Garn Boet - The Yarn Nest

Huh, time has been flying! I can't understand it's so long since I last updated the blog! But it have been so busy months that I haven't even picked up the needles many times.

I started a pair of socks, with the intention to give them to my mother as birthday present. I managed to finish the first sock in May, but since Mum's birthday is on May 28th, I had to come up with something else for that, and the second sock is still not even started. The pattern is Latvian socks by Nancy Bush from Folk socks, and they are knitted on 2 mm dpns in a yarn by Villamokka called Mokkasukka in the colourway Iris. The yarn is a German Zitron yarn that is handpainted by Villamokka in Hämeenlinna.

The second Latvian sock has been suffering from the second sock syndrome, and when I finally had more time to think about knitting, I decided that instead of casting on for sock number 2 I would start a new sock. One reason was the weather, we have had a lot of rain, and the yarn I chose is the perfect antidote for rain: an other Mokkasukka yarn, this time in the colourway Viimeinen kejasari, Finnish for The Last Emperor. My girls are fighting over this yarn, but I think the younger one will end up as winner, the Snicket sock will be too small for her sister.

The pattern is the Snicket sock, a design by Sabine Riefler, previously published in MagKnits, but now available as free pattern in Ravelry. I'm knitting size one with 54 stitches on 2,5 mm dpns. And the heel. As you know I'm not a fan of short row heels. All ways now and then I test a new way to knit them, but so far, I haven't found a winner. But this heel is almost perfect, and I think the second sock will be even better, since now I really know what I'm doing. The stitches continue over the heel in a column not broken by the direction change of the heel, simply beautiful. Here is a close up of the heel.

And do not feel sorry over my older daughter, I bought two skeins of this beautiful yarn, she will get a pair of her own, but in an other pattern. I also bought two skeins of a blueish colourway, perfect for my boys. Or for Marina Piccola by Kate Gilberts, a design that reminds me so much of Italy that I'll knit it, sooner or later.

And while knitting these socks I dream of what to knit next. I long for a sweater project, but not a multicolour one, perhaps even something as opposite as charcoal or black... I absolutely need something in those colours. I love the colour of the socks I'm knitting right now, but for myself I feel for something more simple and serene.

Posted by Maud at 06:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (12) | TrackBacks (0)

Huh, time flies! Repotting season is driving to it's end, and it's time to start tie together all ends that has been hanging around untied for over a month. Just to give a picture of how time consuming spring work on bonsais can be, I can tell you that I had a friend over last Sunday and we worked on a pine for over six hours. It was a long neglected tree I bought last year, and it needed a lot of thinning out and wiring, but still.

But over to knitting. First of all, a little bit more than a month ago I got a beautiful gift from the very talented Leslie Wind. Leslie makes shawl pins and closures, and other types of jewelery too. She blogs together with Maureen McMahon at Folly Cove Fiber Freaks. It's a shawl closure made of sterling silver, light, but still with clasps long enough to keep the shawl in place. Thank you Leslie! Here is the closure attached to a shawl:

and here with the clasps free:

In the middle of April I also finished Autumn Rose. I haven't got modeled pictures yet, but here is a sneak peak, evidence of really having finished it. I hope to get modeled pictures soon.

I have started a new pair of socks, in a beautiful hand-dyed yarn by VillaMokka. The pattern is Latvian socks from Nancy Bush's Folk socks.

Posted by Maud at 11:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (16)

First of all, thank you all for the very nice comments about my Chuck's socks!

And then, the content of this entry. Last summer I got new bookcases. They are a bit smaller than the old ones, and I have pushed forward sorting out my books for a very long time. This Easter holiday I finally got around to do something about the piles of books I have that I no longer use. Some of the craft books are books I of different reasons have got doubles of, but most are books I have knitted one or two items from, and most likely will not use again. There are also some books by Tasha Tudor or illustrated by her that I have got doubles of. Due to the less space I have for my books now I have decided to try to find new loving homes for the books. The prices mentioned are all without the cost for mailing, the actual cost for mailing depends on where the book goes, and will be added to the cost of the book.

