52 Knits // Fuzzy Lamb

Pattern: Fuzzy Mitten Lamb by Barbara Prime

Yarn Used: Garnstudio Drops Alpaca Bouclé (23 grams), some dark grey yarn from my stash

Needles: 4mm DPNs

Modifications: none

Note: When I saw this pattern on revelry a couple years ago I put it on the top of my queue. Turns out finding the right kind of yarn for this wasn't easy. When I saw this super fluffy Bouclé yarn in Denmark I knew that it would finally be time to knit the lamb! Well, the 'lamb' turns out not really looking like a lamb. The ears look rather like bear ears and even stretching and pulling them to make them longer/more lamb-like didn't work out. I might take them off and knit new ears but for now I'm just glad that it's done. I'm not a fan of knitting with only 6 stitches spread on 3 needles.

I feel like these 'little projects' take up much more time than e.g. knitting a hat, simply because knitting with few stitches is a real hassle for me. Oh well, it's done and I like it. The yarn is super soft and I'm thinking about making a little sweater for her[I decided she's a girl cause her face looks feminine... or at least I imagine it to look feminine.]

  

This is project #22 of 52

As part of my 2012 goals, I want to finish 52 knitted items this year. You can see all the items I knitted so far on my blog or on ravelry.

See knits 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12,  13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 and 21

52 Knits // Color Affection

Pattern: Color Affection by Veera Välimäki

Yarn Used: Garnstudio Drops Alpaca(100% Alpaca):
MC = gray (color 0501), used 77 grams
C1 = blue (color 7240), used 53 grams
C2 = green (color 7238), used 79 grams

Needles: 4mm circular needles and 5mm circular needles (for bind off only)

Modifications: I added one yarn over in between the first two stitches of every row and dropped the yarn over from the previous row at the end of each row. In the three-colored section I only knitted 15 stripes but added one stitch to each row, thus my stripes are longer than the pattern suggested.

Note: As many others, I was fascinated by the pattern and the radiant colors and decided to buy the pattern instead of spending an entire evening figuring out what to do. The drops alpaca yarn is lovely to knit with. The range of colors is great (it took me forever to decided which colors to choose), it feels very fluffy and nice and the quality is good(no knots etc.). I'm very happy with the colors I chose - the green isn't a color I'd usually wear but it looks great together with the gray and blue.

ps: The pictures were taken in Hamburg where I met my beautiful friend Julia. I talked her into modeling the shawl for me and although she was quite reluctant at first, she said that she had fun and next time she's in town she'd model again. Yay! I'll definitely have her model some hats next time we meet - isn't her hair just perfect?!

This is project #21 of 52

As part of my 2012 goals, I want to finish 52 knitted items this year. You can see all the items I knitted so far on my blog or on ravelry.

See knits 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12,  13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20

52 Knits // Mousyphant

Pattern: Elephant Kitty Stuffie by Elizabeth Grant

Yarn Used: scrap yarns

Needles: 4mm DPNs

Modifications: elongated the trunk and braided a very long tail for the cat to play with.

Note: This was supposed to be a quick in-between knit because my cat Lina doesn't seem interested in any of her current toys so I thought I'd give her something new to play with. My 'elephant' has the body and tail of a mouse - so it's a mousyphant :)

It was a quick knit (knitting time was about an hour while catching up on Grey's Anatomy, but figuring out how to sew the ears together took me about half an hour. I finally gave up and forced politely asked my mom to take care of them.) so I got carried away when I knitted the body and trunk. They turned out  too long but Lina likes the mousyphant anyway.

This is project #19 of 52

As part of my 2012 goals, I want to finish 52 knitted items this year. You can see all the items I knitted so far on my blog or on ravelry.

See knits 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12,  13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18

Julekuler // Meeting Arne & Carlos // Frankfurt Book Fair

On Saturday, my mom and I went to annual Frankfurt Book Fair. It's a family tradition to go there and it has always been well worth going there. There are thousands of exhibitors, free movies all day long, you get to meet cool (and famous!) people and there are always cheap antiquarian book sellers from the UK where you can buy some awesome craft books for ridiculously low prices.

