Scandinavian blogs

My Scandinavian fix
December 16th

Today is all about Scandinavian inspiration and those that I turn to both for ideas and tips.  Where do you get your inspiration from?  Is it any one thing or place, or do you gain inspiration all around, I'd really love to know.

The first crafting Scandinavian inspiration was always Arne and Carlos, I have followed them for more years than I care to think about and they never disappoint, the two of them spur off each other and now travel the world spreading their love of creating:  Arne & Carlos


Next, comes Vibeke a Norwegian with the most serene and beautiful style.  She knows how to set up a good photographic shot and I drool over all her postings, this is her Norway,  her home and it is pure magic: Vibeke

Vibeke's stunning gingerbread house

Outside Vibeke's house

For all things Scandinavian there is the blog that shows you fashion, design, recipes and family getaways, not the blog that I visit the most but has some very useful and inspirational little gems:  Little Scandinavian

From the blog Little Scandinavian and the
article about where to spend Christmas

For seasonal inspiration, Anna scours the internet and shops and brings us her favourites.  She often reviews Scandinavian books and I now have my eye on a new recipe book.  Again a dip in and out of blog:  Anna

Book reviews by Scandinavian Christmas blog

And... there are so many wonderful food blogs out there that are Scandinavian, amongst my absolute favourites are: Manuela

Manuela in her pastel kitchen

Just some of the culinary delights to be found on Manuela's website

Paul born in Oslo and now living in NY is someone I turn to again and again.  He mainly focus' on food but is not unknown to dabble in a little crafting too, my sort of person:  Sweet Paul

Paul himself, the man behind the website Sweet Paul

Many of Paul's recipes make me smile, an example
being these skiing figures on top of the cookies

Kristine runs the website Det Sote Liv, directly translated as The Sweet Life, what's not to like about this site?  Lots of inspirational desserts and baking goes on here:  Kristine

Wonderful Lussekatter for the 13th December made
into a wreath shape, great idea from Kristine

Trine from Denmark is passionate about eating well and enjoying food.  She writes about all meal times and work internationally around the world to encourage people to share their food stories and make the world a better place: Trine she also writes a food blog: Trine's food blog

Trine foraging in the woods

A classic Swedish dish prepared by Trine of meatballs

And I couldn't end this post without adding my favourite cafe in London, I pop in here whenever I can to have my fix of Norway:  Scandi Kitchen they also sell goods online too!

The Scandinavian Kitchen is to be found
on Titchmarsh Street in London

Just some of the wonderful smørgasbørd
at the Scandinavian Kitchen

♥  Hope all your Christmas preparations 

are moving along smoothly 

Inspiration and War

June 20th

A light bulb moment

Where do you get your crafting inspiration from? 



It's a question that has been rolling around in my head for a while and in the past few days two good blogging friend's of mine have started to help me formulate my answer.









The lovely and generous Amy over at Love Made My Home recently posted about the four shawls she is designing all inspired by one of her favourite books, Little Women.  I thought this such a lovely thing to be inspired by and it has set my mind in all directions.  See how we can find inspiration from each other.  Cannot wait to see all her shawls complete and where her ideas lead my inspirations to...

The book that inspired Amy

Arne and Carlos' journals

Then of course the Norwegian duo whom I often return to again and again to help me in my dark days of not knowing what to make, Arne and Carlos below are just a few examples of their notebooks and journaling that help them on their creative journeys of designing and how to live.  Don't you just want to reach into the photo and open up one of those books, oh I so do!  The closest thing I can get for you is their video in showing how they make these books and how they fill them in, they really are a duo and work so well together... "Art journaling"








Years and years ago, more than I care to remember I too kept scrap books of ideas, I suppose they would be called mood boards now and in this digital era we live in maybe even Pintrest is the latest scrap book.  Having taken a break from scrap booking for many years I have myself tinkered with Pintrest, then abandoned it as my time was being sucked up by mindless web time but I seem to be coming out of this barren mood board creation. Designing urges are growing and my web browsing time is slowly increasing again one could say in direct proportion to the neglect of household chores and growing piles of stuff around the house   

But the latest inspiration actually is not from the web but from glossy magazines and the huge array of adverts that can be found within.  Here one can tell the latest trends and it sets the mind awhirl.  Now, anyone got some of these expensive glossy magazines hanging around I can peruse or must I hang about in various dentists and doctors surgeries.



Adverts are a great source of inspiration



So many ideas from this advert spring to mind

If you've read Phil's blog post Cherries,
you will see  I have stolen my marbles back! 
Ha! Phil, see it is war, I've been
to your blog and stolen them back ;)

And then my most recent inspiration has to be Phil over at The Twisted Yarn.  Those who have followed my blog for a while may have realised I have a bit of a fan crush on Phil, she is a knitter extraordinaire and in latter years has become fiendishly good at crocheting.  She and I seem to spur each other on like naughty school girls and any communication with her spins my head into overdrive and ideas and thoughts just bounce off each other, if only there were more hours in the day and that I could just settle down to achieve and accomplish even one of the ideas, I'd be a happy chappy.  But I'm trying and determined that the inspiration she gives me and pulls out of me will come to something, just watch this space... In the mean time she has written a post on our impending war, want to read...  Cherries ...
I will conquer, oh yes I will, just need to find the time to turn my idea into reality, but win I will!

