Mood

The view from my parents' apartment on the 24th of December.

Moe caught me behind a fully decorated Christmas tree.

A scarf

I've been dreaming about a scarf that is light enough to be worn indoor as well as outdoor. (My office at work is colder than a morgue!).
Yesterday I stumbled across some lovely 'Linie 208 Nature-Wool', which is 100% wool. The yarn has surprised me a bit - in the best possible way. It is so soft when knit! The yarn ball itself didn't seem half as soft.


I bought two different colours, a light grey and.... well, and even lighter grey. I'll switch half way. You'll see.

New stuff on the needles

In my stash I have a lot - A LOT - of Ingelise Strømpegarn (sock yarn). I'm trying to get rid of at least 50% of it and this can be done only by knitting with it, as you very well know :)
Moe likes stripes. Moe likes stripes A LOT! So here we go....




He chose the colours. The more I knit, the more I like it :)

Shibui Crock Socks

The LYS, Fandango, had this lovely Shibui yarn on sale and I couldn't risk that another costumer would go on a buy it, so that left my with no choice really. This semi-solid yarn deserved a not too wild pattern. To keep things a bit simple, I stuck with this pattern:

1st row: *k5, p1* repeat from * to *
2nd row: *k4, p2* repeat from * to *
3rd row: *k3, p3* repeat from * to *
4th row: *k2, p4* repeat from * to *
5th row: *k1, p5* repeat from * to *

The only thing you have to remember is to have a number of stitches that is divisible by 6.

I knit them within two days using the magic-loop method, needle size 2.5 mm. I'll never go back to dpnds :) The socks are for me and I reckon they will come in handy on our ski trip to Italy a few weeks from now. Nice and warm.... yeah....

I like them :)

Gifts

Since Christmas is more or less over, it should be safe to flash some of the knitted things I gave away this year.

These socks - the Pomatomus by Cookie A. - were for my mother. She's a knitter herself, so I knew she would appreciate them the way they deserve to be appreciated :)
The socks were fun to knit and the pattern was really well-written; no weird comments that make you go: "Huh?!!", which was nice considering the fact that I didn't have much time on my hands to begin with.
I used Ingelise Strømpegarn for this project which is a 80% wool and 20% nylon blend.


















Moe also got a pair of socks, though his sock are the homie, bulky type of socks. I suppose they serve as slippers. The day before Christmas it was Moe's birthday - I gave him a Nintendo Wii. God knows we have a house full of gadgets, but I knew he would be pleased :) Because the Wii was quite expensive it was a combined birthday / Christmas present. Moe was more than okay with that, since we both think people, in general, spend far too much money during Christmas time. So, the only thing he got for Christmas was these bulky socks.... he knew that. He also knew that I was not going to be able to actually finish them in time; one day late! But hey, so little time and so many things to do, right...
The yarn is Norvegia knit on needle size 4.5 mm. A so-called quick knit.












The socks for Moe weren't the only ones I didn't finish in time. I made a pair of dark grey socks for my dad. After having finished the heel on sock no. 2 I suddenly began to doubt if they would fit. I tried one sock on and thought: "sure it will fit!", but as soon as I started knitting on the second sock I just couldn't decide if they were going to be too small after all. For almost two months it bugged me. On Christmas eve I told my dad that 'of course I made you a pair of socks too!', only I didn't finish them quite yet. So he tried the first one on and it fit perfectly. The next day I finished the second one. I spoke to him today and he claimed that these socks, made with Regia Silk, would definitely change his life for the better! ;)
Though such a statement was probably a wee bit over the top, I must admit that Regia Silk is the best and smoothest sock yarn ever. Regia's colour chart is not my favorite dish; I so reminds me of the old DDR (I don't mean to offend anyone - and please believe me, when I say that Germany has given me so much over the years :) Anyway, I will knit many many Regia Silk socks in the future, I'm sure. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of my dad's new socks. You'll just have to trust me on this one :)


