Happy New
Year to You! Another stack of 365 days to knit and weave and draw and embroider
and spin and... you fill in the rest. When the new year starts to unfold, I
hope to find myself knitting a lot. I wish to be inspired to draw a bit more as
well. Hopefully I will discover few great books, find time to listen to music
and will feel the urge to lace my walking shoes over and over again. It would
be nice to be able to walk on a few new paths as well.
And knitting
is going quite well. I don't know if you remember these socks I started
sometime last fall but they fell aside because I was not sure how to continue
with them.
I am more and more drawn to stranded knitting, so I picked up the
socks again and I think I know now which way I am going with these socks. (The
yarn is Poll Dorset by Renaissance Dyeing.) We'll see if the outcome is what I
expect it to be, there is one point that I am not sure of yet.
I love
stranded knitting, and most likely
because it is still very challenging to me. I have to concentrate on forming
the stitches, and keeping the dominant yarn in its proper place and the strands
on the back side loose enough. I keep going back and forth from double pointed
needles to circulars and back again and cannot
decide what is the best way. And the same goes with holding the yarns,
for a while I keep one in left hand and the other in right hand, and after a
while I look at the stitches and wonder if they would be more even if both of
the yarns were in the right or in the left hand. Good blocking takes care of
most of the wonky stitches and I am again counting on that.
(I had to block this sample just to make sure
the blocking really works!)
I looked
through my pile of unfinished knits and discovered a pair of socks that needed
to be finished. They are knit from the top up on a magic loop (I think my first
magic loop pair) and I used all of the yarn (band missing, but probably very
familiar to you)... but when knitting the leg-part, I kept squeezing the yarn
to see how much I had left because it felt like the yarn would never end. I did
not wound the yarn into two separate balls but knit one sock from the inside
and the second from the outside of the ball.
Few words
about drawing...
I am not
sure if you know of Carla Sonheim... She
published a book called Drawing Lab
- I think it was last year - and I love that book. She offers
workshops on line as
well and last year I took part in her "Silly class" and enjoyed all
the worksheets she had us doing and now I have enrolled on two of her classes
that both happen in January. The first one is called Faces 101, it lasts 5 days
and she will have us draw 101 faces during the coming week.
The course started
today and I think there is still time to take part in it if you wish to do so.
If you love drawing or have ever considered drawing, I highly recommend her
classes. Her approach is very easy and friendly and you really don't need to be
a good drawer or illustrator to be taking part. I learnt a lot in Silly 3 and
hope to learn a lot from this face course as well. The illustration above is the first set of faces I have done.
The weather
has stayed nice, clear skies and not too cold. It was -10°C (with the wind -18°C) when I went for a walk today. The
sun rose 1100 and set 1338 (0138pm), so the day is already 2hours and 38
minutes!!
This was really the color of the world at 0930 this morning.
Hope you
all have a good week,
Wool with
you,
Lene
Happy new year, Lene! Your blog is such a pleasant place to visit, and all your creative pursuits both amaze and inspire. All the best to you.
ReplyDeleteThe faces made me smile, but, boy howdy, that photo! What a beautiful place and how magical that you were able to capture it.
ReplyDeleteYou are inspiring me to pick up my pencils again to draw.
(Amusing to see you use the word 'wonky' too. Is that an official knitter's word like 'frog'?)
I like your page and I love the sheep you have on your site. Really nice. I will follow your writing with pleasure- Sennia
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year, Lene! I followed, with great interest, your days of December and to see the sun 'nest' - a delightful expression. I see it has hopped out of the nest and it is painting the landscape!
ReplyDeleteI love your faces - also like the sheep on your header.
Peg on Vancouver Island
Happy New Year Lene,
ReplyDeleteI love your socks and your faces!
All the best,
Dawn
The small detailson the back of the leg.Super!
ReplyDeleteLOVE those socks - both the patterns and colours! Happy new year!
ReplyDeleteHappy new year, Lene!
ReplyDeleteAll the best to you.
Geerte,
Regards from The Nedherlands
Love the color of the landscape - I'm surprised that there was that much light so long before sunrise.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year and thanks for your lovely blog.
margieinmaryland
very beautiful post, your knitting is so perfect. and your drawings are so lovely too. happy new year!
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year Lene! What a lovely way to start they new year - taking a drawing course.
ReplyDelete2hr and 38 minutes - woo hoo. Although it seems like your sunrise (and sunset) is long and beautiful :-)
Thank you for sharing your special place in this world. I love the photo - so sureal. I look forward to more of your posts in 2012.
ReplyDeleteThank you thank you thank you for posting about the class! I homeschool our boys and it's ha to get them to sit and draw. They were so excited after watching yesterday's videos that they got right to it!
ReplyDeleteA lovely reader of my blog, Dawn, sent me a link to you just in time to enjoy your Tonttu! I was lucky enough to receive from my Mother skeins of hand spun that are quite similar in appearance to the yarns you used; so now, I have my very first Tonttu thanks to your excellent tutorials.
ReplyDeleteAnd I have found your blog which I am already enjoying very, very much.
I look forward to watching the sun return to Finland and following your new adventures in 2012.
Happy New Year, Lene! I am looking forward to another year of your lovely posts. Love your little drawings and yes, the photo is magical. I am imagining Moomintrolls snoozing in their pointy house just over the next hill.
ReplyDeleteMy cousin in Virginia sent me a picture of a winter iris blooking in her yard. I told her that I had been looking out my kitchen window yesterday, thinking how spring-like it looked (gold-finches flying aabout, squirrels chasing each other across the yard). And then I realized that winter has only just started for us! It's wonderful how different the seasons are around the world...I do enjoy seeing your winter.
Happy New Year! Thank you for sharing your world.
ReplyDeleteAndrea
Leonard, Texas, USA
Happy New Year Lene! So nice to be a little part of your world.
ReplyDeletehappy new year Lene
ReplyDeleteI do so love reading what you have been up to.And I also love reading your tempatures and amount of sunlight you receive.I would be most unhappy without the sun,do you find it bothers you (lack of) or are you used to it?
I hope lots of knitting for you in the new year
hugs Sue
I was missing you already - thank you for another posting! Your blog is beautiful art that feeds my soul every day in so many different ways.
ReplyDeleteYou're a gufted teacher, Lene - I always learn something new from you! May the new year ahead be kind and gentle to you and those you love!
You are a real inspiration, Lene! And thank you for the info on the drawing book. I'm sending away for it today!
ReplyDeleteAlways, always, always a pleasure to visit your blog, and a happy 2012 to you!