Knitting on the road...

Photo taken on the train somewhere between Düsseldorf and Aachen, where I travelled this morning to get to a summer school at RWTH on biocatalysis in non-conventional media.  

The knitting is the Camomille shawl from the new Amimono booklet.

Aachen is a pretty enough city town, but having been up at 5 AM - early enough to spot the world's largest passenger plane in Copenhagen Airport just before take-off - and having summer school classes all afternoon, I'm now pretty tired and will let Aachen be Aachen until tomorrow.

And what would one do without hotel room WiFi? ;)

Last, but definitely not least, thanks for all the kind words on my last post! They make me feel even happier about my achievement - so much I've now almost forgot I felt like dying the last km :)

Totally not knitting related...

... but this is me a few hours ago, still looking happy with another 19 km to go :) I managed to finish my only second half marathon a few seconds below the magic 2 hours (well, at least they are magic to me, who thought I'd finish in 2:05 this time and not get below 2:00 until next spring) - 1:59:52. Yay!

Now it's time to rest my legs with some knitting and Top Gear... :)

I feel the itch of startitis...

With last week's Sweater WIP gallery, you'll know that I really don't need that. It's just that I'm tempted by Kunzite, Semele, Peasy, and (surpriiiise!) several different patterns (yes, almost all of them, actually) in the new Amimono booklet.

Speaking of the new booklet, I just need to have the Camomille shawl sooner rather than later. My wardrobe has been craving such a shawl for almost a year now - its well-hidden inner fashion-obsessed self needs it. So why haven't I started it yet? I can't decide which yarn to use! I wanted to use something from my stash, but I can't find the right combination. I also have to consider which colour I actually need a shawl in. Red is always my first choice, and therefore I do not need another red shawl. I'm thinking a light/medium grey this time...

Matching colours

I just wanted to show you what I meant when I said yesterday that I liked having a lot of matching colours in the same yarn weight. Can you tell that I like reds and blues, but don't care much for greens? ;)

New Yarn

Just 50 g of each. Top: Mandarin; bottom from left to right: Geranium, Red Clover, and Aubergine. From Holst Garn.

Why? Just because I love this part of the colour palette, and because I find that one can never have too many shades of this sort of yarn (~600m/100g - not necessarily of this brand) to mix and match.

Sweater WIP Week - Sunday: Kingscot

The last one of my sweater WIPs is a hibernating fellow: Kingscot [Rav link] by Norah Gaughan.

I have no real explanation as to why this has only become the two sleeves you see in the photo even though I started it more than a year ago in August 2009... The yarn is gorgeous (ÅLJ), and I think the finished model will be brilliant. All I can say is that other projects got in the way before I reached the fun part.

Let's see when something more happens with this one... It's Ravelry project page is here.

----

Now, that's the end of my Sweater WIP Week - I told you there were seven of them! ;) Other than that, I have only two WIPs: the stash busting blanket that isn't meant to be finished anytime soon and the Haruni shawl. Looking at my Ravelry page, you'll notice another WIP in there - a secret project that is actually finished, but I will not change its status to finished until I can reveal it as an FO.

I've tried to put words on my expectations for each of the WIPs along the way. If I were to put a deadline on these seven projects, it would be December 31st 2010. I'm taking part in the IntSweMoDo (International knit/crochet a Sweater a Month Dodecathon), and it was part of my New Year's resolutions to finish 12 sweaters in 12 months. So far I've only finished five, so if I finish these seven, I'll have reached that goal! Last year I 'only' managed to finish 11. I guess my next project should be to figure out where to make space for all these sweaters... Fortunately, I don't mind passing old hand-knit sweaters on to charity shops if they don't get any wear.

Sweater WIP Week - Saturday: Acorns

Finally! For the first time since Monday a non-Amimono design! ;)

This is Acorns [Rav link] from the new Fall 2010 Twist Collective, designed by Carol Sunday. It was published early August (or late July?), and is now the 3rd most popular pattern from this issue, with 43 projects listed on Ravelry. Mine is one of them. You may remember me putting some nice words on this issue of Twist Collective in a previous post.

