poor blog

Abandoned for weeks, while I go off to have fun at work! Abused for facebook testing! A blog's life is hard.

I have tons of knitting to show you. I finished beautiful things. But now that my work is taking up a lot of time in my day, the amount of knitting I do has gone down of course. Not that anybody would see and I don't think most people would mind if I knit at work - but it's just not done. So I knit on my way to work, I knit in the morning before work, I knit in the evening after work.

The week before I started working, I celebrated by yarn shopping. I went to the yarnshop that is just around the corner from work - the wonderful Laufmasche and bought lots of yarn. And then I cast on immediately. ITO Sensai, a Japanese silk/mohair yarn, just can't be kept waiting. I picked up one little yarn cake of Blackberry and one of String and just knit whatever came to mind. Stripes, lace, cables, stockinette, garter stitch, on and on until I felt it was long enough. And it turned out beautifully, as you can see on the left.

The purple is such a beautiful, rare shade, the silk adds luster and depth, and the soft mohair just feels heavenly. The "String" colorway is not exactly grey, it has a subtle brownish touch, which adds warmth to the cold purple. I simply called it Blackberry String.

 
After I was done with this beauty, I somehow felt the urge to start a project I've had in mind since last fall. One of my favorite yarns, Lana Grossa Nuvola, has been discontinued and replaced with an updated version. The updated version is fine, too, but just doesn't have the same beautiful heathered colors that the original used to have. Good thing I bought plenty of Nuvola for two pairs of mittens and two jackets. But back to that project.

Back in 2009 I picked up some yarn at the medieval market happening every year at the Army History Museum in Vienna. It's kind of like a Renaissance Fair, but with a more military aspect. Anyway, there was a dyer who dyed with natural dyes that were available in medieval times, too. So I bought some yarn dyed with madder and some that was dyed with walnut. And ever since then I've been in love with the combination of light brown and bright red, with some white added to it, for good measure. Last year, Nuvola had those exact colors.

All that was left to do was pick some medieval patterns and start knitting. But I let the yarn rest. And rest. And rest. Until two weeks ago. Then inspiration struck.

This summer I bought a red shirt with little white bunnies on it. You can see it on the right, with the matching earrings. I love that shirt. And I quite like bunnies. So I looked at all the patterns I could find that seemed medieval to me and when I saw a bunny pattern, I knew I'd put it in my scarf.

In the end, it turned out like this:

I added some fairisle patterns I had copied from a book in Scotland for good measure and a much more medieval dog pattern, did some math (many times), cast on (many times) and knit. In the round. Yes, there was going to be steeking.

In the end, Le lièvre et le dragon took almost exactly the three balls of yarn I had, one of each color. For the white parts of the fringe, I needed a tiny bit of yarn from another ball, because I had used the white ball of Nuvola for Totoro eyes, Totoro stomach (twice) and skulls.

Isn't it gorgeous? I still need to even out some of the stitches, sew the steeked endings a little more tightly to the scarf, and once it is blocked, I need to see whether the scarf needs backing, but I'm already incredibly proud of it.

But what now? I have three big projects from last spring that need completing, two of which I actually want to finish, lots of small projects that need finishing, and little knitting time. But since the large projects are too large to lug around and the small projects need too many bits and pieces to carry with me, I cast on for yet another scarf, because I don't have one million billion kajillion scarves already. But who could say no to this color?

My Raspberry Broadside, made with the incredibly soft Zitron Unisono - the first sock yarn I've held in my hands that is actually soft enough for a scarf - is a bit of an experiment as well. I'm currently undecided whether I want to add a second skein, so I'll be weighing the rest of the skein to see how much yarn I still have left over.

There is lots more yarn waiting for me. There are many, many patterns in my queue. But I signed up to start working on my PhD and we'll see how it all goes with working, studying and knitting. One thing is sure: there will be no knitted Christmas presents this year - for the first time in ages.

oh september

Summer is over here in Austria, fall is beginning. The sky is a different blue, the air has a different quality, the tree leaves are already changing and the delicious fall foods and drinks are making their appearance: grape juice that is just starting to ferment (sweet and alcoholic) and certain flavors of icecream you don't get in summer like toffee and peanut. Although I will be missing the grapefruit icecream only available in summer, I definitely welcome the arrival of cooler weather.

