knitted + felted slippers

Do you remember the slippers I was knitting on a few weeks ago? I finished them last week and felted them in the washing machine. They shrunk by 50% and are now as long as Nora's feet :-) Nora had chosen the yarn and now she told me she wanted pink and purple butterflies on them. I needle felted the butterflies and added some pink and blue glass beads. I put "sock stop" under them. The yarn and pattern are from Garnstudio. The yarn is Eskimo and you can find the pattern here.

I am very happy with the results. They're pretty and they're her size. Nora's opinion? "I don't think they're so comfortable." She does everything she can to keep her old slippers, that are about three sizes too small (she's walking on their heels) and has a big hole in the front (growing every week). But I think (or hope) she'll change her mind after using them for a week. Because that's what I told her: Wear them only one week and hopefully you'll get used to them, and if you don't like them by the end of that week, we'll think of something else. She agreed to that.

Today has been about walking - but in other ways. Nora and I went to my physiotherapist and I borrowed crutches + some other things that will help me and simplify my life. Now it's just a few weeks until the baby will arrive, and after that I will soon recover and be able to walk again. However now I will spend a few days learning to walk with crutches. I've never done that before.

winter holiday

It's Tuesday morning. Nora is on winter holidays all this week and outside it's just perfect weather for such a holiday: snow on the ground, frost on the trees, a little bit of sunshine. Had I not been 9 months pregnant I'd made us something hot to drink, some sandwiches and fruit to eat, and gone out in the nature. Maybe practiced a little ice skating with her too. But, because of pelvic girdle pain, I can only walk to the car and back and not so much more. Next winter, I tell myself. Next winter we'll do those things. This holiday we craft.

Yesterday we went to an "öppen förskola". It's a place where kids and parents can meet, like a kindergarten but still not at all. There's people working there, but the parents stay, and you can talk, play, eat, craft, maybe sing songs together or listen to a story. After coming home I was so tired. Nora was not. I finished a few knittings while she was creating. It was a nice afternoon.

Keep Calm Craft On.

knit a cat

I knitted a cat and wrote a tutorial in Swedish. I feel a bit too tired at the moment writing it in English, but I wanted to share the photo with you.

snack time

we make and create too much ;-)

What do you do with all stuff you create?



Nora and I love to create little creatures, aliens, houses etc and she plays with them (at least for a while, until some new are created). She doesn't want to part with them. It's just that we've made so many things - and there are more to come. Sometimes, when something is broken and she hasn't used it for a while, I throw it away. However she use to remember the things we made and ask for them.

I love the process of creating. I love that she plays with it. But I don't love having hundreds of little creatures and their houses all over our flat.

I guess I'm not alone feeling that way. How do you handle it?

what a newborn needs + needle felting

"Have you prepared everything for the baby?", people ask.

Well, um, no? Or, is there that much to prepare?

The baby will sleep with us in our bed, so no need to prepare a bed. We just have to move our bed to the wall, but that is done in a few minutes.

We have found Nora's old baby car safety seat (I'm sure there's another word for that, but my English isn't that advanced ;-) ) so that we can bring the baby home safely. We have also found Nora's baby clothes and begun to wash them. I have some cloth diapers ready in the bathroom (we will need more, but there's no catastrophy if the baby arrives before the diapers, it is possible to use conventional diapers for a while after all).

Another family borrowed our stroller a year ago and we haven't brought it back home yet, but as I sell baby carriers and wraps we'll get along well until it comes home again.

I can't think of anything else we have to prepare. A newborn baby doesn't need so much.

So I needle felted this for the baby:

Self striping yarn and a magazine

I've finished Nora's socks and her slippers. I'll just have to remember to take some pictures, and then I'll show you.The socks on the photo are for me (I think). I very seldom knit things for myself. I wonder why - I seem to be the one who appreciate knitted gifts the most ;-) Nora often likes what I'm knitting, until she's trying it on and exlaims "it's not comfortable!". Anyway, I cast on the red socks last Thursday on the sock knitting class and I'm trying a couple of new things, like making a stronger heel. I like that the yarn is self striping, it makes so fun to knit. "Just one more row", I say.

Except for the last chapter in the Confident Birth book, I'm not reading any book at the moment. However the last issue of Craftseller arrived two days ago. I haven't had time to really sit down and read it, I've only flipped through it a couple of times, but I hope I can read it any day now. Just so many other things and daily chores came in between (and I'm so tired in the evenings, I fall asleep together with Nora before ten pm).

More yarn along with Ginny.

Hama bead snowflakes

"I want to make something", Nora said yesterday evening. That was after a weekend full of play dooh that she got from my dad and his wife. She decided to make snowflakes out of Hama beads. She had a picture of such snowflakes and I was impressed at how soon she figured out exactly how to make them. I think they turned out quite pretty.

This morning she was still in a Hama bead-mood so she continued with the white beads on the star she begun a while back. She was so into it that she didn't want any breakfast (not that she's ever been a breakfast girl - opposite to Magnus and me).



