Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

The joy of expectations

@brittarnhild

We are election a new little baby in the family, a new grandchild for me and Terje. Our son Øystein and his Silje will have a little girl. Leaner is 4 1/2 now, Milian is soon to be 1 1/2, I am thrilled to know that I will soon be able to cuddle a new little baby.

This time there are quite a few knitters around, so all I have made so far (it might be more) is this cute little cardigan, in stripes, the off white is final from Rauma, the pink is a caddied yarn for a local indigo dier.

Like everybody else I have always been told that being a grandparent was something very special and something completely different from being a parent. And I can sign this, sure it is. We are lucky to have our two grandsons living just a 10 minutes drive from us, and the new little girl will be even a bit closer. 

My old biskop, bishop Thor, once said: "Of course God is still here in the world, here among us. As long as he keeps the uteruses open, He is here." Yes, He is.

These shells, believe it or not, are made by glass. By my dear friend Mauro in Venezia. Wonderful pieces of art, aren't they :-)

 

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An updated the list of my active blogs:

Akeleiehagen - The Blue Garden (click on the picture)

Fløy en liten blåfugl - my birding journal (click on the picture)

  

maskerade - my knitting journal (click on the picture)

Britt Arnhilds dagboksblader - my online journal (click on the picture)

Nederst i hagen - my greenhouse diary (click on the picture)

Britt Arnhilds naturdagbok - my nature journal (click on the picture)

Hytteliv på Rastarbo - cabin life (click on the picture)

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Knitting the rainbow

@brittarnhild

 

We saw in the news today that children around the world are painting the rainbow, a sign of hope in these difficult times. I am knitting the rainbow for the moment. Also a sign of hope. It started as part of my rainbow calendar during the period of Lent, where I have had the rainbow focus for many years, even since I wrote the book about Lent and its tradition back in 2008.

This year I knit small balls in the colours of the rainbow.

I call them my praying balls.

Prayers in every stitch.

Many of the prayers are thanks, others are fear, sorrow, desperation and a "please help our world Heavenly Father"

 

 

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I my YouTube-episodes I explain more about my rainbow knitting.

 

 

The first week of Lent is red

@brittarnhild

Lent has started. Yesterday, Ash Wednesday, was the first day of an almost seven weeks period leading up to Easter. According to the rainbow calendar I created when I wrote the book about Lent and its tradition, back in 2008, the first week is red, and I focus on red in my knitting.

A pair of red socks. A red ball.......

.......I explain all about the rainbow calendar in my latest YouTube-episode:

 

 

 

 

Where did autumn go?

@brittarnhild

Coming home from Italy I was greeted my the most beautiful autumn colours.......which lasted for a day and then the first storm of the season arrived. I was out in the cathedral part just hours b before the gale wind came. It had started to blow, just enough for the leaves to start letting their grip to their mother tree go.......and I had my cellphone there and could film the very special beauty. The footage is added into my most recent video on YouTube, and even though I continue to speak Norwegian, you can enjoy this video, a lovely video from Venezia with a Russian guy playing on glasses in the background, and also a short footage from a Sami mass I attended after I came home (a link to the video further down)

The autumn colours could have been the inspiration for a knitted shawl I finished yesterday. But they are not.....well, I started the shawl in spring you see, but the name I have given the shawl is inspired by the colours of autumn and especially a larch tree I passed the other day, lerketresjal, or in English, a larch tree shawl.

 

#lerketresjal
#larchtreeshawl

 

 

 

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A bicycle tour with Britt Arnhild on internet:

 

Blogs:
Britt-Arnhild´s House in the Woods
maskerade (knitting blog)
Britt Arnhild naturdagbok (my nature notes)
Akeleiehagen (The Blue Garden)
Britt Arnhilds dagboksbladet (my journal)
dagens lille grønne (ideas for a greener living)
Med bøker på menyen (reading journal)
.......and some more which are sleeping just now

 

Instagram:
brittarnhild
Akeleiehagen
brittarnhildsstrikkedagbok
TrondheimTales


YouTube:

Britt Arnhild på YouTube

 

The Blue Dress took me down Memory Lane

@brittarnhild

Terje was out in the garden, in a little red house we have there, a house where we keep things. A shed? I don't know the English word for it, the Norwegian is bod. I was busy weeding when I heard Terje call my name: "Britt-Arnhild, come and have a look!" He was standing with a black bag in his arms, the bag was open and I knew at once what it was - old baby clothes, the special ones which I had missed for years.

My fingers were almost trembling when I started to look through the bag. A few dresses from when I was a baby, more than 60 years ago. Baby clothes from when our kids were babies as well, but they had to wait, I wanted to see, touch, feel the dresses I have been wearing. When I was a baby.

One yellow, two blues. No pink ones, which kind of made me happy, made me smile. The dark salmon red one is a dress I knitted for Ingrid, almost 30 years ago. The yellow and the two blue ones were made for me, two knitted, one crochet, more than 60 years ago.

