Yarnlove

You are Mohair.
You are a warm and fuzzy type who works well with

others, doing your share without being too

weighty. You can be stubborn and absolutely

refuse to change your position once it is

set, but that's okay since you are good at

covering up your mistakes.


What kind of yarn are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Oh yes. Friday night I'm going to a "Paris" theme party. How do dress for that? Mona Lisa? Chanel suit? Simone de Beauvoir? Amelie Poulain? Nooo... Moulin Rouge, of course! (Although, and if I weighed 20 kilos less, I could go as Paris Hilton.) My dear frog-friend Alida is leding me her black corset, and yesterday I went bargaining for fabric here in Stockholm, and found everything needed for the SEK 150 I had restricted myself to. On Friday I will look stunningly vulgar yet classy in a striped, kneelong burgundy skirt, trimmed with black lace and with four different-coloured tull ruffles down under. There will be photos, I promise... A big thanks to Sofie for all the help during that one hour in the store!

Also, I'm making lots of cookies these days. Try these for instance. They're so good it's ridiculous! On Sunday I made a blueberry/sunflower sponge cake, and yesterday a sunflower Toscakaka for a meeting here at work. (Btw, they have really cheap sunflower seeds at Netto this week!)

As promised, a pic of the shawl I finished last week. I'm still not sure on whether or not to fringe it according to pattern. It still looks nice, and I think the fringe prescribed would make it a bit too 70's, and not in the good way. Any comments?

I've also made some progress on the Argyle Vest, even though the KAL won't officially start until Wednesday... I'm such a cheater! Just for inspiration for all of you (Mia) who still aren't convinced to join us. I must say it looks slightly better in the photo than IRL, but I'm optimistic about the benefits of careful blocking. More on the vest on Wednesday, and on http://vestalong.blogspot.com. See y'all there!

Every girl should have a Deep V Argyle vest, and that's why Fi and myself have started the Vestalong! Come join us and knit Eunny's fabulous vest, perfect for any occasion. March 1st is the kick-off date, so make sure to register and get ya stuff until then. See y'all there!

Yes, on the needles within a few minutes is the Eunny Jang Deep V Argyle Vest. I just made a swatch, not the biggest one ever but hopefully big enough, and I seem to be right on gauge. I had some scraps of Alpaca lying around, so I used it instead of my brand new prrrretty skeins of what I like to call "baby pink" and "blueberries in milk". Above, my well-steamed swatch on top of my yarn. Obviously the colours are quite different than in the pic. Obviously.

I am however extremely pleased with the fact that I managed to get my six skeins for free, trading them for four of the ten skeins of Cotton Viscose I've been offering my ungrateful blog readers on my yarn sale below. Thank you, Yll&Tyll!

Also, the lost picture of my shawl made it through cyberspace and eventually hit my inbox. I have a few more rows to go on the left side, and then it's fringeing time. Interesting thing is that after finishing the first edge (seen on left) I realized that it's the same leaf pattern as in the wristwarmers I made some time ago, and I finally understood why it didn't work so well with the wristwarmers; the yarn over's in the leaves make it wider, and a wristwarmer with extra width around the wrist won't ever make my day. I don't know if it would work if you made decreases around the leaf. I'll never know, cause I'll never knit it again.

Last week, after I discovered that the red vest I've been knitting for six months is way out of proportion and tossed it far away, and the Lelah knitting gave me backpains (a soft but very sturdy yarn), I was quite disoriented. What is my Next Project? What yarn? What to do? I've been longing for a big shawl, preferably soft and triangular. The internet is just crammed with free patterns. The only thing missing is yarn, and since I'm so broke it actually hurts there isn't much to do about it. In a blaze of light, practically, it hit me that I had 300 grams of a rough Swedish bright purple 3-ply frogged and reskeined wool in the basement. I also found a pattern that doesn't require miles and miles of yarn, just somewhat less than what I actually have. For the moment I can't seem to send a photo of this little thing from my cellphone to my email address, and I can't find the pattern on the web, but I'll post a pic as soon as I can.