The pattern is 7 pages long, and I have read forum posts by people complaining that it is hard to sit and knit in their usual place when having to look at 3-4 different pages at once to figure out what's going on (written instructions on construction/shaping is on one page, the chart on another, chart legend on a third (at least in the beginning), and chart legend explanation on a fourth). I understand what they are on about, but I have to say that once you get past the first row or two of Acorns, it gets easier to remember, and you only need to pay attention to the shaping constructions and the chart.

That being said, I am very happy to have learnt a new way of making neat increases in rev St st from knitting this one! In total, the pattern uses 3 different kinds of increases (times 2 because there's always a left version and a right version), but two of these are actually the same being the St st and rev St st versions of each other. I already know another two ways of increasing, so I think I should be pretty well off in that department by now ;)

What you see here is actually my second attempt at this cardigan. I started out in a different yarn - New Lanark DK in Pebble - and not paying too much attention to what kind of increases should be used, thinking I knew better (I was wrong*). As it turned out, this otherwise wonderful yarn was not right for the project - a bit too 'rustic' for showing off the acorns pattern - so I started over using a much less rustic yarn, namely Rowan Pure Wool DK (colourway Kiss). In fact, this yarn has (in my opinion) such an industrial, smooth look to it, that the colour becomes quite flat. Therefore, I paired it up with a strand of Holst Garn Supersoft in another (but deliberately not exactly similar) red colour, Poppy. A match made in heaven for this project, if you ask me ;)

I started the first version on August 2nd, and I am now at the point where I've just divided for body and sleeves. That means the fun part is almost over, but I'm confident it'll be done in a few months...My Ravelry project page is here.

*You may be interested in why I was wrong, if you're into knitting techniques. When doing increases, I often do like this: make a yo, and then twist and knit it on the next row to avoid the squeezing-together of stitches I find that happens when you just pick up the strand between two stitches on the row below, twist and knit it. However, as it turned out, this squeezing-together of stitches is what gives the 'acorns' some of their shape and is thus absolutely necessary at least in the acorns part of the pattern (not so much for yoke and waist increases, where I've gone back to my way of doing it).

Sweater WIP Week - Friday: 1980's

Just to complete my tour of Helga Isager's book Strikketøj, here's my third and final WIP from there: the sweater from the 1980's. My photo is hideous, but I'll direct you to some beautiful finished versions.

It's knitted sideways. I cast on a long time ago (that's April... :)), knit a few rows, and then let it rest. During a few days in my summer holidays, I finished the first sleeve and the increases for the body - I've now just started the garter stitch panel for the neckline. Like most Amimono patterns, the knitting has to be quite plain (to some known as boring) in order to get the simple design, that I like so much. So endless *yo, k2tog, k2* it is :)

The yarn is the recommended one: Isager Alpaca 2 (yes, I did get 1 kg of that on sale once...) in the teal colour 023.

Sweater WIP Week - Thursday: 1960's

As you can tell from the headline, today's sweater is very much related to the one from yesterday. Same book, but a different decade/design: this time the 60's. This design is not registered on the book's Ravelry page yet, but you can see a photo of the finished model (from the book) on my Ravelry project page.

I love how easy it is making this two-colour brioche stitch, considering the intriguing effect. It does however also take some time to knit - that's one of the properties of brioche stitch, isn't it? - so I've picked this one up again now with the hopes of finishing it before this upcoming winter ends. Ravelry tells me that it's been hibernating since December last year.

As far as I remember, the pattern suggests Isager Alpaca 2 for the black colour and Tvinni (Wool 2) for the white colour (though it could be Alpaca 2 here as well). I sort of reversed it, having black Tvinni and white Alpaca 2 because I want the softest yarn on the inside, against my skin, and where it doesn't matter too much when it starts pilling.

Again a brilliant design from Amimono, along the same lines as usual: simple, yet effective and fashionable.

