Thursday, December 31, 2015

Saturday, December 26, 2015

Pure cashemere ... Recycled yarn. A delight to work with!




Thursday, December 10, 2015

The best way to disolve yarn stash is to knit gifts for friends. Odette has been a grand succès and I get loads of requests. Combined two variegated yarn and it turned out wonderfully :)






Wednesday, December 02, 2015

You're probably fed up seeing my feet but the bad news is that if I am not fed up knitting socks, you'll be seeing them more :)

I still have a good stock of sock yarn ... This one is hand-dyed / hand spun and the pictures do not really reflect the beauty of it. Was purchased from an eBay seller about six years ago.









Saturday, November 21, 2015

In the mean time ... Both pairs successfully completed. The yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock Yarn. The patterns are from "Überlieferte Strickmuster Aus Dem Steirischen Ennstal" by Maria Erlbacher ( aka Bavarian Twist ).

Now, a few words for the so called yarn ... High quality and great to knit with. But on the other hand quite expensive to buy two skeins for a pair of socks when there are more color alternatives to invest. My critic is why they would not produce a reasonable skein weight so you need not buy a second one which will leave a significant amount of waste yarn behind. Because these yarns are variegated, there are not much alternatives to combine in harmonious colors in an other project. The skeins are less than 60 grams which is not enough for a short cuff/leg pair of socks. I would not have minded paying a couple more dollars rather than having have to end up knitting one of the pairs' toe from another brand yarn. You'll see the picture below. Not fun!




And for the first time - after all the knitting years - managed to break a bamboo DPN ... Luckily, one end was longer enough to handle the divided stitches. Shaped it up with a nail file :)




Friday, November 13, 2015

FOX PAWS by Xandy Peters

Wow ... What a challenge! The original pattern is five repeats with fingering weight yarn. I reduced it to three cause I am using a thicker ~ acrylic ~ yarn. Plus, this is a test knit. I used whatever was left from
Yack Blanket. It not as complicated as it appears but needs a lot of attention and concentration. Very pleased with the way it turned out. I want to call this color palette Peacock in an Autumn Garden.












Thursday, October 29, 2015

Odette again ... This time with variegated yarn ... Knitted for a friend :)







Thursday, October 22, 2015

Now ready to wear ... If I remember right, the scarf's raw silk yarn was from Madagascar. I had bought in it in France during Fete en Auiguilles some years ago. The edging is Mexican Lace. 

More photos from previous posts HERE and HERE :)



The rose brooch is needle lace with naturally died silk. Bought from Ödemiş, an Aegean town
.



Thursday, March 26, 2015

Just saw this hanging behind the door now and realized forgot to mention this wrap if I may call it. It was knitted some time between the berets.

Besides increasing stitches, I think I had used about four bigger size needles.



The wrist warmers are ready. Quick to knit ... They'd make a good last minute gift!


If you're not happy with them, you might as well use them as ear warmers ha ha!




Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Having dissolved most of the hibernating projects, managed to pile up more. Just can't stick to one project for long, while my mind is full of new adventures. Very flighty of me!

I'd call myself an intermediate knitter. However, recently I have dived into modifying patterns or coming up with ideas. These ideas are from what has already been discovered, tried and true but that I use them in a different way.

One of them is a toe-up sock with Turkish cast on. I shall talk about the detail later when I proceed with what I got inspired to form the heel. There will not be a second pair. Just this one. The demo sock :)


The other recent goody is a wrist warmer. Again I used an existing pattern but modified it significantly. Luckily, I have a nice friend who appreciates my little adventures which gears me up to finish rather than drop them aside until next century or so.

These are some attempts for the edging. I ended up modifying and using a ruffle but these antique knitting designs were enjoyable to play around. They were quite big though I used lace-weight yarn. Thus dropped.


This is the coquette I talk about. The cat too is coquette :)




And ta-ta-taaa ... Off to knitting the other pair!