The Curse of the Moss Green Hat

Last winter I knitted myself a bubbly moss green hat, something like that. I guess I never got round to posting it on my blog, as I managed to lose it. I guess I left it in a taxi, but the taxi company never managed to find it.

But I still had some of that yarn left, so one evening, on the side of red wine and discussions about the Kurdish situation in Turkey, I knit myself a new one, using this pattern as inspiration. And the next day it was perfect colourful autumn weather, so I managed to take a phone-photo of the hat.

Unfortunately, my joy (and warm head) was short-lived. On Thursday I went to a cafe with that hat. But somehow ended up reaching home without it. I  tried to find it, but no luck 😦

I still have some of that yarn left, but maybe the universe is trying to tell me something… maybe I should start working on an orange hat instead…

Autumn, Baby

Ah, how I missed going to the yarn store… And of course, the moment I walked into my “main” place, I headed straight towards my favourite acrylic/wool section and bought myself this combo:

Perfect autumn colours, if you ask me. And together they will make a perfect blanket for an autumn baby.

 

The two important sources supporting me in making the blanket were Knitculture’s Beachcomber Blanket tutorial and Biscuits and Jam’s Random Stripe Generator.

I still need to weave the ends and crochet the edge, but I already love what the blanket looks like.

My little unraveling party

Every now and then, usually during my insomniac nights, I take a think crochet hook and attack the basket on unfinished projects. I spend hours on the sofa watching bad nighttime TV and undoing all the swatches, projects that I will never finish, finished projects that are never used, and even mittens that have lost their mate.  Most of the time it is a very zen-activity – you just find the right end and then yarn will roll back to the ball almost itself.

However, sometimes I really get the impression that my knitting and/or crocheting is fireproof, waterproof, and foolproof. Like today… I spent a good half an hour trying to unravel a knitted scarf, and it just did not work… And finally, I realised that I just started from the wrong end.

In Estonia we have a proverb that says “A stupid head is a nuisance to the body”.

Oh my, look at the dust in this place… and on my needles!

It feels like forever since I last posted… and it feels like forever since I last even touched my needles. I switched countries for a while, but didn’t take my needles along. And boy, did I miss the crafts…

So, one of the first things I did after returning home, was unpacking all the yarns and needles from the storage. I had forgotten how much stuff I have managed to acquire over the years! 🙂

So, I burshed the dust off, warmed up the needles, and hope to be back in action soon!!!

 

The “Next Step” Sock KAL – part two

 

If some of you are wondering – no, my disappearance has nothing to do with my new sharp double-pointed needles and bleeding to death. Actually, if we had a death match with these needles, I would probably win. They are not really good – they’ll bend the moment I pick them up. I guess I’ll have two things to show by the end of this knitalong: a new pair of socks, and two sets of  needles of assorted shapes.

As for the socks, I have reached the heels. My knitting seems to a be a tad uneven, but I guess that is what I get for using such fine needles and yarn for the first time. My grandma was a very tight knitter, my mom is an impossibly tight knitter, but no matter how hard I try, the texture of my stuff is never getting anywhere close.

 

Baby frogs

Tomorrow I’ll be meeting a childhood friend for dinner. She is living in a different country, so I don’t see her that often. And this time, she will be definitely more round than the last time I saw her – her baby is due in April. So, of course I can not go to meet her empty-handed.

The baby shoe pattern is created by an Estonian crafter Buffin. Even though the blog is in Estonian, scroll down and you’ll see a nice photo tutorial of how those shoes are made. They are so wonderfully easy and cute that I think it is hard to find an Estonian knitter who hasn’t produced at least one pair of these baby shoes. And I love the frog-buttons! I don’t remember the brand, but they came in a set called “At the pond” with different pairs of frogs, dragonflies and butterflies. Perfect for decorating baby-stuff.

I am also working on a blanket to go with the shoes, but the progress on that seems to go more back than forward right now… at least I have time until  April.

 

The “Next Step” Sock KAL – part one

I love the collective projects that the crafters undertake. I usually just observe (and envy ;)), because setting deadlines is a bit too scary. But sometimes I just can not resist the  temptation – I mean, how cool is that almost 50 knitters from all across the world are currently working on the same thing, while reporting to and discussing with each other!?

So, when Sarah of Crafts from the Cwtch suggested a knit-along for socks, I signed up immediately. I have been practicing quite a bit during the past months (here, here, here and there is one more pair which has not made it to blogland yet), so I guess I more or less have a hang of it. But the idea of this knitalong was to try something new, to develop the sock-knitting skills.

I decided out the yarn stash inherited from my maternal grandma. She used rather fine yarn, she loved using different colours, and was quite a tight knitter… I loved the socks and mittens she made. Unfortunately there are very few of those left, and my granny isn’t around any more to knit new pairs, so I’ll have to take care of it myself.

So here you go, my plan for the upcoming knitalong – using 1.25 needles (never used so small ones before, I hope I won’t cause too much damage on my fingers!); finer yarns; and a three-colour pattern (I can sense a huge mess of yarn ahead!). This is just a trial patch, but I’ll have plenty of time to get started in the weekend!

Marathon socks

No, the socks in question have nothing to do with actually tunning a marathon. I don’t think there is a pair of socks in this universe that would make me even consider running a marathon. But knitting theses socks was a marathon indeed.

It all started with a morning of a day where I had no plans whatsoever. And with some leftover yarn from these socks and some leftover sock-envy for my mother 😀 So, I picked a new pattern (this book is awesome!) and cast on my newest pair of socks. I started from the toe and decided that I will knit until I have no yarn left.

Boy, was that a literal promise. 9 hours later (lunchbreak and some phone calls included), I had stiff fingers and neck, no yarn left and a brand new pair of lace-y socks!

I was so happy I got them ready, that I started wearing them rightaway. Meaning, I was so traumatized about the work put into them, that I only managed to weave the ends in after weeks of wearing the socks. 😀

Patchwork cross-pattern

Let’s be honest, I got a bit envious of my friend for the Bee Mittnes – knitting with several colours made them nice and warm. So, of course I needed a pair of my own. I’ve been on a bit of a mitten frenzy lately, haven’t I?

I used my acrylic leftover s- had a bit of pink left from the Pink Bubbles set, and a pile of brown from several previous projects. I chose an old Estonian pattern, which according to “Estonian Mittens All Around the World” comes from the region where I am from.

Of course, the old patterns were meant for much finer yarn and needles than I used. These mittens are not perfect, but I love them anyways!

 

More pink bubbles!

Remember the scarf and hat with pink bubbles I made for a friend? I met up with her for dinner on Monday, and was happy to see that the hat and scarf are put to a good use. However, she has teamed them up with a pair of white-and-brown mittens…And seh is one of those persons who loves to colour-coordinate everything in her outfit. So, as I still had pink yarn left, and my friend has a birthday coming up next week, I decided to whip up a pair of bubbly mitts to complete the pink bubbles set.

I used double yarn – it made the bubbles much more defined, and they are nice and warm. We are facing temperatures below -20C for the upcoming week. I’d say, I got these mittens ready just in time 🙂