Not Much Left of 2010

There is not much left of 2010 and in the media it´s - as always! - very popular to run long summarizes of the (almost) past year and to advance a lot of guessing about the year to come. Well, 2010 has been a good knitting year and I have great hope that 2011 also will turn out very good - yarnwise!!

If I try to summarize my knitting year, I find that I have learnt some new things, like tubular cast-on and bind offs, and knitting braids.

This is the 2010 aquisition for the Christmas-tree: a hanging stack of parcels. Isn´t it charming?


My "Every Way Wrap" is finished, it was a very quick knit, and a real success in this very cold and snow-rich winter. I found some buttons in my button-box and I use a Knit-Pro cable-needle as a shawl-pin.

I made almost no alterations to the pattern, except casting on and binding off in a tubular way. Mabye the yarn wasn´t ideal for this project, it could have been a bit softer and with better drape. When worn as a vest, it restricts the arm-movements quite a lot. But it warms the shoulders and the lower part of the back wonderfully. It´s three months left of the winter and I will get a lot of use out of this item before spring is here.

Now I´m going to finish the last project for this year. Of course I already have plans for what to cast on next.

Christmas Day Calm

Christmas-time is both joy and stress at the same time. The joy - well that is pretty obvious: some free-time together with the family and a lot of nice food, chocolate and lit candles. The stress - well, as usual the clever planning fell apart, due to sick children, unexpected catastrophies at work and other events that appeared like flashes from a clear sky (a Swedish saying for when unexpected things happens without any warning).


But after taking some deep breaths things usually can be worked out and Christmas could follow the traditional tracks. The ham took its seven hours in the oven and came out like a masterpiece. The Christmas-tree was decorated and immediately started to spread that magical Christmas-feeling. The family flooded in and everything turned out very well. It was even possible to squeeze in som knitting...

I only got one knitting-related Christmas-present: The very tempting "Knitted Cakes" by Susan Penny. This book offers great ideas to use up all those small balls of left-overs that builds up over the year.

Christmas Day is a "between day" in this house, when we go for long walks, look into the new books and tries the new games. The family is playing golf on the Wii-game and I´m going to start a new knitting project - the last of this year?

It´s Not Hard to Remember Roses in December

The world outside is incredible white! The snow lies thick and every branch and twig is covered with thick layers of frost. By the way: "rimfrost" is one of the most beautiful words in the Swedish language! At this moment its -22 outside.

In this white world one need contrasts and indoors I enjoy lit candels and flowers. Amaryllis kindly lets themselves be manipulatet to bloom in december and roses, of course, can be bought all year round. They are such a luxury.

My college at work wanted a pair of leg-warmers, a very much needed item this winter! She wanted them black and I used Rowan Pure Wool Dk in a a shade of black that I would describe as "off-black".

They are knitted in the round, started with a tubular cast on and a lacy sort of "cable" runs up the outside of each leg. The "cable is surrounded by reversed stockinette stitch and a single knit stich forms a "seam" at the back of the leg. I made increases and later decreased to make room for the calf and ended with k2 p2 rib and a sewn bind-off. And Alex was pleased with the result.

At the moment its hard to believe that roses will bloom in the garden in just seven months time (fn the rose-bushes survives the winter, that is!).

Knitting is Not the Only Needle

When my daughter was very small I thought it was a lovely idea to make her a Christmas-sock; something lovely homemade that she could keep and cherish her whole life. I ordered a kit and started, very enthusiastic, to embroider her very own Christmas-sock.

This was five years ago...

Well, now I´m about half way, each year I add a quite substantial amount of stitches and by the time she´s about...45, her sock will be finished!

• The trouble is that embroidery competes with knitting about the very limited amount of Time To Do Whatever I Want. And knitting is more fun!
• I also need daylight for these 40 billion different shades on Santa´s coat and at this time of the year daylight is quite scarse! Yes, I know there are daylight-lamps on the market and one day mabye I`ll buy one. But I can knit in almost darkness (well, not all sorts of knitting, but if it´s simple enought, light is not very important).
• Knitting is a mobile hobby: I knit on the bus, in the car and at all sorts of strange places. But for the embroidery I need to sit at home neatly in my sofa, so as not to tangle up or lose some of all those strands of yarn or one of the pattern-sheets.
  
  

I have two kids, so I need to make two socks... The other one for my son is still in its package, and I fear it will remain there for quite some time.

The Irish Adventure

In 1977 (33 years ago!) I went to Ireland on holiday with my family. This was before I learned to knit and I wasn´t very excited when my mother bought a lot of delicious Irish wool and brought it home. Somehow she never used the wool and after some years half of the wool had disappeared. And what was left was lying in a cupboard for 30 years!

The pictures don´t make the yarn any justice. This time of the year it´s hard to catch the colours even during the light hours of the day. The yarn is a three-ply, with one strand in red wool, occasionally flecked with yellow, and two strands in brown wool, flecked with green and turquoise.

Some years ago my mother found the rest of the yarn, stowed away somewhere, and since she doesn´t knit anymore she gave me this treasure. Since then I have been pondering about how to use this yarn. And one day the yarn found its pattern and decided to cast on for Okmin Park´s "Every Way Wrap" from Interweave Knits Fall 2009 (Ravelry Link).

I found this combination of shawl and vest very smart and something that would be something really useful to wear. It would also give med a chance to knit cable double-sided for the first time - I´m always very keen try something new!

It´s actually a quite quick knit, with big needles - 4,5 - that is big for me! I´m halfway now and I really long to have this finished: in this cold weather I really need it.