Dublin Bay Socks

Yesterday I finally finished the Dublin Bay socks! Let me just say the week ended late! LOL Here they are :



They look quite nice, and I'm not so dissapointed with the 2mm needles as I thought I would be. I will use them again.

I have a big bunch of yarn over (it's handspun handdyed merino from Hello Yarn). I'm going to use it with some kind of slipped stitch pattern, I already bought the black yarn to combin it with! Just need to figure out how to wind it in 2 identical balls so I know I'll be using the same amount for each sock!

Yesterday I started some regular basic socks with the yarn I died myself and the stripes are looking really need! As I know I won't have enough for regular socks (I only died 50grams) I'm using purple yarn for the heels and toes.

I also printed a bunch of free patterns from the Internet, all sock patterns. I can't wait to get started on them! I also can't wait to start dying yarn again, I got about 10 skeins of white sock yarn at the store on Saturday. But my next project will be the cascading leaves I think.

I hope to get my books in the mail someday, I really do. I want to order more books with sock patterns, but I'll do it over here as I will at least get them then.

I'm off to bed now to hopefully get some knitting done. I had to sew a bunch of stuff for work today, have to work extra hours tomorrow and on Wednesday, but I'll probably get off early on Friday. Want to knit!

SP5 Questionaire

I got my secret pal assigned today and I'm so excited! So here is the questionaire for whomever my secret pal is!



1. Are you a yarn snob (do you prefer higher quality and/or natural fibers)? Do you avoid Red Heart and Lion Brand? Or is it all the same to you?
Actually, I do prefer natural fibers. Till a few months ago I didn’t really know the difference between yarn and acrylic but in this short time I’ve learned to appreciate wool so much and by now I already hate the feeling of acrylic. Blends with a high amount of natural fiber are welcome, but there are plenty of acrylics available over here while natural fibers are not so easy to get by.

2. Do you spin? Crochet?
Yep, both, learned to spin 2 months ago and I am addicted. I haven’t crocheted in a while but I know I can still do it! :D

3. Do you have any allergies? (smoke, pets, fibers, perfume, etc.)
Nope, non at all though I have the smell of smoke.4. How long have you been knitting?
I learned at the age of 5 when seeing my mom knit. I knit through all of elementary school and a bit in high school. Started again at the end of 2004 and now I’m totally addicted!

5. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
Not yet, I’m going to set up an Amazon one and will post on my blog when I do!

6. What's your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products etc.)
Mostly Vanilla, Lavender, natural smells that aren’t to sweet or to much like flowers. But Vanilla is my all time fave.

7. Do you have a sweet tooth?
Not at all. I hate chocolate and I don’t like most sweets, though I like things that are more sour. But you can’t really do me a favour with sweets. Only food colouring like Kool-Aid are really nice as I like them to dye yarn! LOL

8. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do?
Want the long list or the short one? The most important ones are paper crafts, MailArt, Painting and drawing. I can sew and have a sewing machine, though I don’t do it often. I like creating things with my hands and have tried almost everything possible around here! The only thing I haven’t learned yet is hand-felting.

9. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)
I have an iPod mini and my computer can play MP3s. I like mostly soft rock music, some popular music, R&B and hiphop. I don’t like hard rock, too classic and country. I’m mostly into female voices but will listen to almost everything. A few of my faves are Tori Amos, Heather Nova, The Corrs, Anouk, Laïs, Alanis Morissette, …

10. What's your favorite color? Or--do you have a color family/season/palette you prefer? Any colors you just can't stand?
Oh, I’m in love with purple! All shades, love eggplant! I’m also into blues and pinks. I like the darker reds, more like “bordeaux” (like really dark red whine). As for green, more the olive shades. I also like earth thones. I’m not so fond of any fluoriscent colours and I’m not into yellow and orange. Oh, and black, I love black!

11. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
Living with a human male, 3 cats, a dog, a horse, a pony and some smaller animals (well, yeah, probably mice, but also some chickens and fish).

12. What are your life dreams? (really stretching it here, I know)
Hmm, I want to be happy I guess, do something with my creativity, find a job that suits me better, see part of the world, give a child a better chance by adopting, giving shelter to an abondoned or mistreated animal, see part of the world (hopefully I’ll be able to do some volunteer work outsite my own country one day), find a job I like. I’m still young and have many dreams I guess, but for now I would like to see my mom and sisters happy, and feel at peace myself (the last 3 years have been really rouch).

13. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with?
Hmm, hard one, I’m still trying things and as I said there isn’t that much natural stuff available. I like Merino and regular wool, cashmere is nice, and silk of course. But I’m open to all natural yarns. Oh, and sock yarns of course! I can't have enough! I would love to try handpainted/handspun (already have some but I like those), and Koigu (hard to get over here), any other nice sock yarn really! And I prefer fingering weight for socks.

14. What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
Well, acrylic. And so far I haven’t been to pleased with the cotton I knitted with, I’m going to try some cotton blends soon but I’m not sure if I’m a cotton person, right now I’m more a wool-kind of person.

15. What is/are your current knitting obsession/s?
Socks!!!! I can’t stop knitting them, I have a ton of patterns I want to try, a ton of yarn I want to use! Oh, and I like scarfs and shawls.

16. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
Socks! :D And scrafs.

17. What are you knitting right now?
Clapotis, socks, a top for my mom.

18. What do you think about ponchos?
Not my thing, they look fun for kids but as I don’t have kids yet I don’t need patterns and I surely won’t ever wear one myself.

19. Do you prefer straight or circular needles?
Both I think though circulars are really handy. Yeah, I prefer circulars! :D

20. Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
Haven’t tried Bamboo just yet, don’t like plastic (sorry, a young dog and plastic don’t go together, I don’t think my needles would last long), so I prefer aluminium right now.

21. Are you a sock knitter?
I’m more like a sock-addict! LOL!

22. How did you learn to knit?
My mom teached me at five (I’m repeating here, does it show that I’m a very talkative person?) because I wanted to learn everything she was doing (and back then she still knitted). I also learned how to crochet, cross stitch/hand sew and machine sew at the same age. Then at elementary school I learned a bit more knitting, but I’m only now learning a bunch of new techniques.

23. How old is your oldest UFO?
2 months? The top for my mom isn’t advancing at all. Oh, it’s only like 6 weeks I think.

24. What is your favorite animated character or a favorite animal/bird?
Winnie the Pooh? Yeah, him I’m afraid. Not so much into animated stuff anymore. Favourite animal? Horse, cat, monkey. But don’t send me things like statues or so, things don’t live long over here (again, young dog, 3 very active cats, it just doesn’t fit together!)

25. What is your favorite holiday?
Hmm, no idea, I’m not so big on holidays. I like Winter.

26. Is there anything that you collect?
Except for yarn/needles and craft supplies I don’t have any “active” collections, though I like vintage (nude) postcards.

27. What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?
I don’t have one, we don’t have any knitting magazines over here and I haven’t had a chance to find one abroad. It should have plenty of sock patterns!

28. Any books out there you are dying to get your hands on?
Well, books with sock patterns, bags (for felting or not), scarfs and shawls I think. But mostly socks! (I’ll make sure my Amazon list is up by the end of the week!).



That's it! Can't wait to get started! I love getting mail and I really look forward to pampering my secret pal!

A hot, not so productive day

Ok, here I go. Beneath is the handspun alpaca I tried. :D It was really hard as I mentionned before but once I found the right tension it was really so lovely to spin this up! Looksie ....



Now my following dilemma. This is 100grams spun. Now I'm thinking of spinning 100 grams of the grey alpaca and plying the white one with the grey one, and then colour the whole thing. I have a love for colouring mixed fleeces/yarn as it gives a nice shading of the yarn, but of course this isn't really mixed and I'm not sure how it'll turn out. I would love to card the grey one with the white alpace before spinning, but I don't have a carder and the only one available in Belgium is handcards. Or maybe I can find another one, but I'm not sure I can afford it right now. :( I just don't know. Any opinions?

As for the second Dublin Bay sock, it's coming along nicely and I can't wait to finish it up! Due to the hot weather over here (over 35°C) I decided to skip horse riding tonight (It would be to hot for both the horse and me, and the horse is having a fun time at the maedow, and he's going into a 2 months training session next week so he can have some time off) and I thought about knitting, but I was to tired from the heat. Yes, I do get tired from the heat, especially from sitting in an extremely hot train without airco (for the rest of the day I had been wearing a tin sweater and I felt ok but in the train it was just to hot). Not sure yet what to do.

