Not a cardigan but... well, a scarf, of course :)

In the previous post I said I only had half a sleeve to finish a cardigan. And I did finish it (at long last!) but you won't see any photos of it today because it is still in a sorry, unblocked state, waiting for its creator-cum-owner to find some time to wash it and block it and then find some more time to put it on and have it photographed by her husband-cum-personal photographer, who also has to find some free time to photograph it, preferably at the same time his wife has chosen to wear it and have it photographed. Which is going to be soon, I hope!

Meanwhile, another long-drawn-out project has finally been brought to an end. It's Wisp, a wonderfully delicate lace scarf, knit in amazingly soft Drops' Kid-Silk. A friend bought this yarn when she was in Manchester, UK but unfortunately, she bought only one skein. It was enough for a scarf but barely just so if you are planning to knit a Wisp in Kid-Silk, get two skeins.

Images of autumn

I don't have much presentable knitting to show you. It's not that I haven't been knitting, it's just that it's all in different stages of unfinishedness and as such extremely resistant to photographing. Instead, I first give you some photos completely unrelated to knitting and then some fresh photos of old projects :) But please stay tuned, some new knitting is sure to follow, I only have half a sleeve to finish a cardigan :)


I really love autumn. Even with all the rain, and the cold, and this terrible wind that we have here, and the dreariness and everything. It has a certain charm, a certain poetic aura about it that gets me every year. And the colours, ah, the colours...


This year the beginning of October was so warm that you could  sit in the park in short sleeves.

But soon enough the windbreaks were up at the beach 

and the playgrounds were deserted.

And then finally it was cold enough to put on the February Lady Sweater I finished back in July (wool+alpaca at 40 degrees!), pack my camera and a willing photographer and head off for the river bank.

I paired it with two more projects that never had proper photos of them taken either: Travelling Woman shawl and Drops' 98-55 Bag with cable pattern in Eskimo. 

Aren't I lucky that autumn colours are in vogue at the moment? I had put on a pair of  Jaywalkers in matching colours too but we forgot to photograph them :(

Manchester, England, England and the long wait for our girls to come home

No, our girls have not gone to war but waiting for them to come back was equally painful! Two friends of mine had gone to Manchester to a conference and I sent them to Purl City Yarns :) They came back with these beauties:



The variegated skeins are Malabrigo Lace and the mohair (argh!) is Drops' Kid-Silk, the latter bought at their own initiative, to be turned into... well, a scarf ;). Unfortunately, they bought just one skein of it, which is only 25g and 199m so not much of a scarf potential there but I guess I could whip up a skinny Wisp?

A sweater, a vest and a tee

I've been waiting long for these photos :)

Drops' jumper with a cable motif and 3/4 sleeves, knit in A.P.D.O.O. Superwash Sport, bought in Leo klupko in Zagreb last year. Thank you, Lorna, for sending me that one additional skein! I finished it back in December but the photos were crappy.



Then I got a most wonderful New Year's present from pckristina, 6 skeins of Unitas's Ana, which in January were transformed into a Lace Saddle Tee.



And for the end of this eloquent post, something I've wanted to make for a long time but couldn't find a suitable yarn. Until some friends said they were going to Sweden :))) Garnstudio, of course :) I ordered Drops' Nepal and finally made Bramblewood. The yarn is fantastic and just perfect for this pattern.

Fishing gear, continued

Another piece of fishing equipment finds its way into my project bag :))) A retro-look fish counter turned row counter! And it can count up to 9999, lol! It must have been made with a lying fisherman in mind :D

Epiphany

OK, maybe 'epiphany' is too strong a word but you know that moment of clarity when, after years of looking at an object, you suddenly realize its true nature. In a flash you see that the answer to your problems has been in front of you all the time without your knowing it. This is what happened to me two days ago when I looked at the plastic tube in which my husband keeps his angling floats. He's had it for years and years and I must have seen it hundreds of times. And then two days ago, it spoke to me and its true purpose was revealed!