So, the following books are up for sale:

- Knitted toys by Fiona McTague. Hardcover 2004. Condition slight wear on the dustjacket, otherwise as new,10 euro.

- Knits for Barbie dolls, 75 fabulous fashions for knitting, by Nicky Epstein. Hardcover 2001. Condition slight wear on the dustjacket, oterwise as new, 10 euro.

- Charmed knits, projects for fans of Harry Potter, by Alison Hansel. Paperback, 2007. Condition very good, 10 euro.

- Miniature needlepoint carpets, by Janet Granger (dollhouse sized carpets). Paperback 1996. Condition very good, 10 euro.

- Bloomsbury needlepoint, from the tapestries at Charleston farmhouse, by Melinda Coss. Hardcopver 1992. Condition very good, dustjacket shows slight wear, 10 euro.

- The handmade soap book, by Melinda Coss. Hardcover, 1998. Condition very good, 10 euro.

- Making your own teddy bear, by Peggy and Alan Bialosky and Robert Tynes. Paperback 1982. Condition wear on covers, otherwise in good condition, 5 euro.

- Kauneimmat kanavatyöt, by Kaffe Fassett. Paperback 1993. Condition very good, 10 euro.

- Vantar, mössor, sockor och sjalar, by Anita Gummerus. Hardcover, 2001. Condition very good, 10 euro.

- Sy små dockor till dockskåp och lek, by Karin Neuschütz. Hardcover, 2000. Condition very good, 10 euro.

If you are interested, email me at mfast @ welho . com (omit the blank spaces), and ask for mailing prices and details about the books. As soon as a book is gone I'll take it off the list. Payment with PayPal or directly to my bank account.

There will be some magazines on sale later on!

Posted by Maud at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I finally got something close to good pictures of the finished Chuck's cabled socks. Hanna has used the socks several times and she is very pleased with the fit, and claims them to be very warm too. Being knitted with two strands all over it's quite understandable that they are warm, and the cables add too to the thickness. The fit is perfect for Hanna, so we are all in all very pleased with the project's. A common problem people seems to have had with Chucks's is that they want go over the heel. I decided to use grotesque thick needles in order to overcome the problem, and it payed out well. It also slowed down the knitting speed since I still ha to try to knit the knitted stitches a bit looser and the purled stitches a bit tighter than what would have been natural with this needle size.

Project details:
Pattern: Chuck's Cabled socks by Eunny Jang
Yarn: Scoeller+Stahl Fortissima socka in colours 1093 (pink, 2 balls) and 1053 (grey, one ball)
Needles:2,5 mm and 3mm dpns
Alterations: I patterned the heel instead of knitting it in just one colour. Cuff, heel and toes knitted on 2,5 mm needles, all cabling on 3 mm.

Posted by Maud at 01:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (21)

*Now, almost one month after cast on it doesn't feel like a new project anymore ;-)

Hello! No, I haven't dropped off the planet, I have just had my hands filled with a lot of other things. There has, as usual, been knitting going on, but my time by the computer has been used solely for none knitting purposes. This is the way the spring will continue, so I'll stop apologizing for not having time. I'll blog, but it won't be on a regular basis.

Back in February, after finishing the friendship shawl, I started knitting on the Autumn Rose pullover by Eunny Jang. The pullover is knitted in Shetland wool, Shetland Spindrift by Jamieson's. The pattern is to be found in their book Simply Shetland 4: At Tomales Bay. I use needles in size 3 mm, and I'm knitting the smallest size. The pattern is much easier than Venezia, since it's more regular, and there for is this a very fast knit. I think I knitted the body in less than two weeks, and the first sleeve in about a week. And I haven't had that much knitting time, perhaps a little more than one hour every evening. I'll start the neck opening a bit higher than in the pattern, as those familiar with the pattern already can see from my picture. I have also decided to knit the sleeves longer than the pattern, a fact you can't see from the picture, since the sleeve there is the length the pattern states. I'll knit a new cuff and both pattern parts once more, take off the old cuff and graft the new beginning to the knitted sleeve. I'll have much more use for the pullover in my climate with long sleeves, and I do already have Venezia with 3/4 sleeves. The second sleeve will of course be knitted as a long one from the beginning.

