from sketch to wash

You might think the above is not a very exciting picture but for me it is.  I had a great time at my art group today.  Usually I just do sketching, but today when I opened up my somewhat abandoned sketch pad, I discovered where I left off last time – namely a sketch of my stash of knitting yarn.  This is the photo I sketched from——-           I really enjoyed doing the sketch and carefully labelling each ball of yarn.  I’m not quite sure when I took the photo or when I did the sketch – not all that long ago but certainly pre-move because the table is now on its way to Seattle.  The project on the needles on the left is now a skirt waiting to be pressed.  The project on the right is almost up to the armholes.

Last night I went to a very interesting art exhibition, and I was particularly struck by the pen and wash work of one of the artists.  So when I opened up the sketchbook this morning, I thought aha – that’s what I’m going to do today with the sketch.  You might think I didn’t make much progress this morning but it was a big step for me to mix the colours and apply the brush.  I’m eager to continue.

Thanksgiving is all over but the leftovers, which will be no chore to consume. It was truly a feast of food and family. The little twin grandnephews had inexplicably become four years old instead of three since last Christmas. How did that happen? It is so much easier to measure time, I think, when you are in the company of children. They grow so fast. And they have such a sense of style. One of them had purposely put his jeans on backwards. Why? So that his sword would fit more easily into his belt loops, of course!

We decided to deep fry a turkey, but the fryer can accommodate only up to a 14-lb turkey, and we didn’t think that size would be big enough to feed everyone. We roasted a 19-lb one as well. Like I said, leftovers. Truly, they were both delicious, but that fried one was a bit more moist. Everything went smoothly, and the things I forgot to do were minimal– I forgot to prepare the asparagus, and I didn’t make gravy. Nobody noticed. We used my mother-in-law’s sister’s late husband’s first wife’s first wedding china that we were given mostly, I think, because no one else wanted it. I think it is beautiful, though, and the set is complete except for the broken gravy boat (and since I forgot to make the gravy anyway…. serendipity!).

After the feast , some of us put the inevitable puzzle together while others of us watched football, read books about how to talk like a pirate, and played with Grendel.

Then each of the three children insisted I teach them to spin, followed by their father, who wasn’t so bad for the first try. What gorgeous results! (Does this remind you of your first spinning?)

The preparations and festivities made me forget all about this, the newest incarnation of the Shoulder, which I still do not like. The I-cord is too 3-dimensional, and I don’t like the seam running down the middle of the motif. I think I’ll try again. More pie should help.

I haven’t knitted in ages. These socks were finished sometime this fall. The yarn is The Unique Sheep’s  Tinsel Toes in the colorway Spiced Apple. Very fitting for this time of the year, no?

The pattern came from a blog but I’ve misplaced my printed pattern, can’t seem to locate the pdf and my googlefu is failing me miserably. I’d like to give credit where it’s due so help me out. What pattern is this? It’s a cleancut two by two zig zag rib and I think the eye of partridge heel was my addition. Maybe it’ll come to me…

Here are some of my souvenirs from Vancouver. Fleece Artist Nova socks and Hand Maiden Casbah (colorway Hemlock). Not even intended for knitting yet, just admiring. I think all pretty yarns should be put on layaway for a while so you can decide on a pattern and cause worthy of it.

Not a lot of light around. I can feel the hibernation mode coming on. I’m ready to be snowed in!

Smudge cat came to our house last year after Christmas and was so sick the first two weeks she lived with us she was never out with the tree….

Laptop sweater

Because clearly I have way too much time on my hands.  Dark purple does not photograph well, but on the cover are Latinized runic characters, spelling out “Bob” — yup, the laptop has a name.

Knitted lining, in pink …

Backside of the laptop case, in a deep teal yarn.  A silly project, but a good way to use up odds and ends.  I believe I already mentioned the problem of having too much time to waste …

I won the most beautiful hat from Camilla from Bloom.   I can not tell you how warm and wonderful this hat is! There are no words.

She not only hand-spun every bit of yarn of course she knitted it as well.
She did a whole series on dying and spinning. She is Norwegian and she currently lives in Montana. She is a fantastic photographer as well. Please go visit her, you won’t be disappointed!

Thank you Camilla you have just made me week!!
I have had this warm hat on for hours~ I don’t want to take it off, so cozy!

Spagetti warm woolen hat~ thank you Camilla!!

I will be wearing this when I take my 3 girls (doggies) out for their morning walk!!

It’s true! I mean, I’m also epic amounts of behind; I’m at about 35000, last I checked. My plan is to do 7k each at the Saturday and Sunday write-in, thus leaving me only 1000 to write on Monday, the 30th! Probably I will work on it a bunch today as well, just to tip myself over. To all of you saying-nay on my 7k in a day goal, I totally did it on the Write Dangerously night, so you can just act like a horse and nay yourself!

The telephone-interviewing job is going… well? Well, it’s going, anyway. I thought for sure I was going to drop out after a week, but then I got a check and it remembered why I was doing this anyway. So far I’ve been scolded for doing sudoku at my desk, and written up for not clarifying that the 0-10 scale is bad=0, great=10. When has it ever been any other way? If I were giving a survey on, say, how much people loved squids, I wouldn’t give them a 0-10 scale where 0 is ‘love them like an arterie in one of my own three hearts’ and 10 is ‘let’s nuke the ocean to get rid of them’. It doesn’t make sense! Ten is greater than zero! Anyway, anyway, the work is unbelievably boring and simple, but everybody I work with is really nice, and I can workk pretty much whenever, so it’ll do until I can find a better job. (Truthfully, the thing I hate most about this job is that it doesn’t matter if I try hard or try hardly. In fact, we’re supposed to underpreform so we don’t complete the quota ahead of schedule. So instead of dialing consistently, which would at keep me a little busy, I have to be really slow at it.) (Also, I suppose I need to change my sub-header. ‘For Love, For Poetry, For Unsatisfying Employment!’ perhaps?)

Thanksgiving! Oh, Thanksgiving was alright. It was just my mom, me, and Carl (who sat back and played Portal while I made pie, which I was totally fine with. Because Portal! Still my favorite game ever!). I made pumpkin pie ith a pecan strusel. And… yup, I guess that’s it. (Considering how the Stoeber Family Thanksgivings usually go- and remind me to tell those stories someday- this was pretty nice and low-key. Not sure what my Dad did.)

Oh! Speaking of what a terrible bummer family holidays are with this family, my grandma called and told me that for the gift exchange thing we do, I got her and she got me. Same as last year. Which meant that they forgot to put me into the drawing, same as last year. Probably I will make a token apperance and then come back home for some cuddle-by-the-fire-place-and-knit-action. (I think my sister’s going to be in town for Christmas, so I may in fact disappear altogether for a while).

Knitting action indeed: I bought a bunch of yarn today (on sale thanks to Black Friday, which I think sounds way too sinister to be just a shopping holiday). I’m going to make snazzy entrelac scarves for my dad and my friend Paul, who I think will appreciate it. First, however, I really have to finish my Rose Tyler Scarf, which I have had the tools/yarn for since the summer. Today! This is what I work on. Carl is heading out to Kentucky for wedding (I was supposed to go with, but I have NaNo duties to attend to), so I have a ton of Jenna-time to devote to knitting, and also Psychonauts because that is happening too.

To the needles!

-Jenna

In the picture, the scarf is long enough to wrap around my neck three times.

My first time using Malabrigo. Now I know what everyone’s raving about. It is pure pleasure knitting with this yarn. Which made knitting this scarf go quickly.

I also liked the colour changes.

I bought these “slippers” at a church in Copenhagen today,  they had a Christmas arrangement with coffee, cakes and other home-made things for sale.  I’m pretty sure the money spend went for a good course, but I never found out what it was… Anyway these pretty shoes did only cost me 30kr (Danish kroner) witch is about 6 dollars. What a bargain, huh?

I am obsessed with knitted goods these days, my step-mum -who has amazing knitting-skills, is creating the most beautiful tiny baby clothes for our two lucky new family members. These kids are already spoiled before they are even born ..  (for those who don’t know -my sister Sigga and I are both having babies at the same time)

Note: The Christmas fun continues at the church tomorrow, if you are interested, this is the place.

The last few days have been busy “crafty” days.  I have two finished objects to share.

Another dishcloth finished.  This is the second cloth to go along with the Christmas tree I finished a few days ago.  I’m casting on today for a stocking cloth to finish the set.

Reindeer Cloth

I’ve had the beads and findings to make a scissor fob for weeks but just couldn’t find the time to give it a go.  This tutorial was really easy to follow.  This one is for my cross-stitch scissors.  The heart charm at the end is engraved with “made with love ♥”.

And last . . . here’s the “one on the way” work in progress.  The Ribbed Baby Jacket is finished except for the seaming.

Baby Ribbed Jacket

The acrylic yarn is rolling so much on the edges.  Blocking it out has helped a bit so that the seaming might no be such a chore.  I really don’t like to seam, but sometimes it’s necessary.  Hopefully, I’ll get it seamed, add the button (still haven’t really decided on a button) and have it finished this weekend.

That’s it for now.  I need to warm up some turkey and ham and potatoes and have lunch.  I LOVE Thanksgiving leftovers!

Hope you have a nice day and thanks for visiting!

I promised photos of my messy knitting house

we have, knitting pattern and pencil on top of knitting bag, trailing tape measure to 3 blocking boards with kiddy owls and more pattern paper.

then we have the other side of the room  we have yarn, a zip removed from the hoodie that’s on the sofa, more yarn, another knitting bag…

I didn’t photograph the dining room the day I decided to line my gloves with fleece… I recently got given my grandma’s sewing machine and I’m definitely stil a novice sewer, so there were false starts, endless bits of paper… they’re done except for the tacking in of the lining

The Navy blue owlet that I knitted above (largest baby size) was given away whilst we were away. I don’t have the photos as they’re on my dad’s camera, kids definitely pull off the cute in knitwear look though. I was close to giving up knitting before that-well close to giving up garment knitting. I finished the cardigan for my dad and gave it to him. I’d blocked the bottom similar size to the chest forgetting I’d allowed for tapering of  torso, so it flared out (mind you bad posture is part to blame too) so, it’s an OK cardi that’s OK to wear at home, but…

Although I’ve picked up all the stitches for the change to my cardi, I haven’t as yet done anything. Took up sock knitting instead… Oh and since then I’ve bought myself a petrol greenyblue sweater and I am concerned I’ll be greened out (the contrast colour I went for is kingfisher tealy greenyblue)

Let me finish this whiney entry with a funny oops moment. I was preparing the 3 sweaters for blocking. I’d soaked them in hand washing stuff, then put them in the machine for a rinse and gentle spin (most of my handknits get this treatment, even elizabeth zimmermann recommends it!). I’d left time tight before my afternoon nap time. Blocked the first sweater, get to the second green one and BIG HOLE. Somehow I hadn’t case off on stitch and it had laddered down the neck. Picked it back up but not secured it yet! Glad I blocked and washed before giving it away, I can sort this but…

Not long after I posted the pictures of my finshed Liesl my mum sent me an email saying she really liked it and would like to have one. I offered to buy and send her a copy of the pattern. She replied that actually she wanted someone to knit her one. So I agreed to do it for Christmas.

So Mum’s not actually going to be surprised when she opens her christmas present (although if I manage to finish it and get it in the post on time, that will be unusual and quite a surprise!). I am trying to keep the yarn and colour a little bit of a secret though. If you’re on ravelry and want a sneak peak, click here.

The other new project I cast on for in the last week are Glenna’s 14 Karat socks. I haven’t been able to get a photo because I’m currently leaving for work in the dark and getting home in the dark. I might take my old camera to work with me tomorrow. I’m knitting the socks toe-up and decided to knit a plain toe. So far so good and the pattern is a great combination of interest and repetition. I’m coming up to the heel soon and will have to do a little bit of thinking there about how to fit it in.

I’ve also started a new spinning project. I’m planning a sock pattern for both handspun yarn and hand-dyed yarn. I’m spinning up some of my superwash merino/seacell to use. I did a little test skein at the guild meeting on Saturday to make sure I got the thickness of the singles right for the yarn I want.

This is the colouway I’m spinning – ‘Scarpantoni’

And so far it looks like this

Yesterday was Thanksgiving Day in the US which means turkey and dressing and all the trimmings. This tradition requires an insane amount of cooking, most of it necessitating an oven. Fortunately, yesterday was also the first cold day we have had this fall. Somehow, you don’t mind having the oven on all day when it is cold out.

The whole family got involved in the preparations for the meal. Everyone ooohed and aaahhed over the lovely turkey that I cooked. The meal was served on the good china and flatware. Everything was just like a scene from Norman Rockwell – except for the fact that we spent the day in our fleece pajamas. Only Hubs, who had to make the Cliff Huxtable run to the store for that missing ingredient, got dressed yesterday.

After all the cooking and eating was done, we settled down to the only sensible way to spend an afternoon – knitting and a movie or two. I am wondering if sedation is a side effect of turkey overdose. The kids didn’t even argue over which movie to watch. I was one of the nicest days we have had in ages.

Now for the important question – what do you knit on a cold and lazy Thanksgiving Day afternoon? Why a wrap, of course!

Arwen Wrap to be exact.

My latest design is a wrap worthy of Arwen. The scallops in the border echo the hilt of the sword of her beloved. The lacy body reflects the peaceful elven beauty of her Rivendell home.

Despite its complicated look, the wrap is quick to knit due to the larger yarn and large needles. The wrap is knit in the positively dreamy Valley Yarns Northfield from WEBS. The 70% Merino/20% Baby Alpaca/10% Silk yarn is outrageously soft, has fantastic stitch definition but, at the same time, provides excellent drape – all the features you want in a wrap. This color is Chestnut – a deep, orangey brown that surprised me with its color depth. I don’t generally like browns but I am head-over-heels for this color.

Obviously, that wrap is not the one I worked on yesterday since it is quite complete. The one I am currently knitting is in Watercress – a deep rich green that should transition well into spring and early summer. It is a bit crowded on the needle since I am knitting both halves at once. The color is richer in person.

The rectangular wrap is knit in two identical pieces and then grafted together at the center. Pattern contains full written and charted instructions. The pattern is available as a download from Ravelry and in print version from my etsy store.

$7.00

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Jag kommer inte riktigt ihåg när jag bestämde att sticka den tröja, kanske fanns tanken i huvudet redan vid första ögonkastet. Jag tyckte om både flätat mönstret och färg.  Däremot längden kändes inte riktigt rätt för mig – så fick jag räkna om antalet varv för att anpassa tröjan efter mina mått. Dessutom använde jag inte originalgarnet – Rowan Cocoon, utan ersätt det med GarnStudios Alaska.

Det var ett helt nöje att sticka denna modell – stora stickor gjorde så att arbetet gick väldigt fort och flätamönstret bidrog till att det inte var trist under processen. Den enda som var lite förvirrande var ärmarna – jag fick sy dem om några gånger innan jag fick dem att sitta på rätt plast. Föruttom att jag förlängde tröjan lite gran ändrade jag också antal maskor i okfläta: det blev 4 maskor vid varje kant och 3 maskor till varje del av flätan.

Nu är Stockport en av mina favorita tröjor som jag bara älskar att ha på och som känns jättemysig och varm. Perfekt kombination av bekvämlighet och fint design, tycker jag

Påbörjad: 28 oktober 2009

Stickad klart: 8 november 2009

Mönster: Stockport by Sarah Hatton från Rowan 46

Garn: Alaska från GarnStudio – 9 nystan i farg – 54 lila mix, köpta hos Yll oTyll

Stickor: 5 och 6

meine schwester liebt alles möglichst bunt. und ich möchte ihr ein paar fingerhandschuhe stricken. beim wolle suchen bin ich bei diesen tollen zauberbällen gelandet und habe sie mir im www.wollmobil.ch bestellt.

heute sind sie angekommen, und sie sehen in natura noch viel besser aus! ich kann es kaum erwarten,  sie zu verstricken.

Right on the heels of finishing Jessica, the Whirligig shrug took over my knitting world. I began to get visions of an embroidered motif on the back. Hearts and sunshine were constant images that came up.  The sun burned through the brightest. Yes, its a green sun, but a sun non the less.

Overall I loved the organic texture of this yarn, though it may have been just a little bit too bulky for a baby sweater.

Hope everyone is having a good holiday weekend.

Namaste

seit den bretagne-ferien bin ich wieder mal im strickfieber.  zur zeit haben es mir fingerhandschuhe angetan.

ich stricke gerade meine ersten handschuhe nach dem buch “Handschuhe stricken. Ganz einfach in der neuen Stufenstricktechnik” von veronika hug.

bei dieser technik beginnt man mit den fingern und arbeitet sich hinunter zum handgelenk. so schwierig ist es nicht, aber halt schon ein gefriemel.

sie sollten eigentlich heute abend fertig werden.

die wolle für die nächsten liegt schon bereit.

I knitted the Ringwood hat for Matt’s dad in 3 days!  That is my fastest project completion to date!  The Ringwood hat really came out lovely, and I wish I had taken pictures but it wasn’t possible.  I took a picture on Matt’s cellphone of them both and he is wearing the hat–maybe I’ll post it…we’ll see.

Given the fantastically frightful winds here in Chicago, I’ve been on a scarf hunt lately. But I figured, rather than buying simple scarves that I could make myself, why not go ahead and make them? So here’s four scarves, two of which are for myself, and two of which are for my lovely Lolita mentor.

I’ve been trying to incorporate more pastels into my winter wardrobe, so I made two long ruffly scarves for myself in pink and baby blue:

Of course the two scarves for my Loli mentor are going to be presents, so I won’t post them here until after she’s gotten them ^.^

All of the scarves were made with one skein of Red Heart Baby Clouds yarn. The pink skein was 2 ounces larger than the blue skein, so the scarf came out super long, but I love it!

Hope you enjoy!

Black Friday, fun for some, torture for others!  Many of you will be hitting the malls for Christmas shopping this year for all the bargains you can find while others will be staying at home surfing the net.

This year, why not make it a hand made holiday and purchase items that are created from true inspiration, that are one of a kind and are simply unique!

Here are a few of my favorites this year…..

In the Fiber Related World:

NH Knitting Mama

On The Round

JL Yarnworks

Spring Tree Road

Wind Rose Fiber Studio

Black Trillium

Valerie’s Gallery

Woolcrazy

Black Mustard

AmyGaines

Others I love and can’t resist:

CinLynn Boutique

DeshawnMarie

Mad Bird

Designs of the Heart

Mamacateyes

Misobel

kNotes for kNitters

My Attic’s Treasures

Enjoy your day and be safe out there!