Are you a sock-knitter who knits on the bus, in the car, in line-ups or anywhere when there is a spare moment? Do you carry your knitting with you wherever you go and notice the needles slipping out of the knitting? Then this is the product you want to try and be delighted by the cute designs.
My friend Janka in Australia and owner of ThedaThreads on Etsy has created these fabulous, leather DPN-covers. She started to make coin purses, handbags and shopping bags with playful and fun designs. To help a fellow sock knitter with her needles falling out during transport, poking through my project bags and sometimes pricking my skin – Signature Needle Arts DPNs have stiletto points and are very sharp! – she designed these two cute and practical DPN-needle protectors. They measure 24 cm by 5 cm from edge to edge and fit a set of needles up to 20 cm length.
I was so excited to receive them that I wanted to try their practicality right away. Plus, I had been working on a number of knit, crochet and spin-projects since the beginning of the year that all seem to take a lot of time to finish. So, an easy, fast pair of socks would just fit my need to have finally something to show in less than a month time. My yarn stash is slowly thinning, but a half ball of sock yarn was quickly found and is now on my needles.
knitting needles aligned to be packed
Slide needles and top of knitting into protector
Fasten the press buttons
The DPN protector made of sturdy, but flexible leather not only prevents the needles from sticking out, it helps keeping my knitting organised and the needles in the stitches. Being flat makes for easy packing into project bags and the extra 2 cm of leather can be folded over if a smaller space (e.g. my purse) may require it.
The photos above show how easily the knitting is put away in three little steps or removed when work commences. The fasteners work really well and close tightly. Little hearts add a bit of beauty to the protectors and give me a little, happy jolt every time I see them. The black, structured leather surface reminiscent of snake skin adds to the classy look of my new tools. I love them so much another pair socks will be on the needles as soon as possible.
January 2017 already passed and I wondered where the time has gone. Looking at world politics big changes are afoot and worry about humankind’s future are creeping into my mind. I find refuge and happiness in crafting and sharing my excitement about knitting and spinning with anyone who asks. Despite, knitting at least a few rows every day and of late some spinning at my wheel I find I have no finished object to show for all the work. Certainly, it has to do with the size of items I am working on and the preparations to get to the production stage. Plus, living life with family and friends gets me easily distracted. My expectations to have something ready-to-wear or use to show may be heightened by my online following of some fellow craftspeople who I admire for their lively video-blogs and amazing line of finished items to show every week or two. The most prolific and fastest knitter is Mina of the Knittingexpat-Podcast. I love listening to her adventures in sock knitting, designing her own patterns fro scarves, socks, hats and baby garments intertwined with her life journey from the UK to expat life in the Miiddle East and now New York. Not surprisingly one of her published patterns the Pinwheel scrap blanket is one big item I am knitting on.
6 skeins to wind into balls
8 colours: ready!
First pinwheel square
1 month = five squares
It all started with my mental review of knitting, spinning and crocheting of 2016 and thinking of what I really enjoyed. I realized that I wanted to spin more for sweaters or big scarves and feel less “obliged” to work through my store-bought yarns. One result was the decision to unravel a scarf and use the yarns for a different purpose. May be, socks. The other to let my crochet flower poncho hibernate for now. My motivation to continue was already dampened by realizing that the colour distribution I had chosen would not work the way I imagined. Reducing stash works best with a knit or crochet – the latter may have been the wiser decision to reduce my yarns quicker – blanket. It can easily take thousands of meters of fingering weight yarn, but does need patience and endurance to finish. In my excitement to use all garter stitch and being totally motivated I assumed I would have at least 12 squares by now and may be closer to assembling. It being a bit colder in Abu Dhabi these days makes thinking of having a snugly blanket to wrap around me (most apartments have air-conditioning, but no heating unless you count the oven in the kitchen) an exciting thought. Still, with knitting 5 squares I realized that my knitting speed is only half of what Mina manages: 40 instead of 20 minutes for each of the 8 segments to create a square. On top of that there was the winding of 6 x 400 m skeins of yarn into balls/cakes which took me about 5 hours and weaving in 16 ends per square for the 8 colours which takes another half hour or so. At least I can account for about 34 hours of preparation and knitting in January towards a blanket.
