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WIP Wednesday – wedding presents (to be)

February 5, 2014 in Design, Embroidery | Tags: Design, embroidery, gift, wip, wip-wednesday | 2 comments

Jeg har gang i et lidt større projekt, der gerne skulle blive til en lille serie bryllupsgaver til april. Det er søde og dejlige mennesker, som jeg har kærlighed nok til at ville give mig i kast med hjemmelavede gaver af den gode slags. Og endnu vigtigere, de både fortjener og værdsætter den tid, som jeg bruger på den slags. Derfor har jeg fundet det store skyts frem og givet mig i kast med Flora Wool i yndlingsfarverne og stramaj og et hjemmegjort grafisk mønster, som jeg faktisk er helt godt tilfreds med. Indtil videre går broderiet godt, men der er laaaaang vej igen.

I am working on a rather big project, something which hopefully will become a little series of wedding presents in April. The husband and wife to be are sweet and wonderful people, whom I love dearly enough to want to give them home made presents. Even more important is that I know that the time and effort I put into such presents will be treasured as love made solid. In other words they deserve such a gift. I’ve laid some ambitious plans and started with Flora Wool and canvas and a self made graphic design, which I’m very pleased with. So far the embroidery goes well, but there is still a looooooong way to go.

Scrappy string star pillow…

February 2, 2014 in patchwork, Sewing, stash | Tags: fo, gift, patchwork, quilting, sewing | Leave a comment

I august fortalte jeg her på bloggen om det tæppeprojekt, som min mor og jeg har gang i. Vi kom ikke videre i juleferien, skønt både kant, mellemfor og bagsidestof er indkøbt, men vi når det nok, for jeg skal heldigvis til Grønland igen til maj og besøge hende (glæder mig allerede). Men faktisk handler dette slet ikke om tæppet, men om, hvad jeg har brugt nogle af resterne til. Jeg var nemlig så heldig, at jeg fik alle stofresterne fra tæppeblokkene med mig tilbage. Det meste af disse var strimler, men strimler kan bruges til mange gode ting, og der var mange fine stykker stof imellem. Da vi så var ude og handle kantstof mv. (i Speich Design selvfølgelig), købte jeg et stykke ekstra, for jeg tænkte, at det kunne være en fin julegave til min mor at sy et pudebetræk med stof, der også er i hendes tæppe.

Back in August, I told about the big quilt project, which my mother and I am working on. We didn’t get any further during the Christmas holiday, even though we had the necessary fabric for framing and the back and also the batting on hand. But we’ll get there eventually, and luckily I’m going back to Greenland in May to visit her (I already look very much forward to it). But as a matter of fact, this isn’t about the bed spread, but rather about a project in which I used some of the scraps from the big quilt. I was fortunate enough to travel home this summer with all the scraps from our sewing. Most of it was in strips, but strips are useful in many patchwork projects, and the fabrics were glorious. When we went out to find the fabric for the edge etc., I bought an extra piece of that, as I planned to make a Christmas gift of a pillow case for my mother with the fabrics used in her bed spread (to be).

Planer går bare ikke altid efter bogen, og jeg måtte opgive at få pudebetrækket færdig til julen, men nu har mor fået det som en lidt forsinket julegave. Jeg er rigtig glad for det færdige resultat. Stjernen er lavet af 8 kvadrater, der er dækket af strimler (syet henover papir efter denne tutorial). De fire kvadrater skar jeg over diagonal til spidserne og syede sammen med baggrundsstoffet. Derefter skar jeg alle firkanter til igen, så de var ensartede i størrelsen. Denne ~~langsommelige~~ grundige tilgang har ført til de mest præcise spidser i sammensyningen, som jeg endnu har præsteret. Ren lykke! Jeg quiltede stjernen “in the ditch” samt to indre stjerner, mens baggrunden er quiltet med tætte lige linjer, og jeg er meget glad for den endelige effekt. Heldigvis blev min mor også glad for den, og så må vi også hellere se at få syet det sengetæppe helt færdigt.

Best laid plans and all that aside, I had to abandon the attempt at getting the pillow case finish for Christmas. So instead my mother has just gotten it as a slightly delayed Christmas gift. I am really happy with the finished pillow, and luckily so is she. The star is made up of 8 squares, which were covered in the scrap strips (paper founded, following this tutorial). I then cut 4 of the squares diagonally for the tips and sewed these to squares with the backing. Then I trimmed the pieces (again) and then sewed the pillow together. The dull patient approach has resulted in the most precise points I’ve ever achieved. Pure bliss! I’m also pretty happy with the effect of the quilting, so the overall satisfaction is pretty high. Now we’d better get that big quilt finished too.

