Autumn...

In September it is time to collect the fleece and the lambchops again. A neighbour, Alf, called me on Friday to tell me that the sheep- or some of them- was on a mountaintop quite close to home. He lives on the other side of the mountain, and we bought our sheep from him 9 years ago. He helps us to butcher some every year to keep for ourselves, and he always has one or two himself. Anyway- he called. The weather was quite okay, at least it was not as foggy ad rainy as it had been for the last weeks, so I decided I'd better go have a look. I left at 10am. The colours were gorgeous. These are my favourites- golden, yellow, orange, brown, greens.... Hiking was pretty hard- due to aforementioned rain. There is a lot of moors and heather, so I felt my feet were sinking with every step. And I walked and walked and walked...
I had to open the gate at the top, it was a bit foggy, but not too bad, so I decided to continue.
Snow on the mountaintops...
And I walked and walked...and it started to rain. And hail. And it went from okay to tolerable to bad to worse, a real storm, with a lot of wind, raining heavily, occasionally hail, thunder and lightning. But I had seen the sheep...so turning back was not an option( actually I was as far away from home as possible...)
And this is were the wool has been summervacationing!

Did they want to come home? I don't think so. I found 30 here, they went in front of me, and turned left where they should have turned right. Stubborn beasts!
I eventually made it back home again, at 6:30pm.... I have never ever been so cold, so wet, so tired in my entire life!

The sheep? They are still up there...all 70 of them...

Have a relaxing day:-)

Good morning!

This is just to try something... Selbuvotten 150 år! IF I've done this the way it should- there should be a link to a short tv-program....

my knitspot...

A few days ago, Yarnhog had a little contest on her blog- challenging us to show our knittingspot. Well, I thought I'd play along... I think I have showed you this before, but it gets messier and messier every day, and more and more stuff gets dumped there, so I'm making it MY place... Hubby is no too thrilled about it...
The flowers is what I see when I look outside. Today it was raining- again- and autumn is coming, so they are not as cheerful as they could have been.

THIS is where I knit. In our little addition to the kitchen. It is all glass, and was supposed to be for growing flowers and such, but it is such a nice place, so it is perfect for knitting. I keep a lot of my patterns in the two folders on the floor, most of them found online, and most of them just printed out for inspiration, they will never be made. I keep plasticbags with yarnpurchases there, the table is filled with patterns, books, knittingneedles, knittingbaskets, flowers and finished objects. There are candles, handcream, paperwork and place enough for a cup of tea. It is perfect. The cats eat out there, and get in and out of the door (which is not seen, it is to the right.)
The knitted tablecloth on the table was a housewarming gift from some neighbours, it is beautiful. And a LOT of work. I've made several myself, so I know. Lace is so much fun to knit, but lately I've preferred the "stole"style tablerunners, instead of the round ones, at least to knit.

DD1- age 12- asked me to knit her a pair of legwarmers, she picked the yarn, " and they have to have heels!" So I made a pair with heels. They turned out okay. There is enough yarn left to make her a pair of wristlets too. I used the coinlace (3 stitches: lift 3rd stitch over second and first, knit 1, YO, knit1). I really like that stitch. My daughters got a BabyBorn doll nearly 4 years ago, and she came with an outfit that had used that special stitch, but I hadn't figured out how to do it. But then I got Cassie's Loksins! pattern for socks, and she had used it, it was also used in a stole pattern. DD2 got a poncho...we ran shrt of yarn...so it might go into the gift basket, and she might get a bigger one. Coinlace and cables, and bulky yarn ( Cortina from Gjestal, 100%wool, 13st=10cm on 7mm needles) It probably should have been knitted on 8 or 9mm, but I haven't bought those yet.
My owl hat. The kids say I can't use it! Ha! I have a thing for owls- I used to collect them, and have started over again, and I KNEW I had to knit this. There will be fingerless gloves too. And we need it, there is snow on the mountaintops in the mornings...There are some glorious colours in the mountainside now- the trees are turning into reds, yellows and bright oranges. Fll is my favourite time of the year, the air is so crisp and clean, and it is allowed to make a fire! You actually need a fire in the fireplace. Mr.Black is keeping busy- although here he is pretty relaxed. Every day- several times a day- he stands at the door with a newly catched mouse, he often plays with it just outside the windows just so we can say how clever he is!Today's view- it was raining in the morning, but now the sun is shining again. The girls are in the mountains with school, they have an outdoorproject in grades 5-7, one day each week for 8 weeks, where they fish in a little lake, make campsites, learn how to row, and fix an old stonehouse that is there. Most of the kids love it. It is hard work, but also educational, and they learn to trust themselves and the others, and have to work together.
In a few days we will have to start getting the sheep down from the mountains. They've been away for nearly 4 months. I'm just waiting for a day with no fog...

Have a nice week!

MysteryStole3

MS3 is finally done. And washed. And blocked. And put on my diningroomtable. The wing, beautiful as it is, is very different from the rest of the stole,and doesn't quite match the beginning, but that's my opinion. It was fun knitting it, and I'd like to knit another one to use as a tablerunner, but then I would knit two parts from the beginning and graft them together at the middle.
The little "cat's paw" pattern is so cute, it looks like little flowerbuds. It would have been a great pattern on a babysweater...
Speaking of cat's paws...Here is Tiger, 12 days old.
And here she is together with Molly. Molly is a grey male, Tiger is a striped female....she has a very cute tail...
Enjoy your day!

Edited to add: The yarn used for the MysteryStole, is Maxi crochetthread, the one you would use a 1.25mm crochethook for. Pattern made by Melanie. The runner was knitted on 2,5mm needles, it is 30cm wide and 150 cm long (12x60 inches). I started it July 7th, and finished it in September. Each clue (7 in all) would only take a few hours, but I kept arguing with myself how to finish it, which is why it took so long into Sept. to do it.)

showing off...

