R.I.P. my little friend

Today I lost one of my closest companions. From the 4 cats I have there was only one that would spend his days in the house with me, lay next to me on the couch and sleep with me on the bed. He could open every pot in the house and would steal what he could, but that was just my little big man. He was close to a dog and loved going out back with me to the horse. He would greet me and talk to me. He didn't mind the dogs though he knew to stay away from them.

Last night something went wrong. I have no clue what, but my boyfriend found our guy laying wet in the mud, with our 2 dogs standing around barking. They for sure attacked him as he was really hurt and you could see the bites everywhere. He was alive but barely. We took him to the vet, wrapped in a towel on my lap. He watched me with his big eyes, totally trusting me. I knew deep inside that he could never make it, but he was a fighter from the day we got him and I was hoping he would make it. He fell asleep after getting a sedative, with his head on my hand.

This morning I called the vet and he was still fighting, but around noon he lost the fight. He was probably bleeding internally. I'm now hating myself for leaving him there. I should have been holding him when he died, but I'm hoping he didn't have any pain and was to far gone to realize he was all alone.

I now realize I lost one of my closest friends. I just cannot imagine not seeing him anymore. Tonight we will pick him up at the vet and put him to rest in my moms garden. He was my little fighter, and I will always remember him.

Rest in peace my little friend, hope you will forgive me.
Love you forever, will never forget you

Angel
2003 - 2009

Moving on from socks

The last couple of years I've been pretty obsessed with socks. I mean, if you look at what I knitted, it's mostly socks. About 50% maybe? I have no clue, but it'll be close! Here's the last pair I finished and am really proud of :

These socks were in the makings for ages. I knitted them for last years project spectrum, the first theme. I was planning on knitting a black pair for every section of PS and them embroider them appropriately. Never made it though. I finished the knitting a few months ago but then was to scared to start the embroidery. Oh well, they are done now and I love them! The fit of the socks could have been better, but the embroidery is super and I like them a lot.

But, what I was saying. I won't be joining the third round of the 52 Pairs Plunge. I think I got about 30 pairs done in the second round, and I always feel pressured to get the amount done. So, no more of that (I will never get 52 pairs done anyway, not with my current busy life). I will be joining the Knitters Anonymus Sockdown again, but I might skip the last month now. I don't mind joining that one as it basically only requires one sock a month which is doable!

The reason? There are a ton of other things I want to knit and I know knitting those socks is keeping me from it. There were about 3 sweaters I wanted to knit to take with me on my trip to the US, but as there's only one more month left before we leave there is no way I'm going to be able to get them done. And that is really sad. None of these sweaters were complicated or tiny gauges. Oh well.

There are about 100 sweaters I want to knit (and I have the yarn for!), even more shawls, scarfs and other things. Many of these things are portable enough to replace the socks. I do most of my knitting during my work commute, but I don't plan on taking a whole sweater with me (ok, right now there are 2 socks OTN in my handbag and a lace shawl in my computer bag ... Like I ever knit on all of them!).

So it'll be hard, and there'll be a ton of sock yarn hibernating in my stash, but I need to get some time to knit other things! As the Summer is quite close, it also means Autumn is getting closer again and I really will need more warm sweaters to wear to work next Winter. My boss turned off the central heating quite some weeks ago (and I'm cold quite often ...) and he never puts the termostate very high. Plus he wants us to turn the heating off in the evening so it only starts getting warm when I arrive (refuse that though ...). It was super cold last Winter so I want to be warmer next Winter!

So, hopefully there'll be more sweaters here in the future. There are currently quite a few socks on the needles and there is a test knit of socks in the near future, so those'll be posted here too. But I hope I'll be able to keep away from casting on a ton in the near future (except for the socks I promissed my grandma, but those should be quick). Keep your thumbs up!

As I want to start keeping this up again, I'm starting with 2 old projects. I haven't taken any pictures in ages. I have so little "nice" spots around my house to take pictures that I usually don't do it all. And having no pictures keeps me from posting.

I have been knitting though not as much as I would like. I also have been spinning but not much. And I finally put the loom together I bought before Christmas, but I still have to get started on that one! Guess my life is total chaos again at the moment.

Just before Easter I picked up my eggs again. Last year I made a few knitted Easter eggs and I had some of the foam eggs left. So I knitted coats for the eggs I had! Here they are :

There are individual pictures on my Flickr of all eggs. I think one or 2 eggs are missing from this pictures. The eggs are still out on my table even though it's been a long time since Easter. I just like them so much I don't want to put them away! I'll probably do it over the weekend though. Need to figure out which decorations I'll knit next! I love having something knit out and about in the house (well, aside from all the WIPs everywhere ...).

Pattern : just a crochet pattern from a stitch dictionary

Yarn : Posh Yarn Eva (100% cashmere)

Hook : 2,5mm

Started : May 2008

Finished : March 2009

It was my first real crochet project and I'm very happy with it. I might have better used a bigger hook for the lace feeling, but it's ok. I'll know for the future project! It took me a long time but everything takes me a long time and it's finished now!

I'm ready to start my next crochet project, but I still need to figure out which yarn to use for this. There are plenty of knitting projects on my needles so no urge to start something new!

There are more things to show, and I hope to have some time and good weather this weekend to take a few more pictures, and then post. Maybe tonight, if I'm in the mood. I'm currently in a dip considering the riding and though I usually go every Friday (horse riding class) I might skip it today. It's a horrible day all together. The weather switched from really nice to very overcast (I want to sit in my warm home and do nice things ... I'm always cold these days) and this morning I found out I'm without a provider on my cellphone. I'm switching providers but my FIL forgot to give me the little card from the new provider. So my old service was cancelled and I can't put the new card in. My cell is my life line and I'm feel rather annoyed at the moment!

