bootie turnovers

The booties I've been knitting from the Saartje's bootees pattern are finished apart from buttons - the buttons will have to wait till we're reunited with our furniture and stuff next week once we get to Helsinki... I enjoyed knitting these, they're quick and easy and quite cute. I think they're probably a bit small - a scant 3" in length. I have no idea if Anna's baby's going to be big or small, so once I'm reunited with my needles I'll probably knit another pair on bigger needles.

As part of the move one of the things we've had to do is empty out the freezer and fridge - David and I like to keep a pretty well stocked freezer, mostly with home made stocks, leftovers, extra portions of things we've made etc (we don't tend to do frozen pizza or ready meals). As the move is now T minus 3 evening meals and one of those is going to be spent in a curry house here in Trondheim with friends, we're pretty much scraping the last edibles out of the freezer - one ingredient that did have us a bit stumped was a couple of sheets of frozen puff pastry. But genius that I am (and modest) for desert tonight we're going to have turnovers. They're stuffed with an apple (bought), apricots (so few of them left we decided they weren't going to join us on our travels) and some chocolate flaky bits that we got with some ice cream and have been sitting in the fridge ever since. I had to use a beer bottle instead of a rolling pin, and didn't have any flour, so it was a potential sticky mess.
So fingers crossed they bake up alright. We have a half finished can of condensed milk sitting in the fridge that needs finishing as well, so I'm sure that will help! Although we may not be able to sleep this evening for all the sugar.

Squirrel

I was sat here yesterday (waiting for my boss to call) watching a red squirrel out of the window leaping about a tree. He was fun to watch - very agile jumping about all the branches with apparently no fear of falling. It's nice to see red squirrels here as in the UK the red squirrels have most often been squeezed out by the non-native bully grey squirrels. I wish I had a fancy camera with a zoom lens etc as he was hanging upside down from a branch at one point and it would have been good to have been able to take some proper squirrel antics shots. Instead I've ended up with this photo He's in the centre of the photo heading right, you can just see his tail straight out behind him parallel to the branch he's running along.

In case you can't see him, here he is zoomed in. Unfortunately you can't see his nice red colour, or his white underside.My boss never called so I decided to cast on another pair of baby booties as another of my friends, Anna, is just about due. They don't know the sex of the baby, so I've used a pale yellow fluffy wool I was given by my future mother-in-law when she was clearing out some stuff.
I'm using a pattern available free on the web by Saartje de Bruijn. It's a pretty easy pattern with some simple, but very effective shaping and from the pictures I've seen of finished ones looks pretty cute. I hope it fits a baby foot - I didn't make any attempt at checking my gauge as I have a limited amount of unpacked needles (one set) and a limited amount of wool available (one type).

The calm week before the storm....

...at least for me, anway.

Now that all the furniture has gone and is on its way to Helsinki, apart from making sure our current house is in a respectably clean condition when we leave, there's not a lot more for me to do concerning the move until we start driving next Saturday morning. I think I'm going to have to go and see the tax man at some point, but apart from that my life continues pretty normally. David's on the otherhand is very busy at the moment as he has one last big commercial review thing to do at work this week.

In this calm, I've managed to take a few photos of my current projects that are on the ikke ferdig list, and that have managed to not get packed.

I've kept back the socks I'm knitting for my Mum - it's coming on well now after its failed first attempt as a toe-up sock (that's why the wool coming from the ball is all crinkly).
I'm also thinking about making some knitted purses - I bought this wool on Saturday in town: I'm thinking about knitting a simple tube about 10-15cm in diameter, which I'll then do a 3 needle cast off in order to seam it up at the bottom. I've got in my head a fairly dense knitted fabric so will probably use smaller needles that the wool band calls for - I'll probably just do stocking stitch for the first go. The plan is then to make a lining out of some cotton fabric with a zip in the top, which I can then insert and attach. That's the plan anyway!

I've also sewn in the 1st sleeve into the Konfekt 18703 top - I'm pleased with how it's shaping up. So 2nd sleeve is on its way and then I think I pick up stitches around the neck area and knit around for a bit. Lets hope the Norwegian on that bit isn't too difficult as the Norwegian-English dictionary is on the lorry.

