Snowy update!

Yesterday I had unexpectedly some more free time. Due to the snow most of my plans (including a trip to my FYS) were cancelled so I spent most of the afternoon at home. It also meant I had some time to take some more pictures of my knitting and to upload the pictures I had already taken. So I can finally update here!

This is the landscape I could enjoy yesterday! It's been icy cold most of the week, and Wednesday night it started snowing. It kept snowing all through the night and we got this as a morning sight! It's still way below freezing so I hope it'll stay for a while! I know people don't like me for saying this, but it can stay like this all Winter! :D We have taken all needed measures for our car so we can safely drive it (well, what's safely, right?). I went to buy a pair of true Ugg-boots to keep my feet warm. I'm all set! :D

I also used some time yesterday to get some Christmas decorations up (sorry for the bad pictures but at this side of my house there is never enough light to take a picture without my flash) :

Of course there's still a lot of decoration to put up, might share more pictures later!

As for the knitting, there has been some finishing going on in the past weeks. First there's the 6th (and last) sweater of 2010 :

Pattern : Abalone by Beata Jezek
Yarn : Hedgehog fibres Silk/Merino singles
Needles : 4,5mm

Unfortunately and to my great dissapointment this sweater is to small, and the bottom doesn't look good at all. As I love the yarn I might rip the sweater and reknit it, but I won't be able to do this before the new year. I think my gauge might have been off as well. We'll see.

Pattern : Peaks Island Hood by Ysolda Teague
Yarn : Textiles the la Marque Aspen (Wool/Mohair blend)
Needles: 5,5mm

This one turned out lovely, but my boyfriend decided it made me look like an old lady. So I decided to gift it to my FYS-lady. She had asked me to knit her one (but in black as she ran out of the blue yarn), but I don't have much time for that anyway. Sad parting it'll be ...

Pattern : My own really
Yarn : Textiles de la Marque Louisa 4
Needles : 2,5mm

I am totally in love with these! They turned out almost perfect, only the top at the fingers is a bit loose (would use smaller needles for the ribbing next time). They are nice and warm as the yarn has some angora in it! Can't wait to knit more of these in all different colours. And then I need a basic pair of (black) gloves to wear underneath! These are perfect to pull over a tin shirt when wearing something sleeveless. But they are also nice and comfy under my jacket as the bulk around the wrists giving extra warmth! I might even try to spin myself some yarn for a pair!

Pattern : Calorimetry by Kathryn Schoendorf

As you can see I used various yarns and needle sizes for these (visit my Ravelry page for more info). The blue one is for my sister to wear with her shawl. She wore it to work and her colleague asked one too. So did my mom, so I knitted 4 more for them to choose from. I'm sure the other 2 will get a new owner soon too.

That's it for now. I don't know yet when I'll be back. I have to concentrate on knitting Christmas socks now. It's not easy though as I'm really not in the mood to knit socks. But to keep up with tradition I have to keep on going. Maybe I'll be back with some sneaky knitting soon! :D

Hope you are all enjoying Winter and knitting warm woollies!

Back with knitting soon!

I am still struggling with my own mental (and physical health). I will be back here with knitting soon, and maybe some other creative stuff. I want to share, but there is so little time and energy left that I rather spend it on knitting or doing art!

Beside my own health the boyfriend has been struggling as well. At the beginning of October he suddenly could hardly breath. He had no clue what was going on, and the doctor thought it was some kind of bronchial pipe infection. The medicine he got helped for a while, but then the issues returned. After weeks of struggling the doctor finally decided to do a thorough examination of his blood. After a few days of waiting we found out the boyfriend has a serious - newly developped - allergy to house mites (sp?) and house dust. The latter is hardly to avoid as we basically live on a building site. So the next step is to find a good specialist to help us and look for a (hopefull) medical solution. In the mean time I have to clean a lot more then before.

We also had some issues with our dogs, nothing healthwise but it did involve a lot of legwork and time.

So there has been knitting, but I can't proof it right now. I'll get back soon though, with some serious knitting to show here!

A sweater and a shawl

While trying to get my thoughts (and life) back on track, I've been knitting like crazy. Tons of things on the needles. A few things that are finished but aren't photographed yet (and it's raining again, so no more pictures today). But I did use the sun this morning to get pictures of 2 projects!

First of, it's my 5th sweater for the IntSweMoDo2010 challenge. As I mentionned before I will never make it to 12 before the end of the yarn (unless I can skip work till the end of the year), but I'm happy with every sweater I get done!

Pattern : Alexandra Hoodie by Romi Hill (from the Fall 2010 issue of KnitScene)

Yarn : Textiles de la Marque Soie tweedée

Needle size : 4,5mm

Started/Finished : August 13 2010 till October 14 2010

Love how this turned out, love how it looks! Hated knitting the hood, I don't think I'll ever like knitting a hood. Takes forever! I also thought I messed up the seems but turns out a good blocking took care of most issues. It's small, but I don't think I would want it any bigger. I look forward to wearing it this Winter. It's only Autumn and I have been to cold a couple of days already!

