Scraps all day long!

Scraps, scraps, wonderful scraps!

So! I've just finished the first yoga scrap sock! Pulled out the most boring colors from my wool bag and worked up this thing! I was lucky enough to pull out exactly enough yarn for a pair! That's skills, man! I'm gonna start the second one now. I've managed to misplace most of my 3mm DPNS, so I'm currently stuck with using only four on these. I'm used to work them both at the same time, expecially when I'm using scraps because I need it to be exact, so I had to stop a row showrt on most of the colors I used, just to be sure... So it could have been a little bit longer  for my taste... But hey, it's night socks, who cares?

Looking at them, lying flat like this, they look horrible and you don't really know what it is...

But then you put them on and it's like someone took a sock and chopped off the heel and toe!

They're horrible to wear on our floor since it's all cold tiles, but they'll be awesome and snug in bed! And it's always a smart thing to keep your feet and ankles warm, even if it's summer, expecially if you got bad legs, cramps or other pains caused by cold. Personally, I do have knee pains, but I'm going to wear these just because full wool socks are a bit too warm in bed even for me during the warmest of summer...but it's so comfy!

Big bag of scraps!

Today has been another lazy day for me, don't really have much progress to document on my current projects either. But I'm really in the mood for starting a new project! I've got some ideas allready for what to make, and it will most likely involve my big bag of scraps here!

A few months ago, I cleaned up and sorted through all my scraps and I managed to shorten two bags down to one. But it's stuffed! Mind you, there's no acryllic in this bag.

Not too many fun colors though... I'm hoping to work up a pair of "yoga socks" of some of the 100% wool that's located in the bag to the right. I love wearing wool socks, all year round, even sleeping in them. But summer is too warm for that, sadly. Though, resently, I read a blog where someone recommended yoga-socks for summer use for the wool sock maniacs, and it opened a whole new world for me! I need to try this!

If you got more scrap yarn ideas or patterns for me, let me know! I don't have enough yarn in here for a blanket though.

Two patterns up for sale!

The other day, right after my last blogentry, I finished up the pattern and got the PDF file ready and uploaded it all to Ravelry. Last night, I made my first sale and I'm super pleased! The pattern is called Ripley, you'll get the cookie if you get the reference. You can find and buy the pattern on Ravelry, here.

If that wasn't enough, I worked up the second dishcloth even before the DPF for the first was done! And today, I'm pleased to announce that my second pattern are live and kicking up on Ravelry. This one is named Aran, and again, cookie if you get the reference! You can find and buy the second pattern, here.

I'm designing patterns!

Yeah! You heard right! I am currently in the progress of designing, testing and writing up my very own patterns!

This is something I've been thinking about doing for quite some time now, but never really gotten around to do it...or found the courage to actually dive into it. I'm more of the "working from patterns" than "creating my own patterns"... But lately, mainly starting with Batman I guess, I've been redesigning my own things, so why not actually start designing new ones? And I'm starting small, with dishcloths.

Last night, I kicked my own ass and started with the first one. I drew up a chart, then worked it out with yarn and wrote up the description, designed the layout of the pattern and fixed some errors and now I'm just about done!

 What else, I've started a second one too! That one is just in the designing stage still though...

But I will be releasing these on Ravelry pretty soon! I will be selling them, but they will be fairly cheap. I'm not planning on ripping people off, but I kinda want to make a tiny bit of money on the side, so hopefully I won't get too much hate for not publishing these for free.

Also, they will be easy to make, atleast this first one should be possible for a beginner to work up.

Are you as excited about this as I am? Let me know in the comments if you would be interested in getting dishcloths patterns from me!

My Ravelry account is LARvonCL BTW.

WIP summer pullover!

I'm working pretty slow these days. So good not to have deadlines on my projects after stressing with one after the other since before christmas. But I do get some work done! Like today! I finished up the dishcloth I started the other day for one...

And I also managed to work up a scarf for Fibi! It even has frills on the ends! So fancy! Now he/she is only missing the ears! Almost done!

And then we got my summer pullover! I started the other part yesterday and finished it up today, and I just put them both on the needles again now to work in the round! The stitches add up so I'm very happy with this thing so far! The yarn is soft and light so I can imagine this pullover will be just perfect for those colder summer nights...or just as a everyday wear since I don't think it'll be very warm... Still debating if I should add the hood or not though...

Ugh, the people upstairs are having a rather loud party...so I guess I'll stay up all night working on this pullover... I actually think that these people are louder than the previous people we lived with...

