Sew and Woe!!

That does it!  This confirms my notion that knitting is SO forgiving... Make a mistake? Not to worry: Frog it and reuse.  How friendly is THAT?


My poor monkey project... My decision to double the size has led to all kinds of decisions, good and poor:


Good:

1. Increase Dimensions
2. Useable for stroller
3. Hole in the center for seat belt
4. More monkeys (how can that be bad?)
5. I'm a genius!

Poor:

1. Ran out of yarn for background
2. Ran out of yarn for background (worth 2 numbers of Poor)
3. Monkeys are freckled with copper
4. Knitting like a fiend to beat the onslaught of Summer!

Solutions:

1. Call the LYS for more yarn
2. LYS going out of business (none available/not ordering more)
3. We can live with freckled monkeys
4. Stitch and cut those ##%@$$&*& steeks.

Ah!  Ready for border, but where are all of my US7 circs?  As I start digging and looking for all of those lost unfinished items that probably are hiding my #7's, what do I find in a completely random location (i.e. the bottom of one of my many project baskets)?  A ball of my background color!!  I'm wild with anger.  Can it be used to fix the problem?  Reality sets in as a realize that there's no ripping out once the steeks have been cut.  

I'm bummed.  Grumbling and swearing I'll be better next time at putting ALL of my yarn BACK* in one place, I make the decision to "duplicate stitch" over as much of the freckle area as I can...

Looks like I have more work to do... And it makes me appreciate how much faster knitting is than sewing in stitches.
The sewing of the steeks went quite well.  I was oblivious to what would develop in the following hour.  The long tubes of 36" were stitched almost half way from the bottom then cut open. Then stitched as far as I could manage from the top and cut. Finally I stitched the middle section and cut.  I was pretty happy then, and after a good night's sleep I'm calmer now.


* How did that one little ball get stranded? When I finished a piece and cut the yarn, I started the next piece with a fresh skein, and dropped my leftover ball in the basket.  It's perfectly clear to me now....

Impossible stitching Monkeys

Monkeys, monkeys and more monkeys... 26 monkey faces!  Whew... I'm finished with the faces, and the O's for the backing... My project is a stroller blanket.  I've put a hole in the middle for the seat belt buckle, hoping that it will be near a useable position.









The original pattern is pretty small:  24" square, and I'm doubling it so it will probably be 24" x 48".  What does that mean?  Of course, I'll need more yarn, but I had SO much left after I finished the first half...  My luck ran out though:  What I thought was another skein of background brown really was the copper that you can barely see in the O's pattern.  Knowing I would run out of background, I started to incorporate the copper (2 rows of copper to 1 row of brown) and even though they are definitely different, it works for me.  In fact, I like it so much... I wish I had the guts to do the whole monkey side with the copper/brown combination.  But that's not going to happen.

I started it a month ago, and am suddenly in a panic to complete it ASAP.  I know that stroller blanket weather will run out around the 1st of June.  And when my little one goes to the tropics... the blanket will probably remain in storage.  It's going to be super heavy too.  It's made of two layers of Lustra held together with a knitted border.  Even though I've read the directions, I'm steeling myself for the sewing/cutting of the steeks, and the binding that will hold the thing together...
The back has long running threads because the pattern says it's OK.  They will all be on the inside, and something tells me that it may snag and pull but... I'll hope for the best, again!

Here's the hole for the seat belt.  Not too easy to see since it's in the dark colors.  My photo skills are lacking;  The background really isn't this dark.

And here's the odd yarn I found in my stash because I needed something more colorful than my original purchases.  (My local yarn shop: LYS, is 60 miles away, and alas, going out of business at the end of April. Tears, please! I don't get there very often.)

I would like to finish it, maybe over the weekend, and send it off.  Or I could take my time and show it off at Knit Nite on Thursday.  That gives me a whole week.  Time's a wasting!

This is what I'll use for the border.  The red color hasn't been used at all.  The white, I have too little to make a round for the border, so three colors it is!

Orchid blossoms

March 19, 2010 blog, shows the first blossom opening.  Today:
(How many blossoms do you see?)

Easter in Norway

Have a look at this blog for a peek at Easter in Norway (way up north)!

Traditional Dress

Norway is a country where tradition and progressive thought merge beautifully. 

