The Crafty Side of Life

In praise of swatching

2012-01-13T21:03:00.002+01:00

I’ve been planning this post for a while, but the recently flared up discussion made me actually do it.

The basic question was which yarn acts how, especially when it gets into contact with water, is it really necessary to swatch, (does the necessity of swatch has any connection of the price and quality of a yarn), does the yarns pilling, and why, and problems in this flow. Please note that what is written below is my experience, not results a scientific experiments. Nor do I wish to grade any of the yarns.

Well, the story of a yarn (if we leave out the live sheep and the scissor story) starts with spinning. The basic qualities of a yarn (I will talk about wool, or yarns with high wool content now) depends on the material, fiber and the way it is spun. If the spinner lets it have much twist it will be more rigid, if it has less twist it will be softer. Picture a loosely spun yarn, the ends of the fibers are not stuck together, the fibers can get out more easily, loosely spun yarn pills much more easily. I could say that the softness of the yarn is in direct ratio with its tendency to pill. When selecting or buying yarn, I always think through if I am willing to sacrifice softness for longevity, or will I suffer the little balls of pilling for the softness.

We also have to remember that wool contains natural oils, and this lanolin is often used at spinning factories, along other greases. There are yarns you can buy in this raw state, right after they’ve been spun. Yarns you can buy on cones are often this type. Between the fibers of these yarns the lanolin or other greases are still there, the ends are still stuck to each other and the surface. When washed these yarns „bloom”, the grease dissolves, the fibers loosen and the knitted fabric becomes softer but hairier too. Because of the loosened hairs the fabric also gets denser. From the yarns I used lately the ones coming from Scotland (Kingcraig’s) and ColourmartUK act like this, and that rainbow colored Estonian one Barka sold for a while last winter.

However, most yarn are treated in the factories. They are washed, dried, blocked, and treated other ways to be softer, loftier. Yarn manufacturers, like everybody doing something with manufacturing has a basic interest in making from the least possible base material, the most possible final product. So they tend to spin yarns more loosely, let more air between the fibers, and with the after spinning treatment do this even further. Also a natural, lets say basic marketing trick to package the goods in a way that they look…more. Did you ever put together a ball from a store, and a hand-rolled one (from the same length and weight)? How much bigger the loosely winded factory ball? True, it is more difficult to handle it often falls apart and makes the yarn a tangled mess, but we are used to the bigger balls, and if we would look at a tightly wound ball we would just turn away: such a small amount.
Because of this, when water touches the yarn the air goes out, the fibers stuck together from the moisture, the whole thing gets thinner, I like the expression of “relaxes”. In my experience this happens to every yarn, except the untreated types I mentioned at the beginning. The Merino Blend of King Cole one of the local sellers have does this in a scary proportion, but happened also to the GGH Camello I used in the sweater in my last post, and that one cannot be put in the “cheap yarn” category.

There is only one way to counteract this. Yes, by swatching. Yeah, most yarn comes with suggestion to what gauge to knit it with what size of yarn, but not only changes from person to person how tight or loosely we knit, but also how dense we like out knitted fabric. I, for one knit idiotically loosely, but I also like if my knitted fabric denser than the suggested. This firstly is a personal preference but secondly… as we already seen with spinning, the tighter the yarn is spun, the longer it lasts, the tighter something is knitted, harder it is for the tiny fibers to get free and pill, or less space for the yarn to relax, so the end product will keep its shape longer. So if the suggested needle size is 4.5 mm, I start swatching with 3mm.

Yes, with a very few exception I ALWAYS knit swatches, and always wash and dry my swatch before I start knitting the actual piece. Simply there is no way around it.

I’ve knitted for almost forty years, used up a couple of hundred thousand meters of yarn. I like to think about myself, that I can tell from looking and touching the needle size necessary for me to get the texture I like, but as I said earlier… Who should honor my time and my work if I don’t? I do not have any extra time. But I know that the foundation of a good work is the through preparation, and careful finishing. I learned through the years that yarns act like this, no matter what. Linen or cotton fabrics shrink if washed, but I don’t take it back to the store because of this. I take it into consideration and wash them before cutting.

When knitting I knit swatches, with several needle sizes if I am in doubt, wash, dry and then examine it before knitting. This takes half an hour or so, but I think it is more than worth it, not only because I save the possible unnecessary work, frogging and/or annoyance, but also the worry. And it gives me an opportunity to try out, or lets say practice if the pattern calls for some unusual pattern, or trick.
Wool, due the nature of the fiber adapts. It has little scales on its surfaces, if these are loosened (by soap) and pressed together (by washing) they stuck, , so the fabric becomes smaller, it felts. On the other hand the fibers are not straight, but spirally, therefore flexible, we use this to our advantage when pulling out a lace shawl twice its original size. It is only natural, if a sweater does the something similar when wet.
The only way to counteract this to use smaller needles, knit tightly, smaller than necessary pieces, and to wash it, pulling it into shape when wet. Some of my knitting looked ridiculously small; I got asked if I am knitting for a child.
For me a knitted piece is finished when the last end is woven in, the last button is sewed on, and the piece at least rinsed (or lightly washed) and blocked. With the rinsing/washing I get rid of the dirt accumulated by spinning, shipping and knitting, the yarn gets into its final shape, and I have the knit dry in its final shape and size.
If I do this, and if I handle handmade piece with the attention it deserves… I will not get surprises later.
Of course I don’t mean to poke on those who had their sweater, (or other knitted item) grow beyond help after washing, nor do I want to imply I never make mistakes. Oh, how many of them… I had elastic band sewn on the edge of a beret, because it grew, sewn Icord ties on the waist of a top because it was too wide, and I also have a very long scarf where I intended to have a very wide stole.
In other words as the slogan of a colleague says, it’s not the water’s fault, if you can’t swim. It is (most probably) not the yarns fault, if it is not acting as we expect it. We just have to learn how to deal with each yarn. And the best way to get familiarized with them is by swatching.

Good luck

2012-01-08T16:45:00.001+01:00

WOW this was fast!

my friend, Angela said that it is lucky to cast on for a sweater fo yourself on new years day...Which is just along my thinking as I always try (if not on the very first day, but the first week) to do something I want to do all year, to bake something, to finish something and to start something new.

As I keep saying I am not fan of the new years celebrations, so at 10PM I turned my phone off, and went to sleep. Only to be woken up by all the crazy noise, yelling, trumpets, and fireworks at midnight, after which I couldn't fall back asleep.

At times like this I usually work on some knitting, but my current WIP is almost black dark grey, but I just didn't want to start the year with that.

So I thought it is the best time to cast on my "start something new", good luck sweater. As I worked so much with sock, and sportweight yarn I wanted something thicker, something really fast.

This again a yarn that was in my stash for about a year or so, and it was there for a specific purpouse.I remember felling in love with the yarn and the color, and I remember trying to resist it, as it is thicker than I usually knit with... But then I bumped into the pattern for the owl sweater, something I loved for a long time, and realized that it has just about the same gauge...that was he perfect excuse to buy a bagful of it. Which promptly dissapeared in the depth of the stash, as spring was coming and summer and I was looking for thinner knits, and green ones and blue ones and white ones of course.

But it is the middle of the winter now, plenty of time to use a thick, warm sweater (the big auditorium in the University is pretty badly heated)...and the chinese think red is a lucky color.

I quickly knitted up a swatch, washed it (and how lucky, I did, but more about on that later). measured, calculated...and cast on around 1.30 AM jan 1sth. 2012.

Using a thick yarn, and needles almost twice as big as I usually knit with... it went really fast. I had the body on the first day, the sleeves on the second, and the yoke on the third. I did the sewing up, weaving ends in, sewing the eyes in an hour or two on the fourth day.

The pattern is Katie Davie's owls. I had it saved and printed it out years ago, when it was still a free pattern.

But if you like it, it is well worth to buy it. It is a well written pattern, a fast one, a fun one. It would be great if you want to knit a first sweater, a first cabled project, or something fast.

I am still me, so as good as the pattern is, I had to do some modifications. First of all did the ribbing longer on the body as well as on the sleeves (on the sleeves I did the ribbing much wider. Don't ask me why, lately I just liek the look of deep ribbing on sleeves), and I moved the waist shaping to the sides.Second, I have a fairly wide back, and strong upper arms (as a leftover from rowing in my teenage years)I added four stitches to the body, and cast off six-six stitches for the underarm seam. Also increased the number of stitches on the sleeves. I had it easy as checking the pattern I knew I would be OK, as long as the total of stitches can be divided by ten. From then I went back to the pattern using the numbers one size bigger than on the body.

It looked ridicoulusly small, and I could only trust that my swatch is not lying. So many yarns acting so differently, that it would be worth to write a whole post about it. Let it be enough for now, if i wouldn't done the swatch AND would not washed it...I would have been in trouble and would've wasted either my gorgeous yarn, or my precious knitting time.

As for the yarn, GGH camello. I heard about this yarn the first time when I bought the magazine last fall with the military jacket inside. I knitted that with something else, because I didn't thought I can get hold of it. It was much to my surprise when I found it in 1001 fonal, and fall in love with the red color as well.

Knitting with it was really fast, but it took a toll on my hand, it was hurting by the third day. It has a lovely stitch definition, and it softens with washing (as well as relaxing quite a bit), but for such an expensive yarn it was surprisingly splitty, and there was plenty of vegetable matter in it.

As for bringing good luck... I've written two university exam in two days at the first weekend of the year, wearing this sweater... and I got very good marks on both of them. Now, if this good luck would extend on other areas of my life...
Vera, thanks for shooting the pictures.

Red nordic hat

2011-12-20T08:00:00.000+01:00

Used the yarn left over from the cardigan. Basic beret shape, starting with corrugated ribbing.

The motif and the dots are echoing the cardigan.

What will I be when grow up? (before blocking)

Berets and fair isle both can benefit from strick blocking.

Red nordic cardigan

2011-12-15T08:00:00.002+01:00

Once again, this is a story, which started months ago, and went through different threads, to come toogether in the end very nicely.

I already told you about my favourite yarn, which I just call "the scottish yarn". You aready heard me sing odes to it, and I have a bunch of it.( a few kilos would qualify as a "bunch", eh?). In fact I have about three cones of this red tweedy one, which I am carefully guarding. I kept looking out for just the right pattern, the one that would do it justice, because I felt it deserves the best.

But when I came across the Vogue's Nordic cardigan pattern I didn't make the connections at once.

Only a few weeks ago, when in the same day I found the magazine In a yarn shop (1001fonal), and looked at a red/white nordic vest in HandM. At that moment I knew from what I am going to knit this sweater.

There was still the question of the contrast color. I have the same yarn in off white, but it is set aside for something else. The pattern asks for four strands of a kidsilk haze like yarn... which I think is just too much. But then the light turned on, and I remembered I do have the same quality yarn in off white in a thinner weight, and I also have some balls of a Barka yarn, which is very much like kidsilk haze. So I used them toogether.

The one strand made the contrast color whiter, and it gave it a bit of halo as well.
The sweater has an interesting contruction. The top parts of the fronts and the back are knitted separately, then sewed up, and the knitting contiues, picking up stitches for the sleeves. It might worth some thinking to figure out how to do it with shortrows, omitting the sewing part :-)

I tried to follow the pattern, for the longest I could... But thought the original feels a little unfinished, with having the buttonholes(and the buttons as well) in the patterned panel, and there is no real edging at the front.

Therefore I omitted the increase at the end of the neckline, and knitted a solid red buttonband on both part.
And knitted the sleeves in the round (no sewing up, yay!), and didn't do the decreases, so the sleeves are looking slightly bell shaped.

If I would knit this again (most probably will in a different color), I would pick up more stitches at the shoulder for the sleeves, to give the upper arms more room, and probably do the collar wider, but that is about it.

My only problem with the pattern, that it only comes in two sizes. And even those are acquired with the use of different needles/gauge. Now, using a different needle results different fabric. What if I like tighter knitting? (which I do, actually). What if I have a slightly different yarn? What if I am slightly bigger than a smallish medium (by american standards)? I couldn't decide if it was simple lazyness from the designer or the tech editor. I think in a magazine of this fame should have higher standards in details like this. reading the pattern it seems complicate enough to deter even the slightly above than average knitter from venturing into recalculating the whole thing. But having actually knitted it, I realized it shouldn't have been such a big deal to recalculate it for slightly bigger sizes. It is such a shame, because it would've worth it.

photos: Christopher Laurent Deli.

More winter rainbow

2011-12-13T08:00:00.000+01:00

Remember the rainbow colored yarn we dyed, with long color repeats?

Finally I managed to knit some of it. Since it is wintertime they became mittens.

And a scarf...

