Colourful leaves

These colours are near to my heart these days, and have been for a while now. So I didn't hesitate when they were requested for this commisioned card. Clean and simple layout, just the way I like it. Papers from K&Co. The ribbon has been sprayed with Glimmermist Tiger Lily and Sunflower to match.
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It's really all about the gorgeous Prima leaves... I love these!! And must. get. more. I still have a few green ones left, but the vibrant and warm oranges are almost gone now. Time to go shopping!

Inger 30 years

A very colourful card for a very colourful personality! It's smashing bright, but then so is Inger. :) The papers are BG leftovers from the 6x6 Lime Rickey and Green at Heart pads, I think? The tag is by K&Co. I so love those tags, but always have trouble using them for some reason... The numbers are QK Katie Classic, but I've simply written (!!!) the name with a glittery orange pen. And then I doodled a little. And a little more. And then I wished I hadn't doodled at all. That's how it always goes! When will I learn? Step away from the pen, or the card gets it! ;)
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My stash doesn't really contain bright green and orange flowers in abundance, so I went with what I had for this flower cluster. The tiny rose buds were white and coloured with Glimmermist Tiger Lily. And that big one, that's my very last of that kind. They're by North Star Stamps if I remember correctly. I've got to find them again and stock up!

11/52: Grandma

I have no idea who gave me this picture all those years ago,

but it makes me smile

every time.

We miss you grandma.

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Click here for more info on my Project 52.

New on my needles - toe-up socks

The knitting projects seem to have completely taken over this little blog lately! If you come here for paper related projects, I apologize. There are a couple of cards in the works, but I can't share them yet. And this is, after all, a blog for "all my projects, large and small", as you can read right at the top of this page. It just so happened that cards were the dominating projects for quite a while... ;) Lately I haven't been able to spend much time at my desk without feeling a bit sick, so yarn related stuff I can do quietly in a comfortable chair suits me much better.
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I like to have a small knitting project to bring with me here and there. The felted slippers I'm working on is a test project for some potential christmas gifts, so I needed an alternative to bring when meeting certain people (who don't read my blog)... ;) This is a very basic toe-up sock pattern, knitted in DROPS Fabel. Don't you love the first line in the pattern? "Warning! Written in excruciating detail!" That sounds like an excellent choice of pattern to me. ;) I love the look of the short-row toe! It's my first pair of socks for adults and it's a new world of knitting terms and tricks. Details on my Ravelry page.

Branching out

"Branching Out" was a nice change from the no-brainers I've done lately. Knitting lace is definitely something I'd like to do again! One of the things I like with this pattern is that the two ends of the scarf match so well, even though one end shows the pattern upside down. Check out my Ravelry page for details.
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The pattern is only five rows long, but for some reason I was completely unable to memorize it... Strange. At least it got a lot easier to do after the first few repetitions! And that's a good thing. I spent quite a bit of time fixing things at first, being unfamiliar with the stitches and losing yarn-overs because of the clingy yarn...
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The thin mohair yarn makes the scarf really light and breezy - and still quite warm actually. The lace is remarkably visible, even though I blocked it very carefully. In fact, as I pinned it down I wondered if it was any point at all... But trust me, it's definitely worth it!
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I've been crawling on my hands and knees again

My Branching Out scarf (Ravelry link) has now been soaked, stretched and pierced by more than 200 headpins. Ouch. My back feels it too! I used my parents' upstairs floor for blocking (just like last time), as it has a fixed wall-to-wall carpet the headpins can grip into nicely. My laminate flooring just doesn't do the trick. And I need my bed for sleeping, thank you. ;)

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Looking pretty good right now, if I may toot my own horn a little. ;)

Check back in a day or two, and I'll have some hero shots of this beauty ready for you.
- FYI. This is actually a straight line. I promise!
The headpins came from a dozen or so packets and are all of different length...
Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
;)

Simple pleasures

Very rarely do the dreaded men's cards come together as quickly as this one did! The papers (BG and K&Co) were already on my desk, as were the leftover pieces of string and leather. The stamping was done with StazOn Forest Green directly on the pattern paper. The little Prima leaves were originally green, but I gave them a little spray of Glimmermist Tiger Lily near the edge for an autumnal two-tone look. You can hardly see it in the picture, but I've drawn a line around the image using an orange glitter pen, to bring the colours together.