Let's talk tradition:  First of all, the landscape is stunning.  Tourists agree and the locals admire it every Easter.  Most Norwegians have Easter week plans to get the last bit of winter nature out of their systems before ALL of the snow disappears:  Skiing in the mountains is probably the most common tradition for them.
But the MOST traditional of traditions is the "bunad".  This is their traditional dress which differs for every location within Norway.  Each valley has not only its own dialect, but its own dress.  Here is a picture I took on the most traditional of days: May 17th, where everyone who has a bunad wears it proudly while strolling the streets and watching the parades.

This is at the harbor in Bergen.  I swear this is the best day to get Norwegians to pose for pictures.  It takes time to get into these costumes and everyone is very proud to show them off. When the weather cooperates, as it did on this day, nothing is better.  No work, just enjoyment that day. 
What prompted me to write about the 17th of May today is  C & H's wedding last week.  H's mother arrived in town with a suitcase full of her bunad.  I had no idea of the layers!  Keep in mind that once you own a bunad, you jump at the chance to wear it at every appropriate occasion!  Someday I'll ask her how often she gets to wear it, however, I know that she has worn it for the weddings of her three children.  
She disappeared into the bathroom and emerged with most of it on and needing a little assistance with the jewelry.

It's quite the work of art, and I imagine that it's a tradition to be able to sew these and present them to brides.  This one is intricate and worn with pride.  The vest is surprisingly colorful, and the whole thing can be comfortably worn outdoors--sturdy fabric!

See the laptop?
That's M visiting the party from 4,000 miles away, keeping up his end of the conversation.

No Ivories/Yarn

My life revolves around Ivories and Yarn but somehow, I've found lots of topics lately that remotely refer to them.  C'est la vie!
And today will probably be one of them:

In my travels of the past week, I carted 3 bottles of champagne across the ocean to a country that taxes alcohol so highly that it was definitely worth the risk of filling my suitcase with liquid and having my clothing soaked.  After all, there would be a washing machine at the other end of my journey!
Upon recommendation and tasting, we have come to enjoy a certain Blanc de blanc, and have convinced ourselves that it truly is champagne without the name. (And it tastes better, too.)  When C decided to have a few friends over after her wedding ceremony, and toast them with champagne, I said I would bring it.  I had original packing materials from the case, so I threw carefully placed the packaging and 3 bottles (legally, 5 liter limit) into my hard sided suitcase, and the hardest part of schlepping the bag was the final 4 city blocks to her apartment.  It was a success!

I'm sure you have already guessed my conundrum!  What to do with the empty space in my returning baggage.  No?  Well, it wouldn't have been a problem if I hadn't decided to return with ONE bottle of PIMS, without all of the packaging materials.  Of course the obvious option would be yarn... and I did my best!  I didn't want to purchase yarn because I'm good with my yarn diet.  C presented me with various projects that she doesn't see in her future which included a huge bag of sheep New Zealand wool that was once a pullover.  We bought it in NZ in '98 for her, she's kept it all of these years, and, upon my encouragement, frogged the whole thing.  It was nastier than I had anticipated since it was either cut and sewn at the side seams, or C cut the seams herself... In any case, it looks like this:

It definitely helped take up space, but the last day I purchased the perfect filler:

I love Norwegian toilet paper!  They have lovely patterns of color on them.  I wonder why USA can't do that?  TP is so boring... And before you ask, I don't know why the packaging is in English.  It's not made in England...  In small print on the back, all of the EU countries have a translation of "made in..." address.  Now I'm not so sure it is genuinely Norwegian, but it is definitely Scandinavian.  
Soft, and sturdy!
What a successful trip!

Cake!

My decision to spend 5 days on a 3 day trip to Norway evolved from... cake!  Chocolate cake at that.  A week before the wedding, I mentioned cake, and C hadn't thought about it.  She had intended to feed a few friends and family wine and nachos.  I said, "You have to eat cake! I'll buy it!"  She proceeded to send me a link to a local bakery with a chocolate cake to die for.  Click here and see if YOU could resist!
I immediately purchased my tickets. 
You put

1. Your daughter getting married
2. Your granddaughter learning to crawl
3. Chocolate cake

together and... you have to buy tickets!

The end product?  We had to buy a second cake, because one wouldn't be enough...