...by getting a pair of fingerless mitts for Nikolaus from a great friend, the Wollmeise herself.

I don't know which pattern she used. There are several similar patterns to be found on Ravelry. The colourway she used was "Okzident" from the Sock-Club set from March 2009. I will definitely knit myself a pair, but I will need to add a longer thumb gusset to it, so that my thumbs won't be so exposed.

Kolenya for Michi, originally uploaded by elemmaciltur.

Start: 17th November 2009
Finish: 18th November 2009
Needles: 3.5 mm Addi Turbos
Yarn: Rico Designs "Creative Poems Aran", 100% New Wool; colour# 004, dye lot #09630
Pattern: "Kolenya" by Carola Haglund from Sheep and No City
Modifications: I left out the crocheted bridges.

However, the real instant gratification started with a friend commissioning me to make him a pair of mittens. I brought along my Kolenyas for him to see as well as some other patterns. Finally, we decided on the Kolenyas and went and got the yarn.

I made the pair in a day and my friend now has warm hands.

Instant Gratification: Kolenya #14, originally uploaded by elemmaciltur.

Start: March 2007, frogged and re-started on 28th November 2009
Finish: 28th November 2009
Needles: 3.5 mm Addi Turbo
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden, colour #87
Pattern: "Kolenya" by Carola Haglund from Sheep and No City
Modifications: Extended the cuff from 12 rows to 15 rows; added crocheted chain loop to the cuff for hanging; omitted the crocheted finger bridges

And because I was on a roll, I decided to dig out an old Kolenya WIP, frog it back down and re-knit everything. Again, this pair took me probably about 6 hours to make and I was really happy with it. However, I couldn't stand the pinkness on one of the hand. It was just too girly. So, I ended up giving the pair to a friend. So now two friends of mine have warm hands. :-)

In the end, I still have warm hands, too, since I got the Garter Mitts from Wollmeise. Give and you shall receive, eh? ;-)

Have a great week everyone!

Started: 18th February 2009
Finished: 31st October 2009
Yarn: Regia 4-Ply Sierra Colour (75% virgin wool, 25% polyamide; 100 g / approx. 420 m); colour no. #5547 "Ethno"
Needle: 2.5 mm Inox DPNs
Pattern: No particular pattern....just toe up plain stockinette socks with master numbers from Cat Bordhi's Sockitecture. Probably could categorise the pattern to the Universal Toe-Up socks, since I'm planning to do short-row heel on this one.

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!, originally uploaded by elemmaciltur.

Well, the end of 2009 is fast approaching and once again my resolutions for this year were pretty much ignored. I hardly have spun, a pair of socks a month was neglected. However, I managed to knit myself the total of seven full garments this year. Let's wait and see whether I could top that off with another one before the end of the year or not.

I don't know why, but it seems that I have lost a bit of my sock knitting mojo. I just didn't feel like knitting socks at all this year.

And so, I sluggishly worked on this pair stockinette socks for what seems like forever. However, I finally finished it, but the weather in Munich is not playing along very well this year for Autumn-Winter time. Not much so that I can wear hand-knit socks, because it is just way too warm for me.

But yes, I finally finished knitting this pair...and it gave me a sense of accomplishment that I wanted to knit some more socks. However, I have been struggling with not wanting to cast-on for a new pair, whilst the others half-knitted socks on the needles are being neglected. And thus I haven't done anything: Neither casting on for a new pair, nor pick up half-finished pairs to try and finish them off.

Indecisiveness is one of my many specialties!

So, yes, I present you my finished pair of hand-knitted socks. The stripes and the colours of which reminds me very much of Beetlejuice. :-)
!!
And that's all I have to say. Have a good start to the week!

Start: 18th September 2009
Finish: 05th October 2009
Needles: 4 mm / 80 cm Addi Turbos
Yarns: GGH "Cumba"; 42% new wool, 28% alpaca, 30% acrylic; colours #014 (anthracite), #020 (turquoise)
Pattern: "George" by Jane Ellison in the Queensland Collection Book 9
Size: XS
Modifications: No turned-cuffs for the sleeves. CO less sts than required and then increased the sts. Knitted the edge band in one piece instead of dividing it. Also changed the buttonholes from the right-front to the left-front.

