Sharpening my tools

I'm enrolled as a Sock Warrior, and the last week has been spent frantically knitting the socks to "kill" my victim. Finished the pair yesterday. I'm using Tofutsies yarn for the first time, and although I found it prone to splitting when I first started, i've really come to like this yarn! It's thinner than the sock yarn I normally use, but it looks good, and the colours are really pretty. Here's a pic for you to see!














Apart from socks, I'm making good progress on the Shaped Triangle shawl from A Gathering of Lace. I'm using Celestial Merino from Tradewind Design.
















The yarn is variegated, so the details aren't that visible in the pics, but hopefully it will look good once the shawl is completed.

Easter fun

Finally got time for some serious knitting! I'm almost finished with the Honeycomb Lacy Baby Blanket, in good time for the baby due in May. Hopefully the recipients will like it as much as I do! The yarn is Filatura Di Crosa Wave, which I got from Sofies Garn og Bymøbler in Oslo. It's fairly expensive, so if I ever decide to knit this blanket again, I'd choose a less pricey yarn. I'll have to buy another ball to finish it, so the total cost for this blanket is close to NOK 500. But it will make a nice gift that hopefully will be appreciated.















And at last I got round to knitting a pair of socks for myself, from a pattern I've been eyeing for some time. It's the Queen of Cups from Knitty's spring 2007 issue. The first sock is now completed, and it was a real joy to knit.

















The latest yarn purchases include a selection of yarns I scored at the Guanako clearance sale. Two balls of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, three small hanks of Debbie Bliss Pure Silk, and three balls of Kidsilk Haze in a lovely brown colour. The KSH is going to be a shawl I think, and the Baby Cashmerino will make some nice baby socks :-)

Moths around a light bulb

My Luna Moth is done, and what a difference the blocking made! I wasn't sure it would be big enough, but it's turned out great. The measurements are approx. 170 cm by 90 cm. Slightly smaller than the original pattern, but I think it's a nice size. The 100 gram hank of yarn was plenty, with even a bit of yarn left over.

Christmas bag of yarny goodness

Been crazy busy at work lately, with lots of hours overtime, so I'm a bit behind posting to my blog! Just a short notice to let you see these pics of the X-mas goodie bag from my aunt! It's packed full of lovely yarn from PT plus a hank of unspun wool for felting. Nice bright colours too. A couple of skeins of turqouise in different shades, some orange and a lovely dark brown.

Although I have been busy, I've got some knitting done too. The Luna Moth Shawl is finished and waiting to be blocked (strange how I don't seem to find the time to do it???), and all the pieces of a baby cardie to be sewn up...still need to knit th button bands and add crochet edging to it. Bought some really cute horse-shaped buttons to go with it.





Spring is getting near, but it's still cold in the mornings, and I wanted a pair of wrist warmers. Bought some yarn off a seller at Etsy, and decided to have a go at designing a pair of my own. The yarn is multi-coloured in different shades of red, yellow and orange. Got the first one done with a bit of tweaking along the way, and started working on the second, totally forgetting that all humans have a right and a left hand...so now I have 1.5 wrist warmers, both left-handed...forgot to make the thumb-hole on the other side!

New year, new knitting!

I haven't updated this blog for ages 'cause I've been so busy moving in with the new BF...Now live in a nice apartment in central Oslo. It's been a hectic couple of months settling in, and preparing for celebrating Christmas together. We spent X-mas Eve and X-mas day with my mother and grandparents, and had his parents come down and spend New Year's with us. Since they live 10 hours away, they stayed until Jan.2. We had six guests over for New Year's Eve and had a wonderful three course meal! I got to play hostess, which was fun, if it wasn't for the cleaning up afterwards... Heh, I've become really homesy over the last months, baking and cooking and doing my best to impress my new MIL... She's really sweet.

And I'm going to become an auntie in May! I've already knitted a few baby items; a lace bonnet and some socks. Recently started a baby cardie as well. The parents to be don't wish to know the sex of the baby, so I've been making the items in off-white to match both sexes. It's knit from Lanett baby wool in a simple moss stitch pattern that alternates rows of moss stitch with garter stitch in a nice diamond -shaped pattern.

I've joined the Shawl yarn club at Strikk Innom, and the first package consisted of a lovely laceweight yarn in silk and merino wool from Zen Yarn Garden. The lovely lady from Strikk Innom had also added pattern suggestions to go with the yarn. I instantly fell for the Luna Moth Shawl from Elann. It's knit from the top down, and since you start with the center stitches and increase outward, you don't have to cast on a million stitches, which is a relief as I always get the wrong stitch count... I've chosen to go down a few needle sizes and knit the shawl on size 3.5mm circs to make a denser fabric. The lace pattern is still very defined.

Knitting resolutions for the new year:

• Entrelac. Printed out a few patterns to try and learn this t echnique


• Colourwork


• Mitered knitting. I've been replacing bedtime stories with the Mason-Dixon book lately, and the BF commented on a colourful bedthrow made from mitered squares. Would look really cool wouldn't it? It's a lot of squares...


• More socks

And finally, pics! A few FO's, and the shawl in progress.