My new umbrella swift

A few months ago, I first discovered the wonderful yarn store mylys, which is located in West-Hamburg.
They offer some of my favourite yarns including Malabrigo, Cascade, Schoppel and Zitron. And they also have a back room, in which one can wind the hanks into center-pull skeins. You have to do it yourself, but the usage is for free. Which is really great, since there are lots of knitters, who prefer to spend their money on new yarn instead. And nobody wants to knit from an unwound hank (If you don't know why, go and try it out...). And let me tell you something: a center-pull skein, that was wound with a yarn winder is veeeerrry handy. Unlike the traditional ball of yarn, with a center-pull you have easy access to either end of the yarn. And since it has a cylindrical shape, it won't roll away, no, it just sits exactly where you placed it. Imagine that!

I find the process of winding the yarn to be relaxing, it is something to do while watching telly. And so about half a year ago, I bought myself a yarn winder. With a crank. Super easy. And fast. And whatnot. Except for one tiny detail, I still had to hold the hank someplace, where it wouldn't get tangled while winding. So, like many others before me, I placed the hank around my knees, which works for awhile, but gets really tiring, because one mustn't operate the yarn winder too fast. And one needs to hold the yarn up and to guide it away from the knees, so that the yarn winder can pull it without yanking the whole hank though the air! Which happens if there is even a slight tangle. Or sometimes the yarn sticks together, it has something to do with the dye.

So, still a lot of problems. Which could be solved with just a bit of money... and so I ordered an umbrella swift, which arrived a few weeks ago and boy! This is amazing!

It is made out of wood and can be attached to the table. Very smooth handiwork. Good construction and overall a very good quality. The umbrella construction is nifty, so one can adjust the swift to the size of the hank since each manufacturer has his own idea of how long those hanks should be.
One still has problems if the yarn is tangled in itself, like the Malabrigo Arroyo (who wound that thing – it's a mess!) I wound with it Saturday evening. But the yarn as a whole is secure. And one has both hands free to unpick the tangles. And if you get interrupted, just leave everything where it is, it can't run away, now can it?

In summary: I should have gotten one ages ago!

Felting is awsome

I've recently made an Amanda Hat, which is lovely, but in the first week I mutilated it already by inadvertently yanking it through the zipper of my bag. Bad. Very bad. So, I figured, I would need another bag, without a dangerous zipper. And being slightly obsessed, I immediately envisioned a project made for knitting.

So I went to the local yarn store and bought several skeins of felting yarn and some brochures and immediately started knitting.

Turns out, felting is extreme fun. It is a quick and easy knit. And I think it would be ideal for beginners, too. You make a mistake? Who cares? No one's gonna notice after the felting.

The only cause for concern was, that I didn't know how much the bag would shrink when felted. Of course, I didn't make a gauge. And so I couldn't test-felt it either. I'm much too lazy for that.

But it turned out just fine. This will definitely not be my last felting project!

The incredible Amanda Hat

Me too! Me too! I did one too! The incredible, must have Amanda Hat. Designed by Gina House for her friend and namesake of the hat. Gina House (aka Sleepy Eyes) has a blog, too. And she is also on ravelry.

Her hat is not that old, but has a huge fandom already, and her hat is almost a cult, too. With reason. The pattern is easy and a fast knit. It is also easily adaptable to different yarn and gauge. And it is absolutely stunning.

Thank you, Gina, for that beautiful piece of art!

Never buy Kauni

Knitting in colours is exiting and fun. Fair Isle, stranded, Mosaik, whatever. Very popular are those yarns that come with their own colouring built-in. One of those is Kauni Effektgarn. The special charme of this yarn is that the colour changes are fluid and very, very long. Ideal for larger projects like scarfs or pullovers. Knitting socks is no good with this yarn.

I made a scarf out of it. It is closely based on the 'geveldak scarf' by Nancy Marchant, which is featured in 'Knitting Brioche'.

As you can see, the beautiful colouring needs a lot of space to display its greatness.

But! And there is a huge But. Knitting with this yarn is no fun. For one thing, it is very rough, it snags on practically everything, including slightly roughened hands and bambus needles. Which is exhausting. Although the roughness does soften after a couple of washings.

The second negative point is that the thickness varies very much, too. In some places, it is very finely and neatly spun, in others, it is very rough and fluffy. And you can pull it apart rather easily, too. Try pulling Regia sock wool apart and compare it with this wool: you need a bit of strength to pull the Kauni apart, while it is virtually impossible to do with the Regia - you could probably use it to tow a car!

And for the piece of resistance: At one time the yarn snapped, and those guys from Kauni attached the next string back on again. Which does happen, I've had yarn like that before and it is a legitimate fix for a rather common occurrence. But not when the one end is a dark purple and the next a light blue!!!

And this is the reason why I'll never buy Kauni again. Colouring like that is really rare, though - as of yet I haven't found its equal. And I really adore that colouring. Maybe I'm going to dye something like that myself one day.