Knitting Keeps Me Sane

I am a shamefull knitter, a really bad knitter.

I forgot both socks at the hostel in Taipei when I left there (or rather, chose not to bring them, which I regretted as soon as I positioned myself in a train going down the taiwanese east coast).

I have severe knitting-withdrawal, but I do not think it is possible to get yarn anyhere in TaiWan, and if so, only in TaiPei where I am not going right now.

Another bad thing is that with no knitting or book to take up my mind I feel the full blow of loneliness. Hits me hard, as I seem to be the only backpacker chosing the cheap places to stay and really wish for someone I could talk with, instead of talking TO and hoping they understand the basics of what i am trying to tell (like, I want the CHEAPER room, I am not going to pay that much for a room with a bed and no bath, when I can have a room without bed (but matresses... sort of) for much much less....).

Enough with the ranting. I wish I could show pictures, but I left my cable in Taipei too! (Not on purpose though).

Have a nice day

Lene

Until I return from Taiwan I doubt that I will update this blog a lot - I update it at all. Maybe a sock picture every now and then :-)

Have a really nice time, and ejoy yourselves as I in 1 1/2 hours will be going to the airport.

Lene

I love the Jean Greenhowe book!

This pig was very easy to knit (I converted it to knitting-in-the-round, all the way, even the ears), but I had issues with the head being too.. shallow. Next time I will knit less rows after decreasing in the body and more rows after increasing for the head again.

This little piggy doesent have a face and may never get one because he is not destined for a child, but lives in the limbo that is my life at the present.

I present:

Jean the Piggy!

(Sorry Mrs. Greenhowe ;)

Have a nice day

Lene

I have two "rosy knits" going on at the moment (my only WIPS, not counting the Taiwan Sock and some ripping candidates):

"Rosy Fingered Dawn" and "Rosebud Shawl". Both Shetland-type square shawls.

They are both stalled at roughly the same point, ca. 14 rows before the edging it knitted on, and I am really stalled. Dont know how to go on. The shawls are too large, my mind is too busy, it burns down, and I turn into bits and pieces on the inside. So many small steps I thought I had taken in the "good" direction are reversed and dont mean anything anymore. Most people would just tell me to "Get over it and start knitting", but I guess most people have a wholly different wiev on the world.

Knitting is not always good, but is like eating for me. You cant live without eating, but too much isnt good either and could kill you, if it goes out on an extreme tangent.

Have a nice day

Lene "Short Entry"

PS: Lest you think I am not knitting, I did knit a pig yesterday, from Jean Greenhowes Knitted Animals book. Simple, legs, body and head in one piece, two arms, a snout and two large ears. I only have the embroidery for eyes left. I didnt knit it for any particular reason, other than that it comforts me, which seems as as good a reason as any.

I am not leaving until Monday, but Samus is finished already. I hand-sewed the zippper in because I was so afraid that stitching it with the machine would look ugly and show on the right side.
It still doesent look like in the pattern picture, but it is my first zipper and it works. Even my grandmother, who worked with knitting machines in her work life, approved of it, even though it seems I made a mistake with the top of the zipper.. some folding issue.

I'm not ripping it out ;-)



I asked my mother to model it for me, and she did! :-)

Here is a back weiv:



All I need to do is to pack it into some pretty paper, tie a bow around it and get it to Taiwan!

This pattern is really a nice one, and I recommend it highly to all who would like to knit a cute cardigan :)

Have a nice day

Lene

My SIL conjured a zipper for me!
It is just like I wanted it, now I just want to know why it has "60" printed all over the plastic cover when it *should* be a 50cm one....

Have a nice night

Lene

Well, now I cant deny it anylonger: In 4 (four) days, I will sit in a plane and lift off. Destination: First China, then Taiwan. 14 hours, if my time conversion is correct, on a plane. When I was in Texas in 2001 (wild and crazy story) I was sitting in a plane for 9 hours, I wonder how it will be this time? (I dont remember much from the actual flight TO Texas, I think I slept or sat staring out the window in a haze).

Last night I finally decided to bring socks as my travel knitting.

More specific, socks of the yarn Em sent me, two skeins of Lornas Laces in "Purple Club" and Cherry Tree Hill Potluck in "Earth" colours.
I took down Knitting on the Road: Sock patterns for the travelling knitter because it seemed to fitting to me. Plus it is the only book where I could hope to find patterns for these "weird" weights of sock yarn! (No offense, its just that sock yarn is VERY standardized in Germany).

For the Cherry Tree Hill I chose the "Spey Valley" pattern, both because the yarns were almost identical, and because I have wanted to knit this pattern for such a long time.


I started them :-)

For the Lornas Laces I chose the "Conwy" pattern. I think I will be using 2.5mm (1US) bamboos for this and take it on the plane as the other sock is on 2.25mm (0US) metal needles, and I dont want any problems to arise.


Mine will be purple though :-)

I really like this book and have knit one other pattern from it, the "New England Stockings" which I love and adore even though I chose an unfortunate yarn - it shrinks.... I might gift them to my mother as she has small feet (I have a womans size 11).

I got a mail from my Sockpal that my socks are underway! I am very happy and dont mind a bit that they are late - it must be the big size knitting taking longer :-)


I have been playing around on Ebay.co.uk a bit, after following a link to a Jean Greenhowe book (and being smitten by knitting bags.. aww).
I didnt BUY a knitting bag though, but I have bought Jean Greenhowe books!

First, "Jean Greenhowes Irresistible soft toy designs" which arrived today, and second, "Toy Collection" including the Topsy Turvey doll pattern!

A few patterns just jumped at me, especially because of the incredible photographing (can you see the buried bones? the tulips the dog ripped out of the soil? See the feeding bowl?)



There is also a little kitten sitting on a chair with some knitting... a "Puss in Boots", a frog family and the sweetest little basic shape that can be a pig, a rabbit, a koala bear and much more!

Speaking of taking pictures and showing pictures...
One of my pictures from saturday was in the local newspaper! Along with an article on the event... The only one not happy was my little sister because it showed her being imprisoned by two guards (Was a medieval themed market place setting).

I live at my parents house, in the room Ive lived in (almost) since the house was built 20 years ago this fall.

It is on the first floor, and thus has one wall that is a 45 degree angle. To make a good use out of this room, that side of the room has three large closets and the head end of my bed (see picture).
The leftmost closet was originally made for hanging clothes in - just that I have never used it for that. It has always been empty... and it has a little secret too! In the back of it there is a 10-yo-girl-sized hole that leads to a secret hiding place... :-)

Now, I had this thought of knitting a cardi and wanted to see what I was hiding in there - having thrown one bag of yarn in there after the other, all the while exclaiming to my mother that SHE had WAY more yarn than I!!

First, a picture to explain:



Well.

I have a wall o' boxes as well:



One for sock yarn (whole skeins.. the leftovers are somewhere else), one for "luxury leftovers" (Kauni, Silk, felt, luxurious fabrics...) and one for "scrap leftovers" (not scrap, but not luxury either!). That's a 2pound ball of white NZ wool beside the boxes.
Underneath them there are three more boxes, 23,5" x 16" x 16", one with spinning stuff (mostly wool), one with handspun mostly and one with "yarn". In the "yarn" box there is enough yarn to make three sweaters in ONE kind of wool! Plus a few other nice skeins, smaller amounts etc.

One vintage Phildar Yarn, a very weird yarn, a faroese 3-ply yarn in grey and lots of worsted weight WOTA and Peruvian Highland Wool in nicely coordinated colours.

Then comes my Closet Of Shame.

Wool. For. 11. Sweaters. In. A. Size. 50"!!!!!

1) 3 cones of navy Guernsey wool.
2) 9 hanks á 100 grams white WOTA
3) 700 grams CC220 in teal.
4) A White Lies Design kit for Laura, which I had knitted up to the bust area once but discarded as it looked horrid.
4) 800 grams "Bali" cotton-blend yarn for a Rebecca design that involves crochet! I havent been able to persuade one of the crochet mavens around me to crochet the neckline and sleeve collars yet, so it is on indefinite hold.
5) lots of differently coloured balls of "Merino 2000", a DK weight Merino yarn, which I picked up when my favorite LYS held a "We're moving sale".
6) Peruvian Collection Alpaca, in Sand, 1kg, have knit two sleeves but abandoned it because I didnt like how the body was coming out in the Dancing Vines Tunic. I just need to find a nice pattern for the body, I have sleeves.. :)
7) A bag of "Jil Colour" left over from the Wumse sweaters, natural tweedy colour.
8) Sock yarn, 500 grams, halfway knit up in a ripping candidate.
9) 2 pounds handspun spacedyed wool
10) 1kg Jaeger Shetland in a pretty mid blue.
11) A bag of white worsted wool with no labels on it anymore...

Ow.. I anticipate laughing at me when my mother reads this. She will never let me forget that i have way more wool than she has!

Good thing my recent Ebay escapades have only involved books/patterns....

Have a nice day :-)

Lene

PS: Too bad I was late for Stash-Flashing, I think I might have been able to make some nice pictures :-)

I had the perfect zipper for Samus all ready while I was knitting it. An off-white one with large plastic teeth, just like i had envisioned it. I thought the lenght was right because I had held it up against the font a few times.

Sadly, when Samus was washed the zipper was 1" too long! I was not going to try and stretch the fronts, because my mother and grandmother both told me that the jacket would pucker like mad if I did that (Imagine... this is my first time setting in a zipper!).

I went looking in mothers zipper-stash and found a red one in just the right lenght and quality. I think I proved my "weird sense of colour" here, because fire-truck-red and lavender-purple seemed like a good combination to me. (But to me, petrol/brown/pink is a real winner, too, as is burgundy/silver/ice blue...).

I had the red zipper all ready to sew in when my mother horrifiedly told me to take that one out a bit quickly. This means that I have to go looking for a zipper all over again. I hope to find one in Flensburg today, but havent set my hopes too high because the one place where I for sure know I could get one is a bit out of the way. Otherwise I will have to wait for thursday when we are in Haderslev (Oldest brother, SIL and my sister are riding, I watch them and my mother takes care of Nephew).

