Just a few more days

And another year has passed. I hope everyone had a great Christmas. The very best wishes for 2011. See you all next year!

A week to Berlin

I’m leaving for Berlin today. A couple of days off together with a friend. I’ve been pondering what to take with me. The choice is a pair of kneesocks with cables. Here they are, I’m about halfway through the leg.



We’re going by train, which means quite a few hours sitting down with my hands free. I wonder how far I’ll get before returning home. I’m only taking the socks, that way I can’t be distracted with other knitting. Knitting kneesocks doesn’t go very fast. Of course I also packed a book and my spindle. Seven hours of nonstop knitting would make me go bonkers.

Project bags

It’s a completely different experience to look for a pattern that fits your yarn then it is to look for yarn to go with a pattern. I did find something for 2 of my yarns. For another I figured I could make something if the color was different. Thankfully that is something I can fix. The rest will be donated.

The idea I have now is to put the yarn with the pattern in a plastic bag. All the bags will go in a big container. If I finish something I can pull something out of the container to knit. Since I won’t remember what I put in which bag I could end up knitting mittens or a hat in the middle of summer.

I finished two projects. The pictures will be in the list on the right sometime this week. I might even finish another one, depending on my free time. I will be having a dye session this week.

Stash busting

This week passed quietly. No strange things happened. Work is still the same. Besides eating and sleeping the cats barely do anything at all. Did not finish anything this week and (thankfully) did not start anything either.

Actually I have nothing to tell. Until I dumped a bag of yarn on my bed. I made notes of what was in there and how much. All I need to do now is to find a project to go with my yarn. If I can’t find anything, chances are I’ll never use it and it’s best to say goodbye to it.



So far I made 4 notes. All I need now is something I like.

Quickie

I didn’t get around to writing last week. My 3 year old nephew was staying with my parents and we went to the Efteling (amusement park). It took him a while to get tired this time. By the time I got home I had to hurry to get ready that evening.

Meanwhile I’m working on clue 3 of the shawl.



I managed to spin about 10 minutes a day on the spindle. I calculated that if I keep this up it will take me until October 2011 to finish the 200 grams. That’s without plying, I don’t know how long that will keep me busy.

Building site

Last week I worked from home for 2.5 days instead of the normal half day. Working from home certainly has advantages. I don’t have to travel, I can sit behind the computer for the first hour (or so) in my nightgown and the coffee tastes much better. Disadvantage is that I’m alone and that can be a problem with my work.
On the positive side: I was home to witness this.



They have to remove some pipes that run right through the front yard. These contain asbestos and the county want these removed. Everything is closed back up again and I can start rebuilding my front yard.

A few weeks ago I ordered from Alet (Dutch webshop), 2 balls of 200 grams merino with silk. This one I want to spin with the spindle.



Raise your hand if you think I can’t keep this up. To be honest I have to say that I can be easily distracted by anything. And this week another KAL started (pictures will follow). I’ll try to give an update on my progress every week.

Spun silk

Last week the charkha went to the National Spinningday. Unfortunately there was no one who could give me tips on how to use it. I showed other how I use it, which probably isn’t according to the “rules”. I’ve started to spin some silk on it. Fortunately I believe that handspun yarn shouldn’t be perfect. Just look at the Noro yarns, all are irregular and people pay for that stuff. I’m not sure what I’ll use to ply it with. I’ve been thinking about brown alpaca that I have lying around. Maybe I can manage to spin that on the charkha as well.

Last night I might have damaged my hearing just a bit. I went to a performance of Drumcats. It was really cool. I sat next to a couple who enthusiastically clapped along with the music. It was slightly frustrating that the guy clapped out of rhythm. I mean, really now. It’s a percussion show. Here is a taste of what I enjoyed for a little more than an hour. It does sound a whole lot better in the theater.

Stolen

No, not the spindles. I stole the idea of making them. Last Saturday snorrepot (Ravelry link) showed me a spindle that paarsetulp (Ravelry link) made for her. She got the idea for them when she went to the Hema (Dutch store). I passed the store last week and decided to see what had inspired her. At the department of childrens toys I found 4 wooden tops for €1,95. I saw what the attraction was to paarsetulp and walked out of the store holding the little bag with tops. I made the spindles that same night, I had everything at home except for the little hooks. They work amazingly well. I didn’t weigh them, but they’re definitely not heavy.

