2007

today is the last day of 2007. i could write up a list of (new year's) resolutions, from loosing weight to healthy lifestyle to going for real holidays at last and having life that is not mostly-work. i could, but i will not. it would certainly sound like Bridget Jones Diary 3rd volume, or worse even, Ally McBeal. instead, i'm gonna make a list of things i want to learn in 2008.
- knit a top-down raglan pullover (or top, whatever is top-down)
- knit a yoke pullover
- learn this great, renowned, fantastic tubular cast on
- and bind off
- knit lace, anything (small)
that would do. i mean, two pullovers, THIS itself will take half a year, seriously. i did not promise to work less ;-) plus, i do have some projects planned long time ago and want to knit them at last.
Happy New Year!

socks, socks!

Christmas present #2. socks for my cousin. in trekking, my idea (or design, whatever). simple toe-up socks, with purled spirals, just not to get bored while knitting them.



i wanted to knit another pair of socks with spiral patterning. i came up with the elongated (dropped) stitches running diagonally in the background of the purled stitches. quite pretty (imo) but somehow does not speak to me in this yarn. too dark, perhaps.



in the end, i am knitting another pair of bff socks. for myself.



...and one more sock, the winding cable knee sock-to be. somehow it seems too dark to knit this sock full of cables in such a dark grey yarn... so, started and temporarily put off (not for long).

the post-Christmas post

Enormous amounts of food eaten (what, Xmas Polish way ;-P), presents given and received, in other words, Christmas is over.

Christmas present #1, a neck warmer for my mother:




pattern: just knitted top-down in the round with increases (too many) every other round
yarn: Silke-Alpaca by Garnstudio
needles: 5mm circs

Mum says she likes it! :-))))

seriously pissed off - update

i was going to fly to Poland. this afternoon. but the flight was cancelled. FUCK FUCK FUCK. the information was given when i passed the security check (and seriously, i hate it, all this undressing-this-is-my-laptop-and-this-is-umbrella stuff).
i was the lucky (?) one who got the rebooking for Sunday, other destination (far from home, of course, but at least in Poland)... but all the other people there... i don't know. so i went home, and here i am, sitting in my kitchen and sipping red wine. 8 fucking hours of traveling and still in the departure spot.
still better than what happened to a friend of mine couple of winters back. the long-distance coach was trapped in a gigantic traffic jam on a German highway... for 1,5 days. that is a serious bad luck.
no picture, for the only one i could offer now, is the insides of my suitcase, and i will spare you that.
no plans for tomorrow, how strange is this?

happy happy

i am very happy today! i am traveling to Poland to spend Christmas with my family. this is what awaits me there:

pierniki, something that could be called gingerbread-cookies. but not quite the same. (picture courtesy of my father) yes, this IS a bed covered by cookies :-).

in the meantime, xmazz knitting was (is) going on. the yarns i am using are quite diverse in weight, colour and texture, as you can see (as are gift receipients of these goodies)

the turquoise yarn is leftovers from another pair of the fetching mitts, already on receipient's hands ;-)). in a haste of gift wrapping, i forgot to take a picture, but hey, EVERYbody knows the fetching mitts by now! the trekking skein is still rather largish, what means i must hurry up! and indeed, i must, for i have to clean the appartment, pack my suitcase, buy this glittery top i saw yesterday and be on time for the plane!

sunrise

just before:

(stats for today: sunrise 8.45, sunset 14.45)

dude, it does not happen often that i have an opportunity to take a picture of the SUNRISE.

new scarf!

Pattern: Twisted, from Knitting New Scarves by Lynne Barr
Yarn: Ull-Flame 100% wool 50g/50m of unevenly spun yarn (Garnstudio), unfortunately discontinued; i used 5 50g balls and the resulting scarf turned out pretty long (320cm)
Needles: 8mm



all i can say, the photos don't do justice to my scarf. the (day)light sucks lately. if i wanted to wait with taking the pictures of my lovely scarf for the decent amount of sunlight, i could as well wait till next year. and obviously, i did not want to wait that long! especially that this is the last FO i can share with the Blog before Christmas. secret knitting projects are going on...

another shot also offering a peek into my kitchen:

to my Friend

alas, Ester

pattern: inspired by Ester by Alice
yarn: Drops Alpaca
needles: 2mm circs (#%^%$#%&*)
modifications: more stitches to meet the dimensions of the shrug; different cable; crocheted edge to allow for wearability



well, let's face the truth. i am not happy with the final result. when knitting it, i anticipated a wearable garment of a soft and thin fabric. and it is soft and thin. wearable? dunno. i'll try, at the very least. it took me too long to knit this thing on the 2mm toothpicks (sigh!) not to even try to wear it.

the DROPS alpaca is a soft and pleasant yarn; however a bit too thin to my liking. perhaps for smaller projects... when it could be knitted double. good for crocheting, and i shall not forget this.

all twisted

i am giving a talk on Monday. i've got to prepare the power point presentation from scratch, and i haven't even started. it's saturday evening and i have nothing. nada. nic. so, instead of pretending that i am doing anything close to productive... what am i occupied with? he he, of course: finishing ester (now suddenly i like finishing, oh yeah) and knitting twisted. a scarf. cool one.



yep, i bought THAT scarves book. with my love for scarves i didn't have a choice. there is a number of great designs in ~the book and a couple of pieces i am definitely going to knit.

blue top

at last. 6 months out-of-phase, a short sleeve top completed just for the winter.

blue top. started in april

pattern: based on the Lana Grossa summertime 2006 pattern 1
yarn: Tweed Flamme by Unica. got it ~10 years ago (vintage! hehe) 89% cotton 11% acrylic, 95m/50g
needles: 3.5mm for the body and 4mm for the drapey collar (circulars)
comments: i like the cable:


unfortunately, the insufficient amount of the daylight today (Sweden!, no joke, days aren't long these days) made me to shoot these pics in the artificial light. no good.



