A little bit of progress

Christmas socks and a scarfs are all done and away, luckily.
Well, I still have one Monkey-sock to go to someone who´s gone until after christmas anyhow, so I´m working my way slowly on that. It´s in Claudia\s Handpainted yarn, the colorway is Twilight, and it´s turning out kind of weird and stripy. I´ll put in a picture once they´re done.

The picture shows the slight progress for my autumn rose - this has been resting since the beginning of december.

On the road...

I´ve been in the US for vacation-work and what a superproductive trip it has been, knittingwise!
I bought some beautiful yarns - cherry tree hill superwash merino in gorgeous greens and pinks, and some wonderfully bright colinette jitterbug colourways summerberry and raspberry - I think. And some brown alpakka wool on super cheap sale, perfect for wintery gifts such as mittens and scarfs.
I´m even halfway into monkey sock#2 in the cherry tree hill yarn, 20cm into my autumn rose sweater and finished sock#2 for both the schaefer anne simple-socks and the bright green wavy patterned socks!
And although I´ve been through umpteen security controls at airports, no one ever attempted to take my knitting needles from me.

Pictures to come once I get them uploaded.

solved one problem, got myself another...

I solved the problem with the bright green socks! Frogged back to the heel, changed to thinner needles, and knitted back down again with additional decreases. Now I only have to remember what I did on the second sock, which is coming along nicely.

But... the Autumn Rose sweater... Somehow I misread the instructions and used needles 3.5 to knit about the first 12cm or so. The sweater was HUGE! Then I discovered the mistake, it should have been needles 3. But the sweater was approximately 20cm too wide, and just downsizing the needles by .5 wont do.
So I ripped the whole thing, restarted on needles 2.5 which is .5 less than called for and perfect according to my swatching (which I didn´t do last time). And, changed to one size smaller.

Problem solved? Don´t know yet, but at least I´m on it again. Don´t like the 3stockinette - 1purl edge at the bottom, and I definitely don´t like to redo it. But hopefully, this time the sweater will fit me.

Autumn Rose has arrived!

wheheee!!!
The yarn + pattern for Autumn Rose arrived in the mail today!
It even somehow escaped the import customs +vat radar and made it through unscathed.

It looks wonderful! And with 3.25mm needles, it´s a nice change for the 2mm needles I´ve been using for socks + some other stuff lately.
I´m starting it right away! Picture will come...

gaahh!!! How irritating is this?!

It´s obviously the week of difficult socks! How else to explain this...reluctance to turn into something beautiful and nice?

First, the gorgeous Claudia Handpainted sockyarn I bought at loopy ewe. Wonderful stuff, even had a nice scent. I knitted it up into the japanese feather socks. The gauge was right on spot! My gut feeling was telling me to go for 2mm needles rather than 2.5mm as called for in the pattern for the main lace knitting, the socked seemed to turn out kind of big. But oh well, I settled on the "I don´t frog, besides, I will fix it when blocking"-approach. Duh!
Not enough yarn!!! Bummer, now I´m going to have to frog anyhow or find someone with really short yet stubby feet. (the picture shows the "finished" sock, and what´s left of the yarn, top right in the picture)


Secondly, I tried the Schaefer Anne yarn on a third sock pattern, with some small faux braids. I´ve tried this yarn on several socks before, but it always turns out too loose and stretchy, just like it did this time as well. Finally, I caved in! I´m knitting it into completely normal, simple and easy socks. This yarn will NOT be bothering me anymore!!
That being said, theyre turning into rather nice, normal, simple and easy socks :-)

Part of my irritation with this yarn is probalby what happened with it when I went to wind it from the skein- the picture says it all. My method ALWAYS works, so this really annoys me. I open up the skein and put it so that the yarn is wrapped around both my underarms. I then wind up the yarn into a ball, keeping my underarms apart, so that the yarn stays wrapped that way while I wind it. Much easier than using backs of chairs, knees, hubbies arms, and all other strange things I see people using.

