Stashbuster

I joined a stashbuster group on Ravelry. For some reasons (for which I’ll write an entire post apart) I had to go through a lot of organising. I hate deadlines, and at the same time I’m best when I’m working towards them. I’ve chosen different fibre tasks to finish:

• Finish Tartan

The beautiful fabric from my last post waits to be sewn into a tunic.

• Finish Red Fruit Juice

I’d spun some lovely yarn with Spunky Eclectic and Shunklies fibres (needs a post on its own).  I’ve chosen a simple Raglan top-down for it and am more than half-way done.

• Finish Through The Loops Mystery Socks 2012

I’m hardly any further than shown in the photo:

• Finish my snuggly winter sweater I started two years ago and miss every time it’s cold, because I think it will be the perfect garment to be cozied up in on a frosty day:

• Start and finish Wingspan, because this seems really fun.
• Finish spinning my first Hunger Games fibre, “How I See Katniss” (needs blog post)
• Knit mittens from the Spunky Ronaldsay
• Spin Spunky Instanbul Sunset, South African Fine (I love this fibre!)
• Spin BeeMiceElf March 2010 club, “Around The Mulberry” (blog post to follow)
• Finish the first 2012 Spunky Weaving Club
• Start and finish another Spunky Weaving Club, substituting one club fibre with Spunky handspun
• Finish knitting “Natural“
• Finish knitting “Houndsteeth gritting” (post needed)
• Finish Twi-Delight (needs some words)

I already finished two pair of socks which really needed just some stitching, and I hope that the motivation will be flowing a bit longer than just for a couple of days. The official stashdown ends May 4th…

 

Matching

After test knitting this beautiful shawl, I initially wanted to keep it, but it really is the perfect Christmas gift for my mother:

 

Furthermore I wove a scarf with the same yarn:

My mother loves to wear matching colours with her husband, so a second Christmas gift was easily found.

The yarn used is Mirasol Nuna, a silk/ wool/ bamboo blend. What a beautiful drape it has! I purchased this yarn some years ago, and never found a pattern I wanted to try with it. But after having used it for these two accessories, I’m so much in love with it, that I ordered more of it in a grey colourway.

The yardage is fabulous (175m for 50g), the knitted fabric is very soft, shiny and drapes like a gentle breeze. It blocks great, there is not much pinning needed. The yarn bleeded a bit while soaking, though.

When being woven, it behaved very differently from pure wool yarn. The sides drew much more in, even still on the weaving frame. Beating is very easy, as the strings don’t stick to each other at all. It held well enough though to be sewn without hem stitching (I took the scarf directly from the weaving frame to the sewing machine).

A pleasure to work with!

Fall is near

I finished the handspun cardigan:

It is the first time I used techniques that I learned when taking the “Perfect Sweater” class with Ysolda this summer. It got me a garment that is well fitting in the back, around the shoulders and has the perfect length. So much joy!

When discussing with Ysolda, I told her about my problems with armscythes that are too narrow and what I did until now to prevent this. Well, it seems that lengthening the armhole is not necesserily a good idea; I should rather widen the underarm. Furthermore she told me it could be helpful for me to chose my garment in function of the shoulder measurements, as I have rather broad ones. She said that a good fit at the shoulders really made a sweater keep in shape. That had me thinking about the shoulder type I prefer. And I realised, that raglan shoulders are perfect for me, and that i really don’t like round yokes.

This is Bibi, a very nice design I knit with Noro Matsuri. My shoulders are angular, and a rond yoke makes them poke out, which is not very flattering. Additionally, this results in sleeves which are distorted, again an effect I’m not very keen of.

This, on the other hand, shows those shoulders very nicely off:

There will be much more raglan in the future!

Test knit

I’m test knitting this beautiful shawl from Jennette Cross aka doviejay on Ravelry:

 

 

This was a bit challenging at the beginning as I could not make out a pattern. While knitting lace, I look at the stitches on the row below as an orientation, and usually you knit the same pattern in the same stitches. At the beginning, I really could not make out the slightest rhythm. But once the first ten rows knit, it quickly got easier. I’m cruising along now, still quite at the beginning (row 57 of  190). The shawl is going to be beautiful, with leaf-like designs and structuring purl rows. Love it already!

I use Mirasol Nuna, a silk, wool, bamboo blend. It’s so, so soft and a bit shiny, and has a very nice stitch definition.

A lot of things

Moving was a very interesting experience. When our friends came over to help us and we started to fill the boxes (after the almost 70 boxes I already had packed, mainly with books), I had a weak moment and apologized once and for all for the state of our appartement. I really got to wonder why there were so much things. It took two days to move all the big affairs, and I spent two days cleaning, sorting out the last small bumps of our former live. There was a moment where I sincerely thought that it would never end. I sat on the floor in our former living room, several stacks of things nicely aligned (I could not get around to believe that those things could depress me so much), and felt like those women who get the impression that they will be pregnant forever, that the baby will never come out. I felt eternely pregnant with my past hording.

