knitting in Norway

I've been so sporadic about blogging lately that I didn't mention we were taking this huge trip. Yes, for the past 10 days, my family and I have been in Norway. First we were in Oslo for a couple days walking off jet lag and taking in the sights, and then we drove up to the mountains to do some hiking in a couple of the national parks, and now we're back in Oslo for about 48 hours before flying home. 

In some ways it feels like we can't get enough of the perpetual daylight here, and the stunning views. Like our last big trip (two years ago we spent 10 days in Scotland), I'll be sad to return to hot, muggy, buggy Wisconsin and the work I have waiting for me (I thought I was taking the summer off, but I've got gigs to prepare for right away). 

Scroll down for some photos. Click over to my other blog (which I update even less frequently!) for more from the first few days of the trip. 

And meanwhile, I've had a good bit of knitting time. We've spent our days walking and hiking and walking some more (usually logging 10 or so miles and 20-30K steps, some of it on steep mountainsides), so evenings are all about hanging out and indulging in wifi when we can get it, and for me, knitting. 

So far I've made two hats...




...and am apparently capable of only one pose for photos. Sigh. Both are the Toboggan Noggin pattern, free on Ravelry, and both are knit out of Mountain Colors worsted something or other. The first one I knit on the way to Norway, and the second one I knit in the car from Oslo to Lom. It's a very fast and very easy knit, obviously. 

I'm also working on the Ancyra Cowl and a Pebble Beach Shawl, neither of which is interesting enough to photograph at the moment.

As for yarn shopping....Well, Norway is apparently filthy with yarn buying opportunities. I even found a sad little yarn display next to the toilet paper in the little grocery store in Lom, which amused me, though I didn't buy any. I've been to a couple shops - one in Oslo where I bought a book of mitten patterns (this one, and yes it would have been cheaper on Amazon but it's not the same as buying from a local shop where the owner actually knows the author!) and a gift shop in Lom just steps away from our hotel where I bought some lovely, lofty Norwegian wool. I'll share more about that in another post. In our time left here, I wouldn't mind checking out at least one more shop in Oslo, maybe one that Dianna Walla mentioned in her Guide to Oslo on the MDK blog, but my family might not have the patience for it, especially since I've already scored a couple of knitty souvenirs and traveling here is already so expensive! 

OSLO





TOWN OF LOM



GALDHØPIGGEN (tallest mountain in Norway)

Matchy matchy hand knit socks!

Waiting to cross the glacier...

At the peak of Galdhøpiggen.



In Norway, the sheep roam free all summer. Lucky sheeps. 

BESEGGEN (most popular hike in Jotunheimen National Park, and it's a DOOZY)



Two lakes at very different elevations.


LOMSEGGEN (up a mountain into Breheimen National Park, from Lom)





NONSHAUG (a charming little hiking trail behind our hotel in Lom):






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