Knitting plans

Last year I bought some gorgeous yarn from the New Lanark Mill, a historical Textile Mill in Scotland. The colours are awesome, the yarn is sturdy but not scratchy and I can really recommend the shop – great customer service! The perfect yarn for knitting cables.

I browsed through pages and pages of Ravelry patterns searching for cardigans with cables. I decided on a mixture of a basic RVU and a nice cable pattern courtesy of Luminen . I even knit a swatch which makes this my first swatch in about five years of knitting.

There’s only one problem. I’m way to stressed and busy to dare try a cabled cardigan in the next four weeks. My parents are about to move about 350 km up north, the end of the semester is near and apart from my regular courses to teach there will be a stack of approx. 100 tests to grade and 40 papers to read in about three weeks. I just spent two days all over town hunting for a new and reasonably priced mattress. I need to keep track of two growing piles of books, both at home and at the office…
Nope. No cables. What do I do to avoid madness and depression?

I meditate.

I squeeze yummy yarn.

I knit row after row of soothing stockinette with said yummy yarn.
Sorry about the rant! Stay tuned for more stockinette and some cables in the near future!

Knitting content

It has been a while since I wrote about my knitting projects but although my red monster quilt still lies abandoned in my living room (and will continue to do this until I manage to buy a smaller hoop) I did start and finish quite a few knitting projects.

Wicked

Taking pictures of myself wearing a sweater is a feat I have some problems with so no visual for this FO. I’m quite pleased with this, though, being my first finished sweater that’s actually wearable and I really like the colour. What I don’t like is the fact that my choice of yarn was a ‘bad’ albeit cheap one – I used Knit Picks Wool of the Andes (Tidepool Heather) and it started pilling from day one. It’s warm and comfy and suits me just fine, so it’s ok but I wouldn’t use this yarn again for anything other than maybe a hat.

Selbu modern

I’ve always been both fascinated and scared by Fair isle projects. My first foray into stranded colour work (Endpaper Mitts) ended badly and shall not be spoken about But then came the fateful day I ‘met’ neep heid (Ravelry link) and I started thinking that maybe I could try it again. I ordered wonderful Fair Isle yarn from the Shetland Isles – and put it aside for a while to start with an easier pattern with only two colours – Selbu modern (Ravelry link). I had some difficulties at first but the yarn i used (Rowan Scottish Tweed 4 ply) knitted up very smooth and by the end of the first week I was able to knit with each hand holding one colour.

I love this hat. I’m constantly wearing it and I’m really glad I managed to finish it right in time for the cold weather!

Coming up next (hopefully): pictures of my finished green blob aka Vortex shawl, some socks and the beginning of a cabled cardigan! See U soon!

Winter wonderland

I love snow. Every year around August I start counting the days until the days grow shorter and it gets colder. Unfortunately, around here there’s no guarantee the temperatures will drop AT ALL – we had winters with an average temperature of 10 °C- so I’m really excited about this / last year’s winter so far! I’ve been running around with my camera and thought I’d share some of my pics here! All of them were taken last weekend in Heiligenhaus (my hometown) which always gets more snow than Düsseldorf… ;-(

I hope you are enjoying winter as well! I plan to finish some WIPs, cook a nice soup and take a walk in the snow this weekend. I’ll be back with some knitting pics and my new year’s resolutions hopefully soon!
See U!

Saturday walk

Despite my good intentions I didn’t go for that nice long walk in the woods between Düsseldorf and Ratingen but I went out with my mother last Saturday in Heiligenhaus. We had to wait a bit for a dry period because the weather was atrocious – rain and thunderstorm all day! We took a route I walked many times when I still lived at home – nothing spectacular, but we had a piece of cake and a hot chocolate at a newly opened cafe by the lake (which I didn’t take any pictures of ).

Heiligenhaus is a small town with approximately 30.000 citizens and we have a few historical spots. The buildings in the next pictures are all part of the “Abtsküche” (roughly translates into abbot’s kitchen – it once belonged to the abbey in Werden, which was quite famous and powerful in the middle ages).

Besides those old houses there’s a nice lake (well, it’s more of a pond) which was the spot for a sunday walk when I was small.

I like it best when it’s frozen over and there’s snow everywhere!

I’m at home this week because I’m sick AGAIN! but on the upside I get a lot of knitting done and will be back with pictures of my first attempt at the Selbu modern (Ravelry link) and my yarn order from the Shetland islands! See U!

Catching up… part 2

It’s Friday which means another semi-crazy week is over. It also means that I only have six days until my courses start and now and then I’m getting a bit nervous about this. But knitting a few rounds in plain stockinette soothes my nerves just fine ! Since I did get a lot done this week I’m taking today off, mostly because today will be the only sunny and cool autumn day in the near future so I’m taking the chance for a long walk. I’ll be sure to take pictures!

Now, more catching up with my knitting!

1. “Wicked”
I’ve been working on my first sweater, “Wicked” (Ravelry link) in the worsted weight version for some time now and finished the body on monday. Now I’m happily knitting away on the first sleeve, which should be done this weekend. I used Knit Picks Wool of the Andes and so far I really like the yarn. Some progress shots:

Now I’m hoping for a lot of cold day this autumn and winter!

