mama-of-purl

09/20/2006

Thanks for keeping your fingers crossed:-)

Yay, the trial work day went really well and the boss pretty much told me I had the job, but I won't find out 100% until Friday morning at the latest. It'll be such a cool, diversified and challenging job, I can't believe how lucky I am to even have found this kind of job AND to have gotten a chance to show my skills. Big changes ahead...

Another wonderful surprise was in the mail today- a 25$ gift certificate for Halcyon Yarns given to me by Paul as one of the prizes in the Bitchin' Mittens KAL! I won in the category 'best use of color' for the Squirrelly Mitten(s). Sweet, eh?

Now I'm having SUCH a hard time deciding what I'm going to order... Malabrigo, I think, some roving from Maine sheep, just because that's where the company's at and because that's one of the things I certainly won't get over here. 

THANK YOU PAUL! 

21:25 Posted in Gloves and Mittens , Knitalongs | Permalink | Comments (6) | Email this

07/03/2006

It's not quite winter yet...

THe first Squirrely Mitten is finished! How much fun this pattern is!! I just had to make the hand a bit longer and I had to guesstimate where to start with the decreases for the top, but it worked out well. And I didn't have to change the measurements for the thumb, which I was a little nervous about. Knitting the entire mitten with 2.5 mm needles instead of US 1s was all it took. This mitten was such a breeze, I'm looking forward to making the 2nd one:-)

Oh, want to hear a comment on the mitten, obviously from a non-knitter, at the playground this afternoon? "And they don't even look hand-knit!"

10:20 Posted in Gloves and Mittens | Permalink | Comments (3) | Email this

04/28/2006

Spring is coming, time for new mittens?

Here's a pair of mittens I finished today- I felted them using carded wool and felting it with hot soapy water and a lot of rubbing and pressing, etc. to fit my hands. Those should be great on chilly days riding my bicycle. They do look a bit like oven mitts, but they're, uh, unique;-) And they're soft enough to move my hands in them and pick up stuff. I could even handle the camera to take these pix wearing them!

I was talking on the phone when I laid out the different colors on the second mitten this morning and I messed up the sides- of course the palms as well as the back of the hands were supposed to be the same color. Doesn't bother me though, they're unidentical twins;-)

14:05 Posted in felting , Gloves and Mittens | Permalink | Comments (5) | Email this

01/31/2006

THEY ARE DONE.

Today's the Peaceful Palms KAL's deadline and I'm extremely proud to present these to you at the very last minute:
My thanks go out to our wonderfully encouraging and caring host Nona!!

10:25 Posted in Gloves and Mittens | Permalink | Comments (12) | Email this

01/30/2006

Embarrassing Display of Knitter's Pride

Okay, people- I finally finished knitting the Floral Fair-Isle Gloves last night. There are still a few ends that need to be woven, but I'm wearing them anyway. Ummm, now here's a picture of me wearing them this morning. I didn't come up with this, I caught myself brushing my teeth wearing the gloves. Couldn't help but getting the camera to snap a picture of it. How pathetic can a knitter get?! See the sorry look on my face?
I'm glad Johanna can't form sentences yet- if she could, she'd probably poked fun at me this morning;-)

10:46 Posted in Gloves and Mittens | Permalink | Comments (5) | Email this

01/07/2006

Glove Pattern source

A couple of you have asked where I got the great pattern for the floral fair-isle gloves.

It was Interweave.com's web-exclusive project in Fall 2005, here's the link: http://www.interweave.com/knit/interweave_knits/web_proje...

The gloves were designed by Carol Wassell.

As you can see on my pair, you can simply use some leftover yarn to make them.

09:15 Posted in Gloves and Mittens | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this

12/30/2005

Fun small winter items

Hey everyone, I hope you all had a peaceful Christmas! It was more peaceful than usual at our house, so that was nice;-) I finished the Noro hat when I was there, but it fits a little too snugly and see that weird bobble there at the top front? Well, it looks like that on my head, too. My sister's first comment: a bit smurfy, don't you think? I may need to redo the top, ahem. The pattern a modified version of is Elizabeth Zimmermann's Ganomy hat. I've had the Knitter's Almanac delivered just before the holidays and while I like the concept of the book, it could surely use a heck of a lot more pictures! It's hard to figure out which pattern belongs to which tiny b&w picture.

Speaking of books, I've been shopping for quite a few lately, and I need to mention one of them, 'Mein Lieblingspullover' by Amanda Griffiths. I had checked it out at a local bookstore, but ordered a copy online because the one they had was so shabby... Anyway, I must have been so occupied looking at the sweaters, I overlookedthat "model's" utter ugliness! Ewwww! It must be the writer's cousin or someone, there's no chance this woman is doing this professionally! Her pictures absolutely spoiled this somewhat neat book for me. I should have bought "The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns" instead anyway...

So, we've gotten a few centimeters of precious now here, which is rare in Hamburg. Since we've lost one of Johanna's store-bought mittens a while back,and the thrum mitten turned out to be a tad too small, I made her a super quick and simple pair that only took a few hours. And you know what? *drumroll* SHE LOVES THEM! She even 'told' me to put them back on when her hands got cold as she was eating some bread. Isn't that amazing? A toddler who likes to put on mittens? ;-) Another new item in the picture is the hat (remember I wanted to knit a new, more feminine hat for J?) It's a mini version of the Ganomy hat, sans the smurf factor, plus a little cable running up the front. I smuggled the two red merino yarns out of my mother's stash;-) There's also a matching scarf on the needles:

I can almost hear you saying: "Geez, that mama can't stop casting on again!", and you're right. My sister stopped by last night to drop off 3 balls of sock yarn and instead of making a sample swatch, I started a pair of socks from the aforementioned library book:

the pattern is pretty neat and turned out to be quite meditative once I got the hang of it. Turned off the TV, listened to an audiobook, put my feet up, and got some post-Christmas relaxation.

Have a knitty 2006!!

19:45 Posted in Baby Stuff , Gloves and Mittens | Permalink | Comments (3) | Email this

12/11/2005

We're thrummin', thrummin', thrummin'

Okay, who guesses what famous Jamaican artist I've been listening to while knitting?;-)

I've just read about this exciting method on the Yarn Harlot blog, so I asked my mother for a few fleece scraps, which were these:

I've been a little bored with the BIG projects lately, and curious about some new techniques. A new book I got at the library came in handy, which taught me how to do a short-row sock heel. Finally, a clear instruction on short rows. I've been so confused about how to wrap the yarn at the beginning of the rows! So here's the product of my first attempt, a little sock. (notice the umlauts on my German keyboard?) The pattern I used on the shaft is called 'seaweed', and while I enjoyed knitting it, it simply doesn't show on this self-striping yarn. Maybe I'm going to use the pattern again sometime, as I LOVE seaweed. Great color, great taste, great nutritional value:-)

11:10 Posted in Baby Stuff , Gloves and Mittens , Knitting (general) | Permalink | Comments (6) | Email this

12/07/2005

Just some lame updates...

Ugh, I'm a little uninspired today, so here's just some new pix of the Floral Fair-Isle Gloves and a much needed pair of new socks for Miss Johanna.

13:10 Posted in Baby Stuff , Gloves and Mittens | Permalink | Comments (6) | Email this

11/20/2005

Crimson and Clover:-)

Wow, I've been knitting and thinking about this little sweater for two days now and it took until right now to come up with this oh so obvious name for it:-) Got to the part where I had to bind off for the armholes and ran out of red yarn, but I'm going to get a delivery tomorrow, thanks to mom, yay! I'm going to keep the yoke very simple on this sweater, otherwise the patterns would be a little overwhelming, I imagine.

Then I finished the cuff on mr. left hand fair-isle glove watching Tatort and just started adding some gusset stitches.

Alright, I'm spent for today, have a good week, all of you! 

22:20 Posted in Baby Stuff , Gloves and Mittens | Permalink | Comments (3) | Email this

11/17/2005

They're done now

Ech, I'm having a crappy day... Didn't get enough sleep, I'm totally frustrated with the paper I'm writing on and my incabability to focus on reading and sitting down for a period longer than 15 minutes. Because I get such a bad conscience when I'm not doing anything, I tried to distract myself by mounting some shelves on the wall next to my desk yesterday, that way I'd have my books right there and I'd be totally prepared for a lot of work...uh... the next day, of course. Anyhow, I drill the holes, which didn't work as well as I hoped, probably because the drill battery wasn't fully charged, but I still managed to get one of the shelves up and stacked all my university literature on it. When I came back half an hour later, all my books were scattered on the desk and the floor, piling on my computer (luckily, it still works fine), the shelf laying on top of everything. aaah! There goes my handywoman pride.

Well, at least the armwarmers were finished two nights ago, I test-wore them outside yesterday and the right-hand one is noticeably wider, but at least the thumb gussets fit well. What the heck.

Johanna was very amused by me wearing the armwarmers and she wanted to try them on as well:-)

It's getting very cold here now and we've had the first snow yesterday, which melted instantly. I want to knit Johanna some cute mittens and I'm still waiting for a mitten book I ordered almost 4 weeks ago...gggrrrr...speed up, will ya?

