DaneMum

Pilates Intro

2011-09-08T20:32:00.000+02:00

I did a Pilates intro class today. Not one of those beat-pumping, sweat-thriving class. So no cardio-work-out but I'm telling you - I now have discovered several layers of abbs than I thought possible (remember - this is an X-med. student talking here- I KNOW my anatomy! ;) )!
The instructor did advocate to do the intro class more than once - but honestly!! Come on!!! I think she was making it harder than it really is. I'm not doing another intro class. Monday I'm off to Pilates 1 w. my hair and make-up buddy. It's so much more fun going to the gym with her.

So I did keep my promise - I did go to the gym tday. 55 min of work-out. YAY for me. And this is where I don't mention the 2 rolls om 'Meller' chocolate chews I've just stuffed in my face.... Oh well - babysteps my friends, babysteps

Slimming down?

2011-09-07T21:12:00.000+02:00

I want to loose weight - a lot of weight. It's just so HARD! I know - all I have to d is exercise and eat more of the stuff I don't like.

I don't want to live of carrots and cabage. I don't want to spend every spare moment I have in the Gym. Well if I could just get my butt to the gym. that would be a start. So I guess Gym. time will be a priority from today on and forward. Pssst did I mention itøs 9.05 pm here and the gym.'s closed for today hence making my new 'pledge' easy to make as it will have no effect 'till tomorrow

How make-up really DOES make a difference

2011-03-02T10:00:00.000+01:00

Hello All
I have a new addiction, one I thought I'd said Goodbye to ages ago. It's make-up and hair! Yep! I spend more time on Youtube these days than I should. Youtube is a true treasure of useful (and useless) knowledge on almost everything you'll ever need to know and things you'd never thought you wanted to know.

Anyway - the other day I had a friend over, DH was sent out with DD, and we had the place to ourselves. I had it all lined up and ready, hot-ion, curling thong, mirrors, flat-ion, hairspray, make-up and CHOCOLATE! No - nothing was missing. The goal of the day was to practice the late 1940's Victory curls and make-up.
We jumped right into the hair-do's, which did take a few practice rounds (and could have used a few more) before we got to something that was close to looking like a Victory curl. At the end - we did however manage to get some sort of hair-do out of it. I also had a chane to try out my very own HANDKNIT snood (see the arrow in the picture). I must admit though - that my friend's Victory curls turned out a lot better than mine.

After a ton of hairspray and a lot of hair-teasing it was time to do the make-up. The classic 1940's look is flawless skin, heavy bedroom eyes, using primarily brown colours and a thick eyeliner, a bit of blush and really red lips. As you can tell, my skin is anything but flawless!!! So out with the foundation, concealer and powder for the oily spots. How come I've spots and pimples like a teenager eventhough I've rounded my 30'th birthday last year???!!! I thought it would disapear when I turned 20+! Here's the result and see how a difference the make-up did??!! We look like a million!!! We even added falsh eyelashes on my friend, isn't she a cuttie??

Talking about make-up I thought you might like to know what my favourite products are. In the picture to the left yoy see my foundation from Origins, mascara from Maybelline, brown/neutral eyeshaddow and pale pink/peach blush from Rimmel, a blush-brush from Matas (a Danish drugstore), a pressed powder from Origins and last but not least is a green eyeliner to add some colour to my eye, from Gosh.
Now all I need is this highlighter from Christian Dior ( it's about 320 dkr, about us $17 i stores) and I'm hoping to win it in the contest hosted by ByCelina.com, a wonderful blog by a Norwegian girl about make-up and fashion!

Let it snow - Let it Snow - Let it Snow

2010-12-19T20:02:00.001+01:00

December 19th that means only 5 days to Christmas, as Danes celebrate Christmas on the night of 24th of December. This year we might be in luck and have a white Christmas, at least in Copenhagen. We have at least 20 cm (just over 7.5") of snow by now and have had for a couple of weeks now and DD's toboggan's been out almost every day! We have a cemetery just across the road where we live which is also used as a public park where we can go pull DD around in her red toboggan but as much as DD loves the snow and to play in it, I on the other hand think it's to cold and wet to be of much fun - but then again what don't you do to make you child happy. The old ski-outfit gets pulled out of the buttom of the closet, I did have a hard time hiding my true feelings about the snow when the picture's taken though. Brrrrr!

