Moving on...

If you were wondering why it has been so quiet recently, that's because I've barely been knitting but instead packing for my move back to Germany.

And Tuesday was the day. Right now I am back home, listening to our perpetual rain coming down in buckets :)

Since I've moved I thought it would be a great time to make a few changes at this blog, too. So it, too, will move.

Will let you know when and where exactly, soon.

head to toe

I wanted to show you a picture of my Rock Island shawl progress, but had to frog it all agin. Grrr....
I won't let that pesky project beat me into submission and will cast on again. It is, though, banned from all Tv or movie watching activities.

So instead of the shawl these open-your-eyes red socks joined me on the sofa to watch the Millenium Trilogy movies.

It's a straight forward k3,p3 checkerboard pattern over 4 rows, knitted top down.

And I cast on a cowl in a simple fisherman's rib pattern:

The movies, based on Stieg Larsson's books, are absolutely great. I was lucky to get the Swedish version dubbed in German so I didn't need to read subtitles. But it would be worth it.

holes, holes, nothing but holes

Three days of work on the Rock Island shawl netted me 10 edge repeats:

I had to start over several times because I kept purling together my stitches on the wrong side instead of knitting them together. Talk about being a creature of habit. The pattern itself is actually very easy. It's a 13 to 16 stitch repeat over 8 rows and doesn't require any knitting acrobatics.

One thing that does make the knitting difficult, at least for me, is that it's impossible to "read" your previous stitches and use the knitted fabric as a guide. See if you can identify the stitches:

That also makes it hard to find and fix mistakes. According to others' notes on the shawl on Ravelry the shawl measures 50% bigger after blocking.

Anyways, by now I have gotten over the purling habit and the edging is growing at a much faster pace and I am enjoying this a lot.

back - in more ways than one

Three weeks ago my father, the most generous and accepting, tolerant person you'd ever know, has passed away. Needless to say, knitting and blogging were not on top of my mind.
Slowly, but surely, though, my fingers are itching for a new project again. I finished another pair of socks

and am ready to play with some of the yarn I brought back from Germany. This Drops Lace resembles thread more than yarn!

And since my LYS Knit1 Chicago started a Rock Island KAL a few weeks ago I'll have to try myself. I'll use the blue for the shawl. The whole thing looks a little daunting, but doable.

waiting for spring

I feel like a jilted bride - toes painted bright red, self-tanner at the ready and my Echo Beach shawl is finished. You'd think spring is getting the hint and makes an appearance. Not so. Instead I froze off my fingers taking pictures of the shawl at the lake this morning. It was nice and sunny, though.

I used one entire skein of Madeline Tosh Prairie and the shawl ended up 70" x 15" with 17 pattern repeats. Since Prairie is a single yarn, dropping the stitches turned out a little tricky. That little bit of halo was enough to  make the stitches sticky and prevent them from dropping all by themselves. But it makes the shawl sooo incredibly soft, it feels like a cloud around your neck. I also love that warm honey color with its subtle variations.

Now, I had planned this as a gift for my mother, but am very, very tempted to keep it for myself. I mean, I could always make another one, right?

swatching and starting

I was casting about for a new project when Kieran Foley's/knit/lab's new shawl Echo Beach took my breath away. It took less than five minutes for me to download the pattern and jump into the car to get lace weight yarn. (Probably the only type of yarn that was then not living in my stash.)
That situation improved. I indulged in a beautiful skein of Madeline Tosh Prairie in Palomino, a lovely neutral reminiscent of  - sand at the beach!

The pattern has dropped stitches that won't, well... drop, until the very end. So I made a test swatch to see how they would work out. Love it! Hope the bright yellow won't blind you :)

I have completed 3 repeats so far and another 20 or so to go. We'll see how far the yarn goes.

the humble sock

has come a long way from its earliest incarnation of random stuff wrapped around your feet so you don't get frostbite.
Just looking into my own sock drawer there are serviceable white socks, dress socks, tie-dyed socks, orphan socks, socks with holes on the big toe, with holes on the heel, and now also - my very own hand knitted socks!

Soon to be sporting their own big honking holes, I'm sure.