I want to design the "little-things-holder" as well, which will be holding my tapestry needles and crochet hooks etc. to put in the bag with my socks. To weave in ends and such. But I'm not sure I'll manage it this weekend.

Tomorrow I'm getting up extremely early to go horse riding (I'm thinking 7 which is extremely early for me during a weekend) while it's still nice and cold. Then after that I'm going to the store to get some yarn. Mostly white sock yarn to colour. I want to try the dyes I bought over here. Plus I hope I can find black sock yarn. With the left-overs of the handdyed yarn I'm using now for the Dublin Bay socks I want to do some kind of slipped stitch sock thing. I'm not sure yet about the pattern. It'll either be slipped stitch or intarsia, but I have to try the last (and probably the first) with some of the acrylic I have laying around. And I don't look forward to knitting with acrylic now in this hot weather, somehow wool feels better then acrylic. I should really be knitting with cotton but I don't like that.

Speaking about cotton, I found a knitting mag at the store today, which is exceptional as there aren't much knitting magazines around here. Now I do like some of the patterns in it but all of them are in cotton and somehow I don't like knitting with cotton. But I don't know how to substitute yarns properly. Maybe I'll ask the lady at the LYS I like going at. Or I'll try cotton again. Not sure yet. There are 2 patterns I really, really like. Hmm, really difficult!

Yesterday I got the addi needles that didn't make it with the last order I did. They weren't in stock. It's the 2.5mm DPNs with needle huggers (so cute!). I'm really into my circulars now but I still use the DPNs for the heel turns plus for baby/children socks.

More dissapointing is the order that still didn't make it. It's the Jacquard Acid dyes and some knitting books. I really, really want the knitting books but I have no clue if the package will ever make it. :( Very depressing.

I'm already planning the next sock but I've seen so many great free patterns (and I've seen great socks in not so free patterns, I whish I knew where to get the patterns but most are from old mags or so - and with old I mean like from 2004 - and as I can't get the magazines here in the first place I really don't feel like spending a ton on ordering them just for the socks). Well, first up are the socks in the sock yarn I deyed myself. I want to see how the stripes come out. Then there's the self striping sock yarn I want to try with 2.5mm (I'm trying it now for boyfriend with 3mm and I don't really like it but will finish the socks no matter). And then there are the cable socks I want to try. So not sure yet what will be cast on after the Dublin Bay socks.

Oh, there are a few more sock books I want to order but I'm thinking about trying to get them at a local store which orders US books straight in the US and so I can get them at a decent price. They've done this before for me and it's more reliyalbe (sp? I really can't figure out how the spell this though I know this is wrong) then ordering online. The post system is just so fucked up! Today they published in the newspapers that the complaints about the Belgian postal system for 2004 are 1/2 higher then the ones for 2003! Shows how fucked up the system is!

Oh, and I ordered some more handspun from PippiKneeSocks , to think I wanted to order some rovings! But the money is spent, not turning back! :D

Oh, I just got an email that one of the books I ordered was in backorder and is shipped now. The email sais "I should recieve the book in a couple of days" while I haven't even recieved the first package!!! Makes me really depressed as the package might be totally lost. :(

Ok, I'm off now, to watch some tele, do some knitting, open up some windows (it's getting dark so it should be cooling down now ...).







Ps.: How come this hot weather always makes me feel even more lazy? Luckily the temperatures are going to drop again big time after the weekend. Crazy? Yeah, I am, though I can stand this weather quite ok I don't really like it. Most people will kill me, but hey, I'm strange and I'm not going to change!

Spinning Alpaca

I've been trying a couple of times to spin up the Alpaca roving I'm having, but I never got it going. Now today I started messing a little with the tension of my weel and quite soon I got it right. You need to spin at a really low tension or you just pull the yarn apart. I was so excited, I spun a whole batch (well, 100gr) and wanted to do more but I had other things to do. So to bad. :( And tomorrow will be very busy as well. I will go to the store to get myself some white sock yarn to dye with the dyes I bought at a store here, so see how it turns out. I don't feel like trying it on the alpaca, that would be way to expensive. And even if the sock yarn looks weird I'll still be able to use it as I don't mind weird socks! :D

There isn't much more to tell, one of these days I'll do a decent update. (Oh, and pictures of the alpaca some day this week ...)