Sweater WIP Week - Wednesday: 1940's

Thanks for the comments on yesterday's post. They are much appreciated! I'm still considering whether it should be a sweater or a cardigan... :)

Today's sweater WIP is another Amimono design (surprise! and not the last one this week, in fact there are another two...), but a modified one this time. I've based the design on the children's cardigan from the 1940's in Strikketøj [I've been told that the book is available in English, too], but scaled it up to my size.

I'm using 3 lovely colours of Holst Garn: Sloe (the main colour), Heather and Gladioli (for contrast).

I haven't been knitting on it for a few months, but I think I'm going to pick it up soon now that autumn is getting closer. I would like to wear it this winter.

Sweater WIP Week - Tuesday: Granite

Yes, it's true, I never did finish it back in May in the Granite miniKAL. I did finish the back, though. Now all I have left to knit is the front and the neckline. What's holding me back?


I still don't know if I want to keep it as a sweater or make it into a cardigan.

Pro, sweater: the front of the sweater looks very nice, especially the detail with the increases towards the neckline. Here's a link to the FOs on Ravelry.
Con, sweater: The neckline is quite open, and I'm afraid I won't use it enough, since I usually want a winter-y sweater to warm my neck...

Pro, cardigan: the open neckline will work well for a cardigan.
Con, cardigan: Will a reconstruction of the front take away some of that design element that makes the sweater look so pretty?

What do you think?

Sweater WIP Week - Monday: Still Light Tunic

I think it's time for a Sweater WIP Week! I happen to have 7 sweater WIPs (don't ask!) at the moment and that fits nicely with a post about each of them each day of the week, doesn't it? That doesn't mean I'll be knitting on that particular WIP that day, though! :)

Today I'll show you the one that's closest to becoming an FO. Very close in fact!



This is the Still Light Tunic designed by Finnish designer Veera Välimäki. I think the brilliant design deserves that I provide you with a link, where you can see the finished, blocked version... :)

As you can see, I have only one sleeve left to go, and I trust that it will be done and blocked within the next few weeks. I have tried it on and it looks promising! At a first glance, this may look like a never-ending project, being endless stockinette on 2.5 mm needles (that's what I used, but I think the pattern says 3 mm), but I've actually been fairly quick with this one, mainly because July and August had a lot of roadtrip knitting, and nothing could be more perfect for that than this one.

Destash...

I'm having a mini-destash of some luxurious yarns over on Ravelry...

Four little baby vests

During my two weeks of summer vacation I've been working on the two WIPs I brought. They [i.e. Still Light Tunic and 80's Lace Sweater] both require a lot of knitting, so none of them are finished yet despite the effort. Fortunately, I also brought four Rauma Finull oddballs left over from another project that I wanted to clear from my stash. One blue, one pink, and two reds. Here's the result: four lovely little baby vests. All different, but all simple and with a one-button closure on the back.

Pattern: My own - very simple, but with short rows to increase the height of the neck and thus improve the fit.
Yarn: Rauma Finull, colours 439, 445, 448, and 456. One of my all-time favourites, not least because of the colour range. I used approx. three and a half 50 g balls for these four little vests.
Needles: the brilliant Knit Picks Harmony wood dpns, 4.0 mm - the large needle size gave a nice and soft fabric.
Ravelry link: here.

What makes a hand-knit a favourite?

I've been thinking a bit about this, having found a new favourite among my recent FOs during the past two weeks of summer vacation: The Twenty Ten Cardigan [blog link | Rav link]. I just love wearing it! The fit is great and so is the yarn and its complex colour. And all those red buttons make me smile :)

Other favourites in my (rather overwhelming) sweater pile are my Cabled Sweater Dress [blog link | Rav link], Pine [blog link | Rav link], and the Cabled Spiral pullover [blog link | Rav link] - long-time readers will know this by now :)

I'm very happy to have found a new go-to sweater, and I'm asking the headline question because I'd like more such successes in the future. Knitting a new sweater, I very often have a feeling whether it's going to be a favourite or not, but I can never be quite sure. One could also ask whether sweaters I think are not going to be favourites should frogged immediately, but I think you need to have some not-quite-favourites in order to have the favourites. Kinda lies in the definition, doesn't it?

So what makes a sweater/cardigan/etc. a favourite for you? And can you tell before finishing it?

On a related note, I'm impressed with the new fall Twist Collective. Having been quite disappointed with printed as well as online publications lately - thinking that it's all been seen before or that it's just plain boring - I'm very happy to find one cardigan I need to cast on for immediately (that's Acorns - I also love how they've set up this photo shoot) and another cardigan I think I might make (that's Cityscape - I think I'd make it in black rather than white, though). I'm also happy to see some new or at least more interesting ideas in the other designs, e.g. Kiloran, Red Oak, and Stratocumulus. And as usual with Twist Collective, the photography is pleasing.

Quarterly report - 2nd quarter

It's time for another one. This year seems like a fast one! You can find my previous quarterly report here.

Back to look at those 10 New Year's resolutions.

1. Knit down (some of) my stash
Well, I am knitting as much as I can. I did buy 1,6 kg of yarn from Holst Garn (versatile! with plans for projects! yes, the excuses are many) recently and 100 g of silk, but other than that no yarn has entered the flat. And I've decided to let the 4 uhm 5 baskets that currently store my yarn, WIPs, and not-yet-gifted-gifts form the limit of how much yarn I can have.
ETA: I forgot to say that I sold 8 skeins (650 g) of yarn on my destash - that gave a lot of room, too :)

2. Be less spendy and save money for more important things.
Well, a wedding came up - what can I say? If you need something to spend your on, I'll suggest getting married ;) But I guess that qualifies for 'important things' :D

3. Improve my Italian.
Yup! I went to evening classes 7 times this spring. And listened to a lot of Michel Thomas. Molto interessante ;)

4. Keep flossing.
Yup! Let's see what my dentist says on Monday...

5. Less Facebook, more reading.
The news paper reading has gone down recently, but as far as literature goes I'm doing quite well. I'm on my way through Ian McEwan's most recent novel Solar.

6. Learn how to do tubular cast on and use it.
No.

7. Keep running regularly.
Yeees. Despite a serious foot injury 5 weeks before the big race, I made it across the Øresund bridge to Sweden (half marathon, 21.1 km) in the beginning of June! 2 hours and 12 minutes is not exactly a glorious time, but being worried whether the foot would actually make it past 13 km, I'm very pleased with the result. And what a stunning route! A very nice memory. Also a bit peculiar to be running on the highway and the 4 km through the tunnel and all that. I also fulfilled my (maybe rather cautious) goal of running 10 km in less than an hour at a women's race last week. The next goals are already set: the DHL 5 km relay race in late August, another half marathon in September, and the Eremitageløbet (13 km) in October.

8. Keep doing Pilates regularly.
I think I failed at this one. Must be the nice weather. I think I'll pick it up again when winter returns.

9. Knit 12 sweaters.
I finished Daffodil, Twenty Ten, and the Rhombus Wrap (I think that qualifies as sort of a sweater!) this quarter and I have no less than 6 sweaters on the needles, all working their way towards completion at a veeeery steady pace. Knitting time hasn't been plentiful lately.

10. Knit 10 shawls.
I knit one, the Tilia. Definitely not going to accomplish this one.

With a very productive WIP Wrestling April (6 WIPs wrestled - and a new project started and finished) followed by a period where I've been switching back and forth between my numerous large projects (sweaters), I managed to finish 8 projects this quarter. (Think about it: seven projects in one month, then one project in two months...). You can see them all here:

FO: Rhombus Wrap

The Rhombus Wrap. It's been done for almost a month and I've worn it once before the weather got too hot, but never got to take any photos of it. Now I've given up on the modeled shots (just for this one) and give you these.

As you may be able to see from these two photos, it's a reversible knit and to me both sides are equally nice. I like that a lot. It's a very simple 4-row stitch pattern, but it has a great effect here, methinks.

