Kaffe

I found back my favourite sweater in the back of a closet. I made it sometime in the 90ies. It needs some repairing, but it's still my favourite.


Pattern: adapted from Kaffe Fasset: Glorious Knits. Yarn: Acrylic, wool, cotton, rayon, and blends. I bought skeins on sale, ripped thrifted sweaters etc. It was great fun and left me with a stash, I have still some of the yarns used for this sweater.

second time around 'bleh'

man what is it with this yarn? I frogged the hat, started a new one following the top-down-no-swatch-approach with the plan to make a beret. The top looks good, I think.























But on my head it looks like a shower cap. I think this is because the hat is to sturdy to be so big. Either it should have been more drapey, so it would kind of fall in folds at the back of my head like a real slouchy beret. Or otherwise it should have been sturdy but smaller, like the urchin I made.





Any help appreciated...


The whole idea behind the Lifestyle top down hats, no swatch needed
is totally me. Go and play with the yarn, live dangerously, design-as-you-go, try out a new stitch, knit fearlessly, ...

and end up with a shitty hat. Bugger.

Gadget man's hat

I know a guy who would want to obtain all the newest gadgets produced by Apple computers as soon as they leave the design table.

He must have an apple hat. Low tech, high tech rolled into one. A gift for his birthday.


PS I know the apple logo is mirrored in the picture - in real life it's not (anybody know how to mirror picture 'back'???)


Yarn: Løve Cosy; pattern: basic head hugger - k2, p2, with a pannel of 14 x 20 in stockinette for the logo. Logo stitched on with duplicate stitch - chart from the tech guy socks as published in Magknits.

Ignatia

Ignatia is basically a firestarter with a different twisted stitch pattern. The pattern is broader, so I had to make some changes other places too, and I have bit feet, so these socks are larger and wider than the original firestarter.

To date the best socks I have made. Up to the next pair...

head and toe

Because everybody else was making them too:



done on 2 circulars, at once. Which actually posed some cognitive challenges.

Because I had made the yarn and it was hard to find the 'right' project for it:


no knitting challenges here. Just follow the pattern (from 'Knitting in the nordic tradition'). A little bit of anxiety at the end (will I have enough yarn???) but it worked out.

a new handspun hat

Yarn spun on the spindle, nepalese wool (bought) blended with pencil roving (inherited).
Hat knit as an evolving thing (no swatch, planning or pattern).

Twisted stitches, cell phone cosy nr. 3

yarn: undefined yarn (seems to be acrylic)
pattern: 40 st. in the round in twisted rib, and then Chart D from Eunny Yangs Bayerische sock as a panel

Somewhere on the way it went a little wrong... I have to practice some more....

rainbow and 'where are the votes from the ... jury'?

Look what I did with the handdyed fleece from the knitting cow
took one colour and did a bit of yarn, blended that colour with a bit of the next and spun some more. Then added even more of that second colour, until it was solid. Then started adding the third colour. The whole thing mixed with blue/green specks for interest and unity (not very visible on the photograph, which also shows the colours a bit too bright).
What you get is a rainbow.


I will turn it into a hat.


Now for the next thing, I need your votes, please. It is a rather basic skullcap, made of the malabrigo I bought in Santa Cruz (soft!!!!!) and I am thinking of embellishment. One possiblility is a crocheted flower in the same or some other yarn. One other possibility is small felted balls hanging ca. 5 cm from the top in a crocheted string. Also of the same yarn.
I am giving control out of my hands and to you, my blog readers. Which of these two should it be. The one that gets the most votes, I will make.

second and third yarns - tweede en derde garen - andet og tredje garn

my second yarn turned into a hat
mijn tweede garen werd een muts
mit andet garn blev til en hat





the third yarn is made of blue, turquoise and white fleece, combed together
het derde garen is van blauwe, turquoise and witte wol, door elkaar gekamd
det tredje garn er lavet af blå, turkis og hvid uld, kammet sammen




I'm so amazed at how much fun it is to spin
Ik verbaas me er nog steeds over hoe leuk het is om te spinnen
Jeg er stadig forbavset over hvor sjovt det faktisk er at spinde

Wednesday in Santa Cruz

well for anybody traveling with British Airways from Europe to the US (and back, I guess) don't count on knitting on the airplane. They didn't accept my bendy, blunt wooden needles, and not even the quite thick, plastic, not-at-all sharp crochet needle...

Been conferencing for 5 days in Costa Mesa, Orange County (i.e. short nights, lots of input, discussions and dining out) and so - no knitting there either. I guess it has been a quite knitting-deprived week so far. However, last Friday I went to Laguna Beach with a friend/collegue and look what I found:

Beach Yarn

first, first, second, first

Here are the knucks I made from the first ever handspun.

