Recently in Bea Ellis Traditional Category

I'm in the process of setting up a gallery, now that some of us have finished our projects. It'll be up by next week!

Thanks to the commenters on Wendy's blog, I've found a few other online source for Norwegian-style knits. Woo-hoo! There's Arnhild's Knitting Studio with hats, mittens, and hats and mittens sets. There's Helylle.se which unfortunately is in Swedish, but boy are the patterns beautiful.

Sweaters & Vests
◊ Liz of The Dalai Mama is making Nykvarn from the new Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton book, Araucanian Moments. Here's a great picture of the body.
◊ Jen had to rip the body of Norma a couple of times but she's done with it (whew!) and has moved on to the diamond pattern.
◊ Rebekkah has finished her vest! Take a look at her last steps. She's also posted an entry on Ingeborg advice and tidbits, for those of you looking for a reference.
◊ Jill has the yarn and the pattern for her sweater. Don't sweat on the start date, Jill. This KAL will be around for a while!
◊ All Sydney has to do for Danger is the sleeves, since the body has been put together. Then she's ready for Ingeborg!
◊ Julia says she'll never be able to blog about another sweater after this! More delicious pictures of the Insomnia Sweater here and here.

Socks
◊ Jessica has turned the heel and finished the gusset on the first of her Norwegian stockings.
◊ Jess, also a Norwegian stocking knitter, has finished her stocking leg. She thinks the ankles will be loose so she's going to try switching to a smaller-sized needle. Stay tuned.
◊ Liz, knitting you-know-what, is having some tension issues, but she's carrying on. The navy blue and gold look good, Liz!

Headbands
◊ Jillian received her headband kits recently. Check out her classic colors!

Mittens
◊ Wendy has finished her beautiful Frostrosen mittens! Two posts, and she's all done. Just like that. Click on over and drool over them.
◊ Carie is in mitten love. She's got a book, and she's also posted about her solution regarding the thumb gore on her Selbu mittens. Are you knitting those? You may want to go read her notes.
◊ Katie is having gauge issues with her mittens. Drop by and give her some suggestions, will you?
◊ Veronique managed to squeeze in some knitting while writing her thesis! She's already finished one mitten. Yay, Veronique!

Hats
◊ Nancy of Bird's Nest Knits succumbed to the call of the hats! (He he) She's starting on a Traditional this week!
◊ Adrian, she of the orange and green Ufserud, designed and knit a second hat in less than a week! Lucky hubby! She'll be offering her pattern on her blog; stay tuned!
◊ Andrea just answered the knitting meme (you know which one) and as to what her favorite pattern was, she replied that it was the Bea Ellis hat kit! You know what? I'm starting to feel the same way about stranded knitting in general...
◊ Your host managed to finish Traditional Wednesday night and early Thursday morning. I mean, early.

Full disclosure on my lovely floats. I am so proud of them! For sequences of 6 or more stitches, I twisted the unused yarn with the used yarn. Can't have my niece playing with those long floats!

Here is my jogless jog, not so jogless, but I wanted to try the technique once. There's also a mistake near the jog, a cream stitch where a grey stitch should have been. Waahhh! But hey, it's 5a Thursday morning, I'm not redoing the thing.

How about a full head of lice? He he. Lighting courtesy of Ikea. (Tungsten lighting makes for awful yellow pictures. Ugh.)

The inside, showing the tassel end. Oh boy, the tassel. Took me an hour and a half to do. For the cord I cut off a length of yarn 5 times the length I wanted and folded it in half. I made the tassel by wrapping the leftover yarn around the short side of a credit card. I slipped the cord under the yarn, then I slipped the wrapped yarn off the card. I took another length of yarn and tied it around the wrapped yarn, making sure to enclose the cord in the loop. I made 3 ties and then tucked the ends into the gathered knob of yarn.

Then I twisted the cord, knotting the whole thing at the end to lock the twist. I knotted the cord at the base of the tassel as well. I threaded the cord through the hole at the top of the hat and made another knot inside the hat. *Then* I made another knot on the outside of the hat close to the hole, in effect locking the cord to the hat. For insurance, I stitched the knots together with matching yarn. Ta-da! Little Hailey can pull on the cord to her heart's content.

The finished hat. Oh look! The sun's risen!

Pattern: Bea Ellis Knitwear Traditional hat
Yarn: Hat: Dale of Norway Heilo in #0007 Grey and #0020 Natural. Lining: Sandnes Mandarin Classic in #1099 Black.
Needles: US4 16" circular and dpns, US2 dpns; bamboo

Hailey examines her Traditional. And proceeds to smear birthday cake all over the tassel. Ah, the bundle of joy that is a two year old!

Remember these baby socks? Well, little miss Poppy can finally wear them! She was born last week and proud Papa emailed me some gorgeous shots of her wearing *my* socks!

So how much knitting will be done by the end of this holiday weekend? There may be lots, if you're intent on finishing a particular section of a pattern. There may be barely any, if you're entertaining and life gets in the way. Happy knitting and have a safe and sound Thanksgiving!

Sweaters
◊ Jenifleur has s progress pic of Norma's scalloped edging. I'm falling in love with Norma more and more. I definitely have her on my knit list!
◊ Rebekkah is still working faithfully on her Fair Isle vest. She's particularly proud of buttonholes!
◊ Sydney's finished Danger's body. Meanwhile, her Ingeborg yarn has arrived. Such pretty colors! Who else thinks she's already swatched for it?
◊ Brave Julia has finished weaving in all the ends of her vest! She's also got one shoulder seam all done.

