Knitted socks

I knitted my first  pair of socks this summer. It was fun and the result was not so bad. Actually my husband liked them so much that he asked me to make him a pair as well! I decided for the Fit Well Socks and used the yarn left form my socks and the hat I made earlier this year. I was first trying to make the whole bottom of the sock in the brown color making the other color following through the round, but after realizing that I lost elasticity this way I decided not to. For the toe part I used the anatomical toe pattern found in the Kalajoki pattern.

Last harvest

I did a last harvest of my tomato plants before the cold times comes. I think I have gotten in total around 30 tomatoes for the whole season... not very impressive for 6 plants. But they taste better than any tomato I have ever bought and they are so pretty! Next year I think I will try the cherry tomato variant instead.

Gifted yarn and new project

In an attempt to make me like her better (?), my mother in law bought me yarn she found cheaply in flea markets. I have quite a lot of three different yarns, and as a first reaction I was happy. After trying to make a sweater of one of them, I am less happy. It is really not a yarn I would have chosen, and after trying the sweater I realize I will never wear it, so it was actually a bit of a waste of time. It was a 100% cotton yarn in a shiny turquoise blue, I crocheted with needle 4.5 according to this pattern from Drops Design, but I made it with longer arms.

I got a request for a pair of slippers, maybe that could be a good idea for this kind of yarn..? 

To comfort myself for the wasted time, I decided to choose a sweater I think I could like and yesterday the yarn arrived. It is Drops Andes: 35% Alpaca and 65% wool, feeling warm and soft and I am hoping to finally make myself something I could actually wear..?

Halloween

This year there was not so much time for making Halloween stuff, but at least we made a nice pumpkin and a scary spider cake. The Spider cake is very fast and easy to make. You just make your favorite chocolate cake, and when it cools down you decorate with a tube of premade cake paste (I used hazelnut) and put a plastic spider in the middle. If you have more time you can always make your own frosting and a marzipan&chocolate spider.

Hemmagjord Glögg Utomlands

This is a post to describe how you make the swedish christmas drink Glögg. If anyone needs it translated, just let me know.

De två senaste åren har jag gjort min egna glögg utifrån svagdricka, och den har blivit fantastiskt god! Eftersom vi inte längre bor i Sverige och inte har tillgång till svagdricka så testar jag en modifierad variant enligt det här receptet:

4 l Pelforth mörkt öl
1 l Vatten
Skal från en clementin
1/2 dl nejlikor
1/2 dl kardemumma kärnor
3 kanelstänger
250g russin
2 cm ingefärs skuren i skivor
5 små potatisar i skivor
50 g jäst
2 kg socker

Blanda allt i en stor behållare (jag använder en 10 liters spann) och täck med en handduk. Låt stå minst 4 veckor. Rör om två gånger per dag den första veckan, därefter en gång per dag. Ju längre du låter den stå desto mindre söt och något starkare glögg.

Vintage flower pillow

Finally my pillow is finished! I started it a year ago inspired by leftover yarn from the two pair of curtains I had made, and also because I wanted to try how to crochet flowers using this pattern. I have linked the crocheted squares together by plain knitting, and the backside is also made by knitting, reversing the middle to make a heart.

Lately I have tended to start a lot of new projects without finishing the old ones. Therefore I hope to soon be able to show you a pair of socks, a crocheted cardigan and a scarf. A bientot!

Pearl Coasters

Last summer I found pearls from my childhood at my mothers place, and this summer I have introduced them to my daughter who is now 4. She was skeptic to start with, but she loves it more and more and is now very proud to make all our guests use them for their drinks. She has really improved her skills from just putting the pearls randomly to make beautiful patterns! In addition they make great gifts and it is an activity that even adults can enjoy!

To melt the pearls together you put an oven paper on top of them and then iron until you see that they are well melted. If you want to write letters, just think about that they will turn out mirrored (see top row on photo)!

Kalajoki - Knitted socks

I have finished my first pair of knitted socks! It was really fun and I am actually happy about the result! Too bad we have 28C in the house, so it will take some time before I can actually wear them! They are done after this pattern as a Knit Along project of my knitting group.

Tomatoes rescued

Back from a lovely vacation on Ile d'Oléron! To keep my tomatoes happy during this time I had collected empty bottles that I planned to put upside down in the soil to provide them with water, just to discover in the last minute that the pots are leaking out all water and they were emptied in no time. With no time left to find a new solution and I had to let them like that, hoping that it would rain enough here during our 2 week long stay. I was prepared to find the plants totally dried out when coming back home. They did look quite dry, but many leaves still green although folded, and heavy tomatoes pulling the plant down. After some emergency rescue and lots of water they are now starting to look pretty good again and I am looking forward to the first tasting!