I mean, just look at it! I know that you know what it's actually made for! :)



The depth is adjustable so it can accommodate everything from 40 to 70 cm (that's 16 to 28 inches) in length. Perfect, isn't it?

And that's how an unruly, disgraceful sheaf of knitting needles got a pretty neat box :)

Raccoons

I thought I was running late with this pair of fingerless mittens and a cowl but considering the weather we've had recently, they might get some wear before autumn :)



Pattern: Great Weekend Mitts by Thea Eschliman
Yarn: Troitsk Yarn Deluxe (red and white) and Troitsk Yarn Moscow Chic (grey)
Needles: 2.5 mm



I improvised the pattern for the cowl but I admit I was initially inspired by Veronik Avery's Redwork Cowl.

and a post in which another thing goes from bad to good

You may also remember that not so long ago I got a gift token for Barka yarn from my friends. After much deliberation, I chose 5 órai tea (5-o'clock tea) in Lapacho. I had been on the lookout for an obtainable and affordable tweed yarn in worsted or aran weight for Bramblewood vest and this was a perfect opportunity.



The yarn is lovely, soft and squishy, 95% merino, 5% rayon. It knits very fast and does not split at all. Of 8 skeins I ordered, there were two knots in only one skein.

What I didn't like, though, was the colour. When it arrived I realized it was more brown than I'd expected. I'd imagined it to be more like pumpkin in colour. But, truth be told, when I put the actual skein of yarn next to the image on my monitor, there was hardly any difference. So it must have been me seeing the colour I wanted to see and not the colour that was actually there. Or it might have been that effect that you sometimes have when you decorate the house: it's one thing to see a small lime-green colour chip in the shop and a very different thing to see four huge walls of a room in that same colour. So it was perhaps seeing a big pile of brown that put me off a bit.

I knew I didn't want a vest in that colour so I repurposed it and turned these 8 lovely skeins into, why, a SHAWL, of course! I chose Mara, by Madelinetosh, and the yarn was perfect for it. Heavy, spongy and squishy in the garter section, rich and full of drape in the ruffle section. I'm very happy with it. I even remembered that I have a perfect pair of shoes to wear it with, once it gets cold again. A very warm, autumn accessory, it almost makes me wish it wasn't spring :)



I also got a shawl pin as a gift from Barkavuna, as if they knew I'd be making a shawl. Thank you, Karolina and Csilla, both for the gift and excellent customer service! Looking forward to some more yarn shopping!

A post in which one thing goes from good to bad

You remember that mohair scarf for which I had to trawl the whole country in order to find 9 different colours? Well, as it turned out, only about half of each skein was eventually needed so I ended up with 9 tiny feathery wisps of very thin mohair yarn, whose future, after the project was finished, looked bleak at best. They seemed destined to spend the rest of their lives at the bottom of one of those three plastic boxes in which I keep my stash. Nine sad little mohair wisps.

But as I'm trying to destash, they got lucky! (or so it seemed at the time...) The colours I had clearly fell into two categories: pastels and Christmas. So I took the five pastels (upper row) and started knitting a scarf... Yes, I know, I made a vow to cut down on scarves but what else can you knit with 5x8 grams of mohair yarn? As it turned out, you can't even knit this, but when I realized, it was too late, the scarf was already finished. And this is how it looked:




Soft and light like a breeze. I know it's a literary cliche but it really felt like a sea breeze against your skin. Fluffy and feathery and wonderful. True, it came out too short but with a clever knot or with a help of a scarf pin, it could have been worn. Could have been, yes, had I not turned it into this:





A jumbled, clotted mass of felted mohair! You can't even unfold it! What was I thinking? Where was my mind wandering while I was putting it in the washing machine? I'd really like to know because it must have been a wonderful place if it made me forget it's mohair, for goodness' sake! It cannot be machine-washed!