The yarn is beautifull! Oh, I forgot the changes I made to this pattern. I didn't do the seed stitch on the shoulders and I only did the brim of the hood in seed stitch. I just didn't want to much of it on the hoodie, and I like it a lot this way!

Let's hope I can show more sweaters soon!

2 years ago I knitted my sister S a scarf and according to my mom she wore the thing till it fell apart. So this year she asked for a new scarf, and according to fashion I decided to knit her a kerchief/shawl rather then a scarf. It was a gamble as I hadn't discussed this with her, but she loved it!

Pattern : Springtime Bandit by Kate Gagnon Osborn (pdf here)

Yarn : Textiles de la Margue Aspen (mohair/wool blend) in blue

Needles : 5mm

Started/Finished : October 14 tot October 19 2010

This was a quick and nice knit. I love this wool and am already knitting a scarf out of it for me (and I have enough for a sweater). I didn't make any changes to the pattern! Now I know I need to knit a complete one for myself! :D (Previous one I ran out of yarn quite soon, see ...)

Of course now she requested a Calorimetry to go with it. The amounts of requests for handknits has been amazing, I cannot keep up with it. And I've decided I want to knit for myself!

There is no progress on the Christmas socks for my family, not one pair has been knit and I still don't feel like knitting them. But I need to get started, only 2 months left ... .

I'm dealing with a huge headache today, and the boyfriend is out again for most of the day. I'll try some spinning, maybe some knitting.

Striped cardigan

Some of you might have noticed the growing list of WIPs at the side-bar. I'm way to shattered again, starting a ton of projects at the same time and not really finishing things. That's just so me, and probably the start of Autumn ...

But I was able to move something to the FO-list, and it has buttons and all!

My striped cardigan! Based on the idea of someone else (link on the project page of the cardigan over at Ravelry) so I can't claim it as my own. I did use my own basic pattern, based on various patterns and calculations out there.

The yarn is as always from my favourite yarn store. The beige is 100% alpaca, the brown is a Cashmere blend. It turned out really nice. And I love the buttons!

They are from a stock sale, I think they are quite old. They fit perfectly! Of course a few more buttons might have avoided the pulling of the button band, but I think it's ok. I do think I'll get quite a bit of wear out of this cardigan. I actually like simple shaped stuff the best!

This is the 4th sweater for the IntSweMoDo2010 challange. I won't make it to 12, but I think I knitted more sweaters already then I did in all the years past. So every one I can still get done is one extra to keep me warm this Winter!

If I have the time tonight to sew the pieces I will have another finished cardigan to show here soon!

Patterns!

Remember the 4oz Challenge on Ravelry I was talking about? I was hoping to spin, knit and write 3 patterns. My fist patterns, and also my own personal challenge for the month, writing a pattern.

The spinning and knitting went quite fast, it was easy and fun. But then the writing of the pattern. It was making me so nervous and I kept putting it off. On Wednesday night I started realizing I probably wouldn't make it. I wanted nice looking patterns that were well written, but I knew it was a huge thing to do. And I only had till September 30 to actually send in the patterns. So I was about to give up.

But last night, after a ton of setbacks, at 2am (over here it was already October, but luckily the US is so far behind and for the challenge it was still officially September!), I finished the second pattern and got them all published on Ravelry!

So here you go :

Autumn in Summer Shawl
Lace pattern in Handspun yarn. The shawl is easily adaptable to make bigger. Knit out of 100% BFL, Spunky Eclectic fiber in colourway Hidden.

Ravelry Link

Criss-Cross Around
Easy circular lacy shawl, also easily adabtable and designed so show off handspun! The lacy-ness is actually not created by the pattern (it has a simple cable), but by the big needles.

Ravelry link

As you can see both patterns are only available as PDFs through Ravelry. At the moment that is the only way I am going to offer them. If you are not on Ravelry and you do not whish to join (it's free, so just try it!) then you can always email me and I'll send you a copy. They are both free. I will of course link to them in the side-bar!


I did not finish the third pattern, which was actually the only pattern that needed a specific yarn. The 2 patterns above are flexible, which I like for patterns for handspun as it's not always easy for spinners to spin that perfect yarn they need! Well, at least not for all spinners and I don't consider myself much more then a beginner yet!

I do have a few more ideas in my head, but first it's Socktober! I'm going to use this month to get a quick start on my Christmas knitting, which won't be easy as my sock-knitting mojo is completely gone. It's not my official challenge of the month, but it will be a challenge to actually knit socks!

Lots of knitting

... but nothing to show! Yeah, I have been knitting a lot, but I have nothing to proove! I have a few projects nearing completion, and I'm looking forward to new things to start, but so far I've been pretty good about not casting on anything new till some of the old stuff is finished!

