey/beige. The Ullteppegarn doesn't have a good green colour. For some reason, they carry just about all kinds of darker, natural colours, but green they decided to keep in the shade lime. Other yarn types I've looked at doesn't have good purple tones, or they don't carry beige or a clean grey.
Already, I've been struggeling with this task for a few years, but it doesn't look like I'll be able to solve it in due time for this winter either... Maybe the red hat, but not this colourful one.

Ah! And one last thing! Amalie also recieves a pair of mittens and long socks on her birthday. These I've never bothered to actually take too much notice of, but on near inspection, they're quite pretty! I've just launched a wanted sign on these on a knitting group on Facebook. I doubt if anything will show up, but who knows. To be fair, I haven't done much research on these yet, so they might be a quick little fix...or it nothing else, I'll just have to try and trace the pattern...

Now I'm in a crazed christmas mood! Please excuse me while I spray down the appartment with my marzipan perfume, sprinkle cinnamon in every corner and drag the tree and decoration out!

The last couple of days

Sorry for no update people, but my internet has been gone for the last day and a half without any warning, so my planned blogging was suddently put on hold.
I got to admit that I'm addicted to internet, most of my inspiration and entertainment can be found online, so when I'm suddenly left without it for a longer period of time, it's almost claustrophobic. I haven't been the best crafter without my daily intake of Youtube, instead I've been replacing it with VHS Disney movies and Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
When that's said, I can live without internet access just fine, I'd just prefer a bit of a warning/preperation time in advance. One of my favorite places on earth is my mother's mountain cabin where there's no water, no plumbing, no electricity, no phone signal or internet.

BUT! I digress... Let's do a crafting recap from the last blogentry I did!

Big Lupo got her body in one piece, I am however running out of yarn, so the hood will most likely end up being all pink and not multicoloured like the body. The body also turned out a bit loopsided, the decreasing got screwed up somehow... She's so soft and huggable though!

In the meanwhile, little Lupo has grown ears! Yeah! I ran out of grey yarn so I had to actually go and buy more. And after the hood, I ran out of white too! I do however got a few scraps of white that I'm trying to match up. The arms I did last night, but of course, I managed to do something wrong on the second one, so I had to frog it down, which then again made me lose interest in working on it.

So, I started the next sweater commission. During The Lion King and a few episodes of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, this is what I've got to show for before I fell asleep in my chair, not bad in my opinion. Bring on 20 more Disney movies and I'm done!

I'm doing this sweater in a yarn I've never worked with before; Smart from Sandnesgarn. Now,  I tend to choose the cheaper brands because I'm a greedy bastard and my economy is pretty dang low, but really, I can't feel too much difference in this yarn from brands I usually work with, even though it costs up to 3 times as much per skein. I've seen people swear to Sandnesgarn, which is all good, I'm not the one to judge that stuff, expecially since I've never really worked much with the brands they carry. So it'll be fun to see how I feel about this yarn when I'm done with this sweater. I'm planning on doing a Marius for myself later in a brand that's pretty much the same as this (same specs, feel and everything), so we'll see how they do against each other when worked up. I am hoping that there'll be some scraps left over so I can try and stress test it against my prefered "cheap" brands.

Monday, September 15, 2014

Purple fair-isle sweater finished!

It's finished, it's packed and it's on its way to the post office in a few hours! Can I get a hellz yeah?

This sweater has been so much fun, but at the same time a pain in my ass. It's knit on 5mm needles, which is a bit larger than I enjoy working with. And with the yarn being heavy as well, it took a lot of (wo)man power to get it done.

As you probably remember from me ranting over a week ago, I managed to balls it up around the yoke. I totally skipped the heart row and started right on the rose pattern. How did I manage to do that? I've got no friggin clue! It just happened! And I didn't notice it until I was about halfway into the roses, so I had to frog down over a day's worth of work! My god, I could have killed someone at that point.

