mama-of-purl

09/18/2006

Let's say I'm in limbo...

I'm in a weird space, folks... I'm trying to figure out if I can realistically finish my University degree. I need money and I have a possible opportunity for a job I'd really like to do. Had an interview there 10 days ago, it went really well, so I'm going to have a trial day on Wednesday, keep your fingers crossed it's working out. No matter how I'm going to decide on the University thing, I sure can use some new input/perspective/silver lining.

Anyhow, I've had some serious finishitis lately! There's so much to talk about, I've been making notes;-)

First of all, I had finished the cabled sweater for Johanna, which tuned out really cute, but getting it over her head was close to a second birth experience for her. Man, that collar turned out so tight! Here's her posing proudly and then there's the 'after' picture of her complaining about the collar.Okay, the hood has to be taken off again and I need to rip back the collar a few rows to make it wider. Good thing I decided on knitting the hood separately and doing a bottom-up raglan this time.

The next finished item on the other hand is so stretchy, it even fits ME! Wow, me and my toddler can share some of our clothes!;-)

Here's the hand-dyed, hand-spun, hand-knit sweater in action

 

 

 

Finished item Nr. 3 deserves a drumroll... the Pretty Petals socks are DONE!!! 

These were actually supposed to get finished during the Trek-Along, but I've been terribly frustrated with them and had too much welcome distraction.

Some stats:

Pattern: Pretty Petals by Jeanie Townsend 

Yarn: Trekking XXL 110

Needles: US 1/ 2.25mm Pony Pearl DPNs. What an annoyance. Those needles are so wiggly and wobbly and constantly snagged on the fiber. Terrible.

Pattern modifications: Since I used smaller needles, I ended up having to add one panel of the pretty petals pattern in order to get the right circumference. Therefore I have two panels going down the foot, which I really like. I could have just used 2.5 mm needles and stuck with the pattern but I liked the texture of the yarn being knit with the US1s.  

After alreading wanting to throw out those crappy plastic Pony Pearl needles, I was up for an extra special surprise in the mail:

MY DYE-O-RAMA PACKAGE! It finally got here! THANK YOU SO MUCH, Katherine!

In it not only my luscious soft 100% superwash merino yarn in beautiful blues and greens, but also a set of wonderfully smooth bamboo US1 DPNs. Weeheee! But wait, there was a lot more.

I actually rummaged through the box extensively and wound the yarn into a ball before I realized I'd forgotten to take a picture of everything unopened. The chocolate was missing some chunks already;-) And, uh, there's almost half a Mata Hari sock there already that I've knitted Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning while waiting in line to get a spot at the local fleamarket next Sunday.

My wonderful, talented Dye-o-rama pal Katherine also sent me one of her awesome handprinted T-Shirt for which she carved the wooden block herself. Isn't it cool? She's planning on selling those on ebay some time soon.

Oh, and something curious about the tea filters Katherine included in the package to go along with the excellent Earl Grey tea- they're available here, too, so I was wondering where they were produced. Check this out: these are some crazy travellin' tea filters! Hamburg-Salt Lake City-Hamburg-Salt Lake City-Hamburg. What a trip:-) 

 

21:15 Posted in Baby Stuff , dye-o-rama , Knitalongs , Socks , Sweaters | Permalink | Comments (8) | Email this

09/04/2006

Still here...

Hey everyone,

yes, I'm still here, just quiet. Unfortunately not because I'm having too much fun. I feel like such a fool. Some things really are too good to be true. 

So there you have it, the knitting world has me back. And I guess it's time to fess up what's on the needles. The sidebar with all the WIPs was way too short-  I've been camouflaging my cast-on addiction. It's pathetic. That's when you know you're addicted- you're hiding new projects from others! 

I secretly cast on for another Wavy in Noro Silk Garden. Those three balls in amazing fall colors(colorway 230) that I got on sale were just calling me...

Alright, I'm going to post a true account of what's on my needles, go and check out the sidebar (in case you're reading this in Bloglines...) Oh NO! I've just counted- EIGHT WIPs. How many do you have?

I'm pretty pleased with the name for those reddish Meilenweit Mega Boots Stretch socks that I've started as a mindless stockinette project when I first started *mumble* falling in love. "The Thrill Is Gone Socks". Great song.  

In other news, I'm such a loser knitalonger- both the Trek-Along as well as the Bitchin' Mittens just ended and I haven't finished either of my projects. At least I've been working on the Pretty 'Spring' (haha) Petals socks, so I can at least finish those for the Sock-A-Month KAL. 

  

One item I've continuously been working on this month was the cabled sweater for Johanna. I'm in love with that yarn, it's wonderfully soft and those colors are just beautiful. I've picked up the stitches for the hood a little too tightly, so I'm going to have to frog back. I could've just done a crew neck, but Johanna insists on the hood:-D 

 

12:05 Posted in Baby Stuff , Blog , casting-on addiction , Knitalongs , Socks , Wavy | Permalink | Comments (9) | Email this

08/21/2006

All the falling leaves...

