Fair-isle socks!

Welp, I totally forgot to blog the, but the fair-isle socks with Kool-Aid yarn are now finished!
Really not pleased with them, they gave me way too much grief. But they're warm, and they're for me, so I can't be bothered to complain too much or frog them.

I've already planned my next pair of socks actually! Some time ago, I bought this super pretty pattern, and I dug out yarn for them last night!

Can't wait! But it'll just have to... Gotta finish up these Christmas Stockings before I'll do more ego knitting... Speaking of Christmas Stockings, I've finally reached the heel, so it'll be finished soon enough! So far, the charts have worked perfectly with the pattern for the other stocking.

 

Not really Christmassy, but I love how it turns out anyway!

Always a procastinator...

I really am the worst at everything... Minecraft have managed to suck me in again, so now I'm stuck in the hole called procastinating. To top that, I'm lazy and in a "bored but doesn't want to do anything creative" mood, so I've done little to nothing called knitting lately...

I did finish the knitting part of Melissa's Christmas Stocking a few days ago though. I've been lazy with it, but it's more or less done...for now.

The green and purple yarn in the back are for the second stocking she's commissioned. I've yet to start it cause I'm in a foul mood and it demands a lot of reworking. The patterns ask for completely different needles and yarn thickness, so I am planning on redrawing it to fit the same bill as this one here... But we'll see... Worst case scenario, I could work it double stranded to get the right measurements, but I don't trust my yarn to last...

Both of the stockings will be lined with fabric and have bells all over for extra Christmas spirit an joy! I really can't wait to see them finished, but right now, I can't be bothered... Good thing there's still 2 months until Christmas! Or atleast one month (or something like that) until I've got to ship them. Shouldn't be a problem.

On the 14th of october, I frogged and restarted the Setesdal's mitten I started on back in august. 14th of october is the first day of winter according to the runic calendar, and it's marked with a mitten, so just about all of yarnster Norway was knitting mittens on that day. I'm still not 100% pleased with this first mitten...expecially not the thumb (I will most likely be redoing that thing at some point cause it is just horrible).

Last night I decided to just put everything on hold and so something familiar and mindless, so I started another pair of my favorite fair-isle socks. Snow Lily from Drops Design. I'm so happy that this pattern finally have gotten a name! I haven't made a pair since last Christmas! About friggin' time I make another pair! It's very much needed as well since all of my old pairs (except for the blue pair) have holes in them, and I'm too lazy to patch them up...

This is how my morning looked today:

I decided to finally use the first Kool Aid dyed yarn I've done! It looks fantastic with the petrol yarn. The white is just some scraps I had lying around.

I am taking it slow however... My right arm ain't too pleased with my crazed Minecraft gaming that has been happening lately... So knitting on top doesn't make it any better to put it that way.

One last thing before I end this blogpost. Needles are friggin' expencive and hard to find! I've been searching all over the place for 12mm needles! If you remember the gignatic ball of yarn that my mom got for me and the pattern that I wanted to use it for, I'm in dire need for a 12mm 80cm circular needle. I've been searching high and low for a pair, and the closest I've come to find a pair was on Strikkenett.no, but the shipping wasn't worth it and I really shouldn't be buying more yarn for a while... I did end up getting a 10mm 80cm one at Nille today though. Even though it's 2mm thinner than suggested in the pattern (and also friggin plastic... YUCK!!!), I figured that I could try it out. A little swatching never hurt anyone. Worst case scenario would be going up one size or adding a few more stitches... Though, I don't see how much difference it would be with such huge needles...

That's all for me for now! I'm gonna chill out with some coffe before I crash and burn... It's only 5pm over here right now, but I'm already super tired...

gly scrap socks!

Woop! Finally finished the Marius sweater earlier today! Worked all night on it cause I had to redo the neckline because Bård wasn't happy with it, so now I'm done with it and there will be pictures soon enough for you guys to see.

So as a little inbetween project, I decided to get a little relief for my sock urge with some ugly scrap socks! My bag of wool scraps are getting rater full, so I need to clear some out. The easiest way is ugly scrap socks.

We'll see how many pairs I'll make before either starting the next commission (that's in no hurry min dyou) or working up a new pair of fair-isle socks for myself. Both of those options make more scraps, so it's a good idea to clear out the old scraps first!

