Jewelry from trash

I am not as tired as last time I talked to you, and apparently in a creative mood. I love looking through Pinterest, searching for inspiration. Especially remaking clothes, both small changes and making something completely different. Today I tried a few things from one of my boards. I have made myself  a necklace and a pair of bracelets from old t-shirts. I have mountains of old clothes saved for creative days, and I love it! I love using something "useless" instead of buying new materials all the time.

I know I don't deliver neat pictures, I'm sorry. I don't find the energy to run around with my camera, looking for a clean background and the best light. I simply put it on a blanket or a cushion and snap a shot with my tablet. And it doesn't even have a flash... But it is better than no picture at all, right? :) At least I hope so.

I'll see if I can get you the links if you want to try these too....Here's the necklace, and here are the bracelets. Have some fun!

Broom stick for the tired

I have learned a new technique today, broom stick crochet. Not hard at all! I would like to use it for a pair of wrist warmers, but I would have to stitch it together, and I don't like to stitch things... So we'll see about that. Maybe there is a way to do it in the round?

Not that I needed a new project, I have a ton of unfinished ones by now! And others that I really should get started on. So this was completely for my own pleasure. I needed to activate myself and do something fun, after spending several days on the couch, to tired to do more than watch TV or play with the phone... 

I had to see the doctor last week, and among other things they checked my thyroid gland (sköldkörtel, in Swedish). I asked them to, since a doctor told me ages ago that we should keep it under supervision. Then we all kind of forgot about it. But this time I thought I would mention it, and it turned out to be a good decision. Because it almost didn't work at all anymore... The doctor said I must have been having problems with it for a long time, for it to get this poor.

The thyroid produces hormones that controls how quickly the cells burns energy,among other things. With my low levels of hormones, my body has been using the energy so slowly that the cells haven't been able to function normally. That is why I am always so tired, why my memory and speed of thought has decreased. It can also explain a lot of ache  in muscels and joints, cold feet and hands, stomach problems... 

Well, you get it. I haven't been well in many ways, and this is the explanation for a lot of it. And now I need to take hormone pills, and they are the reason for me beeing so tired. I have read that they might have the opposite effect to bwgin with, since the body is so used to low levels of hormone it stops producing when it suddenly gets higher levels of hormone in the blood. It will probably get better as the body gets used to the new levels, or as we increase the dosage of medicine. 

But this far, it has made me sooo tired... To tired to knit on my black shrug, that I haven't even showed you. I hope I will have energy enough to keep you updated, it has been a little crazy around here lately. And I really want to finish something soon! :)

Now, I don't want anyone to feel sorry for me because of all this, 'cause I don't. I am actually happy to finally have a diagnosis that can explain my problems, and that I can get help to feel better!

Wishing you all the best, until we get in touch again!

Glittering mitts?

I am thinking. Can you hear the wheels turning? I don't know about you, but I love to use what is already in my stack when I create. Mostly because I want to get started right away, I mean who has the patience to wait until you've had a chance to go shopping? Not me! And also, using scraps is both better for the economy and the environment, I think.

I know this charming little girl with a newly discovered syndrome, that makes her hands hurt (among other things). So I was asked to make her a pair of fingerless mitts for some warmth and hopefully some pain relief. And she would like the mitts to glisten, I was told. Of course! :)

Now, I have this yarn with the sequins, from the sparkling hat. The problem is really that it would be very uncomfortable to use it for the entire mitt. The sequins can be a little sharp, and to have them in the palm when you grip something... nah... So, I would love to use it forthe back of the hand only. How to do that when you knit in the round? I have no idea. So my current plan is to knit it in plain yarn, and then add the sequin yarn afterwards. Stitching it onto the mitt to make it look like it was knitted there from the beginning.

Does it sound like a good plan to you? Well, I guess I am about to find out. I was hoping to get started tonight, but it will have to wait. My hands are freezing cold for some reason, and that is not optimal when knitting.

