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

Spinning and Knitting Weekend

Last weekend I was off at a - gasp - retreat! It dawned on me that, even though we had called it a "Festival", it was in fact a retreat. So now I can stop being jealous at all the Americans who go to big retreats and pay a months worth of household money for it, come home with glorious yarns and know a lot of big and famous people.

We were far out in the woods in a little scout cabin - and not some fancy lake lodge.
We were 12 - and not 120.
I met Kathe Lewis (And my mom) - and not MissWroteABook
We ate bread, drank milk (And coffee) and had an italian buffet one night - and didnt drink beer nor eat fancy food.
We had a fire in the furnace that made us and the whole cabin smell like smoke - and didnt wear our best clothes, appearing at out best at all times.
We went to bed at 12-3 and got out at 7-10 - and everybody just laughed.
We slept in 12-bed-rooms (but not all in one) and kicked each other in our sleep - and didnt sleep in fancy single beds with sheets that were changed every evening.

But! It was WONDERFULL, really.

We spun, knitted, talked, and learned a lot about how to mix colours with different tools, and just had a nice time socializing. We had two contests, as well as a drawing, and plenty of prizes. Oue group, Spindefarvegruppen, is disbanding sadly, and since it was/is a group you have to pay for to be in, we had a lot of surplus money, having cancelled some activites in fall.
They had bought a wonderfull Kromski travelling wheel (!!). We also got some prizes from Europawools in the UK, and two boxes of wool dyeing starter sets, a big one and a small one.

The big one was first prize for our "Longest Thread" contest.
We had 7 entrants, and the winner was not at all confident she would win!! I think she was very surprised at winning, eben though her yarn ran 4300 m / 100 g, and number two's was around 1900 m / 100 g. That's some of a difference!

We also had a fiber-guessing-contest, where I fared quite well too - not that it mattered, because we had a prize for everybody in that contest! I won 500 g dark brown merino, 24 micron count. A shared 2.nd place - I was proud.

Then came the big thing we had all waited for, anxiously, because the wheel stood by the kitchen door ever since we came, in its green bag. I had written around 40 tickets with the name of each of the people in the group, also those that were absent. Our groups leader took out one ticket and I unfolded it... and a huuuuge smile grew across my face! (No, I didnt win it.) The winner was "Marianne V", a young woman who can not work, has three little children and whose husband recently left her. She could not even afford a wheel, and had spent all her savings for a wheel (120 USD) on the retreat. I thought she would faint when I read her name aloud! Of course, everybody had hoped to win the wheel, but it was so good that this woman won it, because she, if not needed it, then would but it to the best use.
There was another prize left, the "Little starter set for dyeing", and it was commonly agreed upon that it should go to someone present at the retreat. So one name was drawn, but the person was not present. Another name was drawn, but I never got to say it out loud. I only managed to squeak: "But it's me!!". I must have looked like a tomato, but I was so happy because I dont own any dyeing utensils, and now I do, and can dye my own yarn and stuff!

Other than that, one of the women who owns a online yarn shop had a tiny sale - some shetland jumperweight that was too expensive for me, some silk/wool tweed in strong colours and some "Gotland" yarn - and to skeins of BFL yarn for just 4$ /100 g. I held onto those as if my life depended on it, and also 7 skeins of a brown/black colour Gotland yarn. Gooorgeous. That stood me, all in all, in 35$ for two pounds yarn. That was really ok, for Denmark.

Now I am home, tired, and glad.
Sorry I cannot show pictures, but my camera... same old story, you know?

Have a really nice day

/Lene

PS: My guinea pig had piglings (Planned) friday, three living and one dead. They're goooorgeous!

Sorry abou the delay

Sorry about the delay. Somehow, weather turned bad, and then study kicked in and everything rotated around my studies, and not handicraft. I have not knitted for weeks.


This is the whole shawl. It was hard to photograph. It is also huge, 260 cm across the wings and 140 down the back. I have seen shawls half that size!


Semi-close-up. You can sort of see the variegation in the handspun in this picture. It is gorgous, in my opinon, and looks really good in the clover leaf pattern (I believe it is also called Rose leaf?)


Clover Pattern. The transition between my mothers yarn and mine happens in this picture - I can see it because my mothers yarn is a tad thinner, but I am pretty sure noone but me, who has had it in my hands and stared at it for hours and hours can see it.


Leaf pattern. Again, the variegation. I am amazed at this shawl because it turned out so well, even though I almost despised it at several points in its creation.


Bonus picture!

Ditlev, my first and oldest piggie, and probably the cutest I have ever met.

Have a really nice day

/Lene

I'll just delete...

... Everything that happened from 7.10 PM yesterday, ok?


... I broke my mothers Ebony needle that I am knitting Fanakofte with. Currently at 12 repeats of 13-14.

... My sisters most beloved Guinea Pig died. Catastrophy!

... My riding club will be closed down, probably :'-( Just because people cannot manage to be nice to one another. I am thinking about *doing* something, but maybe not.

...And it even was my birthday!

Oh, and the Doll Quilt is finished but for the binding, which I will put on today! (and the label). That's nice, and I will send it off July 12, to my Pal, who should have it just a few days later, seeing as how we're on the same continent.

Wicked!

I started using all that Heilo for something usefull after just gazing all happily at it for a while (It lies on my living room floor like a sea of happy colours).

Wicked




It is not really a Wicked (Link in a previous post), but a sort-of. I wanted a look kind of like on the model, and not like the finished ones I have seen in, uhm, ample sizes (US 14 for me). It ended up a bit too tight, and I dont know about the body, it might be a bit too fitting while the arms may end up too loose (I could not buy the pattern. Spent too much money on yarn this month). I am at the point where I will put it on two circs and see where I want to put the waist shaping - or if my breasts can get into it, at all :-P If not, I might.. uhm.. Probably rip. Or finish and wait until I loose some more weight.


The weater is lovely here in Denmark, and the Guinea Pigs and I have been sitting outside for three hours today - I live very near two little streams with grass and everything around them, so I pack the piggies, a book, my knitting, and a box that I can turn around and put them into. They graze, sleep and poop, while I knit and sleep. Fair enough :-)


Have a really nice day

/Lene

PS: Yes Hanne, you are one of the three :-) I am glad you liked the danish poetry - it was written as an ode to an Aarhusian spring!