Dad's Socks

Finally, I present to you my father's socks, finished back in September and modeled by the man himself:

He reports that they are very warm and way too fancy to walk around the house with. Perfect to put on before he sits back in his armchair to peel himself an orange and watch the evening news.

Yarn: Swedish wool yarn in three different natural shades of grey.
Pattern: Knitty's univeral toe-up sock formula combined with a traditional Baltic mozaic pattern that I found in the book Vantar från När och Fjärran by Eva Maria Leszner

Sketches

Labwork and Studying have kept me busy lately. So not a lot of crafting going on. I have spent some time at my dad's place however, and he has a shelf full of old photo albums that I've rummaged through. Except for nostalgia and longing for loved ones who are gone, the photos also gave me a strong urge to pick up my pencil and paper and draw, which is something I haven't done since I was in art school three years ago. Lately it seems the only thing I use pencils for are taking notes.




These are quick little sketches, nothing I'm going to frame and hang. But I did enjoy making them. I just wanted to make the top one as a tribute to my Grandpa, who I got to see way too little of. I don't remember talking to him very much, just that he was one of the kindest people I've known.

Sewing, Thrifting and Mangoes

I'm in a good mood today. For what reason? Well, I wrote a biomedicine exam yesterday that I have a good feeling about. And when I came home today this was waiting for me inside the door:

It's a brown silk dress from Iro. A late little birthday present from myself. I don't think I've ever owned something this luxurious before...

Completely unrelated, I've been looking through my sewing basket to see what half finished forgotten challenges I may find there. This is one of the things I dug up, a green jacket that I started sewing more than a year ago.

(It's in desperate need of some good ironing, I know)

I never finished it because I didn't have any lining. I still don't, but I mean to get some so I can finish it before spring, I could use a new spring jacket. What I like most about this jacket, except for the lovely green color, is that it's made from an old curtain panel from several decades ago. Yay for recycling! Also, I love the mix of something really simple and cheap, such as old 70's curtains, and something quite exclusive and technically complicated, such as a tailored peacoat. I'm probably going to change the buttons, though, I don't like how it turned out with these wooden ones.

I've also done some thrift store shopping. It's something I like to treat myself to after an exam. I walk from University half way home and stop along all the good thrift stores on the way. This blouse is one of the things I found. I love the floral pattern! I'm just going to make some shaping darts on it and probably switch buttons, and then it'll be ready wear!




They were selling mangoes cheap at the supermarket last week. I like mangoes so I bought a bunch. Then I got home and realised I had 7 mangoes that I had to eat before they went bad. So I had a look around my recipes and decided to turn the majority of the fruits into Mango Coconut Vice Cream.

Mangoes, Datepuré and Coconut Milk

In the Blender - Looking Good!

The finished vice cream didn't look very appetizing, it reminded me of peasoup, which is something I've dreaded since I was a child. I think some fresh fruit for garnish would help a lot. The flavour was just fine, although it probably would have been wonderful if my mangoes had been a bit more ripe. Still it was good, and healthy too I'd like to think. At least it's an excellent way to consume 5 mangoes in one evening!

And before I end, I ate the strawberry and it was delicious!

November Strawberries

Not having a garden is probably what I miss most about living in the city. I don't even have a balcony to place large plant-filled pots on. What I do have are 3 windows facing east and west, which fortunately have turned out to be ideal for growing herbs and other small plants that don't require lots of soil or constant sunlight.

When I went to water the greens this morning I found this:

A Strawberry in November!

When I planted the seeds in April I honestly didn't expect any berries, it was just an attempt to make my window resemble my childhood garden a little more. The fact that I read on the seed envelope, that the plants won't give any fruit the first summer, didn't exactly increase my expectations. Now it isn't really summer anymore so I suppose technically speaking the seed company are right.

I'll let my precious little berry hang for another day or two before I harvest it. It smells delicious so my expectations are quite high. And the best part is that there's more where that one came from!



I hope they will make it, soon the daylight will be reduced to a mere 6-7 hours. I have three more plants, but they're not as lively as this one. Only one of them has buds, and they are two rather sad-looking buds to be honest.

Flicca and Birthday

I finally bought yarn for Flicca: Greenland from Coats HP, a mix of wool (50%), acrylic (35%) and some alpaca (15%). It's very soft and dark brown with discrete white strands here and there (the alpaca I assume). Excellent for a household with two white cats.

It's amazing how quickly this cardigan is knit. I've already finished the full back. I'm really looking forward to wear it. It's getting cold here; the temperature is creeping down towards 0 celsius.



I celebrated my birthday, the 16th, in a calm manner, attending classes and reading up on steroid hormones. No cake, but I did get some really nice presents.



Christian's sisters spoiled me rotten and literally gave me everything I really wanted, it was almost like being a 6 year old again. The beautiful gold & wood leaf earrings are from them. So is the Fitted Knits book, the moss green yarn (Garnstudio's Eskimo) and the giant tub of herbed salt(yum!). I used the yarn for an Urchin, but made it full of mistakes and one size too small (apparently I have a large head...), so I'm going to re-knit it.
The necklace is from my wonderful childhood friends, who spotted the earrings I was wearing and thought I could use a matching necklace.

