time.....

I can't believe that it is august already! where did july go? I have no idea, but I have been busy with all kinds of things. some of the things I finished:

this is the KAL I started belatedly - the batwing shawl, slightly completely changed, with more stitches, a bat pattern in the middle and some simple lace along the edge... I like it, but I'd like it even better if it was much larger:) I only had a little piece of yarn left though, making it bigger wasn't an option....

I finished the "wicked witch" yarn that I started at the craft demo day in june, but I still have the salmon/green blend on the lendrum - somehow I haven't found the time to finish that one.... the bits of strong green in the witch mix have blended in so well, that they are hard to see even in reality - maybe the witch wasn't so wicked after all?

this is a batch of 500 g of black merino that I spun two-ply for a shrug. it's meant to be a present, but I didn't even start it yet, because the intended recipient hasn't given me the proper measurements yet. it was intended for a 50th birthday, but if nothing happens soon - we can add at least a year:))  

on the other hand - not knitting the shrug yet meant that I was able to try out another technique I've had my eyes on for some time - double knitting. I read about it somewhere and found the instructions quite complicated, but when I read all of it again in a german book about knitting potholders as test projects - I found it quite simple to do. all you need is a bit of care when counting stitches. other than that you should be able to knit with 2 colours on one finger and knit and purl. really, not difficult at all - you knit one stitch in the colour you want at the front, and then you purl one stitch that shows on the back. that's it, nothing much to it really! there are however lovely patterns e.g. in ravelry - and of course it will be slightly more complicated when increases and decreases have to be done. I plan to buy this book, but it only comes out in september - the double knit socks esp. tickle my fancy! you can see a few of the projects as preview on the author's blog here..... I think the deadly potholders are hilarious - just the right present for a cook with "slight problems":)) it's always good to receive a health warning before dinner is served!

I also finished the grey yarn with the dew drop beads - it looks better in reality and feels quite soft, but I had a few problems with the beads: 

 you can see here that some of them were quite loose - after plying! the plying takes out some of the twist and a few beads turned out to be too loosely fixed. I was able to mend this by pulling out one end of the green fibres, thread it into a needle with sharp tip and "re-attach" it into the main yarn. but it would have been better and less time consuming to just spin with more twist:) well, next time I'll know better! of course it might also help if the fibres inside the beads weren't quite as slippery as teeswater... something with a bit more crimp might attach better to the fibres of the main yarn?

the last of my "older" finished things is a 3ply sockwool that I spun from several remnants of blue fibres, mainly corriedale, but also a bit of merino here and there. the real colour is less bright, but at the time I couldn't find the right light conditions to match it better. the socks will be a bit chunkier than with commercial sock wool - just the right thing for the coming winter.... our longterm forecast was for a winter even longer and colder than the last two:((