A Year in Socks now available as individual patterns!

I've decided to make all the sock patterns in the A Year in Socks collection available as individual patterns for $6.50 each! This may be good news for you if you've had your eye on one of the patterns only and did want to buy the entire collection just to get that single pattern you wanted.

They are all available in my Etsy shop, and you can see more about them on the collection's Ravelry page.

I've also decided to let the November Socks remain a free pattern as it has been so far (anything else would be unfair methinks), but I have updated the layout to match the other collection patterns.

So - here's hoping you'll want to knit one of these 12 pairs! My own favourites are September and October:

April FO #2: Red & stripy baby vest

This was quite an easy WIP to wrestle, as all it needed was a single button sewn on. Nevertheless, it seemed to take me forever to do so - but now it's done!

Pattern: My own
Yarn: 20 g Hifa 2, red; 26 g of some sportweight mohair of unknown origin.
Needles: 4.0 mm
Ravelry project page: here.

I initially started it to use up two stash oddballs - and succeeded (with some help from the scrap yarn blanket). I think the result is really cute! And the fact that it's red only makes it better, right? ;)

April FO #1: Tilia Shawl

Here comes my first FO of the month - it finished blocking yesterday, the Tilia Shawl:  

Pattern: Tilia by Laura Patterson. I bought it as a Posh Yarn kit with the lovely yarn:

Yarn: Posh Yarn Diana 2 ply (80% merino, 20% silk; 800 yds/100g); I used 76 g.

Needles: 3.75 mm Addi Lace circs

Mods: I added 4 knitted rows between the edge section and the next section as I didn't like them directly attached seing as the pattern repeats of the two sections do not match (17 sts and 12 sts). After finishing the knitting I also unraveled the CO edge (yes, that did take some time) because it was too tight, purled one row and BO on the next RS row. 

I cast on on January 5th, knit 10 rows, then left it sitting in my WIP pile for 3 months a bit exhausted by the thought of all those nupps. I then picked it up again and like some other Ravelers I discovered that the nupps weren't that bad at all - and then I finished it in approx. 2 weeks.

The colour is gorgeous! I love reds and this one is a favourite. I'm also very fond of the yarn - I feared that a cobweb/lace shawl would be too floppy, but the yarn holds up really well, probably thanks to its merino content and twist. 

See many more photos on my Ravelry project page. 

FOs in March

I finished 3 knits in March, and I guess now is the time to blog about them - I finally managed to get photos yesterday.

1) Cubed Necklace:
This one is featured in the new book (also available as pdf) Ori Ami Knits by Olga Buraya-Kefelian & Vanessa Yap-Einbund. The book uses Habu Textiles yarns only, and is thus a very interesting book. I fell in love with this funny cubed necklace (in the book it looks more like a real necklace as you can see here on the pattern's Ravelry page), but wanted to make it from stash instead. And so I did.
Here's a link to my Ravelry project page, should you be interested in learning more about it and seeing how I constructed mine (more photos).

2) Woodland Scarf: 
It's a loooong one. More than 2 metres I think. It took me 19 months to finish - mainly because it spent a long time sleeping in my knitting basket. But here it is - finally finished after I decided to do so back in March. It's knitted in 2 strands of Posh Yarn Eva 2 ply, using every bit of 4 skeins. The silk/cashmere blend pills, but it's also very soft and nice for a scarf and has a good drape.
Here's a link to my Ravelry project page, where you can also see the stitch pattern up close and find a link to the (free) pattern.

3) Stash-busting Socks:
Not much to say about these other than they worked brilliantly in using up every single yarn of 5 different sock yarn leftover odd balls - and a bit of a 6th. To ensure this, I unwound the skeins, folded the yarn in half to get two strands of equal length, and then rewound these two strands into two balls. And knitted. This technique is only advisable if your yarn comes in adequately tiny balls :)
Here's a link to my Ravelry project page, should you be interested in seeing which yarns I used. Most of it is left over from all the sock knitting I did for the A Year in Socks collection. There's some January, February, September, October, and November in there.

Let's see if I succeed in finishing twice as many projects in April...

ETA: The socks added 94 g = 11.75% = 12% to the Sock Yarn O-Meter!