This year, we got to meet Arne and Carlos! There was a strikkedukker contest and the award ceremony took place at the Frankfurt book fair. It was great to see so many crafty people in one place. Their strikkedukker looked really awesome... maybe I should knit one, too?

Anyway, I bought a signed copy of the Julekuler book that I've been wanting to have for years! Guess what I'll be knitting tonight? October isn't too early to start making Christmas decorations, right?

Pardon the blurry picture, I didn't have my 'real' camera with me and my cell phone camera can't really deal with low light situations all that well...

Here are the books I got. I'm currently reading "Day of Honey" and loving it so far! Oh and the pizza recipe book is amazing... the author has some awesome ideas what to use as toppings.

Oh and I met my childhood best friend. Hah! :)

52 knits // yarn bombing!

On our way to the beach in Denmark, we passed a street called "Strikkerensvey". Since "stricken" means knitting in German, it sounded like "knitting street" to us and we thought it would be fun to add a little something to the street sign. My mom and I got a bag full of beautiful yarn at a thrift store and quickly knitted/crocheted this swatch. Equipped with some yarn, scissors and a tapestry needle, we added the swatch to the street sign. When we passed the street sign the following day, it was still there. I'm curious whether it'll still be there in a couple months... or maybe even next year?

It was a quick and fun project and I'm daydreaming about adding some color to the street lamp in front of the building I live in...

This is project #18 of 52

As part of my 2012 goals, I want to finish 52 knitted items this year. You can see all the items I knitted so far on my blog or on ravelry.

See knits 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12,  13, 14, 15, 16 and 17

52 Knits // Ishbel

Pattern: Ishbel by Ysolda Teague

Yarn Used: One skein of Wollmeise 'Pure'(100% merino)

Needles: 4mm circular needles

Modifications: None

Note: Let me apologize for posting a ridiculous amount of pictures first but I couldn't help it. The beach seems like the best place to photograph a cozy shawl... right?
I've been wanting to knit this shawl for quite some time but always postponed it... until I bought my first 'Wollmeise' yarn and tried three different patterns that all didn't work for me so I thought this classic shawl (more than 11.000 projects on revelry!!!) should work fine with the yarn.

The shawl turned out to be much bigger than I had anticipated. I planned on doing the small version but I somehow forgot to count the rows and knitted too much of the stockinette part for the small version. And since I'm lazy when it comes to knitting backwards I decided to go with the large version.
The result? A big, cozy and colorful shawl. Loving it!

I'm not all that happy about the yarn, though. I know that there are thousands of Wollmeise lovers out there but I don't like the feel of the yarn. All the chemicals that were used to make it 'superwash' make it feel rather like cotton than cozy, warm and fluffy merino! Yes, the colors are amazing and the yarn looks gorgeous because it has a great stitch definition but I'm more of a "fluffy-yarn lover". Maybe some of the chemicals will wash out over time? I hope so because then this shawl would be worn pretty much every day.

Little anecdote... as I was complaining about the chemical-y feel of the yarn, my parents suggested I'd test the quality by using the burn test. Basically you just burn a small amount of the yarn using a candle and look how it burns/the odor it produces. Funny enough, the Wollmeise wool didn't burn but melt! And it didn't smell badly at all(which would've been normal since it's supposed to be (merino) wool!). It would be great if the yarn labels had not only the fiber content, but also all the chemicals used in the process of making it marked on them. There would be some nasty surprises...

This is project #17 of 52

As part of my 2012 goals, I want to finish 52 knitted items this year. You can see all the items I knitted so far on my blog or on ravelry.

