another year over

{ December 31, 2009 @ 16:04 } · { knitting, rant }
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The obligatory Christmas sickness hit me late this year so I’ll spend new years eve at home with my sweetheart, which is great, I love cosy evenings at home.

2009 was not the most exciting year ever but some things did change:
- my address, I officially live with my boyfriend since February 14 (yes I know, cheesy date, was not intended)
- my job, since September I’m a scientific staff member of the university of Vienna and get real money for a real job!

this is my list on what I plan to do in 2010:
- finish socks for mum
- make a hat for sweetheart
- make another hat for myself
- finish the Hanami stole grmpf
- make more lace
- make more socks
- buy less yarn (hahahaha)
- finish my thesis
- get better
- sleep more
- eat healthier
- go to KnitNation 2010

Sounds like a good plan right? Should all be manageable in a year. So I wish you all a happy new year, may 2010 be just as great as 2009 – I’d like that :) I’ll be back with news and pictures of my newest projects next year aka next week.

socks and socks and …

{ December 24, 2009 @ 14:24 } · { knitting, projects, rant, stash, WIP }
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Once you start knitting socks, you can’t stop. It’s like an addiction – a pretty senseless one given the fact, that you can buy warm and cozy socks quite cheap in every color of the rainbow. Still I love knitting them and I understand everybody who does. Handmade socks make your feet just a little bit warmer than bought ones, they fit a little bit better and of course, they just look great. I especially love lace socks and have just recently finished my second pair:

pattern: Rick by Cookie A.
yarn: handpainted sock yarn bought on etsy
modifications: none intended
happyness: yeah hurray woohooo

I really like them and I’m currently wearing them :) The yarn is not as soft as I had hoped, but it’s okay. At least the socks are warm and comfy and the colour is nice.

Right after I finished Rick, I started another one of Cookie A.s designs: the Baudelaire socks. The first one is already finished and is officially my first toe-up sock:

The leg is a bit too tight but I’m still quite happy. Though I don’t think I like toe-up socks … the boring part (knitting the leg) comes at the end, that makes the socks even harder to finish … and the heel part contradicts all logic and common sense (at least mine :) ).

Happy holidays!

the yeti and the yarn

{ December 19, 2009 @ 12:43 } · { fun, knitting, projects, rant, stash, WIP }
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My boyfriend and I share our living room with various stuffed animals. The newest addition to the family is Yeti. He is white, fluffy and has a warm heart (espcially when you fill his belly with hot water). It seems, Yeti has taken an interest in knitting, because every time I look at him, he has some yarn in his paws. To prove this, I took a picture:

the yeti and the yarn

He does look a bit shocked, maybe he didn’t like the color? Who knows what these plushy minds are thinking.

And here’s another one where Yeti is trying to finish my sock. It took me hours to unravel the mess he made.

the yeti and the yarn II

Maybe he was trying to send me a message? ‘knit me some socks too, my feet are always cold!’ ? Maybe I should really do that. In the meantime I’ll try to catch the little fella in action again and take some pictures.

long time no knit

{ December 14, 2009 @ 18:22 } · { knitting, rant }
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That was a hell of a summer pause. Don’t worry, you didn’t miss anything, I didn’t knit. I was really sick of it … last week I started again. It’s awfully cold in Vienna, so I wanted to knit a hat. Everything went perfectly fine, until today, when my cable broke. My KnitPro limited edition gold platted whatnot extremely expensive cableneedle-cable broke! Just like that! After half an hour of glueing and swearing it’s still broken. The world doesn’t want me to knit.
Here’s what happend:

Maybe I should just stick to the socks. No cable needles … makes me sad :(

yarrrrn and lace-preview

{ August 6, 2009 @ 11:12 } · { knitting, stash, WIP }
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I bought yarn … well, that’s nothing new, but I bought the most beautiful sock-yarn I’ve ever seen! The photo doesn’t do it justice at all. One skein is blood red and the other is a rich deep purple.

sockyarn

I promised myself not to buy another skein of yarn before these two are knit into socks. We’ll see whether I can manage that. Honestly, I doubt it.

