I ordered yarn from Wool and the Gang!

 

 

I'm the knitter who loves buying yarn at second hand stores, the older (almost) the better. The yarn have a history and a feeling of uniqueness to it and I love letting the yarn decide the project, rather than looking for the right yarn for the planned project.

It's also perfect as I have a lot of old knitting- and crochetbooks (I buy everyone I find in second hand-stores. I once studied to become a librarian and what's left of that dream is the secret mission of having the largest craft-library in Sweden. My man is hoping I'm joking everytime I'm talking about it) and it's lovely to actually have the yarn suggested in the 30 year old pattern.

A few of my craftbookshelves...

Well, a week ago I really stepped out of my comfort zone, ordering yarn (YES, NEW yarn) online, and from another country!

Wool and the Gang! Just the NAME! Could the name be any cooler?

Happy yarn delivery!!!

I ordered a few balls of the merino/alpaca yarn "Sheepaca Yarn", which eventually will become a brown top-down sweater with pink details. The yarn is so soft and nicely textures, so I'm thinking some kind of cables... not sure yet, so this project has to mature a bit more.

I also ordered 5 different colors of "Shiny happy cotton", two different shades of pink, two shades of grey and a ball of White. Had some ideas of smaller projects, but spontanously started "Sophie's garden", and really don't want to stop, but  I'll have to order more yarn if I want to expand it to Sophies Universe...



It will probably come out in a weird size, too small for a blanket, too big for a pillowcase and too bulky for a tablecloth... Oh well! I'll probalbly hang it on the wall in my craftroom waiting to place my next Wool and the Gang-order... Because I definitely will order more!

I placed my order on Saturday, and I had the yarn in my hand on Tuesday! For real! To me, it almost seems impossibly Quick. The website was really great and placing the order was very easy! The prices is just a bit higher than my normal yarnbudget, but the yarn does feel expensive and lovely so it's well worth it! I expect the finished projects to feel more luxurios than what I'm normally used to.

I loved how it said "Hello Maria!" on the box!

Here's the linkt to Wool and the Gang. Please go and check them out!
https://www.woolandthegang.com/

And the link to the pattern of Sophie's garden and Sophie's universe:
http://www.lookatwhatimade.net/crafts/yarn/crochet/sophies-universe-cal-2015/sophies-universe-cal-2015-information/

Summerhappiness

There are always things in life that can get better, but for now it’s as good as it gets! Can you believe that this is OUR porch in OUR house??!! Honestly, I can just barely grasp it. I’ve lived in appartmentflats all my life, it’s ok, this is Sweden, a most people do when living in the cities. The last one didn’t have a balcony even, but did have a spectacular view, and selling it was just the perfect timing so the prize we paid for the house suddenly was reasonable instead of a bit too much…

The bad thing is that the ceramicstudio is too far away considering I have a fulltimejob as a son, For now, I just have accepted the fact that I can’t do everything and just made the once unthinkable decision to put my potterystuff on pause. AND IT FEELS WONDERFUL! Who would know. Martin and Melvin has been away for some days leaving me home alone, and I’ve been finishing up in the studio, using up my last bits of clay and at the same time coming to terms with this. It’s almost been like a farewellweekend. I have a lot of cleaning, sorting and finishing to do until I can leave it, not to mention finding someone willing to take over the contract, but still. I have a lot of pieces on sale now, so if you’re in Göteborg it’s well worth a visit. (No red items or items with skulls.)

It’s in Swedish, but here are the prices during my clearence…

This will give me more time for the yarn- and textileprojects. Lovely! And along with new computer (in our big house we can finally fit two computers – or ten for that matters. I now have my own) and new smartphone with better camera I can finally update this blog more easily, and start with my patternwriting. I sold a lot of knitted and crochet stuff a few years ago, and have kept the patterndrafts of everything, just need to make them more easy to read for everyone and with yarns that actually exists in shops today… 

My latest projects are amigurumis, with a three-yearold I suddenly realized that he has friends who needs birthdaypresents, so I’m stocking up. Here’s the latest cutie:

 

 

It’s from this amazing book:

This is my absolutely favorite amigurumibook ever. Easy instructions but still a lot of details and supercute projects! Also perfect for the beginner as the projects starts as very easy and becomes more and more difficult with each project, ending with the girl to the right.

