Recently a few newcomers have found this English blog of mine, and that's always a treat of course, but I feel bad... I haven't written in this blog for ages, and everything has been in Swedish recently.

I do think this blog will get a revival shortly too, but until then you find me at

www.visalisas.blogspot.com - in Swedish

gotta brag...

Check out my new cardi! I'm so happy with it I could cry!

It's Ysolda Teague's Vivian and it's knitted in my favorite: Araucania Nature Wool.

fulfilled promise

Oh, and I seem to have promised to show this photo of "proud knitter wrapped in shawl"

Look! I knit!

It's my grey on grey Venezia. Rolff thinks I should prioritize cuddling to knitting though.

Other than that - We bought a house! And I'm moving into a dream home in the woods outside Gothenburg next weekend.

anagram name

Any other knitter out there that giggles at this? I giggled.

Lisa Ahlstrom's anagram name is SLIM AS HARLOT

shawl

It's hanging, still slightly damp, tempting me. It's done. Finally.
It was my project for the IAAF World Championships knit-along, but I ran out of yarn and finished late. It's the luscious Noro Silk Garden Sock, that behaved awfully while knitting, but is blocked out to one of the most beautiful knitted surfaces I've ever seen! I cast off using a cotton linnen blend in a solid brown-grey color to get a steady edging, and I must say that was a stroke of brilliance on my part!

More pictures will be posted when I can show the whole thing wrapped around a proud knitter!

omg crochet!

Look! I can crochet! I even freestyled the trousers (deliberately wonky).
He needs a name though... Any suggestions?

updated etsy again

Two new additions to my etsy today. A cat and a lamb. I almost kept the lamb for myself... The perfect accessory to a knitting bag!

new pattern!!!

A versatile, simple and whimsical hat pattern is born.
"Mysse" is now published over at visalisadesign!

I'm making other examples of it to show you.
Bright blue with a knot on top for example...

updated etsy

New brooches added to my etsy shop - and more are on their way!
Found these Fabulous jigsaw pieces from the 40s, with gnomes , bugs and spotty mushrooms on them. To many big pieces of a small jigsaw is missing to be able to see the whole picture, but from what I could see, it's super cute!
And as brooces or pendants - success! I wore the one I saved for myself today. Three different people commented on it! Go shop my stuff!

green silk

A little scarf to go with the big grey collar on my new jacket.
It's pure silk and it's super duper green! The pattern is "Woodland Shawl" - easy peasy repeats and fun all around. It's been the perfect busride companion.
I'm surprised that so few have commented on the purl side of this pattern! It's just as gorgeous as the leafy side!

green tam

I bought a new grey jacket, and suddenly I needed a green new hat.
Because red hair plus green hat equals fabulous.



The color is more true in the photo taken with the flash, but the pattern shows better in the other two.
Pattern: Sunflower Tam from the book Knitting Nature.
Yarn: Garnstudio Alpaca held double
Changes: Ribbing done with twisted knit stitches, and the "cabled stitches" were done "my way" rather than the way the pattern suggested. I just like it the way I like it.

dwarves

The first four dwarves from the fairytale about Snowhite found their way to my Etsy shop!
I found this old jigsaw in an auction and I love it so much!
Only four brooches done so far, but the prince, the crone and the others will get on there eventually. I just need to resupply!
Go check it out!

christmas knitting

Finally the holidays are kind of over and all the knitted gifts have been distributed. THat means I can show you the two I'm the most proud of here on the blog! Yay!
So for your pleasure I present to you Mum's Selbu:


and a Winter's Gail:

Christmas

...means that all knitting projects are secret, so there's nothing to blog.

And the new Knitty is up. It's been too much to my taste on knitty so far, that honestly... I donät feel like making a single thing on there! And that's a first.
The closest I get is the collar cowl Poinsettia, but I'm making one of Mandy's neckwarmers before I even consider adding that one to my queue.

So my queue is: Finish Christmas stuff, a green toque for me, something gorgeous, something soft and something to match all of the above... I think.

I got it

It has begun.
Life.

Somehow that's how it feels, after years of worry, insecurity, project hopping and the feeling of never doing enough... I just landed a PhD position at my old university. I get paid to research the subject I consider my speciality for the next five years.

It's amazing.

I have a desk, keys to a room, a computer, login for a computer system, keycard... In my world all these things tell me that I belong somewhere. I've found a place that is all mine.

My research will be along the lines of making the democracy process and citizen involvement smoother, more natural and more influencial when planning new housing projects. I've only read stuff for two days, and I haven't exactly narrowed it down to a descriptive title yet, but let's just say it's right up my alley! Architecture when it best benefits the ones using it, rather than the ones designing it or discussing it, you might say.

I haven't been this hungry for more or inspired by something for a looong time!

more Rolff

And I think I need to show my English readers some more dog photos.





(click for big)

Selbu Green

Look! I knit!
This time a Selbu toque for myself. It'll look awesome matched with my green winter coat and my brick-red shawl don't you think?

Rolff

This is Rolff. He just moved in. Rolff is two years old and has apparently had some bad luck with previous owners, just looking for some consistency, some calm. So he was given to us, and he moved in today. We'll try and provide that calm and consistency this guy so badly needs.
Welcome home Rolff.

Isn't he just gorgeous?

Done!

Can you believe it!?

Jodi, I LOOOOOVE this cable pattern and I love You for it!
I still need to steam it a little, and pamper it a bit, and fasten a few thread ends that I've ignored, but it is essentially done. I've never done so much seaming in my life! I learned how to make invisible gorgeous seams, but I'm not sure I ever want to do it again... Top down raglans for me for a while I think.

I'm incredibly proud though, that I actually pulled it off!