About two weeks ago we went on a long weekend with DD's Grandparents to a indoor water-themepark. That was a bit of a weird feeling - the snow was knee-high and it was freezing at least 5 degrees C (23 F) outside and icices was hanging from the roofs and signs. Inside it was 30 C (86 F) and damp bur for DD is seemed to be the perfect combination of fun. Playing in the cold snow - and then go straight into the hot dome for some serious swimming and wild rides on the kiddie water-slide. For some strange reason it just didn't do it for me though.

What DID do it for me was a new pattern I bought, Owlet, by Kate Davies. Her patterns are so well written, easy to follow and absolutely beautiful! I ended up making DD a red Owlet - and it won't be her last, I've already bought the yarn for, not only the next, but two next! I cannot praise the pattern enough and with the winter we're having in DK two more sweaters like the one in the pictures surely doesn't seem out of order in any way. I am truely lucky to have a daugther that not only accepts to be tucked into her mummy's homeknitted sweaters - no! DD even show them off with proud everytime she wears a new sweater with the words: See!! My Mummy made it for ME!

Now - back to the Christmas-theme. Today we went tree-shopping and got a wonderful tree but Geeez!!! The price! 300dkr ('bout $53!!) can you believe it! I was horrified - for a tree!!! Oh well. We bought and DD was happy - until she realised that we were going to pull it home on here toboggan and that meant there would be no room for her to sit in. Right there I think she nominated me for the "Worst Mother of the Year" -award. After a loooooong trip home, 500 meters (0.3 mile) can seem endless when trying to bring home a tree AND a 2yo toddler there's kicking and screaming, the tree was put in our family-room. As beautiful it looked when it stood on the street just a crooked it looked in the flat. After Tea we decorated the tree and here's a progress picture (please disregard my outfit, it's Sunday and I've been doing the laundry so that's pretty nuch all I had left to wear).
That's about it for now - in two days I'll be turning 30 (YIKES!!!!!) then I'll entertain the entire family for Christmas and right after that I'll be preparing for my exam. I hope you'll all have more knitting-time than me over the next few weeks and may you have a wonderful Christmas, Hanukkah or whatever you prefer to celebrate!

Thoughts about getting back out in real life

2010-11-07T15:27:00.001+01:00

Hi Everyone
I don't know how many of you know this, but for past 2.5 years I've been a "stay-at-home-mum", not because I chose so, but events in my life just made it be the only option for me. Now I'm finally back in nursing-school trying to get my BA-degree.
Part of my training is clinical-periods - which I'm on my very last rotation now, in 10 weeks it will be over and I'll be writing up my BA thesis.
For the first time in more than two years I see adults every day that I'm not related to, I get to go to work and spend time with people that do not have their focus on DD.
For some reason this is very liberating and yet very challenging for me. I so out of practice - socially! Time and time over I feel like I have to pull my feet out of my mouth and I have no clue how they got there. Over and over my mouth takes control and just go on auto-pilot and nonsense spills out all over the place while my brian goes: Shut up - shut up - SHUT for crap's sake UP!!! On the really bad days it becomes even worse - then my entire body disconnects to my sanity and just wanders around the ward with no purpose, spinning around it's own centre of gravity not knowing why it's in the office or in the storage ... or so it seems.
I had one those really REALLY bad days Thursday. If I could I would have dug myself into a deep hole and never-ever come back out - fortunately it was one of my last days before going on vacation, so if I'm in luck everyone will have forgotten, or at least I will by the time I'm returning to the ward.

Saturday!