And to answer some of the questions I got after I he yarn was all wool. Not the softest one, mind you, even though it did bloomed very nicely after washing and blocking it is still not for those who "can't stand wool because it is prickly". And yes, the colors did run into each other a bit in the pan, but I didn't mind it. It just made the colors more interesting.

The scarf and the mittens are available in the etsy shop.

its not only knitting

2011-12-12T08:00:00.000+01:00

I did lately... my friend had an order for some small bags.. She had some fabric I had some zippers, and we set out to see what could be made...

The embroidery is her work (used the handdyed rainbow yarn), the sewing the thing up is mine.

The one with the dog? There was the piece of fake fur, and we've made it as a joke. Guess what? The very first person my friend showed it bought it. Go figure.

Beaded ball gloves and an official announcment

2011-12-08T19:00:00.002+01:00

My sister is preparing for her prom night (or the like, here in hungary they are doing the last year ball during the school year, not at the end of it.).She has a long romantic dress, which gave the inspiration to design and knit some long, elegant gloves.

They are fingerless, they have a lace pattern at the back, and they have beads worked into the edge, and into the pattern itself. (Would it be "my" design without beads? LOL)

Everybody liked them so much, I knitted a bunch of them at once, in different, all romantic colors.

Which made me thinking...

Fom time to time, I was asked would I knit something for someone else... for money. I always replied no. I would be gladly teach anyone to knit, even write patterns, but never wanted to think of it as a money-making possibility. It is no by chance that the subtitle of my blog, is "this is just a blog", because I never wanted to sell/advertise anything. Besides knitting because I must, not to mention knitting on a deadline, would kill the whole thing.

But once in a while these enqueries came. So I had to do some hard thinking. Put aside my shyness, and self questioning. And decided, that though by principle I would still not knit for orders (with a very few exception), but if I make something and someone would like to have it... He/she can. From now.

So, Ladies and Gentlemen, let me announce my new etsy shop, where you can buy a few things I make.
Like these ball gloves. If you come from my blog, use the THECRAFTYSIDE2011coupon code, and you'll get 10% off until the end of december.

Ps. Project data: Pattern: my own design. Yarn: Barkafonal. Photo: Deli Christopher Laurent

No comment

2011-12-08T08:00:00.003+01:00

Winter rainbow

2011-12-06T08:00:00.000+01:00

I have knitted this sweater in the spring, but only started using in this late fall.
The yarn came from Barkafonal, and surprisingly little was enough.
The pattern came out of my head, simple top-down raglan. Wider than usual ribbing at the sleeves.

A season of gloves

2011-12-04T21:30:00.001+01:00

With the cold season gloves are getting out of the bottom of drawers.

For me, yarns are getting dug out of the bottom of the stash.

This is just the beginning, be prepared for the avalanche of posts about gloves and mitts in the next

weeks.

I love fingerless mitts, I find them very practical in the city, they warming hands, but let one take out keys, passes, change without having to take them off.

These are made from sock yarns that are 70-80% wool and the rest nylon or acrylic for strength.

To go with jeans:

In vampire mood:

And a little bit of romance in embroidered flowers.

Proof

2011-11-26T08:00:00.011+01:00

That contrary to what some say, I am not spinning thin lace yars because I am not able to spin thicker ones. I can.

This one was a fiber Gabi of Barkafonal asked me to spin for her, not too thin if possible... I spun it with long draw, eded up with about 380 meters of two ply, fingering.

This one was made of the batt I've written about here. The mixture of merino and angora, gave an interesting, soft touch to the yarn.

The mixture of purle and white fibers gave a tweedy effect. Its not too much, I don't yet know what it wants to become...

This treasure was made out of using leftover dyes. We wanted to repeat the colors of the rainbow yarn (succesfully, mind you, but I will write about it later), so I just took out a piece of roving, and dunked it in the dye.

I tried to half it very evenly, so and spin the half, so there is only a little layover between the colors.

I still have to better my dyeing technic as though it felt the roving stayed soft enough after the dyebath, it stuck a bit when trying to longdraw it.

No comment

2011-11-24T08:00:00.003+01:00

Dark and gloomy weekend

2011-11-22T13:20:00.002+01:00

We got this toy weaving loom from my half sister a couple of years ago, when Chris fell in love with weaving on the big craft fair.When I asked for it the remains of the original warping were still there, but by the time it arrived to us, every trace of yarn was carefully cleaned off... Of course I had absolutely no idea how to do it...

For the longest time I was like the little bird without shoes in the Mora poem, "he run to the shoemaker, run to everyone...".. The Waldorf trained teacher of Chris sent us away with "I only understand teh weaving frames", the aqcuittance who weaves brushed us off, we even took it to the craft fair, where someone "would gladli warp it, but it would take a day or so..."

But you know me, right? I wouldn't let this "thing" get the better of me. This year I met Lotti in the craft fair who showed me how to thread ONE warp in....

but I was on my own with the rest..

But Chris can really say now... I CAN do whatever I put my mind to.

P.s.1: Sorry for the dark and sometimes blurry pics, but these days not only gets dark so early... but also rarely gets light enough during the day to make proper pictures.

P.s.2: You really don't want to know, but I want to weave in reallooms so bad it hurts.

2011-11-22T13:10:00.000+01:00

Veronique

2011-10-19T18:35:00.000+02:00

I was also knitting, but I am not really in a talking mood, so I will let the pictures speak.

Pattern:Veronique

Yarn: GGH kid melange

Needle: 4mm addi circulars

Photo: Christopher Laurent Deli

I was spinning also...

2011-10-15T20:08:00.000+02:00

Some of you might remember this from its time as a single...At the end I've done 650 m two ply lace yarn from the 100 grams of wensley-dale.This is a long staple fiber, but a bit hard, is is not too difficult to spin thin yarn out of it, but it far from being the softest... but then again, knitted and washed a couple of times it'll probable get softer. I don't have plans for it. I will wait until it tells me what it wants to become, or until someone falls in love with it.

This was an almost rainbow colored BFL braid. The finished yarn has very long color repeats (100-150 meters for each color). The finished yarn is 100 gramms, 850 meters of two ply.

And my favorite from this lot...I spun this for a particular shawl/scarf pattern. 55 gramms of pure silk, that became 650 meters of two ply. I can hardly wait to start it... or rather I just wish I could start this, if I wouldn't have about twenty other UFOs lying around, not to mention the books I have to read, and homework for university...

A sunny fall sunday...

2011-10-12T09:26:00.001+02:00

What could be better, than make a rainbow?

Liesl cardigan

2011-09-13T11:00:00.000+02:00

Don't ask me why, this pattern never interested me much... until Barka came out with some yarn with long colorchanges, and I thought the wavy pattern would enchance it pretty nicely... But the yarn was much smaller than the pattern called for and though I did recalculate the whole stuff and knitted it until under the armpits teh small gauge was so slow progress I put it aside. By then I got the hang of th epattern and started to search for something thicker to knit it.

There was a bag of cotton tape from King Cole. I bought it a few years ago. when I opened the bag, I was surprised to find that it is not a simple cotton tape, but within the tape there are small bobbles in regular distances from each other. Knitting a swatch showed me, that the gauge is more or less fine, if I knit a bigger size, and the bobbles does not hurt the pattern... in fact the thing looks even more structured.

I've put buttonholes though the whole front edges, so I can decide just how many I want to button up.

Since the final fabric is quite loose, I used mother of pearl buttons for backing.The hold the buttons so much better, than if I would try to sew them on the kitting itself.

The above pictures by Christopher. Below a couple of them the cardigan in action. I wore it at the knitting meeting in Kecskemet at the end of august. The pics were shot by Kato. Thanks :-)

And while we are at the topic of Kató... look into her blog ;-) I infected her....

Left overs

2011-09-01T09:49:00.001+02:00

A few months ago I dyed some wool with long colorchanges, from yellow through orange and red to brown, but at the bottom of the jars I mixed the colors there were some dye solutions left. Not all the colors, only a few of them.

So I dived into my fiber stash, pulled a bit of unidentifiable wool (might be BFL from the feeling of it... it came as a present with one of the spindles I bought on etsy), soaked it put it into an owen-safe glass bowl, pored the leftover dyes over it haphazardly, and gave it a go in the microwave.

Spun and plyed on the wheel... it was surprisingly easy and fast to spin it.

And started to wonder what to knit from 280 meters of sport weight.

Then one of the emails coming from interweave had a little booklet from the Helix scarf knitted from a bunch of different handspun.

Of course I like ma shawls big, my scarfs wide so I modified the pattern starting with more stitch and recalculating the short row part for the ruffled edge (turning at the 10th, 8th, 6th, 4th 2nd stitches at the end of every third row), and knitted while my yarn lasted.

In the August heat the only willing modell I found... was this little bronse girl, sitting on the rails by the river Duna.

Every year

2011-08-24T23:49:00.004+02:00

Every year I can hardly wait for it. Every year I go religiously. Every year I wonder if I should write about it. Every year I wonder if it is getting boring...

But I do it all the same. Every year I go to the Festival of folk arts, every year I walk around and take pictures.

At the beginning it looked like it is going to be a dissapointment because there wasn't much "new" stuff. Of course the things that are out there are so beautiful it is worth to look at them every year, still...I didn't much wanted to bring pictures of the same stuff...as it happened looking through the pictures I found I made them of the same pottery I did last year...

Of course there were clothes reminding us times gone by...

In rustic style:

Romanic style:

Mixing folklore style with modern clothing items:

The usual beauties at the lace stand...with the usual two question in my head...how can they ask so little for it, as I bet it took more than 20 hours to make that pair of gloves... the other is that though I love all crafts, fiber and needle crafts especially, why I never felt the urge to make traditional lace or tatting???

Oftentimes it was worth to take a look at the visitors clothing as well. Looking at this skirt I feel like bringing back the "handknit/crochet sightings" column of my blog. Do you know that while there are knitting machines, and it is possible to knit lace with machine, there is no such a thing as a crocheting machine? There is no machine that could even mimic crocheting? Think of this when at places like Promod, or H and M (Old Navy, for americans for example, or even cheaper places) you see/buy crocheted stuff for a few box. How much could the one who actually crocheted it for hours got for her (his?) work?

There were bags from fabric:

Leather:

Felted ones:

And while we are at the felts, there were hats:

And, of course, My favourite felted dragon. It is a tradition by now for us to look for and shoot a pic or two of the dragon.

These dolls reminded me of my knitting frien Andi, who makes much better ones.

Colored candles:

And teh flowery ones for Jenny:

I fell in love with these silver jewlery.:

I have no picture, but we run into Adrienn, who managed to get in there to sho how the spinning wheel works...I envied her so much.

Christopher also find stuff to look at:

And of course he got tired , and goofy "Mama, I am not going one step futher...beeeheeeheee"

Up until we reached teh booth where he tried this hat on:

I was looking at some card weaving done with so many cards I lost counting, and we started to talk to the crafter/artist.(Dora Varga).. Christopher of course was in his usual talking mood (if one is not careful in five minutes can know EVERYTING about us, not only what we ate, how big shoes we use, but even the color of my underwear...) It took him less than three minutes to tell that his mom is a knitter and a spinner, and in fact she has a spindle in her bag... Dora wanted t o see at once how it is working, asked me to show...we got "stuck" there until the evening :-)

Christopher made friends with a boy of the same age from two booths away, thes were running around the castle... once in a while he run by and yelled, "mama, I am still alive"... We talked so much we could hardly stop it when the fireworks started... so much so, we agreed we go back the next day, and i should take some larning spindles and wool and teach her to spin...

I fitted in a bit of technical translation the next day (just to make teh weekend whole :-), once that was done, I thaught Dora to spin, while had a long discussiona bout crafts, history, teaching crafts, is it worth it, and such...In the meanwhile Lotti arived, so there formed a triumvirate and we had a really great time. At the background Dora's gorgeous felted covers.

Dora done her first ball of yarn...as I looked how fast she picks up the movements I could see she will be a good spinner in no time.

After all, we had a great time. And it might be tacky to say so, but I will not forget it for a very loong time.

Secondhand prettyness

2011-08-05T17:30:00.002+02:00

With some project the story is simple. See a pattern, buy the yarn and knit. Some others the road is a lot more winding.

For some reason I will never be able to explain I am drawn to these unevenly spun cotton/linen yarns. Really don't know why, because though I have nothing against knitting cotton (and I love linen), I never liked those artsy, thick and thin, yarns. But whenever a ball or two finds its way into my hands, I take them home, even if they are too little to make anything more than tops for a Barbi doll...

Over the years (among others) these found their way to my stash:

For years I've been putting them from one place to an other with no idea what to do with them, until one of my recent stashdiving they ended up in the same heap.

