Paper Dolls and Selbu Stars

I finally got the photos out of the camera and can now present my latest garment: let's call it Paper Dolls and Selbu Stars.

I see the Selbu stars alright, but where are the paper dolls? you might ask. Or maybe you already know that Paper Dolls is the name of the pattern for this knitted T-shirt (as my boyfriend incredulously calls it) by Kate Davies.

I love the i-cord edges and the corrugated ribbing - a nice finish, if you ask me.

For quite some time now I've been wanting to knit something with the Selbu star. And not just any Selbu star. No, it had to be this particular Selbu star found in one of my mom's ancient books "Den Ny Strikkebog" ("The New Knittingbook") published sometime during the first half of the last century. I love how the star has all these small curls and details - and it was a pleasure to knit.

From knitting the Owl sweater I was quite fond of Kate's way of doing yoke decreases: waiting until after the yoke pattern and then decreasing rather steeply. It worked on the Owls, but this time it turned out to be much too tight in the neckline.... It lingered in my knitting basket for some weeks before I finally picked it up again during WIP WrestleMania in July. I still haven't made any decreases until after the Selbu star pattern (which works fine) but I've done fewer decreases this time around. That gave me the more open neckline I wanted. There are no photos of the short row neck shaping on the back, you'll have to trust me that it works :)

No modelled photos this time, but I can tell you that it's tight-fitting. A real knitted T-shirt ;)

Info:

Pattern: Paper Dolls by Kate Davies

Yarn: Isager Alpaca 2 (grey 011), Isager Tvinni (dark red and pink)

Needles: size 3 mm for the most of it; 3.25 mm for the corrugated ribbing, and 3.75 mm for the i-cord edges.

Link to my Ravelry project page here.

The Isager yarn knits up in a fine gauge and makes the T-shirt very light and soft.

I started this garment back in February not knowing if I had enough of the grey yarn to finish it; the yarn was the leftovers from Pine - I thought that almost 2 skeins (50 g each) of this exquisite were too much to just hide around in the stash; I wanted to make something from it. Turned out I didn't have enough yarn. A stroke of luck - a fellow Raveler answered my ad on Ravelry as she had one skein of the same dyelot(!) left over from one of her projects! My supervisor usually says that luck follows the well-prepared, but I can't really say that I was exactly that this time around - I was just plain lucky! Thanks, rei!

Sockyarn-O-Meter Progress IV

Another round of secret sock projects. This time I have 4 pairs finished - 3.5 of which where finished thanks to WIP Wrestlemania in July... :)

In total they are 338 g (80 + 82 + 86 + 90 = 338), i.e. 33.8 % added to the Sock yarn O-Meter, which has now reached 72.6 % !!! Yay!

I promise to reveal more about all these socks soon...

I heart my Cornflower

I started knitting Buttercup (Rav link) about a month ago in this adorably blue and shiny linen yarn by Karin Öberg - the best linen yarn I've ever tried to knit with. Having prepared it for a holiday spent partly on the European roads with only the stockinette stitch to go, I've managed to finish it during my holidays. And the outcome is just like I wanted it to be! I love the neckline, the A-line design, and the colour. 

The pattern is very well written, so if you're tempted by this design, I'll recommend it :)

Ravelry link here.

This was NaKniSweMoDo #5.

Amimono Endeavours III

Coral #2 is done. In black Viscolin and a tad of blue linen by Karin Öberg. A nice and useful summer top.

Granite is on the needles... :)

This was NaKniSweMoDo #6.

Roo

I think I have to knit this - the surprise from the Summer Twist Collective.

WIP WrestleMania 2009 - Take I

Here's my first WIP smacked down! A little girl's dress I made up in order to use up these 3 yarns lingering in my stash in amounts insufficient for most things... Filcolana New Zealand lambswool in heather and light grey, and Drops Alpaca in heather/rose. Raveled here.

I like it a lot! I have one more - in green - coming up (well, eventually).

Now I just need to find a little girl (6-12 months old) to give it to... 

Autobahn, here I come!

I've spent the morning preparing my knits for the road trip holidays - miles and miles on end on the Autobahn, narrow mountain roads, and the autostrada. 

