Tag: alpaca

Knitting progress

PiaKnitting

 leap shetsweat1

Been making a bit of progress on various projects, some ups and downs such as making the waist decreases on my sweater at the red stripe only, to find out the yarn is so heavy that it’s actually more the brown stripe that is at my waist. But it’s got a comfortable amount of ease all the way up, so I’ll leave it, maybe block it a bit. Right now the sides are only loosely seamed with cotton to test it on, so it’s looking kinda lumpy. I’m knitting an inner collar of silk (Shetland is scratchy), then I’ll have to spin more yarn before I can continue to the sleeves. This was expected, I just didn’t realise what a quick knit this was on 6 mm.

garn

The remaining sweater yarn is sitting on a quick improvised scarf I did for my mum with some leftover DROPS, nice warm silk and baby alpaca for her vulnerable neck (disc surgery). It blocked way longer than I anticipated, so it could have been wider (used up the yarn to within 20 cm), but I’m not going to redo, I have another scarf on the needles for her. Different yarn, same fiber combo. She needs them light and small as she’s not a very big person. (just under 5′)

sunbstart

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Strikkeri

Det gik hurtigt med at strikke min tykke sweaterkjole, måske lidt for hurtigt, for jeg fik lavet lidt for kraftigt sving på taljen og lidt for tidligt, garnet er tungt og elastisk, så det var svært at beregne den endelige længde på trøjen. Nå, men der er ikke noget der strammer, jeg lader det være, måske blokker lidt eller kigger på sammensyningen. Lige nu er den bare løseligt rimpet sammen med bomuldsgarn for at kunne prøve den. Jeg er i gang med at strikke inderhals af silke, så jeg ikke bliver kradset helt op, og så skal der spindes mere garn før der kan blive ærmer, men det vidste jeg godt.

Er også i gang med tørklædeproduktion til min lille mor, som skal have varmet sin opererede nakke med florlette silke/alpaca ting. Den grønne er bare improviseret med en rest, og blev noget længere end beregnet, så det kunne godt være blevet bredere, men det fungerer. Jeg brugte vitterlig alt garnet, så ingen rettelser der heller.

Coldfinger

PiaKnitting

I just realized that we’re moving into autumn and after that comes winter.

We heat the house only with the woodstove in the living room, and while the house is warm enough, I do tend to get cold hands sitting in my “office”, typing or just mousing away with one hand.

So, for the last 2 years I’ve wanted to make some fingerless mittens, but never got around to it. I even have some really thin baby alpaca yarn to use, just to get an extra layer of skin but not have the bulk get in the way.

What I can’t decide it whether to just make the tube variety with a thumb hole or real gloves with just the fingertips off. Plain rib for a snug fit or some elaborate lace or cable pattern…

Which do y’all prefer? And why? (apart from the fact that I’m not looking forward to knitting fingers, I have an idea it may be warmer)

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Fingerløse vanter

Jeg bliver lidt kold om fingrene om vinteren når jeg sidder her ved PC’en, så jeg har længe tænkt på at lave fingerløse vanter i tyndt alpaca garn for at de ikke er i vejen men lige giver et ekstra lag hud. Det er bare ikke blevet til noget, men nu er vinteren jo på vej igen!

Så jeg vil lige høre, bortset fra, hvad der er nemmest at strikke, hvilken slags foretrækker I, med eller uden fingre, altså bare et rør med tommelfingerhul eller rigtige vantefingre uden spidser? Og hvorfor?

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UFO begone

PiaBooks & reading

Sat myself down for some prescribed quiet time and attacked my UFO pile in between reading. It’s sooo great to be able to cross out things on a to do list! And good to not run around trying to do ALL the things, just attack one at a time, never mind the others for the time being. I really, really must practise slow living since I probably won’t be able to master slow thinking…..

Didn’t manage to get done yet, even though I have several knitting projects just waiting, tempting…

So what do you do about sleeve syndrome?! As soon as I get there, I just lose all my steam. Knit summer tops you say? But I’m such an icicle, I need my heavy sweaters… I could do the sleeves first, but I tend to have length issues when I do. I need to set up some sort of reward system perhaps? I feel really silly working on one project, while my mind is all buzzing about another one that I’d rather be doing. Not very zen. I wanna be zen! So what do you do when one sleeve turns out too thin, the other too wide (not on the same garment thank goodness) and the body has stretched in width (on the garment that has too thin sleeve – but will the sleeve grow too?). You get REALLY bored!

This is just the very short immediate list. Oh boy, you should see the other one!

  • Sleeves on orange sweater
  • Sleeves on blue featherweight cardigan
  • Blue reverse sweater
  • Felted bag
  • New soft collar for ugly scratchy sweater

I felted the sweater, which I didn’t remember had no sleeves. I’d meant to use those sleeves for the shoulder strap. It also shrank A LOT. Well, that’s what felting does, stupid… So, now I have to knit some kind of strap, then felt THAT, before I have my bag. Which incidentally won’t be big enough for its intended use I think… Anyway, not the quick and dirty project I had in mind! For some reason, second hand stores here don’t have any wool sweaters, it’s all bleeping acrylics. I guess it’s a good thing though, I don’t need any storage space for felted items-to-be-turned-into-cool-stuff. I may just cut off the buttons and save those, you know. I know a cat or 3 who would love a new sweater.

