Unmotivated Knitting

I've lost the will to knit. A back, two sleeves and I have totally lost any will to knit more.
Over the weekend I hardly knitted at all. Last night I started the left front but I got bored, not so much with the knitting but with the football on TV. At least my husbands team Arsenal won. I can't knit while watching something that is totally boring. I'd rather play solitaire on my phone!
I was staring at my cone of Cashcotton and wondering wheter I should go ahead and cast on.
Perry is no help either, usually he comes and watches the football but he has turned into a bedhead
It is amazing though how many knitting books have been published recently. I have spent some time reading all my new books.
More about them later.

Wendy's Waist Coat

My friend Wendy has finished her fisrt big project. Last year she knitted a garter stitch scarf in Rowan Big Wool. Now she has movend on. She used Sirdar Denim Ultra. The yarn is nice and soft but it tended to split. She mastered everything without a problem.
I wrote the pattern for her, she told me what she wanted the Waist Coat to look like and I took all the meaurments and started writing the pattern.
After she finished all the main pieces I helped her with the sewing up and she decided on what type of border she wanted.
The button is from the Rowan button collection.
I hope she gets lots of wear out of this and now she is looking what she could knit next.
I know what I want to knit next. This one button jacket in Debbie Bliss Cotton Cashmere.
I believe my colour is no 33.
The other Cassie is coming along. I finished the back and one sleeve = half the jacket!
I have nearly done the second sleeve.
How long can I resist before I cast on my new project?

Child with WIP's

No one is to young to have a few UFO's hidding around the house.
Noor loves doing stuff with her hands. Be it painting, beading or fiber crafts.
Here she is with three of her projects. I just remembered I forgot to take a picture of her cross stitch work in progress.
There is some finger knitting, she is using left over Rowan Cotton Tape (my Mum has the cardigan to go with it!)
Next up is her latest project: weaving. I started her off, I wanted to see how she is doing with it. I have a wonderful small wooden weaving loom, but it is with my Mum in Switzerland. Noor is trying the cardboard version. Johanne and I are going to teach the children in our Craft Club how to weave next week.
Then there is Noor's hand knitting, she knits nice and even. She has started a scarf for her doll.
Of course we had to buy yarn for it. It is a ball of Rowan Classic Yarn Cashsoft DK.
Everything is neatly kept in a small bag from Liberty's.
She likes going there and enjoy Thursday evenings with the other Rowanettes.
She has passed her Ballett examen with an A and had to move up a class, but this class is on a Thursday after school.
Can't wait for the next school holiday, in six weeks time.

New books

Two new knitting books in two weeks. I love them both. I love the coffe table Mason Dixon book and the new practical Yarn Harlot.
Both are very diffrent. I love the photos, I can just leave this book open as a piece of art for visitors to see.
The Yarn Harlot is very funny and full of usuefull adivice like: the top ten resons to carry a knitting bag.
Mason Dixon on the other hand have their own rules: Teach a child to knit, and you get to buy yarn more often. Or: Don't take any crap about being a knitter.

My own knitting feels like crap at the moment.
Like three balls forward one ball backward.
Linen Print is a lovely yarn. When it first came out I thought it was crap. Honest.
Then after I started knitting with it I chaned my mind. Now it's ....
Got gauge? I am not so sure. That is my main problem. Linen Print has no stretch itself. But this knitted fabric stretches in any direction. In the instructions it tells me to measure while holding up the knitting because the knit is heavy and stretches out. What does that do to the tension? Hence my back the second version. The first version was almost 4 balls up when I decided to frog and start again. I am knitting Cassie in a small size. It looks tiny, the measure tape is not much help. I can tweak the knitting to fit any desired measurment.
The Yarn Harlot calls it relative gauge risk!

Happy Easter

The Easter bunny has been for a visit.
Noor is a happy little girl. She loves chocolat.
Of course the Easter bunny knows he can only bring us Swiss chocolat!

Happy Easter!!

A sock story

Noor is getting a new pair of socks, one day.
The Jaywalker sock looks very nice and I greatly enjoyed knitting it. But it feels to tight for her. She finds it very hard to put on and off.
The pattern is great but I believe it has a major flaw. The start of the sock is done in ribbing. When the pattern starts it pulls the sock together, the ribbing has then no function anymore, it feels to loose for the rest of the sock. I remember when I started this sock, I redid the ribbing about 3 - 4 times, each time with less stitches, because each time it felt way to big. I may knit her another pair, but these Jaywalker is going to the frog pond; ribbit, ribbit.
Noor want a pair of Happy Socks with her hand dyed yarn. I knitted her a yellow orange pair last year and she loves wearing them. There really is no point in knitting her socks if she is not happy wearing them. She usually wears them around the house in the evenings after she gets changed into her Pj's.
Perry has no such problems, he is always well dressed. He has made a new friend with this guide dog puppy. He would, it doesn't talk back or has any other puppy traits.
The long cardigan is growing very slowely.
Last night I did not feel like knitting at all, I spent all my time doing a few sudoku puzzeles.
The knit is going slowly anyway, I may have to cast on something new. That would make me want to finish this. I am not making any sense. If I start on something that is an easy knit. I can knit on that in-between and feel I am up to the more challenging slow knit.