On the knitting front I finally finished my Moonfleet shawl. It’s still wrapped around Jasmin. It looks really good on her.

The magic of blocking

Finished another project, the Diamond Fantasy Scarf by Sivia Harding. You can make it into a shawl by adding more pattern repeats. Because I didn’t have enough yarn I went with the smaller version. Well, not that small apparently.

This is what it looked like right after I was finished.



And this is what I got after blocking.

New toy

Every once in a while I get on Marktplaats (Dutch selling site) to check out what people want to get rid of. This time I found a charkha, a spinningwheel from India. The last owner brought it to the Netherlands in 1973. It hasn’t seen much use.



This is what I got. No instruction included. Surfing the Net I found plenty of pictures, all of them looking different than this one. I got how the wheels work and I even figured out where the spindle goes. How I got the spindle to work was another story.

Thankfully I have a dad with a technical eye and we got it to work. I sanded, scrubbed, oiled and lubricated any part that moves. And after an intensive search I finally understand it better.



As you can see it works! It doesn’t spin quite as pleasant yet as I’d like. It’s going back to my technical advisor. Too bad I don’t have any cotton to spin (which is spun mostly on these) but the bit of BFL works just fine. As soon as I get the hang of this I’d like to use it to spin silk.

A couple of projects done

I finally finished a couple of things. Two pairs of socks, a shalw and a cowl. The shawl was done in May, I just got around to blocking it and taking a picture. Unfortunately the Internet isn’t really cooperating and the picture will come later. I’ll add to my little list the coming week. After all, it’s already August and there wasn’t really that much on there yet.

I blame my spinning. Since I spend more time making yarn I have less time to knit stuff. Of course it doesn’t help that I keep starting new projects instead of finishing them first.

Maybe a touch too much

This is the view I had from the couch this week.



On the table there is a Baktus, the Moonfleet shawl and a crochet shawl. By the TV there is another shawl, a sock and hidden behind that a spindle. Below the TV is the Swirl shawl and a square in progress for the Wolhemel blanket. The basket you see besides that has no project at this moment. The rest of the projects are upstairs. Waddaya mean, a lot on the needles?

I have started again with my Moonfleet shawl. In October the next KAL is starting for which I signed up without blinking an eye. It might be a good idea to finish this one. It just isn’t going real fast because of all the beads.



But it sure is pretty.

Knitting in Nature 3

This year I went on the same knitting vacation as the last two years. The activities are the same, the workshop differ each year. You’d think I’d know it by now, doing the same thing each year. And yes, I do. The whole experience is still amazing and I had a wonderful vacation yet again.

What does change is the amount of pictures I take. Absolutely none, not one single picture taken by me that whole week. What I can show is something I made for the Tour de Fleece that is happening on Ravelry right now. I had honestly expected that this would take me the full three weeks to do. I guess I really surprised myself here.



100 gram merino/silk (70/30), 18 wpi, 395 meters

A bit of a setback

For the past three days I've been trying to upload pictures to my Flickr account. So far no luck. So here goes my post without pictures.

My craftroom is almost done.

This coming week I’m having new windows put in and I need to attach some hooks on the walls so those bags will be off the floor. I’ll have that done this week as well. (oh dad???)

The whole idea was to get everything related to crafts into the room. I almost made it. I still have a box of acrylics and cotton in the attic. As well as all the stuff I use to dye with. I came to the conclusion that I really, really have to much stash. Up to now it was scattered around the house so it didn’t seem that bad. I should start to use it up before I bring more into this house.

And so I started the Swirl Shawl. The first 2 hexagons went smoothly. Then I realized I had 80 more to do. I wonder how long it takes me to tire of it. Sigh.

Silence before the storm

Sometimes I don’t get myself. I have enough to tell here and yet I make no time to actually do it. I had figured that writing every Sunday would be a nice pace. I still think so and yet my Sundays are always shorter than I expect.

Soooo, I’m going to try again to come with something sensible (or not) to say every week.