2010-10-16T22:34:00.001+02:00

Hello ALL!
How are you tonight? We're expecting the first nightfrost in Denmark tonight, so our heaters are on and DD's sleeping on a sheep's skin. We've already taken the wollen undies in to use - do you know that rule: always wear wollen underwear in any moth that has an "R" in it's name. Well if you live under the Northern part of the hemisphere ;)

Knitwise I've been buse and very productive. I've made a scarf, the original pattern's called Zoe and made by a very talented young knit-designer, Emily. Go check out her homepage - she makes awsome patterns! I used Garnstudio's Delight - I had two balls of a blue that said on the label that they were of the same dyelot - they weren't. My originale plan was to send the scarf around the world to a friend of mine in Australia, but due to the different shades of blue and my ruffled edge didn't turn out as nice as I wanted it to, I decided not to.

Instead I started yet another scarf (I still need to block it out) in a 100% wool bought in Netto, a discount grocery store in DK, almost like Walmart, on sale - only 4$ for a 100 gram ball. Needless to say I bought ALL balls they had left in the store I was in. This scarf is orginally named Dandy Neckerchief and you can find the pattern here. The absolute FANTASTIC thing about this scarf is that you can make it using ANY yarn w. the needles recommended on the label - you just do more repeats the theinner the yarn you use. The yarn I used was Aran weight - but I ABSOLUTELY plan on making it again using a fingering weight yarn and a size 2.5 or 3mm needle. This scarf is a must for this winter - if not for yourself then for a loved one, a Christmas present perhaps?

By October the 10th I had finished both scarfs and what to do now? Well - my new adventure into the world of scarfs seems to go well so I decided to add another scarf to my project page and started on a "Lacy Baktus" - again I turned to Garnstudio and chose two skeins of gray - this time the dyelots TRUELY are same - which I checked and double checked as it would really show in the Baktus if they weren't as this scarf is knitted sideways. This scarf will be a present for my SiL. I hope she'll like it. That's all for now - see you soon, right?!

8 days socks

2010-09-29T22:00:00.000+02:00

Hi Everyone!

I am extremely tired these days. I started the last clinical-period in September (I'm a nurse to be - with a 40% unemplyment rate for new Grad.'s). I'm exhausted when I get home - some days I can barely stand on my feet - then have DD and DH and dinner to take care of too - needless to say I don't get much knitting done. And yet - in some strange way I managed to finish these socks in only eight days. I wonder how that happend!

A VERY QUICK up-date

2010-09-19T12:02:00.000+02:00

Hi ALL!
You have no idea how bussy I've been the past couple of weeks. I've started back in nursing-school, doing my last clinical period, after six months of sick-leave from a huge cocussion I got from crashing on my bike (YES!!! I did wear a helmet!!). I've also been promote in a online forum/game I've been active in for the last two years so that have taken up quite some of my time as well.
Anyhow -I still plan to keep this blog and my goal is still to post every Sunday or Monday (+WipWednesdays) - I've just been so caught up with RL that I have neglected it so horriblely!
As you might already guessed - my bussy schedule in RL has limitted my knitting time, all I have to show you is a scarf I've made. Actually it's my first scarf ever! I used some leftover Fabel from Garnstudio, same colour number, but different dyelot. That meant I had to do something to hide the colour-difference, so I alternated between each ball of yarn at each second row, not at all as hard work as it might sound. I'm very happy with the result and it's a trick you can use when using yarn with different dyelots. Go check out Garnstudio for free patterns.

WIP Wednesday #2 Or the Cupboard of DOOM!

2010-08-25T14:40:00.005+02:00

Welcome to another WiP Wednesday. Today I will show my never ending bad conscience... I will show you my yarn cupboard, so be gentle - be kind I hardly dare to open when DH is home in case he sees how it looks or worse... The copboard might spew all of it's contents out when I try to pry the door open.
Her it is! It's white on the outside with a beautiful pencil-drawing by the in-house artist; DD. The doorknob holds my keys - that way I know where they are. Well - I should say; the doorknob SHOULD hold my keys -that way I SHOULD always know where they are.
Not so bad, huh?! Well - this is the nice side of the cupboard -inside hides my nightmare, my horror, my SHAME!!!

