Aus dem Wollvorrat

Ich mache zum ersten Mal seit ewig wieder einmal bei einem Knitalong, abgekürzt KAL, mit. Ein Knitalong ist, wenn eine Gruppe von Menschen gemeinsam über einige Zeit entweder dasselbe Muster oder ein Stückchen von einem Projekt oder gleichzeitig verschiedene Dinge, vielleicht zu einem bestimmten Thema stricken. Häkeln und Weben wird da mit reingenommen. ;)

JulesEins schrieb nämlich auf Twitter über das Phänomen der sehr teuren Garne bzw. dass Stricker_innen in Podcasts und Videoblogs immer neue davon kaufen, was sich viele Menschen nicht leisten können und rief daher einen Knitalong aus, bei dem ein schon lange im Wollvorrat langerndes Garn verstrickt wird und auch über gute und günstige Garne gesprochen wird.

Garne lange im Wollvorrat lagern ist quasi meine Königinnendisziplin. Ich habe noch welche vom Beginn meiner jetzigen Strickphase, also aus 2004. *hust* Für manche habe ich einen dezidierten Plan (irgendwann *kriege* ich eine schwarze Jacke mit grauem Puschelkragen, ich hab ja das Garn schon!), aber noch nicht genug Knowhow oder ich mag gerade nicht, andere liegen und warten auf meine Inspiration, die dann plötzlich mit "Aber ich hab ja noch dieses Garn aus dem Jahr 200X" zuschlagen kann.

Also zum Beispiel wie in diesem Blogpost beschrieben - das eine Garn für die Jacke kam aus dem Wollvorrat und lag dort seit vielen Jahren und wartete auf ein Projekt oder ein anderes Garn. Viele meiner älteren Garne habe ich gut im Kopf, weil ich sie ja schon oft angesehen habe. Ein anderes Projekt, meine Jacke namens Dotty about Pink (Ravelry Link), verwendet als Basisgarn ebenfalls eines, das ich 2008 gekauft und in einen Pullover für meinen Vater verstrickt habe. Der passte nicht und dann starb mein Vater, also habe ich den Pullover irgendwann wieder aufgetrennt und die Wolle einfach mal eingelagert.

Was nun meine Lieblingswolle angeht, die ich für alles verwende, was lange halten soll und, nun ja, verhältnismäßig günstig ist, so ist das Lana Grossa Cool Wool in allen Stärken. So an die 70 meiner Projekte habe ich daraus gestrickt. Die Farben sind so wunderschön satt, sie ist in der Waschmaschine waschbar, aus Merino und sie hält ewig. Diese hübschen Handschuhe habe ich 2006 gestrickt, in Schottland. Seitdem benutze ich sie immer wieder, natürlich nicht zur Gartenarbeit und ich habe auch noch einige andere Handschuhe, die sich mit ihnen abwechseln, aber insgesamt benutze ich sie schon so lange und sie sehen immer noch aus wie frisch gestrickt.

Ok, die Babysachen, die ich für meine Niblinge daraus gestrickt habe, sind, weil oft gewaschen, schon etwas fusselig. Aber insgesamt ist das einfach *die* Wolle für mich. Wenn meine Mutter wieder Arm-, Bein-, Hals-, oder sonst irgendwas -wärmer braucht, dann kommt diese Wolle zum Einsatz. Und in meinem Wollvorrat befinden sich viele Knäuel davon, farblich kombiniert und so in einem eigenen Säckchen verstaut, damit ich, falls mir irgendwann die Handschuhe ausgehen oder ich Lust auf neue habe, gleich anfangen kann zu stricken. Aber dadurch, dass die Handschuhe und Mützen, die ich schon habe, so unverwüstlich sind, stricke ich im Moment wenig neue.

