Thank you for all your kind comments on the baby jacket. I'm still working on the pattern as there are all sorts of knitting manoeuvrings in it - I try my best to get them right and that takes lots of time.
All my knitting life this past week was around the little jacket and the sock yarn stash gave me a lesson ore two.
I thought that I knew my stash through and through and was aware of its possibilities. Choosing the right combination for the jacket number II should be easy, I thought. But it was not.
The jacket has vertical striping and that is very important feature in it.
I picked my first combination with my left hand and the result was that I lost all the vertical striping. There was no rhythm and the fabric was just a blurred combination of color that worked together well but did not bring out the best in the pattern.
For the second combination I chose two opposites, I decided to underline the striping and used deep and full colors and they ended up fighting, the outcome was hard and bold and cold and certainly not suitable for a baby cloth.
I realized that I had a problem and that it was time for a time-out with the stash, time to start looking and understanding. Okey, so I needed to have an interesting striping pattern.
I found this Trekking Tweed from the stash; it is not beautiful or cute. It was yarn that has been staring at me from the stash for a while, and somehow I felt that this yarn was like a kid that is never chosen for a team. When I got this picture in my head, I could not get rid of it and I started to feel sorry for the poor yarn. I just could not put it back, it definitely was his turn to play at last.
At first I though that it is greenish and quite dirty and so it needed something to make it cleaner - if you see what I mean. It needed a wash. I tried pale greens and blues - no, nothing worked until I came across some Lorna's sock yarn in color chino and that was the perfect companion for the tweed.
By this time I was so tired of looking at the yarns that for the gusset color I took the first red that I came across - a safe choice. I decided that it was good enough, one had to draw a line at some point and get to knitting. And I knit on, not too happy, something was still off. The whole time I kept thinking of yellow. I was missing yellow, longing for it and made up my mind to use some yellow for the embroidery. But why was I thinking of yellow? Maybe it was the amount of yellow in the yard that was playing a trick on me. All the birch trees outside were dressed in golden glowing yellow.Then the tweed yarn showed me his true color. It was not green, it was more like a member of the pale violets. I took the yarn outside and spent a long time looking at it and sure enough, there was plenty of violet. No wonder I was longing for yellow, my eye was searching for the contrasting color. The red was out and some violet for the gussets was in. Lesson number one was about looking and seeing.
Lesson two was about the quality of the yarn. I don't know how did I escape from the fact that there are BIG differences in sock yarns, even when the fiber content is the same. I have thought of my sock yarns only as sock yarns as they did not even count as a part of the stash. But there is huge variety in them and this group is very fascinating and refreshing. Less than few weeks ago I tried my best to stay away from the self-striping and variegated wonders thinking that they were not my cake but today all I search and look for are these sock yarns. There really is a world of them.
Lorna's and this Trekking felt quite similar when being knit, they felt a bit like cotton even, smooth and soft but with lots of strength. The nylon contend is 25% in Trekking while in Lorna's it is 20%. When knitting these two as a couple I had to concentrate on making even fabric, they were not forgiving, but they behaved beautifully as long as I knew what I was doing. I knit the gussets with Araucania Ranco, totally different from Trekking, even though the fiber content is the same. Ranco felt woollier and more forgiving.
I don't dare to call this fingering group as sock yarn group any more; it is full of strong individuals and should be treated and handled accordingly.
October is just around the corner. I wonder if the lake is going to freeze and if the winter will be marching in the next month. The fall has been so warm that it is difficult to believe that it will be happening soon. The world will quiet down little by little. First it is the leaves, some of the trees are already naked, the wind can't play with them any more. Then in some cold morning, the lake is frozen and the sound of the waves is gone. The very last ones of the migrating birds decide to head for the south and shout their farewell. And then, once again, it is the arctic winter.
And I am sort of looking forward.
Wool with you,
Lene
It's been a while... again.
But fear not, it is not because I have stopped knitting.
No, no, I have been knitting and there has been lots of false starts and then lots of ripping and redoing. I have not been frustrated, I have been on the edge more or less. I have had this feeling of coming up with on idea or something, but the process was hidden from me and slow and it could not be pressed forward. I almost have been able to hear my brain going and going, like computer noise when something happens behind the plastic cover.
I have told myself to be patient, and to have little faith and trust in my knitting and the process. I would know when the time was just right.And then the perfect morning dawned to harvest, 
I picked up the needles once more and felt a huge relief to be able to collect the crops. It was not smooth from then on; I don't know how many times I have ripped and tweaked and again ripped and knit all over again. But finally, here he is
He does not have a name yet, but the name will come. 
He is just barely new born, he is nothing but a tiny seedling, but I do love this little jacket, I do love this little one.
I am not sure why I needed to knit a baby item. No, I am not becoming a grandmother. Maybe this has something to do with the fact that my twins turned 18 couple of weeks ago and I don't have children any more in the house, just young women, of whom I am very proud of. I have been looking at old pictures from those early days and spent lots of time remembering.
Another reason might be my sock yarn stash 
and the amount of variegated yarn and not feeling the love to knit socks. I was discussing this with a friend who reminded me of Holly Yeoh's fresh use of sock yarns. Go take a look!
Starting point for this jacket is a pattern that has been around for a very long time and I have seen two versions of it. I kept all the good elements but added my touch. I will make at least one more change to it and then I will try my best to write a pattern for it. 
It may take a while but I hope I am able to do it.
Could I call him Seedling?
Go pick up your wool crops!