Oh, I also sent a couple of packages to my Secret Pal 11. She liked the yarn and stuff I sent so much, it was really touching! Makes me want to send more :D

New yarn, finished projects

Some new yarn arrived in the mail today! Yummy!
I got some K.Knits Superwash Me sockyarn, colourway Alaska, and Claudia Hand Painted Yarn fingering weight yarn colours limeade and twilight. Gorgeous stuff and so, so soft.

I also finished some mittens that I really like. They´re made from the Camel Wool yarn I received from my secret pal 10. The pattern is from My Life´s Work Free Patterns. I´ll definitely make more of these mittens for xmas presents or something, they´re so quick and easy yet look like quite complex.

Finally, a really bad picture of a sock for one of my nieces. It has a little pattern from Socks Socks Socks that I quite like with the stripey yarn. Spices it up a little bit.

My pomatomus are done!

My lovely Pomatomus, from a Knitty pattern.
The yarn is Sock yarn from Silkwood, in a very rich ruby color called Garnet. They also have some striking green and blue colours and the yarn is easy to work with and makes a nice result, so I´m planning more Pomatomus socks in Silkwood yarn. The yarn is bought at Woolly Workshop.
The picture is a bad one from my mobile...

I tried ordering yarn for the autumn rose sweater, but unfortunately several shops seem to be out of the main gold color of the pattern. I´m waiting eagerly!

Finally back on the knitting track

I started the day by ordering, or at least sending some questions regarding purchase, of the Eunny Yang Autmn Rose fair isle sweater! I also signed up for the KAL at iloveautumnrose.blogspot.com so I´m getting there.
The picture is of the shawl from the Maskerader magazine by norwegian "Du Store Alpakka" - an alpacca yarn factory. I knitted the shawl from some lovely mohair++ yarn from Fleece Artist and I love it to bits. It´s so soft and wonderful, the colors are much prettier in real lfe, more muted and burgundy-like! It´s rather big - 40cmx185cm, and I think I will wear it a lot this winter!

Back!

I´m back from my travel :)
While away, I finished my pomatomous socks - lovely of course, and a shawl from Maskerader that I love. I´ll get a picture in tonight.

Now for looking at other peoples blogs and finding out how to put Hannes button on my page (her blog is http://vivikala.net/vakerrellen/ - don´t know what happened to my insert link-button here...?)

Away!

I will be unable to post in my blog for three weeks!
I will be unable to pick up anything at the post-office too, so anything arriving for me will be returned.

I just received my last package from my Secret Pal 10 friend, though! Thankyou so much - my husband and I already tried some of the tea and it was really nice :) The cat now has a prominent place on the kitchen counter. I´ll post a picture as soon as I get home...

Secret Pal 11 Questionnaire

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?

I love the silk mix yarns I´ve been knitting with lately! They do have kind of a restricted range of usage though, and I don´t need that many shawls. Variegated yarns for socks is another favourite, preferably with a bit of nylon or similar in it. And I love NORO yarn!

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?

Actually, that´s a main headache these days. I store them in a hand-sewn pouch, but it´s absolutely not right for my circulars or my DPNs.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?

I guess I was about 3 years old the first time, my grandmother taught me. My first sweater was knitted around 11 I think. At least it was finished about age 11. Now, I still hunt down my mom to help me with steeking or other tricky business. Like finishing boring arms LOL! I guess I´m an advanced knitter, I have still to find a project I couldn´t do.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?

No

5. What’s your favorite scent?

Fresh clean scents. I don´t really use a lot of perfumed creams, scented candles etc.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?

I´m not really into sweet stuff or candy...

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?

Gardening!! My blog has a link to my garden blog in Norwegian.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)

I´m not much of a music listener either :) Maybe some jazzy, folky type music? I have an IPOD.

9. What’s your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can’t stand?

I love colours, love love love.
I try to stay away from oranges, yellows, browns.

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?

No pet, but a husband and a 4-year old son

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?

Yes, no ponchos though. They make me look huge! And I have a rather big head...

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?

Sock, sweaters, scarfs and mittens. Etc?

13. What are you knitting right now?

Two pairs of socks, a shawl, another shawl. And I´m getting my act together to knit Eunny Jangs latest creation, the Autumn Rose sweater

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?

Yup!

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?

I knit mostly on circulars lately. I have only tried bamboo and ordinary needles. No plastic please!

