The designers Arne & Carlos are responsible for Scandinavians decoracting their Christmas trees with knitted baubles. Their latest book has a far warmer season as its backdrop.                                                                                                      

Unusual combination: Knitting and rubber boots. Arne to your left and Carlos to your right.

The Swedish-Norwegian duo Carlos Zachrison and Arne Nerjordet live and work in a former train station in Valdres, a rural area high up in the mountainside a few hours drive from Norway’s capital Oslo.

They originally made the most fantastic haute couture clothes, but decided to take a break from the world of fashion during the (still ongoing) financial crisis. Exclusive fabrics and  the sewing machine were replaced by yarn and knitting needles, and somehow the outcome was knitted ornaments that the world had not seen before.

As far as I can remember,  the baubles were part of a larger collaboration with Comme des Garcons in 2008, and “everybody” fell in love with the knitted goodies when they were later presented in a book.

Here’s a short clip about the duo’s creative work + their home

Then came another knitting book, and another. And now, finally, the garden-inspired book called Håndarbeid fra hagen (which I guess can be loosely translated to “Gardens crafts”.)

Which is not, as was my initial thought, a book on knitting FOR the garden (I imagined knitted trunk covers, haha) but knitting inspired by the couple’s garden. The colours and pattern reminds me of Kaffe Fassett‘s work, but with a more whimsical and less sophisticated colour scheme. Looks fun and doable even to me, who usually prefer the sewing machine when I’m in the creative mood.

I’m not sure when the book is available in English version, but you can get more info from the publisher’s page. Happy crafting!