Yours,
very proud Mama
The Mother Nature does not seem to be able to make up her mind whether or not she should have another laundry day. She did a good soaking yesterday (or the day before... ) but obviously did not quite finish the job since she has been rinsing again and again. I am fine with whatever she pleases to do and enjoy these quiet tones. I appreciate the gray after all this grass green which is not one of my favorite colors. 
While writing the steady drumming on the roof started again. The heavy rain has flushed the spouts which is good and saves some work - although usually late fall we will need to check the spouts anyway and no matter how rainy the summer has been, there is still plenty of stuff from the trees that needs to be removed. 
These grays serve a beautiful background for this red and happy 
Noro Silk Garden Sock Yarn (the red is S84 with one end coming from the outside of the ball and the other from the inside even though it looks like two different colors; the white part S269 likewise): twined mittens on the way. I will post more pictures of the mittens when I get them finished, that is when the embroidery is done.
So this past week was all about mittens and some socks too. I have few balls of yarn in my sock yarn pile that make me wonder what I have been thinking when bringing them home... 
I will try to look at them as challenges and so have swatched up a bit. I am almost sure both of these 
will be undone soonest but at least now I have them memorized and they are spinning around my head and hopefully some day they will pop up from my brain with good and perfect patterns with them.
I dislike the green spots and for a while thought about doing something like k2tog-yarn over when ever they occurred or then just simply purling them always. I tried both and did not like the outcome. So for the time being, I let them rest, although I find myself thinking of them quite a lot.
Few times a year I seem to need to do some twined knitting. I love the slow process there, it is more like embroidering to me than actual knitting. I stop and think and admire the cloth more often than when knitting the usual way. Normally I go through a skein without stopping and thinking too much. And twined knitting takes me also to my wheel, there are so few z-spun yarns around that there is actually a need to spin.
I have been in Ravelry (as lenealve) for a long time and have tried to update my projects there dutifully but only now have I discovered its beauty. Last week I thought that I will go and see socks and mittens in Ravelry and ooh boy, what a treasure trove! Now whenever there has been a moment to spare, I have been there. There is so much inspiration and I have come across lots of good knitting and new knitters, it is almost too good to be true. I am grateful to be a knitter today.
Wool with You,
Lene
Ps. I finished my Flutter Scarf with crochet. I think I added one pattern repeat to the width, because these lace scarfs come thin and long with wear, one extra repeat there might turn out to be a good move even though it feels a bit bulky now when it has not been used.
Hi there! Hope you are well. Thank you very much for the messages and comments during the past months.
The summer up here was warm and beautiful and it felt almost as long as it used to feel when a child. Tina enjoyed swimming almost daily, old Miina even got far enough not to be able to touch the lake bottom, which is rare for her since she did turn 14 in May. And Kukka learned to swim. My daughter took her few meters into the lake and put her into the water but held her from under the stomach. At first she used only her front paws and it looked really funny, but quite soon she got the hang of it and went to the lake on her own. But now the summer is behind.
It rained for most of Sunday. And then again Monday. There have been few mornings when I have been at the sock drawer finding something warm for the feet and days when there has been no more hankering at the cotton yarn pile, both of which are definite signs of the fall and the wool season.
The past rain we had was not the summery large drop kind of happy rain but more like heavy, gray, damp cloth that was wrapped around and I was unable to see the opposite side of the lake. The wind shook off few yellow leaves from the birch trees and they are lying scattered around on the green grass.
I have done my summer traveling and am now happily settled into being at the home front for most of the fall. All the activities are good for the soul, but there is a part of me that would always just knit at home.
In Edinburgh I did a quick visit to k1yarns and bought just a few selected items, more like souvenirs than serious yarn shopping.
Later on in Stockholm I got few lovely presents, 
delicacies, that I will treasure and try to think something worthy to knit of.
I have managed to knit some but not very much during the summer. Lately I have been on a mitten binge. I have cast off two pairs of twined mittens and have cast on for the third pair! 
Both of these are from Noro Silk Garden Sock Yarn and I have been enjoying seeing the color changes. I am thinking of adding embroidery touches here and there but so far have not find anything I like. I feel that both are missing something, I just need to think up what it is.
This scarf 
was my travel knitting out of my own handspun. It is a lovely scarf by Mimknits and it just might end up being 
the very first Christmas present and it might very well end up being the very one and only.
Wool with you,
Lene
At first I though that it is greenish and quite dirty and so it needed something to make it cleaner - if you see what I mean. It needed a wash. I tried pale greens and blues - no, nothing worked until I came across some Lorna's sock yarn in color chino and that was the perfect companion for the tweed.
By this time I was so tired of looking at the yarns that for the gusset color I took the first red that I came across - a safe choice. I decided that it was good enough, one had to draw a line at some point and get to knitting. And I knit on, not too happy, something was still off. The whole time I kept thinking of yellow. I was missing yellow, longing for it and made up my mind to use some yellow for the embroidery. But why was I thinking of yellow? Maybe it was the amount of yellow in the yard that was playing a trick on me. All the birch trees outside were dressed in golden glowing yellow.
Lesson two was about the quality of the yarn. I don't know how did I escape from the fact that there are BIG differences in sock yarns, even when the fiber content is the same. I have thought of my sock yarns only as sock yarns as they did not even count as a part of the stash. But there is huge variety in them and this group is very fascinating and refreshing. Less than few weeks ago I tried my best to stay away from the self-striping and variegated wonders thinking that they were not my cake but today all I search and look for are these sock yarns. There really is a world of them.
I don't dare to call this fingering group as sock yarn group any more; it is full of strong individuals and should be treated and handled accordingly.
