| Tuesday, March 06, 2007 |
| Pssst....over here...LOOK! |
He he. Excuse you me while I flash you my knits ;D
Sorry to be so lazy about posting, but in between my swing dance classes which finally started up, working late and trying out wall climbing, I've hardly been on the net at all. Or home, for that matter. But I'm trying to keep my knitting going on the train to and from everywhere. I'm curious to see what this sweater is going to finally look like when I add the variegated yarn for the yoke. No matter what though, it's going to be a wonderfully soft and cuddly sweater. If you haven't tried the baby alpaca from Knitpicks before, you really should. I found it pleasant to knit with and it just makes the loveliest, softest fabric. I also just love the delicate heathered colour - it's hard to show in 2D, but the colour has more depth than what you can see in the picture. Ok, I've got to run and sort through more of my yarn and fabric before turning in...sadly I have too much stuff to take it all home with me, so I'm going to have to sell off what I can on eBay before I go. That is, whatever I can convince myself to part with. Wish me luck ;)Labels: Knitting, Life |
posted by tatjana @ 9:32 p.m.   |
|
|
|
| Wednesday, January 24, 2007 |
| You mean that little bit of snow? |
Well, although on the weekend the fates were not exactly in my favour, it looks like they've swung back my way. I woke up to this view out my front door this morning (but a bit darker) and didn't really think much of it. Getting this much snow at once does not happen often here in southern Germany, but having grown up in Canada, it never occurs to me that it's anything but normal. The bus I take to the train station was a little late, but I thought that was to be expected, since it looked like the process of clearing the streets was still underway. Also, people around here tend to get a little paranoid about driving in weather like this, which doesn't exactly help traffic. Matthias does an impression of German drivers in snowy weather which consists of him running around with his hands over his head yelling 'Schneeflocken! Die Schneeflocken werden mich fressen!' ('Snowflakes! The snowflakes are going to eat me!') LOL. Anyway, to make a long story short, the train station was utter chaos, no trains were running, and I just made my sweet way back home. Yay! Since I rather grudgingly dragged my sorry butt to work the last couple days, I am more than happy to stay home. Thankfully, things are really slow at work right now, so no one will mind me just working from home today.
Thank you all so much for your well wishes for me to get better, you are all such sweethearts! Cinderella, I wasn't brave enough to try Moby's cold remedy, although I'm sure it must be pretty effective, since I know at least that garlic and cayenne are great for fighting colds, and ginger is good for all sorts of things. For example, if any of you have never tried ginger tea (just let some ginger steep for a bit, then drink the water), it's great for upset stomachs. As Vanessa pointed out, the ginger tastes quite nice, especially with honey, at least if you like ginger. Unfortunately it has always been one of the things I have to choke down. Luckily though, it's only if the flavour is really strong, so I can still use hints of ginger in my cooking when it's mixed with other spices, like in Indian or Thai cooking, where it usually doesn't bother me. Nevertheless, even though I am a big fat yellow-belly who did not make Moby tea, I am feeling better, if a little run down. But as I said, things at work are slow right now, which means boring and I am just one of those people who doesn't get nearly as tired from being busy as I do from having not enough to do.
 So, in the spirit of keeping myself busy, I am well underway with my lovely alpaca sweater! I must say, the Andean Treasure from Knitpicks is so snuggly soft and I really love knitting with it. I only started working on this last week and I'm already done a good part of the body. I am knitting it in the round, just plain stockinette for now, but when I get to the yoke I will use the feather pattern (or is it fan? Who knows, here in Germany we call it peacock!) that I used on the sleeve. I was inspired in part by the Equinox Yoke Pullover, which has a fair isle design all the way up to the elbow, and also the Enid sweater, which I think has a very nice shape. At first, I considered doing some sort of simple fair isle, but when I knit a swatch of the two yarns it didn't look so hot, because of the difference in weight of the two yarns and all the colours in the Araucania. Since I really wanted to make use of just these, though I decided to try something else. I really like how the sleeve is turning out, and am looking forward to knitting the yoke. I think this will be a sweater that I will wear a lot. That's really saying something, since I started designing things on my own almost as soon as I learned to knit, and I've made a lot of duds ;D
 Labels: Knitting, Life |
| posted by tatjana @ 11:16 a.m. |
|
|
|
| Friday, January 19, 2007 |
| Aren't pictures so much better? |
I know I've already told you about this, but showing you is more fun :) Now you can actually see how cute it turned out! I sorta made up this sweater as I went along, only deciding in the beginning that I wanted some sort of wrap. I finally decided to fasten it with the two buttons you see in the picture, and a ribbon to tie it on the inside. The yarn is a cotton boucle which I've had lying around for a while. Once upon a time it was on its way to becoming a larger wrap, one for me, but at some point I was more or less forced to give it up. The cotton makes for a pretty firm boucle that doesn't slide very easily, which makes it a bit of a pain to knit with. Between working at the computer and all the knitting I do, my wrists get sore now and then and trying to knit with this yarn became too much of a strain. Even the baby jacket took a fair bit longer than it should have, but I managed, and I was happy to have been able to make something out of this yarn that I really like the look of, even if it's not so great to knit. I'm taking it to the post tomorrow morning - I'm on pins and needles to see if it will fit, because somehow it looks a little small now that it's done. Babies grow so fast! It's about 50cm or 20 inches around, which should be big enough for a baby that's no yet 2 months, but you never can tell. I guess I'll just have to wait and see.
Now I can get back to my Dulaan knitting, which I'm a bit behind on, as I wanted to have a sweater done by now. I also finally had an idea for what to do with some alpaca I ordered from Knitpicks when I was in Canada, and some Auracania that I also couldn't resist. Silly me, I didn't buy quite enough of the purple in the top of the Knitpicks picture to make a sweater and have long been hacking my brain as to what I could make or combine it with. For some reason I never noticed how nice it looks with the similar colours in the Auracania.  Also, although I have a weakness for variegated yarns, I often don't like the way they look when knit up. It looks nice as socks or a scarf, but I'm not crazy about variegated sweaters. But I just came up with a way to combine them that I think will work really well. I just started a sleeve as a gauge swatch - I'll keep ya posted!
Labels: Dulaan, Knitting |
| posted by tatjana @ 1:55 p.m. |
|
|
|
| Tuesday, January 16, 2007 |
| No gift like a handspun gift |
Not too long ago, I was at a market with a couple friends of mine who were admiring some fingerless gloves. It occurred to me that these were the perfect project for some of the handspun I've got lying around and cast on for a pair as soon as I got home. The first pair was in various shades of blue and has already been giving to my friend Alissa who says their perfect for bike riding and this purple pair is for her partner Sabrina, who will get hers soon and then they can run around in 'Partnerlook' ;)
I knit them a little long, but they look nice with the cuff folded over. Worn long, I find them good for 7/8 and 3/4 sleeved things. I will probably make a pair for myself soon, but first I will have to spin some more, since what I have now is either too bulky or is reserved for a swap I have to mail as soon as I get my butt to the LYS to buy another skein I'm sending along. I hope I'm sending the right sort of thing, as my swap partner (from Swapbot) weaves, she doesn't knit, and I'm not sure how particular the yarn has to be so that it's nicely weavable. If any of you happen to be able to provide any guidance on this, please let me know!
Other than that, I'm done knitting a baby sweater I started over Christmas for my friend Julie's baby. I heard about her pregnancy just after Matthias and I got back from our trip to Canada, so I missed out on seeing her before the baby was born. It's too bad, because she was the first from our group of girls who lived together during our first year at university. We were all so excited when we heard. I can't wait to see who's next. I think it may be a while though, because I am the only one who seems to hear the biological clock, and kids are out of the question for us until we're a bit more settled. I don't think I've mentioned before that we've decided to move to Canada, for many reasons. So no little people at least til after the big move. But, although Julie was recently engaged and moved into a new house, she wasn't planning on being a mommy yet either, so I guess you never know. Some of the babies I've known who've brought the most joy were also the most unexpected. If life can't throw us a few surprises now and then, what the heck are we here for? ;)
 Labels: Knitting, Spinning |
| posted by tatjana @ 12:17 p.m. |
|
|
|
| Saturday, October 21, 2006 |
| A backlog of craftiness |
Ok, I'm a bit behind on crafting and even more behind on picture taking, but rest assured I am working on things! I finally decided to put my sweaters on hold in favour of some quicker knits using my accumulating handspun. Look, here's another skein now....
I love how this one turned out, I'm a total sucker for warm tones. I haven't decided whether or not I want to put up some of my yarn for sale on etsy. I if I do, this will be one of the first skeins, even though I love it so much. Maybe even because I do. Somehow, I like it just the way it is. I wouldn't want to make something out of it. But someone else probably does, and every good yarn deserves to be made into something, dontcha think?
Still on the wheel is a single of a space dyed roving in various blues which will soon be a 2-ply reminiscent of the Twilight yarn from this post. But much more exciting, is the super fun rainbow yarn I made especially for fun kiddy knitting:
This is already on the needles, on its way to becoming mittens. It's about 180m altogether, so it should be enough for a matching hat too! Can you tell I desperately need kids to knit for? ;) No, not really, but it's fun knitting these nevertheless.
I also finally decided what to do with my Canadian Fall yarn, it's going to be a scarf with leaf pattern. I'll post a pic as soon as I have a bit more of it done. Tomorrow I will try to find some decent lighting to take pictures of fab thrifty finds. I went to our local and fairly new charity shop and totally scored! I found a bunch of adorable doily type things (much more shappy chic than tacky grandma) and a couple other pieces I wasn't expecting. They really must be shown off, because back home I was a champion thrifter, matched only by my mother, the finder of the $5 Prada bag (I shit you not). Alas, here there is little thrifting joy to be found, so when there is some, I must shout it from the hilltops for all to share! Here be bargains! Of pretty things no less!
And if that wasn't enough backlog, tonight I will have to complete the pendant I made in a jewellery workshop today so I can show you all tomorrow. It's a crazy, abstract piece of silver that I cut and filed and soldered (sorta, there was help) and polished all by myself! It was very fun. But it's already getting dark here in Deutschland, so there can be no picture taking til tomorrow, and anyway, the pendant needs a bead for colour and they didn't have the right one at the workshop so I'll have to raid my bead stash. I hope I have something in the right size and colour....wish me luck!
 Labels: Knitting, Other Craftiness, Spinning, Thrifting |
| posted by tatjana @ 6:06 p.m. |
|
|
|
| Sunday, October 08, 2006 |
| Dulaan Knitting |
Sorry for being a non-blog the last few days...things have been hectic at work with a long article that needed translating ASAP. Spending so many hours with full concentration in front of the screen, I've not been up to blogging once I get home.
 But I have started a new project craftwise. I heard about the Dulaan 10,000 or Bust (scroll down) at Mossy Cottage Knits and just had to join. She's trying to rustle up 2,000 knitters who will each knit 5 items to send to Mongolia to keep people warm. I've been meaning to knit some things for Dulaan for a while now, so I figured it was a good time to finally start :) This works out really well with all the spinning I've been doing, since I will end up with a bunch of yarn that's only good for small projects and I can't make use of them myself. I'm not the kinds of person to stock up on hats n mitts n things, I don't wear wool socks, and I don't really have anybody I can gifts such things to either. So I'll send them to Mongolia :) I'm thinking I may also start selling some of my handspuns and then I can donate a portion of what I sell to Dulaan too! There's something about crafting for a cause that's just so motivating, dontcha think? Here's my first Dulaan knit:
This is how my self-striping handspun knit up. It worked! I really like how the stripes are irregular, it looks more interesting that way, I think. I will definitely work on this technique a bit more til I get the plying just right, and in the meantime can use my results to knit up more hats like these! It's just a basic k2p2 rib that I improvised, knit on 4.5mm (US7) needles. I could have used a size or 2 larger, but I thought it would be better to make it as tightly knit as possible for warmth.
In other crafty news, this afternoon I will be in a Tiffany glass workshop. It started yesterday afternoon, when I got most of my project done, and we get to continue today! I am a big glass art/craft/everything fan, so I've been really excited about doing this. I find things made out of coloured glass just have such a magical quality. It's especially amazing when people can melt it into different absstract forms...it looks so fluid, as though it could move. In this workshops were are just soldering pieces of glass together, like what is done in Tiffany lamps or stained glass windows, but there's still a lot of room for creativity. I'm making a mirror with sun rays. It's a bit hard to describe, but I will post of pic of the finished project tomorrow!