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?

No

17. How old is your oldest UFO?

A month, maybe?

18. What is your favorite holiday?

christmas

19. Is there anything that you collect?

Yarns maybe... I don´t really collect anything

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?

2.75mm circular needles, beatiful stitch markers. Lovely, variegated, soft and lush yarns - possibly as part of an exiciting yarn kit. No subscriptions right now.

21. Are there any new techniques you’d like to learn?

Nah, I´m trying new ones out as I go.

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?

I´m a sock knitter! I´m a european size 40, I guess that´s a M/L

23. When is your birthday?

February 7th

24. Are you on Ravelry? If so, what’s your ID?

Not yet but waiting eagerly

almost there!

I´ve just cast off one arm and started the second one on my Sahara sweater. This picture was taken a bit before that. Maybe I´ll be finished with it tonight!
It´s turning out great. Yarn, little rock-thingies, pattern, everything.
And it even fits...




The only irritating bit is that I will have a bit over one skein of the Exotica-yarn left. Seeing how a paid a fortune for it, and the kit came with three skeins, I think that the estimate being off by over 1/3 is a bit much. Oh well, I´m sure I will find a worthy cause for it some day.

It also irritates me that I feel I´m off on the diamond rib. It doesn´t look as diamond-y as I´ve seen on other Saharas. Detail in the picture.

Sahara coming along

This is a really quick knit!
And I really like the way it´s turning out. I made some slight modifications to the pattern, the upper half of the top is a size Large, the lower part a Medium. And since I want it a slight bit longer than the pattern calls for, I´m increasing it back to a L again at the bottom to make sure it fits my hips.
I redid the decreases for the waist, because the first time around I just doubled the number of increases. This was perfect in the front, but the back got weird. So I doubled the front only, and did the increases every 6 rows down the back instead of every 8 rows that the pattern calls for, and that was perfect.

Once, way up there, I forgot a decrease, so now I´m a stitch off on the side-part. But I cannot be bothered to frog half the top for one stitch, and I´ll just fix it in the last row when I change over to the other yarn. No-one will ever know!

I can´t wait to wear this!

Tilli Tomas yarn arrived!

It´s horrendously expensive of course, but oh so wonderful!
So I´m putting everything else on the shelf - and starting swatching for the Sahara short-sleeved shirt tonight!
The colour is gorgeous, the yarn oh-so soft. I think I´m in love :)

Earlier projects

Since I don´t have any finished projects to show off, knitting on the Pomatous scarf, a mohair shawl out of Maskerader, and the Sarcelle shawl, I thought I could show off some earlier work :)
As in ages ago!
Unfortunately, I think I threw out my violently mohair-ey sweater in pink and purples from the late eighties (knitted at the tender age of 16, mind). But I did find some other stuff, not all but some.
All knitted after probably 1987 and definitely before 1996. The glove actually belongs to a thick sweater for hubby knitted in 1996...

But the orange-and-grey jacket was the absolute end of my knitting career. At that time - obviously I restarted it around xmas last year!
The orange-and-grey jacket in Dale Tiur yarn. First of all - Dale Tiur is a mohair-wool blend, a bit stiff and hopeless to rip. I started my jacket in 1994, knitted half way up the main part and put it aside. I cleverly (not, as it turned out) took the circular needle out as I needed it for another project, and replaced it for a thinner one, and promptly forgot. Picked up the project about a year later, and finished the main part. Finished the arms, and went to put it together. Only to realise that half way up the main body, the width became about 6 cm narrower!!
I gave up knitting for all time.

Some years later, I handed the thing to my grandmoter - we knit to just about the same gauge. She rescued the thing by ripping and redoing, all the while hating the yarn tremendously. And then my mother kindly cut down the front and for the arms and did all the sewing togeter.

I have the jacket now and could wear it, but I really, really do hate it!
I´m also weaned off fair-isle for a while. It´s "only" been about ten years so far, and I really don´t want to go there again any time soon.

Secret Pal 11

I´ve signed up! It should be good fun :)
At least, I had good fun spoiling Hanne Maria from Finland. She has a really inspirational blog, a beautiful yarn stash, and she goes through shawl patterns about 5 times faster than normal lethals :)
AND she likes fantasy books - as do I!

