Finally summer is over!

After a long summer break I'm back on the needles and I've already finished some of my projects.

My BFF socks in periwinkle Shibui are finally done. Took me only 5 months.
And here is what I've learned from that: If you start something, keep on and finish it in a timely  fashion. Especially when fit is an issue. Because I stopped so often to work on other projects, the project dragged on and in the mean time, my gauge changed. Which is also due to getting comfortable with all those cables.
And this change in gauge resulted in very funny pooling patterns. The first sock started with beautiful helix striping and proceeded to pool when it came to the leg part and the necessary increases of the stitch count. The second sock had weird pooling on the foot, but gorgeous striping on the leg. Well.
And I also needed almost two whole skeins (97g). So remember: Cables are yarn hungry!

For my second finished project, I have also practised self-disciplin and used yarn from my stash instead of always buying new and made a pair of Jaywalkers out of a skein of Opals "Lasst Blumen sprechen". Since this too is a pooling/striping yarn and a very noisy one as that, it wasn't easy to find a suitable pattern. Most patterns shine due to their stitches, but add colours in the yarn and it quickly renders all those finely detailed stitches invisible. The only patterns that work with striping yarn besides stockinette and ribs are chevrons. And lo and behold the Jaywalker does it. And not only that, it needs heavy colouring. Uni coloured yarn would be just too boring here. Fancy that.
Since colourful yarn with long colour repeats often results in a very visible and annoying horizontal line break above the arch right over the heel, I tried an afterthought heel. And I love it. The fit is excellent. And the colour proceeds beautifully from the leg over to the foot part. Only to start pooling immediately because of the gauge change: The Jaywalker doesn't have a lot of give and the pattern actually draws the fabric in. So instead of my usual 60 sts with 3mm  needles, I had to increase to 68 after the cuff to compensate. Which wasted about 4'' of already committed effort, but since this is a very easy and fast knit it wasn't such a drama. But it shows again, that while an educated guess can give you a good starting point and oftentimes shows great results, you can't rely on it.

I've also taken up my Owl sweater in Malabrigo Rios in Ravelry Red again. But somehow it didn't work out. Some part of me was strangely reluctant. I worked most of one sleeve, which as my first ever sleeve with self-calculated decreases was actually quite well-fitting. But the rest of the sweater was rather, well, awful. The yoke style isn't so great for me, and I made far too many owls. Three or four less would have been way better. As it was, most of the sweater was far too roomy for me and I knew I would never wear it, so I made the sensible decision to frog. Maybe I'll try the owls again some time, they were rather cute, but not with this yarn, it did nothing for this pattern and the long body part in plain stockinette was not enough action for the yarn. It is capable of so much more.

Getting back on the needles

Boy, RL's a bitch! I spent last Christmas getting weaker and weaker and had to have an emergency OP just before Sylvester. Sylvester at the hospital. Great! I'm still on sick leave, but I'm getting slowly better. I've recently picked up my knitting stuff again. 

So far, I've completed the first of the Hawaii socks, but I just can't bring myself to finish the second one. Even though it is about three quaters done already.

The Clapotis is well on its way, but currently hibernating, too.

Right now, I'm working on my Elm socks, a pattern by Cookie A. Published in The Knitter's Book of Socks by Clara Parkes. Great Book. 
The yarn I'm using is Zitron Trekking Sport in a lovely shade of muted middle blue.

The financial side of knitting

Way back, when my Granny was my age, she used to knit almost all of her sweaters herself. And sewed the rest of her clothes and those of her family. Why? Because buying ready-made clothes in shops was far too expensive. Making them oneself saved a lot of money.

And today? Let's just do a quick calculation, shall we? Cascade 220 Heathers is a popular yarn for sweaters. In an online shop I recently saw this yarn sold at about 6,95€/100g, which is a really good prize. For a sweater in my size, I would need roughly about 600g. Meaning, I would have to buy 6 skeins, summing up to a total of 41,70€.
And what would a ready-made sweater cost? Made from similar material, somewhat stylish... I'd say... about 39,95€. +/- 10,00€.

Nothing really saved. Knitting is a luxury nowadays.

My darling Papa

It was my birthday last Saturday (which I spent sick in bed with fever and everything). My father was at that weekend gone to Norway with a couple of his colleagues to do a little fishing. Men stuff. And on Tuesday he returned, with bags of fish (yuck, I hate fish) and another bag, which he brought for me as a belated birthday gift. Which he didn't need, since my mother had already given me their gift, but it was still pretty nice.

And I looked into the bag and what did I find? A skein of dark purple mohair sock yarn! Isn't that amazing? My father, who usually needs a very detailed shopping list, with explanations where everything is and still often brings the wrong things, goes ahead and chooses not just sock yarn, but mohair and in a really gorgeous colour to boot! Isn't he the best Papa ever?

The yarn itself is from the old Sjolingstad Uldvarefabrik in Mandal, Norway. An old wool factory, that still manufactures items to sale, though only for the tourists nowadays.

On display, my father told me, they had a wonderful shawl, made out of this yarn. The pattern is called ringsaker sjal. Which is a very simple, triangular lace shawl. Easy for beginners, and very beautiful. Maybe I make that with the yarn. Or maybe I choose something from 'Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders'. Who knows? But I won't rush the decision. One of the most fun things when knitting is the browsing of patterns and pictures to find the next project.

So Happy Birthday to me and Happy Browsing!