Off to Russia!

I'm going on holiday to St.Petersburg on monday! I am really excited about it, I have not been to Russia for five years. My Russian is more than a bit rusty, but I think I will manage. I have not planned anything beyond hotel and the flight, and I think it will be awesome. I have recieved a tip that yarn is very cheap, so I will probably stack up. I hope I will be able to not fill my suitcase entirely, so that I will have room for more yarn!

I will also try to find some fabric, trimmings and buttons. There is bound to be something different from the stuff at home.

I have finished a hat and mittens for a friend, all in double crochet in Drops Ice yarn (thick cotton). I think she must be mad - who wants cotton mittens? But she picked the yarn herself, she must take the blame:

I am trying to reconstruct the pattern for the crocheted felted mittens (on request), and will hopefully manage it before I leave.

Oooooo! Mittens!

I haven't shown you the finished mittens yet! I am really, really happy with them, I have been wearing them every day since they were finished:

Before felting on the left, after felting on the right. Aren't they CUTE? I really feel the need to brag about this. Aside from the slippers, this is the best thing I've ever made. And I even made them entirely myself, without a pattern!

Oh, blogger

I've had a little trouble with blogger lately (posts refuse to be published), but I feel really helpless about it. Is there really anything to do, except wait?

Anyway, it's been a while since I posted a favourite, so here goes:


This is a little vase in a lovely yellow, which I inherited from my grandparents' house. It is not very practical, as the opening is really narrow, but I adore the colour and the subtle pattern!

I am soon finished with a hat and mittens made in chunky cotton yarn for a friend - the colour combination is unusual, a bright red with a sort of brownish-purple dusty colour. It worked out better that I thought! And the chunky yarn makes it so quick to complete, too.

I've got the blues

...but I'm not feeling sad.
I am on a roll with the blue colour for february! I have finished the lavender bag for my mother:

And I made a little bowl as well! It was really cute :) Eskimo yarn felts so nicely, and is a treat to work with.

I could not resist this petrol silk alpaca yarn, so I actually knitted (!) a little neckwarmer, and crocheted the edges with black mohair:
I made one edge in picots and one in mussels. I think it turned out well, and the yarn is so amazingly soft and lovely!


And I even started a vest, with Sys Fredens' pattern from "Hæklerier":




Also in turquoise mohair, a yarn that's been hanging around my apartment forever.

I didn't even think I liked blue! Petrol is another matter entirely, though...

Blue and green

I finished the green bag last night:


I still have to felt it (tomorrow) and embellish it, but that's the fun part! I am really happy with the result so far - I even started a blue one for the february colour-along. I realised that I wouldn't be able to finish a vest in shell stitch in time for the challenge, so I went for another bag instead. I hope my mother will like it!


There will be a vest, however - just not yet. Upon reflection, I'd much rather try something else in shell stitch first. Something smaller, like a scarf perhaps.

Drunken crochet

Crochet and wine turned out to be a great success - the stripy mittens are finished, and will be felted over the weekend.

I have joined three alongs in my enthusiasm - the bag-along, the colour-along and the fantasy along. The last one hasn't started yet, but I was a month late for the colour-along and missed january. That was black and grey, but I figure I made the black mittens in january... There in spirit, at least :) February's coluor is blue, which is a bit of a challenge for me. I am not very fond of blue, but I think I will make a vest or something for my mother. I want to try the shell stitch( inspired by Bella Dia), and I think that will make a nice vest, at least if the yarn is not too chunky.

After felting the slippers, I was left with a skein of the grey-green Eskimo yarn. I thought I might as well use it to make a little bag for the bag-along, and in my naïveté didn't stop to consider that one skein would be on the skimpy side for a bag... So today, it's off to the yarn store again! The theme for the along is spring. That makes green the obvious choice, but I still don't know what I'll do with embellishment... Perhaps buttons? I hope I will be able to felt it along with the mittens in the weekend.

I just realised - then I will have matching bag and slippers! How many people can brag about that?

Multitasking

I have finished one mitten and started the next, but it is not very interesting yet. More on the mittens when they are done! In the meantime, I have started on a hat/scarf thingy. This first one is very much a prototype, but I saw something like it at Anthropologie before cristmas, and have been thinking about it ever since.

