Númenna

Start: 22nd December 2008
Finish: 30th December 2008
Needles: 2.5 mm Inox DPNs
Yarn: Regia Silk; 55% Merino, 25% polyamide, 20% silk; Colour #091, Lot #29770
Pattern: Boyfriend Socks by Slippedstitch
For: The boyfriend

Well, I managed to squeeze in the very last FO of 2008!

I finished the Boyfriend Socks in record time of about a week! Yay! That's quite something for me...but it also means that I have to knit on only one project the whole time. :-p

I'm seeing my boyfriend tonight, so he'll be receiving it....he doesn't know yet. ;-)

Start: 20th December 2008
Finish: 20th December 2008
Needles: 3.5 mm - 60 cm Inox circs
Yarn: Wolle Roedel "Toscana" (50% cotton, 50% polyacrylic); colour #94 "Rose"
Pattern: A Christmas Dishcloth Story by Krisknits

Howdy all and belated happy holidays to you! How was your Christmas? I was invited to spend it with a friend and her family over in Erlangen and so I had a great Christmas, even though I didn't get to really spend it with my bf (he celebrates with his family...although I spent the 23rd and a big chunk of Christmas Eve with him before we parted to go our way for Christmas).

Start: 27th November 2008
Finish: 10th December 2008
Needles: 3 mm - 80 cm Addi Turbos
Yarn: GGH "Tajmahal"; 70% merino superfine virgin wool, 22% silk, 8% cashmere; Colour #1, Lot #18450
Pattern: "Ärmelstulpe" (Hand-Wrist Warmer) by Katharina Ritter for Lanaiolo
For: Tanja

So yeah, my bf and I were supposed to meet up with his friend this past Thursday, so I scrambled to finish up the arm-hand warmers - okay, I think I need to give it a working title for the time being....I think I'll just name the pattern "Belle"...yeah, I think that's good. So I finished Belle in time...but the meeting didn't take place. So, the pair is still with me.

I'm really happy with the result...although I had to fudge the thumb gusset a bit (you wouldn't notice if you're not a knitter).

And I know, my hands are just too nobbly for this kind of modelling. :-p

Start: 02nd December 2008
Finish: WIP
Yarn: Schachenmayr Nomotta Regia Silk; 55% Merino, 20% Silk, 25% Polyamide; Colour #050 (Dark Blue)
Needle: 2.5 mm Kingwood DPNs from Holz & Stein
Pattern: Upstream Master Pattern by Cat Bordhi in "New Pathways for Sock Knitters"

Sorry for the lack of blogging last week. Couple of things have been going that kinda have taken the wind out of me.

I'm back on sock knitting again...well, at least for the time being. I have enough UFOs lying around to knit to keep me going through 2009.

Start: 26th November 2008
Finish: WIP
Needles: 4 mm - 80 cm Addi Lace
Yarn: Wollmeise 100% superwash merino Sockenwolle, "Single Malt", 2 skeins
Pattern: Fisherman's Rib with two strands held together over 26 stitches with 4 chain-edge stitches

I'm just soooo not in control sometimes and ended up casting-on for something new, while neglecting the near 15 other WIPs/UFOs floating around my flat. But hey, a Knitter has to do what a Knitter does: Knit. :-p

So, I got the urge to knit some Wollmeise last night but wasn't in the mood for socks (coz really, I could've just picked up and work on my Vinnland again). So I decided to go ahead with the plan of making a new scarf for myself out of my newly acquired skeins of Single Malt from my trip to Sauerlach last week.

I have to giggle a bit at the name I came up for the scarf, since it's a Fisherman's Rib and the colourway is called "Single Malt", I thought it appropriate to call this scarf: "Drunk Fisherman". :-p

This is the first time that I'm knitting something using double strand of yarns. At first I thought that it will look funny because the variation of the colour length in each skein runs differently. However, to my surprise, it gives an interesting blending effect...and the colour actually now reminds me of lightly roasted coffee beans, too.

The fabric created is also really nice and springy. I don't know what I was expecting, fabric-wise, when I concoct this project in my mind....but I have to admit that I really like the result.

What's left now is my hope that the scarf will end up long enough with just these two skeins. Fisherman's Rib literally devours the yarn...and really, I'm speaking from experience.