Sorry about the long silence. The backlight on my laptop screen has decided to give up a month ago and I still haven't got a new laptop. Right now, I just make-do with tilting the screen back to an angle and shining two lamps onto the screen, which allows me to see what's going on, but is pretty straining on the eyes, since everything is quite dark. Anyway, having left my blog idle for such a long time is really making me restless. So, I thought that I should update anyway, since the photos are already there.

I really used my offline time very well. I mean, I couldn't get online at home and the only entertainment I had were books, TV, music and knitting. So I got very prolific with knitting and have some FOs to show and this here is the first one.

As the weather is turning cooler, I have been trying to get warm by putting on warmer garments at home instead of turning on the heater, just to save energy (and the costs that entail). I have been meaning to knit myself more cardigans and jackets, because I like the fact that I put them on and take them off easily without so much fuss that comes with jumpers. To my dismay however, the only jacket I have is the Janker I knitted three years ago. So, I set out to knit myself cardigans and jackets.

I can't exactly recall when and where I first saw Jane Ellison's Queenlands Collection Book 9, but I remember distinctly that I was mesmerised with the patterns in that book. I set out to get a copy of the book but couldn't find anyone who carried it in Europe. Online queries to shops in the USA who carry the book bore no fruits (i.e. they didn't even bother to answer) and so I didn't think much of it until recently.

This brilliant idea came to me out of nowhere. A friend of mine from Munich emigrated to New York a while ago and so I thought that I would ask her to find the book for me. As my luck would have it, she actually found an LYS who carried the book and bought it and sent it to me.

The cardigan "George" had caught my eyes ever since I have seen the preview of the book on the internet and since I have been seeing this kind of cardigan in shops everywhere, I have vowed to knit myself that cardigan. And there was the opportunity.

George, originally uploaded by elemmaciltur.

I really love this cardigan. The simplicity of it is very appealing, whilst the contrasting stripe lends the cardigan a bit of zest without being too loud. This way, you can combine the cardigan with a lot of things: Dressing-up or more relaxed (although I have to admit that I really prefer the dressed-up look).

Knitting this cardigan was relatively uneventful....apart from some of the construction and instructions that got me a bit on a rage. Just like the instructions for "Alvin", I felt like tearing out my hairs at the vague, or sometimes incomplete instructions for "George". Moreover, there is this one huge faux-pas in the pattern, but first I would like the criticise the instructions.

Like in "Alvin", there was absolutely no mentioning of blocking the finished pieces before sewing them together.

Even though it is common sense, I still think that there should be mentioning in the pattern that you should knit 2 sleeves and 2 pocket linings. And talking about pocket linings, here was the first mistake in the pattern. Since the pattern gave you only one set of instruction for the pocket linings done in 2x1 ribbing, you would assume that you need to knit two identical pocket linings, right? No. That wasn't the case, which I found out later one when I was just about to attach the second pocket lining. You actually need to knit the pocket linings differently from each other, in order for them to fit the ribbing on each side of the left and right fronts. There was no mentioning of this at all in the pattern and I ended up having to frog and re-knitted one of the pocket linings.

George, originally uploaded by elemmaciltur.

I also couldn't understand the logic behind the fact that the designer (or perhaps actually the pattern editor) has you picking up and knit the button and buttonhole band separately by picking up the stitches from the mid-neck down each side and then sew them up together at mid-neck once the whole thing was finished. It's easy enough to pick up and and knit the whole band in one go.

The biggest boo-boo I found in this pattern was the fact that the buttonholes were placed on the right-front of the cardigan. Sure, some people would say that it doesn't matter, but for me, it does. Traditionally, men garments have buttonholes on the left-front, while women garments have buttonholes on the right-front! So the buttonholes placement in the pattern is absolutely wrong in the traditional sense. I seriously was quite appalled that the designer and the editor let this slip. Funnily enough two of three patterns in the book that have buttonholes have them placed on the right-front, while one pattern has the buttonholes placed correctly on the left-fromt. Personally, I think that this was just plain bad works, because it seems to me that they didn't take care proofing the patterns for correctness and consistencies.

George, originally uploaded by elemmaciltur.

With all that having been said, I still really love how the cardigan turned out. I solved all the problems by knitting the band in one entirety and swapping the buttonhole placements from the right-front to the left-front. I also modified the sleeves by eliminating the turned cuffs and casting-on less stitches and increasing the stitches number at equal intervals to introduce arm shaping to the otherwise tube sleeves the pattern has you knit.

