Good yarn

Take a look at these gorgeous knitting images. They are part of "A good yarn" project - a yarn store that has more than just yarn.
I was not sure which image to choose for the last-day-of-July post but this one is too funny.

Useful

My collection of favorite knitting blogs is growing - take a look at the right-side bar!!!
One of them, is Lime & Violet a great resource ran by 2 great women (Miss Lime and Miss Violet). In their blog (which is only a tiny part of the whole project) they post useful and interesting knitting-related information. Today it was this:

As it turns out they found the chart on Label-free blog - another useful resource, this time for those who like to sew. Go and check both blogs and do not forget to get Lime & Violet button.

Knitters'

No knitting pictures today. I am a very very slow knitter these days. However I picked up a copy of Knitters' magazine couple of days ago.

They have shawl patterns as well as an article by my favorite Cat Bordhi about sock knitting (what else). The issue also features several nice summer tops and since I am too chicken to knit a big sweater, a nice top or cardigan could be a fun project.
Here are some of my favorite designs. I will appreciate any suggestion and colour changes:





To see all the designs from this issue of Knitters' click here. You can also browse through past issues to find a model you like.

And I can not not show you a beautiful sock pattern by Cat Bordhi:

They are called "Spring Thaw Socks" and it seems like they are made of snow, first spring leaves, and snowdrops.

It is quite obvious that all the images in this post are taken from Knitters' website.

Contest

I LOVE knitting community (all those people behind blogs and Ravelry profiles). It seems to be a very friendly, helpful, and entertaining bunch full of stories, photographs, FOs, stash, yarn give-aways, and contests. Just today I left a comment with a question on Monika's blog and got a detailed answer via email in a matter of minutes!

Yarn contests seem to be big in the knitting world. No wonder - who can resist an addition to the stash collection? For the yarn-addicts here is a contest from Knit Witch and Amia yarn store:

Just click on the image or HERE to read the instructions.

Good luck to all of you!

Addition to my stash

July has been busy .... busy with work, trip to Toronto, meeting friends, and knitting. It was also busy with discovering new yarn stores and getting additions to my stash. If you are looking for a place to get a lot of different yarn you have to go to Toronto's Romni Wools.

I have read several reviews about the store. I also seen this picture on their website. I was expecting a big place but felt like it would be more of a warehouse and that I would not like it there. One thing for sure, the place is HUGE. It is the biggest yarn store I have seen so far. And yes, it has a bit of a warehouse-ish ambiance, but hey, they have SO much yarn that it is hard not to look like a warehouse. By the way, apart form different yarn they also carry a great selection of needles and hooks by different producers.

Seeing this colour/texture explosion I almost broke down in tears (now I know how my sister feels when she walks into an art-supply store, and why Urgwen becomes "not quite her usual self" in the bead stores). I felt overwhelmed by the beauty and shear amount of yarn. I could have not walked out without purchasing at least something, so here is my small addition to the stash:


This is a beautiful sock yarn from Araucania. I will admit that the colour combination is not my first choice but since I have been stuck on blues recently I let my sister pick the colour and she fell for this one. I doubt I would be making socks with this, I can envision a beautiful scarf or maybe a pair of warm mittens. The colour of this yarn is 501 and here you can see all the subtle details of it.

Romni Wools has the greatest selection of sock yarn. I wanted some darker and earthy colours and found this:


I am struggling to figure out the name of this one. I know it is German but would like to know how it is called.

And finally, I could have not walked away from the gorgeous Fleece Artist Suri Blue (the colourway is called Dandelion). It will be definitely turned into a shawl some time soon.


If you want to see other colours Fleece Artist makes this site has a beautiful collection with all the names.

Don't you wish you slipperS WERE hot like mine?

I finally have a finished project to share with you. Now I have 2 sexy slippers – “woot woot woot” - like my sister would say.


It took me a while to finish the second slipper, probably because I was dreading the knitting of ties. Remember, I made a mistake when knitting the ties of the first slipper and it made my knitting life so much more difficult. I did not want the second slipper look any different so I purposefully knitted the ties in a wrong fashion. But now, all of this is behind and I am enjoying my super-warm Twinkletoes.


There are a couple of mistakes (they are all on the sole so it would not be noticeable), also the second slipper is slightly looser at the back – this is what happens when you wait too long before completing the project.


And what would look nice with these slippers? A pair of matching socks. Here is a beginning of “Cablenet” in Regia #5769. I am very excited to attempt this rather difficult pattern. I would not stress myself with knitting it fast – it would be one of those “knit a bit when feel like it” projects.


Since I am sharing my progress here is how the felted purse looks like:


It is growing pretty fast and I am excited about felting it. By the way, is it me or felting is super popular today? While in Toronto I saw Toronto Outdoors Art Expo and was amazed to see several stands with felted purses. I also noticed felted items in different clothes/accessories stores. I better hurry up to learn this technique if I want to stay “cool”.

Do you <3 socks as I <3 them?

I was browsing through endless knit blogs and stumbled upon these beauties:





Meet Cookie A.
I think these socks are divine and should be worn instead of shoes for some special occasions. Go to the website and check out other sock beauties.

How far is Toronto?

Here is Palette on my way there:


And this is what I brought home last night:


I did not knit all the time while on the bus but I am happy with the progress made.
The pattern for Palette comes from one of back-issues of Knitty. I decided to experiment with yarn and used a skein of Noro(S185) sock-yarn I've picked up at Mouline Yarns.

The picture comes from THIS German website.
And HERE you can find another gorgeous picture of the yarn

Originally I was thinking of making socks, something like this beauty by The Loopy Ewe. At the same time I wanted a fun project that would be easy enough to knit on the bus, yet challenging to prevent me from dozing off. This lacy scarf proved to be ideal.

Toronto - the city of yarn and honey.

I am in Toronto and I have big plans for the weekend, specially for tomorrow: I will be having a yarn-storethon. We (my sister and I) will start with Kensington market and the one and only Lettuce Knit. After, we will be heading to the Queen street for The Knit Cafe and Romni Wools (they are having 20% off on some of their yarns!). Thank you, Angela, for your suggestion.

While in Montreal I was busy with the The Print O' The Wave Stole. Here is what it looks like for now:


I can already see the design of the stole. Can not wait to block it and see the yarn "bloom".

And this is my crochet project. I am really happy with the yarn - it is easy to work with and it makes a rather random pattern.


Time to get some rest before tomorrow's yarn-storethon.

Ravelry and errata

I discovered Ravelry. After giving it just a quick glance I understand why most of the knitting (and as it turns out not only knitting) people are using it. I will try to dedicate a separate blog post to Ravelry, for now I just want to share a piece of important information I found. Remember my Reverse Psockology socks?
It turns out there is an errata for the pattern. As Anne Pattigrew, the creator of this pattern, mentions on her blog:

it is difficult to get the holes formed by the yarn-overs the same size
because of the transition between knit and purl stitches

I remember noticing it when working on my pair but I did not know if it was "normal" or if it happened because of my uneven knitting style, after all it was my first pair of socks.
For those of you who are working on these, here you can find a different version of the lacy pattern.

In my defense ....

Members of the court,

it is not a defense that I present to you. I am not in any way seeking to escape the reprisals of the knitting society in general and lace knitting society in particular for the mistake that I had made. I wish merely to give you an explanation of my acts and to tell you how I was led to perform it.

I have been a lace knitter for a very short period of time. I started knitting lace on the 28th day of June, 2008. Since that day, my life had changed dramatically. Everywhere I went, I saw lace patterns emerging in front of my eyes, I dreamed about lace, researched on lace-knitting, and spend every free minute of my time knitting lace. I would like to point your attention to the fact that lace knitting is addictive and that I was never warned about it. In fact, to prevent further incidents, I think that all products related to lace-knitting should bear a warning about it's addictive properties (similar to the warnings on the cigarette packages). As a previous smoker, I can also assure you that knitting is highly more addictive than smoking, which in turn is more addictive than such drugs as cocaine and heroine.

