Happy 2009

Aaaaahhhh. Yaaaawn.
I have been off work since the weekend before Christmas and it feels So Good. I'm reasonably rested (because I have a one-year-old that wakes a bit earlier than I would like) and have done mostly nothing for two weeks. Heaven.

Reality is creeping closer though, I'm starting work on Wednesday, and M starts working in two weeks time. Then it's back to dropping children off at daycare and school before work and picking them up after work. M and me are both going to work 90% of full time so that will help a bit. And my parents will pick up the kids some days too.

I have been knitting a lot since my last post, I hardly know where to start... Let's play catch-up, shall we! For details see my Ravelry project page.

My Domino Sunset shawl has five rows of squares now, and the last row is under way.


Then there will be triangles to straighten the top, and some sort of edging I have to swatch. I need to get another ball of yarn too. It is an enjoyable knit, and it is easy to feel the progress as I finish each square.

I got a little crazy and very rapidly knit three pairs of felted clogs for the kids from that Fiber Trends pattern over Christmas. Here they are before felting.


Fun pattern, I will make a pair for myself too (I have ordered yarn) The felting was no fun though. First some manual abuse, then three or four trips through the quick 30 minute cycle of my front loader then some more manual abuse in the sink. I think they are ok now but they are drying very slowly. I have absorbent paper in them but it still takes time.

I finally got enough tired of the ziploc baggie with Harmony needle parts in it so I made a nice case instead.


Everything fits nicely with room to grow. I like that the fabric coordinates with the needles too :-) It's two batik fat quarters from the fabric stash.

Let's see... yes, socks! M asked for more socks. He wanted something red and chose Cherry Tree Hill Sockittome in Sugar Maple, red and orange and yellow. I picked out some suitable patterns for that yarn and he finally chose Dolomite, by Knitspot. It looks great so far!

I modfied the pattern to work from the toe up. Easy peasy, just turn the chart upside down! I think I will do some sort of mini gusset and short row heel. I used that kind of heel on my Loopy socks, see:

It could have been longer but I didn't want to disrupt the nice stripes.

The yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport in the Loopy Ewe colour. Great fun to knit!

Mid-November M and I went to northern Sweden and Norway with the company we both work with. I made myself new mittens before we went.

I made up the pattern, will post soon. They are knit top down from sock yarn held double. Nice and warm though not warm enough for -15 °C.

On the way North I made a hat from some of my handspun.

It turned out really well. I started it the night before we left and knit on the way to the airport, on the plane and finished it on the first short bus trip up north. It shocked some of my workmates that it was so quick to make :-)

The other travel projects were the Loopy socks above and my first Moebius scarf.

Fun to make and the perfect travelling project.

I don't think I have showed off my finished February Lady Sweater. Here it is:


Colour is most accurate in the first picture I think. I am very happy with it. The Malabrigo is so soft and the simple lace pattern becomes the slightly fuzzy yarn. I also made a matching hat!


Here are some pics of the blocked Adamas:


Adamas blocked out to be very large, but it has a nice drape and the Dream In Color Baby yarn is very nice.

This shawl/scarf is also very nice.

Unfortunately it is not mine anymore...


It was Moms birthday present and I really want one of my own. When I can justify buying the yarn for it. This was made from two balls of Noro Silk Garden Sock and I would like it larger... It is an absolutely gorgeous yarn for shawls but not very suitable for socks I think.

Socks... I made new socks for the big kids. Here are the ones for E:

... and the ones for H:

Oh, and I have started a simple shawl in Noro Kureyon sock.


I have one ball, we'll see how large the shawl gets, maybe it's just a scarf. I tried to make Ziggy's, working from both ends of the ball but the colours turned the same whatever I did so shawl it is!

Now I'm going to knit a bit before A wakes up! M's Cobble stone is still OTN, and I want to finish it (or at least up to the armpits) before I start a sweater (or three) for myself!

Knitting dreams

I go to work and I dream of knitting. The things I want to make, yarn I want to try. Then I come home and get to knit maybe one hour total after having dinner and putting kids to bed and before yawning too much. Yesterday was Saturday so I knit a lot. Started and finished a project in the same day even. OK, so it was a hat, but still...

