daily felt

The isolation is stuffed in the lower room and the roof is being laid...whooooo how fast it all goes!

Hhehehe no the two are not related, I went to Istanbul and miraculously the barn kept on growing while I was away.

I have been to Istanbul before and loved it very much, then I travelled with my father. This time I went to stay with a friend from ETSY. We had written now and again and she wrote that would I want to come I could stay with her. So I took the plunge and went to stay with a girl I only knew from internet..She did not eat me...quite the contrary...she took me for great walks,breakfasts,dinners, we met with more ETSYans and had a fantastic time. We even found time to visit a museum that held a collection of incredible otoman dresses where Kris illegally like a spy took some pictures with the guard breathing down our necks

She is a glass artist by profession and she even let me play with her glass and burner. I have a new addiction! What fun it is to mingle these colors and play with glass.

Spring has truly sprung this year too

The leaves on the trees are unfurling so fast you can see it happening if you take the time to watch for a while..

The snow high on the mountain is melting now too so water is gushing,gurgling,rushing,rampaging down. Many musdlides are reported but I mainly enjoy it all. The best part is that my mountain deertracks are snowfree again so I can go walkabout..which I do! My perfect new sandals with my perfect socks from Lynn take me wandering far and wide. Oh boy is the water cold....brrrrr but nothing beats stepping is a fresh gurgling brook. Wool socks warm up again real fast even when wet

The barn magically continues growing while I am gallivanting about....

Today is the constitution day of Norway, THE feast of the year. Everyone dresses up, the schoolband marches with all the schoolkids in tow. Everyone is at their best behaviour, a speech here and there, some dances are performed. For me the highlight is looking at all the sublime costumes...I think I need to make me a new one too, with beautiful embroidery..

I admit to having a fiber fetish, some fibers tickle me more than others and when I see linen combined with silk...oh well let's say a bib is needed...

So there I was , scouring the net to find me affordable yarn on a cone to feed my knitting machine. A hungry beast it is! There it was...linen and silk blended into an uncolored yarn! The silk makes it easy to dye with my regular dyes and the linen makes the yarn very strong.

So when I received my cones I set to work right away and of course measured wrong,made a unusable swatch as I changed my settings after making it...well to cut a long story short, the jumper was too small. I can squeeze into it, but comfortable it is not. Fortunately there was someone who really wanted to have it so I could give it away and started a new one for myself. This one fits...but I like the model on the first one better. Oh well I will just have to make yet an other one.

Contrary to my usual haphazard way of working I actually wrote down what I did this time so I can tweak and reproduce

Methinks the next one might have to become purple.

On a blog I read a question, that happens. You know , reading a question. Sometimes it is a question that makes me want to answer, this was one of them.

What do you label yourself as and do you feel the need for a label?

The big danger of a label is of course you might fence yourself in, feel the need to preform according to this label. So the trick is to find a label that fits but is not restrictive, not too narrow.

I label myself as a problemsolving rainbow. I never see a problem, only solutions. Often it drives people nuts and they scream at me. Then I just smile and am my own rainbow. Life is fun and easy  if does not revolve around finding problems to frown over. Tomorow always brings a solution, or maybe the day after...but the solving does not go faster by running around in a panic like a headless chicken.

It took me a while to find the right label, society does of course press you into telling what you are. I am me...not only a mother..or a housekeeper...or a fiber nut...or a wife...or a blogger. I am everything rolled into me. With a big smile on!

Oh and I might be an anarchist as well...but that is because I never see the problem and thus never feel there should be rules to fix the problem...

And speaking of rainbows,may I present you the most sublime handknit socks ever! Sent to me by the rainbow across the ocean , we share a love for bright and ever so slightly unconventional things. Be sure to get yourself a pair too! The drink you see there is the first caiperinha of the season, summer must be close!

I have been going full steam ahead with knitting, dyeing,felting and the barn is exploding into being...it must be spring time...

It is very fun to see how they build their own way of being able to reach where they need to be from the old beams of the old barn. The weather has mostly been great so they often whistle happily while hammering away.

The barn is making good progress and I have been very spoiled for my birthday!

I received a delicious dinner from my boys..pancakes..which they for the most part prepared , fantastic felted slippers from my mother in law made by a fellow feltartist, a totally sweet little plant in a handmade cedar wood pot from my hubbies work and the best yet a totally kewl Jackalope painted jumper from my hubby made for me by NYHop.

Birthdays like this truly are best! And the sun was out all day as well

Since this wonderful knitting machine has arrived in our house I have been knitting , and knitting and knitting some more!

Fairisle is really fascinating and incredible. The patterns and colors to be created...oh heavenly! I found a flower pattern on the net and punched it out on a punchcard blank.

First the top of a dress I made with it and now I am creating a fun jumper..

In Norway the big outdoors plays a huge part in daily life, in summer walking and in winter skiing.  In winter it is dark fairly early and not everyone has time to go for a ski during the light hours so if at all possible there will be a well lit cross country ski run in just about any community, in summer it is the perfect place to go for a walk as there are nice paths and it is close to where I live. The dogs can run free as there are no sheep out yet and they cover at least triple the distance I do :-D, sniffing about trying to fine the deer walking these paths too.

Large parts of Norwegian terrain is formed by huge glaciers that passed through during ice ages past, large boulders can be seen strewn about here and there. Huge jutting granite blocks give the forest a true magical feeling, not an inch of soil is uncovered. Cranberries,lichen,moss,blueberries form a thick spongy carpet on the forest floor.

These walks are the delight of my life and now I have found even shoes that let me feel as if I am walking barefoot...if one day I am no longer here...I might have wandered off no longer to return..walking on and on