Happy Easter!

In the pink

This was Thursday morning last week.
Last week was a very busy week.
Amar had his operation on Monday.
He was able to come home Monday evening. The operation has been a succsess. He is still in a lot of pain and he will be going to physical therapy.
I have had time to knit. My GGH tunic is finished. I love wearing it. I think it looks flattering on me.
I was going to wear it on Thursday, Amar had to go and see his doctor. I went with him, after he finished, he went back home and I went to Liberty's.


There I started knitting another tank top knitted for my little niece. I knitted it with left over Jaeger Aqua yarn. I finished all the pale pink and most of the darker pink. It is almost finished, only about 15 ends to sew in.
A little less stash is a good thing.
Straight on to some new knitting.

Cassie in Rowan Linen Print . The colour is called Blush.
I am knitting Cassie as a gift. I have enough time left to finish her, I hope.
I think the person that this is for reads my blog, so I won't be telling to much about it.
Have a closer look at the texture of it.
After a few clitches at the beginning it is knitting ok.
It is knitted, even though it looks like a cross between weaving and knitting.
For something that is knitted on 7mm needles it takes a long time to gain height.
First I thought I would rip it out and knit a traditional ribbed pattern.
I finished the first ball of yarn and I am knitting it as the pattern stated.
The fabric feels very light, ideal for summer.

Even though summer feels very far away.
We are having real April weather here, sun, wind, showers, warm and cold.
Perry has a hard time to make up his mind: in or out?

Flashing my stash

This is the latest addition to my stash.
Our very own Kool-Aid sock yarn.
Noor wants me to make her a pair of Happy Socks.
It took us a long time to turn the skein of tangled yarn into this neat ball.
Today it is all about the yarn.
I went into Noor's room where I have stashed all my stash.
First I started to take stuff out of her room but later I gave up on that idea.
Here is my ever growing stash:
The reds with some black.
From the left: black St. Moritz yarn which I got from Johanne. She has become very allergic to wool and any fluffy yarn. One day I want to knit a present for somebody with it.
From the January sales we have 20 balls of Rowan Cotton Tape, ready to be turned into Glide.
20 balls of Rowan Linen Print, ready to be knit into Cassie. (Must be a favorite name for yarn companies).
A mixed bunch of yarn.
Again from the left: blue and orange Wendy Merino DK (Johanne stash).
30! balls of Elle Denim.
Some orange and brown Debbie Bliss Wool Cotton.
At the front purple (looks blue) Rowan Chunky Tweed.
5 skeins of Rowan Magpie.
A cone and a half of very fine Mohair type yarn from an Eltenham raid.
Half a cone of Debbie Bliss pink Babycashmerino, a cone of peach and beige Babycashmerino and one cone of Cotton cashmere. Then there is Noro Silk Garden for Butterfly. Some of this yarn has been used for different projects.
Perry came to see what I was doing and had to join in.
He is not stash!
From the left: A cone of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran in dark green. A bag full of Rowan pink Desinger DK. A bag of blue green Jaeger Wool Stretch (from Johanne's stash). 3 1/2 balls of Jaeger Merino DK, four skeins of Lambs Pride red Worsted and 14 balls of grey Jaeger Albany.
I took all the yarn away and gathered all my odd balls of yarn. Almost all of them are left over balls from old projects. Perry enjoyed being between them, he adopted a ball of Koigu PPPM.
Amar just told me I should knit a blanket with all the yarns! Does he read my blog? Did he hear me talk about a log cabin blanket?
Perry was getting ready for some nap time. I remembered were I put my sock yarn and the free gifts.
There is not much sock yarn left at Karin's Knitting.
There is the Rowan Tumbling Block kit and the ghastly Linen Drape kit. The colours not the yarn. A murky green and grey-ie blue.
The lasted one is the Debbie Bliss Astrakhan in the same green as my finished coat!
Before I give Perry some peace, one last photo.
A bag full of very odd balls.
Noor and her cousins can play with this and after the Easter holidays it is going to her school.
It feels good to know what is in my stash.
I had a good clear out and tidied up some of the bags and put it all back in order.
Perry can now have a good rest.