Spring spinning and dyeing

I have really dived into the fibre dyeing for real and love it. Here are a few pics from what I've been up to lately

Sunday Swift

Sunday afternoon and I get to use my yarn swift for the first time! As far as I know, there is only one store in town that sells yarn swifts, or yarn winders. They cost 649 SEK which is almost USD 100. A bit expensive I think...  I got mine on the flea market for just 60 SEK! Just a tenth of the price, what a bargain.

It doesn't happen too often that I buy my yarn in hanks but the winder will be of great help if I decide to dye yarn as well. My first use of this winder is for Alpaca Flamé by BC Garn, a fine thick-and-thin of the softest alpaca in crisp light grey. I've already made a cowl and baby cardigan using this yarn, I love it so much! I've teamed it up with a thin cotton thread for making a basic sweater for myself.

Keep going or give up, that is the question

I'm currently working on a boat neck sweater for Isola. It's in a milk chocolate brown hue with a narrow hot pink brim and inspired by a very basic sweater of my own. But the designing of the sleeve caps makes me crazy. I don't get the math right by some reason... So maybe it will stay a dream, it remains to be seen. And typical me, when I get stuck on something, I feel like just tossing it aside and make something that's a complete opposite of what I'm doing. Which, I guess, is why I just bought this pattern for myself:



It's Still Light Tunic by Veera Välimäki and normally a piece of this size, all in stockinette stitch, makes me go snooze but for some reason a knit like this seems strangely appealing and soothing all of a sudden. I can't get it out of my head! I need to make this!

But then I look at Isola's sweater and feel guilty. Not that she would care, she is sick of me running after her with half-knitted garments to try on, but I feel it would be such a waste to leave it unfinished. It was so good in theory...

Mindless citron

I keep on with my mindless knitting.. I have a couple of designs of my own that cry for attention but I pretend that I don't hear. I longed for making something more in Malabrigo Lace and decided to give the poplular Citron by Hilary Smith Callis a try. There are nearly 10.000 projects of it on Ravelry! My God. I can understand why it's so popular though. 
- It's made for a popular and fabulous yarn.
- It's a scarf but not the lacy kind. (ie not too complicated).
- It's so versatile. Goes with jeans AND a fancy dress. Add beads to it and you even have a wedding citron.
- One skein will be perfectly enough! (so it says).
- It's so light you can carry it with you and knit anywhere. 
- AND unlike many other scarves you don't have to cast on millions of stitches to begin. THREE is enough!
However, the rows are getting longer and longer... I've seen that the ruffle at the end calls for over 500 stitches a row. And you will need to make more that ten of them. Snooze.

Some of the knitters on Ravelry say that they immediately cast on a new one when they finished their citron and others say that it was such a boring knit that they will never do it again. Remains to be seen how I will feel about it. So far I like it! Here is the pattern if you want to try it yourself!

UPDATE: the pattern calls for two stitch markers. I always try to avoid using markers if I can and in this case I find it totally unnecessary - all you need to remember that the first three and the last three stitches of every row is in garter stitch. 

Pixie please

Haven't really managed to realize any of my own ideas this month. I just haven't had the energy to go through the trial-and-error process that my designing involves. I have just blindly knitted patterns that I'm already familiar with. So far one cowl and two headbands (gifts), one crocheted bowl and two pixie hats. One was for Isola, she looks so cute in it I could just eat her up. Ok, not so good pictures but she just looks so cute in this one I had to post it.

Wip in January

January is soon coming to an end, the first month of the new year have brought both good and bad news into my life. So I assume that it has been as life in general. Sometimes bad things happen and you just have to make the best of the situation.

Isola has been ill the past week, and she's still suffering from a nasty cough that keeps us all awake at night. I've been home from work to take care of her so I've had a couple of seconds extra each day to knit while she's resting. The Malabrigo Lace skein turned into a toddlers cowl, I used a stitch that is referred to as candle lights but I think it looks more like narrow leaves. I made a background in reversed stockinette stitch to it and think it turned out fine, at least I enjoyed knitting it and the yarn was soooo soft and light. It will be perfect for spring. I'll try to find time to write the pattern down if you want!

I'm also working on a striped vest with - what I hope - a cowl collar. I love stripes, and look forward to have it testknit in different colour combinations. Isola seems to like stripes too so it'll be a hit if I ever finish.

I also had a vision of a toddlers top with a little bit of crocheted crocodile stitch over the chest, made in Malabrigo lace. I actually wanted a cold grey hue for this but my LYS only grey was Polar Morn. I don't know how to described it, it's not a colour that I usually buy but I still think that it will be great for that Lemony Snicket-ish look I want. Can't wait to start with this, will be fun to crochet a little again. But first, I have to have a go at that herringbone stitch!

Looking ahead

2012 is just around the corner. I think more and more about my hopes and goals for the next year. I also think about what patterns I want to make. I always feel immensely inspired by "Tim-Burtonesque"-clothing and the wardrobe by the talented and award-winning costume designer Collen Atwood. For instance, the wardrobe of the movie Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. I ask myself, what kind of knitwear would these kids wear?

