amazing gift

Exactly how incredible is this Christmas present?

Made for me! Just me! From horn of a deer and apple tree wood. It smells nice, it crochets nicely, it's just... perfect!

mittens

The last weeks few moments of knitting are still a secret so I'll tell you about it after Christmas... For now, all I can tell you is that there has been a few dramatic moments. It was all Crap with a capital C, but I think I might have saved it. Outcome still in the dark though.

I have however finished the Best Mittens Ever. I use them all the time, and they're posted on Ravelry as they should be. Here are all the photos:

I'm a designer

I found someone on Ravelry who made my mittens! Incredible feeling. I knew I had made a few mistakes in the pattern too, and now she helped me with some of it.
So now it's updated! Finally.

So go have a look see, and then make my Vikingùr Vantùr!

here be dragon

I need to practise my crochet, and I was bored. Hence, a dragon.
Totally improvised last night, and totally tiny. Whaddya think peeps?

fuzz monster

Is it a beret?

No! It's a Fuzz Monster!

It was supposed to become a funky beret. It's becoming a Fuzz Monster.
I'm still finishing it one of these days and honestly, I can't wait to see the result. It could still be a successfully Very Funky Hat. But I'll bet my money on a Fuzz Monster...

Fabulously wonderful

Done. It fits absolutely Perfectly. I Love Love Love it!
Made it up as I went. Now I want ten more of these. Only took me a week and a half too!

Ånäset Cast On

Here it is: Tutorial for a traditional cast on from a village called Ånäset in northern Sweden. This lady said her grandmother taught her to cast on like this and she says she's never found a cast on method she likes better. You end up with an extra "rope" along the edge, and a little purl-pearl row on each side. It is a complication of the ordinary long tail cast on, but the result is far more decorative, flat and stretchy. I like and will use. Now - pictures!
(All images are clickable for bigger versions as usual.)

You start with a loop around your needle as usual, tail hanging down, ball of yarn above.

With thumb and index finger between threads you tilt your hand to create two loops. One around the thumb and one around the index finger.

I'll refer to these two loops in this tutorial as shown above. Thumb loop in red, index loop in yellow. In the photo the needle tip points to the Upper half of the Thumb loop.

Bring needle under both halves of thumb loop.

Come back above the upper half of the thumb loop and dip needle into it.

Bring the needle up over the thumb loop.

Dip into the index loop fetching the lower half of this loop. This thread will be the stitch saved around the needle. Now you just need to find your way out of the thumb loop again, bringing the thread from the lower half of the index loop with you.

Tilt your hand and bring the thread over the lower half of the thumb loop.

This photo isn't as clear as I'd have wanted but what you do is: Wriggle the stitch out of the thumb loop by bringing it through the loop from the backside. Coming out around the upper half of the thumb loop. (With your hand tilted like this you should be able to see "the way out")

Now just release and pull, and you should have one stitch on the needle. Now repeat a few times and you should have a neat row looking like this:


Please try it and let me know if this tutorial was understandable! (If not I'll try a movieclip next time).

Edit: I was just told that this might be a cast on presented in books as a "traditional Norwegian cast on", and it certainly sounds credible. However it may be, it's a clever one.

new cast on!

I learned a new way to cast on today and the edge becomes really neat! I must put my camera in somebody elses hands to photograph my own hands doing it to share it with all of you. I will! Promise!

The lady who taught me said she learned from her grandmother when she was a child. Now she was past 80 years old. She came from northern Sweden and claimed this was a traditional cast on from her parts of my beautiful country. Now it will live for a few more generations, because I'll use this a lot!

I met her, and seven other wonderful little ladies today as I was the hostess of a mini knitting café at the museum I work at. We had a cosy little chat about tradition, today, knitting, yarn and inspiration. I dare say it was one of those rare moments where nine people around a table really teach each other something new. I came away from that event with inspiration, a new cast on method and a big smile.

((opening fanfare))

I saw a movie the other night ("Catch me if you can" - actually very entertaining despite low expectations) and had it subtitled in English, as I often do. The problem is, it's often subtitled "for the hearing impaired" which makes me laugh my head off every once in a while. This time, the background music was subtitled too (!), and in between my fits of laughter I thought that this would make for a humorous and very illustrative way to blog! Blogging with background sound! Blogging with a soundtrack! I just have to try it...

