yarn prizes! koalas! (please donate to the australian red cross)

i'm sure you've all heard about the horrible bushfires in victoria, australia - even up here on the north pole it's all over the news.

please go to jacqueline's blog and read about all the fabulous, amazing, generous, gorgeous, beautiful, stunning prizes you can win just by donating to the australian red cross.

personally i am also going to work on a system where all the disgusting snow outside my house is automagically transferred to victoria. there should be plenty to kill a bushfire or ten.

last of 2008 or first of 2009?

hi! happy new year two weeks ago! i don't think i've blogged about today's knit earlier - i somehow found time to make this during the month of december and cast off on new year's eve. i slacked a bit with the blocking, of course - it's such hard work!

specs:
pattern: wool peddler's shawl by cheryl oberle in folk shawls
yarn: fotrama alpaca 2/4, shade 14 (5 balls)
needles: 4.5mm


this took a lot less yarn than i'd thought - i'd bought nine balls, but soon came to realise that was way more than i'd need. of course, as i was knitting the final garter stitch rows, it became apparent that i'd need just a smidgeon of a sixth ball to be able to finish all eight rows. how annoying is that - having to break into a new ball just for the last half of the cast-off row?

instead i knitted seven rows and cast off knitwise on the wrong side, which imo looks better anyway as you get four perfect garter stitch ridges on the right side. i had maybe 20cm of yarn left of my fifth ball; just enough for weaving in.



this has become my new favourite shawl - i've worn it the past three days and it's super warm and soft. the only small downside?


it sheds just a teeny tiny bit.

year of the sock, ish

this post was supposed to be a retrospective of my big project this year - knitting one pair of socks each month in 2008. however, as usual i have left things too late and now i have to get ready for the new year's dinner we're going to so there will be no fancy collages or mosaics or emotional words or anything of the sort.

specs
pattern: gentleman's fancy sock (ravelry link) from knitting vintage socks by nancy bush
yarn: regia 4ply (rav link again, i'm in a hurry!), shade 1040, two balls
needles: 2.25mm
mods: started out with 72 sts; only did 5 pattern blocks at the cuff; skipped the calf shaping; worked a sl1-k1 heelflap; messed up the gusset and toe decs a bit on the second sock because i thought i remembered how they were supposed to be done. um, no.

my december socks were knit in six days as i suddenly decided to make them for the husband for christmas. he was usually sitting right beside me on the sofa while i was working on them, but didn't notice a thing and was really surprised when i gave them to him. so much for attentive spouses, eh? oh well, it came in handy for once.


i didn't get any pics before i wrapped these, and the husband put them on straight away after opening his gift, so in both these pics the socks have been worn for a while. if you look closely, you can see that he's even managed to pull a stitch out on the left sock, and that the yarn is pilling the tiniest bit. still, if this barberpole regia is about the same as other regia socks i've made, they should be sturdy enough for him.

so, those are my socks for december. there's been some cheating in my year of the sock, like super quick toddler socks and knitting some single socks to finish up pairs from 2007, but nevermind. i finished 12 pairs! ravelry links to all of them are in my sidebar.

i originally had hoped this exercise would reduce my sock yarn stash just a tiny bit, but unfortunately it didn't help at all. in fact, i'm afraid the situation is a fair bit worse than it was at the start of the year.

ok, it's time for me to jump in the shower. hope you're all having a good holiday season - thanks for the old year, as we say here, and i hope to see you all in 2009! happy new year!

a birthday knit

yesterday my mum celebrated her birthday and i could finally give her the hanami stole.

specs
pattern: hanami stole by melanie gibbons
yarn: angel from the natural dye studio, colourway ice maiden, about 55 grams
needles: 3.5mm

(now, before i show you more pictures, let me just say this: if you spot any mistakes, do not tell me!)


first, basketweave

i knew my mum would prefer a stole to a triangle shawl, and i also knew that i didn't want to knit the same pattern repeat 500 times, so this pattern fit the bill perfectly. not everyone likes the asymmetry, but that was exactly what drew me to it.


