I knew it! I knew it!

You Are the Swedish Chef

"Bork! Bork! Bork!" You're happy and energetic - with borderline manic tendencies. No one really gets you. And frankly, you don't even get you. But, you sure can whip up a great chocolate mousse.

The Muppet Personality Test

I always knew I would be Swedish Chef one day... Although I tend to say 'Murk, murk', rather than 'Bork, bork'.

My first knitted hat

My first knitted hat
Originally uploaded by harvestmoon.

As it is still quite cold I thought a hat would be a nice quick project. I saw a photo of a hat I liked on some Danish site and conjured up a pattern to emulate it. I think I did quite well, ha! I knitted the hat in just a few hours with some circulars I happened to have. The crown is crocheted.
The wool is from a frogged scarf I've had for some years, so I don't know what brand it is

The crown is crocheted

The crown is crocheted
Originally uploaded by harvestmoon.

The hat fits quite snugly, although I didn't do a swatch, as usual.

Something went wrong

I uploaded the last couple of entries via Flickr and apparently something went wrong with the order in which I uploaded them. I seem unable to correct this. YUK!

New sock started

New sock started
Originally uploaded by harvestmoon.

After I finished my first pair of socks I immediately started knitting another pair.

New sock wool has arrived!

New sock wool has arrived!
Originally uploaded by harvestmoon.

And I ordered some great sock yarn via e-bay. And... my mother, who is 86, took up knitting socks again. I lured her into this by showing her this yarn and, as I hoped, she couldn't resist. She chose the blue/green, the third from the top.
The blue/green yarn at the top I will use to knit a scarf. I ordered two of the balls.

Lava flow stitch (detail)

Lava flow stitch (detail)
Originally uploaded by harvestmoon.

I'm using the lava flow stitch, which is not too complicated, to allow for mindless knitting.

3. The mermaid's wedding

3. The mermaid's wedding
Originally uploaded by harvestmoon.

Okay, this pic is even worse. It's the third of the lamps.

My first pair of socks

My first pair of socks
Originally uploaded by harvestmoon.

I finished these in the beginning of January and am very proud of them! They fot like a dream and I think I caught the sock bug.

2. Up and out of the water

2. Up and out of the water
Originally uploaded by harvestmoon.

The second of the series of lamps. Lousy pic! Sorry about this...

1. Treasure below the surface

1. Treasure below the surface
Originally uploaded by harvestmoon.

This is the first of series of three hangings. They are part of an exhibition of lamps in a small museum here in Leiden. At the exhibition I put lamps behind them. And there is also a little fairy tale which I made up and printed out. I stuck up the story so that visitors know what the series of lamps represent.

First sock finished!

Stash Sunday January 15th
Originally uploaded by harvestmoon.

And it fits like a dream, to my amazement! Now up to the second sock. And as you see on the photo there's another ball ready for the next pair.
On the internet I found a Dutch yarn store called M+M Wolpost, which sells gorgeous sock yarn very cheap. Again this is self-patterning, in all kinds of lovely colour combinations, with names like Parrot and Chameleon. And they've got lots of other great yarn too. I might choose some to make a cardigan.

Creative clutter

Creative clutter
Originally uploaded by harvestmoon.

At the moment I'm working on three wallhangings made from cotton fabric with wool felted onto them. I'm also adding machine embroidery. They will be part of an exhibiton in which I take part with seven other felting ladies from my felting course. The theme is 'lamps', so I will put tiny lamps behind them.
They're alomst finished. I only have to add some beads and stuff. So if all goes well that'll be another project finished (hopefully this afternoon).

Artist Date 1 - January 3

Artist Date 1 - January 3
Originally uploaded by harvestmoon.

I joined a group on Flickr in order to follow the creativity course presented in the book The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron.
Doing this course entails writing three so-called Morning Pages every day. I'm not particularly fond of doing this, especially not in the morning, ha!
Each week you also have to take yourself on an Artist Date. This I like very much. In week 1 I went to the local Museum of Ethnology to see an exhibition about Australia I had wanted to see for a long time. I liked it immensely! In the museum shop I also bought a very nice book about textile crafts inspired by African methods of printing, braiding, embroidery etc. It was a real bargain.

Christmas ornament

Christmas ornament
Originally uploaded by harvestmoon.

This is the Christmas ornament I made for Susan, and which has fortunately arrived. It took very long, although I sent it by Air Mail.
I hand felted the material and added Angelina fibre, machine embroidery and some beads.

Christmas ornament (detail)

Christmas ornament (detail)
Originally uploaded by harvestmoon.

First sock

First sock
Originally uploaded by harvestmoon.

This is the start of my first sock ever! I started it on 16 Dec. The start was troublesome: fighting with four needles at the same time! But now the knitting has become easy. Who would have thought that!
Last night my mother helped me with the heel part, which wasn't as difficult as I expected. I'll post pictures of the progress later.
My mother is 86 and knitted tons of socks in her life. Now she's learning me how to do it, so I will be able to knit socks for my BF.

Clapotis finally finished

Clapotis finally finished
Originally uploaded by harvestmoon.

Another pic of the clap, which I started during my summer vacation and finished only on 11 Dec. There were so many project interfering...

Clapotis finally finished

Clapotis finally finished
Originally uploaded by harvestmoon.

I finished my clap on 11 Dec. It's super to wrap around me when it's cold! Note the pompoms. They're great to play with!

pattern: clapotis from knitty.com
material: Katia Sonrisa (6 1/2 balls)
needles 3 1/2 mm

What kind of yarn are you?

Curly whirly small edition

Curly whirly small edition
Originally uploaded by harvestmoon.

I was inspired by someone on the Curly Whirly blog, who had made a small CW and hang it on her Christmas tree.
So you see, the uses for the CW are endless...

Paulus loves the scarf too!

Paulus loves the scarf too!
Originally uploaded by harvestmoon.

Normally my cat Paulus doesn't like posing for a photo, but this time he seemed to like the warm scarf so much that he sat still long enough for me to take a picture. Specially when my BF was there to pay him some attention.

Red sea anemone

Red sea anemone
Originally uploaded by harvestmoon.

That's what my BF calls it.

Curly whirly scarf

Curly whirly scarf
Originally uploaded by harvestmoon.

This is my first knitted version of the curly whirly scarf. It is knitted with two 50 g. balls of Katia Ingenua (mohair). I did a double version, i.e. I first knitted one half and then took up the CO stitches again and knitted the other half.
It's so soft and warm! I love it!

Felted bowl 3

Felted bowl 3
Originally uploaded by harvestmoon.

And here is the bowl!

Felted bowl 2

Felted bowl 2
Originally uploaded by harvestmoon.

Here you can see the bobbly structure even better.

Felted bowl 1

Felted bowl 1
Originally uploaded by harvestmoon.

Yesterday I thought it would be a good moment to start on the felted lamp I still need to make for the exposition in January 2006, so I took out all my felting things. But when I began I suddenly found myself making a beret. Or so I thought. Because when the 'thing' came out of the washing machine (I first felted it by hand for some time and then gave it a final spin in the washing machine to make it felt some more) I knew it was supposed to be a bowl. I liked the bobbly structure too much. For a beret I would have had to stretch it and the bobbles would be lost.
In this picture you see how it first looked, like a brain with a plastic bag stucking out of it. Instant love, for some reason...