This is the cupboard I STUFF with my knitting things, when I need to clear it out of the way and I never get around to cleaning and sorting out the things I stuff in there because I'm just too embarrassed to do it while DH is home. Since I haven't started a new project after finishing Loophole I decided that what better than use my WiP Wednesday to start organising the Cupboard of Horror! I started by getting myself an extra cup of coffee - check my emails and spend some time on Rav. THEN I was ready to see what was in hold for me. I did it - not only did I open the cupboard I also had the calm to take a picture of the sickening view it showed when opened.
First I empied out EVERYTHING on the floor and sorted it piles. I had Alpaca-pile yum, a Peruvian wool pile great stuff, needles Geesh! I had no idea I had THAT many! a cotton pile, an acrylic pile a Merion-silk pile, a I-wonder-what-that-is pile and so on and so on. I stacked all patterns and I threw out several bags of strange project that I know I will never finish, little pit and pieces of yarn (any thing shorter than 1 meter got trashed) and about two hours later, the cupboard looked like this.Now All I need is to sort out my needles and make them a bigger home as the one I have for them is to small..

I found a few projects I'm going to share with you. The first two is a sock, size 9. I'm I will ever get aound to knit it's mate as I don't have any matching yarn, so I'll frog it, probably tonight while watching Mickey Mouse with DD. The other thing is a pair of knickers - size HUGE, made in 100% Peruvian wool. I highly doubt I will ever wear them - but they were a fun knit. They're in the bin now.
The last project isn't really a project but a new habbit I'm trying to develop. When ever I've made a swatch I label it with what yarn I used, needle size, tension, pattern and where to find the pattern, if it's knitted in the round or forth and back. All the things that are nice to know later that you're sure you'll be able to remember but NEVER can!!! Then I keep all the swatched in a plastic folder - then I can go back and see what yarn I used ect in the future. A tip you might be able to use and find handy.
That'll be all for now - I hope you'll leave a comment and come back soon, next up-date will be Sunday or Monday.
At Tami's blog you can see other who also blog about WipW! Go check it out!

Two projects finished

2010-08-23T10:17:00.002+02:00

This past week has been very productive - I have finished not one but two tops for DD. The first one is the aqua/green/blue'ish vest from Kæk og Klassisk Børnestrik, by Lene Holme Samsøe. DD is very pleased with it. I must admit I was a bit worried if she woud accept the top as it has a bit of a turtle neck and though I used 100% Alpaca, I thought she might find it scratchy. Luckily she doesn't - DD loves it and one of the first thing she said when she got it on was: "Ooohhh soft - like Nino!" Nino being Nanna's dog, a black Tzi Tzu and a very good friend of DD. I took this as a sign of approval. When I asked DD to take a stand so I could get a picture of her in her new vest, she took this posture and put a smile on her face that made her look like she's been a catwalk model for ages.

The 2nd FO of the week is Loophole! Yes - I finished it and I'm telling you there were MANY ends to weave in. Alone the holes had 40 ends - but it's worth the work. DD was so pleased with it that I could barely get the sweater off her after taking pictures of her in it, but it's a bulky-weight 100% wollen yarn - way to warm to wear in August.

Today I'm off to the liberary, I have quite a few books put aside for me and they are all about knitting. Hopefully they will be helpful when deciding what to make for my next project, because I'm not really in the mood for casting on a self-design right now; when it comes to those I'm mostly in the math/ writing the first edition of the pattern stage. Perhaps later this week, who knows? You might get to see a self-design on my needles when WiP Wednesday arrives.

This winter we will see

2010-08-20T22:11:00.000+02:00

I've been snooping around the never-ending internet - browsing for ideas for what I should knit for DD this winter and this has lead me into the big world of.... FASHION BLOGGING!!! This will be my first try at this - if it goes well, I might do some more - if I totally flop - well then I just might give it another try later.

So what does the new fashion-designer/trend-spotter DaneMum predict we will see this winter, for children that is? Knitwise I belive we will see alot of oversized sweater in different style - with and without texture/cables, like the cardi you see to the right (it's knitted using a Garter st,). This trend has at least two benefits; first one being for this type of knitwear thick yarn would be an obvious choice making the speed of which you finish a project that much faster! Secondly if the clothes is to be oversized the you lovely little prince/princess can fit into it for a longer time! YAY for them having to wear our home knit longer!