Summer knitting!

Summer is more or less upon us allready (which reminds me that I should look into changing my blog design soon...again), and I'm not a fan of summer. I prefer the cold, snowy and dark nights compared to the sunny, warm and all to bright nights. But summer is more of a relaxing knit season. You can't really work on too big projects, execially not wool projects. Socks, hats, mittens, scarfs and so on usually just stand in line, waiting for the autumn to get here. So what do you knit during the warmer season? Well, anything cotton basicly! That's how it goes for myself and the rest of knitting Norway it seems. And I've allready started to feel the slowness. For a week now, all I've been doing is knitting dishcloths!

I've managed to knit six of the white birch ones from Bittami. Here's the two last ones from that batch

And after some time, I managed to finish up the heart one (not sure what the english name for this one is, but it's called "hjertebarn" in norwegian and can probably be translated to "children of the heart"), also from Bittami.

And then I started a goat willow dishcloth, form Bittami ofcourse... Both this one and the heart one areworked up with the Drops <3 You 1 mixed cotton that I bleached some time ago.

But I didn't finish this one up cause all of a sudden, I decided to start a summer pullover! Yeah! I've been drooling over this pattern for quite some time, but I finally decided to start it last night. I got a bunch of bamboo/acryllic yarn lying around that I decided to start using, and a summer pullover was the perfect project for all of this.

It's a slow work, expecially since it's worked in pieces. I'll be working it in the round cause I do not want to do all the purls. But it has splits in the sides, so at the beginning, I have to work it in different pieces... Fun time! It's looking good though!

New patterns, old projects

I recently (recently as in just this very evening) discovered that I got a love/hate relationship with new patterns, expecially when it's new patterns for things I'm so used to making. Example: I'm so used to making the same fair-isle socks over and over again, so if I try a different pattern, expecially a non-Scandinavian one, I have way too much problems with that project.

Right now, I'm working up a dishcloth with the newest pattern from Bittami. After making not one, but six dishcloths with a different pattern from her that I know by heart and back again, working up this new one give me way more problems than I signed up for.

Let's take a look, shall we? I started this one this morning. The first thing that threw me off was the fact that the edges are done in basket weave, where I'm used to garter stitch. Then I managed to count wrong and divide up the hearts all wrong. If you look at the picture underneath, they are off centered by quite a few stitches.

 

As if that weren't enough, I managed to skip the whole last row of the heart pattern! They look cut off and sloppy like this...and I didn't realise it until I was finished with the second row of hears, ove half way finished with the cloth!

Another thing is that I decided to drop the colored stripes on it. The pattern ask you to knit two rows before and after the hearts. After being half done with this cloth, I noticed that people in Bittami's Facebook group had done the stipes in basket weave stitch to fill up the empty spaces between the heart rows, which is genious!

So, it took me way too long to realise that I just had to redo the whole thing... And now, I just finished the first row of hearts, and it looks SO much better!

The yarn is the same in both pictures, just with and without flash and daylight. BTW, this is one of the mixed fabric cotton skeins I bleached some time ago. Sorry for not posting the results on those, but I had them lying in bleach for a whole day or so and they didn't show too much more result than what you can see in these pictures. Still looks good though!

Dishcloths and more bleaching!

Over the weekend, while I was at my brother's place, I decided to work up some dishcloths. It's easy, it's practical, it's fast and you can never have enough dishcloths! Also, I decided to start working up the cottons I've been bleaching. I love how they turned out!

I'll get better pictures of them later when the ends have been weaved in. These are so much better looking than the others I've made. The pattern is from Bittami, if you were wondering. It's my favorite dishcloth pattern of all time! Or...so far atleast... Turns out that Bittami is having another dishcloth knitalong this summer, starting in the beginning of june. I just can't wait! I joined the dishcloth knitalong she had last summer and I got 7 wonderful patterns out of that event!
She just released a pre-knitalong pattern yesterday and I'm dying to try it out...after I'm done working up this last one I got on my needles right now.

So, since this knitalong are closing in, I need more cotton! That is, I allready got cotton, but I need to bleach it all! Pretty cloths need to be pretty, bro! So I've just put six new skeins of my favorite dishcloth material in bleach... I dunked an extra blue and cream colored one in the leftover bleach sullotion...

...and they look amazing! I can't WAIT for new patterns!!!