One other 'first ever' is the way I knitted them: simultaneously on two circulars. There's directions on
knitty for the cast on. The rest is not explained much there, but I figured it out: always knit all the stitches on one circular first, then all of the stitches on the other - and as it actually says in the directions: knit them on the same circular always (i.e. you work with only one of the circulars, and knit the stitches from it onto the other end of it). This way, you'll always know where to go on, for there will be just one yarn end in the neighborhood of needle tips.
Keep an eye on using the right yarn ball each time (although it is actually hard to make a mistake there). There also seems to be a book: Socks soar on two circular needles (Cat Bordhi), but I didn't use it.

Then: I am going to LA to participate in a conference for the second time in my life. Looking forward to it, but the journey is going to be a long one and so I'd like to find out about the rules on knitting on planes nowadays. Is there a way to be able to or are they banned from handluggage? I would hate to sit there for 11+ hours and not be able to make one stitch. (I am flying British Airways).

While being in California I will also visit my sister in Santa Cruz for the first time since she moved there. Anyone know about knitting-related stuff going on there? Recommendations for yarn shops (fiber's good too...) - let me know!

what's happening??

Normally, I don't seem to stick to a particular kind of knitting. Now, however, I have already knitted 3 pairs of maryjane/balletshoes in a row. And here is my 3rd cell phone cosy. The 4th is on the needles.

Child stuff

Maja calls these her 'ballet shoes'. I followed the tutorial for felted mary janes (see sidebar) but minus the strap and minus the felting. Also, I didn't add the 1 cm for the width and the length that you do for the felted slippers. They are made in DK cotton, purple - as requested by the (almost) 4-year old.

Maja kalder disse hendes 'balletsko'. Jeg fulgte instruktionerne for filtede mary janes (se sidebar) men uden stroppen og uden at felte dem. Jeg undlod også at lægge 1 cm til i længde og vidde, som man ellers gør ved de filtede. De er lavet i tykt bomuldsgarn, i lilla, som den næsten 4-årige havde bestilt.

Maja noemt deze haar 'balletschoenen'. Ik volgde de instrukties voor de vervilte mary janes (zie sidebar) maar zonder het bandje en zonder te vilten. Ik heb ook de ekstra 1 cm voor de breedte en de lengte niet meegeteld, zoals je bij de vervilte versie doet. In dik katoen, paars, zoals besteld door de bijna 4-jarige.



Crochet: I also made a small 'Hello Kitty' bag for a 10 year old. It for hanging around your neck. Pattern: here

Hækling:Jeg laved også en lille 'Hello Kitty' taske til en 10-årig. Det er til at hænge om halsen.
Mønster: her

Haken: Ik maakte ook een klein 'Hallo Kitty' tasje voor een 10 jarige. Voor om de hals.
Patroon hier

scarf and necklace

One big, one small thing for around your neck. Compare the scarf with the thing I tried first here, don't you think this is much better?

Necklace: thin white crochet yarn with sewing thread to make it greener. No pattern
Scarf: Noro Kureyon, pattern here
This is my project for March of the 12 projects in 2007. 200 gr. off the stash.

Twisted...

Cell phone cosies offer the opportunity to do a 'newstitchswatch' and still have a useful item (if you think it so) afterwards. There are probably more to come...
This is one with a twist stitch pattern from Barbara Walkers' third treasury - 'Mirror cable' (p. 38).

Bad match - Dårlig kombi - slechte kombinatie

Sometimes you just have to conclude that Noro Kureyon is not the right yarn. It is too beautiful a yarn to be wasted on something that more than anything else resembles a nest of potholders. The pattern also is too good. It probably just needs a solid, non-variegated yarn.

Nogle gange skal man bare konkludere at Noro Kureyon ikke er det rigtige garn. Det garn er for flot til at være brugt på noget der mest af alt ligner en samling grydelapper. Også opskriften er for god. Den skal bruges med ikke-flerfarvet garn går jeg ud fra.

Soms moet je gewoon de konklusie trekken dat Noro Kureyon niet het juiste garen is. Het is te mooi garen om het te gebruiken voor iets wat het meest op een nestje pannelappen lijkt. Ook het patroon is te goed. Ik moet er niet-meerkleurig garen voor gebruiken, denk ik.

Warm feet - varme fødder - warme voeten

Here are my mary janes. They are knitted from Faroese yarn, and felted.
I have figured them out by myself and will share the pattern with you soon. The good thing about that pattern is that it is generic, which means that you (after a bit of math) will be able to knit these with any suitable yarn, in any size and in a felted, or not felted version.

Her er min sutsko i båndskomodel. De er strikkede fra Færøgarn, og filtede. Jeg har selv regnet dem ud, og jeg vil poste opskriften her snart. Det gode ved opskriften er, at den er generisk, dvs. at man (efter noget udregning) vil være i stand til at strikke dem i en hvilket som helst størrelse og med et hvilket som helst egnet garn, og i en filted eller ikke filted version.

