Pripreme, 3. deo / Preparations, Part 3

Apart from being two atheists celebrating two Christmases, this year we're having two Christmas trees as well :) An old, boring one, trimmed in red and gold (I'm showing you just a detail because I can't get far enough to take a photo of the whole tree),



and a new, modern one in red and silver.



A not so eco-friendly project for which we needed a branch and a metallic spray paint. OK, we used old newspapers for the stars and that's, unfortunately, the only green thing about this project. I hope we'll at least save it for next year.

Sorry about the crappy photos, both trees look much better in real life, especially with light shining onto the little disco balls and projecting tiny dots of light all over the walls and the ceiling. We used a torch (that's flashlight for Americans and Canadians) hidden at the base of the tree for that. And because the disco balls are so small, they move in the circulating air and so the tiny stars twinkle all the time. It's magical!

As for the woven paper stars, the tutorial can be found here, at Houserevivals blog.

Pripreme, 2. deo / Preparations, Part 2

U ovom delu, 2 ekološka venčića.

In this part, 2 eco-friendly wreaths.

Jedan je napravljen od ostataka prethodnih projekata ("ostosa", kako bi bensedinart rekla :) ) - pletenica je bila neuspeli pokušaj pravljenja drški za jednu tašnu, crveni cvetovi su trebali da budu ukras na nekoj drugoj tašni ali ih na kraju nisam upotrebila - praktično jedino što sam naheklala baš za ovaj venac jesu 2 listića imele (po uputstvima iz 100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet).

One is made from odds and ends I had lying around from previous projects - the braid was an unsuccessful experiment in bag handles, the red flowers were meant to be an embellishment on another bag but were not eventually used. Practically the only thing I made specifically for this wreath are the mistletoe leaves (from 100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet).





A drugi je Springtime Wreath Lucy of Attic 24 koji je, kao što se vidi i iz imena i iz izgleda, više pristaje za neko drugo godišnje doba, ali nema veze. Koristićemo ga i za Uskrs :)

The second is Springtime Wreath by Lucy of Attic 24, which is, as you can see both from its name and its looks, more appropriate for a different season, but so what? We'll use it for Easter too :)

Pripreme, 1. deo / Preparations, Part 1

Ja sam od onih koji ne veruju u Božić ali volim sve što je u vezi s njim: atmosferu, jelku, ukrase, kolače, poklone... I to toliko da ga slavimo čak dva puta: jednom po gregorijanskom, a drugi put po julijanskom kalendaru :) Za jednog ateistu - malo li je? Ove godine sam čak uspela da napravim i poneki ukras.

I don't believe in Christmas but I like everything related to it: the atmosphere, the tree, decorations, cookies, presents... And I like all this so much that we actually celebrate it twice: first by Gregorian (Western) calendar, and then by Julian (Eastern orthodox) calendar :) And all this coming from an atheist, lol! This year I even managed to make a few decorations.



Ovi Dropsovi podmetači za sveće (je l' zna kako se na crkvenoj sveći zove onaj obruč koji služi da spreči da vam vosak kaplje na ruku?) su mi zapali za oko još prošle godine. Vrlo su jednostavni i brzo se prave. Uputstva su data i za veliki i za mali podmetač.

These bobèches (I had to look up the word - it's a ring placed around a candle to catch the drippings) by Drops caught my eye last year. They're very simple and very quick. The pattern includes instructions for both a large and a small bobèche.

veliki/large:


mali/small:


Ovi mali su nastali naknadno jer mi je, pošto sam napravila dva velika, ostalo još crvenog konca. Međutim, izgledali su pretamno na crnom svećnjaku pa sam odlučila da ih malo razveselim zlatnim koncem. Meni ovako svečanije izgleda. Kako se vama čini?

These small ones were an afterthought because after making two large ones I still had some red yarn left but it looked too dark on the black candlestick. So I decided to lighten it up a bit by adding a layer of gold colour. And a boring old candlestick that looked more suitable for a spooky Halloween dinner table got a new, more Christmassy look. Definitely an improvement, don't you think?

pre/before:


posle/after:

I won some yarn! :)

I won the second round of Škrinja's giveway and look what I got! A lovely Russian merino wool yarn in fingering weight! In a gorgeous rich red colour! Thank you, Škrinja! I can already see a pair of gloves on my hands :)

Moher / Mohair

(for the text in English, scroll down)

Kao što znate, završila sam nedavno onaj šal od mohera. To me ponukalo da napišem post o tom materijalu.

