Photos of the Christmas gifts I made

Now it's finally time to show you what I made for Christmas presents.

My letter scarf for my mother saying "Mors halstørklæde" (Mom's scarf) - here photographed while drying side by side with Peter's version, published earlier here on my blog. I'm very pleased with these scarves :)

-- The design and pattern for this scarf is the sole property of Birgitte Zeuner (c) 2007 --


The Juno Regina Stole for Karen - in Posh Yarn's Sophia 2-ply, 100% cashmere. I really like this pattern. I may have to knit one for myself as well :)Finally, the pair of Gentleman's Fancy Socks (from Nancy Bush's Vintage Socks) for my father, in black Admiral sock yarn.I rather like my Christmas presents - I hope the recipients are just as happy :)

Among other adorable presents, I myself got something knitting related:

Two books covering my major interests: Knitting and food chemistry:

And a yarn winder! Yipee :)

During the holidays I've been reading Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitting Without Tears. She is incredibly witty and humourous - highly recommendable reading!
I'm looking forward to the postman bringing me the rest of her books from Amazon.com!

Stashalong 2007 result

Yarn at start, February 25: 7172 g
Yarn now, December 28: 6386 g

Used: 4918 g
(I have knitted up almost 5 kg of yarn!)

Have bought: 1370 g (28% of the amount used, which is within my 40% limit)
Have gained by gifts, free days, etc. (not part of the 40%): 2762 g

Total reduction: 786 g

This reduction may not look like a lot! However, I'm quite satisfied with it since:
- the yarn I have bought is for specific projects
- I got rid of a lot of bits and pieces, odd balls, and yarn bought with no project in mind

This means that my stash has been upgraded in 2007, and that I have several projects planned by which I will use most of my current stash. Mmmmmm - I'm happy :)

I'm still contemplating whether to join Stashalong 2008 or not. Let's see what I decide.

-- If I remember to do so, I'll post a photo of my stash as it looks now --

Gentleman's Fancy Sock

I managed to finish one Gentleman's Fancy Sock (from the book Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush) for my father for Christmas - and the other one is also finished by now :)

100g of black Admiral sock yarn used.

Photo will appear later along with photos of the other Christmas presents.

Another Christmas present completed

104 g of stash used.

Photos will appear after it has reached its (hopefully happy) recipient.

Christmas gift completed

Photos, etc. will appear after Christmas... :)

All I can say is that the gift used up 122 g of stash.

Mobile phone cozy

My new mobile phone required this mobile phone cozy from 8 g of the so soft Malabrigo :)

The last yarn of 2007

From garn.dk: 772 g (including the cones) of Shetland wool in a variegated purple colour. I also got the card with all the colours of the Shetland wool - oh, there are many lovely colours. The Shetland wool in unwashed when sold, but I've been told that it will end up light and nice when washed.

The other cone is another 100g of mulberry silk I need to make Isager's Karpen.

Regarding Stashalong, this is my September free day.

Eliza's exciting adventures

Eliza started out early today: She took off in her fabulous off-road vehicle...
... as she left for work on a construction site...

...located very close to the railway:

When getting home from work in the lovely winter sunshine, she wept her feet clean after a long day at the dirty construction site...
... and got stuck in the letter box while collecting the mail. Oh no!
The clever elephant managed to get out, and could finally relax in her flat, feeling ready for the upcoming Christmas time. How cosy!Unfortunately, she had to do some cleaning - a lot of dust had gathered in her favourite vase; Eliza has a thing for Finnish design, especially the Aalto vase:Finally, she could sit down and relax - wathcing her favourite detective, Inspector Morse, on TV.

It's been a lovely day for the brave little raspberry-coloured elephant Eliza ;)

Yes - it's a bit silly, but if you liked it, you can see more here and here. :)

Marianne Isager: JAPAN

Yesterday I got Marianne Isager's new book:

I'm very pleased with it!

Below you can see which projects I'm planning to do. For 2 of them I have (most of) the yarn in my stash. I might be able to find some for the rest as well. Let's see about that.

4 out of 12 patterns - that's quite good if you ask me. I saw the sweaters IRL when I went to Fanø in September (and attended Marianne Isager's course), so I know how they look when not fitted on the model ;) I'm very happy that she has not made the very boxy wide-but-short designs this time! They kind'a don't fit my body shape... :)

Furthermore, the layout of this book is spot on. Beautiful.