Actually, I don´t know who sent gifts to me yet-she has not revealed herself and I couldn´t figure out how to find her on our secret pal hostesses webiste...

Pomatomus socks

Lovely little things they are! I found the Pomatomus socks on the knitty web pages and decided to try them. I´m using sock yarn from Silkwood, a 75% wool and 25% polyester yarn in the colour Garnet, that I bought from The woolly workshop. The colors are wonderful and the yarn is nice if a slight bit "hard" to knit with.

Before I cast on for these, I actually had a second go at Eunny´s bayerische socks, seeing how my first attempt didn´t turn out right. Well, it turns out that the oh so beautiful Schaefer Anne yarn that I tried was not the right thing either. It is a beautiful slightly variegated purple yarn that contains 60% merino wool, 25% mohair and 15% nylon. Note to self: the NEXT time I try for Eunnys bayerische socks I will try with a nice, crisp, thight yarn in a SINGLE colour. No mohair, no color variations, and THIN yarn.

Nordisk hemmelig venn package in the mail!

It arrived today - my 4th Nordic secret pal package!
Some really soft REGIA yarn that wll do well for motorcyclesocks for my husband - 100 grams should get me there :)
And adriafil BaBa - an effectyarn that I will have to think about a little bit, in lovely greens!

Thank you very much my secret pal. Unfortunately, the return adress had been wet and was illegible...

stripy socks and hateful scarf

Yeay! My pink-loving niece will be so happy :) I´m finished with her simple little socks in REGIA 4-ply woollen yarn. The pattern is a simple sock pattern from SOCKS-SOCKS-SOCKS, it has a barely recognisable twisted thing going on. I like the colours :) Something with me and pink lately...

Also pink but not quite as loved - my Palette-scarf. This is a pattern from knitty.com which was a fairly easy knit, but there are two alternating patterns, in addition to the right- and wrong-side differences. And they´re just close enough to each other that it was difficult to remember which one I was doing, and easy to slip over into an almost similar line. Seeing how I was knitting in Evilla Plate Yarn - stupidly as it turned out - with double thread and with no spun woollen yarn with it, frogging was impossible without the yarn just falling apart. In fact, knitting turned out to be impossible too at times. This yarn had quite a life on it´s own and trying to force into a lace-type pattern was not something it wanted to do... Also - I obviously should have chosen thicker needles as my scarf turned out a bit more compact than I would have liked it to.
Oh well, I have learned. Next time: choose a pattern that´s easier to memorise or "read" of the already knitted work. AND use a solid spun wool next to one thread of this stuff, not two thread of fragile-fragile plate yarn.
In fact I don´t think I like the way the colours turned out either... Oh well, once I stuff it around my neck inside my big winter jacket, no-one will know :)

Handmaiden and Fleece Artist - have to have it!

I´ve fallen totally in love with the Handmaiden and Fleece Artist yarns.
I mean, look at this picture and tell me how one could avoid loving it!
Handmaiden and Fleece Artist are basically the same thing, Handmaiden being the more luxury label of finer yarns from Fleece Artist.

I´m knitting a shawl in Handmaiden Minimaiden in the pale green peridot, a mix of wool and silk and softer than soft. Absolutely wonderful.
And since the yarn was screaming my name in the basket here, I also started a little project with the on-sale Fleeceartist Goldiehair, colour Renaissance (discontinued - therefore on sale). Goldiehair is a mohair, silk and nylon brush mix. Gorgeous colours and wonderful yarn.

I am sure this will be a very, very expensive love affair...

Finished a whole bunch of projects!

I haven´t written in a while as I´ve been sick.
But being sick also has the advantage that one gets to finish some projects!
I´ve finished the Noro Rainbow Scarf, which I made twice as wide as the pattern calls for and with 2x the yarn. It could have been a little bit longer, but I love it to bits anyhow and will use it lots come winter! It will be perfect to brighten up my black winter coat. It was a very quick and easy knit.

