Migration

 

I’m preparing to move my blog back to blogspot again. My adress will be: http://thorvalda.blogspot.com. Oh my, am I a restless soul..
I hope you will bear with me, and come along. I promise to be interesting and nice, I promise to take good pictures and I promise to publish the pattern of the yellow cardigan too. Soon. As soon as I can. And I will tell you all about the super-interesting course on silk-screen printing I’m taking this coming weekend – I have been looking forward to that course for a long time.

Finished product

The Side Tied Sweater (couldn’t come up with a better name yet) is finished. I have worn it a lot already, at work too. I’m quite happy with it. I felted it very carefully, on 30 degrees (celsius) and with a tiny bit of pine-sol (grønnsåpe). As expected it shrunk, but not very much, and the texture changed of course – which was my intention. Pattern instructions are nearly finished.

Mountain-knitting

Not so long ago I went to my parents cabin in the mountains, in Rauland near Hardangervidda. I went on my own, man and kids left behind. Peace and quiet, I must admit I enjoyed every minute of it. And I had plenty of knitting and reading time, too, because the weather was not so perfect. Which made it legit to sit inside.

The yellow sweater on the photo is now finished, and the pattern is about to be written out. I knit it in garter stitch, and that is why I chose to knit back-and-forth and not in the round. The sweater has some similarities to the Honeypie-baby jacket, it’s buttoned (or actually tied, as you will see in photos soon to come) on the side, and it has a rather prominent border of stitch pattern.

The sleeves are set-in sleeves (as opposed to raglan), but they are knitted together with the front- and back pieces, not sown up.

Well, it wasn’t all knitting. I also had me some strolls up the mountain side. I so much love this view.

And the drive back home was beautiful too, I do love the countryside, and I especially love Telemark.. these are taken on the way from Rauland to Notodden.

Farmlife

Some glimpses from our summer at the farm.

This is where we stay. Our little red “bryggerhus“, it’s supposed to be the oldest building on the farm.

By the sea, such beauty.

And this summer the unthinkable happened.. The huge oil spill catastrophe caused by the tanker FullCity. We tried to do some cleaning up, but I don’t know if it was of any help. Some say the oil will be gone by next summer, some say it will take decades. Seabirds are dead by the hundreds and life in the sea is contaminated as well. Even though our area wasn’t among the worst, it was still pretty bad in some places. Lumps of oil, a thin film of oil on the surface of the sea, the smell of oil from seaweed..

The flowers are innocent and unaware of human hybris and sloppiness, a fatal combination indeed.

And so is our one-year-old little girl and her favorite animal, Pus.

Botanics and time

This seems to be my favorite motif at the moment. Hundekjeks in Norwegian. Cow-parsley in English. Anthriscus sylvestris in Latin. It’s one of the most common field-flowers I can think of. I never used to pay attention to them, but this summer I see them and I’m intrigued by their beauty. Describing the beauty of flowers is a futile endeavor, no need to try. They are speaking for themselves by their own appearance.

I would like to use this for printing, but have not quite figured out how. I’m planning to take a course after summer, to learn screen printing. My attempts so far have not been successful, I must admit. Screen printing demands time, planning and it does take some practice. Time is not in abundance at the moment. I work two days a week, and when I’m at home I take care of my eleven months old daughter.

Which is a very good thing, indeed. Seeing her growing and learning new things every day. This period of her life is so important, and I want to be around her as much as possible. But it is not much time left for doing my own stuff . So I need to be patient. I will have to limit myself to stencil printing, which is much less demanding than screen printing. In autumn my man will take his paternal leave, six weeks, and I will have more time.

Some colors from a stay in our friends cabin by the sea.

Holiday

We are just back from a week on the Croatian island of Hvar. Stayed in a little town called Jelsa. As usual I took loads of pictures, most of them of flowers and stones. But some of the family too, of course. And the usual pictures of the port, the beach and the sea. Food was ok (fish and pizza), weather a little less than ok (hard rain half of the time), but from an esthetic point of view the trip was quite amazing. So many beautiful flowers and plants, colors and shapes! The little town of Jelsa was very pretty too.

I picked a lot of dried out plants that I photographed close-up. This is of a poppy. I really like the pattern on it. Inspiring indeed. I never knew the poppy had these stripes on them, it makes such a stark pattern. Again the colors (or lack of colors) are beautiful, I think.

I was intrigued with this pattern I found on the many steps that led down to the port. The cement is worn down, revealing a sort of grid pattern. The various fungus/ mushrooms form a organic, soft pattern. I like the colors too, and the contrast between the cement grid and the fungus. Reminds me of some Japanese prints, it became very clear when I included the twig with the leaves. The difference in color is due to the light when the picture was taken.

By the sea

We spent some days by the sea, at our place on the coast. Beautiful weather, and I had my first bath this year. Cold, of course. I took an enormous amount of pictures, I’ll publish them on Flickr. So much inspiration for my printing. Plants, flowers, the pattern on the rocks. I I bought a very good book on printing, June Fish, Designing and Printing Textiles. I certainly have a lot to learn.

dress

from heidi merrick

Ah.. what beauty in a dress. Especially the red and grey one. The designer is heidi merrick. I’m eager to try and sew a dress of my own design. It would have to be rather simple, not too many elaborate details. I could take a simple pattern as a starting point, and maybe use some of my handprinted fabric.

I’m thinking of this for the skirt part, and maybe some matching solid fabric, probably red, for the top. What do you think?

Spring!

handprinted scarf

chunks of wool hanging in the window

another handprinted scarf

easter egg by my son

chunks of wool again

another little yarnlover

Spring is finally here! I spent my easter holiday alone with my little babygirl. The boys went to the mountains for skiing, but I was not in form for going anywhere. I’ve had this cold, or infection, or whatever it is for over three weeks now. Sore sinuses, headache. It doesn’t go away. Frustrating. On antibiotics, but doesn’t seem to help. Which means I can do nothing but wait it out. But it’s springtime! And even though I stay indoors mostly, it’s so nice with longer days, more light, spring flowers in the garden and this thin green hint of leaves budding on trees and bushes.

I’m still doing my printing. I’ve sewn up a few pillows out of some of the fabric I’ve printed on, pictures on Flickr. And the scarves that I’ve made a few of. I’m thinking of taking my stuff to this market, Søndagsmarked på Blå, maybe share a stand with Gry at Fintfôr. Pretend to be an artist/ artisan, what fun! 

small is big

A couple of years ago, or maybe less, I bought this bag on Etsy.com. It was of course handmade, and very well made too. The seller was, I gathered, one who made these bags beside her regular job, more as a hobby thing. And just recently I read her story where she tells about how her bag-making business has developed. I find it most inspiring to read that it’s possible to create your own job out of doing what you like the most. I admit I dream about that myself sometimes.

It has been a most practical bag. Besides looking stylish and cool, it has lots of pockets. It can be stuffed full of things, and still look good – or it can be almost empty and look good too. I have used it for transporting my knitting gear when our little family goes on trips. And when a family with kids are about to leave the house, lock the door and rush to the car, there is always something that someone almost forgot. A banana in case of hunger in the car. A pacifier or a toothbrush. And there is always space left in this bag, a pocket ready to lend room for some almost forgotten, but very important item. It can also be used for groceries or bathing gear. I strongly recommend it: The Market bag.