Mmmmmmmm.

Recent finishes

Today I'll make 3 blog posts - this is the first one...

Recently, I've finished this: The Kaiju belt.

The pattern is in Berroco's Norah Gaughan vol. 1, but I haven't got the pattern (since I have only found it for sale in the US), so I figured it out from photos and comments on Ravelry. I made it longer so that the ends reach each other. You can read the details here as I already gave the details during WIP week. It used up 116 g of my stash - I'm especially pleased to get rid of some cotton yarn :)

Most importantly, I finished ELIZA!

Knitted from Ysolda's marvellous and very clever Elijah pattern - you can read about it here, as I also put details for Eliza during WIP week. Isn't she cute?! I'll post more on Eliza's adventures later today. 24 g of Arwetta Extra Fine Merino used for Eliza.

Today I did something I've never done before: I threw away this hideous skein of stash:

I tried to use up all my shimmering Paris mohair for a pair of legwarmers, but I couldn't use all of it. I know I'm NEVER going to use this skein since: (1) the mohair fibres are all over the place when you knit and wear this not-so-expensive kind, (2) the shimmering metal strands are pointing in all directions when knitted; I had some all-black similar Paris mohair which I mainly used for the legwarmers, where the metal was much better incorporated into the yarn, but in this colourway it isn't, (3) it's not 100% natural fibres - and (4) it's just a bit hideous, isn't it?
So that's 36 g of stash trashed.

Stash stats:
Used this time: 116 + 24 + 36 g = 176 g
Used since February 25: 4584 g

Undulating Rib Socks finished - at the knitting club

Today we had our knitter's club for biotechnology-engineers-to-be at our flat. We are up to 7 members, but we have never been all 7 of us at once. These 2 and I are the core members ;) :


When I got home from today's lecture I only needed to do the toe of the last Undulating Rib Sock and I planned to do that tonight. Well, I didn't manage until after they left :) We have a great time finding projects, etc. and I spend most of my time helping out at difficulties encountered since I am the knitter with the more routine. My fellow knitters are however improving rapidly - I chose the blurry photo above, but I can tell you that Charlotte is putting on her finished jacquard Endpaper Mitt as I'm taking the photo :)

Well, so I had to stay up and do the last 3 rows on my Undulating Rib Socks (from Interweave's Favorite Socks), and here they are:

(I hate how fat one's leg looks when trying to photograph one's socks...)

If you wish to know more about them, please read the post below, where I posted about them when they were still WIPs.

86 g of stash used (yes, they are very long).

WIP week - Sunday

Yesterday I started knitting the Juno Regina scarf - free from knitty.com's Fall '07 extras:

Sorry for the poor photos - I shot them very late last night where it was obviously incredibly dark!

I'm knitting on needle size 3.5mm in Posh Yarn's Sophia 2ply, i.e. 100% cashmere lace weight. Mmmmmm. The colour is called Majesty, and is a purple-blue-mix. So, the yarn is amazingly soft, and I like the pattern a lot as well. Not too lacey since most of the scarf is going to be long stretches of the panels you see developing in the bottom of the second photo (or, maybe just click the pattern link above to see what I mean... ;)).

I'm looking forward to see the outcome: It will of course be incredibly soft, but how will the cashmere behave when worn? Let's see about that.

Just in order to show you all my WIPs this week, I hereby present a bonus: The Undulating Rib socks:

From the Interweave book 25 Favorite Socks, and knitted on needle size 2.5mm in dark blue Admiral sock yarn. Actually, I'm at the heel flap on the second sock now. These are what I'm currently knitting when attending lectures.

That's all for the WIP week - I hope you have enjoyed it. As you can see, I have plenty of things going, so I guess my next challenge will be to finish some of all these projects.

WIP week - Saturday

No WIPs on Friday - I was at the university for almost 10 hours yesterday, so I didn't feel like blogging when I got home. But here's my Saturday WIP:

The Kaiju belt from Berroco's Norah Gaughan vol. 1. (Unfortunately) I haven't got the recipe book since it is apparently not for sale in Europe. However, this knit was rather easy to figure out after taking a look at the photos and reading the comments on Ravelry.

I'm knitting in 2 strands of red cotton and 1 strand of pink mulberry silk on needle size 4mm.

