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July 31, 2005
Steady progress
I'm surprised to see my own progress on the USM Pullover! I've only ever started two sweaters before and they're still unfinished (after at least 5 years...)
Sorry about the crappy flash picture. You still get the idea.
Posted by saartje at 7:44 PM | Comments (1)
July 29, 2005
Starting the Union Square Market Pullover
After two false starts, I hope I'm on the right track this time with the Union Square Market Pullover from the fall issue of Interweave knits.
I'm using the yarn I bought in France two weeks ago. It's alpaca, 155m/50g. I'm using a 3mm circular needle and it's looking good so far.
I don't have much experience knitting sweaters, I usually knit smaller items like socks and mittens. I really like the shape of this sweater, it looks like something I would wear.
Because of my gigantic hips, I had to start with 250 sts, even though I'm knitting the smallest size. So I decreased every 4th row to get down to 198 sts. Right now I'm starting the increases.
It's almost too hot and damp to knit today, but with the help of some talcum powder, I'm going to try to add a few inches anyway. And I'm going to join the Knit-a-long for this project, my first!
Posted by saartje at 1:12 PM | Comments (0)
July 25, 2005
Footlet finished
I bought a circular needle today, 3mm and 60cm. It's a Schoeller und Stahl needle, made by Addi. I'm not sure if it's the same as Addi Turbo, I've never seen one of those.
I want to use it to try the Union Square Market Pullover. I do hope to get the right gauge this time....
I'm really too tired to start right now. The first day at work after 4 weeks of vacation isn't easy!
I did finish one lousy footlet, though, on the train to work. I don't know why such a small item should take me so long.
See?
Maybe it's the yarn. It's Regia plus Cotton (38% wool, 37% cotton and 25% polyamide) and in itself, it's not a bad yarn, I just don't enjoy knitting with it.
Or maybe it's because a footlet is one of the most boring items to knit.
Posted by saartje at 10:44 PM | Comments (1)
July 24, 2005
My name
I almost missed Thuy's comment from last month, asking me about the pronounciation of my name!
It's difficult to explain in writing, but I'll try. The stress is on the 'aa' part, and the 'aa' is pronounced almost like the 'a' in 'Paris' in French. The 'e' on the end of my name sounds like 'e' in 'Amsterdam' in English.
By the way, 'Saartje' really means 'little Sara', the '-tje' part is a diminutive ending.
Well, with that all clear, I just want to point you all to the wonderful rabbit pattern by Thuy. I have made at least five of these until now, the latest only 2 weeks ago when we found the kittens in Spain. Check it out!
Posted by saartje at 3:05 PM | Comments (5)
French yarn
I didn't get a chance to enhance my stash a lot on holiday. There aren't many yarn shops in France, and I didn't see any at all in Spain (but we didn't visit any cities).
In France, I ran into a Phildar shop, where I bought two balls of Preface (70% wool, 30% polymid, 50g/193m) which I really like for socks.
On the way back, we stopped in Toulouse, where I went to La Droguerie. I have been La Droguerie before, in Paris and in Lyon, and I have always found it to be a very attractive, but difficult shop. There are so many things to look at, beads, buttons, ribbons, yarn etc. and especially when it is very hot like it was in Toulouse (40C), I find it hard to concentrate!
The yarns are hanging from the wall in hanks, or are standing on shelves on cones, like the case was with the alpaca I was interested in. Then you have to ask a person working in the shop to take a cone from the shelf in order to look at it. This is not the way I like to shop, so in the end I made a somewhat 'panic' decision, but I'm happy with it anyway!
I got light blue and light grey alpaca to make the Union Square Market Pullover from the autumn 2005 Interweave Knits. So far, I haven't been able to get the right gauge. The attempt you can see in the picture will be frogged.... I got almosyt 8 spi on 2.5mm circulars. 3mm will have to work, but I tried and it got too big. Still, that's what I'm trying next (again).
Another thing is that I have to make the smallest size from the waist up, but my hips are bigger than 33.5", they are more like 40"! So I have to start bigger and decrease faster, at least that is my plan. We'll see how it goes.
I also got 250g of this dark red alpaca, the color is called 'Cassis'. I'm not sure what to do with it yet, I'm thinking about a shawl. It's about 775m, so I should have plenty.
They gave me a card with a little piece of each yarn I bought, with the name and dyelot written next to it, so I will be able to order more if I need to. Nice, eh?
I finished the first Estonian glove:
click
and started the second:
click
Posted by saartje at 2:25 PM | Comments (0)
Goodbye
We just found out the female kitten passed away this morning. We can't be sure what happened, but she was just too weak to fight it. She was about six weeks old.
We are happy that she was in our lives.
Goodbye, little kitten
Posted by saartje at 1:23 PM | Comments (1)
July 22, 2005
Back home
It's good to be home again! We had a great holiday, camping in the French and Spanish Pyreneées. The weather was very pleasant, most of the time and the mountains... I just love mountains.
Somewhere on the French side of the Pyreneées
So we were having a great time, went over to the Spanish side where it was equally beautiful, although a lot drier. We saw lots of butterflies on both sides, which always garantees a great trip for us.
Anyway, everything was going according to plan (not that we had a plan), and one day, about half way through our vacation, we went exploring a small village right next to our camping site. The village was nice enough, lovely old church etc, but suddenly we almost tripped on a little red-haired kitten that was lying on the street. She was covered in flies, lying in the blazing sun and basically she appeared to be almost dead. Her brother was sitting about one meter from her, he looked a little better.
So we asked around in the village, but the kittens didn't seem to belong to anyone. Their mother was nowhere to be seen. We decided to take them with us to the camp site, if only to give the female a peaceful death.
Here is a picture of the two kittens, after they had been with us for a couple of hours:
She is the one on the left
He started to eat and drink rightaway (we had some milk and ham), but she was to weak. We improvised a pipette to force some liquid into her and that really helped, she started to improve!
Here we are two days later, they are looking so much better, and being more active.
Starting to explore a little
They are really attached to each other
Finally, we decided to take them home with us. They slept almost the whole way, very easy to travel with. When we came home, we took them to the vet. He said that even though they are weak, they aren't looking too bad, apart from a worm problem, but that's taken care of.
We found a great home for them in Groningen, and we'll be able to see them there every now and then.
On the knitting front
I started a pair of mittens from Nancy Bush' Folk Knitting in Estonia: Maimu's mittens.
click
I've made these before, it's a nice pattern. I'm using some sock yarn (420m/100g), which is thinner than the Tuna (320m/100g) called for in the pattern. That's why my gauge was off, and the mitten turned out smaller than I like. I think mittens should be a bit roomy, that way they're warmer.
So that's way I decided to convert them into gloves instead. I already finished one and started the second, but no pictures yet.
I also bought some alpaca for the Union Square Market pullover at La Droguerie, more about that later.
Posted by saartje at 12:28 PM | Comments (0)