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!

 

Birthday gifts!

Ah, I can finally document some of my latest secret projects! You see, two of my three nieces had their birthday last week, and ofcourse, I had to knit their presents...atleast mainly knit them...

My mom told me that my middle niece, which turned 4 on the 29th of april needed a pair of wool leggings, so she handed me some skeins of bright red Drops Alpaca yarn. After some searching, I found this cute pattern from Drops. I dropped the ribbing part but kept the cables in the sides for the pair I made. After the leggings I made for my oldest niece before christmas, I just didn't want to make another pair with that much ribbing!

And yes, this is the one that I was complaining about in a blogpost not too long ago. I was all of a sudden 10 stitches short on the first leg, but for some reason, the problem fixed itself when I continued on the second leg... No idea what happened, or how I fixed it, but I don't give a damn anylonger!

For my oldest niece, which turned 9 on the 2nd of may, I made a pair of simple "raggsokk"s. Again, my mom told me that she needed more socks, and so, I made her a pair. After diving into my yarn storage, I found two single skeins and decided to combine them into something wonderful and fancy.

Ofcourse, this wasn't the only thing I gave her. What kind of aunt would I be if I gave one of my nieces a whole pair of leggings that I spent a week and a half on and then my other niece a pair of socks that took me only a day? Welp, I also gave my oldest niece three pair of earrings and three braceletts. She told me during Easter that she wanted braceletts that I've made myself for her birthday, and I can't say no to that... Granted, my workbench and goldsmithing tools are still in boxes (dang you anxiety and low self esteem), but I could still make her some with beads and stones. I also gave my middle niece two more simple braceletts too, just to make it seem fair.

BUT! I got three nieces, and ofcourse, the youngest couldn't be left out...even though it might not be the best thing to do in case of spoiling since it wasn't her birthday, I had to make something for her as well. To make it seem more casual, I made the same thing for the other two as well. Small, everyday, spoiling gifts for all my little sweeties! I made them all hats! Matching hats at that!
Now I hate working with acryllics, but I didn't have much wool that doesn't itch in my storage at the moment, and I've heard that they don't like the itchyness...also it's getting warmer outside and acryllic is cold, so why not make more spring/summer/autumn-ish hats?
I pulled out whatever grey yarn I could find in my bag of acryllic barf and then some neon yarn. With a little knit and some purls, I made these with a simple pattern called  "Hurricane Hat". The neon flowers I half found a pattern for, half made up.

Neon yarn are really neon...

The Legend of Zelda fair-isle socks!

They are dooooooooooone! Finally! Legend of Zelda socks! I'm such a nerd... I do love me some Zelda and I do collect the Zelda games.

I redrew all the charts myself, it took me three days, but I did base them off this pattern, just because I'm too lazy to do test knits and all the calculations myself.

Zelda socks WIP

So I just finished off the second heel of the Zelda socks I'm working on, so I figured I'd do an update. I said I were to post the dyed yarn last night or something, but again, I fell asleep too early and I feel like I'm going to crash and snooze anytime now...so blog while I'm still awake!

I'm working super slow on these! And I've been procastinating for a few days, but I have made some progress today. As I've said, I just finished the second heel. I am crazy and I need to work on both socks at the same time, or else I'll go mad.

Looking pretty good so far. The purple looks more grey IRL, but it shows up almost perfect on pictures. I was trying to aim for the Twilight Princess look on Zelda, and this was the color to be ckosest to that.

If you're wondering what the symbols on them means, it's the Sheik symbol for Zelda and Navi for Link. I've also put the Master Sword and Zelda's bow.

Hope you like them! I'll finish them up soon enoguh, just gotta sleeo off some Z's'

All the socks!

Wish I could live off socks...  They my favorite thing to make and they keep my feet warm and toasty!

Now, as I've told you guys, I'm in the middle of a "socks for cookies" trade for Brooke, and I'm having too much fun making socks for her. Now, I'm not sure if she's seen these yet, or if she likes them, but I surely do. I finished them up yesterday and I just love the colors. I've used Karisma from Drops Design, a 100% wool superwash yarn (the purple) and then a variegated mixed blend called Ragg Soft. It's 60% wool, 20% nylon and 20% acryllic. Good for socks, but has a little too much acryllic feel to them for my taste. I got a bunch of scraps like these so I might whip up a ugly scrap sock pair for her too.

