Greetings from blog cat
I know, i know - she is repeating her own words. But sleeping is especially important at this time of year. It prevents autumnal depression and mohair shawl underneath eases all sort of slight pain.
Archive for in English
Socktoberfest
I have a pair of Bayerische Socks for my friend, christmas present. I have to get on with these, Socktoberfest came right on time.
Then there is a pair of Embossed Leaves socks (from IK winter 2005), I’m learning the magic loop -technique.
I’ve never knitted a sock from toe up, so, I’m considering the Lacy Summer Socks from Knitting Lingerie style. I have some Shepherd Sock in beautiful sage colour, would work nicely with this pattern. This seems like a quick little project, lace pattern is really easy.
Browsing the pattern library in Ravelry for inspiration is really dangerous. I found Woolgatherings beautiful Mad Colour Weave pattern - but thought that it looks even more stunning in solid colour, see Staceys beautiful blue ones. I have some lovely silver gray Regia Silk in my stash…
And then I would love to find a beautiful pattern for variegated yarn. I love Monkey Socks, Jaywalkers and Pomatomus Socks, but there are so many of them around. Variegated yarns have not been my favourite, but for some reason I was hooked on to Shepherd Sock colourway Baltic Sea. It’s beautiful, at least when it’s skeined…
So, my Socktoberfest will be stashbusting and learning some new techniques. But I don’t seriously think that all this…
…is going to be knitted up in October. Even if it is Socktober!
Fall knitting
I finally understood that there actually is a pattern type that I particularly don’t like: simple lace knits with few rows pattern repeat. Simple enough to zero challenge but annoyingly easy to ruin with random mistakes - and those are so easy to make when not 100% concentrating on knitting. They are also progressing slowly - at least my knitting is remarkably slowed down with multiple ktogs, ptogs and ssk:s.
And currently I have two of these in progress *sigh*.
Cressida from Rowan Studio, I love the yarn, colour and result, though. But all other works are so much more interesting that this one lies constantly in the bottom of my knitting basket.
Bridges from Rowan fall 2007 Magazine. I like this, too, a lot. But there is something happening both on the knit and the purl sides of this pattern, very slow to knit. At least the needle size is large…
More demanding lacework is not a problem for me. I am ready to concentrate on knitting when the result is rewarding. And longer pattern repeats work as mini steps to finished work, it feels that the work is really progressing somewhere.
I had to ravel my Fyne. I thought that I would manage by pulling back just few rows with the badly chosen pattern colour. But as soon as I pulled the needle out I realized that the knit was too large. Better to start with the smallest size.
And I wasn’t able to decide the new colour in yarn shop. So I took two skeins. What’d yoy think, should I throw some red in…
…or shall I stay with greens?
Oh, I finally got an invitation to Ravelry! I love the idea of organizing all my projects and knitting related stuff there…
Fabulous autumn yarn
I visited my LYS Menita to fetch some more mother of pearl buttons for my Tangled yoke cardigan. But I happened to run to this lovely Garnstudio Silke-Tweed and couldn’t keep my hands off:
I love the colour palette of this yarn, colours are definitely a strength of Garnstudio. But I can’t complain about the fiber content of this yarn either: 52% silk and 48% wool. For some reason the colours are all too flat in Garnstudio’s own pages, but click the previous image larger to see the beautiful detail of this yarn.
Silke-Tweed wants to become Rowan Fyne, and that’s fine for me - standard gauge of Silke-Tweed is almost identical to Rowan Felted Tweed. But I missed one shade of the yarn for this pattern. So I have to visit Menita again to fetch some lion yellow or lime green loveliness!
Before bath
Yarn looks so modest. Slightly loose gauge brings out the decrease rows of yoke, not nicely. Surface does not look even. But washing, gentle tumble drying and blocking should change a lot. We’ll see!
Look, it’s tanglin’!
Tangled Yoke Cardigan is almost finished. I love this horizontal cable pattern, allthough it was quite a job to get it finished. Over 400 stitches and constant crossing of stitches - but the result is well worth the effort! I’ve never knitted anything like this before.
I would love to start another Karate Sweater, slightly longer version for autumn chills. Lovely cafe latte coloured Big Wool is gently whispering from my stash. It would be nice counterpart for these rather time consuming projects…
Just yoking
How lovely do all warm materials feel right now! My gray alpaca cardigan was on hold the whole summer but recently it got sleeves and now it’s time for gently laced yoke.
Look at the amount of stitches of it…
This modest looking yarn is actually Colourmart 100% cashmere. It could easily pass as unbleached loosely spun cotton in its oiled state. We’ll see the transformation later when I wash and tumble dry this knit. Mmm-hmmm, what’s it gonna be, then? Some of you might have recognized the long garter stitch ribbings of Eunny’s Tangled Yoke Cardigan.
I should knit a bathroom rug, but the idea of small and VERY thick tablet seems much more alluring right now. I just remembered why I don’t like large crochet projects worked in circle. Every round is more tedious than previous one. During last ones couple of epic movies could easily been watched. *sigh*
See, how my aestethic side was overdriven with this one. The lovely crochet hook was twice as long with beautiful carved end when I started this project. But sooner or later that loveliness would have induced an arthritis to aesthetics wrists… …so I let my saw to do its sad but necessary job…
Another Tea Rose with some legs
Although my wardrobe palette is mainly muted hues, black and white, sometimes I have affairs with bright colours. In tops and tees they are fairly easy to mix with my usual neutrals. A while ago I couldn’t resist this blue in Colourmart webshop:
Goes nicely with these taupe capri pants…
And some of you might even recognize the pattern: Wenlan Chia’s Tea Rose Halter from spring IK. The yellow one has been out and about quite a lot in this summer.
To balance that surprising colour splash I’ve had some gray on my needles too. My leg warmers are finished. I love the yarn combination (Kidsilk with OnLine Kim), but it was very slippery to knit and I managed to produce some ugly loose stitches with my DPNs. Not too big problem, though - I’m going to wear these at home anyway.
Something small and easy
Moving. Gray boxes. More gray boxes. Clothes stuffed in black garbage sacks. Stuff, that I don’t even remember to own. Dust. Cats, scared and shaky in the new environment. Some light and easy needlework to ease the stress.
Knitted these wristwarmers for my husband. You know, it’s the IT accessory of this summer for shorts and tees :-D.
More warmers for summers sake. Remains of Kidsilk are quickly ending up as legwarmers with OnLine Kim. Bought three skeins of it at LYS just to try this lovely merino silk blend. I usually don’t shop yarn without a project plan, but guess that the combination of my favourite fibers was too much to handle at that time. Pattern is very simple, from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. The whole idea is the yarn combination - delicate deep coloured mohair with smooth and lighter coloured wool. Lovely and luxurious texture, indeed. (There was no mention abour silk, but in my opinion some silk could be well included to almost any project).
I’ve cot something new and blue in my needles too, but more about that later.
Jo Sharp pattern book popped in from my mailbox today, and I really need to hold myself from buying some yarn for this. I saw the same fair isle pattern earlier in Flickr, used in man’s sweater. But it was Pujoliivi who really started this itch by showing that wonderful womens version.
But not now. At least three finished projects before any yarn shopping!
Wabi-sabi -shaali / huivi / torkkupeitto
Cilla - muunneltava peruspipo
Selma - lämmin palmikkoviitta
