What "stamping corner"?

I'll admit it. I'm turning into a knitter. Help!

Now I've gone and done this:

Well, my arms were freezing!

My stamps are quiet, they don't call me to go play with them. No Sandra, you can't have them, from time to time little beeps come out of the stamping room, so I'm not giving up hope. I shall stamp again!

Wait a second... did I say "little beeps"? Where's my phone...?

Left-over yarn and what one does with it.

-I just love my cardigan! You know what would be really cool? Matching mittens! If I had my cardigan with mittens to match, oh boy would people be jealous!
-Well, I do have some yarn left over...
-Make sure there's yellow on them, I love the yellow especially, it's so pretty!



-I'm so in love with love my cardigan, and with the mittens it's just wonderful! Do you think it would be difficult to make beanie to go with them? The colors are just so beautiful, it would be great to walk around with a colorful beanie! The one I have now is black, it's just no fun.
-Well, I've never done a beanie but...
-Oh come on, you're very talented, how hard can it be? You do still have some yellow left, don't you?


-Oooo, lookit my cardigan and lookit my mittens and lookit my beanie! Too bad my feet are freezing...
-What, you want me to knit you moonboots now?
-No, just for indoors, you know, there's a draft, and... yellow?


-These are so warm!
-Come on, they're ugly. They're like the ugliest thing in the hemisphere.
-I don't care! They're just great! Besides I'll wear my sandals over them anyway.
-(You'll what?!)
-In fact all I need now is a scarf.
-With yellow?

The cardigan

The cardigan got – miraculously! – ready for Christmas!

I finished all the pieces (the back + front in one tube piece, and the two sleeves, also in tube) in time, ahead of schedule, even.

and then gathered all my courage… and prepared myself mentally to cut. This is the Norwegian way to do it, and admittedly things do go a lot faster when you are always working on the right side of the work, especially when working with several colors at one time. You simply knit extra stitches for cutting holes for the arms and in this case the front of the cardigan (that's the red line, 5 stitches wide), sew next to the future cut lines in order to block the stiches…

and then you take your scissors , and cut through all those years of knitting.

The cutting itself was no problem, it went well and was surprisingly easy, the trouble was the sewing. sure, it could have been done by hand, but that would have meant a LOT of slow work, and so I decided to resort to my faithful sewing machine.

Sadly, though, my faithful sewing machine (the original! From the 80’s!) had apparently not appreciated my previous sewing project involving inch-thick stacks of fencing uniform fabric, and after a few stiches of the cardigan, it went on strike. Actually... it broke, and the reparations cost almost as much as a new machine but I’m still having it done… Oh well.

What a drag! I went to see my stamping buddy Sandra for our last stamping Monday of 2011, and took my knit with me, in order to make some advance on the sewing (now done by hand).

And guess what – it turns out Sandra is not only a stamper, but a proud owner of a sewing machine as well, and with her machine she saved me, the cardigan, and Christmas!!

Sew, cut, knit the collar + the front, choose the buttons, have the button holes sewn in by a tailor (yes they still exist!)… and on the evening of the 24^th Santa could deliver the cardigan to its happy new owner!

(A picture will be added as soon as I get one taken)

Happy holidays! (Oops hadn't noticed the bent flower in the scan... and they're all gone out in the mail, of course!)

More birthdays

Go Meerimage stamps, I like you more and more :)


Stamp credits: Lady Godiva - Meerimage, Background - Stampfrancisco, Text - Third Coast Rubber Stamps

Wings sold separately

This card traveled to Alaska for Kersten's birthday, and since it's arrived I can post it :)


Oh, I know, the wings are on crooked. But if you knew the number of attemps I did before this relatively successful one, you'd say they're the most perfectly placed pair of wings you ever saw!

Stamp credits: Woman - Meerimage; Wings - Cherry Pie; Party hat - err... must look this up; Pan - Beeswax; Pine tree -Wildlife Enterprises; Moon - Third Coast Rubber Stamps

Welcome, Gabriel!

My pianist has a baby! It's a boy, born on November 17th, and his name is Gabriel. Remember the little jacket I was working on this summer? Well, here it is, all ready and actually already delivered. I'm afraid it's much too big for poor little Gabriel: he's still in his 50's, speaking of centimeters of course ;) and the jacket's for 70cm. However, should it be a cold winter, he can wear all the rest of his wardrobe underneath. Ha! Layering is the mot du jour!