Why no posts? Aw, the old up up down down game. I'm still looking for a job, which depresses me. And I broke the hook that closes the battery door on my camera by being stupid (although, who makes such an important hook out of plastic?) and need some superglue to fix it or at least attempt to fix it. It's still occasionally too hot to knit and it's definitely too hot to work on anything big, which is why I've been knitting baby clothes.

Yes, it is deliberately cutesy. Twee, even. Just wait until I add the flowers.

I only have a picture of Striped Gelato, though, the other ones need to wait for the superglue. Once again I was inspired by the random combination of colors in the sales bin at my favorite yarn shop. The yarn is Gedifra Mayra, which is soft and washable.

As for the construction, Striped Gelato is a top-down dress that should also work as a top later on. The straps are buttoned at the back, with lots of button holes to adjust for growth. The sides will be taken in to form pleats, but can be let out later. It's just waiting for a few more crochet flowers, but for that I'd have to clean up my couch to find the yarn leftovers ... so it will take a while. I also haven't quite decided whether I want to give it away or not.

The legwarmer trend is also continuing. The first two pairs of legwarmers I made from rather scratchy sock yarn (not that I mind), so I made this pair out of a ball of Lana Grossa Pashmina that was leading a rather sad neglected life on my couch (which, as can be seen above, is a treasure trove of yarn, paper and allllll kinds of things). I don't care how unflattering they are on my ankles, I just love how cute they are, all light blue and flower-patterned. Of course they're called Forgetmenot.

But I wanted to use up all of that nice light blue yarn. I don't like wearing light blue shirts anymore, because they make me look like such a good girl, but I love this shade of light blue. So, inspired by a crafty site and the prevalence of bows in fashion lately, I came up with an idea.

That would be the Forgetmeknot. I want to try a broader version in different yarn, too, but this had to suffice because I was running out of yarn and had to knit it a couple of times to get it right. So far, it's too warm to wear it, but I quite like it.

So I guess I better get some superglue next week ... there are so many things I've made that I'd like to show you, after all.

commence creation dance

An example of a culinary creation dance.

The most beautiful children's film that I have ever seen is Hayao Miyazaki's "My Neighbor Totoro". If you haven't seen it yet, watch it, if you have children, show it to them.

A spirit, the "keeper of the forest" named Totoro playes a big role in this film. Actually, there are three of them, the big Totoro (O-Totoro), the smaller Totoro (Chu-Totoro) and the smallest Totoro (Chibi-Totoro), mirroring the humans in this film, the father, Satsuki, the older sister, and Mei, the younger sister. I think ultimately Totoro is supposed to be a Tanuki, but that's not very important.

There are many, many, many fans of Totoro and there are many knitting and crochet patterns for making one. I won't list them all here, just do a pattern search on Ravelry for "Totoro" and you'll find a multitude of things, from stuffies to mittens to dresses to sweaters. I always wanted to knit one, myself. But toy knitting is fiddly, involves sewing and is definitely time intensive. And while there are many Totoro items on my queue, while watching anime it's just easier to knit a big lace shawl (at least to me).

Then a dear friend of mine wanted to get rid of one ball of super bulky yarn. It was bright blue, with turquoise and purple variegations, very pretty. And since I'm a collector of single balls, I took it and knew I'd figure something out. I don't remember exactly how I got the idea of making a Totoro out of it, but that's what I did.

The construction wasn’t difficult: magic 8 cast-on, 14 stitches on each side, keep knitting back and forth on one side until you have a rectangular patch, then start knitting in the round, picking up 8 stitches at each side. Keep knitting in the round for a while, then decrease 4 sts per row on the sides (paired decreases). Decrease 16 stitches overall (I should have timed them better, but who cares), then knit straight up.
 

Once you’ve knit enough, do shortrow patches on the sides for the ears. Over the spot where the decreases are located, do shortrows on both sides, first with five stitches between the wrap and turns (I used Japanese shortrows, because I like them best), then with three, then bind off. Originally I wanted to felt the body, but although the yarn says handwash, it didn't felt - even with a pair of jeans. Probably not enough agitation.

For the eyes I took inspiration from my Mountain Goth slippers and knit two out of my trusty Nuvola and handfelted them. But with the stomach I ran into trouble. I did knit it out of Nuvola as well and handfelted it, but it seems that larger pieces of Nuvola will not felt as well and develop icky scratchy fuzzy knots! And a Totoro with a scratchy stomach is not good. So I knit another stomach patch out of Nuvola, this time on 2mm needles and let it be like that.

