A Happy New Year 2011

Little bird and "little" dog

Lucky had a haircut and is now wearing his "spring style". Although on this pic he doesn´t look too happy, he likes his short hair better and looks like a little puppy now.

Not the prettiest bird but a special one :) Crochet with small leftovers. I like it and it was fast and fun to make.

Pattern: Birdie Decoration by Lucy of Attic24

Hook: 4mm

Yarn: dk leftovers

Silk Kerchief

Since a long time I´ve wanted to knit this shawl and although I should do a lot of other things, I´ve started it now. When I find some minutes to sit down and knit I sooth my mind with knitting some stitches and looking at the beautiful colours of the Noro Silk garden yarn. By the way, it is both yarn from stash.

Pillow and Bactus

The giant granny square crochet pillow out of Malabrigo Merino worsted leftovers is finished!
It is super colourful and soft. Philipp loves it.

From my christmas yarn I´ve knitted this Lacy Bactus. It was a nice and easy tv- and car-knitting project and Teresa loves it. The yarn is nice and soft and washable.

Pattern: Lacy Bactus by Terhi Montonen

Yarn: Lana Grossa Meilenweit Soja (dark blue)

Needles: 4mm

Crochet + Noro = pure pleasure

I still have the strange urge to crochet and with the amazing and crazy colours and colourchanges in Noro yarns it is really a pleasure and fun. I always was a bit afraid of crocheting and that I wouldn´t understand the pattern. Now as I tried it out I am surprised and happy. It is much easier than I thought and once I understood the crochet charts it became nice and easy.

This flower is called "Etole Japonaise" in french and is originally from a japanese crochet book. I found it on a french blog and tried it out today. It is cute and easy to make. Maybe one day I´ll crochet more of them.

And now my largest and most difficult crochet project until now....tatataaaaa

Pattern: Sunflower Satchel by Asami Kawa

Yarn: different leftovers from Noro Silk Garden Sock and Noro Kureyon Sock

Hook: 3mm

I´ve fallen in love with this bag the first time I´ve seen it on ravelry but was afraid of trying it out. But what would I have to loose? So I bought the pattern, searched my stash for the little leftover Noro balls and started to crochet....and crochet...and crochet....until this cute little crazy colourful bag was finished. I love it, but unfortunatly so does my dearest girl ;)

Crochet-fever

It seems everywhere I see new granny squares and crochet blankets. Although I´m not a great crocheter I couldn´t resist. From time to time the crochet fever gets me and I start to make some granny squares and this time, hexagons! I´m proud of myself that I understood the pattern because although I knit "in english" I crochet only in "german".

Hexagon-How-to by Lucy of Attic24 is really a great tutorial!

Its a great way to use up some stashed yarn and it is funny and addictive. It´s a good inbetween project. Some hexagons here and some rows of the pillow there.....

A little update

A lot happend here since I´ve blogged the last time. A good friend died, the whole family was sick, husband was in hospital, winter came back, we started to renovate the house .....

So not really much time for blogging and doing funny things like knitting. But now it is going up again and spring is coming soon. Ok, today it is snowing but soon....beleave me!

There will be a lot of work with the renovation but inbetween there is always some time for knitting and occacionally crocheting and a bit of sewing.

Some project I´ve finished inbetween:

Pattern: Boneyard Shawl by Stephen West

Yarn: Rowan Felted tweed in carbon (gift from my wonderful friend Ulrika)

Needles: 4.5mm

I totally love this shawl and wear it every day. It is soft and warm and I totally love the dark grey with the little flecks in it. Lacy shawls might be funnier to knit, but honestly, I prefer to wear simple and "boring" shawls.

Pattern: Noro Hat by Saartje de Bruin

Yarn: blue and green leftovers from Noro Silk Garden Sock yarn I had in my stash

Needles: 3.5mm DPN

I´ve casted on only 92 sts because I wanted to knit a hat for Felix. But as usually I knitted so loose that it became much larger and now I have a new hat. I like it. It has the colours I like and a nice snuggly fit.

Pattern: Manda Ruth by Jane Richmond

Yarn: Lang Yarns Tweed

Needles: 5mm

This cardigan was a very fast and interesting knit. It is knitted from top-down with no seaming. I didn´t knit the hood this time, as he oftern wears it in the house and I prefer it this way. I couldn´t decide on one colour for the buttons so I´ve taken one of each colour I had in stash. These are coloured wooden buttons I´ve once bought on ebay.

First flowers in the garden and new socks ....

Luna is smelling and searching between the old and dry leaves and I found the first flowers of the year there. Schneeglöckchen in german and I think snowdrops in english.

I showed some discipline this time and avoided the 2nd sock syndrom as good as I could. So after one week and only one and a half shawl/scarf inbetween I´ve finished Davids socks. We call them Wellensocken (wave socks) because of the waves and the waterish colour. te. hey were easy and fast to knit. The pattern is written for 3mm needles and heavier yarn to get socks in women size. David has european size 35/36 so I´ve used 2.5mm DPN and fingering weight yarn and they turned out the right size.

Pattern: Kalajoki by Tiina Seppälä

Yarn: Colinette Jitterbug in Adonis Blue (gift from Ann)

Needles: 2.5mm DPN

Spring Scarf

Pattern: Sunday Market Shawl

Yarn: Noro Silk Garden Lite (2 skeins)

Needles: 6mm

It was the first time i did a dropped stitch and I really was surprise how this changed the appearance of the scarf. Unfortunatly I wasn´t able to make a good pic, but the scarf is really nice, airy and colourful. Exactly what I wanted for this still a bit cold early spring days.

Startitis again...

Socks for David.
The pattern is for thicker yarn and larger needles. I´m using normal sockyarn and 2.5mm instead of 3mm needles and hope they will be a bit smaller as David has shoesize 35/36.

Needles: 2.5mm DPN
Yarn: Colinette Jitterbug in Adonis blue
Pattern: Kalajoki



A shawl that goes with everything! The yarn is from the frogged Peasy. So it is back to life and can show off its beauty and softness. I´m knitting this shawl while watching the "Bones" series season 1 on DVD. So this is my Bones shawl :)

Pattern: Boneyard Shawl by Stephen West
Yarn: Rowan Felted Tweed in carbon
Needles: 4.5mm Knit picks Harmony




And because I sometimes need some pretty colours to sooth my mind....NORO!
I´ve found 2 skeins of Noro Silk Garden Lite in my stash that I once bought because they were so pretty. Now what to knit of 2 skeins? Found inspiration on ravelry as usually.

Pattern: Sunday Market Shawl
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden Lite in colour 2048
Needles: 6mm

These are all free pattern I found over Ravelry and I think they are all great ones. Fast and easy. I´m really happy with this little knit mix I´m having here. I´m knitting free patterns with yarn from my stash or gifted ones. Today I really feel like a frugal (in a yarn-snobbish way I know) knitter.

Tiroler Tag in Serfaus

Last weekend my husband and Philipp were skiing in Serfaus. The weather was wonderful and so was the snow.

"Tiroler Tag" is ever Saturday in the winter season which means that on Saturdays the people who live in Tirol pay less.

Coraline

Coraline

I´ve finally finished my Coraline Cardigan. And I really love it. Everything about it. The yarn and the colour of it (kind of a dusty blueish purple) that really bloomed nicely after washing.
The fit is exactly how I´ve imagined it. Not too tight and not unflattering wide. Now only the sewed buttonholes are missing...that might take a while because I really dislike sewing by hand.


I´ve learned a lot with this cardigan. For me it was the first time I knitted a hem, I-cord bind off, I-cord cast on and finally the smocking. I think Ysolda is really brilliant!

Patter: Coraline by Ysolda
Yarn: Colourmart Yak/Mohair/Silk/Merino fingering weight (1015 m used.....1.5 cones used)
Needles: 3.5mm

Small things...

I really wanted to knit these socks since I´ve first seen them on ravelry. The construction is really cool and I love them. The yarn is wonderful too and I like very much the little changes in colour. I really love varieted sock yarn but absolutly more the one with light variations like in this DIC and in the Malabrigo sock yarn.

Pattern: Kai Mei by Cookie A. in her book Sock Innovation
Yarn: Dream in Colour Smooshy in colourway Wisteria
Needles: 2.25mm DPN

The Fishy Mittens for Felix are finished and I really like how they came out. The are supersoft and squishy. I didn´t get the colours perfect on the camera, but it really looks nice how the persia colourway of the malabrigo sock yarn changes the colours of the fishes.

Something new

To forget about the cardigan desaster and because I´m still waiting for my new 3.5mm KnitPicks Harmony needles I´ve started something new.


I was eyeing the nice fair isle mittens on Ravelry lately and all the different possibilities and colours that the different mittens come in. And because sometimes I learn from mistakes, I decided NOT to buy a super complicated pattern for adult mittens with about 72sts to CO and 5 different colours to use.

The Swedish Fish mittens looked funny and nice and I think something like this would be nice for Felix.
So I started drawing a chart and searching for leftover sock yarn.

So far so good. I´ve CO 40 sts on 2.75mm needles and knitted 20 rows of k2/p2 ribbing and than moved on to my chart which I´m knitting on 3.25mm DPN because somehow my 3mm DPN´s disappeared.

