Lilac is the new black.

This is about half of Martine. The Debbie Bliss Pure Silk is wonderful to knit with. Even acres of stocking stitch. I must admit the first half of the back seemed to go on forever.
The only bad thing I discovered is: Don't use a ball winder. Bad things happen to the yarn. The wound ball kept falling apart and ending up in a big tangle about half way into knitting the ball up.
I'll do the last three balls by hand.

Other news:
Yesterday morning there was a big parcel in our porch. It came all the way from Norway.
My Dad did manage to find a yarn store in Trondheim and he got me all the yarn plus badge. I can now start on my very first knitting and steeking adventure. First though I'll have to get all the circular needles ready. Three different needle sizes.
But before I start, I want to get some more summer knitting done and of course some projects for my soon two daughters.
First up is a little bolero for the latest addition to the ever growing family.
My sister-in-law just had a baby girl. Our soon to be baby daughter already has a little playmate!
Perry is playing 'baby'. I found him fast asleep in the pram. How can I kick him out of there? He looks to cute and to asleep.

Shhh....

Baby is a little girl.
Only my darling husband was right.
I had another scan last week. It's definitely going to be a little girl.
I finished the blue jacket over the weekend. It now has a pale pink zip. Hopefully the yarn shop will have something else I can sew on it, like little flowers.
The striped cardigan is also ready for a trip to the yarn shop - it needs buttons.


Meanwhile we have big sister N. She doesn't like early mornings. After the start of summertime it has been very hard this morning.
The ballet t-shirt is a perfect fit. She was very happy to come home and have the t-shirt finished waiting for her.
Perry has been busy. I have tried and failed to sell our big pram on e-bay.
Perry now thinks it is his. He is very interested in all the baby stuff that has started to take over our house. I have taken a whole lot down from the attic and I am sorting through it.
N. was born in December, I have loads of warm padded baby suits, not really suitable for a newborn in July.
I hope Perry just likes the smell of moth balls and that he will lose interest once everything is washed and aired.
Since most of my knitting has now reached it's end stages. I had to start something else.
It's Martine from the new Debbie Bliss book Summer Essentials. My friend Johanne gave me the yarn for Christmas. I have started on the back, but I have not reached any milestone yet.

Loop-d-loop

Our lovely daughter and her daddy have gone away for four days. It is their pre-sibling father-daughter trip.
I was going through the house collecting knitting books, ready to put them back in the book shelf.
Instead I sat down and read a few. Like the Loop-d-loop book.
I came across the ballet t-shirt pattern. It uses two balls of Cotton Fleece.
Who has nearly two balls of Cotton Fleece left over?
When our daughter saw me looking at the pattern, she said straight away - oh, I can wear it over my leotard!
The pattern is written for two sizes. Small girls and women's. It uses different needle sizes to achieve the bigger adult version.


She is between the two sizes. I knitted her top with needle size 8mm. I feel it has worked out very well.
Now I have to wait three more days until she gets back and can try it on!
Cotton Fleece is a great yarn, she still wants me to knit her the top from the barefoot knit book.

Got Cotton Fleece?

The Barefoot Knits tank top is finished. The Cotton Fleece yarn is a joy to work with.
I knit this in three days. Now our lovely daughter wants something else from the book for herself.
Any reason to order yarn is a good reason!


The little striped cardigan is also making good progress. I enjoy knitting with the Baby Cashmerino yarn so much, I am taking it slowly.

May

It feels great to have two finished projects in two days.
May the shrug is done.
I started this project on 11. February.
Knitted in size 36-38 inch bust.
Used 7 balls of Rowan Classic Yarn 'Cashsoft DK'.
The colour is called 'Bella Donna' (beautiful woman).
These photos have been taken with my phone. My darling husband has taken the digital camera to work! Our lovely daughter is home from school. She got a stomach bug, yesterday she felt very ill and I was worried. Today she is better and then she starts getting on my nerves. But she has to build up some more strenght before she goes back to school - tomorrow.

Here another photo of May. I have stayed away from bobbles for years and now I have done two projects with them. The other was the cardigan I knitted for my mother last September.
I was always worried that bobbles would be uncomfortable to wear - I was wrong.
I lounged around last night in May and it felt nice and cosy.
What's next? There are still a few UFO's haning around, but I have to knit a birthday present. Somebody saw our lovely daughter in her tube top and now wants one too. I ordered the yarn on Monday and got it yesterday. I loved knitting the first one - I don't see a problem with the second one. That means I'll have enough yarn left over from both projects to knit something else from the book for our new baby.

Jitterbug Socks

Our lovely daughter is in desperate need of more hand knitted socks. A lot of her others are getting to small or the fabirc is getting very thin.
I finished these Colinette Jitterbug socks just in time.
She said they are very comfy!
I think I have enough yarn left over to knit a pair of Jitterbug socks for the new baby.

Baby is gettting a whole knitted wardrobe by the look of things. This cardigan is a great coffee shop knit.
May is my knit at home project. I can't believe how work intensive the collar is. Row after row of garter stitch. I have been knitting both sides at the same time - well about 10 rows on one side and then 10 on the other.
I want both sides to match - the increases and the main pattern.
I tried it on yesterday, with the needles and everything. So far it fits very well.
Hopefully, I'll have another finished Object tomorrow.

New week - new project

May the little shrug is coming along well. I managed to sew all the pieces together this morning. Mondays is my laundry day. A seam here and there between dealing with all the different loads and voila - the loads are nearly done and the sewing has been completed.
Well for the time anyway. Next up are the front bands and the collar.

I had some errands to run before picking up our lovely daughter from school. I time my errands so that I have time to go to the coffee shop, sit down and knit.
I felt I needed a new project. I had bought the yarn for this little cardigan a while ago. I was unsure if I should knit the striped cardigan from the Debbie Bliss Babycashmerino book 2 or the little striped hooded jumper from the first book.
As usual the husband is right - better to have a small size cardigan than something that has to be pulled over baby's head.
I choose the darker shade green than in the book.
We have found out the sex of the baby. But we are busy telling family and friends. Once we have covered that, then I can reveal it here on my blog.

Stay tuned.

On Perry, he has fully recovered. A pigeon payed the price with her life!

Her stash

Our lovely daughter has got the fiber bug like her Mummy!
Knitting from Mummy's stash is just not on. She has to have her own.
A got her a fiber craft book a little while ago.
It's called: Girls' best book of knitting, sewing and embroidery.
Our lovely daughter also enjoys doing cross stitch and other embroidery.
She loves this book and has been reading in it like she would read a poem book. A few pages at a time. She want to knit these finger less mittens next. We went to our local yarn shop and she got the two balls of Sublime Kid Mohair.
All she has to do now is, to knit them.
If she knits them according to the pattern, she has to learn the PURL stitch first.
My friend Johanne taught her how to knit. Lovely daughter needs Johanne to teach her how to purl. Mummy can't do that! She said that not me. Oh and she already decided what she wants to knit afterwards.
This lovely kitten for the new baby.

Perry is back to normal. At least around other member of the family and outside. But if he is with me, he still limps around. Look at him showing off his 'poorly' left paw. Only napping on our bed will help him heal. Yeah right!

Where has the week gone?

It feels like a long time since I last blogged.
The little jacket is almost finished.
Once I know what I am having, I can go out and get a zip. I love the way this turned out.
Hopefully so does our new little person.

The little shrug called May is also coming along. Knitting a raglan is cool. The two fronts were knitting in no time at all. The little sleeves are taking a lot longer. Sewing all this together nicely is going to be a big job. But I'll have first have some more knitting to do.
I also like to have a bit of a challenge. The new Interweave Knits has finally arrived here in England. There are a few projects I really would like to tackle.
I love the cable down raglan. The last few days, my father was staying with us. It has been a very long since I last spend more than a few hours with him. It has been great to have him around.
He is off to Norway next week. His company is sending him there until end of April.
Guess what I was thinking about when I heard Norway?
Yeah, Dale of Norway, my big dream is to knit this.
The Internet is great, I found two yarn stores, in the town he is staying, that would stock Dalegarn. Hopefully my dad will be able to get there. That gets me to the question: Can we send our dad's to buy us yarn?

Perry the cat has been on an adventure and injured his paw. He feels the need to be pampered, as if I don't do that anyway. He limps while I see him walk, but he found the two days of house arrest too much. So he is back to going outside and it doesn't seem to bother him.

Perry the cat

Perry our cat had his 3rd birthday while we were away on holiday.
Fancy having to spend your birthday without your family!
Perry goes outside and mostly uses up his energy there. Home is where he has his cuddles, naps and food.
Well today, after a long morning stroll and a second breakfast. He had a naughty moment.
He went behind the computer screen and tore up a padded enevelope. Why? Does he know?

Then he had enough and went looking for a place to nap.
Today everything is diffrent.
He went and squashed himself between two bean bags.
The bags are resting on a chair. Our lovely daughter and her friends use the bean bags to watch TV or play games. Otherwise they are stored out of the way on the chair.
I wonder how Perry thought that could be a good place to sleep.
Knitting news:
The baby jacket has two sleeves. Now comes the hard part of sewing everything together.
More soon.