See knits 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12,  13, 14, 15 and 16

Habitat Hat

I won't deny that we get quite a lot of rain in Vancouver. And living next to the sea means that it's pretty windy most of the time. The mix of wind and rain means that I didn't leave my dorm without a hat for the past weeks. I only brought three hats from Germany and you need at least two per day (there's always one drying on my heater) so I figured I 'need' a new hat.

I love pretty much all Brooklyn Tweed designs and I had a hard time deciding between these hats: Irving, Habitat, Rosebud, and Laurel. I decided on the Habitat hat and looove it. Can't wait to make more of these hats :)

It took me four evenings to make the hat(= about 3 movies + 3 House episodes), but it was worth every second :) Now I'm back to knitting more Christmas presents... I wish I could share them on here but I know some of the people read my blog so you have to wait until after Christmas - I'll photograph all presents before I give them away though :)

I realized that I've done a terrible job sharing my Autumn Twenty Eleven Minibook updates with you - sorry! I'll post an update later - if there's enough light to take some decent photos.

Apple Festival

Today I went to the annual Apple Festival at the UBC Botanical Gardens. We had so much fun seeing all the different variations of apples grown in BC, taking pictures at the 'pumpkin patch', eating delicious apple pie, drinking apple cider and wandering around, looking at stalls.



I found this beautiful and soft hand spun and dyed yarn and couldn't resist - it's 100% Alpaca and it's soooo gorgeous! The lady who sold the yarn also sold the cutest hand knitted muffin hats I've ever seen <3

I'm thinking about using the yarn to either knit a hat or a cowl or fingerless mittens? Decisions, decisions... for now it's sitting on my desk and I feel the urge to pick it up and cuddle it every five minutes. Alpaca yarn is addictive...

It's A Cowl!

pattern: Burberry Inspired Cowl by Julianne Smith

yarn used: Garnstudio Drops Andes color 519, almost two skeins

Needles: 7mm

my ravelry project page

When I was in Victoria last weekend I went to the Beehive Wool Shop and couldn't resist buying the drops Andes yarn. It is bulky and soft so I figured I could whip up a quick poject with it. When I bought it I didn't have a specific project in mind but I had to buy it anyway.

The same evening I browsed through my favorite projects on ravelry and came across a pattern for a cowl. As it's getting colder here and I couldn't bring many clothes and accessories from Germany I had a good excuse to make one :)



The cowl turned out to be pretty big and warm. I love it! It took me two evenings to knit it; the cowl itself was a quick knit but stitching it together took hours (at least it felt like hours); I used the kitchener stitch as suggested in the pattern. It was my first time using it  and I used an instructoral video (thank you for being patient and re-playing the video 20x for me, youtube!). It didn't turn out to be perfect but I probably just need a little more practice. This cowl would also make a perfect christmas gift! As soon as I buy some more wool I'll knit another one for a friend :)

I have one skein left so I'm thinking about making a matching hat or fingerless gloves? Have you finished any knitting projects lately?

[insert name of drink here] cozy pattern

As it's finally getting colder, I can walk around with a hot drink in my hand in public all day. As I am a poor student now, buying drinks at starbucks three times a day isn't within my budget. So I had to get a tumblr (0.99$ thrift store find) and make my own chai tea latte. I decided my tumblr needed a fall outfit (did I just write outfit!?) so I knitted a quick cozy.

And before I get weird comments, yes, hat is bubble tea. Although I love drinking it, I hate holding it as it's freeezing! So I had a bubbletea cozy today :)

Here's how I made the [insert name of drink here] cozy:

Please note: this cozy fits a Starbucks tumblr or a medium bubbletea. If you want a cozy for a regular take out coffee, cast on 43 stitches and follow the pattern, leaving out one cable repeat(=11 stitches).

Time: approximately one episode of House MD (~40 minutes)

Yarn used: a small amount of Lion Brand Yarn Fishermen's Wool.

