Bats or beaver?

Joulu is over and I am overeaten, feeling bloated and plain fat. Not a nice feeling. (although all that chocolate was yummy...)

We have over 60cm of snow - which is a lot. It is still so dark that even during the daytime you need to keep the lights on inside to be able to see something. Taking photos is almost a mission impossible.

I knitted a couple of xmas presents but unfortunately I don't have any photos of them finished. I whipped up a super fast Cabled Keyhole scarf (it really took less than 4 hours to make from cast on to cast off) and I knitted a pair of socks for my brother - here's how it looked like when still on needles.
Just before xmas I received my yarn from Posh Yarn - like so:
Lace weight & fingering weight yarns in turquoise, blood red and dark, glistening brownish grey.
The leftmost colourway is called Bats in the Belfray (love the names they give to their yarns chez PoshYarns) - but for some reason I kept thinking it looked like a slicked, wet fur of beaver or something. (and yes - the actual beaver the animal)
So shiny due to its 50% Tencel content (the other 50% is Merino - of course!) Love that colour! The slight minus side is that I find the yarn a tad hard - there's some likeness to nylon ropes... and that is not entirely a good thing.
I'm in progress of knitting the Hoarfrost neck warmer out of it - and of course could not find a 3.25mm circular needle - so I'm using the 2.5mm instead. (which makes quite a big difference in the actual gauge vs the gauge in the pattern) So I'm also knitting the size Large - and wishing to get something near to size small out of it. (this is so typical of me... did I take time to check the gauge? Nope... it's gonna work anyways - I think. As long as it is not too loose I'm happy - and it looks good so far. )
(btw . I adore my Wildcraft stitchmarkers. Pure joy to see them in the midst of that dark barklike grey... )

Sock day

New socks for me. All stripy and ready.
Pattern: none - basic top down construction in stockinette with garter stitch short-row heel & toe.
Yarn: OnLine Supersocke
Needles: 2.25mm dpns
Like the colour a lot. For once a mix-colour that I actually like.
Now that those are ready I'm knitting Zigzag socks for Isabella. I'm knitting some random striping into them. So far so good.
The 1st sock almost done now that I write this. (I personally don't much like this colour-combo, but the socks are not for me so it does not matter. Isabella chose the colours and the socks are going to be knitted for her so ...)

Friday

So happy it's Friday. Xmas holiday is getting near and it's been a hectic autumn at work. So it was fantastic to have a little break yesterday and enjoy the xmas lunch with my colleagues. Very nice. The food was absolutely delicious and for once everyone seemed to be happy and stress-free for a moment.

Today we've been enjoying a slow-paced Friday with girls. Some playing in the snow, some crafts with stamps and crayons and now the girls are all cuddled up in the sofa and watching cartoons for a while.

I've been cooking and knitting and making the last-minute xmas purchases on the net. (I really hope that the presents make it here before December 24th! Everywhere I looked it stated that order before Dec. 19th and the delivery is guaranteed in the EU by xmas... but we'll see. I tend to be a bit skeptic when it comes to promises like that.)

Here are some of the projects I have on the needles right now.
Some lace in Kidsilk Night - this is almost finished - just need to add buttons and it's done.

A pair of socks for me. (1st sock finished and the 2nd almost done) I love this Online Supersocke yarn. The colour is beautiful.

Then some serious surface structure in Drops Nepal. I'm really looking forward to get to the sewing part of this one as it is a strangest construction: at first you knit a long (almost 170cm) rectangle, which then needs to be sewn together to form a jacket. Cool.

I'm also eagerly waiting the postman to bring the yarns I ordered from PoshYarn. They've been on their way almost 2 weeks now - which is a long time to travel from the UK to Finland (but I guess the delay has something to do with the weather conditions in the UK and the fact that Finnair's stewardesses were on strike for a week or so, which messed up lots of international deliveries to/from Finland on top of the actual harm done to people who had booked tickets to the canceled flights.)
SO maybe the lovely yarns will arrive today? I keep my fingers crossed!

yet another hat

...for me this time.
Pattern: none/mine (using cast on technique from Hip Knit Hats)
Yarns: Rowan Polar (stone) & Colinette Prism in Nutmeg
Needles: 6mm & 7mm dpns

I have to say I really, really like this one. The fit is great and it is very warm (which is needed this winter - once again we have -14 celsius when writing this. and over half a meter of snow. which is loads considering it is only December) . And the colour combo works for me. Love it!

Pink hat

Here's one of the hats I knitted last month, when on a sick leave.

The hat is knitted top-down - which was a revelation to me once I learned the cast on method used through-out the Cathy Carron's Hip Knit Hats. Basically you make loops around two dpns, as if starting knitting toe-up socks - and the result is a totally invisible and "peak-free" crown. Very cool and easy!

