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...?

I'm in love!

In Cat Bordhi's new book, New Pathways for Sock Knitters: Book One. I got it in the mail on Friday from Socktopus (together with some *very* nice yarn, see below) and I started drooling right away :-) The socks in the book are amazing, I want to make almost all of them NOW but I'm being good and started with the first learning socks. I finished the Little Sky socks on Saturday. Baby socks are quick :-)


They look really huge for a baby sock but when I measured them against A's foot yesterday they look ok for winter. My baby Bigfoot...

Pattern: Little Sky from New Pathways For Socks Knitters, Book One by Cat Bordhi.
Yarn: Garnstudio Alaska, exactly one ball. I was a bit nervous at the end of the second sock...
Needle: 4 mm
Verdict: Good pattern, easy to follow. A great way to learn some of the new things in Cat's book.

The learning socks are a good idea, because the New Pathways in this book are new ways of making the gusset part of a sock. There are 8 different (some are *very* different) ways in the book, each with its own baby sock and a number of large patterns *and* master pattern. Plus detailed descriptions of everything and then some. If you are interested in sock knitting: get this book!

I had just started a pair of socks for E and had only the toe done, so I ripped those and started a pair of Spiraling Coriolis for him instead, using the Spiraling Master Pattern with his measurements. This is the first one:

The other side, note the absence of normal gussets.


It looks a bit wonky off the foot but on the foot it's great. I can't wait to start a pair for me! The difficult part is to choose a pattern...

I have been a bit bad about posting my yarn purchases lately. I add them to Ravelry but not always show them here. Bad blogger :-( Anyway, I bought New Pathways and some yarn from a new online yarn store in the UK that I found through Lime & Violet's Daily Chum, Socktopus. If you are in Europe, check it out! Well, do it if you are outside Europe too... It's the only reasonable place I've found to get the book (amazon.com takes absolutely forever to get their stuff here, I think they send it by rowing boat across the Atlantic. Two months is ridiculous!)

First I saw The Book, then I saw that they had Dream In Color...

Cool Fire

Some Summer Sky.
... and a couple of other yarns that I had to try. This is Evolution from Chameleon Colorworks and it is absolutely amazing!


You would never believe that it is a pure wool when you see it and feel it. It's shiny and luscious and... mmmmm.

I also got this:


Dazzle from The Natural Dye Studio. This is China Blue.

Before I got distracted by The Book I finished a baby hat:


Pattern: Djevellue
Yarn: Lucy Neatby Celestial Dream Multi Color in Fiesta
Needle: 3 mm Addi, magic loop
Verdict: Love this pattern. Easy, peasy and cute! I was rather disappointed with this yarn when I bought it. The yarn base is nice and cushy, but the dye job is very uneven. It goes from very light in one end of the yarn to very dark in the other. It would be difficult to make matching socks out of it. So it sat in the stash for a long time before I decided to make smaller things with it. I'm happy with this hat, even though it's rather large, way too big for A right now. But eventually it will fit.

Now I'm off to do some knitting while the baby sleeps!

Swirl socks

A has a sleep-only-if-someone-holds-me-day. After a while I managed to slide him into my lap instead and was able to knit. So I finished another pair of socks! I must say that sport weight socks almost feel like cheating, they are so quick to make...


Pattern: Swirl socks
Yarn: Cider Moon Glacier in Juneau
Needles: 3 mm dpn's, and 2,5 mm dpn's for the inside of the picot edge
Verdict: A fun and easy pattern that you could change as you like. Zig-zags anyone?

I'm still here...

Thank you so much for all the well-wishes after baby A's birth! Time flies, he is two weeks old already and he's starting to hold his head up a bit and he is awake a bit more. Now we are waiting for the first smiles!

We showed him off at work the other day, that was fun. And I had to tell the birth story about a hundred times :-)

On the way there we stopped at the hospital and took some pictures of me and A on The Spot.


Yes, it is close to the hospital but not close to an entrace...

A of course likes to nurse, and cuddle, and sleep. Most of the time this involves me and my lap, so I haven't been knitting very much lately. I have have managed to finish the Pheasant Run socks though.


Pattern: Pheasant Run by Lisa Parker, Wildhorse Farm Designs, for The Loopy Ewe Sock Club August 2007.
Yarn: Claudia Handpainted fingering, colourway Loopy Ewe Sock Club.
Needles: 2,5 mm Addis
Mods: I don't like the look of garter stitch heel flap edges so I did a regular sl1, k1 heel instead. I also made the heel flap a bit longer to fit my highish instep, 3" instead of the suggested 2,5".
Verdict: This is not a colourway I would have bought, but I *love* it! The pattern is really great too, I love the look of the twisted rib triangles and it was easy to get the hang of how the pattern works. I made the scalloped top version (i.e. without ribbing at the top) with 2,5 pattern repeats in the leg and another 2,5 repeats on the instep.



Rudyard is done too.

Pattern: My own, inspired by Kipling.
Yarn: Garnstudio Alaska
Needles: 4,5 mm
Size: 3- 6 months

And I started a new scarf in Wollmeise yarn.


