Preparing for Cool Summer Evenings

Will this be my first successful cardigan? I hope so! After a lot of browsing through different models and project on Ravelry I finally decided for Bergen by Drops Design (I know, most of my patterns lately are from them..). I then spent yet another day choosing what colors I would like. I am very fond of green, and I finally picked the mix you can see on the pictures. The Alpaca wool is nice and soft and I am well prepared this time: I have checked gauge (first time ever!), and I took all my measurements. Gauge was perfect and my measurements follows size M. 

Next week we are going on family vacation to a small french village full with relatives, where I hope the relatives will entertain our kids and I will get lots of time to knit!

New Project - Nouveau Projet - Nytt Projekt

Just a short post to let you know what I am working on. I have started yet another shawl, this time in Alpaca. It doesn't look so much right now, but it hopefully will..! I am following the Butterfly Dance pattern from Drops Design. To be continued...

 

Knitted baby sweater - Stickad barntröja - Gilet d'enfant tricoté

I year ago I finished my first ever knitted sweater. It was looking terrible, not fitting at all, not even on people of other sizes. I undid it, and have saved the yarn so far. I love the colors but the yarn, 100% cotton (Drops Paris) is a bit heavy and might be the reason for the bad fit. I also did not know about blocking at this time, and maybe I would have been able to make it look better by blocking, but I doubt it. Inspired by Bikettes sweater and using this pattern and old Drops Paris yarn I made this sweater for my youngest daughter (18 months). I show you it now, with loose yarn ends and no blocking, because I have again decided to undo it. It is too big by the neck and just doesn't look good. Any ideas of something to do with this kind of yarn, that will actually turn out good? I am thinking potholders, slippers, a rug or other things that will not be worn... To be continued.

Bloglovin

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

After a recommendation I have started using Bloglovin to follow the blogs that I like in a more organized way. 

I hereby invite you to start following me on Bloglovin. If you are not already registered you just inscribe, search for your favorite blogs, and you will get notifications every time your favorite blogs post something new. Good luck, and feel free to ask any questions you might have!

Knitted Shawl - Stickad Sjal - Châle Tricoté

I am so pleased with my new shawl! It has been ready for some days now, and every time I pass it (of course it is for the moment hanging in the middle of the house so that I can see it all the time!) I am amazed I have managed to do something that beautiful just by rearranging a really long thread..! If someone would have shown me something similar a year ago I would have though that I will never be able to do something that complicated! Now I realize that if you just follow the pattern it is actually not that hard! The pattern is Winter Breeze from Drops design and can be found here. I have used the same yarn (Drops Lace; 70% Alpaca, 30% Silk) and color (light grey green) as they do, and it feel very soft and light. Worth mentioning is how blocking completely transformed a wrinkly mess into this beautiful, organized, straight format.  I really love it! What do you think?

Healthy Danish Bread

I am still avoiding eating carbohydrates, but this bread is so good that I just have to! The recepie comes from my danish friend Christina (Thank you!), and it is the first bread I make that does not feel dry and boring. It takes only a few minutes to prepare and you can either prepare it in the evening and let it rise in the fridge over night and get fresh warm bread for breakfast, or you can let it rise in room temperature for 1-2 hours.

1/2 l water

42 g yeast

1 pot of yogurt natural (around 1 dl) 

1 tea spoon sugar

1  1/2 table spoon salt 

300 g rye flour 

400 g plain wheat flour

The rye flour can be changed to other kinds of whole grain flour, whatever you have at hand.

Mix the yeast in the cold water. Add the yogurt, sugar and salt and then the flour. Stir well. It is pretty wet and you won't be able to knead the dough. Put a lid on and let it be in the fridge over night, or in room temperature for 1-2h. Make the buns by using a spoon, dipped in water after making each bun. 

Bake at 220 degrees for 12-15 minutes. If you, when putting the bread in, splash just a little water in the bottom of the oven - it is supposed to help the bread to rise... 

Let me know how it goes! 

I hope you will enjoy them as much as me! 

Fun food for kids

Are you also tired of spending too much time and energy in convincing your kids to eat? Well, here is an idea how to first make them participate in the preparations and then happily eat.

1) Cut hot dogs (preferably Bio, and don't forget to check the list of ingredients to avoid weird additives!) in pieces as on the picture.
2) Divide spaghetti in halves and stick them through each piece of hot dog, around 8-10 spaghettis per piece of hot dog.
3) Boil them together the time indicated on your spaghetti package.
4) Serve to your happy kids!

Knitted Cardigan

In December I finished the first cardigan I have ever knitted for myself. Since I was not so happy with the result it has taken me until now to actually take a photo of it. It is made in thick wool (Drops Andes) and needles number 10, so it was very fast to knit. The pattern is Mist from Drops. I followed size M, and I blocked it to get the right measures after knitting was finished. Blocking made it better, but when closing all the buttons it kind of opens up in between. I guess I can reblock it and maybe get rid of this effect, but I have still not been motivated enough to try that. For now it is just a "home cardigan" to have during cold evenings. Anyhow, the knitting was fun, and I think I will soon like to make me another nicer cardigan. Encouraging comments very welcome..!

Motivation

After a week of stomach flu passing through the complete family I am finding back my energy and motivation to make new things! Yesterday I went to the monthly meeting with my knitting group, which is always very nice and motivating. Some quite time (i.e no kids) to just knit, chat and get inspired by what everyone else is making! My shawl is progressing nicely and I have only 15 more rows to go before it is finished. Be aware though, each row is now around 400 stitches and takes some time to go through! My goal is to finish this week, and I am not allowing me to start my next project until this one is ended!