Socks, and make things fit!

Whoa!

I did get something finished, thats a new one for me. Because it is kind of hard to finish something when you spend most of your time on horseback or studying music. Not listening to music - that is the time when I knit the most - but most of the time I am making music. I play the piano, the organ, a bit accordion, I write music and practice choir leading.

So there's enough to do, with two horses on top of it (I've even swallowed my fear and have started to gallop - its like getting wings!)

Some time ago my SIL - wait, I have two now, and I cant even use their first letter because its the same: Re... Re.. or their first name of their last name: Sch.. Sch... Plus the fact that my younger brothers girlfriend is older than my older brothers... *laugh* It is confusing.

But, it was my nephews mother who gave me a ball of Opal sock yarn, slightly blushing, and asked if I thought they could magically transform them into socks? Well, I did, and so they sat around for some time until I took the ball with me in the bus and then to the summer cottage - they were done by the end of the weekend (Last weekend). They are nice, but uh - I tried them on my other SIL and they fit perfectly. Damn. First, she tried to tell me they were for her, but I couldnt give them to her no matter how much I would have liked to, because the yarn was not mine. So, rip toe and reknit. They are nice, and good socks. Plain stockinette socks that will wear for years, not grow, and keep my SIL's feet warm. Eventually they will get holes, and depending on where they are they will get darned, or ripped and reknit, or thrown out. That's all I am asking for for the stuff I make: That it will fulfill its purpose until it is worn out after a long and well-done service.




I like them, they are pretty socks. They will do well in time to come.


OOoooh, and here is "Make things fit".
I want to sew a jacket for my mom like the turquoise I made for myself. She bought the fabric herself, and today, with the sun and wind and pretty weather, I started laying out the pieces. I need to lenghten the arm, that is why there is such a large vacant spot in the middle of the fabric. Turns out I could have done with 1½ m. instead of 2, but who knew? (The yellow measuring tape is at 1½ m. I love it - it has inches on one side, centimetres on the other, and is 120" long!)


Pretty deep red fabric with a colour-changing embroidery on it - mostly random curves, but also leaves, and flowers. Machine-made.

That's it, folks. December is knocking on my door, and I just want it to snow, prettily, and with a tall blue sky, frost and a beautifull december sun. Then I'll get out the old horse (19 :-) and ride, ride and ride.

/Lene

Jacket

Modeled picture of the Jacket/Cardigan:





It was hard to get an acceptable shot of it, this picture is the only one where the colour is right, and that I like.

/Lene

My new cardigan

Here it is. The result many hours of sewing, thinking, ripping and more thinking.



(Relatively true colour)


It has princess seams and a stand-up collar, and is made out of a stretchy, embroidred denim. The sleeves were originally 3/4 sleeves with a wide slit, and the buttons were set differently, but I decided for myself where I wanted buttons and how I wanted the sleeves - and the body lenght. The sleeve openings are less than ideal, but I will live with them. They could be way worse. The neck is also not perfect, the collar is way too small, it wont even go around my neck. I wear it flipped over backwards, making kind of a V neck. (I forgot to do it in the picture below).
The chest part is a little too small, and the lower part is a little too wide - ah well.
Weird though, because this is the smallest size of a pattern only in "Large" sizes - designed for ample women (It was included in a Burda my mother had, and I fell in love with the design).



(Murky Mirror Shot)


Despite all the shortcomings I see in it, two persons have tried it on today, and both requested one for themselves. Maybe!
The next one for me may be in a linen fabric as recommended - and I will either change the collar or just make the neckhole bigger so that it can lie around the neck as it was probably intended. Plus I want to try to make a bigger boob area and slimmer sleeves at the wrists, and eventually cut a little bit of the width around the butt.

Have a really nice day.

/Lene

Just a little

It is summer, after all, and my brain is everywhere. I seem to have strayed from the narrow path of knitting and splashed all over the place - it's not just handiwork anymore!

• I bought a (new) bike - so now I have two, but oh, what two! One regular one that was incapable of living out my wishes with me, so I bought the "Black Stallion" (Black, slender, and mean) for bike travelling - also in rough places. It is fully suspended, but otherwise built like a travelling bike. It works well in (less rough) terrain, as well on expanded bike trips.
• I am sewing up a storm, in my own opinion. Until now, I have three butterfly pillows, three cow-pillows (Patchwork body, head and legs, later assembled), and a pig, a cat and a sheep in the same fashion. Pig, Sheep and one Cow are in our summer cottage, replacing the old icky pillows that were there when we bought the place, a Cow and the Cat will reside in my aunts quilt shop as store models, and one Cow went home with me!
• I have also almost sewn a cardigan for me - with princess seams and all, and maybe I will sew another one in another fabric, I like this! Just that I might want to shorten it overall and put the taken-away lenght where my waist is... I am tall.
• "Large Triangle with Clover Pattern" from Victorian Lace Today is stalled, I ran out of yarn. Mother is spinning more. Thankyou mom *blushes*
• My patchwork runner is still disassembled. I dislike it right now. It made me sad ;-)
• As is the large blanket I am sewing. It is, however, now spread out on the floor, ready to have horses painted on it so I can hand-quilt them on. The rest may be machine-quilted straight lines. I am so anxious about "breaking" it - I love it so!