Wordless WIP Wednesday…

January 29, 2014 in Design, Knitting, patchwork, Sewing, Travelling | Tags: Design, design-in-progress, Knitting, patchwork, quilting, sewing, wip, wip-wednesday | 2 comments

Spring in wintertime…

January 28, 2014 in Design, Knitting | Tags: BC Garn, Design, fo, handspun, Knitting | 2 comments

Nogle gange er en af udfordringerne som designer, at man skal aflevere de ting man designer til garnfirmaerne og ikke kan få lov til at beholde kollektionsprøven selv. Sådan havde jeg det, da jeg var færdig med Springline, et halstørklæde/minisjal, som jeg har designet for BC Garn. Den kloge designer, der har et øje på tidsforbrug osv., ville nok have sukket en ekstra gang og så ladet det glide af sinde, men jeg kunne ikke lade være med at grave lidt i Lageret og finde noget tilpas lækkert garn til endnu en version.

Sometimes the difficulty in being a designer lies in the fact that you often have to hand over your design to the yarn company, even (or especially) when you’ve fallen in love with a sample. I felt like that, when I had finished Springline, a design for a scarf/shawlette which I did for BC Garn. The wise designer, who knows her own time restraints etc., would probably sigh and let it go, but I couldn’t help myself and had to dig a bit around in The Stash to find that perfect yarn for yet another version.

Valget faldt på et lille nøgle håndspundet garn, der var blevet tilovers fra da jeg spandt og strikkede min mors store sjal. Der var ikke så meget tilbage, kun 74 gram, men det gode ved dette sjal er netop, at det strikkes sidelæns fra spids til spids, så jeg kunne strikke med sindsro, indtil jeg havde brugt halvdelen og så bare strikke anden halvdel af sjalet. Der var blot halvanden meter tilbage af garnet, da jeg lukkede af, så det passede perfekt. Til alt held kunne jeg også finde en model i lokalområdet, der havde tid til at stå stille på trods af bidende kulde og vind. Statuer er nu så praktiske!

The choice was easy, I found the single ball of yarn, which was left from when I spun and knitted my mothers’ birthday shawl. There wasn’t much left, only 74 grams, but the good thing about this shawl is that it’s knit sideways from point to point, so I could camly knit on until my scale told me that I had used up half of the yarn, and then I just went on to knit the other half. There was only 1½ meters left, when I bound off, so it was the perfect story. Luckily I also found a model in my local area to help me with the photographing. She stood silently and patiently despite the snow and bitter cold. Statues are really handy!

Tørklædet er blevet præcis som jeg ønskede, og selvom min Ravelry projektside fortæller mig, at jeg begyndte det d. 1. november 2012, så har det faktisk ikke taget så lang tid at strikke. Her på matriklen er der bare ofte så mange igangværende projekter, at marineringstiden i wip-posen mellem perioder med strikkeaktivitet kan være temmelig lang. Men meget godt kommer som bekendt til den der venter, og i dette tilfælde er det altså blevet til et fint lille sjal/tørklæde. Nu skal jeg så bare lige beslutte, om jeg kan få det over hjertet at aflevere det som gave…

The scarf or shawlette has turned out precisesly as I wished for, and even though my Ravelry project page tells me, that I began it on November 1st 2012, it actually didn’t take that long to knit. This house hold just happens to be so riddled with wips that the incubation time from cast on to finished project can be rather long – there are often long time outs in between sessions of knitting. But all is well that ends well as you say, and I’ve ended up with a lovely little lacey scarf. Now I just have to decide if I can manage to give it away or if I end up keeping it for myself…

Vinderen af “Ti Trøjer” lodtrækningen…

January 25, 2014 in contest | Tags: contest, giveaway, winner | Leave a comment

Tak for alle kommentarerne, jeg kan sagtens forstå, at så mange af jer gerne ville have en chance for at få bogen. Desværre er der kun et eksemplar i hus til udlodning, så der kunne kun blive en vinder. Magen legede lykkens gudinde (gud?) og valgte, at kommentar nr. 35 skulle vinde. Det er Lise, der heldigvis godt gad vinde bogen. Tillykke Lise, jeg har sendt dig en mail, og tak til alle jer andre for at gide at lege med.

I’ve drawn (or rather the Mate chose) the winner in my little blog lottery for the book “Ti Trøjer”. I hope Lise will be very happy with her new book.