This pattern also introduced me to knitting pockets. I have never knitted pockets into garments before and I have to admit that I really liked how the pockets on this turned out.

As for the yarn, I love GGH Cumba. It's light, yet very warm. So, I guess that I will try and stash up on this yarn in the future.

So, that's all for now. There are a couple more FOs to show you in the future, so keep an eye on my blog. I won't let my broken laptop screen deter me from blogging! ;-p

Wishing you all a good weekend and a great start to the week!

Start: 05th August 2009
Finish: 17th September 2009
Needles: 4 mm / 80 cm Addi Turbos
Yarns: Filatura di Crosa "Zara"; 100% superwash merino; colours #1468 (grey) 4 balls, #1424 (navy blue) 3 balls and #1469 (anthracite) 1 ball
Pattern: "Alvin" by Jane Ellison in the Queensland Collection Book 9
Size: XS

Alvin, originally uploaded by elemmaciltur.

As the cooler season approaches, I thought that I should knit myself a light, yet warm garment for Autumn and since I have never knitted myself a vest, this was a good opportunity.

I originally bought the yarn and intended to knit "Kerouac" with it. For some reasons however, I made a HUGE mistake in the calculation of how much yarn I would actually need and ended up not having enough for Kerouac. So, instead of putting in more money to get enough yarn for Kerouac, I decided to go get an extra colour for "Alvin" instead.

I started knitting Alvin and thought to myself: "Wow! I will have a new vest within a couple of weeks!" Little did I know....

Alvin, originally uploaded by elemmaciltur.

The first obstacle I found with this pattern lies in the fact that it is a striped garment, knitted in pieces and knitted flat. This means that there were ends to be darned in. I carried the two main colours up the side, but the one row of anthracite every 7th row needed to be cut and the end of the yarn darned in, which was time-consuming and isn't something I would really want to repeat.

This leads to my critiques about the pattern.

I really wondered about how the pattern was written, because some of the stuff just doesn't make sense to me, since there are easier ways to execute the piece. It seemed to me that the designer was trying to avoid every possibility of knitting in the round, which was in fact quite annoying. Knitting the vest in the round would have made life a whole LOAD easier. I was pretty horrified to find out that the ribbing done on the armholes were supposed to be knitted flat...back and forth. I just modified them to be knitted in the round.

Then the schematic for the piece measurement was too vague. Only the total width and height were given in the drawing. Sure, you can take the measurement for the height of the armholes from the written pattern and put it in. However, it would have been nice to see them all on the schematic drawing. I really would have appreciated the measurements for the depth of the armhole decreases; the height and widthfor the neck opening, etc. They were missing. Oh, and shoulder shaping would also have been a good addition.

Also, the fact that there wasn't any mentioning of blocking the pieces first before sewing them up together might lead some knitters into pure frustrations (this is where exact schematic measurements would have also been useful). As also the fact that the pieces aren't sewn up together before having the knitter picking up stitches to do the v-neck and the armhole ribbing was not a good move in my opinion.

I'm not saying that it's a bad pattern, just that IMHO, the process hasn't been thought out well enough. Perhaps the designer is very rooted in sewing and that's why the concept of knitting a garment in the round just doesn't fit into the picture for her.

Alvin, originally uploaded by elemmaciltur.

On the other hand, however, I could also see the point about why the designer did what she did. For one, I think that she was trying to keep it as simple as she could for knitters who aren't very experienced yet. That's why the garment was probably knitted flat. She should however have given a tip about how the knitters should deal with carrying the colours though, because if this book is really aimed at fairly new and inexperienced knitters, I'm sure that a lot of them would just be cutting the yarns at each colour change and would end up having even a whole load more ends to weave in; which in turn, would probably put a lot of knitters off knitting. Not only this, but I think that in general, when you're writing a pattern for a fairly new knitter, you need to give in a lot more inputs than you think might be needed. The trick here is to keep the instructions simple and clear for easy comprehension.

What I really like about the pattern though is the fact that it - and pretty much every single pattern in this book - is very appealing to most guys. Simple with a nice touch. Sleek, but with a wink. For Alvin specifically, the fact that you can play with stripe colours is a first. Then there is this one row transition stripe, which I chose to knit in anthracite. You can't really see it at first glance, but it adds insterest to the garment and make you look more closer the second time.