Some WIPs and FOs! :D

I spent most of the evening cleaning and doing laundry but I found the chance to take some pictures as well!

First one is the Dublin Bay sock, first one got finished yesterday, second one started. Hope to finish them by the end of the week, lots of socks to knit! :D

Second one is my first Lace project, a very simple one. A hat knitted in Cotton. It's going to my sister who likes hats. I think it needs blocking first, plus the ends need to be sewn in. It's always something I don't do (did it with my sock right away which was a good thing, have a design in mind for a little something which will hold some basic things you need when knitting in other places, like a crochet hook to pic up dropped stitches, tapestry needles, stitch markers, stitch holders etc.).

Third pic is the Clapotis I started on! It's not much and I don't think I'll take much more pics till it's finished. So many people doing it already, but I don't care as nobody over here will have it! Plus I spent a fortune on the yarn so I want to enjoy it to the fullest!

And last one : my kitties who wanted to be in the picture! Well, actually they wanted inside the bedroom, which they couldn't as I refuse to make them used to coming inside through the window. My moms cats have that habit and always woke me and my sister up in the middle of the night to get in. They didn't come in when we called them in because they knew that if they came to the window they could sleep in the bedrooms. Oh well, kitties are all in now and I'm off to do a tiny bit of knitting before going to bed early! So much more to write but no time right now, or energy.

Kitties wanting in the picture! :D 

Clapotis started 

Lacy cap in cotton (for my sister, my first real lace project, and I still don't like cotton!) 

First Dublin bay sock finished, second one started! 

Frustrated!

I'm waiting for a package to arrive and I have the feeling it should have made it already. It's so annoying. Mostly because I pay way to much money to get this stuff shipped. I'm waiting for the dye and the books. Mostly for the books, can't wait to see the spinning book and the 2 socks books. And there's a book about dying as well. I have some other dyes to try during this weekend if I find the time, so it's mostly the books I'm looking forward to.

I'm also considering ordering some more Addi Turbo circular needles. I'm loving my 2mm ones but they are really not so convenient for the sock yarn I'm having right now, I think 2.5mm ones would be better. Well, I bought some sock yarn to dye and that's really lacey so I'll be using my 2mm for that yarn. Either for socks or for some lace.

Hmm, off to bed now (sorry, no knitting progress ...)

A quicky

I went to the yarnstore again today and realized the roving I have is not cashmere but pure alpaca, first class super fine and super soft! :D I don't know where I got the cashmere idea from, maybe because I got a few cashmere blends from the store.

I went back to get a bunch more of roving as I knew she would be out soon and this is a one time opportunity. She did tell me she can get me Merino roving if I want. Yay! :D

I also got a big cone of wool for socks (it's tin, so it'll be knitted with 2mm needles!). Some reïnforcement yarn for heels and toes, some mohair (black, to ply with), and some glittery thread to ply with. I wanted a bunch more stuff but will wait. She will have much more when Winter comes along plus she's going to look for sock yarn on cones for me! Yippie!

I got to anther store to buy some dye for the wool to try out. I'm still waiting for the Jaquard Acid Dye to arrive. Lets hope it gets here soon! Can't wait for the books either!

I'm off now, I'm way to tired ...

Oh, one more thing, I showed the lady at the yarn store the sock I was knitting and she complimented me telling me my knitting was so even it was like from a machine! She told me never to get a knitting machine. :D So sweet, but she's a real sweety and I can see myself spending a lot of time there in the future!

Offer still standing!

Yeah, there's already one comment, but that's Elise and she was getting the stuff no matter! So anyone else wanting to ship me some Kool-Aid, give a yell!

An offer! :D

Here's my offer, for the first one to reply. I want a ton of Kool-Aid in all possible shades, from pink to red to purple to blue (and I also like the "switchin' secret"). For the one willing to send me some I will send 100grams (about 4oz I'm thinking) of pure white alpaca roving, first class, worth about $15. I can spin it into yarn, probably about fingering to sport weight. You choose. OR I offer 100 grams of the loopy mohair (pure mohair) shown below. You need to react within a few hours though if you want that as I'm going to the yarn store tomorrow to get it. You can have the purple, and I think they have orange/red shades, something with all kinds of colours inclurding green, and just gray/black coloured. Oh, and natural one, to colour yourself. It's pure first class mohair, no name as it's from big cones made for couturiers.

