January

We have a gray January. There is over zero, no snow, instead it is cloudy.
Inside there are signs of sping.
Hyacints started to bloom

the Hippeastrum is preparing to open the flowers

(this is the red one, but the orange is also having buds).
I am knitting socks,. I still cannot pass over the shock we had at the beginning of December, and sock-knitting makes good to the soul.
I finished Husband's size 45.

I tried some texture, but it did not show up with the yarn, so I abandoned the original idea and continued plain atfer a few repeats of the stitch-pattern.
Nothing fancy, but I like the colors.

They are a bit big to me...

Sewing sadness

I am preparing for sewing for the last few weeks. To learn to sew. Whatever.
Today I begun, by drawing a pattern on paper. But I did not get to the point of cutting the fabric.
I just sit and watch the paper pieces and I have no idea what to do with them.
I got to the conclusion, that pants are not the ideal project to start with.
I am a bit sad, but I do not want to give up. I WILL NOT GIvE UP. No.
I might be able to sew a skirt like this.
Now back to knitting, and then we will see...

Minimal

I have no idea what happened to me, I used to knit complicated stuff and now I feel I am stuck with stockinette and garter stitch.

But at least the colors are beautiful...

How things are initiating other things

A few days ago, at the beginning of the week I had to make a pillow for Klárika. So, the sewing machine took back its place on the table. Seeing it all the time makes me wanting badly to sew. I took my Burda-s too, and I tried to find some pants for home I should make to myself - but there wasn't any with just elastic casing. I know there is a pattern on the web, which would be great for me, but I should find it again.
I bought some red polar for some winterpants for Klárika, but after a few days of -21 centigrades now the snow is melting, so the winter is gone - at least for the moment. 
Speaking of freezing cold: I have quite a few shawls and stoles, but I need a big soft scarf. Just some garter or stockinette stitch in some soft yarn, but a huge piece. Probably only for the next winter, if there will be any...
Speaking of huge pieces: I need a bag. I have quite a few, but none of them fits a larger knitting project than a pair of socks to take with me through an ordinary day (well, besides my lunch-box and coffee-bottle). Now I do not know if I should crochet or sew it, anyhow, the lining is something I must sew. I cannot decide upon the color of the bag, so it is just a plan.
By the middle of April I have to make a Dirk for a baby-boy. A dear colleague of mine is expecting her first child, and when I showed her the lalylala-dolls she liked the dragon the most. I already have the yarn for it.
And what do I do? I am knitting... socks.

Plain socks, size 45. Toe-up, two-at-a time in a color I fell in love with.

Stripes

After the sock-invasion last year, this year started with... socks. We need them, the temperature outside is -20 C, so all the family wears knitted socks right now. Both indoors on the carpet and outdoors in our boots.
I especially need them, as I walk to the office - only 3 km-s but it takes 35 minutes -, and then back home, and believe me: to make it a nice walk I need knitted socks, knitted gloves and lined hat.
This time I made striped socks. And not one, but two pairs.

I have this love-and-hate relationship with selfstriping sockyarn. I love striped socks IF they look the same and maintain the rhythm of the stripes. Which is sometimes quite difficult to obtain.
First: how do socks look the same? If one finds the EXACT similar spot on the yarn-segments. I am perfecting myself in this, anyhow, there are occasions when I must restart a sock many times. Like 5-6 times. Which is really annoying.
This time it was quite easy, as the striping was regular and easy to understand and follow.
Then, there is another issue, of having the yarn tails the same length on both socks. I use to compare them, after having the initial knot done (I use to position it a few times).
I made Judy's magic cast-on, and the socks for myself started their evolution on my needles.

The other issue is harder to cope with: maintaining the rhythm of the stripes. It is easy on the socks' tube-like parts, but it is impossible to make the heels with the same yarn and have the stripes as they went before.

But this time I was really lucky: I had to start the heels at a pink part, so I introduced a new yarn, just for the heels. I had this pink, which is not exactly the same color, but it is much closer to the sockyarn's pink that I could find for any other color on the yarn. (I had the idea for the blue also, but it was much darker than this one, so I am glad that heels were made in pink.)
My socks were finished in 5 days, and then I started the small ones. But: if I wanted to have them quite similar I had to calculate what part of the yarn to use for CO to have pink heels. This took me some time.
But eventually they are done.

So we have another pair of mother-daughter socks.
PS1: two-at-a-time, toe-up on 2.5 mm needles.
PS2: I have a yarn that I could not identify a pattern in its striping, so knitting socks of it that I like will be especially hard...

First of 2015

Tomorrow will be the last day of the winter holiday. I so much enjoyed it and I wish it would last for another couple of weeks. At least.
Finally it is winter around here. Today we went for a walk in the forest and we took the sledge for the baby:

I loved it.
This holiday was a very prolific period for knitting, as well.
After I finished the items I blogged about the last time I begun another hat. I thought that would be the inbetweenyears project. It did not, as I finished it a few minutes before midnight. So, that was the last project of the last year.

It was the same Lina hat, from last time. And I love the result. That is my new favorite hat.
On the first day of 2015 I cast-on for a pair of socks. Today I passed the heels, I hope I will finish it really soon (but probably not today).

This might be too colorful, but I like it...
I hope this whole year will be this great, for all of us!

I said that I do not have plans for this year, I have dreams. I would like to write about them.
Sewing.
A few years ago I bought a sewing machine. Just a simple one, because at that time I couldn't even sew a straight line. For a while I had it on the table, but then I put it away.
Last year I took it from its place, and I sewed a pair of shorts and a peasant blouse for myself. And the curtains for the country-house. But I started to read sewing blogs.
I have two favorites:
Cashmerette. I love her style, both in writing and in sewing.
But most of all I love the way she inspires me. I see, that a coat can be made at home.
This is my final goal: a coat I made to myself. Maybe this year in autumn? I do not know. Maybe. One of my dreams.
Michelle. She is a knitter and a sewist. And she is good at both. I love how honest she is about all she experienced when making a garment.
So, if I will someday be able to sew wearable garments, it will be due to them.

Now back to work on my socks. As the weather is going to be this wintery for a while (they say), I would like to wear them soon in my boots.