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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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!

A good cause for Hundertwasser

I found a use for the Opal Hundertwasser yarn!
I promised my husband a "knitting project" all devoted to him, and although I have a feeling he´s not too crazy about the orange, these socks will be his. I guess I could have chosen a different yarn, but they only had the Hundertwasser range at the yarn shop, and this colour was the least "splotchy. I don´t particularly care for splotchy.
The sock pattern is the december-january sock project for the Six Socks KAL (link in meny to the right), - chain link socks.

I´ve actually split up the ball into oranges and grays, to make sure the pattern stands out well. So there will be a bit of extra work weaving in the ends, but oh well. I guess he´s worth it :)

Pink and more pink. Alpacca!

I came across some lovely thin Alpacca yarn from Du Store Alpakka on sale, and immediately bought some lovely pinks. Pink seems to be a theme these days... Anyhow, these will be perfect for my planned christmas presents for my nieces, now I just have to get knitting!

I´m also wondering if this yarn may be something for the Bayerische socks that I came across on the blog "See Eunny knit". Or maybe find a nice shade in Dale Babyull. I think I´ll wait a bit though, way too may unfinishined and planned projects at the moment and christmas coming up. Eunny´s blog is a great inspiration, though!

Socks Socks Sensational Socks

I`ve bought some wonderful books about socks, so now I have inspiration for socks for the next ... years!
Socks Socks Socks contains 70 fun sock patterns, some strange, some interesting, and several that I will definitely do.
Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Church contains everything I ever needed to know about socks and then some. Sizes, wool types and how to change a pattern, heels and toe variations, pattern types over 3, 4,... 9 stitches. A great book, I`m extremly happy I bought this!

Between these two books I will be able to pick, create and knit a whole bunch of socks!

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...