Also finished are a pair of socks for my brother. They started life as bayerische socks from Eunny´s blog, but I found the yarn a bit to colourful and a little bit to fuzzy for the rather crisp pattern. Since I don´t frog, I restarted them from the cuff and made these simple socks. They´re knitted with 76 stitches on 2mm needles, magic loop. The yarn is Regia 4-ply wool and nylon sock yarn.

And I´ve finished this frilly scarf by Tove B. It´s for my grandmother because she loves this colour and wanted something to wear for spring and fall. The yarn is silk tweed from a secret pal. And the scarf is missing one frilly edge, which is coming up but right now I lost a little bit of motivation for it as the edge takes forever to knit...

And finally, I started the Sarcelle shawl in the beautiful Hand Maiden Mini Maiden 50/50 wool and silk blend that recently arrived in the mail at an extortionate (and now forgotten) price, from knitty-noddy. The colour is peridot. It is a bit thicker than the yarn call for in the pattern, but it´s so beautiful, so so soft, so wonderful that I think it will make a great result anyhow!

Knitty-noddy gave very good, personal and quick service and I will most definitely shop there again!

I´ve spoiled myself...

Yesterday and today, two packages arrived in the mail.
I´ve gone ahead and spoiled myself, and bought some lovely almost-not-there greenish-gray Handmaiden Mini Maiden rom Knitty-Noddy. The colour is peridot and the yarn is 50% wool and 50% silk. It´s so lovely it almost makes me drool, and I have to think up a really lovely project for this yarn to showcase it!
From Get Knitted, I bought myself some Fleece Artist Goldiehair on sale (the burgundyish mohair-yarn), which is so lovely now I have to find a perfect project for it. There, I also bought some Noro Kureyon for a Rainbow Scarf, two each of #52 and #159. The pattern calls for mixing up the two colours, and now I almost regret it because they´re both so beautiful by themselves. But I´ll try! I have several more ideas for Noro-yarn anyhow, and this is a nice way of testing the colours.

Finished!

Finally, finally I finished the LUDO jacket from Hanne Falkenberg.
This has been painstakingly slow, because it´s just boring enough to be well, boring. And at the same time it needs just enough concentration that I kept making mistakes.
I guess no one can tell one arm started off 4 stitches wider than the other, and I certainly won´t tell :)

I am very happy with the result though! I only need to get to my mom to help figure out a clever way for buttons. Since this is originally a sweater and sort of became a jacket on the way I was completely unable to figure out how to do buttonholes in a clever way.

Package from my secret pal

Yesterday I got a nice package in the mail from my secret pal!
I had just started to worry that I was possibly forgotten when this wonderful surprise arrived. I got british knitting- and garden magazines, and I´ve already started one of the projects in one of the magazines as well as browsed many of the websites features within. I must admit I even bought some new yarn at one of these websites...

Thank you very much to my secret pal 10!

New inspiration!

I´ve found some lovely new patterns! Norwegian Du Store Alpakka both produces the most lovely Alpacca wool, and patterns to go with. In their newest pattern magasine Maskerader, I found this lovely dress. I´ll buy the magasine and see if it can be made to fit me. It´s a gorgeous thing!
There were some other nice patterns too, worthy a good look.

It reminds me that I also want to knit the Victoria dress from Rowan, pictured here. But I think before I think this will be a christmas-next-year project. The rowan dress should look gorgeous in a dark, shiny gray, I think. And before I get there, I want to browse the summer patterns and make a nice summer top for myself!

I´ve seen some lovely tops in the Garnstudio Drops free patterns, and there are some really cute ones from Rowan. Also, there´s a vest from eunny that´s really nice (although wintery), and knitty.com should soon come out with new patterns.
Then there´s the Argosy scarf, the Butterfly Noro jacket, the Noro rainbow scarf, the cabled socks and bayerisches socks. Ah, so many projects and so little time :)

Nordic Secret Pal package

I received a beautifully wrapped present in the mail today from my Nordic Secret Pal. My husband, in his helpfulness, threw away the envelope + card with her name. I think it was Toril or Torunn, so Secret Pal - please let me know who you are so I can thank you properly!!

