Today Laila brought me the book I “ordered” from her visit to Denmark. Hönsefödder & Gulerödder from Anette Danielsen. And it is so great the website looks like. Some models I like to have for myself – did anybody tried that yet?

Thanks Laila!

That was yesterday. Didn’t see any knitters in town, but I was at the Zoo with my daughter and knitted while she was eating a huge ice cream. Really a huge one, so I managed a few rounds at my socks…

But then I am not so into knitting, it is getting too warm, but the main reason is that I am totally hooked with my wheel. And the fiber…

Tags: KIP2009, knitting, handspun

Yesterday evening I got this beautiful swift from Laila.

I tried it today and it works like a charm. Thanks again! But not only I got the swift, she really helped me to get started with a new knitting project by suggesting patterns for the beautiful yarn I got from her to my birthday. So I started February Lady Sweater.

In the course of the evening she also demonstrated her ball winder – and I was fascinated and said: I want one. I really want one. I am going to buy one. And today we went into town, to the local fleamarket and look what I got:

Beautiful, isn’t it? Together with this old ball winder I got this – the seller didn’t know what it is for – but I think it is to put a ball on it and keep it from rolling around. It’s name is “Lismeli” (the little knitter), at least that is printed on the bottom.

What can be more perfect after a nice and comfy evening? Oh yes, there’s more – I got something like a studio! Update follows.

The thing I really enjoy about starting to dye wool/yarn is that I am constantly on the lookout on exiting color combinations. When I was eating a kiwi some time ago I looked at the green, because that’s what we are anticipating with kiwis and then at the brown. And I started to imagine these colors together in a yarn. Next time I had the colors I tried mixing the green and the brown. I son realised that I would like to add another fruit, it needed something spicy (the red) and some fresh spring green.

I painted two rovings:

I wanted to spin them together in thick singles. I split each of the roving into eight stripes. Then I pre-drafted one stripe of each roving together.

I don’t have a picture of the finished yarn yet. But I am not completely satisfied. The first skein was hopelessy overspun. The second was better, but still…

Conclusion:

• I need to train spinning even singles.
• I don’t like Merino spun in even singles
• Merino needs to be spun thin and plied
• Merino is overestimated. I just think it is to flabby.
• I do like the colors

Ravelry sure is a source of inspirations. A whole thread of how to dye blue yarn/fiber with black beans.

Worth trying!

Tags: naturaldyeing, plant dyeing, dyeing, yarn, fiber

Do you know the feeling after finishing a big project (aka sweater)? When you are pleased wearing your new knitwear and at the same time long to start a new project. If only you knew exactly which one…

So instead I decide to blog. About the dyeing yarn. Together with the kids I dyed some old superwash yarn. With Kool-Aid.

And knitted mittens for the kids.

Now, Boy was so fond of his half-mitts, that he wore them all the time. They needed a wash. Superwash – so I put them in the washing machine. And that’s the result.

On the left one mitten of Girl, never washed. I read several times that Kool-Aid is permanent – but look at the difference. (And I didn’t use any bleach!)

Experiences?

Finished! Just in time (= before Spring!).

The Pentagon Aran Pullover from Knitting Nature. Knitted in Size Small and  without any modifications to the pattern. I did change the way to knit it tough. Instead of knitting the back and the front separately I knitted the body in the round. That way, the pattern was way easier (You don’t have to twist your mind: points are purled. Always.)

Coming to the armholes, I had the choice: steek or twist. I decided to go for steeks, after my Vossajakka that felt more natural.  Didn’t make my mind what kind of steeks, but used 5 st for the steek. For the neck I decided just to knit the stitches in plain stockinette instead of the pattern and do the steek thing as well.

So far so good. For my Vossajakka I just followed the pattern, took my sewing machine and seamed the steek. Easy. Fast (once you have your sewing machine prepared). I marked the neck and sewed along the markers as well. Cut the thing and added the sleeves/neckband. The not so beautiful seam was hidden behind a knitted seam.

For the pullover however I decided to try crochet steek. First because it’s something new for me (Eunny Jang’s steek chronicle was very helpful) and second because I didn’t have to get out the machine. Not complicated as well. As for the neck, in the front I crocheted along the neck shaped and picked up the stitches for the neckband.

Lessons learned:

• crochet steeks look nicer
• but they tend to flare
• and they are bulky
• for the armhole, 3 st are enough (I first try to seem the steek down, but with the bulky steek the pullover started to look like a knight’s armour. So I had to crochet everything again and cut away the first steeks)
• For the neck the croched steek was convenient, because of the huge neckband the steek can be left as it is. Still next time I probably would do the same as for an armhole. BO the st required and CO some steek stitches.

Conclusion:
I absolutely don’t agree with Eunny that machine sewed steeks don’t go together with handknits. It is possible to sew them that they keep the stretchiness of the knitwear. For me it is the trade off between hiding the machine sewed steek in a seam (extra effort when knitting the sleeve) or having a slightly bulky steek (may be that could be avoided by using a thinner yarn. But I didn’t had any thinner yarn in the same color and didn’t want to risk another color showing).

AND I ABSOLUTELY LIKE THE RESULT

Tags: knitting, norah gaughan, knitting nature, pentagons, steeks, crocheted steeks

who link them to interesting articles: nchenga twittered: Knitting can be subversive!

but I just couldn’t resist. Last wednesday I went with fourchette and her friend to lang yarns in reiden. Yarn sale. And that’s the result:

(Sorry for the bad picture, but the colors are more real without flash. And I couldn’t wait til the next sunny day…)

That’s yarn for three projects! I mean three sweater projects. Nobody knows when I am actually going to knit this, but then, just one after another.

I couldn’t really enjoy my findings, because – stupid, stupid, I know, I left one of my favorite knitting books in the store. Knitting Nature. But the ladies at Lang Yarns were kind enough to send it back to me! Thank you!

Finally I completed one depth and generated new ones, but on the other side. I have a good friend who volunteered (more or less) babysitting for the business christmas dinner. More or less because I kind of had to talk her into it (I’m sure in the afterthought she doesn’t understand why, the kids were most peaceful. And seriously telling about 3 bedside stories isn’t that bad, is it?) so I promised to knit her something. And because babysitting really is a kind task to the stressed parents, what could have suited better than Humanity?

And here they are the second FO in 2009!