Porch plants, painting and new layout

I came here to post some new photos of the flowers on the porch, some started blooming while we were away so it was fun to come home and see what color the flowers had.
But when I signed in to Blogger I got a message about new layouts and to make a long story short I ended up making a new header and changing the background.

Anyway, here are some Midnight Dahlias that didn't have flowers when I bought them so I had no idea how they would turn out.

Then there is this gorgeous hot pink pelargonium, it's even brighter in real life.

Another Dahlia, also much brighter in real life.

This is a "Blue Bird" or Delphinium Pacific-Hybride

While we were away on vacation we visited some friends of my parents that are painters and I bought a painting. It's perfect for our gray wall in the living-room.
It's called Nebula and was painted by Per-Olof Eklund.

The only problem is that now I want another painting to put on the right side of the right wall-light. And I know that there was a nice small painting in the right colors in their studio.

Long time no write...

Well... It's been ages since I blogged last, sorry! Since then we've been to a big dog-show in Norway, it was so much fun even though Gin decided that judges are horrible horrible persons and that he most definitely wouldn't show his teeth or let the judge touch him at all. Oh well, guess we'll give it another go after he's out of his teenage-phase.

I've also some some planting of flowers in pots on out porch, here is how it looks now.
Gin decided that the photos needed more Shiba-butt in them :D

My socks are finished!

I finally finished my socks. They fit perfect and I had lots of yarn left, actually I could have made them almost-knee-socks. I will make the pattern available as soon a s I figure out how to do a chart and have the energy to write it up. It will be the first pattern from BeaGin Design :) Hopefully more will come :)

Knitting news

Perhaps I should make a post with my knitting-progress as well?

Well, I finished my Bavarian Cable socks, they fit great and I love them :)

I also made a key-chain sock from the sample-yarns I got from The Loopy Ewe.

More details can be found here

I've started a new pair of socks that I'm designing my self. Can you call it designing when I got the cable-pattern from a stitch-dictionary?

And a new shawl, well I started it a while back but haven't gotten around to posting about it yet.
It's Bradywine Shawl by Rosmary Hill.

Oh, I have to show you the wonderful stuff I got from Keri and Stacy in the first Tempted/3AM Enchantments club package for 2010!

Spring is here!

Spring is finally here, and I've got the photos to prove it :D





There is also photos from our walk yesterday, it has been way too long since we took any new pictures of the dogs so here they come :)

Beautiful Bea!

Tigerfight!

Bea and Gin on a bench.

Hunting Gin... he's going for the kill of the tiger toy we brought.

Flying Gin.

Gin is doing his best at showing him self even though the angle isn't the best :)

This is the same snowpile that you can see here

Sock KAL and Ravelympics

I finished both the Socks from the toe up KAL for February and my Ravelympic knitting in time.

Here are my socks for the Sock KAL.
They are a teeny tiny bit too short in the foot but they are still wearable. But now I know that I need to make socks a little bit longer next time.


And here is the mitts I knit for Ravelympics. I'm very pleased with how they turned out and I have been wearing them every day this week so far :D

Ravelympic knitting

I decided to frog the mitten I knit last weekend and instead knit mitts with the same pattern except I added 5 rows of K1P1-ribbing in the beginning and the end.



I'm very happy with how this mitten turned out and I can't wait to finish the second one so I can wear them. Tonight I'm going to knit a heel on my Mallow-socks though.

Fun in snow!

Since we've gotten crazy amounts of snow this winter and got some more the last few days I felt it was time for some photos of fun in the snow =D
I'll let the photos do the talking today.

No, he's not lying down, he's standing on top of more snow =D











I'm actually standing on a smaller pile of snow, the "hill" the dogs are on is at least 2 meters high =D


Our front door, our apartment is the windows to the left of the entrance.

Ravelympics and socks

Since Ravelry is hosting Ravelympics during the winter Olympics and I decided to join I assume I should blog a little about it as well.

As my first event I choose Mitten Moguls and Cable Cross-Country, I'm competing with my mittens. Pattern is Bella's Mittens by Marielle Henault. Yarn is Cascade 220 in Savona Rose.



Then I realized that I could dye some yarn for the Downhill Dyeing event. I got out the yarn (60% wool, 20% bamboo & 20% silk) and the Kool-Aid. I used 2 bags of Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade Kool-Aid Twist and 1 bag of Pink Lemonade Kool-Aid. I used less than recommended amount of Kool-Aid since I didn't want the colours to be too bright.
I got my medal for the Downhill Dyeing yesterday, it's to the left =D



I'm also taking part of the Socks from the toe up KAL this month. I'm doing the free patterns though. We're knitting Mallow-socks and I'm using Lorna's Laces Shepherd sock in Daffodil.



I've also gotten a bit farther on my Festivus sock, I've turned my first heel. Keri that wrote the pattern is also the source of all the knitting-bags I use :D



And I've finished my first Bavarian Cable sock and I'm at the heel-turn on my second! Yay! I'm going to try and finish them this month. But I'll probably finish the KAL first.



This weekend I'm going to Syfestivalen, I need to get some DPNs for the thumbs on my mittens and I'm going to look for a Niddy Noddy and some undyed yarn. And maybe a getting-started-kit for spinning yarn.

Swap package from Keri!

Earlier this week my swap-package finally arrived after a 3 day stop at the post office since they didn't let me know they had it there *grr*

It was awesome! I love everything in it!



Keri sent me:
A wonderful interchangeable needle-storage made of beautiful Dala-horse fabric.



A gorgeous accessory-pouch in Navy Fields of Sheep fabric.



Tempted Good Grrl in the color Dala-horse, it's really wonderful.



7 flavors of Kool-Aid so that I can dye some more yarn :D Will use some of these for the Downhill Dyeing event at Ravelympics :D
There was Jerky and chocolate. Chocolate seems to have disappeared, suddenly it was just all gone ;) I've still got most of the Jerky left but only because I put in the cupboard to not eat it all at once.
There were some chew-bones for the dogs. Gin and Bea loved them!



There were also BBQ-sauces & BBQ-rub. And a Caramel Pecan Apple Butter that taste wonderful!
And plastic sheet protectors in US-letter format, it's impossible to get here and I need a couple, now I think I have enough for a lifetime ;)

There was a wonderful white wolf as well.


Wolfie unfortunately arrived with a broken leg but it healed up nicely with some super-glue :)

I really loved my package. And all my interchangeable needles got immediately stuffed into their new home. And the Sheep-bag got filled with my fixed circular needles :) Yarn is waiting for the right pattern but will probably become a shawlette.
BBQ-sauces got tried tonight for dinner and they were great!

Keri is a wonderful swap-partner and I really appreciate having her as my friend.
She's the one who got me to sign up for the Ravelympics as well, all I needed was a nudge ;)