The package contained yarn in gorgeous colours! Both silk tweed yarn and a soft mohair yarn. And a home-made pouch, which will be perfect for the several small containers of pearls I have lying around in the bottom of my knitting basket.
I will most definitely want to try this yarn for a shawl. Silk yarn is new to me and I´m looking forward to trying it.

Finishing up some projects

The joy of finishing projects!
I´ve knitted another Flora scarf from knitty.com for a Secret Pal, same yarn as last time but this time bluey-green whereas last time it was pink. I use two threads of Idena Mohair Lux, which is a variegated yarn, and one thread single-colour kitten Mohair, on 5.5mm needles. The result is fantastic and I love the way the colours changes just a little bit along the scarf.

I also blocked the dress for my little niece in the states, so it´s ready to go in the mail tomorrow. I hope they´ll find some use for it, it´s a lovely little thing.

Sweet little dress

I´ve made this sweet little thing for my niece in the US and I love it! It´s made in cotton, which I normally don´t like. It´s a free pattern from Drops Design. I just hope it will fit the sweet little thing, and that her mother will listen to me when I tell her handwash in luke warm water...

It´s still wet after the wash in the picture. I´ll post a nicer picture later...

Gauge-fright

Gaah! How irritating is this?!
I´m knitting a summer dress in cotton for one of my nieces abroad, and it needs to be finished on Monday. And yes, I did start a bit late.
Even though I have a total fear of measuring gauge, I knitted a test-swap before I started. It was perfect! Now after 10cm of the dress, it is 4 cm to wide! Rip, smaller needles.
Cotton sucks.

Hanne Falkenberg Ludo jacket - getting there

Well, I´ve been writing about it long enough, here it is. The first half finished, the second half is luckily well on it´s way.
Even though all the measurements are right, the arm is WIDE. Super-wide. So I will try to make a bitnarrower when I put the whole thing together. If I feel really brave, I´ll sew it and cut off the excess. Or maybe I´ll have my mother do it - she´s the expert at these things. It´s nice to have someone else to blame when things go horribly wrong too ;)


Anyhow, this whole thing is knitted back and forth, all straight forward, kind of in a U shape, ending up with the arm. Very easy! Except I kept forgetting to knit two together every other row, and forgetting to not do it in the patterned rows.
But all is well that ends well, and the colors are gorgeous!

Secret Pal competition

With the beautiful weather we`ve been having, little has been done this weekend with knitting! But I will answer the secret pal competition questions:

1) How old were you when you learned to knit? I was three the first time I tried and around 4 or 5 when I actually understood what I was doing. I remember knitting a sweater which was probably my first when I was 9 - pink and purple!

2) Who taught you? My grandmother taught me. I have a cool picture somewhere of her teaching me cast-on, which I´ll try to find and scan in.

Back from vacation!

Which we spent at the zoo.
I finished the project for mye secret pal. And I finished one half and got started on the second half of the Hanne Falkenberg Ludo sweater for my son. Since I´ve been to lazy to measure the gauge earlier, I finally found the time now because the arm is quite wide. But my knitting is right on gauge, to the millimeter! In all directions! Amazing... normally I knit a bit loose!

The Palette scarf from knitty.com is getting a little rest, it´s a project I have to do while at home and when my son is not around because the yarn is so fragile. So it´s taking a looong time. Also, I´messing up the PSP (SSK on the back) a little bit, so I´m a bit pissed of with it really! The picture is of the scarf which is now about 20cm longer.

On vacation

Will post back shortly!
I started the knitty.com Palette scarf with Evilla Plate yarn - not sure yet how clever that was.
I finished a small project for a secret pal, and I got restarted on the Ludo which no longer fights me. At least not openly.

Some finished projects

My son needed some socks for his rubber boots, which I found to be a good project for this Regia 4-ply wool and nylon yarn. I liked the Regia silk much better, as this blend actually knotted easily and had "hairy lumps" on it that I didn`t like one bit. My son has loooong feet, so they look a bit odd maybe, but they fit!

I also finished the crochet slippers from secret pal yarn I received a few weeks ago. This was a super quick project, but still a bit hard as I`m still very very new to this croceting thing. I like them a lot and wear them all the time! They`re made in Drops Eskimo yarn, a thick woollen yarn. Free pattern on the Drops Design Webpages .

