Shhh

What a productive morning/afternoon! Biscuit slept for a few hours today (very rare these days) and I was able to shower and work on my Emily Dickinson shawl. I made a bit of progress on it finishing chart B and starting on the row 13/14 repeats.  I am making this shawl for my dear friend Shashi, she will look lovely in it. 

I also worked on my alpaca Ishbel before Biscuit's nap it is progressing quickly, I started on chart A for the second time. The alpaca is knitting up beautifully. I am only making it a shawlette size. I am still waiting for my yarn from Chili Grendelin to come I think it was shipped yesterday.  I can't wait to see it and plan which shawls to make.

Yesterday we were out in the garden and I had the chance to take pictures of my shawls. I suck at photography so they aren't great unfortunately.  The tree look great anyway.

Weaving, Weaving (with some knitting also)

Today I got myself out of the house and down to the weaving studio for a few hours. I am feeling stressed over my weaving I don't like this feeling at all. I love weaving but I think that weaving there is not making me happy. I have decided that we will make room for my loom here at home. No reason really I should pay to weave on a loom that I don't like in a cramped weaving studio when my loom is much nicer and I don't have to leave my house to use it. I have about 3½ meters left of my pillowcases to weave before the start of the next course start.

I started another Ishbel last night I couldn't help myself. I have some left over Drops Alpaca in a light lime green that I think should be enough if not I have some white that should work for the edge if I run out. I picked up some Marks & Kattens Fame fingering weight white wool/nylon for a shawl but not sure which it will be.

Tobbe and Biscuit are out for the afternoon so I should get some housework done so I can knit!

Poor Neglected Blog

Again it has been a terribly long time since I posted on this blog. I really admire people that can keep up their blogs. I am just so bad at writing I get all writers blocked and never think what I write sounds any good. I will try again ;-)

I have been knitting obsessively lately. I really tend to go through phases where one thing is my obsession and I put other things aside. Right now it is shawls. In this month I have finished 5 already and there is still time left to maybe finish more. It started last month when Whitney and I started planning a shawl KAL. We were considering which shawl we should do but I kept finding ones that I loved and needed to do.
So I started with Annis from Susanna IC. This shawl I made in Järbo Garn Mini Raggi it is a self striping sock yarn. I made this shawl for my mom for her birthday.  I thought I wouldn't have enough time to knit it and get it to her in time, but I finished knitting it in 2 days, blocked it the next day and sent it off. She got it in the mail the day after her birthday so much better than I expected. 
We still hadn't decided on the shawl for the KAL so I decided to do another quick one with some handspun and the pattern  Sunrise by Susanna IC. This one took just 2 days as well. These patterns as great. They are crescent shaped and start at the bottom with a huge cast on. I have now found that I love how knitted cast on looks and enjoy doing it as well.

In the mean time my yarn and beads came in the mail so I started 2 other shawls (Emily Dickinson and Alcea) though I am still working on these ones. Alcea is the pattern that Whitney and I decided for the KAL.

Last year I started Laminaria but it required more attention than I was able to give it while Biscuit was running around so it had been hibernating on and off all year. It was a bit of a challenge but I enjoyed it when I could work on it. The different stitches were really fun, I will probably make this pattern again. I am a confirmed stitch marker user and in this pattern the markers needed to move often and that really put me off sometimes. The wooden Knitpro needles made it hard to see the stitches as well. I switched out to the acrylic Knitpros and learned about lifelines. These things made the shawl so much more manageable to work on around Biscuit. I really felt guilty that it was sitting there nearly done while I was starting new shawls. I got stuck in and got it done! I added beads to the last row before the bind off. The yarn for this one was teetee Elegant - wool and silk laceweight yarn in fuschia. This yarn was pretty but I think my dry fingers really stuck to it all the time and I worry that it is fuzzy because of that
.
ED and Alcea are both in laceweight/cobweb they aren't really difficult I just need to work on them with my glasses off to see the stitches so not something I can always work on and keep an eye on things.

For a bit of mindless knitting I started Mezquita in sock yarn I had in my stash. I actually did this without using stitch markers. It was that easy. By the time I was done with the short rows I was sick of the yarn/colour combination. I am not that fond of red. I do think it turned out pretty well in spite of it all.

Yesterday I finished Ishbel.  I made it in Hjertgarn's Bamboo sock yarn. I had to make this pattern but I had no yarn, so i sent Tobbe to the LYS in Askersund and had him pick out 2 skeins of sock yarn. He did good! I was worried that it would pool funny or look like camouflage. I named the shawl Mossy Forest Ishbel thinking it might make me think it less camouflage. It turned out beautiful! Not at all camouflage but the perfect greens I love. I have to make this again! This one also I didn't use markers but I really should have it was difficult to find my mistakes. I have tips for the next time. I used almost the same bind off as Laminaria, it really reminded me of the knitted cast on.

So today I worked a bit on ED before Biscuit came home from farmor's house and I did some on Alcea. I am eying a few other patterns on Ravelry - Arabella and Clothilde or another Ishbel. This is when having almost no stash hurts. I am waiting for some yarn to come in the mail, if I want to start another shawl I will have to get something of lower quality but higher priced in Askersund or get to Örebro and buy something a little higher quality for even more money. I keep seeing all these projects made with yarn that I have never seen and I am curious about them, I might have to order some.

Aunt Re's Pumpkin Bread

I am making the pumpkin bread recipe from my great aunt Ruby. She and I use to make this every year for Christmas to give away. She most of the time used pumpkin that she cooked herself and not canned. I use to help her with that. I miss her so much. I also translated it in swedish for my swedish friends :)



Aunt Re's Pumpkin Bread

2⅔ cups sugar
⅔ cup soft margarine
4 eggs, beaten
2 cups pumpkin, cooked and mashed (any squash or sweet potatoes will work)
⅔ cup water
3⅓ cups flour, all-purpose
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1½ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon, ground
½ teaspoon cloves, ground
1 pinch nutmeg, ground
⅔ cup walnut, coarsely chopped
⅔ cup dates or raisins, blanched

Cream margarine and sugar; add eggs, pumpkin, water and mix well. Sift all dry ingredients into pumpkin mixture. Mix until just blended. Stir in nuts and dates or raisins. Pour into 2 greased and floured loaf pans about ¾ full. Bake 1 hour and 15 minutes at 350° Fahrenheit (175° Celsius). Cool before slicing. This freezes well and is great a few days later cold with some butter.


Pumpakaka


6 deciliters socker
150 grams bakmargarine
4 ägg, lätt vispad
1 1/2 deciliters vatten
475 grams pumpa, kokad och mosad
500 grams vetemjöl
4 tsk bakpulver (2 tsk svensk bakpulver)
2 tsk bikarbonat
1 1/2 tsk salt
1 tsk kanel, mald
1/2 tsk nejlikor, mald
1 kryddmått muskot, mald
1 1/2 deciliters valnötskärnor, hackade
1 1/2 deciliters dadlar eller russin, blancherad


1.    Vispa med elvisp ihop, socker och margarine.  Lägg till ägg, pumpa och vatten, blanda ordentligt.

2.    Blanda ihop de torra ingredienserna och mixa med pumpa smeten.  Mixa inte för mycket.

3.    Blanda ihop nötter och dadlar/russin.

4.    Häll smeten i två 1-½ liter brödform som är smörjd och mjölad.

5.    Grädda 75 minuter i 175°C.

6.    Låt de stå kvar i formarna en stund innan de stjälps upp.

Nalle's Sweater

Here is a picture of Nalle wearing a new sweater that I knitted for him. I had a bit of yarn left over from Biscuit's mittens and I wanted to try out this pattern for a raglan sleeve sweater so I figured I would make it for Nalle. It was really cool and easy to do, now I just need to go and buy some yarn to make one for Biscuit. I am going to do it in grey with white sheep on it, and the ribbing will be multi coloured, will post a picture of what I am planning later.

   

Tonight I am working on finishing a sweater for Biscuit he got from Kari. Her mom knitted it but couldn't figure out the collar so I said I could finish it. It is still a bit big, but it is getting colder and I want to make sure it is done before it is too late.

The pattern is in a small norwegian magazine so to start I had to figure out what to do - not too hard it is pretty close to swedish and there are some swedish terms translated. The sweater is a basic raglan.

Jester Hats

I finished one of these hats for Biscuit last month I just need to add the pompoms, but waiting on my pompom maker to come in the mail. I made a few of these a few years ago when I first came to Sweden.  The book is norwegian but translated into swedish, and at the time I couldn't read or speak swedish but with some help I was able to knit out of it easily.  Now I can read swedish with no trouble so it is even easier.  I made this one with mostly red  and plan on making 3 more for my friend's 3 sons in red, blue and green.  I started the blue one today.  I plan on using the long circular needles and magic loop technique so I can do it more comfortably.  The top is a bit tricky it is suppose to be done back and forth but on Biscuits I did it around.  It didn't look all that good but now I am going to also use the magic loop on that part too it should make it easier.  I am knitting these in a superwash wool yarn, the yarn is nice to work with and soft, only problem was the colours weren't all that great at the local yarn store.