moving on to the petals

even with my ridiculous stash of laceweight yarn i didn't find anything that would be perfect for mum. i popped by pinnsvin design and fortunately she'd just got a new shipment from the natural dye studio.

angel is a cashmere / baby alpaca / silk blend and just amazing. how can you go wrong with the softness of cashmere, the slight fluff of baby alpaca, and the sheen of silk? there's 1200 meters to a 100 gram hank, so this is one of the thinnest yarns i've worked with. my mum loves blue and turquoise; this is a very, very pale combo of the two but i think she liked it.


petals galore!

after my paisley stole this was an incredibly quick and easy knit! every second row being all purl definitely speeds things up. from cast-on to blocking the whole thing took me about 2.5 months, and that even includes a two week break when i went on holiday.


basketweave detail

i didn't change a single thing about the pattern (apart from skipping the beads in the cast-on), but in hindsight there are two things i would have liked to improve. for one, i think the stole is a little short. i managed to pin it out to about 160cm x 50cm; i would have liked to have it another 20cm ideally but i think it will stretch a bit lengthwise with wear.


mid section detail

the other thing that didn't work out perfectly is the ruffle. after finishing the knitting, but pre-blocking, i read that someone had increased twice into each stitch to get a more fluffy ruffle. in the pattern you only inc once (kfb), and while this looked fine pre-blocking, i think it's a little 'weak' now.


so many holes

these two things are just minuscule issues, however - i love the look of the stole and i hope my mum will enjoy wearing it. i certainly enjoyed knitting it.

getting there

christmas is getting quite close! i am taking two weeks off for the first time since i was in school - it feels quite weird! i'm not going away or anything; i am going to stay home, stay up late, sleep till midday, drink and eat lots, and generally make sure that going back to work in january will be as difficult as possible.

the christmas knits are coming together; i can't blog them all yet but i am quite sure my 20 month old niece won't be reading this:

specs
pattern: neck warmer and fulled mittens from strikk til nøstebarn (on ravelry here)
yarn: askeladen merino-lammeuld, 3ply, shade 316a (or 22 according to nøstebarn), less than one skein for both
needles: 3.5mm for neckwarmer, 6mm for mittens

i haven't done much fulling in my time, and it shows ... i threw the mittens in the washing machine on the 60C program with a couple of towels, and they came out as two golfball sized lumps. oops! after some frantic pulling and stretching, and a good ten minutes of poking the thumbs open with a huge knitting needle, they came out like in the picture. still rather wrinkly and wonky, and the thumbs aren't quite the same size, but they should be wearable. it doesn't matter, really - toddler mittens will be either lost or outgrown fairly quickly anyway.

in non-christmas knitting i have blocked my mum's hanami stole; i will show you next time! i would have liked it to be a bit longer, but it's still beautiful. have a good weekend, all!

sorry / stole / socks

oh oops. i'd best start out with the traditional apologies of the lapsed blogger. the only place i've been active the last month is on twitter; even ravelry has suffered! i'm not reading blogs, i'm definitely not commenting on any, i'm not checking out my flickr friends, i'm not posting any pictures, and the blogging, well, it's just not happening.

what i am doing, however, is knitting. like the wind!

this crumply beauty is the hanami stole i started just over two months ago.

in the picture it's about 75% finished, but it is my pleasure to announce that as of about half an hour ago this thing is done! well, at least the knitting is. i even wove in the ends! now for blocking and pictures. i have about two weeks to get that stuff done before my mum's birthday is coming up.

now, i do have an fo as well, but i'm not going to show it to you here. i knitted a pair of socks as a christmas gift, but on the off chance that the recipient sees this blog i am just going to direct you to ravelry: here they are.

and that's it for now, i guess - as i finished the stole earlier than expected i have a few weeks to knit more xmas gifts, should i suddenly decide to. the husband might actually get a pair of socks if he behaves.

