Star Garland (2) - finished!

This week I've worked on various projects. Mostly crochet. Finally I've managed to finish off my crocheted star garland :) Here's what it looks like now when all done and dusted :) This project comes from the book: Ros Badger Hook, yarn and crochet and it's been my favourite since the very beginning. It's even made into the cover star (yes, literally too, pun intended)

Below you can see the stars both on their right and wrong side.

I'm really pleased with how the whole thing has turned out. It's my first completed (more significant that just the simple crocheted flowers) project from a crafty book. I've learnt a lot about crochet with this one and now I can finally see the similarities and differences between the basic crochet stitches. At last I can make them out of my head, without help from any books. Everything in crochet starts to make sense to me. Like a jigsaw puzzle. That's a big step ahead. I feel like I'm getting more confident and adventurous with my crochet now that I can read better written instructions. I feel so encouraged to go further now with my still-basic crochet skills.

The garland is made of 15 stars - the brown and cream coloured ones have been knitted with an organic cotton Freedom Sincere yarn and the red ones have been made with Lerke of Dalegarn cotton.

Because it has been cold and rainy today I couldn't take my garland outside to take a photo of. Instead I had to do with some photos at home :-/ This is what it looks like when the garland is stretched over the mantlepiece:

This is just a temporary presentation to show you the span of the garland. I'm still looking forward to some nice weather to take it outside and will add the photos to this post later. Standing back and looking at it, I'm pleased with the colour combination. It doesn't look particularly Christmassy so I believe it could be used throughout the whole year, what do you think? However, I'll surely come back to this project as I'd like to crochet some stars in more Christmassy colours. Perhaps I'll crochet just single stars on their own to hang on the tree too.

Before the garland was finished it had to be blocked. This is something I hadn't done before. The books suggested to pin it down and steam it with an iron. I did exactly what it said but also sprayed the stars with some spray starch for the crisp finish. Not bad overall. The stars do keep their shape! Yay!

What to do with the rest of the cotton yarn? Obriously knit an Easter egg! I'm slowly building up my Easter egg collection this year. I have a vision in my head of making my Easter decoration in plain pastels and au naturel this year :)

Anybody on their Easter projects already?

Joining up the Hand-made Monday blog hop no 157 tonight. Very curious what others have been up to!
Thank you for your visits and feedback. x x

The weekend was cozy :)

I like cozy weekends like that: with plenty of relaxed knitting and films on telly :) You can have both at the same time. 

Currently working on these:
A stack of knitted egg "skins" waiting to be steamed and stuffed.

It's beginning to look like... Easter :)))))

Arne & Carlos: Easter Knits (2)

Half-term break is a good thing. You can craft, craft and craft as much as you want. And this is what I've been doing this week. Plenty of knitting on those rainy days.

My Easter knit collection is expanding slowly :) 2 new knits joined up - an Easter ball with blue hens and a small green Faberge egg.

Loved knitting the ball with the hens - its pattern reminds me of Norwegian jumpers, yet it retains its Eastery feel.

The little eggs was knitted with 2.5 mm DPN and with Daletta Dalegarn yarn, which is thinner than Heilo and Falk. I wanted to see how small a knitted egg can be.

Now, I've knitted 4 Easter balls so far:

 and 5 eggs - starting from the 1st most primitive one to the improved ones :)

All my Easter knits together:

and this is what I'm currently working on:

The first knitted eggs made of Lerke yarn :) Love the  mix of colours. Perfect for spring. 

I've got it! I've got it!

Recently I've had my best weekend so far this year and been lucky with my craft shopping! About two weeks ago (yes, I've fallen a little behind with my posts :-/ ) I finally received through the post a book I had been looking for for months! Arne & Carlos Adventskalender - something I really, really, really wanted to have in my collection and something, which is not so easily available on the book market in the UK. Not available on British Ebay or Amazon or any online bookstores either.

The book is a sort of thematic addition to the well-known book of Arne and Carlos "55 Christmas Balls to knit" and includes another 24 knitted balls in a form of a lovely advent calendar. As a big fan of A&C's woolly balls I simply must have had it! And finally my dream came true thanks to the Kidsknits shop and its lovely owner Mary Ann Stephens (hope she's reading it now! ;-)) I have finally managed to lay my hands on this long-awaited and now highly-treasured book. 

The book is a spiral bound calendar, standing on its own and you can count down to Christmas with it by turning page a day and making one knitted bauble. It also includes Scandinavian recipes!!! I shall be starting it sooner than December, I think as knitting one ball per day (not to mention steaming it and stuffing, sewing up and attaching a chain) is going to be a bit too intense as I usually take at least a couple of days to complete one. However I simply can't wait to start this project! In the meantime I shall be completing my 55 knitted balls :)

Just look at those gorgeous pictures full of festive flair plus the coloured patterns and all technical details of yarn you need.

Oh, and the recipes!

The only drawback of this book (apart from its unavailability) is that it exists only in Norwegian and it requires translation but since I'm a language lover and in love with the Nordic culture I'm looking forward to decoding its instructions and recipes :)

Well, this is not the end - recently I've also managed to obtain these books, another lovely addition to my knitting book collection:

Paskestrikk - a booklet with knitted Easter decoration including Easter balls and Easter eggs (another future project to look forward too!)

Aren't they lovely?

And how about those quirky vases? :)

I'm sooo in love with these hanging knitted eggs! I'm definitely knitting them! 

Could you resist these? :)

And finally this booklet (also from Kidsknits) with a gorgeous Advent Calendar in a form of a wreath with hanging numbered Nordic style mittens 

... and some other Scandinavian decorations:

 Simply, gorgeous!!!

I also love to see my Heilo yarn collection to grow. I've purchased some more colours in preparations for the next knitted balls and eggs.

And some more wool to try out: Baby Ull, also from DaleGarn :)

The cherry on the cake that wonderful weekend turn out to be a parcel with these lovely wooden crochet hooks Symphonie from KnitPro - a subscription present from Mollie makes magazine. 

So pretty they are! And also a good quality wood and decorated edges too!

Isn't life good? :)

Eggs-citing knits

There is always a good time for knitting an Easter egg :) Whether before or after the season :) Here are my first 3 knitted eggs, also inspired by the book of Arne and Carlos. Different shapes achieved as you can see :) but I'm still practising my egg shapes and egg stuffing :)

Thinner yarn seems to work better with this egg shape. Really happy with this one:

The knitting patterns for these eggs come from this book:

It's a new book written by Arne and Carlos and it has already been published in Scandinavian languages and Dutch. The English version is to come out in the future but apparently the date hasn't been set yet (yes, I do keep checking regularly at Arne & Carlos' facebook fan page). I really can't wait for the English version of this book! I'm already knitting some of eggs only thanks to a friend who shared her Dutch version with me. But I wanna have my own! :)