All in all, I'm quite happy - although not so extremely - with how this turned out. I would recommend it to a fairly new knitter, but not a complete beginner. For more advanced knitters, I would say that Alvin is easy to make, but a bit of a modification would make it even a better vest than how it is right now in the pattern. As for me, I might attempt this pattern again, but knitting it in the round instead the next time.

I do not consider myself a photographer. I don't have any flashy, fancy DSLR but rather just a simple handheld point-and-shoot 6 megapixel digital camera that is going in to its fourth year of service.

Ever since I have started knitting and documenting my projects with photos that I then use in my blogs, people have been commenting about my projects and how beautiful they are photographed. I'm absolutely flattered. But if you were to ask me how I do it, I would just shrug and say that I don't know, or that just try this out and try that out and something nice will come out of it. Honestly, I don't really know what I do.

Another compliment about my photography coupled with another recent comment about my photography style ("experimental" - something I have never thought about, but I reckon that it is pretty true to the point) have sparked up something in my mind and make me think about how I actually take photos, which in turns led me to write this entry.

So, I will try to explain the process that goes on in my head when I consider about "the photoshoot" and hopefully, this will eventually help and inspire other knitters out there for their photography. Please, bare in mind that I'm writing this according to my style of photography. It's not a law to take photos in the way that I do. Just consider this entry a mere guideline to how to make your lace project photography looks a bit more interesting. ;-)

Mystic Waters Shawl, originally uploaded by elemmaciltur.

First, you could all ask yourself about the main thing about lace projects: What is the main feature of lace knitting?

The holes!

In her book, "Knitting for Dummies" (I have the first edition...and it was my very first knitting book), Pam Allen aptly titled her chapter about knitting lace with the phrase: "Let the Sun Shine In", which can not be any truer for lace knitting.

So we know that the holes are a prominent feature in lace knitting. What does it do to the photography then?

More often than not, the complete picture that the lace project will throw out is made up of the play between the holes made by the yarn overs and the lines of the increases and decreases made. All of these will be surrounded by some kind of a more solid knitted part to complete the picture and to emphasise the "picture" made out of the YOs. This is then crucial to the photography. Like Pam said: "Let the sun shine in"! Let the holes be holes and let them work for you!

Take the Mystic Waters shawl in the picture above for example. Even though there are so many YOs that make up the different motifs in the picture, you can still pick out each individual motif from the photo without having to squint.

By setting off the knitted piece from the wall and letting the light shines through it, you are making the YOs along with their borders visible to the photo and in return, making the motif clear. The bonus here is the clear shadow cast on to the wall behind the knitted piece, which created a silhouette that also shows the motifs in their plainness.

Mystic Light Shawl, originally uploaded by elemmaciltur.

What to do when you have that one gorgeous skein of yarn with such a variegated colourway that you know would be too busy in a lace shawl and that the colour would easily obscure the lace pattern altogether?

Well, if you love it enough, you'll just knit it anyway. ;-) But it won't be an easy task showing off that lace pattern when you try to take photo of the finished object.

Mystic Light Shawl, originally uploaded by elemmaciltur.

Pam Allen to the rescue again: "Let the sun shine in"!

Literally this time, from the back.

Sure, when you wear the shawl, the lace pattern will be obscured by the busy colourway, but at the least you had made a fabulous photo of it showing off the lace pattern perfectly.

So, I would dare say that the most important thing with photographing your lace project is to let the light and the airiness of the lace work for you.

Icarus Shawl, originally uploaded by elemmaciltur.

Letting the lace pattern shows up in the photo becomes even more of an important issue when you consider about taking the photo of the project as a whole. In this case, the YOs that make up the pattern need to show, otherwise the photography wouldn't show the project well.

By this time you should also have noticed the trick I use to let the lace airiness show itself: My projects are hung freely most of the time and I also spread out the project over a span.

By hanging the project on something and having space between the hanging project and the background itself, you're letting the airiness of the open lace work be able to show itself; to let the lace motif lift off from the background and show the three-dimensionality of it. Spreading out the project or in this case, letting the wingspan of the shawl stretch out to its full potential will help open up the lace work and thus emphasise the motif.

Le Flambé du Pacifique, originally uploaded by elemmaciltur.

Occasionally, you might not have the chance to let your project hang freely to show the open work with space in the background. In this case, you can go for a close-up shot and instead, show the details of the lace. This trick is also good when the lace could be obscured by the busy colourway of the yarn you have chosen to work with.