I went on vacation last month and have replenished my stash. Well, I seem to have added to it. So far I managed to finish 33 balls and I somehow managed to let 41 enter this house. Not really the smart way to reduce stash.

I did learn something new this week. I can knit a sock when I’m stuck in traffic, except when there are cables involved. Once I need to cable I get annoyed when traffic starts to move. Can’t these people just stay still until I’ve finished the cables? Jeez, the nerve of some.

New acquisition

See here the Victoria S96 cozy between her sisters (or are spinning wheels male?). In February I decided that I wanted a travel wheel to take places. Because I’m turning 40 this year I thought that this would be a perfect birthday present for myself. After I decided which wheel I wanted it took 5 weeks to order. The idea was to wait longer before spending so much money. That didn’t really work :)

I’ve used it daily. All my projects suffer greatly from this. Maybe it’s a good thing that I’m on vacation next week. That way my fingers and the wheel will get a break. Good thing I have managed to finish something. Even the totals aren’t as bad as expected considering the little I’ve done.

In the month of April I knitted 5 balls with a total length of 827 yards and a total weight of 8.7 ounces.

There were 16 projects in my project bin. Four projects are done and three are on the needles. I finished 42 of the 64 blocks for my Wolhemel blanket.

March results

I really don’t have much progress with my knitting. It shows in the totals for this month. The problem lies with my spinning. I enjoy it so much that I only allow myself 30 minutes a day. But I have made some neat stuff, don’t you think?



A friend gave me a big bag of fleece. We have no idea what kind of sheep it came from. It’s a white fleece with is rather soft and a dark one that itches. I’m still busy washing and carding it. The pink yarn is from the white sheep. It’s about 98 yards and dyed with a fake Kool Aid after spinning it.
The other one is BFL (132 yards, 100 grams) dyed with Kool Aid before spinning.

My household suffers as well. This kitchen was clean before I had another bright idea about dyeing. I simply move the dishes to one side, why wash? Just stack smartly and I can fit a lot on the counters.



And this is not the most ideal place to fill out a tax form. This won’t do next year.



In the month of March I knitted 3 balls with a total length of 390.4 yards and a total weight of 5.5 ounces.

There were 16 projects in my project bin. Three projects are done and three are on the needles. I finished 38 of the 64 blocks for my Wolhemel blanket.

Understanding from the outside world

Last night I went to the theater. As usual accompanied with a sock. It gives me something to do before the show starts and it often starts a conversation with somebody. This time an elderly lady sat next to me who responded immediately to my knitting. She even noticed that I was using wooden needles and how much better that is compared to plastic needles. No comments on the size of the needles which I found refreshing. As expected she started talking about her own knitting. She mentioned that she spins and dyes her own yarn and she makes bags out of that which she then felts in the washing machine. After I mentioned that I also spin she asked which brand spinning wheel I have. When I dropped the name Louet she nodded approvingly. I didn’t get a change to ask which spinning wheel she has, I do know she still spins.

For the first time I had a conversation with a total stranger who understood me. She only had a little trouble grasping the idea about starting a sock toe-up.

A month has passed

It’s been a month since I wrote something. I had started a shawl and was rather positive about finishing it in 16 days. Guess what? I didn’t finish it, not even close.
With entrelac I knit backwards so I don’t have to keep turning my work around. This means making a different movement than normal. This combined with a excessive use of the Ctrl+c and Ctrl+v combination at work pretty much made my left arm useless. I put it aside for now, it’ll be finished at some point.

Two weeks ago I took a workshop with Jacey Boggs.



It actually was a pretty tiring weekend. It was lots of fun and the days just flew by. I really got hooked on spinning again. This does take away time from my knitting I noticed.

Otherwise life has been peaceful. I am really glad that the weather is slowly getting warmer. Even if Spring means a lot of rain and wind.

February totals

In the month of January I knitted 9 balls with a total length of 1934 yards and a total weight of 15 ounces.

There were 16 projects in my project bin. Three projects are done and two are on the needles. I finished 33 of the 64 blocks for my Wolhemel blanket.

Let the Games begin

I think I might have mentioned before that I have a problem. If not, this is my confession. I decided to join the YarnHarlot in the Olympic knitting this year. She did it 4 years ago with lots of other knitters. This time I’m in. Will I succeed? Probably not.