Sparkling hat, pattern

Oh my, I really didn't plan to be quiet this long... Time flies, it seems. Well, now that I am here, I thought I would write down a little pattern of mine. It is nothing special, honestly, but this seems to be the best place to keep patterns I might want to use again. I never seem to find the right paper or notebook in my creative mess off-line. :)

This is the latest hat I've made for my sweet girl. A friend of hers had a pink hat with sequins, and she wanted me to buy her one too. But crocheting and knitting people don't like to buy hats, right? We like to make hats. So when we found this sparkling yarn with sequins in our fav yarn shop, the kid got to choose colors and mum got her needles and off we went.

The yarn wasn't great to work with, because of the sequins. It was meant to be knitted with 8 mm needles, and I used 3,5 mm... A bit tight sometimes, and many sequins are hidden inside the hat. But if you use the right size, I bet it is great to work with. Soft and with a luxurious feeling to it. I mostly knitted stripes, but also tried a little zig-zag. It didn't work at all... :) You can't even tell what it is supposed to look like, it just looks blurry. Well, well...

I wanted generous earflaps to keep soft cheeks warm, and she wanted a ballon top. Of course, since the frind's hat has a ball... :) I made braids on the earflaps, to weigh them down. Both the ball and the braids are partly made from a bulkier wool yarn. I decided at an early stage that I would line the hat. The original plan was to knit with two threads, the sequin yarn and this bulky wool. But the sequins and the sparkles got lost in the wool so I had to think again. And so I decided to go with only sparkles and then line. I simply used an old t-shirt for lining.

The lining was easy to make. I put the hat on a piece of paper, folded double in front and back, and drew around it. Cut it out and transferred it to the shirt. Sewed a zig-zag seam all around the two identical parts, and attached the parts with a straight seam over the head.

I actually made a staight seam around the remaining edges too, to make the mounting easier. As I would fold the edges of the t-shirt a little, to hide them inside the hat, there was a high risk that it would all turn out crooked. So I made a straight seam around the edge, right where I was meaning to fold it. This way I could keep a track of where I should be whipping it together with the hat, not folding too much or to little away. One of my brighter moments, if I may say so! ;)

Well then, it's about time I write down the actual pattern now...

I used a yarn called Paljett from Svarta Fåret (www.svartafaret.se). I had two balls of 50 g (=132m), and I didn't even use half of it. I used 3,5 mm circular needles, and my gauge was approx. 17 st and 25 rows for 10 cm. The size I aimed at was to fit an 8 year-old with a big head, she is 56 cm around the head.

I started with the earflaps.

Right earflap:
Cast on 8 st. Start knitting, stockinette. Increase 1 st on each side, every second row until you have 22 st. Increase only on the right side (the side closest to the face) on every second row, 4 times. Now you have 26 st. Cut thread. You can leave it on the needles if you like.

Left earflap:
Like the right earflap, but keep increasing only on the left side when you reach 22 st. Cut thread when you have 26 st.

Neck:
Cast on 20 st, knit the left earflap. Cut thread.

Forehead:
Cast on 24 st, knit the right earflap. Knit the neck and keep knitting in the round. Each round now begins after the right earflap, you could place a marker if you like. Each round now has 96 st. Keep knitting until the work is about 10 cm from neck and forehead. Now, start decreasing.

Decrease:
Dec 1: Decrease every 8th st (= knit 6, knit 2 together). You now have 84 st.
Knit 4 rounds.
Dec 2: Dec every 7th st (=knit 5, knit 2 together). 72 st.
Knit 4 rounds.
Dec 3: Dec every 6th st. 60 st.
Knit 4 rounds.
Dec 4: Dec every 5th st. 48 st.
Knit 4 rounds.
Dec 5: Dec every 4th st. 36 st.
Knit 4 rounds.
Dec 6: Dec every 3rd st. 24 st.
Knit 4 rounds.
Dec 7: Dec every 2nd st. 12 st.
Knit 4 rounds.
Cut yarn, and thread it through the remaining stitches. Fasten all ends.