2. Socks
I joined Lolly’s Socktoberfest because due to a lot of my oldest socks are giving up one by one and I really need to replenish my supply before it gets (hopefully!) cold. I’m working on one pair following my standard sock pattern and decided to cast on another one while following a pattern from Knitting Vintage socks by Nancy Bush.

The yarn is from Online (I forgot which one and can’t find the label right now) and while the self patterning is a bit bold the muted colours make it ok. So far I like them and think they will be good company on the walks I’m planning.

The pattern is called Fancy Gentleman’s socks(ravelry link) and since I am no gentleman I had to reduce the stitches a lot! I tried this in a yarn which turned out to be slightly stripy and it didn’t work with the pattern so I frogged it and bought some Araucania Ranco solid in rust at my LYS. The pattern incorporates a heel I’ve never worked before and short rows so there is a bit of a challenge for me.

So I’m off for my walk. I’ll be back with the second sleeve and some more pics! See U!

Catching up…again

Summer break here in Düsseldorf is nearly over and I have lots of knitting projects to show you. Unfortunately I’ve been ill for nearly four weeks and I only made crafty progress – not so much luck for my thesis, though… Anyway, what’s done is done and hopefully things will look better in the next semester.

Now, I think I’ll have to split my progress report up into at least two posts and I try to write here more frequently in the future.

1. Quilts

I finished this coin quilt around the end of July/beginning of August and this is the first quilt I made entirely on the sewing machine. I visited my quilting buddy to use her machine and I really like how it turned out. For the quilting I used strips of adhesive tape arranged into a diagonal grid and sewed along those lines. It’s a bit on the small side (about 1,20m X 1,70m) but it will be great for snuggling up on my couch!

2. Knitting
I have only three FOs to show and on two of them I still have to weave in the ends so there are only progress pics to show here. The weather’s been a bit dull in the last days and it’s hard to take pictures in this light, so bear with me, please!

Those are socks in Lana Grossa Meilenweit 100 Bosco, which I picked up in a yarn shop in Venlo, Holland. They’re comfy and the yarn has a nice sheen to it.

As you can see I went with the flow and made my very own Ishbel. The pattern is well written and the lace pattern is split up into several small sections which made this part less prone to mistakes. The yarn I used is Isager Strik Højlandsgarn and it suited this project very well. I like my lace shawls to be a bit on the sturdy side!

The last show and tell for today is a modified version of LaLa’s simple shawl (pattern on ravelry). I wanted something simple and not too lacy because the yarn I used, Noro Kureyon sock, is spun very unevenly. I don’t think real lace would look too good with this. I still have to block it and weave in the ends.

I’ll be back with some new projects soon!
See U!

lots of work

I won’t be able to update in the next weeks because I have to get started again on my PhD without the distraction of blogland & Co.!  So, see U in a few weeks, hopefully with some FOs to show you!

Lace bug

The lace bug has bitten me once more! I’ve been knitting the Vortex Shawl for some time now and fiddles around with the Adamas pattern since last year. I managed to make some horrible mistakes there which I couldn’t fix so I took the easy way out and abandoned this project. Shame on me! However, I re- purposed the yarn ( I’m using Højlandsgarn by Isager )for Ishbelby Isolda Teague and I simply love this pattern!

 

I’m almost finished with the stockinette section and will possibly be ready to start the lace part this evening. I’m determined to finish this shawl in the foreseeable future so I will use lots of lifelines.

I ordered some lace yarn since my stash has always been a bit low on this and last year’s moth infestation decimated my lace reserves a good deal.

Both yarns are by Knitpicks which is a brand usually not available in Germany so I just couldn’t resist.
Apart from my current shawls there is sadly no progress to report on my red pinwheel quilt but I have a date with my quilting buddy on Saturday to quilt my Stack of Coin quilt. I’ll be back soon with new pics! See U!

Week/Weekend recap

I had to spend my nice recreational weekend I mentioned in my last post mostly in bed because on Saturday I got hit with a nasty migraine. Sigh. No knitting no sewing no quilting because of my headache.  It’s been two weeks since then and I didn’t get much done. I cast on for a new pair of socks, made some progress on the vortex shawl but no progress on my red monster quilt because on most evenings I’ve been either too tired or too lazy. The only positive event has been the fact that I finished all the necessary course preparation. I’m really looking forward to the summer break now! No pictures today because it has been overcast and rainy all week. I’ll be back (hopefully) soon with some pics and progress to report! See U!

Weekends are for recreation…

…and boy, do I need some free time! last week has been a crazy jumble of spending over 10 hours per day in my office, headaches because of the strange weather and not enough sleep. I managed to finish my course preparation for next week by Thursday, though and I took some time yesterday for my thesis. The glorious beacon of hope this week which enabled me to withstand brain damage and insanity were tickets for “a Midsummer night’s dream” at the annual Shakespeare Festival at the Globe in Neuss. We enjoyed a hilarious, outstanding, delightful, funny, amazing, awe inspiring performance by the (all male!) Watermill Propeller Company. I can’t wait for next year’s Festival!

Sadly, I forgot to take pictures of the Globe (taking picture of the performance was not permitted) because it rained cats and dogs when we arrived at the venue. You can take a peek here, though.

I’m off for the weekend now! I’m looking forward to quilting (the red monster!), reading and listening to my new Blackadder Audio performance (courtesy of audible ). Hope you’ll have a good time, too! See U!