I haven't posted for ages.

I'm really going to have to discipline myself to keep posting, otherwise there's be too much stuff to post when I finally get round to it.
So first up: the yarnbombing.

I finished my bench cover (first 2 photos) and the hat (3rd). Because the appeal was such a success that they needed people to sew other people's knitting onto the trees and benches. I went along and decided that I quite liked one of the trees(5th and 6th photo, both (nearly)upside down, sorry) there, which already had some knitting sewn onto it, so I clambered in (with some one's help, being small has it's downsides) and sewed for a bit. When I couldn't reach any higher I climbed back down (without falling out of the tree, hooray!) and sewed the base :)
It was really beautiful on the evening itself and a lot of people were interested in what we were doing. I think it's a great project because it help us knitters get rid of our 'old-ladies-knitting-socks-and-scratchy-jumpers-image', which is totally outdated and cliche...
Next, my 'normal knitting' projects:

The patchwork bag is coming on nicely after being put on hold for quite a while: I've sewn the bag itself and am now working on the shoulderstrap. One side is already finished (multicolour), the blue and grey side still has to be started. And when everything have been knitted it'll all have to be sewn...

After that, a promise I made 2 years ago. I promised a girl from my old class that I would knit a jumper for her with a big 'K' on the back. When I discovered the principal of a 'circular shrug' I decided I'd knit one of those for her. Here it is! Sewing in the ends has taken me longer than knitting the thing, and I haven't even finished yet. The letters themselves are done, but the seams that actually constitute the shrug need to be finished of...

Another promise: An Ondas scarf for my mother. I made her one some time ago , but she sold it to a colleague, so she was left scarf-less. When I went back to my LYS to buy another skein, I found they weren't selling that colour anymore. A few visits later, I still hadn't found it, so I decided to order it over the Internet, together with another skein for another colleague of my mother's who wanted one in the red shades. A month later, the yarn still hadn't arrived, so I rang the shop. It turned out that they weren't getting any in either, so I had to cancel the order... Some time after that I popped into my LYS (which is conveniently situated on my way to and from school) and found they had the red yarn again. (that was in May) so I knitted the red scarf . And now finally, nearly a year later, I've found the blue/green yarn again! It's so ironic that it literally took me ages to find the yarn, while I knitted the scarf in about 2 hours...

And last but not least: socks!

The blue socks are for me, I got the yarn in Hay last summer. The green and brown socks are both for my mother. It'll be her birthday in November, so I thought I'd knit her some socks as a birthday present... What I think is great about knitting socks for both of us is that we both have small feet, and I like ankle socks, so 100 gr of sock yarn makes 2 pairs of socks :)

 This is my sock bag. I like to take some knitting to school so I can use my breaks usefully and relax at the same time, and of course socks are the ideal WIP-on-the-go, as long as you don't have needles sticking out of your bag... I used to have a little woven bag to transport my socks in, but that wasn't very tasteful and was falling to pieces, really... So I used some leftover yarn to knit a new little pouch, ans I must say I'm rather pleased with it :)


That's all for today. I have a long weekend this weekend, so I might post again tomorrow, we'll see...
Mnz

my exams are over, finally part 2

I thought I'd just upload some more photos.


To start with, another braided ball.
I knitted this one on 5mm needles (the pattern is 3 mm) because my pupil had some Katia Alaska left over from a hat she knitted and didn't know what to do with it. I absolutely adore this pattern. It's easy to make, looks complicated, uses up your yarn scrap and makes a great gift.


Next, a sock.
This sock came from the 'Knitting for dummies' book. The leg part fit very nicely, but I have very slim feet, so the foot is WAY to wide. A nice  easy pattern though, and exactly what it says on the box: (sock) knitting for dummies.

Another bit of winter knitting now, I've received some photo's from a girl for whom I knitted two scarves last winter. One has already been shown to the world on this blog (the one on the left) The one on the right was a quick knit (K2,P2) on 8 mm needles with three strands of yarn: one brown, one black and one grey.

