Swedish Knitblogger who loves spinning, knitting, dyeing and yarn. I will do some other roundabouts about life too.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Amazing what you can blog when you are sick!

So, after having fever, being tired, and just feeling very sorry for myself missing out on a great party, I just had energy to blog around. I have to say wow! Wendy, who knitted through Alice and Jade Starmore brought me to www.virtualyarns.com which is their trademark. So for 115 pound (approx 2xx Dollars) you can get their faboulus designs. So, the afternoon light made me do some pictures. So, here is the weekend result. Now I just wish I had energy to do someting. My throat still throbs, my nose is running. And my neck aches. Sigh...And I still do not feel up to any knitting. First picture is the two Colinette One Zero that I knitted Sunday (half-mittens) to fit my OS winter coat. Then is the OS-cap, that bulks a little (it is on a matchbox!). Both on 6mm needles. The added black is Lovikka. It was atleast easy and fast to knit. And it looks better on, than here... And, then I tried to finish the thumb of the latvian mitten (notice you in the KAL, this is the "wrong pattern 19" that Marianne warned us about). I of course didn't remember that until I saw I was knitting something on the frontpage of the book... realizing.. well. It is not my best knit, that is for sure. It is a bit too tight, to small needles for the yarn etc. So, what to do with the next mitten? Hmm. I'm not even sure I have yarn for it. But enjoy! It is an attempt. A "Latvian Swatch mitten!" of Visjö yarn, on needles 2mm. Of course the colours on the right are more accurate.
But, now I need to blow my nose, take another cup of tea, and really think about what I should do next. I was so sure it should be more mittens. But, maybe it is time to size it up. Work some more on colours, because this was a disaster. Maybe I should enter them just so that the other can feel good beating me Hehe... Anyway, how long does it take to knit these? . The brim, was about 5 hours (hmm... then the rest I have knitted during 4 trips back and forth to Västerås - Research time at Univeristy (MDH). Well, I have a deadline for my paper, and this unconcentration is disaster. But I just must make it. Spend 5 hours on two pages today. And I'm still not happy.That is the reason why I write in English. Practice! Practice! Practice. And, I forgot to tell you! I made a subscription on Knitters. And, as a god tester as I am, I of course found a bug on the website. Interesting.

Monday, March 06, 2006

Yearly Sticka meeting, report from Yarn festival and more

So, now it is confirmed I'm rambling. I succeed as planned to stay away from the yarn festival on friday. (Sorry Cina). Work all day. So, Saturday I took on my OS coat (well, sorry, it just got that name).. and drove to the yarn fair, and was let in for free in the VIP-line. One hour to shop - with no intention to shop.(Ha!) So I really ran into the only thing I missed last time, the Danish Kartehuset. 100g Merino fleece for 48 SEK (turquoise), and some silk, silk- alpaca blend, and silk merino blend. The dear lady also gave me an extra 100g merino dark spots..So It will be great to try and Spin ! into yarn. So, 100g ahh merino, could be compared to the 100g Colinette one zero for 100 SEK (Svalan) in colour neptune (that I also bought!). Now you wonder, I just finished the OS coat, why?? but, that cap just doesn't match (see pictures below), you agree?? So the evening saturday I knitted a cap "pillerburk" or pilljar which means a wide band and a oval flat top. Piece of cake. Looks weird enough. The rest of the hank I just finished two half-gloves. You know, knitting sideways, and when joining, just leaving a whole for the thumb. Must be the easiest pattern. But I thought that would go well with the OS-coat. I also got me thinking. I knit on average between 50-75 gram a day. Which means It probably take a year if I knitted full time to finish my stash!. So, back to the fair. A great meeting of the Hoya-fan Katarina, who really handles such a boring meeting with sass! Great. And 501 members in Sticka. Fantastic. and 88 at the meeting. And people from the entire country. Wow. We also got a Lavold pattern, and a stitch holder. Those little free-bees are just great. Anyhow, Elsebet Lavold gave us a good walkthrough of the history of knitting, and I must say the years of studying have made me rather informed. It was only very few of her pictures that was new to me. What I have missed is how recent the Aran knitting was. That was interesting. But a great repeat, and a good overview. She also showed a picture on the Latvian mittens. So I held mine up and waved. Then we got to see the charts of her yarn, it is lush. I think the AL yarn got me but also the angora blend. She looked smashing in her knits, as did so many, Triinu with her estonian shalw, and Tanja with her Sysky finish yarn in a Vouge pattern look fab as always, and so many beautiful knits was there, that I was speachless. As usual I felt like the elephant stomping around. Must get off those cookies! A great meeting, talking to Claire and other really nice poeple, finally coming face to face with Liisa and the Uppsala gang. And of course, Marika, poor her, suffering from neckpain after the OS knit. Well, after the meeting I really lost everyone and was alone again. So, after having a good socializing, it feels empty, and I just had to sign up for a colour course at Färgkraft. Maybe that was stupid... But Mrs Kållberg is fantastic. My plan worked (see friday rambling), since they were out of two-stranded yarn....so it just became Baylan. I got some black and white cones of thin alpacka from Naturyarn, and the only mishap was getting seduced by the wonderful "förgarn", cut fleece, and one-strand thin hank of yarn from Ullomera. Not too bad at all. But I missed Solveig - she was home with a broken arm. I hope she will recover quickly. But it was very empty without her. She is my definite yarn-fix. Every time.
So, it was a light backpack, that I have already knitted up one hank from it. And going back home from the yarn festival was really snowy. It is late to be 60 cm with meterhigh piles of snow in March. Sigh. Interesting fact is that today both me and my hubby got the worst cold. Interesting fact is that today both me and my hubby got the worst cold. So, I wonder how this will go on. I must finish my first latvian mitten, and get back to the otherone.