Ohh how the winter winds howl while I knit a midnight Owl.....

Autumn and winter are great knitting seasons, is there anything better than sitting indoors with hot tea and cookies while the wind tries to blow the last couple of leaves off the trees?

Our family got a new member in November - meet Gulliver, the midnight hooter.....

 
The pattern is from Purl Bee and can be found here. I was the lucky owner of a couple of skeins of Yabba from Hjertegarn and scraps of Eskimo from DROPS in matching colours - a true stashbuster :-)

Gulliver takes up a total of 179,7 yards of yarns a full plus-size filling. It was a quick, fun, easy knit that is just loveable - Soft and huggable.

Also - a romper is on its way to Sweden for dear little Alfred......

The pattern is from Kreativ Strik - a Danish knitting magazine - and I have been wanting to do this project for the longest time. Finally the right yarn found its way to my stash - Asland Trends Glaciar Del Cielo - an absolutely gorgeous cotton, that I bought on sale at Little Knits. 

This little cutie took up a neat 561,7 yards.... Which brings November's total at a 1165.6 yards......

Weekend Creativities

Isabel and I rolled out with the heavy artillery this weekend - sewing machine, needles and what not.

In random disorder - here's a sneak peak at the needle projects:

The sewing kit for the hearts is from Malika & Rosa - they have the cutest fabrics and this sewing kit is so easy that even Isabel who's 8 years old could do them with a little direction from Mommy :-)

Come Christmas - we are ready and in the right spirit :-)

And I also had to earn som yardage for the Stash Buster Challenge

I finished another Squishy Love for a cute 4-year old in Sweden, Alma. It knits up in a jiffy. I used about   70 grams of cotton blend for this one - all left overs.

Almost a year ago my daughter got a chameleon - a tiny cute one. She called it Cola. A few months ago it passed away - the first pet we ever lost - OMG!! What to do, what to do.... Easy peasy - knit a new one.....

It's not real, but it is big, soft, warm and homemade - and it was certainly NOT easy piesy.... The design is from Hansi Singh - and it is genius! I knitted it in Jasper from Berrocco - and the greens are just perfect for the project.

So here is to you - Cola - RIP

I actually finished one more project, but that is in the mail on its way to someone who just had birthday - so stay tuned....

That brings the yardage for the first week of November to 196 (chameleon) + 101,2 (Squishy Love) + 327 (Secret Birthday Project)...

Zebra stripes

As a child I fell in love with my grandmothers black and white Zebra coffee cups. I was fascinated by the simple pattern that was yet elegant. A couple of years ago my dear grandma passed away, and the Zebras never found their way to me.......

Last year I asked my father what had happened to the Zebra cups and he told me, that they were given to my younger brother (who holds no particular interest in what he drinks of) But I sooooooo wanted those cups to be part of my kitchen, and quickly called my brother and asked if he still had them. There was 4 left and I was more than welcome to have them if they meant something to me - and last month they finally found their way to my house.......

The Zebra series was designed by Eugen Trost for the Swedish porcelain factory "Gefle" in 1955. The "Zebra-cup" became one of the greatest icons of Swedish porcelain. With the "retro-wave" it has experienced quite an increase in popularity and is sold at high prices in known auction houses (app. 100 US Dollars for a cup.....) And it is hand painted. 

Now the question is whether I dare to use it :-) but the hunt continues - I want more......

You can read more about the Zebra coffee service on the Porcelain Blog

Kindle knitting

I have a Kindle - I love my Kindle - no this is not an Amazon advert.... I truly love my Kindle. My husband bought it for me last year for my Birthday - and it made it so easy to take books along for a trip, a bus ride, a trip to the park anything.

Another thing I like to do in public, on trips, bus rides and all the like is to knit. I always choose simple projects for my knit-in-public projects - because no one wants to drag loose papers and big books around - wait a minute dragging books around... I already found a solution to that problem: Kindle. Is it possible that the Kindle could also solve my pattern drag?????

