Ever since I started knitting I have been fascinated by the traditional Norwegian sweater patterns. I have earlier in my blogs mentioned this and how strongly I connect these to early spring and skiing at easter. I have hand knitted many of these patterns, including this popular "Marius" pattern and made several machine knitted sweaters and jacket as well. I have often used the free patterns from Sandnes garn. Some of these patterns for traditional Norwegian knitting even have patterns for Knittax knitting machines those who don´t can easily be adapted from hand knitting patterns (if you can read …

I don't think that I have ever met a 4-6 year old that is not fascinated by dinosaurs, and well perhaps not only that age is. I have a pamphlet with dinosaur designs by Irish Bishop. I find that these work quite well on sweaters and pants. One of them is a Mini brontosaurus. Brontosaurus had a long, thin neck and a small head adapted for a herbivorous lifestyle; a bulky, heavy torso; and a long, whip-like tail. The species lived during the Jurassic epoch in North America, Adult individuals of Brontosaurus are estimated to have weighed 15 tonnes and …

There is something so charming about baby clothes with lace pattern.

Lace is a style of knitting where holes in the fabric are used to give a visual aesthetic value. Famous examples of lace knitting include the wedding ring shawl of Shetland knitting, a shawl so fine that it could be drawn through a wedding ring. It is probably from these that knitting patterns for the shawls made with single ply wool that are well known in Iceland were copied. Lace seems to have found its way into baby clothing and swatches sometime around 1700 and many of the old …

It's that time again. The temperature is going under the 0°C at night and time for some warm and cosy small knitting.

I have knitted socks made out of Hot Socks Sherwood from gründl. The yarn seems not to be available longer but has the same characteristics as Hot socks stribes

I have made a knitting automation calculator for socks and I am looking very forward to scaling these socks to see how the calculations work. As this piece is made with self patterning sock yarn I have not added any pattern, when trying out the scaling I will …

It´s this wonderful time of the year again. The temperature drops, the light fades (at least here in Iceland) and it´s time for Christmas preparations. This year I am knitting some Christmas ornaments using my Brother 950 with AYAB installed. The idea comes from Arne & Carlos christmas ornaments,

However their design is not easy to knit on knitting machine so I have made my own design using their fair isle patterns from their book.

I have now successfully installed AYAB interface in my Brother 950 knitting machine.

When I bought an electronic knitting machine it was partly because of the possibility to install AYAB on these machines and thus being able to use a computer to design and use patterns when knitting. At first I had some problems with the AYAB interface not selecting the needles correctly, however they at Evil Mad Scientist very quickly and professionally solved that problem. Changing the interface is very simple, and very well explained on the Evil Mad Scientist webpage for hardware installation you only need to losen …

It is almost exactly a year since I posted a piece on making a lace scarf after finally working out how to knit lace on the knitting machine. I find knitting lace on the brother 950 much easier to accomplish than on the older Brother 820 knitting machine.

Lace is such a beautiful material, so light and sheer with its see through quality. I find lace scarfs to be wonderful and very much appreciated gifts that it is fairly easy to make. I hope that this simple design can uplift your spirit and inspire you to give lace a chance.

Last weekend we had our share of winter, it was a snowstorm out there and when the weather behaves like that there is nothing better than to stay indoors and knit. I have always been fond of colorful items and try to use colors in accessories as I, like so many other dress to much in black. I wanted to make something where the wonderful play of colors of the Kunstgarn from Hjertegarn would emerge and these simple yet colourful cowls were just the thing to make. It is made on my Brother 950. I have made several of them …

Its February and all Christmas presents where delivered a long time ago, and yet I have not found the time to insert and write about any of the designs made during the autumn months to give away at Christmas. Here comes one, fabulous for winter months birthday presents as well. I have enjoyed learning to use my new knitting machine the KH950 during the autumn and even have installed AYAB for a period of time, I will write more about that later. This time around I have made a very traditional fair isle hat, using one of the patterns that …

Last week I went to England to pick up my new knitting machine, a very well kept Brother 950. Coming home with my new possession I was very excited to get set up and turn on the electronics.

Everything went well until approximately 5 minutes after turning it on, then there …

I am quite sure that this is a pattern that I will come back to again and again.

I have always been fond of bright colours, bright blue and green are the colours of early spring at the …

I recall my grandmothers with all sorts of craft and very often flowers as motives. Perhaps my interest in flowers originates from them, inspiring me to make this springtime sweater. The basis for the pattern comes once again from the Sjonabok and is transferred into a yolk …

I do not know how often I have said to others "read the manual" it usually solves most problems, wether you are putting together an IKEA furniture or getting some advanced machinery to function it is all in the manual. I should have listened to myself when it came to knitting lace on my knitting machine.

I have started projects with lace several times before, however these have always failed. I have blamed it on the yarn having tried this mainly with silk and cotton. This fortnight I decided it was about time that I crunched the lace knitting. So …

I came across these birds in the Sjonabok patterns it seems like they are “talking” to each other over a small tree.

A wonderful picture in a cold winter day. The Icelandic Lopi sweater patterns often have this zigzag form that I somehow associate with the Icelandic mountains, starting off in dark colours growing lighter as they come up to the often snow covered top.

Today I share a design with these wonderful birds combined with some more traditional patterns. Its made in Lopi Lite (Worsted weight yarn, 100 % wool). on the Bond USM knitting machine.

This sweater …

As I mentioned in my previous blog I am very fond of symmetrical patterns.

Symmetry is a result of using some simple forms and transforming them by rotation, reflection or translation or a combination of these to form all sorts of rosettes or planar patterns. These isometries are very well known in mathematics and chemistry and partly due to this I find these patterns so fascinating.

Reading on in the book I mentioned in my last article ( Sjonabok) I have discovered that the eight petal rose that is so common in Old Icelandic patterns as well as in …

After knitting on my Bond USM for a while, my interest for knitting machines just increased and I started looking for a machine that could knit finer yarns and also with a ribber. One day a friend on Facebook shared an ad for selling a Brother KH820 with a ribber and I knew that I had to have this machine. After agreeing on a price, knowing that the machine would probably weigh a lot, I asked my son to come for a drive with me and we went to pick up my “new” knitting machine. When I came home again, …

I have always loved knitting. I believe that I learned to knit when I was about 5 years old. I remember starting a craft club with my friends when we were 10 years old and that was when I made my first sweater. I have always loved all sorts of crafts, quilting, making clothes and jewelleries. At the age of 16 to 20, I knitted many sweaters, hats and scarfs made for my siblings and friends. Then as I went, on to university studies, I knitted a lot less and juggling work and home during the first decade of work …