Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Spinning!

I've been addicted to my spinning again the last couple of weeks! It's been so much fun and my yarn is finally getting finer then before. I might make it to a fingering weight (2ply) in the near future!

Anyway, here are the 2 yarns I finished recently, both from club fiber (both from Spunky Club fiber to be exact)


Nightshade 01

Nightshade, the May fiber. It's Coopworth sliver to be exact.

4 oz, about 275meters (about 300yards), which is about sport weight, 2ply

This is a rather easy fiber to spin as it's quite rough. I didn't mind. The only thing I did mind was the bleeding of the dark colours. My hands were completely black after spinning/plying it. I hope it's settled now and this will become socks.



Celebration 04

Celebrations, July fiber. Shetland wool

4 oz, about 300meters (approx. 330 yards), so light sport weight, 2ply

I loved spinning this fiber! Could have been finer, but I didn't pay much attention. I also just split the roving in half, predrafter and spun. That's why the 2 skeins are so different from eachother.


Celebration 06

I'm still not sure how to knit this up. There are 3 possibilities :
- knit 2 completely different socks, one from each skein, and see them as a pair.
- knit the ribbing, heel and toe from each sock from one ball, the rest of the sock from the other. For the second sock use the balls the other way round.
- knit in stripes, like 5 rows from one ball and then 5 from the other ball.

As you can see I am planning on starting these soon. My yarn is quite thick and uneven so I might try to knit these with 2.75mm needles.


I tried taking some "artsy" pictures from my yarn. I love the ones in the Fiberlicious group! But I'm not good at taking artsy pictures, and as I already have plenty on my plate I'm not going to invest time or money in photo equipment right now.


Celebration 03

Celebration 02

These will do for now. I have to go, it's a public holiday and when the boyfriend is home he wants my full attention! (He's already yelling for me!)

Friday, August 10, 2007

I do still knit!

Ok, I haven't been showing off much knitting. To be honest, I'm more obsessed with spinning right now then knitting. I have no pictures of the spinning, but on Sunday I did take some pictures of my FOs as my moms place (who has a beautiful garden to take pictures at!).

First of all, something I finished long time ago (don't remember when I started it, but I do remember finishing it on the way to The Netherlands back in May!).


Shedir

Pattern : Shedir from Knitty
Yarn : Rowan Calmer (don't remember the colour, have to check)
Needles : 3.25mm addi turbo

This was a fun knit! I like the cap a lot but for me it should have been a bit longer. That is, I like it to cover me ears completely. I have a big head, and with all my hear a hat usually doesn't cover my ears as I want it too. I think I should have done another repeat but then I wouldn't have had enough yarn to do so. I might consider doing one in Black as well. For those cold mornings in late Summer and early Autumn when I take my bike to the station.

I do plan on knitting one of these in wool, like here (Eunny did it, so it should be good, right?). And then maybe a scarf to go along?


And then, the socks showed up! I had thrown them aside among some fiber and didn't remember.

Cotton socks

Pattern : from Sensational Knitted socks, a ribbed pattern
Yarn : Opal Petticoat Cotton
Needles : 2.00mm addi turbo

Started/finished :I don't remember as usual!

I wanted a really stretchy ribbing for these socks as I heard that the cotton content can make the socks slouchy. They are almost perfect now! I say almost as I made the foot a tat bit short to be really comfortable, but they might stretch a little. I do like these socks a lot, though I will always be more of a wool knitter then a cotton knitter!


Remember that I joined the 52pairplunge? Well, I'm immensively behind and I don't think I'll be able to catch up. :( This cotton pair was my 9th pair of socks since April, and counting I should have 16 pairs of socks by now (not counting august). I might have to consider knitting some sport/DK weight socks. I usually don't do that but I have a lot of yarn in that weight so I might just. I want to do some colour socks like this pair, but I need more sport weight yarn in Black! I've been trying to think if I have anything suitable in my stash, but I don't. I promissed myself not to order any yarn, but I love doing my socks with a variegated and a black yarn, so I'll just have to. I like Baby Ull, but I'll see what possibilities I have!

Handspun yarn pictures over the weekend!


Ps.: We're having true Autumn weather over here with clouds, rain and temps as low as 15°C during the day, so it's a pleasure to work with wool. Did I ever mention I don't like Summer?

