Inspiration

I follow many craft bloggers and one of them is Life is a plate of cupcakes (although the blog is not entirely about crafts). Today she posted a link about a simply gorgeous shawl at Berniolles design, and I got hooked. (You get it? Hooked?)

I just have to re-post the link to this magnificent thing. Since the photo is not mine, I will not repost it, but do click on the link, please do!

Elegant grey capelet

/Maia

Blue Lund

Blue wool from Lund in the South of Sweden. Lace knitting.


Pale, pale, and lovely in the winter sun.


Pointy edge.


Wrap it around your neck. Enjoy!


/Maia

Christmas calendar give-away

As I have told you about before there is a give-away at my Christmas calendar blog. The blog is in Swedish, so it may be difficult to follow, but since the give-away is indeed a tingest, I will present it here at Tingestar.

It is a Reykjavik shawl with lace and a flimsy ending. Knitted in thin light grey wool, that I bought in Lund on the 1st of December. It is big enough to wear over your shoulders, but it is lovely to wrap around your neck on cold days.

Especially with a red sweater. And, as I said, this shawl may be yours if you join the lottery.

/Maia

Snowflakes waiting to be sent out

For Christmas greetings this year I have crocheted little snowflakes. I mixed carpenter's glue with water for starch – a suggestion I found on the internet – and I really hope they will come out as nice as I hope for.

One snowflake is red, an ugly duckling...

I will add a small greeting on a brown tag and attach it with a red and white parcel string.

/Maia

The Christmas Calendar give-away

There's a give-away contest going on on my Christmas Calendar blog. Here's a sneak peak of the beautiful wool that I will use for the prize.

When the hyacinths have flowers the project will be finished. Become a reader of the calendar blog and join the contest!

/Maia

Dark grey mittens

Dark grey crocheted 100% wool mittens, awaiting felting.

/Maia

Sneak peak

Förutom den vackra Hélène de Troie-sjalen som ska lottas ut kommer jag att ta med en stor bunt med mobilfodral till Montessoris bazar i morgon på Brattåsskolan i Kållered. 17:30–20.00 blir det försäljning och lotterier. Här får ni en sneak peak på lite handarbetsgodis. Det som blir över kommer att säljas på internet. Håll ögonen öppna!
/Maia

Apart from the beautiful Helen of Troy shawl to be a lottery, I will bring a big stack of cell phone cozys to the Montessori bazaar tomorrow at Brattåsskolan in Kållered. 17:30 to 20:00 there will be sales and lotteries. Here's a sneak peak at some home made goodies. After the bazaar the rest of the cozys will be sold on the internet. Stay tuned for that!
/ Maia

Green Retro iPhone cozy

Crocheted mobile cozys

Blue Flowers iPhone cozy

Crocheted mobile cozys 

Brown Retro iPhone Cozy

Hélène de Troie

Reykjavik grey

In Iceland, I started to knit the grey shawl. Hence, the name Reykjavik. Smoke bay.

The yarn is thin, grey 100% wool. And the small frill at the bottom.

This is a thin and light shawl, but the wool makes it very warm and nice. Suitable for a chilly October's day. Or November's day, for that matter.

/Maia

The blogs I like: C Sathal

This French design blogger that my daughter told me about is just delicious! I look at this humonguous half granny square shawl and I just want to copy it. But with shredded fabric. Thin shreds. I think I'll go for it.
/Maia

Ce blogueuse Française, que ma fille m'a montrée,  est complètement super bon! J'admire ce châle half granny square énorme et je voudrais le copier. Peut-être avec tissu râpé, je pense. Des lambeaux très minces. Je crois que je vais le tenter. (Pardonnez-moi mon Français.)

Winter white

One large but very light and soft winter white knitted shawl, with a frill at the bottom.

Close-up on the lace pattern and the frill ending. I came up with the pattern myself, and I call it Reykjavik, after the first shawl with this pattern that you will get to see here tomorrow.

It is large. But thin enough to wrap around your neck, if you like.

/Maia

PS. The shawl was not this thin and nice at first when I knitted it, see the picture here where it looks more like a sweater. But by washing it and ironing it the lace pattern emerged.

Tomorrow

Tomorrow. The sun'll come out tomorrow. Bet your bottom collar that tomorrow there'll be sun!

And if not, there will at least be more shawls here tomorrow. Maybe the grey one, Reykjavik, the winter white one, the large pinapple shawl. We will see.

/Maia

Correct

In English the word correct may be interpreted both as a verb (to correct something) and an adjective (that's correct). I have been redoing the edge of this shawl over and over again. I want it to be just right. Correct.

But it is not until I actually see how a new edge looks like with the body of the shawl that I realise that it is not the optimal one. So I have to redo it. Correct. Again.

/Maia

Two more shawls for the girls

As I've said before, I will be selling scarves to sponsor the girls F98/99 football team at Kållered's Sports Club (KSK). The Red gooseberry and the Red currants scarves will also be sold. Keep reading the blog. More information about the sale later.

/Maia

Apple cozy

DD Julia asked for an apple cozy inspired by this one at Pyssel. So, I made one yesterday. Ad lib.