Actually, I did finish my second 4oz Challenge project yesterday. It needs a good blocking so no pictures yet, maybe later this week! I do need to get started on those patterns or I won't get them written up by the end of the month!

I hope to finish my striped cardigan this week, I have only about 1/4 of the sleeve left to go and then it's only the button bands. I'm also knitting on the sleeves of my Alexandra Hoodie. that's the last of the knitting I have to do after knitting the hood. Then there'll be a sewing party needed to finish the seems.

Now I have decided I want only 2 active sweaters on the needles. The next one I'm going to cast on - after finishing the striped cardigan - will be the Still Light Tunic by Veera Välimäki. I'm totally in love with this and I have the needles and yarn ready, already swatched so it's only a matter of casting on! I'll also be casting on will be Abalone by Beata Jezek. I custom ordered the yarn for that one and promissed it wouldn't end up in my stash. I bought it a few months ago so it already has been there way to long! I am excited to get this started though as I think I'll get quite a bit of wear out of it. And I am in love with the yarn dyed by Beata (find them at Hedgehog fibres).

There is so much more I want to knit! Yesterday I did spend a whole evening to find the perfect pattern for this yarn :

It's a discontinued yarn (the firm doesn't even excist anymore). I have enough for a cardigan, so that is what I want to knit out of it. I want a simple cardigan as the yarn is already quite busy at itself. So I searched Ravelry for quite some time, and here is what I came up with :

As you can see the one on the left is from Drops, the other one is from Rowan (Rowan Magazine 40). I think they will both showcast the yarn just fine. The issue with the drops cardigan might be that the expected gauge might be a bit to tight for the yarn. We'll see. What do you all think?

I've also totally fallen in love with this cardigan (sorry, I only found a Ravelry link). But it won't combine well with the yarn I have, so I have to search another yarn for the cardigan!


Oh, and it's almost October, and I decided to participate in Socktober. I'm not big into socks, like I mentionned before, but beside the Christmas knitting I also got a request from a colleague for socks for her grandson! So this might be a good reason to knit socks!

There has been a lot going on in my life, not all very good and though probably not very important it is very bad for me. It might result in a lot more knitting time in the near future. Right now it's already giving me a ton more time to knit and spin, which might be a good thing.

As I wrote before I finished the first project for the 4oz challenge. I wanted to take the pictures for the pattern on Saturday but didn't get around to it. If the weather keeps up I'll take them tomorrow and I'll write the pattern then if I can. Probably won't get it done in an evening though, but I'll get started. Here is a picture of the finished project :

It might not be original but I'm very pleased with how the whole pattern turned out!

Here is a picture of the second pattern on the needles :

I'm still completely in love with the colours of this and I hope to get it finished soon. The writing of the pattern should be easy as it's a really easy pattern. Really what I was going for, an easy and flexible pattern as it's not always easy to spin yarn to certain requirements and I wanted this to be something that even beginning spinners could knit!

I want to knit seconds of all the patterns, and maybe with commercial yarns. But I will try to write the patterns first before the end of September so they count for the challenge!

As for pattern #3, I spun the singles for the yarn, I hope I can ply it later tonight and then I can start knitting. Actually, I'm busy with some exciting projects. The fronts and back of the Alexandra Hoodie are blocking so I should be able to cast on for the hood tonight. And I noticed I only have half a sleeve and the button bands for my striped cardy left. It's actually nice to have a few cardigans so close to completion. There's a ton of things I would love to cast on. On the other hand, I should get started on my Christmas knitting 'cause I'm never going to make it. I just don't really feel like knitting socks this year, but as my family is already counting on them I'm going to try to start soon. Well, as soon as the 4oz Challenge projects are done!

Oh, and I wanted to share this with you :

This is my cat Ozzy. At the beginning of June he didn't come home. He had done that before, stay away for a few days and even once for 2 weeks, but when he hadn't come home 3 weeks later I started giving up. Of course I had completely given up by August, till I came home one evening at the end of August. It was raining like crazy and I got in after riding the horse, it was pretty late already. I heard a cat crying like crazy in the Summer Garden, but one of my other cats tends to do that every now and then. When I went into the bathroom (temporarely, it's actually the stock/laundry room where the cats also sleep) I was in total shock. Standing in front of me was Ozzy, thin and wet but totally my sweet cat. He didn't stop crying and asking for attention!

I'm still not sure if this isn't a dream, though he is there, in perfect health (the "skinny" is actually healthy weight, as he was a bit overweight before). Every night I'm scared he won't come in, so I'm always relieved when he comes wandering in in the evening. He has changed a little, only that he no longer seems to be scared of my 2 dogs. But beside that he's still the loving cat he was before. I guess every now and then a little miracle does happen!