Back to normal

Knitting life is getting back to normal. I am going back to the projects that have been pushed to the sidelines for the past 16 days.
I last knitted on the Regia socks on the plane. I managed to almost finish the heel in the air.
After we got to the resort, I had no chance to knit on the socks, it was only a few hours to go until the opening ceremony.
I started the cast on for Jinny during the ceremony and never looked at my other projects until yesterday.
I told Noor that I may finish the Ballerina Top in time for her to wear to Fridays lesson.
Talking about setting myself another challenge.
I have also managed to knit a bit on the second sock.

The Ballerina Top is looking good. Nearly have of the neck border is done. I knit a few rows and attach them straight away to the main body.
I knitted the sleeve in the round. One more sleeve to go. Well it is only Tuesday...
The other thing that keeps me going, besides coffee, it the thought of what I can start next.
Noor wants the Loop edged coat from the Debbie Bliss Junior book. I have the yarn for this project and I really, really want to cast on and get started.
Perry just wants to have a game of catch through the banister.

The knitters Olymp

Jinny is finished, just in time before the closing ceremony started.
Today was a busy Sunday, I finished Jinny and I went to the gym and the cinema.
Jinny: 10 1/2 balls of Rowan Cotton Glace and about 5 1/2 bags of beads (2750), oh and 16 days of knitting.
From a knitting point of view, this was not that hard, the pattern is easy enough to remember.
The only real problem with the beads is that they need to be pushed down on the yarn - all the time. It takes up a lot of knitting time, over and over again these beads needed to be pushed down.
Sometimes near the end of a ball I had either to many or to little beads on the yarn.
Threading the beads on the yarn is easy. It took me about 30 min to thread 300 beads on a ball of yarn.
I am grateful to my friend Johanne, first she told me to rewind the balls and she is the one who went out and bought me the missing ball of yarn.
Hopefully she will finish her Jinny soon and we can pose together for some photos.
Now I shall go and continue on my neglected projects. Noor wants her Ballerina cardigan and her socks.

Endspurt

All the pieces for Jinny have been knit.
I did run out of yarn, my friend had gone out and she put me an extra ball.
I am very grateful. She dropped it off at my house last night and I finished knitting the last stitch at about 11.30pm.
Today all the finishing has to be done.
I am sure I can manage, I just hope my family won't get in the way.
See how Perry is already trying to!

Yarn shortage

Why does this keep happening?
Again I am pretty sure that I am going to run out of yarn.
I have made the sleeves longer, I want them to hit my wrists. 
I have phoned John Lewis and they have the same colour and dyelot. They said they post it right away. That was on Tuesday. Where is my yarn?
Must go and knit until I run out of yarn, hopefully the post will be with us early tomorrow.

Olympic knitting

I thought I do the neck border while I am doing the second sleeve. What is done is done. I am not happy with the result. I find the border to wavy. I hope blocking will get rid of the frills. There were a whole load of stitches to be picked up. 77stitches on a front border that is about 27cm short. he cardigan has been hanging over the chair the last 24 hours. It has stretched out a little bit. I wonder if the weight of the beads will stretch out the neck border.
My friend has been having the same problem, she called to ask me if Jinny is supposed to look like Elfin?
I have not made up my mind about the buttons, I hope I have some nice matching ones at home, otherwise I have to go and hit the shops on sunday, that may take up to much knitting time.

I still have about 2/3 of a sleeve to knit. Last night I didn't get any knitting done.
We had tickets to see 'Mary Poppins, the musical' Noor had a great time. It was the first time for her in a big theater. She was dancing in her seat, while sitting down!
It was great fun.
Only three more days of Olympic competitions, I feel proud to be Swiss. The Swiss athletes are doing really well. Maybe the same for a Swiss knitting athlete can be said.

Knit.. all the time

One more sleeve and all the finishing to go. I missed any decent day light today to take photos. I can't bear to look at the Yarn Harlot site. The ticker is getting to me. Seeing the seconds run away is too much.
I did a lot of knitting on holiday, but we also went sight seeing. We saw the beautiful cathedral. The kids did not care for it, they only saw this:

Of course we had a little look out for yarn shopes. We came across one shop that sold yarn, but the two times we drove past it was closed.
If there are no pictures about knitting there are always photos about cats.
Our resort restaurant came with its own cat. Like a pro at a party he moves from table to table.
As soon as a waiter puts a plate down he comes over and starts to meeuw. Very loud and very...
People have no choice but to give him some food.

He is not a skinny cat. But the scratches on his nose are proof that he spends a lot of time defending his terretory.
I know the cat is a boy, look at his back side.

Island hoping

We are back home on our own island, the UK. We spend a lovely relaxing week on Mallorca.
Now here at home I have reached sleeve island.
One week away and I have managed to finish the back and the two fronts.
I knitted by the pool, on car journeys, in restaurants, in our villa, I knitted everywhere.
The hardest part about knitting with beads is; having to constantly push them down the yarn. I think I spend more time pushing the beads down the yarn than actually knitting. Probably not but it felt like it.
Have a closer look at the beads.

I am very pleased with myself. It is a nice knit and the result looks nice.
My friend is also making good progress on hers.
She is doing hers in black with grey beads.
Hers looks very sparkly in the dark, it will be wonderful to wear at any time of the day.
We were not racing, just relaxing and knitting.
We had loads of very nice lunches and dinners, and we went for strolls.
Sunday afternoon along the promenade of Palma.

Noor has managed to get a tan, by swimming in the outdoor (heated) pool.
Noor and Shea had a great time together. They also spemd some time on the beach. It was to cold to sunbathe or swim.
Playing on the beach had to end up with somebody getting wet feet.
Yes, it was Noor.

Gone knitting

The start date for the Winter Olympics and the Knitting Olympics has arrived.
For us it is also the start of a week long vacation. We are going on a search for a little bit of warmth and sunshine in Spain.
My blog less knitting and best friend is coming with us, we shall keep each other company. We will cry together IF we make mistakes, we don't of course ;)
We will support each other, laugh and cry together.
Husband can keep the kids amused while we knit away on our Olympic projects.
I keep checking that I have everything for my project. Not if I have everything else, just for my knitting. OK, I have checked on our passports.

Only Perry is looking like a lost little soul. My friend and neighbour will take good care of him. I know that, he seems to have forgotten that.
He will celebrate his second birthday while we are away. Here is a picture of him in his younger days.

Ready, steady...

...go, well not yet. The athlete's for the Winter Olympics should all have arrived in Turin by now.
The Knitting Olympics is not much different, the yarn, needles and the project should be ready by now.
I have been thinking what would be a real challenge for me? There is intarsia, I have done intarsia when I was younger. My first proper sweater project was intarsia. Next time I am at my Mums I must try and copy the photograph.
Then there is fair isle, I would love the make a Dale of Norway sweater. But that is something I would like to take a lot of time over and not rush over 16.
That only leaves beads. I have never done a big bead project.
Meet Jinny from the Rowan 39 front cover. The project is in Cotton Glace and it uses up about 2600 beads. More than FIVE bags of beads, just stringing them on the yarn should be an Olympic dicipline.
Am I allowed to put the beads, or some of them, on the yarn before Friday? Like a skier having his skis prepared, waxed and tested. Or a skater making sure the blades are sharp and the shoelaces done up.
I really look forward to starting her.
Until Friday, I am working on the Ballerina cardigan. I love this project. Knitting with Baby Cashmerino is a dream.
I am in love with the cardigan, it is starting to look like a real ballet cardigan, but much much softer. I should have knitted her one years ago.

Sunday wearing

Originally we were going to a birthday party in the afternoon and I was looking forward to wearing my new coat.
The birthday party has been moved to next weekend. We will be away on holiday then.
I wore the coat to do some errands. I had not attached the ribbon yet. It was a bit chilly and I was holding the coat closed.
I did not need a better reason to get the ribbon out.
Voila, finished coat with side tie ribbon.
I love the coat.
Now I must remember not to wear it all the time.

