Farewell

It's been a stressful few months. It was too hard to stay in a home with so many memories with bad, overtaking the good. I decided to start a new chapter in my life by selling my home of 24 years. They say your home looks the way you've always wanted it when you've finished it to sell. No kidding.




My little red house which I always hoped looked a little bit Swedish !




The cottage style green house built from old windows









































Ryan did a wonderful job refinishing the pine floors. Many thanks to Anna,Ryan, Marc, family,friends/hired hands Cindy and Tim for everything they did to whip this place into shape. The transformation was astounding.







A very excited young couple is buying it for their first home.

A new adventure starts with the purchase of a small 1914 farmhouse and barn on three acres. In the mad rush towards the end of packing, my camera was put in an unknown box in the very full garage, so no pictures of this place yet :(
More later............

Nordic Knitting Conference Part Two

First of all many thanks to Tuulia for this gorgeous Laminaria shawl which she dyed, spun, and knit for me. Tusen Tack ! I LOVE it. She is a very talented designer of knitwear. Check out her Ravelry page !
(Photo courtesy of Knitlob's Lair)


More Conference news
Saturday night was the banquet where Katarina was the guest speaker. I knew she designed for IKEA, Linum, Rörstrand, Svensk Slöjd, etc., but I had no idea the breadth of her work which has also included working with fashion designers from Europe and Japan, plus much more. Most of the textiles I've bought from IKEA are designed by her. I would love to get my hands on some of her porcelain pieces ! The power point presentation was amazing ! I so hope she can be brought back to teach some of her Swedish traditional classes and it would be fabulous if the museum could have an exhibit of just her work. I wish I had a picture of the wedding dress that she and her design partner created for the DoRedo project out of 24 white sweaters from the Salvation Army. Wow ! (Photo courtesy of Svensk Slöjd)
Many thanks to the Nordic Heritage Museum, especially Charlotte (my fiber workshop enabler !), for bringing this all together. It's been a truly amazing experience.

Sunday was Modern Icelandic Lace with Evelyn Clark. Thank goodness Karen and Alex were flanking me to help fix all my mistakes and get me back on track. Evelyn had a turn at my sampler also ! She is a fantastic teacher. She brought all the Icelandic samples she has knit plus one shawl she bought off of Ebay for less than $20 I believe. Fleece and handspun examples, Icelandic knitting books, plus a DVD were also displayed. She took us on a little field trip to see the Icelandic lace pieces in the museum. Jätte kul !
Here she is wearing her Deciduous shawl. I love this one and want to try it for my first big lace project.





















Karen showing off her sampler. You have been so kind to me and your infectious personality makes me forget my sorrows for just awhile.


Thank you Donna for this lovely little heart. It's so sweet.

Off to pack some more ................

Of any stopping place in life, it is good to ask whether it will be a good place from which to go on as well as a good place to remain.

Mary Catherine Bateson

Nordic Knitting Conference Part One

I was so excited the first day of the Conference I was pinging off the walls !
My first days class was Marianne Isager's Entrelac. What a charming and delightful woman. I heard her speak a few evenings earlier at the Seattle Knitters Guild. She has lead a very interesting life traveling the world and drawing her inspirations from such diverse sources as South America, Africa, Japan, and beyond. Our class project was a mitten using Domino, Domino/Shadow, a Chevron stripe, and Entrelac. Very clever ! Look at her fab slip stitch vest. Churchmouse Yarn and Tea and Knit Purl now carry some of her yarns. Three of her books are coming out in English thru Interweave this Spring.

Saturday was Katarina Brieditis with DoRedo. She is so cute and fun to be around and has to be one of the most all around creative people I've ever met. For this class she showed many great examples from her project and talked about using every last scrap of felted sweaters one possbily could. I wish I had taken a picture of the necklace she was wearing using black brand sweater labels. I certainly pointed it out to a number of people. "Hi, this is Katarina Brieiditis - enough with the introductions - LOOK at her very clever necklace !" Tokig Americaner






























The mitten is from an angora sweater.


Alex is a blast !


My SIL Karen helping out Anna, who loved this class. It was so cute when she called me that night all excited about DoRedo and then the next day from Pacific Fabrics where she was picking up supplies. She's made a handbag, a pair of mittens, and a decorative collar already. Karen really enjoyed it also creating a pair of mittens and a handbag. We hope to have a DoRedo party in the future.
















My project using a sweater I found at Value Village. It already had enough pattern to it so didn't do any beading or embroidery but Katarina helped me add the fringe using DoRedo yarn.

To be continued .........................

Inga has a new sister

It's been over a month since my last entry. How to catch up is slowing me down so it will be little bits at a time.

I love my little Inga but driving around in 14 degree weather scraping ice off the inside of the windshield was too, too much. It felt like days before my fingertips thawed out ! I hit Craigslist and found "Berit" my 1998 Volvo XC. It has HEATED seats !!! How wonderful is that ! Inga will be my summer car, and Berit my winter car.