The podcaster who most likely moved me from a knitting focused approach into a start with planning, spinning and then using my yarns for an envisioned garment or accessory is Rachel of Wool n’ spinning or Welfordpurls.com. She lives close to Vancouver, our hometown in BC, and is the most inspiring teacher in her videos and blogs. Even though she spins a lot and fast, too, knowing that she has a family and very limited time every day, she still manages to work on knit and crochet projects which feature her hand-spun yarns. Her blog is the “treat” of my week and I try to listen to it with either knitting or spinning at hand and paying close attention. This blog and seeing my friend Uta of Justquilts spin for a sweater quantity of fibre last September lead to this green marbled yarn.
4 Skeins of blue-green hand-spun
DK weight all ready to knit
The skeins had been wound into cakes/balls to knit early in January to be put aside to think some more about a suitable pattern. After my first intention to use the “Garter stitch swingy sweater” pattern by slinkimalinki I was disappointed that the pattern did not print out properly and I would have to sit next to a computer to knit it. Reflecting on previous sweater construction I remembered how I knit Elizabeth Zimmermann’s “Icelandic overblouse” with only 800 m of DK-worsted weight yarn. The pattern uses a double-increase to form a short sleeve while at the same time creating a shoulder seam. Unfortunately, the pattern is part of her book “Knit one, knit all” which I left in storage in Canada.
EZ’s Icelandic overblouse
Now, it was up to my memory to create the increases. A small swatch was made, a mini jacket so to speak, before the call to participate in a test knit for a cardigan came my way and stopped further planning for knitting with my hand-spun.This opportunity was too good to pass and the remainder of my knitting time has been spent on knitting in a fingering weight on 3.5 mm needles. The test knit put me a bit into a tight spot with regards to finding a suitable yarn in my stash. I had bought a sweater’s quantity worth of Holst Coast yarn in November at WetCoastWools – the third video podcast I am following – but the yarn seemed a bit too thin to be knit with a 3.5 mm needle and yield the required gauge. Into the stash I went to find some sock or fingering weight yarn. In the past I picked up many a single skein of sock yarn when traveling and all in different colours. Luckily, my taste trends towards blue, purple and red and after some digging I found three blues that looked about the same thickness and would make a nice striped version of the cardigan.
Holst Coast yarn for future sweater
Three shades of blue for Abu Dhabi Soft testknit
Since the pattern “Abu Dhabi soft” by Meiju Knits is still in the test stage I can’t post any photos of my progress and will do so in a later post. I had hoped that knitting the cardigan would be fast, but with a couple of hundred stitches for each row and almost 200 rows from shoulder to hem it takes a while to knit. Plus, there is the pattern to pay attention to and figuring out if it works when knit as written. Which is the entire purpose of a test knit to see if the written instructions are complete, correct and making sense to any knitter. It has been fun and I hope to be done latest by the end of February as the deadline is early March. To ensure this all will happen as planned I had confined myself to those two projects for the first 28 days and none finished to show for it! This is a bit depressing when I watch the WetCoastwools video podcast with Glenda and Bernadette showing multiple finished items every two weeks. Besides them knitting faster them me, the only other explanation I have, is the fact that they can use bulkier yarns and knit smaller items – who wants to wear a woolen hat in Abu Dhabi?. In any case, it is inspiring to see the yarns and patterns they are discovering and broadens my horizon on what is out there. Without those video, audio (Sweetgeorgiayarns has a great one!) podcasts and blogs I would feel cut off from the creative world out there and back home. It is such a great community!
On New Years Day we planned a relaxing day and decided to catch the last day (or so we thought) of the Sheik Zayed Heritage Festival in the Al Wathba Endurance Village. It is located nearby the camel race track and can be reached by car or with a free shuttle bus from Abu Dhabi’s central bus station in Al Wahda which leaves every hour on the hour. In the meantime we have learned that the festival has been extended until January 21st which gives us and everyone an opportunity to visit (again).
Entrance to the endurance village
Since we arrived relatively early, shortly after the festival started for the day, some areas were still being set up. We walked by one of the heritage craft areas where spinning, weaving and working with palm leaves just started to begin. So, our first visit was to the UAE stores which were lined up in tents and small stalls close by. We found clothing, coffee, baked goods,sweets, dates, camel yarn and locally made spindles to be used for spinning the fibres of the region.