What else is going to be big on the Knitting-scene? Grandpa' style I tell you. In normal- AND over- sizes! I've seen a few Granny-style sweaters and cardigans while browsing around and I'm telling you, they are going to be the NEXT BIG THING! Paired with a pair of classy trousers or skirt (a wollen hand knit, perhaps?!) held up by suspenders your little bundle of joy will be the cutest kid on the block! Or Better yet - put DD or DS in big brother's old worn-out (stonewashed) jeans or add a tull-skirt underneath that skirt and it will give your little monster a hint of the 80'ies punk look that is luring it's way into fashion. The key-word here is HINT! As in any new trend - only take the very coolest of a previous trend, update it by toning it down and give it this season's colours which leads me to the next topic: Colours.

The colour-scheme this winter will be blue; any blue BUT baby-blue - but if you want to be tatally hip and up-beat use teal; the same colour I called petrol-blue in my last post because that would be the Danish name for tat shade of blue. Combine it with some of the other colours that are going to be in this winter; brown, grey, white, earthy colours and BLACK! Yes - black is going to be big this season. Even for kids, who would have thought so?! Now we've covered all the basic clothing this comming season I just want to show you some very cool boots I'd love to get for DD.

WIP Wednesday

2010-08-18T13:21:00.000+02:00

I'm starting a new idea I'm brutally stolen from another forum, called WIP Wednesday. My goal is to inroduce you to what ever I have on my needles, my current work in progress (WIP) every Wednesday - hence WIP Wednesday!

This week I'll will show you my progress on Loophole, the red raglan sweater designed by Bente Geil.
I have finished to body - the sleeeves are on hold and I've started on the holes in the sweater that gives it it's name. What I do is cutting the scrap yarn I've knitting into the sweater while making up the body. I pick these stitches up and the I knit around the hole. I've chosen purple for the colours of the holes. The back is finished (I still need to weave in ends) and I started on the front-holes. If I'm going to make this sweater again I would probably chose NOT to make any holes on the back.

I went to the LYS today - and despite the lack of finances I decided to buy some yarn as I've just gotten a refund from my insurance. I bought some wonderful petrol-blue yarn, it just reminded me so much about the sweater I shown you in the previous post that I HAD to get. The colour doesn't really show well in this picture. Sadly there was no orange as they don't sell much in those colours but the sweet LYS owner was willing to order it in just for me. I might take her up on that - but for now I'm just sticking with petrol-blue as I plan to make a sweater, buttom-up, for DD and by the time I get to the yoke I might have changed my feelings about the orange a hundred time.

I Also bought 200 grams (about 1200 meters) of brown and one skein (100 grams / 600 meters) in a pale pink for a secret project that you get to follow closely - but for now I won't say anymore about it - except show you the yarn for this "secret project"!

That's all for now - what do you think of WIP-Wednesday?

Mittens and a Loophole

2010-08-16T21:03:00.000+02:00

Last time I promised you I'd show you the mittens I've been working on, it's pattern number 126-5 from Garnstudio. I've used Awetta and Delight, both are superwash yarns so the mittens won't felt as it is normally the intention with such mittens. I realised when I'd made the first mitten that I had switched the colours around when knitting so that the green has become the dominating colour. Oh well - stuff happens - so I chose to do the same with the second mitten. The result is still okay.

My second project this week is Loophole - or in Danish; Smuthul, by Bente Geil - the owner Geilsk.dk. I bought it as a kit on sale and I was lucky to do as it now seems like the yarn used for this pattern is taken out of her yarn assortment, including this specific pattern - or so it seems as I can no longer find it on her website.
Loophole is a basic seamless, top-down, raglan sweater - much like the ones Barbara Walker descripes in Knitting from the top, knitted with scrap-yarn where the holes are going to be. Once the body is done and before working the sleeves, the scrap yarn is taken out and a boarder is knitted around the holes.

Now to news, knittingwise. VougeKnitting has released their Fall Fashion Preview and from this I particularly like THIS sweater, I think it's the petol/blue and orange colour combination and the added Norwegian star and the "folklore" style it has going. I might have to make a child's pattern based on this design, I think DD would look beautiful in a fitted jumper in these colours and the Scandinavian traits are just wonderful!

