Ässänväärä

So we had few mild days and then again the winter tightened her grip and another cold, cold wave swept over us forcing me and the dogs (not to mention Mr Cat who has not stuck his nose out of doors for weeks) to stay much of our time inside in front of the fire. (There is only that much of a couch time a dog and a knitter can take and then it gets tiresome.) But luckily the cold wave is about to end today and hence the knitting will most likely be less...
but so far

I completed the gloves. I really, truly like them. I do like how they look like, but the fit this time seems to be what I hoped for. There is enough room for some extra air for good insulation but they are not too big to feel uncomfortable.

I like how the cuff is stable and firm due to the crocheted fabric and I am happy too that I kept the decorating to minimum although I did think about adding some embroidery, but just a little bit. I used 2mm hook and 2mm knitting needles and the off white yarn was Finnwool (singles) and the purple Jawoll Magic Superwash.

Ice Fantasia is resting at the moment. I have added few repeats to the edging but nothing big to talk about because since the gloves I have surrounded myself with the beauty of decorative crocheting and knitting.

This will hopefully end up as a sweater in a few weeks. I am using stash yarn, Sandnes Garn Sisu - hoping to accomplish that through the process - so I have been throwing in all sorts of ends of various balls. I did not go out to buy new stuff for this because I know this will be a practice piece, I am bound to make lots of mistakes (I have already) and my crocheting skills are most likely going to improve through the process and with yarn that I like but have not really bought for this project I am hoping to be able to ignore some of the mistakes and just follow along.

Sometimes special yarn can make you too careful and fussy. This is a pattern called Ässänväärä from the book Decorative Crocheting.

This project is really something I have been looking for, I am once again totally immersed in this... yarn thing.

Woo with you,

Lene

Where Ice Fantasia continues and a bit of crochet creeps into the knitting bag

While the rest of the world has been suffering from frequent and heavy snow falls we have had very little snow until this week. Finally I had to get out my serious snow shoveling gear and while I was busy elsewhere the dogs were really having a time of their lives. We had very cold weather for weeks and finally the numbers in the thermometer were more dog friendly and these two just kept on playing the first day we had a mild and snowy day.

You were wondering where to buy Anu's book KiriKari and it is available from here: http://www.apollo.ee/.
You might want to look around and see if there are other books of interest as well. There are few I will want to look into.

Ice Fantasia is closing slowly. I am knitting the edging at the moment and have about 16 repeats out of 78 done. I was knitting the shawl in a good speed and the moment I thought to myself that really this is all going so well, it happened, I dropped few stitches which just happily escaped into few rows below and my heart must have skipped few beats. I am quite confident in fixing few mistakes but something this lacy with patterning on both sides and yarn that is dark blue, just made me sweat. No lifelines of course... It took few days to gather up the courage to try to fix it and I think I succeeded. I did look at it long and hard after I fixed it but as you know, you might not always find the mistakes the first time, some of them will surface at later examination but I have not had the courage to look at the spot ever since so I am little bit worried of looking at it when I finally get around to block it.

I am using Wetterhoff's yarn for the shawl. It is all wool and I am happy with it, it has lots of character, it is not as soft as these soft merinos or merino/silk blends but I expect it to wear well.

Every now and then I think about crochet and look at the patterns and wonder if I should really make a plunge into it. I have been thinking of combining knitting with crochet more and this always leads me to Korsnäs sweaters (there is a book about Korsnäs sweaters called Decorative Crocheting ISBN 951-96888-4-6) and the beauty of them. I have tried this techniques few times and every time I have loved the results. I just had to try something small and light and easy again and it resulted in this glove.

I am really happy with it. And definitely there is going to be more of this. This might be just what I have been looking for months, a new approach to this old new craft, something to spice up the knitting.

Some thoughts on the comments:

My Maia shawl is large in the pictures, and this is due to the fact that I knitted more repeats into it, up here the shawls and scarves should be well covering... Anna, I have not seen the film you talked about in the comments, I know the book though, but don't know about the ponchos. Edit: I just got a note from my friend Inger in Norway - Hi there! - that there is a poncho in Garnstudio's site just like the one in the movie The Robber's daughter.

Ok, there are the dogs to be walked, the house to be warmed and the steps to be swept off snow, a drive to the town and few other things as well, so I need to go now.

Hope you have a good Thursday, and if needed, wool with you,

Lene

Remember when I cleaned my room last spring... and promised to show you pictures few months afterwards... thank you for reminding me and here are the pictures...

Still tidy!