And here, a close up of the pattern. I love the colour combinations, this is simply beautiful pullover!

P.S. Chuck's cabled socks are finished, and have been waiting for a modeled socks picture session, but the weather has been grey and terrible, and I haven't got anything done. But there will be pictures!

Posted by Maud at 11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (22)

Today’s entry will be all about shawls. I have two finished shawls to present, one you haven’t seen at all before, and the finished Friendship shawl, alias Swallowtail shawl.I talked my older daughter Hanna into modeling the shawls. The first shots were like this, but then I managed to calm her down and make her behave in accordance with what you except of a shawl model. Elegance and ladylikeness can be very far from what a teenager is.

The sharpeyed have perhaps seen that there has been something called the Ti-to-tip shawl in the sidebar. This is a shawl I started and finished last autumn. My son had a period of practice in a hospital for elderly people, and had for five weeks to be on the other side of Helsinki at seven o’clock in the morning. My schedule was to wake up at five, take out the puppy for his morning business, wake up the son and keep him company while he breakfasted before I headed back to bed for one hour of sleep after he had left. While being up I knitted on this shawl, it was simple enough for those very early morning hours. It’s a very simple garter stitch shawl, you cast on three stitches, and on every row make a yo before the last stitch. The shawl is inspired by the shawls the American illustrator Tasha Tudor wears over her everyday dresses. I had some Rowan WoolCotton left, and used up everything for this shawl. It’s very everyday, warm and snuggly, and perfect to have under your jacket on cold days. It’s knitted on 4 mm needles. The shawl pin is by a Swedish designer who had a shop in Malmö, unfortunately I don’t have his name anymore. I like it a lot.

The Swallowtail shawl, renamed to the Friendship shawl, got finished almost exact one year after I finished my first Swallowtail shawl, a present for a dear friend’s birthday. It’s a tad bit bigger than the original, knitted with five more rows of buds. The Lily of the valley pattern matched exact with the extended bud pattern part, but the border pattern didn’t match. I simply left out the last decrease on the first row before the mid stitch and the first after the mid stitch, and after that did everything work out right. This bigger version used two hanks of Wetterhoff Sivilla, while the original version used one and a half.

I had serious problems with the nupps on the original Swallowtail shawl, and I'm happy to report I managed better this time. The pointier bamboo needles grabbed the yarn, and even if it wasn't fast working, it worked much better than what it did with metal needles. I'm still waiting for the lace needles I ordered eons ago, so I don't know if it would have worked even better with them.

Project details:
Pattern: Swallowtail shawl by Evelyn Clark in Interweave Knits Fall 2006.
Yarn: Wetterhoff Sivilla, two hanks in colour 916.
Needles: 3.5 mm Addi bamboo circulars.
Alterations: Shawl made bigger by knitting five more pattern repeats of the bud pattern.

I have a new wip to present, one that is simply flying off the needles (in spite of all the colour changes), and new pictures of Chuck's Cabled socks. The second sock has already reached the heel, and will soon be finished. It's amazing how fast the knitting will advance when you have only half the amount of cables left!

Posted by Maud at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (16)

A quick update on my Chuck’s cabled socks: the first sock is almost finished. I have knitted the cuff and the heel on 2,5 mm needles, and the rest on 3 mm needles, much bigger needles than what I usually use for this yarn. But the cables drag the stitches together, and this way will the socks be wide enough. The pink toes will most likely be knitted on 2,5 mm. The yarn is Schoeller+Stahl’s Fortissima socka, in grey and pink. The socks will be for my older daughter, but the size would fit me too.

Posted by Maud at 03:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)