That would be all for now - next time... let's see... There will be more Loopholes.

It's been a a while and I've been busy

2010-08-11T10:08:00.000+02:00

Hello Everyone! Yet again have I failed to update the blog once a week but better late than never, right?
Since last time life has been so busy around here, DH has begun
writing his Ph.d thesis - this causes quite a bit of stress to my DH and it rubs off on me. One of the reason we're both stressing over this thesis is that DH doesn't get paid for the next three months so we're
living on my Student's Aid, paid by the Goverment which is about US $1000 a month. Not much when you have rent, food and daycare for DD to pay. In fact it's not even enough to pay our rent - luckly we have some very nice parents and parents in law that come and fill up the fridge and freezer with grocery and meat and have offered to give us money if needed. Why do I borther you with all this you might ask. Well my point is that I don't have a lot of money these days so I went roaming in the drawers and cupboards to find any decent yarn to use and I found some lovely Safran that I decided to make Pilespids fra Lene Holme Samsøes "Kæk og Klassisk Børnestrik". In the book there's a picture of a girl wearing it made with yellow and lime stripes and every time DD has seen the picture, she's pointed to and loudly pronounced that "The girl has taken MINE". Clearly DD wanted such a top. While pulling out all yarn I've ever owned I stumpled across the excact colours as shown in the book and I decided to make it. I'm pretty happy with the overall outcome... except the edges, they tend to roll and I've learned that this is a common problem with this top but I considering to add an applied I-cord edging as described by Elizabeth zimmermann. I'll be sure to let you know how that turns out.
My second project that is on the needle is yet another top for DD, again from Lene's book; Kæk og Klassisk Børnestrik, called RibTop, a very revealing name for the top as that is EXCACTLY what it is - a Rib Top. It's knitted top-down, as Pilespids was, I'm making it in 100% Alpaca wool and it was a joy to cast it on and start knit it after I've been working with the hard cotton. I'm almost done with it - I only need another 5 cm and then it's all done!
The great thing about kids DD's age is that they have no say in what to wear and I will put her in this when winter comes - like it or not, I'm THAT evil!
Next time I'll show the mittens I'm working on.

Vacation

2010-07-11T21:40:00.000+02:00

Aaah summer - that means sun and vacation - this is why I haven't posted for several weeks. In this very moment I'm sitting in my in-laws' house, sipping a bubblely, cold drink - while DD's roaming the garden with her Nanna, picking flowers for her mummy out by the artificial stream Granddad has re-build this summer.
My lovely parents in law are truely garden people and my MiL works magic when it comes to plants. Not only does she manage to grow the most wonderful flowers where no flowers SHOULD grow - she, and FiL, takes time to wander around for hours and hours with DD to show her the magic of that comes from nothing more than a seed. This summer the new addition to the garden is an area with Lathyrus in all the shades of blue you could ever imagine. DD loves this area as blue is her favourite colour these days.

This leads me back to the original purpose with this blog - showing and telling you about my handmade work. My latest work is this dress, made for DD. I bought 1 meter of different children's fabric but so far I've only made this. I had DD chose what fabric to use first and SURPRISE - she picked the cupcake fabric with the BLUE background. I'd also bought some in green and a babypink fabric with strawberries on.
But this is not knitting you say - and yes... you're right. I have to admit that having DD home from daycare hasn't left me much time for knitting but I did have time for these July-Bugs and a mushroom.

A jumper that seems to be hard to finish - and my Alpaca stash

2010-06-21T14:17:00.000+02:00

Do you have a project you take out one in a while and knit a row or two - then put it it back in the bag? You know - that project that you bring to the guild where you plan to yap and gossip instead of doing any actually knitting? Well - I have such a project - a jumper for my DD. I must have started this in 2009 and Thank Bob I decided to it in a size 2-3 yo. Otherwise it would be too small when it's done (when ever that'll be?!)! That being said - guess what!!! I'm halfway done with this jumper, made in Arwetta colour #236 and Delight, from Garnstudio, colour # 12.

