OUR FAMILY CHRISTMAS BOOK

We're getting nearer and nearer Christmas! I've spent the past week knocked out by the flu, so feel like I already have a lot of Christmas activities to catch up on. Good thing I finished buying all my Christmas presents in November! While I'm getting my Christmas crafts organized, I thought I'd share this little memory book I started a couple years ago.

In 2014 and 2015 I made whole albums dedicated to the month of December, inspired by the December Daily concept. In 2016 however, I started making albums for the whole year (here's 2016 and here's 2017--2018 is almost done!), so making a 2016 December album felt a bit redundant. I love the idea of documenting Christmas traditions though, so I decided to make a separate Christmas album inspired by this post that I came across years ago.

Finding an album I actually liked proved to be more difficult than I'd thought. There didn't seem to be a whole lot of options out there, and the ones I could find were a bit dated and just not quite what I had in mind. So I thought about DIYing it. I thought about just having a project life-style album and adding to that each year. I even thought about getting a book printed with pages ready to fill in. Eventually I settled on getting an album with blank pages and pockets. The blank pages are obviously for journaling, and in the pockets I'll keep Christmas cards. I love that this gives me a lot of freedom for doing whatever I want. I'm sure my tastes will change over the years, and I'll have years where I'm feeling super creative and years where I just want to make a couple of notes, and either way it'll be so special to look back on. If I want to write a ginormous essay detailing everything one year, I can do that. If I just want to fill the pages with photos one year, I can do that too. The book I ended up with is one of these personalized books from here.

I decided to backtrack and start in in 2015. This was the year we got married, so it seemed like a bit of a natural starting point. I insist on taking a Christmas family protrait every year, and I love seeing how our family is growing! This is already such a special album to bring out each year, and I'm already so excited to be adding on the 2018 pages. To be continued!

CURRENTLY IN NOVEMBER

lying on the couch, sick. Go figure, Oscar and Graeme were sick last week so obviously it was gonna hit me sooner or later.

travelling to Stockholm tomorrow! I must admit I was a little bit more excited about this before I got sick, but I know we'll have fun still. We've never been before, so travel tips are welcome!

watching Bodyguard and so hooked. Sitting at the edge of the couch with each episode, and really hoping they make another season.

appreciating these cozy evenings in front of the fireplace

prepping for Christmas. I kinda feel like I didn't put enough effort into Christmas last year, so I'm planning on making up for that this year. Christmas cards have been ordered and I'm almost done with Christmas shopping!

drinking hot lemon with honey. Heal me.

THE TIRIL SWEATER

I have a pretty long to-do list of knitting projects I plan on making, but every now and then something comes along and I get so excited about it that it ends up getting pushed ahead of everything else. This sweater was one of those. I usually take a while in deciding wether or not to knit something and which yarn to use, but the same day I came across this pattern I went straight to my favorite yarn shop, bought the yarn and started knitting. The whole sweater came together in less than two weeks, and that's even though I was knitting other stuff at the same time too!

The pattern is from Sandnes Garn, designed by Tiril Eckhoff, and I knitted it in Sandnes Garn's børstet alpakka yarn in white on 6 mm needles.

CLAY GHOST TEALIGHTS

Hope everyone had a fun Halloween last week! We decorated pumpkins, got dressed up and went trick or treating with a neighbor. I think Oscar thought it was a bit scary at times (it was his first time trick or treating!), but he definitely appreciated all the lollipops that were being handed out!

I've been incredibly slow at decorating for fall this year. Usually I at least have a few pinecones and conquers kicking around the house by now, but this year all I've got out are some candles that I basically have out all year anyway. So to make our home a tiny bit more ready for Halloween, I decided to make these little cuties.

I got the idea from here, and just used some white air-dry clay that I rolled out and shaped into ghosts. I used a straw to punch out the eyes. After that I just let them dry for a couple of days and then added some led tealights. They were pretty cute sitting next to our giant pot of candy on Halloween!

BABY CABLE HAT

I promised cable knitted projects earlier, and here we are with another one! I've got friend who is due at the end of the month, so thought I'd knit her a little something. Baby and kid stuff is so fun and quick to knit. I've been pretty into knitting cables recently, and since this will be an autumn baby, I thought a little cozy cable hat would be appropriate.