I need a magic wand to finish these UFOs. And not one of those with a knob and a number on the end.

And now to go frog the too wide sleeve. In laceweight on 3 mm needles…. Wax on, wax off….. Yes, I did read that book up top. All looks so simple on paper, yes? Actually, maybe I’ll just keep knitting and accept what I get.

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Projektbunke-projekt

Så blev det lige tid til lidt stilletid, læs og strik, få has på nogen af de halvfærdige ting (så jeg kan starte 10 nye, ikke?). Jeg prøver at øve mig i at gøre få ting og gøre dem færdige frem for at rende mellem 25 forskellige projekter og få stress som jeg plejer. Jeg kan tilsyneladende ikke tænke langsomt, men måske jeg kan lære at opføre mig langsomt.

Det er ikke helt lykkedes mig at blive færdig endnu, selvom jeg har adskillige strikkeopgaver som ligger og frister! Jeg ved ikke helt hvad der sker, men så snart jeg når til ærmerne, længes jeg bare efter nye projekter. Hvilket er skørt, for ærmer tager jo ingen tid i forhold til kroppen, få dem dog overstået! Og hvad sker der så? Jo, selvfølgelig bliver det ene ærme for smalt og det andet for bredt (dog ikke på samme trøje), i min iver for at blive færdig. Og så tager ærmer pludselig meget lang tid, især med mønsterstrik som man er blevet rigtig, rigtig træt af. Nogen som har en tryllestav til låns? (ikke en af dem med numre på) Ja, og selvfølgelig er kroppen på det smalle ærme vokset i bredde helt af sig selv, men kan man forvente at ærmet også gør det?!

  • Ærmer til orange sweater
  • Ærmer til blå cardigan
  • Blå omvendt sweater
  • Filtet taske af sweater
  • Strikke ny blød halskant til kradsende, grim, men varm trøje

Dette er den meget korte liste – I skulle bare se den lange… Mht. at filte en taske, ja, jeg havde overset at der ingen ærmer var på trøjen, de skulle have været brugt til skulderstroppen. Så nu skal jeg pludselig til at lave en skulderstrop af noget andet, det tager lige mere tid end beregnet. Eller også klipper jeg bare knapperne af og gemmer til noget andet og giver trøjen til kattene.

Nå, det blev så til en rapport om, hvordan man IKKE bliver færdig med sine UFOer… I gang med at trevle ærme – i lacegarn på pind 3. Zen, tænk zen…. wax on, wax off.

Hm. Måske få projekter slet ikke giver mindre stress end mange?

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Sunberry slip

PiaAcid Dyeing

In Danish, black currants are called sunberries. I wanted to match the exact colour of black currant jam for a yarn and with a bit of fiddling I think I’ve come pretty close. At least to the image in my mind, and that’s what matters, right? It actually takes a bit of skill making acid dyes (the ones I use anyway) not look so synthetic, but I’ll keep working on it.

I’m going to dye this yarn:

to knit this dress: Continue reading “Sunberry slip” →

Where’s my summer at?

PiaChit Chat

Finally got as far as finishing the bodies of two spring/summer garments, for cool weather since frankly it’s been spring into autumn so far.  🙁 What happened to sitting in the garden, in the shade dead hedge (oh wait, the hedge all died, no shade), cool drinks, Ravelry on the laptop, piles of yarn and fiber, solar dyeing in glass jars to my heart’s content?

So anyway, here’s where I’m at and I’m very pleased with Mimi’s ability to help me with shaping a sweater along the way. No more trying to see my own back in a mirror and getting my measurements totally mucked up. I’m quite into getting sweaters that are not tents but not super clingy either, testing various methods to learn.

The orange thing is a cotton/alpaca blend, (Linky in Danish for those not on Ravelry) a bit splitty to work with (loose ply, many threads) but very nice to the touch. I hope the zigzag  of increases and decreases will help it not droop or lose shape. Pattern is by Marianne Isager knit from the top down. I need to either boil-shrink the castoff or do it again, but otherwise I’m quite happy. The blue cardigan is knitted with Wollmeise lace yarn, only 125g to the body! (edge needs a bit of blocking to lose the ruffles).

Both will get half or 3/4 sleeves. Eventually. No, really, I’ll get on it. Maybe the forecast for July is all a fake and this nastiness will continue for all eternity 😉  Tomorrow is forecast lovely temps of 25 C AND strong winds. You just can’t win it seems?! *mutter* I didn’t make the curtains for my pavilion yet (and half our hedge died, remember), another dead hedgeso I guess knitting outside will be a bit of a nuisance.

Maybe I’ll cook up some silly blog posts instead. Beware…