moving on

11 months since my last post, it's time to admit to myself that I don't blog anymore. I have been reluctant to let it go, yet I don't really want to anymore.

I enjoyed blogging so much back in 2005 when "everybody" was knit blogging, but with the arrival of Ravelry we all know what happened to the knit blog community. I have been trying to keep up the blog as well as my Ravelry presence, but it's just too much work, and at the end of the day they both became a chore.

Also, I don't knit as much as I used to. I have two children now, I'm trying to lose the baby weight and have started to spend much more time walking, jogging and doing pilates. I have developed an interest in photography, and it's all taking from the knitting and blogging time.

I have been wanting to change the blog to reflect these new interests and cover more topics. I have also considered focusing more on pictures and less on text. And I have considered switching from English to Norwegian. But the blogging mojo is just gone.

Last week I bought myself an Iphone, my first, and signed up for Instagram immediately. Seven days later I have posted 50 photos, and am officially obsessed! I have tried blogging, Ravelry, facebook and twitter in the past,some half-heartedly, some grudgingly, but Instagram is perfect for my needs and my preference for communicating through pictures rather than words.

If you have been following this blog for the knitting, then you'll find me on Ravelry, where my username is marieflyfly. I plan to keep Ravelry updated with my knitting projects. I might also keep the blog updated with my knitting projects, and the odd knitting related post. I think I might continue to share knitting projects on the blog. Or maybe not. I have two finished objects, and four WIPs as we speak, that have never been mentioned on the blog, so only time will tell.

But everything else - such as etsy finds, eye candy friday, glimpses from my everyday life, photos of pretty things - will be posted on instagram. I won't be using my SLR camera for the instagram photos - iphone pics only, but I think I can live with that.What I love about Instagram is the low threshold for posting pictures and the possibility for participating in an online community that might resemble the blogging community.

My Instagram profile is Mariemarieflyfly, and here's the first knitting picture I have posted there:
http://instagram.com/p/SOfZmJD5aH/

FO: Alpaca baby raglan cardi

On Dec 4th I said "I'm in the process of finishing a cardi for Jens (...). I hope to have photos of it tomorrow." Haha, the best laid plans and famous last words and so on - it took me another 20 days to finish that little cardi, mainly because I hated the finishing. I used Nøstebarns basic raglan baby cardi as a guide so to speak, as discussed before, which featured an unusual way to make the button bands. You basically ignored them until you had finished the rest of the cardi, and then you had to pick up ten stitches at the bottom edge and knit the buttons bands which you then had to sew on - I didn't like this method, it was very fidgety, and why sew when you can knit????, and I don't understand what makes it more useful that just knitting your button bands as you go along.

I used the same lovely alpaca for this cardi, as I used for his sideways striped cardi, and although it worked very well for that pattern, it wasn't the best choice for this cardi. Firstly because it's a very skinny yarn, and takes forever(an entire season to be precise!) to knit up in stockinette. Secondly, alpaca isn't a very bouncy yarn, and the finished cardi doesn't seem very stretchy or flexible - unlike the garter stitch one - so I guess garter stitch makes a more stretchy fabric?

I love the heathered color though, and I don't think I could have found a similar colorway in a more traditional baby wool. And I just LOVE the manly little leather buttons with this color and style cardi - doesn't he look just like a little man wearing it?!

Spec

Pattern: Nøstebarn stripete raglanjakke

Yarn: Garnstudio/Drops Alpaca

Started: 7th Oct 2011

Finished: 24th December 2011

baby knitting

I'm in the process of finishing a cardi for Jens, which is a good thing, as he is outgrowing his Dale cardi. I hope to have photos of it tomorrow. n the meantime I'm posting some photos of him wearing the Dale romper that goes with that cardi. Except it seems the cardi and the romper are different sizes..Anyhow, I figure he needs to wear this romper everyday to make up for how boring it was to knit!!

etsy friday: toys

With a new baby comes new etsy categories to explore! I have bought some gorgeous play silks from BeneathTheRowanTree, and a taggie from Razzberrygiggles. The taggie is obviously a baby toy, but the play silks are great for both the baby and the 8-year old, so it's their first shared toy. Nene had a play silk already, but it was practically disintegrating, so I decided we needed a new one. Except I couldn't stop at one when I saw the gorgeous hand painted ones offered at BeneathTheRowanTree! I bought a set of three, one mossy green, one aqua-greenish and one custom dyed red, inspired by their idea of an elements trio, but I made my own collection chosen from their multicolored range. I also bought a really beautiful, extra big one, from their inspired-by-the-arts range - this one is inspired by van Gogh's Starry Night.

With the baby, I'm using the play silks for peek-a-boo-games, for him to explore (chew!) and for songs about the oceans. Nene uses them for dress-up, and for games involving the ocean, the forest and volcanoes. Here's what BeneathTheRowanTree says about play silks:

"Playsilks are open-ended.As your child grows, their silks grow with them, becoming capes and landscapes, blankets and tightropes~ soft, warm, colorful~ lead by the child’s imagination into worlds of wonder.Playsilks make wonderful decor~ canopies, sheers, nature table backdrops...Perfect for dress up, too"

- and here's Jens with his taggie:

new meitai

BF and Jens testing our new Babyhawk meitai. I love how you can choose
between a gazillion different fabrics to make your own individualised mei tai.
This one is reversible, with this butterfly fabric on the reverse side:



The owl side was my attempt to choose something a tad more masculine
(ok, let's say less feminine!), so BF would be comfortable using it too

Babywearing is included in the eight principles of attachment parenting.
It's also very practical, not to mention sleep inducing - just look at this sleepy face:

wip: phoebe

I'm working on Phoebe from Rowan Kids, for Nene. I just started a new cardi for Jens, which is three in a row for him, so I needed to make something for her too. It's probably a waste of time, because although she loves it when I knit for her, she never wears any of it. She just doesn't seem to feel cold, ever. Phoebe i a short sleeved cardi, good for layering, so that might actually work for her, besides it means less useless knitting time for me. The pattern is written for Rowan Calmer, but I'm using Pure Wool DK instead. I had one ball in my stash, and ordered 3 more thinking I could alternate them if I didn't get the same dye lot, but the newer 3 balls seem a little thinner and finer than the first one, so I don't think I'll be able to the the one from stash at all.

Cowl

I've used the beautiful handpainted silk-merino yarn I bought from Hedgehogfibres on etsy last year to make a cowl for myself. I like the way garter stitch shows off hand painted yarn, but I didn't want garter stitch all over, so I've alternated between stockinette and garter stitch, which gave the added advantage of stretchiness. I wanted a cowl that would be quite snug around the neck, and long and wide enough to pull over my head. I also wanted it to flare a bit at the bottom, thinking it would sit nicely on the shoulders that way. I started at the top, deciding that a 60 cm circumference around the face would be good, so I simply cast on the number of stitches needed to fill a 60 cm circular needle, and didn't bother to count them, kept knitting for a while, increased a random number of stitches a random number of time, and cast off when I ran out of yarn. It' beautiful, but a bit short when I pull it over my head, so I blocked it, but then it lost its stretchiness. It's not snug like I wanted it around the neck, so I guess the jury' still out on this one.