Nordic Julekuler: "Tricolor" 9/55

My triple coloured knitted balls are ready to be revealed! :) Voila! I just simply couldn't stop after knitting one and had to have some other coloured variants :) They don't have their chains yet so they are more like balls rather than baubles :)

("Tricolor" 9/55)

And? What do you think?

And this is what they look like individually. I'm happier with some of them more than with the others though. I might come back to this pattern again in a while and knit some more colour variations.

And the whole Christmas balls collection (so far!) :

Nordic Julekuler: More Skins :)

Can anything be sweeter for a knitting person than a sight of a stacked knitted yarn? :) Just look at the above pile of my knitted ball "skins" :) It's been growing as I've been working hard on the triple coloured version of my Nordic balls. It's already a bit of madness using three colours of yarn at the same time as they tangle BIG TIME but the final result is lovely and, I think, overall it's worth the whole effort. Those are made using an Eskimo-inspired pattern. One of my faves in the whole A&C's book.

Some of the "skins" have metallic thread knitted into them. I have used two types of metallic yarn but only one really worked with me. I have used GGH Yarn Rebecca Lame silver and gold yarn (as recommended in the book) and a metallic yarn from Anchor in the very same shades. The former one turned out to be too thin for Heilo wool and I do admit, I struggled a bit with this yarn. The latter one is thicker than Rebecca Lame and works better with Heilo, less fiddly and easier to make stitches. It simply looks smoother on the surface too.

Next time - fully stuffed balls!
To be continued...

Mother's Day Card

Recently I haven't been really much in a cardmaking mood, for some reason. Dunno why. Maybe because I have discovered a new hobby - knitting, which effectively pulls me away from any form of cardmaking. However, it's always worth to make an effort and create something special for your mum so I made this card for my mum, for her mother's day in Pl. 

She loves flowers as she's a very keen gardener. She has already received the card and was delighted especially with the tiny crocheted flowers and fancy embellishmens. :) She even wants it framed!

Bless her!

Eggs-citing knits

There is always a good time for knitting an Easter egg :) Whether before or after the season :) Here are my first 3 knitted eggs, also inspired by the book of Arne and Carlos. Different shapes achieved as you can see :) but I'm still practising my egg shapes and egg stuffing :)

Thinner yarn seems to work better with this egg shape. Really happy with this one:

The knitting patterns for these eggs come from this book:

It's a new book written by Arne and Carlos and it has already been published in Scandinavian languages and Dutch. The English version is to come out in the future but apparently the date hasn't been set yet (yes, I do keep checking regularly at Arne & Carlos' facebook fan page). I really can't wait for the English version of this book! I'm already knitting some of eggs only thanks to a friend who shared her Dutch version with me. But I wanna have my own! :)

Hello Heilo

Time to catch up with the blog posts :) Being a great fan of Arne & Carlos' knits especially their Norwegian Julekuler I decided that if something you really enjoy doing is worth doing it well. For that reason I decided to look for some true Norwegian yarn for my knitted Christmas balls. Just imagine - Norwegian woolly balls made from 100% true Norwegian yarn - that is something a real knitter would look forward to! Heilo of Dale Garn is a standard Norwegian wool, 100% natural, 4 ply and recommended in the book by Arne and Carlos.

Generally Heilo is virtually impossible to buy in the UK and I was forced to look in some other web places outside the British Isles. Good, old America has come to help. Not so long ago I ordered my first batch of Heilo wool from Kidsknits and when the parcel had arrived I was delighted with the quality of that wool so now I can finally say "Hello Heilo" :)

By the look it doesn't really look that much different from an acrylic yarn (acrylic yarn is mandmade) however you do feel the difference in the smootheness and quality once you get that wool on your knitting needles. It must be those natural oils preserved in Heilo wool that make knitting so smooth. Making stitches has become a pleasure now :) The texture, the gauge, the weave is so nice and pleasant to work that I have a feeling that from now on I'm gonna be a big Dale Garn fan.

No point in wasting time! Let's get down to knitting with some Heilo! :) Tricoloured balls this time. Madness with all that yarn tangling!

Some new julekuler "skins" have started to show up :) In some I've also used a metalic yarn from Anchor :) it's a bit fiddly job but manageable.

Been working intesively on a bunch of triple coloured woolly balls. The results to be revealed soon!
Time to head over to Hand-made Monday. Check it out guys!

Nordic Julekuler: "Dovre" 8/55

Hi all :)

Another Norwegian-style woolly ball has recently enlarged my collection of Arne & Carlos' Julekuler - "Dovre" - finished and stuffed last Sunday afternoon. Apparently it's a pattern seen on children's mittens across the cultures.

(Dovre 8/55)

Easy and pretty fast to knit although it involves frequent switching between the colours which is tricky :) I'm happier now as my woolly balls are more spherical than the 1st ones I made since I started to be more careful with stuffing them. A decent amount of springy polyester and neat careful arrangement inside the ball is the key to a correct shape. Getting there! 

I've also tried a bit of yarn bombing using a rose bush in the garden :) It served as a mock-Christmas tree. Can't really wait till I see my julekuler hanging on a real festive Christmas tree.

 And here is what they look like together, finished and ready :)

More Norwegian balls to come soon!

Time to check what other crafters have been up to this week at Hand-made Monday blog. Do join in this fun!

"Skins"

Time flies and I even don't know where it really goes. We already have half of May!!! Thank God winter is gone for good. Springtime is such a lovely time of year. I just couldn't wait! More sunlight, warmer, nicer though not necessarily drier ;P not at least with the weather in Wales :P 

So after hours I keep myself occupied knitting my evenings and nights away :)

Here are some recent knitted woolly balls skins waiting to be steamed and stuffed...

I've knitted a triple coloured ball using 3 different colours. Though it takes me a little longer to knit this gorgeous Eskimo-inspired pattern, I'm gonna knit more of its coloured variants in the very near future. So more balls photos to come soon!

Crafting is one thing but there are other nice things out there to relax with after work :) Recently I have treated myself to a gadget I've been wanting for months - a Kindle e-book reader and I must admit I'm loving it! It's a whole new reading experience!!! For those traditional readers claiming that there is nothing like a traditional paper book in hand, I can only say that Kindle gives you so many possibilities normal books can't - instant access to your books and dictionary anywhere and anytime, massive storage, the possibility of making bookmarks, notes, clippings, tweeting and sharing on Facebook, wireless download within seconds...no postal charges, no lost parcels, no queuing at bookshops. How good is that!!

Now I've started reading on my way to work! Every spare minute has become precious for me as it gives me an opportunity to read my favourite books anywhere and anytime. At last I can do both my crafts and read my books without giving up on either. To be fair, purchasing a Kindle, in a way re-kindled my interest in books especially in novels and cultural stuff. My first novel I bought for my Kindle was Call the Midwife - Jennifer Worth - one of the bestselling books that caught my eye in WHSmith's :) and I also bought the other books of J.Worth in a paper form too.

Having a Kindle doesn't obvously stop me from buying books in a traditional form :) I still relish the opportunity of rummaging around at the bookshops and 2nd hand bookshops or even car boot sales. Amazon is also a fabulous source of kindle ebooks and so are the friends :))) Oh, and of course I always buy craft books in a paper version :) Can't imagine otherwise.

See? My evenings are totally taken now! No even time to blog more frequently!
I shall try do so though! Promise :)