10/52: Night fright

A great big monster moved slowly through the trees one night.

Gleaming lights and swooshing noises slinked in through my window.

Silent voices rose from little worker men swarming around the slow and heaving beast.

Foul-smelling steam bellowed out from its underside.

The ground trembled under its weight.

I hid under my sheets as it sluggishly inched its way past my dwelling.

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The next day I realised the frightening beast had merely been

a friendly giant, as gentle as they come.

It had left behind a brand new road. Just for me, I'm sure.

Man, I love driving on freshly laid asphalt.

;)

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Click here for more info on my Project 52.

New on my needles - felted slippers in Alpaca

In an effort to find a recipe for slippers that are thinner than the ones I've made before, I've given this DROPS pattern a go. Not too sure if that was a good idea actually. I'm having some trouble with the recipe and I'm not the only one, according to Ravelry. Maybe I can fudge it - the felting process hides many flaws. Provided they shrink enough though - they look huge! Details on my Ravelry page.

In memory of Kristin

Requests for condolance cards don't come along very often - fortunately. It also means that when that request is actually recieved, it can be difficult to figure out what to do. Kristin is a member of my family who recently died of leukaemia at the age of only 16. She shared some of her experiences on her blog (in Norwegian only), and that's where I found the inspiration for the card. She liked vintage clothes and floral prints, and this paper from the MME Wild Asparagus pad seemed a good fit. Other than that, I kept everything white. It was important to me and my parents to keep the card light and bright, despite the sad occation.

9/52: Somewhere, over the rainbow...

Sometimes you just have to bring your own splash of colour

into an otherwise grey and rainy day.

(This one's for you, Helle!)

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As the observant readers of this blog may have noticed, there has been a photo posted every Monday for a while now, with some cryptic numbers attatched to the post titles. Photography buffs will instantly recognise this as a Project 52, but the rest of you deserve an explanation by now. Quite simply, doing a Project 52 means to collect one photograph every week for a year. Its sister assignment, Project 365, is perhaps more common, but far too ambicious for me. One decent photo every day - for a year? Sorry, my skills and dedication don't reach that far. Once a week will do for now.

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I had some thoughts about my goals and intentions when I started this thing, but wanted to wait a while and see what direction it took before sharing too much. Given that a Project 52 contains relatively few pictures taken over a significant period of time, one has the opportunity to assign a topic to the project. I wanted to spend some time documenting and celebrating my everyday life, the little things that usually don't make it into our photo albums. They are largely overlooked, and yet they make up probably the majority of our time. There's beauty in the ordinary! I've also decided to include a short text to go with the image, inspired by the fantastic collaboration blog Habit. My images and text may depict one spesific moment (like Peonies) or represent the week as a whole (The blue hour).

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My Project 52 was off to a rocky start, but sometimes I've had trouble picking between two or three nice shots (some of the rejects have made it into this post). My favourite so far? The unfortunate Friday the 13th Day of Electronic Disasters, as I have named it. Evidence that something good can come out of something incredibly irritating! ;) Today's picture is not among my favourites unfortunately, but I've been feeling a bit under the weather lately and this is actually the only shot I have from the entire week. There may be a decline in card projects because of that same reason - the last time I sat down at my desk to work I was a total wreck the rest of the evening. I'll do my best to keep the Project 52 going though.

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But I'll stop talking now, this post is way too long already. ;)

I hope you'll check back now and then, and I hope I'll have something to show you when you do.