Pattern: Turn A Square by Jared Flood
Yarn: Dream In Color Classy in Cocoa Kiss (28 grams) and Noro Silk Garden in colour 226, a mix of purple, aqua and grey, (20 grams)
Needles: 4 mm dpn's for ribbing, 4.5 mm Harmony circ and dpn's for the rest.
Size: A little too big... It looks great on M (but he thinks it is too small somehow) but I made it for my dad and he doesn't have M's thick hair. We'll see. Maybe I have to make Dad another one, I've got plenty of leftovers.
Great pattern. I have seen so many awesome incarnations of this hat over at Ravelry. I will surely make this hat again, but maybe a little shorter before I start the decreases.

Quickie project of last weekend was a Dumpling bag.

I knit and felted it and it slowly dried with a balloon in its belly. I removed the balloon when the bag was dry on the outside so it could dry on the inside too. Today I managed to sew on the magnetic snap.


It is Loopy sized!

The Houdini socks got finished too! Yes, I have had way too many projects on the needles lately. Yes, it feels good to finish stuff for a change and not just start them.

I didn't do the fancy leg in the pattern, it didn't work very well with this yarn. These are for my sister in Australia, so I didn't make them as long as I usually do.
This was a fun way of making socks, an afterthought leg. Good thing: you get to choose the nicest side of the foot for the instep and toe. Bad thing: six ends per sock to weave in, instead of the usual two. This is a Cat Bordhi pattern, and I think that her next book will be all about this way of making socks. Maybe other new ways too. I loved her New Pathways book and I'm looking forward to the next one.

Now I really want to finish my February Lady sweater. The body is done and the first sleeve is about elbow length. I keep trying it on to decide how long I want it, about halfway between elbow and wrist. I have to find nice buttons too. Large dark wooden ones I think.

I got the first Wollmeise sock club package on Friday! I don't think I will blog it just yet. Anyway, both colours are awesome! One of them is so me, the other one not so much but still lovely. And the pattern is stunning. I won't start it right away though. It demands some concentration and I don't want to knit that kind of pattern right now.

Coming soon: Adamas is blocking!!!

Package and Projects

The final Hemlis 4 package arrived on Friday. Look at the stuff!

A big skein of Grignasco merino-silk lace yarn, 1400 meters/1500 yards, enough for a sizeable shawl, in a beautiful deep blue. A ball of pure silk yarn from Louisa Harding, DK weight. Luxurious wrist warmers maybe? Six pretty stitch markers that my pal made herself, and a big bag of licorice. Yum! Thank you so much Ulrika!

Knitting news: I am chugging along on my February Lady Sweater. It is coming along nicely and grows visibly whenever I work on it, the yarn is so thick. I'm not quite sure how long I want it to be, about hip length I think. That means 19-20 inches (maybe 50 cm) I am a bad knitter, I didn't wash my swatch so I have no idea how much the fabric will grow or shrink with washing and blocking. It feels like it will grow a bit though so I don't want to make it too long. I love to be able to try the sweater on as I go.

Because I have sooo much time on my hands now that I have gone back to work (note: severe irony) I started another sweater.


Cobblestone in the purple Bendigo Rustic I recently got from Australia. This time I swatched properly, so I know that if I follow the stitch count for the 47.5" size I will end up with a 43.5" sweater, which is what I want. I will of course follow the length numbers of the smaller size.

With all the large project going on I felt (ha ha) the need for a quick project that Got Finished. Enter the Dumpling from Interweave Knits Fall 2008. Here it is pre-felted (OK, pre-fulled, but everyone else is using the word felting for this process anyway)

A really quick knit that took less than two balls (100 meters) of the pretty Sarek yarn I got in another Hemlis 4-package. Here it is felted and drying with a balloon inside to get a nice shape.

I have never felted anything before (intentionally) so I wasn't quite sure how to do. I sewed it into a pillowcase, put it in the washing machine with a pair of jeans and ran a short cycle, and then another one, because not much had happened. It was a bit more felted after the second cycle but I finished the job with hot water, detergent and abuse in the sink. Maybe I should have just tossed it in a proper 60 °C long cycle. Might try that next time. Anyway, now it just needs to dry and then it will get a magnetic closure.