However, the best thing about it may be that I found the perfect use of this slightly variegated yarn - Laura 4ply from Posh Yarn in a delicious red colourway called Sassy. I've learnt that I'm not really fond of variegated yarns in sweater-sized knits. Semisolids are alright, but when sprinkled with another colour like this one is (a bit of golden yellow here and there), I don't like it. My Buttercup II was knit in the same yarn, and I don't really like the variegation here. So why does it suddenly work here? There are two reasons:
1) I paired it with a yarn in a solid colour (Holst Garn in Poppy)
2) The stitch pattern was like made for a bit of variegation. I think it's because it has these accentuated stitches that these golden sparks look great in there.

I think it's time for the info part:

Pattern: Rhombus Wrap from Ori Ami Knits
Yarn: 1 strand of Posh Yarn Laura 4 ply (80% merino, 20% cashmere) in Sassy (discontinued; Rav link) + 1 strand of Holst Garn in Poppy (love that colour!)
Needles: 5.0 mm

Hot or not? I think fairly hot. It's not my Cabled Spiral Pullover or Pine, but I think once the colder temperatures return it'll be great for wearing round the office!

10 things

A huge thanks to Mooncalf who nominated me for the Beautiful Blogger Award. 

The instructions say to write 10 interesting [not sure about that here!] things about oneself and then relay the award on to 10 beautiful bloggers.

First my 10 things:

1. I have a thing for Camper shoes. I recently bought my 12^th pair. 

2. I’m an ISTJ according to the Jung Type Indicator (JTI) – you may be more familiar with its sister, MBTI. 

3. As far as learning styles go, I am an extremely visual learner. Figures and graphs, please! 

4. I wear size S (6-7) in lab nitrile gloves even if the fingers are much too short. I just prefer them to be tight. 

5. I love liquorice. I also like chocolate, but only if it is high quality. 

6. I love TV detective stories. And when I say that to my peers, they always state that they love CSI, too, and then I have to add that by detective stories I mean those that their parents watch. My favourites are Lewis, Inspector Morse, Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Midsomer Murders, and A Touch of Frost. No, I cannot choose.  

7. I want a house in Italy. And vacation time to spend in it.  

8. I like numbers and systems. I’ve always been good at maths, and that is where I got the best grades ever. I never wanted to study maths, though, I just think I like the simplicity that there is only one correct answer (at least until you get beyond the first year at university level, which is where I stopped). Maybe that’s why I like grammar, too. [I do sound really boring, don’t I? :)]  

9. My favourite author is Ian McEwan. 

10. My favourite geeky joke is the one where Einstein, Newton, and Pascal play hide-and-seek...

And then the 10 beautiful bloggers. You may already have gotten this one, or you may not want to participate in this. I'm completely fine with that - I rarely pass these things on, but I thought I would just for once. 

Lykkefanten

Travelknitter

Aalerusen

Strikkeforsker

Lenas strik og quilt

GrenDesign

Pischi Days

A Piper Knits

Unikarina

and

Ullaib

I'm looking forward to reading your 10 things! :)

 

Knitting in the sun

I've spent the weekend knitting and tanning on our two terraces (one on either side of the flat - one for morning sun and one for afternoon sun). I feel very well prepared, starting to tan (carefully) now in order to be just a little less pale when I'm going to wear that certain very white dress in October :)

I'm happy that summer is finally here (at least until tomorrow) and I hope I'll get more knitting time (and desire to knit all the time) over the summer than I have had the past few weeks, where I've only knit around 3 times a week! :O

Granite miniKAL

Britt suggested a Granite miniKAL and I immediately accepted - one can never get too much motivation, right? I started it back in August, then let one and a half sleeve rest for quite a lot of months before picking it up again during the WIP Wrestling last month. Now I have both sleeves done and the part of the back you can see in the photo done. Ravelry tells me that Britt has finished 65%, so I'm still a bit behind :)

Turning Trash'n into Fashion

That's the slogan of a little New Jersey-based Etsy shop - Seven Ply - selling incredibly cool jewelry hand-made from broken skateboards. I've never been a skateboarder myself, but I find the idea ingenious and incredibly cool, and dear boyfriend - although being a 'boring' chemical engineer - loves skateboards. What I like the most about skateboards in this case is the beautiful wooden effect created by their interior on the back of this neckpiece. Which might as well be the front cos it's completely reversible. You can see the front - which is what used to be the back of the skateboard with some cool black, white, and turquoise print - on the shop page here (it is of course now listed as sold since all pieces are unique). There are all sorts of necklaces, earrings, rings, cufflinks, and even buttons. Just in case you find the idea as cool as I do :)

April FO #6: Nissen / The Elf

I've reached my April WIP Wrestling goal! The 6 WIPs are done and I've blogged about the 3 I finished in March.

