moose poo

I'm steaming ahead with the sock production. Here's a picture of my first ever pair, on my feet - they're made from Sirdar Town & Country in what I believe is known as Volcano. I'm really pleased with them, and we thought their stripes looked particularly good against the bedding planes of the rock. I also think that I was right to match them.

To keep the momento going I cast on a second pair. Here's how they look so far, these are with some wool I got here in Norway - not quite as bright as pair number one. I'm using a pattern in a magazine I bought in the UK - I think the pattern is called Ice on the Pond.

I did try to figure out what to do with the red wool I posted about before, but of my two options I had - one was using a wool of a completely different guage, so I decided against that, and the other I didn't have enough wool for - so I'll keep looking.

As David has said in his blog, we had visitors this last weekend, David's sister and her husband, Joe. We had a pretty relaxed time and took them around Trondheim and a little bit in the vicinity. We took them to see the house that we're moving to. I took a few photos, I would have taken more but my batteries ran out after three:

View from the living room window.

Dining room end of 1st floor.

Living room end of 1st floor.

We also took Suzi and Joe on a hunt to find the site of a crashed Lancaster bomber from WW2, and moose.

We managed to find the site of the former:

But only the poo of the latter:

Maybe we'll have better luck next time?

Work trough

Things are a bit slack at the moment work-wise, but I'm trying to stay productive. Yesterday morning I turned the compost heap - that was hard work - I don't think it had been touched for quite some time as there were bits of plates and other non-compostable things in it and it was quite dry in places. I took out about a trug and a half of compost, which I'll take with us to our new house. I put all the compostable stuff back, and added a bit of water near the bottom - so hopefully that will kick start it back into action.

I'm also starting the gradual packing of a few bits and pieces ready for our move at the end of May and also to try to get a few bits and bobs away before the visning (house showing), which we think might be next week.

I've also been having a bit of a think about what I can make from this wool that I have:

I bought it to make a cardigan from a Debbie Bliss book I have, but after I got about 15cm in I decided I didn't like it and so took it apart. I've got two thoughts at the moment: one is to make this jumper using either just the red I have, or getting a second colour like the pattern shows, and option two is this jumper without the funny scarf thing or bobbly edging - which would also test my Norwegian as the pattern will be på norsk.

I've also turned the heal on sock number 2 and am shaping the instep and trying to figure out where the best place is to join the next ball of wool on.

We have visitors this weekend, David's sister and her husband are coming to Trondheim. Depending on the weather I think we're going to take them to Kristiansund and drive the Atlantic highway, which we've heard is very pretty. We're also going to visit our new house and show them a bit around Trondheim and the area.

skitur

We went to try out the cross country skis we bought in the sale last week. We went to Malvikmarka - there was still a bit of snow, although it was pretty wet snow and a bit patchy in places. we went about an hour each way and ended up at a lake with a public hytta. The hytta wasn't open, but we sat there and ate our sandwiches before heading back to the car. It was quite a nice experience - although I think we could probably do with having a bit of a lesson with someone, if for nothing else than to tell us how to stop and steer! This is us at the end of our trip:

Just to prove that spring is sort of here - these are daffodils I picked from the garden.

I also started sock number 2 - keep the momento going before I fall on a different play.

I matched the start to sock number 1, which I think is probably the right thing to do, I'll just now have to figure out another join somewhere down the sock - I think it will end up being somewhere just past the heel.

half socktastic

First sock of my first pair of socks is finished and fits (I tried to take a photo of it on my foot, but couldn't manage by myself).

I'm quite impressed as I'm not a very experienced knitter and there were lots of new techniques to do - knitting in the round, turning a heal and grafting toes. I don't think I've done too badly - now I've got to do sock two - am wondering whether I should pick up the wool from where I cut it off at the end of this sock, or if I should try to find the same part of the pattern and try to make them match? David thinks I should try for the latter - and he's probably right.

I've really enjoyed knitting this, I like the wool and how it makes its own pattern, I like the scale of the project, I like the challenge of the never-before-done techniques, I like how it looks now it's finished and I like the way it feels on my foot.

midweek sock and seed update

I'm very impressed with how my first ever sock is coming along, so thought I'd better record the progress for posterity (and just in case I go wrong).

I'm just about to start the heel so have read the instructions again and again and have referred to some other blogs. I found one with lots of instructions and pictures so hopefully that will help a bit. Wish me luck!

In other updating type news some of the seeds I planted on Sunday have already germinated...

I think the ones there in the middle are turnip (snowball) and there's also signs of spinach and basil and purple sprouting brocolli. So it looks promising!

Sunday play

Now that we've sorted out a house to rent for June that has a garden and owners that are happy for me to make a vegetable garden out of some of it I thought it worthwhile sewing a few more seeds:

I've only sewn a few seeds of each as they need to be moveable. I've also potted on the few tomato plants I'd previously started before I knew if we'd have a garden at the next place, or not.

I also planted four potato tubers I'd kept back from some potatoes we bought at an honesty booth by the side of the road, in two biggish pots - they had chitted and needed planting and I wasn't sure what else to do - hopefully they will transfer OK into the ground once I get digging. We haven't seen sead potatoes for sale here at all - not that we've looked exceptionally hard. A play I'm going to have, maybe next weekend, is to turn the compost heap and bag up any yummy compost that is there to take with us.

Seeing as I finished my jumper, it was definitely time to start my first ever sock - I've wanted to try knitting socks for ages. I'm quite pleased with my first attempt.

Back home to Trondheim

We both had a good week away last week - David skiing and me with my Parents in the UK. As hoped for I've come back inspired to continue adding to my ikke ferdig list, although I have made some progress too....

Here's the jumper I've been working on -

The back;s finished, I don't think it's coming on too badly considering the last jumper I managed to knit and finish was more than ten years ago. I've started the front and am just establishing the rib pattern on the body of the jumper.

I also came back with some more wool and a pattern as I decided I wanted to try to knit some socks, luckily I've got suitable needles in my inherited needle collection:

What else? Oh yes - I bought some material and a pattern as David has said he would like some pajama bottoms - they were more for when it was really cold during the winter, but we couldn't find any suitable fabric in Trondheim. Hopefully he can lounge about in them during the summer. I love lounging around in my pajamas (one of the fabrics I bought is for me), so hopefully he will start to understand why.

David also came back from France with a project for me - the Tiger ears are broken again, and what's a Tiger Tour with broken ears? Previously I have been known as nurse Deborah as I repaired another pair of Tiger ears, but apparently I have been promoted to Surgeon General. They look pretty terminal to me!

It was good to be back in the UK for a bit - nice being able to understand what's being said without having to concentrate really hard and feeling really stupid. It was also good to see my family, the cats and a few other people. I also got to see the plants that my Mum is looking after for us while we're out of the country. This is a black beech.... Mr. Nothofagus solanderi as he's known.

So we're back into being very busy here again - norskkurs has started again, I seem to have loads of work at the moment and David's already away on a work trip on the booze cruise to Denmark of all things. And we need to try to find somewhere to live. Makes me tired just to think about it all.