In the beginning of the movie the subtitles explained to us that the background played a "jazzy saxophone in accelerating melody". After a while "orchestra picks up melody" and later still "solo guitar". Sometimes we apparently listened to "stressful beats" and sometimes "flutes in calm melody"... My question is - How does this help a deaf person? All input welcome.

One thing I am certain of though ((Dramatic crescendo)) - it does help a blogger!

So here we go: My latest knitting adventures accompanied by music for the hearing impaired! ((Duh-duh-DUMMMM))

((solo guitar building mood))
I cast on a shawl that might Blow My Mind if it turns out the way I hope! ((flutes join a romantic fantasy)) I chose a chocolate brown merino and cast on Elann's Aran Weight Victorian Lace Shawl and I can't wait to see how it goes! Pictures to come when I have more than three rows to show.

Also I'm working on a top down raglan that I'm improvising as I go and so far it's going great! ((Be bop improv scatting)) I'll try it on again tomorrow or the day after and I hope to show you photos this weekend... I love my top downs.

((A single oboe lingers in a jazz mood for the finale))
With that I leave you for now. Even if you know the language, turn on the subtitles sometimes, for that extra jazzy flavor! But having tried it, I can't really recommend subtitles for blogging...

happy hooker

I went nuts! Look! I mastered the flower first...

So I made an mp3player cosy and a mitten too! Just one mitten to go. (And I improvised it!) I'm hooked! (Lamest joke ever)

Knitfest

There was this Knitfest this weekend. There is this Knitfest actually but I had to leave early. People gathered around exhibitions, workshops, yarn, wool and fibre out in the archipelago outside of Gothenburg. I had the BEST time!
And I finally learned how to crochet properly. Still got a long way to go, but I mastered the sample bits we made, and it made me go and buy a new hook. The kind with a light in it! Just for fun of course, but unless there was the fabulous stuff to go along with your hobby... It's half the fun isn't it? Funky needles, hooks, markers and measure tapes! At least to me.

Let's go shopping! But, oh wait... Lemme just earn some new money first.

let's try it a stitch at a time ok?

Yet another try... I'm not doing too good keeping this blog am I? Well, there are many explanations to why, but since they're reasons I don't write I hope you can understand if I don't explain too much.

I haven't been too hot for quite a while, and a lot of it has to do with my own demons, fears, worries and insecurities. A lot has happened because of them, and a lot of them have happened because of things. Yes, it's that complicated.

I have an idea however:
I just got in to Ravelry - the knitting community online, so here's a thought..
I'll try and make this a pure knitting blog. You won't get into my head too much or my everyday events, but it might get me writing again. I'd like that.
I got knitting again, and tomorrow I'm even giving a lecture about how easy it is to knit according to patterns in English... Can you believe it?

Well, I'm visalisa at Ravelry, so if you're in there - look me up and come find me! Poke me! Knit with me!

I knit - therefore I am (a blogger again)

not an actual post

Just an important link! (click the whole post)

Apparently prestige really is more important than world peace.

buttons

I promised Jodi I'd tell you all about how I wear my buttons. I have tons, but I've chosen a composition which I update to and fro (very Carrie Bradshaw somehow). This started with the same Jodi sending me some gorgeous ones she'd made quite a while back now, and those are still some of the absolute favorites. These are the buttons I wear and how I wear them on a certain cardi, or as today on a certain "hug my fat-top" that I so like.

I hope you recognize the little figure at the top - it's my own. Next to it is a black and white button from the Architecture Museum in Stockholm. It's a pattern taken from the facade of a building in Jönköping (a Swedish town). Below that is a pink pig with the word "sötgris" (cute pig) under it. It's a gift from one of my best friends and the cute pig is me. Next to that is a green map, composed onto a button by Jodi (She has to tell you in a comment why the green map). This one I occasionally switch to a knitting pattern template-button also made by Jodi. Then it's the other Jodi-button where the word Knit is in a classic tattoo-heart. A button like this has been featured in a knitting mag (Knit 1. Go Jodi!) and all my knitting pals envy this one so much. All that's left is the broche from grandma. It's probably from the 20s and the design is so... so... ME!

There. All buttoned up.

I'll try

Writing in this blog has been difficult for many many reasons lately (or for the past year) and I will not write about them all. But This is a promise of an attempt to write some in English again. Two people have wished so the last few days and who am I to argue with people I admire myself!
Today is the first day of the rest of my blog.