another year over!

no, I didn't fall asleep during january and just woke up to discover the new year! but when you have kids you might just as well measure the years in how they grow:)) DS is 11 now, easy to remember his birthday (can a mother forget her kids' birthday(s)?) - because he just made it in time to be born on valentine's day! and every year I have to "invent" a new cake. a few years ago it was a graveyard scene (inspired by one I saw in a book about fancy cakes), the year after it was a wizard's castle (dito - and a huge cake to boot - we ate castle for days afterwards:). we also had a hp cake - but this year it was to be the kids series "avatar - the last airbender" as inspiration. now, as I admitted before, my drawing and painting skills are nothing to write home about - so painting an avatar on top just wasn't a good option. I had planned to fill some coloured buttercream into piping bags and draw the signs for the 4 elements onto the cake - but the powdered food dyes (red for fire, blue for air, greenish-blue for water - and natural cream for earth - because I accidentally had used up all the chocolate one:)) made the buttercream separate, so that wasn't a good idea. eventually I drew the lines onto baking parchment, melted some chocolate and drew over those lines. this was reasonably easy to do, so I just used the slightly funny looking coloured cream as a base and put the cooled chocolate signs on top. bingo - son was happy, the cake was a bit more managable than the giant castle and it tasted good as well. I added some of the melted chocolate to the buttercream inside the cake. I wonder whichever fancy will take him next year....

enough about food. I did some knitting as well. I finished another "harmonia's rings" - but this time I changed the pattern slightly. I only worked 5 rows of pattern for each repeat, but the main change was, that I finished the upper rim with an attached i-cord with "loops" (= a few rows of unattached i-cord) instead of adding beads. and I finished the lower part with an attached i-cord instead of the rolled-up purl rows - which makes a nice rounded edge at the bottom. this one I'll keep for myself (at least that's the plan:)), very soft and cozy, but not too warm. both are actually the same blend, 70 % superwash wool and 30 % silk, handspun, 2ply. the dyed one was knitted with needle size 5, the white one was more tightly spun and plied and I worked it with needle size 4, albeit with a few more stitches all over.

this is a larger pic with details of both borders - the one with the "holes" could be used on another garment instead of button holes?

tomorrow we're off to Dublin for a visit to the zoo - so I better make sure that I have a small knitting project at the ready to get through the train journey without major boredom attacks!

harmonia's rings

when I browsed Kristin's blog a while ago and saw the picture of her "harmonia's rings" (pattern by Sivia Harding) - I really liked them and couldn't resist buying the pattern (well, ok, letting someone buy it for me:)). it looked so cozy with the folds around the neck and I knew that I had some nice yarn to use for it in my stash.

so I started the knitting with a blend from soft wool and silk - the one that I first dyed in the parrot colours and then overdyed it with blue to tone it down again! I also bought several small bags of bead mixes to add them on the upper rim - but now I think those might have been more visible if I had stuck to just one shape and colour for those! somehow the different beads vanish in the colour mix....

when I finished the pattern I had a feeling that maybe I had added one twist too much when casting on for the moebius - but I had a look again at a new pic from Kristin and found that mine does in fact look the same as hers! so - off I went, dug out a new batch of yarn (white wool/silk)and started it all over again:)) it's not difficult to knit and I could think of several people, who might like a cozy "scarf" like this - the next batch of present making will be full of "rings":))

this is a detail - with a green bead right in the middle (well camouflaged:)

I also worked the sample for my "knitter's" jacket - this is how it looks with the undyed yarn. it's soft, but not too loosely knit and feels very nice and warm. what I find surprising though: in the pattern rows 3 and 4 are knitted with a second yarn held to the first - but it's barely visible when knit up! I'll do two yarns so, the first is the 5ply, 4 fine yarns and the chunky single - the second one is much thinner, with only the fine yarns, but 2 instead of 1 ply of fine schappe silk.

I hope I'll manage to do the pattern before all kinds of other jobs start creeping up on me again...

I didnt' lie!

honestly, I only forgot to upload the picture of our eucalyptus tree! it's not totally in focus, but recognizable as such. I could only show the tip - otherwise you'd see the snow on the lower trees and shrubs underneath:)) it's amazing that a tree from a totally different climate area could do so well in cool and muggy ireland, but it's only 13 or 14 years old (grown from seed!) and already the highest plant in the garden - apart from the ashes on the border of our patch - which are well over 100 years old! and it has given me leaves and bark for my dyeing experiments to boot, even though I didn't end up with reds. I had everthing from yellow to light brown and light rust, so I think I should not complain. it's a good plant really, because the trunk on the lower part is free and it's easy to underplant, because it doesn't throw dense shade either. and I just love the rustling of the leaves in a breeze - a tree for all senses?:))

Irish spring? not really....