PS. the leek pie was a success :-)

cap sleeves

remember the blue top ? well, i don't think so, it's been ages. actually, i completed the knitting and the finishing some weeks ago. and after that, i decided that this thing needs... yes, cap sleeves. definitely.
i read this detailed discussion on the sleeve construcion and came up with the short row cap sleeves, made up as i went along. they're knitted on the stitches picked up at the armscye and shaped by short rows knitted at both sides of the center part of the sleeve. pretty spontaneusly, i decided on the middle 1/4 of the picked up stitches as the top of the sleeve cap (1), and shaped the rest with short rows (2-5), leaving some stitches for the final full-length row (6).

3 rows of stockinette followed by the bind off row made the cap, and thus the sleeve complete. pretty easy, considering how long it took me to start knitting them.

the final result:

comfort food

when there is dark


and cold outside, what do we do? turn to the comfort food. such as this pie (prepared for tonight's party):



stuffing:
2 leeks chopped and fried on 3 tablespoons of butter + 150g of canned mussles and 3 tablespoons of cream + salt and pepper; place on a pre-baked tart dough
topping:
3 tablespoons of olive oil + 1 mashed garlic clove + 3 tablespoons of chopped parsley + 3 tablespoons of bread crumbs; mix in a bowl and add to the top of the leek stuffing
bake half an hour

officially, it has come!

winter, that is. yesterday's view from my window:



my blogging sucks. more importantly, my work sucks. the amount of ~free time sucks. there is some knitting going on, and finishing, too. i made some sort of resolution (hehe) to finish the in-progress stuff this month. most of it.

slowly but surely

yeah, this IS Ester. or my version of it , just before the final, triumphant bind off row.



it took a couple of days of the sick leave and 2 seasons of Grey's Anatomy to get there. can't believe it, really.

look! i've knitted fish!

It's more a mandarinfish than a pomatomus, though.


Pattern: Pomatomus by Cookie A for knitty
Yarn: Regia Bamboo Color (1066)
Needles: 2.5mm dpns, bamboo of course

no modifications, no fiddling around with the pattern. just did everyhing as was supposed to. the fish turned out to be nice socks. it's just that i am not so sure about all the colours in the yarn... too much action there.

hedera, at last

Pattern: hedera by Cookie A. for Knitty
Yarn: Strompe & Jumpergarn, Marks & Kattens, 75% wool 25% polyamid, 50g/210m
Needles: 2.5mm dpns
Modifications: none, really. i only changed the bottom of the heel, for experimental fun, let's say

I like the pattern, the lace is easy and visually interesting, although a bit boring to knit. It might look good on a knee-high socks, too.
The heel flap detail:

(the gusset lookes somewhat huge... whatever)

...and: ready to go!

socks

being sick (nasty throat infection) and having to stay at home this weekend, i engaged myself with knitting. my medication makes me dizzy, so i basically can only sleep or watch movies. and the best companion for movies are knitting needles, aren't they? so, these are the socks i've finished while watching the Pride And Prejudice BBC mini-series:



the grey ones are hedera (started in... eeee.... july i believe). the orangish ones are my-own-idea and will not be described until later. my cousin does not read this blog, but who knows. i've shown a lot anyway.

glimpse #6

(Cambridge, April 2007)

october

October, and of course:

I was thinking, why not to get some new sockyarn... It's Socktoberfest and a girl needs socks, especially a girl living in Sweden... But then, my sock yarn basket looks like this:


It's not SOOOO much, but still, it is more than I can possibly knit within next couple of months. Especially given my sloooownes and a lot of work at work lately. Alas, no shopping, some resources-clearing instead (hate the word "destashing... i don't have a stash in the first place, blah). I was drawn to this pretty skein of Trekking:



It was bought in March, with the notion of becoming socks for my cousin. So, the old sock, grey hedera and a new sock, orangish-reddish-greyish sock without-a-name-yet (own design, aaah). I make it up as I go along, but essentially it's just diagonal stripes of purled stitches.



I like the addictivness of knitting with this Trekking yarn. I like the colours that transform from one to another in the blurry way. I only wonder, WHERE, the heck, can I get Trekking in Sweden???? (or online in Europe?) Ha... the basket first.

weekend out of town

Again, a weekend out of town. Aachen (Germany) is a beautiful place :-).



On the knitting front... Ester turned out to be a long-time project. Over 300 tiny stitches on 2mm needles... Oh man. The progress is soooo slow, that almost unnoticeable. It'll take me a while to complete it. In the meantime, I want to finish AT LEAST one pair of socks (and started with the hedera, on hiatus since June) and the blue top (ekhm... almost finished since May?). I also started to play with the alpaca I use for knitting Ester. And it is lovely, it is soft and it crochets very well: