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.

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 :)

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!

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.

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...

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.

Flora scarf finished

Well a while ago actually...
Bit I´ve been too busy to document the result. It´s gorgeous! I´ve already used it lots. The pattern is from knitty.com
I´ve also made a second black and blue one but need to weave in the threads before I show it off. And a pair of felted socks for my son that turned out so so.
On the needles now: socks for my sister from socks socks socks, still the Ludo-jacket fighting me and... Nothing!

I´m just waiting to get these projects finished because I have some big plans! And some smaller ones.
I want to knit two cotton dresses for my nieces abroad, luckily they´re not very big so it won´t be too big a project. And I want to knit a NORO butterfly-jacket for myself. And then I have big plans for christmaspresents for next year also in Noro. I still need to decide whether I´ll choose NORO Kureyon, Silk Garden or Blossom. Lovely yarns, all three of them.

Here´s another picture of the flower on the Flora scarf.

A lovely, flowerly scarf

I love knitty.com!
I was making the Mrs Beeton wristwarmers with some leftover yarn (in progress) when I came across the Flora Scarf. I love it!
I even had some soft and cuddly Kitten Mohair lying around which was perfect for it. I bought some Idena Mohair Lux to vary the colour a bit, and knitted the whole thing in 1 thread Kitten Mohair and 2 threads Idena Mohair Lux, one of each was enought for the whole thing. Hopefully by tomorrow I´ll have finished the flower too, but I just love it so much I wanted to document the progress.

Noro Kureyon sweater

I´m in love!
Absolutely, totally in love with this wonderful yarn, pretty beyond any descirption. I´m going to knit NOro Kureyon sweaters for xmas presents next year for my nieces, knit myself a jacket, my husband a sweater, and very possibly a beautiful scarf from knitty.com

The picture shows my son´s sweater, in Noro Kureyon #163 and alpacca double-yarn turtleneck.
The arms are folded up a bit, and quite possibly I´ll splice the little bit of yarn I have left on the bottom of the sweater, so it will last well through next winter.

Next time I buy this yarn, I think I´ll try eBay, as there seems to be money to save.
Or just chose the simplicity of my "local" yarnpusher, pinnsvindesign.no :D

Yeees! Finishied!

My love/hate project as of late is done! The Kiri shawl that I've been knitting since the end of November, gave a rest for a while, and recently picked up again is finally done!

It's knitted in Italian Mondial Prestigio Super Kid Mohair yarn on 2.5mm needles. At 245m/25g this yarn is slightly thinner than the pattern calls for.
Since I "cleverly" choose much thinner needles than the 4mm suggested in the pattern (yarn is thinner, I knit loosely, etc what on earth was I thinking!) I had to do way more repetions than the pattern called for to get to a reasonably sized shawl.
But it's lovely! Also, when blocking the shawl, I made the "tips" as described in the pattern, but they simply vanished when I took the yarn of the blocking needles. Strange...

Anyhow - the pattern is feather light and airy! So I'm very happy with it! Except for one major mistake I realised way after the fact, which is very obvious to me but hopefully not to all. But there is no doubt - I will use this a lot!
I think I will start another one soon, in the same yarn but with thicker needles. It should be a wonderful, and hopefully somewhat faster, result!

Sweet things

Yesterday I sent off the neckwarmers for my nieces, to go with the cute hats I found a pattern for here. I completely and totally forgot to take a picture of the cute hats, complete with little crocheted flowers before I sent them off for xmas. But the neckwarmers are the same colours and same style and adorable and cute. My youngest niece (6) said the hat was the bestest xmas present she ever had!

The pink one is knitted in an amazingly, wonderfully soft thin Alpacca wool from Du Store Alpakka, with two threads. The other one in a thin Alpacac wool called Inca from Rauma Ull, also with two threads.

Finished socks for Six Sox KAL

I´ve finished the December sock for the Six Sox KAL, a good fun knit with a slip-stitch chainlink pattern, knitted in Opal yarn on 2.5mm needles.
I´m very new to knitting socks, especially to non-norwegian patterns and methods of doing things. My first sock was a toe-up, this was a top-down heel-flap sock that I knitted on magic loop. And it turned out to be really easy! The socks fits my husband perfectly, especially after I took it in a few stitches in the foot, and I´ve learned the slip-stitch method which was easy but I just haven´t done it before. The colours were chosen on a somewhat moody day, haha, but my husband said he´ll happily wear it. I actually kind of like it too...The observant will see (a bit hidden, on purpose, didn´t want the proof out in the open) that sock number two actually is finished with a different yarn! There was no more Opal Hundertwasser yarn in the right colour left at the store, so I replaced it with Opal Tucan which was close but not quite there...


I was certain I would get enough yarn out of one huge ball of Opal, but since I took out all the dark grey and white bits, the yarn just didn´t go as long as I hoped. The lack of yarn is also the reason there´s a few dark grey stripes on sock #2 (the hidden one). The heel on the second one is blue and white because I just forgot to cut it out and I DO NOT rip up my work unless there are very serious implications! Just to show what extra work I gave myself cutting out the darker bits from the variegated yarn, here´s what the backside of the sock looked like pre-getting to work on it!

Sweet frills

Finally!
The christmas present for my sister is finished and I`m well pleased. I still need to fasten the buttons to the flowers and put on a safetypin on each flower to stick it to the hat/neckwarmer/gloves depending on the mood.
I`m still pretty worried this will be over the top too cute for my sister, but my consolation is that she can always frog the frilly bit on the mittens, the crocheted edge on the neckwarmer, or... give it to me to wear! I love it!

I`m also pretty proud of myself since I haven`t crocheted since I made a crocheted horse in 5th or 6th grade :) I had to do the crocheted bit with the computer next to me with step-by-step instructions on all the stitches. So it took some time.

But the conlusion is anyhow - want one for myself! And that makes it a good project :)

Pleasing status

Well, it`s time for a status! I`m well pleased :)

My lovely iris garden socks from the Six Socks KAL are finished, blending colours, changed pattern and all. I had all of less than a meter of yard left after each of the socks were finished! They are nice and thick, made of 80g pure wool each, so these will keep me warm through winter. Now I`m all ready for the December pattern! My husband wants some new warm socks, so I think the next pair will be for him. If he behaves :)

I`ve also started a neck warmer, hat and mitts set from the Happy Knitting Webshop. Or that is, I bought the pattern at the web shop, and trawled the nearest yarn shop for the yarn. The green is actually the same as for the socks, Sandnes Garn Smart(100m/50g pure wool). The turquoiuse is Idena Juvel (106m/50g pure wool). I`m looking forward to seeing this finished, I just have to learn to crochet some flowers, as I have absolutely no clue how to do it. I have the pattern but it`s absolutely greek to me. My mother will have to help!

I`ve had to frog a winter suit in two threads of thin wool for my son (Nøstebarnull), as he grew out of it before I got it finished. I`ve already made a turtle-neck sweater out of the yarn, now I`m debating whether I should make a second sweater, socks - theres enough for a lot of socks - or just put the yarn away and wait for some inspiration...

Odessa is a hit

My Odessa hat is finished! Wehey!
And as expected it`s a little bit too small for me with my 62cm head circumference. But I have a huuuuge head!
It will fit one of my nieces beautifully.
Having finished that, I wanted to start the neckwarmer I`m making for a christmaspresent, but decided to do sock 2 for the sixsock knitalong first. Bummer! First I apparently used pins 1/2 size too small (or mysteriously started knitting tighter), and had to frog the whole toe after I discovered this. Then I made it half way up the foot only to discover a minor mistake at the end of the toe had thwarted the whole pattern. Another rip-up! This time down to the toe.
I could have made the pattern mistake the underside of the foot since it was only on one side, but I like to have it correct...