Let's see how it turns out.

WIP week - Thursday

I have a very busy day today - at the university 8am-4pm, and afterwards Iøm going to my English classes in the city centre. That leaves no time for blogging som today I'm showing you this WIP: a secret Christmas gift! I cannot reveal anything about it here ;)

WIP week - Wednesday

Now, who is this strange little creature with a trunk and a leg, but no other legs/arms, eyes, or ears? It is of course: Eliza the Elephant to-be.

I'm knitting Ysolda's amazingly cute Elijah elephant, but since mine is red (her version is blue), mine must be Eliza, not Elijah.

I'm knitting her on needles size 2.5mm in Arwetta extra fine merino, which is very soft - and washable. She is stuffed with ordinary polyester filling. This yarn and gauge make Eliza smaller than Elijah, but that really doesn't matter.

It's a funny knit - knitting all these small pieces and seeing her grow. I must say the instructions are trememdous - there is no doubt where or how to attach all the different body parts. This way it should be fairly easy to get an outcome just as cute as the original.

Ysolda states that Elijah/Eliza will make a good baby toy since his/her trunk is easy to grab - I think she is right.

If you want to try out toy knitting I'll recommend Elijah! I have knitted a toy from knitty.com - Bubby the Bear - but this one is so much easier because the instructions are so clear, and the construction is rather clever.

By the way, my boyfriend almost got a depression watching the parliament election yesterday. I was thinking of knitting another RED elephant so he could have something to comfort him - and name her Helle. Just kidding ;)

(Remember, Eliza is not a fat elephant - rather, she's a cute elephant ;))

WIP week - Tuesday

Today - after having been to a school in the neighbourhood to give my vote for the parliament election - I now present the Tuesday WIP: The Colette Pullover from IK (Interweave Knits) Winter '07 , i.e. the recent edition. Here's a link for Ravelry if you're in.

As you may be able to see from the photos I linked to, this is a jaquard sweater with shaping! That's new to me! In fact, I think I have only seen very boxy jacquard sweaters up until now. Wanting to improve my jacquard knitting skills and wanting to learn how to put waist shaping and slimfitting sleeves into a jacquard sweater, I seized the opportunity to knit this sweater - although I'm not too fond of cats (the pattern is loads of little cats). Still, some people at Ravelry think they are Transformers, not cats... :) So far, I think I'm going to like this sweater.

I dug into my stash to find some yarn for this one. The black background colour is 2 strands of Tvinni (or, the similar yarn, but with a different label from the same spinning mill). The cats are knitted in 2 strands of single-ply yarn from Lystbækgaard - a farm close to where my parents have their summer cottage. Most of the cats will be in the heather colourway, but I will make some stripes of cats here and there which are in the pink colourway, as you can see from the photo.

This gives me a somewhat larger gauge, hence, I'm knitting the smallest size instead of the second-smallest one. I'm knitting on needle size 3.5 mm.

Still a long way to go, but hopefully I'll be good at jacquard knitting when I finish. It looks all right by now. - And, I'll have a waaarm sweater - mmmm :)

WIP week - join if you want to!

A while ago Ysolda had a work-in-progress week showing an item she was working on each day. I want to do some blogging, so I'm making a WIP week now.

I'll post one of my works in progress each day of the week until I run out of WIPs - including photos, information, and status.

I hope some of you blog readers will make your own if you want to - I think it's so nice to hear what you're working on. Therefore, I'll start:


Monday's WIP:

That'll be my Amimono Oak: a long vest with loads of cables, flower pattern, bubble pattern, etc. - lots of structure knitting which is said to be highly fashionable this winter.

I bought it as a kit when I went to the knitter's festival on Fanø in September. It is knitted from 2 strands of the new Isager Alpaca Wool (50% alpaca/50% each) [which is as nice and soft as pure alpaca but very strong and not so heavy and floppy as cheap alpaca sometimes is - another quality wool from Isager (I know, they are expensive, but sometimes you have to pay for quality)] and 1 strand of Spinni. The colour is a little hard to describe - I think the photo shows it well: a slightly pale blue-green-petrol. I'm knitting on needle size 5 mm - the pattern calls for 5.5 mm and since I do knit rather tight my vest gets a little smaller than the small-medium I'm knitting - that suits me well and I like the fabric I get on size 5 mm.