Start: 11th November 2008
Finish: 22nd November 2008
Needles: 5.5 mm Addi Turbos
Yarns: Lang Yarns "Cashmere Tweed"; 35% Cashmere, 65% Merino Extrafine
Pattern: "Inner Truth" Scarf by Laura Andersson, previously in the now defunct MagKnits

Yay! I finished my new Inner Truth Scarf in about ten days! That ought to set some kind of record for me!

Sorry, but I haven't got any FOs to show this time. After finishing two jerseys in a row, I'm now faced with a pile of other WIPs to tackle. ;-)

Anyway, I thought that I would start reporting on all the knitting groups that I attend, so that I would have something to write.

Swatched: 22nd July 2008
Started: 24th July 2008
Finished: 05th November 2008
Yarn: "Carpe Diem" from Lang Yarns; 70% merino, 30% alpaca
Needles: 5.5 cm / 80 cm Addi Turbos
Pattern: "Putting Down Roots" from "Inspired Cabled Knits" by Fiona Ellis
Modification: Using bigger needles and yarn, so less pattern repeats. Will be eliminating the turned cuffs and the turtle-neck for ribbed cuffs and v-neck. I also added the ribbing at the bottom of the body, too.

This is a new record for me: Two hand-knit jerseys in a year! And now I've been catapulted into sweater knitting mode....because the third one has already been cast-on. ;-)

Start: 03rd October 2008
Finish: 26th October 2008
Needles 4 mm / 80 cm Addi Turbos
Yarn: GGH Cashmere Fino; 100% Cashmere; colour #10 (grey) and #7 (sand)
Pattern: Generic 1x1 rib scarf with slip stitch edge, 2 alternating colour blocks.

This was the first time ever that I worked with pure cashmere. The yarn itself has a woven structure, another kind of yarn that I have never worked with before.

Cashmere is definitely a luxurious fibre. It's really soft to the touch and the fabric knitted from it provides great warmth without adding to the weight (the whole scarf weighs approximately 135 g). The yarn has a light halo to it (I would say - if I remember correctly - due to the short staple length of cashmere). The woven structure of this particular yarn didn't affect the appearance of the knitted fabric. It seems to help make the knitted fabric flatter than a plied yarn would.

Knitting pure cashmere was not that easy either. Due to the loftiness of the yarn, I had to take care that I don't knit a dense fabric, so the gauge has to be just right. This posed a problem for me, since I am a tight knitter: The appearance of the stitches at the beginning of the scarf appeared a bit uneven. The same thing happens when I put the scarf down for a period to work on other projects. When I picked up the scarf to knit again, my stitch appearance would turn uneven again. Thank goodness a good (light and non-aggressive, i.e. steam) blocking helps even out the stitch appearance.

So, here I am. Elemm got a new and kind of an official place to blog about knitting. :-p

Well, I'm a knitter - perhaps with a capital K already -, living in Germany and hopefully will still be here for a while. Studied, or still am studying political science and coughing my way through it. The end is however in view. So keep your fingers crossed for me.

Anyway, I got to know Anina a while ago (I think it's been almost two years) and I was quite active in reading and commenting on the whole 360 blogs...until at one point, other things just consumed my time. But now I'm here in the midst of it all and I hope I can make some kind of contribution to this spot.

Like I mentioned, I'm a knitter. I haven't really designed anything myself yet....but that will come. Over the next few days (or perhaps weeks), I'll be copying my old entries from my normal blog Númenna - Nan Annûn over here and put the back-date on them. So, don't be surprise if there are suddenly older entries popping up around here. ;-)

And so just to kick things off, I finished a raglan sweater yesterday and just got around to wearing it today. So here goes to my Joukahainen:

Start: 5th September 2008
Finish: 20th October 2008
Needles: 4.5 mm / 100 cm Addi Turbos
Yarn: Cascade 220, 100% Peruvian Highland Wool; colour 8886, dye lot 7414
Pattern: Joukahainen by Kristel Nyberg. Published in Finnish in the magazine Ulla 03/07. Pattern is available as an English translation as Ravelry download.
Modification: I shortened the body a bit because I don't like jerseys that hang down too low.