White Christmas - The last projects of this year

Finally the christmas planning and arranging is done. This year we stayed home and we even forgot to watch the traditional "Kalle Ankas Jul"(Donald Ducks Christmas). We decided to stay home this year to avoid the long trip to Gothenburg. And we were blessed with snow, actually it is still falling outside.

Well so what has happened here since my last post you might have asked yourself. I have got some worried mails but all has been fine. There has just been so much to do and the winter tiredness has not allowed me to sit up so many nights.

Have I done any knitting? Oh, yes of course, alot! A pair of gloves to the little one:

Two pair of socks in Opal:
The first sock is a variation of the feather and fan sock from Socks, socks, socks. I have used Opal Creme with 2mm needles.
The second pair is knitted in Opal Musica with 2,5mm needles from the toe up. Pattern from my own head.
2,5mm needles seems to be the perfect needles for me to use when knitting socks in Opal 4-ply.

A neckwarmer in some yarn that has been a stockwarmer since the 80's( I left with 30cm after this project):
--- Picture coming ---

I have also one lonely sock made in Opal that awaits his mate: The pattern is again one from Socks, socks, socks. This time the ripple socks I have though made the leg shorter that in the original bacause this suits my legs better. The yarn is once again Opal. Uni and Mosaic and knitted on 2mm needles. I like the pattern but not the color mix so these will be a gift to my mother in law when finnished.


And then: I have bougth a knitting mashine! I send out an add on the swedish speaking radio here and I got a lot of answers. The mashine I bought was a Brother KX-395 and I love it! It is a simple mashine, not hard to learn, and you can knit with both thin, I have knitted with Opal, and bulky, I have tried some swathes with a yarn called Budget that are no more to be bought, 100m/100g.

To learn the mashine and fing the correct settings for different yarns there has been a lot of testing but there has been one cardigan and one sweater done. Both for the little one.

The sweater is knitted in Novita's the 7-brother's yarn after my own head. The gauge became to loose but the little one is using it and it is warm. I had some problem with the neck cause the beatifull neck I first made would not go over the head of the little one so I made another one and it is floppy but easy to get over the head...


The Cardigan is knitted in Opal Uni and Opal Brasil after pattern in knitty: http://knitty.com/ISSUEspring04/PATTdevan.html . All that know me would also understand that I have not followed the pattern, ;) , I have knitted the sweater from up to down, that meant some recalculattion but I think it was worth it. The front and neck edge was knitted by hand since there are not enough needles on the mashine.
The little refused to put it on for a long time but finally I convinced hit yesterday.

I used One ball of Opal Brazil and almost one ball of Opal Uni. If you watch carefully you can see that the stripes are not the same on the belly. There was something wrong in the color report so I was not able to fix the differences because I just had yar enough as it was, actually I had a little less as you can see I used more yellow at the bottom edge of the sleeves.

And soon there will be some sweaters for me made on the mashine too. I am making patterns in excel all the time. Since I am adding shortrows for the bust and shoulder and try to make a sweater follow my full figure in a flatering way it takes a lot of planning.

Two pair of Feather & Fan Socks

I finnished my second and third pair of "Feather & Fan Socks" from "Socks, socks, socks". My first Pair can be seen here: Feather & Fan Socks done

Pair no.2: Opal Indigo 226 socks - I Love the way these turned up, like waves on the water a sunny day.	Pair no.3: Fortissima Mexico and Opal Mosaic in purple/white

And then as you saw in my latest posting, knitted in Garter stich and while picking Lingon berries, a pair of Wristwarmers/half-mittens in Opal Indigo 226.
Wristwarmers

I have also started another pair of socks from "Socks, socks, socks" but they are not as fast knitted as the "Feater & Fan Socks" so you will have to wait for them.

I'm tired today so enjoy the pictures untill next posting.

Package from in Germany!

More yarn! It was three weeks ago I ordered and finally on thursday the yarn had reached my postoffice!
And...

I love it! It is more Opal 10 balls of Indigo 220, 10 balls of Indigo 226 and 8 balls of lollipop 1015.
This package came from Anja Bünger-Der Faden and She had some very good prices on the Indigo yarn, I almost bought all she had.
These Indigo is such a perfect colorway for me. Blue with a some hints of turkuise and purple.
As you can see one ball is missing already. This is where it is:

You have to have your hands occupied not to get sinfull thoughts they said in parts of scandinavia in the past. We are on our way to pick lingonberries. The little one walked all the way by himself without any complains! He is such a sweet one.
And here is a closeup at the result. I do love the short colorchanges in this yarn.

Wristwarmer to be

I think Indigo would make a perfect pair of Feather and fan socks. It would be like Waves on the sea.

Tedious Spiral rib socks

It took me almost a week to complete these socks for my son. there is only 48stiches and no heels! I thought this was going to be a pair of fast knitted socks and a suitable model for growing feet. But the rib that moves 1 stich every 4th row took a lot of time! Unbeliveble! The feater and fan sock that looks so much more complicated is much faster to knit! Well I'll never knit a spiral rib for me, booring! my son might get a few during the next 15 years(while his feet still are growing), I do not like to knit things that get too small in 6 months and this type of sock knitted long could last much longer since there is no foot.
Spiral rib sock from: "Socks, socks, socks" knitted in Fortissimas Mexico sock yarn

They actually hugs hit small feet nicely.

It took me a week!

Can you guess what?

Late presentation of Clapotis2!

She has been ready and in use for soon two weeks but no presentation has been done. Well here she is Claptis2.
The yarn was just enough, it was just 8,5m left, not even enough to make a decent tassel. I could have made it longer if I had had one ball more but it became pretty well. Very soft, warm and drapes realy well, I'm satisfied with her.

Clapotis2 on show

Clapotis2 by the sea.

I don't know if and when I'll knit another Clapotis. There just seems to be so much to knit out there.

Feather and Fan sock done

My sock is ready, and it went so quick! I sew the toe together before going to work this morning, took a few shots and had them on all day. This is the fastest knitted socks I have ever done. The feater and fan pattern makes the leg stretch nicely and is faster to knitt than ordinary ribbing. It's only one of four rows that has pattern the other three rows are just plain knitted stitches.
The yarn I have used is Nalle from the manufacturer Novita. It is not as thin as ordinary sock yarn.
The colorways were realy interesting but I'm afraid the knitted pattern is kind of camoflaged.

Feather and fan sock

closeup of feather and fan sock.

I'll most likely knit more feather and fan socks but then with solid color or whith striped yarn.

Litterature recomendations and pretty Pi.

Long gone AGAIN, I know I'm a bad blogger. But I'm working on some new things to show you so be patient. There is more than one project on in my knitting baskets.

During the last week there has been a lot of discussions about the roundknitted shawl/sweater on the cover of latest vogue magasine and I think this pattern is much prettier:

Sleeved pi front

Sleeved pi back

It is not my creation. It is a scanned picture on a Sleeved Pi shawl from "Ponchos & wraps - a Knitters dozen" published by xrx books. I'm thinking of knitting this pretty thing but I do not have the yarn so maybee I'll just have to recalculate the pattern to a thinner yarn that I have and I think would be lovely in this model. I was not even aware I had ordered this book but it turned out to be worth the money anyway.

On the knits now is Mystery shawl who just needs to be cast off and blocked, a domino knitted sweater to my lovely little boy

My design scetch for my little ones sweater.

Furthermore there is a new KAL. This KAL is a realy nice one, just a pair of socks now and then. All the socks are knitted from patterns in "Socks, socks, socks" published by xrx books. The book is a real treasure for sock knitters whith 70 different patterns inside! Not all in my taste but maybe 50% of them and there are some realy odd techniques to learn here too. The first sock in the KAL is a feather and fan sock who is wery fast knitted, I just finnished the first one, and the second is on the needles and will be ready tomorrow I think. This KAL stared on the 1st of September. If any one has the book or you would like to buy it and would like to join the KAL you can find the group here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/socks3kal/ . There is just one sock on the kal jet and not many has started so join in all interested.

Amazing Jacket in Opal Petticoat.

This amazing jacket is designed and knitted by an skillfull danish knitter, Inger Nelleman. I just had to show all of you this master piece. Inger told me that the jacket is knitted on 3mm needles with 500g of Opal Petticoat and a small amount of offwhite.

Petticoat jacket front.

Petticoat jacket back.

I hope I one day will knit something similar. After seing this jacket I purchased two books: "Dazzling knitz" by Patricia Werner and "Module magic" by Ginger Luters. Both books contain patterns of similar jackets but with much coarser yarn. So when I feel ready you know I can start, I do have the yarn to accomplish this.

Flashing my sockyarns

All of this I have bought the last 4 months! It is incredible! I have maybe used 50g of it all and I want to buy some more, not good, not good.

Sockyarn 5,6kg!

As you see I can not blogg anymore today. I better get these needles dancing.

By the way: Did I tell you I am a slow knitter?

Mystery shawl clue 3a completed.

Ah, finally! done the clue 3a. I'm in such a hurry to complete the clues as soon as possible. It's not that I need to be ready before anyone else, it's because I realy need to knit my Clapotis ready because winter is coming - SOON! I can feel it in my bones! I do not like the short summers up here, well I do like the summers, it's the shortness I have problem with. So, autumn means chilly weather and a rush to knit warm things. And the Mystery shawl, that I do like, keeps me away from these other HOT projects on my must list. Well The Clapotis is 60% done, that is 3 of the 5 balls are knitted in to fabric. Next thing I should do is long wristwarmers whith pearls. I do need a pair chilly mornings when we bike to daycare and work.

So even thou we went sailing yesterday I managed to knit some on my mystery.

Mystery 3a by the sea.
Of course I found a serious patternmisstake in the car on the way home but all is fixed now and the mystery is packed away in a box and put high up where small hands can't find her.

Packed away waiting for clue 4a.


Now Clapotis can have me until friday.

So whats up?

Well it has been awfully quiet here for some time. Sorry about that, but I do have a good excuse; I have been knitting. I started a sweater to my son in domino knitting during the holiday trip to sweden. In Sweden I visited Östergötlands ullspinneri and bought some yarn and a pattern to a scarf. On our way back home we visited my dearest friend who realy liked my Clapotis and since she is so lovely I gave it to her. Doesn't she look nice in it?
Clapotis new owner.

Well since I desperately need something warm over my shoulders I started on a new Clapotis with some yarn I bought in Tartu, Estonia. It seems like I bought to small amount, :( . Only 250gr(5 balls) I would have liked to make this new Clapotis longer but I will do as much as I can, I intend to only have scratches left when I'm done.
I also joined Mystery shawl along using some of the yarn from my stash and it looks lovely. A good thing I have about 20kg of this yarn!
Time to fix dinner CY.

Nordic Knitting Symposium - Estonia

I have been home for more than one week now trying to figure out what I possible could write about this symosium.

We all met up in Tallin where knitting were present everywhere.
Knitting market close to Viruporti. Amazing amounts of knitwear close to Viro Porti, Tallin.

Knitting market close to Viruporti.

On the flight down to estonia I knitted on my clapotis and finally, on our trip to the schoolmuseum in Heimtali, I did it. I finnished the Clapotis.


The second day we went to Tartu, the second biggest city in Estonia. Here we enjoyed a tour of the musem and big amounts of knitted stuff.



Gloves in Rosing technique.

I tried to take a photo of the complete glove but had to be satified with this. The knitter has realy gone wild in colour, I like it.

Knitted lace at the National Museum in Tartu.

We also swarmed the city of Tartu looking for yarnshops and bookstores. Some where very lucky to find cheap yarn. I found myself in the position as translator with my very bad finnish knolledge(finnish and estonian are similar languages) and we actually found some nice yarns, cheap too.

The next two days we spent with workshops, trying to learn some Estonian techniques.



You have to consentrate.

It is a bit complicated.

Waiting for the ferry to Kihnu.


Boarding the Kihnu Taxi.


Turbulent ride to the Comunity house.


Me on the Kihnu taxi.


The Kihnu outdoor restaurant served good and filling countryfood.


Knitting in sunshine while waiting for the guiding of the church.

The rain poured down on our sighseeing of the iland.



Arriving to Pärnu.
My maingoal whith my partisipation was to meet other yarnoholics, knitting freeks and make new friends. This was a big success in theese parts. I have never ever met so many nice people and made so many friends during one week as I did during my week in Estonia. I estimate that I have got about 30 good new friends. There has just not been time enough to make more friends. I could have made even more friends with more time I'm sure about that but you need time to talk and find eachothers spirit. So those of you whom I never got close to you I would like to say, I just had not time and energy to make more friends this time but I'm looking forward to learn to know you better next time.
I have also seen a lot of marvelous knitted objects and woven too. Estonia is rich in it's knitting traditions and are still having a living knitting tradition with long history. There are so many techniques and patterns in the knitted tradition and they are still visible today.
My main fear before going to Estonia was that the country was unstable and insecure but these fears were soon forgotten. I felt just as secure and safe as in my hometown.

On the ferry to P?rnu.
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Waiting for the ferry early sunday morning.
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Traditional shoe, shoestring and sock.
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Border on a Kihnu glove.
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Testing Nalle and Opal together.

I am still working on the A-shaped sweater. I like these colors better. Espesially the tourquise Opal mixed with the multicoloured Nalle. I only have 200gram of tourquise. I'll use the blue and lilac at the end. I am also thinking about doing this sweater in a feather and fan pattern. That way the sweater will look as waves, I think.

One thread each of Nalle and Opal on needles 5.5mm, 17x24stiches.

To much to say and too little time!

I have a draft about the knitting symposium in Estonia active but there is so much to say...

I just wanted all of you to know: summer issue of Knitty is finally here, :) , go there and enjoy!

Decreasing the stash.

I do try to decrease the amount of yarn I have but not very successfully. There always seems to be more in than out no matter how much I try to knit.
This sample is thought to become my holiday sweater knitted from up and down in A-shape. I think all the time spent in the car to my parents and all other relatives could make this sweater ready already this summer. If only I am able to figure out how to knit.
testing color blends and knits in double nalle yarn from novita.