Cut pieces of yarn and braid them around the lowest part of each earflap. Make the ball. I attached it after the lining, and secured the top of the lining to the hat as I fastened the ball. Finished!

I have no pictures of the knitting process, since I wasn't planning to make any kind of tutorial. As I said, this is mostly for me and my lousy nemory. :) But if you are giving it a try, feel free to ask. There are no stupid questions!

I did not make any kind of ribbing, since I thought the lining would keep the edges from rolling up. It seems to be working. You get a lot of ends to fasten, casting on each part separately as I did. If you know a better way, or a way to cast on nicely from right to left, please tell me!

Lazy days

Hi there! How are you? Me? Well, I am having happy, lazy days. Really not doing much at all, and loving it. I love having my family around me at home. Especially these days, when the house is decorated and cosy, when we have a lot of good things to eat, and the kids are in a state of joy and harmony over new toys and stuff. My body has been giving me a pretty hard time lately, so it has been perfect to be able to just cuddle up somewhere. 

In spite of hurting limbs, I have managed a little knitting and crochet. This blue mohair scarf has been lying in the basket for a while, blocked and ready for an edging. The pattern had a suggested edging, but it looked weird in the yarn I used so I went through my books and found one I liked better. I was surprised that it turned out so cuddly, I had expected it to be at least a little itchy.

I was also able to finish this owl hat. It's for a baby girl, and I was asked to do it. No pattern, so I tried to keep it simple. A square hat with ear flaps (that I picked up stitches to make when the hat was done). I hope it will fit the girl... That is the hardest part when you improvise a design, that it has to fit too... :)

Now, I have a crying daughter on the floor, who wants my help to make earrings. So I better go! :)

A merry Christmas

I don't have a fancy picture or even something special to say. I only wanted to come in here and wish you a very merry Christmas. I wish you all a happy holiday, that you have loved ones to share it with, a warm and safe place to be and something yummie to eat. I have all of the above, and I feel blessed. If you don't have all those things, if you feel lonely or sad, I truly wish that you still can find some Christmas joy and peace. Life is sometimes tough, but we can always hope for a better day. Love to you all!

Another project, and another, and...

Time is just flying by... I am constantly starting new projects. And also finish a few... :) This first one was very quickly done. My first dishcloth. I was a bit sceptic when I first heard about making your own, but my husband's cousine's wife (!) convinced me that it was something really worth trying. So here it is, and it is already in use. I made it in linen, crochet with a very simple pattern that I found suiting for the yarn. Two sc's in the same stitch, skip one stitch, repeat.

And also finished is this, my latest knit work. A pair of fingerless mitts. I think I will keep making fingerless mitts forever. They are easily made, and I love wearing them. I have very cold hands... I am not sure they will all be striped though.... I am not the best when it comes to hanling more than one color!

This last one is only started. It is a hat, and these are the earflaps. My girl wanted a sparkling hat, and when I stumbled over this yarn, it was a done deal! Yes, I have been yarn shopping. These two balls, and some alpacka yarn for making wrist warmers. Yay! :) I have also blocked my mohair scarf, but I will write more about that some other time. 'Cause someone needs to make dinner, and I think that one is me! Talk to you all later!

Mother's joy

Dear friends, I am proud to present to you a new little knitter. My sweet daughter Elsa, almost eight. She asked me the other day how one knits, and I showed hee. She then declared that we would have a knitting lesson for her the next day (as in yesterday). So we did, and it didn't take many tries for her to get it right. So proud of her!

She is really committed to it, this is her this morning before school. She usually takes her time in the morning, but today she rushed things to get time to knit. :)

She had not knitted many stitches before she declared that she needed a knitting basker. Now, where on earth could she be getting such ideas from? Luckily, she found a little basket in her room that suited her work perfectly.

This might bexome an expensive story, though. I got her the kiddy needles to start with. I think they actually belong to her brother (who is more into crochet by the way). But as soon as she had her basket, she told me she needed to ger her own needles. She just couldn't borrow someone else's all the time! :) Maybe I should bring her on my next yarn hunt. Or maybe not... Either way, she is already more interested in using circular needles than regulars. She is her mother's girl! 

