Made by Nemo

Friday, June 04, 2021

Sunday trip

Last Sunday we took a trip out to a crow silver's mine. It's a nice climb down - and quite a steep one going back up again.

We walked into the mine, climbed around a bit, collected crow silver and quartz outside the mine, and found shells near the water.

On our way back up to the car, we picked some flowers on the side of the trail. Lily of the valley (I haven't found these anywhere else around here) and some kind of purple-pink flowers, perhaps wild orchids.

We stopped for ice cream on our way home - spending quite some time in the queue, and all four of us ended up ordering milkshakes instead.

This is my medallion block for week 21 of the #focuscuttingsewalong hosted by @naomialicec ☕️ This week’s theme is taste - coffee and croissants taste good, but even better in good company. 🥐

via Instagram

85-92/100 #100hexies100days2021 Seasons - of sunglasses, hugs, travel, snowmen, gingerbread houses, and so on.. #100hexies100days

via Instagram

Tuesday, May 11, 2021

Meet in the middle - tablerunner

I've been subscribing to the Sew Sampler Box since September 2017 - which has given me a *sensored* amout of fabric and patterns and notions, considering the amount of projects I've actually completed from these boxes. I'm usually saving them "for later", working on them "right away" or "completing them" in a year or three. This time, it took me about 1 year from start to finish.

The pattern calls for two charm packs to be used, which I guess is for a table runner in a US-size - however, we don't have that many tables of that size here, in our house. So I've downsized it to fit our sofa table (and using only one charm pack).

I also changed the order of the colours, to follow the order of the colours in the norwegian flag (red - white - blue), thinking it would be great for the 17th of May (the norwegian constitution day).

I found the fabric for the binding in my stash - I can't remember where or when I bought it, but it looks great! And the quilting is just plain, straight lines - keeping up with the "finished"-theme of this year (might be for the whole decade, really..).

I'd love to make another one - I have a charm pack of Halloween fabric somewhere that I think might be a good candidate.

Friday, April 09, 2021

Finished knitting project - sweater no. 2 in 2021.

Sometimes inspiration is found in unexpected places - and times. I was watching an Instagram Live with a crafter that taught me how to spin yarn, and she was wearing the most incredible sweater I'd ever seen!

I managed to find it on Ravelry, and bougt the pattern. Trove

Originally knitted in one colour with several contrast colours, but I had an idea for yarn I already had - Sølje by Hillesvåg, dyed by Værbitt in the Tordivel colour (dung beetle in english).

It took me about 6-7 weeks to knit this sweater. But I love it! It's warm and fluffy and smells like wool..

And the colours - the natural grey and the shifting contrast yarn, making it almost shimmer like the metallic colours of beetles.

I decided to knit it in a smaller size than the pattern recommended, because I wanted it to have a snugger fit. The sleeves, therefore, had to be lengthened.

The construction of the neck and shoulders were insteresting and new to me. I guess I keep finding patterns that require me to learn new techniques. I decided to follow the recommendation from the pattern to use italian bindoff too, which took some extra time but gave a very nice result.

And now? Now I'm on a sweater break. I'm knitting a shortsleeved top, but there's yarn and pattern ready for another two sweaters waiting in line.. Including handspun yarn (which will be my first time knitting with my own made yarn). There are exciting projects ahead!

Thursday, April 08, 2021

Løvetannmamma

My mother-in-law gave me a bag of Kauni yarn last year, and I figured that I might as well try to use as much of it as possible, knitting a sweater for myself.

The colours in the pictures are a bit off.. the yarn changes colour from dark blue, to purple and blue, before returning to dark blue.

I've been wearing it quite much lately, it's thin enough to not feel stuffed, yet wam enough to be comfortable in the changing Spring temperatures.

And for the bag of yarn I was "using up"? Well, there's another sweater's worth of yarn left..

Tuesday, April 06, 2021

Finish what you started

I've continued working through my drawers of started projects, and stumbled upon three blocks from a project I made a few years ago (and an extra square of the background fabric). So, instead of making another large project using these blocks, I decided to pair them and make lavender pouches of them. and before I knew it, they were done! It only took four years..

Front

Back

And then I found four stitcheries just hiding underneath another project.. Well, we can't have any of that, right? Not in the year of finishing things.

A leftover block from my "dotted death"-projet (which still needs either binding - or a trip to the trashcan) paired with some red Moda fabric got a little bit of freemotion machine quilting practice. Perhaps a miniature tabletopper or a mugrug?

Another Christmas stitchery received the same treatment, this time matched up with some blue fabric. I see that I need to practice my fmmq, so I guess if (let's be realistic, when) I find any more blocks like this, I'll take the opertunity to get some more practice.

The last two recently unearthed were made into a couple of zipper bags. They're small, but larger than I first thought, not that it would be a problem. My plan was to make them into notions bags for knitting - with stitchmarkers, needles, a small pair of scissors and a tape measurer. Perhaps as gifts to a couple of my knitting friends.

Tuesday, March 30, 2021

And then it was completed..

I had to ask my mom to check her blog archive to find the year I started working on this UFO.

It turns out that it was from 2008.

One of my uncles went to Seattle and said that mom and I could order something to his hotel for him to bring back, and so we went to Keepsake Quilting and found a few items. Among them was this panel for me - Happily Ever After. I decided to handquilt it, and begun the task back in the summer of 2008. Quite quickly finishing the quilting of the house and most of the large tree - and then it went into a drawer and waited. And waited. And waited some more...

Until! It resurfaced this winter!

I contemplated ripping out the quilting and just quilt it by machine, but I'd gotten that far - why not finish it? And for about a month or two this was my goto-project for my Teams meetings where I was to listen and pay attention (and not speak).

And now it is done. 13 years later.

I still think it's a pretty panel - and I'd like to hang it up on the wall somewhere (I just need to find the perfect spot).

I've spent some time lately, tidying and going through my crafty stuff, throwing out a bunch of things and copies that are just not speaking to me anymore - and rediscovering quite a few started projects that I feel have a chance of being finished. So, in between working on newer (and slowgoing) projects, I'm trying to give these UFO's some well-deserved time and care - sticking by my frase of the year : Finished, not perfect.