The photo shows the two projects that simply can't fail as holiday knitting. I've finished the "hard" parts, i.e. neck edging, sleeves, feather-and-fan pattern (I've even sewn up the neck edging and sleeves and woven in ends), and yet to go is endless rows of plain stockinette (with a few increases and decreases here to keep me awake, but easy to memorise) - in total I have a little over 1 km of yarn to be knit into stockinette before these two projects are finished.

And when they are done? They'll be wonderful summer garments - I've tried both of them on and they are definitely winners! I'm confident they'll get quite a lot of wear. Right now the Danish weather is perfect (25-30 celsius!!) for wearing them, but I hope the summer returns when I return. 

What are they then?

The (beautifully) blue one on the left is Buttercup (in this case I think Cornflower would be more appropriate, though...) by Heidi Kirrmaier. 

It's knitted in the most exquisite linen yarn I've ever tried - it's Kalinka by Karin Öberg (and I can't believe I camped a few miles from her knitting café hosting house/shop three years ago without knowing anything about it...). I guess the Swedes are skilled when it comes to linen. Alas, this gorgeous cornflower deep blue colour is not longer produced (booo...), but is still available in other nice colours - and I do think I'll need more of it at some point... Locally, I can get it in Sommerfuglen in Copenhagen, but the way the Swedish currency looks at the moment, I think I'll import some from Sweden instead! 

This yarn was a random purchase I made in Kunstladen at Fanø two years ago at the knitters' festival. I loved the colour and originally intended it for Marianne Isager's Karpen (March's garment in Japanese Inspired Knits), but then I didn't want to knit that anyway. And now I'm happy I didn't. The yarn is perfect for this simple yet very pretty tunic - just my style. 

The black one on the right is Coral by Amimono. It's knitted in Isager's Viscolin. The yarn is alright, but nowhere near the Kalinka linen. 

... And I never thought I should be fond of knitting with anything but wool. Well, I guess I was wrong :)

Right now...

A nice little meme that I've taken the liberty to translate into English, having seen it here and here in Danish.

Outside my window there is... grass. Grass and lovely sunshine. Summer has hit Denmark and will stay for at least a week! 

I'm thinking about... if there's something crucial we've forgotten to think about for our holidays; starting on Friday. 

I'm grateful for... my life. 

In the kitchen there's... a mess! As in: a huuuge mess. I was home alone last night cooking myself an exquisite all-homemade burger. And I tend to leave a huge mess in the kitchen when combining cooking and being home alone. 

I'm dressed in... black. What can I say, it's my favourite colour. 

I'm doing... a lot of knitting. Trying to prepare and select the right knits for the road trip holiday and the WIP WrestleMania in July. I'm almost there. 

I have to... go to the library within the next hour (before it closes) to pick up a guidebook on Alsace. I also need to eliminate some of those laundry mountains...

I'm reading... well, the newspaper. I ought to read some scientific papers, too, but my mind is said on holidays, and I'll stick to experiments (no reading) this last week before said holiday. I'm not reading any fiction at the moment - in fact, I'm really bad at reading fiction while studying...

I'm hoping... that the floods won't spread to the Western part of Central Europe. In fact, I'm hoping they'll go away so people can have their houses, etc. back (and our holidays won't involve floods...).

I'm listening to... the noises from the fridge, the clock, and my typing. 

Around the house/flat is... even more mess!

One of my favourite things is... hmm, in a month it may be our new car... right now, well, my 16-year old teddy? And a lot of other items with sentimental value.  

During the weekend I must... get a lot of stuff sorted for the holidays. And definitely go for a run! And eat some nice food like we usually do at weekends. 

A photo I'd like to share... this one from two weeks ago when Peter and I had a lovely day in Copenhagen shopping some nice stuff, wandering around in the sun, having a wonderful lunch at a restaurant owned by two brothers our age with just the right spirit - right next to an antiques flea market. Never have I seen that many clams on one plate... 

Amimono Endeavours II

I just wanted to give you an update on this part... 

Helga's book launch a couple of weeks ago made the list even longer - and changed it a bit. Here's what I'm now planning to knit - at some point within the next years, that is... (sorry for the titles of the patterns in the new book being in Danish, but that's what they are):

Coral (on the needles)

Granite (on the needles) 

1900'erne: Cardigan med klokkekant

1960'erne: Sweater i tofarvet patent

1970'erne: Barnetrøje i hulkrus 

1980'erne Bluse i hulmønster

Olive

Daffodil 

(I couldn't be bothered linking this time...)