Never satisfied

If you knit or crochet, this won't be news to you. No matter how much yarn I have at home, I never seem to have the right kind for the next thing I want to make. I needed to cheer myself up yesterday, and decided to start a new project or two. Or five... But I just couldn't find the right yarn!

Above all, I wanted to make mitts or wrist warmers. And I want to use them at work. For that very reason, I want them in "dull" colors, like black, grey or brown. And I want them to be neat, with cables or in a lace pattern. So I would need a pretty thin yarn. I have thin yarn. But it is either striped or in some really strong colors. I have those dull colors, but only in bulky yarn... :) So I need to go yarn shopping. Poor me! :)

At least I found one project I could get started on right away. It is a scarf from a free e-book pattern I got from Knitting Daily. It's a lace pattern, but their mohair was obviously a lot thinner than the skein I found in my stash... It looked as delicate as a spider web, and mine does not. But different doesn't have to be bad, right? So I keep knitting. Although I did almost rip it up to make wrist warmers of it instead, but I think my husband lost his patience with my inabilityto make up my mind at that point (should I make this, or that, and is it really pretty, or should I...) and simply told me to keep knitting what I started. :)  So I am about half way done already. Do you like it? Or should I make wrist warmers instead? ;) 

Slippers

I am up late tonight. Trying to get tired wnough to aleep well, in spite of the ache. There is snow in the air, and it hurts. No use to try to fall asleep then... So sincee I am getting pretty bored from lying on the couch doing nothing useful, I thought I could show you what I have been up to this week.

My daughter reealized that she had no slippers, they were all too small. She didn't seem too  keen on letting me knit her a pair, and not crochwt either. So I thought maybe I could sew her a pair or two. So I did.

The first pair (or really the second pair I made) ismade in felted wool. They used to be a cardigan that actually used to fit me a long time ago. It didn't anymore, so I threw it in the washer and felted it, and kept it for the right project. Since black and grey is not what young girls dream about, I tried to spice them up a bit by stitching them with sparkling silver yarn and adding some sequins. I think I succeeded, since she even agreed tomake them her school slippers. (As you might know,kids in swedish schools do not wear shoes inside, but it does get rather cold and wet on the floors this time of the year.)

The first pair I made was also made from clothes. A fleece sweater my daughter used to wear. And I am happy to say that I only had to use the arms, so I have most of it left. These are a lot softer than the thick, sturdy felt slippers above, but I think they are perfect for lazy days under a blanket on the couch, or after an evening shower before bedtime. 

Both pairs have leather soles, made from a bag of scrap leather I bought on a market a few years ago. The pattern is from marthastewart.com, but I will tell you more once I sit down by the computer for a while. Have some pictures from when I made the first pair.

It is getting seriously late now, so I think I better get to bed now. Hopefully to get a good nights sleep. I hope you will too, once it is your bedtime! :) Good night!

A new favourite

I have finished the red sweater, and I love it dearly allready. It is soft, cosy, fits me really good, and it is red! :)

(I know, there has been a lot of pictures of me lately. I just find it hard to show the new garments any other way. )

It was an easy pattern to follow, and I will probably use it again with a few changes. I love how open it is around the neck, with a round of crochet in a bulky yarn to keep the shape. I don't know how good you can see the colours, but it goes from dark red through red to a mix of orange and red. Warm and beautiful colours, if you ask me. Wonderful yarn!

Speaking of yarn, I did tell you I was a little worried that I didn't have enough. After all, five balls are not a lot when we are talking about knitting a sweater. When the front and back were finished, I had used up about half. I thought I was on the safe side there, but the arms ate yarn! This is all I had left after making all the stitching... Enough, but not much more! Feel like playing it safe next time. :)

Do it myself?