Hier zijn mijn sloffen in bandschoenmodel. Ze zijn gebreid van garen uit de Færøer, en vervilt.Ik heb ze zelf uitgerekend, en ik zal het patroon hier binnenkort posten. Het patroon is generisch, dwz dat je (na een beetje rekenen) ze kunt maken in elke maat, van elke soort geschikt garen en in een vervilte of niet vervilte versie.

the most superfluous knitted item ever?

According to a person very close to me (guess who), the knitted item you see here is ridiculous and superfluous. Actually it is a gift for a friend and I certainly intend to make one for myself, too. Inside is a cell phone, but it could just as well be an iPod (if I had one). I mean, Apple sells industrially made (read: not as nice) items like this one in a sixpack for 29 dollars. They say:

"So add a dash of color to your iPod with iPod Socks, the year's coziest and most vibrant iPod accessory."

So what do you think? Hot or not?

The-knitting-cow-hat

Quite some time ago I did a swap - I traded candy and a crocheted little critter. In return I got candy and, best of all, handspun yarn from the knitting cow.

From that yarn I made this hat. I loved knitting with it, first of all because it is beautiful, but also the fact that someone, in Finland, made this with her own hands and gave it to me. Thanks once more!

For noget tid siden lavede jeg en byttehandel. Jeg sendte slik og et lille hæklet dyr. I bytte for det fik jeg slik, og, det bedste: håndspundet garn fra the knitting cow.

Fra dette garn lavede jeg en hat. Det var så dejligt at strikke med garnet, for det første fordi det er flot, men også fordi nogen, i Finland, har lavet det med sine egne hænder og gav det til mig. Tak endnu en gang!


Een tijdje geleden deed ik een ruil. Ik stuurde snoep en een klein gehaakt beestje. Terug kreeg ik ook snoep en, het beste: Handgesponnen garen van the knitting cow.

Van dat garen heb ik een muts gemaakt. Het was heerlijk om mee te breien, ten eerste omdat het mooi garen is, maar ook omdat iemand, in Finland, met haar eigen handen het gemaakt heeft, en het aan me heeft gegeven. Nogmaals dank!

My januari project - mit januar projekt

First of all: Anybody who can tell me how to get blogger NOT to rotate my picture, tell me! Until then: rotate your heads (to the left).


A hat in slipstitch. The stitch was found in the library copy of Barbara Walkers second treasury of knitting stitches that I reluctantly have returned. But it has been used by a lot of people on a dishcloth as suggested by Mason-Dixon knitting.
In order to shape the top, the amount of stitches between the slipped stitches (5 to start with) were gradually reduced (until none were left).

Yarn is from the same unfinished sweater as the slipstitch hat I produced earlier, see the entry
here
knitted on two circular, 4 mm needles.

This project is my entry for the 12 projects in 2007 group. It also goes into my yarndiet group, but I have to weigh it and I have no digital scales!

En hat i 'slipstitch' (hvad hedder den i grunden på dansk???). Jeg har fundet den i Barbara Walkers second treasury of knitting stitches, som jeg desværre skulle aflevere til biblioteket igen. Man kan også se den mange steder på nettet, for 'Mason-Dixon' knitting foreslår den på en grydelap.
For at forme toppen reducerede jeg maskerne mellem de 'slippede' (damn, hvad hedder det nu?) masker over flere omgange (fra 5 til 0). Garnet er det samme som jeg brugte til en tidligere hat, se den her

Strikket på to rundstrikkepinde, 4mm.

Denne hat er mit bidrag til gruppen '12 projekter i 2007'. Det er også en del af brugditgarnlager gruppen, men jeg skal jo veje den og har ikke en vægt som er digital!

Een 'slipstitch' muts (ik weet niet hoe dat heet in het nederlands - afgehaalde steek-steek? (en trouwens ook niet in het deens). Ik heb de steek gevonden in Barbara Walkers second treasury of knitting stitches die ik helaas weer moest inleveren bij de bibliotheek. Je kunt die steek ook elders zien, want Mason-dixon knitting heeft 'm op een pannelap. Om de top te vormen heb ik langzaamaan de steken tussen de afgehaalde steken gereduceerd van 5 tot 0. Het garen is hetzelfde als voor die eerdere muts, die je hier kunt zien.

Gebreid met twee 4 mm rondbreinaalden.

Deze muts is de eerste van mijn 1 projekt per maand group (en Lieke: ik maak geen grote dingen zoals truien, daardoor denk ik dat het gaat lukken). Het is ook een deel van mijn garendieetgroep, maar ik moet hem nog wegen en heb geen digitale weegschaal.