And last but not least, a photo of a tea cos I knitted some time ago and one of the beginning of the shoulder strap for the patchwork bag




Mnz.

my exams are over, finally

I had my last exam on the 24th of June, and since then I've had lots of time to knit!
I've finished the laptop cover and the main part of the patchwork bag

I made a little crochet pouch on the inside of the cover to put my usb mouse and keyboard connector in, as my laptop is only mine because the keyboard on it doesn't work anymore! It was my mother's and she spilled a glass of water over it) It fits really snugly, so that's one FO I'm happy with! I used leftover yarn from a red cardigan my mother knitted, and the button was also a leftover one from that project! That's one of my favorite aspects of knitting: there's always something that be done with the leftovers :)

On to the other bag: It's coming on quite nicely, even though I say so myself! -Another project using leftovers :)-
I've made a start on the handle, but that'll still take some time...




Remember the shrug I had to take apart? Well I'm reknitting it now. It still needs some work, but I hope to finish it soon...






Ps. The Leuven culture authorities (30cc) are organising a yarn-bombing event at the Dijletrappen on the 17th of September. More information here. I've got some more stuff to post, but I'll have to do that tomorrow!
Mnz

So it's exam time....

... and because the term has been so short and we've just had a long weekend, I've been knitting quite a lot, instead of studying. Very bad of me, I know.

On Friday, I worked on a laptop cover I'm knitting: It's knitted with the yarn that was left after my mother had knitted herself a jumper, and it has my favourite cable on it! It's I got it from a book I have: 'The Essential Stitch Collection' and designed the bag around it. It's not much of a bag really, just a long strip that will be sown closed on either side. What I still have to think about is whether I'll sow in a zip or use a button to close it at the top, or if I'll just leave it open ... I also took this project to the knitting group on Saturday, and it was received with quite some interest by the people sitting close to me!

Another WIP, the patchwork bag, is also coming on nicely.
Now, one side and the bottom are completed. This bag has two layers, but I decided to make the bottom three-layered, so it would be stronger. I don't like sewing that much, so I decided to pick up stitches on either side of the bottom and then knit the strengthening piece straight into the bag, witch was quite a challenge, as I had to do a four-needle bind-off at the end! I'd like to finish this project by the end of the month so I'll be able to use it to go and get my report on the last day of term, but somehow I don't think I'll get there...

And finally, another hat I knitted this winter for one of my classmates who has only just sent me the photo... Same model as the two Noro caps I knitted, but a different yarn. If you're wondering what the black and white sploge in the corner is; it's my sheet, this one happened to have a cow print on it ...

Mnz

Bits and bobs

A little bit of everything in this post. To start with, a pair of mittens I knitted this winter for a boy in my class. We do a kind of a gift swap at Christmas, and I gave him this, some biros and and a chocolate letter (Very popular in Belgium and Holland for St. Nicolas, but also much appreciated for Christmas.

 And two scarves: one for a cold winter and one for when it gets cooler in the autumn.

Red Katia Ondas scarf for autumn/spring

Green Veritas Laura scarf, very warm, for a cold winter

Now some WIP's.
 
These are the two sides of a patchwork knit bag I've designed myself. I'm a bit worried It'll give to much but I'll have to see that when it's finished....

Something else I've been doing is making a scraps blanket. I bought a black fleece blanket at Wibra's and every time I knit a little patch to test a gauge I sew it on. I know there are a lot of different colours in it, and they don't always work incredibly well together, but I like it because it's something very personal. Nobody will ever have one exactly the same.
It's been quite a slow-growing project, and I've still got some scraps to sew on :)

This is a shrug I knitted , but the fronts aren't wide enough to close it, so I'll have to reknit them.... It had a crochet border, but I took that off before I took the photo...






Oh well, that's all for now, I'll be having exams soon so I'll have to knit a little less and study a little more ...
Mnz.