First of all I have to say THANK YOU for all your nice comments! It is so great to hear from you! I am not good in answering, but I try to go look at your blogs, and it amazes me what a great community blogland is. Always positive and encouraging and helpful. And you make beautiful pieces of art. I really enjoy seeing all those different things that people are making,and also how different the same pattern can look when made up in different yarns or colours. So thank you again!

The teacosy is done. Felted and decorated. It needed to go through the washingmachine twice on 60C do reach a reasonable size... It is funny to see how does bright colours fades or blends into a totally different shade when felted! I like knitting and felting, it is always fun to se how it works out(and doing it in the washingmachine involves a lot less mess than doing it with soap by hand...lol) I put a little bee on it. Tea with honey...mmmm. The bee and the flower are both needle felted. I think it was Sonja who first wrote about needlefelting by using the christmascookiecutouts, so that's how the flower is done. Fun really. DD2 has been making a few hearts that way, and some stars. And the poncho. Still not blocked-LOL-it it waaay to cold around here to take it off to block! I look a bit fake in that photo, it was taken with a selftimer, so I kept waiting for it to go off, and waited...and waited...and the smile got more and more stiff... But- I really like this poncho, and the colour of it, and I've been using it a lot already! Both daughters want one, so weve been off to buy yarn. The local yarn shop was closing down this weekend after only a year in business, it is difficult to run a yarnstore in the district, I guess. I've bought yarn from her ever since she opened, and I went to pick up more now. At a 60% discount... In one way it feels great getting the yarn so cheap, in another way it feels bad to go there picking up so much yarn at one time just because it is on sale. I wouldn't mind so much if it had been somewhere where I didn't know the owner.
There are citycounsil elections in Norway today, and the big question around here is: Who will be our mayor for the next 4 years??? We had a direct choice/election of mayor this year- each of the 6 parties in this community had it's own candidate for mayor. I am happy to say that our neighbour got chosen again, for the third time! She is both a neighbour and a really good friend. She is also the mother of 8, grandmother of 5, a wife and farmer. Every day she try to take a hike into the valley you see here. She is a very sweet person.
Autumn is here the leaves are getting the most glorious colours, and I wish I could paint! We've had some awful weather lately, but tonight the sun shone through the clouds, like a promise of better times ahead.
Have a great week!

still knitting!

So- there has been knitting! I've participated in an Icelandic knitalong/knitting group Garnaflækja ,and we've had a few mystery knitalongs, which has been great fun! This last time, we made this teacosy, designed by Kristin Nicholas (she has a great blog, by the way!)

My teacosy is still not felted, it is BIG! So I really hope it will shrink a great deal. There will be photos... The teapot is average in size, my favourite cup is large. Just for comparizon.

I've also made a poncho-which I haven't even blocked yet-it is so warm and comfortable, and even doubles as a bedjacket-LOL! The pattern is Arrowhead Poncho, heavy yarn (Gjestal Cortina, 100%wool, 12st=10cm, 50g=55m, knitted on needles 7mm) Going from knitting socks on needles 2mm/2.5mm to this poncho on 7mm...it felt strange! And it is pretty hard on the hands too, but it is fun to do different things. But my next project will certainly be the Septembersocks from Sockamania! Maybe I should finish the MS3 first though...there is only one clue left... The boys went off to school with the boat today. The 15yearold has a project with half his class, and they were using boats today, and were supposed to go fishing too. He loves to fish, but is not too keen on eating it! The weather is okay, it was rather windy though, but it is getting better, so I hope they get a terrific day. Hubby called to check if he had taken the boat- the weather lately has been rather bad, rainy, windy and cold (not above 10C-or 50F). So it wasn't until yeaterday we got the boat out. He did however have a great time driving the boat last night- and boy was he happy!
Lady Gray is left with two kittens, Molly the little grey, and Tiger the stripey one. I think. Names change every day...they don't seem to be able to decide, and I'm not able to stay updated-LOL!

That will be all for now. Have a great day!

and there are some FO's!

Finally! Andrea's design DiamondGirl is done. Even washed and blocked. I've done a few alterations though, knitting two more patternrepeats for front before casting off, and also making a regular sleevecap instead of the pleats on top-which I tried! And tried...and had to frog several times:-(

The yarn is also a substitute...my mum brought it for me when she came visiting in May. She had tried to knit a jacket out of it, but it did not want to become a jacket, so lucky me got it! It is Scala from Sandnesgarn ,but I think it must be discontinued, because I couldn't find it on their homepage. It is a mix of 26%wool, 64%cotton and 10%linen. 50gram/ca.100m, 20stitches on 3.5mm needles should be 10cm. The yarn is soft and comfortable, and will hopefully be warm enough even for winterwear(might even come in handy now, it is COLD outside...)And I'm always cold...
I've made a scarf too! Falling water lace, knitted in KittenMohair. It is 35x170cm blocked. Stitchpattern was found somewhere online.
I've also finished two pairs of socks, but those were testknits, and I can't post pictures of them- but they look gorgeous, and I hope the pattern will be out soon!
I cast on for a poncho today, in a bulky yarn, on 7mm needles- so it's a pretty quick knit, and a lot different to hold in my hands than those socks, knitted on 2mm!

We woke up to one of those glorious autumndays today, cold, crisp air and the fjord so still you could mirror yourself in it. The sun shone all day, and the moon is visiting us tonight. A nice change to all that rain we've had lately! Today's view, also from my porch, but in a slightly different direction. Enjoy!
Have a lovely weekend!