Now for something fun - my ALPACA (from Garnstudio) Stash!! As you can see on the picture I have 3 colours (buttom row) where I have enough yarn for long sleeved tops for DD (and yes - they will be used for her, not for me as that amout would only make me a pair of socks with some leftover yarn in each colour) and short sleeved top in a tweed'ish green colour (top right corner). There are also quite a few single skeins - I'll use those to add extra colour. I guess I'll probably end up making tops similiar to the green one with the flowers like I've shown you in a previous post BUT ideas FROM YOU would be highly appreciated! I do have a few limitations though:

Tension stated on label: 23stsX30rows (10cm/4"), needle 2.5-3.5mm
I have 360-540 meters (the 2 skeins and 3 skeins)
The pattern should be for a Girly-Girl age 2, size 98centilong or bigger (size 2-3 years old and up)
I LOVE yoke/raglan jumpers/tops
The rest is up to you!

So come on and hit me with your ideas! I'm sure I'll love them ALL !!!!!

Being a bussy mum

2010-06-20T22:33:00.000+02:00

So AGAIN I haven't been able to post - but I will do so tomorrow, Monday, but for now you can have a look at the vest I've made for DD :D

From now - my ambition will be to update every Sun- or Monday and the avoid these little "Ups - no time this week... AGAIN!" posts.

Mummy's old Jumper

2010-06-13T21:42:00.000+02:00

Do you have an old jumper that have been attacked by the shrinking moths or you just don't feel like wearing anymore - but still feel it's too good to throw it out? Recycle it! One way to do so can be making a pair of pants/ longies for your baby/toddler.

What you'll do is, you'l take your old jumper and a pattern in the size pants you wnat to make.

The sleeves will make it out for the legs - are you making baby size pants- the sleeves alone will probably be able to make up the entire set of pants. When you cut out the leg notice that the inner seam has ALREADY been sewn togther (the seam on the sleeves). It is important that you include the crotch part when cutting the legs. If this makes the legs too small - no worries! It will be fixed later on!Turn one leg inside out - the other one stays with the rightside (outside) out. Put the leg turn with the rightside into the leg that are turned wrongside out and seam the crotch togther. If this will make the pants too small for you child then onle sew the crotch-seam on the front of the pants together.

See the picture to the right? This is the gap that you'll get if you're making longies for a toddler. Are you making babies-clothes - the sleeves will most likely be big enough to make the pants without sewing in a wedge.

Oh no - a wedge!!! How do you make such?!? Well - it's not as hard as it might sound. here's what you'll do.
Turn the pants facing the right side - get the body part of your jumper and cut a wedge to fill out the bumb. I just lay the legs on the body part and wing-it. Cut it a bit bigger than what seems reasonable and sew in the wedge using the gap in the leg as guideline.

When the wedge has been sewn in - this it how it should look. Fold down the top to sew in elasitcband or sew on a ribbing

And now for the FUN part! Decorate the longies as you see fit. I have a little girl - so flowers are always welcome!

Have fun! Any Q? I'll be happy to answer them at my best.

Quick vest

2010-06-10T22:02:00.000+02:00

Okay - a fast up-date, it's been a while - my aim is still to post once or twice a week - so far I haven't been able to make that aim.

So - what have I been up to lately, knitwise, you ask? To start where I let off in my previuos post, I have finished the stranded colour-work top for my lovely daughter. I'm really happy with the outcome, DD's NOT! She clearly thinks it's too tight in the neckline when getting the top on and off but that's a small cost to pay and as long as that's her only complaint I really can't bother.I know - I'm a horrible mother ;)

I've also made her another vest - a traditional one, as the green's a neck-down Raglan vest, this purple/un-dyed coloured vest is a buttom-up, standard fitted vest. It's my first real "out of my head" project that's really succeed for me, meaning it fits DD and it ended up looking like I expected it to.

This is all for now. Tomorrow's a big day and I still have a GAZILLION things to get done before I go to bed.

