YOP: post 8

 The return to school is really starting to take it's toll on me and on my knitting, so not much has happened since last week...

I didn't manage to do ANY knitting on my jumper during the week, but as there wasn't much left to be done I still managed to finish it before it was time to write this post, even if there were only about five minutes between both actions ;)

I'm quite happy with the result: the fronts and collar look lovely, but it seems I slightly misjudged the height at which to place the buttonholes... They're not as high as they look in the picture because the cardigan comes down over the hips, but they're still a little bit to high for me to be 100% happy with. If -and probably when, because the first thing my mother said when she saw it on me was 'You wouldn't make one of those for me, would you?'- I'll start the fronts with a provisional cast-on so I won't have the big seam at the point where the two fronts join on the back, and the use the kitchener stitch to seam them together at the meeting point in the collar. The sleeve measurements are a bit on the generous side for me, but then I have particularly short arms... 
















The only other thing I managed to do this week is to alter my 'Welsh skies' Safire shrug. The sizing on this one is known to be generous, so I knit a size smaller than I normally do, but it still turned out a bit too big, so I moved the buttons from the middle further to the side to reduce the size. I had always found the neckline a bit deep, so this alteration has turned it into a crossover type shrug, which also reduces the depth of the neckline :) I'm still totally in love with this yarn, so I hope I'll get some more wear out of the shrug now it's a better fit.

I hope next week will be more productive than this one has been.
Mnz

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

Pairs 2

After completing the ankle socks, I decided I wanted to work on something bigger for a change. I looked through my favourites on Ravelry and found this: the ribbed lace bolero. I really liked the pattern and the wearer of the shrugs approves of it too, so a second one was soon started.

 This blue-grey one was the first one I knitted. I found the yarn at the gypsy market in El Puerto this Easter and it has been in my stash cupboard since. When I first calculated the gauge, I cast on way too many stitches, and only realised when it was nearly finished, so I had to frog it and start again. Once I recalculated the number of stitches and reknitted it, it was such a nice fit that I decided to do another one in some purple mohair yarn that I bought some time ago because it was reduced due to being the last three skeins. I used one to knit this shrug and I hope the other two will do to knit this.

With the nice yarn I bought in Hay, on the other hand, I decided to try and knit some gloves, I'd never knited gloves before, but I had made a few pairs of mittens, so I improvised a bit, and these are the result. The fingers are a bit misshapen, but once they're on you don't really notice :)

 Those are all the pairs for the moment. another post with more knitting will be coming shortly :)
Mnz

News

It has been quiet on this blog for some time, but that doesn't mean I haven't been knitting anything :).

We went on holiday to the small city in the south of Spain where my family lives, El Puerto de Santa María; aka El Puerto. As in Spain the internet is known as 'el cyberdespacio' or 'cyberslow' I waited until we got home to post some photos. So here we go. First some photos if Cádiz, the big city near El Puerto and then some of Sanlúcar, another smaller town further up the coast.

The food market (La Plaza)

A fruit and veg stall at the market

The town hall

The cathedral

A street in the old centre

Entrance to the patio of an old house

A street in Sanlúcar

View of Sanlúcar

First on the list of FO's: Ranunkel: a lace doily knitted in the round on 2.5 mm needles (the ones I bought in Hay last year) Great project for first time lace knitting, not too difficult, although knitting 7 together is not the most comfortable manoeuvre...
This one still needs blocking, but I think it's really quite nice so I'm making a second one!


 Next: socks.


I did some surgery on the monster sock which was way too big on the foot. I'll be making another one of those, so I'll have some really snug socks for the winter.
It's still a bit on the large side, but it'll be fine with a pair of normal socks under it....


My first real sock.
Not perfect and made from some baby pink scrap yarn I had (not really my colour either), but it fits nicely. It's friend is on the needles :)

And last but not least, a shrug I finished today. I started it last summer and then frogged it for a while, but picked it back up this week for the knitting group. The main yarn was left over from a crossover I knitted for my mother, the crochet border yarn from a jumper I knitted for my godmother. Another stashbursting project :)

I'm off for another few weeks now, but a the place were I'm going there'll be a good internet connection and a lot of time to knit :)

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

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.