From the High North

What does the fox say!

Foxes are so in fashion at the moment and they are so cute! Some fellow countrymen of mine have become a big hit on YouTube with the song "What does the fox say". I have never heard a fox before... so I believe them when they give out the stages sounds!

I have played around with foxes in knitting for some while and got around to a hat that I really love!

The knitting pattern for the hat is available in the current issue of The Knitter (issue 64), and will be available on Ravelry next year.

It's a fun and fast knit that gives a super hat to wear as winter approaches!

I bought Molly Makes the other day and the free kit was two felt fox brooches! Both were made the other day and worn at a party on Saturday!

The fox is a clever little fury friend, and she lend herself so well to designs for all sorts of things. I have so many favourite foxt things on Etsy!

I love this bookends from Article. They are a very creative duo in Ukraine.

Searching for "fox" on Etsy gave nearly 50 000 hits! Is the fox the most popular animal in design?!

What a bout these lovely jars on the breakfast table?! I would certainly feel inspired after breakfasting with these lovely foxes!

They are made in London by Poussepoussecitron.

As I love needle felting I can not help admiring these beautiful foxes. They are made by Sarafina Fibers in Elkton, Maryland, USA.

What about wearing these great mittens as you wiz down the street? I simply love them and they do go well with my hat.

They are made by warmYourself in Poland, and if you are quick to buy you can take advantage for the autumn sale in store.

I made a smartphone cosy based to the hat pattern and here it is! If you want to make it you can buy the pattern on Etsy.

The classic story form the woods including foxes would not be the same without a hare! One of my favourite shops on Etsy stocks a lot of lovely hares. Annette in Scotland manages so well to capture the movement of the hare in her wonderful soft sculptures.Check out her shop TheLeveretsNest.
She ever so often support animal welfare charities and she is an excellent painter too.

So, what dose the fox say?!

Click to find out!

Doing up the little room

It's been a long time since I have blogged and that means I have been busy with vacation and fun projects at my summer house.

I have redecorated the toilette at the cottage and it's been great fun. It's in a shed attached to the cottage but the only entrance is from the garden. The toilet had some torn 70s wallpaper, the cistern was leaking a bit and the rest looked like it was knocked together on a Saturday night.

I did not want to spend a lot of money so clever solutions had to be found. So here is what I did!


I found an old scrolled shelf at a charity shop and hung it over the toilet roll holder.

As there are no electricity in the shed and I wanted a chandelier I used a paper-pop-up form Talking Tables and hung some real crystals on it. As for actual lighting I have a garden shed solar lamp and attached a crystal to the pull as well!

The shelf over the toilet roll is a perfect place to display beautiful flowers from the garden. If people are spending some time in the little room they can admire the flowers or read some of the magazines provided.

I added some pea flowers to give off the lovely scent to the room. I love the bird vase that I got at a sale in a local flower shop.

The ceiling is a rustic wooden board and I decided to paint it as it was. To draw some attention away for the ceiling I bought some fake plaster moldings that was cheap and easy to glue in position.

The wallpaper was bought at a clearance at Laura Ashely and as the room is tiny I didn't need much.

For the flooring I used some left over vinyl from when we redecorated the hall in the flat in town. It's good economy to get every little bit used.

It's a big surprice to first time visitors as they first enter the shed with garden tools and other bits and pieces. The they open the door to a little summery time on their own!
I'm really happy with the result.

What do you see?

Reflection in the window with the tree tops in the foreground.

The weekend has been lovely. It started with our National Day festivities on Friday and then the first warm weather of the year came upon us! I spent days at the summer cottage, literally watching things grow.

On warm evenings we sit outside on out partly glazed-in veranda. As the evening grew older, I saw a reflection of the hill behind the cottage in the window. As the clouds were dark it looked like a landscape in the sky! I managed to capture the view with my camera and I think it looks so spectacular that I want to share it with you.

Reflection in the window with the clouds as a backdrop.

