Sunshine Shimmer

The Shimmer Socks for Socktopia in April are done. Just in time, on the last day before May.


I really like this stitch pattern, and I've been getting some very nice comments on them while knitting them too.

I have no idea what yarn it is. I found it in my Grans yarn chest, it's probably 30 years old, and a nice wool blend. It was a kind of bland and boring light peachy colour. I had fun dyeing it with some pineapple KoolAid and the result was just perfect for this pattern and the Socktopia theme "Sunshine on my shoulders". The peachy colour is nearly the same colour as my skin (in winter) and the pineapple is a lovely sunny colour. (The resemblance to my skin colour can be seen well where the bind off and my legs match so nicely in the top picture.)

Since I'm no contortionist I will not give you a photo of me with my feet on my shoulders. I do however have this:


The colour is a bit off in this picture. You do, however, see that the nature of the stitch pattern used in these socks bias a lot. About 1/4 of a round on the leg. It does not matter in socks, and I think it even adds something good to these socks.

I have by no means been faithful to my sock knitting this month. I've made a Shedir beanie for hubby, and a pair of Denim drawstring pants for a friend who's having a boy in June.
The Shedir will have it's own post when I manage to talk Petter into a wearing the hat for a photo shoot outside in the nice and sunny spring weather. The pants have had an airing in my favourite tree at the moment. Wonder what I'll hang in that tree in August when the wild cherries are ripe. A woolen sweater maybe?





It's the 3-6 months size. I was able to make it with just 3 balls of Rowan Denim bougth for the project and then some leftovers I had for another pair I made was used for the last 6 rows of of the lining. So now I have a single ball of Rowan Denim. Anyone have any project suggestions?

Also, I started them Thursday and finished yesterday. I like it when things are finished fast:)

Spring

Outside in the sunshine all weekend: trimming the hedge, weeding a lot, hanging a new swing for DD, oiling the porch and the outside furniture, washing and waxing the car, putting bark in all the flower beds, and wondering if it's time to start pruning the roses, washing the clothes line, changing tyres, picking all the gravel and sand out of the winter tyres and putting our christmas tree through our chipper.

In the end I treated myself to some new, spring themed stitch markers. Now it's time for a cup of tea and some knitting.

Hope your week end was good too!

Guess what...

If I show you this old picture



And then I show you this new picture



You all know what happened. Right? Frogfest...

So I'll let you know that Chrystal Palace Merino Stripes does not frog as well as I wanted it to. And knit into a ruffle scarf, it looks more like a mangey poodle rolled in dust bunnies. There was no way I was going to give that to my friend Kris. So I sent her an e-mail that started out with the word "damn", closely followed by "I give up". And then a promice to knit her something much nicer than poodle fart out of that yarn.

To comfort myself I bought my first ball of Rowan Calmer today. I'm already 6 rows of ribbing into Shedir (Knitty brest awareness issue) for hubby. I told you I would find a better pattern for him than Lacecap. The LYS only had five colurs of Calmer, so I had to go with the only one I know we both like - black. The other four, in case you're wondering, was pink, beige, lilac and orangey red. He's just not that kind of guy.

I know a girl who likes pink though.



Yup, that's another Lacecap. Her wool one. We had to dig that out on Sunday. About an hour after I snapped that pic (in the Botanical Garden, Oslo), it was snowing. And then it kept snowing for the rest of the day.

The Sunshine Shimmer socks are coming along nicely. I've turned the heel and knit about an inch on both legs. One sock is tucked nicely into my bag and follows me to and from work.

Happy easter!

I have special easter socks!



I knit them last year. They were finished just before easter. The colours are very appropriate for this holiday I think. I don't wear them much at other times of the year.

I'm also working on the April Socktopia socks. "Sunshine on my shoulders" theme.



We're spending easter at home this year. Just relaxing (knitting for me) and doing a bit of gardening. We took a walk in the woods yesterday. Marie is very happy that spring means no need for wool hats, cotton is great!



That's Lacecap from Knitty. She loves it. Hubby asked me yesterday if I could knit him one too. I'll gladly knit him a beanie, but maybe not from this pattern. I'll dig up a lace free pattern.

Stash flash

Spring 2006, my stash looked like this:



That is all of it. There was nothing else. No random balls of yarn hideing in places you would not expect.

Then we moved Marie into the room we used to use as our office, and the office became significantly smaller. The stash had to move. It needed a bigger house anyway.



Let's just say there is not much room for more yarn. It's nearly full to the brim.



You want to see the yarn party I had when I emptied my stash chest, and then invited all the yarn that lives in strange places in my house too (see my profile)?



The top of that heap of yarn was knee high. I tried to find time to take proper photos of all of it, yarn type by yarn type, but I had no success in that department.

If you read this post and it is no longer April 2007 there might be new additions to the stash. You might be one of those people who like to look at yarn. You can take a look at various pictures of yarn in my Flickr set called Yarn.