I've already picked out 4 colours of Tvinni that I want to order - 200-250 g of each, for 4 different projects. Now I just need to go and find 1300 DKK somewhere... or maybe I should just learn to settle for less (yes, I definitely should! I've got more plans than knitting time after all...) :) Next thing must be to go out and look at the colours IRL to see which one(s) I want to start with. Decisions decisions. 

Firstly, though, I've signed up for WIP WrestleMania (running all of July) over on Ravelry. I've got some 15-16 WIPs that need handling.... 

Decipede!

A couple of weeks ago I finished my second Decipede, which I made for little Valdemar, who was very happy with it :)

It's knitted from the pattern I made some time ago - you can find it here (Etsy) and here (Ravelry). 

I sure like the little decipede a lot :)

Sockyarn-O-Meter Progress III

It's all very secretive, but I finished 3 pairs of socks. That gives me an extra 282 g = 28.2 % on the Sockyarn-O-Meter :D

WIP Personal Record

I think I may have set a personal record in number of WIPs. I'm now officially at 16 WIPs! (You can see for yourself in the sidebar: the Ravelry-linked progress bars. However, there isn't much to see as I don't waste precious knitting time shooting photos...)

It's a mix of designing socks, suddenly a lot of spare time, and wanting to use up the odds and ends in my stash. 

I'm moving forward at a steady pace, finishing them one by one, but I can't promise there won't be more... BUT I'm not allowed to buy more needles to fit in more projects ;)

Baktus scarf

Inspired by Britt, I dug out the softest and most luxurious yarn in my stash - a single skein and an odd ball I've been wanting to use in the quest to get rid of old bits and bobs - and cast on for the Baktus Scarf. It is one skein of Posh Yarn Eva 4 ply (55% silk, 45% cashmere) in colourway Flamingo (pink-orange) and the leftover Blue Sky Alpacas Alpaca Silk from my Rosa, colourway Guava (deep pink). 

Pattern: Baktus Scarf

Needles: 3.75 mm Addi Lace

Yarn: Posh Yarn Eva 4-ply (Flamingo; 1 skein) and Blue Sky Alpacas Alpaca Silk (Guava; 0.6 skein).

It is sooooo soft and thus nice to wear at the neck - and very pretty, I think. 

I have a cunning plan

- a plan so cunning that you can put a tail on it and call it a weasel! *

It involves reducing my sock yarn stash (and gaining percentages for the Sockyarn-O-Meter), fulfilling some of my designer aspirations, and having a good time. And lots of knitting, obviously.

So I might be a bit secretive in the future :)

The sock yarn stash

I just wanted to show you the sock yarn stash to be reduced/eliminated by the Sockyarn-O-Meter progress. 

From left to right starting along the top line we have: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock Solid in colourway Firefly (the yellow one), red Arwetta, Socks That Rock Lightweight in Firebird and Ruby Slippers, Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Montana Chokecherry, J-Knits Superwash Me Sock in Tampa, Artyarns Ultramerino 4 in 138, purple Arwetta, a leftover ball of Wollmeise in Drachenblut, Shibui Knits Sock in 4401, Claudia Hand Painted Yarns Fingering in Ocean, Colinette Jitterbug in Velvet Damson, and Claudia Hand Painted Yarns Fingering in Argyle 2. At the bottom we have: Socks That Rock in Lenore, Arwetta in medium grey, dark grey, and black, and Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock Multi in Shadow.

It's not that much but still enough to make me 14 pairs of socks... :)

Sockyarn-O-Meter Progress II

- they're just rolling in those percentages, aren't they? ;)

I managed to finish my Leyburn Socks in Koigu KPPPM (colourway P40035 - pretty much more vibrant than in the photo below) which I started back in ... *off to check on Ravelry* ... January. 

I have a number of things to say about them, but as my brain is about to suffer a multivariate-data-analysis-induced breakdown, you'll get them in bullet form: 

• This is one of the "foreign" yarns I've bought from one of my fellow Ravelers to explore some of those highly interesting sock yarns I can't buy (at a favourable price) arond here
• It is my first pair of toe-up socks! Though I really like the toe construction (and not so much the heel although I do understand why it is clever) I really have to get used to knitting them the "wrong" way round
• I learned a new cast-off method from my Knitter's Handbook: tubular cast-off. Brilliant for good-looking elastic bind-offs at the top of a toe-up sock! So brilliant that I don't mind it involving a tapestry needle...
• The lattice stitch pattern is a bit tedious, but it looks nice...

