Otter

On our little walk we met an otter, which must have been very hungry. He ( or she) didn't notice that we stood on the road and he was just on his way to the sheep shed to find some food.
Click on the photos to see them large! and you also can see the sparkle in the snow, beautiful!

full sun too :)

Beautiful weather today, just below zero Celsius, the sun shining on the white snow.

Full moon, January 31

Photo taken trough my livingroom window this morning at 8.10.
Almost magic with the snow!

notice the lighthouse near the sea on the right.

Album Amicorum

Above the Album Amicorum page I made for Helinä in Finland. Half part is my fabricpaper and the other half is cotton with silk ribbon embroidery. On the back some wise words from Victor Hugo: Life's greatest happiness is to be convinced we are loved.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Below the page Helinä made for me. On the back a Cherokee prayer:
May the warm winds of heaven blow softly upon your house,
May the great spirit bless all who enter there.
May your moccasins make happy tracks in many snows and
may the rainbow always touch your shoulder.
Thank you Helinä, it is lovely!
The size of those pages is 15x20cm. (6x8")

Lilac shawl

I have knitted an other shawl. It is 'blue faced Leicester' sock yarn, hand dyed by Susan Ford,color Lilac swirl. Very soft yarn and nice to knit with.
But for a shawl I prefer yarn with a "shine". The pattern is from Evelyn Clark called "Shetland Triangle Lace Shawl". You can buy the pattern here.
It is easy to follow and gives a nice result. I used one skein ( 400 yard)
The size of the shawl is 63" ( 160cm) wide and 23"( 58cm) high.
Below a detail photo and a photo of blocking the shawl after knitting.

birthday card

Fabric crazy-quilt postcard made for Helga in Germany.

Helga and I are in the Fibre Fever group and we have a birthday group there. We send a hand made postcard to eachother when the birthday comes.

Can't wait when it is my turn, but it takes a few months before the summer is here....(sigh)

number two ready !

Here is number two, Gaia shoulder hug. Knitted from Noro sock yarn.
the size is 153cm ( 60") wide and 64 cm ( 25") high.
If DD1 likes it, she can have it.
So, DD1 leave a comment below if you want the shawl ;-)
Update Jan 22: DD wrote an email, she likes it very much :)

Happy birthday DD !

Here is the shawl I made for DD2. She has her birthday today and has got the shawl now.
The pattern is a free pattern on Raverly, Gaia shoulder hug by Anne Carroll Gilmour.
The size is: wide: 153cm. ( 60")
High: 64cm. ( 25")
I wrote about the yarn here.

Kreativ blogger

I går fikk jeg en award fra Muffin . Det er litt av en utfordring fordi jeg skal skrive 7 ting om meg og det på Norsk. Vanligvis tar jeg ikke imot denne greia men nå tenke jeg at det er kanskje morsomt at damene i Norge vet lit mer om meg ;)

1. Jeg er gift for nesten 46 år og det med samme man! Vi har 2 døttre og jeg er meget stolt av dem begge to, hvordan de greier seg i livet. Så har vi 4 nydelige barnebarn fra 17 til 7 år.

2.Jeg er veldig glad i mørk sjokolade men heldigvis far jeg ikke tak i det i Norge. Jeg har prøvd mørk kokesjokolade men det har for mye fett til å være spiselig.

( Jeg veier altfor mye allrede ;)

3.Jeg har alltid likt å reise og opplever andre land og lukter og ser på nye og spesiele ting og byggninger.

4. Jeg er veldig glad at jeg bor i Norge nå, masse frisk luft her på kysten og mye mer plass til å leve enn i Nederland. Og mindre kriminalitet!

5. Jeg har begynt å strikke igjen etter at jeg sa så mange nydelige ting på alle bloggene jeg folger. Jeg hadde helt glemt hvor avslappende det kan være å sitte og strikke. Og ble jeg med på Raverly, navnet er Malinaplass.

6.Jeg liker å lese, bøker som handler om mennesker og livet. Da jeg kom til Norge lånte jeg masse bøker av biblioteket. Leste alle bøker av Anne Karin Elstad og Torill Brekke og mye mer.

7.Jeg håper at jeg har bestått med Norsken min, jeg synes det er fortsatt vanskelig å skrive feilfritt, så værsåsnill og unnskyld meg for feilene.

Her er 3 damer som jeg vil gi denne award og utfordere å gjore det også, å skrive litt om deg selv.