I used this pattern for Veslestrikk's Gullklumplue that I found on ravelry, and knitted it in Drops Baby Merino in off white on 3.5mm needles and finished it off with a faux fur bobble. I don't usually knit with such small needles, but it wasn't as fiddly as I thought and the cables turned out so lovely and defined. I used just over half a ball of wool, so this is an excellent way to use up some leftover yarn for sure.

I'll be gifting it together with either one of the macrame teethers or the fabric teethers I made earlier this year. Hopefully little baby Amanda will approve!

CURRENTLY IN OCTOBER

wearing all the cozy sweaters. This raglan sweater and my skappel sweater have been on repeat!

watching Hilda! I've been a fan of the comics forever, and I let out the most excited squeal ever when I saw that Netflix had turned it into a show! It's turned into a family thing for us as well, and we've all been bunching up on the couch together (Oscar and Bo included!) to watch the episodes.

listening to the Harry Potter and the Sacret Text.

knitting the tiril sweater. So excited about this one.

cooking all the pumpkin recipes! My local grocery store just had a sale on hokkaido pumpkins, and so far I've made roast pumpkin slices, pumpkin & coconut soup, pumpkin & sweet potato curry and pumpkin bread. Next up: pumpkin pie, obviously.

brainstorming Christmas presents.

appreciating these rainy and stormy nights and cozying up inside with tons of candles, blankets and the fireplace. Fall is here, guys! ♥

photo by the hubs

ANKER II

Earlier this year, I shared this sweater that I knitted for Oscar last year. I love this sweater so much, but it turns out toddlers grow incredibly fast and before not long came the day he had grown out of it. So what's a knitting mamma to do? Knit him another one, obviously.

This time around, I chose a more green-y tone, and knitted it in Sandnes Garn Merinoull (the colorway is 7572 petrol). It's actually a bit of a funny color that kind of changes depending on the light, ranging from a dark sagey green to a dark grey. I actually messed up and only knitted three rows of the pattern at the yoke and had to unravel quite a bit to go back and fix it (though no one on instagram noticed or pointed it out haha).

Also, funny story: I thought it'd might be a good idea to get a couple of photos of Oscar in this sweater, but he was not up for it in the slightest haha. He downright refused and a had a giant tantrum instead. As we were on our way outside and he needed a warmer sweater anyway, I gave up and reached for a basic H&M hoodie instead, to which he cried out "JAAA!!" in excitement! Haha. That's it, that's the last time I'm knitting you anything! I thought to myself. But then the next day Graeme sent me this little video:

Oscar's new sweater from Hilde McMillan on Vimeo.

In other words, it's definitely not the last time I'm knitting Oscar something. :)

LIVING ROOM CURTAINS

Ok, this project has taken me an embarrassing amount of time to finish, and I don't even really know why. The curtains and the rods were bought way back in autumn 2016. Can we just stop and let that sink in? Why in the world would it take anyone almost two years to hang up some curtains? I wish I had a good answer haha.

There was a lot of back-and-forthing involved, of course. First, I pinned the curtains and hung up one to test it and decided I didn't like the length. Then that one curtain panel (in the wrong length) hung on the right by the door for far too long, until one day I (I think it was me? I don't even think I can blame the dog or the toddler here?) managed to step on it while I was letting the dog out which resulted in the rod getting pulled off the wall. That one panel in the wrong length migrated to the middle of the rod to semi-shield us from the sun as it sets, and then it just sat like that for even longer. I guess they were never really a priorty as we had a lot of trees and bushes at the back of our garden, but then this summer a lot of them were removed which made it feel a little bit more needed. So that's when I finally decided enough was enough, got Graeme to fix the curtain rod and then sat down to sew.

It wasn't smooth sailing from there either though, of course. The first panel went ok. I decided that I didn't like the look of the long loops at the top, so I folded them over and sewed them in place and then re-pinned the bottom accordingly. But when I tried to repeat the process for curtain panel number two, I learnt that it was a good 5 cms shorter than the first panel! Luckily I pinned and did a test hang before I actually sewed anything! The third curtain turned out to be even shorter, so I had to repeat the process there too. So if you look closely (please, don't haha), you can see that the hemming on the bottom looks completely different on all three panels haha. Luckily, it isn't actually noticable at all though, so it doesn't bother me. I'm just really glad to finally have these curtain panels up haha.

For now I really like it like this, as I love these big windows and I don't like a whole lot of fabric obstructing the view. I don't have any curtains on the opposing windows for that exact reason. Maybe I'll change my mind on it in the future? Just give me like 10 years or something?