Knitted hat

I have finished a knitted hat for me. I am not so happy about the result, there are many beauty spots, but it was good practice and at least I think it looks good enough to actually wear. I used the Mont Royal Pattern, Fabel wool from Drops and needles of size 3. I think I am doing it a bit too loose, because I did one repeat less of the pattern and it still got long enough. Since my daughter was the only model around it might look a little too big on the pictures.

Tomatoes

It works! I am really getting tomatoes! Still small and green, but they should be possible to taste in a future not to far away..

Happy birthday!

Today we are celebrating the 4th birthday of my big girl with this tasty birthday cake. Mmmm!

Kiwi marmelade

After yet another round of cold for the whole family, we are back on track!! I have actually finished knitting a hat, which is still waiting to be photographed though and I have made my first homemade jam! When shopping the other day I found some overdone kiwis that I bought and made jam. Easier than I thought, and the result was good! Here comes the recipie:

Kiwi marmelade
1 kg kiwi
0.9 kg sugar
1 lemon (optional)

Peel kiwis and cut in small pieces. Put in big jar and add the sugar. Add the peel of the lemon and its juice. Let the seeds of the lemon be added as well, since they contain pectin which will help to gelify your jam. Leave for 3h. Put in cooking pot and boil slowly for 1,5h. Boil your glass jars so that they will be "sterilized". Pour jam and close immediately. Good luck!

Vintage crochet pillow - part 1

Next project in line.. I started these squares in October last to cover up an ugly pillow I have at home, but somehow they got forgotten and pushed aside by the new baby and moving countries. After last times failures I felt like it's time I do something I will succeed with, and I truly think this is going to be a nice pillow! After having spent some time finding back the pattern (which can be found here) I was ready to start, just to realize that the crochet needle needed was to be found nowhere... aarrgg! Our place is still messy since the moving, lets just hope one of the kids didn't take it and put it somewhere, then it will not be found until we move next time.. :-)

Trying new things - Sock Knitting

 Next month we will do a pair of socks Knit Along with my knitting group. Since I already got my wool I wanted to try it out and choose a model from Drops:

It is funny to see how a sock can grow from just one thread like that, but I realize I am very much a beginner at knitting and I need much more practice! They look a bit too loose, and I decided to make them shorter, but I still used the same number of stitches which makes them extra loose at the top. 

Well, they no longer exist and I will use the yarn for the Knit Along. I will make a test patch and hopefully figure out how to do to make them fit better this time. Other things in the pipeline is a pillow and a hat.. Pictures to come..

Sweater

I am not happy, but I am going to show you anyway. My sweater is ready. I have sewed it together. I love the colors, but the sweater DOES NOT LOOK GOOD! It is heavy and a bit too wide, and the sewing looks like a child did them. I don't think I will be wearing it very much, so I might just undo the the whole thing. My first sweater for myself, not a success, but maybe I at least learned a bit better knitting and will do better next time.

Notes for next time: - Do not use cotton, it becomes too heavy. - Do it round to avoid sewing.

Some advise I got at yesterdays knitting meeting was to buy a kit of round knitting needles from KnitPro, and use a top-down model, which makes it easier to try it on while ongoing to avoid bad surprises is the end.

Tomato progress

My tomatoes are again growing out of their pots, and I realize how little I know about gardening! Luckily my father in law who visited this week is almost an expert and gave me lots of help and advise. This is how it is supposed to be done: Move each plant to its own pot with new soil. Give them a stick each and take a bit of metal wire and tight it good to the stick, and then loosely around the plant. Remember to water them after and don't put them immediately in the sun as that can make them too dry. Then there was a bunch of advice on what composition of soil to use and that it should rather be a copper wire than an iron one. I share this with you, but at the moment I don't know if it is correct, and if it is I would like to understand why.

Almost done!

I have finished all the knitting and crocheting for my sweater! I still need to sew a million threads and put it all together though. That's the part I always find most boring.. strange since the reward is a nice new sweater to wear.

Today I also received some new yarn to start my next project with! I will try to knit socks together with the Annecy knitting group I found on Ravelry. Looks superhard, but I am really eager to try it out! I am really much more into starting projects than to finish them, so maybe I should make a deal with myself not to touch the new yarn until I finished putting my sweater together...

Spring and growth

Still not ready with my sweater, but only because we got so much other things done, so it's not so bad. We have finally managed to empty our spare room so that our big girl could move in there, and we put up curtains in all rooms. It feels like our place is bigger and it looks more like home. Still missing things on the walls though. We have also worked in our "garden". I put seeds of coriander, parsley and chives in march, and they start to grow pretty good now (except for the chives - ciboulette). We also put thyme and rosemary plants, so we will be having fresh herbs the whole summer. And as soon as I have bought more soil I think I will able to put my tomatoes out also.