Als Projekt für den Knitalong habe ich mir aber eine andere Wolle ausgesucht, die sich seit ca. 2008 in meinem Wollvorrat befindet, nämlich Lana Grossa DaSolo. Daraus stricke ich einen Kinderbolero und eine Katzendecke, denn Susu möchte was Eigenes. Nur mit dem Stricken wird es schwierig, denn Susu findet es immer noch äußerst spannend. :D

and here I thought 2011 was going to be different

There were supposed to be two major differences. First of all, 2011 was supposed to be a happy year. Not so. My best friend's father died yesterday. And just like M., who helped me during my father's illness, because she had experienced the same a few months earlier, I am now able to help him. It still sucks, though, and I really want noone else to experience this kind of grief.

Secondly, 2011 was supposed to be the year of knitting for myself. Ah well ... there is no such thing. I made two lovely things for a friend of mine and my brother's girlfriend. As a matter of fact, they turned out so cool that I almost regret giving them away, something that happens fairly often when I knit things for others.

These are the Mountain Form Slippers, a Japanese pattern, with modifications as developed by another knitter. It took me a while to get them right and I'm still not 100% convinced ... maybe I should have knit them even more tightly. The yarn used is Lana Grossa Bingo and a bit of Lana Grossa Nuvola for the skulls.

When I thought about what I could knit for my friend V., whose birthday was in January and who was my main support throughout the whole writing process and proofread many parts of my thesis, I thought about socks. Or slippers. And then inspiration hit me. I've always wanted to make a Yorick scarf, but the yarn wasn't available. Then Lana Grossa Nuvola came out and seemed like a good match. I just needed to test how it would felt. Ta-daa, felted skulls. Only now the winter yarn season at my LYS is over, so I need to wait until next winter to buy more Nuvola. I've also thought about embroidering the skulls to make them look like Mexican sugar skulls, but couldn't find my embroidery yarn. They're still extremely cool - I called them Mountain Goth, since she also is a capricorn and likes many things gothy.

These are the birthday fingerless gloves for my brother's girlfriend. I call them Lilac Butterflies. She loves cool purple and this yarn caught my eye at the yarn shop. It's Lana Grossa Cool Wool 2000 Melange, i.e. heathered. I absolutely love that Lana Grossa developed this kind of yarn, it adds such depth to the color and makes it a little less in your face at the same time.

When I saw the yarn at the yarn store, I already knew what design I would use. The pattern came from a sock pattern in the book "Socks, Socks, Socks", one of my first knitting books and is pretty simple to knit, except it takes up a lot of space (6st repeat).

And now it's time to stop knitting again. I'm supposed to study for my final exam, but got sidetracked today, cleaning up the chaos of finished projects, wandering yarn balls, tangled needles and knitting notions that had taken over my couch. The plan is to block something every day, so I can put it away. That means weaving in ends on a lot of projects, though - and I hate that so much. But since I have guests coming and the couch still isn't entirely cleared, I had to make some kind of effort. Tomorrow: studying.

all my moon base are belong to me

That's how it is. When I finished my thesis, it was something of a race to turn it in on time for it to reach the professor,  because he had to have it on a certain day or else my final exam would have to take place in May, meaning tuition for another term.

However, everything worked out, the thesis arrived on time, I was able to fix the date for the final exam and now I'm preparing myself for that exam, because noone told me that I would actually be tested on two separate topics. I thought one separate topic, but no, two. Eh, nothing big, because I know one topic already, so ...

Wanna know what I did until it was clear that my final exam would be on March 10th? I watched West Wing and knitted. One of my friends owns the complete box set and she said that I would get it once I had finished my thesis. So I did. So I got it. And now I'm on the first disc of season four, I knit beautiful fingerless gloves for my brother's girlfriend (it's her birthday soon) and I'm still knitting on a beautiful confection of a shawl called Gweneira, meaning snow white in Welsh. I'm calling it Rose Red, because my yarn is pink and not at all as thick as the original yarn - brushed alpaca isn't very available here.

