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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 :)

Mittens with cuteness alert

Almost done, and to add to the cuteness-angst in my last entry, I´m starting to worry this is way to cute... But I like it, it´s sweet, easy and a quick knit, and FUN! So I´ll risk it :)

Beautiful little flower

I haven´t crocheted in almost 25 years, but here it is, my first attempt (second, actually, I frogged the first) and if I may say so myself, it bares somewhat of a resemblance to the picture in the pattern!
It belongs with the hat-neck warmer- mitts project, and I think it will look cute. Hopefully my sister likes cute... all of a sudden I´m getting second thoughts about this birthday present.

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...