I like the design a lot! Well, I usually do when it comes from Amimono - I adore Helga's work because she manages to mix complicated knits with a design that suits young people like myself. Usually you can choose between very simple knits designed for young people which bore me because they do not challenge my knitting skills - or complicated knits which are designed for older people who do not quite want the slimfitting shape that I do. I know that some English/American knitting designers make such designs as well, but it's not quite as good, if you ask me - they do not have quite the same eye for making knitted details, the quality of the yarn, and fashion work together.

People usually complain about mistakes in the Isager patterns. Well, there were some, but I found them rather easy to correct as the pattern is easy to grasp once you get started. I think I have learned all the (4) different patterns by heart now. You have to pay attention when you knit to avoid mistakes since there are patterns all over the place, but the amount of attention you have to pay varies. If you want a knit that does not quite qualify as a TV knit but instead keeps you entertained, I'll recommend this one. Furthermore, I think the output of my efforts will be recommendable as well :)

I hope to see other WIP weeks around - otherwise, stay tuned until tomorrow where I'll post another one of my WIPs.

Butterfly hat finished

It's warm, incredibly soft (as always with Malabrigo) and beautiful. A quick weekend knit. The pattern is here.

96 g of stash used when weighing the labels etc. from the first 5 skeins of marine worsted weight Malabrigo used for the Cowl Pullover. The hat is made from the 6th skein. Now I have a 14g-odd-ball left. Wonder what to do with it.

My scarf is on the news! ;)

Luckily, Jeanette is more alert than I am when it comes to news these days: She spotted my scarf here and I then found it here too! I guess will be the first time that one of my knits appears in Berlingske Tidende ;)

A quick and convenient FO

I have been needing a pair of legwarmes for a while know, since my university (like every other insitution) is not so keen on turning up the heat and I tend to dress in order to avoid any kind of disease to interfere with all my plans... And, I had some black, shimmering mohair in my stash which I have just been waiting for an opportunity to get rid of! Since I intend to wear the legwarmers hidden under my trousers I don't mind how they appear. - That's killing two birds with one stone. I started them yesterday, and finished them today. 96 g of (hideous) stash used :)

Cowl Pullover, Embossed Leaves Socks, and more...

I finished the Cowl Pullover from Knitting Nature! It involved figuring out how to do the cowl when the instructions in the pattern didn't work out as well as sewing and cutting the fabric - exciting! Nevertheless, it all worked out, and here it is, the Cowl Pullover:

Made from 5 skeins (506 g) of worsted weight Malabrigo it is incredibly soft. I think the fit is nice, and I particularly like that the sweater is a little different from ordinary sweaters because of the integrated sleeve and collar. It's very nice to wear too - I'll call this knit successful :)

I also finished another pair of Isager fingerless mittens for Charlotte's birthday - I've been told, that they have been admired at Risø (a Danish research centre).
The Embossed Leaves socks are done as well:

Made from 76 g of Arwetta extra fine merino, which is NOT a sock yarn - I know that now... :) - but it is so nice and soft. However, I really like this pattern, and I'm about to make another pair in the ordinary Arwetta which is in fact a sock yarn - in a lovely purple colour.

I added another skein of Admiral sock yarn in this lovely autumnal purple-red-brown-dark colourway (my photo resembles the real look of the skein more than the one in the link). Mmmmm.

Calculations for the stashalong:

Stash used: 506 g + 36 g + 76 g = 618 g

Yarn bought: 100 g

A nice result, if you ask me :)

On the needles at the moment are Amimonos Oak - it is going to be absolutely beautiful and soft, I tell you. People usually complain about mistakes in the Isager patterns - I've already found some, but I can't be bothered; I found it rather easy to figure out what she meant, and corrected the mistakes I've found so far if anyone should be interested. The structured pattern is a good knit - I've learned how to do some nice structures by now - and it makes it a more interesting knit than the many many many stockinette stitches I've been doing lately. Furthermore, structured knits are major fashion items this winter - how fortunate :)

I have the Undulating Rib socks from Interweave's Favourite socks on the needles as well - along with a Christmas gift.

The leftover Malabrigo skein from the Cowl Pullover will soon be turned into the Foliage hat.