During the last week I have also had the time to reflect upon what will be my next project. I've found, in Fi's deep dungeons of really old patterns, a sporty 60's sweater with a kind of sailor collar, which might look great in Vivaldi. Since it has an enourmous yardage, I will definately make a swatch to see if it looks OK. It might make a really nice, soft yet warming summer sweater.

I am also thinking about spicing up this blog with some free patterns and stuff, but I'm not really sure how to do it. Tips are very much appreciated!

Since there has been a very VERY low interest for my yarn sale, I might start to knit baby stuff from the CottonViscose. Many of my friends have babies now, and there are still more to come, so I might as well. Tips are very much appreciated!

Next week I have made the arrangementsrequired for a knitting café for all the happy knitters in my programme. I don't know how many we are, but at least two. I would like to have an exciting project to show off, but the shawl is probably finished by then. I don't want to bring an old, boring not-really-finished project, but I don't think I can afford buying new yarn before next Friday, and the café is on Tuesday... Tips are very much appreciated!

Also, if I don't go for the 60's sweater, I think I'll go for Eunny's argyle vest in Alpaca, the bestest yarn ever.

Sometimes you realize you're not That Girl. I'm not this girl, and that's why I'm putting ten skeins of bright white CottonViscose (500 gr, 1100 lovely metres) up for sale. Gauge: 23/10 cm. In store SEK 410, now only SEK 300! Why not suprise a loved knitter with this excellent quality yarn?

If you're a more wooly kinda gal, like myself, I also have two skeins and maybe even some extra meters of Lamb's Pride Worsted, specially imported from Over There. The other eight skeins was used for the very useful cabled shawl collar cardigan I am wearing on the Blogger profile picture on the right. It's a wonderful yarn! A total of 380 yards, gauge 19/10 cm. Exactly the amount needed for the nice Besotted Scarf I'd knit if I could think of anyone I know who'd appreciate it. All yours for SEK 120.

Or have them both for almost nothing: SEK 400.

If you're interested, drop a comment!

Yes, here it is:

I'm sorry about the lousy picture, but I couldn't find the least shitty camera. What can I tell you about this piece of work? It was a quick fix (right up my alley), fun enough to knit, and if I had gone for a proper gauge yarn instead of combining three threads of different yarns it would also have been outstandingly cheap. I did the magic loop thing on the sleeves which I think slowed it down a bit. Yes, it works, but it's not a very efficient technique in my opinion. I didn't get the stretch holes I worried about, although that might be the result of my efforts not to. I did a silly mistake on the first sleeve though, and that was to start the magic loop round on top of the sleeve instead of under it, so the ending/fastening part is Right There, on my arm, instead of hidden in my armpit. I think I managed to camouflage it well enough, though. The last thing to do would be to sew on a button or something, but I forgot to make a buttonhole and I wonder if it doesn't work well enough without?

As abstinence hit me I gathered all my mohair scraps and cast on maybe 200 stitches, knitting forth and back on a 8mm circular. Gauge is about 11/10 cm. I think I'll finish when I run out of yarn, and time will tell if I'm making a scarf, a wrap or a blanket.

Having finished the bottom bind-off on the anthropological cape I was able to try it on and got pleasantly surprised, but I was asked by a certain somebody if I shouldn't rather be knitting things that are more appropriate for my age and for my body (sic!). No comments. (Well obviously I had comments, but nothing appropriate for publishing.)

I would however wish to comment on this pattern. After slipping the sleeve stitches onto a thread and finishing the body, I am apparently supposed to finish the sleeves in back and forth 1x1 rib, but how the heck will that be done on a round sleeve? Shouldn't that have been done before finishing the body? For the current (unfrogged) situation I think DPN's would be the solution, but I can't bring myself to buy a set of 8mm DPN's just to finish these sleeves. Right now I'm trying a magic loop solution, knitting in the round with an oversized circular, but I'm afraid I will make stretch holes in the rib. My Friday night holds the answer, and I'll keep you posted.