My wee helper and a birthday present...

If I am to sew during the day, this is how you'll most often find me.... With Susie on my lap, helping me. Susie's job is to take the pins out of whatever I'm sewing and put them in the pin cushion (if you look closely, you can see that I'm using my new pin cushion... the one I won). It takes... eh... a bit... longer with this help, but at least I get to sew. Right?

And I must admit, it is kind of cozy having her there on my lap showing an interest in what I'm doing. Here, she's helping me sew a wee drawstring bag.
I (we) finished the drawstring bag and a travel tissue holder yesterday. Maja's friend from school had her birthday party last night, and Maja needed a present for her. I hope she likes it.

Every little girl should have a pretty bag, and when Maja realized I was making a drawstring bag for her friend, she wanted one too. So when I spotted this lovely fabric in the shop yesterday (had to go and get a string for the drawstring....), I thought of Maja's wish for a pretty bag.

Look, it even sparkles...

Maja was over the moon by the thought of getting a bag in this pretty fabric. Don't know when I'll get the time though. I have to drag my sewing machine and everything I need downstairs and use the kitchen table for sewing. My sewing room is still just a mess with boxes from the move....

I won! I won!!

Look what I found in my mail box yesterday... no, the day before yesterday (time flies too fast sometimes...) I feel soooo lucky. I was one of the winners of Vickie's giveaway over at her blog "Mid-Ohio Knitter". And look what she sent me... A cute little purse, a box of buttons, a lovely pin cushion and a bunch of gorgeous 3" fabric charms... and even the card matched... wow.

The pin cushion had a different fabric on each side. I can't decide which side I like the best.... which side will be the top and which will be the bottom. I might have to alternate between the two... well, both my girls loves to play with my pins, so I'm sure they'll be happy to help me transfer the pins from one side to the other...

Look at all the beautiful fabric squares... Oh, I can't wait to make something nice out of them. I need a new runner for my kitchen table, but also one for my living room table...

This was the firs time I won a giveaway (and I've entered a LOT...) so I'm over the moon! Thanks a lot Vickie!

Slippers... again... and the pattern for them

Maja has been nagging me about getting slippers like mine ever since I knitted mine. So I guess it was about time I made her some. PINK! No other colour would do... I made them the same way I made the adult ones, but with fewer increases and they fit perfectly. She was really pleased with them.A couple of weeks ago, Maja had her class' mascot lion home with her. Each pupil gets to have Lissi the lion home one weekend each. The only item of clothing Lissi had was a knitted hat, and Maja thought maybe Lissi would like some slippers to warm her paws... How can you say no? So I let Maja choose the colour... and guess what colour she chose...?? Yup! Pink!

I think Lissi looked really cute in her new pink slippers. She looks pleased... Some of the girls in Maja's class was sooooo excited when Maja brought Lissi back to school that Monday.... "Look Lissi has got ballet shoes!!!" to which Maja replied "NO! They're slippers...." I had to laugh.

I've had so many requests for the pattern for the slippers, that I thought I'd put it here for all of you that want to try it out. This is really easy knitting! And quick. I don't know where this pattern originated, but after I got mine from Tofo, I've seen it several times in other blogs (only in Norwegian though), so I guess it's OK to put it here as well.... I've translated it to english, but I'm not that into english knitting lingo... so if there's any problems/questions let me know. (I'll add the Norwegian version of the pattern at the end.)

This is the pattern for the adult version (these slippers are very stretchy and should fit most people, but if you've got big feet, it might be a good idea to increase a few more stitches.):

POCKET SLIPPERS:

Use yarn that goes with needles 4mm.
The whole thing is knitted back and forth.
CO 5 st, K 6 rows
Continue by increasing one stitch at the beginning of each row until you have 22 stitches.
On the next row, increase in every stitch (front and back loop of every st)= 44 st on needle.
Continue knitting a 15 cm ribbed border (k2,p2)
Next row; k 2 tog until you have 22 st again (all stitches)
Then, decrease 1 st in the beginning of each row until there is 5 st left on the needle.
Knit 6 rows and BO

Fold your slipper in half and sew the two narrow bits together and the sides of the ribbed border together. Now it looks a bit like a small purse… but the slipper is very stretchy.
Decorate it with a crocheted flower, a button or whatever you want.

Og så på norsk:

LOMMETØFLER:

Det er brukt garn som passer til pinne nr. 4.

Hele arbeidet strikkes fram og tilbake.

Legg opp 5 masker, strikk 6 pinner.

Fortsett, men øk 1 maske i begynnelsen av hver pinne til det er 22 masker.

På neste pinne økes det i hver maske (fremste og bakerste maskeledd) = 44 masker.

Strikk videre 15 cm vrangbordstrikk med 2r, 2vr.

Strikk så 2 og 2 masker sammen til det er 22 masker.

Fortsett med å felle 1 maske i begynnelsen av hver pinnne til det er igjen 5 masker.

Strikk 6 pinner og fell av.

Brett arbeidet og sy sammen de smale remsene og sidene på vrangbordstrikken. Det ser nå ut som en liten veske, men den er veldig tøyelig og passer godt på foten.
Pyntes etter smak og behag!!

Hope this can be of some use to someone. It would be fun to know if you find the pattern here and use it... I'd love to se a picture of your slippers....

Maja relly wanted to make Lissi's slippers herself, but since she's never knitted anything before, it took too long.... They would have been blue/turquoise if we went with Maja's own knitting...

Award

I got this award from Matja. I've got it before as well, but I'm just so glad that someone likes my blog enough to give me awards that I'm going to accept it anyway....
This is the text that comes with this award (it's in Norwegian... se my other post for english version):

Denne bloggen investerer i og tror på NÆRHET - nærhet i rom,tid og forhold.Disse bloggerne er usedvanlige, sjarmerende og søte,og formålet er å finne og å være venner. De er ikke opptatt av utmerkelser og selvhevdelse. Vårt håp er at når båndene på disse utmerkelser er kuttet, vil enda flere vennskap ha forplantet seg.Vær vennlig å gi litt ekstra oppmerksomhet til disse!Gi denne utmerkelsen til seks bloggere,som igjen må velge seg seks nye. Inkluder denne teksten på utmerkelsen deres.

.

The six people I want to pass it on to is... oh, this is soooo hard... So many of you have it from before, so I'm only going to give it to Therese just now...

This year's, or rather, last year's handmade Christmas presents

Well... Christmas is over and a new year has begun... I guess I'm safe to put up pictures of some of the things I made for Christmas presents last year (it feels so funny to say last year about this Christmas...)
I made my mum and dad a quilted Christmas tree skirt. Well, that was what it was intended for... but I think my mum wanted to use it as a table cloth as well.... I guess it has many uses, so I'm happy for her to do as she wishes with it.

It was hard to catch the colours correctly, but you get an idea.

For my hubby's family (sister, brother, nieces, nephews, all with family) I made egg warmer hens. Some of them has been pictured before, so I'm not going to show them again.

For his brother and his sister I also added a bread basket with a quilted cloth that matched the egg warmer hens (I didn't make the basket though...or the egg cups...)

The blue and striped pin wheel basket cloth was for Per's sister and her hubby, and the red and blue flying geese cloth, for hubby's brother and his wife.

Here are the hens that went with the flying geese....!;)

I gave some other handmade things as well, but most of it has been picrued on my blog before, so I'll just leave it here...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Happy New Year to all my readers.

2008 has been an exciting year with the move to Norway and with getting to know so many new people through blogging. I hope 2009 will be a good year too, and I'm looking forward to continuing reading your blogs and getting to know my new "friends" in bloglandia a bit better.