Kiddy Cowl

 

Well, here's my first officially published pattern! Unfortunately only in Swedish for the time being as my stressed-out brain couldn't gather enough power to manage the instructions for the increases in English. Hopefully the power will be recharged soon...

Please tell me if you tried it out, would love to see pics of it (prefereably on my Facebook-page: Annimia), and whether the pattern was understandable at all or not. 

 

I love the Red Heart yarn, it's lovely and soft and a great price, but not very common in Sweden. In fact, I found it in the thriftiest of Swedish thriftstores, Ullared. Couldn't believe my eyes, that place is not really famous for qualitybrands (not sure if Red Heart is real quality though, but since there are tons of patterns using their yarns, it can't really suck, can it?).  

 

The buying-a-house-selling-appartment-thing is really exhausting (but in a lovely kind of way), and trying to make Melvin (our soon three-year old) having fun at the same time is a bit of a challange (and to find time to knit in between). 

 

 

 

 

Krage för barn, upp till ca 4 år

Garn: Red heart Soft (100 % akryl, väldigt mjukt!)
Masktäthet: 16 m/10 cm med stickor nr 6

Lägg upp 52 maskor fördelat på tre strumpstickor. (18, 18,16 till exempel.)
Sticka resår 1 rät, 1 avig i 20 varv.

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Nu är det dags för slätstickning och 4 parökningar på vartannat varv.

Förklaringar:
Parökning: en ökning med högerlut, en vanlig rätstickad maska och en ökning med vänsterlut.

Ökning med högerlut:
Ta upp tråden mellan 2 av föregående varvs maskor. Vrid tråden åt höger och sätt den yttersta maskan på vänster stickan. Sticka den lyfta tråden rätt.

Ökning med vänsterlut:
Ta upp en tråd mellan två föregående varvs maskor. Vrid tråden åt vänster och sätt den utanför yttersta maskan på vänsterstickan. Sticka en den lyfta tråden rätt, men genom den bakre delen av tråden.

 

Sätt ut fyra stickmarkörer efter maska nr 6, 19, 32 och 45.

Varv 1: Sticka räta maskor fram till markören, gör en ökning med högerlut, lyft över markören, sticka en maska rätt och gör en ökning med vänsterlut. Fortsätt varvet ut. (Totalt ökas det 8 maskor)

Varv 2: Sticka alla maskor rätt. Lyft över varje markör efterhand du kommer till dem.

Upprepa dessa två varv 6 gånger och avsluta med ett till varv 1, totalt 7 ökningsvarv.

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Nu kan du ta bort stickmarkörerna och avsluta med 4 varv resårstickning: 1 rät, 1 avig. Maska av löst.

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Lycka till hälsningar Maria

Detta är ett Annimia-mönster. Du får hemskt gärna använda det till privat bruk, men kopierar du det till försäljning eller säljer den färdiga produkten kommersiellt har du kass konsthantverksmoral och dålig fantasi som inte kan hitta på något eget och tar åt dig äran för något du själv inte kommit på.

Christmas

This past week has been overwhelming. We've been looking for a house for over a year and yesterday we finally signed the papers of our dreamhouse! It's huge and I really can't believe it's true! We live in a tiny appartment, very close to the centre of Göteborg with a breathtaking view on top of a hill. A lot of time will be spent fixing selling our appartment, packing and unpacking... But in the summer we'll be able to sit in our garden, with three different fruittrees!! (And hopefully I will have a lot of crafty space!)

We've spent Christmas at my boyfriend's parents home, and I have had some knittingtime.
Finished these cowls (Will tweek the pattern a bit, then I'll share it with you.)

Today I started knitting a pair of socks for myself with the most amazing yarn! I usually just want to use plain and solid colors, but this is so lovely:

I will publish the pattern as soon as I've finished them, one size only, though, that is my size... :)

 

Internationality

Since Instagram is more fun in English than in Swedish, I've decided to take this rather forgotten blog a big step towards internationality, and maybe I'll manage to update it much more often than Before. The plan is to let you know what's going on with my potterybusiness as well as my yarnaddiction... I have a lot of my own patterns I would love to share with you!

Today I've packed 20 red little heartbowls with thealights to be put in goodiebags in an upcoming mommyblogevent. I've never participated in anything like this and I don't know what to expect really. Packing nicely really isn't my thing, but I do think they actually turned out ok.