Thursday, May 31, 2007 

Colourful

Today I'm home with a cold that my mum passed on to me when I visited her last week. I'm quite bored, my place is a mess, as usual, but I've managed to get a few hours in the laudry room, which is impossible to get at times when I'm normally at home, so soon I can stop wearing undies I should have thrown out a long time ago.

I felt like finishing something, so I started the quickest knit ever and finished it. This is the third little mobile/mp3 stocking I knit, and I have two more requested! I made one for my new phone a couple of months ago, and a friend immediately wanted one for her mp3, so I knit her one too. When her sister saw it, she wanted one as well, and here it is: -->

This is how I do it:
I cast on 20 stitches with my favourite sock yarn held double on 3.5 mm dpn's, and knit 1k 1p until I've reached desired length. I cast off using a three-needle bind-off and weave in the two ends, and turn the thing inside out. Voilà!

The yarn used is a hand-dyed merino sock yarn from Hello yarn, in a colour that no-one of my SP spoilees have had a taste for. I'm no fan of variegated sock yarn, as you might know by now. My friend's sister wanted something "happy", and if this doesn't make her happy no medication in the world will.

The result is tight yet stretchy. If you have access to the item you intend to cover I suggest a try-on after a few rows. And I can also inform you that even though wool is quite hydrophobic, emptying a bottle of water over this stocking isn't a terrific idea. The stocking took it well but not the mp3 inside it.

Today I'm also offering you a view of a quilt my grandmother (the good one) gave me for Christmas more than twenty years ago. It's a beautiful heirloom I haven't been careful enough with. I haven't broke it, yet, and when you have something as lovely as this you want to use it for every picnic you have... Even though it's quite "busy", you can see that it's made up of 20x20 cm squares, consisting of one rectangle and two differently sized pieces of other fabrics, alternating direction. I like the fact that there are both floral and more geometrical patterns in it. I think it gives the quilt balance. And I like the fact that all the fabrics in it are from other things my grandmother, who was a semstress, has sown. I can recognize some of the fabrics, but they're mostly far older than me.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007 

Laugh or cry?

If this isn't knitting humour, I don't know what is... Poor guy!










Picture from Interweave knits. It's a free pattern at www.interweave.com/go/baseball, designed by Vicki Square.

Monday, May 21, 2007 

Monday knitting update

Despite bad blogging habits, I am actually knitting. A few nights ago one of my neighbours had a video game night until three in the morning. At half past one the excited cries from behind the wall finally made an end to my sleeping attempts and somehow it struck me I need a little party purse for this summer, when I'm going out manhunting in the night. (I'm also imagining myself skinnier than present, showing off my stuff in new jeans and silver pumps. But I'm starting with the purse.)

I had a green mercerized cotton lying around, which turned out to be perfect for the Cabled purse from Last minute knitted gifts. I cast on and knit a few rows before I was too tired to notice the shoutings and finally went to sleep, but progress has been good since then and today I reached the folding row at the top, and will now knit stockinette in the round for the rest of the week, I imagine. The purse turned out smaller than I thought it would, but it is actually as big as it should be according to the pattern. I guess the picture in the book is a bit misleading... If I'd do it again I'd knit it in chunkier yarn, to make it maybe 20 centimeters high instead of 15. And I think wool would work too.

I made some good progress on Salina last week when Sofie hosted a knitting fika (Swedish for coffee or tea and pastries). It might have been the killer chocolate cake, but I finished the first side of the front, and have now only the left side from armhole and up to do before I move on to recalculating the sleeves. I'll be bringing it along with me up north as I go and visit my mum on Wednesday. I'm looking forward to a few days in peace and somewhat quiet (18-year old brother) in the beautiful landscape of northern Sweden, although I fear it won't be as warm and summer-like as Stockholm is. But that's what we have wool for.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007 

SP contest again

I got a couple of questions from my SP hostess the other day:

With the weather turning warmer, many of you are thinking of traveling (though some of you have just returned, you can play along). 1) What do you pack to knit? and 2) What do you hope to shop for?
Assume that you will be gone for ten days to someplace "foreign" that is known for having great knitting locations. (Bonus: Where would you go on a "knitting holiday"?)

1) I'd either pack my current project (Salina), since I really want to finish it. On the other hand, if I go someplace warm I'd pack something less wooly and sweaty, like maybe the cotton skirt I'm crocheting or a sock project.

2) Stuff I wouldn't find at home, like something discretely hand painted (not variegated or self-striping, obviously) or other things that hasn't reached Sweden yet. Or something local, like a chunky handspun from a named sheep.

Bonus answer: For knitting purposes I'd go someplace with an interesting knitting tradition (and sheep). Luckily, I live in such a part of the world, so I'd go to Norway or some north Atlantic island like the Faroe or Shetland islands. Or Iceland! Last week I was told I'm going there on a two-day conference in August, so I'll have almost one day to go wool-shopping before I improve my knowledge in quality vs. quantity in higher education. It can't count as "holiday", but I'll pretend.

Tuesday, May 08, 2007 

Salina progress!


Yes, this is actually going quite well! I'm bringing Salina along with me when I go to work, so I have at least 42 uninterrupted minutes of knitting every day on the subway. And as you can see it pays off! I'm going to have to check, but I think I've finished the last increase on the front, and I'm totally excited about reaching the front opening. Yeah - that's a severely dorky thing to say. And as you can see in the picture I have a few rows to go...

I've looked at pictures of other Salinas, as well as the pics in the book, and I have to say that I think the sleeves are a bit too wide for my taste. I'm thinking of making them slightly tighter, and to compensate for the smaller number of stitches when reaching the top of the sleeve I think I could just make the decreases fewer and spread them out. The decreases won't align with those on the front and back, but I don't think it will show with these tiny little stitches and tweedy yarn.

Secret Pal - look, I'm using the bag from the Simply Knitting you sent me! I thought it was a bit too much with the yarnprint and all, but it keeps my needles from poking holes in things, and that's always a good thing.

Saturday, May 05, 2007 

Tagged, finally!

Sofie tagged me in Swedish, but I thought I'd be kind enough to translate it for my international audience... I've been waiting to be tagged since I started blogging, so THANK YOU DEAR!


Three things I don't understand

Most languages
Why pygmées are small
My vagina

Three things on my desk/table I'm sitting by

Makeup
An empty wine bottle
Vintage Style

Three things I'm doing right now

Procrastinating
Wondering what to wear tomorrow
Having breakfast

Three things I want to do before I die

Have children
Learn more languages
Feel content

Three things I can do

Use my hands (skillfully)
Use my brain (satisfactory)
Use my heart (unavoidably)

Three things I can't do

Keep my body in desired (desirable) shape
Be content with the abovementioned body
Save money

Three things I think you should listen to

Your heart
Your mother
Amy Winehouse

Three things I'd like to learn

How to make petit-choux
How to build a house
How to sail

Three favourite dishes

Chinese noodles with beef and chicken
Raggmunkar
Anything prepared with lots of love, butter and cream


I'm passing this on to Pia, Joy and Fi (who all need to blog more often)!

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