The sixth and last FO this month is a baby suit. I've known it for long, it's an almost classic Danish baby garment: Nissen (The Elf) by Marianne Isager. I started it back in January during my 'streamline the stash' mood. I'm not much into greens, and wanted to use up these few greens in my stash together. Nissen seemed like the perfect project. I didn't have enough yarn for the hood, but think it will work well without it. I also had to use some contrasting red/orange colours on the back to have enough yarn, but I think it works well since the contrast on the edges is also orange-red. For a few months, all it needed was the zipper. A few weeks ago I finally went and bought the zipper when I also went to get the red buttons for the Twenty Ten Cardigan, and carefully following the advice from Britt not to stretch the knitted fabric when sewing on the zipper I finished it this morning. The zipper gave it a truly complete look and I'm very pleased with it! All I need now is somebody to wear it, but I'm quite confident that I will - in time - find a happy little recepient. Until then it will be placed in my finished-baby-knits-ready-for-whenever-friends-and-family-pop-out-babies stash.

Pattern: Nissen (The Elf) by Marianne Isager (Isager | Ravelry)

Yarn: Various leftovers - see my Ravelry project page for more info

Needles: 3.0 mm and 3.5 mm

So I reached my April goal with 2 days to go. Having decided to leave Arietta as a pretty swatch for now, I am down to 4 WIPs only!!!

• Amimono's Granite (started June 2009), which I've taken up again after a long break and now have almost 2 sleeves done. For a while I was contemplating frogging it because I wasn't sure about the boxy shape and I don't tend to use woolen sweaters with very open necklines like this one. Then it occured to me that all these problems would be solved if I turn it into a cardigan - so that's what I plan to do.
• Helga Isager's Sweater fra 1960'erne (started December 2009). It's resting in my knitting basket since it is a very wintery knit and I don't want to finish it and then be unable to use it right away.
• Norah Gaughan's Kingscot (started August 2009). I have 2 sleeves done; I've used the sleeves as something I would knit on when I needed a very simple TV/reading/etc. knit and didn't have any other straightforward knits to turn to, so they've been taking a while to knit. This week I finished the second sleeve, and then started to worry that the fabric was too dense (very unlike the usual case I had to go down from 4.00 mm to 3.25 mm to get gauge) and that the sleeves were too tight. I decided to wash, block, and sew up one sleeve, and all my worries were blown away: the yarn relaxed giving a fabric with a nice drape, and the sleeve fits perfectly. Yay!
• The scrap yarn blanket. The never-ending project, which I enjoy knitting on occasionally when I've collected sufficient amounts of odds and ends to knit a few squares.

So what's next? Other than continuing to knit on the above now that I've refound the joy in knitting Granite and Kingscot? Cast on, obviously! Earlier this week I planned, (swatched), cast on, and knitted 3 rows on 2 new projects - both from the same book: Strikketøj by my favourite knitwear designer Helga Isager (yes, that will by my 9th and 10th Amimono knitting project...):

• Bluse i hulmønster (1980'erne) in a teal blue Isager Alpaca 2.
• Pigecardigan (1940'erne) - scaled up to my size - in Supersoft from Holst Garn with a lovely dark colour (a black-purple-pink mix) called Sloe as the main colour.

Mmmmm.... :)

April FOs #4 and #5: Cardigans: Daffodil and Twenty Ten

Sunday brought me some time to sit outside in the sun and sew in 20 buttons and some side seams. After having excitedly watched Peter complete his first half-marathon (he did a full one last year) in a time much better than expected - 1h 31min :) - that was. That gave me another 2 FOs!