we have "palm trees" in the west of ireland! and we are already at the height of summer - as you can see from the very blue sky! well, ok, not really, but if you didn't see the rest of the countryside, you might be mistaken by the agave and the eucalyptus tree....

look at that! we are well after St. Brigid's day - and we have snow! I do like snow, but at that time of the year I am already planning the gardening and wouldn't mind to do at least a few scores outside! well, never mind - at least the sun is shining again and tomorrow we're supposed to go back to wind and rain, so we might as well make the most of it. it's not enough for the sleigh or snowballs, but at least it looks nice.... and it's not as if I'd be bored staying inside!

when the winter issue of "knitter's" arrived I really liked the cardigan on the cover. ok, the original yarn is way beyond what I'd consider usable - I just hate knitting with extremely chunky yarns! the pattern gives size 10 mm needles and I figured half of that would still make a nice outside cardie for me. but which yarn to use? I wanted to put some of the fine yarn on cones to use, i.e. some schappe silk (very fine), mohair (light rose), some cashmere and/or some fine, soft wool. and I also wanted to use the light grey fibre blend of silk with cashmere that I received as a gift some time ago! it's very soft with a slight lustre, but not too much. so I spun this up first and then plied it with 4 of the other yarns. never did a 5ply before:) it worked very well though, the thicker single of grey silk/alpaca fluffed up a bit and the 4 fine yarns stuck together, so it looks more like a 2ply... this is how it came out after washing. it looks nice after knitting it up, too - I just have to decide whether or not to dye it all. if I do, I'd dye the yarn in skeins, not the finished project. I was hoping that the different fibres/yarns take the same dye slightly different - to end up with a heathered yarn. but I'll give it a try on a very small scale first, I don't want to ruin the whole lot!

it feels very soft and cozy when knitted up and I like the raised simple cable pattern too, even though they don't show up quite as strongly as in the photo - with only half the yarn diameter. the pattern uses a second yarn for the two rows with cabling - and I decided to give that a try too. I plied a finer yarn with the commercials only, but used two instead of one very fine schappe silk thread. it's barely visible colourwise, but it does give a bit more definition to the cable, I think.... of course, I'll probably finish this cardie in summer or at least late spring - by which time I hope I won't need it for a few months at least! but then you never know how warm (or rather: cold!) the irish summer is going to be. if the coming one is anywhere near the last one - I might be better off by knitting old shopping bags into a raincoat!!

spring (stash) clean

after I bought a few more packets of mixed beads at our spinner's meeting on saturday, I decided to start my spring cleaning by sorting through my bead stash. I know I should have tackled the larger fibrey and yarney bits first, but somehow I felt like digging around at my leasure and the nice colourful beads looked so appealing! I do like the mixed bags I bought from Suzie, because even though each comes in one colour group, there are lots of sizes, shapes and shades in each bag. apart from yellow and orange (I like those colours in nature, but not necessarily in textiles, at least of the wearable kind that I mostly produce) I have all colours covered now - and I couldn't resist showing my new way of storing them. a while back I found "boards" (shrink wrapped layers) of small glass containers at the creative resource center - I think they are used in laboratories and hospitals for samples of some kind - but of course they were brand new - and I even found rubber stoppers that sit nice and snug. they could be slightly larger, but I took plenty of them, so I was able to fill a second one if one wasn't enough for each kind of bead.

when I had finished repacking all of them - I had a small army of grey-capped soldiers in front of me:

should I send this pic to one of those shows where participants are asked to identify an object shown in a photo?:))

this one shows a bit of the contents too, sorted into main colour groups. given that I am not usually a jewelry maker or someone who uses beads very regularly on all kinds of projects - I think this stash is large enough now! I did collect a mix of them for my harmonia's rings - which I am going to attach to the cast-off border tonight! I hope this is a good enough reason (or excuse?:)) why I just had to buy a few more beads - the other colours didn't fit the yarn well enough:))

back to a slightly more conservative way of (spring) cleaning - even though that's far less fun....

new books

now that I have finished the black socks (I pulled the thread through the last loops around 4 a.m.) I am free to just do what I want and have fun with it - for a few days at least:) one thing that very often happens to me the moment I have managed to keep a deadline and the project is on its way to the recipient - I am in limbo and start wasting my time. I just sat in front of the finished pair of socks this morning and wondered how many stitches it takes to make one pair. calculater out and off I went... (am I going nuts? I did something similar with the last shawl!). of course size 46/47 isnt' necessarily average, but I guess it gives an idea - if I didn't miscalculate I knitted over 14.300 stitches on just one sock! sounds amazing - and our handknitted socks nowadays aren't exactly knitted with sewing thread yarns. imagine how much work it was to make knee-highs with the extremely fine yarns the elizabethan knitters used! puh... I am quite glad that I don't live in these times - though that's just one of many reasons! I tried to take another pic of the finished socks - but it's not better than the last batch, so I spare you another yucky one!