New weekend plans

(Photo from Meteosat lifted off www.berlingske.dk)

This one - yes, that's the giant volcanic cloud currently closing down the air space above Northern Europe - is likely to prevent dear boyfriend, who is currently stationed in Stavanger, Norway, during the week, from coming home over the weekend. Having recovered from the disappointment, I'm now thinking that I should catch this opportunity to get some WIP knitting and blogging done. I washed and pinned out my latest FO this morning (I have been very monogamous with this one lately - more on that later), and I'm looking forward to showing it to you. Who knows, but it seems likely that I can get another 2 - or maybe 3? - WIPs done over the weekend, and I'll be well on my way to 6, which is my April WIP goal. I would however have preferred to spend the weekend with dear Peter - 12 days apart is a long time when your mind was only set for 5... Hopefully, he'll have a good time in Stavanger and the opportunity to actually explore the town. I suggested the Norwegian Oil Museum :)

April is WIP Wrestling Month

Inspired by Karen - who has quite a lot more WIPs than I do ;) - I hereby announce April to be WIP Wrestling Month.

Status as of April 1st: 11 WIPs.
Goal: As some of them are quite far off, my goal is to finish 6 WIPs - and to blog about these 6 and the 3 finished projects also lingering as WIPs at my Ravelry project page because I have not yet blogged about them nor photographed them.

Quarterly report - 1st quarter

Three months of 2010 have passed and it's time for a quarterly report. How am I doing with the New Year's resolutions?

1. Knit down (some of) my stash.
Well, this one is actually going really really well! I've trimmed my stash for a lot of odds and ends by knitting on my stash-busting blanket, some baby gear (two of these they still need the final sewing/button/zipper before they can be presented here, but you can see the progress here on Ravelry), and then a stashbusting pair of socks I've just finished in 10 days, using up every yard of 5 sock yarn leftover oddballs - and a bit of a 6th.
I've also sold some of my stash in my recent destash - the blue Rowanspun DK is still available, should you be interested.
Thus, my stash is actually looking quite nice and inviting at the moment. Now I just need to figure out what to knit... The thing is, I've grown a bit tired of some of the projects on the needles as well as the projects in my queue. I think I want to knit a shawl, and I also had an idea about something modular... Any suggestion is welcome!

2. Be less spend-y and save money for more important things.
At least I'm trying :) I haven't spend much money on yarn. In fact, I've only bought 5 skeins of yarn this year!

3. Improve my Italian.
I've been listening to Linguaphone and Michel Thomas (not all the time, but some), and I've signed up for a 7-weeks course starting late April. I'm looking forward! :)

4. Keep flossing.
I'm good at this one! :D

5. Less Facebook, more reading. 
Facebook has definitely lost its importance in my network of friends, so that's a good thing. I've become better at leaving the computer when there are no more blogs to be read or Raveling to be done. I also think a read the paper more often. Not so many books, though.

6. Learn how to do tubular cast-on and use it.
Nope, I haven't even looked at it yet. Haven't found the right project either.

7. Keep running regularly.
This must be the one where I've had the most success! I've completed today's 14 km run and I seem to have fought off a minor injury threatening to ruin it all by tying my shoelaces properly. I'm keeping the speed with which I want to run the 21.1 km to Sweden at these long runs, too, so that's great. By now, I'm running distances so long that I can run home from work - it's actually much more pleasing than it might sound :)

8. Keep doing Pilates regularly. 
Well, erm, there's definitely something to work on here! Maybe after Easter, when dear boyfriend is going to be in Stavanger, Norway during the week, I'll assign a certain evening to working on this one :P

9. Knit 12 sweaters.
Well, I've finished 2 so far, so I'm not exactly up to speed, but at least I have 4 (or more?) on the needles, so there is still hope. For some reason - maybe it's the strong urge for spring this year - I'm not really that attracted to sweater knitting at the moment.

10. Knit 10 shawls. 
Remember the 20-month-old scarf/shawl I was trying to make myself finish in my previous post? Well, I actually finished it in something like a week and have been wearing it a lot since then. It does not count in the 10 shawls in 2010 Ravelry group because it was a WIP, but maybe it'll count in my book! Other than that, no news on this one.

Conclusion? Not brilliant, but definitely not bad either!

