Llanarium

Did you visit Alicia’s blog? Well today, I’ll share some pictures of Llanarium the yarn shop she took me to. If you are planning to visit Barcelona in the near future, I recommend a visit to this cosy little yarn shop in the middle of Barcelona’s huff and buzz’ - OK so I just invented those words, but you know what I mean, right?

Right next to Placa Catalunya in a narrow side street, you find Llanarium and its very sweet owner Laia (which is expecting her first baby). This is where Alicia took me after our initial “hellos”, and “how fun to finally meet you”! And I loved it.

There I also discovered that as much as this blog world is big, it is also small. It turns out that some of the other knitter aficionados in the shop had read the (then) most current post about my visit to Pickles (without knowing it was my blog). When they saw me walking in with the Pickles bag they were a bit surprised and began explaining how they had just read about that shop in a blog… When showing us which blog they had seen it in, it turned out…It was Life in Yonder. Life’s coincidences.

While they talked about the yarn, I took pictures and looked at all the yarn- wonder in Llanarium.

At Llanarium I also met Esther who was knitting herself a featherweight cardigan with Schachenmayr select yarn. I have read a lot about featherweight cardigan when it was a big hit on Ravelry, but never seen one in real life. Now I understand its popularity. I love the shape of it. It is a perfect summer cardigan. In fact, I loved Esther’s version of it so much that I bought the same yarn to knit one. You can see her finished cardigan on Ravelry.

The photos I took does not give this shop or the nice people in it justice, but if you have time, look at this short video presentation of the shop that captures the feeling you get inside. A warm welcoming knit place. When you do so, take a notice of the man with the spectacles. His name in Josep Mestres and he is a crochet master. He makes the most elegant and feminine crocheted designs I have ever seen. Oh, if only I had Audrey Hepburn’s body…

Have a nice week end! I'm going to use the week end to read about the knitters get together at the wool factory in Sjølingstad. One day I'll go there too. I hope.

New knitting bag and new friends

Did I show you my knew knitting bag? No, I didn’t did I. Well here it is. Besides being made with gorgeous fabrics bought at my favourite fabric store in Barcelona (I’ll tell you about the fabric store in a later blog post), what makes it special is that it was a gift from my new friend Alicia behind the blog Ganxetades. She’s a blog friend that I met this summer while visiting BCN. This is the second time I meet someone in real life that I have first known through Blogland. And I must say, I feel lucky to get to know so lovely people through this place.

Did you see the beautiful detail on the shoulder strap? I love details like that. Small quirky details on simple designs.

We spent an afternoon together in Barcelona where she showed me a beautiful yarn shop, introduced me to more nice Spanish knitters and took me to my dream fabric store.

Now go and take a look at all the beautiful things she makes. After that come back in a day or two to see the beautiful yarn shop she showed me.

Have a nice week!

Good bye summer, hello fall

Welcome back back after a long summer break and renewal of energy. Since last, I’ve knitted (of course), bathed, eaten ice cream, spent time with old friends, met new friends, had a few GT’s, enjoyed the sun and turned 40. Yes, I am finally 40! And so far it is working out fine.

My once a upon gospel choir- and high school friend Anja gave me this beautiful lithography for my birthday. She is a talented, beautiful, generous and inspiring soul. Not afraid to live life and not afraid to be who she is …or perhaps her true bravery, is to be who you are despite of being afraid. Well, that’s her.

If you live near the Oslo area, I recommend visiting the art gallery she founded in 2008 “Pikene ved broen”, to see some of the beautiful art she makes and the beautiful work by other talented artists.

Before I begin to share my knits and photos with you this fall I would just like to say welcome back and “Drink your tea with tenderness”.

Family days in Barcelona

We spent ten days in Barcelona with my family in law. Astrid struggled with speaking Spanish and not being able to express herself, as she wanted.



Luckily, you can do many activities without words, which still says a million things.



Like playing “La Oca” (the Goose) with iaia (grandmother in Catalan)



Like learning how to make orange juice



Like playing at the playground with her cousin Martina...



...and eating watermelon



Like watching her little brother bond with iaio (grandfather in Catalan)



and like playing cards in the park with her friend Ariadna

A belated happy new year to everyone one of you! We spent new years eve and new years day at our friends house like we have done the last two years. This was third time around so I think it's safe to say we have established a new years eve tradition.

While we enjoyed breakfast...much like the one here

the girls played around in the house with the laundrey basket, the dolls and just about anything else they found usable in the house. Love how they can turn any house item to the perfect prop for their game.

Not until we put the last Christmas cookies on the table did they stop and sit down with us ... before they continued their play.

Thank you for coming by! I am looking forward to share bits & pieces of 2013 with you.

You are almost right...

…but he is not on is way.

He is here!

After trying for several years the “natural way”, last fall I underwent IVF treatment in the pursuit of our second child. In November we finally succeeded and this summer, august 2nd our little boy arrived.

I know people usually share news like this a lot sooner. I had several reasons for holding back. One of them was worrying if everything would turn out well. Perhaps because it took us a long time to become pregnant I had more “what if everything doesn’t work out” thoughts during this pregnancy.

For each milestone (week 12 when risk of abortion is reduced, and then later on week 25 when the survival rate for premature babies increases) I have thought "now is the time to share", but then changed my mind
- just in case. Well no more just in case. He is here!

See how much he looks like his sister

He came five days prior to due date. What started and almost finished like a normal birth (v- birth) ended up in a dramatic C-section. I prefer v-birth a hundred time over c-section, but due to the circumstances I am happy the doctors made the decision they made. We spent six days at the paediatric intensive care before they let us bring our little bundle home. I have enjoyed every single day after that.

