Summer, socks and sheep?

 

 

An impression from an absolutely magnificent holiday in Iceland, in every way it exceeded all I had ever expected. We so enjoyed our time there, our friends had arranged for everything (and then some), and we can never thank them enough for this fantastic holiday. It was an undescribable pleasure to see them again, and to experience their beautiful country.

 

My very first pair of handknitted socks! My feet almost couldn’t wait to put them on, and I’m happy to report that they fit perfectly. These are Spring forward socks by Linda Welch, knitted in Harmony sock yarn from The wollen Rabbit, gorgeous yarn! Knittingwise, apart from the sock debut, not much has happened this past month. A little progress on each of the present WIP’s, which for the moment count the Nevis cardigan, the Swallowtail shawl and the Icarus shawl. I have sort of promised myself that I will finish at least one of the WIP’s before beginning a new one, however, I so enjoyed knitting the socks (and so enjoy wearing them) that I guess this will be a difficult promise to keep… There are so many beautiful patterns out there, sigh.

 Obviously there also had to be a picture of a sheep in this post.

 

And as a bonus I of course had to bring home a little wool. I guess this will eventually end up as a couple of nice shawls, at least that is the plan for now, it may change…

I just love to empty the mailbox…

 … especially when what I find is this. My two books had arrived from Amazon (The best of Interweave knits and The knitter’s book of yarn), and also my order from The woolen Rabbit had arrived, a skein of merino laceweight in the colorway Arabian Nights and a skein of Harmony sock yarn in Herb Robert, both skeins so soft and beautiful it is difficult to imagine. The laceweight is predestined for a gift, I’m going to knit an Icarus shawl (by Miriam Felton) for a friend and I hope she will like the color. The sockyarn is for a not yet known project, however I’ve plenty of sock ideas from the beautiful projects on Ravelry, not to mention the fact that my stash was almost non-existent, so a bit of stashbuilding should be in place. (Not to worry for the stash though, because another order is expected to arrive soon )

 Knitwise I, this week, found my second project. After visiting this lady’s  fantastic blog, I knew exactly what should be the outcome of my Evilla artyarn. After seing her Swallowtail shawl, I knew I had to make one for myself. I haven’t seen anything else where the colors of the  Evilla artyarn and the pattern complement each other that well. This is approximately how far I’ve gotten, and it doesn’t exactly look like much, but till I finish you can see what I hope it will look like in the end over at Bloggsberg, it is named Swallowtail IV (and yes, she has made four beautiful Swallowtail shawls). Because this project is also wool, it is not much cooler to work with than the Nevis cardigan, but at least it offers a bit of variation. This weekend I hope for the nice weather to continue, and also some relaxing knitting time, hopefully outdoors.

Oh joy!

I have recieved the first of my orders in order to reestablish my for the moment almost non-exsistent stash, and I love it! It is 220 gram Evilla artyarn (from www.garntrollet.no) in grey-tones with a splash of green. I just can’t wait to knit a shawl out of this, and this time I believe it will be for myself. The pattern I consider for this yarn is the Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn A. Clark.  

If the orders I’m still waiting for, turn out to be as pleasant a surprice as this one I can barely wait to open my mailbox. Among a few other things I’ve ordered some Malabrigo Merino Worsted for a February Lady Sweater, so I guess I’ll be joining the knit blogging trend knitting this beautiful sweater.

Below just a glimpse from our weekend field trip, it was beautiful, and fortunately we had fairly nice weather. 

Novice blogger

 

I’ve realized that blogging is a craft in line with other crafty things as knitting, crocheting, spinning, quilting etc. Not that I didn’t now that before, it is just that now I have truely realized the amount of work that goes into the beautiful and inspiring crafty blogs outthere, I haven’t really considered that before. I hereby dedicate this post to these blogs, I appreciate a lot the inspiration and motivation I get from reading them!

Being a novice blogger I still have a lot to learn, trust me when I say that this is not exactly how I envisioned my blog, but for the moment this is how far the level of my skills get me. Hopefully along the way I’ll improve my skills and my blog. In the meantime, if you happen to visit my site (if anyone is reading?) comments will be very much appreciated.

 

Color me happy

 This is by far the most colorful and stripy sweater/cardigan I have knitted so far. This is the almost finished back of the Nevis cardigan, and so far it has been very straight forward knitting. The yarn is Rowan tapestry in three different color variations, I’m not quite sure how it will turn out with the colors and stripes once it is finished, but I really like the feel of the yarn though. Main thing is that hubby is really happy about the colors and since it in the end will be his, I think for now that is the most essential.