  Labels: Dulaan, Knitting |
| posted by tatjana @ 10:48 a.m. |
|
|
|
| Tuesday, September 12, 2006 |
| Cheater cheater pumpkin eater.... |
Do ever feel just a little bit guilty for cheating on the sweater you're knitting to go sew yourself a quick skirt? For putting aside that mile long scarf for Aunt Flo, because you just couldn't keep your itchy fingers from casting on for that cute little top in the latest issue of IK? For tossing your quilting pieces to the wind so you can be up to your elbows in a bucket of yarn and purple dye? I do, sometimes. The last week or so has been one of those times. It tends to coincide with ruts, those periods when your craft mojo just seems to be out of whack, and none of your current WIPs seem so exciting anymore.
So who, or really what, am I cheating on? Well, I've already spouted off about all the sewing, and in addition to that grey cardigan (which I haven't touched since I posted that picture), I have two half knit cardigans waiting in the wings, a Mary Jane and a DROPS 88-4. Then there is a red cardigan, which is actually very close to being done, that I found while organizing my stash, and last, but definitely not least, because it's the only project with a deadline, a little something I want to submit to Knitty. And don't even ask how many potential projects I've started swatches for.
But all this torrid betrayal is not my fault! I swear! It was the yarn....the yarn was my downfall!!! (Have I used enough !!! yet?)
And there she is. Isn't she lovely? An unexpected score on eBay, a 900g cone for 6,50 Euro, which of course had to be accompanied by a cone of paprika coloured cotton, and a cone of really soft silver-grey viscose. But this one is by far the best. You wouldn't know to look at it, or feel it for that matter, but it's a blend of cotton, acrylic and polyamid. Yeah, wierd mix. But it's soft as butter, knits up beautifully, and has this ever so slight halo that I'm just loving.
So of course you all think I'm knitting something with it. But I haven't even gotten that far yet (except for a wee bit of swatching). Having been inspired by Aija, I thought 'Hey, we haven't tried Navajo plying yet, why don't we give a whirl with some of that there pink yarn?' I really was just going to try it out, see how hard it was. And then I thought, 'Wow, this yarn is really great plied this way, and I could make a much more cuddly sweater with this added bulkiness!' So before I knew it I was Navajo plying like a crazy person. I don't know what's sadder, the fact that I'm not even plying my own handspun, or the fact that there are winders that do this. Ok, maybe not Navajo ply, but certainly do a decent job of twisting three strands together.
Oh well, it's too late to turn back now. All my other WIPs are already disgusted with me, and I already have almost enough of the yummy pink yarn in worsted weight to make a sweater :)
Labels: Knitting |
| posted by tatjana @ 7:52 p.m. |
|
|
|
| Wednesday, August 30, 2006 |
| More stuff to do |
 So, in addition to all my pending sewing projects I actually am getting some knitting done too. I can't say it's terribly impressive, and maybe because I've spent most of the last couple of weeks doped up on antibiotics I even managed to mess up a simple rib pattern. But at least I knew how to fix it :) I always feel like a bit of a rebel letting the stitches just drop like that. Almost like I've kicked my knitting's ass somehow. But then, I was fixing a flub in a rib pattern, so I really can't be that smug. I'm working on the back of a cardigan I found in an old Verena magazine. It's an alternating rib that gives the fabric a kind of waffle-like appearance that I'm really liking. I don't know if you can see it properly, it's knit on the right 
side, and k1p1 on the wrong side. Sadly though, I don't think it will get done any time soon because the pattern is getting really monotonous, and I cast on for this just before the weather turned, so I may not have the chance to even wear this again this year because it's cotton and therefore not very warm. We'll see. I'm thinking I may put knitting on the back burner while I catch up on my sewing. Right now I've got about half a dozen bags cut out while I wait for magnetic clasps, both my July and August projects for Sew Retro to get done, and while I was trying to organize my fabric stash I found a knitting needle case I cut out last fall when I made one for my hunny's mum and realized I had enough fabric for another. I'm not sure if I'll keep it or not, I'll see how attached I am when it's done ;) For now I am actually quite fond of this French cookie tin I found at a flea market. I like the happy yellow of it, even though I don't usually like yellow. Either way the it will be a circ only case, because that's all I use. I tried straights once when I was in Colombia and it was all I could find. It was horrible. So awkward and uncomfortable. Thank god for whoever invented circs or I would be missing out on knitting altogether!  