And again, I don't know how, but the images of this cardigan popped into my mind. I do have the magazine, and let me tell you this particular piece never interested me. Until I had that heap or yarn. But the more I looked/read the pattern, the more I knew I am going to change it so much, it can be hardly said it is the same pattern.

First of all, who knits raglans from the bottom up and in pieces these days? Especially short sleeved ones, where you don't have to drag around a whole sweater waiting for the second sleeve to be finished.

So I started at the neck and went knitting in the "classic top-down fashion, using yarnovers for incresases.

I knew I wouldn't like a cardigan that has no closure, nor would I like those flopping collar like things...
Therefore I decided on a V neck and a few buttons.

I used a feather and fan kinda zig-zagging pattern, and knitted up some I-cord for the drawstring. I crocheted two rows of single crochet around the neck and the fronts to give them (and the button holes) more... strength (would be the right expression I guess...)

Photos: Christopher Laurent Deli

Keeping the dress-code

2011-08-03T15:30:00.000+02:00

In my new job the rules for dressing are much more stricter than anywhere else I worked before...

Spaghetti straps and showing tattoos are a big no-no...

This itself would be enough to spark a bolero knitting craze, but add the fact that I have a bunch of yarns I found in second hand shops that are really not enough for anything more serious, but way too god to be left there... This was made from less than 2.5 skeins of Patons 100 wool, sock/sport weight.

It is a very simple rectangle starting and ending with about an inch of ribbing. Then sewed toogether for the arms, stitches picked up and an inch of ribbing knittend around the "sleeves" for a finished look.

The lace pattern looks more complicated than it actually is. Found it one of the german knitting magazines.

Fotos, of course by Christopher Laurent Deli :-)

A rainy sunday afternoon...

2011-07-31T21:27:00.000+02:00

Its summer, but the weather is cold and rainy around here for weeks now... There was nothing much to do... I wanted to drag Christopher away from the computer, so I dug out the only pair of knitting needles I have from my mom...

Here is, what he achieved (picture by the knitting boy himself :-)...gonna be a scarf for his stuffed Piglet :-) Just a bit more practive and he is going to knit his own first scarf.

BTW as I was picking up stuff around the flat, I found this much knitting on the go... I mean these are (by far) not all my projects on teh needles, these are the ones lying around that I am actually working on...

And believe it or not, I also have this much finished items to show you... Just wait for the sun come out enough to make some halfway decent photos...

Some spinning

2011-07-14T20:33:00.003+02:00

The girl ofthe Barkafonal store asked if I would spin the wool she bought at Etsy... It was lovely, handdyed merino-silk...so why not? She didn't want it too thin, so it is about fingering weight...

And this is what is on the wheel now. 100 gramms of wensleydale...

Visegrád

2011-07-11T21:36:00.000+02:00

Th eweekend was brutally hot, but since this year will be one, yet again when I will not be able to go on vacation, or spend longer time with Christopher I decided on shorter weekend programs.
This week the "palace fair at Visegrad" the anciend king's palace was on our plate.

We've met with my spinning friend, Adrienne, and finally had a good talk, and despite of the heat we even spun a little toogether.

Christopher had fun...sat on a real horse for teh first time of his life...

Had a hand at being a blacksmith

I even ended up with a present. Adrienn gave me this necklace with a dolphin pendant (to keep company of the one I always have on me)

And Christopher was practicing his modell-photographer skills

One year, and (more or less) regular programming...

2011-07-11T21:00:00.000+02:00

Anybody here?? helllloooo??? I haven't posted in such a long time, it makes me wonder if there is...

Fist of all, thank you for all, who worried, and knowing what happened, and knowing the fact that I only shut up here if there is something wrong,
The past year was one of the most difficult ones in my life, in fact there were days I think of the darkests ones. I will not bore you with details, those who were "with me" (even if "only" virtually) heard more than enough of it. Let me just thank you for your patiente and endurance with me, I KNOW I was not a good company, and I can onl yhope I can give back just a tiny bit some day.
The important thing, that it seems the bad has ended now, life can go on as normal, and I will not have nervous breakdown like crying fits at sunday nights...

Admittedly, I did not knit or spin too much, but there will be some stuff to show you all.

WWKIP DAY 2011

2011-06-12T10:21:00.002+02:00

World Wide Knit In Public Day

Details:

http://bpcraftclub.blogspot.com/

Christening

2011-05-27T08:55:00.000+02:00

Christopher's Christening...

The God mother is my highschool friend... The cousing who would have been the god-mother cancelled at the last moment. It was Christopher's wish we ask my lifelong friend, and she was happy to take teh responsibility, even at such a short notice. Thank you my friend.

Better late than never

2011-05-18T13:35:00.002+02:00

Pictures of last week's gerilla kniting/yarn bombing...

Photos by : Deli Christopher Laurent

New

2011-05-15T17:18:00.000+02:00

Knitting pattern/lesson on the Barkafonal's site.

It is only in Hungarian (for now at least), but there are a ton of pictures...

It always feels a bit strange, almost surreal to see my stuff somewhere else...but all the while... it is soooo exciting.

rainbow

2011-05-06T15:40:00.002+02:00

At the end of winter when everything was cold and dark, I felt I needed some light and color in my life... It is well known I cannot stand black, and I love colors. Every colors. OK, I have my favorites, but that time I wanted all colors. So I dived into my fiber stash, and I found....

Umm, yeah. I have a thing for fiber, just as much for yarn. And as it is shown, I also have a thing for rainbow colored stuff...I picked the smallest and simplest braid...

About 60 gramms pure merino. Turned into 280 meters of sockweight. Navajo plied.

Now, only if my mood/life would get so colorful...

Orange

2011-04-29T09:35:00.002+02:00

I didn't mean to disappear this much, but all kinds of stuff happened, illness, end of winter tiredness, and whatnot. I had this finished weeks ago, even the pictures were taken and uploaded, but I just could not sit and concentrate enough to figure out a fun post. Then I just decided to put it out, fun or not.

The yarn was a second hand find, as usual not enough for a full sweater, but more than 50% wool, Patons brand, and the color was so me I couldn't leave it there.

The sweater idea came from the winter issue of Sandra magazine, the realization (because of my limited knowledge of german) is entirely mine.

Figuring out how to do the edge of the collar and the button band gave me the most headache, but at the end I think I did Ok with them.

Photos, as usual, shot by Christopher.

Second hand Rose

2011-04-06T14:06:00.001+02:00

For a while I wrote "the queen of secon hand" posts, but not lately, maybe because I hardly buy things anymore (not only in second hand shops, but at all)...

But I just have to show this beauty to you. The fabric is 100% silk shiffon, and teh details are shown.

The color is not as much me (I would prefer if it would be more purplish, or lilac, instead of the dusty pink), and I still have to figure out what am I going to wear it...But I thought I have to take it home, even if I do nothing else with it, but hang it up, and looking at it.

Now, where can I get dusty pink underwear?

From fiber to FO

2011-04-02T10:25:00.000+02:00

This started with a roving I bought in this shop almost two years ago, not long after I started spinning. I always loved it, but always though I need to increase my spinning skills... From time to time I took it out from my fiber stash, kept thinking about the possibilities, then put it back again. I knew I wanted to keep the colors and the color graduation toogether, but navajo plying on the spindle a bit tedious.

Until very recently, when with the arrival of Katica (my wheel), everything I need, the speed, the possibility of putting more than an ounce on the bobbing, navajo ply, all was within my reach. Also in the time, I figured out just what I wanted to knit with it.

The original fiber is a mix of coopworth wool and llama. To be honest, its not the softest stuff I ever handled (in that category nothing can beat my yak/silk mix), but it is ver sturdy. Which I needed, because I wanted to spin this THIN. As thin as I can, because the fiber was not all that much (about 80 gramms), and if I wanted a three ply out of it, that would be enough I needed it thin.

Then at the last moment realizing that the color changes are almost perfectly symmetric, and to make sure I had enough I decided doing two ply.Which, keeping the color sentence requred to reroll one of the bobbins and tweak the lengths a bit. But when I rolled it into a ball, I could see I got what I wanted.

From the 80 gramms I ended up with 530 meters of two plied yarn.

For the pattern... originally I was not as enchanted with the Citrone as most seemed to be. But when I was looking for something that would show off the yarn and the colors it turned out to be the perfect one.

Wanting to use up every bit of yarn, I did one extra repeats, but had to cast off with fewer ruffle rows.

Before blocking it did looked a bit like catbarf (specially of a cat who got drunk on kool aid).

But as we all know, a throughout blocking can do wonders.

The final shawl is lovely even if I say so myself...As I said, because of the fibers, it is not as soft, but I would rather call it crispy (instead of scratchy). And if my shetland shawl is anything to go by, it will soften up with use/time.

Nypon

2011-03-31T20:26:00.000+02:00

Chat:

Me: Hey Angela! How was your weekend?

Angela: Fine, managed to get a nice run, how about you?

Me: Got a phonecall from...the cousine of my dad...My great aunt (or so...she is the sister in law of my grandma) will be 90 soon. The family invited us for the celebration.

Angela: How nice, are you going?

Me: Of course. But they said it is forbidden to buy any present...

Angela: How come?

Me: They just want us to be there. On the other hand they didn't say anything about making something...

Angela: LOL, you are tricky. What are you knitting?

Me: You know me, eh?Dunno, any idea?

Angela: Hey, at least give a few points. A scarf?

Me: Its an old lady. I think a shawl would be nice...

Angela: What yarn?

Me: Remember, I showed you a skein a few months ago I got in a second hand shop? The greyish turqouise one, with the mohair in it...

Angela: How much you have?

Me: Dunno...its a 100 gramm skein, about fingering weight, but there is no tag on it... It has lots of mohair, and some wool according to the burn test, but also some acrylic... Should be something not to big, fairly fast...and the size should be easily modified...

Angela:Hmm...let me think....How about this?

Me: Perfect. How do you do this? Finding the perfect thing every time I ask you something? Thank you so much!

lilac beret

2011-03-28T10:35:00.001+02:00

Just in the name of spring

Before blocking.

During blocking... was surprised that how much the knit from cotton/acrylic yarn changed...for the better.

Leftover Yarnart Denim yarn from my cadigan I knit last summer. 3 mm needles. And this pattern.

Playing around

2011-03-24T09:15:00.000+01:00

With different fibers, dyes, and how they react to each other.

How they behave on the wheel...

At plying

In the skein

This was about 120 gramms of coburger wool, dyed with professional acid dyes with lilac, purple and brick colors. Two ply, about 190 meters.

I caught a bug

2011-03-21T22:15:00.002+01:00

And for once the symptomes not include coughs and sore throat... (interestingly enough this season I haven't been ill, despite of all the stress and depression-Go figure, but that is a whole other story).

Anyway, I am having an affair. With my bug, who incidentally pretty fast acquired the name "Katica" which is a diminutive of Kathrine, and also the Hungarian name of the Ladybug. Also it took her (or me?) less than twenty hour to get a chair in matching red.(OK, shut up. It is my wheel after all.)

So what do I think of it? You can all guess, I love everything about it. .

Ever since the thought of spinning found its way into my thoughts I loved this wheel. And when I actually decided I will buy one I did spent some serious time online to research. Even though I was prejudiced, I did gave a fair chance for all the other wheels in the price range i could afford. This was one wheel of which I could not find one bad word about it. Of the others there were some bad ones and lots of good things, but with a ten year old boy around I have to take comments like "can't take to be knocked around" seriously.

Beside I love how this little sweetheart looks. Its modern and classic,but most of all so funky. It does not look out of place in a flat at the tenth floor of a prefabricated building. . The space it takes up was also a deciding factor, as much as I love the look of the Saxon style wheels, if I take one into my living room, I wouldn't be able get into the same room.But for its size she knows everything I need. It has a bunch of different ratios, she can be used with double drive as well as scotch tension. She has a high speed whorl (and bobbin too if I want to) -which for me, having the bias toward spinning thin lace yarn is important. Which is not important for me, but would be possible, to get a bulky flyer, to spin art yarn. For the moment I don't have interest in that, as a knitter I don't use that type of yarn, and I don't feel like spinning it either.

To save on shipping mine arrived in an unassambled state, and thanks to the careful explanations, and through booklets I could put it toogether easily. The oiling places are easy to reach, and it takes relatively little oil. It runs smooth, and quiet (I spin a lot whith the TV running). More technical detail can be read at the Knitty.com site . The review there was a major deciding factor for me, and from the technical site this far I agree with everything, and I could not add to it.Abby's article on selecting a first wheel was also really helpful.