The pencil button makes it a little more like the apple you give to the teacher, doesn't it?

And the pencil button is also fixed so that you don't lose the upper part.

/Maia

Hélène de Troie

Helen of Troy. The beautiful.

It was actually a really beautiful woman named Helena that inspired me to crochet this sideways pineapple shawl. At a parent's meeting, she saw one of my big crocheted pineapple shawls and talked about not being able to make one for herself. Well, I said, I can make one for the class bazaar in December.

And here it is. Hélène de Troie. I made it in some heavy Egyptian cotton that I had in my stash and it came out just nice for a little wrap.

This little shawl will be the price of a lottery at the Montessori Bazaar in December at Brattåsskolan, Kållered. Isn't it lovely?

Update 2010-11-25: And – believe it or not – it was indeed Helena who won the shawl. Amazing!

/Maia

Knitting with un-spun yarn

I just realised that the yarn I bought in Iceland is un-spun.  It is called plötulopi and breaks very easily. Nevertheless it is this yarn that you use for the traditional Icelandic lopi sweater. You may knit the yarn with one, two or three ply at the time. My plan was to make shawls (Who's surprised?) and use one ply, at least when I thought it was ordinary yarn. But last night I actually dreamt that I was making felted mittens and slippers. I don't know. Suggestions?

The fragility of the yarn makes me think that there is need for some strengthening if I want to make a shawl. Like when I added a thin cotton to the Rosa yarn from Denmark.

I'm just thinking...

/Maia

Minnie

This autumn a dear friend sent me to a store that sold Odd Molly to buy a dress for her DD. She lives in another town and the DD had got her eyes on a beautiful dress that was 70% off. I went there, bought it for her, and on my way from the store I just happened to find some really cheap organic cotton. 

I think Odd Molly is fun. It is really odd, even though I don't think I'll ever buy something there myself. But in some ways the Minnie scarf I crocheted from the cotton is inspired from seeing all that happy-go-lucky clothes.

Also this scarf will be for sale. And the money will go to KSK F98/99. Stay tuned! I will be announcing where and when and for how much you can buy the scarf.

/Maia

Hup, hup Oransje!

The Swedish football (soccer) team did not do well against the Netherlands in the qualification to the European cup – or whatever – this Wednesday, but as the Netherlands did a very good game I'd like to present the Oransje scarf.

The scarf is in a soft mohair wool that I bought a long, long time ago, so this is part of my stash project. The lace ending is from another quality of wool, and a bit flimsy, but suits well with the softness of the mohair.

My model, A, would never ever wear one of these scarves for real, because she seems to be allergic to any kind of wool. She even gets rash from the woollen neck strap that she has got for her alto saxophone. She had to cut out a small cotton patch to protect the skin while she is playing!

Now, this scarf is going to be on the market! I am going to sell it and give the money to the girl's 90/99 football (soccer) team of Kållered's Sports Club (KSK). Stay posted!

/Maia

Island

I've been to Iceland. Due to the terrible economic crisis it is today actually quite affordable. Go there and spend your money on beautiful


Turquoise.


Warm, warm red.


Marron.

/Maia

PS I have so many new scarves and shawls to show you. I just haven't been able to get the DDs to model yet!

- using BlogPress from my iPhone

Small, quick projects

When I traveled to and from Denmark 2007–2008 I bought a lot of yarn. Much of it is cotton, since mercerised cotton is really cheap in Denmark, don't ask me why. I also bought discount yarn whenever I found something interesting. Like this one. Rosa means 'pink' both in Swedish and in Danish.

This yarn has given me trouble ever since. But when I heard that my niece had mixes a fluffy yarn with cotton, I tried adding a thin cotton to this wool mix and I was home.

With pins number 15, I knitted a small scarf very quickly. My youngest daughter will not wear it, since she has inherited her father's severe wool antipathy. So maybe I'll just sell it and give the money to her soccer team? It is really soft and lovely.

I also crocheted a small beanie friend for my daughter to have when she watches TV, instead of biting her nails...

...and a couple of hearts from the same yarn that I used for the Red gooseberry and Red currant scarves. All this to reduce the stash and use even the small balls of yarn. 

They are filled with soy beans. I had some in a cupboard in the kitchen, and I'm really not going to eat it so it's good that it comes to use. My dear husband suggested that I'd fill them with coffee beans instead, for the lovely smell. I think whole wheat would be great, because then you can heat them up in the microwave.

/Maia

Röda vinbär – Red currants

Another scarf, same yarn, but this time with a slightly different trimming. 

This time the edging is a bit broader and also flatter and pointier, red currants seemed a fitting name to me. 

The trimming of the Cup scarf – Red gooseberries – is flimsier and fits well with the Swedish word for gooseberries, krusbär. Krusig means 'frizzly, crinkly'.

On the top Red currants, on the bottom Red gooseberries.

The nuance is a dark burgundy that warms up in the sunlight, so the colouring on the last photo is really not accurate. My iPhone camera doing a bad job again...

/Maia