But with all that to the side, I do love the fair-isle on this one. It's different from what I normally work up, but it's still classy and fun. I love the hearts cause they look so fantastic from far away. I'm not saying that as in "god, don't look at my horrible knitting", but because the hearts looks fuller from a far. Close up they look like a clusterfuck of pixels.

The colour is impossible to picture right, which is the case with most purple colours. It just ain't gonna happend! The bottom right is probably the closest of all of these. It's still not 100% accurate though.

My friend whom commissioned this sweater from me, was very specific about the colour she wanted, and as it happened, the one we originally looked at wasn't avilable anymore when we were ready to order the yarn. So we ended up deciding on a thinner yarn which had the perfect colour, so it's knit double stranded...which the pattern tells you to do...but they want you to use a different brand of yarn... But it worked anyway! Now let's just hope that it'll fit her! That's always the worst part about doing a commission; will the piece fit? I followed the measurements as well as the pattern would allow me. Only one way to find out! I'll be sending it out today, so hopefully, she'll have it before the weekend!

Pattern can be found here, and it's © Drops Design.

Saturday, September 13, 2014

WIP: Lupo and...Lupo?

I've been working on Lupo ONLY for the last couple of days, and really, it takes forever! Crocheting is generally extra slow with me, but with such a small hook that's all kinds of crap, it really slows everything down further... But I've got his body done now! Finished up his head in the early mornings today. I'm not 100% happy with the result, but it looks good, I guess. I still feel that his head is way too big, but then again, Fibi's head turned out way too small. I've done a little comparison in the pattern between the two of them, and there's 24 stitches more in the round of Lupo's head!
  

I am however in love with the bobble stitch! I hated it's guts to begin with and it took forever and it killed my arm during the first few rounds, but I just love the texture and the feel of it... Call it Stockholm syndrome! All he's missing right now is the arms, hood, ears and the pompoms. All of that shouldn't be a problem at all! I am a bit scared that I might run out of the grey yarn though... Haven't confirmed with my stash if I got more leftovers (cause that it actually what this is, leftovers and scraps, call it a scrap project). 
Right now, I'm taking a little break from Lupo anyway, the head was just a bit too tedious for me, and I know the arms are boring and tedious too.

So I started a new project! Lupo! Wait wuuuut?

Yes! I decided to start another Lupo! As I've said before, Lupo is the reason why I fell in love with Lalylala. It was the first amigurumi I saw and if you remember a blog entry from january, I showed off a picture of Lopu, saying how much I adored the Lalylala dolls. Shortly after, my good friend Pickle threw me the pattern for Fibi and offered to help me through it. And it didn't take long before I bought the pattern for Lupo. I love Lupo so much! I can't express it enough! And after working up little Lupo, I got the great idea of making a giant Lupo! A snuggle buddy! This idea has been in my head for several days now, and I've been so close to ordering yarn for it, but I just couldn't get myself to do it. I'm trying to save the little money I have, so when I'm buying yarn, I'd like to get bigger lots so the shipping won't be so hurtfull. In most cases, shipping is free when you reach a certain spending amount, and I am trying my best to hit that if I can...so buying yarn (even though it's on sale right now) doesn't feel right when I'll be spending the same amount on shipping...
Little did I know that the answer was right behind me...litterally! In the shelf behind me, there was two skeins of green bamboo yarn that Sarah sent me some time ago. It's thicker than what I usually work with and it's soft to the touch without feeling like icky acryllic. Patons Silk Bamboo, 70% bamboo and 30% Silk! Genious! I rushed to my yarn storage and pulled out two other skeins of bamboo... Sirdar Juicy DK, 80% bamboo, 20% cotton. They were of the same lenght and same thickness, just about the same silky texture as well.

Wow... Pepsi is photobombing me! But yeah! These skeins shall become a giant Lupo! OMG I'm so excited! The skin will be green while the wool will be striped light mint green/beige. A bit crazy, but who cares? He'll be super soft and so cuddly!