The yarn is leftover Malabrigo Sock yarn in persia for the fish and Lana Grossa Seta/Cashmere leftover from my stripy baktus scarf in light grey.

An intuitve hat

From the yarn I received as christmas present from my daughter I one skein leftover. From the other 2 I´ve knitted the Eternity scarf and now I needed a hat to go with it.

My gauge was 12 sts/10cm so I´ve casted on 68 sts and knitted some rows of k1tbl/p1rib. Than I´ve started with the lace pattern from "intuitve" hat and added some stitches as I went on to get a muliple of 5. I don´t know how much I´ve increased but it worked and I´ve knitted until the yarn went to his end and than knitted the decrease as in pattern. The hat is a bit smaller and less slouchy than Julias version. To get it a bit larger I heavy blocked it wet over a large plate. I like it the way it is now. Thanks for the pattern!

Pattern: Intuitive by Julia Zahle
Yarn: Lana Grossa Lord
Needles: 5mm and 5.5mm DPN

Pünktchenjacke

It is not really visible on my crappy pics but the Tweed yarn has little colourful flecks in it.

Felix was not in mood for modelling and tried to escape...




Pattern: Manda Ruth by Jane Richmond
Yarn: Lang Yarns Tweed
Needles: 5mm

Buttons are from stash and the yarn was on sale, so a really fast and economic project.

A little "baby-knitting" in between

I really need some instant gratification and I wanted to help the people in Haiti. So this it is.

The pattern is Manda Ruth by Jane Richmond and it is in the Help-for-Haiti programm on Ravelry. I think this is a very good idea to gather money for Haiti.

The yarn is some yarn I bought on sale in the LYS lately. It is a bulky tweedy yarn with some acrylic content and I bought it with toddler knitting in mind. Yes toddler - he is not a baby any more ;) I´m knitting largest size (2 yo) on 5mm needles and hope it will fit as I was to lazy for a gauge swatch.

There is some progress, but slow.....

This dark grey beauty is the Peasy cardigan. I´m somewhere on the body part and wish a had a knitting machine that does the stockinette part....
While knitting I´m thinking which buttons to choose, when finally finished....



...and again...endless stockinette on my greyish purple Coraline cardigan......

And again I´ve started a cardigan

Pattern: Peasy by Heidi Kirrmaier
Yarn: Rowan Felted Tweed in carbon (dark grey)
needles: Knit picks harmony in 3.5mm


The pattern is good to understand and nice to knit. It is a top down and seamless construction which I absolutly prefer.

The yarn is soft and warm and not itchy! I love it! It was gifted to me by my wonderful friend Ulrika which makes the whole sweater very precious to me.

Windschief...as a neckwarmer this time

I really like this pattern. It is fast, easy, nice and wearable.

Pattern: Windschief by Stephen West
Yarn: Malabrigo Merino Worsted in Tuareg
Needles: 4.5mm DPN

My mustard Socks

...are finished and already in heavy use.





Pattern: my own
Yarn: UK Alpaca Alpaca Sock Yarn in mustard
Needles: 2.5mm

The yarn is a bit ichty and splitty while knitting. The socks are warm and a bit thicker as the socks I usually knit, but I like them anyway.

CO 60sts and 3k/1p rib throughout the whole sock. The cables are on every 7th row.

Stash knit-down has begun :)

This year I really want to try to knit more from stash. As a first project I´ve knitted a little vest for Felix. I love vests for babies and this one is really nice.

Knitted with 2 strands of yarn (Drops Alpaca/Sirdar Balmoral) on 5mm needles and I´ve casted on 100sts to get the right size. It turned out a bit bulky but it is ok. Next time I´ll cast on more stitches and use dk yarn single stranded. Buttons used are from stash also.

Pattern: Pebble
Needle: 5mm
Yarn: Garnstudio Drops Alpaca (about 1 skein used/grey)
Sirdar Balmoral (1.2 skeins/deerstalker)

First Shawl in 2010

This is my first shawl in 2010. I joined a group and plan to make at least 10 shawls in 2010. I am not sure,if I really knit so many shawls but I´ll give it a try.

This shawl is a real winner! Wonderful soft yarn which was a gift from my friend Ulrika and a nice and interesting pattern. I´ve made the size s because I was not sure how much yarn was on the skein. Now I have 25g yarn leftover. The shawl is a litle small but light as a feather and
warm.





Pattern: Andrea´s Shawl by Kirsten Kapur
Yarn: Östergötlands Ullspinneri Visjögarn, 1tradig, naturgrau
Needles: 5.5 circular