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!