After a busy December we finally had some quiet time in Abu Dhabi which allowed me to think ahead of the year to come. As I feel that big plans for where life may go this year are difficult to formulate at this point of time I am confident that I have a bit more control over what I would like to achieve in spinning, knitting and crocheting. I have come to the conclusion that I definitely want to work with the yarns and fibres on hand and not splurge into more shopping for a few more months. My first two projects on my needles are a pair of colourwork socks and a two-colour-brioche cowl.

First sock

Brioche cowl gray-beige

The colourwork socks are a copy of Kerstin Balke’s Soxx No. 15 from her book SoxxBook by TOPP publishing. I am knitting 56 stitches on 2.25 mm needles and have modified the heel from a gusset to my boomerang heel and used the mustard yellow as a contrast instead of the petrol in the white rhombus. The yarn used is Lang Jawoll superwash composed of 75% virgin wool with 25% Nylon and a super-soft hand. This pair of socks came about when I was visiting a yarn store to buy some knitting needles for my mother and my dad pointed out the book and a sample of these socks. The colours spoke to me and a few minutes later I bought the mustard yellow, petrol and light blue. So much for not buying more yarn….:) I love knitting them and am happy I was tempted.

The cowl is the result of many weeks of deliberating how to show-cast the wonderful squishy-ness of four balls of Mondial BiolanaFine made of 100% organic wool created in Italy. I received the two balls of gray and beige each in August and had been dreaming about knitting with them for a while. Finally, I could use some larger needles again: a 3.25 mm and have a smaller item to finish which will take a month to accomplish. It took some trial and error to arrive at this pattern. I first tried a PurlSoho pattern for a big three-color and slip stitch cowl, but noticed during swatching that one of the stitch pattern didn’t feel as soft to the touch as I would have liked. With too much of purl stitches showing at the surface the yarn took on a scratchy feel and lost its soft squishy-ness. So, I went back to look for a two-tone brioche scarf or cowl and found the Tistou cowl by Nadege Dereppe, a free pattern on Ravelry. It is a bit more difficult than a plain brioche pattern, but a challenge that I was up to. Once I understood how to read and knit the brioche pattern, especially what counts as a stitch when knitting together two (it means a stitch and a stitch and its yarn-over=brioche stitch), it became a pleasure to work on. I adjusted the stitch count to 220 as I prefer a less wide cowl and I will probably double the height to use up most of the yarn. The resulting fabric has a great structure and wonderful softness to it.

My spinning goal was an easier one to set. I liked the “Spin the bin” challenge hosted by the Completely twisted and arbitrary (CTA) group on Ravelry.com in 2017 and decided to try it again for 2018. This time entering about 12 ounces more of fibre than last year and some plans for what I want to spin for. This challenge will tackle the majority of my current fibre stash and open up opportunity for replenishing it later this year. The first two braids of alpaca fibre (Alpaca named “McDreamy”) from a farm in Saanich (Vancouver Island, BC) named Inca Dinca Do. One became a sport- to DK-weight 2-ply of 210 m/100gm (S-spun singles and Z-plied) which will be knit into a Dean Street hat by Nina Machlin Dayton to replace a hat I had knit for my husband and lost 2 years ago.

The bin to spin for 2018

First 100 gm of alpaca fibre

The second 100 gm of alpaca will be spun into a 3-ply with no planned use as of now. Depending a bit on how thin and long I manage to draft the fibre.

Last year I had started to dye some fibre and yarn and decided to start the year with a dyeing session. I had hoped to work through 150-200 gm of fibre in roving and locks and 2 x 100 gm skeins of yarn. But after 4 hours of leaning over the table to mix and apply colour I was tired and my back ached. Three colourful braids and 45 gm of Polwarth locks were the result, but no yarn.

Peacock colours on 50gm merino

This braid will be combined with some other blues for a sweater quantity

Maldivian sea

Sea colours on 50 gm merino

Ocean volcano on 45 gm BFL

Reds, some dark green and blue

Red-blue mixed on 40 gm Polwarth locks

One of the braids will be added to my blue fibres in the Spin-the-Bin 2018 collection to achieve 400 gm of fibre and a sweater quantity’s worth. The red braid may become a pair of short socks if spun thin enough. It may be a big challenge with less than 50 gm of fibre.

The biggest planning challenge was my next crochet project. I guess after 18 months working and thinking about the flower poncho and finally finishing it just before 2017 year’s end there was a big emptiness. I just couldn’t come up with any ideas on what to crochet. I knew what I didn’t want: an household item or accessories. At last a blanket was my choice and preferably with the yarns I have around. Two gradient-colour sock yarns had been added last year with some thoughts of knitting a shawl or socks with them, but nothing materialized so far. Now, the un-dyed two skeins of white sock yarn came in handy as a contrast and joining colour since I decided to sign up for a facebook group 2018 Granny Squares CAL. This group posts a new granny square pattern for every day of the year and after thinking, this may be a little crazy to crochet a square a day, I became hooked and finished four squares (without blocking) yesterday. I know I will not keep up that pace, but felt I wanted to catch up with the 20 days I missed this month.

The squares turned out to be about 8 x 8 cm square without a border (2.5 mm hook) and before assembly. If each square after joining will measure 10 x 10 cm then about 200 will be needed for a 1 m x 2 m blanket. As I do not plan to crochet every pattern that will be a great number and an interesting blanket as a result.

Thank you, for your interest in my blog. Until next time, Maike

This cardigan has been on my mind and my needles for quite a while now. The process from spinning the wool, dreaming about what it would become, receiving the pattern, swatching a little and knitting, it has been a journey of trial and errors. A great learning experience.  From the small swatch knit with a 3.5 mm needle I guessed that a 4.5 mm needle would give me the looser drape I desired for my finished garment. I know, this guessing and not knitting a test square (=swatch) is a pretty big “No No” for most knitters, but I like to knit “dangerously”. 🙂 Looking back at the pattern “The Icelandic over-blouse” – the pattern I decided to adjust for this cardigan – I knit about 18 months prior on 5 mm needles, when I reduced the all-garter stitch count by 10 for the front and back, I figured that a needle just 0.5 mm smaller would give me a similar, loosely fitting cardigan if I would add those 20 stitches in again. To enhance the look of my variegated yarn I chose stockinette for the body with a 6 stitch garter border. That changed the fabric to a less stretchy one as I found out when I was about 2/3 done with the body of the cardigan and realized the fit would be fairly tight. There wasn’t much I wanted to do about it as my yarn seemed to be scarcely enough to finish it with a decent length of sleeves. Then came the math part when I calculated where to set the markers for the sleeve increases. About 2 inches in I tried it on and all seemed wrong: the sleeves were too tight around my upper arm, the front parts were overlapping too much and the back was too tight. Unraveling was the only option and sitting, looking at the pattern and thinking where to set the markers for the next try. I learned that the markers for the front and back sleeve increase stitch need to sit a minimum of 8 stitches apart instead of only 1 to create a proper fit around the upper arm. In the end it resulted in a tighter fit around the back which I am happy with. Originally, once the sleeves were finished the cardigan would have been finished, too. But as it happens in hand-spinning the yarn was not uniformly thick and one of my garter stitch edges ended up pulling in from a few rows of noticeably thinner yarn. I was not thrilled by it and as there was some “good” amount of yarn left I thought to try an 3-stitch I-cord border. Starting at the rounded left side edge and continuing up the left front, neckline and then down the right front edge to the begin of the rounded corner. Stopping there would have been all right, but the I-cord edging would have created a dip at the transition point to the regular edge. Why not continue the edging along the bottom as there seemed to be enough yarn left to continue.

Working on the i-cord edging and liking it

..ran out of yarn 15 cm before the end

Well, my optimism often outpaces the reality in my knitting, especially, when it comes to estimates of how much yarn is left or needed. Now, the next decision needed to be made: unravel and leave only the front edge with an I-cord or find more yarn. I thought I had a small amount left aside somewhere and I started to look for the bag. Since I just had gone though a phase of re-organizing our small space and found new nooks and  corners to stash yarn and fibre I was unable to find it for at least one day.

But there it was: The bag and in it a swatch of the green yarn. My savior to finish the I-cord edging. Now, let’s see how the fit will be after washing and blocking.

In the course of searching for the extra yarn/swatch I found this beautifully dyed Manos De Uruguay extrafine merino top braid and thought it would be a great addition to my Tour de Fleece spinning,

Half of the roving split into 8 thin strips

full spindle (4 thin strips)

Single yarn wound onto bobbin

Tour de Fleece (TdF) is an online spinning event through ravelry and instagram in which people set a “winning” goal. Mine was to spin the three pencil rovings of organic cotton and to spin every day. The latter was easy and fun, but spinning the cotton challenged me and I was not too excited about the muted natural colours. The green roving was the solution and by using my Schacht spindle instead of a wheel I had a portable “to go” spin project for the days I would be travelling. It was real fun seeing the colours progress. The only downside is the colour transfer to my slightly moist fingers staining them a funny green. By the end of the TdF I had spun three skeins of cotton and about 1/3 of the green merino as singles.

Goals accomplished! The cotton skeins will most likely be knit into a small colour-work cowl, while the green merino singles are destined to be chain-plied into a 3-ply yarn. I am aiming for high-twist ply since I am planning to knit a pair of socks out of that gorgeous colour.

I wish you all happy spinning, knitting and crafting! Thank you, for joining me on my journey. Yours, Maike

Travel has been the focus of the past few weeks and in the past I regarded it as an opportunity for dedicated knitting, crocheting or spinning time. Sitting on a plane or in a car or train is perfect for uninterrupted crafting, I thought. Well, that was until I realized that the time of travel – night flights, especially, I spent sleeping – and the destination – in cities we walk a lot – does make a huge difference. Thus, finding that progress does not come as quickly as imagined. After knitting a lot of items for personal or family use it was time to invest into some charity crafting. The first opportunity came through my weekly crochet group where a few weeks ago the organizers handed out some yarn and two patterns to crochet squares for a blanket. I was excited to try new patterns and learned how to create cables and little nubs in crochet. Plus, it broadened my knowledge of crochet abbreviations. A great learning experience!

crochet squares for blanket

Mosaic pattern hat for charity

adult hat

Another opportunity to knit something for a good cause came when one of the local Meetup groups announced an “April: month of knitting for charity”. I jumped right in with some leftover, easy-care yarn and a style of knitting I wanted to try for a while: Mosaic. To create the mosaic pattern one alternates colours every two rows and only knits one colour at a time. The intricate patterns occur when some stitches are not knit but slipped from the left to the right hand needle. Creating an elongated stitch that carries the colour to the next colour change row. It looks a little like bars and lines assembled to create a graphic pattern best shown off in two strongly contrasting colours. That is an improvement to be make next time. I think I fell in love with this style of knitting and am plotting another hat or may be even a scarf to see the possibilities.

My other two projects are coming along with the crochet flower poncho on its second darker pink row nearing the neck hole opening.

Flower poncho front 2/3 done

Icelandic blouse cardigan

The “Icelandic blouse” variation cardigan knit in my hand-spun had a little “hang-up” when I tried it on for sizing after closing the shoulder seams and found it very tight around my body. As the plan is to affix two buttons to the top part it would fall quite open over the stomach area. Which I really didn’t want to pronounce that much. So, there I was deliberating my options:  1. unravel all my knitting at least three weeks worth and knit it an inch wider since I now knew I had enough yarn or 2. let it go, hope that it can be blocked another 3 inches wider – Hey, its wool! It may work! 🙂 – or think of something else. These options had to sit  with me for a while and percolate until I was comfortable to decide. At last, the seams were unraveled, four more rows were added for more ease in the sleeves and a tiny bit more length in the body. Now the shoulder seams are closed again and stitches for one sleeve have been picked up and are knit in the round with a 2-stitch decrease every 20 rows. I think I will be happy with the cardigan even if falls open on the lower part.

The cotton grown in Abu Dhabi has been all spun up and became a fingering- to sport-weight 3-ply yarn with about 40 m of length for 15 gm of cotton. It is really a very small amount, but still took some hours to finish. The most difficult part being the plying from the “turtles” of my Turkish spindle. Even though, I tried a lazy kate set-up the the singles didn’t move easily and sometimes broke. In the future I will try and wind the “turtles” onto a plying bobbin and hope that will make it a smoother experience. Now, I am happy to return the yarn to the owner of the cotton plant.

Set-up for plying the cotton

finished cotton yarn

One of the plans I made before moving to Abu Dhabi was to start dyeing my own yarn or fibre. I had taken an introduction afternoon with a friend of mine in Vancouver and purchased Greener shade dyes which moved with us last May. In July last year I had another dye-session with a friend from my local knit group using all food-dyes and learned another technique.It was a good reminder what other equipment (buckets for rinsing, vinegar for the dye-solutions, etc) I needed to acquire before I could start. The buckets – old, large yogurt containers were easy to collect – and the used microwave dedicated to yarn dyeing arrived in November last year as a gift from another fellow knitter. So, there was really no reason to not start earlier. But I was worried about potential spills or contamination of the apartment when weighing out the dyes which still contain some heavy metal components, albeit less than other brands. But before the anniversary of my arrival in the UAE came about I set a day and just started. Making the stock solutions took an surprising amount of time almost preventing me from being able to at least try them out once before the weekend arrived. I wanted to see if my Depth of shade (DOS) of 2% would work when diluted 1:2 with a 50% vinegar solution. During the preparation of the stock solutions I noticed that some of them ended up being a suspension with a bit of sediment on the bottom. My balance for weighing the powder only shows weights down to 1 gm and I knew that weighing 2 gm would not be very accurate. In the end it all did not matter that much. I do not plan on recreating colours exactly at this point of time and despite the sediment all colours diluted well with the vinegar and dyed the 40 gm of roving in a lovely rainbow. I can’t wait to spin it up and see the colours dancing along.

work station set up

last rinse in cold water with a little vinegar

rainbow-dyed merino roving

Thank you, for following along my crafting and travels for the past year! Maike