To poke an Owl

This morning I poked an owl! It's not something I do every morning. In fact it is the first morning I've done it and therefor the first owl!

I was asked by Eden Arts Canopy Project in Cumbria, UK, if I would make something for their exhibition at Acorn Bank National Trust property near Penrith.

After a very busy February and March I didn't think I had the time, but this morning I sat down with the wool and the felting needles and gave it a go. Barn owls where the inspiration and here is the result.

If you think the feet looks weird, they are only temporary, made out of paper clips. I will make proper feet after a visit to the store to buy wire.

The Canopy Project can be seen from April 6th until 3rd November in the woods at Acorn Banks. Hopefully this little owl will be sitting in a tree and looking down at you wondering how it ended up in England when it saw it's beginning in Oslo, Norway. Say hello to the owl form me if you see her!

I am back form the shop and the owl has got new and improved feet!

If you want to find out more about the Eden Arts Canopy Project go to the canopy project on their website.http://www.edenarts.co.uk/portfolio/canopy/

Sale at the yarn store!

One of my favourite yarn stores had a sale on today. Yarn stores in Norway carry mostly wool and very little fancy yarn. However, plain wool can be made into wonderful garments and accessories!

Here is what I got!

The white, mustard and grey yarn is bulky and I have a cushion in my mind for that one. Some of the white yarn will be dyed with Kool Aid and food colouring!

The teal and browish alpaca is bulky too and I am not sure what to make of this. I watched the movie Robin Hood with Cate Blanchett and Russell Crowe the other day and was taken by the colours in a dress Marion was wearing - and that is the reason for these colours.

I bought a bunch deep red and white dk weight superwash wool is for a top I will make for the autumn I think.

By and large I am happy I didn't come home with more. I have ideas for what I got (almost all of it), and I have a cupboard full of yarn already!

Lunch break on a Tuesday

It's a very ordinary Tuesday and I am working away at translating my knitting book form English to Norwegian. The book will hit the market in August so I feel a bit out of tune with the season in that respect. Working from home it is always good to go out for lunch. As I live in the city center I have plenty of options just around the corner. Around the same corner there is a beautiful park. On this particular Tuesday I brought my camera and went for a walk in the park - after a lovely soup.

It snowed yesterday - and as I look out of the window now it is snowing again! White fresh snow can transform any day into a fairy tale! See for yourself!

...is this Narnia?

Oslo at it's best?


Yarn graffiti

How Kool is this?!

Some time back I read about Kool Aid dyeing of yarn. As I live in Norway, I didn't know about Kool Aid at all, and the idea that you could dye yarn with it was completely fascinating to me.

Thank to the internet I had could investigate the topic and quickly found that I had to give it a go too. There was one major problem; where to get Kool Aid?

Fortunateley I have some friends in the US and a young knitting friend of mine supplied me with a few packs of the miracle soft drink mix!

Armed with white wool, Kool Aid and wonderful inspiration form blogs on the web I gave it a go last night!

What did I do?
I took a 50g ball of yarn and wound it into a skein.
I soaked it in warm water for about 30 minutes.
I heated some water in a large pan. It was so hot it steamed, but it did not boil.
I dropped the yarn in the pan and spread it out to be as loose as possible.
I sprinkled Kool Aid on it: Cherry on the one side and Lemon Lime on the other. In between I added some Lemonade (which didn't do much)
I let is sit in the pan until the water was clear and the dye was absorbed by the yarn.
I pored off the water and left the yarn to cool off a bit.
I rinsed it in tepid water and hung it to dry.

So much fun and so simple! I have a lot to learn when it comes to mixing colours - but isn't that part of the fun? I think it is!

If you want to give it a go here are some tips:
Kool Aid will only stick to animal fibers (including your hair!)
Kool Aid is safe to use for children
Kool Aid gives a permanent colour.