Customer service was perfect (even for a very critical CC person like me). Corresponding with Jane was lovely, she was very patient even for the stupidest question I had, her answers always came within 24 hours, even after I had the wheel. The edge of one of the bobbins were broken off (this is probably because of the rough handling of the hungarian post), even though it is still useable the replacement was here in a very short time)

All in all, I could have gotten a wheel for less money, I do not mind. I always thought it is worth spending money on good tool. Also worth spending the money, and not to have regrets afterwards, and keep having thoughts, like "this is OK, but I would've really loved that other one. Unfortunately, here only a handful of wheels around.(though more and more, thankfully). It is not easy to make a decision without actually sit down to five-six, or more different wheels. Just had to go with my gut feeling, wich didn't leave me stranded for this once.

If you want to know how to get a bug like this, get in contact with me. I'll be glad to help.

This was the first thing I spun on it. 55 grams of merino/silk. I spun most of the 200 gramms I had on a spindle, two years ago, and gave it away promptly to my friend Jenny. The left over was lying low in the stash as it turned out it is really not my color, so I thought it would be a good practice material.Turned out to be 230 meters of two ply.

And this was spun from the wool I dyed not so long ago. 60 grams of merino, two ply, 350 meters

I don't have any specific purpouse for either of them. It was just practice. The skeins are lying around, maybe I keep them as a memento, maybe someone will fell in love with them and takes them, maybe one day they will tell me what they wanna become.

Red? Bordeaux? Grey?

2011-03-02T15:05:00.001+01:00

This story, once again started with a picture in a german knitting magazine...

As we all know despite of three years of german classes in highschool, my german is not sufficent enough to read through and make sense of a written pattern.

On the other hand my knittings skills are good enough to make up something from my head that looks pretty much like the one on the picture. Except for some extra cabling I added to the back.

Extra luck, that after much searching I bumped into a yarn that is remarkably similar to teh original one in a Mueller store.

Mostly alpacca, used 12 balls (600 gramms) to the last meter.

Selbu the third time

2011-02-25T18:35:00.003+01:00

I've knitted it the thrid time...and I think this one is not the last.Not long after I finished mine, I went to a knitting meeting, where Adel fell in love with it. She was fondling it, trying it on, turning it inside out and back.

I was so moved that even though I really don't like to knit for others I offered to make one for her.

She bought dark grey and dark red Lana Grossa sock yarn for it. I used one ball from each (there was a bit of leftover from the red, almost none from the grey).

With stranded knitting like this (colorwoek, where one holds the unused colorstrand behind the work) a throughout blocking is just as important as with lace. Look, before this one was looking much like an upruned potty, than a beret, some stitches are uneven,the whole thing is just puckering everywhere.

After finishing the knitting I soaked it in warm water, made sure with a rubberband that the ribbing would not grow, and put it over the biggest potlid I could find in my kitchen. It had a 28-30 cm diameter.

After letting it dry throughly i packed it and mailed the same day, no chance to make a modelled shot. From the letter I received after delivery I take the owner liked it well enough.:-) So it was worth it. Not to mention the yarn I got in exchange. I think I got the better end of the deal.

Spinning circle-again

2011-02-20T20:15:00.001+01:00

I went to a spinning circle again. teh quality of our machines were considerably better this time as beside th eold, antique pieces there were new beauties too. My little bug was in a good company too

It was good to see familiar faces...

And I was glad to see new ones.

I was especially happy to see that there was interest not only in the wheels, but in spinning with drop spindles too.

Thank you to the organizators, I hope we can meet again soon...

No sleep

2011-02-18T10:00:00.002+01:00

Guess, why I didn't sleep last night!

Thank god for the practice with Ikea... Or inheriting some genes from my father.

Just because it is important...Chris found the bug :-)

Now I just have to figure out how am I going to put it under my pillow...

Sorry for not saying too much. I am knackered. I'll talk a bit more in a couple of days, OK?

Dying

2011-02-17T20:00:00.002+01:00

To ease the pain of waiting for my wheel, I was dying up some wool.
This one with straberry, melon and blueberry colored drink powder.

This with orange, mango and black cherry...

And this with professional acit dye.

Helm's deep from handspun

2011-02-15T21:10:00.004+01:00

I think I could call this a long term project because I started it a year ago by spinning some natural colored pure alpacca, When I bought the fiber I had nothing particular in mind, but pretty soon decided it will become the Helm's deep shawl. I finished the yarn in july and it was resting on my bookshelf ever since...

Until I hit a wall with my current projects, everything is in a point where some calculation, decision is needed, and I am stuck with them... so I took the easy way out and cast on for a shawl...

It looked like this before blocking... just can't resist taking before and after pictures with lace, I am always amazed how lace changes...

The shawl design is using two different stitch pattern, One of them is Cloister. I am not a fan of bobbles and nupps, but I like how these came out.Maybe because there is not much of them there.

The other is moorish lattice.

The shawl is knitted in two pieces and grafted.

200 gramms of Alpacca, that became about 700 meters of two ply yarn, which has a nice soft halo.

I knitted the medium size, which is big enough to wrap myself in it, but light enough to scrunch it up as a scarf.

I like it so much, that i can even forget the incident of Christopher falling on my favourite Brittany needle breaking it into two...especially because with that I found out that one of my best liked resource ships to Hungary again.

Now I have to knit a pair natural colored mittens...Should this be my biggest problem. :-)

Preparing

2011-02-13T17:10:00.000+01:00

For the time, when my own spinning wheel is arriving (which shouldn't be too long, if everything goes well).

In the meanwhile, to ease the waiting, I am preparing some stuff to spin later.

This one also started in the fall spinning day, where we also dyed some merino to purple with Rita. The hot water dye-bath roughed the wool up, it would have been pretty hard to spin it. No wonder I got my eyes shiny, when I found out that a drumcarder took up temporary residence with Zsu.

But then why stop with simple carding, as I had a handful of white angora, and always loved heathery and tweedy stuff, pulled some of it in in stripes. The result is soft, light and fluffy as a cloud.

I was so satisfied with the result, that right away dug out the bag that contained lotsa different fibers in shades of blue and turqoise.There was erino, mohair locks, lama, and who knows what it it, and I threw the last bunch of angora in it for good measure.

After this I was metodically preparing for the next time. I dyed a 8-900 gramms of merino with Colombus to indigo blue. About the same amount of alpacca with Kool Aid. The result was lighter than I expected, I think it could be called "Aqua".

And then added some really bright turqoise angora, and some blue angelina, just to have a bit shine.

Lastly I used up a bunch of stuff I bought before I knew what I was doing...Started of two bags of loose merino and seacell fibers. One of them was dark purple, the other is navy blue. We added some lilac colored merino, and a bit of orange. Then just a tiny bit of sun yellow, just for the fun of it.(This last one was a second hand shop find years ago... I never say fiber there before or after)

I always loved those colored batts on Etsy-n... now I have my own row, sitting at the back of my living room sofa...like birds on the electric cable.

Carnival time

2011-02-12T09:20:00.001+01:00

One of the cable-channels is rerunning Lois and Clark episodes from the nineties.I used to watch them in Miami, I liked them and I learned a lot of English from them. So it was mainly nostalgie I let Christopher watch it when I bumped in them when we were home, because of his throat infection.

The result? Of course he wanted to be Superman in the school's carnival. First I didn't worried, every second hand shop was full with customes, every one of them had two or three Superman in different sizes... Until the minute my boy announced what is want to be dressed up.In that minute they dissapeared without a trace, even though I went at least fifteen different shop. So what a mommy can do? Start new rounds, this time in fabric shops. I went to at least six different shops, at the end I found teh three colors in three different places. Compared to getting the material, cutting and sewing wasn't such a big deal.

Except for the fact that Google pictures only show Superman from the front, and we only realized the day before the big one watching at the actually running episode, that there is also an S at the back of the cape. So at ten PM get the scissors and the leftover yellow fabric out and do some applique:

This one was made for the daughter of my friend, Timea. They don't have competition (what a great idea, kids can just enjoy themselves), but a theme every year. This year it was The Jungle. Since her little friend (umm...love:-)) wanted to be Tarzan, she wanted to be his Jane. My friend found some ocelot patterned fabric, and we came up with this:

Rosamund in purple

2011-02-09T09:10:00.002+01:00

You've might seen this already on the picture from the woolday.
The pattern is Rosamunsd's cardigan, from the 2009 fall issue of interweave knitting.

Yarn is Lana Grossa, Royarl tweed, which my friend Regula brough me from Vienna. I used 400 gramms to the last meter.

The only change is, instead of buttons I used hooks and ....whatever you call those things. And of course added a few extra decrease and increase for waist-shaping.

This was the thing I started on january first, and took only a few days to complete it.

Playing with spinning

2011-02-07T22:40:00.000+01:00

I keep spinning with my drop spindle, but since it still takes a really long time to spin enough yarn for a good sized lace, sometimes I get really bored, even if as with knitting, I have more than one project on the go at any given time...When I do, get bored that is, I am playing with small amounts of wool.

This, for example started at the Spinning day at the fall, when, with Melinda we carded toogether many colors that were kinda unlikely to go well toogether...I spun it later and got this tiny skein.

This also started out at the fall spinning day, where we received a raw fleece from Rita, which we had to wash and card...(I could only do the carding there). We've dyed it there to purple, which roughed up the fibers, it would have been pretty hard. So I carded it again, this time with hand carders, i added some streaks of white merino. The result is decidedly rustic...

And here is my current little darling.We got these colorful wools from Adrienn on the day of the wool, which I wanted to spin in a way that keeps the colors toogether, so the final yarn would stripe up when knitted. I spun it to my usual thickness (for which my friend Zsu dubbed me Spider-woman), but this time I wasn't making two ply, but three ply with the navajo plying technique.

This one is not much either, less than 30 gramms, but there is 100-120 meters of it.

What else one can do with it, but put it on the edge of the bookshelf and look at it???

White lion

2011-02-01T13:00:00.001+01:00

As you might gathered I haven't done much knitting lately...I do have several project on the needles, some of them even have deadlines, but they are stuck usually at a point where some decision, calculation needed...
Until I drag myself out of the hole I show you something I finished at the very beginning of the year.
It is my second version of the lion-neck cardigan

I loved the first one, so much I wanted in in other color(s) too...

Yarn is merino/cashemere boucle from ICE yarns, slightly less than 400gramms.

Sorry about the pics..the lights does not want to cooperate...

The day of wool

2011-01-30T17:00:00.001+01:00

I was invited to teach/demonstrate spinning in the "wool day" in Pilisszentlászló. Originaly there was two of us, Zsu would've been responsible for introducing the spinning wheel, and me for the spindle spinning. Unfortunately a fever going through the family, cut into the plans, I had to hold fort alone. We were planning to go toogether, with zsu's car, so even getting there was a bit adventourus, we left the house not knowing just exactly how we are going to make the last part of the trip. Thank you for the crafters who came to our rescue, and on the "many good people fits into a small place" principal fitted us in their car.

the building of the Waldorf scool was a lovely experience. When we got out of the car, we saw a typical village "socialist realist" style building"... but as we got close we saw th ehuge windows... then the stage... then the door... and when finally passed the door... It was like we stepped into a different world. Huge wood burning stoves pouring warmth everywhere, warm, friendly , rustic furnitures, colors... that is the mood I always dreamt of having in my own home too. I did not had time to shoot many pictures...I was about to say, unfortnately, but this also means that there were many interested in spinning and I simply didn'had time.

All of my pupils were lovely, and very clever with their hands... they picked up the basics very fast :-)

Though I don't have a picture of "Borcsa", I do want to mention the ten year old girl here, as she was learning so fast. It was amazing to see, how she picked up the movement and got to the point in an hour where it took me a week to get...Not to mention the fact she did not throw away the spindle as I did back then...

And the bigegst surprise, that there were not only girls and women, but boys as well :-)

There were other stuff, like felting, doll making...but as the nature of things...I didn't get around to try them. But the pizza was really good!

I am prepared

2011-01-28T21:00:00.001+01:00

For the Wool day in Pilis.

Prepared a few spindle from wood for practicing, and if somebody falls in love with the craft so much that wants to practice at home too... they can be bought too.

And wanted to show you something that is in progress. A very special piece.. You know me, right? if my underwear has to match the clothing I am wearing above, why wouldn't the spindle match the wool I am spinning on it? Yep, I have orange, blue, even red spindles (good thing though that natural wood kinda matches everything)...For a long time now, I keep thinking how, and from what could spindles made from here...this seems to be a god start, eh? The whorl is white stone, the dovel is black hardwood (gosh I had a hell of a time screwing the hook into it) wuth a bit of white decoration. Too bad finding the pieces are not easy here, and because of the stone, kind pricey to boot... but once someone falls in love with spinning... one can never have enough spindles, right?

