Kategorie: Stricken

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 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

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

my dad got these for his birthday on 1st january. there’s not a lot to say about them really 😉 just plain toe-up sock with self-patterning sock yarn knit on a long circular with magic loop.

pattern: mash-up magic toe-up socks recipe

yarn: aldi sock yarn

needles: 2.5mm, 120cm, circular

i already had this sock with me when i met up with caroline in london. now it’s finally finished *phew* socks for guy feet get so annoying: very long and wide + boring pattern…

tadaaa: i proudly present the christmas presents i made for my mum this year. the gloves were planned but i was a little late and only finished  half of the first glove before i went home to my parents over christmas on 18th december. so i convinced myself that it made sense to let my mum try them on and fit the fingers exactly to her hands 😉 and indeed it made sense! if i had fitted them to my fingers they would have been too long!

as i knit the knotty gloves before for myself i knew that it was a great pattern and that the gloves fit very well. and i wasn’t disappointed this time either. it’s really fun to knit. i just hate that i never manage to close the gaps between the fingers without holes. i always have to sew them closed when finishing. you can’t see that there were holes when you sew them up properly, but it’s annoying anyway.

oh, by the way: i used drachenwolle tweed sock yarn in the colourway „pink-black“.

i was a little late too. finished the gloves on christmas day. but it didn’t really matter as my mum already knew what she would get as a present and at least i finished the scarf in time!

the scarf was a spontaneus idea. i had to check out herrenberg’s only yarn shop of course („die nadel“) when i was grocery shopping with my mum on december 19th. i was quite impressed by their good choice of sock yarn but didn’t really want to buy anything (unless anything jumped right into my face which can happen occasionally *lol*). my mum said „look at this pompon yarn. that’s fun. and sooo soft.“ so i just said „do you like it? i’ll get you a skein and knit you a scarf for christmas if you like.“

so my curiousity how this strange pompon yarn would knit up, brought me some more work i had to finish before christmas eve *doh* i wouldn’t want to wear a scarf like this, just don’t like the look of it. but i have to admit it is incredibly soft, cosy and warm. and it was a really fast and fun knit. just took me two days to finish. there’s a pattern inside the banderole but it’s basically just: k1, *bobble, k2* repeat 6 times, k1

i love london. it’s my favourite city in the world. so like the last years i spent some days there in autumn/winter. from 5th to 9th december to be precise. this year my boyfriend tim (= london novice) joined me.

we did all the london basics and a bit more: piccadilly circus, leicester square, trafalgar square, whitehall, downing street, westminster, big ben, london eye, westminster abbey, st james park, buckingham palace, tower bridge, tower, royal observatory in greenwich, camden lock market, spitalfields market… went to get really drunk with my english friend kevin and to see the musical „wicked“ (excellent)….

tower bridge:

view over the docklands from greenwich royal observatory:

view from trafalgar square down whitehall towards westminster/big ben:

big ben:

caro & tim are there:

leicester square at night:

60s christmas decorations at carnaby street:

regents street with christmas decoration:

and of course – why else would i post it here – i was up for some crafty mischief and checked out some knitting/crafts stores! this year it even was 5 shops! not bad, ey?

on sunday i met up with caroline (stagasaurus) who is a knitting pal i know from flickr. we met at iknit, did some yarn shopping and had a chat and a knit in a café (well more of a burger place) next door). caroline was working on transition gloves and i was working on basic socks for my dad. one english and one continental knitter 🙂

the husband/boyfriend were sent away to do guy things while we did knitter things 😉

now a little report about the 5 shops i visited in london:

iknit, waterloo –> link

lovely little shop with a wide range of yummy yarns.  last year i bought 2 skeins of cherry tree hill solid sock yarn there and wanted to get hold of some more. was slightly distracted by those beauties though. it’s scrumptious dk, 45% silk, 55% merino and 220m/100g. caroline bought 3 skeins of the same yarn in a different colour… i’m curious to see what she’ll knit from it (and from my handspun berries skein i gave her for a present!).

all the fun of the fair, carnaby street –> link

tiny shop with all kinds of yarns, buttons, knit goodies and crafty bits and pieces. i bought a bag of „hand made with love“ charms for my knitted/sewed stuff there.

loop, islington –> link

i really liked this shop! it’s about the same size as iknit but a different selection of yarns. i always wanted to get my hands on colinette jitterbug yarn so i picked those lovely skeins. exactly my colours!! 😀 it was quite crowded when i got into the shop but the sales woman was very nice and helpful and there was a lively chitter chatter going on about ravelry, stoles and – what else – yarn. apart from the 3 colinette skeins i bougth a 3-pack of magnetic pattern markers. was looking for some of those for ages. now i won’t be losing track in complicated lace patterns anymore. yay. oh, and i got this lovely fabric bag with my shopping. i’ll be back!

john lewis, oxford street

john lewis at oxford street have a quite large yarn, fabric and haberdashery department and – coming from a country where knitting is considered to be just for grannies – i really enjoyed the range of crafty stuff, books, knitting kits, needle cases, sewing boxes etc. they have there. this is what i got there: breeze by kim hargreaves. 21 modern patterns. i’m especially fond of „georgie“ and „devon“. maybe the next big project…?

the handweavers studio & gallery, finsbury park –> link

they have a wide selection of yarns you can buy by the meter (or g/kg or whatever 😉 ). i was looking for unusual handdyed roving but they only had single coloured non-handdyed ones so i was a little disappointed. i almost bought some 25g packs of multi coloured silk, but reminded myself how badly spinning mulberry silk went. so i also gave that a miss and just bougth a wraps per inch/cm yarn gauge which i was looking for for some time.

so, boys and girls: london is worth a visit. have a look at the world class sights, have a look at the lovely yarn. and enjoy 🙂 xxx

i started to knit these socks in turkey – the night before we had to leave the sunshine and heat to head back to cold and wet germany. the first sock was almost finished back in germany because i only stopped knitting on the plane home when they served food and drinks 😉

they look like really good mood, don’t they? so i called them „good mood socks“ aka „flying socks“.

pattern: basic socks. 64st, herzchenferse, bandspitze (sorry, don’t know the names of the heel and toe in english)

yarn: drachenwolle flamé, 75% wool, 25% poly, white streak merino

needles: 2.5mm dpns

working as a software engineer, i’m a geek by profession. my boyfriend is a pilot but he’s a real leisure time geek. 😉

so it had to be a binary cable hat for the leisure geek to avoid cold ears in helsinki/stockholm/etc! 😀

pattern: binary cable hat

yarn: aldi yarn, julia, have to look up the „ingredients“. but it’s part wool, part poly.

needles: 4mm and 5mm dpns