My mother-in-law got these potholders. I don't get it: my mother-in-law is somewhat old-fashioned; she lives to serve her family :) So she cooks all the time and yet she has no potholders! Whenever I'm cooking in her kitchen I wonder if I'm supposed to just endure the pain when I take out hot pots and pans from the oven or if there is some secret trick to this. A few months ago I wanted to give her the day off so I offered to cook for the entire family: beef rump, beetroot/apple salat, pointed cabbage, dressing, potatoes and sauce. The cooking process was fine but I constantly needed the none-existing potholders!! My father-in-law said: "why don't you just use a dishcloth?" (Because dishcloths are for...... DISHES?!). Oh well, I though to myself that this is a (my?) problem and it needs to be solved asap :) So here they are - crocheted cotton that will keep you out of the emergency ward ;)

I also wanted to give Moe's sister, Kirsten, a shawl for Christmas but I ran out of time. I'll make something for her birthday in March instead.

This Turn a Square hat was originally meant to become my dad's new hat but holy Christmas gnome, did he look silly! Moe already has a new hat, so he didn't need it. I told Moe to pass it on to one of his hat-less friends.

And so this is Christmas

- and I've decided that I deserve an extra present.... ho ho ho! Actually two extra presents. Ego present no. 1: For the past two-three months I've been looking at Phildar magazines online and I still feel the need to own the Autumn and Winter editions. Ego present no. 2: I luuuuuuve KnitPicks. You see that chart keeper right there at the very top of the page - It's a 'must have'. I can't promise that that's the only thing I'll order from KnitPicks. I'll try though..... ho ho ho! ;)

I've bought another present for myself that will arrive in the beginning of January. It would probably be wrong of me to claim that I'm in desperate need of (more) yarn. However, so many other people are, and I'm just helping them turn some of that lovely yarn into wearable things ;) Beth and Juster - very good friends of mine - are doing a great job carrying all that yarn with them from the US to Denmark. How can I ever thank them enough. Must think.

Merry Christmas

It's been a while. Many things have happened - blogging just wasn't one of them. But merry Christmas to you all. I feel that there are so many things I should be telling you about but know that I'm actually writing these word, I can't seem to remember much. So, I've picked out a few pictures of the christmasy atmosphere around here along with a few pictures of my knitting. The rest will have to wait until after Christmas eve. We wouldn't want to spoil the surprise, now would we :)

Socks for granddad

My granddad is one of the nicest people I know. And when you think about it, it is quite amazing that he and I have known each other all my life and not once have I ever felt anything else but the deepest respect and love for him. Now he's 82, soon 83, and to think that some day he won't be here anymore is almost more than I can take. So I've decided to make sure I get the best out of the years we have left. And the best way to do that....? The answer will always be 'knitting!' :) My granddad and I don't really give each other Christmas presents as such. But every year Moe and I stop by his house to drop of a symbolic gift such as a bottle of wine, a box of chocolates or something like that. My granddad and his common-law wife, Inger, seem to enjoy those visits a lot. And so do we. Anyway, this year there will be no wine or chocolate - nope, there will be socks! Soft, marine blue socks.

These dark blue (yes, they really are very dark blue in real life) sock are made with Ingelise Strømpegarn, 80% wool and 20% nylon. Magic Loop - needle: 2.5 mm. Plain socks - I'm not sure if my granddad is ready for cables or things like that :)

Come on! Work with me, Camera! Pleeeaaaase. Oh well.

Turn a Square.... for Moe

This hat was actually a Christmas present for Moe. But Inge's boyfriend, Nicolai, was bragging about all the lovely hats Inge had made for him - it sort of made me look bad ;) When Moe asked if I would knit another hat for him I thought for a second a pulled this one out from my bag. Moe was quite surprised and very please. A bit like Christmas :) The clever designer behind this awesome hat known as Turn a Square, is Jared who is always an inspiration to me. I love the fact that this hat is extremely simple and yet it fits like a dream. In fact I made another one right after I finished this one. For more or less obvious reasons I cannot show pictures or otherwise go into details on hat no. 2 :)

For Moe's hat I used Cascade 220, col. Chocolate and a bit of Noro Silk Garden for the stripes. The whole thing was done on 4.5 mm needles.
The Noro stripes turned out a little too pink for my taste, but I guess you just can't win them all :) Moe loves the hat and wears it constantly; he's always worth knitting for.

I almost forgot pictures, but here they are.....


Nice and warm, and Moe chose the colours - he didn't know for what at the time, though.