i’m so proud of this one! i’m really suprised how fast you get better with spinning. after less than a month was able to produce this beauty (ok, you can tell that i’m all excited, can’t you 😉 ).
it’s 100% superwash merino roving from drachenwolle and i spun it as thin as i could and then navajo plied it. i ended up with 88g and about 420m, so thinner than sock yarn. i’ll knit socks of it anyway, just cast on some more stitches than i usually would.
enjoy the view *lol*
this was the first time i took part in a mystery kal where a new piece of the pattern is revealed every week. it was a kal in the „sock knitters anonymous“ group in ravelry and we all knit the kiila sock by yarnissima. as i knitted her brainless socks before and know her other designs i was sure this one was going to be excellent as well. so here it is:
pattern: kiila by yarnissima
yarn: drachenwolle with silk and bamboo in turquoise
needles: 1 addi needle 2.5mm, 1.20m long –> knit 2 socks at the same time with magic loop
most of the leg was done yesterday while knitting and chatting with some other frankfurt knitter girls:
i was so busy lately that i didn’t even manage to post the newest news!
my spinning wheel arrived on 27th april. so i’m officially an old, crazy spinster now *lol*
it’s a kromski sonata and i love it. it’s quiet, smooth and spinning with it is very easy. not that i have a lot of comparisons as i never spun on a wheel before 😉 another cool thing is that you can fold the sonata, put it in a huge rucksack bag and transport it easily. you can also change the flyers, so i already know what i want for my birthday: a fast flyer and jumbo flyer and tons of fibre 😉
here is my beauty. it doesn’t have a name yet, but i guess it’ll get one sooner or later…
i have also been busy spinning of course.
this is my 1st yarn. it’s new zealand merino, undyed. quite lumpy and irregular, but hey, it’s yarn and i made it!
this is my 2nd yarn. i have no idea what kind of sheep it is from, it came with my drop spindle starter set ages ago and finally became yarn now. two shades of red plied together.
this is my 3rd yarn. i called it „purple paradise“. it’s hand-dyed shetland roving from wheeldale woolcrafts. lovely blues, purples and whites. this time i even measured the length of the yarn by winding it from the whorl onto my swift which i had set to a circumference of 1.5m before. i ended up with 173g and 600m. should be about the weight of 6ply sock yarn. i haven’t decided yet, but maybe it’ll actually become socks. yay. i was so surprised that you can improve so fast. the yarn is getting thinner and thinner and more regular 🙂
here you can see me spinning it on my balcony in the sun:
and this is the 4th yarn on which i’m still working. it’s merino superwash from drachenwolle. the merino is very smooth and i managed to spin very thin. i’m aiming for a 3ply sock yarn – i want to try navajo plying. how exciting. have a look at the work in progress:
conclusion after 3 weeks of spinning: i love it. the first yarn was a lot of stress (trying not to let the yarn break or get huge lumps) but it get’s really relaxing when you’ve got the hang of it. spinning meditation. the new yoga 😉 i also thought it would be more difficult. i saw a lot of „first yarns“ at ravelry, but a lot of them looked a lot worse than mine. so i’m quite proud of myself, if i may say so. ok, back to spinning…
story: when i knit (which i do all the time) i have things scattered everywhere: tape measure, knitting needles, yarn, stitch holders, hooks to rescue dropped stitches, needlebook etc… so i thought i’d sew something to overcome the chaos 😉
outer fabric + lining fabric: matching fabric i used for the needle roll (100% ikea 😉 )
tutorial: www.craftster.org
the „model“ in the box is my yellow jumper by the way. this is the second try – i had to frog the whole thing because it was toooo wide. the back is finished, this is the front. hope everything goes well this time *fingers crossed*
this is the matching needle roll. they are a nice couple 😉
pattern: simple plain sock. no pattern
yarn: about 70g drachenwolle „regenbogen tiger“
needles: 5mm circular needle
size: 40/41 – perfect fit for my feet 🙂
these socks helped to cheer me up immensely over the last few days. and i think i never knitted socks that fast! started the night of april 16th and finished the night of the 20th. yay for socks. i always knew that knitting was the new yoga *lol* but knitting is also therapy. anyway, the bright colours and great feel of the drachenwolle yarn did the trick. not feeling that miserable anymore 🙂
if you don’t like explicit language, don’t read on. i’m in a fuckin‘ mood to swear my heart out!
i just renamed the „boyfriend socks“ for „i hate men socks“.
why? because my damn, fuckin‘, lying, pretending, spineless boyfriend ditched me yesterday. yeah, a distance relationship is difficult but:
i:
he:
what to do with those socks now? i don’t feel like continuing anymore. more like burning them! and poking the guy with the pointy knitting needles at places where it really hurts!
wow, mind you, last year it was freezing cold over easter. it was snowing!
this year i’m sitting outside in a tshirt knitting at 10am on april 10th! how crazy is that… 🙂 can you hear the birds and the churchbells in the background?
i wish you all happy easter and some relaxing knitting days 🙂
[flickr video=http://www.flickr.com/photos/cazcrafts/3427882233/]with this pullover!
as soon as i saw it in the new filati handstrick magazine (36, spring 2009) in the supermarket i knew i had to knit this!
at wolle rödel i found the perfect substitute yarn for it: siena, 100% merino extrafine superwash, 135m/50g. it cost me a fortune, but still a lot less than the original lana grossa yarn (linarte) the pattern had called for.
it had to be this warm yellow of course:
the pattern just has the sizes 36/38 and 40/42 so i recalculated it to 44/46.
i almost finished the front part – i’ll keep you posted! 🙂
today i checked the contents of my stash, that’s what i produced from my crafts wardrobe. i never knew it was such a heap!
sock yarns. i can knit a loooooooot of socks! my special darlings are the wollmeise skeins, cherry tree hill, the noro and the handdyed skeins from drachenwolle and wollpapst:
other yarns. acrylics in the back. i don’t want to use them anymore. packed them in a seperate „ugh bag“ well separated from my nice yarn 😉
i also rediscovered this yarn. i got it from my mum. she bought it in the 80s and wanted to knit a jumper. never got any further than knitting a swatch. any idea what i could knit from it?
and i found this magazine from september 1986 with the yarn. i had to share this with you! aren’t those the most horrible and ugly patterns you have ever seen? enjoy the horrors of the 80s! 😉
last thursday my colleague reingard and me made a little yarn trip to bad soden, a small town outside frankfurt. we heard there was a very nice little yarn shop and we had to check that out of course!
while we were having a look around and a chat with the owner, she suddenly stared at my noro scarf and said „i know this scarf! is it possible that i’ve seen it at ravelry?!“ 🙂 well, of course she had. ravelry is my second home *lol* when i told her my ravelry nick she recognized me „wow, you are very active there, aren’t you? you are admin of the frankfurt group and you set up the frankfurt wool map!“
haha. brilliant. the warwick stole and me are famous:
