Recently in knitting Category

I finally finished them. The first pair of socks I knit for myself out of sock yarn. The name of the yarn is "cuban nights" and it is bought from Kirstens onlineshop handgefaerbt.com

It took me months of spare time knitting and some rows grew in my holidays in Rugia this July.
I used my 2,5mm bamboo dpns, which I got as a present from my Wollfee - Pal. I managed to damage one of the needles and then to repair it somehow - it is now shorter and I changed the dpns for the heels and used aluminium ones but I really quite like the bamboo ones. More than I had expected.

It�s not so obvious on the photos but each row of the socks has another colour and not only did colours repeat but some very different colours like grey, greyblue, darkblue, pink, dark brown and else appeared. Even though the legs are slightly too short for my taste, I love my socks and wear them from time to time.

The next pair of sock yarn socks is for Ron. I started some cabled with thicker wool for me and somehow try to follow the tricky aran pattern.

Until I get the extra page done, something to read.

1. What's your favourite type of yarn?

silk and cashmere. But since I can�t afford that to often, I love 100% merino or 100% pure new wool

2. What's your least favourite type of yarn?

everything that has artificial fibres in it. (Acrylic, Modal, Polyester...)

3. What's the first thing you do when you visit a new yarn shop?

walk through the whole shop to get the size and place of the favourite yarns section and get a view for all lil�gimmicks

4. What other crafts do you do / would like to do?

beading, scrapbooking, papercrafts, sewing, patchwork, painting, embroidery, drawing, dyening...

5. What magazines do you currently subscribe to?

no one.
But english magazines are great, as well as french are, no german required.

6. Put this type of magazine in order of preference:
Knitting / Crochet / Other Craft / Food / Home / Fashion / Celebrity Gossip / Garden

Knitting /Other Craft /Garden / Home / Crochet / Fashion / Food /Celebrity Gossip /

7. What items do you like to knit / crochet?

socks, scarfs, hats, headbands, baby clothes

8. Are you allergic to anything?

artificial fibres if the content is more than 2% *yuk* My skin drives me mad in this cases.

9. What do you like to* smell of?

rose, lily of the valley, freesia

10. What's your favourite way to relax?

besides from a day at a spa, enjoying tasty food, taking a bath (if my bathingtube wasn�t so small) in really hot water with a good bodylotion to rub in afterwards (very sensitive and somehow dry skin), then sitting down at the living room drinking some Tiger Spice Chai from David Rio, reading some nice crafty magazine and then doing something crafty e.g. beading, sewing and as a finish of the relaxation watching a good film or listening to a nice audiobook while knitting with some great fibre like silk or merino. mhhhh, what a nice thought.

11. You're stood in front of a Victorian style sweetshop, an Italian cafe, an old fashioned bakery and a dainty tea room. Where do you go first?

victorian style sweetshop - now you know why I look like a hobbit ^_^;;

12. What do you come out with?

lots of great sweets that don�t stick to the teeth (toffee, gummy bears), some good but not bitter chocolade, some cookies and english fudge and some extra sweets which the shopkeeper gave me for tasting. ^_^

13. Where do you go next?

I leave aside the caf� and the bakery and have a long stay at the tea room with my knitting and some good chai latte or similiar.

14. Any other words of wisdom for your pal?

dear pal, don�t hesitate to mail me. I have some other webpages and answer quickly and no problem with other languages. I am very open towards all new and other cultures. You can ask me absolutely everything.

Today I went to have a little party with my parents, Ron and my granny and because of the damn heat problem it took place at my parents�flat. The day was made fine by a great strawberry tart, self- made apple strudel, self - baked pizza from my mum, looooooooooooooots of great presents (a warm feather blanket), some knitting of the first sock and shopping. I bought myself a new pair of cuddly boots, a pair of darkbrown/purple cord trausers, some tins of honey (Avocado and Mango honey, they didn�t have more of my beloved chestnut honey), a pair of bedshoes, some magazines, 2 sheep keychains, instant tea and some small things for my spoilee. Plus I went to take a closer look at "my" wool shop at the ancient part of K�penick where I went regularily when I lived nearby. I was incredibly lucky to meet the owner herself, because she moved away to West Germany some months ago. She fell madly in Love with a boy there, moved to him and just occassionaly drops in to make sure everything is all right. She still is hunting for my lana grossa "bingo" yarn and told me, that she was to the shop where she hopes to find some a lot of times by bus but always arrived during the shop�s luch closing time. She promised to try and go there by bike. The shop in K�penick now sells even addi DPNs (5mm and very thick wooden ones), they have a new range of felting wool in nice colours, and more beads than ever. I hoped to finally find some really bulky Aran- like 100% pure new wool which should be coloured, and they had some kind but it was only wickyarn. What a bummer. Instead the owner recommended a sock wool from Austermann and seemed happy when I told her that I managed the boomerang - heel. I bought one ball of this sock wool called "step" and the colour is called blackberry (in fact there are some shades grey and raspberry). I also bought a half high knitting nelly which can produce strings twice so thick than before, a pipe of G�termann beads (the colour is something copper/bronze like) and a scented candle with tangerine scent. The shop owner told me that she liked these scented candles because they weren�t causing headaches. wowowo, what a great day!

Today, one of my birthday presents was something I�d like to thank Hannah from Blackpool, GB sooooo much! I am very besotted with the "simply knitting" magazine and she sent the November issue to me. But it wasn�t only the again so well succeeded magazine, it was a whole bundle. The bundle also included a simply knitting calendar for the next year with lots of great patterns and a booklet with nice knitting projects from Rowan (the yarn producer). Waaaaiii, perfect! *happy* Thank you so, so, so much dear Hannah!

Oh, and before I forget, I got an eCard from my secret pal. Thank you secret pal, this was a really funny animation.

Yes, I now got it, the silly boomerang heel and now I can tell that it really isn�t that bad. (I knew
from the beginning that this one is easier than the one with godet and hoody) As I could neither work with the instructions from my book nor take the chance to follow the offers from Tammina and Mandy to show me this heel - both work in Berlin fulltime there was no possibility to go on with the heel earlier. Then, yesterday Tina posted a link to an URL at viruscreativus and I was astonished. The description was much better to imagine and I immediately understood what was meant. This page describes much better how the things to do need to look like. About the left double stitches and the right ones and so on. The next hours I was busy to knit the first half of the heel. Now I know what was meant by knitting "shorter rows with double stitches" - this was a contradiction for me so far. Just cast double stitches at the end of a row but knit the next row without this double stich. You get a trapezoid starting with the broad side, when finished. But after this, the description at the internet failed too and the instruction from my book was absolutely discrepant in its content. Thank God that Ina Elena had already knitted this slightly new kind of heel yet and she joined Skype to explain it to me. She described what to do in each row and was able to see me working on the webcam and got feedback from me. A kind of online - tutorial that was. After some rows it occured to me how the system was and I was able to go on by myself. I choose to follow the instruction from the book saying that after the first
half all double sitches need to be casted on as one in this 2 rows which are full rounds. Wow, the finished heel looks similiar to the socks from supermarket. Incredible! Of course I�m going to show you this improvement and took a photo immediately. After this I showed my result to Tina, Elena and my parents via Skype webcam. Man, I am proud that this process went into my brain now, I still can�t believe it is true. I bet I am going to become a sockaholic just like some of the knitting bloggers I read. Thanks to Tina, Elena and my parents for their help.

Uhm, I was to Berlin again. The main reason for this was, that we have neither heat nor warm water yet (the company has delayed delivery three times) and my parents suggested that I could taka a bath at their flat. Wow, washing my hair, take a shower AND bathing. This was really a pleasure. The blackberry bath bomb from lush I used was excellent for this occasion. Inside the bath ballistic there was a little piece of paper with a speech balloon on it saying "BOOM BOOM". ^_^ This company has really a good sense of humour, not bad. But before joining the bathroom for the next 2 hours at the afternoon, I went to a wool and yarn shop at the new part of K�penick (this is the place where I lived and where my parents are) at the main street there. Usually you get explainations of knitting things if buying something there. After having tried to call a friend of my parents�, Sabine from the feinstofflich - shop, it was obvious that she wasn�t in and I couldn�t visit her to show me the boomerang - heel. So I decided to go to this wool shop and try there. The owner was totally distressed with her latest
delivery, phone calls and the bookkeeping and the other saleswoman left the shop soon after I entered, to go to the doctor. The owner said to me that she�d be pleased to explain that heel to me, I just need to wait until 1 p.m. (I was there since high noon and should be back at 1 p.m. for lunch with my parents) I somehow managed to spend the time there (hey, it is a yarn shop - enough to touch, look and read) and decided to buy a certain darning cotton for daddys pullover (I was asked to buy this by my mum), wool for felting, a booklet with knitting projects and some wool for my spoilee. Then, at quarter to 1 the shop owner came to the cash desk so that I could pay my goods. She then said that I should pay 6 Euros because it would steal 1 hour of her working time. I first thougt she�d be joking, but it was true. I was quite angry, because I expected her to tell me this in advance. I don�t pay any money if it can work out another way - just had to be patient. She could have been so good to tell me that she takes money for this *grrrr* If I knew I wouldn�t have waited such a long time. She somehow tried to pitch this to me. I should go without the goods I bought but take the explaination insted. Pah! Going without the goods... When I finished bathing and everything included, I helped my mum to prepare some
things for the banitza she was going to bake for me. (banitza is a typical bulgarian filo pastry filled with sheep cheese, butter, spinach or leek or combinations of these). After this we all three sat down with a good yogi chai tea with milk and honey, some cake and I read out the instruction for the heel from my book to my parents. I hoped that they would be able to understand or imagine how this should be done but they weren�t. So I was picked up by my boyfriend Ron and went with him to a friend of mum�s called Achim to get a radiant heater. I hope that our new central-heating boiler will arrive soon, we� ve been waiting for 2 months now.