Pattern: none - inspired by hats in Hip Knit Hats by Cathy Carron

Yarn: Novita Teddy in Pink

Needles: 7mm dpns

The hat above is how I originally knitted it. However - it did not stay well enough in my daughters head (there tends to be quite a lot of speed & action involved when she's in question) So I picked up stitches for about 2/3 of the perimeter of brim and worked in garter stitch decreasing steadily 1 stitch at the end of every row until the "flap" was approx. 5cm (2") long.

That was enough to make the hat work in real action. Now it covers ears and stays on. (most of the time at least)

Btw. Here are the 2 skeins of lovely Araucania Ranco, that I'm using to knit those "zigzag-socks" my eldest daughter asked for..

Importance of planning

...and I mean really planning - not just doing and seeing where it gets you. (which mostly is my methodology when it comes to knitting without a pattern. "I can do this - I don't need a pattern. This is easy." ...Right)

Some weeks ago I showed some knitting projects that I had on my needles. There was this "I'm going to be a big& cozy jacket" - thingy as well. I should have known better than to just knit on and on. It's not that I didn't do any progress. I managed to knit the back&fronts&sleeves & pockets (it's a top-down raglan - so the knitting part went well) and I was just about to begin the cable panel that I could envision running along the front edges and around my neck - and would be some 12-15cm wide and it would look so good... (see how big the gap between the left& right front is? That's for the panel...pockets look good though)
So far so good. Except - when I was happily casting on for the cable panel I noticed that I only had a skein and some yarn left for the panel. Right. Not good. (I totally thought of having 9 balls of Rowan Polar - but was obviously wrong - I only had 8 to begin with)
How can I make such a mistake? the panel with cables will take approx 2 balls of yarn (that's my rough estimate) I'm screwed. Really cannot figure what to do next. I rather not use a different yarn to the panel - and I cannot see it in two different yarns either (one of which would be the Polar) Damn!!

3/3

To complete my knitted set of hat, mitts & scarf - here's the part III.
Pattern: none/Mine Double leaf snood
Yarn: OnLine Linie Move, used double throughout approx
Needles: 10mm(!)

Didn't want a regular scarf this time (and I have quite a few of them already) plus that I noticed how often I wear my other snood/scarf that I knitted in September, so I made another one.

I wanted it to be Big and soft & warm so I used 10mm needles & doubled the yarn. I placed the double leaf motif in the middle and then just some very basic netting/lave on both sides of it ' neat garter stitch edges. Easy. And made really fast! (just love using big needles every now and then. Not all the time you know - but sometimes it is all that I need to balance all my lace & sock knitting with thin yarn etc... )
So - this scarf can be worn as a one big loop like a scarf - or like a very lacy and unpractical hood
- or like I wear it the most often - twice around my neck , when it becomes seriously warm neck warmer.
(Funny to watch these photos now a couple of weeks after they were taken. We have almost a half a meter of snow now - but on the moment of photo shoot there was hardly any of it... everything changes so fast:-)

Now I have to figure out how to knit socks for my 7yr-old. She was very precise ("socks that are pink and blue or purple and they have zigzag stripes. Need to be good length, not too short or long - right here *points her calf* can you make those to me mom?") Oh yes. so I'm trying some Jaywalker-ish chevron patterns to see which one would work in a sock well enough. ( Fortunately(!?) I happen to have just right yarns in my stash;-)

Double leaf fingerless mittens

Part 2/3 of the set I've knitted.
Pattern: None/Mine
Yarn: OnLine Linie Move
Needles: 4mm dpns

These Fingerless mittens have a double leaf lace on top and the inside of cuff is twisted rib - as well as the edges. Palm is plain stockinette.
I was a bit surprised how beautiful they came out. And the fit is for once snug enough for my rather small hands. They are just perfect for me. (and they've proven to provide the much needed extra warmth for my hands when I work on my laptop... as my fingers and wrists tend to freeze inside the office as well as outside:-)
In the meantime - we have even more snow now. It's been snowing all day again...
As for the projects on my needles - I've managed to knit one sock for myself and am halfway through the other one. (that's my telly-watching project - plain vanilla socks. No need to look at my knitting at all. - although this also leads to situations like the other day, when I suddenly realized that I had knitted the foot long enough to fit a rabbit.. I ended up ripping back some 6-7cm...well - it just happens sometimes... )

Side slip Cloche

Part 1 of the 3-piece set I've been knitting. It all started with this cloche/hat. (which was very fast project to complete)

Pattern: Side slip Cloche by Laura Irwin from Boutique Knits
Yarn: Online Linie Move (a novelty yarn with a shiny cord and some plastic (acrylic) fluff around it. Very soft and pretty yarn to look at - would make a very uncomfortable sweater - but works ok-ish for accessories)
Needles: 4mm

It is apparently designed to be worn this way:
...but I prefer wearing it this way:
next time : part 2/3...