Intimidating knits

This weekend we went to Bergen to attend the christening of my nephew C. N. Which means that I can show you photos of the last minute knitted christening gift.

I haven’t done a lot of stranded colour-work knitting before (to be honest it intimidates me), and it is noticeable. My floats – the gaps between the sections of pattern – are not loose enough to keep the work from puckering. As a result, it looks uneven. So on my next stranded knitting project I need to make the floats looser to prevent this.

All though the pattern is not intricate, it is not the easiest. On certain places, the floats strand across 15 stitches. Knitting guru’s usually recommend to not strand floats across more than seven stitches, but I think that five stitches are within my skill & comfort zone.

If you have to strand floats for more than seven stitches you should catch the floats in the centre of the span. I did this, what I didn’t know is that if you catch up your floats on the very same place on succeeding rows this can lead to banding on the front work. If you look closely, you can see some of those bands (looks like vertical stripes/gaps) in the photos.

On the more sunny side of matters (by the way, out of 47 days in 2014 we - Oslo inhabitants - have only had three days of sun) I love the colours I used. If I knit the sweater again, I think I would choose the same colours… Actually, I ought to knit it again soon to practice long and loose floats. For more details, visit my project page on Ravelry

Have a nice week!

Oh, and don’t miss the giveaway that lasts until February the 23rd!

Valentine Giveaway!

Happy Valentine’s Day dear blog friends! And thank you for being blog friends, readers and contributors to my creative space. Thank you for opening my creative mind by sharing your knitting, sewing, stitching, crocheting, drawing or photography projects. On this day of hearts, I want to give something back. That is why today is Valentine giveaway!

One winner will get six leather tags with their chosen initials. The winner can choose between four different leather colours - dusty pink, red, blue or yellow ochre. To enter the giveaway you need to get a Valentine ticket. You can boost your chances to win the leather tags by getting more than one ticket. Here is how:

Valentine ticket 1: Leave a comment and tell us what project you have in mind for one of the leather tags and which font you would like for your initials.

Valentine ticket 2: Follow this blog and come back to tell how you do so (Bloglovin, Google friends, e-mail etc.). If you already are a follower, tell us how and what you enjoy most about Life in Yonder.

Valentine ticket 3: Share the love and mention the giveaway on your blog with a link to this post. Come back and let me know you did.

Remember to tell me how many tickets you want. I will draw a winner on
Sunday the 23rd of February

Happy Valentine's day & good luck!

Here I Knit...

…and many other places as well of course. Knitting is what makes time fly while traveling. It is what keeps my blood pressure at healthy levels while I am waiting in lines at airports or when there is a delay. I am not a knit walker yet but definitely a knit stander. I can stand and knit just about anywhere. I knit on the metro (T-banen) on my way to work and I knit on the playground while the children are absorbed by their own play and of course in the car when mr. Yonder drives (but then I sit).

This however is my favourite knitting nook at home.

My knitting sofa spot has good light for those dark Norwegian afternoons during fall and winter. I have a table to rest my feet on and to put my -must have certain things close by - like the iphone, mini-ipad (in case I need to take a quick look in Ravelry), knitting tools and the essential cup of tea.

One of the things I miss from before having children is reading books (actual paper books). To mend the gap between what I love to do and the time I have available, I listen to audiobooks while knitting. Right now, I am listening to the Cukoo’s calling by Robert Calbrath.

At my left (while sitting in the sofa), I have a black bag with all the current knitting projects and yarns, and like any other respectable knitter I have several other yarn stashes placed strategically around the house. Some yarn stash is in our living room upstairs and the rest of the yarn is in baskets in our living room downstairs. In case you wonder, we have an ongoing forever-lasting argument in this house hold on how much space I am supposed to have dedicated to yarn.

If you would like to see more knitting nooks or would like to share your own, visit Monstermønster. She initiated a “I knit here” roundabout, after reading about Sigrid’s knitting place.

Leather shopping in Barcelona

This spring, when I first got the idea of making leather tags with initials on I began searching on internet for shops that would ship tools to Norway. To my surprise, the tools were not as highly priced as I first had imagined. However, once I added the shipping, which was much more pricy than I could ever imagine, I postponed the whole project.

Then some time before leaving for my mum alone vacation in September I began searching for leather shops in Barcelona. After hours of searching on the net, I found a shop that looked promising, wrote down the address and crossed my fingers that they would have what I needed.

I reserved an entire day just to find the place, which was unnecessary since it’s quite easy to find once you have the address. After a walk through the city there it was. A beautiful old store, with tall heavy doors, dark wooden furniture, marked by wear and tear during I don’t know how many decades.

It looks old, smells old and I can just imagine how this shop must have thrived in it’s glorious days, when most people still made their own belts, bags, coin holders, purses and everything else beautiful that can be made out of leather.

Just as I entered the shop I tried to take a photo of a row of old suitcase locks, which I shouldn’t have done… Because seconds after, a petite lady with short hair and strict eyes behind thin glasses came out of nowhere and told me that it was strictly forbidden to take photos (she looked like the kind of lady you would want to be very obedient to). And right that moment I saw the sign that said “No photography!” Yay, for making good first impressions!

Fortunately, the same lady asked me if she could be of any help, and she could. After I explained what I wanted to make she found several different tools for me to choose from. She also showed me the different types of leathers they had.

My favourite discovery was a big box of leather scraps in all kinds of colours sold by the weight. I chose my tools and as she weighed the leather, I asked the leather shop lady if she would please let me take a photo while she was weighing the leather. To my luck, she tilted her head to one side, broke out in a big smile and said in a patiently and forgiving voice, “OK then, go ahead, and take your photo” (“Venga, vaaale, haz tu foto”). So there you have it, the hands of the leather shop lady, which was a cute softy after all. She made my day.

In case you want to visit, the address of this beautiful leather and tools shop in Barcelona is:

Comercial de Guarnicionería SL
Passeig de Picasso 14
08003 Barcelona

Opera Weekend

Welcome back to a new week in a new month! This weekend I visited my hometown for an all-girls weekend, with opera, cava and a three-course dinner in a fancy restaurant.

I managed to do some airport knitting while on my way to the west coast. It should have been another thin wool sweater, but I am out of time. In two weeks we have another Christening (cousin C.), and I need a fast knit so I am sure to finish it in time for the sweater to be part of the gift. I’ll let you in on the knitting facts as soon as I am done with it. But for now, let’s just say that knitting a baby sweater on 4mm needles is as fast as it gets and will do the trick.

I arrived in Kristiansund just in time to get a last but good glimpse of the sun before it went behind the horizon of houses. After three weeks of cloudy and snowy weather in Oslo, those sun glimpses were a joy and very needed and appreciated.

Foto: Kristiansund Opera

My hometown Kristiansund has a long and strong tradition for Opera. In 1928, the composer Edvard Bræin opened the premiere of Gluck’s “Orfeus & Euridike”. This was 32 years before The Norwegian Opera was established in Oslo! (*very proud, thank you very much*). Since then the interest of Opera has developed in the city, and now it has its yearly Opera Festival. You can listen to one of Edvard Bræins beautiful compositions here.

We had ticket for the operetta “Die Fledermaus” (The bat) by Johan Strauss II. A fun operetta, filled with secrets, intrigues and beautiful music.

How was your weekend?

Stripes for Cousin K

Last spring when I found out I was being an aunt again I casted on for another striped sweater. I still had some left over yarn from the Blue for Baby A, and I had some left over ideas on how to combine the colours.

I casted 176 stitches on the needles and began knitting in the round. After knitting a 2x2 rib in grey, I began knitting blue and white stripes. Each blue stripe consist of ten rows of blue , and each white stripe consists of eight rows of white.

This is the third time I have used this Drops pattern as a base for my own ideas (I have another sweater I still haven’t posted on Ravelry or here). I love the crew neck with the split, which makes it a baby friendly sweater when it comes to taking on and off. I am also a big fan of thin knitted garments as they warm, but are lightweight and does not feel bulky. Winter here is all about layers. Because the sweater is a small size it is still a pretty quick knit, even if it’s knitted on 2.5 mm needles.

Compared to “Blue for baby A”, this sweater is more “low key”, no bright yellow contrast. More subtle. Still, I couldn’t resist putting an x on one of the buttons holes.

In Novermeber, after spending time in the UFO pile for several months, I finished the last details (sewd on the buttons) in a hurry so this could be part of our Christening gift to Cousin K. Let’s just say that last minute photo shoots indoors in November does not give the best photo light. Have a nice Tuesday!