Crocus for Birdie

Birdie, being member of a vegan family, is not a wool bearing child. I've searched high and low for a natural plant fiber yarn with the same - or almost the same - qualities as those of wool. It has not been easy. So far I've bought only cotton and a bamboo blend. Here's my contribution in 100% cotton - say hello to Crocus by Helga Isager.

Instead of using the original yarn I used Safran from Drops (raspberry red) and Alba (lime green) on 3.5 mm needles. I chose a size 2 years because Birdie is already 7 months old and the only sizes available by Helga Isager are 6 month, 2 years and 3 years (a bit odd, if you ask me). I had to recalculate everything since my gauge was way off. But I'm okay with that - I love it when I figure it out anyway :)

Un poncho para mi!

 I didn't expect it but this poncho was so much fun to knit; I can understand if you don't quite believe me, though. But the whole adding stitches and changing colour is so compelling! :) I began during my stay in Iceland in August and finished last weekend, which isn't too bad, in my opinion. There are five different colours - all of them Evilla yarn except the royal blue, which is Kauni yarn. I used my Addi 3.5 mm dpns - the pattern calls for two 80 cm dpns but there is no way that you can fit 396 sts on an 80 cm needle! Take from me; it won't work! Anyway, I did the rim on my Addi 3.0 mm dpn and I think the result is lovely. I thought the neckline was on the loose side, so I crocheted two rounds of dc.

In Paris

The Eiffel Tower was a glance away.... Moe took pictures. 

Now with buttons

Eight blood red buttons :) I found them here.

Sixty Cables Beret

So soft, fluffy and warm. And it was fun to knit too. I've had the yarn for a long time, you know, saving it for the perfect project. It peels a little more than I want it to, but not enough for me to dislike it.

Sublime Angora Merino: 80% merino and 20% angora. Needles 3.5 mm.

Dandelion Beret

A beret for my mother - tadaa! I went over a massive amount of patterns to find the perfect hat for her. It took quite some time, because ususally my mother looks fairly silly wearing a hat. Any hat that is. I made two different hats just to give her more than one option. Here is the one she chose.

 

The two first pictures are more true to the real colour of the beret. Yarn: Cumba by GGH - a blend of 42% wool, 30% acrylic and 28% alpaca.

Rasmilla's Linnea

Just because. I made this cardigan 'Linnea' with a 100% merino yarn called Colorado. The colour is so vibrant that my camera freaks out a bit. In fact, it isn't really THAT orange/raspberry red. Moe and I went to Paris a few weeks ago, and I bought two sets of orange-ish buttons for 'Linnea'. But at the time I didn't realize I would need 8 instead of only 6 buttons. So now I have to go look for buttons again. Oh sigh!

Linnea designed by Rasmilla, size: 5-6 years, yarn: Colorado, needles: 4.5 and 5.0 mm.

Scrap yarn - solving tiny problems

Last year, when we went to Japan, my suitcase died. Sadly. For obvious reasons I had to go buy a new one. Moe never owned a proper suitcase, so he wanted one as well. As it is with most suitcases mine is black and therefore completely unrecognizable. I have tried to come home with somebody else's suitcase once before (when I opened the only thing I saw was dirty boxershorts and 'chocolates for mum' - rather dissappointing when I hoped to find my toothbrush and such!), so to prevent that from happening again, I thought a wee bit of my scrap yarn would come in handy.

When Moe saw my new 'gadget', of course he wanted one too ;) I pointed out to him that since his suitcase is bright orange it wouldn't be hard to recognize at all. But then he pointed out that that wasn't really the point :)

And as always, Moe prefers stripes!