Last time I promised project pictures. There’s nothing ready at the moment, but I have a Hanami stole in the making (and some socks, naturally). So here’s a work in progress picture of my next stole.

hanami1

Unfortunately this picture really sucks. I’m really not good at this. The finished stole will be photographed by a professional again :)
The yarn is great, you can actually see the pattern without blocking. It’s a nice change for a lace knitter when your project does not look like noodles during the process of knitting.
So much for now, next time there’ll be an update on my new socks.

to dye or not to dye …

{ July 31, 2009 @ 15:49 } · { rant, stash }
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During my recent sock obsession I found out that getting pretty yarn is kind of impossible. I adore semi-sold yarns with light changes of the tone. Multicolored yarns look great as skeins, but as soon as you turn them into a knitted garment the magic flees screaming.
So I found myself looking through dozens of yarn shops, clicking through 200 hand dyed yarns and nothing, really nothing caught my eye. No, that’s not true. Some colors are really great but I don’t want to pay 30 € for a skein of yarn! (Okay, I confess, I ordered some …)
After some research I found out that dyeing would be the perfect solution. So I bought myself a book on dyeing wool and as soon as my sock yarn stash is gone (or maybe a lot sooner) I’ll try out dyeing.

Sorry, no pictures today, although I have some projects in the making. Next time, next time :)

Photo shooting with Aeolian

{ July 22, 2009 @ 22:08 } · { knitting, projects }
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I promised, I’d post some pictures of my Aeolian. I got them yesterday, straight from the photographer.
I won’t post them all here, that would take up too much space I think, so I hope you forgive me, that I publish only two here. But these two are definitely my favorites.

aeolian_klein

And one with myself on it. I usually don’t like myself on pictures, but this one is really nice, I think.

IMGP3279

All pictures were taken by Gerd Krizek in a half ruin castle. It was beautiful and really spooky there! Definitely not my last photo shoot, had far too much fun :)

My first pair of hand-knit socks!

{ July 16, 2009 @ 14:42 } · { knitting, projects }
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I’m done, they are finished and I’m sooooo happy! Pity it’s summer and over 30°C, but hey, I can wait.
Here are some pictures of my joy and pride:

IMG_0348

IMG_0358

Please ignore the mess on my desk! I really hate cleaning it up and as long as I find all my stuff, I don’t feel the need to tidy up my desk!

Okay, back to the socks and the technical details:
Pattern: Hedera
Yarn: KnitPicks Essential Bordeaux
Needle size: 2,25
Happiness: next time, I’d make them longer. But otherwise, I’m totally happy!
Modifications: none, except for the errors I made :)

All in all I’d say these were not my last pair of socks! I really enjoyed it. Socks are the perfect project between two huge lace shawls. Yeah, btw, die next lace is already being worked on!

second sock syndrome

{ July 10, 2009 @ 10:16 } · { knitting, WIP }
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My week without knitting is over. And guess what, I didn’t make it. 4 days were enough for me, my hand doesn’t hurt anymore and so I’m back knitting like a maniac. The first sock is done and now I’m suffering from second sock syndrome. A common disease among knitters. The first sock was very exciting, all new and fun. The second one is just boring and I really have to push myself to knit it. Even more when the thing I really want to knit is a stole. So for the next few days I’ll knit my stupid second sock.
Here’s a picture of my first sock ever:

hedera2

a week without knitting

{ July 1, 2009 @ 09:12 } · { knitting }
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My right hand (my knitting hand!!!) hurts like hell so I’ve decided to take a break from knitting. 3 things led to this unfortunate condition: working on the computer too much, playing the cello and of course knitting. I can’t stop working and I don’t play the cello very often as I don’t have much time at the moment so knitting was the obvious choice. A week seemed sufficient, let’s hope it is! So for a whole week there won’t be updates on my sock, I’m sorry. Only one note: I managed to knit the heel without screeming and pulling my hair out :) that makes me very proud. Some news: my Aeolian shawl had a little photo shoot yesterday, pictures will be posted here!
Wish me luck! I will try to not go crazy during my break.

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