To make matters worse, it was supposed to be a birthday present for a little girl. Now, I know mohair is no yarn for little kids, but her Mum really liked it :) Now I don't have a birthday present either! What a sad ending for 5 little wisps of mohair...

Needle felting

After the epic disaster last year, felting has been a no-go area for me. And understandably so, considering the miserable result of the aforementioned disaster! I reconciled myself to the fact that it was not my craft and that it would stay out of bounds forever. But then, some time ago, I could hear a little worm gnawing away my determination. Silently, gradually, out of nowhere, a thought was forming: how about needle felting? I mean, it's still felting but it's a completely different technique. And it involves needles. And I'm good with needles.... And then the right project came along - a plain, k3xp3 ribbed grey scarf for a girl that needed some but not much embellishment.

Now, although this is far from perfect, I daresay it already looks much more promising :)

Yet another pair of socks

I don't have much to say. It's pretty obvious! I've been bitten by the sock bug... Well, at least socks get worn out faster than scarves so they're supposedly more in demand ;)

Pattern: Jaywalker by Grumperina
Yarn: Lion Brand's Sock-Ease in Sour Ball colourway
Project details: here



A great pattern, clear and well-written - enjoyed knitting it. A word of caution if you're planning to knit Jaywalkers: the zigzag pattern renders the socks very unstretchy so do follow the instructions and cast on the recommended number of stitches, no matter how scary the number may sound.

This is my first American yarn, I believe. Thanks to a friend, it travelled half the world, all the way from New York to Novi Sad, Serbia, where it was awaited with much excitement and impatience. And then it said on the label: Made in Italy! That's a heck of a lot of travelling for one little ball of yarn!

Ekstremi(teti) / Extremities

It took me years to muster the will and energy and sort out my stash. And then, after I'd done it, my friends showered me with yet more yarn! It seems I'll need another 30-liter box after all! Ain't life a bitch? ;)

But before the stash event and before I got those lovely, lovely birthday presents, I managed to finish two very extreme knitting projects. Extreme in every sense. A pair of socks (my first ever, would you believe it?!) and a pair of mittens to cover both pairs of my extremities - hence the title. The former in light fingering weight, the latter in super bulky - hence, too, the title.

The socks were an adventure I've wanted to plunge into for some time now but couldn't find any suitable sock yarn. And then, when they got PEKA Salo at my local yarn shop, I knew my destiny was determined! I got down to reading about different construction techniques, various cast-on methods, etc. and opted for Stefanie Bold's Amy Lee socks as they seemed simple enough, suitable for a beginner sock knitter. Besides, I got a self-striping yarn and didn't want a fancy complicated pattern which would only be obscured by the yarn.

And let me tell you one thing, socks are faster to knit than you may imagine, I finished the first pair in 7 days of light evening knitting. And they are certainly easier than they look. But what these first socks really did for me was that they made me fearless - I now know that I can knit anything! I mean, if I can knit a pair of socks in fingering yarn, what is there out there in the knitting universe that I cannot do?! At least this is how I felt when I finished them.





The mittens were an upcycling project. Once upon a time there was a hat. A beautiful hat. A warm hat. A loved hat. Knit in a fabulous, colourful yarn. But made for a head that didn't get along with it very well. Now, I'll avoid frogging finished objects at all costs but there was no point in keeping a hat I didn't wear. So, after a lightbulb moment, I decided to frog it and make a pair of superbulky mittens by Drops. You can choose what they remind you of: oven mitts or astronauts' mittens, but let me assure you that with this snowmageddon outside, they were certainly appreciated and got many an envious look :)

Birthday presents

The first surprise came on the day before my birthday so I was completely unprepared! And I still am! What I found in my mailbox was a gift token for Barka yarn!

Girls, you made me cry, that's how touched I was! Thank you for all the care and consideration and organization that you put into this!



And then, on the day of my birthday, while I was still at my morning coffee, the postman rang and these beauties arrived, a gift from Magrit and Olga. I was tempted to phone in sick at work, that's how much I wanted to stay at home and fondle the yarn!



