Susan, progress

Finally, some Susan progress! Have you been looking out for it :-)? 6th repeat soon done, and only two more to go before edging can start to be attached. Looking forward to it.

Hippeastrum, potatoes and an introduction to Kochin

When the first frosty night arriwed I had to get out in my garden to take out the last potatoes. So, I started digging and there they were, the last hidden ones. Nice! And there! more of them! and more and more and more. I kept on digging for hours. Lord, gardening is good exercise for a consultant, desk bound all days of the week! I think we can live on these for the rest of the month and even longer. What a nice summer memory

But enough of summer talkning, i have started Christmas decoration. I know, it's way too early but I need Christmas. I need flowers, I need light and I need candy.

-Hi, I'm Kochin. I'm a Cochloides laminata, a snail. I try to get out of this jar where I have been held prisoner for weeks. I'm hostage to a 8-year old girl who seems desperate for a pet. She has named me after a species of chickens! What the...! My shell is long and not well designed for high jar climbing, but somehow I need to get out of here. Can't you see me? that's because I was finally released this weekend. Chickens... Hah! See ya' around sometime!

Mittens, lots of mittens

It's getting colder and colder for every day and the family members asked for new mittens. Strange pairs of mittens... The man of my life wanted a pair of male half-mittens for use in his extremely cold office(shame on that boss! but well... I can fix that). He also needed a beanie because a few years ago moth punched the old one (!). And a few pairs of lace half-mittens to give away sometime.

The little daughter asked for new girlie-girlie Norwegian mittens with sloppy cuffs(sloppy cuffs, I refuse to to that! Well I got an explanation: to be able to quickly take them off when playing... aha...well, I can fix that).

A halv Swedish, half Norwegian two years little old man has grown out of the previous mittens I knitted when he was born, so I made him a new pair in soft baby merino.

And finally, test knits for my new project, felted mittens for any wooly yarn.

Summer ending

These may be the last summer flowers from the garden. This combination has become my favourite: Cosmos bipinnatus, Lathyrus odoratus and Lavandula stoechas. Not that they are the perfect match but they have quite many of them all august and september. My daughter and I have picked many-many. I'll definitively keep growing them in the future. Knowing the frost sonn will wipe out all my summer efforts in the garden I find comfort in the orchids starting to bloom indoors.

I must show you one more thing. About 20km from where I live a nice old little house has become a victim of the flames. The only thing left is the chimney and the old tile ovens. I just had to capture it with my camera.

Queen Suzy, 1 week later

One week later, almost two repeats are done. -Have I frogged anything...? -Yes indeed I have! I knitted in a lifeline that totally messed up my knitting. OK, I was happy I did put a lifeline there but it took two days to get back to the point where I discovered my mistake. I wonder if I need the lifeline.

Knitting Queen Susan for Susan

Dearest Susan has asked me to knit for her. Normally I don't... but she's getting married and she's from Britain and she wants me to knit a veil in Shetland Lace, so tell me how can I refuse? At least I have said I'll have a go and we'll see where it brings us. So I have digged into my stash of yarn (there is plenty of yarn/thread there, that's for sure, but seldom exactly what I want) and there it was, my special cone of cashmere silk 2/48nm thread that I have saved for a special occasion. Seems like the special occassion is here and the yarn is yelling to me -Knit-knit-knit, I want to become a veil! I have started and it's going to be a nice autumn companion. The centre pattern is from the Queen Susan shawl (indeed, the Ravelry project) and I think the Christening Apron edging from Heirloom knitting is the combination of patterns I'll knit this time (if I get there...?). You're right, no frame, I refuse to knit a frame on a veil. Sewing will ruin the appearance and it'll get too large and too heavy and I probably won't be able to finish it before the wedding and I don't think anyone would like to see the Addi Lace needles sticking out from the bride's hair.

CrocoMobile mobile and headset covers, pop corn, cake and friendship bracelet

This weekend quite many projects have been started and completed. No knitting but we have had really fun. The inspiration came from this wonderful blog: Kungenomajkis Crocodile crochet (...must be a lizzard...) is a very useful stitch as a mobile bumper. I ran out of yarn at the first stitch test, but it became a very handy bluetooth headset bag. The headset always sneeks into the darkest corner of my handbag, but now I am able to find it!

My daughter ordered Pop corn and a cake. She did the sewing on her own and even made a plate for the oven she made in the workshop... I wonder how that happened, I certainly didn't hold the hammer...

A bracelet with cute hearts, maybe the next will be a bit more even I hope.

Sweet Corn Shawl

The orange Ecdho Flower Shawl is finally finished! It is 100% merino from Colourmart and despite the 2/28nm lace weight I used 4.0mm needles to get an openwork lace to show off both the pattern and the nupps. 9-stitch nupps is a killer... but necessary in dyed yarns, else they won't be visible. The pattern is not difficult but the special stitches take time to knit. The pattern is though easy to follow and the repeats quickly stick. Lovely pattern, but I think it needs tassels,and I am gonna make many of them this time. Almost 900m yarn spent excluding the tassels.

New garden and Junior Orangeri

In the beginning there was nothing. But now I have a new garden! Not very structured, but I am very happy with it for being the first summer.

The conversation piece of the area is of course the Junior Orangeri.

It was bought from Classicum (Janssen in Belgium produces them). Do I recommend it...? No! ...and Yes! It is expensive but still mid-priced, it is beautiful, you can sit maybe 6 persons in there without problems. But, the instruction was as bad as it can be and the roof decoration is in plastic!!! In swedish: Nockdekorationen till Junior Orangeri från Classicum är gjort av plast vilket är helt oacceptabelt tycker jag för ett såpass dyrt växthus. Instruktionen är så dålig som det bara kan bli. Delar saknades i leveransen. Skuggväven kan inte eftermonteras utan skulle ha byggts in under montage men den alltför kortfattade instruktionen till skuggvävsmontage var på näst sista uppslaget (hur tänkte de där egentligen!?) och Classicums respons på kommentarer har inte levt upp till förväntningarna på ett växthus av den här typen. Deras svar var att det är bara att fila upp ett spår så kan man mata in gardinkrokarna där ifrån. Hallå, det är åtta ställen det måste göras på och jag tänker sannerligen inte stå på en stege inne i mitt glasade växthus med verktyg och fila. Nej, skuggväven fick gå i retur tillsammans med de automatiska lucköppnarna som inte kunde monteras p g a vindstängerna. Totalt tog montaget faktiskt en hel vecka och inte tre dagar. Det beror främst på att vi fick montera och demontera flera gånger eftersom instruktionen inte innehåller info om att skruvar skall stickas in i profilerna här och där för att användas i senare skeden. T ex de tre skruvarna man skall trä in i syllen för att montera dörrens nedre skena... Dörren sätter man in sist men de skruvarna skall in först... Tur att man bor med en stark man! Orangeri... Orange... makes me recall that next project to be displayed will be an Echo Flower Shawl in orange. 10 rows and blocking left to do.

Orange family knitting

I can tell U there's an urge for knitting and colour these days! Everybody in my family is knitting orange! :-)

Shocking pink Lingonberry ;Leaf Triangle.

Shocking pink Lingonberry ;Leaf Triangle.

I got some help photographing this shawl after these pictures were taken. My partner took out a hammer and some nails and... Yes he literally nailed it! just put a nail through the lace and rrrrrriiipppp. Two months of knitting... And he was only being nice and helpful as always. I had to take a moment on my own. Next time I'll do the scenography myself. And -Yes! I managed to fix it, but it'll never be whole again :-)

Felted mittens

I got more flowers on my Burrageara Nelly Isler orchid. Less colourful items are these knitted felted mittens I made a couple of months ago. They were so ugly befor they passed the washing machine that I had problems forgiving them. After felting I had to crochet a little edging to the rim to compensate for the ugly pre-wash stage. Now they a very cute and they are forgiven.

At Esters café I bought this Firttilaria uva-vulpis (uva-vulpis seems to be a grape that tastes like fox...). It sits on my windowsill with some of my precious seedlings waiting for warmer days.

The mitten and the kitten

I seem to have an urge for colors these days.

This is another pair of Norwegian Torpavotter "my way". Purple and orange with tassels.

Springtime Lingonberry Leaf Shawl

I'm longing for the garden to wake up from winter hibernation! I have a huge project in front of me to start arranging a new garden because I left my old one last year. Waiting for the flowers I needed a new project, something fun in a crazy flowery color to knit and I decided to have another go with my Lingonberry Leaf shawl. My Knit Pro Rose haven't been kind to me and this yarn, but still I decided to keep going to test my patience. 15/4 it was finally time for the beautiful outer edging and 22/4 I started on the inner edging. I must say the outer edging is fun to knit! Elaborate but easy to knit in the TV sofa.

Link to the pattern

Over two months ago the Cranes arrived. I think they're on eggs somewhere because only the male bird takes the daily stroll through the garden nowadays.

Knitting with Cubics

I just wanted to share something... I have tried the square cross section needles and except for very bad quality finish (check thoroughly on all sides before buying) I do love them. I had to return all five sizes and ask for selected needles.

The size marks will come off after a while but the diagonal of the cross section is supposed to be the size corresponding to a circular cross section, but that will give a shorter circumference which may be the reason for those who have tried them to experience a tighter knit. Look here:



The equation for the side length is simple: 3.1415*(nominal size needle)/4 which should have been the side length, the actual circumference of the square cross section is (nominal size needle)*cos(45)*4 which for a circular cross section would have been 3.1415*(nominal size needle).

The Cubics needles feel more flexible too and the reason for this is the bending stiffness of the square cross section needles is only 60% of the circulars:

Wcircular=3.1415*(nominal size needle)^3/32=0.0982*(nominal size needle)
Wsquare=((nominal size needle)*cos45)^3/6=0.0589*(nominal size needle)

Wsquare/Wcircular=0.60.

Which means the material utilization gets better and therefore the price should have been lower... about 36% less. (1-3.1415/4/cos(45)^2)=0.36.


Was this clear to you? *lol*! Did I mention I'm an engineer :-)?! So, tell me how did they come up with the name Cubics? the cross section is square (2 dimensions or 2D) and a cube has the same length in all three directions (3 dimensions or 3D)... So it must be a bar with a filled square cross section with conical edges...BarConics maybe...?

Corner increase

To be used on your own risk:


I do not take responsibility for this, there may be mistakes...

Torpa mittens for Harald

The workshop guy Harald at the Norwegian company I work for asked me to knit mittens for him. -Of course! They seem to have been used too :-). Fishing on the ice in traditional wooly mittens on a sunny day. Sounds relaxing!

Estonian Jewel, softest shawl ever

I have knitted another Estonian Jewel. It's the softest shawl ever knitted. Shakun Mink yarn. It tokk 2.5 balls of each 350m/50g. As it has become a habit I added another edging and tassels. It took only 22 days, many of those even without knitting.

Julekuler

I haven't been blogging much lately, but I have been knitting. These were very quick and fun projects just before Christmas. I knitted these for my customers. It's their logos and the pattern is from the book julekuler by Arne & Carlos.

iPad sleeping bag

I needed a cover for my iPad so I knitted one in my most typical design

Torpavotter

Two pairs of Norwegian Torpavotter. I modified the pattern for my friend Marie who loves polka dots to make the pattern less blurry and I also made a traditional pair for me. These are the warmest mittens I have ever done.

Fish

The Goldfish pattern is a free Ravelry download. A fun little project for small hands.