I think that's it. And it earned me 94 g (I thought they were 50 g skeins?) = 9.4% on the Sockyarn-O-Meter - wooot! :)

And now that I've added percentages to the Sockyarn-O-Meter twice in one day, it's going to take quite some time before that will happen again, i.e. I am halfway through the first one of the next pair... I don't mean to reach 100% by tomorrow anyway.

-----

Info:

Pattern: Leyburn Socks

Yarn: Koigu KPPPM colourway P40035, 2 skeins (94 g, apparently)

Needles: 2.25 mm dpn

-----

A side note: the flat stinks of coriander... dear boyfriend insisted on eating it on his serving of chili con carne... the mere smell makes me feel sick - eeeeeewwww... (Just had to say it - almost can't think for the smell...). 

Ravelry-linked progress bars

I may be a bit slow, but I just discovered the Ravelry-linked progress bars - scroll down to see mine in the side bar. Here's how.

Did anybody whisper procrastination?

Sockyarn-O-Meter Progress I

Baby steps are also steps, right? 

Here's my first project for the Sockyarn-O-Meter that I started recently. A mobile cozy for the dear boyfriend's mobile phone - he's been asking for one like mine for ages. Now he just wants one for his iPod, too :)

It's 12 g of Arwetta sock yarn used, colourway: black. 

And 12 g equals 1.2% on the Sockyarn-O-Meter! :P

On that note, I also have a pair of socks approaching the final cast-off!

Right, I'm off to study some multivariate linear regression... |-)

I'll be there...

... June 13th at noon (the link is in Danish).

Rosa

Another set of mobile photos from the office showing my recent FO: Rosa by Kim Hargreaves (pattern in Thrown Together). Link to my Ravelry page here. I had to include three photos - all of dubious quality - to show you what I wanted:

This one shows the sweater nicely... 

This one shows the colour accurately...

And this one shows the ingenious bottom edge construction...!

I like that this is a quite fashionable knit - it almost looks like something I bought, but I couldn't find something just as nice :) The frills are so great :D

Yeah, I'm really pleased with this one.

Info:

Pattern: Rosa by Kim Hargreaves

Yarn: Blue Sky Alpacas Alpaca Silk, colourway Guava + some old red mohair for the frills.

Size: self-constructed xxs to match the thicker yarn

Mods: I made puff sleeves; I attached the frills while binding off rather than binding off and sewing them on afterwards; the smaller size gave me a need for 6 buttons only.

If I were to knit it again, I would move the buttonholes 1 stitch farther away from the edge rather than having them in the middle (as the buttons won't be in the middle when buttoned, then). And maybe I'd make the button band narrower. But that's just details...

Sockyarn-O-Meter

Britt has started a Sockyarn-O-Meter, and with loads of foreign sock yarn bought from other Ravelers piling up, I think this is my call! (I counted at least 14 different (couples of) skeins over at Ravelry). So - I'm making my own Sockyarn-O-Meter, slightly different from Britt's, but here goes: 

- 1000 g used = 100% (i.e. 10 g used is +1%)

- all sock yarn counts

- I can knit whatever I want with the yarn, but I think socks are my favourite

- If I buy new sock yarn before reaching the 100%, 10 g will equal -2% (but really I should try not to - I just don't want the project to fail due to a single purchase)

- Prize: whatever suits my fancy :)

Yup, 1000 g is a lot, but I agree with Britt that it should be possible, let alone necessary :)

It will take some time, though :P

Amimono Endeavours I

You know you've been knitting with fine yarn when... you think that Koigu sock yarn is kinda heavyweight.

And here's what I've been knitting:

My Amimono Coral II got a good start while watching the Cambridge Spies mini series last night and this morning.

Well - that's all - no more time for procrastination! I have some nice graphs to describe...

Have a nice weekend!

Plans!

I have entered the Amimono mode!

Upcoming projects are:

Coral (my second; just cast on...)

Daffodil

Olive

Amber

Granite

Mmmm.... :)

(and I guess it goes well with my NaKniSweMoDo obligations....)

I think I'll have to get myself on my bike tomorrow and go and get the one or two skeins I need for a beautiful red Daffodil - and buttons for the long finished Rosa by Kim Hargreaves; I really want to wear it now, just need those buttons... 

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