Radikale Venstre scarf done

Today I finished the Radikale Venstre scarf and the pattern for it. About time, since the election campaign was kickstarted last Wednesday. The scarf shows the new colours of the Radikale Venstre political party - nice colours, if you ask me. Modeling the scarf is my dear boyfriend, who also happens to be the younger brother of the leader of the Radikale Venstre, Margrethe.

It's knitted in Arwetta. I hope the pattern will be available somewhere sometime in the future - I don't know then, I think they have enough to do these days.

(On my monitor it looks like Peter's eyes are not looking in the same direction when I see the small photo... hmmmm... well, they are! :))

Look what the postman brought me today!

That's right - I bough new yarn. Not that I needed it, but sometimes it's too hard to resist - for example when I managed to buy this deep pinkish-red silk-cashmere laceweight yarn at Posh Yarn. If you could only feel how lovely it is, you would understand! It's 55% silk and 45% cashmere - and its even nicer than the 100% cashmere I have previously bought at Posh Yarn, probably due to the smoothness of the silk. I can't wait to wear it. Uhmmmmm!

The purple-blue mulberry silk is for a project from Marianne Isagers upcoming book, and the purple-blue (cheap) Arwetta is for a pair of socks.

420 g added to my stash. My amount-allowed-to-buy was at 550 g - I stayed below the limit :)

And now, look at this!


It's immensely cute, isn't it?! I'll make another one and bring it with me on Wednesday...

Edit (16-10-07): The second one is now finished. 10 g stash reduction.

I finished the gorgeous Cherry scarf!

- but I will never become a photographer! I tried to take photos of myself wearing this scarf that can be worn in so many ways - it just didn't work out! Maybe because I didn't have the patience to do so due to my one-sided Streptococcus infection (or: my throat hurts terrible, but only in one side) - so this is what you get:

If you want to see what this scarf can really do, look here and here and here and here. The thing about this scarf is, that all the bands (which are red on one side and pink on the other (alternating) in my version are meant for slipping the other end of the scarf through, just like the baby scarves - this one is just oversize. I adore it!

It is knitted in black Tvinni (or rather, the same yarn made at the same spinning mill, but with a different label), and leftovers of red Tvinni Alpaca and pink Drops Alpaca. I used 2 strands of the black yarn and the clever centre stitch that Anne invented.

It is 144g of stash used.

I have already worn it for 2 days now - highly recommendable! :)

September FOs

I finished this retro slim-fit autumn-coloured sweater. It's only slightly over 200 g and nice to wear, nicely fitting. I knitted it using the raglan template from The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns using all these nice colours from my fingering/sport weight stash (7 sts/inch on 3 mm (or was it 3.5mm?) needles). The yarn is mostly New Zealand Lambswool and Drops Alpaca - and some leftovers from the Bubble Pullover from Henrichsens Uldspinderi, and a little of Isagers silk-wool.

It used up 224 g of my stash. This sweater was my project for the September KAL on Stashalong. I finished it just before the deadline :)

I also knit a hat with crocheted flowers in cotton and mohair:

The hat is 90 g stash used.

Finally, I started these fingerless mittens at the knitter's festival on Fanø last weekend since Marianne Isager, whose course I attended, has made all the swatches in her upcoming book (which I have of course pre-ordered already) as fingerless mittens. Clever. I find this pair particularly nice:

34 g of my Drops Alpaca stash used for two of these.

This gives me a total of 348 g of stash used in September.

I did also add to my stash though. Going to the knitter's festival, a stash enhancement was almost inevitable. I bought 328 g (I bought it as 300 g but it turned out to be 328 g when I put it on the weight) of linen in a lovely deep blue-purple-ish colour (almost the same as this cute little ensian flower). I also bought some scraps of stash for an upcoming project on one of courses I attended - that was 52 g added to my pile of stash.

Total stast enhancement: 380 g.
A little more than I used but I have several projects on the needles that will make it ud for this - and before I went I had an amout-allowed-to-buy-while-following-the-Stashalong of 873 g. This is now down to 493 g.

Nice to get one of the major projects (the sweater) off the list - now I'm ready for another one: the Cherry scarf! I have already seen some lovely finished versions. Mine will be BLACK with reds. Mmmmm.

BTW - the knitter's festival on Fanø last weekend: We had a lovely time! Nice courses, good company, opportunity to meet fellow bloggers, nice weather and beautiful surroundings