 Labels: Knitting, Sewing |
| posted by tatjana @ 4:00 p.m. |
|
|
|
| Tuesday, August 22, 2006 |
| Little Knit |
I seem to have a nasty habit of mentioning a knit I'm working on and then, if I lose interest in it, just don't mention it again. I really have to stop doing that. So for those who saw that post, and wanted to know how my makeshift baby aran turned out, here it is:
The yarn is a bulky cotton-acrylic mix in navy which doesn't look washed out as it does in the pictures. The joining of the sleeves to the body and the yoke are not exactly perfect, because I didn't really plan the whole garment through before knitting. I just swatched for gauge and to try out some cables to see how they looked. Once I figured out how many stitches I was casting on, I figured out what sequence of cables would fit within that number, then just knit up the sweater the same way I did when I knit Daisy before. This time I used a really bulky yarn, and was winging the decreases for the arms scye and the yolk, so all in all it could have been a lot worse. Maybe this will teach to plan a bit more? Have sketches with notes and carefully planned stitch patterns like Eunny? I really do wish I could, at least sometimes, stop being such knit by the seat of my pants kinda girl. But hopefully it's something I can learn while I work on designing more.
Labels: Knitting |
| posted by tatjana @ 2:22 p.m. |
|
|
|
| Tuesday, August 15, 2006 |
| Hackity hack hack. |
That pretty much sums up the last week or so. I haven't had the strength for much else. Having the wonderfully unpredictable weather we do here in Stuttgart, we went from our in-the-30s heat wave to in-the-teens with yucky rain and overall greyness. Blech! I actually don't mind rain, I find it kinda soothing, but unlike back home, rain here always brings a kind of creeping dampness that seeps into all the nooks and crannies of my already heat inefficient body. So, like many others I got sick. You can imagine my joy. Summer isn't even over and I'm already getting visits from my old friend bronchitis.
On the bright side, last week happened to be Super Knitting Mag Week. So while I was stuck in bed, I got to flip through my recently arrived copy of Interweave Knits and enjoy the company of my good chums Rebecca and Verena! Woohoo! This was especially exciting because I think it's the first time I've ever gotten IK before it was on newstands, and I found a few things in all three mags that I think I would like to knit. In IK, I really like the comfy look of Bianca's Jacket and the Gatsby Girl Pullover (scroll down) is so feminine and elegant. Admittedly, I was a little horrified by the Western Point Skirt, especially since I like a lot of Annie Modesitt's designs, but the construction is interesting, and I would probably like it a lot more if I didn't think those necktie skirts, which inspired the design, were just the ugliest thing going. My last favourite from this issue is the Glasgow Lace. The lace patterns and scalloped edge are very pretty, but I think it will need some shaping. As is, it makes the poor little red-haried girl look rather like the proverbial potato sack, in continuation of the evil IK anti-redhead plot.
Rebecca and Verena do not have pics of all their patterns online (isn't that irritating if you have to order them?) so I was forced to take horrible snapshots again. I really apologize, but our scanner sucks and it takes forever to format the pictures so that they're uploadable, because the accompanying software sucks too. But at least you can see some fun knits, even is some of them are branding with magazine-gloss-glare, or a little fuzzy when I tried to avoid it (Did I mention my camera sucks too?).
 
I really like this long cardigan/coat. It's kinda dress like and the length should keep my butt warm. I have a pile of magenta yarn with some mohair that I think I might use to knit this. I have enough for a long sweater and I've been wondering what to do with it for a while. I'm not sure what colour would suit the lace sweater, but I just love it. It looks great in cream, but it's really not my colour. At any rate, it should probably be knit in a light colour, to make the lace more visible.
 
These two sweaters are from Verena, a German knitting mag that comes out 4 times a year. I like the style of the one on the left, but would find it a bit inpractical to wear in winter. Although the blue sweater is presented in the ugliest manner possible (what's with the hat!?!) I like the idea of double stranding a mohair yarn with wool and using a woven look stitch. It might be the solution I've been looking for for some mohair I bought on impulse and am not afraid to knit for fear of looking like a muppet.
There were also some really nice patterns in plus sizes, one or two of which I will have to resize to make for myself:
 
I especially like the stitch pattern and the soft look of this sweater:
 
And I'm considering knitting up a version of the cabled vest with sleeves, becuase I think it would make a nice sweater.
