Apr 4

Knitting lately

My brain cannot fully comprehend all the changes going on in my life right now. Last week I had my very last working days at the university and in less than a month from now I’ll be moving to Paris. So right now I have one month in between to get things finished up and pack things up. But first and foremost I’m taking some time to breathe. Some time to simply sit and knit and I am loving it.

I’m mainly working on two different projects, one of which might look familiar if you have an incredible memory. This is the Henslowe shawl and I knit it once before as a gift for my grandmother 3 years ago. Back then I had a difficult time actually gifting it instead of keeping it for myself and I swore to myself that one day I’d make this shawl for myself.

This time I am making the shawl out of a skein of Malabrigo sock in the Ochre colourway. Yellow shawls are always a great idea and so far I’ve never made one. Just like last time the shawl is flying off the needles and I hope to have it done and blocked by the end of the week.

I’m also focusing on finishing up this pair of neon socks. The pattern is called Tulsi socks by Verena Cohrs and the yarn is by Koperdraadje. The pattern repeat is easy to remember so it makes for great tv knitting.

Before the big move I’ll have to sort through my entire stash and best case scenario I’ll finish a couple more WIPs so I can feel like I have a complete fresh start in Paris.

 

Mar 18

FO: Tambourine cardigan

Happy Sunday everyone! I have had a busy week in which I did not spend much time at home. So my weekend was dedicated to finishing up a near FO. Most likely I’ve complained on this blog at length of how I’m not a fan of knitting things in pieces and having to sew them up. This feeling stands, so after recently knitting all the pieces for this cardigan I took my sweet time assembling everything, weaving in the ends, and sewing on the buttons. This weekend I sat down for the final touch, meaning I now have a brand new cardigan in my wardrobe.

Pattern: Tambourine cardigan by Julia Farwell-Clay (featured in Pom Pom Magazine issue 12)
Yarn: Wollkenschaf DK Merino in Herbstlich dunkel

My collection of knitting magazines has been accumulating steadily over the years, and recently I have finally found myself being more and more drawn to knitting from them. It is completely silly that a couple of times per year I receive the most beautiful knitting magazines by mail, find myself drooling all over the featured patterns, and then putting the magazines aside without actually knitting from them. I think this has been mostly the result of habit. When I pick a new project I will automatically log onto ravelry rather than running to my book shelfs. And it is this habit that has been changing a lot lately (with already some recent FOs to show for it, like the Netherton pullover or the Invincible Summer shawl).

This pattern has been a lot of fun to knit, despite the reasonable presence of twisted ribbing and the required assembly. Especially knitting the body was a blast, knitting those little circles of nubbs is adorable.

The yarn was a great choice for this project. This was my first time working with this dyer (Wollkenschaf), which is very reasonably priced and was dyed to order. The pale red/dusty pink/rose colour gives the cardigan an overall vintage feel. Despite me finishing this at the start of spring, I think I can still get good wear out of this over the next few months as a relatively light cardigan to wear over a dress.

 

Mar 4

Neon socks galore

Possibly inspired by the freezing winter weather, or possibly just because, but I’ve been bitten by the neon sock knitting bug (yes that’s a thing). In terms of my garment knitting I definitely tend to keep things on the safe side, but I have zero fears of going wild on my hand knit socks. Currently I am feeling all of the highlighter colours, and my feet deserve a little party every now and again.

Yesterday I finished up this neon stripey pair of socks made out of Nicole C Mendez yarn (this is the Avada Kedavra colourway). She makes the absolute loveliest self-striping yarn, which I’ve also used before for a mint green striped pair.

You might notice that, completely out of character for me, I’ve actually matched up the stripes on these socks! Feel free to burst out into applause. I didn’t suddenly get bothered by matching up stripes though, but the black stripe fit so perfectly for the fish lips kiss heel on the first sock that I decided to recreate it on the second.

 

And the next sock of neon-goodness if already cast on..How good does that toe look?? Hmm.. delicious..

Feb 21

Let the pompom speak

A couple of months ago I came across the most fantabulous pompoms on Etsy and couldn’t resist impulse buying them (to be found here). They are everything fluffy unicorn dreams are made of, and I knew immediately there was no way my knitting could ever upstage them. I also knew that one of these pompoms would lend itself perfectly as a gift to one of my friends, which is how I ended up making this cute little hat.

Pattern: Frais by Alicia Plummer
Yarn: Malabrigo Arroyo in the ‘natural’ colourway

I kept both the pattern and yarn as simple as possible, but obviously without ending up knitting a boring hat. The neatly folded rim combined with the eye-of-the-partridge stitch running across the head made for interesting, yet very quick and simple knitting.

It is of course the pompom that does all of the talking in this hat. It.is.so.pretty!

And luckily for me I have another one in my stash, waiting patiently for me to make a decision on matching yarn + pattern. I’m trying to find a yarn that is a bit wilder in terms of colours, but that will still combine nicely with all the colours in the pompom. To be continued..

Feb 10

FO: Invincible Summer shawl

 

Hello dear little blog space of mine, it’s been so long since I’ve visited and even longer since I last had an FO to share. Luckily, I have finally finished and handed in my PhD thesis, so this is all about to change! Now I can proudly share my first FO of 2018.

Pattern: Invincible Summer shawl by Susanne Sommer (published in issue 2 of Laine magazine)
Yarn: Spingodin sock yarn in the colours veenhout, hunebed, sneeuwuil & mos

This was such a perfect winter knit for me. Firstly, because I loved working with all the muted grey colours and then getting to finish it up with a pop of bright green. Secondly, because this is a truly massive shawl that I can fully wrap myself in during these still very cold winter days.

The shawl is triangular and looks like a whole bunch of garter stitch (which is obviously true), but is very interesting to knit nonetheless. Along the spine of the shawl, as well as the border, you get to work lots of brioche stitch, alternating between one and two colour brioche. Susanne Sommer has published tons of shawl designs which incorporate brioche, all equally stunning. After already finishing the Cosmic Wonder brioche shawl last year I am completely sold on the idea and will hopefully make tons more.

I pretty much followed the muted colour palette as it is published in the magazine, but this could easily be the perfect shawl to work up all those single skeins of bright speckled yarn you have lying around. I’m happy I got to use a Dutch dyer for this shawl, it’s always nice to see what amazing yarns fellow-dutchies can create. I truly love all four of these colours and could easily imagine myself using them again to make a sweater (which is secretly my 2018 knitting goal, year of the sweater anyone?).

What knits are you working on this winter?