Enjoy your ordinary everyday moments!

Green and white toddler tube socks

You've seen them in black&blue, here's another pair. And let me tell you, these will brighten up any dark and dreary winter's day! That neon green paired with the crisp white gave me an energy kick like few other knitting projects have done before. ;)
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I knitted these just slightly tighter than the previous pair, because they seemed much too big for a child of the age specified in the pattern. This is the 12 - 18 months version, and they measure 30 cm in length! I'm excited to see how they will fit.
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Here's a better view of the way it looks with the spiralling pattern going in opposite directions. I'm sure I would have gone ever so slightly mad if the spiral went the same way on both socks... ;) Thankfully that was an easy thing to fix! More details on my Ravelry page, or follow this link to the pattern.

Kristine 30 years

I don't know if these colours belong to the cheerful summer, or the vibrant fall categories... All I know is that I love them these days, and seem to work them into almost every project. These papers are all from various BG paper pads, mostly Green at Heart I think.
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I've splurged on the flowers here. The two large Bazzill flowers are not produced anymore and it pains me to use the few that remains in my stash... Be strong! It's not as if there aren't any other nice flowers out there, haha! ;) The next flower has been drenched in Glimmermist Tiger Lily for some shine. Then another small flower before the Panduro bling brad completes the layer cake! :) Metal butterfly from stash.
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I've even done the inside this time, that's a fairly rare thing for me, and usually reserved for my very best friends. The stamp is Penny Black, who make the most wonderful text stamps in the world! Wonderful words and lovely font/layouts!

8/52: Let's do the chicken dance

Two spontaneous mini-getaways in one week!

Aah, you don't have to a millionaire to live the good life after all.

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Click here for more info on my Project 52.

FO: black&blue toddler socks

I showed you these not long ago, and now they're done! Quite a fun project really. The DROPS pattern is simple enough, just a 2x2 rib that spirals down the main part of the sock.
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They are tube socks, which not only make them a quick knit, but also brings a couple of other advantages. Without a fixed heel position, they will fit as long as the socks are long enough to reach over his ankles. The straight ribbing on the top, which is folded down in the picture, can be unfolded for extra length. Also, as the position of the feet in the socks will change every time they're worn, the wear and tear is distributed over the whole sock, not concentrated on just a few exposed points. The ribbing makes them stretchy in the width direction, so they expand with the feet as they grow.
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It's difficult to see in the picture, but I made the two socks spiral in opposite directions. Just something I had to do, me being me. ;) More details on my Ravelry page, or follow this link directly to the pattern.

Fabric party bunting (and I'm back online!)

I'm back, baby! ;) Modem recieved and installed, and I can finally reconnect with the blogging world. Now this is the last post from my birthday party, I promise. It has been severly delayed by more than just the modem trouble, but here it is at last: my fabric bunting! I had a short bunting that was displayed over the entrance (making it easier to identify our cabin among the rest), and a longer one that ended up inside in the end, because of the danger of rain... I've seen bunting all over the party blogs and have always wanted to have a go myself.
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The construction is nice&simple. I folded the fabric right sides together (in order to get identical pairs), marked triangles using disappearing fabric marker and a ruler, and cut along the lines with pinking shears. No edge finishing needed! They fray a little at first, but then stabilize and now look charmingly worn. I then put two pieces wrong sides together and sewed a zig-zag seam ca 2 cm away from the long edges. When I got to the short edge I sandwiched my ribbon inbetween the fabrics and sewed right on top if it it to secure fabic to ribbon.
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Knowing the bunting would be displayed against brown stained walls, I chose to skip the brown/kraft colours in the banner, and use only pink and green fabrics. Well, I have a colour scheme and I'm sticking to it! ;) I was lucky enough to have some fabrics I picked up at 70% off, so this bunting didn't cost much in the end.
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The rest of the links to my party stuff are as follows: Invitations - tzumami kanzashi decorations - table centerpieces