I recieved some financial support from dad and the in-laws, very much appreciated as well. Dad's gift magiclly transformed into 28 Balls of Greenland for Flicca, A Laptop Lunches Bento Box, and Some Expensive Food. The rest I'm saving for a reading lamp and a pair of brown wool pants.

Thanks everyone!

Wristwarmers & Magic Yarn Ball

The lacy circular cardigan is finished and totally wearable. Pictures will be posted as soon as I can get some decent photos of it.

I made a bunch of wristwarmers this summer:


I'm thinking of making the yellow/grey one in a red version as Christmas gift for my mother in law. She gave me an inspirational book with tons of different patterns for wristwarmers last Christmas, and has been hinting that she would like a pair for herself. The pattern on these specific wristwarmer's are a sunwheel from Gotland, where some of her ancestors are from.

I recieved two lovely Magic Yarn Balls from Greenapples. Instead of just unravelling the yarny goodness all at once, I really wanted to knit them both out and gradually discover all the little hidden surprises. It's so much more fun that way. My knitting time, however, is very limited at the moment so I made a little compromise with myself. I decided to knit the green scarf yarn ball out and then unravel the purple one before knitting the hat. I even started on the scarf. And then I brought the MYBs with me to class and showed them to a friend who was very excited and convinced me to unwind both of them there, immediately. Ok, so it didn't really take a lot of convincing ;). Here they are, unraveled and awesome:


The purple yarn is for the Shedir cap from Knitty and the green yarn is for another Knitty pattern, Branching Out, which is by now finished and very much loved!

Still knitting...

My summer of funemployment is over and I'm back at uni. This means less time for everything other than either studying too much or being anxious that I'm studying way too little.

But I still have some crafting content: my father's 60th birthday is coming up and I've been working on a pair of socks for him since August. I'm using knitty's universal toe-up formula combined with an old Baltic pattern I found in a mitten knitting book.

The socks are taking forever and are not half as fun to knit as I hoped they'd be. But I have learned several things about knitting intricate mosaics with several colors along the road:

• Don't knit too tightly, try to find a relaxed gauge.
• Don't knit too relaxed or you'll get loops to get stuck in on the wrong side.
• Avoid mosaics on garments that are supposed to be elastic (I knew that already, but didn't expect it to be this bad!)
• Don't knit a tight fitting gift and expect to keep it a secret all the way until you give it. I tried the socks on myselt and found them a bit tight. Now I have big feet for being a lady, but not as big feet as my dad, so of course that worried me. I had Chris (who could probably wear canoes for shoes) try them on. He said they cut off the blood-flow to his feet. Not a good quality for a piece of clothing that is supposed to prevent gangrene rather than iniate it. So I had to let dad try them. And indeed they were too small. But only over the ankles, which made them totally rescuable. I just made a ribbed leg instead of a patterned one. Not as pretty as a mosaic leg, but it's not like he'll be wearing them with shorts anyway. I've finished one sock so far and knit the toe on the other one. Now I have about a week to finish the other one too.

Dad's Socks

Flicca was supposed to be my next big knitting project, but I keep putting it off. Earlier, I didn't have yarn money, and now when I have it I can't choose color. I bought a light grey wool/acrylic mix yarn and was meaning to make a swatch of it, but on my way home from the yarn store I changed my mind and decided I wanted to use brown instead. This happened despite the 30 minutes I spent staring at different colors in the store. But now I think I'll settle for a nice chocolate brown, it probably looks better on me than gray.

The scanner-squished skein of yarn that won't be used for my flicca. Now, the question is should I take it back or should I use it for something else?

Meanwhile I've been working on a lacy cardigan from the book Feminin Strikk. It's a really entertaining and different piece, knit in the round with an interesting lace pattern.

Book picture from Feminin Strikk by Lene Holme Samsoe

It's written for a kidmohair yarn, for instance kidsilk, but I'm using a thin moss green vintage wool. It's a one size piece that is said to be "extremely elastic". I just hope it doesn't end up too big.

What will become my lovely lacy cardigan

I found a new project I really want to make, the Geneva Camisole from Rowan Magazine #42, a beautiful lace camisole made with merino wool. Once again the color is an issue. I want to use the recommended yarn: Rowan's 4 ply soft. But there are several pretty colors that I can't choose from: Sooty, Dove, Folly, Clover, Daydream or Leafy. See my problem? I can't even determine if I want to go with a more red or green shade. :/

I was looking through my stash of old knitting magazines the other day. In a 1969 issue of Woman's Day Knitting Book I found this mini dress.


I love it! Wouldn't it look great with a ribbed turtle neck added? I'm going to put it in line with the rest of my future projects right away!

I figured out how to solve the shoulder problems I had with the green cardigan in my last post. It didn't even require any thinking from my side. Ever since I wrote that post I've been stumbling over yoke sweaters everywhere (Knitty, Interweave Knits - Eunny Jang's Tangled yoke cardigan). A yoke. That is clearly just what my cardigan needs. But don't expect any FO in the near future, this is a long term project. Lots of thinking to do before I get started. Well, at least I don't have to worry about colors this time. I've already established that I want my cardigan to look as much as the original as possible!