I finally finished my wristwarmers for the Hobbyboden KAL, and I already finished the Mrs. Beetons for the same KAL, so now I`m ready for the new project there! These are knitted in Kitten Mohair, and there is a pearl pattern if you look closely.

The Hanne Falkenberg Ludo jacket still rests in the corner, but before getting back to that I want to make a felted bag I have a great idea for! I also need a train-project, possibly another pair of socks.

Camel Wool Yarn!

It strikes me that my secret friend the snow leopard has this Secret Pal thing planned ahead...
Yesterday, I received a package from the Snow Leopard Trust, containing Camel Wool Yarn, an artist´s drawing of a Snow Leopard and a nice letter about how purchasing this yarn helps save the Snow Leopard, preserve their habitat and improve lives of families in Mongolia. And the card contained a personal message for me from my secret pal :)

Wow! I´m amazed, gobsmacked, stunned. What a wonderful concept!
The Camel Wool yarn is lovely and soft, a nice brown colour. It´s made from 100% camel wool, from camels in the South Gobi desert, and made by women from the region.

Thank you so much for this wonderful gift, my secret pal! I will be thinking long and hard to find a project for this yarn :)

Secret Pal

I´ve received no less than 3 secret pal packages these last few days!!

First up, my Nordic Secret Pal 5 Monamor, who sent me a nice easter package. It contained some fragrant candles, napkins and a napkin holder, a few things for the house for easter and coffee - already brewed and tasted! There are also some seeds which to me looks like an Allium of some sort - we will see. Thank you very much Monamor :)


Then my Hobbyboden pal, who I don´t know yet who is, sent me a crochet pattern for slippers from Drops Design with some nice thick Eskimo yarn to go with it and a thick crochet needle. Good thing too, as I now own 3 thicknesses all together.My crochet "stash" is not too large.


There were actually 3 balls of yarn, I already started on a slipper, an I actually had to look up the very first and simple stitch to remember if it was just a pull-the-thread-through kind of stitch or a put-the-needle-in-and-out-a-couple-of-times kind of stitch.

But I´ll get there! I´m intent on learning more of this crocheting stuff! (especially after I was able to pulloff the cutest flowers earlier). I really like the color too.


Finally, my Secret Pal 10 - the mysterious Uncia Uncia (snow leopard) sent me a pattern for socks from See Eunny Knit which I´m so happy to be getting! Another sock pattern from this website is already my must-do list and these are just as beautiful! So I now have these to very nice socks waiting to become early summer projects :) Thank you very much!

Chevron Socks

I struggled with the Jaywalker socks from Grumperina! I frogged the socks for my sister twice because I couldn´t get the gauge right and the way-too-teeny Jaywalkers for my son are still in the basket. So I gave up, even though the Jaywalkers are very cute and not very hard to knit.

I ended up making these socks for my sister instead!
They are chevron socks from the book Sensational Socks. It´s a wonderful pattern and wonderful yarn made this a very positive experience! It was my first time with a socalled forethought heel, probably an experience I don´t want to repeat as I found it fiddly - I´ll do an afterthought heel the next time.

The sock are knitted in Regia Silk, color Marocco. A lovely, light and silky yarn that I will definitely want to try again.

Email from my secret pal!

I´ve signed up to Secret Pal 10, an international swap-ring with around 500 participants!
I just received my first email from the mysterious "Uncia Uncia" (snowleopard), with drawings of sheep in it.
Hm.. at first I thought this might be someone german now I´m not so sure...

Oh well, I´m curiously looking forward to what´s next!

Some more finished projects

The yarn for these felted socks is Norwegian PT2, that was gifted me by a Secret Pal along with a pattern for slippers. I´ve never tried felting before, so this was fun, and the result good enough that I can say I´m happy with it. The only thing I´m not happy with is my sewing skills, the yellow line around the edge is supposed to be "pretty" and "decorative". Which it is not. Well well..., my son likes them!

Another Flora scarf and matching Mrs. Beeton wristwarmers, both from knitty.com.

The wristwarmers are gorgeus! A bit fiddly, but the result makes me completely forget that.