Got a price

2011-01-28T16:46:00.000+01:00

Not one, but two...When these first started to go around in Hungarian blog circles I only blogged in English...So I am pretty happy about them now, and feel honored.

The first from Zsuzsa

Zsu, thank you so much, it feels so good that you feel I am worth it (you know, I often don't).. and sorry for not reacting for so long.
The other one from Alma.

Thank you both. I am not going to pass them on, not because there isn't anyone, but because there are to many out there.

But I put a few personal stuff here, ok?
-I was 14 when i decided if I ever have a son, his name will be Kristóf (Christopher), listening to a ballad, about a knight called Christopher Bordodi)
-I was about six when I was thaught to knit and crochet
-I am a thaught professional dressmaker...and for a long while I worked as one.
- I love to swimm...desparately. So much, when we lived in Miami, our friends called me "little fish". Not for nothing.
- I don't like chocolate, coffee, and alcohol.

In the winter of our discontent

2011-01-27T11:05:00.001+01:00

I am battling winter depression...It came later than usual, I was fine right through the holiday (which is a lot to say for me), but it caught up with me...and there are signs... such as

I leave the blog without a post for two weeks.
I am reading books...in hungarian.
I leave my flat without knitting in my bag.
I do not speak up at the parental meeting in Chris's school (thought there are things that bother me).
Receveive a note that I have a package in the post office...and not rushing to pick it up.
I sit down to watch Tv and do not knit at the same time. Just sit there and stare at Superman.
I am reading TWILIGHT for god sake.
The color of my underwear....does not match the clothes I am wearing.

If you know me, you know now. That is really the end.

Within the family

2011-01-12T08:30:00.003+01:00

I deeply believe that genes and inheritance affects one's interest and behaviour. And not because we "learned" from them. Don't even have to go further, just remember how I thaught myself spin, then learned that my grandmother was a very good spinner, which I never knew...

Anyway, I was organizing my stash, and at one point I turn around and see this :-)

And I was thinking to myself...hah, next...he will want to spin... and sure enough, what do I see a few hours later:

Drafting was a bit too much for him to handle, besides as I said earlier the wheel is not in a proper shape for proper spinning, so I got out some of my practice singles and let him ply them:

Not bad, for a first try, huh?

There is hope

2011-01-11T10:20:00.004+01:00

For me and spinning on the wheel...

I've been spinning on spindles for years now, and pretty quickly became fairly good at it (even if I say so myself :-)...But let's admit. As much as I love it and would not give it up, it is not the most effective way to make yarn. It is lovely, and ancient and all that (lets leave it for an other post fr me to wax poetic about spindle spinning), but it takes ages to spin yarn that would be enough to do anything...

Still spinning with the wheel eluded me. I do have two antique wheels which I try from time to time, but every occasion I get frustrated and decide it is not for me, and for me it is the spindle.

Then I tried Rita's and it seemed it is not me after all...But when I wnet home I was back to square one.

Me and my spindles.

Until Zsu made me try her wheel, and in quick succession produced these:

Just take a closer look at the last one...I think I could live with that :-)

So it is not me after all...

If you know me, you know what's next right? I am hankering after my own good wheel. So much I could cry sometimes. I will not rest easy until I do...

Start

2011-01-04T19:14:00.001+01:00

as you mean to go on... or so says the English phrase. True to the word, in the first days of January
I dyed wool:

Baked bread:

Then without pictures:

Spun (it is a secret/surprise project-therefore no pictures)

Knit

Finished something (it will be blocking -no pics yet)

Start something new.

Went to the movies with Christopher (Narnia and the Voyage of the Dawn treader).

Cooked a new dish (Beef stroganoff pie)

Read (a lot)

The best way to bring in the new year.

2011-01-01T14:45:00.002+01:00

Go to a friend's place.
Let loose three kid with a computer and a walkie-talkie
Drink champagne.

And dye wool.

We got toogether with the intention of giving th ekids a bit of company and spin toogether into the new year. The kids had a great time, and we did spin (at least I did), and run my purple wool through the drumcarder with withe angora with a great succes.

Then just before midnight we had the idea to start dyeing... Zsu gave me a bunch of wool to play with (how is that even against my best intention I went home with more wool than started out with?)... She had some particular colorshceme in her mind and I am always sucker for rainbow colors. Here how hers looked in the "pot"...Yummie, eh?

Wool, dye, champagne, coke, chips... the greatest accesorries to have great time.

She used white alpacca, I used oatmeal colored merino, which gave the the rainbow colors a broken dusty note.

Hers after rinsing:

Mine after drying overnight. Looks totally pro, isn't it?

We had great time, more fun than in longest... Thank you Zsu, I can wait until we can do it again!

Xmas presents part 4

2010-12-30T08:34:00.002+01:00

Mrs Beetons for my sister. She is a teenager with serious goth tendencies, but she fell in love with these about a year ago, when we were looking through Ravelry.

I happened to have to balls of Rowan's kidsilk, in Kafe Fasset colors. And matching beads too. I said I have a fairly extensive stash, most probably I could find yarn for any knitting I could think up...

Knitting them was not hard, though this was the first time I threaded the beads on BEFORE I started knitting. I wanted to use up all the yarn I had, and wanted to make the ribbed part a bit longer so I put stripes in there.But that was about the only change to the original pattern.(I still can't let alone, can I? LOL)

I think she liked them pretty much, I know I did, so much that now I want to get my own pair.

As for the present I got? This was hiding in the box I got from my father:

Nice, huh? Hopefully I can put better pictures from now own. My old camera went to Christopher, so my personal photografer has his own machie to play with... (which was the original goal)

Xmas presents part 3

2010-12-28T12:14:00.002+01:00

Last year I gave my friend a pair of felted clogs. She loved them so much, but as I know her she also loves bags. I've been planning for so long to make a felted bag, this Christmas presented the ideal opportunity.

I checked the pattern for the french market bag, but I did not used it, but made up something similar from my head.

One thing I did not liked at the french market bag, is how it seems to widen at the top. so I decresed a few stitches at the edges, which gave it a bit more roundish shape. Here it is before moving in the washing machine just to see the difference:

And here is with its recepiend who was very happy with her present.

So much so she called me on Christmas night that her grown up daughter wanted to confiscate it, but she would not, and placed an order for a new one right away. Since the bag was made up from yarns I picked up in second hand shops I could not promiss anything only that I will look out and if I find anything suitable... I know she trusts my taste and work enough to do that.

Xmas presents part 2

2010-12-27T11:50:00.005+01:00

Last year I made a pair of felted clogs for Christopher and an other for my friend. Both of them had such a great success, this year three pairs of them was going through the washing cycle.
One for Timea:

One for her daughter Dori

This pattern is such a genious work. It is a pattern you have to pay for, but well worth the money.You will end up making more -maybe much more- than one pairs. You do need to pay attention and not question it or wonder how it makes up the clog, just do what it says to do and I promise you, it will work out.
The only thing that felting it in the washing machine is not an exact science you will have to check it often.
Just for the fun and the scale this is how they looked before felting. The coke bottle is there for scale:

The left one ended up being a men's size, it will be my brother's present (he, once again, just moved into a new place), this is how it ended up after the felting:

The yarns are various all wool yarns I picked up in second hand shops.

Xmas presents part 1

2010-12-26T11:43:00.001+01:00

I made these two hats for the daughters of Timea.
Mimi is one and half year old. His mom run over to exchange presents late at night, so there was no live modell for taking pictures :-) Winnie the Pooh did a good job standing in :-)

The other hat was done for the older daughter Dori, who is almost ten now, but already such a real girl and an artist. I promised a hat for her last year, this is my filling the debt.

Christmas and presents

2010-12-25T09:43:00.005+01:00

This is the morning when in millions of homes people opening presents, and in some areas present opening was already done last night. Mostly there will be happiness, sometimes dissapointments...

For weeks I've been watching people running around like crazy, kicking each other on the metro (a brand knew pair of rosewood knitting needle minded that), fighting in long lines, and walking up and down in the shopping malls with huge bags and long lists, checking who else they have to buy for.

Why do we do this to ourselves? I am not the master of modesty, I never thought less is more. More is better for me, especially if we are talking about yarns or clothes, but Christmas?

It is a well known fact about me, that I do not like winter, in fact I despise it, I can't stand the dark, the cold, the wet, when I look out of my tenth floor wondow, my stomach churning. This also a season when so many bad things happened to me, I have been saying that I would be gladly give up Xmas and my birthday, just not to have to deal with that.

This year I felt something different. Year by year, little by little I formed holiday traditions. I refuse to get into the whirwind of shopping and running around, and this Christmas morning I feel better than I felt in decades in this day.

Those traditions? Let me see...

Long time ago, just after we came back from Miami, I baked some poppyseed cake which my father loved so much he asked for an other one for Xmas. I also have a ton of cookie recepies, some of them really special from crossing the hungarian and american traditions. That year my present to my father and family (the wife there cooks really well, but not too good with baking) was a big box of holiday cakes and cookies. My brother and family way moving the weeks before Xmas and had no time to really prepare for the celebration, and I thought since I am already here knee deep in baking why don't I surprise them with a similar box? Both was a great success, and for years I kept on sending them boxes of cakes.

As for my friends and other family... I am lucky to have friends who love crafts. Honestly, since my life is so deep in crafts I am not sure I would want to be friends who do not. Of course one cannot select their family members, but I am coming from a family of crafters where everyone appretiates handmade presents. The only one who does not? Well, there are people like that, I can undestand that. My only problem was that she did not had the gall to tell it to me, when I (trying to be good, since she does have a peculiar taste, asked what would she like), I had to hear from someone else. for a while I was thinking on some hurtingly inpersonal present, but then decided to let it go...

Anyway usually they get something handmade and a special Xmas cake for what brought the original recepie from the US, but I modified so much that it is my special recepie now.

The handmade thing? Most of them have kids or childish soul, Some year it was a red stuffed teddybear. In an other reeindreer shaped hot water bottle cover, in yet an other waldorf dolls. Handknitted socks, gloves, scarfs hats... Last year I made a felted slipper for someone.

So for this year:

My brother divorced since and my sister grew up so they get less baked stuff, but I put something handmade in there. My close friends get handmade stuff and Xmas cake.

Others with hom I am not close enough to give handmade presents get the Xmas cake.

For cooking I also refuse to get into the daylong preparations... this is the time to enjoy ourselves not to slave in the kitchen? I am making Mákos guba on the 24th and cheese fondue on the 25th. We are usually going off on the 26th no need to get prepared for that.

For other cookie baking, especially for gingerbread (we make it with honey). I have a friend whom I know for like 16-18 years, and ever since we are making a point to come toogether for a day (afternoon) before Christmas and make it toogether. She brings the dough for the gingerbread (it is never as good when I try to make it) and I am responsible for the biscotti (she cannot manage that one as good :-) each of her own, or what)

The only thing I am spending money for is to make it special for Christopher. He is reading this blog so let's just say the tree appears miracoulosly on the balkony on the morning of the 24th. We decorate it and presents are appearing while we do something else...this year while we were eating dinner...

I will come back in other posts with pictures on Christmas presents, but let me list the highlights this year I will remember fondly.

Travelling on the specially lighted tram with Chris.

Eating fried sausages with him in the middle of the advent fair in while the snow was falling on us.

The Christmas concert in his music school where he played a song with the violin.

Friends coming over to wish me happy birthday (in the holiday crazyness my birthday usually gets forgotten).

Baking the gingerbread with my friend.

Having an other friend come over late night on the 23d to exchange presents...

Catching the last bus after the movie on the 24th (public transportation stops at 3.30, but I promised a movie weeks ago to Chris).

Decorating the tree, which stood in its stand so easily (not like last year).

Walking to midnight mass holding Christopher hand, and listening him to sing all the songs...

And knowing that under the coat and sweater and baggy jeans.... he had his Xmas present Dr Who pijamas on.

Hope everone has a list like this , or longer.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays.!

Written in the stars?

2010-12-20T10:18:00.003+01:00

Once again the faithful meeting of yarn and pattern. In my favorite ebay shop (Kingcraig's fabric, you know from Scotland) there was a bunch of yarn on sale. I was different from their usual fingering or worsted as it said "Hunters chunky". I had no idea what they mean by that, but it was all wool, it was red, it was tweedy, and it had great price...The only problem, it was only 380 gramms, which is just not enough for a full sweater especially from this weight. Then Angela reminded me of oneof my old favorites. Someting I saved a long time ago, thinking, sometimes when I will come across the right yarn...

