Miracles still happens!

Yesterday I was up for the biggest test ever! If I could pull this one off, anything is possible!!
After posting a status on facebook in early march, about a particularly wet and rainy walk around "Store lungegårdsvann" we had a lot of fun with the comments. The comments resulted in one of my friends planning this little walk for a group of friends. I would never in a million years believed someone who told me  that I voluntarily would walk up the stairs of Stolzekleiven also known as the Worlds steepest run!  It's not a long walk, only 910 meters long but it has a height difference of 313,5 metres and it has 801 steps. The amount of lactic acid building up in your muscles is terrible. 
The old, official record for this run is 8 minutes 9 seconds. I used 1 hour and 10 minutes, but you have never seen a prouder face than mine when I got to the top! Best reward I got was the rest of the group cheering for me the last part up to the "Sandvikspilen".  The group counted 20 people when we started, and every single one of us got to the top! So, now I can proudly tell everyone that I 've "been there, done that!"

Me showing the photographer true joy over being ALMOST at the top, only 60 meters left to walk;0)

Now I'll go back to my tablecloth and sew som more, only 5 days to go before I need it finished.

The second mountain...

Th second mountain.... Lyderhorn (397 meters above sealevel)
This mountain has been said to have been an important gatheringpoint for witches on Walpurgis, at Midsummer and at Christmas. Lyderhorn is the most western mountain of the seven mountains surronding the city of Bergen. It's said to be relatively easy to climb. Unfortunately my back wasn't "on my team" for this trip, so I couldn't finish, I only came up to the Kvarven fort from WWII... There will be another shot at climbing this mountain later this summer :0)
This weekend I was supposed to be doing some embroidery on the tablecloth intended as a present for Sofie's confirmation. It's huge, for a dinnertable -with Hardanger embroidery covering the whole center of it. I started this embroidery on another journey about two years ago, on the train to Oslo when I was visiting a friend. At that time there were lots of Japanese tourists on the train and they stopped in the aisle to look at what I was doing. At this time I wanted to make the tablecloth for myself, but I found out it was of the wrong size for my dining table. Certainly I should have checked the measurements for my table, but I forgot to do that.  Anyway, the invitation for the confirmation showed up in my mailbox and I thought this could be the perfect chance to finish this work. But, I'm always out walking, up and down mountainsides or around different lakes and ponds. I still have a lot to do before the tablecloth is finished! So I'll have to let my fingers do the walking this time...

This is 1/3 of the main pattern, finished. This was the easy part, now I have to do it twice more... Not so fun.

Here you can see the whole pattern, but only the first part is finished. Now I'm working on the last 1/3 of the pattern, sewing all those irritating, little 8th's that take so long  time to finish. I really hope I'm able to finish it in time...

Latest progerss report is that I still have to finish 2 of the squares surrounding the middle square to fill with the 8th's, and only one absolutely busy week to finish it. Not looking too good.
I need a box to put it in too.... I think I'll have to buy one this time. So much to do and so very little time ;0)7

FINALLY!!

I finished it today!!! The hem is made with hand-stitched corners. Here's my last picture of the tablecloth, so you can see it's a large piece of work.... It's going to take some time before I start another :0) Just for your information: In this picture I haven't had the time to wash and iron the tablecloth yet...

This might be an interesting journey!

I've been thinking of publishing this blog for some time. Many years ago I started writing a book about crafts and hobbies, but I never got quite serious about it. Now I'm embarking on a new journey with this in mind, together with you!
The starter of this particular journey was my desire to get som new friends since most of my very good friends had moved to other parts of the country. One consequence of this is that I've met a lot of nice, interesting and good hearted people that I love to spend time with. Along this prosess I've been persuaded by some of them to walk up (and down again :-) ) all the seven mountains that surround my city. Walking all of them in one go is considered the ulitmate manhood test where I live. For the "not so brave" ones there is a possibility to walk just four of them. I will walk them one at the time!
The first mountain was "Rundemanen" (568 meters above sealevel) and I had no idea of what I could expect. But I was told it was ok to bring my little dog, Poppy. Poppy is a chineese crested, so I thought this is a long walk, but it can't be too hard. I started to think I would like something else than a collar for my dog if she's to walk this far. Her neck is so thin and her skin so sensitive, I was afraid she would develop blisters  and that she would injury her neck since she's pulling quite hard on the leash... Yeah I know, I should teach her to walk properly on the leash! (That's another project).
So my first project became a harness for my dog!
Poppy's back is very long, and she's very skinny so nothing I've tried on her fits properly.
So, I went to the store and got my materials, thinking it would be cheaper than buying the ready stuff from the pet store, Oh'boy was I wrong....



Materials for the harness.

I chose to use denim for the outer shell of the harness, and some light cotton fabric for the lining. From the start I had a plan of making it a little "Hello Kitty" harness, but I wasn't quite sure of how that would turn out since Poppy is quite small.  At least I had materials for at least two pieces if the first attempt wasn't good... I also bought some pink and red bias tape to close the edges of the fabric with. For thread I chose the extra strong type for denim, I didn't want the harness to unravel on the top of the mountain







First step cutting the fabric. Previous to this I had made a pattern I thought would fit her quite well.
As you can see I've cut one piece of denim and one of light blue cotton. I've also made a strip to cover the base I used to strengthen the hold for the ring in the back of the harness.
One change I made later was to trim off the excess material in order to use the bias tape.

First attempt... I thought this collar was too bulky so I went looking in my storage cabinet  to search for some nicer fabric to use for the collar...

One hour later: This is a keeper!

The "skirt". I have a fundamental idea that my dog are not supposed to wear "human clothes". What she's wearing should be comfortable for her, and it should have a puropose! But, I couldn't resist the attempt to make this look like a cute little dress for her.

Almost there! Now I just have to close the bias tape and sew the edge to the fabric. I did this on the sewingmachine to get a stronger seam, even though I prefer to sew it by hand.
To finish this I put some broad velcroband on the front and on the strap going under her belly, making sure there was no pointy corners coming out to irritate her skin.

Finished! I'm quite content with the result, but I realized this would be no good for a long walk in the mountains... So, I had to make another, a little bit simpler. This time it would be very easy since I had already made all the mistakes with the first one!

This is "mom's little supermodel" seen in her new creation from the side. It's the first time ever she's been wearing a harness so she's a little bit timid, looking at me for some comfort :-)





The final result we used on the trip was this one without the skirt and collar. She moved beautifully in it and didn't pull on her leash as much as normal. Iwas pleased with her reaction, and the both of us were worne out from the trip.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this as  much as I have enjoyed writing it. If you like this blog I would like to see a comment from you. See you when I'm coming home from the trip to the second mountain.