Sudeći po reakcijama pletilja, ljudi se obično dele na one koji ga vole i na one koji ga ne vole - retko ko je prema njemu ravnodušan. Bio je naročito popularan 80-ih godina prošlog veka kada je u modi bilo sve što je čupavo i paperjasto i ja ga tada nisam mnogo volela. Zapravo, nisam mnogo ni znala o moheru, osim da je čupav, da je prirodnog porekla i da ga nikako ne želim na sebi.

I onda sam rešila da razbijem kod sebe taj tabu i da naštrikam šal od mohera. Veliki korak, nema šta! :) I dalje mi to nije najomiljenije predivo, ali sam ipak malo smekšala prema njemu.

Elem, moher se dobija od angorske koze. Ova sorta koze poreklom je iz Turske i ime je dobila po glavnom gradu, Ankari, koji se ranije zvao Angora. Angorska koza ima dugu dlaku i meni, kao laiku, više liči na ovcu, verovatno upravo zbog tako dugog runa koje podseća na ovčije. Evo, procenite sami:

Photo by Erica Peterson (IMG_0168) [CC-BY-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons


Photo by Sharon chestnutt at en.wikipedia [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons

Je l’ da da više liči na ovcu nego na kozu?

Ne treba je brkati sa angorskim zecom, čija se dlaka koristi u proizvodnji jednog drugog čupavog prediva, angore. A ni sa angorskom mačkom, naravno! ;)

Moher je vrlo lagan i vazdušast pa je dobar toplotni (a i zvučni) izolator. Osim toga, vrlo je otporan na vatru pa se često upotrebljava u materijalima za opremanje javnih prostora kao što su koncertne i pozorišne dvorane, hotelski lobiji i slično, mada se koristi i u proizvodnji tepiha i štofova za odela. Kada se od njega pravi vunica, često se kombinuje s nekim drugim vlaknom, prirodnim ili sintetičkim, koje služi da poveže i drži na okupu svilenkasti i vazdušasti moher. Kvalitet prediva zavisi od udela mohera i što je taj udeo veći, to je i vunica kvalitetnija.

Iako je moher vrlo mek, kažu da zna da iritira kožu kao i sva prirodna vlakna.



English text:
As you know, I recently finished that mohair wrap and that experience inspired me to write a post about mohair.



Judging by knitters’ reactions, people either like it or hate it – not many people are indifferent. It used to be very popular in the 1980s when it was fashionable to wear anything hairy and fluffy and I didn’t like it much then. As a matter of fact, I didn’t know much about mohair except that it is hairy, that it is a natural fiber and that I didn’t want it on my body.

And then I decided to break the taboo and make myself a mohair scarf. A bold move, don’t you think! :) It still isn’t my most favourite yarn but I have warmed up to it a bit. Anyway, mohair is obtained from the Angora goat. This breed originated in Turkey and is named after the Turkish capital, Ankara, formerly known as Angora. The Angora goat has a long-haired fleece and to me, as a non-expert, this animal looks more like a sheep than like a goat, probably because of its long hair. See for yourself:


Photo by Erica Peterson (IMG_0168) [CC-BY-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons


Photo by Sharon chestnutt at en.wikipedia [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons

Doesn’t it look more like a sheep than like a goat?

It is not to be mixed up with the Angora rabbit, whose coat is used to produce another fluffy yarn, angora wool. Or with the Angora cat, of course! :)

Mohair is very light and airy, which means it is a good heat and sound insulator. Apart from that, it is highly resistant to fire, which is why it is often used for public places such as concert halls, theatres and hotel lobbies but it is also used in the production of carpets and cloths for men’s suits. When it is used to produce yarn, it is often combined with another type of fiber, natural or synthetic, which binds the silky and fluffy mohair and keeps it together. The quality of the yarn depends on the amount of mohair.

