Long time, no blog

What can I say? I blame it on the baby... and on life in general. When I have free time I tend to knit or read blogs or surf Ravelry (have I mentioned that I love that place?), not blog (or clean the house. Ahem. I *do* however cook and launder)

Let's see what I have been up to knitwise since the last time.

1. I finished the Spiralling Coriolis for E.

Pattern: Spiralling Coriolis Master Pattern from New Pathways for Socks Knitters, Book One by Cat Bordhi
Yarn: Claudia Hand Painted Fingering in Sharks, exactly one skein.
Needles: 2,5 mm Addi circ, Magic Loop as usual
Verdict: Great pattern. Fun to knit and the socks look fun too. They look a bit slouchy on these pictures but the fit is actually very good. I made them a bit large on purpose, for growing. Next time I make socks for E I will need more yarn though. These could have been a little taller.


2. I started a pair of socks for me, Rushing Rivulet from The Book.


This is the first time I have used Fiesta Boomerang and I like it a lot. It is thick and squishy and the colours (Quince) varies nicely. I am almost finished with the second sock.

This is a pattern for "the independent knitter", which means that it just a basic description of what to plug into the master pattern. I have no problem with that, but it might not be the best sock to start with from this book. I love the result, even though I had to rip the foot a couple of times to make the stitch pattern behave as I wanted it to.

3. I developed a sudden need for a new hat. Autumn is here and it is cold walking the kids to school/daycare with wet hair in the morning...

Pattern: Shedir, from Knitty.com
Yarn: Urban GypZ Twisted sock yarn in Electric Lizard, about half a skein.
Needles: 3,25 mm KnitPicks circ, Magic Loop
Mods: I didn't have the same gauge as specified in the pattern, my hat is a little larger around and I knit only three repeats (instead of five) of the main pattern my hat measured half the finished height so I stopped there.
I didn't use a cable needle, too fiddly, except for the "cable 3 right" on row 54 and the "cable right and decrease" on round 61. Instead I used a "knit second stitch from the front or back (depending on the direction of the twist) without dropping it from the needle and then knit or purl the second stitch, drop both sts from the needle" technique, and a "cable without a cable needle" technique. Much quicker, at least with really pointy needles.
Verdict: Fantastic! Maybe it is silly to do such a detailed pattern in this busy yarn, I love the result anyway, but I may make another one in a solid.
The yarn is very soft and nice, and the twisted colours gives the knitted fabric a nice, heathered look.


It isn't easy to take good pics of yourself in the mirror. Or of the top of your own head, for that matter.

4. I made baby A a Baby I-cord beanie (do check that link, Woolly Wormhead's hats are so much fun, and there is a bunch of free patterns too) from the leftovers of Shedir. He hasn't been cooperating with the camera so no pics yet. The hat is super cute though. As is A of course :-)

5. I had the post office (or rather the post office-wannabe pickup place) loose a package from The Loopy Ewe and then miraculously find it again when their superiors told tem where to look. It only took four weeks and a number of phone calls :-/ But the yarn is lovely!

Left to right: Zen String Bambewe in Jamie, Perchance to Knit in Rainbow Blue, Cider Moon Glacier Pueblo and Hot Flash, Fiesta Baby Boom in Wild Oak, Claudia Hand Painted Fingering in Santa Fe, Toast and Ingrid's Blues, and Yarn Nerd 900 MHz in Raspberry Sherbet.
The Claudia is destined to become a couple of copy-cat Chevron Scarves (I don't have the pattern but how hard can it be?) I'm thinking Santa Fe + Ingrid's Blues and Toast + Ink.

6. I received a $5 credit from The Loopy Ewe because someone clicked through from here and placed their first order. Thank you very much, whoever you are! The credit has been spent, there was a sneakup today...

7. I found out that Socktopus is starting a sock club (and a stitch marker club) and joined after thinking hard about it for, oh, three seconds? I'm doing the Bells and Whistles option and the first shipment is in December. I can't wait!

8. I found that GetKnitted in the UK has KnitPicks needles! (KnitPicks don't ship to Sweden for some reason) I ordered a bunch of circ's at once. They arrived promptly and I like them very much. The points are very pointy, the cables are very flexible and the joins are very smooth. Me happy!

I'm not so sure about GetKnitted though. They charged me £13 for shipping. That is a lot for a small packet of needles. My package from Socktopus shipped for less than £3, and that one contained a not so small book plus three or four skeins of yarn. The needle package was stamped with £2,65 or something thereabouts. I though £10 was rather a lot for 'handling' so I wrote them an email. No reply, but after a week or so I got a refund of £8 on my credit card. So that's alright I guess. But why didn't they reply to my email? This reminded me that I ordered from them once before, about a year ago and I wrote them an email asking something about my order and they didn't reply that time either. So I really don't know what to think about them.

9. I started listening to Sticks & String, a really nice podcast by David Reidy, "an Australian bloke who knits". I'm up to show number 22 and I really enjoy them. Check it out if you haven't already done so.

Not so knitwise... My kids:

Our local newspaper cooperates with a local photographer who spends one day every week taking pictures of local babies for a small fee which then gets published in the paper. And you can order copies of course. I think this one turned out really good, especially considering that A was very sleepy at the time. Guess what our relatives are getting for Christmas this year...?