I’ve decided to knit the Linden Wrap. This is one from my project bin, so that’s a good thing. The idea is to start when the flame is lit. Well, that’s something I didn’t do. I wasn’t about to wait until 3 am to cast on. I cast on around 10 in the morning on Saturday. You can keep at it until the flame goes out. That gives me 16 days. Only I won’t be home (during the day) the last weekend of February and I have other appointments to keep. Oh yeah and I have to work full time as well.

I’ll put everything else on hold for awhile and try to get it finished. Isn’t there something about joining and winning?

Meanwhile I’m quite fed up with this. Where is the nice weather?

Don’t do it doesn’t work

You’d think that after almost 40 years I should know myself pretty well. I believe that I should lower the number of projects that float around this house to an acceptable amount. In my mind that should be about 5.

Telling myself not to start anything new is like saying that I won’t eat chocolate any more. Two new projects jumped on the needles. How bad am I?

I started with Belle Nuit. Beautiful design and I should have known that a design by Sivia Harding wouldn’t be really simple. Beside the normal decreases en yarn overs it contains small cables, beads and the occasional purl stitch. In other words, not a project for a suspense movie.



And then I started with this. My only excuse is that this one takes a whole year to finish and that should be sufficient time.

January totals

In the month of January I knitted 11 balls with a total length of 2700 yards and a total weight of 26 ounces. Not bad for the first month.

There were 16 projects in my project bin. One project is done and three are on the needles. I finished 30 of the 64 blocks for my Wolhemel blanket.

My Peasant Shawl is done:



I must admit that knitting 2 shawls for a KAL isn’t an easy task. I have no problem keeping up, it’s just that all my other projects are being ignored. Maybe I should try to lower the number of WIP’s.

Just to make sure that I keep up this madness in February I signed up for the Evenstar KAL. I already have the yarn in my stash, I did buy the beads for it.

The Enchanted Wood

I finished the first clue of The Enchanted Wood KAL. I also managed the finish it for the second shawl.



Unfortunately it took time away from my Peasant Shawl. I had hoped to finish that one this weekend. Good thing that the next clue won’t arrive in my mailbox until Friday. I’ll try to finish those last rows (with lots and lots of stitches) before then. One thing is for sure, knitting 4 shawls at the same time is a bit too much.

I want to redo my old guestroom next month. The attic has become the new guestroom. In this room I want to keep all my yarn and books.



As you can see it doesn’t need that much work anymore. Some sanding and painting and new floor covering. I can move all my stuff back and be done. I had plenty of time yesterday to work in it, but because of the grey weather I had absolutely no energy. Today the weather was a lot better and I filled up all the holes in the walls. Let’s hope the next couple of weekends bring nice weather so I can finish this.

The game is afoot

I saw the new Sherlock Holmes movie last week, hence the title. I liked the movie a lot even though the Sherlock in the movie is quite the same Sherlock in the books. He’s gotten more active so to speak.

I’ve been free last week and finally got some good knitting done. I finished my Every Way Wrap.



And started a new shawl.



This one is from the book Victorian Lace Today.

Today I received the first clue for the Enchanted Wood KAL. I managed to knit two row so far.



It’s knit from the bottom up and I had forgotten how long it takes to cast on 375 stitches and to knit those. I have another kit here and I think I’ll knit them simultaneous. At least that’s what I think NOW. I’m blissfully ignoring the fact that I have to work and have more plans the coming week. The next clue won’t be out until January 22nd, so I do have a chance.

Made it!

The very best wishes for 2010. We made it to the New Year and there are lots of things waiting for us. I sure hope that most of it is going to be fun.

I managed to finish this on New Year’s Eve.



Okay, so I did absolutely nothing on any housework, but I have a whole new year to work on that. Maybe that should be a resolution for this year. Notice that I did say maybe.

The new year started out good for Isis, who went sick to the vet on the last day. The poor thing had an abscess and a high fever. I had to leave her at the vet for a few hours and got her back completely out of it from the anesthesia.



She herself again now.

On January 1st I started a shawl for the Ravelry group 10 shawls in 2010. I’ve made one before and wear it regularly at home.