Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from all of us here in London.



Hope everybody is having a great one and enjoying time with loved ones.

Snow Party

Last night it started to snow around here. This morning we woke up to a small layer of snow. Not much, but enough to get all the kids excited. They went outside to make some small snowballs and have fun.
Miss T called it a snow party.
Because the girls started Christmas holidays on Wednesday, we had cousin A stay the night. The three of them had a lovely time.
We followed the fun with a visit to the coffee shop and tumble tots.
More knitted presents.
Cherry Bark Mitts in Noro Silk Garden Lite (only on ravelry).
This mitts have given me a headache. I bought two ball of the Noro yarn. I knew that the balls were slighly different. I thought I would find the same spot to start the mitts in both balls. I happy knit the first mitt and went on to the second. I could not find the same color sequence. The second ball had a knot and all the turquoise was missing. I knit a hat for Miss T with it.
I went back to the yarn store and bought another ball. I was very surprised when that ball seemed to have no beige. I now have to almost twin mitts.
Hope my friend will still like them. I like them. I am tempted to go back and try and get some more Noro yarn. But I will try and check the balls better. I did notice that another ball there also had a knot in it.
I am knitting two more presents, I have been busy finding a pattern for my 20 balls of Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk Aran. I wanted to knit Nora's Sweater, from the new Interweave Knits. But the 20 balls are not enough.

Multnomah

Birthdays in December are hard, both for the gift giver and the birthday girl.
My oldest daughter has her birthday just after Christmas and we try to make it as special as possible.
The same for my friend Johanne.
I had ordered myself a skein of Fyberspates Sparkle sock yarn directly from Jeni.
When I received it I knew it was perfect for Johanne, her colour and with just that little bit of Sparkle. The yarn shimmers and sparkles in the evenings with the lights on. I used the yarn to knit Multnomah, another great pattern I found on Ravelry.
The yarn feels very special. I am sure I will use it again in the future.
Maybe Johanne can manage to take some better photos.

Into Lace

I seem to be knitting a lot of lace recently. I must admit I do like a bit of yarn over and knit two together.
Until now I have knit lave sweater and the odd lacey scarf but never a shawl.
I seem to have a collection of fancy sock yarns. But the only one to wear hand knit socks is Miss N and even she hasn't done so for ages.
Ravelry again has come to my rescue. I came accross the Ishbel pattern and had a look at the yarn ideas. I remembered I have a skein of Fleece Artist Sea Wool in my stash.
I had bought it when I saw it on someones blog.
It must have been in my stash 3-4 years. The yarn is made out of 70% Wool and 30% Seacell. The yarn is nice, soft and has a little sheen to it.
The colour is called Blue Lagoon.
I started knitting the shawl Thursday evening and did the cast off on Sunday evening. Even I am amazed at how quick it all went. Seems a shame since I greatly enjoyed the process of knitting Ishbel.
At the moment half of it is pinned on my ironing board. I was unable to fit it all on there. I hope that the first half will be dry later tonight and I can pin the other half.
There could even be hope that the sun comes out tomorrow and I can capture Ishbel in full glory.
Now I am a bit at a loose end. I have fallen in love with the front cover of the new Interweave Knits. I also have about 20 balls of Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk, I am wondering if the pattern and yarn will work together.

Boheme for Miss T

Boheme has had its first outing today. Yesterday we went button shopping and blocked.

I finished all the knitting on Monday night. Besides two ends and the buttons there was no sewing. I did a little reinforcement on the armhole. I thought the join from the sleeve cast off looked a little loose and vulnerable.
I used about 100 grams of the Dreams in Color Smooshy yarn. The skein itself was approx. 130 grams.
The yarn really is nice and smooshy, sadly the London yarn store is closing down. I only just discovered them!
The pattern is available for free, I do think it has some flaws. There is no overlap on the button bands. I added a total of 8 stitches for the garter stitch borders and knit a garter stitch border along the bottom edge and did not do the picot edge.
I can see myself knitting something similar again and change it around to make up my own pattern.
The pattern is written for a DK weight yarn. I used the sock yarn with 4mm needles. I knit loose. The fabric is nice and lightweight without being holey.
Miss T wore it today under her coat, but she took it off as soon as we got inside. I do hope she will like wearing it.
As soon as I did the cast off on Monday I cast on for the next project.
I have been following Jeni from Fyberspates on Twitter and saw her mentioning her Sparkle yarn. I have started knitting a Christmas gift with it. In fact I have planned several gifts this season. How many days left until Christmas? I'll better run and knit faster.