CABLE HAT X2

I've been on a bit of a cable knitting kick recently. These two are just the first of several knitting projects involving cables that I've recently finished (stay tuned! September turned into a pretty big knitting month for me haha). These are both going to be Christmas presents and, that's right--I just used the C-word. But we're in October now, so that's ok, isn't it?

Both of the patterns are by Strikkelisa. The hat with the straight lines is the Tykkrillestripelue, and the diamond cabled one is the appropriately named Hat with Diamond Cables. I wanted the hats to be similar but different, so I decided to use the same yarn and color and bobbles for both: Gjesdal Cortina Soft and 8 mm needles. It's a super cozy and chunky yarn, perfect for some cozy and chunky hats.

So that's me officially started on my Christmas presents of 2018! Maybe this year I'll actually be organized enough to not have to stress about it in December? Just kidding, I say that every year. It never actually happens haha.

DIY TRIANGLE & SQUARE PLUSHIES

Oscar has been requesting we read Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen's Triangle and Square (he calls them "Tralung" and "Quare") every night at bedtime for I don't know how many weeks now, so for my seventh project of 2018 I decided to get my sewing machine out and sew a couple of Triangle and Square plushies. Jon Klassen's illustrations are so cute, so I pretty much had a giant smile on my face the whole time I was making these. :)

They were super simple to make, too. To make them, I googled the images and edited them in photshop so that they were the right size. I had no problems finding a front and back picture of Square, but for some reason I could only find the front of Triangle, so I made my own back in photoshop based on the image of his front. It turned out pretty good. I printed everything on unbleached cotton using this technique (ooold post! It's the same I used to make this printed banner), and then sewed them together and stuffed them. One thing that might be an issue with this later, is that the ink bleeds pretty much straight away if it's in contact with water (as you can see on square's back below, where a couple of drops of water dripped from my iron). So if I were to make them again, I might get the files printed via Spoonflower rather than use my home printer, just so it'd be a bit more durable/toddler proof.

Oscar was so excited when he saw them, and in retrospect we probably shouldn't have given them to him half an hour before his bedtime haha. But it was so fun seeing his reaction. There's nothing like seeing the things you make actually get used and appreciated!

CURRENTLY IN SEPTEMBER

recovering from a case of hand foot and mouth disease that Oscar aquired. We also had visitors last weekend, which meant it's spread to both England and Scotland...

enjoying being back at my spinning class! It's been closed for the summer, but it opened a couple of weeks ago and I'm loving have an exercise routine again.

working on my 2018 album. My 2017 album was pretty much my favorite project of 2017, and I'm just as excited about the 2018 version!

finishing up my Science of Well-Being course. I've mentioned this course previously, and I've really enjoyed it. It's also inspired me to look into other courses as well, just for my own enjoyment.

knitting stuff for Christmas. Might sound a bit premature, but when it comes to making stuff for Christmas you've gotta be early! I've already finished off two presents, so that's two less things to think about.

watching the new season of bake off and getting really excited about autumnal baking!

planning a trip to South Africa in February. Guys, life tip: when a friend texts you out of the blue asking if you want to go on a girls trip to South Africa, say yes.

THE SKAPPEL SWEATER

So this was mainly what I was working on while we were driving from Norway to France in August for my friend's wedding. If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen me mention it in my stories? Well ladies and gentlemen, I DID finish it on the trip, and I've been wearing it a ton ever since.

The pattern is the Skappel sweater, which became really popular in Norway a few years ago. I totally see why, it's such an easy and quick pattern to knit, and the giant oversized design is so easy to wear. Instant favorite sweater for sure!

I used Drops Alpaca wool in colorway 506 and Drops Kid-Silk in 22 Dark Grey. The color is a bit darker than what it looks like in these photos (the bottom photo is more accurate, color wise). The pattern technically calls for 7 mm needles, but I couldn't find my 7 mm needles when I started it, so I just used some 6 mm needles and adjusted the pattern instead. It's a big, slouchy design, and it's already sagged a bit with use, but I understand that is to be expected and happens when you use the original yarn as well. I've already got a few grey sweaters in my wardrobe, but they're so versatile I always have use for another one!

Sidenote: maybe I should start photographing these sweaters with me actually wearing them?

GILDED TEALIGHT HOLDERS

Guys, I am so ready for fall and for cozy nights in with warm cups of tea, blankets and candle light! I don't usually get excited about autumn, but I think the fact that our summer has been so fantastic this year has really helped. I struggle to get excited about autumn when it sometimes feels like it starts in June haha.

