YES!!!!

Anne-Sophie and I are going to one of Prince's concerts here in Denmark!! That is absolutely fabulous...we look so much forward to hearing him live.

I have finally started!!

And here is the proof.

If you ask me, then there are lots of hexagons in that little pile. But actually there are not many - and certainly not enough!

I have really had my doubts about which fabrics to use, since I don't know whether the blanket is going to be for a boy or a girl.

But at least I have decided to have a plain fabric - a bright grey linen -among the many printed ones, in order to make the blanket look a bit organized.

The puzzle effect amuses me and I have moved the present hexagons around several times already. But I will have to cut and sew all of the pieces before making the final position of the hexagons.

Phil Collins - Going Back

I definitely don't mind that Phil Collins is GOING BACK. I have been waiting for a new album from him for ages....

And look at the cool website he got.

Brilliant!

Do you know what these colored circles with numbers are for?

Well, if you ask me, then I will say that it's a very brilliant idea, in a new and gorgeous design. It's for candlelights in December, so we can count down the days....

It sure looks promising for those of us who like Maileg. We will just have to wait a little while yet before it gets even better.

Lots of little white dots

The front and the back on the little Norwegian sweater is coming along. I have started the finale pattern row, and then there's only the piece with buttonholes left.

Actually I have considered dropping the buttons on the shoulders, and putting in a zipper instead. In the front of the sweater, that is...

I just thought that it might be easier to put the sweater on and take off, with a zipper.
We will see how it all ends up.

For the moment being I want to enjoy time with my family, light a candle or two and leave the knitting alone.

39 + Chain Maille??

Would my 39 years do well with a knitted Chain Maille?? Nooo, not really...too bad!

Because I would have loved to have this fabulous piece of clothing, if I were an adventurous boy. Well, that I didn't even have to be...an ordinary boy would be perfect.

picture from Fairy Tale Knits

I'm over the moon about this sweater designed by Alison Stewart-Guinee.

She has made a book full of breathtaking patterns and the name of the book gives you an idea of what it contains: Fairy Tale Knits: 32 Projects to Knit Happily Ever After.

To make such a book is a wonderful thought. It truely respects the need children have for dressing up and playing while using their imagination. And besides that, it seems to be very beautiful and well designed clothes.

I have seen a lot of the designs on ravelry and on Amazon, and I simply must have this book. Now, my little nephews and nieces have to get Fairy Tale clothes and accessories...and I'm sure they will love it.

Who wouldn't love to be Red Riding Hood , Snowwhite or Robin Hood?

Natural Patchwork

..."Inspired by flowers, fabic and home". It does sound interesting. I want to find out more and just pre-ordered the book.

Once more a fabulous frontpage caught my eye - and the fact that patchwork is the issue, helped too. The author is Suzuko Koseki and she is the one, who made another great patchwork book.

Sadly I  will have to wait for the book for a long time. It's going to be released on April the 12th 2011! But it's always nice to have something to look forward to.


I have been thinking a lot about me and patchwork. I keep feeling allured by all of those little pieces of fabric being sewn together in the most wonderful patterns. And I write about, read about, get inspired by patchwork pictures - I have even bought the materials for making lots of hexagons. But somehow I haven't felt up to trying it myself. Strange...


The answer to this is quite obvious for me, though.
I have in the past tried out patchwork with very, very lousy results. Crooked bits and pieces ending up in bad looking lines, have certainly frightened me back then. I don't have high hopes of making a successful item today either.


Hopefully I will not give a tinker's cuss about all of this and give patchwork another try. At least in a little while...

Another tunic is done

Now I have finished one more of these.

I got the trim placed where I wanted it to be, and added yet another trim. It's from Maileg.

Whether I should sew on some linen buttons is not decided. And how they should be placed is another question.

Well, I don't think there is more to say about this piece of clothing. So I will leave you with some photos...

It's all about edges today....

I finished the edge on the bottom of Little Redcap's dress and I'm rather happy about it. I only wish that the little red dots would have appeared a bit more visible. But I will leave it as it is.

That is however not the case with the shoes! They are most certainly going to be unravelled. I'm not at all happy with the stitches - they are too wonky. And I know that this particular detail will annoy me every time I use the tunic, so I had better start picking out the floss from the fabric.

This other tunic is coming along nicely as well. Yesterday I managed to sew in the sleeves and now I have decided that it's time to make edge of the tunic.

I have been keeping my favourite pale pink trimming since May 2009 - just waiting for the right project. I must admit that I have been tempted to add the trimming on a girl's dress or two, but I wanted to keep it for me. And so I did.

So I'm exited to see how it will look on the dotty tunic. I have plans about some stitches on the trimming, but haven't really figured out which color to use. I'm sure time will tell me....

For 2 small arms

And here is yet another new project for the baby! (Christian's littlebrother's first child).

I simply couldn't help myself when I saw the pattern for this little Norwegian sweater. It's from Hjertegarn and so is the yarn. And since the baby is due in the middle of October, then a real winter pattern will do great, I think.

I'm making it in cotton and the brown yarn is a little bit tweedy - not much, but it's there.

Now it's time for the front and the back to be knitted. The sweater has 2 buttons on each shoulder, so hopefully that will help, when the little one has to get it on and of.

Knitting such a tiny size always makes me remember when my own children were babies. There are so many fine memories to enjoy about both of them, so that is what I often do with this particular sweater.

A great idea

Isn't this a cool way to use hexagons? I think so.