The pattern is Kristina Sutherland's Star cross'd love but once again I made so many modification. Mostly because the pattern only comes in size XS (I am no way that small) and for bulky yarn (this yarn was called chunky, but though it is thicker than the usual scottish yarn, not that thick). At the end I think I left the basic structure , and recalculated the numbers, changed cables, knitting directions here and there, to make it totally seamless, and even changed the shape a bit to better suit my body and taste.

Started with the back, adding some ribbing and narrow cables between the big ones to accomondate the bigger size. Changed the middle cable to a three stranded one for symmetry. And increased under the arms to get a real arm-hole. For the front I picked up stitches from the shoulder, knitting the big cables (and a small one for the size) downwards, adding the arnhole shaping underarms. When I picked up the stitches for the collar once again I rearranged the stitches and cables to get them even and symmetric. The same went for the body stitches and decreased and increased for wais shaping, then at the waist ribbing (which is actually 1 by 1 cables, twisted every sixth row, I added some stitches here and there so they can flow out of the patterning AND more of an A lined shape. The sleeves were picked up and used short rows for shaping them.

The pictures don't really give back the lovely red the yarn actually is. It was spun from shades of red and bordoeaux, with tine specks of purple/blue thrown in.

It was a bit "harder", scratchier than the other scottish wool, but then it all changed when I washed it. Once again it bloomed gorgeously, but you've already heard me wax poetic about that.

We had a perfect photo-shoot planned, the perfect place picked out (the stars of Chris's school), I dressed up in total style (buble shaped skirt from Promod, red thights, and boots, even had some make up on) but the light would not cooperate. And there days it is just way too cold to do outside shots. Sorry about that.

Angels for Lucia

2010-12-18T13:26:00.004+01:00

As in many school in Christopher's there is also a traditional Xmas/advent/St Lucia fair around St Lucia's day.

A few days before it the parents get toogether and prepare small crafts. This year I knew that because of my work schedule I will not be able to be there, for the full time, I prepared a few crocheted angels ahead.

With the parents we made angels from all kinds of natural material, including dried mushrooms, bamboo leafs and whatnot. The fair was a huge success for the class, so much that when I got there like half an hour after openening the table was empty save for a few leftover muffin crumbs...

A promise is a promise

2010-12-10T19:23:00.003+01:00

A few weeks ago I've knitted a hat to a collegaue of mine. Chris tried it on and wouldn't let it go...only with the promise that he gets one like it for himself.

Who am I to argue with that? I still had about half of the yarn (second hand find, with high percentage of wool content). I only changed the striping a bit.

Whorls turning

2010-12-05T13:44:00.004+01:00

When I went to the spinning class a couple of weeks ago, I did not went to actually learn something. I did, (learn that is) and I could even more if I'd have a funvtional spinning wheel, but that is an other matter. I went mainly to meet with others whose mind is spinning around things similar to what I think about. I went to finally meet in person with some whom I know from their blog.

And in these gatherings you can just feel the creative energies flowing and one can just absorb so much of it. Before I went I was a bit neglecting my spinning, but getting home I could hardly wait to get my hands on my spindles again. (And start a hunt for the best solution in the wheel question, but then again, that is a topic for an other post).

So here is what I finished.

I bought this roving when I was out for a pir of red gloves las winter, but when it arrived I saw that it is not a real red...But I started to spin it anyway, and I had the singles put away for months, now I plyed them in my lovely, gigantic start shaped plying spindle. Here it is after taking it off teh spindle.

I don't really know why was this what I took in my hand to finish as I have no idea what to do with the yarn. It is about 65-70 gramms, 270 meters, which makes it to a fingering or sport weight, enough for a pair of gloves or a lacy hat, but the coloir does not suit me. I have really warm fall coloring and red(umm, orange) hair, and this is too blueish, too cold of a red, which would suit someone with wintery colors, light skin, dark hair maybe. It is nice, slightly heathered from the white silk carded into the dyed merino.

Here is the picture I've shot after having it sit over night, getting a warm bath and being twhacked a few times at the side of my bathtub.

Here, trying to get a close up, but the light wouldn't really cooperate.

Now, tell me, what should I do with it?

Fall berries

2010-11-27T10:00:00.003+01:00

This is something that was also a love at first sight. The moment I saw the pattern I knew I wanted to make it, and I knew I wanted to make it from this rusty colored scottish wool.

However, unlike the military jacket, this dream took a long time to become fulfilled. Oh, I did bought the pattern at once and I had the yarn in my stash, I even cast on promptly... But then it started so slow, and then the knitting olimpics came and I decided in the last minute to go for it and cast on for something else.... then the bomb hit and I did not knit at all... for the longest time. It was only a couple of weeks, but it seemed like an ethernity. By the time I started again, it was way into summer, and I knitted lighter, cottony stuff and lace shawls (don't ask me why, lace knitting comes over me at summer time-go figure).

But at finishing the Military jacke I had great momentum, and it was fall again, need for warm sweaters, so I took this out of the basket and finished it in two weeks.

The pattern is Blackberry cabled cardigan, Well worth the money. Great pattern, wery straighforward instructions. The changes I made are not because I thought the original not god enough, but only accomondate my body, and particular likes. They were more decrease and increase for waist-shaping, slightly wider sleeves, and a really wide ribbing at the cuffs.

The yarn once again came from Kingraig's fabric, the scottish wool. And once again I go all gaga and mushy when I try to write about it. i already mentioned how great these sellers are, so I am not going into that. I also talked about their wool/silk tweedy yarn.

This one is lamb'swool aran, and the color... the color. It is so gorgeous, and not only because the rusty orange is so perfectly me, goes well even with my hair. But because it is so gorgeously heathery, and so deep, as there is several shades of orange spun toogether with a tiny bit of ochre and some dark red thrown into it. The different colors can only be seen if one looks at it very closely.

Since this is not the first time I knit with this yarn, I was prepared to see it changed, to "bloom", but the way this did just blew my mind. Let me show what I mean, OK?

As I told you it was gorgeous when I knitted it, and was enchanted with the colors. Look, it looked like this when I finished the sweater.

But then I washed it, and it changed for even better. The fibers that were smoothed down by the spinning process loosened, "fluffed up", and they softened. Even the color has changed, deepened even more. (The photos were taken in different light conditions, but you get the idea).

Take a closer look, before:

And after:

OK, I admit, since I know this quality of the yarn I did put in the washing machine and gave it a few turn in the gentle cycle, to enhance the blooming process even more, but that is something I DO NOT suggest for the faint of heart, especially because this is not superwash. I only dared to do it, because the sweater came out ever so slightly big, and it could only benefit from shrinking, and it was really only a few turns, and I rolled in into several layers of towels before slightly spinning it (I know, this is bordering on blasphemy, but otherwise it would have rot before it dried).

But it would have bloomed if i just give it a bath a few gentle tuck in the bathtub. All in one lovely yarn, which comes in gorgeous colors and at a good price.

And I love the sweater as well.

And so do I love my photographer :-) You know who that was.

and so it was

2010-11-26T13:10:00.001+01:00

that in one of my forrays to the second hand shop I bumped into a bunch of tiny balls of leftover sockyarn. they were all self-striping, self patterning ones in orange/yellow colors, but all different. But they were all lovely, and I just could not leave them there, right?
Then I kept wondering what should I do with them, up until I bumped into some brown tweedy sockyarn from Lana Grossa, when it clicked. Ever sinc I knitted a Selbu beret for my sister a year agi I wanted one for myself... and I wanted in in orange/brown colors... so I just combined the tweedy but solid colored brown and used the colorful one as teh contrast color.
here is the result as it was blocking.

This pattern is so beautiful... the only thing I changed is to do a folded hem, and a three row orange picot edging.

It even goes well with my new shawl :-)

Went spinning

2010-11-22T20:47:00.006+01:00

Look....These pictures are not from an american blog-post about a spinning retreat...No, this is here in Hungary. Yes, about a dozen women and a couple of girls with spinning wheels, spindles and lotsa wool...(and some angora and alpacca, even a bit of lama)

Would you thought that one can find this many spinning wheels in working in the whole country, let alone in one room?

There was something new for everyone. For some it was the spindle. For others it was the wheels, or carding.

There were all kinds of wheels. From the tiny wheeled antique one to the new ashford Traveller.

Me, the spindle spinner trying the wheel, and the drumcarder, and get my hand into dyeing as well.

All the girls were just LOVELY and I am so glad to meet each and every one of them. Rita was a cool teacher, Adrien a lovely hostess, and I could just go on and add something for each name.

I can't wait to do this again.

Rusty coin

2010-11-17T13:50:00.001+01:00

My friend Regula, asked me to water her flowers through the summers. She lives pretty close by, only a tramtop away, so I said yes, and NOT because she promised to bring some yarn from Vienna :-) LOL... but I am a knitter, and I can't have too much yarn, right?
and what she did brought me was so totally gorgeous, so absolutely me...
Lana Grossa sockyarn in gorgeous rusty fall colors. It was just too beautiful to hide away as socks and the two skein was enough for a generous sized stole...
I only had to find the right pattern, in which my friend Angela came to my rescue. She is so great finding just the right thing... Just like now I told her I want to utilize teh self striping effect, i want something diagonal, something light, something much like the clapotis, but not the clapotis. She came up with three suggestions, all of the perrfect.
I ended up choosing the Coin Lace from Elann, which was the perfect choice.

One of the very few advantages of my current job, that I can take my knitting with me, and kniting in the free times, between calls...for a while this was the knitting I took, but often i could only knit a row or two, so there came a point when it felt i was knitting this FOREVER and put it aside.

Then at my recent visit to my dad's I took nothing else with me, and knitted a LOT on it which pushed it over deadlock point and I managed to finish it.

Regula helped out to pin it out for blocking.Since I do not have blocking wires I had to consent with some pointy edges...

The pattern is easy and looks lovely in self striping yarn.

And guess what. A few after I put it up on ravelry a request came from the pattern's page that they would like to use my picture.... My photographer will be proud :-)

Szolnok

2010-11-16T15:50:00.000+01:00

Is the name of the city where I grew up. No I did not like living there, but lots of memories are still tying me to it. Not to mention the fact that my mom is buried there. So last week when we visited my father I asked him to drive us there, which he did.
We started by stopping in the cemetery put a small wreat on my mom's grave and light a candle. Even my dad joined us, though they were divorced decade ago and it was not a "friendly" divorce

Then we walked along the banks of the river Tisza, and stopped at the boathouse where I was rowing as a tenager.

At a point it was heartbreaking to see that the public pool where I (and a ton of people) learned to swimm dissapeared without a trace. Literally. No children's pool, no 50 m pool, no covered pool, no dressing rooms. No statue of the famous waterpolo player who thaught generations to swimm there. Nothing just a park. I could've cried.

But the old anchor is there

At that age, I used it as a swing just like Chris did

All in all, it was a lovely day... we even stopped at Müller's which is a drugstore chain which also sells toys and.... some craft supplies including YARN... and not only bad acrylic ones at that. I did went a little crazy there, but that is a story for an other post.

I should be working

2010-11-14T17:22:00.004+01:00

Because about a hundred and some pages of translation is watching me from the edge of my desk... But for some reason my brain feels like scarmbled eggs and I have to think half an hour on words like Mean Aerodynamic Chord (Which BTW I do know from the top of my head---under normal circumstances).

Anyway here is a little beanie I knit for a collegaue of mine. The guy is pretty smart (when it comes to computers at least) and was a great help to me when I started to work in my current job. For some reason he ALWAYS wear a hat. I have no idea why, because he does have hair (I am one of the few who did see, that he indeed has a hair and look pretty cute without a hat). Anyway he is leaving out team and this was kind of my goodby/thank you for all the help present for him.

When I finished the knitting I put it on Chris's head, to see how teh shaping worked. He inmediatly claimed as his, I could only took it to the original recepient with the promise of an other one just for my boy.

But I did save it at the end and it was a succes...

Coming, coming

2010-11-11T10:25:00.002+01:00

I didn't dissapear, not really, or if I did not too much...

Work is busy, and I also have a plan to go back to shcool which requires taking some exams...

Also have been on a very short vacation...

But I am still knitting (where would the world go if I stopped?), and I have this much FO to show you.

I only have to find the time, the light, the modell, the photographer and the opportunity to take pictures.

Military campaign

2010-10-21T01:00:00.002+02:00

Which took me two weeks to the hour to complete from casting on... And that is with considerable time spent on the fall set and the knitting lessons.

It was love at first sight, as I opened the fall issue of the Rebecca magazine I knew I had to have this, soon, no matter what. Was it the cables? The fitted shape? The peplum? All traits I would go for, and together they almost made me swoon. As soon as I got home, didn't even took my coat off, but I got on the net and ordered the yarn...