I have a tendancy to turn into a bit of a candle addict though, and easily go through one of those 100-packs of tealights from IKEA during the autumn and winter months, so I decided to make a couple of tealight holders. I also had some gold leaf lying around in my craft supplies closet that I'd bought by mistake earlier (I thought it was just shiny paper, it just said "metal sheet" on it haha), so wanted to play around with that. They ended up being a little more rustic looking than I had in mind, but I love the golden glow they add, and how they reflect and kinda bounce around the light. Cozy autumn vibes—check!

To make them, I used some old candle holders from IKEA, some gold leaf from Søstrene Grene, and some glue I found in my stash (I don't really think I used the right glue, which probably contributed to the results haha). Gold leaf isn't the easiest to work with, but i'm still encouraged to try other projects with it. I've also been thinking about making something out of clay, and I reckon some gold leafing might look nice with that?

SIX CHILDREN'S BOOK FAVORITES

Oscar absolutely loves books and has from a very young age. We read several books every day, a couple at bedtime, a couple while he sits on the toilet (he often declares he needs to use the toilet by coming up and asking for a "book and poop" hahah), and whenever else he feels like it. Snuggling up in an armchair with Oscar on my lap and reading him a book is one of my favorite things (though seeing him read books for his toy fox or for the dog come pretty close too!). His interests and preferences are always changing, but here's a couple of books we've been enjoying lately:

Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett
Other than the beautiful illustrations, this book has such a beautiful story too. It's about a girl who knits (yeees!), and even though people keep telling her she can't do things she still does them.

Spot A Lot Vehicle Adventure by Steve Smallman
Oscar loves cars and animals, so this book was a hit from the get go. The first (100) times we read it, Oscar would exclaim "WOW!" every time we flipped the page.

The Wolf, The Duck, The Mouse by Mac Barnett
Great story, and Oscar loves dancing when the duck and the mouse have a dance party. And at the end of the book, we all like to howl along with the wolf.

The Grufallo by Julia Donaldson
A classic, but clearly for a reason! Oscar loves the Gruffalo, or as he says it, "Gullaloo", and it's been on repeat around our house for a while now. He's also got a Gruffalo hand puppet, which he loves giving big hugs to.

I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen
I actually bought this book years ago, way before we even started thinking about having a kid, and it cracks me up. Oscar loves it too, and gets really into it when the bear realizes where his hat has gone.

The Storm Whale by Benji Davies
This book was gifted to us, and it's been a favorite from the start! Oscar loves counting the cats, and on every page he asks where the whale is. We've read this book to him a lot, and one of his early words was actually "whale" one night after we'd finished the book and he pointed to the stuffed whale I'd made him. Yeah, my crafting mamma heart just about burst!

THE NO FRILLS SWEATER

You guys, it's finally done! And I know what you're thinking, it's about damn time. Haha! To be fair, I started it a while ago, I just lost momentum somewhere in March, and then we basically traveled all of April. I finally picked it up again in May, but wouldn't you know? I ran out of yarn. Classic. I only had a sleeve and a half left, so undoing it and knitting something else didn't really seem like an option. Naturally, the specific colorway I used has been out of production for a while, but I finally managed to track some down from an online store in Denmark. I'm a little embarrassed at how much I had to pay for postage though (especially since it's from Denmark which is essentially just a hop and a skip away!). So yes, I've finally finished my cozy, woolly sweater, and it's the middle of summer. Good thing I live in Norway where you never really know when you'll need a cozy, woolly sweater.

Anyway, troubles aside, it's done! It's normally knit with two threads, but as I decided to use leftover yarn I decided to just knit with one thread and adjust the needle size accordingly. The yarn I used was Du Store Alpakka's Baby Silk in 318 Teal, which I bought years and years ago. If you're a long time reader, you might remember this? I originally bought the yarn for a cardigan pattern, which I ended up abandoning all together. When I finally picked it up this year to finish it off, I decided it wasn't really something I'd want to wear now, so I unraveled the whole thing and started this sweater instead. And here we are!

This is seriously such a lovely sweater though, and I'd love to knit another one in a light tweedy yarn. It's a fairly basic pattern, where the only slightly complicated part is the neckline, but once you get the hang of it it's fine. And it's a top-down pattern, which means it's really easy to try it on as you go so you get an idea of what it's gonna be like. I already know I'm going to get plenty of use out of this one!