Close your eyes and think of spring

It's not far away now. I'm really looking forward to the easter holidays. Hopefully it will involve some skiing, because Inga is going to be my new skiing hat.



Such a great pattern. The chart is a tiny bit much at times, and there are some long floats to handle, but gosh, the final result is gorgeous.



I used a blue/purple/red variegated yarn (Gjesdal Nagano) as contrasting colour to the white PT5 Sport by Rauma.
Love how it turned out.

Modifications:

A fun looking liner knit from leftover alpaca yarn

Picot hem turn

While I was outside trying to get good shots of Inga and I, I noticed this to:





Spring is right around the corner!

Missing the Casio

I miss our camera. I's still away with P and M. They'll be back tomorrow (yay), so normal pictures will be back soon. There are nice stuff to photograph too!

I finished some Breeze ankle socks last night. This morning the sun was shining on my bed as I was changing the linen on it and I took the opportunity to see what my little phone camera could actually do.


Normal setting


Daylight setting


Negative setting


Retro setting

I think the retro does the socks the most favour, though I am fond of the negative too. Makes me think of the girl in Charlie and the chocolate factory whose face turned all purple. (Was it really a girl? I don't remember and I can't find the book.)

About the socks; Breeze is a great little pattern. If I was ever to change anything about these socks it would be to knit the first four rows of ribbing on smaller (2mm) needles. I'm predicting a sagging problem. I don't think I had any when I started the socks way back last summer. They only took one ball of Mandarin Petit, so This might be a nice stashbuster.

This could have been a pictureless post

I'm home alone for a week. The camera is on holiday with man and daughter. I was not so much looking forward to a whole week without snapping a single picture, so I thought I'd give the camera on the mobile phone I got for x-mas a try. It did not turn out too bad I think.



That's my Saturday and Sunday right there. Knitting the gorgeous Inga hat (Ravelry link) and watching TV by the fire.

Knitting is kind of slow, I take a lot more breaks than I normally would. Break: Put knitting in lap, stare at roof, nod off. I've had some pains knocking me out recently, but I've taken action and found myself an accupuncture guy. His tricks are working already, I'm glad to say. So I'll be back working on all my fluffy works in progress that need my attention soon, and spinning. I really want to do some spinning when I'm all better.

(Do I believe in accupuncture? Dunno. Do I understand it? No. Is it working? Yes. Do painkillers make throw up? Yes. In case you were wondering why I did not just see my doc.)

2008 - not the year of the sock

I caved!

What can I say, I could not contain my inner Sunnmøring*. There was a sale and I could not help myself.

I was pretty determined 2008 was not going to be as full of socks as 2007 was. I hope to be knitting more big things.

However, this is now going to be on it's way to me real soon and I want to cast on with it as soon as I get my hands on it!


Lorna's Laces Sheperd Sock in China Blue


Lorna's Laces Sheperd Sport in Irving Park


Fiber Trends sock blockers

All I can think is Yay! I could not even manage to wait until the yarn was actually here to share it on the blog.





*I realise a lot of my readers may not be familiar with the term Sunnmøring (I now have a blogpatrol installed here and can spy on my own blog;). Who knows, when I type it it may even show up funny on some of your screens. Is Sunnmoering better?
I was born and raised at Sunnmoere, tough I'm not pure bred. Word has it people from my part of the country are careful about their money (some claim greedy), is always up for a good bargain or ways to earn or save money. Place a sunnmoering on a desert island and soon you'll have a thriving community with a furniture factory and a small fleet of fishing boats. Another claim is that we cannot swim, because we can only motion our arms towards ourselves instead of away from us, and drown as a result.
Anyhooo, I just could not pass up this sale. I have been thinking about that China blue for over a week!
My dad can't walk past a sale to save his life, and he's not even born sunnmoering, only lived there for the past 35 years. The force is strong!

I'm gonna wrap myself in a fluffy spring cloud

I got money from my aunt for my birthday, for "something nice for yourself". Well, I've got something nice for myself!



Yummy suri alpaca, five skeins. Enough to make a Bolero Sweater.
So when spring comes, and winter jackets come off, I'll be wearing a little fluffy cloud around me. The yarn is handdyed in white and three different pretty kinds of blue.

I've already knit 2/3 of a sleeve. Looks good so far, and feels great.





The sleeve comes out a bit zebra stripey, but I don't mind. If it looks like the same thing is going to happen on the back and fronts I might knit them alternating two balls of yarn. Or I might love the blue fuzzy zebra look... I'm intrigued by the construction of this thing. A bolero and a turtleneck sweater at the same time. And if I'm right I might love it as much as the Cloud Bolero [Ravelry link] I knit last year and have been wearing a whole lot this winter.