So that's it, my offer! First one to comment here will get the stuff, make sure I have your email addy!

Loopy mohair 

White Alpaca

Dark brown alpaca

Grey Alpaca

Yarn creations

It's very sunny outside so perfect to take pictures (though I took them inside, but we have big windows so a lot of light inside).

First pic is the sock yarn I died yesterday with Kool-Aid. I'm in love with the colours! Again, if someone is willing to send me some (anything from red to pink to purple to blue) is more then welcome and you will get a little something in return!

Second pic is some handspun merino I finished a few weeks ago. I got the coloured roving quite a while ago (a year maybe?) when I started planning to spin, and I started spinning with it soon after I got my weel. I finished it and like it a lot! It's quite thin, I think it's sport weight, and I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do with this. I was thinking of felting it, but I don't know just yet. If I come across the perfect pattern I will! :D

Handspun Merino 

Handpainted sock yarn 

Some pics

First one is the promissed button bag! It's felted and as said it's also very weirdo looking, but this was my first felting project and I think it's ok! It'll be just big enough to hold my sock-WIP and maybe cellphone, so that's nice.

Other pictures are from today's dying (dyeing?). I had a skein of white superwash sock yarn around and wanted to try if it would dye properly. And it does!! To bad it's only 50grams, I'll have to get some plain yarn to do the heel, foot and toes or I'll have to knit really short socks and I want to make bigger ones. It's a try to do self striping sock yarn. My first try. See the technique here. I used Kool-Aid, which I got from Miss Elise (thank you sweety) as this isn't available in Belgium. I thought the dark red was blue - the bag was blue - but it turned out to be red so I needed a third colour. So for the pink (3rd dye) I used my left over from the purple with half a bag of red/dark pink. It turned out nicely! It's drying now and I'm hoping it'll be dry when I return from horse riding and then I'll show it off here a bit better. I enjoyed doing this and I'm happy that sock yarn dyes so nicely! I'm looking forward to getting my jaquard acid dyes. Yeah, I love Kool-Aid but I can only get that through friends (if anyone is willing to send me some, give me a yell, I'll send you something in return!). Plus I'll be able to create more colours with the jaquard, and I can get the dye in The Netherlands which is much cheaper (well, now I ordered it in the US but in the future I'll order it more close to home!). Plus I'm going to try some of the dye I saw at the craft store I regularly go at. I was a bit scary of the "steam setting" you need to do but now that I got it explained it sounds really easy!

Ok, I need to do some other stuff before I leave for the riding school, maybe more tonight, but more tomorrow for sure!

Dying 3 

Dying 2 

Dying 1 

Button bag (felted) 

Expecting mail!

I got kind of a weirdo phonecall today. I had 4 missed calls at work and I missed one more at the train station (yeah, there was a strike at the trains today and it was plain chaos in the station so I didn't have the time to grab for my phone which was in the bottom of my bag as always). But as it was a private number I couldn't call back. They called once more when I was at home and it was the PO, which was extremely strange 'cause I never give out the number of my cell phone. We don't have a regular line up here and I usually always gave my moms phone till now as officially I still lived at home (we changed that now so I'll need to start looking which number I'm going to hand out as I don't feel like giving everyone my cell). Anyway, it was the PO to tell me the postman had showed up with a package at my door today but it was returned because the recipient was unknown. That's completely strange as we live above the business of my boyfriend and there is always someone at the desks to recieve packages and they all know me. So something must have gone wrong, which I told the lady on the phone. She read my name and address which was all correct, so I really don't know what went wrong. She told me they would offer it again next Tuesday (Monday is an official holiday) but I asked her if I could pick it up at the PO. She was quite confused herself as none of the official papers were filled out and all, so basically it was a total mess.

But ... the nice thing is that it'll be knitting stuff!! :D I'm expecting 2 packages from the US and I'm thinking it's the Lorna's Laces yarn I ordered to knit the Clapotis. The other package is Jacquard Acid Dye and 4 books about spinning/dying/knitting. But the yarn was ordered first so I hope it's that package (it's the most expensive from the 2 and I can't wait to have that yarn). (Ok, I want the books and the dye as well, now please! :D LOL). It would make sence for the phone thing as I had to give my phone number on both orders and I used my cell as I don't want them to call my mom - who owes the visa - as she would know nothing about the whole situation.

