Jeg er en heldiggris!

Yes, I am a lucky pig!

I spent last weekend in Skarnes in Norway, invited by May Lis Martinsen who runs the Projo yarn shop to give a talk and a workshop at a weekend retreat for knitters.

One Danish and 34 Norwegian knitters came to listen to me talking about traditional patterns from Sweden, Norway, Scotland and the Baltic countries. Then we all tried to create new patterns with the inspiration from the old and historical.

See what good students I had!

The evening before we started talking about these special Norwegian wafers called krumkaker. They are made in a special krumkake-iron. These old irons  are very beautiful and often have a lovely, swirly pattern.

So May Lis, whose father just happened to have worked in a krumkake-iron factory, brought her own iron to show me. I thought it would make a nice knitting pattern so we all started drawing.

 

Like a piece of art.

But when May Lis opened up her shop all my industrious students just disappeared...

This is May Lis giving Margret some advice.

 There was a whole shelf filled with Koigu – my first love that is still close to my heart.

A couple of skeins found a new home in Sweden.

But it was very hard to pick a color.

May Lis garage had magically been turned into a yarn shop. Somehow it must be bigger on the inside.

May Lis sister Anne-Marie helping out at the till.
















Most of the time was just spent talking and knitting. And eating.

 

Beate started knitting my Peace & Love mittens in a great color combination: orange and deep blue. It started a craze.

Marianne, to the left in the picture, acted color consultant – so successfully she might have found a new career.




















I have always dreamed of visiting Norway, so I was very happy that  I finally got the chance. It´s such a beautiful country. And Norwegian knitters are very kind to us inferior Swedish knitters I´m happy to report.

 I have a nasty habit of going running sometimes and this was the view from the top of the hill. 

But I also got some time to knit and I had brought this old friend along: the fair isle sweater that I started back in 2008 (had to check my Ravelry page because I couldn´t even remember how long ago it was).

I wasn´t happy with how the edges turned out so I decided to knit the sleeves again. This is how far I got. Not very impressive. 

But now the summer holiday starts and I´m about to spend two weeks with the kids on the island of Edö.  This will be one of the projects that I will bring along. And maybe three other. Can´t risk running out of yarn on a remote island now, can I?

Thank you May Lis for a wonderful weekend! 

Grin and Bear it!

So it was my niece´s first birthday about a week ago. I am trying not to drown the poor kid in hand knits – and I have to admit it´s not going terribly well. But just as I was losing another battle against the urge to cast on something new for her...

Enter Teddy!

The solution is of course to knit something for my niece that she doesn´t have to wear herself.
(Yes, that is both sneaky and clever isn´t it)

Since I had some yarn left over from the cardigan that I made her before, Teddy got a matching outfit.

I spent a whole day knitting this tiny sweater – Teddy is a pretty small bear. Albeit with an acute dress sense.

And this is the happy birthday girl being introduced to her new friend.

I really thought that I had outsmarted myself – when I found that I somehow had cast on something pink and with a lace pattern around the bottom. 

No, surely.

It couldn´t possibly be. 

A knitted dress for someone small?

Oops.

The original pattern is from the 1930´s, but like many patterns from that era it´s not very accurately written. No given gauge, no needle number, no measurements given for how long to make the skirt part...

So knitting this dress has been a bit of trial and error. There has been some ripping (and swearing) but now it´s more or less done. Just need to crochet a picot edging – and of course no instructions given for how to do that. In those days you were more or less expected to be born with knowledge like that.