I finished 11 projects in these 3 months. Not all have photos yet, but the rest are here:

UFO/WIP Wrestling

Time has come to wrestle some of them WIPs (or even UFOs) to stop them take up all the space in my knitting basket and become a mental obstacle in my knitting. I've started out with the one that has been around the longest time... since August 23rd 2008 to be exact (thank you, Ravelry, for letting me know!):

It's Woodland knitted in two strands of Posh Yarn Eva 2 ply (a lace yarn, 55% silk, 45% cashmere). Another reason for picking this up is that I want to wear it this spring!
I have to say it is not the first time I've picked this up to knit on it in a WIP wrestling context (and failed), but I think I'll do it this time. Why? I've strategically placed it in the middle of the sofa so that I can knit a few rows every now and then.
So why has it taken me so long? Well, it's a scarf and thus inherently boring to knit. Not that all scarves are boring (!), but this one has a fairly short pattern repeat, and though very easily remembered you still have to pay attention so it's not ideal TV knitting either (but will do for some of the more mindless TV...).
Right - onwards and upwards! I'm approx. 70% through (this is an old photo)! And I'm sure there are more WIPs in my basket that would like some work done.

DESTASH!

I've been trying to organize my stash today, and have decided to part with some of it. And a brand new hand-knit sweater, if you should be interested (but since you're probably into knitting, you may prefer to knit your own :)).
They are all very nice, flawless yarns - and stored in a smoke- and pet free home - I've just decided I'm not going to knit with them anytime soon (if ever) so I decided to give you the chance to do so.

If you're interested, send me an email (my email is in the sidebar) or a PM on Ravelry. First come, first served.

--- NOW SOLD! ---

Yarn: Posh Yarn Miranda, cobweb, 1300 yds/100g, 70% baby alpaca - 20% silk - 10% cashmere. It's leaf green - the colourway is appropriately called Leaf. I've lost the tag, though.

Amount: 1 skein, 100 g. As you can see, it's been wound into a center pull ball.

Price: 110 DKK / £13 / $20. The sales price at Posh Yarn is £15. 

Shipping: 25 DKK to Denmark / £4 to Europe (within EU) / $8 to everywhere else.

Link to the yarns page on Ravelry: here. 

--- NOW SOLD! ---

Yarn: Dansk Merino Kamgarn (links to some online sellers), 450m/100g, 100% merino. A dusty purple colour, no. 4031. All same dyelot (1207). 

Amount: 3 skeins, 100 g each. Still in the skeins, as you can see. 

Price: I sell the 3 skeins together for 165 DKK / £20 / $30. 

Shipping: 40 DKK to Denmark / £7 to Europe (within EU) / $14 to everywhere else.

Link to the yarns page on Ravelry: here.

--- NOW SOLD! ---

Yarn: Rowan Rowanspun DK (discontinued; it's Ravelry page is here), 200m/50g, 100% wool. A slightly dusty middle blue colour with mint, teal, and mauve tweed spots, no. 734. All same dyelot (16A2). 

Amount: 5 skeins, 50 g each. Still in the skeins, as you can see. 

Price: I sell the 5 skeins together for 190 DKK / £24 / $35. 

Shipping: 40 DKK to Denmark / £7 to Europe (within EU) / $14 to everywhere else.

Link to the yarns page on Ravelry: here.

And finally the sweater: --- NOW SOLD! ---

My own design and knitting. Nordic star pattern on the yoke. 

Size: Small. Modelled on a 34" bust.

Yarn: Shetland wool, a tweedy and fairly bright purple colour - this colour in this yarn (held double). 

Price: 200 DKK / £25 / $37. --- NOW SOLD! ---

Shipping: 40 DKK to Denmark / £6 to Europe (within EU) / $12 to everywhere else.

PayPal preferred!

Please don't hesitate to contact me by email (see sidebar) or Ravelry PM (private message) if you're interested in any of the above! 

Snowbird

As hinted in my last post, my Snowbird is done. It's a very versatile cardigan, the yarn is veeery soft and nice, and so is the antracite colour. You should knit yourself one if it's your style! :) If you have the patience for all that stockinette, that is.

