The phantom of Eline's makings

Randomly

elifantom — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 11:54:05 +0000

Shoes – perfectly adapt for showing socks off.

Rainbow blanket, progressing (hoping it will be finished when we hit that wall of cold that kept us shivering all of last winter…)

This weekend I treated myself to a doll-making course. I only managed to show up saturday, because as sunday rolled by I was knocked cold by an infection. I love antibiotics. Really, I do. Without them, I’d be dead. And so would my mom. And a whole lot of other people. Anyway, here’s the doll as it looked after a day’s work.

I’m knitting it a cardigan (it will get arms!), a mini-version of my wee one’s new sweater.

Bamboo-bike-love

Yeah.

Insane elderflower lemonade-making! 35 litres, people! That’s a lot of bottles to sanitize. And a lot of elderflower-gin-sparkly water drinks to drink afterwards.

Things that fail

elifantom — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 11:45:44 +0000

Like all bloggers, my life isn’t all gloss and glory. Things fail. Don’t turn out the way I want them. Or just plain suck.

Such as some sucker stealing my bike! It happened a long time ago, but I couldn’t bear to talk about it before. I still get heavy in my heart seeing pictures of it. I know it’s silly and just a thing, but I really liked this bike, bought it with my own money because I thought “this is an awesome bike and it will carry me around the world beautifully”. And then someone took it just a month after I got it.
Sweet bike, come back to me!

This is a knitting fail:

The colours are beautiful, the yarn is lovely (Dansk Mohair). The pattern riotously popular. What could go wrong? Two things, stockinette rolling over like nobody’s business, and I also failed to do the right increases at the very beginning, but didn’t notice until the end. You will also see that I didn’t take a finished picture even though it is actually finished. Ahem. Fail.

Also, you should pay attention when you’re whipping cream. It’s a delicate balance, and say, talking with your toddler while making whipped cream, could very quickly lend you a whole lot of butter. Just sayin’.

That’s it! No more photographic evidence of failure for you! That’s because I don’t want to show you the pile of (clean, but yet to be folded) pile of laundry that is waiting for me. Ah, so you think that everyone has that kind of pile. Sure. But this one is about a month old. Yay. I will go now and show it who’s master. After I’ve finished my sandwich, that is.

Drawings

elifantom — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 11:35:50 +0000

I’ve been making drawings for friends.

This one is my friend and her children sleeping together.

And this is another friend and her twin sister

Lazy blogger – full on life

elifantom — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 11:30:46 +0000

If anyone actually reads this, they’d noticed that I don’t actually update this thing very often. But that’s a good thing, because hey, life’s been good and I’ve been making lots of stuff. And I use my “make-stuff-o-meter” as a way of telling my general happiness in life. Eline making lots of stuff = YAY! All is well. Eline not making stuff = UH-OH, you’d better relax and take care of yourself.

But stuff has been made, so all is well. I also do this stuff for a lot of hours every day called work, which funnily enough sucks out a lot of time from my life. The thing is that I’ve been really lucky and sneakily got myself a job that is awesome. So there you go.

Now let me show you some of the things I’ve made:

First up: Newly finished sweater for my out-and-about toddler, who needs a sturdy sweater this autumn. It’s intentionally pretty big, because hey, why not get two years of wear into it? It’s a crappy phone-pic, but the colours are very rich, the red especially. Oh, and the head-opening does fit him, I know it’s small, but the ribbing stretches a lot.

Next up: A sweater, this time a summery one for me. I’m on the fence about it. It’s ok, but I’m worried it looks too “handknitted” to wear in public. Perhaps I should venture into public and see what it says? (Not that it would help, really, I think a live boa snake would be necessary to attract attention in this urban environment I live in…)

I’m worried the picked-up stitches at the neck give it away as a handknit…

But overall, it looks good and fits me well.

I made a shawl. Because I really need more shawls. Hah. Not. But it will not stop me from making more shawls. I’m looking at you, Stephen West secret KAL.

Sufjan, needled.

elifantom — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 12:26:33 +0000

It’s friday, I’m sleep-deprived and hyper. So out of my blog silence I bring you a picture of Sufjan Stevens KNITTING!

http://www.last.fm/music/Sufjan+Stevens/+images/2277029

I’m tired and sleep-deprived so you’ll only get the link. Sorry. You’ll see me soon, dancing to weird beats pretending no one is watching.