Three favorites of ten…

January 24, 2014 in books, inspiration | Tags: book review, books, inspiration, Knitting | 4 comments

I dag er sidste chance for at deltage i lodtrækningen om Rachels bog “Ti Trøjer” (læg en kommentar her), så jeg synes, det måtte være passende, hvis jeg nu viste mine favoritter frem. Det er ikke helt nemt at vælge, og så alligevel for “Ti” stjal mit hjerte med det samme. Både farve og teknik og hele looket er jo hamrende godt. Den trøje er krøbet ret så langt op på listen over ‘ting, jeg ville strikke, hvis jeg havde tid’.

Today is the last day where you can enter my draw to win Rachel’s book “Ti Trøjer”, so I thought it appropriate if I showed, which cardigans are my favorites. It wasn’t that easy, because all ten of them are beautiful, but then again “Ti” (ten) stole my heart from the first moment I saw it. The colour combination, the technique, and the complete look for the cardigan is over the top WOW! This particular cardigan has crawled quite high on the list over ‘Things I Would Knit If I Had Time’.

“Ti” (c) Rachel Søgaard & Kira Brandt

Det var straks en hel del sværere, at udvælge de næste favoritter, men “Fire” blev jeg ved med at vende tilbage til. Den ser bare så skøn og hyggelig og brugbar ud. Jeg er sikker på, at den ville få fast plads i rotationen i mit klædeskab, ikke mindst på råkolde januardage, eller på sommerhusferier i foråret og efteråret, hvor man mere eller mindre bare bor en i dejlig trøje.

It was quite a bit harder to choose the next favorites, but I kept returning to “Four“. It looks utterly cozy (and beautiful, but that goes almost without saying) and wearable. I am sure it would be a favorite on cold January days or when spending a spring or autumn weekend in a cabin – and I could definetely see myself wearing it all the time during my next holiday in Greenland (a place perfect for sweater wearing!).

“Fire” (c) Rachel Søgaard & Kira Brandt

Den sidste favorit er “Otte“, som er endnu en stjernetrøje (ja, jeg kan godt lide stjerner i strik). Endnu en enkelt, smuk og meget Rachelsk trøje. Jeg kunne sagtens se mig bruge den på arbejde – det er måske den af alle trøjerne, jeg bedst ville kunne bruge i arbejdshverdagen (jeg arbejder et temmelig konservativt sted, men kan dog alligevel slippe afsted med at gå i striktrøjer).

The last favorite in this round is “Eight“, which is another star embossed cardigan (yes, I like stars in my knitting). Once again a beautiful, simple and very Rachel-type cardigan. I can easily see myself wearing it at work – perhaps this is the one cardigan from the book, which would be most easy to fit into my work-day wardrobe (I work in a rather concervative business, but can still wear my knitted beauties most of the time).

“Otte” (c) Rachel Søgaard & Kira Brandt

Egentlig er det lidt morsomt, at det måske ikke er den mest “brugbare” trøje, jeg drømmer mest om at strikke, men den som jeg tror er sjovest at strikke. Jeg er nu helt sikker på, at jeg ville gå meget med “Ti”, hvis den nogensinde bliver strikket, men en del af fristelsen ligger helt sikkert også i de teknikker, der er brugt. På den måde er jeg nok ret meget en proces-strikker, altså en hvor en ret stor del af fornøjelsen ligger i selve strikningen og ikke nødvendigvis i forventningen til det færdige stykke strik. Hvad med jer? Hvordan vælger I, hvilke trøjer I har lyst til at strikke?

As I write this post, it strikes me that it’s rather funny that it isn’t the most practical cardigan, which I dream of making first, but rather the one, I think would be most fun to knit. I’m pretty certain that I’d wear “Ten” <u>a lot</u>, if I ever knit it, but a great part of the lure lies in the techniques. In that way, I’m probably more of a proces knitter, i.e. one who gets a great deal of enjoyment in the knitting proces and not necessarily in the finished knit. What about you? How do you choose which garments you’d like to knit?

WIP Wednesday – the sneaky lace edition…

January 22, 2014 in Design, Knitting | Tags: design-in-progress, Knitting, knitting design, wip-wednesday | Leave a comment

Når man nu prøver at tage sig lidt mere sammen som designer, får man pludselig et problem som blogger. For hvis de ting, man designer, ikke må vises frem mens man strikker på dem, hvad i alverden skal man så blogge om? Nu er det heldigvis ikke alle designopgaver, der er pålagt tavshedspligt (og nej, jeg er heller ikke blevet hellig og holdt op med at lave alle mulige andre ting). Alligevel kan jeg bedst lide, at der er et eller andet slør af mystik omkring det, indtil jeg er klar til at vise det færdige design i al sin glorværdige endelighed.

