Selbu-what?

His house was perfect, whether you liked food, or sleep, or work,
or story-telling, or singing, or just sitting and thinking, best,
or a pleasant mixture of them all.
-J.R. Tolkein

The Dale comes along! The body is done, with sleeve steeks sewn. The left sleeve is sewn in, and the right sleeve is finishing, drying, waiting to be sewn in. Picking up stitches for my crewneck collar tonight.

So, while I slog along towards the finished line (yes, knitting a collar onto an entire finished sweater is slogging . . .), let's enjoy some other Scandinavian colorwork that never got it's day on the blog. The long-time readers among you will remember how much I enjoyed going to Scandinavia.

Ah, Selbuvotter gloves. Another true love. After making 3 or 4 small and fiddly pieces for the teddy bear, I gave up on that idea and reconsidered what to do with these gorgeous skeins of natural alpaca.

So I made this pair on the left, for me. Annemor #11 (Ravelry link). And I couldn't stop. So I made Annemor #12, on the left, below (Ravelry link). And I still couldn't stop. (And the yarn just kept on going . . .) Plus, Annemor #12 never made it to the Christmas basket before my husband grabbed them off my needles and claimed them for himself. So, along came Annemor #17, on the right below (Ravelry link). And that one made it to the Christmas basket.
What's the Plural of Selbuvotter?
Patterns: as above, from Selbuvotter by Terri Shea, my favorite book of 2008
Yarn: lovely alpaca, blogged here
Needles: US 2
Notes: The patterns are almost European in the way they don't spell out everything. But the charts are clear, and they were easy to knit. What I learned between the first and second pairs was to line up the sides of the fingers.
Best Thing About This Project: The husband liking them so much he stole a pair. Now we can coordinate. Can't you just see the Christmas card? Complimentary Dale sweaters, complimentary Selbuvotter gloves. . .

I'm just tiding myself over until I can get to Norway. Although earlier today I was struck with an overwhelming desire to go to New Zealand. The source was a map of the global incidence of esophageal cancer, but I'll take my inspiration where I can get it!