And another pair of new socks

Yes, I finished my Mexiko-Highlands socks. Don't they look very Mexican???

I just found back the label of the yarn. Funny, all this information you can read on it. Made in the Czech Republic, for a German firm, Mexiko Highlands. Very international socks indeed. Mit Rosskastanien-Pflegezusatz veredelt. Treated with something made of chestnuts, I guess. (I'm too lazy to get up to get my German dictionary.) Is that good? Well, you can all read it in this (pdf)magazine. That is, if you do read German.

And now I have to go and find new sock yarn. Thick yarn, this time. Because I want to knit thick socks with cables, for the winter, that will be here soon....

Birch

Finally I'm on the right track with Birch, the lovely Rowan shawl. I think this is the fifth attempt, so it was about time. The last time it went to the frogpond was because:
1. I knitted the garter stitch version (yep, always chosing the most convenient option....), but that didn't look nice
2. I got confused which was RS and which was WS, so I totally messed things up.

Another problem I had was knitting the K2tog tbl's. But I found out you can knit a ssk instead. I think it looks exactly the same, and it is much easier to knit. I also changed to a circular needle, which makes it more easy to move the stitches forward. Although I'm a loose knitter, 299 stitches on a needle makes it all feel like a tight knit. Well, here is the result so far:

Nurejev?

How do you like my new friend? I think he's awesome! He must be a dancer, according to his left leg. Shall I call him Nurejev?

He was knitted with Rowanspun dk (100% wool) and stuffed with some carding-wool. I washed him on 60 degrees, only once, and he felted really nice. For the shawl, knitted in I-cord, I used some sock-wool.

The satchel & the rabbit

And one more picture of the felted Knitty satchel, while it's blocking. I washed it twice on 60 degrees C and I'm quite content with the result. Although I've been thinking about washing it a third time, because you can still see the knitted stitches. But I don't think a third time will make much difference and I'm afraid to wash the satchel on 90 degrees.


Because I've some yarn left I decided to knit Thuy's rabbit. CUTE, isn't it? Always a challenge, these small items. I felt like the three musketeers (in one person) starting knitting the rabbit's body, all these needles and only a few stitches on it.

The-almost-finished-satchel

Here is a picture of the Knitty satchel, that I'm hoping to finish next weekend. I finished knitting the satchel and the strap, and now I'm weaving in the 101 loose ends. The I-cord BO looks quite nice as you can see (a little). It took me a while though, to understand what was meant in the pattern. After struggling with two needles for some time I finally understood you need three to knit the I-cord! The next step is knitting the I-cord around the flap. I hope the pattern is more clear about this. And then, the felting! Exciting! Because my washing machine is a frontloader, I cannot check every couple minutes. Just have to wait till the machine is finished......

Nothing new to show.....

..... but I have some pictures of stuff I made a while ago.

The One-hour-baby-booties I knitted for Bo's baby. The pattern is from Stitch'nBitch Nation. The yarn is something acrylic I bought at the market.






This I knitted with cotton that was left over from my knitting obsession in the 80's. It's a pattern from Katia, nr. 48. And I'm never going to wear this.






Because I wasn't sure if I remembered how to knit a sweater I started with this sleeveless sweater. I used a combination of
patterns, I think. The yarn is
Pulcino from Lana Grossa.





And this shawl I'm going to frog, because it's completely askew (?). The yarn is nice, very soft Nuovo Print from Lana Grossa. The pattern I found in Viva.

Done!

Finally! Last night I finished the Loll-cardigan. And it fits. I'm always a little nervous when joining the seams. Will it look nice, or will it stay in the closet forever? But this one I'm definitely going to wear. And it feels so soft and warm. I wanted to wear it this morning but it's too warm, despite the cold weather today. It's more of an autumn-cardigan, I think. The only problem I still have, is the curling of the fronts. Maybe I'm going to press them carefully with an iron.

Here are the facts:
Loll cardigan
Pattern: Rowan, Calmer booklet
Yarn: Rowan Calmer, 9 1/2 balls, color nr. 467, not for sale anymore
Needles: 3 1/2 and 4 mm
Started: end of March, 2005
Finished: 31 of July, 2005

On the right you can see how the fringes
and the decreases look. For the decreases I didn't follow the pattern. I think they made a mistake. When you do it the way they described it, it looks terrible.

Strange, how this color differs from the picture above. I think the real color is somewhere in between.