When you decide to take your designing a bit more seriously and start working more focused on your coming designs, you are suddenly met with a problem as a blogger. If you can’t show the things you are knitting, because they are design samples, whatever are you going to blog about? Luckily not all design projects are secret (and neither have I suddenly stopped making non-design stuff – don’t worry). But still, I like it best, when there is at least a little mystique left before unveiling a new design in all its finished glory.

Jeg tænkte, om jeg skulle indføre “Teaser tirsdag” som en blogkategori, men bestemte mig alligevel for, at det nok var bedre med en lidt bredere kategori. Så nu forsøger jeg mig med at vise igangværende projekter frem lidt af gangen (der er rimelig mange at tage af, så kategorien løber ikke tør foreløbig). Det øverste billede tog jeg, da jeg sad og strikkede sammen med Signe på Filcolanas stand på TEX-Stil messen i Vejle for et par uger siden. Det er selvfølgelig et nyt design til Filcolana, et lace sjal, der gerne skulle være klar omkring august. Det andet billede er første prøve på det design til et større selvudgivelsesprojekt, som jeg pusler lidt med. Mere om det en anden gang.

I pondered whether I should make a new category “Teaser Tuesday” for my blog, but decided that I’d probably be happier with the wider definition of “WIP Wednesday”. I’ll try to show updates on my current knitting and designing and sewing (etc. etc.) of which there are quite a few, so I’m not worried of running out of content. The first picture is taken as I sat and knitted along with Signe at Filcolana’s booth at the TEX-Stil trade show in Vejle a couple of weeks ago. The project is a new lace shawl design for Filcolana (of course), which should be ready around August. The second picture is the first sample of a design I’m working on for a bigger self-publication project, which I’m slowly trying to make true. More on that another time.

Reception for “Ti Trøjer” – and giveaway…

January 19, 2014 in books, contest, inspiration | Tags: books, contest, cphknitwork, giveaway, life | 41 comments

Det har været en dejlig dag i dag, og en af årsagerne er så særdeles strikkerelateret. Jeg har nemlig været til reception for Rachel Søgaard ude hos Rasmilla i anledningen af udgivelsen af Rachels fine nye bog “Ti Trøjer“. Det var virkelig hyggeligt, og der var rigtig mange mennesker. Nu var jeg så heldig, at jeg var den første, der ankom, så jeg fik et par gode billeder inden menneskemylderet satte ind.

It has been a lovely day today, and one of the reasons for that is absolutely knit-related. It so happens that I have been at the reception for Rachel Søgaard at Rasmilla to celebrate the publication of Rachel’s new, rather wonderful, book “Ti Trøjer” (Ten Cardigans). It was a lovely gathering of a truckload of people. I was lucky enough to have arrived before the crowd, so I got a couple of good pictures before the shop was packed tight with people.

Jeg kender Rachel fra mit strikkenetværk (Copenhagen Knitwork), og hun er en af de mest arbejdssomme mennesker, jeg kender. Jeg er dybt imponeret over hele hendes tilgang og proces med udgivelsen af denne bog, og jeg håber (og er egentlig ret sikker) på, at det bliver en stor succes. Bogen indeholder, nok ikke så overraskende, ti smukke cardigans, af den slags som Rachel selv ville have lyst til at strikke og tage på – det er altså nærmest ti yndlingstrøjer. Bogen er allerede lagt ind på Ravelry, så dem, der måtte have adgang kan se nærmere på dem via dette link. Jeg håber, at Rachel har lyst til at fortsætte selvudgivelserne, for det kan da vist kun blive godt.

I know Rachel from my network of knitting designers (Copenhagen Knitwork), and she is one of the most diligent persons, I know. I am in awe over her work ethic and her approach and proces in making this book, and I hope (actually, I’m pretty certain) that it will be a succes for her. The book contains ten beautiful cardigans (not that much of a surprise, given the name), of the kind that Rachel would want to knit and wear herself – in point of fact you could call it ten favorite cardigans. The book is already in Ravelry’s library, so you can get a better look at all ten via this link. I hope, Rachel will want to continue in this venture of self-publication, because I’m certain she’s got at least a couple of good books in her yet.

Som en lille nytårgave til læsere af bloggen købte jeg en ekstra bog i dag og fik Rachel til at skrive en lille hilsen i den. ~~Den kan vindes ved at lægge en kommentar til denne blogpost inden midnat på fredag (d. 24. januar), så trækker jeg lod blandt kommentarerne på lørdag. Held og lykke 🙂~~ Lodtrækningen er forbi, og vinderen er blevet trukket. Tak for deltagelsen.