But as I pondered this giant Lupo plushie... I got the feeling that I'd most likely run out of yarn... I dug through my stash once more and pulled out one and a half skein of a weird cotton mix. These are Cotton Light from Drops,  60% cotton, 40% acryllic, the remainder of four full skeins I recieved in a giveaway two years ago. Cotton Light doesn't excist anymore from what I've come to understand, so I really don't know what to do with these skeins. Why not include them in the giant Lupo? It's body will be striped anyway, so I can plot some of this inbetween the other two colours.

GENIOUS! But I shouldn't get too caught up in all of this... I need to start another sweater commission soon! And by the look of things, another commission might pop up after that!

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Lupo WIP!

I've finally gotten around to start my Lupo, the sheep amigurumi doll from Lalylala. When Knitting-and-Crochet over at dA announced their september contest, I knew that I had to make Lupo for it.

Ever since I bought the pattern for Lupo, I've been dying to try it out, but haven't found time for it until now. Being right between two commissions that's not in a hurry leaves a little time slot for me to do my own little thing, and with that contest I just couldn't say no.

With great support and help from my LAC crafter friends, expecially Pickle, I started it yesterday. I feel like I managed to get a great start on it, so even though it looks like nothing, there's a lot of work behind it.

First off, I had to relearn the magic circle...and later on, half double... Crochet stithces and methods don't stick in my brain, they was away as soon as I put my hook down...

Lupo was extra scary for me cause I had to crochet anti-clockwise...which I've never done before. Also the bobble stitch takes forever and a half to make, and with my tiny hook, it takes its toll on my arm. But it's fun! Can't wait to finish up this fella. Lupo is the reason why I first fell in love with Lalylala's designs. They're so adorable, yet simple! And little sheepie here is the cutest one of them all!

Saturday, September 6, 2014

Autumn blog header!

It's that time of...season...again! The blog just got a facelift! Summer has been over and done for a long time now over here and the autumn oficially started on the 1st of september, so 'bout taim to change that blog yo!

So, let's put summer behind us...

And enjoy the autumn for a while!

I am enjoying the colder weather and I'm hoping for a bliztering cold and snowy winter. Yes, I'm one of those crazy people that enjoys winter so so much. Being born and raised in Norway does things to you. For all you 'Murican readers (and probably the rest of the world too), Norway doesn't have snow days in school. Nope! As a kid, I rode my bike in -30'C (-22'F) and several meters of snow! GAH! Please! Let it be a crazy snowy winter!

But I digress... It's still only autumn... I decided to sneak out in the early hours of the day to snap some pictures of this pretty yarn in the bright, fresh daylight before anybody else has awoken. We don't have much green outside of our appartment, so to get pretty pictures, I've have to sneak into the garden of our landlords and neighbours...like a creepy person. Our landlords have some huge trees on their property and they've now finally started to drop their pretty coloured leafs, so it's a perfect time to get autumn pictures done. And I must admit, this header is probably my favorite of them all so far!

I love autumn, I love autumn colours and just about everything else! The only thing I can't stand about the autumn is the friggin' spiders that have decided to grow huge over summer and then move INSIDE of our appartment since it's so cold outside. Blasted araknids! GO AWAAAAAY!

Thursday, September 4, 2014

I'm such a n00b!

Ugh! It seems that I can never finish a sweater without doing some kind of major mistake. This purple commissioned sweater is no exception.

Here I was, minding my own business, getting happy that I was reaching the halfway point in the yoke fair-isle when I realised something horrible...

I've forgotten to add the boarder of hearts before starting the roses! Holy crap! That killed my motivation. I lost about a day's work and I just ended up putting it to the side for the rest of the night


I've now managed to get back on track and I've finished up the heart row! Gonna work some rows in single colour now before starting again on the rose, this time we're crossing our fingers (I hope you as my reader will be crossing your fingers with me) and hope that it'll go smootly without any more problems!