A brief report from the office...

No matter how busy I am (and I am!), every day has room for a bit of procrastination... So I just spent a few minutes shooting photos of my new sweater with my mobile. The photos are not the best known to mankind, but I don't have time for a real photo shoot, and I thought this was better than nothing. They do actually show the colours quite accurately!

(Don't I look happy? :P)

Despite the facial expression in the last photo, I'm actually very pleased with this sweater! 

Info:

Pattern: Sommer in Tokyo by Marianne Isager (published in Japan / Japanese Knits or whatever the Interweave title is...)

Yarn: Filcolana New Zealandsk Lammeuld (the blue ones), Tvinni (pink), and another yarn from Henrichsens Uldspinderi (orange)

Needles: Addi bamboo, 2.5 mm (yup, 2.5 mm and jaquard); the pattern says 3.0 mm, but 2.5 mm matched my yarn better

Size: I made it 1 pattern repeat narrower than the smallest size in the pattern - and my gauge is slightly smaller

Yarn consumption: I didn't weigh it, but I reckon I used approx. 70 g of each of the blue yarns, approx. 60 g of the pink yarn, and approx. 20 g of the orange one.

Despite the tiny needles and the jaquard I actually really enjoyed knitting it. The start was slow, using the sleeves as swatches. But once I wanted to know how much of the pink yarn I would have left over for another project, I started knitting away on the body. I did take some time to pull myself together to weave in the ends, and then even more time until I got round to blocking it. But here it is - and it's nice! I thought it perfect for the first rainy day after a month(!) of sunshine. (And I'm now convinced that people with glasses weren't meant for biking in the rain... :P)

NaKniSweMoDo

I signed up for the National Knit a Sweater a Month Dodecathon here (Ravelry link). 

I've already completed the first two: Owls and Pine (see below). :)

Yum!

What a coincidence

I just found two good things about the dear boyfriend going to Dubai and Bahrain for 10 days from tomorrow:

1) Kate just published Paper Dolls! 

2) I have quite a lot of the beautiful grey Isager Alpaca 2 left over from Pine (I might need to buy an extra 50g skein, but hey...)

Oh, oh, OH! :D

P.S. If anybody has approx. 100-200 m (leftovers) of Isager Alpaca 2, colourway 011 (dark grey) they want to part with (at a cost, of course), it would make my day! :) 

What I'm knitting...

While I was at it (blogging, that is) I thought I might as well show you what I'm knitting at the moment (I shot photos for my Ravelry project pages on Saturday).

Sommer i Tokyo by Marianne Isager (Raveled here) - I did the sleeves first to swatch...; not the same colours as in the book, but I like these (the blue ones are Filcolana NZ Lambswool, the pink is Isager Tvinni, and the orange is Henrichsens Uldspinderi's own label):Kim Hargreaves' Ripple (with however long sleeves I can get with the Blue Sky Alpacas Alpaca Silk (colourway Guava) Peter brought me home from the states last summer); Raveled here:
AND - for the first time I've now got 2 sets of 2.25 mm double pointed needles (my favourite sock size) so that I can't knit 2 pairs of socks simultaneously! I bought KnitPicks Harmony dpns (15 cm) and I love them! The two pairs of socks are:

Komet in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock (colourway Firefly), Raveled here:
and Leyburn Socks in some Koigu colourway (you can see which on my Ravelry project page):
And for quite some time now (but I like the process) I've been knitting Woodland in 2 strands of Posh Yarn Eva 2 ply (silk/cashmere); Raveled here:

I also just cast on for a green project as green is the colour for Project Spectrum in March/April. You can see which on Ravelry. More later.

FOs on parade (yes, I've used that title before...)

Right, I guess it's high time I post all those FOs which have been done for up to two months now that I've finally photographed them (thanks to getting up early on Saturday - amazing what you can accomplish on a Saturday morning instead of sleeping...). 

I think I'll go anti-chronologically (if that was a word...):

Yesterday I finally finished Amimono's Pine; I got the kit for my birthday (Dec 8) and started knitting on Christmas Eve:

I love the yarn, the design, the beautiful grey colour, and the buttons I chose (notice the little Selbu star! I know this cardigan isn't exactly Norwegian, but I really like these buttons, which I inherited from my grandmother, and I wanted to put them on something I expect to use a lot).

I'm sure some of my fellow knitters would appreciate to know whether I found any mistakes in the pattern. I didn't - at least not in size s/m. In fact, I don't often find mistakes in the Isager patterns - perhaps I'm just lucky.

My Pine on Ravelry: here.

Next up is my is an instant gratification project: the Wham Bam Thank You Lamb! cowl in my favourite purple Cascade Magnum (leftover from Twinkle Dress and Twinkle Best Friend Cardigan):

I love the structure and shape of it. And it's almost too easy to knit. Raveled here.

Next up is my Owls sweater - published in January, the pattern now has 538 projects on Ravelry. What a success! It is an ingenious sweater - and the shoulder and waist shapings are clever!

Mine is knitted in Icelandic Istex Álafoss Lopi - a bit itchy, but it fits this sweater well. Oh, and the 36 buttons were 0.90 DKK each (i.e. nothing), and they had exactly 36 of these discontinued buttons left in the store! Lucky me. My parliament of owls is Raveled here.

What's next? Oh, my redone Shopping Tunic. I frogged the Shopping Tunic, as I didn't really use it (even though a woman in a shop complimented it), and found that I used my other Twinkle dress a lot more. Et voila, the tunic is now a dress (Raveled here): 

And then there's my Charade socks in the famous Wollmeise 100% Sockenwolle, colourway Drachenblut, which I won in a contest (otherwise I'd never have been lucky enough to get my hands on it). 

The Wollmeise colourways are wonderful, but the yarn seems to twist a bit? Though it's not an uncommon feature of yarns, I find it a bit odd that such a pricy yarn isn't more well-balanced... or should I have treated it differently? The socks are really nice though. The Charade stitch pattern is a bit tedious, but the outcome is good. Raveled here. 

The last FO is this catch up is my red bowtie scarf, which I'm really happy with! 

It's as chunky as I wanted it, knitted with two strands of Posh Yarn Lei (wool/bamboo) and 1 strand of Hifa 2 (wool). I like the style a lot - oversize children's scarf (the latter was underlined by my father asked if it was the one from my childhood :D). It's Raveled here.

Right, that's all for now. Let's see if I manage to post more regularly in the future :)

I must be working hard...

My Ravelry project list tells me I have 9 WIPs. In fact, two of them are done and already being used, one needs two ends to be sewn in, and one needs 36 buttons to be sewn on (I think you might be able to guess which one that is). Nevertheless, I think I could get top marks for absence from my blog. Too much work, sports, etc. Though I have been knitting, there hasn't been time for knitting as much as I'd like to, let alone for taking photos and blogging. 

Thus, this post was mainly to confirm that I'm not dead :)

I'm attracted to Yellow

I don't know what it is about yellow. These days I seem to be attracted to yellow yarns, projects, etc., finding myself faving other people's yellow projects on Ravelry all the time. 

It's not the curry yellow that has been the colour this autumn. It's a happier, more sunny, warm, and deep yellow (but definitely not orange!), that makes me smile and seems to have some much more impact than other colours. Even more than my beloved red. Could it be that I've had enough of red? Oh, horror! I think not, though. :)

Thing is, wearing yellow makes me look pale, maybe even sick. Oh, bother. Maybe I should just try wearing a tiny bit of it - enough to cheer me up every time I look at it.

Happy New Year

On the night before New Year's Eve / Hogmanay / Silvesterabend / Nytårsaften / whatever-it-is-where-you-are, I find it appropriate to sum up my knitting of 2008. 

This year I produced:

40 finished knits
9662 g of yarn used

I comparison, I used 4918 g of yarn last year, but produced 50 finished knits. I made more sweaters and Twinkle garments this year; hence, the larger amount of yarn used. I had a highly productive 3 months of summer holidays this year, also accounting for some of my productivity. In 2009 I'll have only 1 month of summer holidays and an MSc thesis to write, so I probably won't knit quite as much in 2009 (unless I'm procrastinating on that thesis, but I don't plan to...).

I kinda stopped posting on the Stashalong blog as my summer holidays ended and I got a lot of work to do at university. However, I didn't stop keeping tally of my reductions and enhancements, and here is how it ended:

Total stash reduction: 9662 g

Total stash enhancement: 8700 g (holy cow!)

That gives me a reduction of 962 g. "Not much, but so much more than nothing" (citing my favourite singer-songwriter, Tina Dickow). Last year I reduced my stash by 786 g, so I was a tad better this year. I could blame it on those 4-5 kg of yarn I bought for Twinkle knits (Cascade Magnum and Twinkle Soft Chunky), but I could also try and be better next year! :D

I won't participate in Stashalong in 2009, but I haven't decided whether to continue keeping a record of what I use and buy. Let's see. 

I'm very fond of my knits of 2008, let alone the fact that 2008 was the year when I published some of my own designs (see the sidebar). Thanks to those of you who have shown your interest - I'm very happy about that :)

Also thanks to all of you who read my blog and leave me nice and encouraging comments. That means a lot to me :)

Thus, looking forward to a year of a little less knitting and hopefully a little less buying too, I'll wish you all a Happy New Year! 

Current status

I've been enjoying a peaceful Christmas and only now got round to showing you some bits and bobs. A couple of hours ago I finished these legwarmers - encouraged by having cold legs! :D

They are knit with 2 strands of Hifa 2 in a charcoal colour. Two different kinds of cables.

Then there's my Christmas present for a dear friend of mine - a hat and a pair of mittens:

Knit in Rauma Finull and obviously inspired by my EPS Yoke Sweater (see post below; I can't be bothered linking).

Before I left for Christmas holidays I finished 5 hexagons for Norah's blanket using an oddball of Jo Sharp Alpaca Silk Georgette (or whatever the name is... :)) in a burnt orange colour called Quince (to the best of my knowledge quince is yellow?). 3 different kinds to be shipped of to a lovely woman in the States who are going to sew all the hexagons of this joint project together... :

Early December I "enhanced" my stash purchasing some long-wanted Socks That Rock from a fellow Ravelrer:

... and I have very nice parents who gave me the Amimono knit-kit for Pine for my birthday :D - in a lovely grey colour with a bit of blue in it (Isager Alpaca 2, colourway 011, methinks) :

I'm doing a lot of Christmas knitting - currently on the needles are:

- Pine; by Aminomo/Helga Isager

- Sommer i Tokyo; by Marianne Isager (featured in her book Japan)

- Charade Socks in Wollmeise colourway Drachenblut

- Woodland scarf in Posh Yarn Eva 2-ply (using 2 strands) in a lovely red colour

All lovely projects in some wonderful yarns. Yum. See my projects on Ravelry. 

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Info for Stashalong:

Stash reduction: 96 g + 110 g + 44 g = 250 g

Stash enhancement: 2x128 g + 450 g = 706 g 

A blog award

I've been so fortunate to be given this blog award by Julia:

Denne bloggen investerer i og tror på NÆRHET - nærhet i rom, tid og 

forholderne er usedvanlig sjarmerende og søte, og formålet er å finne og å være

venner. De er ikke opptatt av utmerkelser og selvhevdelse. Vårt håp er at når 

båndene på disse utmerkelser er kuttet, vil enda flere vennskap ha forplantet

seg. Vær vennlig å gi litt ekstra oppmerksomhet til disse!

Yes, it's in Norwegian, and I can't be bothered translating it, but I can say that those are very kind words :)

I'll pass it on to the blogging people I find should have this award. Some of them have already gotten it from other bloggers and have blogged about it, but I'll give them an extra one then... :) So there you go,

Julia, Britt, Anne, Ulla, Lise, and Karen.    

Thanks for creating such nice blogs :)

That being said, I'd like to be more present around here. I'd like to have my blog as an incorporated part of my life like e.g. Julia and Anne have, but - sadly - I don't see that happening any time soon. So I guess I'll just keep this blog as it is - a knitting blog - and try to post more often, and on WIPs too - not only FOs. Try, being the operative word... :)

FOs on parade

I finally got my act together to show you the FOs I've been producing. I haven't spent much time knitting as I've spent by far the most of my time at the university for the past couple of months. Nevertheless, I actually managed to finish some stuff: 1 has been done since this summer apart from some sewing, 2 were finished due to some upcoming (now passed) deadlines, and 1 was a project I just wanted to wear this winter! How's that for enticement :)

To start with the latter, here's my EZ Yoke Sweater (Ravelry link). It was published in Wool Gathering in September, but I don't have the pattern - I just looked at the small photo and chart on p. 48 of VK Fall 2008 after my mum suggested I knit it. What a good suggestion :)

I modified the chart a bit to start the decreases a bit earlier, and I swapped the colours around so that the "branches" are in MC - I like how they proceed from the body when doing it like that. 

Though it may not be obvious from this photo as it doesn't show the red off very well, I used 3 different red colours: a red-coral one at the bottom, a cherry red in the middle, and a pink one at the top. I also used these 3 red colours for the afterthought hems (EZ) on the sleeves and body (a different colour for each hem). Btw, it's knitted in one of my absolute favourite yarns, Rauma Finull: great quality and wearability - and so many wonderful colours!

Secondly, the famous beer cozies for the raffle at my rugby teams' Annual Dinner & Dance! (Ravelry link) They are in team colours (black, red, white) and it says our team name (Exiles) on them. I'm very pleased with the result - as was the inventor of the idea that I should knit beer cozies with straps to go round the neck on them so you can still hold onto your beer while cheering for the team, Jo. Two with straps, two without:

They're knitted in Arwetta sock yarn as is my next project: The scarf (Ravelry link) for Rebecca's birthday which was celebrated today:

The pattern is my own - the Letter Scarf - and the colours are carefully chosen to match Rebecca. It does of course say her name on the scarf. She was as happy with the scarf as I'd hoped for :)

Lastly, Manon (published in Norah Gaughan vol. 1) - (Ravelry link). I had expected the shape around the waist to be a bit different (hello, row gauge) but I needed a dark grey cardigan and this will do just fine. It's knitted with 2 strands of Hifa 2.

There you go. I think I need to squeeze in some Christmas knitting now. Ooops, it's December 1st tomorrow! I've got every single day planned with work/birthday/parties up until the 22nd of December. Let's see how it works out...

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Info for Stashalong:

Stash reduction: 300 g (EZ Yoke) + 106 g (beer cozies) + 100 g (scarf) + 420 g (Manon) = 926 g

This and that

For once I actually do have a lot to show you, but I'll wait another week or so, as I'm quite busy and I guess I'll have even more to show by the end of next week and I might as well disclose it all at once. 

In the meantime, if any of you would be interesting in some Shetland Wool from BC Garn, I'm selling over on Ravelry. Lovely yarn, I'm just trying to modify/reduce/improve my stash at the moment... 

The joys of the www...

I picked up 2 parcels at the post office today: One with yarn in it (3 beautiful sock yarns: Claudia Hand Painted, Koigu KPPPM, and Lorna's Laces) from Michigan, bought from one of my fellow Ravelry users at a great price (thanks, Leslie! :)) - and one with my gorgeous, new Karen Millen dress! Ridiculously cheap (compared to what these, my favourite dresses usually cost) because it's from last year's collection (or the year before that), it still has the tags on, it fits me perfectly and is just my style. And I never thought I'd actually buy anything on Ebay. Well, I guess there's a first time for everything. I'm now ready for all those fancy dress parties I'm attending in November and December :)

What's that on the right edge of the photo? Oh yeah, that's what I'm actually doing today... collecting data and informations from scientific papers... LOTS of scientific papers...

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Info for Stashalong:

Stash enhancement: 318 g

A Socktoberfest pair and a camera case

I'm not hibernating, just working... 

I finished the long wanted pair of purple Embossed Leaves socks to go with my Best Friend Cardigan. They are knit in Arwetta sock yarn. Here they are:

A couple of weekends ago I needed a case for my camera as the old one was lost in Oslo. What does one do? I grabbed the skein of hand-spun I made on the drop spindle at some point this summer when checking out spinning and some orange and pink bits and pieces. When the camera is inside, you wrap the flap around to the front, and the camera is safe and secure:

On the stash side, I enhanced my stash with 8 skeins of Arwetta for Christmas gifts and raffle prizes (more on that later), but I also sold some of my Posh Yarn...

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Info for Stashalong:

Stash reduction (FOs + destash): 70 g + 30 g + 110 g = 210 g

Stash enhancement: 400 g

This is why I don't knit watching the guys playing rugby...

Via Comics. I saw it on Olga's blog.

Free Pattern Release: November Socks

I've just published the pattern for these socks on Ravelry; you can download the pattern for free here. If you're not on Ravelry, but would like the pattern anyway, you can contact me - or sign up for Ravelry!

The simple, yet elegant honeycomb ribbing stitch pattern makes for a very useful sock for everyday wear. The simplicity of the stitch pattern works well with all those wonderful, multi-coloured sock yarns. The colour and the denseness of the pattern remind me of November. Knowing what November is like here in Denmark, some might notice the pun in the pattern title... :)

Knitting socks is quite appropriate in October, as it is the month of the famous Socktoberfest. Join in if you like - there's a group on Ravelry as well. 

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Info for Stashalong:

Stash reduction: 74 g.

Solen (The Sun)

It's finally on display! Starting back in February, I took some huge breaks in knitting this one. Finally, I procrastinated sewing the side seams for almost a month. But now its done (still needs a washing, but I've started wearing it): Solen (English: The Sun) from Marianne Isager's book Japan published about a year ago. 

I made the following modifications: 

• 1 "column of suns" less, i.e. I have 3 or 4 circles on each row, not 4 or 5. MI usually designs very wide sweaters for my taste; turns out I was right - this one fits me.
• I made St st sleeves with garter stitch edgings instead of the full garter stitch ones called for in the pattern.
• I've randomly placed two small, red circles (like the ones on the front) on the back instead of one huge one.

I like this sweater. It's not going to be quite as much a favourite as the Cabled Spiral or the IncREDibly Red one, but I think I'm going to wear it quite often - it came out better than I anticipated!

It's knitted using 1 strand of Spinni and 1 strand of the equivalent of Tvinni bought directly from Henrichsens Uldspinderi. The red/pink/orange circles are Tvinni, Tvinni Mohair, and some other yarn from Henrichsens.

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Info for Stastalong:

Stash reduction: 390 g.

The lovely, cozy, bulky, purple dress :)

Not the best photos known to mankind, but here it is, my new wonderful dress:

I was a bit skeptical back when I started it (or rather, when I started considering whether to make it a couple of months ago when the VK Fall 08 issue landed in my mailbox), but I'm not anymore! Of a garment can be cozy and fashionable at the same time, this one is. I've been wearing it all day round the university and I just love it! The length of it is perfect for this years short dresses and tights fashion and that kangaroo pocket is more ingenious than I actually thought it would be. It looks great with a belt or a ribbon below the bust as well, but I wore it like this today.

Linking to Ravelry, the pattern is #22 Twinkle Cabled Dress from VK Fall 08, and the yarn is Cascade Magnum in the fabulous colour (my favourite) Blueberry #9464 (purchased at wollbox.de). 

It's another of those extremely fast bulky knits. Being very busy at school (and liking it!) it took me a week to knit (I knitted a bit on a sock and a sweater as well...). I must say work gets the best of me these days, but I really don't mind.

Read about the few mods I made in my Ravelry post.

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Info for Stashalong:

Stash reduction: 732 g

Crappy photos...

... but I did finish the sweater for Sigrid's 1-year birthday. 5 minutes before I stepped out of the train in Vejle on our way there! Seeing as I did have some trouble knitting I'm quite happy I actually made it :) And I think she liked it! :)

104 g of Garnstudio Drops Alpaca. 

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Info for Stashalong:

Stash reduction: 104 g

Trying very hard...

Just to let you know: having a splint on your ring finger does not make knitting that much easier... :)

Fortunately, it'll be off in a day or two - nothing major, just a swollen purple-ish joint after not quite catching a ball thrown too hard at a too short distance at yesterday's rugby training. The splint is self-prescribed (something Peter just happened to have lying around...) and just to avoid unnecessary movement. While knitting, for instance :)

Pattern: Decipede!

I've just put the pattern for this cute little knitted toy up for sale in my Etsy shop. Having only 10 legs, its neither a millipede nor a centipede. It's a decipede! 

An excellent toy for children, as it contains no parts that can be swallowed. 

Combine colours using your imagination and create a great personal gift for a child - or a childish grown-up - you know. You could also just knit one for yourself! :)

It may look hard to knit, but if you know how to do different kinds of increases and decreases, you'll be good to go. I used a special cast-on method, but included links for tutorials in the pattern.

You can find the pattern's page on Ravelry here.

I hope you like it!

More FOs!

I'm really putting an effort into finishing up my WIPs before the summer holidays end! Here's another couple:

Twinkle's Shopping Tunic in Twinkle Soft Chunky and Cascade Magnum. Mmmmmm :)

And my 2nd Ravelympics project which I finished Saturday: a small Shetland Triangle in the much dreaded kidmohair - now finally used up! It's nice to wear, though.

Coming up shortly:

- Solen from Marianne Isager's Japan

- Another pattern release: the Decipede!

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Info for Stashalong:

Stash reduction: 672 g + 44 g = 716 g

Free Pattern Release: Bubbles & Cables Cowl

I've released the pattern for this cowl! Just in time for the arriving fall (on my side of the globe, that is)! And it's free!

In my part of the world, chunky knits featuring bubbles and cables are highly fashionable this fall. What's more, cowls seem to be the new scarves. Go ahead, add some fall fashion to your own wardrobe with this bubbly, cabled cowl.

You can find the download link in the sidebar. It's page on Ravelry is here. I'm working on getting the Ravelry Download thing to work so that you can save it in your Ravelry library. By then it should also be available to people not on Ravelry. Until that happens, email me if you'd like a copy but cannot access it through Ravelry (as the download link is a Ravelry one). My email is in the sidebar, too. 

Pattern ideas?

Inspired by Ulla's comment on my last post, I'd like to know if any of you have some ideas as to what I can use all this lovely yarn for. Only one of the skeins has nylon in it and is thus ideal for socks. And while I plan to dig out some of the reinforcement yarn I inherited from my grandmother a long time ago, I'm not sure I'll make all of it into socks. Do you have any ideas for patterns using approx. 380 m of sock yarn?

Incredibly lucky!

Some weeks ago I entered a donation "contest" on Jenny's blog, donating a few dollars to her fundraising for the Arthritis Foundation Run/Walk to Milwaukee Irishfest. And you know what? I won the first prize!! And it wasn't just a prize... I got to choose 5 skeins (some of them were actually 2 skeins as you can see from the photo, but a "skein" corresponded to the amount going into a pair of socks - rather appropriate when the cause is a walk!) out of 22 skeins of beautiful, wonderful yarns! I had a hard time choosing, since there were so many lovely skeins, but I ended up choosing yarns in my favourite colours which were also yarns that are hard to get one's hands on here in Denmark. 

I apologize for the crappy photo shot with my mobile, but while it doesn't show the depth of the colours properly, the colours themselves are quite accurate. From left to right (links to company pages - links in brackets for Ravelry):

- J. Knits Superwash Me [Rav-link]- Socks, colour: Tampa

- the famous Wollmeise Sockenwolle 100% Superwash [Rav-link], colour: Drachenblut (if you don't know how hard it is to get your hands on Wollmeise, I'll just tell you: very hard!)

- Artyarns Ultramerino4 [Rav-link], colour: 138

- ShiBuiKnits Sock [Rav-link], colour: 4401

- Claudia Hand Painted Yarns Fingering [Rav-link], colour: Ocean Depth

Let's just say this is one of the most amazing prizes I've won in a long, long, long time! I feel so incredibly lucky! - and grateful to Jenny for setting up such a great contest. She did well with the fundraising as well, I can tell you. :)

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Info for Stashalong:

Stash enhancement: 572 (wonderful!) g

Oh, I almost forgot...

... to show you what I bought during my weekend in Oslo primo August. The best yarn Norway can offer! What's more, it's available in an amazing range of wonderful colours: Rauma Finull (here on Ravelry). 14 skeins (50 g each) in my favourite colours: purple-ish blue and reds. Being turned into a yoke sweater at some point.

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Info for Stashalong:

Stash enhancement: 720 g