knits

I haven't done a "look-what-I-found-on-the-Interwebz" post for a long long time! Better to catch up later than never, no?

First, I found this great kitchener stitch tutorial on Youtube. It's really clear and straightforward - take a look!

This video shows a rather interesting way to darn a sock. It really looks sturdy! I actually have a sock to repair, so I might try this soon.

This stitch mark tutorial is reall popular at the moment! I make mine quite differently, though.

Poor sweater, what have I done to you?

This is a sad story about a top-down raglan sweater, which had an "accident" and has now become a bottom-up raglan sweater. Let me start from the beginning...

A while back I finally started on my husband's sweater. I decided on bulky yarn and a top-down raglan recepie for calculating my own gauge. So I measured my tall and skinny husband, I measured my gauge swatch and started knittting. I made him try the sweater on again and again, and everything seemed just fine. Until the sweater body and one sleeve were finished. That's when I noticed I had made way too many raglan increases - the armpit of the sweater was at least two inches too low, giving the sweater a batwing-kind of sleeve look and loads of extra fabric at the armpit.

I'm so excited! My Ravelympics shawl is done! In case you're not familiar with the term, it's basically a knitalong where you do a challenging project during the Olympic games. Mine was the Tulppaani shawl (this pattern is originally in Finnish, but can be found in English at Villapallo's blog)

I'll post more about it once it's been blocked and my darling husband is back from his conference Drupaletics and available to take some photos of me modeling the gorgeous shawl! Sorry for the quality of these - I tried my best standing on the bed, but it just didn't seem to work better than this!

So, I'm feeling better so I can finelly get back to blogging! This is what I have to show you first - the Damson shawl.

First the stats:
Pattern: Damson by Ysolda Teague
Needles: 4mm circular
Yarn: 1 skein of Zitron undyed sock yarn, self-dyed with Kool aid - and ca. 20 grams of Zitron bamboo sock yarn, also self dyed. More about this later..!
Modifications: I did the lace bit in garter stitch instead of stockinette. It looks good!

So this thing... it's not quite as pretty as I hoped, and it's not very flattering on me, but hey, I knit it so I will show it here as well.

Pattern: Cloud Bolero by Ysolda Teague
Yarn: Marengo by G-B (a local German brand, the yarn is wool and acrylic)
Needles: 7mm KnitPicks circular
Modifications: none

I knit the size M, and it fits me well. However this type of garment doesn't look too good on me I have noticed. Not sure how much use this will get... it does warm my shoulders nicely! We'll see, maybe I'll even end up giving it to someone.

Now take a look at these goodies!

I have to tell you about this really nice new yarn shop I ordered the Lollipop and Zauberball yarns from. It's called Mylys and it operates from Hamburg, Germany. The online shop is pretty and easy to use, the yarn is gorgeous plus the service was really helpful and quick (I had a little problem on placing my order, but the owner Naima solved the problem in a minute and actually asked for more feedback so her programmer could see if the shop is working properly!). Plus the yarn arrived in a day or so - shipping cost free (for orders over 40 euro from Germany)

So that much of the new lovely shop where I will certainly be buying again - now the yarns!

This is my 2009 tally für preemies. You might know that I support the German knit for preemies charity Frühchenstricken, who collect preemie knits and distribute them to the hospitals who request them. I usually send one packet a year, and this is the one for 2009 (they asked me to wait over Christmas to send it, so I only sent it last week).

What I made:
2 cotton blankets, ca 55x60 cm big
5 pairs of preemie socks
5 preemie hats

OK, it's not so much, but hey, every little helps and I know these items will beused by those who need them. Plus preemie knits are so great for quick stashbusting projects!

PS. What do you think about the new background Nick made for me?

I have two more sets of stitch markers for sale, take a look and let me know if you'd like a set.

I'm aware that my markers are not perfect, but they're pretty and according to user comments snag free. Here are some for you to see.

If you'd like to buy a set or two just leave your email address and a note which ones you'd like in a comment. I'll remove your email from the comment once I've answered you. However, if you'd prefer not posting your email you can use the contact form (see right sidebar).

The prices for the following stitch markers (including postage):
Germany 5e
EU 6e/5,50GP
US & rest of the world 7e/10 USD.

You can use PayPal or pay by SEPA-transaktion to my German bank account (this only works in EU).

All stitch markers will fit needles up to 6mm / US size 10. The stitch markers come in a beautiful organza pouch.

I did it! I've knit Owls! Not that that makes me so special - it is currently the most knit sweater pattern on Ravelry , but if you read my blog, you will know that I'm not the big sweater knitter. So every sweater feels like an accomplishment, like having climbed a mountain. In this case, rather small mountain, as this sweater was really quick to knit! And I love it!

Pattern: Owls
Needles: 5,5mm circular, must have been 80 cm long
Yarn: Marks & Kattens Eko Ull, 100% organic wool from New Zealand. I used 380 grams, that's a little less than 8 balls.

Another free knitting pattern from Worsted Knitt! I'm getting the hang of this :)

This sock pattern is perfect for self-striping and self-patterning yarn. It can be so boring knitting plain stockinette socks with these yarns, but any complex pattern will not show in the striped yarn, or it will just look bad and messy. This simple moss stitch rib doesn't disturb the colours, but makes the sock more interesting to work on and to look at.

A word of warning: the pattern is not symmetrical. If you love your order and symmetrical ribbings, you possibly won't like this pattern. It doesn't really show that much, but better to give you a heads-up to avoid disappointment.