Premier of Else-Gunn Cowls... and a surprise from my favorite girl.

There's a woman who lives in my neighborhood, Else-Gunn. A totally cool woman. She's a very good friend to one of my neighbors and one of her children is in the same class as one of mine. Over the past two years I've had the oppurtunity to have many conversations with her. She's always smiling. She always has something funny to say. Even when she's really irritated at something, her humor bubbles over. So even if you really agree with her that the situation is down right awful, you're giggling.


She has to be one of the nicest people I know, and during the last couple of months I've had the oppurtunity to slowly get to know her better.


A week or so ago she decided to give me a big bag of gorgeous yarn that she had collected.... and had intended to knit cute things from. But sometimes the best of intentions don't work out. It was so nice of her to give it to me and I am very grateful for her thoughtfullness.


Right from the beginning, I had made it my first priority to make her a cowl as a thank you. She did let me know that her favorite color was pink.... and I am almost finished with her project. But first I had to think up a good idea, and practice a few times before setting to work.


I found a beautiful shell technique that looks stunning. I've made two cowls already, which I've taken pictures of:


This first one is made from a dark pink cotton (this one is not her's). It is 95% finished as I need to add some buttons to it. I was thinking mother-of-pearl. It's a little hard to see, but I hope the shell pattern comes forth a little bit.

Here is a second one that I have done witha combination of two types of white cotton. The plan is to naturally dye this one (and others I will make from cotton) using natural materials I can find from the nature surrounding my cabin.

It's my intention to make a lot of cowls of this style, in different colors. And all of them will be under the title Else-Gunn Cowl.

Fame is always fun to pass out to others.

And here is a man's cowl that I've almost finished knitting. This is 100% wool in a fantastic bright red color. Great for sports fanatics.

And then later today I got a bit of a surprise.

It was rather warm today, and after a few hours of swimming in the ocean, I decided to head back up to our cabin to start getting dinner ready. My daughter came with me and once inside she asked me if she could work. This is quite different from just painting or coloring, which she also does.

This was just perfect for me and left me free to make dinner.

About 20 minutes later she comes to me with this:

The light had already started setting.... but what she's made for me is a new diary/journal that I can use (having seen that I was coming to the end of one I am working on presently).

I was really stunned. I mean, I have always thought I have the greatest kids. I have always had the opinion that they are more thoughtful, considerate, and have more empathy that the average kid. But this rarely invovles me. It usually involves everyone else BUT me.

But maybe sometimes it can be my turn too.

Another Textual Sensations Scarf

Here is another one of my Textual Sensation creations that will be put up for sale tomorrow, September 19th, 2008. I was given everything used to make this scarf by two different people.

My next door neighbor is also an advid crafter (mostly sewing, but some knitting as well). She has two children that are smaller than mine and receives all of my clothes that do not fit my children anymore. To show her appreciation to me (although I thought it was her who was doing me a favor - it's much easier to go next door with bags of clothes instead of driving 35 minutes to the nearest Salvation Army Drop Off Center) she bought me a large bag of different types of wool from the Dale Factory that's located north of us.


The material I used to make the appliques (Dreaming of Sunshine) came from a number of cool curtains that a friend of my sister-in-law's was wanting to get rid of. She certainly did not want to throw them out as there was nothing wrong with them. She just didn't want to have them anymore. And in Norway we pay for all the trash that is taken away from our houses (meaning if you only set out your trash container once every two weeks, you save a lot of money), so these curtains would be filling up a large space in her trash container she could be saving for something else.

All in all, it was a win-win situation for everyone. This includes the lucky customer who will decide to buy this product one day. :)

Textual Sensations - Bringing Back Letter Writing With A Zing

My educational background is actually a university degree in English/Common Wealth Literature with a minor in Creative Writing. Writing has always been a big part of my life - In my earlier days, I used to have pen pals that received 25 page letters! This was of course before the time low cost computers, email, low cost cell phones and sms'ing.

Letter writing has taken a turn for the worst. This is something I'm sure everyone can agree upon and even the days of my long, long letters is a thing of the past. But while we might not be able to change our fast paced world, we can certainly take this world with both hands and personalize it according to our own wishes.

To this end we have I have started to design knitted postcards. The front sides are artistic, unique and inspiring enough to make the receiver stop in their tracks. It will take them out of their fast paced world and make them think: Wow - someone really likes me!