Knitting Keeps Me Sane

How long can you continue 3x3 ribbing? Long enough, when the prize is worth it...

The gauntlets are finished.

They look really good, and I will test them today, if they cause me to sweat or not. If not, then I might knit another pair - lacy, shorter, no finger-hole - for a female teacher of mine. Fun point: I have only three teachers, and one of these - the recipient of my newly knitted gauntlets - has my three major areas: Organ, piano, musical theory. The other two each take care of lesser subjects.
I will take a quite advanced test to allow to skip two years(!) in the long run (out of 5-6), and will need lots of support from this teacher. Which is why I am sucking up ;-)

Now I will get working on my nephews sweater, as there is just a week until christmas and I need four inches sleeve divided between them, and the whole yoke. knitknitknit...


Have a really nice day - and I hope to get my stuff together and photograph the gauntlets tomorrow. They are so good.

/Lene

I have never been a teenager who knew what road to follow, or had very strict thoughts about what I liked and what not. As a result, I ended up with a little bit of everything: Some country, some folk, some jazz, some rock and some pop. Some comfortable, some dressy, some punk and some modern clothes. Some new, some old, some ugly and some plain unclassifiable furniture. Some classic, some unnecessary, some fun and some despisable knowledge. A little bit of everything.

I was easily led on a road, but also just as easy strayed away from it again. I did not live, I floated along, blown by the wind from side to side, yet always tightly anchored to my family.

Teenage fights? Oh yes, many. Because I thought I wanted something because everyone else wanted it... No mind of my own. Except for once, where I probably stretched the boundaries farthest of all us four children (Yet). Travelling alone to Texas for a week with five days notice, 18 years old. Oh yes, sometimes I made wise decisions on my own (Although "Wise" was not the word my mother would have used, had she talked to me about it).

Then came a time in university where I tried to live up to my dream picture: Little bars, studying all night, cooking with room-mates, smoking pipe (ick!), and also dressed like most others on the theology faculty - when I was there, of course. It all ended with a crash: I was put into hospital, stayed there 6 weeks, went home to live with my parents and stayed there for almost two years.

Today, I *think* I know what I want. Space. Time. Music.

My flat is starting to fill with beautifull second-hand furniture (Except for my dining table and chairs. I could find plenty used dining tables, but chairs? Heh.) One of my dearest furniture pieces is this:




The wooden cupboard beside my old chair with a funky fleece throw I got for my birthday

It was my grandmothers uncles, and I am certain that it was handmade once upon a time. The top part is missing - a mirror - because this was "the bathroom" way back. There would be a large bowl on top to wash oneself in, and in the copboard and the drawer there would be all the utensils used for washing and dressing up.

Now it is housing my WIPS and various knitting tools.


The road we follow?
I go back in time. Furniture with a story behind it, like my couch table:




It is excellent for posing knitted things on - and secondhand, og course


It was quite battered, but it only cost me 8$, so I did not complain at all. The knitted thing that hangs off of it is one half of my scarf. I finished it yesterday, but must wait until I can spin more, but to do that I must card more, and to do that I must be at my parents home. Which I am not.


Most of the things I do are going back in time. I learn how to play the organ (Who does that anymore?) and I have even discovered a love of empire-waisted tops. I talk slowly, keep all things orderly, sleep and dream sweet dreams, keep my eyes open for the one or other way to earn a bit more money to spend on organ scores.


I also give unexpected gifts (which my mother could attest to, had I unlocked the comments):


Gauntlets(?) for my teacher. No pattern. Yes, the table runner is handmade patchwork, handsewn, and I put the colours together myself. The pattern was for a machinesewn blue-and-white spring thing, but I wanted a christmas thing


They are good for playing organ - I tested one already. Most of the old stone churches here in Denmark are not heated - rather frosted - and it can be quite a chore to play in the winter months. Since my teacher is a male, fingering grey baby-alpaca on 3mm needles seemed like the way to go. Not that I had many other choices. My stash is shrinking. Probably until the day I have almost used it up, and can go buying from project to project.
They were started yesterday in the evening, while reading. Too bad the book was not two gauntlets long, only 1½. Hrmph. I must loan thicker books, I think, even though this one was a good four inches thick. The trick to reading while knitting is to have a small project, a couch to slouch in while having the book on your knees, and, foremost, a book that stays put! An old, well-read one. I could not manage to knit, read, and hold the pages in place all at once.


Have a really nice day.


/Lene

You Should Weigh 145

If you weigh less than this, you either have a fast metabolism or are about to gain weight. If you weigh more than this, you may be losing a few pounds soon!

I really think they forgot to ask how tall you are.
I mean, at 6"1', and 145 pounds? I am hoping to drop down to 165, but anything less and I would be a walking sack of bones.


Have a really nice day

/Lene


Who gets her piano monday, hopefully.. Squeee!!

I started a new project:




A swedish scarf


I have never been scared off any pattern just because of the language it was written in - I have, in fact, encouraged my mother to knit from a finnish pattern once, namely the Linux scarf (Link goes to english translation, not yet availible back then).

No, being scared off by an unreadable pattern is not something that happens over here. I speak danish, and swedish comes from the same roots - similar enough, that the few words that are not at all similar can be guessed by the context.

The bad thing? I will not have enough yarn for even a short scarf. I must card more and spin it - meaning it can not be done before christmas. It will also be substantially different - but does that matter? It is impossible to recreate the exact mix of lambs wool, silk, dog fluff, black wool, pink wool and "random bitsies". I want it to replace my alpaca "scarf" (stole), that I am afraid of damaging by wearing it every day.

I have exiting news (for me): I might be able to finish my organ studies in 2½ years instead of 4½, meaning I will be 25 coming on 26 instead of 27 coming on 28. YES! The bad news is, that I might go down substantially in income and might have to... move. I cringe inwardly at that thought, but if I have to... Then I will.

Have a really nice day

/Lene

.. and then i felted it.

I saw a picture in a magazine that I absolutely liked, and started to knit a "semi-alike" sweater. It had a tightly cabled (lattice pattern) cuff on both sleeves and body, a large and tall cabled neck band, snowflakes across the chest, and set-in sleeves. The sleeves hit the model about, uh, three inches down her arm. Quite unflattering! Also, it was only one size: Petite.

While I am not petite, I am not terribly big either.

I added quite a few stitches to the cuffs, decreased some after knitting the cuffs, and knit body and sleeves in white with half the snowflake motif, light blue yarn and the white as dominant colour.. Then I joined body and sleeves for a shapely raglan shoulder, cutting the white yarn and adding a deep green, using the light blue as the dominant colour, being afraid that the green would swallow the blue.

I actually finished it within a week (I dont count the two days I spent knitting one cuff... pah), and it was wonderfull. It fit perfectly. The colours were just right.

I wanted it to dry so I could wear it when my mother came - and did not want to wear an unblocked sweater. I waited and I waited... decided to put it in the dryer... (Do you see where this is headed?)

When I pulled it out again it had shrunk... Just a leetle... But enough that it did not fit!!!

I have tried soaking it in milk to make the fibers release their grip of each other, and have stretched the bejeezus out of it. I really need another inch in the sleeves, but, oh joy - I forgot it at home where it is drying at the same place the Grey Shawl dried. Well, maybe I can wear it when I go playing for the local danish schools christmas sermon, and the not-so-local danish kindergartens sermon.

I christened my sweater the "Snow Forest", and sometimes "Snowflake Winter".

Yes, the picture in my previous entry (That you may look at now, mor), was of a finished sleeve. The whole she-bang was finished late the 7th.

The next project is another "I Know I Can" thing, using some handspun... Hmm.. .and a Web Pattern...

I feel almost bad for this:


Christmas Present?

I have two almost-finished sleeves for it, so with time, it will get done. Just.. Not Right Now.


I really want to get going on this:


I am wearing a fragile handspun alpaca stole as my favourite winter accessory, but feel a little bad about it because it gets caught so easily. This will be my replacement.


Have a really nice day - I must go grocery shopping, or I will starve :-)


/Lene

If you are my mother, will you please close your eyes?







Dont look, I said >:-(









Tralalala, if you still havent closed your eyes, do it now - and click on the shiny, pretty X in the upper right corner, ok?













Colourwork! :-0. Fat needles (US8, 5mm), worsted yarn, and oodles of stitches. I am hoping for a kind of fairytale look, that will probably morph into "Yay! Room for lots of layers underneath"

Knitpicks Wool of the Andes in 100g natural Hanks, and a bit of the same from Elann. Lateron, I will use some green to top off this sweater with a raglan yoke, finishing the snowflake pattern when I begin the raglan decreases.

There is a pretty pretty cuff that takes a lot of work on this sweater, but that must wait until I finally get started on the body. I must cast on 320 stitches. I will decrease to 225 once I am done with the cuff, but my fingers already ache at the very thought. (Not that they didnt do that already, I had an unfortunate incident with a sharp metal thingie earlier)


Have a really nice day


/Lene MultiPosti

I spent most of the day at the riding club, for a little local christmas competition, where I was to compete for the first time - ever.

I did well :-)
First, I fell off the horse while warming up - the saddle slid down the side, the horse became scared, I could not stop, and whomp, hello earth.
My case of being proud is this: I was scared. But I did not say "yes" to my teacher, who offered to ride the horse a bit - because hell, scared or not, I am still grown, right?
I was so scared, and my horse was so hyped, that I stood and almost cried when I was climbing up again.

And then.... Nothing. He was so good. I forgot some stuff, and lost the things for sticking the foot into twice... Yet, I still managed to get 63,3%. Bottom of class :-) Who cares? I got a beautifull blue ribbon, a handshake and a lot of self-esteem. Cool. I'm all over it next time again!!

Sometimes, when something is very scary, all there is to do is to jump into it and do it. Sometimes the road is hard to see, what is right and wrong. To see, if there is a way at all, or if you should just let the fear conquer you? It has been a long way for me to learn that, and some of the pitfalls have been way deeper than the fall off of an average height horse. Then, it depends on the little things: A smile, a kind word, some words of plain wisdom.

Maybe, and I will write this now with full respect to the subtitle of my blog, maybe that is why it is so hard to be an Aspergers - we are born with some talents the same, or better as the average human (Neuro Typicals), and some much less developed. Then, we spend much of life learning about those things, until we feel that we know enough - but by then, almost every train has gone by and we are left with superior intellect, average social intellect, many years of age and many many lost, ruined or simply overlooked chances.

I turned 23 last June, and have always feared to meet my classmates from Gymnasium - a degree that is ways better than High-school, but not nearly as much as College. Funnily, I met a girl from Gymnasium today - not a classmate really, we had one lesson a week together in the last year. She lives with her husband on a little farm and is training to be an accountant. Not really a shining career. It was by then that I could burst out in smiles and push all my fears away. Nobody was going to look down on me because I do not have a career (As they have all said, too), but I was indeed doing just as well as several others who had exactly the same starting point as I - just without the Aspergers.

See - we all learn as long as we live. Aspergers just have a tad more to learn than others. Maybe that is why we appreciate knowledge so much?



Have a really nice day


/Lene

I *love* patterns. I might almost say, that I collect patterns avidly and lovingly. Most times, I have a talent for looking past fugly yarn choices, unfortunate shapes and the likes.

Which is exactly why I bought a pattern booklet (2,90€) called "Norwegian Sweaters".

Sure, many use the Star Motif so common in Norwegian (And swedish) knitting, but most are only related to the norwegian style in that they employ large patterns, mostly in the yoke.

First, all (colourwork!) sweaters are worked back and forth. Except for one round-yoke sweater that was worked in pieces until the yoke was reached, and then joined. WTF? Who wants to knit colourwork patterns with up to 4 colours from the purl side?

Second, the shapes are sometimes less than flattering. The round-yoke sweater mentioned is so narrow in the yoke, that the model cant lift up her arms - then her belly would be bared to the bra!! Most of the set-in styles have shoulders hanging 2-3" off the shoulders. Fuuugly. There is also a basic ribbed sweater with a cropped, short-sleeved, ribbed-and-colourwork cardigan. Who needs a cardigan like that when you have a sweater?

Third, yarn choices. People!! Worsted+ yarns make for fast knitting and are good for winter, but when I can achieve the same gauge with a worsted yarn that is achieved with a bulky yarn - help, what went wrong? Do you like wearing cardboard?
Oh, and why does the cutest 50'ies style with deep ribbings, slim silhouette and boat neck have to have the upper 5" of the body covered in fun fur? Me Tarzan, you Jane? White, silver and baby blue is also not a good combination - at least not, if you want to actually *see* the pattern you are knitting. Might as well just knit it in, say, tan? It also mucks me that they knit a heavy winter coat out of CASHMERE - come on, almost 3 pounds of superbulky cashmere?

Fourth, pattern mistakes. Count count count - three mistakes (actually, if we count square-by-square, there are many more) in one pattern, and three honking mistakes in the pattern text. I dont want to explore this subject further, as I dont think being bald would be pretty :-)

Fifth: Photography. Do you ever feel that you can hear what the photographer is telling the model when you look at a picture? "Bend that arm, then the sleeve will not look as long" - "lift your chin or the collar will swallow it completely!" - "Hold your arms down your side, the sweater reveals your belly button". Ew.


Rant aside. Sometimes it is really good to be experienced, because - well, you can just alter the pattern. Not that easy when there is just an "average gauge" - and the pattern has cables, colourwork and stockinette. (Oppps, rant go away).

I love this booklet - it gives me something to laugh about, and it gives a lot of inspiration. Always good to feel superior, huh?
Most of the sweaters are supercute, and if I were a knitting machine, I would probably knit most - especially a blue/turquoise round-yoked sweater with little white motifs around the body, sleeve and lower part of the yoke. Purty! Or the aforementioned Cashmere Coat - if my b*tt were not so big *blushes*.

Pictures? Yep, when it clears up! I dont want to hold back the Fugly Styles of Germany :-)


Have a really nice day / Night


/Lene

Blocking is Magic! Before I washed and laid it out, it was a bit on the small side - now, I could not fit it on a standard bed (In the background).

I love the magic of Shoulder Shaping! See the beautifull curves? Created by decreases when I had but 1/3 of the original stitches left over. Some decrease earlier, but that is what I love so much about these shawls. You can do almost anything, and it will still come out good!

Have a really nice day

/Lene

Yep.


From now on, it is all me, all the time.
No "Other People Knitting" to invade the blog.

I FINISHED the Swap Shawl :-)

Me likey! Fat yarn, fat needles, my favourite shape, a design all of my own and a shiny trophy in the other end - my very own Nisse!



A Nisse is the "Good Spirit" of the farm, and has, in the modern world, somehow changed the job to being Santas little Helper, Thanks to Coca Cola. The picture illustrates a real nisse, my doll will probably look similar.


Have a really nice day while I block the shawl.

/Lene

This is not a Christmas Present. It will be swapped for several.


Handspun wool (The grey), and a small leftover of worsted (The red). I used all of the red, sadly, and did not have any for the toe.
Oh well.
The lady who ordered these had just a few general specifics: She liked stripes, little FI patterns, red, grey, and handspun yarns that smelled of sheep.

Well, here is a red/grey striped sock with one yarn a wonderfully sheepy-smelly odour. 4 out of 5 is not that bad.

I will send this off when I have washed it (swished it in cold water a bit) and gently blocked it. Dont want to take away the nice smell.

Tonight I will be soooo sore... I have ridden "Mogsy" today, and will probably ride "Smut" later in the evening. Mogsy is big, cute, 100% stable (Even though I have already succeeded in falling off him), and Mogsy is little, fat, quick and has, uhm, his own mind. I have only ridden him twice - both times in jeans(!) - this will be the first time in "Adequate Clothing". Interesting. Then a weekend with the scouts, and I will be all ready for a relaxing week in my own flat *grins*.

Have a really nice day

/Lene