Spindles used by local spinners
camel yarn
The camel yarn felt fairly rough and scratchy and is usually woven into mats or tent fabric. When woven tightly it yields a sturdy fabric which not only provides shade from the sun but shelter from the wind as well. Very useful when living in the open desert or close to the coast where the wind can blow steadily on many days. The spindles are a basic wooden top-whorl design and are being used as supported and a drop spindle. The wares were lovingly displayed in hand-woven palm leave baskets which I start to really like and might explore purchasing if I can ascertain that they were woven locally and not outsourced to another country. The next area we were drawn to was a heritage exhibit showcasing the traditional Bedouin Ayala dance (that is closest description I could find) and nearby a weaving of palm fronds for mats and of the twisting of palm fiber for the ropes binding the fronds together. Both were works performed by men. I have seen the mats used inside traditional mud and stone houses as floor covers and outside as roofs and walls for a more temporary shelter.
twisting of rope from fibres
weaving of mats
Ayala bedouin dance
There were many more areas to visit: many Middle Eastern, African and Asian countries were represented with small shops selling their local crafts, arts and foods. A stage close by allowed for occasional traditional dances of the represented region. We saw the military marching band walk by, but missed the Arabian horse show and the fireworks later in the evening.
Drafting the fibre from a distaff
spinning the yarn
My most memorable activity was a meeting with a lady who spun her own yarn from her own sheep’s fleece. She invited me to sit in her area and take pictures of her craft. I showed her my mini spindle I had been using to spin some lace-weight Cheviot and she was curious, but found it not practical for her fibre. At one point two young photographers came by to take photos of her spinning and I asked for some translation: The spinner asked me what I used my yarn for (knitting and garments) and I asked where I could find some local sheep wool to buy. Unfortunately, those were her sheep’s fleeces and not for sale. She was very kind to gift me two small amounts of her natural white and dyed orange fibre which I spun up the same evening with my mini turtle-made spindle. I was so excited about my first spinning with local fibre – particularly after reading an article in the Winter 2017 Spin Off magazine about spinning and designing into the fibre shed.
fibre from Abu Dhabi sheep
single
playing bracelet
After spinning the white fibre without any preparation from the lock I realized that it was difficult to draft and needed a high twist to hold together. At the same time lots of fibre ends were sticking out making the final “yarn” even more scratchy. So, the orange fibre I prepped by carding it into small rolags from which I spun a more woolen yarn. Overall the orange yarn looked more organized with fewer ends sticking out, but still felt scratchy, albeit a little less.
carding into tiny rolags
single-ply from carded fibre
I decided to try for a two-ply to yield a more balanced yarn and ended up with approximately 3 meters of the natural and the orange colour. After this spin I understand why the Emirati lady thought spinning for lace is not for her: The resulting yarn feels more like rope and is best used for weaving of mats or table runners. I am still excited that I had a chance to try local fibre in my spinning and will continue to look to buy or barter some to play with it a bit in the future. These mini skeins will most likely be woven into a very small square.
two-ply
finished mini skein
It was an auspicious beginning of 2017!
May you have wonderful experiences this year! Happy crafting and exploring! Thank you, for reading my blog. Maike
My plan to post shortly after our return from travels was delayed by a good 14 days thanks to Spinzilla: “a monster of a spin event”. This event is organized by the National Needlearts Association’s (TNNA) Spinning and Weaving Group and a lot of fun. The goal is to keep one week free of all activities to spin the largest amount possible. There are teams with up to 25 members and rogue spinners who compete for a mention as the most prolific spinner. Seeing the winner in the rogue category spinning more than 20,000 yards in one week I am amazed and now know that it was a good idea to spin rogue (by myself) for my first try. I had planned to join TeamGeorgia in Vancouver remotely, but may have not been such a good support with my 2,935 yards in one week. I seriously want to work on my speed. Some pointers like select and prepare all your fiber before the spinning week starts and decline any activities for 7 days I took lightly. Not touching my email (besides one or two important ones) or any housework worked really well, but there is a limit on how much I will neglect time spent with my husband and exploring Abu Dhabi. I planned for that by having one spindle-spun project to work on in the car or while waiting, but deciding on my Turkish lace spindle made for slower progress than working with a larger one. I think that theory will be tested for next year.
fiber selection
spinning wheels ready to go
Let me guide you through my process. The basic plan was to reduce my stash and have an idea (before spinning) what to make out of the yarn. I had just returned from an amazing two days at my friend’s house in Germany and saw her gorgeous three-ply yarn built out of hues of yellow with white and a green. Seeing those different fibers and colours of the singles combined to create a beautifully interesting looking yarn made me want to be a bit more relaxed and adventurous about my yarn and allow my intuition and creativity to go beyond my usual “planned” colours. Plus, I realized that with a lot of spinning I might be able to end up with enough for a sweater. That would be a first for me, too!
Kinfolk fibre Corriedale “Midnight in the Garden”
spun with Kristanmacintyre Corriedale “Indigo”
Since my three braids of roving from Kinfolk Yarn and Fibre added up to about 340 gm of fiber and a sweater would most likely need at least around 400 – 450 gm I decided to add 30 gm of light blue Falkland fiber and 50 gm of a white-blue indigo dyed Corriedale fiber by Kristan MacIntyre. This decision happened on the evening before Spinzilla started and there was no time to blend the fibres by carding. So I thought “Why not try combination drafting?” Rachel Smith described it in her blog Welfordpurls and it did not sound too difficult. Knowing that I was ignoring the fact that drafting of two different fibres will not go smoothly or as consistently as a properly carded blend.
light blue Falkland with “Lydia, seller of purple” BFL
..and the resulting single
My finished yarn was to be a 3-ply created by plying together my three different colours of combination drafted singles. Before spinning I split all three rovings into half and then halfed them again to spin a quarter of the original onto a bobbin of my Victoria Louet travel wheel. Each of the three single bobbins held about 50-60% of its capacity making it the perfect amount to be plied onto my Majacraft Suzie Pro bobbin.
Abalone Corriedale with indigo Corriedale
My “greenest” single
Singles were S-spun and Z-plied. I set my Louet to 1:8 for the singles and the Suzie to 1:10 for the plying. Resulting in a slightly overtwisted yarn before finishing it with a hot-cold-hot rinse cycle and a thorough snap before drying. Once dried the yarn was balanced and amazed me with an overall blue-green first impression dotted with interesting highlights of light blue, purple and light green. A small sample turned out to look quite green, but it only showcases about 10 m of the yarn. Other parts have areas where blues dominate.
First skein
test knit sample with 3.5 mm
The heathered effect shows well in the knit sample on 3.5 mm needles and yields a dense, but still soft fabric. During Spinzilla 568m in 3 skeins were spun. The fourth skein with 165m was finished in the following weeks resulting in 733m of a DK-weight yarn. Just enough to knit a version of the Garter stitch swingy sweater by Jenn Pellerin. I will swatch in garter stitch to see if I like the look of my yarn or I may need to either adapt the pattern.
Garter stitch swingy sweater knit by slinkymalinki on Ravelry
In the past two weeks I finished a baby hat (no photo as it was gifted right away), the knit-along scarf and my Stormwatch sweater.
Knit-Along scarf after blocking
Stormwatch sweater during blocking
I will try and post a better photo of the sweater in another post. It looks funny with the skinny sleeves on the blocking board but fits well hugging the arms and swings around my body.
Since my last post in July, where I was writing about projects in the making, not much has been finished. Some not being in my control, for example : this knit-along shawl. I have finished all I can knit as per emailed out instructions, but will leave it be until the 5th pattern shows up in my mailbox. I am sure it can be a quick finish then.
Four lace patterns done – one more to goI could “cheat” and just knit the 5th pattern since I test-knit all of them earlier this year, but I feel it is better for me to wait and knit along with everyone else. Especially, when there may be questions popping up. I find it easier to answer while immersed in the process than weeks later.
The shawl I started with the variegated Blue Moon “Socks that rock” yarn combined with a Regia sock wool came along well during my visit in Germany and could have been finished if I had liked the current size. For a while I couldn’t make up my mind if it was big enough and then decided a week ago that with my impending travel back to Munich/Erding next week I have the great chance to buy another ball or two of the Regia sock yarn at Sopie Braun’s Haus der Handarbeit and continue knitting the burgundy edge. At this point it is only about one inch deep and I think the colours look more balanced with at least two inches of the darker colour.
The second knit project I took on the trip is almost done. Really, there is only the last task of adding some eyes and a nose to this cute, little lamb. It probably could pass as a bunny, too, with its droopy ears and small tail. As much as I am happy with the outcome this time again I find that the knitted fabric shows a little the stuffing inside. I noticed this with my baby toy balls as well and thought it might be fixed with a tighter gauge. May be, I need to go down more than 1 mm in needle size?
Little lamb in a cabled jumper.
Panda fibre from SGY and turtle-spun skein
Once I arrived back in Abu Dhabi the Panda fibre was laid aside and the yak-silk fibre I had sampled during Tour de Fleece was spun. I had decided that to showcast the beautiful colours a long gradient would be best. Which meant that I needed to prepare the fibre. First it was split lengthwise into three strands of roving. Then the first one was seprated after each colour into shorter pieces. The pieces were sorted from fuchsia to blue to purple and spun into a thin single with a ratio of 1:10. The second strand was prepared the same way to yield a lace-weight to fingering weight 2-ply yarn. I was trying for a worsted spin, but the fibre was tending to fly away and didn’t draft consistently after the manipulation. I found it easiest to work with a short backward draft.
Yak-silk in the braid
separated into colours
First single
Thanks to Wetcoastwools video blog I was bitten by the sweater knitting bug. Glenda and Bernadette have been showing the most amazing sweaters and cardigans they were knitting during the summer and talking about how much they wish it would be fall or winter to be able to wear their new pieces. That was so inspiring that I pulled out a project I had swatched for in 2015 and then put aside to clear some stash before moving. It is the Stormwatch sweater by Holly Yeoh which was started on August 31st with Filisilk yarn (70% Merin, 30% Seide) by Atelier Zitron. I would describe the colour as coral red with a very slight yellow undertone. This yarn is thinner than the recommended sock-yarn in the pattern, but knits up with the same gauge and will be more suitable for our warm Arabian climate. The oversized fit will allow a lot of airflow which I come to appreciate since moving here.
4 inches of the back
Lace pattern with good-memories computer stitch marker
The very last and most recent craft is a crochet poncho made of 156 flowers. This beautiful, lacy crochet top pattern came to me as a birthday gift and paired with a pretty fuchsia-coloured cotton yarn to get started right away. The pattern called for a few more balls and I found the perfect complementing colours at Greenbranch Trading in downtown Abu Dhabi.
Poncho pattern
Colour gradient
First ten flowers
I have to admit that this pattern is way more challenging than I thought. It is a case of reading the instructions, thinking “Oh, this seems easy enough and I am sure I can modify it to not have so much sewing to do” and then being taught by trial and error that it is not. For some reason I was expecting to be able to crochet one flower and continue to the next one without breaking the yarn. With a little bit of thought I could have figured out that it is impossible when crocheting from the middle out. So, there is a thread to be sewn in at the beginning of each flower and at the end. Multiplied by 156 flowers. Yikes! How could I? When I don’t like the non-crocheting part of the work? It turned out to be ok as I am hiding the threads after each flower while working along and thinking of a dear friend that makes it all so much easier. The other learning experience was that I do not as easily understand the written crochet instructions and am heavily relying on the photograph and the chart. In knitting I can work from either one, but not for crochet. I ended up ribbing back and crocheting each of the three rounds three and more times until I was satisfied that I had the result I was expecting. Since my first flower took over an hour to finish I am happy to report that I am down to about 15-20 minutes per flower. A much better speed to finish the final garment before the year is over. I may even be so lucky to use fewer flowers as I find that my first row chain of 10 is quite long already and I like the poncho to cover my shoulders and upper arms, but not down to the wrists. It will be an interesting journey.
This will be my last post from Vancouver and it has been a tender, joyful and sometimes sad journey towards our moving day. Knowing which day it will be and seeing the time trickling away some activities intensify while others fall aside – for a little while – until we arrive in our new home in Abu Dhabi. My husband has worked hard at two jobs at once: his paid daytime profession and on his days off on organizing all the permits, papers and housing which needs to be in place before he can ask to sponsor me. I am amazed to see how in a short 5 weeks he was able to get his IDs, rent an apartment and organize my joining flight. We will be living on the high floor close to the beach and with views over the expanse of a canal and some desert sands to Yas Island.
The city centre of Abu Dhabi flanked by the Corniche with its beaches and promenade is located on Abu Dhabi island and it takes about 30 minutes by car to reach from our new home. But we have everything we need in walking distance in our small community: a grocery store, dry cleaner, restaurants, a German Doener Kebab – this makes me smile as Doener Kebab is not a German dish, but still found everywhere in German cities -, cafes and a pharmacy. Our building provides an air-conditioned gym which we need to burn some calories in the summer months. We have been told it will be so hot outside from June to September that we will not be able to walk even the shortest distance. This is still unfathomable to us.