Now, our trade involved a pair of socks for her daughter too... And if you guys remember way back, I said I was working on a secret project. Well, I was actually making a secret sock pair for little Brenna, BEFORE Brooke asked me to make her some. Now that I've gotten her shoe size, these are sadly a bit too big for her, but that only gives her something to grow into. They're in a yarn fairly similar to the green/blue variegated I used for Brooke's socks, and they got the same quality too. So... SURPRISE! I might end up making an extra pair for her though, just because I can, I got more of this yarn to use anyway.

Then there's this Zelda contest at Knitting-and-Crochet group on dA... I suddenly hit me a couple of weeks ago what I were to make for the contest; socks ofcourse! I sat down and used three days to get the charts right, and today I started them! Had to turn the livingroom upside down to find my darling fair-isle needles though. I refuse to knit fair-isle socks without them.

And then there's these last socks... I found these while roaming through my workshop yesterday. I made these for some old friend of mine...before she stabbed me quite painfully in the back...and I have no idea what to do with these... My calfs are too fat for them, so maybe someone else out there wants them instead? I haven't weaved in the ends on them yet, so that has to happend... but other than that, they're pretty fancy if I could say so myself. Definitly scrap socks though.

More socks ahead! And no, I don't have a foot fetish...just in case you were wondering...

Multicolored socks!

Again, sorry for the lack of update!
The past couple of days, my knitting motivation has been down, but I'm trying to pick it up again.

As you know, I've been working with felted things lately, two pairs of slippes and a wine holder... They are all now more or less finished and I'll get around to talk about them later when they're all done!

But the last couple of days, I've been trying to make socks! My yarn trade with Brooke evolved into a socks vs cookies trade, and I'm not trying to work on the first pair for her. My plan was to make these, but sadly, the yarn I had in mind for them didn't work well together in fair-isle... I had to frog half a leg and just give up on that pattern. But I really wanted to use the yarn for her socks, so I decided on a simple pair with stripes instead.

Since I'm low on the purple yarn (cause the other skein is reserved for a Zelda contest), I made the stripes on the leg, while the foot with be just in the variegated yarn. The variegated are actually sock yarn as well with a bit of nylon and acryllic, while the purple's 100% superwash wool, so it'll make the heels and toes more dureable. Simple, yet pretty and very practical!

...and I think I need to get working on a spring-ish theme for my blog...

Yesteday's progress - 29th jan

Hey guys! Sorry for no blogpost yesterday! I really just didn't have much time for crafting cause of computer stuffs and shits...and it really took most of the day.

The little knitting I did was done on my ugly scrap socks, the second pair of this year, but still, it's not that much progress, so excuse me for no update yesterday.

I'm almost done with the turquoise part, so I might jump right into ochre and finish off the toes afterwards...hoping that I'll have enough yarn...

But I did make awesome pizza yesterday though!!!

The last project of 2013!

Sorry for spamming you guys with blogposts today, but one thing I've forgotten to blog about...both here and on my other blog, is the very last knitted project of 2013 that I made.

BAM!

My sister in law asked if I could make her a pair of my favorite fair-isle socks. Ofcourse I couldn't turn this one down, så I told her to get me yarn and I'll fix her up with a pair. The very next day she dragged me to the closest store that sold yarn. She originally wanted a pair in black and lime green, since she got the same taste in colors as myself, but ended up with brown and turqoise instead...cause it is really tuquoise and not blue...stupid camera!

It took me three days to get them finished, and the last stitch was knitted just an hour before my train left on the 30th of december. My mother was helpfull enough to weave in the ends for me to save some time.

My sister in law loved them though! And that's enough to make me pleased with them. This is the 9th pair I've knitted in this pattern over the last three years or so. And five of those were knit during 2013. Here's to kicking that record with six pair or more in this pattern + other patterns in 2014!

My record on knitting these are two days BTW. I will beat that one too someday!

Here's the pattern. Yarn is Trysilgarn Superwash on 3,5mm needles.