Frustration

I thought I was about to finish the second arm of my sweater, only to realize that it does not look right, so I took a deep breath and restarted... and restarted.. and restarted.. I think I have been too tired to focus on doing a pattern this week, but finally I seem to get it right... Then comes my 1,5 year old boy to show me a toy. I put the knitting in my knee for a second to take his toy in my hand, and then he is superfast to grab my needle and take it... of course he choose the needle with all stitches which are then lying alone left in my knee... aarrgghh! But I can not stay angry with someone this cute:

Growing tomatoes

My tomatoes are growing. I think i might have used a bit too many seeds to be able to give each little plant a chance to grow old. They start to get a 3rd and 4th leaf, and this is when they should be moved to bigger pots according to the instructions. This is how they look like:

I took one of the pots and very carefully transferred to bigger pots. They look really fragile and I strongly doubt that these plats will bear any tomatoes in a few months, but I will try to take care of them the best I can and hope for the best.

Meanwhile, I have this beautiful thyme to look at (and to use for cooking!):

Progress

Forward and backward are done and I am doing the first arm as you see on the picture. I started this while still pregnant, but with that big belly I was not so motivated to finish it. Now I really look forward to have a colorful sweater to put on when spring is coming! The pattern is from Drops.

Pinterest

Pinterest is a fantastic place for inspiration. I have pinned so many things that I will never be able to do them all, but I really wish I could! And for all of you who are using Pinterest, you are now able to pin my posts onto it. I am proud to have manage to add the Pin It button, by changing in the HTML code on my blog using this tutorial. 

Shopping bag / Shoe bag

My daughter just started school here in France. A bit chocking for her mother to realize she is getting big, although she is just almost four! I got a list of things needed to be brought to school, and one thing was a net bag to keep the indoor slippers in. I got instructions where to buy and even a bag to borrow to know what to ask for in the shop, but I thought it was funnier to see if I could make it myself! So I found a pattern here, which turned out to work really well! I just need to add her name and then it is ready to be brought to school tomorrow.

Tomatoes

Since we have a really big balcony I will finally be able to do something I always wanted: to grow my own things. So on Monday I planted tomato seeds in small pots inside and they have already started to come up! I have also put some herb seeds outside, but the last two days the temperature got below zero so I'm not sure how well they will do, lets wait and see!

Arrival!

It has now been a month since we left Sweden, and it has been very hectic! Packing up old home, travel by car with 3 kids through Europe, arranging new home (partly) and getting the whole family through the Flu. Puh! I look forward to everyday life starting, probably next week when we have got our 4 year old into school! Then I hope I will get more time for my projects: first will be to finish my sweater: http://www.garnstudio.com/lang/us/pattern.php?id=720&lang=us

Det närmar sig..

Nu flyttar vi om 16 dagar.. oj, vad fort tiden går, och jag kan inte riktigt förstå att vi ite kommer bo här längre. Vi har bokat resan, först tar vi färja till Kiel, sedan kör vi till Hamburg är vi tar biltåget till Lörrach i södra Tyskland, och därefter är de bara tre timmars körning. Hoppas det kommer gå bra och att barnen kommer sova på båt och tåg. Dom är oftast bra på att sova, men man vet ju aldrig med lilla nya Z. Hon har faktiskt redan sovit 8h i sträck några gånger, fast hon bara är åtta veckor. Försöker gå igenom saker här hemma, så vi får slängt allt vi inte vill ha med oss, men med två små barn hemma plus halvfartsstudier så går det inte så fort...

Utlandsflytt

Äntligen har vi kommit lite framåt. Det är klart med våran nya lägenhet och vi har bokat flyttfirman som kommer och hämtar våra saker den 13:e februari. Jag har skickat in alla mina inlämningsuppgifter för min kurs i folkhälsovetenskap (fast fortsättningskursen börjar nästa vecka..), så nu ska jag fokusera på att gå igenom och göra oss av med sånt som vi inte vill ta med till Frankrike. Ser fram emot vår nya lägenhet, men är samtidigt lite sorgsen över att förlora de trevliga människor jag lärt känna här.

Gott Nytt År!

Detta år hoppas jag bli lite mer aktiv med min blog. Det har varit ett kämpigt slut på året, höggravid, förlossning, nu bebis med allt vad det innebär med sömnlösa nätter, i kombination med två äldre små barn som behöver uppmärksamhet. Och som om inte det var nog drabbades vi av magsjuka innan jul.
Nu ser jag fram emot det nya året. Hoppas kunna avsluta mina handarbetsprojekt, men först fokuserar vi på vår flytt till Frankrike. Vi hoppas skriva kontrakt på en ny lägenhet nästa vecka och sedan ger vi oss av i mitten av februari. Därefter hoppas jag att livet ska lugna ner sig lite.