And I love the fact that women with short hair can use hair clips and hairbands. That was absolutely not an option when I was a child.. One would be laughed at in school for doing so. Hair clips were only to be used if your hair was long and shiny.

But luckily that is not the case in 2010.

This particular barrette is from etsy - it's made by PunchDrunkPrincess.

Ursus in real life

These days my husband is in the northern part of Sweden.

He's a great lover of nature and while he was in the woods yesterday, he met a Brown Bear. All of a sudden it showed up in some shrubbery - only 20 metres away from him. So he carefully reversed.

Even though it must be an "every day thing" to some people in other parts of the world, it must have been quite an experience to see a real bear (ursus!) in it's true element. I know that my husband will cherish it a lot.

Thank God he's coming home soon....

This, this or this?

These last weeks I have been looking at so many different patterns for baby blankets.

I would love to make a blanket for the nephew or niece to be, and since the baby will be born in the middle of October, I had better figure out which one to make.

However, I think it's very hard to decide whether it is going to be knitted or made at my sewingmachine.

I would love to sew it and if I could use the popular shape above for it, then it would be great. But that would mean a lot of sewing by hand, and I'm not sure that I have enough time (nor the skills). I still have my first attempt at making a real patchwork blanket ahead of me.

Ravelry has been a very fine source for knitted patterns and I have set my eyes on 2-3 blankets that I like.

This one:

photo from ravelry of Altadana

 the one Anne made and this one. Since I don't know if it's going to be a boy or a girl, then it would be fine with these neutral and beautiful colors.

I must admit that I have another pattern in mind too - but I already know that it's out of the question. It's this lovely crocheted blanket, which can be bought as a kit at Strikkebogen.

photo from Strikkebogen

Therefore I can't give you the result of my search.....hopefully I will be able to do so in not so long.

Dresses & skirts

push here if you want to take a closer look on one of the dresses

I will never ever get tired of sewing new little dresses and skirts. There are so many fine fabrics and patterns to try out. And haberdashery of course.

I sure do use printed fabric a lot! Somehow I thought that a more simple look was what I preffered! But that's the fun part of gathering one's things - it's more obvious to see how one sews and picks out fabrics.

The skirts and dresses above are made over a long period of time (about 3½ years).

Finally: buttons

Finally buttons, originally uploaded by lille-ursus.

This cardigan has been lying in my knitting basket for far too long without any buttons. Then I moved it into my closet - it annoyed me to see it unfinished.

It's made from the Mini pattern from Designclub.dk and I actually like the shape of it - a lot. The yarn however is a different matter - it's simply to itchy. I don't understand it, because normally I'm not that fuzzy about scratchy clothes.

Luckily Anne-Sophie doesn't mind this yarn at all. She was happy to wear the cardigan as a kind of jacket - so buttons were needed.

In my sewing box I found some lovely wooden buttons made from juniper berry. My motherinlaw bought them for me on the Danish island Læsø last summer.

They were great with the coarse yarn, and after I added some stitches in neon color, I think it all turned out to be okay.

Anne-Sophie liked it too...and is not cold whatsoever.

Did you say sewing? No....

Oh yes -I have actually been sewing a bit!!

A little dress with a dotty pocket - I would love to see it with a longsleeved t-shirt underneath it, and with little trouser. That would be fine for autumn eventhough the color is light. But you know that I love almost all colors, no matter which time of year we have....

I made these too. The tiny trousers are with lots of cars...and bias tape. That's obvious to everyone.

Now, I wouldn't mind if my sisterinlaw gave birth to a little boy in October.

Autumn

Autumn is sneaking up on us in so many ways - whether we like it or not: it's getting colder, apples are ripe, the clouds are higher in the sky, darkness tend to shorten the days and more clothes are needed.

In my home autumn is showing at night when I lid the candles, when you enter my house through our frontdoor you will see Skt. Hans urt on my stairs and lovely autumn colors are on the fabric I bought today. All those apples simply had to come home with me.

September is one of my favourite months....

Bubbles before bed

I love children's books - especially the ones with beautiful and clever illustrations. For a long time I kept buying picture books, eventhough Emil and Anne-Sophie were too old for that kind of books.

But I simply got dragged by an inviting picture on the front page of a book. Now I hardly every buy them.

Well, that was until yesterday when I got an urge to do it again.

On Belle and Boo's blog I read about the book Mandy just made. It's called Bubbles before bed and it's full of lovely activities for children, as well as a story.

pictures from Belle and Boo

I'm a great fan of Mandy's work. She draws with such sweetness and empathy and the colors she uses are impossible to describe - they need to be experienced.

pictures from Belle and Boo

The book can be bought on etsy for the tidy sum of 10,75 $ and that is not much. I have considered buying the book for our niece who soon becomes a bigsister...that sounds like a splendid idea, don't you think? ;)

pictures from Belle and Boo

Photo day (and some windows)

Today is photo day at Emil's school and it's time for new pictures to be taken - alone and with his classmates.

While looking at the old photos from school and kindergarten, I keep getting amazed about how fast our children grow up, and about the changes they go through in body and mind.

We always pick the photos in black & white. Those colors are so well for portraits - nothing distrubs the expression.

I don't think that children have to smile when they get photographed. To me it's important that it captures the essence of the person.

Hopefully that will succeed with Emil today...eventhough it's difficult to concentrate when one's classmates are right behind the curtain giggleling. Don't you remember that? Oh, I sure do...