super duper

hi! ultra quick post! something for which you should be grateful, really, as the single picture you get is quite bad. my big, nice camera ran out of battery power and i had to use my small one to be able to take the pictures before it got dark, and of course that camera is dying a slow and painful death and all of the pics were blurry. so, enjoy.

specs
pattern: basic sock pattern from ann budd's the knitter's handy book of patterns, size 2-4ys
yarn: koigu k(pp)pm in p621, under one skein
needles: 2.5 and 2.5mm circs

voila! october socks finished. these tiny things, knit over just 44 sts, are for my tiny 18 month old niece. hopefully they are a little big so they'll last her a while.

the yarn is so much nicer in real life, trust me. and i still have enough for a pair of grownup socks! blossom sent it to me in a swap years and years ago. thanks again, blossom!

ok, gotta go! sorry for the crappy post and i'll see you in a few weeks. cheerio!

copycat

it's mid october and i still haven't even started on my socks for this month. gah. for some reason i am totally unable to make up my mind about what socks to start, though this late in the month i suspect they will be size 2ys and for my niece.

instead i am in shawl mode these days. mmm shawls ... it's cold and dark and wet here now and so my scarves, neckwarmers, and shawls are in full rotation already. here's a new one for the season:

specs
pattern: weaver's wool mini shawl
yarn: dalegarn tiur, one ball each in 90 black, 5371 charcoal, 5041 silver grey, and 4545 magenta
needles: 6mm


obviously i have shamelessly copied terhi here - she did a beautiful version in greens which opened my eyes to this pattern. i found the tiur (which has been discontinued) in my stash; i think i originally bought it to make fairisle mittens but a) i hate colourwork and b) i never wear mittens.


i haven't got round to blocking this yet, something i hope will make the yarn softer and the shawl a bit bigger. also, the pictures are really dark, because by the time i got home from work today the daylight was already starting to fade. so sad!


this is another shawl i started - the hanami stole. it's not for me, but for my mum, whose birthday is just before xmas, so i'd better be quicker than with my other lace shawls. the yarn is absolutely divine - a silk, cashmere, and alpaca blend called angel from the natural dye studio. sigh ...

function over fun

let's see what i can remember about my september socks ...

specs
pattern: padded footlets (rav link), found in ik summer 2005 and also in favorite socks
yarn: regia 4ply, black, just under one ball
needles: 2.5mm
mods: see below


i knit these in five(!) (go me!) days at the beginning of the month, but never got round to taking photos and blogging them. the thought was to make a pair of ankle socks that i could wear in my ankle boots for added warmth in winter, but they have already come in handy as autumn and colder temps have already settled firmly here in bergen.


i don't know if you can make anything of these pics of black yarn, but there is pretty patterning down the heel flap, and an extra long gusset where you decrease only every four rows or so.

i made the same socks three years ago; it's easier to see the lace pattern in those. however, i made a few changes this time around.

the biggest mod i did was to ditch the double-knit sole. even three years later i remember this as the most annoying project ever. so ridiculously fiddly! (but clever end result, of course.)


the rest of my mods i have cut and pasted from ravelry, where i was clever enough to write them down just as i finished the knitting three weeks ago:

- skipped the contrast colour stripes
- skipped the st st rows at the end of the heel flap
- picked up 15 st each side of heel flap
- decreased to 56 st
- 6 repeats of instep pattern, straight on to toe
- round toe

i'm still undecided about what socks to make for october, even after pestering many of you via chat and twitter. in the mean time, i have started something like three hundred new projects. i'm saving those for future blog fodder, so today you just get the most boring (but still pretty) one: a 1x1 rib cowl in laceweight malabrigo:


delicious! and rather dull to knit!

counterweight

well, what do you know!

the day after i post about how rye hooking is great for making jackets, i get an email about a new, norwegian book called knytt på nytt, which looks quite cool.

you can see a slide show of some of the projects here. i particularly like the spiral rug!