Fibre and yarn, and more yarn, and some socks...

Mister postman has been soo kind to me lately! It seems like every other day, something interesting has magically appeared in my mailbox. Really, I have no idea how this happens. Suddenly, all this fibre and yarn arrives at my doorstep, and I can't seem to make myself remember that I actually ordered and paid for this... ;)

This is merino superwash wool from Crown Mountain Farms

And this is my extremely pathetic first attempt at spinning it. Spinning is a lot of fun, and relaxing, but the result... not so much fun. It's lumpy and much too thin at the same time, and kind of looks like the dog ate it and spat it out again.

Moving on to nicer things. I've been trying to find the perfect shawl yarn for a long time, and whadda ya know, I found it right here in Finland! I don't really know how to describe it, because I couldn't possibly do it justice. But it's soft, smooth, the perfect thickness (or thinness), and it's cheap! It's Wetterhoff Silvia

Some Colinette Jitterbug has also appeared here, somehow. The colors are Copper Beach and Lapis, from Cucumberpatch

Unfortunately, there was a sale at Cucumberpatch, and they made me get this too! Rowanspun 4-ply. Dirt cheap!

And finally, some Lorna's Laces Shepherd sock, colors Sand Ridge and Aslan. These will be manly socks when they grow up. I found these at Garnkorgen

I also participated in Socktopia's Knit Off madness this weekend. It was a lot of fun, but I'm still bummed about the time difference. You see, we were divided into two teams and the team with the most finished socks (pairs) after about 2 days of knitting won. There was also an award for fastest knitter, i.e. the knitter who first finished a pair. And this is where the bummedness comes in. The contest started at 6.45 pm finnish time. I was knitting like a madwoman and finished my first sock in record time. But then, night time got in the way of knitting and I had to go to sleep. That's reasonable, you might think, but that meant that the knitters that live in the western US, for example, still had many hours of knitting left while I was sleeping. So the conclusion is that I had no chance of winning the fastest knitter award, which was what I was really aiming for with this competition. Well, no, the conclusion is actually this: I'm a really bad loser!!! :) But, anyway, here are my Knit Off socks. The pattern was made especially for the Knit Off by Momma-Monkey (our ring leader), and it's called Eleanor. I'm really happy with the way they turned out.

1/2 Print O' the Wave

Not much knitting going on at the moment. But I have managed to finish 1/2 of my Print O' the Wave Stole. Here it is on our fridge.

I've already started the other half, and I can't really concentrate on any other knitting projects right now. But I will be taking part in the Socktopia Knit Off this weekend, so I'm saving up all my sock energy for that!

I have also been in contact with both of my Secret Pals, and I'm really looking forward to putting together really nice goodies and getting interesting packages in the mail!

Things to be happy about...

I have many things to be happy about today. First of all, the sun is shining like crazy and it's spring! At least here in the south of Finland. There are also a few knitting related happy things.

I finished these.

"Hey, hey we're the Monkies!" One of them is much tighter than the other one, but I don't care! Most of it evened out after blocking anyway. The color is a little too cutie-sweetie for my taste, but I really like them!

The second thing is this beauty.

Eunny Jangs "Print O' the Wave Stole". I cast on yesterday and look how far I got already! I'm so pleased with this one! I can't wait to see how it looks when it's finished and blocked. I'm a little bit unsure about the yarn, though. It's a cotton crochet yarn, but I think it looks like it's going to work... I really wanted this to be a summer shawl, and have a really light feel to it, so that's why I didn't chose wool or mohair...

The third thing to be happy about is something that came in the mail today.

I flipped through them a bit, and these will keep me occupied for a while! Lovely!

Chucks Cabled Socks, oh dear!

This is what I've been working on lately...



And It's taking up all of my knitting time. Chucks Cabled Socks by Eunny Jang. The pattern is really fascinating, but soo time consuming. Moving the two yarns around, trying not to get them tangled around each other or the needles, is what's taking the longest. I know there should be some way to do this faster, but I'm still knitting with one yarn at a time around my finger and the other one hanging down. I think I've read about a way to have both yarns wrapped around your finger(s) at the same time while you're knitting... I haven't really figured that out yet, so I'm stuck with this system.

Really love the socks though! It's nice to have a challenge once in a while. But I suspect and fear that these will suffer from second-sock-syndrome... I guess I'll have to cast on the second sock immediately after I finish the first one, just to be on the safe side, so I don't end up with just one Chuckie...

Candy yarn

I don't know what's up with me lately, but there seems to be a strong preference for yarn in candy colors. I guess it's because spring and summer is coming and I'm getting a bit tired of dark wintery colors. The pink little beauties that I've wound up with my brand new yarn winder are Lorna's Laces. The darker pink is "Bittersweet" and the lighter one is "Sherbet". Don't they just look good enough to eat! The ball to the left is my own Kool Aid yarn, and it's already had a moment of fame here on the blog.



I also got this in the mail the other day. It's some kind of lace weight yarn from HipKnits. I don't know what it's called, because there wasn't any label or info about it. This yarn is for a contest on the HipKnits webpage. You're supposed to knit something with lace, anything at all that has some lace in it. Again, sweet like candy! It looks like cotton candy. Yummy!



I'm knitting a pair of Monkey socks at the moment, and I'm just about done with the first sock. The yarn is the Kool Aid dyed one I mentioned before, and I think it works really well with this pattern. I'm surprised! :)



I also cast on a pair of Chuck's Cabled Socks today, but believe me, they're a LOT of work! I usually don't like knitting things that take a long time, but I really like the way these look, so I'm determined to give them an honest try.

Finished Lainesukat

Yay, I finished my Lainesukat in a record breaking 3 days! Don't know how that happened. I guess it's because I really liked knitting them or something... I did have some difficulties with the pattern, especially after the heel, when the pattern only runs on top of the foot. But still, the pattern was great fun! And I didn't really like the color of the yarn at first, because I thought it was too... well boring, but it really grew on me and now I love the color!

New socks and lace scarf

I've started a new pair of socks for Socktopia. The pattern is Lainesukat from the Finnish knitting magazine Ulla, and the Yarn is Fleece Artist Merino Sock, color "Lily Pond". I'm not too excited about this color... It's kind of... blah. But still makes me think of spring. I'll probably knit another pair of these socks, but in a solid color.




I have also made some progress on my lace scarf. The pattern is called Michaela and the yarn is Schaefer Laurel. I really like this yarn. It's so easy to knit, and the colors are beautiful. The pattern demands full attention, so no tv knitting here.




Last, but not least, I did my first Kool Aid dyeing experiment the other day, and this is the result.



Beautiful pink, green and blue. This will turn into a pair of Monkey socks.