The original in the magazine was made from GGH Camello which I didn't think I could get fast enough and an affordable price. (Later it turned out I was wrong, one of the two yarn stores that sells good yarn in Hungary 1001 fonal does have it, but that is an other story.)

Anyway I wanted it from something tweedy, and I was on a blue phase at the moment I turned to my trusted source for tweedy, heather pure wool or wool/silk yarn. Kingcraigs fabric. I have so many of their yarn it is a surprise that this is the first actual item I finished from all of those... Oh, I've knitted with them all right, I many more swatches than I care to count. I still have to finish my Venezia, and block the cabled rusty orange cardigan... But I know by now that I love this yarn. Coming directly from the factory on scones (most of the time) it feels a little scartchy, maybe even rough, not to mention it smells. But it already starts ro softens while knitting, and after washing... oh, after washing it blooms gorgeously, it softens up greatly, and the smell (which comes from the natural oils in the wool itself) goes away. Of course it will never be as soft as, let say Malabrigo, but I bet because of the tighter spin, it will hold up much better in the long run. It definetly does not relax as many of the other, softer yarns does.

Every time I shop with these guys is a great experience... Just like this time, I incidently clicked on the wrong item and bought the smaller, 500 gramm cone (instead of the 800 I would needed). Since I have a bit of history with Shaun and Jamie, I didn't panic, but shot out a note that please, please send the bill for and ship the bigger one. Instead of the invoice there came a note... oh we already shipped the cone, but we are sending you the extra 300 gramms free of charge for being such a good customer. All came in good time. Thank you so much.

We've been exchanging a few letters on how to introduce their yarn in here, if there is a bigger quantity they would give a considerable discount. If anyone interested let me know, I would gladly organize it.

When it came I was a bit disappointed, which was completely my fault, as I knew this yarn (though in different color) because it was thinner than I expected, and since it is a Jacket, would do well to readjust the pattern for a much smaller gauge... But then the idea hit and I doubled the yarn, and the gauge was just slightly smaller than in the pattern itself (which was in one size, size 40, that would be a bit too big anyway).

With the pattern I also run into a bit of trouble as it was written in German. A language I used to learn in highschool, but forgot a great deal ever since. Regula came to my rescue and went through the pattern with me one saturday afternoon. At that day I got home cast on, and it was blocking within two weeks to the hour.

I only modified a couple of things. lengtened the peplum by one inch, the sleeves a bit. The cables on the back belt, the shoulder stripes and at the wrist are mirrored. And added a crocheted buttonhole and buttonband, because I didn't like how the knitted fabric did not had enough hold for the buttons and buttonholes. Not to mention with the additional inch it fits me better.

Because of the big gauge the knitting went really fast.

The yarn: Kingcraigs fabrics wool/silk aran, Navy blue fleck.

Needles: 5.00 mm addi circulars. 5 mm bamboo DPNs for the sleeves.

Buttons from the Röltex chain.

Pattern: Rebecca, 2010 fall

Pictures are shot by my personal photographer, my son. Thanks Chris.

BTW. I have a new haircut, did you notice?

Designing... knitting...pattern...writing...

2010-10-20T11:02:00.002+02:00

The cooperation with Barkafonal and my knitting"carreer" arrived to a new point...

I have knitted before without using a pattern, or modifying it until it was not recognizable, or looking at a picture, knitting something and the result somehow looked pretty much like the picture, even though I could not read the pattern (my German is nonexistent)...

Now, for Barkafonal I had to design something brand new I , from total scratch, and such a way that could be written down and shown how to do it for others (who would be able to understand it...)

It gave me a biggertask, because I had to use one particular yarn, a handdyed one from a thicker variety. As we all know it is not easy to work with handdyed yarns, especially with the ones that have strong contrast between the colors, because it can "break up" the pattern. So I had to think up something that would not clash with the colors, but they would enhance each other. After several swatch I came to the conclusion that my original idea, the 1x1 cables (and their variation) would indeed work well.

There were also othe requirements such as no more than two hanks for all three pieces, not too experienced knitters should be able to do them but it shouldn't be to boring for the more experienced ones, all three pieces should be useable separatly and knitted from less than one hank...

So the fall set of neckwarmer, fingerless gloves and beret was knitted and written up very detailed way with lots of pictures. Doing a beret was the obvious choice as it is the only type of hat that suits me (or so I think). I love fingerless gloves, as they stilll warm my hands, but still enable me to handle money, or keys, or my public transport pass withouth taking them off. As for the neckwarmer I long wanted to do something romantic, tudor style, ruffled something, but kept putting it off... there is no better opportunity, right?

So, here they are. The detailed instructions with ton of pictures are on the Barkafonal's page, at the moment only in Hungarian though. I hope I will have enough time soon to do the translations for English...

More stashbusting

2010-10-14T16:00:00.000+02:00

Just a quick note with an Fo that was finished about two or three weeks ago.
Made from the yarn I had leftover from my coachella . It was not a full all, and I have still enough left maybe for a kid sized pair.

Top (fingers) down construction, and cabled ribbing.

Stashbuster island

2010-10-06T21:00:00.000+02:00

You already know about my love for tweed yarn, also for second hand shops, right? Often I buy a ball of yarn, just because I like it, an wonder later what to do with it... as I was digging in my stash a couple of weeks ago, these yarns landed in the same heap, and as I was about to put them back when I looked at the bands and realized they are almost the same quality and the colors go well toogether. It all was not enough for a full sweater, but I had something similar in my mind for a while anyway.

I've never knitted fair isle round yoke before, and I just made up the pattern as I went, but it turned out pretty good, I think.

The gauge was bigger than my usual, and thanks to that the knitting went really fast.

I used about 200 grams of the grayish greenish one, 100 grmms of the dark brown, and 100 gramms of the beige. Knitted with 4.5 mm needles (3.5 for the ribbing)

Now I want it in other colors too :-)

Regula, thanks for shooting the pictures:-)

It's up

2010-10-03T20:47:00.002+02:00

As much as I love knitting I want to spread it. I want to teach everyone... Also I love to talk and write about knitting. I am already teaching lessons in a small yarnshop (and all of those who would let me), now I can take it a step further.

The owner of one of the hungarian web-shop approached me about taking part in her online knitting lessons, and designing some items for her yarns. The first is a set of neck-warmer, beret and fingerless gloves with mini-cables, and as a prologue there is a lesson on how to do cables, which is already up here.

Sorry, the text is all in hungarian, but there are a ton of pics...

Blue waves on the summit

2010-09-29T12:00:00.001+02:00

For a few years now I wante a shawl or stole in shades of blue. Back then i wanted to knit a clapotis so I got this yarn with strong contrasts, but when I started knitting it it just pooled all wrong... I have a hard time saying this, because I am really tolerant toward knitting, but it was ugly. Look:

So the yarn went into detention for years... sometimes it got into my hands somehow, and I kept thinking what could I make from it, how can I save it. It is a single ply yarn from Uruguay, which probably would make it too fragile for socks (besides the 200 gramms was too much for that). Up until the moment when I saw Ági's version of the Summit from a similar yarn. By then I had my silk summit way under way on the needles, but the thought didn't let my mind to rest, and not long after I finished the silk one I cast on for the second one.

For the longest time it was my takeout knitting, I knitted on it in playground waiting in offices, cafes, in the club...

After the first few repeat I could see it is much better match for the yarn, instead of the chaos, it brings the colors toogether in a nice way.

Because it was only a take away project it took me quite a while to finish it, but I did.

The size is generous, just as I like my shawls. I can wrap myslef in it

But I can still use it as a scarf

Or scrunch it up in my neck

I have awful memories of wearing the silk one, as I was wearing it the first time when I was laid off in the bank, which kind of make me not want to wear it... which is a shame because it is a great shawl, a great pattern. Here is to this one bringing me more luck :-)

Undecided

2010-09-26T23:01:00.002+02:00

And don't really know what to knit next. I want to do so many things at once...
But all I can show you is a weekend worth of swatches, starting this, stopping that...

Extra weekend meeting at the knitting club!

2010-09-22T21:04:00.001+02:00

Details in the club's blog! I can't emphasize enough that the meeting is open to every crafter who likes company :-)

Red tweed

2010-09-11T19:50:00.002+02:00

There are quite a few stuff I have a "thing" about... tweed yarn is one of them. At my last time in the second hand shop there was 300 gramms of this very colorful mostly wool and viscose yarn, obviously I just had to have it, even if I had no idea what to do with it... but leafing through one of the fresher Sabrina magazines I soon figured it out. Of course my german didn't improved in the last few weeks, so I had to go by the pictures and the charts.

Knit sideways with a cabled edge, which shows up better in real life than in the pictures.

It took me about five days to knit this.

The trouble

2010-09-01T09:30:00.001+02:00

With shopping for yarn in those second hand shops is that it is so rare to find enough for a full sweater. Often there is something that it would be a shame to leave it there, but then I keep wondeing what to do with it. So was the case with the beige cotton ribbon yarn I found earlier this month. But then the weather turning cold and the recent succes with the turqoise shrug how useful these little things can be. Worn over tank tops, sleevless dresses in the summer, over long sleeved stuff in the winter. Once again after endless leafing through mags and ravelry pages I decided to make up a pattern for myself. Here is the end result.

Sinmple lace pattern for the body from the matte pure cotton yarn and crocheted edge from the shiny that had rayon in it.

For the photoshoot I wore it over a brown long sleeved T shirt to show the pattern better.

Blue shrug

2010-08-27T14:00:00.000+02:00

This is a yarn again, that was hiding in my stash in a few month... I had four balls, about 200 gramms which would be enough for a tank top, but I already established that knitting and tank tops are not that good of a match... but what else would it be enough? Too much for a bag. too little for a cardigan... then I started working again, in an airconditioned office. Looking through my magazines and ravelry gave me the idea of making a shrug, but I didn't find the one I actually wanted to knit... so once again I made up a pattern.

Took a lace pattern that was deceptive, looking simple enogh, but giving me major pain, and several frogging session. I started the two sleeves at the same time so I wouldn't have to think what did I do and when. Slightly trumpet shaped sleeves

And crocheted edge around. I made up the crochet pattern as well... and since I made it (and had some beads left over from the heartland shawl) there are some beads in the edging.

I could title this post the Queen of second hand again as not only the yarn came from a second hand shop, but other parts of the outfit, the skirt and the top as well.

A few post ago (I guess it was about the aeolian shawl) I got some enquieries about the place we've shot the pictures. It is two tramstops away from where I live, Béke tér (The square of Peace) where there is this ship shaped sculpture/installation. Here is a picture of it for Angela and Regula.

The photographer, of course, was Christoper. Getting better each time, right?

Tradition

2010-08-23T19:37:00.019+02:00

The handing down of statements, beliefs, legends, customs, information, etc., from generation to generation, esp. by word of mouth or by practice: a story that has come down to us by popular tradition.

In those popular get to know each other questionaires and memes what is your favourite holiday is a standard question... and the standard answer for most people is Christmas. NOT for me. (I developed an unhealthy dislike for winter and Christmas). For me it is august 20th when we celebrate (the birthday of) our first king, the birth of the country, the new bread. For me it is also the celebration of tradition. Just as it is a trandition for me to put up a picture laden post of the big traditional craft fair, the festival of folk arts. This year all of the celebrations were restrained, which could be felt here too. There were less demonstrations, less booths, less sellers, less of everything (except prices). Still we needed two days to see and try everything we wanted, Chris even wanted to go back for the third day...
There were the usual array of pottery.
Traditional:

And not so traditional:

Dresses and outfits:

The theme for this year was gingerbread.

Demonstration of how to decorate it.

For me it seemed the theme was felts and feltmaking, because downloading the pictures I realized most of teh pictures were about that.

The traditional jurta of course.

Felted everything. Gloves and scarfs. (If I could just figure out how they do that ever so soft grid like felted scarf)

Even a felted shirt. I think that one has a considerable silk content in the fibers.

Felted pictures.

Some were making a felted rug right there with traditional motifs.

I had a hard time deciding if I like the purple felted hat better

Or the turqoise one

I even tried my hand at felting, and made a felted flower.

And of course I couldn't miss making a picture of my favourite felted dragon (which is not for sale. I couldn't afford it even if it would be, but I am making a pic of it every year)

There were the traditional indigo dyed printed fabric.

Which is made by printing a special wax on the fabric itself then dying it in indigo and removing the wax, leaving teh patterning white.

Christopher also had a great day.

He tried the bow.

Turning the music box... (BTW Angela, did you noted the T shirt he is wearing? And the hat. True fan. LOL)

Playing with logic requiering toys.