...filling up shopping bags.

Oooh, who figures out which song these lyrics come from?

Now really, check out what we collected yesterday. Turned freakin leaves. On August 20th.

So things are going well here at mama-of-purl's, I have an interview tomorrow for a job that I think I'd really enjoy, nothing big, just a few hours each week to pay the bills, but it sure helps finding something fun. Cross your fingers:-)  I kind of hope I don't start working this week already, because the New Guy and I are planning to take a weekend trip to the Baltic Sea.(yay!)

My main reason is taking my Trekking socks for a spin, honestly;-) They have been shamefully neglected after I had to rip back a bunch of times, but after a trip to the local zoo, where I knit a few rounds  posed with the sock while Johanna was watching the giraffes, I finally set up the stitches correctly and made some substantial progress. Whoo-hoo!

I hope I can finally contribute to the Trek-Along, which I love reading, but I just haven't had much luck with sock Nr.2.

 

My mindless stockinette sock project du jour, the passionate red socks, are doing okay as well. Knitting does help me deal with my current relationship impatience;-) 

Oh yeah, I got some good news from my super-secret dye-o-rama pal! The package she mailed waaaaay back was returned to her, so my yarn didn't get lost. And she'll mail it again asap:-) 

14:35 Posted in Knitalongs , Socks | Permalink | Comments (4) | Email this

08/11/2006

River Rapids off the Needles!

Hey, there's a finished pair of socks despite all the crazy falling in love that's happening here. Let's just say I'm preeetty darn happy:-)

Anyhow, here are the wonderful River Rapid socks:

Stats:

Pattern: River Rapid Socks by Sockbug

Yarn: Lana Grossa Meilenweit Colortweed Color 1004

Needle size: 2.5 for ribbing on cuff, 3.0mm for the rest

Pattern modifications: NONE- this is a very well-written pattern, I have ZERO complaints or suggestions. Go sockbug! I enjoyed the alternating sl1 k1 on the heel especially.

Well, next time, I'd probably make the cuff one repeat longer, just because that'd make the cuff/foot proportion more suitable for my big feet. I'm still trying to figure out the perfect length for the cuff, I have a feeling it should be just as long as my foot. Unfortunately I'm always too impatient to get to the fun heel part;-)

 

This pair is the first pair for the Sock-A-Month KAL Part 2 I've been slacking on my sock knitting in the last 2 months because of major frustration with Pretty Petals, but I've cast on for a new pair of socks in a passionate red pink colorway. Funny how this yarn really spoke to me:-) I haven't decided on the pattern yet, but I think they're going to be mindless plain socks...

11:55 Posted in Socks | Permalink | Comments (8) | Email this

07/09/2006

Urban Beach Trekking

We've finally been going on a little trek to our city's riverside beach and I took the Pretty Petals with me. Despite the frustration with sock Nr.2 because I misread the pattern and happily knitted away in company, not realizing it for an entire pattern repeat. Great. 

So it was frogging and trekking, really.

Anyhow, here's a picture of me trying to figure out what went wrong:  The weirdest thing was, when we got to the beach at around 10 a.m., there were quite a few young couples sleeping there. I assume they went there after the World Cup parties last night (Germany came in 3rd, yay!) and passed out. Umm, one couple was up again making out :-o Look away, children!!

 

15:32 Posted in Knitalongs , Socks | Permalink | Comments (3) | Email this

06/07/2006

I've been hiding!

Hey everyone,

sorry, I had to disappear for a while to get some university stuff done. I tend to get sucked into blogland too easily and I really need to get a lot of work done.

Anyhow, there has been a lot going on over here, I don't even know where to start!  Knitting? Dyeing? SPINNING?

First of all, I think I need to confess new and not-so-new projects I've been working on.

There's this sock I kind of got tricked into starting when my knitting friend Elsa wanted to learn how to do fair-isle. It's the Peasant Sock from Knitting Marvelous Mittens (I HEART CHarlene Schurch!!) that I'm using Trekking XXL 110 and a skein of solid campari-orange red Opal yarn for. I love how these two yarns compliment each other. there's varying contrast in the pattern this way, but it has kind of a trippy effect;-)

I've also wanted to figure out how to properly weave in the ends while knitting and watched the video at Philosopher's Wool (unfortunately, the video only seems to play using Internet Explorer) a few times and took NOTES (!). In my previous fair-isle projects, I always dropped the needles, actually twisted the balls of yarn (how silly!), and ended up with a tangly mess. Not mentioning the inconvenience. But now I'm delighted with this technique! After a few attempts, I quickly learned the different hand movement when intertwining the yarns and I feel extremely accomplished now, LOL!

Check out the back of the fabric now- in the part right after the ribbing I was still carrying the yarn in the back, at the bottom I wove the yarn every 2 or 3 stitches. Lovely. 

