Summer holiday

We are all at home, we managed to get time off work at the same time - it is just that some virus hit us all. After the first week we start to feel ok, so we have hopes to enjoy the remaining two weeks.
My 10 weeks pregnancy is complicating things, as I must visit doctors and make a genetic test - and all this takes time -, but I feel much better than I felt with the first baby.
The worst part is that dizziness is keeping me away from knitting. This was the same the first time, but I hope that passing the limit of the first trimester things will get better. I still have at least 3 weeks of dizziness.
Anyhow, two weeks ago I started knitting a pair of socks, for a 4-year old, and this is the point I got:

the pattern is Charade, but I made some changes, by knitting it toe-up, two-at-a-time and with Fish Lips Kiss heel.

May

After a cold, freezing April finally spring is coming. Almost summer.
We started to go to the country-house on week-ends. There, below that church on the photo.
It is great to be there.

We are blooming.

Bees are working on the flowers

There is a calm we cannot find in the city.
I knit some in April.
First this lace-paneled sock.
Nothing fancy, 2.5 mm needle, magic loop, Vendita Sockenwolle.

I worked these two-at-a-time, toe-up.
And I finished my Dither. I hoped to make better photos of it today, but it is raining, cannot go outside...

Dry technical data: 2.5 mm needles, magic loop, pink Vendita Sockenwolle and some black sockyarn.
Not so dry data: I fell in love with the pattern. And I had gone wild concerning the colors.
I wanted to knit TAAT, toe-up, but this was going only until I got to the first stranded row. That was the point where I separated the pieces and knitted one at a time. Of course, I used another structure than the one specified in the pattern.

Put in a Fish Lips Kiss.
This was not a quick project, since my work is sucking the most energy out of me I cannot knit so muck instead of sleeping. And Klárika is not helping with this, either.
Now I am knitting the next stranded pair of socks, my true love, but I did not have the yarn for it until now. I hope this will go faster, as the Dither made me practice the two-handed stranded knitting. I guess I will knit this completely according to the pattern.
Instead a photo of the WIP-socks here it is a springy warm picture of yesterday.

Lacy socks

I finished a new pair of socks.

It felt good knitting them.
I wrote up the recipe for those interested:
Use any toe-up pattern and include my instructions.
CO 30 sts on two needles, with Judy’s magic cast-on (I knit two at a time, with magic loop, on circulars).
Increase on both ends of both needles, until you have 62 sts, on the two needles.
When you have the final number of sts, start the lace panel on the instep: K2, knit the sts of the lace-panel, knit all sts remained. On the other sock when you knit the instep knit until the last 15 sts, work the lace-panel, knit 2.

Follow this way.
Make the heel whenever you have to, it does not affect the lace-pattern.
You can add increases on the back side if needed.
When you have the desired length of patterning, start knitting the K1/P1 ribbing. BO using an elastic BO.
And you are done.

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...

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.

+3

No, it is not the temperature outside, because that is -18C, so at last, winter finally arrived. We have some snow as well.

This is how winter should look like. Cold and white.
The +3 refers to another 3 finished projects for this year. In fact there are only 2, because the hat was finished when I wrote the last post, but I did not have pictures of it.
Let's start with the hat. It is a slightly belated Christmas gift for husband.
This one was a quick project, even if I had to knit more repeats than the pattern asks for, men have huge heads, that's why.

The yarn is Drops merino Extra Fine, on 4 mm circulars (yes, I love magic loop).
The pattern is Lina, by Joko Knits.
I plan to knit one for myself also.
Some day.
I felt like I would knit, but had no inspiration. So I said to myself, that I should finish the socks I started back in November. Said and done.

It was two-at-a-time toe-up. I had it knitted for about half of the sole. The first evening I knitted to reach the heels, the next day I made the heels (it is Fish Lips Kiss again) and some of the leg and yesterday evening I made the BO.

I do not like the result on my feet. It is too loose for myself (66 sts on 2.5 mm needles).
But I like the color.
I might use them as bed-socks or give them away.
And one more thing: knitting socks with solid color yarn is BORING.
So, I finished the sock and it was still early evening (like 22:40, or so), and I remembered that I have a baby-cardigan almost finished. It needed only the button-bands and weaving in the ends.
First: I could not find my 6 mm needles. But I found some bamboo 6 mm-s and made one band.
Then I realized the red yarn will be not enough, and I had to search for the white and beige remnants.

It was around midnight when I found them, and quickly picked up the stitches, so that by 1 o'clock I had the cardigan finished, with ends weaved in. It only needs buttons and it is ready to use.
Not for myself, but for a colleague, who is going to have a baby in April.
Now I should figure out what to knit today. We will celebrate the New Year at home, with a good friend who will join us and who is used with me working with yarn, so that is what I will do.

Happy New Year!

(last photo from the internet)

Thrums

the ultimate softness.

It might not become my most favorite technique, but the result worth it.

At last

sunshine!

I enjoy it from inside as we are a bit ill, both, the baby and I. Fortunately, we are getting well...
And at last a finished project.

Socks again. This time for husband. This pair is really big, although it does not appears so on the photos. Or maybe it does...
The stitch pattern is based on the basketweave socks, I like this texture.

The yarn is nameless, but I really like it. It is a bit thicker than the usual sock-yarn. Its color is very masculine.

The heel is Fish Lips Kiss again. It looks better each time I work it..

I have one more pair on needles, but I should try my new yarns also.
But there are other projects on the list...

Socks again

I finished another pair of socks.

And again, 2 at a time, toe up.
But this time I did not enjoyed the process so much, and this is because of the yarn. Not its quality but the type. I used it before, but never by itself, first in a pair of Broken seed stitch socks and then for the Endpaper mitts, and both times the colors were beautifully accentuated by the contrasting solid color yarn. But now, on its own - I do not know. It is a bit too dark. It is a bit too contrasting.
Then I have this issue with the self-striping yarn.
It was a nightmare to find the point on both yarns to have matching stripes on the socks. For the fourth or fifth try I made it.

Then the heel. This yarn has a rhythm which is completely broken by using a few meters for the heel. So, at the gusset there are "missing" stripes.
In rest, it is OK.
I like the pattern. It was easy, but kept me interested. After finishing the socks I found several Mock Cable socks on Ravelry, both cuff-down and toe-up, anyhow, before casting-on I did not look at them.
The yarn is Gründl Marathon Scott, I used 2.5 mm Addi Lace circulars.
These socks took a week, for my 37 size feet, while I had two spinning projects going on.

Both fibers are merino-silk.
Now I should cast-on a new pair of socks, size 45. But I would also like to spin. 

Colors

It will be good when everything will be gray...

Monkeys for tiny feet

As I had some yarn left after knitting my No-purl-monkeys, I decided that it will become a baby sock, with similar pattern, for my princess.

There is not too much to say about it, it was Two-at-a-time, toe up.
I had to alter the pattern a bit, there is only 1 repeat per row, on the front. 
The yarn is the same unknown, on 2.5 mm needles.
And, as it is quite hard to take photos of some always moving feet, this is all I got.