10 things that make me happy

Valerie challenged me to share ten simple things that make me happy... This should be easy if it wasn’t for the fact that there are lots of things that make me happy. But I’ll try:

1 :: spring, sprouts & sunlight
2 :: breakfast together with friends
3 :: when my daughter makes funny faces to make me smile
4 :: dark chocolate filled with ginger and lemon
5 :: laughing together with mr. Yonder
6 :: beach sand under my toes & the sound of waves
7 :: the words “summer afternoon”
8 :: when crafting ideas “pop” into my head
9 :: hot coco with cinnamon
10 :: decorating for Christmas

I pass on this challenge to ten other wonderful bloggers, and each and one of you can decide if you take the challenge or not:

Denise
Lucy
Camilla
Sarah
Alex
Jane
Diane
Kristine
Olivia
Natsumi

P.S. Did you notice how I sneaked in more than ten things in my list *smile*

stitch by stitch...

...round by round. I'm getting tere, it will be done. I can't wait to wear it. I almost hope the spring will not rush to come. Almost.

Edited 3. april 2013
I have had to change the name of the title of this post because the original post title "centimeter by centimeter..." seemed to attract to much spam comments.

three in one

How was your Valentine Sunday?

Here in Norway Valentine coincided with mothers’ day, and “Fastelaven”. Almost like a kinder surprise egg; three special occasions in one day. Perfect, in these times of economic crisis.

I was preparing a post on how we try to not buy things on this kind of special days, and instead celebrate by spending time together.



However, I had to delete that post and start all over because when I woke up Sunday morning this was waiting for me in the living room. A lovely surprise from my super duper mr. Yonder. I love my new necklace.



After a long and lazy Sunday breakfast we made fastelaven buns filled with whipped cream and dusted with confectionary sugar. All in all a perfect day.

About the Neighborly

Neighbourly is a free pattern for a children’s vest made by Jennifer Casa (JC Handmade). She gives it away and in return asks you to be neighbourly in one or several ways for instance by donating the money you would have used for the pattern or by giving away the west to charity.

I finished my first neighbourly last week. I used 2 mm size needles and several wool yarns from my growing left over stash. The original pattern is with thicker yarn and thicker needles (5 mm). Made with 2 mm needles and my yarn it turned out a baby size. I would guess approximately 6-9 months size. Too small for Astrid, but then again this is a neighbourly so this one is going to be given away.

Ravelry link

An old lady's wisdom

Thank you everyone for you tips. So many good ideas! I loved the idea of pulling it like a draw string. I would never have thought of that. And if the yarn was shrinkable (I don’t know if it is) that would also be a perfect way of making it smaller which would also make the hat warmer. Thank you for offering your support Sarah, perhaps I’ll call you next time I need to rip up something.



As you can see I went for the rip up solution.

I think I have said what I’m about to tell you before, but a good thing can not be repeated too often. Some years ago an old Spanish lady shared her crafters wisdom with me. This wisdom chimes inside my head every time I have to rip up or redo something. She said:

“Once you finish a project no one is going to ask you how much time it took you, they will only look at the end result”.

She was wise

new needles & the delicious Rowan felted tweed

I finally had the time to pop by a store to by the required needles for the golden autumn, the beautiful hat designed by talented Lucy. I have casted on and Camilla (Bloom) was right, once I started knitting I loved it. The first 40 something rounds are easy just stockinet stitches. I met my first challenge when I was going to fold the hem for the double edging and pick up stitches from the cast on edge. I was doing this late at night and without enough light and I guess that’s why the hem turned out biased. So there was nothing else to do but to redo.


Now I have begun knitting the pattern and it is so much fun. It is difficult enough to be challenging yet easy enough for me to experiencing flow while knitting.

My new challenge is that I think I have chosen the wrong size. I think this hat will be too big for me. What do I do? On the one hand I want to make this hat in a size that will fit me. On the other hand it is so much fun knitting the pattern…and I don’t want to start all over again which will mean another week before I can knit the pattern. Decisions, decisions.