12:20 Posted in Gloves and Mittens | Permalink | Comments (3) | Email this

11/15/2005

Someone is going to have warm hands

I spent all of last night finishing the second celtic cable armwarmer really enjoying it as I have finally gotten the knack of cabling and I didn't have to permanently read the chart  anymore.  Then I also re-did  the thumb on the left-hand armwarmer, it was way too tight, and not only for my huge hands (I've had my sister try it on when she was here). Proudly admiring my  finished pair, I realized that the second one was much larger than the first! I definitely used the same size needles this time because I cast on the second armwarmer right after the first,  the reason for the different sizes is probably that, being the mama-of-purl, I taught myself to purl properly in the mean time;-) Apparently my purl stitches are recognizably looser than before. What I'm going to try to fix it somewhat, is to rip the ribbing at the top and knitting it tighter with smaller needles. Maybe that'll help.  There's a few other mistakes, but hey, I'm so not a perfectionist. And I absolutely love the pattern and  the color of the yarn. I'm sure the person who gets it for her birthday and who's unexpectedly been snooping around here is going to like them anyway. 

11:18 Posted in Gloves and Mittens | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this

11/14/2005

Singleitis spell is broken!

Here it is, the floral fair-isle glove's left hand brother. Umm, looking at the picture-have I been using the right size needles?! The left hand one looks a little taller!? Maybe it just needs to be stretched a little... gotta go and check...why didn't I write down which size I used?!? Aaah!

Singleitis runs in the family, btw- my mother always knits just ONE sock! The last time my sister and I both were at her house, we went through her knitting basket and divided up about 6 socks including half a ball of sock yarn among the two of us so we can knit the second socks at some point of time.

10:50 Posted in Gloves and Mittens | Permalink | Comments (3) | Email this

11/13/2005

My palms are going to be so peaceful!

This KAL thing is really putting some pressure on me! I cast on for the left-hand Floral Fair-Isle Glove tonight! I keep seeing that I get a bunch of hits from Nona's site, so I should at least give you some info on the pair of gloves I'm knitting on. Check out 'gloves and mittens' in 'Categories' to see previous posts on the right-hand glove, and I'm going to put up a photo album with previous progress shots that got lost in the blogspirit attack... hope you like it so far!

22:57 Posted in Gloves and Mittens | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this

09/03/2005

Random acts of kindness

What a great way of starting the day: went to the post office to pick up the package Mare sent me from Oregon. It's the pattern for the 'Map Of the World Afghan' including this pile of leftover yarn. Isn't that just so sweet and kind of Mare? Gotta love her!

It was very cool to find out she was from Bandon, Oregon, where I've spent a few wonderful and unforgotten days back in 1997 during a 3 1/2 month hitch-hiking trip down the West Coast. Lovely people in Bandon, OR:-)

Okay, lots of knitting stories and new projects right now- tonight I'm going to teach my friend Saskia how to knit a hat and I've taken her yarn shopping yesterday. Of course I got yarn as well:-) I cast on for the Rogue and Wavy last night, that's how excited I was about the nice yarns I got.

Here's the little piece of Wavy I knit last night, the yarn looks a little rough and rigid, but I made a swatch and blocked it. Ta-daah, it's beautifully soft and cuddly. It's a tweed yarn with a little cashmere mixed it, so that's what it's supposed to do;-)

What do you think about my right hand Floral Fair-Isle Glove? I finished it 2 nights ago. I had to alter the thumb and the pinkie, my thumb is about twice the size than the pattern :-o and my pinkie is quite a bit smaller. Strange hands... At least I finally get a pair of gloves that really fit. I usually have more than a centimeter of excess material on the pinkies, which I find very annoying.

Now I've got to clean our place, I'm having a friend visiting this afternoon and I don't want her to see how much I've let the place ROT the last few days *gasp*

11:45 Posted in Gloves and Mittens , Wavy | Permalink | Comments (3) | Email this

09/01/2005

Public knitting

I met up with my fellow mama friend Christiane at the park yesterday and we met another mother she knew. After I while I pulled out the fair-isle gloves I'm working on and started knitting. What happened? NOTHING. No comments, no questions, they simply ignored it. Not because they're used to seeing me knitting or anything. Strange.

09:00 Posted in Gloves and Mittens | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this

08/22/2005

Winter knitting in summer

It was over 25 degrees Celsius in my bedroom last night, nevertheless I decided to cast on for the Interweaves Fair-Isle Gloves. A delicious knit! I finished the first cuff and part of the gusset which I had to rip this morning because I didn't read the (very detailed) instructions properly, although I finally moved one of my brighter lamps from the living room to the bedroom:-) Let there be light! My eyes were so grateful: 'thank you mama for not knitting in a womb-like environment anymore'... am I sounding weird this morning? Need....more....coffee!

And then we're off buying Johanna her first pair of shoes, she's getting pretty good at walking at the age of 10 months *beamwithpride*

08:50 Posted in Gloves and Mittens | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this