Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Autumn in August?

The grey boring weather has taken over the Danish skies yet again.  You may ask “When did it ever really leave?” but last week we had a week of summer.  A whole week.  And now I sit in my office overlooking the Østerbro neighborhood of Copenhagen and the sky looks like this:

Capture

I am in that red dot – Right in the middle of the lovely blue swirls of sudden rain showers and ominous black clouds.

I grew up in Seattle, so the soggy socks the rainy, dark days bring around here don’t usually get to me but today my office looks like this:

215013_10150281693398874_734953873_7556701_1084546_n

You can hear crickets chirp.  I took this this morning before the clouds rolled in so it actually looks like a nice day out.  So what’s a girl to do?  I think it will be a knitting lunch today.  Just me, my food and a good ball of yarn. 

A little news on my Elvira sweater: I am only missing about 75 gr. of yarn before it’s done.  Kind of makes me wish I had remembered to take it with me to work today.  We could have had a nice lunch at the local café together…

Friday, July 15, 2011

Yarn Bombing Hits Denmark

Some years ago before I started knitting, I noticed a bust of a man who was of local relevance a long time ago fitted with a hand knitted Santa cap just a couple of days before Christmas.  I had never heard of yarn bombing and only figured out some years ago that I had been witness to a bombing some years ago when I saw this site: www.yarnbombing.com.

So I am reading the local newspaper’s website at work (because that’s what you are supposed to do at work…) and found the following article in Danish: http://politiken.dk/turengaartil/rejsenyt/storbyogkultur/ECE1337093/strikkeguerillaer-indtager-storbyerne/ 

So the Danes are finally hip with it.  Hopefully I will see more guerilla knitting coming soon.

Friday, April 8, 2011

“Crochet just got funky”

Love, love, love this picture on poorlydressed.com:

fashion-fail-crocheting-just-got-funky[1]

Grown man in a crocheted jump suit.  Let’s get funky…

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Knitting on the Go

My Elvira has been around the block a couple of times.  When she was just a wee cast on, she took the big trip over the pond on a business trip with me from Copenhagen to Chicago, San Diego, LA, Toronto, Buffalo and again to Chicago:

Directions

On the flight to Kiev, I joined the front and back pieces to form arm holes.  She was really starting to look like a real top/dress:

Kiev

She has taken the daily trip to and from Copenhagen with me From Roskilde every day for the last 2 months:

image

Tomorrow I leave for Barcelona and guess who is going with me!  We will be working on the main part of the body:

Barcelona

At the pace I knit, she will also get a little vacation in Cyprus in April and hopefully return finished and ready to block:

Cyprus

So by the time she is done, she will have travelled 33,978 km or 21,114 miles.  Man I am a slow knitter…

Monday, March 21, 2011

Train Knitting

I have been taking the train to and from work the past two and a half months since I changed jobs.  At first I really missed the flexibility of having my car with me but then I suddenly realized that I can relax, sleep, read or even (dare I say it…) knit on the train.  Suddenly I had gotten two free hours in my day where there are no expectations on me and I am free to do something I want to do. 

So today as I was rolling into to Copenhagen Central Station on what was a slightly sunny early spring day, I was spending my newly found free morning train hour feverishly trying to get through my Elvira dress for my daughter in size 10-12 years.

imag0181

If you have read my previous posts you will know that I usually have several projects on the burner at the same time. This particular pattern is fantastic. The yarn is great (free plug here for Holst Garn). That said, I have reached the mid body level in the dress and am so done with it.  I am afraid ladies and gentlemen, I have the attention span of a gnat… seriously.

This is my one free hour Monday morning before I have to go to work and deal with all sorts of shenanigans through the rest of the week and I am sitting there, hacking away at my knitting hoping it would either magically finish itself OR the needles would suddenly grow in my purse from 3mm to at least 7mm.  When I am at home and actually hold it up and look at the work I have done, I am really quite pleased with it. 

It’s a great project and would recommend it to others – I just don’t think it is one I need to have in my purse to and from work since progress is slow. My gnat like brain just needs some cheap and easy satisfaction.

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Monday, January 24, 2011

Yarn + Ceramics = Pure Goodness

So I have been wondering for a while where pottery and knitting meet.  It’s a complex world we live in and everything – even hobbies – eventually intersect somewhere along an infinite timeline.  I was recently clicking around in ETSY and to my surprise found some amazing examples of ceramic goodness that any knitter would love to have: yarn bowls.

Here are a couple of good examples of yarn bowls that are not only functional but also beautiful to look at:

Redhotpottery

Yarn Bowl--TODAY show IN STOCK

 

Bellicosset Pottery

Yarn Bowl

 

EarthElements

Yarn Bowl Butterfly Garden large crochet or knitting yarn holder in pink aqua bronze - by Earth N Elements Pottery

 

dorothydomingo

Spring Green Yarn Bowl - Spiral with 2 holes

I seriously doubt I am going to be able to match any of these above… but I take this as a challenge for my skills at during my ceramics workshop on Wednesday. 

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Thursday, January 20, 2011

My New Little Find

I keep finding hidden perks of working in the city… this time it’s in the form of a cozy little yarn shop!

I just discovered a lovely little yarn shop right around the corner from my new employer.  Garnstuen is located on Østerbrogade 138, KBH Ø.  Their website is still under construction so the amount of information you can get about them there is limited, but if you are in Copenhagen, I can highly suggest you stop in and see what they have or get some advice from the owner who is extremely knowledgeable and helpful.

I’m back…

A lot has happened since my last post.  Well, my last post was March 2010, so a lot should have happened… Things happen, life gets complicated and you have less time for things like blogging.

One of the really cool things that I have gotten into in the past few months is pottery.  Apparently I have some sort of hidden talent for it.  You can see some of my initial projects here:

There is something about sticking your hands in a big lump of clay and coming up with something interesting and unique.  You don’t always know if it will work, but you can try just about anything.  It’s a lot like spinning in that respect.

I haven’t forgotten completely about knitting.  I have switched jobs so I am now taking the train to and from work each day which leaves me almost 2 hours of prime knitting time, so I have several projects going at once:

1. I am currently working on an adaption of Sys Fredens brilliant “Patentstrik” sweater which is featured on the front cover of her booklet Børnestrik. 

2. I am working on an Elvira dress for my daughter in size 10-12 years.  I bought it as a kit from Holst Garn some months ago and am still working on it.  I think I have it done to about her belly button so I think it’s just a matter of sitting down and getting it done at this point.

3. Nutkin Socks – The standard, classic sock recipe that I am working on in Hand Maiden’s Casbah

Lot’s to do…. 2 hours a day to do it in…. should make some progress.

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