Making felt (the hard way)

Wood carving

Pottery

Weaving...Last year we got friendly with a teacher in a shcool/orphanage from the city I grew up. He was ever so friendly and patient with the kid. This year he seemed genuinly happy to see the boy again.

My favourite thing? Meeting this old lady, Klara, who was there demonstrating spinning the old way with a low whorl drop spindle. I was so happy to finally see someone doing it in real life. (I hope I am not sounding too full of myself when I say she seemed happy to see someone younger doing it too). I showed her my top whorl spindle we compared spinning methods and spin some toogether. Such a lovely lady, I hope I can meet her again.

Aside of th eentrance tickets and food and drink, I only bought one thing, one "vásárfia" (fair"s son) an pair of earring. I thought the motif had a definite elven feeling to it.

But I filled up with creative energies, and can't wait to actually make something.

Only 363 days until the next one.

Handspun Shetland Shetland

2010-08-16T20:14:00.003+02:00

You are telling twice everything, twice everything?
Yes and no...

The handspun word speaks for itself.The shetland shetland? Last year I knitted the Icarus shalw, which turned out my all time favourite knitted item... So much so, that it took a toll... wearing it as a scarf/shawl it got caught in bags, buttons, I had to make repairs more than once. So I thought if it is such a big favourite I should make something else to ease the strain...

I've liked the Shetland triangle pattern for a while now, and that little matchy-matchy demon in me thought the real thing would be making it from shetland wool. The handdyed wool came from here, and you can read the story of the spinning here.

There isn't much to say about the knitting itself. The pattern is pretty starightforward. I could knit it in cafes and other places, or company. Here is how it looked before blocking.

And during blocking. Yes, those are beads in there.

It is smaller than the last two shawls I've done...

I can still wrap myself in it.

100 gramms of shetland wool, about 700 meters of yarn. 3.5 mm straight knitpicks harmony needles.

The truth to be told shetland will not be my favourite fiber. I tried to spin it fairly thin, but it is still scratchy. They do say shetland softens with washing. We'll see, Until then I can wear it over something, like a jeans jacket, or a blazer.I do like the slight halo though.
Not to mention that it is still pretty unbelievable for me... no not that I knitted this, but that I made the yarn also...

And you all know who the photographer was, don't you?

The neighbour's grass

2010-08-11T05:00:00.001+02:00

Always greener?
I always loved coachella. It was one of the first thing I favourited years ago when I joined Ravelry. I love knitting, I love racerback. It took me a while to find the perfect yarn (which at the end came from the second hand shop).
What I didn't think that tank tops and knitting... kind of contradicting. I mean when it is hot enough to wear a tank it is hot to sweat in anything thicker than sheer linen.

It looks fun though, but the plunging neckline makes you think all kinds of solutions. How would this look like with a shawl pin for example?

It would also helped if I would read the pattern through very carefully...and not to start a top down item at the waistline. Thanks to the shcematics I could finish the thing withouth frogging.
And I love the backline. I am not a great fan of the rolled edge so used garter edge at the waist and around the armholes.

The yarn is Lana Grossa Elastico Print. Lovely, lovely yarn. I wish I had more of it, like enough for a sweater.I used 3mm addi circulars.

I was bad

2010-08-09T20:03:00.003+02:00

And I went shopping.
I am frustrated and stressing... and these are the times when I go wilde with shopping... OK, I do it instead of drinking, or smoking, or... and I do it mostly in second hand stores, but my bank accound is still not so happy afterwards.
Now let's not even talk about clothes and how I ended up with seven white top from my favourite brand (although in different styles)...Lets just talk about what this blog is about (mainly...ummm).
YARN.
I got a phonecall last week... form the lady who works in the shop... she got new yarn. You can guess how fast I was over there. And this is what I got...

Just for the sake of Angela here they are in detail. Uploading the pictures I realized that I didn't do a pic of the bag of red yarn... Cotton, just ever so sligly boucle-ish, like one ply was let looser while spinning it. About 500 gramms, definetly a sweater woth. Then the rest:Tweedy, slightly thick and thin. The color is mainly light green, other ones threwn in. There was two balls. A shopping bag maybe?

About 100 grams of one ply fingering weight. Light blue-ish green.Jenny would love it I guess. Maybe a scarf? Or?

Six balls of cotton ribbon yarn. One has viscose (rayon) in it and shiny, that would make a nice edge to...a shrug?

Various bits and balls of sock-yarn. I don't knit that much socks (though lately there are a few who helped me, and I think a pair of socks as a thank you gift would be cool, right?

And some superwash:

And although different brands, similar thickness and quality of wool. And the purple one is alpacca and merino.

So that is for the sex I had last week. Sex... as Stash Enhancing eXperience.

Desert wind

2010-08-03T16:00:00.000+02:00

Calling it as such because I felt like in an emotional desert sometimes in the last few weeks...

Sometimes it is said about knitting that with its repetitive movements it can be pretty meditative...or even the new yoga.
For me knitting works in two ways. If i want to think about something i chose something really simple, like stockinett or ribbing..and let the meditative side take over, let my thoughts flow.
But when there is something I do NOT want to think about... I just take something that requires the outmost attention. Watching and thinking about every stitch...

This shawl certainly fitted the second category.

As the lace pattern with the nupps were not enough I went for the beaded wariety...

And the size that is...generous.

Thightly spinned pure silk from india.
Tiny seadbeads from the Chzech republic.
2.5 mm needles.St.arted out with straight ones, but when the number of stitches reached 600 I had to change to circs.

Me and my personal photographer :-). Thank you my boy.

White summer

2010-07-29T02:00:00.002+02:00

What can I say? I love white and I love summer. This summer we had hot times, but we also had pretty cold ones too.

I had about 300 gramms of Patons cotton yarn from the second hand shop. It was too much for a tank top, to little for a sweater. So a short sleeved summer cardigan seemed a good idea. I just couldn't find one I liked so I designed one :-)
Simple top down seamless raglan construction, with stockinett bodice, and a lace skirt/peplum.

There are increases hidden in the reversed stockinett columns so it is slightly A line

Also slightly puffy sleeved with crocheted picot edge. Typical of me, eh?

I think it will go well with summer dresses just as with soft, loose pants.

You know, who was the photographer, don't you ;-)

I've been spinning

2010-07-25T17:03:00.006+02:00

The stress of the last few week affected me more ways than I care to count :-(... one of those was that for weeks I just could not knit.
Yes I know. I've knitted through all kinds of things, including parting from P... Me, who is capable of turning back from the gate because I had no knitting in my bag (even if I was going to work). I was just sitting there looking at the knitting... Even if I took it into my hand I've put it down after a few stitches... I couldn't concentrate even on stockinette. Me who would knit in the dark at the movies. It was really scary, I have all this yarn, what am I going to do with it???

I don't know what made me try the spindle, but I am glad I did, because spinning took me through it now...

That is me in the park, shot by my friend, Kriszta, when we took the kids.

I finally finished the turqoise merino and silk, you've already seen the finished shawl. I still have about 200 meters or so, but no idea what to knit... maybe I will chain ply it and make a lacy fingerless glove.

Then I finally finished the alpacca I was making for the Helm's deep shawl. 200 gramms, about 700 meters.

Thats my son's hand... maybe gives an idea about the thickness.

It is soft enough to wear it around my neck...even when it is pretty warm.

And then I was spinning this beauty of softness... Up until now, this was the softest, loveliest rowing I've spun. I've started out with this 50 gramm of rowing which was 50% silk and 50% yak. Used the spindle I bought from Steven. Ended up with...

420 meters od the softest yarn I ever touched. Even if I say so myself. I would love to put it under my pillow. Or rather over my pillow.

I tried to do it as thin as I can, so it would be enough for something. I have no idea though what would that be.

Love that barberpoling, marbled effect too.

Any suggestion what should I knit from it?

Handspun giant

2010-07-19T21:00:00.000+02:00

I've been spinning this yarn for a while now, it's appeared in the blog now and then, but i finally had enough to finish the shawl.I knew it is going to be big when I took it off the needles...

But when, doing blocking the edges didn't fit on a queen sized bed, I was sure.

There is something so immensly satisfying not only wear your own handknits, but make them from your own handspun.

I've put some beads in just for good measure:

And see how big it is:

Now I can REALLY wrap myself in it :-)

Or in sarong style...wear it as a dress

Even two of us is fitting in it:

But the truth is I wear it like this:

But I can't get enough looking at it

The wool is available in this shop.Unlike the other shop I bought it first, her service was impaccable. Spindle came from this shop.
The pattern is Heartland lace by Evelyn C. Clark.
I used knitpicks 14" straight needles.

Maybe even the beads can be seen...I used up almost every one of the big pack...hardly any left...like I would have counting them before buying.

I think I'll keep it :-)

Oh and my personal photographer...By now I don't have to tell who done the modelled pics, do I?

As long as we are talking about purple

2010-07-16T02:00:00.002+02:00

Yep... I tend to have those color periods...I guess it is because of my need to match things up and if I have a -let say- purple skirt sooner or(rather than) later I will have some purple sweater to match things up...I had this yarn for a while (the recent happenings made me watch my budget very closely...so I decided to knit from stash. I haven't bought any yarn, or fiber for a whole month. Imagine that.
For some years I had my eye on a cardigan in one of the german magazines (I guess it was a sabrina special edition), but as we all know my german knowledge it rather limited, besides the cardigan needed a lot of modification anyway. So, as usual, I looked at the charts and made up my own version.

In the empire style I love so much (almot as much as wrap cardis :-)

Slightly A lined (but not as much so it would look like a maternity thing)

Long sleeves:

Crocheted button band (as it has more "hold" than a knitted one).

Yarn is Yarnart's jeans (50% cotton, 50% polyester) in lilac color. I used less than 400 gramms. 3mm addi circular needles (the body was knitted in one piece) and 3 mm straight bamboo ones for the sleeve. I knitted teh two sleeves at the same time. I would hate more trying to think what and when did I do with the second sleeve than sewing up the seams.

Also crocheted picot edge around the neck and the sleeves just to add even more romance.

The modelled pictures were shot by my favourite personal photographer.

Guess who is it :-)

Yep, it is my boy, who also figured out the automatic mode in the camera. Is he talented or what?

Thank you sweethart.

The queen of second hand

2010-07-14T02:00:00.001+02:00

So now back to regular blooging schedule...and an (almost) regular post type, about my adventures of hunting in the land of second hand stores.

Those who know me, also know that I have a "thing" about colors and matching things up.Up to the underwear. Blue undies under purple clothing??? NO no no!!! Also I have a ton of clothes, but I swear I do not spend all that much on them. Ever wonder how do I put toogether those outfits that mix and match all over? Here is how it happens.

It all started with a skein of yarn. I found it in a second hand store, not even in the one I find most of my treasures.

I don't even know why did I bought it, because the color (purplish magenta) is not really me. Also it was thick and thin and I am not such a fun of those "effect" or "art"yarns. For me it means instead of good knitting one is relying on the yarn to make an impression. But who knows, it maybe looked fun, or the fact that it had cotton AND linen in it (I am a great fan of linen. Show me something white and linen I want it. If it has mother of pearl buttons even more). But that still doesn't explain why did I bought that one skein (which is enough for about...nothing).

It was hiding away in my stash for a year now. I almost gave it away in the WWKIP day raffle, only I couldn't find it at the time, and those days I wasn't in the mindset for methodical search.

Then I found a skirt. Once again the color was magenta-ish purple, but it had a different shade of purple underskirt, and beside cut I like and which suits me it had beads. BEADS. Yumm. Look:

Then I found a top almost exactly the same color than the underskirt... and then I remembered I have a bra and panties in similar colors in the bottom of my drawers.(Though both came from second hand stores, both of them still had their store tags, so nobody ever used them.)

Then I bumped into a bag that had the same colors. It was in the sale bin so it was cheap, even by SH standars.

Only, only then I remembered the hank of yarn, and between job interviews I went through methodically my stash and dug it out. Just the perfect color to complement the outfit...Maybe I could make some accesory out of it...
But what?. It is linen and cotton, so only something really light would work. But it is thick and thin, defnetly not lace material. Now how do I make something light out of that? Should I make a shrug? There is less then 200 meters of the thing. OK, a scraf might work, but only if there is a LOT of holes in it. But already agreed it is not good for real lace...

Ahhh, there is is, the basic grid of the not a drop scarf...

Lots of holes, I got that right.:-)

Knitted with 5.5 mm short bamboo needles.
Those who used to see me in all white in the summer were surprised, but seeing how all matched up they knew it is ME.

(and you know what? The pic does not show, but I have a pair of purple T strap shoe to go with it. And the hair thing with the felted flower Ariadné gave me also goes...So there.)