The pattern is the narrow version of the Woodland Shawl. Great pattern, easy to memorise (at least for me) and the 41 stitch row makes it feel really fast too. This Wollmeise colourway is called Zenzi, which apparently is a common name for a cow!

The colours remind me more of birch bark and shadows, it feels very right for this scarf (and for my black winter jacket that I hopefully will fit into when it gets colder!)

I'm having a hard time to find anything to wear right now, it seems like every pair of trousers are either too small (the normal stuff) or too large (the maternity stuff) I'm almost back at my pre-pregnancy weight, but apparently not to my pre-pregnancy size and shape :-( So my trouser wardrobe consist of one pair of regular jeans i a huge size that I bought when E was newborn, and the smallest pair of maternity pants. And nothing else. Ahhh.

Now when I have finished the Pheasant Run socks I have restarted the Swirl socks.


I started them and packed them in my hospital bag, but I only knit half a round or so while there... Now I had forgotten how to work the pattern so I had to rip back to the toe (not very much though) Sport weight yarn makes them really fast, and the pattern is really easy and great for jazzing up a plain sock in a varegiated yarn.

Oh, baby!

Baby is finally here!!! He arrived early Saturday morning, August 25th. First he made us wait 12 days after his due date and then he decided to arrive in 2 hours! So we didn't make it quite to the hospital, just to the parking lot... I gave birth standing under a street light and caught the baby myself. Probably lucky that it was in the middle of the night...

Not quite how I had envisioned the birth (no, really), but baby is fine and I am fine so all is well. But we sure were the talk of the maternity wards this weekend :-)

Here is baby A with his proud siblings:

Their t-shirts say "big sister" and "double big brother" and were presents from the baby :-)

The Waiting Game

That's right, no baby yet. Due date + 11 days today. I've never been this pregnant before. Say no more.

In the mean time I have finished the Baby Surprise Jacket (i. e. sewn on the buttons),


blocked Rudyard (and Kitchenered the shoulders and started on the collar),


finished the first Pheasant Run sock (and started the other one),


and started a new plain sock.

The yarn is Cider Moon Icicle in Grand Canyon. I'm calling it Fire & Ice :-) and I love it! All the Cider Moon yarns I've tried (and petted) are very soft and nice to work with, and the colours... mmm. These will probably take some time to finish at 36 sts/10 cm (9 sts/in) on 2 mm needles but they are my new mindless project so that's all right. Maybe I'll make it a little less mindless in the leg, I'm considering Feather and Fan, I haven't tried that and I like the look of it.

I am also working on the Mystery Stole 3, I have only about 10 rows to go so it'll be done soon I hope. The blocking will have to wait until baby is here though. No way I'm crawling around on the floor before that!

Socks and a sweater

H's socks are done. She loves them :-)

Pattern: My own: Toe-up with magic cast-on, Sherman heel, stockinette with a little ribbing on the sides of the leg. I increased 4 sts about halfway up the leg. 1k, 1p rib at the top, kept on knitting until I ran out of yarn. I had less than 3 meters left in the end :-)
Yarn: Claudia Handpainted fingering in Carousel, chosen by H.
Needles: 2,5 mm Addi Turbo
Verdict: Nice socks, and quick :-) Love the yarn! I have more in my stash but this is the first time I tried it.


Baby isn't here yet (let's not talk about how today is my due date + 7, ok?) so I'm trying to lure it out by knitting nice things for it. Here's a sweater front almost done:

The back is done too but it's just a square, not much to show off. The pattern is inspired by Kipling. I wanted a larger size and I didn't manage to biggify the pattern so I created my own. I'm calling it Rudyard. If the sweater turns out ok, and if it's ok with Kim I'll make the pattern available here.

Now of course H wants me to knit a sweater for her... Blue and white stripes, she says. I'm thinking top-down raglan with wide stripes. But what yarn...?

Due date

Today is my due date, but baby doesn't seem to know that. Or care. I do hope s/he decides to be born soon though. My tummy is huge.


And so are my feet (no pic of those!). The only shoes that fit me are flip-flops and Crocs. Summer has finally arrived, with frequent thunderstorms, so here's hot and humid and lots of mosquitoes. We have no AC (almost noone does here, you don't need it very often) so the little buggers get in through the open windows at night and eat us. Bleh!

We visited friends yesterday, and their new baby. A tiny two-week old girl. So cute and sweet and I got to hold her and she fell asleep in my arms :-) My own baby didn't get the hint though.

I've got mail! From Germany. This:


Yes, that's a feather.


Could it be from the elusive wool tit? Yes! Wollmeise yarn!

Yummy, no? Five heavy 150 g (about 5,5 oz) skeins of superwash sock yarn in luscious colours. Each skein is 525 meters/574 yards, so it should be enough for two pairs of socks, at least if one pair is short!

The colourways are (left to right): Red Hot Chili, Drachenblut (dragon blood), am kalten Polar, Vergeissmeinnicht (forget-me-nots), Zenzi. All are in the medium variety (you can chose between light, medium and dark) The Loopy Ewe carries Wollmeise now but if you live in Europe it's better to order diectly from Claudia. Lower price and no risk of extra taxes at Customs (if you are in the EU) And the yarn don't have to cross the Atlantic twice.