♥  Where do you get your inspiration from?   ♥

Inspiration, inspiration, inspiration

January 14th 

They say location, location, location but I say inspiration, inspiration, inspiration.  Today I have sourced five inspiring finds that I share with you in hope that it sets off a spark and inspires...


Wherever we look these days, certainly in the UK there is talk of mindfulness and the benefits of living in the moment.  Something that is becoming increasingly hard in this fast paced world we live in and we should take a little more down time and refresh our brain.  Hence this year's big seller at Christmas were colouring books for adults.  Did you get one?  Did you buy any as gifts?  The talented duo of Kay and Ann over at Mason Dixon Knitting came up with the genius idea of creating a book for knitters. Hit the link and have a look.

Colouring for knitters

In case you are interested here are a few free sheets to down load for mindfulness colouring though not specially for knitters or crafters... Mindful colouring

Instagram as I have mentioned many times is a source full of inspiration, it's fabulous and someone I have been following for a while is Sam over at Sam She has an innocent charm to her drawing and draws mostly on beach stones.  Often making a collection and putting them together in little bags as story prompts.  A wonderful gift and idea for little ones.  Just take a look.  It wouldn't be difficult to create this for yourself and a small person in your life, or even just to sit on your own desk, no, no, no, I wouldn't do that, would I?

 



Sam is now branching into producing colouring sheets





Perfect blend of nature and man made





Sam is known for making story stones.  A set of stones to
create your own stories with, how great an idea is this





There are stones for all occasions, look a Christmas set...



Continuing the theme of colouring and beaches look what Barbara has been up to...

 

Using a sharpie pen and shells

 

Clever use of a single colour, Sharpie pen and shells she collected from the beach. She has somehow created almost a Ming dynasty of shells.  This wonderful picture was shared on the Facebook page Darn Good Yarn Lots of inspiring things happen over on that page too.

 

 

And finally, although I mention them a lot, they are Norwegian after all, I need to remind you about Arne & Carlos.  My first post about them can be found here and a perfect post for Spring makes can be found here These knitters extraordinaire have now begun YouTube videos showing various makes, patterns and stitches.  Their latest share was the 96 stitch hat, its worth a look... video and pattern

Wearing his 96 stitch hat

As an odd little snippet, I thought I would share with you the latest trailer form Midsomer murders, this episode, as many others before is filmed in and around our market town and surrounding villages.  Can't wait to see the episode later this month, especially as we were in town the day of the bike race and saw the filming...   Midsomer Murders Trailer

Joining in with Amy  today sharing five inspiring things with you. 

Pop over and see what everyone else is sharing.

♥  Hoping this post fills you with inspiration,

what are you crafting these days, can you inspire me back?   ♥

Thank you for all your comments, I read every one and always always reply back. 

I love the communication that blogging brings...

Knitted Easter balls Scandinavian style

11th March 

Easter knitted designs

One of my New Year's resolutions was to crack knitting and to enjoy it as much as crocheting.  I am well on the way.  A few weeks ago I posted my Valentines balls, click here: Valentine baubles  and now I show you all the knitted balls together both heart based and Easter based. 

Arne and Carlos, two very talented knitting designers from Norway have made knitted baubles/balls popular world wide.  They have a huge following, Japan being their latest conquer.  I am a little bit in love with their designs.  I too blogged about their knitted Christmas balls here: Christmas baubles

It is with thanks as always with anything knitted in my household to mamma for teaching me and making me persevere with knitting on dpn.  But I can safely say I am loving it and now hope when I have a bit more time on my hands to try them at sock knitting.  It too was on my to make list for this year.

Rabbits holding hands

I knew what I wanted to do with all my baubles and the collection is growing weekly as I am addicted to making them.  I wanted a bare branched tree in my house with all these colourful baubles dangling from it.  In reality when you live in an English house dating back to the 1600's, the ceiling height is a little prohibitive to bring in a tree.  So I made do with some twigs on the side board.  It sufficed and I enjoy them, but it wasn't quite the picture I had conjured up in my minds eye.  So what is a girl to do?  Go on location of course!  I left home an hour early for work today and took all the back roads to work with one thing in mind... find a bare tree in a location that would show off the English countryside in late Winter/early spring and by George, I think I found it. Despite not having the brilliant blue sky I longed for.

Knitted balls ready for transportation
to a secret UK location

Bare tree with English countryside background,
all it needs now is colour!

