Overspringshandling

saffran2_oct When I was living in Denmark I learned a beautiful new little word; overspringshandling (or displacement activity in English). In biology the term refers to the idea that when animals are faced with two competing behaviours, e.g. fight or flight, instead of doing either of them, they’ll start doing something completely unrelated. The Danes used this word more in the likes of ‘I should probably be studying for my exam, but instead I’ll start cleaning the kitchen’. I think I’m experiencing the knitting equivalent right now.

saffran_oct

See, I’m only a button band away from steeking this tiny cardigan. But bringing the scissors to this work that was in the end quite fidgety and a hassle to make, is giving me some serious fight or flight vibes. So even though I should really finish this before my friend gives birth (any day now), I started knitting snowmen in October. They’re chilling in my Bonsai until the Christmas tree goes up (still 1,5 months or so away from now).

tiny_snowmen

Oh and I finished the body of my Threshold sweater. But apparently I don’t have the correct needle size for the sleeves, so the project is have a little nap until the new DPNs arrive.

threshold_oct

I’ve also figured knitting a second baby present is less work than finishing project #1, so I’m making a Teddy Sweater in some super pretty Malabrigo Arroyo.

teddy

My stash is also not starving anymore, I won an instagram giveaway by Uschitita and boy did she spoil me with this prize.

uschitita_prize

Also, someone needs to delete the Etsy app from my phone already because I keep falling in love with new indie dyers and have some serious inhibition issues. These pretties arrived Lystig yarns in Finland recently. I love these two pale colours together. I was squishing and sniffing the yarn and I actually heard these skeins whisper to me that they’d like to be used together in a project, maybe a shawl with lots of garter stitch. I’m aware hearing yarn speak isn’t exactly normal, maybe it’s time for some vacation.

lystig4 lystig

Speaking of which, I’m visiting the US in less than 2 weeks (arriving on the day of the elections, talk about timing!) and I’ll be spending some time in San Diego and New York city. If anyone has any tips on things to see and do please let me know!

 

 

Baby Steeks

saffran_cardigan

It’s been forever since I did colourwork. This teeny tiny baby cardigan for a dear friend that is expecting (in less than a month, I need to keep knitting!!!) has brought me back in the game. I’m for sure rusty when it comes to my stranded knitting skills, tension could be better, but I think it’s all within blocking out range. Small projects are actually a great way to experiment with new techniques, and this is going to be a big one for me: my first steeking project. So far there’s no fear yet about taking scissors to my knitting, I’m still in a happy ignoring the whole thing kind of state. I’ll get there soon enough. Pattern is Saffran cardigan and I’m using Drops Karisma as it’s supposedly machine washable.

iva_autumn

Iva is keeping a close eye on me just in case I loose my cool.

A lovely trip to Amsterdam on Friday also led to some more stash enhancement. A vibrant blue skein of sock yarn from Amsterdam based indie-dyer Undercover Otter, and a skein of Brooklyn Tweed Shelter that is finally available in the Netherlands now also thanks to the Stephen and Penelope store.

undercoverotter bt_shelter

And my parents were ever so sweet to bring me back a skein of yarn on their trip to Texel, undyed 100% wool from Texel sheep.

texelseschapenwol

 

 

 

Full blown autumn

threshold2
Today was a lazy Sunday, outside the wind was rushing and there was rain. Inside there was cake baking, cat cuddling and knitting. I can’t begin to describe how in love I am with this season change.

threshold1
After pretty much only monogamistic sock knitting during summer it feels nice to have several projects on the needle. For the first sweater of the season (pattern is Threshold) I was looking for a perfect semi-solid yellow and I think I found it in this Phileas Yarn explorer (colourway Wat). Isn’t the neckline of this sweater to die for? It’s a super enjoyable knit so I’m a little torn between wanting to have it off the needles to wear and wanting it to be an eternal wip.

asklov
I’m also working on a hat from the autumn issue from Pom Pom Quarterly. It’s the Asklöv hat, and well, the brim is obviously pretty boring to knit. I’m looking forward to the colourwork. I’m using geilsk tynd uld, the colour is very pretty.

drogon

And there always have to be socks on the needles, there’s simply no other way. The Bordeaux Red from the skein of Ancient Arts Fibre sock yarn I bought in Canada last year was screaming my name. The pattern is Drogon by Cookie A. It’s not actually super fluffly yarn, any observed fluff in the picture is because the cat took a nap on it.

After finishing up so many socks over summer I also got some slight anxiety I might at one point dry out my sock yarn stash. Please try not to laugh… Ok that’s fine go ahead and laugh. I’ve done the math though, and for every skein of sock yarn knit up, at least 4 new skeins need to be added to the stash to compensate. So voila, here’s my attempt to fill up the stash again, surely more to follow 🙂

strandeddyeworks missmothballs

Well hello there pretties, welcome to my home! <3

The pastel prettiness is by the hands of Stranded Dyeworks oasis fingering in the Naive Watercolour colourway. That purple-yellow combination that set my heart aflutter is by Miss Mothballs in the Speckle Me colourway.