Well, that was it - have a nice summer day.

PS: Oh! My house got painted! And my roof repaired - it only just broke (storm damage) in December! And, my windows will be painted from the outside, too - or even *gasp* replaced! Maybe I can open them, then ;)

Not smart enough

I generally think of myself as a smart person, who can figure out things on her own rather well, and do a good well many things on the fly.




Leftovers from various things.


I needed a little bag for "small stuff" now that I am going on a bike ride - water-proofness it not a consideration since I own Ortlieb Backrollers - absolutely waterproof. However, how will this one hold my stuff? (Well, it holds it), but it will fall out, right? Oomph. Seems I wasnt clever enough, even though I figured out on my own how to make a rectangular bottom, a really pretty handle and all such. At least I could have added two handles so I could make a knot, right?

Ah well. Maybe next time! For now, i am just a tiny bit proud of myself - even if I wasnt smart *enough*, at least I was *smart* ;-)

Pitter - pattering around.

These past days, it seems I am just pitter-pattering around. At least I got the camera out now to show what I am doing, which is, after all, the main point of this blog.




Here is a Pinwheel Square out of some of the fabrics I used for the Wolf Blankie. I had just found the leftovers again (They were gone... I had put them on a storage box and placed another one on top of it, oops), and there were 7 triangles that were nor used in the blanket. seven? What can one do with seven triangles? Cut an 8th and make a pinwheel square, for example. In my mind, it is bordered with other scrappy fabrics and made into a pillow case to match the blankie / quilt. It was real quick, didnt take 10 minutes.




This is fun. I called the picture "OceanBag". Havtaske. That's a fish species that tastes quite well, mmmh, and it had me laughing at that brain fart for quite a while. Made out of one of these self-striping yarns (Kauni? Evilla? Dont remember) that I have a few of in stash. It will be felted, and is just a good inbetween project, seeing as how I broke the circular in the Fanakofte *sigh*.





Here I am being all sneaky, can you see? It is the Doll Quilt. Sneaky and thrifty. It is all scrap fabrics, and the binding will be bicoloured. Oh, and speaking of thrifty: The batting is a fleece blanket I am slowly cutting up into small pieces for all kinds of stuff. Who cares? The quilting shows, and it is not like it will have to warm somebody, right? I have also made a whole blankie (quilt) with just fleece as backing - and my SIL thinks that this is such a great idea that she is making one for her son, too!




Mmmhh, yarn! Handdyed in gorgeous greens. Really gorgeous. Can one make a cardigan of sorts with 1400 yards of Sport/DK weight? In a size 12-14? A short-sleeved lacy cardi? (nothing cropped...)
Oh, and I guess that means that your yarn and your books have also arrived mom - sorry for not telling you, but I have not hidden them, and the books are GREAT, you will love them!



The "It pains me to look at you" - Project: Fanakofte.
You are standing still at 45 cm, and I am so sorry for that! I wish I could knit on, but I will offer this excuse: My grandmother is clumsy. She broke your circular :'-( Seriously, this was going so swimmingly, and now my mothers circular is broken. I will pay a new one, of course, but in the meantime I must wait. They are hard to come by.

That's it! (No it isnt. There are things marinating - but I dont talk of them. They'll come out, some time or other, to rip or flourish in the light of my attention and their beauty).

Have a nice day

/Lene

Creative Chaos

Oohh.
Today I have for you, one horrible picture of why I am not updating this blog regularely. I have too many ideas and cannot get them out of my head! I dream of them in the night, I see them when I am awake, but when I touch my fabrics they go.. "poof".

I am a member of the "Doll Quilt Swap II", and I am trying to make something beautifull for a person that likes traditional quilts, primary colours etc.

My mother let me loose in her fabric stash, which contains several nice things, but most of what is in there I have already been through in the past years. Right now I have a white background with red flowers on it (when/if I dare to try sewing them on), and another idea - two hourglass squares (Fabulous green fabric with scenes from india and plain white). Maybe I'll make another two with the white and a most beautifull red with white flowers, and make somethig log-cabin-somthing around them...



Well, here is the picture! It looks less crowded than it really is, because I am standing on my bed :)



The Fanakofte is 34 cm / 13", and I am aiming for 64 cm / 24 " ;) (How funny that those are also the key numbers for the DQSII)

Have a really nice day

/Lene

Not Knitting

This, is *not knitting*

It is another case of "I wonder what happens...". In this case, I guess it is a pillow case top. I want to add more, but no matter what I drew on that linen with my pink chalk, I did not like it. No french knots in the middle, no lines in the petals, nothing. Maybe I will just wash it (Because I embroidered with unmercerized cotton on unwashed linen, doh) and find a pillow so that I can sew the cover to fit. It's not ugly, really, its just - not much. Hm.




Here is more not knitting. Well, that is not true anymore, because I have added two rows with the fabulous ebony circ my mother borrowed me - yay! This project really really does not lend itself to metal circulars. You can see it on top of the sleeves and begun body. I finished the second sleeve within two days! I just had to sit down with it for a little time. Maybe I can get zooming on the body now, too? I want this sweater so bad.






/Lene