Even though mohair is very soft, they say it can irritate the skin, just like all natural fibers.

Kaleidoskop / Kaleidoscope

It's been a while since I last mentioned scarves, no? Almost two months and no scarf-related posts on this blog! Well, the abstinence is over! The last scarf from the Scarf Odyssey post is finished! Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Modern Quilt Wrap by Mags Kandis!



First of all , my thanks go to Magrit and Olga, without whom I wouldn't be able to get hold of 9 colours of Patons Misty that I needed for this project. Originally, the pattern calls for Rowan Kidsilk Haze, but I used Patons Misty because it was available. Well, sort of available, I still had to ask friends to dive into their stashes in order to supply me with the missing colourways :) As you can see, the original colours are much livelier and I wish I could have used those, but I got to like these too. Beggars can't be chosers!

Impressions? The pattern is great and it knits surprisingly quickly for such a thin yarn. Don't be fooled by it being listed as 'fingering'! I've never knit with anything so thin and frail. You constantly think the thread is going to break, that's how thin and fragile it looks. But looks can be deceiving - all you have to do is try to frog it and this almost invisible thread becomes the most stubborn son of a yarn! All the mohair fibers stick to each other and entangle and it's practically impossible to frog it without breaking it. As for the pattern itself, I really enjoyed it, but as I kept putting it aside to do other projects in the meantime, it took me about 2 months to finish. The whole scarf, and it is huge, used up only a little over half a 25-gram ball of each colour! It is as fine as a spider's web!



And before I finish, I have a confession to make. The abstinence from scarves mentioned at the beggining of this post means that I abstained only from blogging about scarves. I sinned, I confess! And I sinned in secret! I've made a shawl for my niece and started another scarf for myself! But more about that in one of the following posts :)

Škrinja

Škrinja je novopokrenuti sajt na kojem možete kupiti, prodati ili razmeniti vunicu, konac, pletaći i drugi pribor za ručni rad. Potrebno je samo da se registrujete i pogledate šta je već u ponudi i da, ako želite, ponudite i nešto svoje na prodaju ili za razmenu. Ja već prodala prvu vunu! :)))

Ono što je naročito zanimljivo jeste da Škrinja organizuje i svoje prvo darivanje (giveaway), a kako su nagrade više nego primamljive, obavezno se uključite. Detalje možete pronaći ovde.

Škrinja is a new site for buying/selling/trading yarn, needles and knitting accessories. They're organizing their first giveaway, this time open only for people in Serbia. But don't let this prevent you from checking it out. You can find it on Facebook too, as Škrinja na FB-u.

Big Blue

Photos by magrit
Pattern: DROPS top in “Paris” with yoke in garter st
Yarn: St. George's Big Easy

I like blue but it can be difficult to find the right shade. This one comes close as it's neither the too dark, navy blue of uniforms nor that light, washed-out blue of baby afghans. And it doesn't have a green tint so it is neither turquoise nor teal. What is more, it is an aran weight cotton yarn, which is extremely difficult to find in these parts. And it also has that faded look about it that goes so well with jeans. Or so I like to believe :)

This was knit some time in August, in literally five days, all with seaming and button sewing. However, it was way too hot to wear it until it cooled down a bit. It is a pattern by Drops, a Norwegian company, so it is perfectly normal for them to design and wear an aran weight top in summer. It works in Norway. It doesn't work in Serbia. I mean, it's not the first time I have been tempted by a lovely sweater on a skinny blond model posing on a long sandy beach somewhere in the Baltic, all those enticing combinations featuring a pair of shorts and a long-sleeved cotton sweater. And a pair of hiking boots. It is just too hot here for that sort of extravagance. End of story. And I can lament as much as I like - the climate won't change. I think I've finally come to grips with this fact. That's why this is not meant to be a summer top but rather a vest to be worn over a shirt. Besides, as Romantales has pointed out, the openings for the arms on this type of garment tend to be either too tight or too loose, neither of which is very desirable, of course. So the shirt worn under it is a good solution for that gaping underarm too.

Shepherd's warning

One early morning in November from my kitchen window. Sometimes it really pays off to get up early.



