...gardening...

Look what I got in the mail! Lise had a give-away on her blog recently, and I won these cute heartpins- and blue stitchmarkers! They are great, and already in use! Perfect for when I'm knitting on 7mm needles, because of the wire. Thank you, Lise!
(btw: if you're planning on going to Prague this summer, Lise's sister has an apartment up for rent- more details on her blog here. )


Sjå kva eg fekk i posten! Lise hadde ein gje-vekk på bloggen sin nyleg, og eg vann stilige hjertenåler, og flotte maskemarkørar! Dei er allereie i bruk, eg strikkar noko på pinne nr. 7, og då passa dei fint med viren i enden. Tusen takk, Lise!
(forresten- hvis du har tenkt deg til Praha i sommar, har søstra til Lise ei leilighet der som ho leiger ut for sommaren. Sjå fleire detaljar på bloggen hennar her!) We've got almost summer here. The flowers are blooming, many of the farmers are already busy with the haymaking- especially those that have sileage or roundbales. We haven't started yet, hubby is in Houston working (any ideas of what he can bring home from there? Yarns, books, magazines???), and we will try to dry most of it as hay. I prefer that to the sheep, but it all depends on the weather. We've had some sunny days lately, but very windy and rather cold.

Det er nesten sommar her. Det blomstrar overalt, og fleire bønder er allereie godt i gang med siloslått og rundballeslått. Vi har ikkje begynt enda, gubben er i Houston på jobb, og kjem ikkje heim før etter jonsok. Vi prøver å tørke det meste til høy, eg fortrekkjer det til sauene, men det kjem jo heilt an på korleis véret vert. Vi har hatt nokre flotte, solrike dagar i det siste, men det har blåst ein kald nordavind her.

We have a proper kitchengarden this year! The potatoes are sprouting- barely...- we've had spinachsoup twice from our own spinach, we eat salad and radishes. I just wish I liked to garden...I've always wanted to like it, but sadly I don't. I'd like to have a nice garden, but I would have preferred if it came with a gardener...

We have tomatoes too. I just planted some outside, against the stonewall,, hoping they will thrive there. It's an experiment. I have a few plants inside too, but so far they are not blooming.

Vi har ein skikkeleg kjøkkenhage i år. Potetene kjem- såvidt- men det vart ikkje sett før 23. mai, og det er litt seint. Vi har ete spinatsuppe to gonger med spinat frå eigen hage, vi et salat og reddik.Eg skulle berre ønskje eg likte å jobbe i hagen...eg har alltid ønska å like det, men eg gjer det ikkje. Eg vil gjerne ha ei fin hage, men hadde foretrekt om den kom med gartnar...

Vi har tomatar også. Eg har akkurat planta nokre ute, under duk, langsmed steinane langs vegen, og håper at dei vil trivast der. Det er eit eksperiment. Eg har nokre plantar inne også, men førebels er det ikkje mykje som blomstrar.

But the cucumbers grow!!! We have 6 plants, and one especially is big. DD2 is talking to it and watering it, and looks at the fruits several times a day. They are as long as my hand, and there are many more to come! I call it my "new curtains". My mother-in-law wanted me to put up some curtains in that window, she felt that everyone could look right in (they can, but only when they stand on the road staring!). Now I have a live, green curtain! And people are probably staring more now, wondering what this is...

Men agurkane kjem! (Agurknytt;-)) Vi har 6 planter, og spesielt den eine er stor. Yngstejenta mi snakkar til den og vatnar den, og kikar på agurkane fleire gonger for dag. Dei er like lange som handa mi nå, og mange fleire kjem! Eg kallar det "dei nye gardinene" mine! Svigermor ville at vi skulle ha gardiner i dette vinduet, ho følte at folk stod på veien og kikka inn (noko dei kan, men då må dei stå og stirre!) Men no har eg eit levande grønt gardin;-) Og folk kikar sikkert meir no... og lurer på kva dette er for noko...

It never gets really dark at this time of year. Sun sets at 10:15pm, and the kids play outside till way past bedtime....not easy to get them back inside! The photo below was taken an hour ago...

Only two more weeks till school's out, and the sailing son will soon be home too. They have been sailing this week, and on Monday he will come to my "hometown". My sister will pick him up, and take a tour on the ship with him first.