Min gode nabo Saltyquilt, en annen nabo som bor litt videre Marit og http://bittami.blogspot.com/ fordi hun skriver mye om strikke garn og jeg hadde ikke peiling hva er tilgjennelig den dag i dag. Så har jeg lært mye om det av hennes blog.

fabric book page

This is the fabric book-page Cobi in the Netherlands made for me. My theme is cottage garden. Look at the little bullion knots as flowers!

This is the fabric book page I have made for Wilma (the Netherlands).
Wilma's theme is "thinking of France". I know that Wilma collect everything of Jeanne d' Arc (Joan of Arc) on her holidays in France. Wilma is very interested in Jeanne's life.
Therefore I searched the internet for a picture and printed it on fabric as a center piece of this CQ book-page. Wilma wrote to me that she likes it very much.
The French Lily ( fleur de lis) was the symbol of freedom which Jeanne used in her banner during the battles for the king of France against the English soldiers in the 14th century.
The size is 15x15cm. (6x6 ").

number two

Number one is ready and I have started with number two a few days ago.
I can't show number one to you, be patient ;) in a week you will see.
I love this yarn for the change of the colors but not for the quality as I told you before.

Hat

Do you remember this post about my new fingerless gloves and my new coat?

And that I thought I might need a hat?

Last saturday my DH and I drove to the maker of the coat and I asked her for some leftover pieces.

I said to her that I would try to sew a hat.

Yesterday I sat in my studio and sewed.

The first brim was absolute a disaster. But I learned from it! Lucky enough I had some fuchsia fabric left and sewed a new brim.
So, now I have a hat and I am very happy with it.

It is nice and warm too!

If you like to see how I made it , you can click on the photos and see them laaaaarge :)

dishcloths....

What does a mother when a child says: I would love to have some old fashion dishcloths, knitted from cotton yarn. Much, much better than all the stuff you can buy in the supermarket!
A mother goes to the attic, find some rest yarn after her own mother and starts to knit.
A pair of matching potholders, and the daughter very happy ;-)
Dishcloths: 35x35 cm. Made from double yarn: Durable breikatoen nr. 10.
Free pattern for the dishcloths.

nature's lace

See what mother nature can do. Making lace!
A few days ago there was 30 cm. ( 12 ") snow on the balcony railings.
It is NOT melting now but the wind and the frost dries it away......
As always you can click on the photo to enlarge.

Christmas gone ...

Today I removed all the Christmas decoration out of the house. To the attic again until December 2010. It looks very empty when the red and greens are gone. But also nice to live in an ordinary living room again :-)

AA pages

Here is the Album Amicorum page ( friendship page) which I have made for Jeanne in Switserland. Half part is fabric paper and the other half is fabric with silk ribbon embroidery. There is a little poem on the back.
Below the page Margreet in the Netherlands made for me.
In the middle there is a transfer from one of her own papercuttings. Beautiful stitches are framing the papercutting , they are the cream on the coffee, I wrote to Margreet.
There is also a poem on the back.
The size of the pages is 15x20 cm. 6x8 ".
We do a monthly swap of those pages in the Fibre-Fever group.

Winter, January 5th.

Photos taken out of our livingroom window at 14.20 , January 5th.
It is minus 6 Celsius outside which is very unusual on our little peninsula so close to the warm gulfstream from the Atlantic Ocean. But beautiful it is !

received

Just a few of the handmade cards I have got in the mail the last weeks.
They are so nice that it will be hard to store them away next week.
I will treasure them always and have a look now and then when I see the boxes with handmade postcards and atc's.
Thank you all for sending me some of your fabric art!

knitting......

I am knitting something from NORO Kureyon sock yarn. Can't say yet what it will become, because it is a present to somebody ;).
I choose this yarn for the colors, they are fine! But I don't like the quality of the yarn and would NEVER use it for socks! It is very uneven spun and only one ply. Not very strong either.
It is made of 70 % wool and 30% polyamide.
I suggest that NORO changes the name from 'sock yarn' into 'art yarn'!
I do have an second skein in an other color range and shall knit from it what I planned but I don't think I will buy it again.

a blue world

This morning at 09.15 not a blue moon but a blue world out of my living room window to the west. 10 minutes later the sun rose and gave a whole other color to the landscape. Taken out of the living room window to the north.

Happy New Year

I like to wish you all a happy, healthy and creative new year! Gelukkig Nieuwjaar!

Bonne Année!

Ein gutes neues Jahr!

Onnellista Uutta Vuotta!

Godt Nytt År!

Felice Anno Nuovo!

(card private collection, stamped in 1920)