Anyway, I should have some lovely package tomorrow, it'll be a reason to get up early though I don't think I will. Oh wait a min, I can sleep long on Sunday, so I might get up early tomorrow.

I will post pictures tomorrow, now I want to eat and take a shower and watch tele and knit. Hmm, not all at the same time I guess.

I'm known in the knitting world!

Ok, that might be a bit to much, but at least someone added me to her daily reads! (thank you Rox!). And to her question I will be posting a pic tomorrow of my felted button bag (I'm to lazy now, I already cleaned my whole house and I just want to curl up in my bed with some knitting). I will also post a pic of the sock which seems to be cursed as I had to rip a few rows 4 times today! I was almost going nuts, but I made it through. Even though I added 4 stitches it still feels small which is quite strange. I mean, with my 2.5mm it feels ok, but now with 2mm needles it feels small. But they look great! I already have a ton of new ideas for socks!

Ok, off to take a shower and to go to bed now.

The sock

I love this pattern, I love this yarn and I love my 2mm addi turbo needles, but I'm going to rip this sock. Why? Well, the 3 of them don't go to getter. Better told : I casted on my regular amount of stitches, but that's to little for these needles combined with this yarn. The sock is just to small. I have small legs, but not that small. I just love the tiny stitches and the compactness of the yarn so I'm going to cast on 4 more stitches and start over. It won't take me long to get this far again. I love, LOVE the pattern. I really do. It's so ... sofisticated! :D

I just contacted the online store again where I ordered Jacquard dyes and some books about spinning/knitting. I didn't hear back from them yet and i'm not sure they got my order. I really want those books, 2 of them are sock pattern books, the 2 others are scarfs books (yeah, my 2 addictions! :D).

Well, I'm off to do the ripping and starting over. Hmm, I should put socks on sooner next time, but will cast on more stitches when using my 2 mm needles!




Ps.: The button bag is felted, and looks great, very tiny. Well, great is not the word as it looks weird and not evenly. But it's my first felted thing so I guess I can be forgiven! :D

Durban Bay sock 

I just spent way to much time on this computer trying to figure out the link thing here at my blog. Well, I got most links up and running, and then forget to hit "save changes", noticed 20 min later and had to start all over. *dugh* I'm such a sleepy brain at times. Well, at least I figured the link thing out. I miss the days I had the time/energy to learn new things. I'm going to look for a course in html I can take or something over the Summer holidays (oh well, knowing Belgian weather that really isn't a bad idea of little me! :D).

Anyways, I'm now going to go upstairs to do some laundry and watch some tele why boyfriend and handy man are working in the kitchen. Then I'll have pizza tonight. Boyfriend is on a self inflicted diet so I can eat what I want, and as I'm not to fond of cooking for myself i'm just going to have pizza. We had a full weekend of going out for dinner (and it was a long weekend as I had last Thursday and Friday off), so I don't need that much food anyhow, and it has been a while since I had pizza.

Oh, my WIPs. I started socks yesterday and they are looking super great! I'm so happy with the pattern and the yarn (handpainted sock yarn from Hello Yarn). I got 3mm needles for boyfriends socks. I also knitted some more on the Lace hat on my way from work, on the train, but that's it as it's hurting my fingers so much to knit that. No more of that today.

I have a ton of other things to do but I'm to tired really. Again. Oh well, knitting is fine for tonight, I promissed myself I could relax.

And last but not least, I signed up for a Secret Pal swap! I still need to figure how to post the little thingie at the side here but will do that later tonight or tomorrow. Later ...

Some pictures

Ok, a little explanation with all the pictures. It's not my most preferred way of uploading these pics but at least I can upload some. So this is better then nothing!

The first pic (so the way down) are the Crusoe socks. Well, one of them! :D The other one is finished as well but I never managed to take a pic of both of them. But I love them! They are great to wear! And I used only one 50gr skein for this pair! That means I have 3 more skeins in the same colour left. Crazy? Yes, probably, but I love the colour and the skeins are quite cheap. I'm going to make a regular pair of socks our of them in the future just to bring out the lovely colours. And maybe other pairs of course!