Other things that I'm thinking about:

Should I change the name of my blog to reflect that I'll no longer be in the land of brown cheese?

How can I knit more quickly and efficiently - I don't sit and knit for hours at a time, but it would be nice to know that I was being as efficient as I can be when I do. I have a feeling that I'm not holding the wool in my right hand quite right - I'm sure I was taught the correct way to hold everything when I learnt when I was 4 or so, but there was quite a long hiatus until where I am now.

I've set up my ravelry account and added some things to my stash and current projects etc etc. I've also joined some groups - I joined a Helsinki group, so will make contact rather than lurking once we've actually got there - I'm hoping some of the members of this group will know about knitting groups, and maybe classes so I can start meeting some people.

sporadic blogging

In this time of moving and general change it's not really so surprising that my blogging is getting a little sporadic.

So, we got back to Norway after being in the UK last Friday. It was a successful trip - our main aim was to get ourselves sorted legally with the registrar and book her for us getting married next year, and also to find a venue for getting married and the reception afterwards. We were successful on all counts. Our meeting with the registrar went fine and we managed to remember our names and the other details she needed. We also found a venue - we ended up not going for the combination I last blogged about as it was starting to feel to complicated to organise from afar, so instead have gone for here for both the wedding and reception. It's not too far from Penrith and we think will suit having a relaxed type wedding, and having it all in one place takes out the whole logistical worry of how to get between different parts of the day. Also, the lady that runs it is very very enthusiastic about weddings and I'm sure will end up being invaluable with us arranging the wedding from Finland.

Since we got back we've been organising ourselves for our furniture etc being packed and starting on its journey ahead of us. It all went yesterday, so now we're left in an empty house with an inflatable mattress, sleeping bags and a cork screw for a week before we set off.

I did keep out a few crafty things to do, as we won't have much entertainment from the TV etc over the next week. And I also intend to take some pictures and get my ravelry account started (username deballan).

Starting to shape into a plan

We're in the UK at the moment starting to do wedding planning stuff - nothing definite yet, but the current scheme involves here, here, here and here... maybe some of these and maybe these guys (or at least what they're drinking!). We have a couple more possibilities to look at next week, so everything might change. We're trying to figure out a relaxed, fun day - not too formal, but fitting for getting married without being too frivolous.

We've also managed to catch up with a few friends, and of course sampled some of the local beverages......

Last weekend's trip

I feel a bit guilty for only getting around to posting about the weekend before last's trip today - but ho hum, this is my blog and that's what's happened! Since we've been back I've had a 2nd wisdom tooth out (which took a bit more getting out than the first one), and have also had some work to do.

Anyway, lets get beyond the excuses and back to our trip.

My Dad came to visit for the weekend on his way back from a conference in Copenhagen. We'd hinted that we might take the opportunity to go on a bit of a jaunt aound, but I'm not sure he was quite prepared for what we came up with... here's a map of our route - as you can see, we covered some distance and visited some pretty spectacular scenery, mostly in More og Romsdal, but we also managed to experience the Hurtigruter. I've uploaded some photos to flickr (which could do with some editing).

Some of my favourites are:
Trollstigen Road - we came from the bottom and were met by this almost shear wall at the end of the valley - which then has this hairpin road up in. I'm glad we were off season, so didn't meet a coach!
This is the Zakarias Dam near Tafjord where they're planning on building a glass bridge and hotel (link) - it looks like an amazing project. and we'll have to go back if it ever actually gets built.

This is a general "I'm in Norway - it's spectacular and it's sunny" photo.

And this one is to show some of the autumnal colours we saw. Very subtle and very beautiful.

For the next month or so things are going to be a bit crazy - a trip back to the UK, followed hot on its heals by the movers coming to move all of our stuff, followed by an uncomfortable week living without "stuff" and finally the physical move to Helsinki, followed by another week living in a new house without "stuff" before said "stuff" arrives and needs sorting into our life again. Change is good, right?