To Amazon I went searching for knitting books and several were available in Kindle format. Still... I suddenly got doubts, could patterns really be satisfying in black and white (I do not have Kindle Fire) and on that little screen - most of the fun with purchasing a pattern book is the beautiful photos and having the pages in front of you....... but I felt that way about books in general when i first heard of Kindle and once I had seen one live I was sold.

So I took the plunge...... I bought a Kindle Knitting Pattern book today......

.... and here I go plunging in to my next challenge - knitting two socks at a time on circular needles trying to medicate my second-sock syndrome :-) It works like a charm. With the excellent "Go To" and "Bookmark" features on Kindle, you can easily jump to the pattern you need - and since you decide the size of the letters yourself it wont be a problem reading the pattern. I don't know if it will work for large diagrams though.

But one success a day just is not enough for this success junkie, so I had to try and store one of my many PDF knitting patterns on the kindle as well. Works like a charm. However, with the PDF files you will not be able to change the size of the letters, but you can zoom in. Have heard rumors of a technique of e-mailing the pattern to your Kindle e-mail address and Amazon will convert the file format to Kindle format for you - but that awaits testing.

So now I take two of my greatest passions (not counting my family ;-)) with me on the road in one solution - knitting and reading - isn't this world great?

Owling Autumn......

I have developed quite the fetish for owls.... I think they are the cutest, prettiest, coolest thing ever. Everywhere I look it is owls owls and I have to have them all.....

Finished some smaller projects for all the new mommys areound me.

This is the Aviatrix that I knit in Cascade 220. It is a bit bigger than expected - but better bigger than too small ;-)

And the Christmas presents are starting to roll off the needles. Squishy Love from Amanda Keeys' blog  - I love the pattern and I loooove her blog. Her pictures and pattern are just gorgeous and gives you that warm squishy feeling inside :-)

It is knit in leftover purple Cascade 220 and some leftover Aslan Trends Bariloche. The dinosaur buttons I bought a long time ago but never found use for them until now.

 

 Also, tiny soft socks in a cotton sock yarn from OnLine - they are so soft and warm.

 And of course - something for myself. Cowboy Cowl in blue Cash Iroha. Another absolutely-love pattern. I wear it every single day....

 Remember - all my projects are also available on my Ravelry site.

 ...... and the mail man and I are still best friends.

 A couple of months back I joined the Heisenberg Principle Sock Club at String Theory Colourworks
where they send an installment of surprise yarn every other month - love that kind of surprises. However, somehow my order got mixed up and I did not get my October installment (the first). I wrote the owners and they felt so bad that the compensated me by adding a mini skein in a combination colour and upgrading my shipment to "Priority Mail". That was just superb - thanx a lot to String Theory :-)

And then I just HAD to have the Orange Chokolade from Zauberwolle in that thinner yarn as well..... and some of that gorgeous Bombay by Katia - both from 123Knit

Well, as much as I love being best friends with the mail man - my wallet is not too good friends with him and I have decided on a Stash Buster Challenge:

• no more yarn purchase......
• In order to buy yarn, and I have to earn yards from my stash
• Yards used will allow for a half the yards in purchase, meaning 200 yards used will permit me to purchase 100 yards.
• All projects finished from October 2011 will count, no matter when they were started - this will encourage me to finish some of those UFO's.....
• With each project I finish, I will make status

Follow the Stash Buster Challenge - right here the following months....

The postman is my best friend

  Look what came to me in the mail over the past days:


Zauberball 6 - Orange Chocolate 

Wildfoote in forest green

            
Japonica Rainbow from Karen Noe in pink and purple

                      
Kauni Effektgarn in pink, grey and purple























                          
Arwetta Classic Chocolate brown

















                      
Glaciar del Cielo from Aslan Trends in natural























                           

Zauberball 6 in pinks and purples
 















                       
Glaciar Del Cielo from Aslan Trends - Green

























Cotton Linen Stripes from Schachenmayr in purple

















Ohhh joy - I welcome a rainy, windy cold autumn with plenty of hours on the couch with needles in hand, warm thea and a bunch of CSI, the Mentalist, Criminal Minds and Dexter on the DVD - come Christmas I'll have square eyes and handknitted goodies all over......