Here are some of the blogs I learned a lot form:
Maiya knits
Chalk Legs

For colour charts there are a few on the net, and I have found this (too bad I couldn't find out who to credit for it).

Have fun!

Cottage Cheese Rolls recipe

Staying with friends in the US I lend a hand in the kitchen from time to time. At one point I was presented with a recipe for cottage cheese biscuits (what we call buns or rolls in Europe). They turned out so well that I want to share the recipe with you!

They tasted particularly good after a brisk walk in winter wonder land!

Adapted from a Mennonite Cookbook from the 1970's, these moist and yeasty rolls have become a family favorite.

Serves 2 dozen rolls

2 packets dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
2 cups cottage cheese - heated to luke warm
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs, beaten
4 - 5 cups bread flour

in small bowl, combine yeast and warm water
In large bowl, combine yeast mixture and all remaining ingredients except flour and stir until well combined
Slowly mix in flour....stirring with wooden spoon until mixture forms a ball.
Turn dough onto floured surface and knead 5 minutes.
Place dough in greased bowl, turning once. Cover and allow to rise until doubled.....about 1 1/2 hours.
Punch down. Form into 24 equally-sized pieces and shape into balls.
Place balls in 2 greased 9" round cake pans.
Cover and allow to rise 30 minutes.
Bake at 350 degrees for 20 - 25 minutes or until golden.

Black Water Falls state park, WV.

Longing for spring

The hill up the street is a perfect place for some winter fun.

Happy New Year to all my readers! I hope you all have nice and interesting events and adventures to look forward to this year.

I look forward to spring. Mid-January is maybe the most dreary time of the year. Christmas and the holidays are over and spring and summer seems so far away.

What I normally do to overcome the January down is to make sure to have some fun outside during day light. A little jog, some skiing in the woods or a brisk walk in the park. Sleighing on a slope always makes me laugh!

My garden right now!

The other way to beat the blues is to start planing my garden. Ordering seeds and looking for inspiration is a great and fun thing to do and filled with expectations of lazy summer days.

So where do I look for inspiration when all is frozen and covered in snow?

I have some favourite web sites that I can spend hours browsing. What you sow is an independent online shop selling all things garden! Check out the mini townhouse garden.

The make the perfect little gift or a fun green addition to the window sill during January.

I could not get sowing going without the seed pot maker. With help of this clever and fun contraption I make seed pots from news paper and feel good for recycling. Don't miss their January Sale!

From What You Sow blog.

What You Sow has a great blog too where you can find tips on growing, cooking with your produce and much much more!

Obviously I need some seeds and I get mine form Burford Garden Company on my frequent trips to England.

I bought literary hundreds of bulbs last autumn and just imagine how exciting it will be to see all the flowers when summer returns to my part of the world!

A Bungee Bird Feeder from What You Sow!

Designer fashion at it's best

Last month the Nordic clothing company Lindex launched a collection by the Italian designers at Missoni. I am not the first person to que up in front of the shop to get cheap designer fashion at H&M or other clothing storess. This time I should have done so! I love the collection and it was sold out in minutes.

The collection is so timeless and wearable, and I regretted not getting a few of the beautiful clothes. Fortunately I found someone who had bought a bit too many items and I secured a cardigan and a matching top.

Photo: Lindex/Missoni


Photo: Lindex/Missoni

The fact that the garments are knitted and drapes well, make them wearable for many people. The colours are so Missoni and I would add; timeless!

As a knitter Missoni has always fascinated me. Buying the cardigan set challanged me as to what I would wear it with, And now it all comes together in a way! I am knitting a skirt to go with the cardigan set.

There was a skirt in the collection, but for me that would be too busy to wear together. I then decided to knit a skirt in black, using the same technique as used in the cardigan set. I am half done with the skirt and am really eager to finish and wear all the pieces together!

Photo: E. Oftedal

The skirt has a lace effect along the increases at the hem, and I decided to have the rest of the skirt without the "holes". It takes more yarn than I expected so I am off to get some more.