As a little New Year gift to the readers of this blog I bought an extra book today and got Rachel to sign it for one of you. You can win it by writing a comment on this blog post before midnight on Friday (January 24th). I’ll draw a winner among the comments on Saturday. Before any of you English speaking readers put your comment in the pot, you should know that the book is only in Danish, but if that doesn’t scare you, you are more than welcome to leave a comment too 🙂 Good luck! Contest is closed and the winner has been announced.

Wishes for 2014…

January 16, 2014 in Design, General life, inspiration | Tags: 2014, Design, goals, life | Leave a comment

Nytårsforsæt går vist aldrig helt af mode (selv når man er nået ind i årets tredje uge), men jeg holder nu mere af at tænke på dem som ønsker (så er den risikerede skyldfølelse også mindre). Især, når jeg har så mange, at det med sikkerhed ikke er dem alle, der kan nå at gå i opfyldelse. Men jeg vover nu alligevel pelsen og fortæller lidt om dem, der har med mit kreative liv at gøre:

Resolutions for the new year will probably always be a thing, but I would like to think of them as wishes (that also implies I don’t have to feel bad, when they don’t come true). Especially as I have rather a lot of wishes, so many that they probably won’t all make it to fruition during the year. But I’ll still make a little list here of the craftier ones:

Blogge en gang om ugen – ok, det er vist nærmest et nytårsforsæt / Blog once a week – ok, this one is more of a resolution
Fokusere mere på mine design og udgive flere opskrifter / Focus more on my design work and publish more patterns
Gennemgå (nogle af) mine gamle opskrifter og få dem opdateret og gjort pæne og fine / Work through (some of) my old patterns and update them and make them pretty
Lave strikkede og broderede bryllupsgaver til et yndlingsfamiliemedlem (wheeeeee) / Make wedding presents (knit and embroider) for a favorite family member (wheeee)
Sy og quilte et patchwork sengetæppe til vores egen dobbeltseng (gulp!) / Sew and quilt a patchwork bed spread for our king size bed (yikes!)
Designe og udgive et lille ebogshæfte (!) / Design and publish a small ebook collection (!)

Der er flere ting, der gemmer sig i nogle af punkterne, men det er jo det, som det kommende års blogposter skal handle om. Jeg er allerede godt i gang og glæder mig over alt det gode, der allerede er sket. Og så kunne jeg ikke lade være med at proppe et billede af mit yndlingsdesign fra sidste år ind i blogposten. Hvis bare alle designs endte lige så godt (det er også et ønske, men nok mindre sandsynligt) 🙂

Several of the items above are combinations of multiple things, but that is precisely what the blog is going to be about during the next year. I already feel like it’s going well, and I’m enjoying all the good things, which have already happened. And as a finish, I couldn’t help myself, but had to repost a picture of my favorite design from last year in this post. If all designs went as perfectly as that (this could be another wish, but I think the odds for that one are slim) 🙂

I’ll always go back…

January 9, 2014 in General life, Travelling | Tags: greenland, life, nuuk, travelling, travels | 2 comments

Jeg tror, at jeg altid vil vende tilbage til Grønland. Igen og igen og igen. Naturen og lyset fascinerer mig uendeligt. I løbet af vores to ugers, ganske vidunderlige jule- og nytårsferie, tror jeg, at jeg hver eneste dag sagde “hvor er her dog smukt”. Og jeg mente det, hver eneste dag.

Nu er hverdagen her så igen, både på det rigtige job og på strikkejobbet. Men jeg savner Grønland, sneen og hyggen med familien. Til gengæld har jeg en masse skønne minder og gode billeder, som familiens kamerabærende medlemmer har forsynet mig med. Det er nu heller ikke dårligt.

I think I’ll always go back to Greenland. Again, and again, and again. The nature and the light fascinates me continually. During the two weeks of our absolutely wonderful Christmas and New Year vacation, I think I said “gosh, it’s so beautiful” every single day. And I meant it, every single day.

Now we’re back, back at home, back at work (both the real one and the knitting one). But I miss Greenland, the snow and being with all my family. The silver lining is the many happy memories and beautiful pictures, which the camera wielding members of the family kindly have given me a copy of. And that, my friends, is a rather good silver lining.

Jeg håber, at alle jer derude også har haft en vidunderlig jul og en rigtig godt og smukt nytår. Jeg glæder mig til, vi ses rundt omkring i blogland og i den virkelige verden i løbet af 2014.

I hope all of you out there have had a wonderful Christmas and a beautiful and happy New Year. I look forward to seeing you out and about in the world of blogs and in real life in 2014.