Vipe of Dalegarn

Have I mentioned before that I am a yarn snob loving quality yarns and knitting tools? Oh yes, I have! And here is the proof: not so long ago I placed an order with kidsknits.com in the USA and received this gorgeous mercerized cotton yarn from Dalegarn - Vipe. It came from so afar, all the way from America and it was even custom charged. Sadly, so far this Norwegian yarn is not available in the UK but I do hope it will change one day. First time I've had this type of Norwegian yarn and since it's quite costly, I just ordered a few colours required for the project. 

Additionally, I also ordered two colours of Lerke (also from Dalegarn, it's a cotton and merino blend yarn) which can't be obtained in the UK. I love knitting with Lerke. It's super soft, warm, cosy and it comes in nice array of colours. Last year I used it to knit my Scandianvian eggs - a project by Arne and Carlos.

And now Vipe by itself - gorgeous shades, luscious, soft and pleasant to the touch. I'm gonna use this yarn to make these knitted pouches featured in Arne & Carlos book - Knit and crochet Garden. 

This deep purple shade has been my favourite for years. I used to wear lots of clothes in these shades.

At the close-up, Vipe reminds me of a satin cotton thread - soft and silky with a slight shine. I hope it knits well. Can't wait to start working on these pouches. As soon as I'm done with my Easter projects, I'm going to move onto these. 

And speaking of Arne and Carlos - a Norwegian-Swedish kitting duo - I've already preordered their next book on Amazon. The English edition is going to be released in September 2014. Roll on autumn! Can't wait!

Hope you all have had a good weekend. x

Christmas Cards 2013 Leftovers: 3 tall ones

3 tall Christmas cards on a brown kraft paper base :) - one of my favourite card blank formats

I've also discovered that cream coloured laces look good on the natural brown paper :) I'm never bored with the Christmas theme. I could keep on making festive cards all year round!

New book: Arne & Carlos "Knit-and-Crochet Garden"

Good news for the fans of the Scandinavian knitting duet: Arne and Carlos - the English edition of their knit and crochet book has been available on sale now :) I'm a big fan of A & C myself. My own copy arrived from Amazon about a month ago :) I'm lovin' this book! It's so full of spring/summery ideas and vibrant with colours. Perfect book to work on after Christmas as the spring is approaching :) A few photos for you to have a peek inside the book:

Definitely the star projects in this book are the crocheted blankets:
I'm in love with this one:

Classic granny squares:

According to A & C they are a perfect way to use up your stashed scraps of yarn

There are plenty of crochet projects for your home and garden:

And there's also something for the cross stitch lovers:
pansy cushion covers, xxl cross stitch :)

Most of all I love these knitted sachets - they are gorgeous! I think after Christmas I'll have a go at them. 

There are a few new knitted characters in this book too:

And of course Arne an Carlso are showing oof their gorgeous scrapbook:

Happy Days:

And finally the famous photo from the book that went all over the internet:

In the meantime A & C are busy publishing their next book! It's not known yet when exactly the English edition will come out but for sure it's going to be in 2014. The new book will be all about a regional Nordic knitting (from Setesdal) and it will feature projects like socks, mittens, jumpers and some toys :) As always I'm awaiting this book very impatiently. 

Background builders

This week in the evenings I've been busy making (again!) some more vintage Scandinavian Christmas cards as well as making my own stamped backgrounds using my inks and stamps. This is such fun! I'm thoroughly enjoying myself at the card making paper production. There's a new trend in the stamping world - a new type of stamps sometimes called "background builders" or "backgrounders" - these are sets of stamps coordinated in style/theme that are used to build your own scenery on a card. They allow for the personalization of a card - you choose where and how to stamp and in what order and how much. So I've had those 4 gorgeous stamps sets with the Nordic theme from The Waltzing Mouse Stamps and the knitted pattern stamps from  WPlus9 Studio Design and it was a perfect moment to put those stamps into practice. So this week I've been stamping these:

I experimented with various colours and shades. By accident, using a thick chalky ink that didn't stamp too crisp, I discovered how to achieve a shaded knitted pattern by stamping two patterns - one on top of  the other. One fills it with a faded colour, the other gives it a defining outline. I thought the coffee brown knitted pattern will look cosy and warm on my cards ;) I really look forward to making cards with these impressions. 

I was very pleased with how these images came out on card as it can be tricky to get a good even impression from the big-sized stamps. I had to use super long acrylic blocks for these borders. I also used some stamping advice from the stamping expert The Waltzing Mouse website and it did work for me this time. I'm going to cut those papers up into smaller backgrounds and perhaps use some cutting dies and punches on them. The thing I love about those background builders is that there are so many possibilities with these stamps. You can make monochromatic patterns as well as multicoloured ones. You can use the papers as backgrounds, punch various shapes out of them or simply cut them up into decorative borders or create your own gift wraps too!

Dala Madness

I have definitely fallen in love with all my new Dala Horse stamps. I had to have a go at them straight away and here are some of my first cards where my liking for Scandinavian folklore is coming to life :) I've made quite a few of them and today is the first portion of Dalas for you :) For a start I limited myself to the three basic colours Scandinavian graphics often comes in - red, white and blue. I kept it deliberately simple focusing on the design to be as much Scandinavian as possible.

The Dala stamps featured on my cards are from noolibird.com and they should be soon on sale. Keep checking the shop. The small Norwegian star stamp comes from a Polish scrapbooking shop craftfun.pl. I also used Martha Stewart's punches and a leafy border from a Scandinavian stamp set.

All 3 together:

And a cherry on a Dala cake: my first ever Dala mug:

Pretty print, isnt it? And I love the colours too. This mug has been designed by Sarah Edmonds and you can find it here.

(Early) Christmas Cards 2013 (2)

Some more of my Christmas cards I made this year :) A continuation of those Christmas cards.  Kinda fun to make wintery cards on hot days of June and July :)

And all 7 together :)

On my summer holidays in 5 working days - woohoo! Can't wait! There will be so much time to craft and create! Counting down already!