For the moment I’m in a process of considering casting on for a second project, to date I have only committed to one project at the time, however knitting a warm cardigan in wool in the middle of summer without the option to switch to something a bit lighter doesn’t really makes sense, does it? Well at least that’s my justification for casting on for a second project. The actual problem is deciding which project to be the second project??? For the moment I’m considering several alternatives, among others the Febrary Lady Sweater by Pamela Wynne and the Seraphim Shawl by Miriam L. Felton or perhaps my first pair of socks? I guess in the end it will depend the yarn I get my hands on, I’m so looking forward to go yarn shopping soon.

 Yes, this is what I found about two minutes after I had finished taking pictures… Guess hubby will have to fight Kenzo to get his cardigan, he really seems to like it

 

The blog is still alive…

Yesterday I got reminded (by the yarntangler in the very bottom of the picture) that I was long overdue with my blogposting, and knitting too, for that matter. I woke up, and from our bed I could see yarn all over the floor, not exactly where I left it the night before… I guess he had fun.

 

For a long time now, all I’ve been doing have in one way or another, been related to moving (moving to a new country kind of extends the list of things to do in that regard). Furthermore I have begun my new job, which also takes up loads of time… however we now finally seem to have settled in at our new place, and are both happy and content with new jobs. So it was time to resume knitting! The other evening I began knitting again, and got very enthusiastic, hence didn’t even pack the knitting back in the knitting basket, but left it out overnight ready for the next day. BIG mistake! Apparently I wasn’t the only one who had been missing the knitting, and leaving all that beautiful yarn out in the open was too much of a temptation for Kenzo. Fortunately it was only the not yet knitted yarn that was all tangled up, the knitting itself had just been dragged across the floor

The work on my needles for the moment is the Nevis cardigan by Marie Wallin from Rowan 42, but more about that soon in another post. For the moment all I want to say is that the blog is still alive, I’m still knitting and looking forward to blog on a more regular basis

Kiri is finished, and so is also the ribbed hat :-)

Merry christmas everyone! At our place the christmas bustle is setting in, especially since we on top of everything else, are moving shortly after christmas. But for now it is all about christmas. The Kiri shawl (which is a christmas present) is finished, and it turned out exactly as I wanted, warm but light as a feather in black Rowan Kidsilk Haze. Hopefully the recipient likes it as well…. Also I knitted a ribbed hat for my husband, as a pre-christmas surprise. It was Cashmere Ribbed Hat by Jessica K., however not in cashmere but 100% organic wool from New Zealand, and it is nice and warm.

I’m sorry for the lack of pictures in this post… but they will follow asap  

Anice in nature…

   Just a few pics to present the Anice shawl in nature. The pictures are courtesy of my sis, who also happened to be the (happy) receiver of the Anice shawl. It was a great feeling to be able to make her a present that I was really pleased with myself.

   

Anice shawl by Sharon Miller in Rowan Magazine 41, knit in Rowan Kidsilk Haze, shade 584.

Time elapsed from cast on to finished object; about one month.

Modifications; I left out one repetition of the chart, for the shawl not to get too long. The finished shawl measures about 180 cm.

And now it is on to a bit of holiday knitting, the Kiri is coming along nicely, and I just hope that the finished result will turn out as nice as the Anice. I have to admit I really like the symmetry present in both the patterns of the Anice and the Kiri. The Kiri should be finished well before Christmas, so perhaps one or two minor holiday projects will find their way as well… Hope you enjoy the Christmas spirit making its entry in December. Happy holiday knitting….

First FO

  Well, now it is finished and also given as a birthdaygift…. my very first FO since I started blogging. Not to spoil the surprice for my sister, who was the recipient of the present, I haven’t posted anything about this object till now. I have truly enjoyed knitting with Kidsilk Haze, it is so incredibly soft and very nice to work with (except for frogging… I made a mistake and had to go back a few rows… what a distress!). Overall it was a very interesting and challenging shawl to knit, and I am very happy with the final result (fortunately so was my sis ).

To great distress for the two yarntanglers the shawl wasn’t for them to nap on, eventhough they took every oppotunity to demonstrate the potential of the shawl as a nap blanket. Below I was measuring the length, but before I even got to the measuring part they had taken posssesion of the shawl…

   

Also while the shawl was blocking, Kenzo made a final attempt at claiming possesion of the shawl

Very soon I’ll post some pictures of the finished shawl in daylight.

Welcome

Please let me introduce the YarnTanglers; our abyssinian cat, Zidane, and his cat and best friend Kenzo, an egyptian mau. Together they make sure that life at our place is never a bore. This was supposed to be followed by a picture of the mentioned two… but for the moment my inadequacies in blogland prevailed, but I’ll post the intended picture asap….

Success! I figured it out… As they are posing for the picture they seem so quiet, but don’t be fooled, they can really tangle up some yarn