…do you think one can kiss and hug a baby too much?

Brooklyn tweed love

Back in October Denise asked us on her blog if we would like a simple scarf to keep us warm this winter. I signed up for the giveaway right away and loved the idea of having a scarf made by her on the other side of the Atlantic. She would pick one reader and the lucky reader could choose the colour from Brooklyn Tweed’s palette and let her know which one was our favourite.

My two favourite colours from the palette was “homemade jam” and “soot”, and since I love surprises I asked her to choose which of the two if I happened to be the lucky winner.

Well, I was! I was the lucky winner! And two weeks ago a soft envelope arrived at the post office. Inside was this beautiful soot - grey - Brooklyn Tweed - made by Denise - scarf. I have worn it since as it has the perfect length, is warn and accents my brown feather filled winter jacket.

It truly feels special that someone I only know through blogland has made this scarf for me. I love my gift. Thank you very much Denise!

Together with the scarf she had put an extra surprise for me, a cotton bag from the Kinokuniya bookstore in San Francisco! Either she was on a lucky struck (or me depending on how you see it) or she knows me better than I thought. I love the Kinokuniya bookstores. Back in 2008 when we visited San Francisco that was one of the few places that we (I) had planned to visit before we travelled. I spent three hours in the bookstore, and only left because my poor husbands patience could not be stretched an inch more and neither could my swollen pregnant feet.

I love my gifts.

my always smiling friend

This is a wisp I started knitting two years ago and just finished last week. I made it for my dear friend Gunn. Three years ago we began working at the same place with just a month between us. She was a smiling, and including co-worker from day one. And she has been a friend since then. This wisp shawl is to keep her warm during cold Norwegian (and Italian) winters.

This is a very easy knit. I haven’t knitted with mohair yarn before but it is perfect for this pattern as I was going for a light, big warm shawl. One you can rap yourself in before snuggling into the sofa with a book or a cup of tea.

Wishing you all a great weekend!

tea with honey

Astrid and I have been coughing our lungs inside out since before we had our sunny friend’s weekend. We can’t seem to shake this one off. I have been more at home than at work the last two weeks and work is piling up on my desk as is my bad conscience for not being at work.

My head will not work and my ears are plugged. I have difficulties breathing after walking up a simple stair case. I am trying to take care of Astrid at the same time as I am wishing my mom would come and take care of me.

And now over to something more positive - at least for me: I have won Denise’s giveaway!!! I am getting a lush and warm scarf knitted with Brooklyn tweed Shelter by her. I can’t believe my luck and I am so excited & happy! If you don’t know her blog yet, take a tour. I love her texts and photos. They always make me ponder and think new thoughts. I like that.

sunny friends weekend

Saturday and Sunday we spent together with friends baking buns, drawing, playing Lego, strolling in the neighbourhood + wining and dining after the kids were off to bed. Us girls also through in a few knitted rounds in between here and there.

I took the opportunity to take photos of Astrid modelling this fresh from the needles neighbourly with our friends’ kitchen and our bun making as a back drop. There is a few changes to the original pattern and I added three rows of hearts. This is a gift, but after seeing it on Astrid I realize I need to make her one as well.

These two pumpkins used to fight two out of three times, now however it looks like were are heading towards one out of three which is the kind of progress we like.

August in Yonder

August was largely about Denmark.







Our dear friends Dorte & Jakob welcomed us with an authentic Danish lunch in their beautiful garden. (We actually didn’t see Astrid for the three days we were there as she spent her hole stay in their garden. She had a blast with their daughter’s toys, and would only come inside when hungry and exhausted with play).





We went for walks along the shore and saw beautiful houses like this one

We barbecued "skumfidus" (my favourite Danish word meaning marshmallow)

We witnessed how one little girl helped another little girl (and my heart melted)



We exchanged cooking recipes



We admired this painting made by our fellow friend and Cast B mate Kicki Julie Jørck



And we shared good talks in their beautiful garden and house.



After our three days with Dorte, Jakob and their kids we all left together for Copenhagen. Were we were headed for a reunion with lots of friends that Dorte and I travelled together with almost 15 years ago. Back then we were 126 kids between 17 and 26 years old from around the world.

We travelled together for eleven months and visited 26 states in the USA, 26 cities in Mexico, Montreal and Toronto in Canada, and several cities in Sweden and Finland. I stayed with 97 host families! I did community service in half of the cities we visited (and was on stage crew - set up the stage - in the other half of the cities).



This year 50 of us met in Copenhagen. Counting our spouses and kids we summed a 100 and something people. I had been looking forward to this since 2008 when we had our last reunion. Every 5 years we have an official reunion were almost every one of us get together. In between each five years we try to make a smaller reunion. This was the small one.



It is amazing how after all these years we still make an effort to see each other. Our friendships have matured and grown stronger in pace with us growing up and becoming more mature. In spite the fact that there are so many different people in our group I truly love them all and feel blessed to have them in my life. Even if we are spread all over the world I know they will be there for me if and when I need them. They always step up no matter what the challenge is. No matter who is in need of encouragement or prayer.



Inbetween all the planned activities we managed to sneak in a visit to Granola Café were we shared coffee and conversation with our friends Karina & Jeff. I also bought some more Kusmi tea here.



We visited the Tivoli



And after the kids were gone to bed and the designated baby sitters arrived on time we all went for a well deserved pub crawl. Cheers!