Needles: DPN size 8 (5mm) + one extra needle or cable needle

Abbreviations:

CF: put two stitches on cable needle and hold in front, knit the next two stitches, knit stitches from cable needle

CB: put two stitches on cable needle and hold in the back, knit the next two stitches, knit stitches from cable needle

Directions:

Cast on 54 stitches and join in the round. Work in a K2, P2 rib for 5 rounds. In the last round of 2x2 rib, pick up one stitch.

Cables:

    Rows 1-2: *P3, K8* around

    Row 3: *P3, CF, CB*, repeat four more times

    Rows 4-9: *P3, K8* around

    Row 10: *P3, CF, CB*, repeat four more times

    Rows 11-16: *P3, K8* around

    Row 17: *P3, CF, CB*, repeat four more times

    Rows 18-19: *P3, K8* around

Row 20: work in a K2, P2 rib around and decrease one stitch.

Continue to work in the 2x2 rib for 4 more rounds. Cast off and weave in ends.

And you're done! Super easy and quick :)

Please note: I do not claim to have invented the pattern. I simply share how I like to make my cozies. As many cozy patterns are rather similiar, I reckon there are others out there that look about the same.

currently.

Currently I'm working on a Noro Striped Scarf inspired by this one by Jared Flood. I love seeing how the colors interact and it's a super fun and easy knit. I'm about halfway done :)

I also started a pair of striped socks. This is my first pair of striped socks but certainly not the last! I love the bright and summer-like colors.

I also made this super simple pillow last week. The front is an Echino print and the back is was a super fluffy and soft fleece blanket. I love it and it's sooo soft. And the 1,90 x 2,00m blanket cost about half as much as one meter of a fleece fabric. Yay for cheap solutions! I'm not sure what to do with the rest of the blanket yet. Maybe use it as the back of a quilt? Or make some more pillows? We'll see :)

I've been busy seeing friends. It's weird how fast my departure is approaching. I'll go to Denmark for two weeks in August so there really isn't much time left before I leave for Vancouver. I have a super long to-do list that I'm working on with things I wanna get done/make before I leave.

I also have to come up with some fun dorm decoration. Any suggestions?

Knitting Needle Organizer

As my knitting needle collection is constantly growing, keeping the needles organized is getting more challenging. I wanted to make a needle case that would hold all of my DPs and interchangeable needles, as well as some crochet hooks and other bits and pieces a knitter needs.



After browsing the internet thoroughly, I didn't find anything that I really liked. So I had to come up with my own design. As it turned out, sewing this organizer was pretty time consuming. It turned out larger that I had expected, but I still love it :)

I used leftovers from this project for the outer fabric. I'm in love with Echino fabrics. One can make several projects from one piece of fabric, as the designs change and it feels like one gets a 3 in 1 fabric ;)



It opens up almost like a book. There's plenty of room for all my interchangeable needles, some crochet hooks, cable needles etc.



Next there are cables, stitch markers, DPNs and a zippered pocket for needles, more stitch markers etc.

This project took much longer to finish than I had expected. But! I love the outcome and it is big enough to hold many more needles. I definitely wouldn't recommend this for beginners, as some parts were quite tricky to sew. But there are many simple tutorials out there for needle organizers (one, two & three).

Knit-A-Bit // Large Project Bag & Noro Love

It has been perfect sewing weather lately (rainy & cold) so I decided to make a new project bag. I have blogged about these two already but they are only big enough to hold one skein of sock wool. I wanted a project bag that holds several skeins, so when I knit scarves or other bigger projects I don't have to use zipper bags anymore ;) 

I made several interior pockets to keep needles, scissors, patterns etc. organized inside the bag.

I used an Amy Butler fabric (from her Daisy Chain collection) and I used this tutorial. It was super easy to understand  and I only modified the interior pockets.

In other news, there was a sale on Noro yarns in this German online shop. Of course I couldn't resist the beauitful colors and had to buy a couple of skeins :)

I wanna knit a scarf, a hat with ear flaps didn't find a nice pattern yet) and matching mittens with a fleece lining. I'm preparing for winter in Vancouver :D