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

New patterns

The new Magknits is up, and I'm - for the second time in a row - dissapointed. There is nothing that really catches my eye. There's a pair of socks, but honestly, it couldn't be plainer. I don't need a pattern for that (and I'm sorry for the designer, I don't mean anything by it, it's just my opinion). The dress with the huge open back, no thank you. The cardigan is rather old looking.


Today I also recieved my copy of the new Rowan Magazine (Fall/Winter 2007/2008) and I LOVE it!! Well, as always there are good patterns and things I would never knit, but overal I'm very happy! I also bought the Rowan Kidsilk Auro book with some amazing patterns, and RYC Travel, which is also really nice. One happy girl here! I whish I could knit faster/more/...



Any other things for fall I should now about? What about good sock books?

Saturday, August 04, 2007

Reading finished early

I finished the book last night, or better, early this morning (at 3am). A record reading for me, if you count that I had to work yesterday (Yeah, I have devoured books like this before, as a teenager I could hardly pack enough books to last me through a holiday).

To my great surprise I'm more "involved" in the books then I thought I was. Though I'm all for series actually ending (both in books and on tv) and not going on and on and on, I know I'll really miss the stories of Harry. I think it's mostly because of the little part it gave me into a childhood with actual friends, which I never had. And - big confession here - maybe the love that shows in the last 2 books, which I never really knew that way.

Then I was also really, really upset by a death at the end of the book. I hope I'm not spoiling it for someone here, as we all knew people would die in the end of this book. But this one death upset me so much (tears are in my eyes again and I don't know why this is happening).

I also found it nice to read this web chat J.K.Rowling did. Gave me some answeres I needed to know. To my surprise I had a really hard time imagining what happened to all the characters and I wasn't satisfied with the book or with my own thoughts of futures.

And with this I will end my babbling about HP on my blog. Posting about knitting should resume soon! (I'm off to take a nap, and maybe try to get over my sadness a bit).


Ps.: PJ mentionned the HP pattern book that was released a couple of months back. I'm going to honest here and tell you I'm not interested in it. The socks/scarf I will design myself, and so will I do with the other things I want to knit. I'm not someone who would knit other "witch" or HP stuff, sorry.

Friday, August 03, 2007

Harry Potter

Oh yeah, I'm a fan! :D I just thought I'd let you all know there won't be any knitting content for sure till after the weekend!

I've been a fan for quite a few years, but mostly a fan of the books. Though I know they are not considered high standard writing and were originally ment for children, they are an escape for me from reality and god knows how much I needed that in the past years! I still like to get absorbed in a book and forget all around me. I don't do much about all the fuss around Harry Potter. I started watching the movies but with the known fact that they would never be nearly as good as the books. And so far I have not been part of any of the craze around HP.

I am considering knitting up a pair of socks and maybe a scarf in the Gryffindor colours, and I am inspired by the things Hermoine has been wearing in the last movie. But I have to add that I recently got a lot of inspiration from movies (still have to knit that first self designed sweater though! maybe I can finish a sweater first, that would be nice). But apart from this I have no interest whatsoever in any of the stuff surrounding HP.

I started rereading the books starting from book 4 at the beginning of July. The main goal was to reread HP5 before the movie and HP 6 before the new book. I didn't finish HP 4 before the movie (with the accident and all) and finished it in Portugal. I started reading HP6 there and picked up HP7 at the airport at the way back home. I admit I couldn't keep myself from reading the last few pages. I know, I know, not a good thing. It's the first time ever I've done that with a book. But I knew that by doing this I would take my time to finish HP6 which I hardly remembered anything about. And I did. I finished HP6 yesterday, sucked up again by the books. And I started HP7 at about 6pm. Had to stop reading at 6.30, started again at 9 and stopped reading at 1.30am! I'm 1/3rd into the book now and would read the whole day if I could. I'm obsessed. I have to work though today. I don't plan watching any tele tonight and just read. And read again on Saturday, hopefully the book'll be finished by tomorrow evening so I can go back to knitting! :D

Well, I just wanted to share this. I won't be saying anything about the books. I don't want to spoil it for anyone else. It's already bothering me that some post shot comments about it, and I didn't want to know that. Ok, never mind.

I'm off to work some, maybe I'll find some sneak moments to read! :D