Keep calm craft on.

A good weekend

My dad and his wife came to visit (and help) us. We wanted a washing machine and a freezer. We do have a freezer already, of course, but it's so small that it's always full and I can never bake a lot of bread and put there, or buy local organic meet in bigger amounts, not to mention when it's harvesting time at my allotment. I can't carry anything now when I'm pregnant, but even if I was not the machine was way too heavy for my, so I was glad my dad could help Magnus carrying it up the stairs.



Our orchid is in bloom again. We got it on our wedding day 2,5 years ago and since then it's seemed quite sad, but I think it liked moving to this house and to another window.

Slippers and a boring book

Crazy looking slippers and a very interesting book ...



You wouldn't guess, but that slipper is for Nora's little foot. Yes, it's big. It fits me. But I will put it in the washing machine together with its friend (aka the other one) and felt it. I made slippers like these to my sister for Christmas and they were huge before felting. She seems to really like them, as she asked if I could make some for her kids as well :-)

Nora's current slippers are outgrown by far, and through a hole her toe is peaking out. She still wears them.

You hear, I really need to focus on finishing the second one. She choose the colors with me in the yarn shop so there's a great chance she might actually throw away her old ones and use these. I hope they will fit. You never know excatly which size they'll come out as when felting them in the machine.

The book. It's about book-keeping and annual closing. I have a business. It's that time of the year, yes. I wouldn't have read it if I didn't have too. But, it's helpful :-)

Yarn along with Ginny.

smoothie, dolls and winter

The last two days it's been snowing. Our car looks like a snowman every morning when I come out. While writing this I chat with my sister. We talk about what we will do in July and look at photos on the Internet of the island Gotland where we will go with our families, my mom and her boyfriend.

But it's Februari now. We drink smoothies with berries, fruits and vegetables. Nora and I make dolls for her to play with.




Keep calm craft on :-)

Trying something new

It's quite long ago I read about Action Pack the first time, but I checked the page out and really liked the concept. However Nora was so little and I thought it was nothing for us then.

But as this pregnancy goes torwards its end I'm finding myself too tired to come up with ideas, let alone do things that require me to leave my chair. Nora, who is soon five, needs things to do though. Recently I saw the Preschool Compilation Issue and felt that was just what we needed.




As most children she loves to play with water and she's also very curious and asks many question. An experiment of some kind would be something for her, I thought, so we begun with oily fireworks. As we were making it we talked about what we were doing and why it behaved as it did. She was really fascinated and the first thing she did the following day when we visited "Open Kindergarden" was to tell about our little "experiment" and how it worked :-)

There are so many more things in this issue that we want to try out. Like the volcano, the pretzel house, making our own butter - just to mention a few. I'll tell you more later about our future adventures in Action Pack Land ;-) (The picture below is a link.)

We need butterflies

When I was little my grandma once brought farfalle pasta when she visited us. With my sister we painted butterflies as an Easter decoration. I thought of those butterflies the other day when it was snowing. I want spring. I want flowers. I want butterflies.

Well, let's make some.


More inspiration to be found at Friday's Nature Table.

Childroom: dream and reality

I got pregnant just after moving in here and because of my health everything still looks lika a mess. My husband is busy with all daily chores (like laundry, cleaning, doing the dishes etc) besides working full time, so he hasn't got any energy or time to make it more nice at home.

On Pinterest I look a children's rooms and get inspired. I just want to go to Nora's room and make it more tidy and inspiring (but my pain is stopping me). Look at these rooms:

Source: fraupilli.blogspot.de via milly o on Pinterest

I love the wall hanging with the animals.

Source: Uploaded by user via milly o on Pinterest

From Niños... y no tan niños...
Doesn't this look very cozy?! I'd love to sit there and read myself.

And below ... our reality. After playing. Christmas curtains still up (at least there are no Santas on them).

winterland

Winter can be so beautiful. Sunshine through ice crystals. Going for walks in deep snow. Going in to drink something warm. Snowfall, like today.



Still -

all I want is SPRING. And I want it now.

Spring, a baby, the ability to walk without pain again, birds singing, tulips ...

Yarn along: wool and confident birth

This isn't what I'm actually reading. This is the book that I should be reading. I think the title in English is "Confident Birth". When Nora was born five years ago it was with a C-section, because she didn't think arriving with her head first was such a very good idea. So far, this baby seems to like the idea though. I hope it stays in this position until it's time to arrive :-)

The knitting. What to say about it. It's not so much yet. I made a pattern the other evening of a lady from a much loved child book and now I'm giving it a try knitting it in this yarn (100% wool from Swedish sheep). Maybe the wool is too thin. I'm not sure yet.

More knitting and reading over at Ginny's blog.

A secret message

Valentine's Day is not a big thing here, although it's grown since I was little (especially among younger people). However, creating or recieving a secret love message is always nice so I played around a little with oil pastel crayon and water colors.

dinner time

When dinnner's boring, there are always ways to make it more funny ;-) Nora giggled until there was almost no food left on the plate.