Hemlock Ring Blanket, originally uploaded by elemmaciltur.

Photographing a lace work laying absolutely flat against a surface usually works fine when the lace motif is not mainly made out of the holes, but rather the lace motif is just complementary to the negative space of the knitted fabric that makes up the piece itself.

As you can see in the Hemlock Ring Blanket in the above photo: The star motif in the very middle as well as the surrounding feather and fan motif are made up of both lace work and negative space of knitted fabric. They're both in balance without one overpowering another. The lace motifs here are much more complementary to the knitted fabric and vice versa and thus the knitted piece can be shown laying flat on the ground.

Lómelindë (Gail), originally uploaded by elemmaciltur.

Another very important thing that I consciously consider while taking a photo is the angle I take the photo. I said "consciously" because usually I don't really think about how I take the photo. However, angle is something that will add interests to your photo.

Most photography lesson 101 will tell you right away not to place the object of the photo smack right in the middle of everything, which is very true. However, there are ways to compensate this, and one method is the angle of photography. If you must place the object right in the middle of the photo, then at least don't take the photo using the full on, frontal, everything aligned into a grid method. Try going in from a slight angle from the side; kneel down and take the photo from an ant's view; stretch up and take a photo from the bird eye's view; tilt the camera at a slight diagonal angle, etc. All of these little techniques will help add some interests into your photo.

I have already mentioned about spreading out the lace object and letting the lace motifs lift off from the background. However, taking the photo of the Gail shawl above as an example, the shawl wasn't spread out, but rather hangs from another object. This style doesn't really show that much of an open lace work, however the ripples produced by the drapes adds movement to the otherwise static photo.

Eärë (Seascape), originally uploaded by elemmaciltur.

The setting or backdrop of where you decide to do a photoshoot is also crucial to how everything will turn out in the end. Sure, if you have a nice setting in your house, it would also work great. However, in my small one room apartment, there isn't many choices of settings I could do with a good photoshoot, this is the main reason why I tend to go outside to take the photos.

There are always public places around where you live that will offer a nice backdrop for a photoshoot. Just keep your eyes open the next time you take a walk around your neighbourhood for a nice looking place for a photoshoot.

A couple of things that you could take in consideration about choosing a setting for the photoshoot are the following:

- Themed according to the project that you have knitted (like the Seascape above, taken at a lake);
- Complementary colours in the background to go with the colour of your knitted project (like the Swallowtail Shawl in the very first picture);
- Contrasting colours in the background to isolate and emphasise the knitted piece itself (most of the project photos I take are done with contrasting backdrop).

Most of the time, I do the photoshoot without the help of a person. However, if you have someone to help you with the photoshoot, take all the advices I have given above into consideration (not right in the middle, let the light shines through, angles, etc.), they can all be applied to a photoshoot with or without a stand-in model.

Travelling Roses Lace Scarf, originally uploaded by elemmaciltur.

Without help of a model, you can find a spot and drape your object to your heart's desire.

One further factor that can help with your photography is the hardware itself. Apart from the setting and your project, your camera can play a vital role. Get to know your camera, be it just a simple point-and-shoot or a complicated DSLR. Get to know the different light setting and other options on your camera. They can really help you get the best out of the photo.

A simple photo-processing programme can help correct, or even rescue some photos. I always check my photos through the programme and correct the exposure, hightlight and darken some areas, as well as correct the colours as need be. Sometimes you might not even have to do any touch-ups at all to a photo. ;-)

Ishbel-Jezebel, originally uploaded by elemmaciltur.

Lastly though, sometimes things just wouldn't work out no matter what you do. Like you can see in this last photo, the colourway was too busy to show off the lace motif, the light wasn't ideal for a photoshoot (direct sunlight on an object for the photoshoot can sometimes be a blessing and a curse at the same time), etc. etc.

In a moment like this, the only thing you can do is to take loads of photos and hope that some of them will turn out good. I tend to take multiples of the same shot anyway and then sort them out afterward and pick out the ones that I like best.

Well, that is all I could think of about now. Go try it out on your own and just judge by feeling at what looks aesthetically pleasing to you. Usually, that photo would turn out best. ;-)

I hope that this entry can help give you some new ideas and inspiration to your photography!

Have a great week, everyone!