finally finished. it took me 2 years to finish these socks. no idea why because i absolutely adore the pattern. it’s easy yet effective and creates a great texture. it also never gets boring.
pattern: cut & paste socks by becca diaz. i slightly changed the pattern and knit them top down instead of toe-up (when i started the socks i was still afraid of toe up 😉 )
yarn: lana grossa meilenweit cotton stretch
needles: 2.5mm dpns
i took the ravelympics event „aerial unwind“ (= ripping projects you don’t like to reuse the yarn) as an opportunity to tidy my wip box. i had really old projects in there that would have never ever been finished. so i frogged them! yay!
got 3 aerial unwind medals for 3 projects:
nordisch inspiriert
before:
after:
leaf socks
before:
after:
wave socks
before:
after:
and here’s the second finished ravelympics project. it’s fingerless mittens for tim’s sister. the pattern is a piece of cake but the challenge is that i don’t know her in person yet. so i have to guess what she likes, which colours, which style…
the mittens are very cosy, soft and warm. i hope she likes the them as birthday present…
this time i took part in the ravelympics events mitten moguls and cable cross-country.
pattern: dashing
yarn: wolle rödel, soft-merino, 100% merino. used about 1.5 skeins
needles: 4.0mm dpns
ps: i hate taking photos at night. you never get the same results as with daylight. but as i wanted to have the ravelympics medals as soon as possible, it had to be photos last night with flash 😉
my first ravelympics project is finished! yay!
for all of you who don’t know ravelympics: it’s a kind of game we play or a competition at ravelry during the olympic winter games. you basically knit or crochet things and enter them in different events like sock hockey, lace luge, single skein speed skate, etc. when you post your finished project on the events‘ finish line, you get a medal, an award you can show off with: „i took part in this event in ravelympics“. you can join a team and knit for them. the team also gets the medals the team members earn. i’m entering for team germany 🙂
so here we go. my first ravelympics project and my first medal! i’m officially a ravthlete now!
my octopus was entered in the event skelegurumi (amigurumi and toys):
the special challenge for this project was, that i changed the yarn from a worsted weight to sock weight. i wanted to use some sock yarn leftovers. so the little guy got really tiny and fiddly to knit. it was also hard for me to get over the „i hate sewing pieces together so i just stop and let it lie around for ages and wait if it gets any better“-syndrome. 😀 but i made it! yay.
pattern: octopus from the book „amigurumi knits“ by hansi singh
yarn: drachenwolle handdyed sock yarn in green and turquoise
needles: 2.0mm
my citron shawl is finished and i’m quite proud of it! the pattern is adorable. simple but a genious idea and very effective.
i did an additional pattern repeat which made it feel like forever until it was finished. the last few rows (the ruffle part) had almost 650 sts each *argh*
but the resut is worth it, don’t you think?!
pattern: citron by hilary smith callis, knitty winter 2009
yarn: handpainted yarn lace, colourway peridoto, 100% wool, 777m/100g
here’s how to do a 6th pattern repeat. maybe it’s helpful for you too:
6th section:
1) 540 sts
7) 273 sts
9) k3, m1, (k12, m1)x7, (k11, m1)x9, (k12, m1)x7, k3 –> 297
19) k3, m1, (k13, m1)x7, (k12, m1)x8, (k13, m1)x8, k3 –> 321
here a new episode of pingu’s big adventure. since he is travelling with a pilot he wanted to give him a hand and checked if everything is ok with the plane before take off.
little pingu isn’t afraid of big things so he started off with the turbines. first from the inside…
then from the outside.
everything seemed to be in order. turbines: check!
he also kept an eye on the maps. :
pingu in paris sounds so classy doesn’t it 😉
today pingu is in paris, eating baguette et fromage and enjoying the bohemian lifestyle. he also visited the eiffel tower and he and tim were very dissappointed that the platform at the top was closed. but they did a little photo session anyway.
tonight pingu will be in milan, but a little penguin is very tired after a long day, so he won’t hit the clubs or pose for more travel photos for us.
where will his journey take him next?
this is a new series in my blog: pingu’s travels.
remember this little feller? we christened him pingu and sent him on a big journey. he’s not alone though. tim, who is a pilot at lufthansa, will keep him company. or the other way round?! 😉
the first trip of pingu the penguin was to egypt with us in january 2010. it was a little hot for him, but he enjoyed sunbathing, palm trees and the red sea nevertheless. he looks quite content, doesn’t he?
these are the first handspun socks that i finished!
the socks were knit from this yarn. i had a lot of differently coloured scraps (i think it’s merino, but not sure – it was a present from tim) which i divided in half and spun one after the other. then i navajo plied it and divided it in two skeins for two socks (obviously). they were exactly the same weight. the yarn is thicker than usual 4-ply sock yarn. i’d guess it’s more like 6ply sock yarn.
then i knit plain toe-up socks (started off with 20 sts and increased to a total of 52 sts) with the yarn and this is the result. i’m not really thrilled about it as on the left sock some stripes were thinner than on the right sock. so there is one colour change more now on the left sock now to get the same length. i think it looks kind of stupid but it’s handspun yarn so i guess you can’t expect anything more… as i’m a little perfectionist i thought about ripping back the right sock to shorten the wide stripes, but i really, really don’t want to rip socks that are already finished.
they are incredibly soft and comfy though and i got tons of positive feedback and encouragement at ravelry and flickr. so i’ll just live with my cosy, cheery, unique socks 🙂 i’m even kind of proud of them. because they are my first handspun socks and because i got the stripes fairly identical on both socks…
i’m still very much in love with my canon eos 500d by the way. the photos it produces are just adorable…
well, maybe i overdid it. but just a little. this is the result of my latest yarn shopping trip. i came across old maiden aunt yarn by accident because i saw a project on ravelry and liked the yarn. so i checked out the website and fell in love instantly. therefore this huge order of 13 skeins 😀 all of mine are 100% superwash merino sock yarn but they have other yummy qualities as well.
producer: old maiden aunt
yarn: 100% superwash merino, handdyed, 4ply, 400 yards per 100g
the colours are from top to bottom and left to right:
2 skeins hebridean, midnight owl, 2 skeins midnight, 2 skeins bitter bug
brass tap & oak, cinnamon, moody, mexican wine, last night’s red dress, derelict daughter