Socks
◊ Meow Girl of Knit Buddies is making Norwegian stockings for the knitalong. Go see her lovely stranding. She uses the 2-yarn-in-the-left-hand technique, like Jess.
◊ Liz of The Purling Prude will be making--get ready for it--Norwegian stockings! (I'm curious now.) She's told me she's a May 3rd baby, just like me!
◊ Jessica is a third of the way on her heel flap. Everything looks good so far!
◊ Jess has finished the calf portion of her stocking but may frog it due to tension and sizing issues.

Mittens
◊ Veronique of Tres Chic Veronique will be making the Vinternatt mittens from Nordic Fiber Arts in black and purple. She wrote about knitting the lining to the mitten (a tip courtesy of Marnie), which is a great idea. Lastly, Veronique is a May 3rd baby. A third May 3rd baby. So very cool.
◊ Katie of Purl One Drop Two just received her Frostrosen mittens from Nordic Fiber Arts. She's also experimented with stranding versus weaving here and here.
◊ Carie had to rip back to the cuff, but she's back on track now. If you're knitting Selbu, there are pattern errors that are discussed here.
◊ Terri's posted on a little pair of purple mittens. Aren't they great?
◊ Paula has had a few starts on her mittens, but she thinks this fourth time will be the last!
◊ Beth, the undiscipline one :-) has received her Nordasnomittens kit in cheery red and white. Can't wait to see her progress!
◊ Wendy has resumed knitting on her Frostrosen mittens now that she's finished her lovely Hanne Falkenberg Mermaid. She's already finished the left and is closing in on the right! That Wendy. She knits. Fast!

Hats
◊ Adrian has finished her hat! Why yes she did. She tossed it in the dryer to shrink it (good to know) and it fits her husband perfectly. Go take a look!
◊ Jenny has finished her reindeer hat! But no pictures *yet*; you'll have to wait until December 26!
◊ Sarah's nephew volunteered to model the first of her Norwegian star hats. What a cutie!
◊ Michelle has finished knitting the cotton lining of her Reindeer hat; now comes the good stuff: the woolen!
◊ Your host has been knitting furiously on Traditional, despite the fact that her (fricking) cold got a second wind. (And I missed a get-together as well, dammit!)

I realized my niece's birthday is this Friday so I've been knitting furiously on it! The "lice" should be quick and easy. All it needs after that is the sewing of the lining, a good soak to get rid of the germies, and a toss in the dryer. Wish me luck!

It's amazing how word travels so quickly on the web. Say hello to Silja in Norway, who's keeping tabs on our KAL!

Updates moving forward will be done by category, the way it's organized in the sidebar. That way, fellow knit-alongers, you can see immediately who's knitting the same thing as you! Puh-leeze don't let this pressure you into starting *right this second*; it's just me keeping tabs as your knitalong host. In the meantime, let's see who's working on their projects:

Sweaters
◊ Rebekkah has finished knitting her Ingeborg swatch in beautiful red and grey.
◊ Sydney has posted pictures of her progress on the Christmas sweater. Take a look at her weaving, it's fab!
◊ Julia of Moth Heaven wants to finish her beautiful Poetry in Stitches sweater and figures our 6-month knitalong should be enough time to finish it. I hope so!

Socks
◊ Jenny of A Woman Obsessed is making a Christmas stocking for her boyfriend. See her progress here, she's done a nice job with the reindeer!
◊ Jessica is making good progress on her Norwegian stockings. She's using 2 circulars as opposed to dpns.
◊ Jess is swatching for her stockings and tryng to figure out which techniques work best for her: yarn in one hand, English and Continental; Magic Loop, 2 circulars or dpns. If you're still undecided, read her posts.

Headbands
◊ Jillian is still waiting for her headband kit. She's posted about how this knitalong evolved from a few emails between me, Andrea, and Angela to an international group!

Mittens
◊ Virtuella has decided to knit mittens; a pair of Selbuvotter mittens in black and white!
◊ Carie of Chatterbox is doing the Selbu mittens from Folk Mittens. Correct me if I'm wrong, but are Virtuella and Carie knitting the same mittens?
◊ Beth hasn't cast on for her mittens yet (yes, she's doing mittens and a sweater), but she posted a picture of a Poetry in Stitches kit that she found in a bin at her lys. I can't wait to see her progress on *that* sweater!
◊ Mary Beth of My Knitting Life has the corrugated rib completed for her mittens from Charlene Schurch's Marvelous Mittens.

Hats
◊ Susan of Knit and Spin with Susan, whom I met last weekend at the GLASG Show, has joined the hat brigade! She's making a BEK hat, Kirsten, in chartreuse and grape. Cool colors!
◊ Adrian's progress on the hat has gone on smoothly since she fixed her gauge issues. Take a look at the colors of her lovely Ufserud!
◊ Angela's hat kits finally arrived. Hmm. Those colors look familiar. Are you sure we weren't separated at birth? :-)
◊ Sarah hasn't posted any pictures of her Norwegian Star hats yet. Can't find what you want from Bea Ellis Knitwear or Nordic Fiber Arts? Try Sarah's book, Hats On! by Charlene Schurch.
◊ Andrea hasn't posted yet, but I just wanted to mention her because I missed her at the GLASG show. She does have some great pictures of the event. Her handspun yarn is terrific!
◊ Finally, your host. I had to rip last week's progress because as I started the 2-color knitting I thought I'd try it on. It slipped down to my shoulders. It. Was. Big. So despite the fact that I got gauge with #5, I was knitting way looser, for some reason. Oh well. Riiippppp!

So here's where I am. I reknit the cotton lining using #2 bamboo dpns, then switched to a #4 16" circular for the wool. The 2-color knitting? I hesitate to say "easy" because so far all I've done are the "lice" and a stripe. The more complicated parts are still to come!