While I am all excited to finally arrive there in about two weeks time I am working on dissolving our current home. Moving and going through all of our possessions baffles me every time. It is the collected amount of all things small that make a move arduous. Every piece of paper just chucked into a stack over the past 15 years needs to be evaluated: still needed or discard? How many pens can one amass in a house? I found more than a hundred in various locations, some hidden in drawers and many in holders on every counter. Most “collected” from hotels we stayed at on our travels. And the list goes on. As the moving out date gets closer sorting through will fall by the wayside and all not sorted will go into storage to greet us in a few years. With the big furniture items sold or ready to be moved to storage an end is in sight and excitement is building.
My memories of this Vancouver spring are of flowers popping up everywhere I look:
lily of the valley from Renate’s garden
pink cherry blossom “snow”
Crabapple or cherry tree?
pink dogwood flowers
lily of the valley from Y’s garden
The variations of pinks and whites reminded me of the Knit-Along-Shawl I test knit for my friend Uta. If you feel like knitting a lightweight, airy shawl perfect for a slightly cooler summer evening the German patterns are ready to be released every few weeks starting in June. Check out the information here.
The previous Monday was the last “fun fibre art day” I allowed myself to spent with friends. I was invited to Monique’s studio to learn how to dye fibre and yarn. When Y and I arrived everything was already set up on two big tables: The floors and the tables were covered with towels, papers and wrap to protect from any dye splatter. Lots of freedom to be creative and not too worried about messing up other surfaces. We worked with Ciba dyes ready to go in a stock solution which made the process safer as we were not inhaling any pigment particles. First came the preparation of the wool in a cold water soak with vinegar and a little soap. Sitting in this solution the fibre is given time to absorb water and be completely wet. Air bubbles will lead to lesser dye pigment absorption and lighter or no colour. Which happened to this roving of Texel lamb fibre. Despite soaking for an hour and squishing out air bubbles, once the fibre was lifted out, it dried almost immediately in some spots. But it still turned out gorgeous.
Light purple on the right side (outside) shows the effect of air in the fibre.
We learned to let silk soak for a maximum of 30 minutes as it is more reactive with the vinegar and changes its smooth and lustrous character. We prepared our dyeing station with microwave-able plastic wrap: two parallel layers to hold the “long sides” of our skeins and two short at the end to wrap the “ends” once the colour had been applied. Making sure the dye had contact with all the yarn – checking the bottom by lifting it helps – we were ready to wrap it up and heat it in the microwave for a few minutes. Checking after each heating cycle if the dye had been exhausted. Being me and liking to plan ahead I used mostly blue, red and purple, my favourite colours, with the most adventurous being a green by combining turquoise with yellow.
I love the results and am totally excited to try it by myself with my Greener Shade dyes in Abu Dhabi. May be, even striving to be more daring like my friend Y who created these amazing skeins:
Juggling between life’s daily demands and planning the final details of our move requires a lot of decisions. Every item in our house I touch – and I swear: there are hundreds if not thousands of them! – needs to be evaluated: Do we move it? Do we keep and store it? Do we recycle it? It takes a lot of time and that is becoming scarcer every day. Nevertheless, I make an effort to carve out a few minutes here and there to see friends and knit or spin. But I noticed that my drive and focus for crafting something more complicated has been lost. Back to the basics with knitting the occasional sock – and in the past 7 days – knit and felted mini bowls to keep my hands busy and keeping my mind at ease.
The pink-purple striped socks hand-dyed by White Birch Fibre Arts turned out beautifully with the stripes matching up. I weighed my yarn after finishing to see if there would be enough for a second pair and realized I can make them about two stripes longer in the cuff as I only used 43 gm of the 100 gm skein.
The double stripe of purple around the ankle was caused by using all the pink to knit my German short-row heel. The plan is to keep the width of all stripes the same in my next pair.
The mini knit-felted bowls can be used for holding jewellery or as a coaster for mugs. They work really well as a soap dish, too, as the wool absorbs the moisture of the soap bar and does not attach to the softened soap. Preventing all that “gunk” that collects in porcelain or ceramic soap dishes. They are easy knitting in the round on 4 mm DPNs and fast: One is usually done within an hour – almost instant gratification!