Sock poetry

(I've made a stab at translating the verse over at The House of Wool Repute)

Sweet, huh... I've been reading a lot of Andrè Bjerke to Marie lately. This is from my own copy of Moro Vers, that I got when I was 5 years old. There is a lot of fun stuff in there.

My Madder ribbes socks are done. My first time working with Lorna's Laces. I really like these. I'm curious as to how the LL will wear with time.



I've knit very few toe-up socks. I prefer top-down for socks as well as a lot of other things. After knitting these socks I still have a lot of yarn left over. 47 grams to be precise. I'm seriously thinking about starting to knit all my socks with a provisional cast on and going straight into the pattern, skipping the ribbing. Then when the toe is closed I can go back and knit the ribbing upwards until the yarn is out. There are just too much sock yarn leftovers in my oddball box! I think this particular Lorna's will have to be paired with some other nice yarn to become a Surprice Jacket.

Coming soon to this blog: Cotton stuff!

Black!

My two main WIPs at the moment.





Both black. Both require more alertness, consentration and good lighting than I usually prefer in my knits. I find it so very easy to be sidetracked. And I have been, I just have not told you about it. I'll have pictures to show for it too.

I hope to finish the Koolhaas hat by next weekend. Petter and Marie are going to visit my parents for a week (skiing) and I hope to send the hat to my dad along in their luggage.

The stockings don't have to be done until May, but I'm starting to feel the pressure already. When I reached the point I'm at now I was stupid enough to count how many rounds the chart is. Over 110. I'm at row 20-something. And I feel like I had knit this for ages.

A better picture of the pattern (and the lack of progress)


the back of the leg

Did you see that tiny piece of white string? Elastic thread (rubber string?). I knit it along whith the black yarn for most of the ribbing. Yes, I do think it will make a huge difference in the stockings ability to stay up.

I'm definately going to need something not black to take along to S'n'B on Tuesday.

Something like this:


I've got yarn for the star blanket I'm dying to start.
Mmmmmmmm, yum! Simple garter stitch!

What else? A funny story maybe?
I get a lot of get-married-pressure from time to time. Lately it's come from inside the house. We've had accusations of not being "proper parents" from Marie. "I'm probably the only one in my daycare who does not have proper parents!", I want a big party! etc.
Last night was given some (30!) beautiful roses and as I was getting ready to put them in a vase. Marie picked one up, held it out to me with both hands, arranged her face in a serious expression and said: "Dear mom, will you marry my dad?"
Talk about pressure...
(I don't mind it from M, that's cute. When coming from others; very annoying!)

My oldest WIP

21 multicoloured squares, 14 of them have their ends woven in and are steam blocked.
20 blue squares, 11 of them have their ends woven in and are steam blocked.

Should it take over 7 years to make a baby blanket out of DK weight* wool? Probably not.
* - I'm guessing here. I have absolutely no recollection of what this yarn is!

It's a bit fun though, finding these squares. I still love the colours I picked. I can see I have gotten much better at weaving in ends. My knitting has improved a lot, a big reason behind this is switching my purling tecnique. I was a smart girl and slipped (nearly) all the stitches at the beginning of a row, so assembling it would be easier.

Where on earth is the rest of the yarn? Should I attempt to put this together? Probably. And then I'll keep it as a family heirloom. I don't think Mathias, the intended recipient, is very interested in blankets any more. If he still is, his mom can make him one. She is the only childhood friend I have who knits. We even used to knit together, instead of doing our high-school homework. (I do remember the knitting being a secret. It was geeky, before geeky was good!) I do think I knit Mathias something when he was a baby. I wish I could remember what. I probably opted for something smaller. That's probably where the rest of the yarn is!

Hippie mom

I knit myself a Halley's Comet hat. My used-to-be-hippie mom adopted it. I am knitting myself one!





The yarn wash frightfully scratchy and dry while I knit. It softened up a whole lot, and benefited greatly from a splash of hair conditioner.

I surprised myself

I managed to install the Ravelry progress bars to my blog. All by myself! Without breaking anything :)

I'm looking forward to this weekend. There will not be much time for knitting, but I will be surrounded by family all the time. My Auntie B is already here, my mom is arriving today, so is my cousin and her baby boy. It's going to be a busy and full house, but I love that. Being able to fill the house with family and friends makes paying the hugeish mortgage just a little bit easier.

Sunday, we'll all be stuffing ourself with Fastelavensboller!