Now I had all the ingredients, but hit the roadblock of sewing it all together. Things got incredibly busy and poor Totoro stayed like this for a while. Then I bought a shirt that needed altering to bring out its full potential. So I altered it and in the process discovered that sewing maybe isn't so bad after all. I just needed to do it while either listening to music or while watching a film I already knew.

So I took up Totoro again and started sewing on the stomach patch, which came out slightly off-kilter. Never mind. Then I searched for yarn to do the markings on the stomach and took apart some of my purple super-bulky alpaca for those. I sewed on the eyes (one slightly higher than the other, but this I did correct) and used the alpaca for the nose as well. I faced the problem of the mouth, which is rather distinctive and did manage to make a mouth shape that pleased me, but he just looks better without it. Finally, I needed the right color for his whiskers - originally I wanted to use leftovers from the butterfly fingerless gloves that I made a while ago, but couldn't find any, so I found some light blue yarn, which worked just as well.

 And here he is!

 

 That's my Totoro.

 

For the stuffing, I unravelled an old project made almost entirely of plastic yarn, took an old pair of blue tights, put it inside Totoro and stuffed him, distributing the yarn to make the ideal Totoro shape. He's actually quite heavy, so he's able to stand on his own without a weight at the bottom.

Here you can see the decreases quite well - I should have made them higher, so that the illusion of arms comes out more, but on the whole, I'm very pleased with him as he is.


 



He's definitely the new star of my collection - and stands out quite a bit. When I think of all the fun places I can take him, I'm getting giddy ... and ok, maybe a little embarrassed to be telling you this. But since there are no comic or anime conventions to go to in Vienna, I must find my anime nerd outlets somehow :)

yarn candy

My favorite yarn store is tiny, just a small room. If it isn't raining or snowing, they put all their on-sale yarn outside in big baskets and they have some rolling shelves they put outside, too. If it is raining or snowing, you can't move around in the shop, because all the yarn outside needs to be stored inside. If there are too many customers (and I always seem to attract them when I go in there), you can't move around either, but that's good for their business. One advantage of the small size is that they really have to do a sale when they change over from summer to winter yarns or from winter to summer yarns, because they simply don't have the storage. And I love sales there, although I definitely pick up enough yarn during the non-sale time, too.

To me, it's like a small, but full to the brim candy shop and since I suffer from the "single ball/hank/skein" affliction common among knitters, it's a dangerous place for me. It isn't so bad with the summer yarns, but when the new winter yarn comes in, I feel the need to get just one ball of every yarn I like. Not a sweater's worth, no, just one ball or maybe two (for mittens, so many mittens on my queue ...). Even worse is the end of winter sale, which starts in January. Single balls aplenty, just waiting for me, sometimes for weeks. All the good intentions and resolutions go right out the window and yarn follows me home.

So when I went to my favorite yarn store to pick up that ball of Latte for my snow bunny, some of the yarns that I've been eyeing since they came in pounced on me. I always rejected them because while they were pretty, they weren't really my colors or I didn't know what to do with them. But how could I say no to this:

No, I don't ever wear orange. It doesn't suit me. But I love the heatheriness of this yarn and its thickness and its bright, beautiful orange orange orange color. What will I knit with it? Pfffff, that's not so important, is it? Maybe a big version of a baby ball ...

I can blame the following on the snow bunny, at least, since the colors are clearly snow bunny-inspired. But apart from that, Nuvola from Lana Grossa is a lovely yarn, soft and squishy and again it has lovely heathery colors, which is a definite improvement as well. For a long time, Lana Grossa yarns were either one single color (lovely colors, I love them) or variegated.

With this yarn I'm definitely thinking mittens. Fairisle mittens with a delicate plant pattern on a white background. They just won't get knitted until next winter I guess.

And the last ball of yarn that followed me home was this one:

This poor bedraggled ball of Dieci had been waiting for me in the single balls sale basket ever since they put out that basket. I had to finally taken pity on it and bring it home. Since it's machine washable, I'm thinking ball for my friend's baby - that way I can test for my orange ball.

I still have a lot of single balls of yarn waiting to be turned into something pretty. I guess I just love the challenge of finding or designing the exact right pattern for them all.