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November 27, 2006
Bear Claw Blanket
Wow, another week is gone. It just feels like time is moving so fast. I planned on doing all sorts of blog related things, but all I did was answer a couple of emails. Not many enough to catch up, but I'm trying!
I did manage to do some knitting. I finished the bear claw center:
I'm not going to make a large blanket, since it will just be for my cat to sit on. I'm limiting it to just one bear claw thing. I don't have enough yarn anyway. I could get more of the purple, but the white is left over from Mermaid. When I was knitting the border strips, it became clear to me I didn't even have enough white yarn with me to finish those. And since I'm not near my stash at the moment (and I'm not even sure there is any of this white yarn left in there), I knew I would have to frog the other blanket I had started:
I estimated there was enough white yarn in there to finished the border strips. So after taking a deep breath, the striped blanket was transformed to this...
...and I knit on merrily. I think I will finish this thing later this week. I can't wait to wash it and block it, it will be so much nicier and softer.
Fall is still here, but it almost feels like summer right now. It's way to warm for this time of year, it was 16C/61F today, when it should have been about 7C/45F. Makes you wonder about the changing climate.....
Anyway, it is still looking lovely and fall like. Here are some pictures of the area I'm staying at the moment.
Posted by saartje at 8:21 PM | Comments (14)
November 20, 2006
The first Dutch SnB Day
Last Saturday, I spent the entire day at the first Dutch Stitch 'n Bitch Day, which was held in Rotterdam. I had the best time! I didn't take any workshops, most of the time I just hung out at a big table knitting with other knitters. I met so many bloggers and blog readers! It was just great meeting so many of you!
The market wasn't really big (like I imagine the Stitches Shows in the USA), there were 23 booths. Most of them had great yarns, so I spent lots of time looking at yarn, touching yarn and finally buying some. Pictured above are the Shetland yarns I got at Klazien's Kreatie. I'm not sure what I'm going to use it for, but the colors are lovely and the price was right so...
I also got three balls of the most delicious color of Kidsilk Night by Rowan. It's called Macbeth. To me, it is the most beautiful color, but it's also hard to capture in a picture. Just imagine it's a really dark purple with added sparkles. I want this to become a lovely stole or shawl of some kind.
Some other things I got: a set of 4 mm bamboo dpns by Clover, a skein of Silkwool (a new yarn from Klazien's Kreatie, it's 52% silk and 48% wool, 100 g = 550 m) and a great book with children's knits. I like the layout of this book and it has lots of great ideas to knit.
And then something really unexpected and touching happened to me: a woman came up to me, saying she enjoys to read my blog. When she was in Barcelona on holiday, she bought this button for me at a yarn shop. Wow! I wore it all day, and now I'm going to attach it to my knitting bag. Thank you so much!
All in all, it was a fantastic day. I do regret not taking any workshops, but I had a great time anyway. I was terribly tired but satisfied when I got home in the evening. I can't wait till next year!
For some pictures of the event, go to Lies' blog.
Knitting
I started a new project. I was leafing through some issues of Interweave Knits when I stumbled on this pattern for a blanket. It's in the Spring 2005 issue. I liked this pattern when I first saw it, but I had forgotten all about it. I was happy to come across it again, because I had just decided I wanted to knit a little blanket for one of my cats. She loves to sleep on my Mermaid. I don't think this is a good idea, so I'm making a blanket for her, using left over yarn from Mermaid and Salina. I hope she likes it. At least I enjoy knitting it, it's a very clever pattern.
An apology
If you're expecting an email from me: please be patient, I will get back to you. I have got a lot on my mind lately, so I'm responding to emails much more slowly than I would like. Sorry about that!
Posted by saartje at 9:58 PM | Comments (19)
November 12, 2006
FO report
I really don't know why it took me almost exactly one year to finish these, but here they are:
The Over-the-knee socks from Handknit Holidays, in all their glory. I'll create a page for them in the finished items album soon, with all the details and hopefully a modelled picture. So far, I think of them more as fun things to knit, rather than practical to wear, because they fall down after taking only a few steps. Oh well, I suppose I could wear them lying on the couch or something, at least they are nice and warm.
Then all of a sudden, I felt the urge to do something with the almost complete ball of Noro Kureyon I had lying around. I decided to combine it with some unidentified solid blue yarn from my stash.
This is the result. I'm not happy with it, I think the blue clashes too much with the reds. Neither of them benefits, I think. Instead, I think I will look for a different solid (perhaps a lighter red shade) at the SnB-day on Saturday in Rotterdam. This attempt will be frogged.
Lots of news on the books/magazines front! First of all, the new Marie Claire Idées arrived in the stores.
I can't say enough good things about this French magazine, I just love it. And this issue has a number of things to knit:
The magazine is filled with inspiration, as always. I have a big pile of back issues that I keep leafing through time after time, just to get inspired.
Just as inspirational is this book I got from ebay (vendor victory_555):
It's called Gloves of Lithuania Minor. I'll do a more thourough presentation of this book soon (I hope), but it looks promising. The text is both in English and Lithuanian. It consists of two studies done on gloves in a certain part of Lithuania. One of them was done in 1940 (with pictures taken at that time, see the right image).
I've read a couple of pages so far, and it is very interesting, lots of history and background information. More about this book later!
And wonder of wonders: I got two books from De Slegte, a bookshop that sells secondhand and publisher's leftovers. I rarely find any interesting knitting books there, but last week, I got lucky. Take a look:
To the left is Knitting for peace, a book about knitting for charity. And to the right is Weekend Knitting. Am I lucky or what?
Posted by saartje at 11:05 PM | Comments (25)
November 5, 2006
Long ago...
The Frisian SnB-gathering in Leeuwarden last Wednesday was a big succes! 20 people (well, women) showed up. I had a great time, mainly talking to all of the women and checking out the things they were knitting. I didn't get to do a lot of knitting myself, but I did make a start with the second multi-colored sock, as you can see here:
Two weeks ago, I received an email from Missy, asking me about the Over the Knee Socks from Handknit Holidays, claiming I knitted these a year ago. Well.... I did start them almost a year ago, but I haven't finished them yet. Missy's email did remind me of them, and I felt a sudden urge to pick them up again.
Missy asked for help with the decreases. I agree with you, this isn't the easiest-to-follow pattern. You have to gather information in serveral places to know what to do. What I'm doing is placing a safety pin every time I do a decrease. This way, when the pattern says to decrease every 14 rounds 5 times, I can count the rounds between the safety pins to know when to decrease, and the safety pins themselves to know how many decreases I did. I hope this makes sense, Missy! It's a lovely pattern, isn't it?
Posted by saartje at 7:59 PM | Comments (21)