Pattern: Snowbird by Heidi Kirrmaier. I knit size S. The result looks great and there are some nice details such as the St st sleeve, side, and raglan 'seams' on the rev St st background. The same goes for the pockets.
Yarn: Rowan Kid Classic, colourway Smoke (831), 8 skeins minus 1 m! I never thought I'd be that fond of a yarn that contains nylon and mohair, but it's a really really nice yarn!
Needles: 4.5 mm Addi Bamboo
Mods: I made it a bit shorter (approx. 3 inches) because I was running out of yarn...
My Ravelry project page: is here. Also the place to go if you want to see these (alas rather poor) photos in a larger version.

Upcoming...

I have a new FO I really want to show you. Once the sun is out and my camera doesn't run out of battery after the first photo, that is.

Pssst...

Since you're reading my blog, you are likely to know a lot of these links already, but in case you don't, the list of web-based knitting resources I used when I did my talk on Knitting on the Internet, can be found here.

Half a loaf is better than nothing!

I just donated 150 DKK (approx. $27.50, i.e. 50% of my pattern sales from Jan 25th to Feb 5th + $2 from me to make it a nice, even amount) to UNICEFs work in Haiti. Thank you for helping me to help :)

Sock Yarn-O-Meter Progress

Recently, I set my mind up to use up some of all the sock yarn leftovers in order to make it easier for myself to see what interesting sock yarn stash I actually have. So far, it's resulted in a white-grey-black pair of socks for myself and a very colourful pair of self-composed baby boots for an unknown recipient (at my age, you can never have too much baby knitting in stock - people seem to pop out babies all the time :)).

Socks: Arwetta Classic in black and dark grey and Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock Multi in Shadow (the latter is leftovers from the January Sock). Ravelry project page here. 72 g for Sock Yarn-O-Meter.

Baby Boots: ShiBuiKnits Sock in Jewel, Socks That Rock Lightweight in Firebird, and J. Knits Superwash Me - Sock in Tampa, i.e. leftovers from the May Socks, the June Socks, and the March Socks. Ravelry project page here. 20 g for Sock Yarn-O-Meter. 

I've also been using some of the sock yarn scraps for this scrap yarn blanket:

It's a long term project and I'm only approx. 40% through; so far I've knit 64 squares in 47 different yarns. It's very nice to knit, and it's a project I pull out when I've collected enough odds and ends from other projects to knit a few squares. As you can (hopefully) see, I try to keep some kind of order as to where I put the colours. You can follow the blanket on it's Ravelry project page. The sock yarn scraps I knit into this one this time around add up to 32 g for the Sock Yarn-O-Meter.

Another addition to the Sock Yarn-O-Meter comes from the November Socks and December Socks. Why, how can I have published the sock collection and not having finished the socks until now? Well, part of it is a matter of second sock syndrome. The red December Sock was indeed finished in August before I published the collection, but the second one - which is grey and red because I ran out of red yarn... - was a long time coming. 

The sock on the left in the photo is the November Sock. I knit this second pair because the first pair was too worn out to be put on display. The first sock is absent in the photo because it is indeed on display, so you'll have to take my word for it that I actually finished two :)
Addition to Sock Yarn O-Meter: November Socks: 104 g; December Socks: 75 g.

All this sums up to 303 g of sock yarn used, i.e. +38% for the Sock Yarn-O-Meter. However, I couldn't resist a tip that Kemps was selling the Kaffe Fassett sock yarn - I've been eyeing the Landscape Fire colourway for a long time, but never bought it - at I price so low that I could get two skeins sent to my front door for less than 50 DKK (~10 USD). These two 50 g skeins thus add -12.5% to the Sock Yarn-O-Meter, so the net result this time around is +25.5%. I'm getting closer to a positive balance! :)

The Asymmetrical Cardigan and a yarn recommendation

I'm sure most Danes will remember the winter of 2009/2010. The country has been covered in snow since the middle of December, and there is no reason to believe that will change within the next two weeks (i.e. as far as the forecasts go). Some people find it rather annoying, and Denmark is - like the rest of Europe - about to run out of road salt, but really, this is what we've been wishing for all those green winters with only a few days of snow - let's enjoy it! I love that we can now walk across most of the lakes, and I like to see how much the children seem to enjoy playing in the snow - I know I would have if I were 5! 

Another reason for me to enjoy this extraordinarily long winter is that I finished this perfect winter cardigan 3 weeks ago. May I present another winner: the Asymmetrical Cardigan!

Pattern: Asymmetrical Cardigan by Norah Gaughan, published in Knitting Nature. It is my 6th(!) knit from this gorgeous book! This is not the only book from which I've knit 6 different items (Twinkle's Big City Knits is the other), but it is certainly the one from which I've produced so many successful knits that get regular wear - among these are sweaters I'm likely to wear out, namely the all-time favourites: the Bubble Pullover and the wonderful Cabled Spiral Pullover. My mum also knitted the Asymmetrical Cardigan ages ago in a beautiful tomato colour - and with little tomato buttons! - in a smaller gauge to give a more elegant look than that of my very wintery and very cosy cardigan. If you haven't yet seen this book (published in 2006), you should!

Yarn: New Lanark Aran [shop link | Rav link], colourway Iris. I can only say one thing: Try this yarn! It doesn't matter if you prefer DK or Aran, just try it! The colours are gorgeous, and if a yarn can be honest this one is - it's well spun, it's nice to knit with, it gives a good texture and drape, and it holds up well to wear. And not least: it's so inexpensive! My mother and I have had to behave ourselves and not order more than we have room for. It's harder than it sounds :)

Needles: 6.0 mm Addi Turbo.

Buttons: Red mother of pearl buttons bought in Sweden. I love how these buttons emphasise the hint of red that this blue-purple colour contains (a tiny bit of red has been spun into the yarn to give this complex and beautiful colour - that's one of the reasons why I like this yarn so much). 

Modifications: My fewer sts/inch and my small size demanded that I construct a new size: extra-petite. (It has to be said that I'm not that petite - it's the sizes in Knitting Nature that run large). Mathematically, it was very simple: I found the difference in stitch count between sizes petite and small, and subtracted that number from the petite stitch count. For everything length-related directions are given in inches, and there I just followed size petite. I also knit the button bands as I went along rather than attaching them afterwards. Doing as Norah says (i.e. attaching collar and button bands afterwards) gives a more elegant finish because the buttonbands can then be knit on smaller needles, but I think my solutions goes well enough with the more chunky look that my cardigan has. 

Link to my Ravelry project page: Here.

Two red neckwarmers...

With daylight being something I see through the window while at work, all the projects I've finished since Christmas have been in need for a weekend photography session before I could blog about them. Today, I finally have plenty of time on my hands with dear boyfriend away in Jutland hunting (foxes, not girls :)) and the weather is on my side with some nice sunshine to aid the photography.

This will be the first of several FO posts, and it contains two bright and lovely red items for keeping my neck warm and toasty. First, Thermis:

This one got a lot of attention during the knitters' event day two weeks ago, and it is indeed a pretty little thing.

Pattern: Thermis [Rav link] by Kris Knits. A great cowl design; the "Thermal" stitch pattern gives a nice texture and the addition of buttons is ingenious.

Yarn: Malabrigo Merino Worsted in Ravelry Red; this may very well be the exact match of my favourite colour - the photo actually shows it quite well. I'm afraid I only bought a single skein when I visited Loop in London in November, but then again, it makes it all a bit more exclusive to have only this single accessory in that particular colour and this gorgeous yarn base (especially gorgeous because the inherent Malabrigo pilling will be a long time coming on an item like a cowl...). 

Needles: 4.5 mm bamboo dpns.

Buttons: 3 different ones of similar size and colour from my inherited button stash; I think the dark grey and black buttons makes it perfect for wearing with black (which is what I mostly wear...).

Modifications: I got fewer sts/inch so I cast on fewer sts (only 100). I made it a bit longer, also in the button section, so that I could get room for 3 buttons and wear it the way I do in the photo instead of the way it is shown in the pattern with the buttons buttoned at the top. Wearing it buttoned will make it good for outdoor wear, while much I prefer the other way indoors - and I do mostly wear this cowl indoors. Versatility is good thing.

Link to my Ravelry project page: Here.

The second one is Ysolda's Peaks Island Hood - though not worn as a hood:

Like mooncalf, I find wearing this one as a hood a bit too old-lady-ish, but I imagine it will be good for activities like winter shopping since hats tend to mess up my very (let's say: much too) fine hair, when I have to take them on and off all the time while leaving/entering shops. I do however like the way the Peaks Island Hood works as a scarf - it's easy to wear, it's warm, and it looks pretty! 

Pattern: Peaks Island Hood [Rav link] by Ysolda.

Yarn: Dansk Merino Kamgarn [Rav link] from Naturfiber A/S, colourway 4013. 

Needles: 6.0 mm Addi Turbo.

Buttons: 3 of the Selbu star ones I also used for Pine (follow the link for close-up) - also from the inherited button stash.

Modifications: None.

Link to my Ravelry project page: Here.

A great day of knitting

I'm sure you'll agree that knitters are such a lovely bunch of people!

Last Saturday, the 16th of January I spent a wonderful day with 50-60 of them and it was truly great!

The library in Vinderup hosted a knitter's event - 5 hours of chatting, sharing knitting tips, knitting, and learning new aspects of knitting.

I were to give a talk on 'Knitting on the Internet', where I introduced fellow knitters to the endless possibilities the Internet provides, especially blogs, Ravelry, and how to get started with 'knitting in English'. People seemed happy with my talk, and I was just happy to pass on all these resources that have meant so much to me as a knitter and that I use daily.

There were also talks by other knitters - on special techniques and a special way of purling used in a Lithuanian sock (very interesting!) and on the life and knits of Elizabeth Zimmermann.

This day of knitting also marked the end of the exhibition of my 12 pairs of socks from the A Year in Socks collection, which have been on display in the library for a bit more than a month.

For me, however, the focus of the day was definitely on spending a day in a delightful company - I had such a great and inspiring time!

The exhibition is now on display in another one of the libraries in the municipality, namely the one in Ulfborg, until the end of February.

It is all very exciting for me - and I'm very happy that people enjoy seeing my socks.

Help Haiti while knitting!

I know I'm quite a late starter for this, but better late than never! Like so many other knitting pattern designers, I've decided to donate 50% of the price of all my published knitting patterns to UNICEF's work in Haiti.

I've chosen UNICEF, because it's the organisation closest to my heart, and I already support them with a donation each month.

In short, if you purchase one of my patterns, be it the A Year in Socks collection, the Decipede, or the Letter & Pocket scarves, I'll give 50% of the price to UNICEF. This goes for patterns purchased from January 25th (today) to February 5th. 

On Ravelry you can find a list of all the patterns, of which a certain percentage is donated to help Haiti - here. You can even find which of the patterns in your queue is a part of this. My percentage is 50% and I hope you'll help me - or other designers - help others!

How do you like to work?

It's been exactly one week since we moved into the new offices and nine days since I started working on my PhD. By now, my desk looks like this. Looking at the desks in the other offices, I feel like the most untidy person in the world. But this is how I work best! The mess inspires me; I have to be able to see a lot of papers at the same time, as they remind me what I just read, what I should be reading next, etc., and I actually take care to place all the piles in a certain manner depending on how they relate to each other and to my current work; and at this point where I'm trying to find out where to start the project and where to go next, this is very important to me.

How do you like to work?

Are we breeding penguins in here?

Dear boyfriend made me these cute little ones just 10 minutes ago. Does he mean to say we should turn up the heat? ;)

What I'm reading...

In my previous post, I mentioned that one of my resolutions for 2010 would be less Facebook'ing and more reading. I've already started reading eagerly as my boyfriend gifted me 1100 pages of great and also educating reading: a brand new and very well written two-volume biography on H. C. Ørsted who is mostly famous for discovering electromagnetism, but who was apparently also so much more. Oh, and the founder of my university.

I'm usually not into this kind of literature - my favourite authors are Ian McEwan, Mark Haddon, and Jan Kjærstad - but I highly recommend this one, if you're so inclined. And can read Danish, that is. :)

10 resolutions for 2010

Inspired by Mooncalf and an urge to set some goals for myself in 2010 (I work best with goals, rules, and guidelines) I've put some thought into what resolutions I'd like to make for the new year, and when I had come up with 8 I thought I might as well make it 10 as it sounded better!