My previous statement informed you about an unhappy experience with lacy shawl, that took place on the 2nd day of July, 2008. This incident did not diminish my enthusiasm for the lace-knitting and I began a new lace project: the Print O' The Wave Stole on the same day.
Previously, I had purchased 2 skeins of Alpaca yarn and this small fact can not be neglected. The presence of the second skein is the sole reason to why I did not rip out the swatch for the shawl, and kept looking at it, while working on the stole. I would like you to take in consideration the fact that the purchase of 2 skeins was not premeditative, thus I could not be held responsible for keeping the first swatch.

At this point I was completely impaired by the addictive properties of the lace-knitting. The image of the pattern haunted me, I had visions of the lacy pattern not only in my sleep but in the middle of day. My inability to see the resemblance between the swatch and the original picture caused even more distress. Here is Exhibit A, the blocked shawl swatch that caused me so much distress:


Although I was intoxicated by the lace-knitting, I was able to recognize my mistakes. The recognition happened at the moment of scrolling through the lace-knitting tutorial by Eunny. I fully understood the wrongness of committed lace blocking when I saw the following diagram (Exhibit B, diagram of trinagular-shaped shawl knitting, as depicted in the tutorial):

When I looked at the star and followed directions of the arrows I felt very very stupid. I would like you to take in consideration the fact that I realized my mistake of not blocking the swatch correctly. The shawl pattern started with 5-stitch row which I assumed to be the bottom of the triangular. I also earlier confessed to attributing "shawl is knitted from top down" instructions as a typo, and hope that it would diminish my punishment.

Here is a side-by-side look at the same swatch, blocked differently (Exhibit C):















I hope that this comparison will make you understand the frustration I experienced throughout this whole process. As it could be seen, the incorrectly-blocked swatch (depicted on the right) has a slight hint of the pattern, which causes a great trouble to the novice lace-knitter. Moreover, the horizontal position of the needles makes it counterintuitive to block the swatch in any other way.

In conclusion, I would like to say that several outlined reasons (my inexperience, addictive nature of the lace-knitting, possession of the second skein, and the needles themselves) should definitely be considered when determining my future fate as a lace-knitter. Meanwhile, I would keep this shawl swatch as a constant reminder of the foolish mistakes I made:

Lacy links

For those of you who are learning to knit lace, here are 4 tutorials from Eunny:

Introduction to majoring in lace
Yarn and needle choices
The structure of lace
Cast ons for lace knitting

Happy lace knitting!

Defeated

There are no knitting news today. I slightly advanced on my second slipper and a bit on my new project but I did not even take pictures of the progress. Reason?

LACE

I started knitting lace and the last 2 days have been spend decoding ssk, k2sp, and k2tog(s). Inspired by my own post about the alpaca yarn, I decided to get back to my shawl, ripped down whatever I had knitted earlier, and started fresh with a 5-stitch chain.

- After the first 13 rows I had a light suspicion that the shawl did not look like what it should be

- After the 30th row, the annoying voice in my head told me to stop but I convinced it that I should keep going and that the pattern will miraculously emerge (I believe in miracles, I really do, even after last night!)

- After the 64th row I started panicking, wet the swatch, tried to pin it down, failed miserably, stretched it and looked at it from every possible angle to see the glimpses of the design.

- After yet another hour spend meditating on my swatch I said:
(I don’t think I should write down what I said, because there might be children reading this) and began looking for another …. lace pattern (did I mention before that I am very stubborn? Wait a minute; let me put it in my profile description).

- By 2 AM I learned how to do invisible cast on (KnittingHelp video), did it 2 times (again, I’ll omit everything I was saying and mumbling at that time) and knitted first 3 rows of this gorgeous stole, by Eunny.

Oh wait, there was also an incident with scissors but do not worry, everyone is alive and in good health.

Today’s plan for the evening: knit the first rows of the stole. G-d, give me strength and patience.



Meanwhile, I would have to admire the work of others, like this gorgeous Turquoise Lace made by The Daily Purl (click on the image to see the original post):


If you like knitting, weaving, and beautiful photography - visiting her blog is a must!