Second pic is the Bad Penny top I'm knitting for my mom. This is pure acrylic yarn and I will never buy acrylic again from now on - unless special requests or fancy yarns for extras - as I think pure wool is so much better!!

Third pic are small socks I made for a baby we are going to see this afternoon. I put the remote controller of the tv next to it to show how tiny they really are! I'm afraid they are not going to fit. I'll check the feet of the baby before giving them to mom I think! :D

Forth pic is the button hole bag I'm making. It'll be my first felting project, if I get the bag finished. One day I will for sure!!

And last pic is the yarn boyfriend picked from my new stash (got this skein with 4 others last Friday) for a pair of socks. Problem is I have a project on my 2.5mm round needles (the Lace Cap which I don't know when I'll finish it!) and I don't have 3mm round needles. I'll check the store tomorrow. I would prefer my 2.5mm but I know the store over here doesn't carry those, only 3mm. I had them in my hands on Friday (a second 2.5mm circular) but ended up not buying it and regret it now. I might order some more Addi Turbo's in various sizes. I know I'll have them by the end of the week if they are in stock and that gives me time to finish up other projects.

I have a pattern printed for the next pair of socks for myself, I just need to pick the yarn now. I don't know yet what to use, I thought about using the some yarn as the crusoe socks, but then I also have a big box of sock yarn from Hello Yarn so I might pic that yarn. I'll be knitting on my 2mm circulars. I like my socks tight. But can't do that for boyfriends big feet. I can't wait to knit with self striping yarn though. Hmm, big dilemma!

I'm off now to dinner with my inlaws and then the baby thing, I hope I'm home soon. Oh, I still need to show off a pic of my first skein of handspun, will do that tonight! Lets hope I'm home in time!

Next pair of socks for boyfriend 

Button bag which desperately needs finishing and felting 

Tiny baby socks 

Bad Penny start 

My crusoe sock! :D Second one was made the same way but I didn't take a picture. I love these colours and have a few more skeins of it for future socks! 

Just ... wauw!!!

Today I discovered knitting heaven!!! I went to Gent (about 30 minutes from here by car) to do some shopping, planning on checking out some yarn-stores I had found through a search in the online phone book. I decided to drive to this one yarn store before doing any other shopping and man, I got in heaven! Really, this is a super store with lots and lots of 100% wool yarns, with a bunch of rovings (well, currently she only had apalca, but she'll have more) and just total gorgious stuff at really low prices (well, of course more expensive then acrylic, but who likes acrylic, right?). The lady running this shop has been doing it for years and they used to be the biggest from the Benelux (Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg). She still handles with big designers in Paris and goes there almost daily. That's why she can get this luxury stuff at low prices, because if she has to order for a designer she orders some extra to sell in her store. She's a wonderful lady and I spent 2 hours in her store! And spent a lot of money, but I don't care about that as I got some super stuff. I swear, if I lived closer I would go and knit in her store 'cause she had this special cornor perfect for knitting.

I got a bunch of apalca to spin (and I'm thinking of calling her to put all the rest of the rovings aside for me, it's a huge amount but I don't think I'll be able to get this stuff in such great quality any time soon!), in dark brown, grey and white. I also got some pure mohair in lovely colours. Well, 2 kinds of mohair actually. Then I got a silk/cashmere blend for the Cozy I want to knit (this one is uncoloured but I don't think I'll end up colouring it). And I got a bunch of wool to dye. That's commercial spun but you should see the quality! Oh, and I found self striping sock yarn as well! She didn't have much but if I like what she had I'll get more for sure! I can call her at any time and then she'll put stuff aside for me. She also told me she doesn't have much material right now as it's Summer and she doesn't like cotton so she doesn't really stock that, but she'll have a bunch of stuff when Winter arrives. One thing is sure : from now on I won't shop in any other store and I will limit my online ordering to the minimum as I can get this great stuff only a few minutes away! And I go there often for shopping (in Gent I mean) so you won't hear me complain!

I did order some Jaquard dyes online as I can't get proper dyes over here. Well, I can, but you have to steam fix them and I don't know how to do that with wool. If anyone can help me out that would be great! And I ordered 4 books, one on dying, one on spinning and 2 on knitting socks (yes, I admit it, I'm becoming a sock addict). Well, the sock-ones also cover spinning and dying sock yarn. Now I will also order some more addi needles this weekend and then I'll just start going with what I have as I spent way to much money already! Most of my money is gone for the month and we only just started! Imagine.

