Knitted Scarf - Stickad Scarf - Écharpe tricotée

Voilà, my new scarf! Very fast and easy to make, simple knitting, with a crocheted edge giving it a nice touch. Pattern and yarn from Drops. This was a test for the next shawl project with lace I am planning to start!

Knitted Mittens - Stickade Vantar - Mitaines Tricotés

In January I made my first pair of knitted mittens. It was also the first time I knitted using two colors simultaneously! I have seen french knitters holding the yarn in their right hand and thought that looked super complicated! But it turned out, that once you get into it, it is not that hard and after some practice it works fine to have one thread in each hand and it even went faster and faster. 

For this project I used Drops Fabel yarn (75% wool, 25% nylon), and this pattern, but had some problems understanding how to do the thumb according to the pattern. The first mitten turned out really weird, but after some discussions in my knitting group I got it (Merci Medulla74 !), and I managed to make it good looking. 

Here is explanations on how to make the thumb:

Knit the first stitch (for the right one) then I put the next 10 stitches (I first tried 12 but I thought that made the thumb too big) on a needle (or a thread) and then continue the round. For the next round make 10 new stitches at the place where the removed ones were and continued to finish the mitten. Too make the thumb, take the 10 stitches from the needle and then pick up another 10-12 from the edge of the thumb where you previously created new stitches and continue knitting according to the instructions.

It was really fun to knit with two colors, and I look forward doing more things like this!

Bead art - Pärlplattekonst - Tableau de perles

In France there used to be no school on Wednesdays. This year it has changed, but Wednesday is still just half a day, so it is always good to have some projects in store for your children. One such suggestion is to make Bead Art. We started with this when we found a big bucket of pearls from my childhood at my mothers place, and lately I bought some extra plates from IKEA to be able to invent our own motives. Next step would be to get more pearls of different colors to be able to make nicer things. I am also curious of getting a collection of gray scale pearls and make a plate based on a black and white photo. As you hear this is not only a project that suits your child, but also grownups! My five year old really likes doing it, but she needs help to decide a model or a pattern. I started doing the house, but when she understood what it was she was very happy to help, and finally she took over my project. :-). When the plate is ready I put oven paper and melt the beads by ironing on it (high temperature, no steam!). On the last picture I have zoomed in to show how I made the hanger. It is made from wire that I tried to melt into the plates. It only worked on one side, but on the other side I could bend it and fit it in between pearls to that it holds well.

Herb garden - Kryddträdgård - Potager

It is really great to always have access to fresh herbs when cooking! So when we had over 20 degrees and sun last week I decided it was time to start growing more things on the balcony. We already had Persil, Ciboulette (= Chives, Gräslök), Laurier (= Laurus nobilis, Lagerblad), Thyme (= Timjan) and Menthe (= Mentha, Mynta) that has started growing after being outside all winter. The Menthe has started spreading around and will hopefully take the place of all the bad seeds I will eventually clean out. I have planted new seeds of coriander in the outside big balcony pot, and in the small pots there are seeds of Cherry Tomatoes (= Tomates cerises, Körsbärtomater), Basil (= Basilika) and Oeillet d'Inde (= Tagetes patula). The small pots will be staying inside for a while since temperatures are still pretty cold, especially at night.

 

Thyme/Timjan and Rosemary/Rosmarin

 Persil/Persilja, Coriander/Koriander seeds and some new Menthe/Mynta coming up

 Laurier / Lagerblad

Chives / Ciboulette / Gräslök

 Seeds of Tagetes, Cherry Tomatoes/Körsbärstomater and Basil/Basilika