Arne & Carlos: Easter Knits (1)

For the past few days I've been busy knitting away some Easter-themed balls and eggs.  The first two balls have been finished. I loved the patterns so much that I had to knit them as my first Easter balls. They are a sunrise and sunset duo. Their original names are Morning Red and Evening Red. I used original wool that is Heilo. It's got some beautiful colours in its array.

 
A teal and pumpkin coloured ball was my second - love this colour combination!

 I've also knitted a sweet cute egg in pastel colours and hearts. Cheerful as Easter itself.

This green egg has just been taken off my needles. I used Daletta yarn and 2.5 mm needles to see how small a knitted egg can be. 

And these are all my Easter knits so far :)

Last Thursday a small packet made my day - a fresh supply of Dalegarn yarn. Yay! This time it's not Heilo but Falk. I missed some juicy greens in the Heilo colour array so I ordered some Falk. The best thing about it is that it came from an online shop in the UK! - Dragon Yarns. This is a great news for me as it means that Norwegian wool is gradually making its way into the British shops and possibly in the future there will be no need for buying it abroad. At the moment, a wool like Heilo is impossible to buy in the UK and needs to be shipped from somewhere else. 

Being in a stitchy-knitty-gritty theme, yesterday I spotted this magazine in Tesco with a fab set of sewing-themed stamps! I've always wanted some like these! The vintage sewing machine, the scissors, the mannequin... Run to the shops if you want one! :)

I'm also buying provisions for the future Easter :)  Tim Holtz Alterations - Easter bunny die cutters and folky birds die have arrived today at my doorstep and I'm on cloud 9. Finally my Easter cards will be getting some shape and personality :)

Joining hand-made Monday today at Hand-made Harbour. Do join in and have some blog hopping round the blogs full of crafty creations.

Time to move on...

Yes, it's time to move on to ... Easter projects! Well, my knitting adventures with Arne and Carlos continue and now I've been knitting their Easter balls and Easter eggs! It looks like after a Nordic Christmas there will be a Nordic Spring at my home ;)

I couldn't wait to start some multicoloured balls and eggs. They bring in some freshness and spring with them inside! I've got a certain supply of Heilo colours the from previous shopping but there is more Norwegian wool winging its way from the USA to me. This time new yarns and new colours. Excited!
Last year, before the Easter Knits book was even published in English, I was so keen to try to knit those eggs (using a Dutch version of this book) that I knitted those three eggs you can see below :)
An Egg-citing intro to the following Easter knitting madness, eh?

Now, with all the Dalegarn colours I need and the open book next to me, I can only sit back and keep knitting away! Perfect way to get through those winter months. Roll on springtime!

Browsing through the cross stitch projects on the web I came over this design - Joan Elliott "Redwork Noel" and guess what? It's on my I-have-to-stitch-it! list now! Absolutely beautiful, don't you agree?

The pattern comes from 1-2-3 Stitch shop.

Christmas cards from friends

Sorry, a little more post-Christmas ramble ;) One of the reasons why my last Christmas was good was another big hand-made Christmas card swap I had with my online friends. We do it every year and it's great fun to make festive cards for your mates. Here the hand-made cards I received from my crafty Pl friends and also from Heather from Audrey Eclectic blog.

Thank you guys for such a fab collection of hand-made cards. I appreciate all that time and effort that goes into making them! 

Here, below a few photo collages for you to look at :)

Even now, they remain displayed on my mantelpiece. I love them!

Speaking more of Christmas - I felt I had to share this with you: just look what I found and bought two weeks before Christmas! - a wonderful collection of rubber stamps by Martha Stewart. And the stamp theme - Scandinavian!!!! OMG! I simply had to have them!!! They came all the way from the USA and it took them 3.5 weeks in that postal Christmas rush to come to the UK. They are an absolute eye candy to me and I was so excited when I was opening the box delivered by a courier.

I haven't used them yet - but I'm very keen to do so and make some next Christmas cards!!! Some of the stamps can also be used out of Christmas season too! I got mine directly from Martha Stewart online shop on her website. If you wanna get a set like this for yourselves, hurry up as in most online shops it said these stamps were discontinued! What a shame such fab products disappear so quickly from the market. I'm so lucky to have them!

Thank you very much to all those who left comments on my post about my Christmas tree with knitted A&C balls. Absolute pleasure and joy to read. Thank you very much!
also
Welcome my new likers! :)

Nordic Julekuler: 54, 55/55. Grande finale with the Christmas tree

Yes, I've finally reached the end of my knitted balls marathon. Here are my last two knitted balls closing off the project of all 55 knitted balls designed by Arne and Carlos from Scandinavia.

The first ball shows a reindeer pulling the sleigh. The pattern spreads over two walls.

("Christmas Run" 54/55)

 ("Christmas Run" 54/55)

The second ball features a witch/troll . 

 

(The Thirteenth Day Kari)

In the Scandinavian culture 13th Day Kari is a creature - a witch or a troll - who can't join the Christian society and comes out only once a year on the 13th day after Christmas. They are let to make a run through the snowy town. It is unusual to have this motif on a Christmas ball but looks like witches, fairies and trolls are a big part of Nordic culture. In old vintage Scandinavian Easter cards you can sometimes see a witch giving presents to children.

And the both balls together.

Now, time to show what my Christmas tree looked like decorated with all those balls :) Watch out - lotsa pictures! :) My aim was to achieve a Nordic look in my Christmas decorations. There are mostly red n white balls, with some black and white and a few coloured ones.

I'm telling you - those balls need a proper solid Christmas tree with branches pointing upwards as the balls weigh them down. They are cosy, soft and spongy to the touch and the knitted texture of wool reminds me of Norwegian sweaters. 

                   

Well, I've made so many that some of my knitted balls ended up on a platter as a decoration :)

I thoroughly enjoyed knitting those balls, every single one. That's why I've eventually made more than 55. How many exactly - I don't remember right now. I'll be able to tell you when my decs will come down and I'll put them side by side and count :) I want to take a group picture of them all. 

Is it the end of knitting balls? No! ;) Arne and Carlos supplied us with a book with  Easter versions of  balls so now I've moved on to colourwork knitting. I will also be knitting comissioned balls as quite a few people asked me for gift swaps.

Tonight, I'm joining Hand-made Monday 98 (what a great number now!) and I'm looking forward to blog hopping to see some lovely creations from around the Christmas time.

Happy New Year!

I'm back at my home in the UK and also back from my Christmas travels. So back to blogging as well.
Well, this is the first post in the New Year! So for this year I wish you lots of love, happiness, joy and millions of inspirations :) May it be another prosperous, crafty and lucky year to all of you!