The colors will get better when the skeins dry up...and the two red ones ARE different... For some reason, red colors take a lot longer time to bleach than other colors...but only with this brand, from my experience atleast.

Latest projects!

Well now... It has been over a week since my last update on this blog... I am SO good!

I didn't really have much of a reason for this hiatus either...maybe except for this past weekend. You see, the 17th was Norway's national day over here, and also the 200 year anniversary for when we got our own constitution, so it was a big thing! Usually, I've gone to my parents for that day to celebrate it in my home town. But this year, since it was the 200 year anniversary, they were moving the celebration and the...parade? thingy...up in the mountains and my parents were going to celebrate it in Levanger and join in on that...parade...thingy...thang...along with my ex-sister-in-law and my oldest niece. So I was left straded, with no real place to go and people to celebrate with... But my brother, my sister-in-law and my two youngest nieces, which lives close by. Their kindergarden was going to join in the same parade in Levanger, so they offered me to come and stay with them over the weekend.

SO! Ofcourse you gotta dress up nice during this festive day, and usually, I'd wear my bunad (our national costume), but since mine is back home at my parents place...and also a tad bit too small for me, I ended up just using a normal dress. Ofcourse I needed accessories. What I've allready shown on my blog here, is this bag. I needed something to hold my wallet, camera and phone.
I used the Quinn Cabled Bag pattern from Ravelry and used leftover yarn from my Jackie sweater, Drops Nepal. It turned out a little bit wider than the pattern though, I ended up with 14 stitches too much.

I also figured that I needed a pair of socks. After a quick search, I found these lace, lightly ruffeled socks that was just perfect! The yarn here is Silja, the same as my Batman sweater.

As if this weren't enough, I also made myself a pretty little hair ornament! I knitted three flowers in leftover cotton yarn, representing the colors of our flag, and crocheted two green whines in more leftover cotton. No real pattern here.

Also a little snap of them in my hair.

The last completed project that I got to show you guys right now, is the granny square blanket that I made for Pepsi. It didn't take long to work this blanket up, with a 4,5mm hook and three skeins of yarn, it was a quick fix. Two skeins was Amazing from Lionbrand and the last skein was Eco Wool DK from Sirdar. He was obsessed with the Amazing skein that was sent to me from Drunk Uncle June earlier this year, so I just had to make something for him with it.

 

That's all for now! Currently I'm working on dishcloths to fill the time before my next project. If you are wondering, I'm working up a good bunch of the bleached cotton yarn for these and I'll be posting pictures soon!

 

WIP: cable purse and cat blanket!

Time for a WIP blogentry again! Some progress have been made so let's document it!

First off, the cable purse! I'm actually close to finishing it! At the end of Eurovision last night (hurray for Austria BTW!), I managed to graft up the bottom of the purse and weaved in the ends.

 

After the Eurovision finale was over, I soaked it and blocked it. Couldn't find anything better than a plastic A4 folder to put inside it...So it'll get the size of a A4 paper. A bit wider than expected, but that's ok, I did end up with 14 more stitches than the pattern asked for anyway so, not much that can be done with that!

Not that it matters really. I'll be a good size for projects and later use. As you can see, I'm still missing the shoulder strap for it. I am pondering the thought of having two straps that'll cross over eachother.

The pattern tells me to make four i-cords and braid them together into one strand to make the strap, I am also thinking about just making three and then make a normal braid. But we'll see. I need this purse done by friday at the latest so I got a lot of time.

What I haven't shared with the blog though, is that I've started a blanket for Pepsi. Forever ago, Pickle's good friend Drunk Uncle June sent me these wonderful skeins in the mail...among other things wonderful things!

The yarn is Amazing from Lionbrand, a brand I've never tried before since it's not sold in Europe as far as I know...though, I may be wrong. Amazing here is 53% wool and 47% acryllic and kinda fluffy, the color is called Regatta if you were wondering. As soon as these skeins came into my possession, Pepsi has been crazy about them and wouldn't leave the skeins alone. He was constantly sniffing them and chewing on them and more than once, I woke up finding the skeins in a mess on the middle of the livingroom floor. Luckily though, he never chewed over the thread, so it was still fully useable. But I realised that I would have to make something for him with these skeins.
I figured another blanket would be a good idea. Since the yarn contains wool, it wouldn't be ideal for toys. He also doesn't care much about beds or pillows, so a blanket would actually be plausible for him to use. So, when I now finally was done with gifts and hasty projects, I decided to start it as a simple project inbetween stuff. I was originally thinking about knitting it, like the other blanket that I made for him, but instead I ended up working it in granny square. With hook 4,5mm, I have now worked up one of the skeins I got and are currently working on the other. I also decided to use a single skein I had in my storage forever in this blanket as a break between the two colorfull skeins.

