My socks are DONE!

The second sock is done!
I am now the proud owner of a pair of homeknit - by me - socks.
The project for my dad - well forget it. He appearently hates knit stuff - cant stand to touch it. Also the yarn never arrived - wonder where it is? I am guessing some postal worker hoped it was sexy underwear hehe.. He must have gotten mighty disappointed. I hope it will arrive
though, as DP would LOVE a pair of homeknit socks so..
Anyway here they are



For the heel then I used the method described in the recent Interweave Knits - where you dont wrap the stitch but use a yarn over method. The first sock had some pretty big holes but this second one is better looking. I made sure to tighten the yarn more and payed more attention to detail. When I knit the first sock I was pretty sure I would not use this method again - now I am not so sure anymore. I think the second heel turned out pretty ok. Only with a tiny hole..

My first adult sock (not socks yet)

I finished a sock. A real adult sock in real sockyarn and on real 2,5 mm sockneedles! I hardly remember when I cast it on anymore. A week ago? Have had so much other stuff to think about recently..
The pattern is from the new Interweave Knits and they are knit toe-up. I am not too happy about the heel. I think it is filled with holes - dont see how any professional knitter can be satisfied with that (the method was recommended in IK). I will be using the same method for the second sock, but next pair I will be back to either using a wrap-and-turn method or the traditional turn-heel-and-pick-up-stitches method..
Anyway here it is - the yarn is OPAL "herbstmelodie"

My next project wont be to make that second sock. BAAAD I know.. But my dad turns 60 in 10 days time so I am hoping I have time to finish a pair of socks for him.. but it will be a race against time so...

Socks for DD too

Yep - finished yet a pair of childrens socks. These are for DD - fit her perfectly.

The yarn is the same as for the socks for DS - the post below. I just dyed it pink..

Its all about socks

I must be going nuts. Recently I have found myself waking up in the middle of the night obsessing over sockyarn. That is absolutely stupid as I havent even ever knit a pair of adult socks - with sockyarn - yet.. But obviously it is of great importance that I start a pair of adult socks ASAP. I ordered a set of Addi dpns size 2,5 mm - and am waiting impatiently for them to arrive so I can start. Till then I settle for other socks. Just finished these for DS:

Not impressive - I know, but DS gets a pair of socks, I get some sock-practice - plus I get points in the stashgame for a finished FO and a skein of yarn down. The yarn was cheap by the way. I think it is Smart from Sandness. I found it in a LYS in a basket - no tags on it or anything so they sold for around 6 kroner/1$ a skein. I still have one of those skeins left, but dyed it pink to make a pair of socks for DD too. Will try out a boomerang-heel when I get that far..

Superquick Babysocks

Needed a babyjacket-break. Got a tip on a pair of super fast babysocks, so thought my son could use some scrap-yarn babysocks/booties. The pattern is here: Superquick babysocks
They were indeed fast. Will probably make more of these to kill off more Colinette Skye scraps. This is Colinette Skye colorway Popsicle:

Inbetween FO's - Calculations-low

Goodness - I KNEW I shouldnt have done that! I started calculating - and the results are demotivating at best..
Ok - I timed how long it took me to knit 1 cm on the fingering weight yarn babyjacket that I am working on. It took me 20 minutes. Then I started calculating. I already knit 18 cms of it - meaning so far it has taken me around 6 hours at the very least - not counting the time it took me to knit the first 10 cm sample - then realise my gauge was off - then frogging the lot and starting over. Then casting on the sleeve - then realising I cast on the wrong number of sts and frogging again and casting on again. - But well - all that is behind me. The scary path is the one in front of me.
I still have roughly 90 cms left to knit (it is knit from front to sleeve - then over the back - the other sleeve and then to the other front) - meaning I have around 30 hours of knitting still left to do on that jacket. - And that is concentrated knitting - that is not halfhearted knitting while watching telly or chit-chatting or whatever..
So if I knit one hour a day - just on that project - it will take me a month to finish. If I knit - concentrated knitting - 3 hours a day on that project - then it will still take me 10 days - to finish..
Oh and for the curious - then I also calculated that each centimeter consists of around 500 stitches. That means I already knit around 9000 stitches. I still have around 45000 stitches left to knit - and the entire jacket will consist of approximately 54000 stitches..
Can I get dizzy now?