New knits

elifantom — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 13:51:09 +0000

I think it might be time for a new post about the knitting I’ve been doing lately.

First of all, a crazy idea has been taking up most of my needle-time this past week – a cozy rainbow blanket! I’m using the feather and fan stitch pattern, to keep it as simple as possible. And I must say that the ripples work exceptionally well with the Kauni rainbow yarn. This is the umpteenth time I’ve used this yarn. The colours are just gorgeous and over-the-top. Just the way I like it. The yarn itself is definitely on the scratchy side. If you’re a viking like me, that doesn’t really matter much, but I know a lot of you do not appreciate it.
Well, onto pictures!

I’ve also made a great deal of socks!
It’s pretty great not to have cold feet. This might also have something to do with spring breaking the land-lock of winter that has kept us inside for so very long.
First up is Skew knitted in Zauberball crazy:

Ah, and I finally finished the Tomten jacket for Jonatan, which lay forgotten in my drawers far too long. But! Now it’s here and it fits perfectly.

Last, I made a lil’ hat, because Jonatan kept pointing out that I wasn’t wearing a hat, even though he was! It’s loosely based on Soulemama’s Rosa Hat.

It’s knit in BC garn Lucca Fino, in the leftovers from the scarf I made for my brother. Which reminds me that I never showed you that, either.

I think that about wraps it up for now.
I’m busy at work, so it’s more doing and less showing from my part these days. But that’s all right. It’s just a silly crafts blog, after all.

New sweater

elifantom — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 21:07:52 +0000

Look what I made!
This sweater is a great succes, on all acounts. It fits perfectly, the yarn is lovely, the drape is great, the mods I incorporated do their job accomodating for a narrow back and a fuller front.
The recipe is Buttercup, originally a short-sleeved tunic. But tunics are not a good look for me (a tent over a large breast and wide hips does not exactly flatter my narrow waist. So there was waist-shaping! And it worked.

Ok, now I think my bed is calling me.
But as an added bonus, you should see what happens when you leave your toddler unattended for about ten seconds while you load the washing machine…

This is a lovely mix of youghurt and oat meal, evenly distributed across the entire table, as well as most of his clothes. While making this, he said “Me make big heart!”. Aww. That just makes it impossible for me to say “no, this isn’t what you’re supposed to do” in a semi-strict voice. Instead I just giggled and found the necessary means with which I could undo his little work of art.

A Sock Knitter?

elifantom — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 20:56:37 +0000

Could it be that I’ve become a Sock Knitter? It could seem like it, since I’ve churned out a fair share of ‘em this winter, to help us through the never-ending frost that holds us land-locked up north.

Another funny thing I’ve realised is my quick demise in yarn taste. In fact, the more lurid, the better. Just look at this neon-coloured pair I’m whipping out:

Tasteful? No. Fun? Yes! Well, at least in my twisted little universe, it is. But hey, I cracked up watching Thom Yorke do his version of “single ladies” in the video for their new single Lotus Flower.

More socks, this time in Zitron Trekking Hand Art, which is a great sock yarn, and definitely on the tasteful side in terms of colour and sillyness.

And a second pair in the CeWeC Salida California yarn that the neon-coloured beauties are also made from. It’s cheap-ass yarn, I got 10 skeins for 20-ish dollares. These are socks for my hubby, who does indeed have very big feet. It’s just hard to tell from the picture, because the leg is also pretty long.

Trousers for a big boy!

elifantom — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 21:55:29 +0000

My little boy is turning two tomorrow. So I made him this pair of pants today. The picture is pretty bad, but trust me when I say that they’re awesome. They even have pockets! I am a daring crafter, oh yes.
I am also starting a new job tomorrow, so I’m awake now, feeling a little nervous and also elated. Life is going to be quite different from now on. But in a good way, I am sure.

Sweater in the making!

elifantom — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 21:43:02 +0000

IMAG0088, originally uploaded by elifantom.

I’m making a sweater, and it’s going fast. This picture was taken five days ago, and I’m close to being done with the body. Yay.

The sweater is Buttercup http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/buttercup-6, modified to be more of a t-shirt rather than a tunic (not a flattering shape for me, not even when I’m pregnant. Which I’m not, but, uh, yeah.)

Also, Rasmus gave me a Yaaarrrnn t-shirt, as you can obviously see here, and it’s awesome. Now I’m a knitting pirate. What more could you want? (More yarn, perhaps?).

Anyway, cheers.