I finished the first one of H's socks:


That piece of yarn at the top is all I have left from that half-skein, 25 cm/10". Not bad, eh? Now I dearly hope that I did start with the smallest ball, otherwise I'm in trouble. I'm almost at the heel of the second sock so I'll find out soon enough.

The Loopy Ewe sock club package arrived last week and I just had to cast on immediately.

The yarn is from Claudia Handpainted and the pattern is called Pheasant Run. It has fun triangles of twisted rib. I could probably have knit them toe-up without problems but I'm doing them as written for a change (almost anyway, I changed the heel a little)

The colourway is really similar to H's yarn:

The sock club yarn is a muddier version version of the Carousel. Even H commented on it, "That's the same yarn!" Here they are knit up:


The package also included a little accessory bag that matches the Loopy Groupie tote and the sock club project bag we got in the last package, lollies, stitch markers, hot cider drink mix (which I will try when it's not 26 °C outside) and a knitting reference booklet.

All packed in orange tissue paper. Very autumny :-)

The last week has been too hot to work on the Mystery Stole. Sweaty hands, lace weight yarn and Addi Lace needles apparently don't mix very well, everything just get stuck. I'm about halfway through Clue 5, the start of the wing. Clue 6 seems to be more of the same so I'm very curious about Clue 7, the last one. I'm hoping for feathery shapes on the edge.

Socks and socks

The Wendelin socks are done! I managed to get M to model them, despite the heatwave (27 °C)

Pattern: Wendelin socks
Yarn: Regia Mini Ringel Color in 5211.
Needle: Addi Turbo 2,5 mm Magic loop
Made for: FIL
Verdict: Me like! A perfect pattern for the pretty stripes and the fact that I'm not entirely sure of the recipient's foot size.

These count for both Summer of Socks and Sock-a-Month KAL 4!

H saw when I was ordering yarn from The Loopy Ewe last week. She got very interested in all the pretty yarns and wanted me to knit socks for her. Sure, no problem. She chose Claudia Handpainted in Carousel, a fun yarn with lots of colours.

The yarn arrived super quick so I started her socks on Wednesday. Thursday morning they looked like this:

Now I'm halfway up the leg already. Of course it helps when the foot is only 6" around and 6" long :-) She wants knee-socks, we'll see how far the yarn goes (I only got one 50g skein)
The pattern is my own: magic cast-on, Sherman heel, ribs along the sides of the leg.

I have also started on the Loopy Ewe sock club sock for August. No pics or descriptions today, I don't know if everyone has got their packages yet as mine arrived so fast this time. Anyway, I love the yarn and the pattern so I *had* to cast-on now, even though I have a few (ahem) other projects OTN.

Knitting and waiting

... for the baby of course! I'm less than 2 weeks away from my due date now and I keep hoping that this one will be at least a little early. Please?

M has started his vacation now and that is So Nice. I can sleep in every morning and rest during the days. Which I really need right now, because I'm tired all the time. Today I also have a very sore back. I overdid things by mowing the lawn this morning... Silly me. But it really needed doing and this was the first day in ages that it was possible because of all the rain we have been getting lately (rain as in puddles on the lawn) And M has a lot of weeding to do, so sore back it is. I hope it is better tomorrow.

I have a finished object! It feels like it was some time ago... I've started a lot lately but not finished much.


Pattern: Curly Purly soaker pattern
Yarn: Garnstudio Alaska, almost 100 g for size small.
Needles: 3 mm, 4mm, 5 mm
Verdict: A very well-written pattern. I'm not sure about what size baby will fit into them, we'll see. The yarn is slightly scratchy, I hope it gets better with washing (I haven't blocked the soakers yet)

The first Wendelin sock is done too.

And the second one is started. These are my almost mindless TV knitting currently so they'll be finished in good time before FIL's birthday in September.

My Mystery Stole has seen some action too. I'm about a fourth into Clue 4 by now and I really like it. I've decided to knit the original length, that should be around 75"/190 cm when blocked.

And my startitis continues... My excuse for starting these Swirl socks is that I need something easy to bring to the hospital for when the baby arrives. I'm planning to stay a couple of nights and rest without the older kids so I'll need something to do. Can't spend *all* the time gazing lovingly at the baby you know ;-)


I'm using the suggested yarn, Cider Moon Glacier in Juneau (which is a bitch to photograph by the way, but the colours are rather accurate here), and it was really hard to put them away. The yarn is so soft and the pattern so fun. And there's only 48 sts to the row so they are fast too :-)

I'm not sure what made me start these Monos Locos though.

It is a toe-up variation of the Monkey pattern. The pattern is nice enough and the yarn too but I think they will be too large for me and the yarn is much darker in one end than in the other (this is the dark end) so they won't match a bit. I think I will frog them and split the yarn in four balls so I can blend the lightness/darkness somewhat. Dunno what pattern I will use though.