Detour to lace and stripes

Yes, yes, I know that I said that I would go straight from the cabled tunic to the Snake-a-licious sweater. But I just had to make a little detour... all knitters make detours, right? Just a quickie here and there and suddenly you have 15 unfinished projects! But I just HAD to make this one. I've been knitting so much for kids lately and need a break from it. I will show you what's on my needles as I proceed. It's from a pattern I bought on Ravelry and it involves LACE and STRIPES. Isn't that an unusal combination? I just love stripes. But I'm not a lace knitter. After the first rounds I was like "what the heck is this supposed to be? Just a mishmash of stitches." But as I got better and better I actually saw a pattern take shape. So then I had to unravel and start all over again so that the pattern would run smoothly.

Cables for me too, can't wait...

... to finish THIS project:

 It's a pattern by Deborah Newton, from Vogue Knitting magazine and I'm making it in light grey. It is the project that I work on "when I'm not knitting", ie I pick it up and make a few rounds when I don't want to think about WHAT I'm knitting and just do it. It's for those rare moments when I'm not making up kids patterns of my own but just want to occupy my hands. Or watch TV. It feels like I've been working on it forever but it's actually only about 25% left. I will post pictures of the end result when it's done! And I can't wait until it is, because I've decided that my next "not-knitting-project" is going to be... THIS:

I think it's absolutely stunning. I need to cast it on right now! It's called Snake-a-licious sweater by Tiny Owl Knits and you can buy the pattern on Ravelry here. Please do and knit along with me! But I just can't decide which color I want...

Chunky cables coming up

 I've been having some chunky cables on my needles lately since I'm working on a new pattern for a toddler's cape. I really like mixing moss stitch pattern with cables and it has been real fun to knit with chunky yarn again because you se the pattern take form in no time at all. Capes, or ponchos as some call them, is great for that in-between weather, not to mention that they are super cute on small kids. 

This time I worked in an alpaca and sheep wool blend from Garnstudio Drops, it's called Andes. They have the same yarn in three different weights which is great, but unfortunately the color range isn't so exciting in all of them. But it is soft, warm and very price-worthy.

The Chunky Cables Cape Pattern needs a bit more test-knitting but I hope that I can present it to you soon!

On my way...

 

I started a new project today, using some chunky yarn and my size 13/9 mm circular needles. They are in PINK PLASTIC and in fact the first needles I bought. I prefer my KnitPros that I always use but I don't have any in the larger sizes. It's been a while since I knitted something in a chunky yarn. You don't often see kids knitwear patterns in chunky yarn and it's to bad because they will be knit in no time! There is always a risk that it will look too bulky on small children but I think that I will get away with this one...  But what will it become? We'll you'll see soon, I hope! 

I can too!

I wrote about the knitting technique Entrelac the other day and how I failed to learn how to do it. But this weekend I gave it another try, following the tutorial I linked to in a previous post. And I think I did pretty well, what do you think?

I used Garnstudio Drops Delight, a selfstriping wool yarn, and 3 mm needles. Couldn't find my regular needles but double pointed worked out fine since it was just a sample piece. About this yarn - I love the colors! Both the combination of colors and how it changes, not too fast, not too slow. But to knit with it - blah.... don't know what's its problem. It feels like it hasn't been spun enough. The thread is very easily split and I alway end up sticking the needles right through it..

Tiny tweed project

I finally did find a project for my tiny tweed skeins. I teamed them up with soft Drops Alpaca and made wristlets for mums and their kids. Perfect match for both yarn and wearer. Pattern will come, the kids size were made without problem but the mum size is still under unravelling, retouching and test knitting. At the moment I'm working on a green pair, on the needles you see Alpaca in Oliven Mix and the tweed is in a color called Hubberholme. Both of them are great green hues, both popping and sophisticated at the same time. Will definately knit more project in Oliven Mix or them both.

I really like knitting in the round on double pointed needles, except for the first two or three rounds when the project still is unstable. It seems like the needles just slip around. If the project is small like this one it's quite manageable, but with a larger project or projects with five needles I feel like Edward Scissorhands.

One step forward... two steps back.

I haven't really posted any pictures of my current projects. That's because it seems that I spend more time unravelling than knitting. For example, I spend most of last weekend trying to knit the skirt part of a toddlers dress. I say try because I had to steal time inbetween domestic chores and other stuff that you need to do during the days off. After finally knitting in the round for 14 inches I realized that I had miscalculated the decreases. And I had to start all over again. Two days work for "nothing". I really don't love the math part of pattern designing. Not at all. Well, you know what they say, practising makes perfect.

So I spent the day searching for "speed knitting", trying to learn some techniques to speed it up. But I think it's a little like teaching old dogs to sit. It would feel like learning to knit all over again. And THAT is something that I definately don't have time to do.

Take a look at this, it's a clip with Miriam Tegels, the world's fastest knitter. I need to hire her!

                                      

She will steal your heart and keep it

  She's a little bit of sunshine / she's a smile to light your days / she will steal your heart and keep it / with her warm and endearing ways...  

I love this poem, it really feels like it's written for my little girl and I hope all parents feel the same. It inspired me to make her a mitten with a heart in her hand! The pattern needs a little tuning, then I 'll post it here on the blog! So stay tuned...