Unfortunately, the image quality is VERY poor, but you get the idea - a hat with extended ear flaps to make a scarf. I have made it in brown kitten mohair, and in double crochet as I'm lazy. I will improve the next one I make. It needs to be more pointy for one thing, and the flaps must be made to narrow gradually. It will perhaps be better in a thicker yarn as well. But trial and error is a good thing :) It actually looks better on my head. No, really.

The muffins are possibly not sweet enough for the average taste. I rather like them, as I'm not too fond of sweets. I will frost them as well, perhaps that will help. I ran out of regular flour and had to replace with oats, but that went really well I think. We'll see what the girls think. Frosting is necessary, though.

Felted Mittens Part I

So, project felted/crocheted mittens is underway. I am a bit worried that I am making them too large, but then I'll just have to felt them over again, I think. I am using a fairly thin yarn, PT2, and working them in double crochet. Not only is it faster, but I think the felt will be thinner as well. The samples in double crochet seemed all right, but I am using a smaller hook than in the samples.

Tomorrow I'm meeting a couple of friends for crafts and wine. This seems like a good idea, but I have a sneaking feeling that the wine may not be very smart... We'll find out. Drunken crochet, anyone? I plan on trying a new batch of muffins for the occation, this time with all milk and no oil, and chocolate chips. Perhaps I'll try a little cardamom or vanilla as well - or maybe both?

I came back from Trondheim on sunday, and I was exhausted. This year was more than usually tiresome for this festival, and I will not do it again next year. It has progressively gotten worse regarding management and preparations, and this year was almost hopeless. No thank you, I'd rather be at work... After that joyful experience, I came back to work in time for the launch of a big campaign, and spent hours punching code yesterday.

On the bright side, I won 500 kr off a lottery ticket (something I normally donot buy). I decided to use these money on a new headset, something I would not normally afford on the spur of a moment. I researched a bit, and bought a Sennheiser HD 465 headset. It is HUGE, compared to my old Koss PortaPro, but the sound is AMAZING. The downside is that my old speakers at home sounds like crap in comparison... So this will be expensive over time! I am not like most girls in this respect - good sound is very important to me, like shoes are for other girls. I am, sadly, hooked now. Ah well. Kitchen improvements will have to wait...

Banana+Chocolate Muffins

I tried making banana and chocolate muffins yesterday, from a recipe I found on a forum. They were good as a basis, but as usual, I feel the need to change them to my taste. I have this unfortunate tendency: I am not able to leave well enough alone. Especially with food, recently also with crafts. As I grow more confident, I need to alter things. I have been food confident for a long time, but altering craft is also fun :)

So, the muffins... They were not quite moist enough, so I plan on replacing the oil with something else. Maybe sour milk? They also lacked a hint of spice, so I will try with a little cardamom. And perhaps some vanilla? Chocolate chips as well as cocoa might also be a good idea...

I will experiment a little, and post the recipe (in both norwegian and english) when I am satisfied :)

I am leaving for Trondheim tomorrow, and will not be able to post for a few days. I am already looking forward to reading all the blogs when I return!

Slippers!

I did it! Lovely, lovely slippers :) I sense the beginning of a new mania - SlipperMania!
Aren't they cute? The colour is none too visible, but it's a lovely grey-green. I thougt about making them red, but decided against it in the yarn shop.

After taking the pictures, I added a yellow button for fun. They are now supercute :)

I am very happy with these - sadly, far more than I am with my bag for the bag swap over at One Hour Craft. I wanted it soft and floppy, but still rough - and it turned out to be just odd. Ah well. I hope it will get a good home anyway...

It's official

Favourite Friday + Crochety Plans

These are wooden eggs and bells, real seventies, that my mother gave me a couple of years ago. They are so wonderfully solid and real! At the moment, they are hanging above my sink in the kitchen, so I can watch them while washing the dishes...

I am totally in love with Guro's tøfler, and I think I will make them in red! Wouldn't that be adorable? I really appreaciate the generosity with which people share their patterns. I would do myself, but I don't really make any patterns myself yet. Not including a scarf, worked entirely in double crochet, back and forth... and that's not really a pattern. I did, however, alter the original pattern (in Norwegian) for the mittens a few posts below! It took forever, so I did them in double crochet instead, and in alpaca yarn only. They are wonderfully soft!

Oh, and the Harry Potter 7 release date came today! July 21st... It feels like forever! I want to skip and jump all over the place :)