Simple, yet pretty and hopefully colorful enough for Pepsi. Cats are attracted to colorful objects.

Slow knitting

Now that I don't have any hasty projects going on...well, except for the cable bag...I'm doing really slow progress on everything. So let's do a round-up of the little I've done over the past few days...cause it's not really much...

The cable purse/bag thingy are going well. I need it done by the 16th since I'm going away, but it's really no rush as it works up fairly quick. I haven't done much on this bag yet, and I'm allready over halfway there. It's a quicky this one!

Not really knit, but I did manage to finish up the tail for Fibi the other day... It looks like crap since it's so short and stubby compared to the pattern itself, but it's one step closer to finishing off the doll! Now I only need the ears (which I need some help with) and the scarf, which is just knit so shouldn't be a problem for me!

Other than those two, I've pulled out the mindless knitted shawl that I started during the Christmas holiday last year. Thanks to Pickle, I now can't unsee it as a watermelon! So it now has a name, "watermelon shawl"! BUT, I've managed to misplace the last skein somewhere, so I can't continue it until I find it... Oh well...

I got two other colors in this yarn so I might just make another one that's a big more complex instead.

Cabled purse!

WARNING, WAY TOO LONG BACKSTORY...WHICH IS REALLY NOT NEEDED...

I'm not a girly woman, not at all...rather far from it...being pretty, dressed up, fashion, make-up, shoes and purses and accessories are alien to me. I might have a more femenine taste in the world of knitting, but still, that's the only place I'm femenine. I've always been boyish and that's something I'll always be.

But then there's occasions where I'm expected to dress up, and when those occasions occure, I'm often at a loss about what to wear because what I got are too dressy, or not dressy enough, or I'm missing tons of the accessories. Like for our national day, the 17th of may... This year, I didn't really plan to do anything since...well...stuff...and I no has friends... But during Easter, I was invited to my brother and his family, which also my parents are going this year. So then I needed an outfit!
First off, I was thinking about using the swing skirt I've been working on forever...and haven't been working on since forever... But then I decided against that since it'll probably never get finished...

So then I was thinking about my two midnatt.no dresses that I got...or maybe order a new one...but then again, they're a bit too dark for spring...

So that's just about all the formal wears I got... I could put on my suit, but sadly, I'm fat and it doesn't look too good on me anylonger...even though it was bought when I was allready fat...and it never really looked good on me...

 

So we then go and buy a new dress! Woop woop! Not really that excite... I really couldn't care less... But I kinda like this one dress that I eventually got. I've talked about it before, it's the one from Ellos, but I didn't show any pictures of it... So let's fix that right now, shall we? Atleast to the best of my abilities...in dirty mirrors...without flash...yay!

I even got some accessories that goes good with it! But here's were everything stops... I has no purse...or bag...or whatever... I really just have one bag, and that's a messenger bag which I use for everything...and it's not really formal or dressy...and doesn't go good with any of these outfits.

SO THAT'S WHEN WE FINALLY GET TO THE POINT!!!

I need a purse that I can carry my wallet, phone and camera in that can work with atleast this last dress here! I'm low on money, I don't care to spend how much cash on something to carry my cash for just one or two days for the rest of my life. What do you do then? Well, you make one, ofcourse!

For something like this, I want something that's easy, yet pretty, blend, yet decorative, not too big, but can carry all the stuff I need...which isn't even like a drop in the pond for some girls out there...
TO RAVELRY WE GO!
It didn't take me long before I found this cutie. The next day, I casted on! Using the leftover skeins from Jackie, I think I can make a good looking purse.

I finished up the top band of the purse earlier today and started to pick up stitches to work up the body. I ended up with 14 stitches too many compared to the pattern, but with a little adjustments and some extra stitches here and there, that was no problem and you probably wouldn't even see the difference when I'm finished!

I got a little over a week to finish it up, which shouldn't be a problem, and another four skeins, so hopefully, this will go as smoothly as possible! When it's all over and done, I can probably use this as a holder for some smaller projects I'm working on while on the move.

Now, this has been a waaaaay too long blogentry, with a bit too many pictures of myself in it...so I'll just call it a night and keep on working...or play some Minecraft...