Planner and knitting

I know I’ve been MIA a while. With SweetieS starting school last fall and SweetieL being a handful I just haven’t had the energy to sit down and post. And I see that this blog is suffering the consequences.
But here is a post from me, still alive and kicking.
Eventhough the Summer has been knit free, I still have a few post coming on knitting….one of the things I have incorporated in my planner is an analog log of my knitting. So hopefully when I sit down to blog about a project it hasn’t all gone to LaLaLand. In this spread I make notes of what yarn, pattern and needles I have used. Also with a note of whom it was knitted for. After I got the Polaroid zip I even started adding a picture of the finished project.

before the pen	filled in

over to the next project of the day. Cleaning up after our fireplace was changed earlier this month….
- what have you been doing this Summer?

Gifting money

Those who know me in person, know I don’t like gifting money in a plain envelope. I feel it’s too impersonal and lacks creativity. So when SweetieS started school this last fall and all the parents agreed that we would give money when it came to birthdays, I went on Pintrest to get some ideas.

So far I have “toilet rolled” a few and made “piggy banks”.

- how do you gift money?

First signs of Spring

and what a better way what with a glass of refreshing Sangria?
When I visited Portugal many years ago I was introduced to Sangria, a refreshing drink based on red wine. During the trip I found variations with white wine, rose and champagne! We quickly realized that the sangria based with rose wine was our favorite.
I had yet to try to make it myself though. So when I got the chance this past weekend, I gave it a try…
According to my Portuguese friend, the Portuguese version is usually made with Portuguese liqueurs, most commonly “Licor beirão” (flavors of seeds and herbs) and “Liqueur de Laffon” (orange flavors). And Sumol (Portuguese sparkling water) to top it of. These liquids are not available here in Norway, So I opted for liquids with similar qualities. I ended up with “St.Hallvard” for the herbal liqueur and “Cointreau” for the orange liqueur . To replace Sumol I just used a cheap lemon/lime soda.
To give it the Sangria look and feel, I added some sliced fruits. Here is the ingrediencies I used:
- an apple
- a lemon
- a lime
- an orange
- a bottle of red wine ( I just used a bottle of Italian red wine I had laying around)
- 4cl St.Hallvard liqueur
- 4cl Cointreu liqueur
- 1,5l lemon/lime soda
(add a tablespoon or two og brown sugar if you want the cocktail even sweeter)
I was recommended to mix the fruits and alcohols together and let sit for at least a few hours. Add the soda just before serving.

Chilling….

a kind of a bullet journal

or should I call it dot journaling? It’s been a while since I last blogged about my planner. Mostly because I have forgotten….spent too much my researching my newfound love for bullet journals. New for 2019 is the use of dot journaling or bullet journaling as many call it (though as far as I have understood the term is overly used)
For now, I have the same weekly spread throughout the month, but I am thinking about changing it more frequently. And new with my dot journal, is the use of monthly covers. I like that the monthly cover sets the theme for the month.

my January and February cover and layout before the pen

I’m not true to the Ryder Carroll bullet journaling style as I don’t use the all the bullets and the yearly, monthly, weekly and daily drill down. I just jot down what I need to remember, when I need to remember it. Very plain and simple. My planner is still a place for my memories as I still don’t feel I have time to sit down and scrapbook, so I will be going for a weekly layout that allows me to put in a picture or two along with some extra notes.

The result is still two pages weeklies….but now I can change out the layout from month to month, or even from week to week. Since I still use a ring planner, I can move/add/remove pages as I feel like. I use dotted pages I downloaded from wellella. Thank you! You made my transition into dot journaling much easier. This way I get the planner pages I need/want and just the amount of creativity I want.

-do you bullet journal?
-what is your “style”?

Knitting up a storm

Winter is coming, no doubt about that. Yesterday I woke up to a thin white blanket covering the streets infront of my house. Not long until I will be shoveling snow again.

In preparation for winter, the girls need a layer of warm clothes to wear with their overalls. I concluded I would use the Drops “Starshine” pattern and make my own pattern on the yolk. For the pants I started with the pattern for “Power leggings” but didn’t like the shape of the finished pants. So after recommendations from a good colleague, I ended up using “Winter wolf” for all three sets .  I bought Drops Karisma yarn when they had a sale earlier this year. I even made a set for my niece, hope she likes it.

For the waist I followed a youtube video on how to knit an icord.

For my niece I used the colors “dark purple” (uni color 76) for the pattern and “rose” (uni color 80) for the rest. She got two pair of pants as I made that one first with elastics in the waistline. I used 5 skeins of the main color for the sweater and 5 skeins for the pants. for the accents I used 2 skeins.

for my niece….

For SweetieL I used the colors “light denim blue” (uni color 30) for the pattern and “navy blue” (uni color 17) for the rest. When I was almost done , SweetieL requested the waist cord to be in a different color. So she got to choose from some yarns I had in my stash. She was still not happy with the end result until we added the pom poms. On this set I also used 5 skeins of the main color and 1 skein for the accents for a total of 12 skeins of Karisma.

for SweetieL….

And the last set, for SweetieS, I used the colors  “light grey green” (uni color 69) for the pattern and “sea green” (mix 50) for the rest. SweetieS got her set in a bigger size. So for her set I used 6 skeins for the sweater and 5 on the pants in addition to the 2 skeins for the accents.

the picture doesn’t do the color justice…

These would make great Christmas gifts, but the girls need these garments now. Not in a few weeks….so will just have to go shopping for other gifts for Christmas.

Before I forget., Drops is having a sale on all alpaca yarn. 14 different alpaca yarns to choose from and beautiful colors. With 30% discount you can save some $$$. The sale lasts thruout the year, so stock up while you can.

- what are you knitting these days?

- any knitted Christmas presents?