Red sky at night, shepherd's delight
Red sky in the morning, shepherd's warning.

Snowy Owls

Owls have been rather popular for some time, not least because of Harry Potter books, of course. But even if they weren't, I just love this pattern. This is the second time I've knit it and I enjoyed every minute of it as much as I did the first time. The owl cables are perfect and the thumb gusset is done very neatly. And they are a quick knit.

Vesna fell in love with my mittens the moment she saw them and has been asking me to make her a pair ever since. However, I couldn't find Unitas's Marija, which is absolutely perfect for them. Or any other suitable bulky yarn, for that matter. And then a local yarn shop got Vlnap's Exclusive and I knew it was then or never :) She picked the colour and we were rolling!



We bought two skeins but one would have been just enough for the pair. I wanted to be on the safe side as in the shop they only had something like 4 skeins per colour (and only the ugliest colours!) so there was a real danger of not being able to buy some more at a later time. But thanks to my paranoia she got a hat too, made of the second skein :)



Sorry about a bad photo of the hat, it looks much better on the head but it was too hot for modelled shots.

Exclusive is a wonderful, 100% wool yarn and it knits up beautifully. The fabric it produces, in this case on 5mm needles, is soft and squishy and it has a rustic feel about it.

Green Leaves in autumn

I might have created an impression that I was going to post more regularly now. Well, I was planning to. I really was, but somehow, as you've read so many times elsewhere, life has a habit of getting in the way. Fortunately, though, it didn't get in the way of some fingerless gloves, which, as I'm told, are a going to be a big hit this winter.

I never thought taking photographs of your own hands was so difficult! No matter what contortionists' moves I tried, I just couldn't get the right angle. That's why I'm using a friend as a model. While we were sitting in a cafe one lovely October morning, drinking hot chocolate, basking in the sun and talking about a pair of mittens she'd asked me to knit for her, a cunning plan formed in my scheming knitter's mind. I showed her my gloves and, sure enough, as I'd expected, she put them on! And then, all I had to do is quickly press the camera button. Thank you, Vesna, you are a fantastic glove model!



I actually made two pairs of these, one for myself (shown in the photo) and one for another friend's birthday but with a shorter cuff. The pattern is Leafy Fingerless Gloves by Laura Peveler, well written and easy to follow, with a clever transition from the leaf stitch section to the fingers. I used Majšperk's Carmen for this, which is a sport weight yarn, but on 2mm needles, to get a close-knit effect and make them warm (and to obtain the right gauge too). Gloves and mittens are usually knit on needles that are smaller than those you would normally use with a given yarn, for exactly these reasons. You don't want a loosely knit, see-through glove that even the gentlest of breeezes can penetrate.

What I love best about them is the textured surface of the leaf stitch pattern, how the leaves and the branches are raised above the garter stitch background. The version with a shorter cuff gives a decent length too so don't be tempted to go for the longer cuff unless you want them really long (and difficult to put on under a coat and over a wrist watch).

Next time, you'll see the mittens I made for Vesna, partly because she so willingly fell for my dirty trick :)

Que Sera, Sera

There's this superstition every knitter knows: knit a sweater for your boyfriend and he'll leave you. It's usually referred to as the Sweater Curse and it even has its own Wikipedia entry, believe it or not. Of course, I'm not superstitious, but you know what these things are like - you don't really want to put them to test :) And then I couldn't wait any more. Come Year Seven of our marriage, I decided the time was ripe. I mean, the seven year itch and all that, I thought I might just as well knit him a sweater if it's going to be a critical year anyway. And what other sweater but Cobblestone and what other designer but Jared Flood (do I hear sighs, girls? :))?

And what d'you know, he even posed for the shots :)

Scarf Odyssey 2010

I know the title of this post sounds like a sci-fi parody in which, after centuries of battle for supremacy with Hats and Gloves, Scarves get to rule the world, but, trust me, a psycho drama is a more likely genre! I've counted the number of scarves and shawls I've knit so far this year and it is 15 plus 1 in progress. Now, if this is not material for a psycho drama, I don't know what is! 16 scarves! In 10 months. And out of these, three were knit twice and one was knit 4 (four!) times so it is actually 21+1! And still, by some strange whim of self-preservation, I don't think I am obsessed with scarves! Oh, sweet self-delusion!