Pattern: Daffodil by Amimono (Rav link | knitkit shop link)
Yarn: Alpaca 2 (50% wool/50% alpaca), colourway 016 which is a greenish yellow, approx. 3.8 skeins. And a bit of the same yarn in 402 (dark grey) and 2105 (light grey) for the edges.
Needles: 3.5 mm Addi Turbo
A link to my Ravelry project page: here.

The cardigan pattern is great and the result very pretty and versatile - and it doesn't look too homemade (that's a general thing with Helga's designs, I think). An example of this is that the sleeves are different in front and back - a feature also found in tailored - and industrially produced - clothes.
I didn't find any errors in the version I have (Amimono Knit Collection Spring/Summer 2009). I feel tempted to knit another one in another colour.

The colour is outside my comfort zone (I like yellows, but mostly lemon, daffodil, and warm yellows - not really greenish yellows like this one that are also heathered), but I think it goes well with a black shirt and especially with my light denim skirt.

I think this must be the first time where I've blocked the pieces (back+fronts knit together with 3-needle-BO (and the front edge knit on) as one piece - and then the two sleeves) before sewing them together. Usually, I'm not very fond of sewing end set-in sleeves and I don't do it very well. Now I'm convinced that blocking pre-seaming is the key to get rid of this problem! So much easier and a much better result, too. In fact, I'm no longer afraid of these set-in sleeves!

And then there's FO #5:

Pattern: Twenty Ten Cardigan by Veera Välimäki
Yarn: New Lanark Aran, colourway Blueberry, 3.5 skeins!
Needles: 5.5 mm
Link to my Ravelry project page: here.

The design is clever and interesting, the yarn is - as always - great and in a gorgeous colourway. And oh how I love those shiny red buttons! All 12 of them :)

That's another two sweaters for my IntKniSweMoDo - I've now created 4 this year.

April FO #3: Fire Monkey Socks - and a little extra FO

The 3rd FO of the month is a pair of Monkey Socks (an all-time favourite) in a gorgeously coloured yarn. It's the sock yarn Kaffe Fassett designed for Regia, and this is the colourway Landscape Fire. Alas, the colours aren't captured that well by my camera (at least not in this picture - it's better at the bottom right corner in the last photo of this post), but I'll direct you to Mooncalf's photos of the same colourway here and here. Much more true to the actual colours.

Pattern: Monkey Socks by Cookie A. (Rav link | free Knitty pattern)

Yarn: Regia Design Line Kaffe Fassett, colourway Landscape Fire, 1.5 skeins

Needles: 2.25 mm Knitpicks dpns

The socks only used 1.5 skeins, but I wanted to use up the rest of it right away. Thus this little baby hat, that doesn't count in the April WIP Wrestling because it was no WIP when April started. The last bit of yarn was sent to the scrap yarn blanket pile. 

Pattern: Gro's Djevellue

Yarn: Regia Design Line Kaffe Fassett, colourway Landscape Fire, approx. 0.4 skeins

Needles: 2.25 mm Knitpicks dpns

So - that's a total of 100 g sock yarn used, i.e. 12.5% added to the SockYarn O-Meter!

So will I reach my goal of 6 finished WIPs in April? Well, apart from this little baby hat that only took me a few hours to make, I've been veeery good and knitted on my WIPs only. So much that the remaining 3 I plan to finish only need some seaming:

The yellow thing on top (or should we call it golden, since it was my Ravelympics project that I would have finished during the Olympics, had I not gone skiing the last weekend of the Games) is Amimono's Daffodil. I've blocked it today pre-seaming (I think that's the first time I've ever done that). It needs sleeves sewn in, side and sleeve seams sewn, and 8 buttons.

The red and green thing on the left with the red zipper is Marianne Isager's Nissen. It's blocked and only needs the zipper sewn in, but I'm quite sure that should be challenging enough, especially since I have to do it by hand, not being the happy owner of a sewing machine.

The blue-ish thing you can see on the right is the Twenty Ten Cardigan. It's blocked and only needs 12 shiny red buttons sewn on before it'll be a great little cardigan - with shiny red buttons :)

That should be doable seeing as there is still a week left of April. 

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!