I have been hunting for new clothes this week. I was given some money on birthday, and thought I needed a few new things in my wardrobe. Some of my old things are literally falling apart, and some days I find it very hard to decide what to wear for work. I didn't find much, since I have almost forgot how to shop for myself. :) I haven't given up shopping, but today I thought I could glance at that pattern for a tunic that I printed a long time ago. I realized the fabric I wanted was too small for that pattern. :( Maybe I'll make something shorter, maybe I will dig through my stash to find something else. Or maybe I will tuck it all away and forget all about it for a few more years. To tired today anyway.

 I would really like to make clothes for myself. But I don't know if I'm good enough. Too sloppy, probably. Or I would choose ugly fabric, that I never would wear, simply because I happened to have enough of that fabric lying around. But I really wanted to sew that tunic. In brown linen, with some pretty embroidery. Ah well, maybe another time.

Oh, I almost forgot! Again... *embarrassed* I was meaning to thank all of you who have encouraged me to go on blogging. I will, and now when it is a little simpler (and that some obviously are reading it!) it is much more fun again. I keep getting new followers, but I honestly didn't think that any of you were actually coming back on a (more or less) regular basis. Sorry about that! I must admit that I haven't visited you all yet. I did, in the beginning. Then I kind of lost track of who was new and who wasn't. I should take the time one of those tired days to walk around and get to know you all better. No promises that it will happen soon, but I would really like to know who you are, each and every one of you And thanks again, for your sweet comments!

Lovely red

Oh yes, I am already knitting something new. I am using this lovely yarn again, Baya from Creation Cheval Blanc, the same brand as the cardigan. But this is red with a touch of orange. And how I love this yarn! The colours in it lifts my heart. Now, let's hope this sweater will fit me better than the cardigan. And I dearly hope I have enough yarn! :) Yes, I only have five skeins... I guess a cheap person like me always will try to make the most out of nothing... The first skein took me to the decrease for the arms. I think three skeins will beenough for front and back, but will it be enough with one skein per arm? I dearly hope so. Ormaybe it will become a t-shirt? :D I only know one thing. I am not ripping this baby up! Love her way too much!

Something old, something new

When I bought my mobile I got an extra shell. White didn't really feel like my thing, so I have used the black. Some time ago I saw a handpainted shell on Pinterest, and I really wanted to make something like that. But since my black shell doesn't have a flat surface to give a good grip, I simply couldn't. And then a few days ago I was looking for something and found my white, shiny flat shell. I could paint!

I used regular permanent markers. It looks like I had a lot of colours, but that is only half the truth. I bought markers recently. Thin ones in black, blue, green and red. At home, we had some huge markers, in the same colours (plus purple). But when I tested them today, they were much paler than the new ones. So the red looks pink... Happy me, dark blue and red flowers only would have looked dull.

I practised a little, and then took a deep breath and started decorating my shell. Permanent is a scary thing... But it turned out alright and I finished it off with a dot with my permanent silver pen in the middle of each flower. I am now seriously in love with my mobile. :) I think my daughter is too, since she keeps touching the flowers and barely could take her eyes of the back when she borrowed it to play a game. :) You really should try this, it was so much fun! Wish I had more shells...

Edit: Help, the colour is coming off! I better get some clear nail polish or something to make it stick to the shell. :-/ I guess permanent isn't always that permanent after all...

Some bad pictures

Look, there it is! My brand new cardigan, in a pretty lousy picture... My tablet is good for much, but it doesn't take the best pictures obviously. :) But I was too lazy to get the mobile or the camera. Anyway. I used the cardigan already on Wednesday, using a pin since I had no button yet. 

But it was a bit too wide, especially over the shoulders. Compare the two pictures with me, and you can see what I mean. I made a size medium, based on the given numbers in the pattern, but an extra small would have been enough this time. Not my regular size anymore! Well, since I had to finish it before I could see its actual size, remaking it does not feel like an option.

So I came up with an idea. I grabbed some of the left over yarn (yes, I had a little less than half a ball left!) Aand a hook, and made two rows of sc's around the neck. And that made a huge difference! So now I am one happy lady with a new and very snuggly cardigan!