I can't promise that I can keep them all, but I want them to serve as inspiration - then I can always look back at the good intentions I had and reconsider.

Here we go:

1. Knit down (some of) my stash. For economic reasons as well as spatial ones. And I do have a lot of really nice stash and several plans for it, so this isn't exactly a punishment. I'll put some more thought into whether I want to make an actual Stash-o-meter or something similar, and then return to the topic.

2. Try to be less spend-y and save money for more important things. I liked Mooncalf's Saving Sunday concept in early 2009, where she was keeping tally with money spent each week and saving for the wedding trip to NYC; I don't think I'll be quite as structured (and I'm not saving for a wedding either :)) but I'd like to think twice before spending and saving money for larger things such as new specs, Italian classes, our (maybe) trip to Florence, and our new plans for saving money to be able to buy (a tiny part of) a house.

3. Improve my Italian. I learnt (some) Italian in high school, then forgot most of it, but remembered the basics. I used it a bit in Piemonte this summer, and now I want more. This autumn I've been brushing up with Linguaphone and now I want to do some more brushing up to be ready for actual Italian classes starting in February. I've decided that now is the time because it's now certain that I'm going to spend another 3 years with my fluently Italian-speaking Spanish(!) supervisor during the PhD, and I might as well take advantage of being able to practice daily. I'd love to be able to keep up a real conversation in Italian. Let's see how it goes.

(this one is ridiculous, sorry :D)
4. Keep flossing. I don't think I should add any details here, but I'm sure my dentist will be pleased and my teeth won't fall out ;)

5. Less Facebook, more reading. Books, news papers, audio books, anything.

6. Learn how to do tubular cast-on and use it. Ysolda once had a great video tutorial, where I tried it out, but never really used it and then forgot.

7. Keep running regularly, i.e. 3 times a week. I'm going to join Sparta, where my boyfriend is already a (very happy) member, so that I can prepare for the half-marathon across the bridge to Sweden in June. Then the goal is to keep up the good work rather than turning into a couch potato. And no injuries please!

8. Keep doing Pilates regularly. Maybe I should decide on a certain weekday or two where I am to do this.

9. Knit 12 sweaters. Once again, I'm participating in what is now called IntSweMoDo2010. These should mainly be knit from stash, cf. #1!

10. Try to knit 10 shawls. I also signed up for 10 shawls in 2010. I don't think I'm going to make it, but it will help with reducing the laceweight (and other) stash and give me some nice (large!) shawls to be worn as triangular scarves - I wear those all the time. Again, this should help in knitting down the stash.

What will you do in 2010?

The knits of 2009

Another year has gone, and the final count shows that in 2009 I managed to finish 49 knits, most of which are pictured above. I've stopped weighing my FOs, but an estimate would be somewhere between 5 and 10 kg of yarn knit up. I've knit 6 scarves/shawls, 12 sweaters/cardigans/dresses, 12 pairs of socks, 2 shrugs/vests, 1 pair of gloves, 5 hats, 9 baby garments, a Decipede, and an iPod cozy.

The winners of 2009, i.e. the knits that get the most wear must be: the Cabled Sweater Dress and Pine. Next on the list are Owls, Sommer i Tokyo, the Decipede, Buttercup I, the Blue Mittens, the Lengthwise Garter Scarf, the three Claras and all the pairs of socks for the A Year in Socks collection, which I'll hopefully get to wear next winter, post-exhibition.

Thanks for reading and commenting in 2009 - it's very much appreciated and makes me very happy :)

I hope you'll keep reading through 2010, where I'll be knitting more sweaters and shawls than socks, I think...

Christmas gift knitting

Christmas is over, and now it's time to show the Christmas gift knitting I did this year in order to wrap up the knits of 2009 (in a later post). One of the gifts - an earflap hat (Thorpe) for my dear old friend Karen - is not documented, but I do have photos of the other two:

A pair of wonderfully blue mittens for my mum:

Pattern: Green Autumn (Druid Mittens) by Jared Flood, #3 in Vogue Knitting Fall 2008.