If there are any experienced fair-isle knitters out there, I'd love to get tips on how to improve the regularity of the stitches when weaving. As you can see in the picture above, the stitches come out a little bumpy.

 

 

Then here's a shot of the Blueberry Waffle Sock which is my mindless knitting object du jour, ready to turn heel No.1.

And this is what I've continuously been knitting on for the last 10 days or so, I cannot believe how freakin long it's taking me to finish this. It's a the Girlfriend Shrug (Knit and Tonic pdf) for Johanna. We're going to our friends' wedding this Saturday (yeah, the day of WWKIP day) and since it's incredibly cold in Germany this summer (okay, it warmed up a little today), she needs something to go with her beautiful white sleeveless dress. I'm using the compensatory Regia Crazy Colors for it with 2.75 mm needles. Ya think that's why it's taking so long?;-)  Anyway, I still have more than half of the 2nd sleeve and the ribbing around the opening to knit, I gotta hurry!!

Okay, this was the knitting update, I'll chop up the entries for the other categories:-) 

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

05/23/2006

Knitting Amnesia

At the breakfast table this morning, I thought- mmh, that sucks, I didn't get any knitting done last night... Uh, HELLO? I did in fact work on something AND finished it. Bizarre how memory works sometimes...

here's the major source of frustration that got finished- the modified Ganomy Hat version 3.3. I claimed to have finished back in December but had to rip it again because it was simply too tight and small and smurfy. I screwed up version 3.0 as well, when I made some mistake in the pattern and had to frog a few inches. After that it hibernated at the bottom of my basket. Two nights ago I picked it up again and in the course of the last two days, I had to re-do the crown twice. VERY hard to get rid of that smurf bobble up there... Now the earflaps are a tad long, but I kind of like the way it looks when they're up. Certainly looks different than the hats you can buy at the store. But flaps down? Maybe when we have a snowstorm...;-)

The hat is still quite tight and is very likely to give me incredible 'hat hair', but I don't care.

In my recent attempt to fight my cast-on addiction and actually finishing projects, I also got a whole lot of the Rogue's body done and finished the Regia Nation Color 'FUN' socks.

Stats:

yarn: Regia Nation Color 'Fun' (color 5399)

needles: 2.5 mm addi circs, first using the 2 socks on 2 circs method, then seperately again using Magic Loop method

pattern: Toe-up sock pattern by Wendy- very well-written instructions but I could definitely use more tips on how to cast off loose enough. I used 3.5mm needles for the final 2 rows and the bind-off, but it is still nowhere near as stretchy and comfortable as a regular cast-on edge using 2 needles for elasticity.

Additional thoughts: Those really shouldn't have been any longer than they are or I would've needed to increase a bunch of stitches for my oh-so-well-defined calves:-) The ribbing could've been longer and the bind-off stretchier. But hey, I'm so done with these. No more.

10:30 Posted in Hats , Socks | Permalink | Comments (9) | Email this

05/16/2006

Alberta on my mind

The Alberta Socks are finished! I kitchenered the toe Sunday night, for the first time without looking at the tutorial, I feel soo accomplished now;-) Check out the sister socks on Carola's blog - she did very similar socks in the Ottawa colorway and we even finished on the same day, how cool!

Some specs:

yarn: Regia Canadian Fashion Colors in colorway 'Alberta'

needles: 2.5mm Addi circs using magic loop

Pattern: basic sock pattern, used the short row heel instructions of Pricilla's Dream Socks ( IK subscriber-only pattern) using yarn-overs. Enjoyed it and like what it looks like.

Today I even got an apology letter from DHL customer service about those delivery problems with my sockapaloooza package- what's up with great customer service in Germany all of a sudden?!

Oh, guess which UFO I picked up last night? The Rogue. Yeah, I know, that sweater has been napping for a long time now...  I'd forgotten how much fun it really is and how much I enjoyed working with that super soft merino yarn! And I'd also forgotten that I've been using a row counter and didn't have to take forever to figure out where exactly I was in the chart.

13:10 Posted in Socks | Permalink | Comments (8) | Email this

05/12/2006

News from Regia!

Look! I got a package from Regia yesterday which apparently took a while to get delivered as well- it was stamped on May 4th, just a couple of days after I'd sent the complaint in.

It contained a letter stating that they were sorry I had problems with the yarn, and that knots were not entirely unavoidable, but they'd use my information to further improve their production techniques. And then there were two balls of Regia Crazy color in a beautiful colorway. How nice of them.

And how wonderful to get new yarn while I'm on a yarn diet:-D 

19:30 Posted in Socks | Permalink | Comments (3) | Email this

05/10/2006

Knitting for sanity

Hey there,

I've been a little quiet because I've had some extremely unpleasant family issues lately, essentially escalated silly arguments...

Anyhow, I've been distressed about some of the conversations I've had and knitting helped me focus and figure things out in my head. Picked up the Kool-Aid yarn again and loved seeing how the colors pooled on the body, but also enjoyed sniffing the yarn which still faintly smells of fruity drinks:-) More than half of a new sweater for Johanna is done, it's going to be a v-neck raglan sweater according to The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns.

 

The first 'Fun' Nation sock is finished, I'm happy with the length as it is now, so the knot was not that big of a problem, although it really bothered me. No news from the people at Regia, I'm somehow hoping to receive some kind of compensation, but Carola said she'd sent a complaint to Opal before and not even got a reply, so I'm afraid it's not exactly German companies' practice to just send you some free yarn in return...

I met with Elsa, the other member of our mini-S'nB this morning, and she totally caught the sock bug now and is almost finished with her first pair. I'd brought my sock books and she loved the 2-color knitting stuff in the Simply Socks book, which I've been wanting to start a project of for a while now. Looks like we're having a little fair-isle workshop next week!:-) Another fair-isle project that is really striking my fancy is the Squirrely Mittens pattern over at http://www.elliphantom.com/ - I just saw another pair of them at helloyarn.com and I LOVE them!!

The real pick-me-up today was the package I received from Natalie: a copy of IK Knits spring 2004 with the amazing Waving Lace Socks that she hunted down for me, along with a cool knitters' card, the cutest little nail files in a matchbook and some extra goodies. Thanks, Natalie, I really enjoyed this mini-swap!

13:31 Posted in Baby Stuff , Socks | Permalink | Comments (4) | Email this

05/05/2006

WARNING: sock yarn addiction can cause brain to malfunction!

That's what it should say on the ball bands. Seriously.

My brain has been severely affected by my sock yarn addiction.

I signed up for the Sock Yarn Addicts' Club on April 1st, which includes a 90-day yarn diet during which there can only be a single purchasing day. I thought it'd be great to give my sock yarn stash some rest, work on the existing projects and maybe start some new ones to use up what I already had.

Until Tuesday, on my trip to the post office which is right next to a LYS that always has these baskets of sock yarn out front, I thought 90 days really weren't that long.

But then I suddenly realized that I friggin' confused how many MINUTES an HOUR had with how many DAYS a MONTH had. I don't know if that's a serious case of mommy brain, or if I was just in an enormous state of denial.

OMG, what have I gotten myself into!? How could I be so DUMB?

Now I feel like I need to punish myself for my own stupidity now and there shall be no more purchases until the end of June. Promise.

Well, it's warmed up here in Northern Germany and I've had a great time at the mini S'nB on Wednesday, hanging out in the sun knitting with Elsa, who showed up having knit both cuffs for her socks and knit her first heel that day. Later that night I finished the first Pretty Petals sock. LOVE IT!

11:55 Posted in Knitalongs , Socks | Permalink | Comments (6) | Email this

05/02/2006

I'm on a roll!

I've been making some great mileage lately:-)

The striped raglan sweater got finished Sunday night, just in time for the weather to warm up... I'm quite happy with how it turned out, although the sleeves are not as long as I'd thought.

Anyhow, they may be long enough to fit Johanna in the fall. I also realized she didn't have any pants to go with the sweater, so I gotta pick up some jeans for her now- great excuse to go clothes shopping, hooray!

Last night I also turned the heel on the 2nd Alberta sock and it's almost identical to the 1st, maybe 3/4 of a row off, but who's counting?

 

 

 

Here's a new shot of the 'Fun' (haha) Nation Socks. They're going to be plenty long if I bind off after the yellow stripe, but that knot incident really bugged me. I sent an e-mail with evidence pix to the Regia customer service, I'll keep you posted on what's going to become of that...

Did you see I signed up for the dye-o-rama swap? I've actually done quite a bit of secret dyeing that I have not yet blogged about, and I'm lovin' it! I got my swap partner's address today, and I actually know her:-) Well, not personally, but I've read her blog before and she's cool! What a nice change being able to check out my swapee's blog!

The sockapaloooza socks will be off to the US today, and I feel comfortable about sending them after all the lovely comments I've gotten on them. THANKS!

10:30 Posted in Baby Stuff , dyeing , Knitalongs , Sockapaloooza , Socks | Permalink | Comments (10) | Email this

04/29/2006

ANOTHER Fun Nation desaster...

Remember the ball of Regia Nation Color 'Fun' that had the specks of dark color? I haven't touched that sock after encountering the third spot, but I have been knitting on the 'good sock'. Now that I've gotten close to the top of the cuff, the 50g ball got lighter and I kept trying to figure out how many block stripes there were left when I realized that there was more purple in the rest of the yarn. PURPLE!? I was just knitting a purple stripe. I unwound 3 stripes and discovered this:

a freakin' knot! And where there should have been a light green stripe after the yellow, there's PURPLE! AND the colorway is reversed.

AAAAAAAAAAHHHHRRRGGGGHHH!

I was actually trying to make this pair a sort of test of how long a sock I could make with one 50g ball...

I'm SO not buying any more Regia anytime soon. 

19:09 Posted in Socks | Permalink | Comments (4) | Email this

04/27/2006

mini S'nB

Yay, I met up with the girl I met at 'Pony Bar' last week. A few of her fellow students came along to hang out at the cafe and it turned out to be quite a fun round with the two of us knitting, another girl making a cute little felt strawberry brooch, two others studying sign language...:-)

And I worked on the River Rapid socks that have been neglected for a while- when I looked at it again at night, I was ready to start with the toe! I didn't realize how much knitting I got done at our meeting and on the bus!

Aah, I just love sticking my feet out of the window taking pictures of them.

11:14 Posted in Socks | Permalink | Comments (5) | Email this

04/24/2006

Ef-Ohs!

Waah! I already got an e-mail from Alison yesterday giving me my sockpal's mailing info! She's sending out the addresses for international sock exchanges a little earlier in case they're expected to travel longer. But boy, that really put some pressure on me dealing with the Mata Haris that have been spending some down time at the bottom of my socks in progress basket. So I finally drew them out again last night to see what was the problem with the different-length feet. It really wasn't a big deal at all. I think I remember doing something different on one of the places where one of the YO, k2tog spiral lines stopped on one side of the foot and I hadn't realized that left me one 4-row repeat short. Ripped the toe, put in another repeat, that's all there was to it. *sigh of relief*! And look: matching feet!

Then I steamed the picot edge and got the Mata Haris all set to be mailed. I think I'm going to send them off on May 2nd as everybody else, though- mail to the US usually takes only 4 days. What do you other international pals think?

Today I also sent off the squares for Warming Grace and I'm so looking forward to seeing what'll become of all those squares. Cynthia got such a great response for this project and I hope she can put together lots of blankies for the children. Those blankets are going to be so cool- squares coming from all over the place from all different kinds of knitters hoping to provide some sort of consolation during trips to the hospital.

Oh, and it's gotten a tad warmer here and I finished this little hat for Johanna. Looks great with her new spring coat. I actually knit this hat this time of year in 2004 when I was pregnant. Unfortunately, the hem was waaay too tight and so the hat was just lying around until now. I fiddled around and kind of undid the cast-on, picked up the stitches, knit a few more rows of ribbing and did a loose bind-off. The hem doesn't look too great now and I think I used smaller needles when I first knit the hat, but it doesn't bother me much. The colors are just great for Johanna and the yarn has some cotton in it, so it's perfect for spring.

12:05 Posted in Baby Stuff , Knitalongs , Sockapaloooza , Socks | Permalink | Comments (11) | Email this

04/04/2006

Oh Alberta!

11:15 Posted in Socks | Permalink | Comments (12) | Email this

04/01/2006

A day in the life of a sock yarn addict

10:50 Posted in Knitalongs , Socks | Permalink | Comments (12) | Email this

03/31/2006

What happened to the FUN in Fun Nation?

Thanks for all your votes and comments concerning the cuff of the Fun Nation socks! Half of you voted for plain stockinette, which was twice as many votes as for both wavy and spirals. My wonderful sockpal 'Itsa Secret' is right, though- doing a different pattern on the top would kind of be too much.

Anyhow, I've got another yarn picked out  that I'll do a wavy adaptation with:-)

So last night I worked away on the socks, and there it was. A speck of colour in the yellow stripe. There already was one in the light turquoise, which I tried to ignore, but in the yellow stripe it really catches your eye. WTF?! Just a few rows up, there was another speck.

How can that happen- it's REGIA after all?!

I went to the store where I'd bought it and they gave me a free ball of the yarn, which was great. I'd been afraid they'd ask me to give them my unfinished sock so they could send it in, but they didn't.

Man, this is really bugging me now. These socks really belonged together and I even liked this side better because of how the striping worked out in the heel part. But the specks are bothering me too. Boo-hoo. 

 

 

13:50 Posted in Socks | Permalink | Comments (3) | Email this

03/27/2006

Sock Yarn Addicts Club

I just had to join this new KAL;-)

My current stash is worth about 35 pairs of socks. I was a little shocked when I counted the yarn... There's sock yarn stash pix coming up on April 1st!

10:45 Posted in Socks , Stash | Permalink | Comments (3) | Email this

03/26/2006

Need help deciding!

I finally picked up the Fun Nation socks again- the two circs managed to intimidate me for a while, which probably annihilated the 'in between socks' time I thought I was going to save;-). Anyhow, after I've gotten into the groove, the socks really soared on those two circs and I turned both heels. (Those colors in the pic are really off:-()

Now I'm having trouble deciding what to do with the cuff- should I

a) keep doing the stockinette because the stripes are nice all by themselves

b) do an adaptation of the wavy scarf pattern, or

c) do a k3p3 spiral ribbing

Please help me and vote!

What to do with the cuff?
	Keep it plain
	Wavy
	Spirals
Free polls from Pollhost.com

15:15 Posted in Socks | Permalink | Comments (8) | Email this

03/12/2006

Is it spring yet?

Nope- it's been snowing heavily the last couple of days, I haven't seen this much snow up here in a long time.

So I did my best to get into a spring mood:-)

I can't begin to tell you just how much I enjoy knitting with the ultra soft Trekking XXL (color 107)! The colors are perfect for spring! The pattern is as well- it's Pretty Petals by Jeanie Townsend. I definitely need some nice new shoes this spring to show off all of my new socks:-) All I got are hiking boots, sneakers, other boots... oh and the birkies... hehe. This neighborhood is so over people in Birkenstocks, though, I'd be the token hippie around here. Good thing I even baked my own almond honey cinnamon crunchy granola today, hehehe.

10:50 Posted in Socks | Permalink | Comments (8) | Email this

03/10/2006

My 100th post!

Well, HELLO! Today's a little anniversary- my 100th post:-) How much fun this is. I love how this blogging thing turned out for me. It's an amazing and uplifting community and I'm so inspired by all of you!

I spent the last days learning some new techniques, namely knitting 2 socks on 2 circs. I've put off trying it because I never have 2 balls of yarn that I knit with, but the Fun Nation comes in 50g balls. Then the 2 Addi circs I had ordered at Bastel&Hobbykiste (only 4,75 € a pair, btw) arrived, so I went ahead and prepared the second toe, which turned out really well, I think the striping is only about half a row off, so they're going to be twins:-) and put both of the toes on 2 circs. After having figured out how to knit with 2 circs, working two socks at the same time isn't very hard to do, but I'm still kind of slow at it. I'm sure I'll get used to it soon and I will hence break any singleitis spells in the future!

 Oh, and I managed to weave all the ends of the Star Sweater, which is now absolutely completed and you can see a picture of the finished piece in the gallery! WOOOO-HOOO!!

11:05 Posted in Blog , Socks | Permalink | Comments (9) | Email this

03/05/2006

New stuff on the needles

Have you noticed there's suddenly a lot of space in my 'on the needles' column? Well I have finished some items and decided to erase the fleamarket yarn vest which is now waiting to be frogged. I still love the yarn, but somehow this is not the right project for it.

A while back I also frogged the Noro ganomy hat that was way too tight and I've started to knit that one again after having acidentally on purpose lost the ugly hat I've been wearing in shame. This is actually the 3rd try I'm having at this hat, the first time I cast on for it again it turned out to be too tight again. I don't know what went wrong when I calculated the gauge...

Another exciting new project are the River Rapids Socks by sockbug in Lana Grossa Meilenweit colortweed color 1004. I'm a little skeptical if the river pattern will turn out as well in this self-striping yarn, but I thought the colours were perfect for it. We'll see.

18:30 Posted in Hats , Socks | Permalink | Comments (3) | Email this

03/04/2006

ooh, I'm feeling cheerful now

THey're done. The cheerful socks. Lana Grossa Meilenweit 6fach Fun, Color 302. Plain k3p1 ribbing, 4 mm needles, short row heel, kitchenered toes. Very practical socks. Warm.

You may be able to tell, I'm not very excited about these;-) They're alright and I'll wear them, but not worth raving about. Just a nice in-between stash-busting project.

10:35 Posted in Socks | Permalink | Comments (4) | Email this

02/13/2006

Les Jaywalkers sont finis

Another FO in the mama-of-purl house! Here's a shot of the finished pair:
the colors are somewhat okay after I've messed around with the flash pic a bit...

After looking at another tutorial on the Kitchener stitch for EVERY SINGLE STITCH at the end, I managed to get it right, hooray!

I love having new socks!!!

 

 

 

Now the specs:
pattern: Jaywalker by grumperina
yarn: Lana Grossa Meilenweit Multiringel color 5122
needles: 2.5 mm Prym DPNs
started: Jan 10th 2006
finished: Feb 12th 2006

21:55 Posted in Knitalongs , Socks | Permalink | Comments (15) | Email this

02/10/2006

Super sock progress:-)

Hello my darling fellow knitter- you're probably all excited about tonight (Europe)/this afternoon (US) already;-) Geez, it's the first time I've ever known exactly when the Olympics started! I used to figure out that they're on just when I turned on the TV to watch some show I watched regularly that's been 'eaten up' by the games.

I've started my sockapalooza socks! After much debate and a first try with a folded picot edge (I now knit it with 2.0mm needles and the rest with 2.5mms) that had to be frogged, I cast on again on Tuesday and man, do those socks knit up fast! At the end of the night (and a 6CD audiobook:-o), I was ready to turn the heel.
It's so hard to pick a pattern for someone you hardly know anything about! I'm pretty sure she'll like the colors, but I tried to be somewhat on the safe side with the pattern -it's really got a certain kick (or twist;-)) to it, but it's still classic and sophisticated...

When I recently did some online research on how to knit socks on two circulars, I watched a video at knitting help.com which included such a neat tip - knitting in the yarn end in the first few stitches of the first row of a sock. Of course! Such an easy solution, one less end to weave in:-) In the case of the picot edge,  I didn't even have to cut the remaining end of the cast-on tail, because it elegantly hid in the folded up seam. Aaaah, the pristine beauty of knitting...

Then I did some more jaywalking last night, I really want to finish this pair until the end of the KAL next Tuesday.

The little raglan sweater I'm making for Johanna is also growing, although I've mis-designed the neck/button line. I meant to make a diagonal opening which would've had to be in between the raglan increases, but I was unsure about how to get it right, so I thought I'd place it left of the increases- umm, of course it's a vertical line now. Duh. Oh well, it'll just be 'different'. An off-center button line...

Oh, and my friend Jytte came over yesterday to pick up her hat- it fit! The merino and the cable made it quite stretchy. She really liked the colors& the pattern and spent the rest of the afternoon sneaking off every now and then to admire her new hat in the mirror:-)

10:20 Posted in Baby Stuff , Hats , Sockapaloooza , Socks | Permalink | Comments (10) | Email this

01/27/2006

What a great day this was!

Aaah, what a beautiful sunny and chilly day we had today! I spent most of the morning outside, meeting an old friend, drinking coffee outside and enjoying the sunshine. I just had to take the day off:-)

Heading back home, I found this in the mail:
The Paton's pattern for the Savary Shores Sweater Ande knit. I'd seen it months ago and fell in love with it!! She also wore it a lot on the pictures she posted, so my mouth just kept watering:-) I actually picked up yarn back in November with this sweater in mind! So I couldn't help but asking her if she could somehow make the pattern available to me as I couldn't find an online store that'd ship it to Germany. She kindly agreed to send me the Paton's book:-) There's even another sweater in there that looks awesome! Uh, and I found out 'Savary Shores' is not the sweater's real name, it's only called 'Peruvian Yoke Pullover'... Ande's name for it is so much cooler:-)

Anyway, I was so excited about getting the pattern, I'd barely taken off my coat when I busted out the needles to knit a swatch!! My gauge is a little off, but I may simply knit the sweater in a size smaller (does that sound familiar, Ande?;-))

Well, this week I've been distracted from my projects by two little bunnies- the Professor's student I met on Monday asked me if I could help him modify some stuffed pets who will be starring in a movie they are going to make at his school. I added some lead weights to one bunny's paws and behind so Bertrand (the student) could make a string puppet out of if, and turned the other one into a hand puppet (I know, that is one KINKY weird picture!). Wasn't as big a deal as I thought, and he's paying $$ as well! That Monday was so fortunate, I should try to find out what my horoscope said that day;-)

I also finished one of the Jaywalker socks Monday night and did the cuff of Mr. Leftie. Grafting with the Kitchener Stitch is such a pain in the butt, ahhggrrrr! Didn't turn out that well... the sock fits perfectly, tho. 

19:25 Posted in Blog , Knitting (general) , Socks , Sweaters | Permalink | Comments (6) | Email this

01/23/2006

Public Jaywalking and Pony Bar Hat

THE EXCITEMENT! I've been knitting in public again;-)

Took a trip to the library to drop off some books that were only 2 business days late and got charged an arm and a leg for it... scew them...

anyhow, I took my Jaywalker sock along to knit on the bus and when I went to this café/bar later on, I really felt like knitting despite the student/urban hipster crowd... So I got out the sock and having tried it on now, the needles were FLYING! I'm ready to start the tip! Well this professor (?) with a VERY colorful crocheted scarf and a student were discussing at the next table and I had to force myself to stop eavesdropping at times, as they were talking about students having to be extreme go-getters during the course of their studies in order to make it on the job market later on. My favorite topic! AHEM! THat always gets me into such a crappy mood.

Sure enough, the professor started asking me about my knitting at some point- if I was knitting a hat. It'd be a little too tight for a hat, I replied, but we had a conversation going. He was really interested, admired the jaywalker and also complained about his hat being too boring. He ended up ordering a striped hat for himself! I took his head measurements with yarn from the other end of the ball and gave him my e-mail address:-)

I hope he's going to contact me now, cause I've already got a design for the hat and knit a swatch:

also Christoph, wenn Du das liest, welche Farben möchtest Du- das grün mit blau, oder mit beige? (Bild zum Vergrößern anklicken) Ich würde die Streifenübergänge etwas auflockern mit den abgehobenen Maschen- gefällt Dir das? Klick auf das Bild, dann gibt's ne größere Ansicht. Ich meine die Maschen, die bei den Übergängen in die nächste Farbe übergehen.

Apart from today's progress on Jaywalker, I didn't get to do any knitting at all the past few days, as I was hit by a weird virus that gave me monsterous head-aches, joint pains and an upset stomach. It was awful! Luckily, my DD was kind enough to be very low-maintenance on Saturday, happily bringing me picture books to look at with her and entertaining herself quite a bit, which is so not like her most of the time;-)

19:25 Posted in Knitting (general) , Socks | Permalink | Comments (7) | Email this

01/19/2006

yeee-heee...

...I finally got me a flatrate! How relaxing it is not having to worry about the bill when I'm reading all those blogs:-) or writing blog entries, for that matter!

So, here's an update...

my sister left for Argentina with 1 1/2 socks mit Missoni-Zacken, I was hoping to get past the heel, but I only managed to do the shaft right up to where the heel starts. She was happy anyway, because she really wanted to knit the same socks for herself and had mentioned that, once she'd left my mom's house and was back on the road, she didn't knit as much anymore. THis way, I'm sure she's going to finish the socks in no time because she won't lose interest as easily as she might have if she had to knit this (quite strenuous) pattern for an entire 2 socks. Sorry, no picture of the 75% finished pair.

Another little knit item I forgot to take a piture of is 'odd fellow' from Jess Hutch's booklet. Very cute and quick to knit! I made it for a friend of Johanna's who started daycare this Monday. His mother sounded a bit too 'polite' when I gave it to them. Sigh.

Oooh, great news this week: I FINALLY received a copy of Charlene Schurch's (LOVE HER!) Knitting Marvelous Mittens after having ordered it for the first time back on October 20th!!! of 2005!!! The first company lost it, then I re-ordered via amazon.de, who also had some delivery problems. A THREE MONTHS' wait for that book!

The good part: it was worth waiting for! What a beautifully made book with absolutely stunning patterns, great pictures of well-composed colored mittens, plus some sock and hat patterns. All of which I'd love to cast on for right away, but I'm trying to compose myself;-)

I finished the first of the chunky black-and-rainbow k3p1 rib socks and tried finishing the toe with the Kitchener Stitch. Ahem, that did NOT turn out good. I need to re-do that and look at a good description in the process. I've done it before and thought I had it down...um, yeah...

My sweater cuff has also been re-done, and I think it looks just fine now:

And, of course, the inevitable Jaywalker is also growing:

The heel Grumperina has in her pattern is much like the regular ones I've knit before, only that it is much longer. I'm very pleased with the slip1, knit1 on the heel as well, it makes so much sense as it adds extra padding. i'll definitely use that technique on socks in the future!

Are you all looking forward to Sockapaloooza starting next week? I'm going to be in!! YAAY!

12:25 Posted in Socks , Sweaters | Permalink | Comments (3) | Email this

01/12/2006

Sock bug

...it bit me!

Here are the THREE pairs of socks I have on the needles right now:

the Socken mit Missoni-Zacken, which have to grow immensely until tomorrow night when my sister is coming over before she takes off for her trip to South America. I'm sure I'm not going to be able to finish the 2nd sock, but I'll give them to her anyway...she was going to knit them as well, so it'll just be a joint project.

They could have grown a lot more, but I got a bit annoyed with the k2, m1, k1, m1, k2, dd pattern, I had to do something plain and quick. I still had this 6-ply sockyarn in my stash and while I don't particularly care for the black and rainbow colors, it was relaxing to knit and I really want new handknit socks BADLY.

As I've mentioned in the previous post, I cast on for Jaywalker the night after the peak of my yarn binge. It totally is the same pattern as the Missoni-Zacken one, but the colorway kept me going. THis is also the first time I'm knitting a sock on 2,5mm 15cm long needles and absolutely enjoying it. No idea why I've always been knitting with 3mm needles, the pattern comes out much nicer and the stitches look so much neater!

21:05 Posted in Socks | Permalink | Comments (5) | Email this

01/11/2006

Sock yarn binge

Oh-oh... I felt it coming... I caught a little sock bug...

First I had my sister bring me some yarn from the store, then I went to another and bought 2 more balls, and today I had my delivery from Wollsucht.de in the mail.

*sigh with pleasure* I love the blues and greens and turquoises and aquas and haaaaaahhh...aren't they pretty?

(click to enlarge)

At the bottom you see the first centimeter of the inevitable Jaywalker (I'm such a lemming, but how long have I resisted!) for which I had to cast on at friggin 11:30pm last night. I'd better get some sleep!!  

13:54 Posted in Socks | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this

Über-Jaywalker

 The yarn I use for the socks is in fact a self-striping yarn:-) Here's the sole where you can get a non-zig-zagged view of the colorway:

 The pattern itself is really a lot like Jaywalker, there are only a lot more increase/decrease sections in this one... Über-Jaywalker, if you wish;-)

11:10 Posted in Socks | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this

01/10/2006

One and 1/4 down

Unfortunately, I had to resist working on the star sweater the last couple of days, because I decided to give the Socken mit Missoni-Zacken to my sister as a farewell present. She's leaving for South America on saturday, where she will tour around with 10 other friends for 6 months or so. Sigh...

So I got crankin' with the socks, here are some progress shots, but I gotta warn you, my feet ain't the pertiest;-) 

11:34 Posted in Socks | Permalink | Comments (3) | Email this