I hope I will get this done in time - and why not, it shouldnt take all that long to sew in a zipper, right? :-)

Have a nice day

Lene

Samus is Fi-Ni-Sh-Ed!

In my Big Book of Knitting there was talk of "Mattress Stitch", which I sat down and tried to figure out for the sleeves - cuff and setting in, as I knit the stockinette part in the round. It worked moderately well on the (cable-patterned) cuff, and fabulously when setting in the sleeves.



I tried to take away the mattress it is blocking on, moderately successfull. The little puckers in the middle are pins to ensure the fronts do not roll into little sausages.

As soon as I have put the zipper in, I will ask my mother to model it. The zipper is a Fire-truck-red one I unearthed in her zipper stash - I tihnk it will look just a bit cheeky :-)
My mothers arms are a tad too long for the sleeves, but it will do.
I know that if my friend does not like the sweater, my mother will block the sleeves longer and claim it for herself. Another thing I know: all the agnozing over "too small" and knitting the body longer were moot, because it will be plenty big. Mother-size... oops...

Here is a cave-at:

Do not go looking for a knitting tote! You will find so many incredible ones that they will try to make your head explode.

I fell in love with this bag at a baby store: Oilily Bag, but cringed at the price tag - 85$!

Then I followed a link to a Jean Greenhove toy knits book, and in the sellers other items found this bag crying out to me.

Now I was helplessly hooked. I found this red bag which entranced me (except for the butt-ugly large measure tape on the outside, ewww!). Too bad the seller only ships to the UK- I am sure I could have ripped off the ugly tape measure.

Furthermore, then a pesky e-bay seller puts this vintage bag up for sale.

Such pretty bags. All do not seem to be for me. Be creative... think... think...

Yes! Sewing Machine!

Now, it would not be the first time I've tried wrestling a one such, so I sought out a few nice fabrics, thinking I could use a dowel for handle like Ive seen a few times. Ebay yielded this and this fabrics... Oh yes, I am a sucker for shiny patterned fabrics!

But on the bottom line, I think I will have to make do with a fabric from my aunts quilt store and some dovels - at least my bag will be totally unique then... :-)


Have a really nice day.

Lene

I *almost* filled up my 1GB card toay with 415 pictures. This is such a huge number...

I discarded most of the pictures.

Too boring.

Skewed.

Unfocused.

Photographed from the wrong angle.

Irrelevant (The umphteenth picture of someone only I find interesting).

Crowded - lots of things, but what I wanted to photograph isnt to be seen.

I find it amaying that the learning curve on photography is so hard.

I... and now dont faint... want a better camera! This one is so slow that I cant ever catch the good moments of a movement - maybe I just lack the thought process of a good photographer, as in remembering to klick a few seconds before the thing you want to photograph is happening.

How do others feel about such things?
Do they worry as much as I do, or do they readily accept skewed and opiniated pictures? Do others go out and snap 6 masterpieces or am I the only one to make 415 pictures, discard 200 and know that max 5-10 of the rest will ever be watched with pleasure? I was asked to document the happenings on a scout event today and am afraid I will severely disappoint the lady who asked me to photograph when she saw I was holding a camera. If I do so, it is good it was only a small event and nothing major.

Have a nice, beautifull day (and be sure to catch it a bit with your camera).

Lene

I am so lucky to have a mother that shares my hobbies (or was it she who is lucky that her daughter shares her hobbies... ;)

She only works four days a week with fridays off, and today we decided to dye!

Mostly fiber, some right from the fleece, some carded on her drumcarder and some processed. Also a (white) 140 yd skein I had lying around with no plans for it.

Its not as though I have a plan for it now, but it is much more colourfull now!! :)





Now, normally we use Acid Dyes for dyeing, but we thought we would try using stuff most people have in their household. (Not Kool-aid, though!)

We got out some easter-egg-dyes, mixed hot water with one tablet and some vinegar, dumped 1-2 oz of wool into it and let it soak for 20 minutes, then nuked it 5 minutes on max in the microvave oven.

Coool... A light, variegated colour :)

Now, we got out some crepe paper (? thin stuff for decorating that you better not get wet lest you want to be multicoloured), wetted some wool throughoutly in water with a spoonfull dishwashing liquid and 2 spoonfulls vinager. I used a 30% solution, normal household is 2-4%.

Squeeye until it doesent drip when holding itup for 5 seconds, place it on saran wrap and wrap a strip of crepe paper 4-5 times around the wool. Do leave 1/2-1" between the differently coloured paper strips, unless you want the colours to bleed into each other (which I did on one and which turned out unfortunate).

Wet with water/vinegar mixed 3/1 (using 3% household vinegar), wrap in saran wrap and nuke in the microwave for 5 minutes on highest setting.

I have (more) pictures, but the batteries in my own camera died! I am recharing some at the moment.

Have a nice, colourfull day

Lene

PS: Guess who will sit outside on the porch and admire all the colours :)