Yarn: Rauma Finull, colourway 448, a bit less than 2 skeins

Needles: 3.0 mm

Modifications: I did one extra repeat on the front; I added a few rows to the cuff pattern, and I added a 2x2 ribbing inside hem to the cuff as I had seen other people do that successfully; I felted the mittens a bit upon completion - by hand, not in the washing machine! - to make them a bit warmer and nice-fitting. I'm really pleased with the result! Fortunately, so is my mum. 

Link to my Ravelry project page here.

The second gift was a Paul Smith-inspired scarf for dear boyfriend Peter:

It's knitted lengthwise in garter stitch, breaking the yarn at the end of every row to give frills. I made two-row stripes throughout, but I prefer the wrong side, where the stripes are thinner. No pattern link for this one as it is rather generic, but here's the info you need to make your own: I cast on (and bound off) 480 sts on a 3.75 mm needle and knitted the rest of the scarf on a 3.0 mm needle and fingering yarn stash. Combining the colours was a lot of fun!
Here's the link to my Ravelry project page.

Happy New Year!

Some of the snow is still here and it seems the beginning of the new year will be cold here. I hope you'll have a nice New Year's Ewe.

"A Year in Socks" on display

The 12 pairs of socks I've knit for my sock pattern collection A Year in Socks (Etsy | Ravelry) can currently be seen in an exhibition on the library in Vinderup, western part of Denmark. You can find information about it here on the library's website.

I'll also take part in an event for knitters in the same library on January 16th where I am to talk about how to use the Internet as a source of inspiration, help, social networking, etc. related to knitting. I'm told that there will also be talks on the life and knits of Elizabeth Zimmermann and a case story about a Lithuanian sock - and plenty of time for any knitters that may show up to knit and talk about knitting.

I hope you had a lovely one

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day came and went with no time for blogging, and thus no time for wishing you a Merry Christmas in time. I'll wish you a belated Merry Christmas with a photo of our Christmas tree on Christmas Eve and I do hope you had a lovely one!

Safe trip!

Today - only this...

Not even the snow could stop me...

Almost ready for Christmas!

I went into town today to buy the last Christmas presents. All done now :)

I forgot to shoot any photos of the city dressed in snow and Christmas lights, but I found this photo set on Flickr - quite interesting to see what Copenhagen looked like in the winter time approx. 100 years ago.

Kalenderlys

On films and Christmas shopping...

I just watched The Queen - my favourite kind of film.

Today we finished most of the Christmas shopping in less than two hours - only two more presents to buy on Monday...

I hope you have a nice weekend :)

Not just an ordinary Friday

With Obama just arrived about 10 km from here despite the (to some people, who seem to be surprised by it every year, extraordinarily) snowy and windy weather which has caused our Christmas tree to tilt, and reporters trying their hardest to repeat themselves as many times as possible on every aspect of the COP 15 conference, I'm having a much more calm day winding many meters of red yarn on my yarn winder, planning even more new projects (including this stranded vest), knitting a bit, listening to my Italian Linguaphone course, writing the last few Christmas cards, and preparing myself for this week's much anticipated event: the Christmas dinner thrown by my dear boyfriend's employer at one of the top gourmet restaurants in Copenhagen - this year the one-Michelin-star Kong Hans. Yum! Here's hoping that neither demonstrators nor Secret Service will prevent us from arriving there later today! :)

FO: Center Square Hat - no. 4

Back in the early days of blogging, I knit this hat pattern a total of three times: at first one for Peter, then an attempt at one for myself which ended up too small for me but fit my friend Karen, and then another, larger one for me. Then, earlier this year, Peter went and lost his old one at a football match in Parken.
I don't have a very large grey stash (and that's a mistake I can tell you! ;)) and Peter is very afraid of girly colours, so these two were the best I could find in my stash.

It's knit on needles 4.5 mm with 3 strands of Noda Junik held together for a very tight fabric.

Very keen observers may notice that I have skipped one row in the stitch pattern on all four hats; at first it was a mistake I didn't notice, and then the geek in me liked how it looks like the schematic representation of either sugar molecules or benzene rings and kept it that way... :)

Time flies in good company...

Adorable miniature pointsettas...

Today, I've been watching Christmas TV series (Jul På Slottet), baking, cooking, cooking, cooking, knitting a bit, watching detective stories on TV, and observing the snow falling again after it melted away last night.

I hope you had a nice day :)