I still remember knitting the salmon red one. For Ingrid. Summer. We were driving Norway from North Cape to Lindesnes, which is far, very far. We drove all the way with three children. My older brother and his family lived in Hammerfest at that time. The summer was warm and sunny, the kids played out in the vicarage garden and Ingrid wore her salmon red hand knitted dress. I can't understand today how brave and courageous we were, driving thousands and thousands of kilometers with three kids. Marta was not born yet. Ingrid was 2, Øystein 7 and Torgeir 9. The year was 1991.

Isn't it wonderful how a handmade outfit can bring out a storm of memories.
Now I will have to ask my mother what memories she has with my old dresses.

 

The blue dress in the first picture is my favourite.

 

Grandma´s superpower

@brittarnhild

Some weeks ago Leander, my oldest grandson, almost 4, came to me; " Bestemor, can you knit me a sweater?" "Of course I can, is there a special kun of sweater you want?" "Yes, I want a batman sweater. Can you do that? And bestemor, can you knit a similar one for Victor, my best friend, as well?"

I, grandma, bestemor, beamed for many hours. Then I went downtown to buy yarn, started to knit, knit, knit and knit and here you see the first one ready. The next one is almost down as well.

Leander came on a visit the other day and I showed him the sweater. I will never forget his happy face :-) We both agreed though that I will keep the sweater till both are done and he and Victor can get that at the same time.

 

The design is my own, the logo I found on Ravelry though, a free pattern by Elizabeth Thomas.

 

I talk about the batman sweater, and some more projects in my most recent YouTube-video:

 

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My active blogs just now:

The Blue Garden

Santa Maria a Ferrano

Maskerade

.......and a few more, from time to time.

 

 

 

From maskerade, my knitting blog

@brittarnhild

A month has passed since my last post here. A month? Time flies for sure. I have knitted quite a lot duding this month though, and I have made several vlogs on YouTube. I will add the videos at the end of this post.

I finished this shawl a couple of days ago. The pattern is a new one, by Sofia Kammeborn. You can find the pattern, in both English and Swedish on ravelry, here.  I have used the yarn finull from Rauma Ullvarefabrikk, pure Norwegian wool. It has been a favourite yarn of mine for many years. You can get it in a wide range of colours. I decided to go for a summer green garden.

I took these images in the rain the other day, all of them for my instagram account @brittarnhildsstrikkedagbok. Bookworm as I am, I often include books ins my photos there. Can you see which book this one is? Well, I guess the name of the author can give you a clue :-)

 

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Knitting in Tuscany

@brittarnhild

For several years I've spent a week in Tuscany, at a lovely old farm with a 1000 years old church, Santa Maria a Ferrano. I am part of a Norwegian group which runs retreats there. Next year one of our retreats will have knitting as a theme.

The retreat will be from April 26 till May 2, and I am so happy and proud to announce that the Swedish knitter Sofia Kammeborn will come with us. Sofia has the blog Kammebornia, she is on instagram as @kammebornia and she and her husband Dennis has a YouTube channel with more that 10.000 followers.

I am working on a shawl pattern which the participants at the retreat will be the first to get.

 

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This time the language during the week will be Norwegian and Swedish. But who knows, one day we might do it again, in English :-)

Inspired by the Swedish artist Josef Frank

@brittarnhild

We were in Stockholm, visiting our oldest son. One day we had lunch in a small restaurant in Søder, three old ladies were sitting at the table next to us, two of them were talking about painting, and I couldn't help listening. One of them mentioned Josef Frank, "Oh, I wish I could paint like Josef Frank, but nobody does any more......." I had never heard the name, googled it and found an amazing series of watercolours. 

Later that day Torgeir bought me a late birthday present, a book with many of his paintings. This book is now on display in our living room, and are of great inspiration to me.

It must be possible to transfer the colours into knitting, I told myself one day.......

.......and started to do so :-)

A pair of pear wrist warmers are now done,

and the whole adventure is told in my YouTube vlog/podcast

In the podcast I also read from a book I've inherited from my mother, and I share a cute little video of a busy spider :-)

 

 

 

Longing for Gotland

@brittarnhild

The summer of 1978 I went to Sweden with a Christian Youth Group from Norway. First to Lund, then to the island Gotland. Terje took the same tour, and it didn't take long before our eyes started to meet, again, and again. Two years later we were married <3

When I saw the pattern for these socks, Longing for Gotland by Sofia Kammebornia, I knew I wanted to knit them, and at the cabin this weekend I did.

I especially like the rose pattern. In the pattern they are knitted in one colour only, but I wanted to use different shades from my left over yarns, and love the way they turned out. As soon as the socks were finished I started a cardigan, making up my own pattern, but using Sofia Kammeborn´s roses.

 

You can see more, and also some films from our beloved cabin, in this most previous podcast: