mama-of-purl

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:-) 

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 

...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:-) 

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...

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!!

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:-) 

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.

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.

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 

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!