Organized

 

My knitting bookcase (knitcase?) has been a hopeless mess for a while now, but yesterday I got myself together and did some organizing. You wouldn't believe the amount of yarn I've managed to cram into this small space! If I open the lid of the plastic tub or move the basket, the risk of a yarn explosion in our living room is imminent.

I even have a system: nice yarn in the nice basket, project spectrum FIRE yarn in the plastic bag, not so nice yarn hidden away in the plastic tub, Rowanspun 4 ply in the white basket. My WIP's are in the canvas bag with flowers on it, and my WIP yarns are "on display". I feel so clean!

Now, if I could just stop thinking about pulling out all the Project Spectrum EARTH yarns just to see how much I have...

Project Spectrum - Socks on FIRE

I had to go and adapt the Resoleable Socks pattern from Favorite Socks. I really liked my orange socks, and the possibilities truly are endless..

It works really well with Noro Kureyon. A big plus in my book! :)

Twisted ribbing at the cuff (knit 1 tbl, purl 1).

Some kind of weird twisted stitch adaptation of the Jaywalker pattern... It just mysteriously came out of my hands. Sometimes I wonder if I have a tiny magical knitting fairy in my head. My hands just knit, and something comes out. Most of the time it goes in the frog pond, but occasionally it turns into something nice. This looks a bit like fish bones, and I'm sure it's been done before.

Seed stitch heel.

Grandma's toe. 

Love them! I'm going to wear these all the time. The only bad thing is that they're not machine washable...

New Pattern: Apila Socks

The pattern for Apila Socks is now available for download. You can download the pdf here, or go to my pattern page on Ravelry to get it. Happy Knitting! :)

Project Spectrum - Orange and Red

I find myself going into overdrive when I have a "plan" to follow with my knitting. Like Project Spectrum combined with stashbusting. I almost feel like I have to use every single skein of yarn in my stash that fits into the FIRE theme before the end of March, even though I know it's impossible. There just isn't enough time in a day.

So here comes another stashbusting project. The yarn, Novita 7 Veljestä, is perfect for warm and durable socks. And I don't have nearly enough of those.

For these, I used the pattern for Two-Yarn Resoleable Socks in Favorite Socks. What a great pattern. And so versatile (my favorite word lately...). I really like the effect of different colors for foot and sole. I added some stripes and a seed stitch heel. I've been drawn to different combinations of knit and purl lately. I really like the traditional feel of it. I also knitted the toe like my grandma taught me. Decrease every other row until you have a total of 8 stitches (2 on each needle). Pull yarn tight through these stitches and you have a pointy toe. I have really long big toes, and this type of finishing is ideal for thicker yarns.

I also started another FIRE project. Like I don't have enough red/pink projects on the needles already...

Catriona by Debbie Bliss. The yarn is Novita Wool, and it's knitting up great for this project. I really like the chunky cables gone crazy. And the red is perfect. Almost exactly the same color as my Red Sweater.

Enough!

Any more of this, and I'd have baby booties and hats coming out of my ears (or some other place where the sun don't shine...).

No seriously, these were a lot of fun to make. I tried a few different bootie patterns, but Christine's Stay-On Baby Booties proved to be the most fun to knit and the most versatile. The hats were also great for using up those last scraps of sock yarn. I used Handle as a base pattern and added some ribbing and other modifications.

It's kind of sad that I didn't have more left overs in "boy" colors. I would love to dress my boy in pink and red, but I know that not everyone feels that way.

I'm glad I got these out of my system. It was fun while it lasted, but it got a bit too cutie-itty-bitty-baby towards the end. Now I can send these off to Satu and get back to my Project Spectrum knitting.

Don't worry...

...this isn't turning into a baby blog. I just need to get all of the itty-bitty baby booties out of my system before the end of February. I made two more pairs in Project Spectrum FIRE-colors, and a too cute hat (pdf). Just look at that handle on top of the head!

I used this pattern again for the booties. I really like them because they're so versatile. And they stretch a lot, which is great, since I've come to the conclusion that I have absolutely no idea how small/big a newborn's foot is. They look huge in this picture, compared to the yarn ball "head". Oh well, I guess it's ok as long as they're not too small.

Project Spectrum - Red Sweater

The sun came out today, but I still couldn't get good photos of my Red Sweater. Anyway, here are some murky ones.

It's the easiest sweater you could ever imagine. Knitted in the round, a few rows of seed stitch, a fair amount of stockinette with a fake side seam, attach the sleeves, some raglan decreases, some more seed stitch, cast off, and you're done! I knitted the seed stitch cuffs back and forth, and attached some buttons to close the gap. The buttons are "fake". They're just sewn on and don't serve any purpose other than decoration.

I really like this sweater. The yarn, Kilcarra Aran Tweed, is absolutely amazing, and it softens a lot when washed. I have no problems with wearing the sweater next to my skin. However, if you're really sensitive to scratchy wool, you might find the yarn itchy.

Another Project Spectrum FIRE-project finished. Yay!

Project Spectrum - Stash Denial

So I've decided that I'm only going to knit from my stash during Project Spectrum. That means I can't buy any new yarn from February to September (yeah, good luck with that...).

To get a better idea of what yarns I can use for the FIRE-theme, I decided to do a small stash inventory. I really didn't think I would have enough red/orange/pink yarn to last me through February-March.This is what I found.

Well, looks like this will last me a while! And I didn't even make a dent in the stash, since the greater part of it consists of green/brown/natural colored yarn. Oh, and can you tell I'm not really an orange type of girl? (And what the heck is that bright and shiny red acrylic left of the middle?)

The 3 skeins at the top left (Novita Wool) are already in use for a project, and the Aran Tweed is leftovers from my Red Sweater (which is all done and has already been worn, but I'm waiting for less gloomy weather to photograph it).

The sock yarn left-overs (tiny red skein below the right skein of Aran Tweed, dark pink skein below the two orange ones, tiny pink skein left of the Tofutsies and the bright over-exposed skein to the right of the Tofutsies) will be itty-bitty baby booties for charity. Like these.

They're going to the maternity ward at Keski-Pohjanmaan Keskussairaala (central hospital) to warm little newborn feet. More info here (in Finnish). I made these during the weekend, and there are more to come. I'm going to cheat a little and stray from the FIRE-theme, because I have a lot of sock yarn left-overs in other colors that I want to use up for these. And they need to be sent off by the end of February. The patterns I used can be found here (pdf), here (pdf) and here. Too cute! The ones to the right, that look like shoes, are my favorites.

Old and new...

The neckwarmer debacle has now been corrected by giving Mr. Shrinker a new one for his birthday. Not as fancy as the first one, but it will do. The yarn (Dale Baby Ull) is a bit scratchier than Rowan 4 Ply Soft, but that's only fair I guess. Let it be his punishment for felting the first one. ;)

Here's a picture as a warning example.

Surprise!

Don't you just love it when you get surprise yarn in the mail? It's not exactly something that happens every day!

I got this beautiful yarn from my downstream Secret Pal 11, yvonnep. It's an early birthday present, and I love it! The yarn is Storm in Wolhalla, and the colorway is called Dutch Skies. It's so beautiful! This is going in my Project Spectrum pile for the WATER-theme. Yvonne also included the nicest card. Thank you so much! Hartelijk bedankt, Yvonne! (I hope that came out right?)

On another note, something red and pretty is blocking right now, and I'm just about ready to start sewing on some buttons...

No secret anymore

Now that my two secret projects have reached their recipients, I can show them here on the blog.

The first one was this headband for my mom.

 

It's my own pattern, and the fair isle is an adaptation of two old Nordic cross-stitch charts. I've written up the pattern and posted it on my pattern page.

 

The second secret project was these socks for my dad.

The finished pair doesn't look exactly like this, because I ran out of yarn and knitted the toes in blue. But this was the original idea. I forgot to take a picture of them before I sent them off. The cable is just a basic one, and I knitted the rest of the leg in k2p2 ribbing to make it really elastic. I just might knit a pair of these for myself.

Buttons...

My Red Sweater is coming along nicely. I wanted to incorporate some buttons, and this is what I ended up with. Now I just need to figure out if I want three small ones or two bigger ones...

What do you think? I don't have any big buttons, so I can't show you what it would look like. You'll have to use your imagination.

Aaawww.... Bummer!

This is what happens if you machine wash Rowan 4 Ply Soft in 50 degrees celcius.

A stiff, felted mini-neckwarmer, with one of my Harmony wood dpn's for scale. It's even too small to use as an armwarmer.

Just to be clear, I'm not the culprit here. The recipient put it in the washing machine, allegedly "by accident", and washed it together with the rest of his running clothes. So for future reference, Rowan 4 Ply Soft felts beautifully, and creates a nice and thick fabric.

Good thing I have the pattern for this so I can knit another one. :)

Project Spectrum 2008

This year, Project Spectrum focuses on the elements.

 

FEBRUARY / MARCH - FIRE- orange, red, pink

APRIL / MAY - EARTH - green, brown, metallics

JUNE / JULY - AIR - gray, white, yellow

AUGUST / SEPTEMBER - WATER - blue, black, purple

 

The color theme for February/March is perfect for me, since I already have some fire-projects on the needles.

 

 

I'm also prepared for an earthy April/May.

 

 

And what about these for an airy June/July?

 

August/September will be blue.

 

I have a feeling I'm going to jump between the themes and knit something blue really soon. But other than that, this will be a great way to keep motivated enough to finish all of these projects.

Blue and red

I had to go to the post office one more time to get this.

Sometimes the colors are a bit hit-and-miss when ordering online, but this is just the right shade of blue. It's going to be another sweater, but not for me this time.

 

And if it wasn't for this, you might think this was a yarn blog.

Now, you didn't really think I could keep myself from starting this sweater! "Finish the green sweater and the Ruffled Jacket first"... It was never going to happen! :)

I couldn't quite figure out why it felt like I had knitted with this yarn before. Then it dawned on me: It's exactly like Noro Kureyon, but in solid colors! And you know I love my Kureyon. This yarn is absolutely amazing. It's not too soft, but it's not scratchy either. It has that perfect wooly feel. Now I just need to figure out where this sweater is going...