Oh well, maybe some knitting will calm me!

An update

It has been months since I last decently updated here! :D Time and energy is lacking me to update, so I'm really sorry. But here is my try on an update.

First, there were the Christmas socks I knitted. I wanted to knit socks for my whole family. I did quite a good job, though I didn't manage to get a pair done for the boyfriend and my uncle. The first has a pair of socks now, the unlce still hasn't. One day though ...

You can go to my Flickr page or Ravelry to read more details about the socks. From left to right, starting at the top : Socks for my youngest sister, socks for my grandma, socks for my other sister, socks for a friend (need to fill up the mosaic! :D), socks for my aunt and the recently finished socks for my boyfriend. Missing are the socks for my mom (see previous post) and the socks for my grandfather (no pitures taken ...).

There was recently another pair of socks knitted for the above mentionned friend, but as I got no thank you or appreciation there might not follow any more socks for this friend. :( I hate it when this happens, when I put a ton of knitting time into something (and love and energy) for the thing to end up in the bottom of a drawer never to be looked at again. :( Oh well ...

There were recently 2 pairs of socks finished for myself, though I only have pictures of one pair :

Pattern : Pomatomus by Cookie A.

Yarn : Spunky Sport by Spunky Eclectic

Needles : 2,75mm circs

Modifications : As I ran out of yarn before finishing the first sock (I had 2 balls of 50gr each) I did the second sock with 2,5 pattern repeats for the leg and a shorter heel flap. Then I redid the first sock. They look great, I only barely made it the second time!

The other pair I finished was the pair of Hederas I started back in September (I think). I have no pictures of them though. I'm stilling trying to keep up with 2 sock challanges. First one is the 52PairPlungeII. I have now 26 pairs done, which is halfway. I probably won't make it to the full 52, but I'm halfway so that's ok. I'm also still in the challange of the Sock Knitters Anonymus. I probably won't finish a February pair (we have till the end of March to finish it), but so far I did quite ok.

That being said, I'm slowly getting bored of socks. I really want to knit a few sweaters! But of course I know I won't get them finished. I will start another one soon though. Not sure which one. I would have done it over the weekend if I wasn't so busy. Next week then ...

I did finish a sweater/vest but I still have no buttons for it nor do I have pictures. I also finished 2 hats for me, 2 hats for the boyfriend and a scarf for the boyfriend, but no pictures of any of this . I do have pictures of a pair of gloves that were on the needles for almost a year before I finished them :

Knitted out of Cashmere I got through Posh yarns (some Yarn club) but I overdyed the yarn as I didn't like the original colour. The gloves are wonderfull and got quite some wear during the cold Winter!

I think that's about it for the knitting right now. I need to take a ton of pictures. I also have some spinning to show, but I'll keep that for a later post. Now it's back to my (not so fun) work ...

It's been a long while. There has been knitting, but no posting mostly due to the lack of picture taking. And a very busy time, and me not feeling to great (mentally that is ...).

I decided to try pick up on posting on this blog by posting something completely unrelated to knitting, but a very important part of my life :

Me jumping with my horse Blue (Mister Blue, though this is his fathers name, his name is San Primeur but we never use it). We're jumping a 1m fence in this picture. It was during the last indoor jumping event at the riding school I'm part of. I ended 3rd in the 1m competition. I'm afraid of riding my horse to his full potential. I don't ride very fast - though he can - and I don't jump higher. But I'm enjoying it!

Here's my horse again, but with another rider. He's jumping a 120cm fence in this picture, with lots left! He loves these high fences and enjoys the jumping so much! I would love to see him jump something higher, but it's already a joy to see this. He hit a fence just before this one (riders fault!) and as he hate hitting fences he took an extra high jump on this one.

I haven't been able to take any jumping lessons the last weeks, and it's scaring me. The last manche of the indoor jumpings is coming up (on March 15) and as I'm pretty nervous about all this I think I'm going to be even more nervous if I don't get to take any lessons! We'll see how it goes.

As I said, there should be knitting content soon. We have spring-type weather at the moment but it's cloudy. I might try to take a few pictures this afternoon!

So close ...

Nothing knitting related. I just can't imagine this happened. Have you seen this on CNN? That's where I live, and I just can't believe it ...

Happy New Year

Wishing you all the best for the coming year!

It's been a while since I was around here. There has been knitting and spinning going on, but my life has been very chaotic. I've learned long ago that a new year doesn't mean a big change. But I do hope this year will give me some new answers. The last months have been so chaotic and I have no clue where my life is going. Maybe I should make some decissions.

At least there's my knitting and spinning!!

It was an ok year, though looking back at my finished knits it's a lot less then I thought it was. My life is so busy and it all goes so fast ...

These are not all of my knits from the past year. I never took pictures of a few, and I didn't add them all to this mosaïc. But it gives you a good idea of my major knitting!!

I'm quite sure 2009 will again be filled with socks. I love knitting socks and they are quick and portable. I'm still doing the 52 Pair Plunge II so I need to knit more socks! :D Might not get there, but I'm sure I'll get a bit more done then last time.

One of my goals for the coming year is knit a few bigger garments for myself. A sweater or so. I need more handknits (I'm sitting in the freezing cold of my office at the moment - it's been extremely cold here in Belgium with the coldest temperatures in over 25 years - and as the heating is very poor here I'm cold all the time!).

I also want to spin more, knit stuff from my handspun, and maybe even spin enough for a sweater/cardigan, or my latest love, a tee to wear over a long sleeved t-shirt.

I do have a few more finished knits to blog about, including my Christmas socks for my family. And a few more handspun yarns. But most of this isn't photographed yet due to the lack of decent lighting. But I promiss a few more posts soon.