One small FO for one month

I had the most horrible day yesterday, I made one of the biggest mistakes in my life and I can't put it out of my mind. I should, it's past me and well, I was lucky and the results were less harming then they could have been. Still I'm so upset.

So I don't know if I'll get much work done today. It's all a big chaos in my head, which is beating like hell. I'm trying to keep myself uccupied, and I'm trying to think of knitting (usually all over my thoughts, but not today :( ).

Anyway, we went on a little trip last weekend (as it was a long weekend), and look what we did most of the time :






Having a great time on the beach! :D We went to the Netherlands, to a beach area. It was great fun! We were my sisters, my mother and my boyfriend (oh, and me!). The dogs had a great time, running on the beach, playing in the water, chasing other animals, or just pieces of paper. 2 days of non-stop activity, and no knitting. I didn't even mind. I was to tired in between the walks and the sports that I didn't think about knitting.

And this is how we returned :




Exhausted!! I didn't sleep the whole way back (I knitted), but the pup did! It was great to see her and nice to see her comfortable in the car, as the big girl still doesn't like car rides. She stayed awake the whole ride home, poor thing, and crashed back at home.

Me? Tired, but happy. It was great during the weekend and I'm just happy we had a nice time, even if there was no knitting.

So, I only have one small WIP to show for May (wait a minute, I have 2, but I only have a picture of one right now) :




Anklets, no specific pattern, just toe up (dutch toe) and short row heel.
Yarn : my own handdyed, less then one 50gr skein (I have small feet)
Needles : 2mm addi turbo, my fave size of needles

They took me longer then they should have taken me as I tried to do 2 socks at the same time on one circular, knitting from both ends of the ball (I did find out that one end is a lot lighter then the other, strangely enough, need to experiment more with dyeing to get the perfect fiber). I didn't like the knitting 2 on one needle. I did it before but I didn't know it wasn't this annoying. Back to one at the time for me.

New Project Spectrum colours, and I'm very happy! Not sure yet what to do with the metalics, but the black is just perfect! I'm not a red kinda girl except for burgundy. Might be a nice combination. I do have some nice gold and silver stuff, but for socks? I don't know just yet.

Lets just hope I get a bit more done this month. Oh, and I have handspun to show, but no pictures. Maybe I should get my ass in gear and take some nice shots! The weather is supposed to be nice over the weekend, now just to find the time *grin*.

Long time, lots to tell!

It's late and I should be in bed (I'm getting a headache already) but I'm having 3 pots of yarn on the stove to dye. Yes, I'm crazy, but I don't have work tomorrow and I promissed these yarns to my LYS-lady, so I should do them now. Doesn't matter if they aren't dry yet, but they have to be dyed. So as soon as the pots cook I'm turning of the fire and leaving them till the morning.

Anyway, there is so much to tell I hardly know what to tell. Let me first start with the reason - or at least one of the reasons - of my great absence :




They are super cute and very drawn to us! It's hard on me as I know I have to let go of 4 of them and I know I'm bonding to much. But I can't help it. They are also super active and slowly destroying the house, and driving me crazy. We still haven't found a new home for one of the girls, so please keep your fingers crossed that we soonish find a nice family for her to go to. They are leaving here in 2 weeks.

Anyway, first something that should be part of my future! :D



I table loom! It's an old one from the attic of my LYS, (I should actually call it FYS, because it's not that local for me) but it has never been used. It's not in perfect condition so I'm now on the lookout for someone who can help me out to fix it and get me started. I read an article about a local guy who's a retired weaver. I'm planning on contacting him. One can only try (but I first need to gather my confidence! :D).

Anyway, I really would love to learn how to weave. Whish there was a way I could learn it myself. Maybe if I had a new loom that functionned perfectly, but that's out of my budget right now!


Before I go to the FOs, First the stuff I dyed up for the new Project Spectrum months. I never finished something in the previous months. :( Not so good. I do plan on finishing the socks I started. One day that'll be ...




The fiber : on the left Tencel/merino blend, on the right Mohair/merino blend. Both 150gr, died together. I'm curious how different they'll look. I'm aiming to spin a fingering weight yarn out of both of them.

The yarn : On the left 90%merino/10%nylon in yellow, pink and green (a bit to little pink like with the fiber, but hey that's not that bad, I have to learn to like yellow!), on the right KnitPicks Merino, suppusedly only on yellow and pink (but with green specks ) to be combined with green (I'm overdyeing that yarn right now to try to make it a bit darker, fair isle socks are in the plans).

Hopefully I'll get more spectrum stuff done. Oh, and I'm working on one thing in spectrum colours right now :




Glee! Well, the colour is something between purple and pink, but I'll count it as pink! :D I finished the body and am now working - very slowly - on the sleeves. Not much progress though, I'm working on other things right now.

What are those things you are asking? Well, I joined the 52 pair plunge, so SOCKS! :D I'm enjoying it, I love knitting socks and I can use more of them for sure! It's going ok so far, but I know my love for knee socks and multitasking will kill me in the end. But one can only try! The thought alone that some in the KAL already finished 5 or 6 pairs! But I do plan on staying true to my principles: I don't like socks out of heavy yarns, so no quick socks for me. Maybe anklets and baby socks, but no DK weight socks. I would never wear them anyway.

But here are the FOs :




Sockret Pal socks! (my pal by the way was Eva from Luxembourg! She already has the socks! :D)
Yarn : Satakieli
Pattern : Ellens stockings from Knitting in Estonia by Nancy Bush
Needles : 2mm addi turbo circ
Started/finished : somewhere in January till April 31st 2007




Monkey socks by Cookie
Yarn : Sock Club yarn by Boogie (lost the lable though)
Needles : 2.25mm inox circ
Started/finished : March 24th till April 9th 2007

I love the yarn of these socks! I think I have plenty left for a pair of anklets for me! :D The pattern is very nice too! And I finished this pair quite quickly! I mainly knitted them last week when the KAL was already going on.

Right now I'm focussing on Pomatomus from Cookie in Lorna's Laces Sheperd Sport (in Bittersweet) for my sister. I hope I'll make it by the end of the week.

Another FO is a shawl that went to my LYS :




It's knit out of a 100% mohair yarn in dusky purple, by a pattern in a Dutch magazine, and it has beads on it. It's quite long (little over 2m) and lovely. Nice knit too.




Handspun yarn! :D
Fiber : Hello yarn custom dyed BFL
Yarn : 2 ply, sport weight (14WPI I believe)

Like it, but I want fingering weight! I keep practicing!

Well, this is it for now! I hope to have more soon. Oh wait, I will have more soon as I have quite a bit of yarn I recently bought and want to show off. Oh well, that will make another post!

Keep your fingers crossed for the pup please!