Saturday job

This is what I want to tackle on Saturday: Finish the side tie coat.
All the main pieces have been knit, the collar has been started. I want to sew up the pieces first before I knit more on the collar.
So far I knit the same amount of rows on both sides of the back neck collar.
On Friday I went to bluewater and bought matching Debbie Bliss Merino DK to do the sewing with.
Husband and daughter were both out and about.
What more could I want?
The job really did take up most of Saturday.
The biggest surprise is, I had enough yarn. Just!
I ave about 6 m (7yards) of yarn left.
Now I only have to decide on the closure. I don't like it side tied. It looks better on me when I leave it open. I need a few more opinions on it.
Maybe I can get the husband to take some photos of me with all the different options.
sewing with the Merino DK, was a very good decision. Darning in the Astrakhan ends was not easy.
Did I learn something? Definitely, first up is knitting a tension swatch with the same needles which are going to be used for the main knitting. Next time I use a new yarn, I will knit a tension swatch. Tape measures are there for a reason, use them. I should have measured my knitting every now and then in all directions, not just the length.
I am very happy, I have managed to finish this project.
Time to start a new one!
My growing girls needs a new ballet cardigan.
I have enough pink baby cashmerino in my stash, I bought it for this purpose. So far I have been to lazy, or to busy with other projects.
I love knitting with baby cashmerino.
Noor is happy, her Mum is finally knitting something for her again. Now that she knows how to knit, she asks more questions about it. What stitch is it? How many stitches? What needles?
A few more days until our holiday and the start of the winter Olympics. I love the winter Olympics. I hope I can see them on TV while we are in Spain. Of course I root for the Swiss ski team. I want to watch most of the alpine skiing and the figure skating. Yes and to knit while I watch the athletes.
I have been thinking about the Yarn Harlot winter Olympics challenge.
The new Rowan 39 has been an inspiration. I want to knit Jinny from the front cover. I have never done a lot of beads. I can only think of three small projects were I have used beads.
I nearly fainted in the shop when I bought the 5 bags of beads needed for this project.
Just getting the beads on the yarn is a challenge.
While I was busy with the coat. Perry had more important business to attend.
Sitting on little roof tops and keeping an eye on the neighbourhood.

Rosy and her zips

I finished Rosy well before Christmas and my friend is very happy with her. For one thing that is the small matter of her zip.
I could not get a matching zip for her, until I send a little yarn sample all the way to New York.
The sad thing is that not even a big zip company like YYK have an exact match.
The friendly folks at Zipperstop advised me on the closest match. They shipped the zip the same day it was ordered and a few days later it arrived here in London.
Today was mission: Sew in new zip!
What is Perry doing on Rosy? Inspecting her, of course.
First up: Get everything ready.
Tack cotton. Check
Sewing needle. Check
Matching thread. Check








Pin cushion. Check
This pin cushion is the first thing that I ever knitted. It has lived with me in three different countries on two continents.
Cake to keep myself happy. Check
Movie to watch while sewing. Check (Cold Mountain)

Finally after a bit more than an hour.
I have a finished Rosy, hey what is nearly a month late between friends.
As soon as the last stitch was done and the zip tested, I ran to my friend and she now has a wonderful improved Rosy.
Hopefully I will see her again during day light and we can have a photo shoot in the garden.



Now onto something totally different.
My girl can knit!!!!

Look at that!
About two weeks ago when we finished an Arts and Craft lesson I asked her how she liked it. She casually mentioned that she thought she could move on from the finger knitting to hand knitting.
Last week when she continued with the finger knitting I did not say anything.
When I got some stuff ready for today, I asked her what she was going to do today.
She said , she may knit.
At the lesson she came to ask me and I send her to my friend. I believe it is easier for child to learn something not from a parent. Noor has proven that time and time again.
Here we are about fifty minutes of learning how to knit.
On the way home she asked me whether she could carry on at home.
She has already moaned that she only knows the knit stitch and not the purl stitch!
Love, there are only two stitches and you have already mastered one. Lets practice this first.