Once I'm a little more clear on what I'm supposed to be studying for the final exam (I know what to do for one topic, but the other needs a little more research), I can start taking pictures of knitted stuff. I already took pictures of two finished projects, but I haven't put them up yet because ... West Wing. Well, I think I gotta stop watching West Wing anyway, because studying should come first, cleaning my room second (expecting guests) and finally taking pictures of my knitting projects third.

it's not like I stopped knitting

Only stopped taking pictures and blogging about it. Also had some troubles with motivation, for a while there I went back to socks, which is usually a sign that I've kind of run out of ideas and all projects in progress need involved work to be finished. Eh. At least I have managed to cross two sock patterns off my queue that were on there for a long time and one birthday present for a friend is also already done (keeping just one pair of those socks).

But then, all of a sudden, my mojo came back. As usual, it was because I had promised to make something for somebody - a pair of fingerless gloves. Also as usual, the inspiration came in the yarn shop and also as usual, the gloves I created turned out so prettily that I didn't want to give them away. So on Tuesday it's back to the yarn store to pick up more yarn so I can make some for myself (which will happen in ... 2 or 3 years I'm sure).

Very medievally inspired. They're called Heathered Brocade, yarn is as usual for gloves, Lana Grossa Cool Wool 2000, 100% superwash merino. It's slightly heathered and looks even more gorgeous in person.

Sadly here my camera decided to suck and I think I forgot to turn on the macro function. I really need a new one. Patterns are from the Scottish pattern book I studied in Edinburgh. I copied those I liked by hand ...

Amazingly detailed for gloves that are not for me!

On their intended wearer. And on it goes. I wonder what kind of project I should start to see me through my thesis. In the meanwhile, I'll leave you with a dreamy picture of the Alpenglühen in the South of Switzerland.

spring has sprung

Only a day after complaining about the lousy weather it turned awesomely sunny. And even with a few grey days in between, it has stayed sunny. Spring is in the air and I'm torn between wanting to knit more mittens and abandoning all winter projects. Looking at my Ravelry projects, I thought I had more projects that had to do with spring - apparently not! And not all of them are in spring colors either. But I'll introduce them here, anyway.

The oldest project is the Spring Hat for little girls, a pattern of my own design.The yarn is Jaeger Matchmaker, a mercerized cotton yarn. Sometimes I just get the urge to knit something girly, even if I do favour gender-neutral children's clothing (or actually boy clothing because I like the colors better). I do love adding just a bit of ornamentation to an otherwise plain item so that the yarn can really shine, but is accentuated by the pattern. So that's what I did here.

 

Next up is a favorite pair of fingerless gloves, the Spring Flirt gloves, also my own design, the cable pattern is from the Vogue Stitionary 2 book. These werde done in Lana Grossa Furetto and I love their color combination. Sadly, the yarn has been discontinued. I love these especially because compared to other mittens and fingerless gloves I have made, they're pretty short, so they're useful if I wear a jacket or shirt with especially long sleeves.

Then there's the little Spring Bracelet from when I was doing a spot of beaded knitting. It's a modification of Knitty's Maryella design. I've since given up knitting beaded bracelets, because there is too much sewing involved - those snaps are a pain! However, I do want to do more beaded knitting and explore its possibilities ... some day.

The penultimate project (yes! I've finally used this word!) is the Spring Blanket - also my own design. It doesn't have a dedicated owner yet (more about that when I run out of material again) and so I use it to keep my legs warm on my couch in the morning. I used Lana Grossa New Cotton for this and recycled the white and green from a scarf I knit back in ... who knows when, at the beginning of the knitting obsession. I do love it very much, but it isn't blocked yet, though, so the squares still are as sloppy as they look her.

Waiting for Spring is the last project with "spring" in the name - these gloves are currently undergoing a redesign. I wanted stripes and zigzag, but the zigzag thing is seriously messing up my thumb construction and I don't want to bother anymore. Plain stripes it will be! which involves unravelling everything I've done so far, which does kinda suck. But if the finished product isn't nice, then what's the point.

Here you can see the inspiration from the baby cap put to use! And there's sunlight as proof. Dang zigzags ... I'm not completely convinced that I should undo everything yet.