What the Friday?

 In which I am thinking about what the friday was I thinking, when I started certain UFO-s, I recently found. 

Like this: 

Blue and white, and I really have no idea, what it was supposed to be. 

Snow

No, I still don't like it. 

 

Weekly SO

 Stitchmarkers are overrated. I am not saying I do not have a few, but they are usually came to me as presents, or part of some other purchase. As I said in an earlier post (about the lace neckwarmer), I rarely need them, the first and most important thing for a knitter should be to learn to see (or to "read") their knitting. If I need something to mark, lets say a certain point (like when I am counting the rows for stockings, and do not want to start from the beginning, I mark a round number, like the 30th or 40th row, and the next time I only need to count from there), or let's say, I need to see where the sides are on a sweater to place shaping, I use safety pins.  I also often use safety pins as stitchholders, especially, when I knit my half-fingered mittens. Even if I do put some markers.. safetypins because the pattern is big and complicated, I find, that once the pattern is established, they bother me, and I take them out.

What about you? Are you using stitchmarkers? If so, what kind? The simple plastic ones or fancy handmade ones? 

Black Cargo Jeans

 In trying to mix up sewing and knitting posts, longer and shorter posts, historical and modern stuff, I remembered there are some things I have not shown to you.

It is not anything very new idea, or something very complicated, but I rather like it and worn it quite a few times. In fact, I have sewn this early last year, probably in february, after I finished the polca  dot bustle dress, and before I've done the underwear for Sisi.

I have tried to dig through my phone-pictures to see if I have any pictures of the construction, but I could not find any. I even had to do some looking around for these modelled pictures, because I could not remember just when did we shot them. Thankfully Norbert keeps his records (and photos) in much better order than I do...  

Anyhow, remember, the petrol colored bubble shaped courdory pants, and my quest for the perfect "bubble-pants"? I liked it so much, I decided to make it from the thinner, softer jeans I had in my fabric-stash.

I made it slightly even wider, and added the cargo-pockets to the legs. 

It is my favorite concert-going pants, because it has POCKETS. I mean, deep pockets, in which, when I put my phone, I know it is safe, and I am not afraid loosing it, even if I jump up and down..

If there is one thing I would change, I would leave slightly longer elastic for the waist, but it is fine as it is too.

(Don't ask, what pose I was trying to take up here... I guess we were just fooling around).

Fabric: I Love Textile

Red Cardigan: Pomme Plus

T shirt: Virágnak Világa

Photos: Bodeszphoto

Oops, I am spinning again...

This weather kills me. One day it is 10 C°, then it is -3C°, then it is wind that could blow off the roof of our house, then snow, and then...

I've had such headaches, I spent hours crying under my blanket and asking for an axe...

I could not work, as I could not think enough to express myself in my mother tongue, much less translate things that have a lot of strings of numbers...

When the painkillers had some effect, I still was not up to tasks, like knitting my New Year's sweater that has a long repeat of complicated stranded pattern... so what would one do? 

I have not spun with my wheel in ages. I have not spun much in the last few years as it is, except for some bits with the drop-spindle here and there for demonstration, but not with the wheel.

It was lucky, trying to make some order in, and rearrange my craft-flat a few weeks ago I did clean out the corner of my bedroom, where Katie, the wheel lives, and found out the old drive band is broken. 

Thankfully, Ági, from the weaving workshop Minta Mókus rushed to my aid, and helped me out with one, just before Christmas, and then Nobert put it on the wheel.

So, it was ready, when I needed to do something that did not required much thinking.

The carded, tweedy batts came from Afrien of Ariadné Műhely. 
 

Perfect

 Stitches, that is. And multicolored yarn, that knits up perfectly. 

Not pooling, not striping.

Even my stitches look better, more even than usual. 

Unfortunately, the yarn came to my stash long time ago, without label, so no way, I can find it again. But then again, that might just be its beauty.

A bee in the bonnet

 In other words, what do you give to your future sister in law, if she married into a beekeeper family? 

My love language is "I made this for you!" Of course I like hugs, and being told somebody loves me, just as much as the next person, but I like making things with my hands, and I often like to express my love for someone by making them something... Which is really hard with Norbert's family, one, because I only know them for about six years, and not all that well. Besides, they did not grow up with handknitted pieces in their wardrobe. 

However, last year, when I loaned my Outlander costume to hear, to wear at a historical fair, I also gave her the neckwarmer,  I made for that ensemble. And she told me, she liked it so much, so that was all I needed, I ordered the last 4 balls of pink yarn so fast, you could not even say Jack Daniels.

That was my last year's Xmas present for her (never even shot a picture of it), and she seemed to like it, in fact she told me a few times, how much she liked it, so I felt brave enough to give her something handknitted again this year. First I was thinking about a pink hat to go with the neckwarmer, then I had a better idea... 

She IS married into a beekeeper family, and they also keep bees... 

So I dived into Ravelry, dug through my stash and started knitting... You have seen the beginnings here.

The latvian braid was difficult enough, but we all know, I rarely go toward the easier solution, so not only changed some colors (instead of only yellow, I used orange AND yellow)...

But for some rows (especially for the bees) it needed not two but three colors... and certain places there were really long floats for those two colors, that needed to be tacked down. 

 

And right after knitting, it kind of looked like something you drag out of the mouth of a dog, but I knew that a good strong blocking will do wonders. 

Instead of the diagonal pattern on the edge, I used corrugated ribbing, with the two yellow color.

At the same time, I left the black out of the top.

Instead of a plate, I used an old, big tinbox ( I bought it from Ikea, decades ago).

It blocked out beautifully.

So it was a fussy knit, but I learned so much from it.

Pattern: BzzzzzTam

Yarn: DROPS Fabel and Flora (the yellow one is Flora)

Needles: Knit Pro 2,5 mm and 3 mm.

Modelled photos: Norbert Varga @Bodeszphoto