The Nordic Knitting Conference is next week. Wow, it's coming up fast. The Seattle Times wrote a lovely article on the Lavold exhibit. It is stunning and very fascinating regarding the Viking artifacts and inspirations. I took her three hour Basic Viking Knits class and enjoyed it very much. I'm so glad a knitting related exhibit is being held during this Conference.















Thank you Barbro for designing this hat pattern for the Conference. It's perfect ! Shown here with Anna and her friend Liz. It will go in the goodie tote bag and be for sale in the gift shop. Utmärkt !

I've taken a huge step in changing my living situation this month which has me very apprehensive. More on that later.

Today is not yesterday: we ourselves change; how can our works and thoughts, if they are always to be the fittest, continue always the same? Change, indeed is painful; yet ever needful; and if memory have its force and worth, so also has hope.

Thomas Carlyle
1795-1881, Scottish Philosopher, Author

Gray skies are gonna clear up ( I hope ! )

I awoke this morning to a blanket of snow and it's still gently falling. I'm starting to yearn for spring, bright green shoots poking thru the earth, and the warmth of the sun. I love living here, and couldn't think of moving anywhere else, but as I get older I now understand why people become snowbirds.


Inga pictured after the last snowfall, my little rolling igloo !






It's still hard to concentrate even after two years. I have been experiencing more fatigue which hampers my ability to perform little tasks. Spinning has been put on hold and it seems to take forever to knit any project. I started the "Northern Lights" scarf pattern by Marilyn Van Keppel which is in the Nordic Knits booklet. It's supposed to be based on an Icelandic design called "rose trellis". I'm using Koigu and Nature's Palette







Betsy, the cuddlebug

Mari loves her "kids", especially Ryan with whom she sleeps with every night.

Wennie, the "corgster"




















"The girls" Anna, and her cousins Jessa and Elisabeth.
It is so heartwarming to see how close they have become.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow !

Thank you Karen for this lovely picture taken from your home.

Happy New Year !
Gott Nytt År !




The new year begins in a snow-storm of white vows.
George William Curtis







The Dead of Winter
by Samuel Menashe

In my coat I sit
At the window sill
Wintering with snow
That did not melt
It fell long ago
At night, by stealth
I was where I am
When the snow began

A Winter's Rose

A beautiful December rose "Graham Thomas"


Cindy put in a new decorative arbor gate for "the girls" How fancy !





How I wish I could relax like Betsy :)




Another thrift store find, a child's sweater, which will be going to someone in Karen's family.
Heja Norge !





While digging thru boxes I found the first sweater I ever knit. Of course it's Lopi, as it was the 70's ! I was very surprised to find it as I assumed it was lost in the fire. Anna is not here to model for me so Marc stepped in. What a goofball ! "Ow Mom, this is scratchy"

Yes, I also knit a Cowichan sweater for my godson who was four at the time. I followed the trends !

I met Carla and Hilly thru Ravelry. They wanted to purchase the Nordic Knits booklet so we set up an exchange. Carla had written an article on Twined Knitting for "Handwerken Zonder Grenzen" which Hilly was kind enough to send. Carla sent this lovely mohair yarn spun in Denmark. The fiber came from her friends herd which she gets to play and cuddle with she said. Very fun and thoughtful.




The Lavold workshops are filling up at the Museum. I'm signed up for the three hour Basic Viking Knits.

The registrations are coming in for the Nordic Knitting Conference. ONE LADY IS COMING FROM HONG KONG !!!!!! I have signed up for classes with Katarina Brieditis, Mariane Isager, and Evelyn Clark. CAN'T WAIT !!

Wonderful Finnish Designs

My camera has gone AWOL so I must use other resources. Hope I find it soon :(
Karen and I took a Kainu mitten class at the Museum taught by Tuulia. She hand dyed the yarns and made up kits for us to work with. It was a very enjoyable class.
The mitten I started is too big so I bought a set of half size needles to try.
(Photo courtesy of Tuulia)

Afterwards we joined the Knitters Cafe' in progress. Evelyn brought this bag to show and Karen and I fell in love with it. She found this on Etsy thru a Finnish vendor
Kukkilinutu




My bag


Karen's bag



Another Etsy purchase - Celtic Knot Wool Diz
Magic Stix Fibers







All the way from Paris, France sbarao !











Check out Barbro's blog to see her cute mittens !


I'm 49 now, one year away from the big one ! Thanks, Karen, Debbie, Cindy, and my family for helping me celebrate.

Thanks Karen, for amongst other fun things,the little handcrafted sheep you made for me. (She's the one in the middle !)















Up until then it had been an emotional month of unknown reason.



Inner Turmoil Surfacing

Inner turmoil surfacing in
unexpected places while
no one sees the loneliness through
the windows. When
will the turmoil surfacing
and the questions burning
cease to undermine
what is entwined with
My tranquility? .............How
do those who claim to know
what fulfils the human soul
explain through learned verses
The truth that lies beneath the surface?
Yet those who claim to know what fulfils
This human soul, possess not
the desire or what is required to search
for the inner turmoil surfacing in
Unexpected places while
No one sees
The loneliness……..


Melanie Mohammad