And last, but not least, just to show those who don't or can't get Verena that's it's not all pretty knits, some good ol' Verena fug:
Come on girls, don't you want to release your inner wookiee?
And this is what I imagine happening if Cruella DeVil ever decided to ransack the smurf village:
Ok, time for another nap. Sorry about the poor picture quality! Better pics next tme I promise :)
  Labels: Knitting, Life |
| posted by tatjana @ 1:00 p.m. |
|
|
|
| Friday, August 04, 2006 |
| Seaberry Shell - another one frogged? |
As I mentioned before, in my search for finished Seaberries on the web, all I could find was one frogged and another that ended up being completely different, only preserving the leaf lace pattern, not even the bobbles. For the most part I kept to the pattern, sorta. I was working with my own yarn, and didn't attempt to make it as bulky as that in the pattern. The pattern calls for Twinkle Cruise, a cotton/silk mix, and you're supposed to knit using 4 (!!!) strands. I used some nice mercerised cotton and only doubled it, which could then be worked on 5mm needles (the pattern uses 8mm/US11). Since the shell has no shaping, and I have long figured out how to decrease for sleeves, all that I needed from the pattern was the lace pattern, which in my version is not as wide, but still gives the same bulky lace impression which I found nice in the original. I added waist shaping (yes, really. Can't you see it??). A hell of a lot of good it did me. What worked out much better, though, was the change to the neckline. The original high neck was a little severe, and I thought I'd make a boat neck. Unfortunately, I had only 6 50g balls of the yarn, and it didn't look like it would be enough. So I knit up front and back as far as I could, and started on my now scooping neckband. If I had had a bit more yarn, I would have like to make the neckline a bit higher, and the band a bit wider, so that the neckline swoops across from shoulder to shoulder, instead of being the square shaped dip it is now. Oh well, next time experiment with more yarn, I guess :D I'm very town about whether to keep or to tear the thing up. I like the general look of it, but the bulky fabric is not exactly flattering. There just seems to be too much around the waist. I'm not sure if I would wear it the way it is, but since it's already knit, and it was only 300g of wallflower cotton, I may take the risk of running this baby through the sewing machine. If I took enough off the sides at the waist, so that it had negative ease and fit nice n snuggly, it would probably look a lot less boxy. *sigh* Why do I always fall for the patterns made for the scrawny little boobless girls??
Labels: Knitting |
| posted by tatjana @ 11:48 p.m. |
|
|
|
| Wednesday, August 02, 2006 |
| Medieval Knitspiration |
I forgot to mention it then, but a couple weeks ago the boy and I drove to Bavaria to attend the Kaltenberger Ritterturnier, a medieval festival complete with jousting tournament. It was a lot of fun. They set up an entire village around the Kaltenberg castle and recruit a bunch of people to camp out in garb for the whole month. We decided on this only about a week beforehand, so we didn't have time to find or make something to wear, which was a shame, because I really love dressing up. The couple things I have left from my earlier, more grandiose wardrobe (the joys of being a teenager with nothing to do but play dress up!) are stored somewhere in Canada, at my brother's place, I think. And Matthias has nothing even close to medieval. Next time we go though, I definitely want to have something fun to wear.
Before the tournament, they held a parade of all the village 'citizens'. I took lots of pictures, because like I said, I love this sort of thing, and thought it would serve for later inspiration. (Pics on the Flickr page) I was especially impressed by the costumes of the various knights.
Who wouldn't love to have their man decked out like that? Growr! Ahem. Yeah, so I got the idea of knitting up some chain mail. Pretty decent looking chain mail can be knit using a semi-bulky yarn, or even better, some kind of twine or cord which is stiffer and then painting it silver. This is often done in theatre or for movie extras. Although the knights in the picture were all wearing real mail, I did see some others who had knit mail, and even from a pretty close distance looked pretty good, and is definitely a lot more comfortable to wear. I managed to find a site with patterns for various chainmail garments, and this PDF has instructions on how to use a really neat technique for actually applying metal foil to the fabric for a quite realistic look. In the second link they recommend using nylon cord, but I read somewhere else that cotton cord or some other natural fibre is better. I guess it's something I'll have to play with.
  Labels: Knitting, Life, Randomness |
| posted by tatjana @ 2:00 p.m. |
|
|
|
|
|