Ta-dah

It was a tad windy today and so the baubles flew
about a bit in the fresh breeze but how colourful

Knitted baubles in the English countryside



Close up of the knitted baubles

And in case you were wondering, this is how they look at home...

My Norwegian corner



♥  Are you making anything for Easter?  ♥

Knitted Christmas baubles

Arne and Carlos' Christmas tree, they suggest for a 2m tree,
you would need 50 Christmas balls



 

16th December

Two very famous and now 'trendy' knitters in Norway are men. Nothing new there, we have our very own Kaffe Fassett.  By the way, did any one pop along to his fabulous 'A Life in Colour' Exhibition in the Autumn at the Fashion and textile museum in London? It was a true wonder of colour and a feast for the eyes. Will make a note to write a post on that in the new year, a real treat it was. Any way I digress, other than to say, men can be and often are brilliant at what is commonly thought of as womens' crafts. The two Norwegian men in question? Arne and Carlos of course, no need for second names, they are that famous in the world of knitting.

Arne began to knit when he was four years old and as expected, was taught by his Bestemor (grandmother). He and Carlos joined forces with the Japanese brand Comme des Garcons in 2008 and brought traditional Scandinavian knitting into the world of fashion, making it trendy again. It was from here that their popularity grew and they suddenly 'exploded' onto the knitting scene.   In 2010 they produced a book that has single handledly created more Christmas decorations to be hand made in Norway, I suspect, than anything else; they published, Julekuglar, now also thank fully in English and known as,  55 Christmas Balls to Knit.

A 'must' for the Scandi lover

For those of you who have not come across this, they have devised a knitted bauble pattern and have used both traditional and contemporary patterns to decorate these with. So many people have now knitted these, that some have nothing but these knitted baubles on their trees, others have just one or two hanging somewhere in the house.  They are fun and fiddly to make.  You knit these on double pointed needles, a trick in itself, but once you manage one, they are fairly quick and addictive. As Carlos himself says of knitting, it is the, "most addictive of the different crafts," and he may be right.

Above are two of the 55 designs that can be found in the book. The traditional 'Julegris', Christmas pig, always found in Norway in the shops made out of marzipan. As with any craft, watching the patterns grow and see how they will turn out is great fun, give it a try!

The demand and popularity of these Christmas balls, meant that Arne and Carlos were also in demand for magazine interviews and people just wanted to know as much about them as they could.  They themselves see their 'buisness' as selling a life style to the public as well as knitting.  The two of them live on an old farm, raise chickens, are trying to renovate a very old house and create a huge landscaped garden based on English designs.  As they say, for them the bigger the project the better. However, when it comes to knitting, the reason they believe the Christmas balls have taken off, is because they are relatively quick to make, unlike jumpers for example.

So, the Norwegians demanded more from Arne and Carlos and they next produced an Advent calender of Christmas balls, this was an actual calender count down in the month of December, with a new ball pattern for each day, how fantastic an idea is that?

But the Norwegians did not stop there and demanded more from Arne and Carlos, so they eventually produced a book on Easter balls too...

In Norway, many decorations are hung from branches and twigs, I will in a few days show you how I decorate my dining room with lots and lots of tiny knitted 'nisse'.  But in the mean time, below are three of the knitted Christmas balls on the holly tree outside my house.

 

This you tube clip, is from Finland and is an interview with both Arne and Carlos, talking about their Christmas 'balls'!!





Knitted balls
The below link is to an American site where lots of people have posted photographs of their own versions of the Christmas balls.  Both chaps agree that their book is for people to directly copy and use the patterns, but also as a book of inspiration for everyone to have a go at designing their own patterns to be shown on the balls.  Are you up for the challenge?  Have a go, make their balls and then design your own.
https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Trafalgar-Square-Knitting-and-Weaving-Books/292785458494


For those that want to have a try before buying their book, a similar free pattern can be found here:
http://www.letsknit.co.uk/free-knitting-patterns/comfort_joy_tidings/

Crochet balls
I have not forgotten the crocheters amongst you.   Lucy, yes, I mention her often at Attic 24, has created some quite small balls that could be made in abundance to decorate a tree, could look very fetching and am tempted by this myself.  These balls are incredibly quick to hook up, probably less than 15 minutes each, you can make hundreds very quickly indeed.  As always her photo tutorials are very easy to follow.
http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/2012/12/little-balls.html

For larger crocheted balls, you could do no worse than try this pattern. I googled it today, had a quick hook up of it and found it quick and easy, one ball made in about half an hour.
http://6ichthusfish.typepad.com/6ichthusfish/2009/11/free-crochet-pattern-for-christmas-tree-baubles.html

Finally a note on Arne and Carlos, they are still designing and have just produced another book which is a feast for the eyes, perfect projects to begin in the new year, ready for spring time and spending lazy days in the garden, a sneak peak... (just look at the blanket bottom left!)

Have a great Monday everyone!