I'm going to do some spinning now, there is little other stuff I can do as they are finally fixing up our kitchen (about time) so I refuse to go in the living room as I can't see the dust and all. To bad I have to go to some silly dinner tonight 'cause I would have preferred doing art and spinning and knitting! Oh, and one thing is for sure : apart from the stash I got from my grandmother and some sill stuff I bought I will be buying no more pure acrylics! Maybe some blends, but I found out I love the touch and the way wool knits up, so that's it for me for now!

Hopefully, one of these days, I'll have pictures to show!

Frustrated

I've been knitting but getting nowhere. So frustrating. I really wanted to knit a Cozy but decided not to start with silk yarn. I have to order silk yarn anyway (though I hope to find it at a Phildar store tomorrow) so I decided to start with another yarn. I'm new to lace knitting so I knew this would be something rather difficult. Well, it's not working! I could knit about 15 rows, and then today I knit and ripped a row 4 times to eventually loose so many stitches I ripped the whole thing. I'm so dissapointed and don't feel like knitting. I'll just cast on a pair of socks to make me feel better.

Happier news would be that I found a LYS! I didn't think there was a real yarn shop around here but there is! It's being runned by this old lady who has been running it for over 30 years! She wears a hearing device but is really nice and talkative! I'm afraid she doesn't see much customers these days. But she does have Regia-sock yarn (and other yarn), and Scheepjes, and some other yarns. She had some wonderful merino yarn as well, but most of the stuff she has is discontinued by the maker so it's mostly leftovers. Not that I mind, most of it has enough for things like a scarf or so. Well, if I manage to knit some lace I can do that scarf.

Other projects I still have on the needles are a bag that needs to be felted, and a hat. I think that's it. I finished the armwarmers I had on the needles and they are looking quite nice, I'll try to take a pic and then post it here. I should figure out how to add links and pictures to this blog. Not today probably, but one of these days. I'll be back with more :D.

Lace? Yeah right! ...

Ok, I wasn't going to update till I figured this all out, but I can't just keep all the knitting news to pile up and I really want to get this blog started. I whish I wasn't such a nerd when it comes to webdesign and such. *Ughhh*

Friday I finished a pair of Crusoe socks. I love them! And I finished a pair of grown up socks in less then 2 weeks which is simply amazing! I find it so much fun to knit socks, it's easy to carry them with me on the train and at work (for some hidden knitting) and you have a nice result soonish. I need to start on another pair!

The weekend had fairly no knitting in it. Well, I've done a little trying out for a lace pattern. My first actually, and I was going to use some undefined yarn I got in the stash from my grandmother. But I hate the yarn and today I knitted like 6 rows of the pattern and I had already 2 stitches more then I started with. So I ripped it all. I'm considering ordering the yarn the pattern recommands but that'll be silk and that's expensive and I don't know if I really want to order yarn if I'm not even sure I'll manage the pattern. I considered going to the LYS here in town but they harldy have any yarn, let alone they'll carry silk yarn. So I have to order it online and then I don't even know yet if I'll still want to do the pattern, though I'm pretty convinced. Difficult dilema!

I still have a few other projects on the needles. Some armwarmers I put on some scrap yarn as I needed the 4mm round needles they were on for the lace thing, but as that one is off I'll put the arm warmers back on and finish them. I have some kiddie socks on the needles I need to finish by next week (not really a problem I guess, they are tiny!) and a bag that I need to finish and felt. I haven't felted before so I'll do a swatch first for sure! I want to finish it early this week as I plan going to the marker next Friday and that's where I get the yarn I'm using for this project. If the project is ok I want to bring more home as it's fairly good yarn and not to expensive. I also want to buy some merino rovings from the lady for spinning, though that's pretty expensive.

I'm happy I have a few days off next week 'cause I really have some great ideas for projects! I ordered some Lorna's Laces yarn online, but that's coming from the US so I won't have it before 2 weeks or so to start the project. If I order the silk that'll come from The Netherlands so it'll also take about a week I guess. So I'll have to think of some other possibilities for now.

Anyway, off to bed now, maybe some knitting on the bag before I close my eyes!