15 mini bowls in 7 days
I love to use felt-able wool yarns – no super wash!- with long colour changes. The top seven bowls were knit in Noro Kureopatora col. 1009 in blue, purple, white and green. Each turns out a little different depending on where in the colour change the knitting starts. Sometimes I use some of my small skeins of hand-spun samples mixed in with some commercial yarns as well. The three bowls on the right of the second row were created with a blue-purple hand carded blend and a crepe yarn spun during my class with Diana Twiss in March. The five red-orange bowls were knit from a squishy (discontinued) yarn “Nashua hand knits Wooly stripes” gifted to me by my friend Y, an inspiring story-teller through the media of crafts and words.
Now, that I have come close to knitting as many mini bowls as I wanted to knit and running almost out of the Noro yarn the question of “What will be my next project?” swirls through my mind. Usually, there would be plenty of answers to that, but in the awareness that most of my yarns have either been packed to be moved or to be stored, there are limited options available. It basically comes down to these three:
Each has its own merit: the socks are small and portable and therefore ideal for carrying around everywhere in my purse, but not that exciting as I just finished one pair. And who really wants to knit the same item twice?
The Channa sweater is the most exciting for me to anticipate to knit and since it will be created in Katia Linen it is a great piece to be worn in our new home town. As I was curious to see if I can get gauge I set out to make a swatch. The 3.5 mm needles give me exactly the stitch count of 22 stitches/10 cm (4 inches) – yes! The row count is off by 6 rows which can be compensated for by recalculating some of the directions. I am looking forward to start, but am holding back as I am not sure that I will have the focus and time to finish it in three weeks.
gauge swatch in Indigo with 3.5 mm needles
tiles for Bear’s rainbow blanket
colour difference outer row of top tile the one below
The blanket is one of my Unfinished Objects or UFOs that was started a while ago – the exact time eludes me – to finish up some left-over Lion Brand Cotton Ease yarn. I had about 1 and a half balls of the grey-brown in my stash and thought that it would be enough to frame about 24 to 30 colour rounds for a small blanket. After 6 squares I realized that my assumption was way too optimistic and I needed more of the same colour. Off to my yarn store Wetcoastwools I went to find that the exact dye lot was no longer available. The new dye lot was a little darker which is almost impossible to see in the photos (the outside of the top square was crocheted with the darker colour), but quite visible for me. I discussed my dilemma with Glenda and thought that changing the last outside row on all squares to the darker grey would even it out. Frustrated that I needed to unravel and crochet the outside of six completed squares – into the bag it went waiting for a better time (with more motivation). That time may be now since it would relieve me of “stash” I would not need to move or store. And another idea how to use the different dye lots has formed in the meantime: I will crochet nine squares completely with the lighter grey colour and use them in the middle of the blanket and the remaining ones in the darker colour. Only one row needs to be unravelled and I can move forward hoping to crochet one to two squares each day. It looks as if I could finish it before we move and most exciting: once done I can start the sweater I am really desiring to knit.
Today, I am starting my long-planned blog about how knitting, spinning and crafting keeps me balanced and sane while life goes on and travels keep me exploring the world.
Today marks day 68 of waiting for a work and residence visa for the United Arab Emirates for my husband. This is, as we read and heard, not unusual. The process from start to finish can take up to 6 months. We had hoped it would happen earlier than later and were all hyped-up about moving our apartment into storage and started cleaning excess “stuff” right away. Now, we have reached a point where more packing or recycling will start to reduce the comfort of our day-to-day life. This is a funny point to be at: stuck in the moment and not able to move forward.
Since the actual date remains unknown I began to take up my regular activities: knitting, spinning, going to knit group, yoga and seeing friends. Ah, and not to forget my part-time work as a pharmacist. This keeps me in the moment and from fretting about the future.
Recently I started a few new knits and currently, I am working on a canted 3/4 sleeve shirt/sweater for myself. It was designed by Mari Chiba and published in the Knitscene 10th anniversary issue. I think I fell in love with the stunning colour first and then with the unique design elements. When I found the perfect color – Lady in Red – hand-dyed in Kamloops, BC by smith and ewe in my favourite Vancouver yarn store WetCoastWools the project was a “go”. This despite my current “no more yarn buying”-rule. But what can I do when something this beautiful calls out to me? 🙂 The knitting will need some blocking to show off the full length and I-cord borders.
Since the sweater has grown too big to be carried in my purse I have started a baby cardigan designed by Susan B Anderson for Spud & Chloe named the “Hello baby cardigan”.
My plan is to blog once a week. Hope to see you then!
beecosydesign 