Det vert ikkje skikkelig mørkt her på denne tida av året. Sola gjekk ned her kvart over ti ikveld, og ungane er ute og speler fotball til seint på kveld, det er ikkje råd å få dei i seng! Bildet nedanfor var tatt for ein time sidan...

Berre to veker att til skulen sluttar, og eldstesonen kjem heimatt. Dei er på tokt denne veka og neste, og mandag kjem dei til Kristiansand. Det var alltid "Byen" for oss før. (Ja, eg er vaskeekte sørlending- bortsatt på vestlandet;-D) Søstra mi hentar han, og får seg ein rundtur ombord først.

Take care, and have a great Sunday,- and summer ahead!

Ha det bra sålenge, og ha ein flott søndag,- og sommar!

...yarngifts, PIF, knitting and weather...

Finally back to normal-LOL! Both computers are working again, and I've catched up on my blogreading-so now I'd better write something myself! I tried to write a blogpost yesterday, but spent more than an hour trying to upload the pictures, and then the kids came home from school, so it was put on ice...


Where to start? Maybe with these little beauties? I got mail the other day... from Judy. I signed up for PIF with her a short time ago, and got these stitchmarkers (guess I uploaded the wrong picture, but here you see the cute little "cat"markers), and bamboo needles, straight in 8mm- just perfect! Thank you, Judy:-) PIF, you ask? Pay it forward. Well, I guess it's been around in the blogiverse for quite some time, but I'll still pass it on, the rules are as follows: I will pay it forward, and make something for three persons that say in the comments that they want to participate. I have a year- 365 days- to do this. So please, if you'd like to take part, tell me in the comments.

Do you remember the blue sweater from Feb.25, 2008 (couldn't figure out how to get the link...)? I had knitted it for my sister 20 years ago, but it was too big, too short and never used. I liked the colour though. So I ripped it, washed the yarn, and let it ripen on the shelf....I've started this sweater with it. The idea was to have a round yoke, but that didn't work out, so that piece ended up as a peplum instead:-D .There's a lot of cables on it, celtic cables and beehive pattern, even some hearts. I need to work on this when I'm alone, and now it's been put away for some time, so I can get some Christmasknitting done.

I've been more lucky (exellent English...)
Tracy had a give-away on her blog some time ago, and I won two balls of Smart- here are the mittens I made from it! I used The Shetland Traders pattern for Crofter's cowl.

Here's a vest I made for our 4-yearold neighbour, a vest in Silja sockyarn from Gjestal (their webpage didn't work today...). Cables on both front and back. It needs blocking! DD2 wanted to knit a shawl "with holes in it and so on", but turned it over to me after a little while. She's working on another in limegreen, really easy, cast on 3 stitches, knit, turn, *slip 1st st.,m1, knit to end,turn* Do this on every round until you run out of yarn.

This one is knitted in Kitten Mohair, one ball, it's just big enough around the neck.

Did I tell you that I got some yarn quite some time ago?
Andrea had a give-away, and I was the lucky winner of this yarn, Katia Azteka, 3 balls/300gr/540m. I really like this colour. I'm thinking of knitting a top/vest of it- any suggestions? I'd like to try something top-down for a change. I've never done anything top-down, exept for a babysweater. Some of this was written yesterday, and some today, so it's very messy- sorry!

Oh well, you'll get the view...I was off looking for 4 sheep that had run off(not far- they were inside the fencing!), and the weather was good and we even had snow! I startled two deer- got a photo of one, but it's not a very good one, so I'm not uploading it.

We've been busy with the sheep too. Every year we slaughter a few of our sheep at home to make
pinnekjøtt and sausages , so I've been cutting and salting and stuffing ...the freezer is filled with good meat. It's nothing I have to do, but it's a tradition, and I think it's important to keep a few of the traditions.

We've had snow a couple of times, and the sheep are waiting for hay. I always feed extra during winter.

Yesterday I tried to make a little video- we have a small river next to our house, nad with the rain and wind we've had lately, it was growing big. And really noisy! We use to think that we live in a very quiet environment- and yes, we don't hear a lot of cars and citynoises- but it's loud enough!

To all those of you celebrating Thanksgiving: I hope you've had a great day:-) Now that's a holiday we could have imported!

Off to feed the sheep...

Just want to say GRATULERER MED DAGEN to my sister...it's her birthday today:-)

Have a nice weekend!