For the time being, we live with my parents-in-law, waiting for an appartment for them to be arranged, so that we can take their house full of stairs, hard on ageing knees. We chose this option, as it implies changing schools, and my daughter is in “college” now, so I wanted her to already be with those she will be frequenting later.

That means that we compressed our appartment into two rooms and a cellar. That did not lessen the crowded effect, as you can imagine. Some moments are rather difficult… One has to focus on the future in that case!

I have some things to keep me sane:

A new club from FatCatKnits, Mixed Fibre Blessings:

September BFL

Once spun, it became this beauty:

For skeins 2-ply, one with both plies from the blue roving, two skeins with one ply from the green and one from the blue roving, and one skein with two green plies. One of these plies was finished with a bit of dark teal merino roving, as I wanted to finish the other bobbin completely.

I started to knit at once:

Nomnomnom.

Various things

I finished the second swirl. The baby was born on may 28, but I did not see his father until yesterday, so there was enough time to wait for last-minute-finishing

I still love this pattern a lot, and I think I will make one in very girly colours for my daughter. But for now, this one was well received!

I finished weaving the Fruity Lace shawl, but there are two spots where I missed a weft. I’ll try to repair it; it is not far from the border and this should be rather easy to do.

Being without a deadline now (apart the one where I have to pack our household up, because we will be moving in July), I started preparing for a patchwork for each of my children. I keep their old jeans and transform them into blankets. I already did this two years ago, and they use it all summer, so I really have to make a second one for each of them, because washing and drying a blanket the same day can be challenging

More garter stitch

The garter stitch cardigan has been put on a hold, as I have to finish this beauty:

After the first one, I at once started a second Swirl Without End, this time in boy-colours. As I got distracted by the Corinne-cardigan, the blanket patiently waited as a small UFO on a big pile of beauties to be.

But this week, at a meeting, I learned that the recipient could arrive any moment now, and I would have to hurry (as always, one works better under pressure).

So, here I am, switching from one garter delight to another, and still addicted.

Garter stitch pleasure

I’m knitting this at the moment:

There is such a soothing rhythm in the simple pleasure of knitting one stitch after the other, without focusing, which leaves a lot of possibilities to let the thinking take its own path.

I’ve veered off my stop-stash-enhancement.  Not buying any fibre for some months has taught me a lot about the reasons why I purchase. There is certainly retail therapy involved, and it was helpful to shop only in my wardrobe (as this is where the yarn part is hiding). I actually rediscovered the pleasure to look at a yarn and link it to a project. The hardest part was to decide to USE it, to be ready to not wait for the perfect pattern, as this prevented me from using it at all. But, at the same time it became clear, that I love having the choice to chose; I’m not a one pattern one yarn person. So I’ve (re)turned to looking at bargains and sales, but with a list of conditions a yarn has to fulfill to enter my stash.

There was another reason why I indulged a bit in yarn acquisition: I won’t go to Knit Nation this year, as we will be moving in July. If everything wents well, there will be a dedicated working space in the not so far future for me!

Since last time

… there has been mainly gift and accessories knitting.

At KnitNation, I had purchased some mulberry silk from Juno Fibre Arts:

I managed to spin it very, very fine and got about 270m of 2-ply from just 50g of fibre.

 

I designed a simple triangular shawl for my mother with it:

There is no evidence of the finished piece, as I forgot to take a picture…

Furthermore, I span the “Selfish” colourway from a Spunky Fibre Club installement. It will be used for a shawl for my MIL.

The biggest (and cutest) project went to friends, who welcomed a baby girl at the end of decembre. I discovered Woolly Thoughts and their mathematical knitting some time ago, and fell for this wonderful baby blanket (the border is plum, not black):

It was very well received

A hat was born as well:

When blocking it, I discovered that my head has the same size as our salad bowl

I span some BFL and Merino I got from stefknits for it and knit it directly from the bobbin. The design is The Purlaway Hat from Bluegirl Knits.

There was a break from my knitting from stash, as Christmas brought some yarn and fibre enhancement. Showing off will have to wait for the next blog post

 

 

FO

I was able to transfer my first yarn to the used category on Ravelry. As this project was nearly finished when I took my decision to knit my stash up, this is a rather easy first victory.

It’s the Baktus scarf by Strikkelise (yarn: flydesigns Monarch, colourway MARA). A great knit for those hours when you’re waiting somewhere or you’re being the passenger in a car. I already cast on a second one!

(Socks That Rock in Flower Power)