The first in the row was Kim Haesemeyer's French Scarf, which I knit for myself in two shades of grey and then for my husband in brown and red. Looking back, this must have been one of the early signs something was not quite right but I missed it.





Later the same month, in only one day, a chunky cowl was born - Trish Woodson's My Kind of Town Cowl.



It happened after I got my hands on some Phildar yarn, which miraculously appeared in a local yarn shop. Another scarf that came out of the same miracle was Entrelac Scarf by Laura Spradlin.




February was marked with some green cotton used for Marina Orry's "Irene" Scarf.



After all those cables and chart reading, I needed some mindless, endless garter stitch scarf. And sure enough, tried and tested Strikkelise's Baktus came to my rescue, just in time for 2010 Ravelympics.



In March, for a short moment, it seemed Jolene Mosley's AeRang, with its airy lace design, might herald spring and with it the ebbing of my scarf mania.



But obviously, it was not to happen. If anything, it got worse and I knit 2 (not one but two!) identical scarves in super chunky furry yarn, one for my mum and one for my mother-in-law.



Such a heavy, robust yarn and 10mm needles simply begged for something finer, more delicate. What followed was AnneM's Revontuli



and soon after that Sabine Riefler's Anne Shirley.



In July I surprised myself by proving to be reasonable enough and choose not wool but cotton for summer knitting and make only two shawlettes by Liz Abinante: Yvaine



and Travelling Woman.



The summer cotton spree peaked with me knitting four Montego Bay Scarves, designed by Amy R Singer. Now, what tells me there may still be some hope for me is the fact that only one was for me and the remaining three were gifts. You'll see only three photos because two of the scarves were made in the same yarn.




photo by magrit


photo by magrit

September meant that birthday season was approaching. Hastily, I made DeVine Neck Warmer by Melissa McColl for my best friend's birthday and then, having bought too much yarn (surprise! surprise!), I made one for myself too.



The last in the row is Sharon Maher's 3-2-1 and you're done - curlicue scarf, the only crocheted one so far.



And yes, I almost forgot, there's one that is in progress at the moment and that will, let's hope, keep me occupied till the end of the year so that I do not make any more scarves/shawls/shawlettes/cowls/wraps/neckties/neckwarmers. It is Mags Kandis's Modern Quilt Wrap.



Ok, that's it. I've come out. If after this post you no longer want to read my blog, I'll understand. Really, I will.

Međudržavni skup

Već nedeljama mi u folderu Drafts stoji post s naslovom 'Septembar'. Stvarno sam htela nešto da napišem kako ne bih preskočila mesec (kao da je to uopšte važno, no žudnja za simetrijom je čudna i moćna stvar) ali sam bila neverovatno lenja i neinspirisana. Ne za pletenje nego za pisanje. Toliko me je mrzelo da bilo šta napišem da sam razmišljala da li uopšte još želim ovaj blog. I tako je septembar došao i prošao, u mrzovoljnom premišljanju i promišljanju smisla ovog bloga. Što ne znači da je isti i pronađen niti da se došlo do nekih dubokoumnih zaključaka. A ni do eliminacije lenjosti, kad smo već kod toga, ali to je već druga tema.

I onda se juče desilo nešto što me je konačno nateralo da se trgnem. Nas nekoliko je otputovalo u Zagreb da se upoznamo s pletiljama iz Hrvatske. I provele smo se fantastično, zahvaljujući velikom gostoprimstvu i druželjubivosti s kojom su nas dočekale. Hvala vam, devojke, na prelepom danu! Ne sećam se kad sam se poslednji put toliko smejala. A da ne govorim o tome da nismo zaklapale ceo dan - u povratku nas je Magrit spasila sa Septoletama inače bismo sigurno ostale bez glasa :)

A umesto grupne fotografije, evo nekoliko uposlenih ruku :) Ko nas zna, spojiće ih sam s licima :)













Nisam uspela sve da uslikam ;) ali ćemo to ispraviti drugom prilikom.