Up-date soon.. today? Hopefully

2010-06-10T08:11:00.000+02:00

Hi All

Sorry about my lack of news and up-dates. I plan to post today - in between preparations and cleaning for DD's birthday tomorrow Friday ;)

First I'll have to drop her off in daycare though - I see you later.

Colourwork

2010-05-24T16:29:00.000+02:00

I've been bit by the colour-bug. It all started with Ann Kingstone's design Lissuin, a fantastic and absolutely stunning jumper. Ann K designs some of the most beautiful colourwork. She's a great inspiration.
Anyway - she made a sneakpeak of Lissuin on her Ravelry group and I was so sad that my stranded colourwork wasn't anywhere near good enough to start a project like that. So what to do then?! I started some research and found several really cool patterns and pictures of old jumpers, all traditional Scandinavian and I fell in love. There was no way around it - I had to get my knitting-skills expanded so off I went to practice.

After a few very succesful attemts I decided it was time to use my new learned skills on a real project. Last year I bought a couple of Annette Danielsen's books, one of them being "Det er ganske vist" - because I wanted to make "Lille Idas Blomster" size 2 years.

This vest is now on my needles and I'm working hard to get it finished. One of the cool things I learned in my Real Life knitting class was to correct one of the most common mistakes Danes do when knitting colourwork. The dominant colour is ALWAYS surposed to lay closest to yourself AND when making knit sts, always take the yarn from the top and when purling always go beneath the yarn. Doing so - the colours will really stand out. Look how well the wrong-side of the vest looks:

I know some will say - the stand are too long - but it's 100% Alpaca wool, so the strand will felt in when it is washed and worn - making the yoke a bit thicker which is always nice, as it helps keeping the germs away and keep my daugther healthy.

This is how the vest is looking at the right-side. I'm 10 cm from starting on the buttom ribbing and I just started this three days ago, pretty good work if I might say so myself.

DaneMum's first Knitting class - live

2010-05-08T09:28:00.009+02:00

I've signed up for a Live class - "Knit More", it's a class with focus on hands-on knitting. The first lessons were about tension/gauges. I spend 3*45 minutes making swatches and I'm not done yet. The goal is to make a small bag, 20*20 cm using at least two different yarns with different tensions, aiming to get the tension to match.
I've chosen a thick 100% wool yarn (bulky) - a thinner organic cotton yarn (I think it's sports- or DK weight) and a SUPER bulky novelty yarn I got in my very first swap. Making a bag like this is a great first assignment as you can NEVER get too much experience working with different tensions.

White flowers

2010-04-26T15:02:00.001+02:00

I was in the forest this Sunday with my loving family. It was so beautiful, the signs of spring are all over the place. I especially enjoyed the white Anemones. Nothing says sping more than the blooming of these pretty white flowers and watching my beautiful daughter run around, picking the flowers and being all gazed by them was just wonderful!
Later that evening I decided to start writing the pattern for the top I've talked about previously. The trip to the forest did change my plans for the top however. To begin with I wanted it to be an adult's top but after out great day and realising that Lisa doesn't have much summer clothes (and of course she doesn't it's not even 15 degrees Celsius yet) - and reading a blog about how hard it can be to find knitting patterns for toddlers I decided to make "SummerNights" a child's garnement.

Now this will be my first written pattern - hopefully I will be able to provide a great pattern in several sizes but the math that goes into making a pattern! Oooh I've been doodling and sketching and joggling around numbers like I haven't done since I was in High School. I might seem like a piece of cake but when 4 rows equal 1cm and the opening for the neck should be 12cm wide and have a depth of 5 cm and you still have to keep the lace pattern in line while binding off stitches... UUh then it's hard work writing up a pattern.

A class assignment becomes an inspiration

2010-04-21T13:01:00.003+02:00

I've been attending Shannon Okey's class, Design 101 and she gave us an assignment. We were to do a mock-submission for a pretend magazine. We could use any knitted item we had laying around or what ever we felt like. I submitted a knitted lace top and after looking at the sketch and the quick swatch for several days now, I've decided to go ahead and make the top in 3D.

Welcome to the New Look

2010-04-04T16:00:00.001+02:00

Hi and Welcome!

How do you like the new look?
I've decided to change the old look to this.