The Alpaca babyrib (the 2nd) is done!

So I admit that fingerprotector was pretty silly.. Sorry about that..
Now I finally have something real to show. I finished the ribbed alpaca babytop. It took me around a week altogether. Here it is - two different pics. Mostly because my son is so darned cute that he deserves an extra pic - but also because the first pic shows the color best, while the second shows the entire top without cutting off the buttom:


And then - well I cant give you the pattern or even a link to it as it is copyrightprotected and not available in English. (well hardly even available online.. sigh..) - but I can give you a detailed pic of the sleeve detail - as well as mention that it is knit flat from the top down until after the sleeve stitches are bound off, then the front and back are knit separate until after the raglan increases - then the rest is knit in the round.

Oh - and the yarn - gotta talk about the yarn. It is Drops Alpaca in color 7323 (it looks blue in that last pic but the first picture shows the color better - it is actually a blend of light and darker dusty green fibres. Lovely wool - available in some really sweet colors. They also have a huge number of patterns available for this wool on their website www.garnstudio.com - free even :D

New "unvention" - a balloon fingerprotector

Yeah - I know - this is silly. But my index got so sore from touching the tip of the needle and from moving and holding the yarn all the time. I tried a piece of band-aid but it kept sticking to the yarn and eventually when i took it off my fingers were filled with yucky sticky stuff that I couldnt wash off. So here it is - the amazing BALLOON FINGERPROTECTOR!
Well actually it is just the tip of a "long" balloon that I cut off - but it works :) Hehe - I wonder if the stash game awards bonuspoints for silly ideas.. Now that I cant seem to knit fast enough to keep up with everyone else..

The stashgame has started - and some thoughts about patterns..

Most of my planned stashgame projects are on the needles and I would like to finish at least some of them before I cast on new stuff.
I am working mainly on two projects right now - a ribbed alpaca babytop and a babyjacket in OPAL. I think a couple of pics are appropriate. Here is my alpaca babytop - using the Baby i Rib pattern from Designclub.dk -a very weird name as they dont even have a website- their patterns are practically impossible to come by. They are only sold by a few shops - and even fewer webshops. And only in a paper version - and only if you buy yarn at the same time - and only in Danish.. Sigh - some people just dont want to make money. No wonder some people feel tempted to violate the copyright law and ask a friend for a copy. Not saying it is a good thing to do - only saying it is very tempting when it takes so much effort and so much money to get hold of the original pattern.. -
Oh - sorry about that.. I was going to show the top I am working on.. here it is:

The second thing I am working on at the moment is a babyjacket from a Drops pattern available (free) here: Drops Babyjacket
Here it is:


As you see I have only knit a few centimeters yet - so still a looong way to go - especially considering it is knit on needles 2,5 mm. - Dont know why but recently I find that I really like working on these small needles. I hate the extra time it takes, but I love the feel of the small needles and the non-bulky look and feel.. Also for babythings it seems more appropriate to use the thinner yarn. Enough - the baby is asleep so I better grab some needles..

Entering stash game - and AN FO!!!

Can you even believe it - I made an FO! I am mighty proud of myself.. I used the recently homedyed yarn to knit my son a pair of Wondershorts to go on top of his cloth diapers. I admit that I had some problems getting the diamondshaped crotch to look even, but I really like the 3-dimensional way it is shaped. Apart from that an easy knit. I plan to make my daughter some too and my oldest son liked them so much that he wants some now too.. We'll see when I ever get around to it..
Anyway - here they are - the finished and homedyed Wondershorties. They are quite big on my baby but he will grow to fit..

My sons - the youngest wearing his new Wondershorties/capris

And then there is the stash game. I entered a game where I am supposed to use up as much as possible from my yarn stash within the next 6 weeks - starting tomorrow. So come and cheer - I really need to finish up some of those UFOs..