The weeks before the wedding were ... busy. But it was wonderfull. A great celebration of our commitment. Knittingwise I really had to focus on the little white bolero and "Martin's" new sweater. More about that in another post. I need to take proper pictures of that project before I can talk about it. Anyway. I have completely gone wild on startitis. In two week time I casted on a Lacy Baktus shawl (done!) an orange dishcloth (done!) a pair of knee highs, a shawl in mohair, a hat, a baby sweater, a shawl in rowan lace and another sweater for Martin. This makes a total of 16 WIPS, about 10 more then my limit. Focus. Baby sweater and Habitat hat first.

We do

Thriller 2

The last ball... Think i might just make it with the amount of yarn. But the size keeps troubling me. Will this be my new sweater or his?

Distraction

I thought I made a deal with myself. I was going to work on wedding stuff. I was not starting or working on non-wedding stuff at home. Malabrigo? Nice, but, not at this moment. It really is a very nice project. Small yarn, beads, just needs a little love. I did not just knit another row on my Ebtide

Giving the cotton/wool another chance

When I was a new sockknitter I was hoarding sockyarn like it was going out of style soon. Remember 'sockyarn doesn't count as stash'? It does when about 80% of your sable stash is actually sockyarn. Anyway, I got a couple of skeins of cotton containing sockyarn in my newbie days and once in a while one pops in the knitting basket. This time it's Online Supersocke cotton summer color. I got some new needles lately from Wolhalla. They're Knitpro's square needles in size 2.5 mm and I was really curious how they would knit. Another pair of Spring Forward socks. I did omit one pattern repeat as cotton containing yarn is usually a bit fatter and less stretchy than wool yarn. I also shortened the cuff as cotton won't stay up the leg without elastic thread. (And I hate working with elastic thread.)Then, at Texel - a Dutch island - I completed the pair and wore them on a refreshing walk on the beach. I must say I don't really like the bumpy feel of of this yarn, but after a couple of wears and washes they feel pretty good. And, they don't pill or loose color. I have half a skein left and I think I'll make some Breeze anklets.But first, back to the sweater.

Thriller

I'm knitting my boyfriend a sweater. Well, not just a sweater, his first sweater. His wedding gift. He picked out the yarn, picked out a pattern and proposed to me. So, this sweater is kind of a big deal. I started in 2011 right after he proposed. First the sleaves and then the body. I chose to do the body in the round as I do not purl as fast as I knit. I totally love the aran pattern and after a while it really became zen knitting. So I was knitting along really nicely, untill I got to the point where I had used up 11 out of 16 balls and a significant piece to knit left. To ease my mind I visited the store where we got the yarn to get another ball of Rowan Scottish Tweed DK, but, and that's where the thriller commences: the yarn is discontinued. Time to do a math excersize. I measured that one ball can get me 2.5inches on the body. Total length of the body: 24 inches Lenght with 4 balls left: 14 inches Length per ball: 2.5 inches This should reassure me, since the rounds on the last 7.5 inches are shorter because of the arm decreases. I should have just enough yarn to complete. There's just one little problem: I weighed the balls. Two balls are just 43 grams, and two balls 50 grams. Sigh.

Dear feet,

I am very sorry, but the socks i finished this week were not intended to keep you warm. Sorry, i will knit you some too.

Xxx

Tough love

Impuls is the word i'd like to use in describing this situation. Listening to poscasts, reading blogs, I heard about the rave and got the crave for Socks that Rock. Several skeins walked into my stashroom, little indulgess in relatively exclusive yarn. Last week i was on a starting high and grabbed a couple of skeins, showed them to my husband to be and made him choose.





Lagoon, STR mediumweight.

And that brings me to one of the love factors. I LOVE the colors. They look just perfect in the skein. So perfect, i'm allmost affraid to knit with this yarn. What if i'm just not good enough to knit this yarn to it's full potential?

Impuls: casting on stockinette socks. I love knitting and wearing stockinette socks. I can grab them any time I want. At a meating, watching television, listening to podcasts. And they wear really great in boots.



Knitting with this yarn is though love. Love the pooling, love the stitches, but my hands... They just get really tired after a while. The yarn doesn't really have any stretch and likes to be knit on small metal needles. Not my favourite kind of needles. The result, however, is so worth the effort.




Concerns, while I knit the second sock. I have knit with STR before and both the pairs of socks have suffered severe colorloss after only a couple of washes. They do wear relatively well for 100% merino socks, at least, on my feet and are still one of my favourites. Let's hope hubby will get a lot wear out of these.

Missing

I'm still here, i still Knit and now i have blogger on my iPhone!
CU soon!