Neizmerno ste me obradovale, hvala vam do neba! I nazad!

Veliko spremanje u hrčkovom domu

Proteklo je, začudo, brzo i glatko, bez mnogo poteškoća i velikih nedoumica. Pobacah sve one male klupčiće, ostavljene za "zlu ne trebalo" ili za "poslužiće već za nešto" a ostavih samo ono predivo koje znam šta je i koje je marke, ili kojeg ima toliko da se od njega može nešto i napraviti. Bilo je teško, šta da vam kažem... ali vredelo je. Sada su zalihe bezbedno smeštene u kutije. Bezbedno jer im ne preti opasnost od moljaca ali bezbedno i zbog toga što ne mogu iskočiti i misteriozno se pojaviti na nekom neočekivanom mestu u stanu, što je do sada bio čest slučaj :)

Za hvatanje u koštac sa zalihama bila mi je potrebna estetsko-psihološka pomoć, za koju sam mislila da ću je pronaći u onim prelepim dezeniranim kutijama koje se prodaju po bolje snabdevenim prodavnicama za opremanje doma. No, videvši im cenu, brzo sam odustala pa su u pomoć priskočile jednostavne kutije od mlečnobele plastike, kupljene na pijaci za trećinu cene.

U jednoj je kutiji predivo koje zovemo opštim imenom "vunica", a u drugoj je pamuk. Treća kutija (koje ovde nema) rezervisana je za konac za heklanje, kojeg nisam ni znala da imam toliko mnogo. Doduše, on zauzima dosta mesta jer je namotan na kartonske kaleme. Sve u svemu, oko 80 litara prediva.





I pre nego što počnete da me kritikujete zbog gomilanja zaliha, a kritika bi svakako bila opravdana, moram vas podsetiti na to da živim u zemlji gde stalna isporuka neke robe nije zagarantovana, gde ako ne kupiš odmah svu količinu vune koja ti treba, sledeći put je skoro sigurno neće biti ili, ako je i bude, predivo neće uopšte biti istog kvaliteta ili će nit biti drugačije debljine i teksture, a o boji da i ne govorimo. Zbog toga, a i zbog godina nemaštine kad su se šećer, brašno i sl. kupovali na džakove jer ko zna kad će ga ponovo biti u prodavnicama, skloni smo devizi "Od viška glava ne boli" pa tako ni ja nisam izuzetak. A kad se to spoji sa već postojećom tendencijom da se ništa ne baca i sklonošću ka sakupljačkim hobijima, dobijete 80 litara prediva :)

Only Serbian this time, apologies to international readers. The post is about sorting out my stash, 80 litres of it :)

2011. počinje sa... / 2011 begins with...

naravno, šalom :) Toliko o mojim novogodišnjim odlukama! No, mada nisam sigurna da je baš za utehu s obzirom na broj šalova koje sam napravila prošle godine, ovaj još pripada 2010. pošto je završen krajem decembra. Jedino je morao da sačeka lepo vreme da bi se slikao. Model se zove se Kernel i objavljen je u broju časopisa Knitty za jesen 2009.

a scarf, of course :) So much about my New Year's resolutions! Not that it should be any comfort considering the number of scarves I made last year, but this one belongs to 2010 as I finished it in December. It only had to wait for some nice weather to have its photo taken. The pattern is called Kernel, published in Knitty, Fall 2009.





A sad da pređemo na nešto što u potpunosti pripada ovoj godini, a to su rukavice Nereid. Predivna mustra, savršeno prilagođena rukavicama (prvobitno je bila namenjena za jedne čarape iz onlajn časopisa Knitty), vunica kao stvorena za njih. Vrlo sam zadovoljna!

And now for something that completely belongs to this year - Nereid fingerless mittens. A beautiful pattern, perfectly adapted to the mittens (it was originally intended for a pair of socks in Knitty), the yarn as if made specifically for them. I'm very satisfied!

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 :)

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.

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.