I didn't just knit during the last few weeks - I also ordered some new books. Vivian Hoxbro is well known by now for her ideas around domino knitting. I had seen a few of the projects online that are featured in "knit to be square". the technique itself isn't new anymore - but some of the ideas in the book appealed to me, e.g. the pyramid-shaped pillow (reminds me of the "cusheens" by Vivian Prideaux), the bucket bag, the tea-cozy and of course the lace-style projects, where the squares aren't finished and thus leave gaps in the knitting. it's quite easy to change the designs or sizes and I think the technique is great fun for all kinds of projects. the book is from interweave, with their usual layout and style.

I also bought "knit one below - one stitch.many fabrics" by Elise Duvekot. this I saw in the "knitter's" magazine, published by xrx. I have several books published by them and do like their style. they always give a lot of "how-to" explanation and the photographs are well done, with close-ups of special areas. of course the technique of "knitting into stitches below" isn't a new technique - but most books only show a few typical brick patterns etc. - if the patterns are featured at all. this technique is very easy to do - but can result in very interesting blends and patterns. you can achieve a very complicated looking blend of colours - simply by knitting with a single colour in each row! no complicated fumbling with several yarns on one finger or twisting of threads needed! the book shows loads of designs, everything from shawls, scarves, socks, kids projects, jackets, afghans and sweaters is covered, for men, women and children. I am sure I'll use this technique in a project or two very soon!

on another note - I am a voracious reader even when I shouldn't, because I have to finish projects. even though I am well past the age to fit into the group for "teenage fiction" - I like reading some of those books. quite by chance I discovered the first book of a new trilogy: the book is called "the poison throne" (Moorehawke trilogy) by the irish writer Celine Kiernan. it's set in a medieval phantasy land and the characters in it are described so lively and well, that I couldn't stop reading the book and finished it in record time. of course I had to look for the author's homepage to find out when the 2nd book will come out (I have to wait a bit longer:(() and was surprised about the very personal way Celine Kiernan keeps in contact with her readers. I also found out about a new way of reading: one reader described it as "inhaling the book" and I thought this described pretty well the feeling I had when finishing this lovely book:))

back to some more practical things - I'll finally be able to start on the pattern "Harmonia's Rings" by Sivia Harding - needles and yarn are at the ready....

sock yarn black conscience

I meant to write into the blog for quite some time now, but time has been short - again. if you're not into making presents by hand, you might think I am mad - but not so! unfortunately several present-intensive birthdays follow right after christmas for me, so the christmas madness is followed by birthday madness immediately... but - I finished the lily-of-the-valley shawl in time and the socks are nearly done as well. the shawl is not a normal triangle, but has a crescent shape. it follows old patterns of tie-shawls, which don't only stay put on the shoulders, but can be tied behind the back to secure the ends and ease the use of your arms, e.g. when you are working. the yarn is a blend of silk and cashmere, very soft and warm, but also silky with a little lustre. in a moment of madness I started calculating and ended up with a bit over 40.000 stitches in one shawl:)) it weighs exactly 400 g, but it's fairly large and would fit just about anybody, I suppose. sorry for the grumpy expression on the photo - it's not easy to model and give instructions to the very young photographer (the older one wasn't available just now...).

here a detail of the lily-of-the-valley border - the rest of the shawl is worked in garter stitch.

in the original pattern there is a 2 stitch i-cord (called horse's rain finish) given as a finish after the lace pattern, but no special border on the top of the shawl. I wanted the upper border to look a bit more "rounded" and stable, so I worked an attached i-cord (3 sts) on top and all around and also for the tie bands. the original pattern is available from Dorothea in germany (available in english too!).

I thought I might take a pic with the photographer wearing the shawl - but it looks a bit like a coat stand with a head:) maybe the shawl isn't suitable in this size for people of less than 5ft3in?

for the black socks I wanted a lovely yarn and a very reduced patterning - in manly conservative colours:)) I don't think knitting with dark blue or wine red would have made it very much easier on the eyes than knitting with black - but I have to admit that I have been knitting with the help of a daylight lamp all along - and my eyes still complain after two hours or so of knitting:(( I think after I finish the socks I need colour - and lots of it, after knitting with just white and black for some time! the yarn is "royal" from austermann, a very soft combination of mainly merino, with some silk and cashmere - handwash only, but the recipient is not only conservative in taste but also very careful with his clothes..... the socks are knitted in my usual way, I just added the narrow band of 2stitch cables to have a bit of understated patterning - let the yarn speak for itself!

I also try to prepare for the next workshop by the OLG, flax spinning - and hope that I'll be able to find more time for this than I managed for the "beads and braids" (which amounted to next to nothing:(() the usual story - to many pots on the cooker at the same time! why should the new year be different from the old? I haven't managed to do any spinning or bobbin lace - but I am hopeful that I'll have some more time after the weekend.