Wrap cardi

I like when knitting and crochet is combined. It gives any knitting a romantic overtone, which I love. This is from the Hungarian version of the german magazine Diana. Of course the yarn is different, my gauge is different, I had to recalculate the pattern (what else is new), and figure out the decreseases. The yarn came from the turkish company ICE (bought on e-bay). The yarn is OK, and very affordable, and they ship fast. And use a different service NOT the mail (which knowing the unreliability of the hungarian post office is a great plus). On the site they said it is 50-50 bamboo and cotton. The ball band said 100% mercerized cotton...Hmm. I sent an email asking about that though. But it does acts like it has bamboo in it.

Not that much change it this one though, except for the redrawing of the charts for the different number of stitches. I did changed the tie from a crocheted one to a knitted Icord though. I came to that point on a Sunday evening when I was at work. Very quiet afternoon, mind you. I knitted the collar, picked up the stitches for the I cord, and realized I brought the wrong DPNs with me... I had four choice:
1. I could use the bigger DPNs, but I knit loosely as it is, using bigger needles would result something that would be good for a few things, but a tie is not one of them.
2. I had a crochet hook, so I could crochet it.
3. I could wait until the evening I get home and knit the ropes then.
4. I could dash to the mall in my "lunch" break and see if the haberdashery has any DPNs. They do have a limited selection of most things, so that really is a question. Do I need an other set of 3mm DPNs? Not really.

But you know me. Yes, I did rushed out, and I did get the needles (they had it, yay), for twice as much as the wholesaler I usually get them from. But the ties were knitted.

Then I had some yarn left. Yuck. Don't everyone hates those small balls of leftover yarns, that has like only a few meters. I can't throw them away (it is YARN), but there is nothing to use them for either. I had 200 gramms more than the pattern called, but I guess cotton (or cotton+bamboo) is heavier than the silk cotton it was made in, so I had to open all eight skeins. Trying the sweater on I saw that the collar could benefit a bit more width... I (frogged) unknitted the cast off measured how much yarn it took (268 stitches loosely cast off = 7 meters of yarn) picked the stitches back and knitted until the yarn had slightly more than seven meters left, then cast off again. I ended up with about a meter of yarn left. Now, that is more like it.

BTW I did the (frogging) unknitting and picking up on the bus (waiting for it to leave). I only travel with PT in the city for short distances, so they are not my usual KIP place (doctors office are much more). I was the first on the bus, I had my choice of seats, and I realized there is at least ten minutes before it leaves the station. I was anxious to finish the sweater, so I started the (frog)unknit while he bus was empty (not many to look at me strangely, right?), and I lost, I had my mp3 player and a Stash and Burn episode in my ear When the time came and the bus started the engine and I looked up... it was almost full, and more than one passenger was looking at me "WHAT is she DOING? "

PS: Just wanted to add...Thank you Dinara, for the great pictures.

I am back.. again

it seems I am always going away, but it is pretty rare...Anyway I got back from the three (umm two and half???) day of training called "carrier management"... which is kind of a reward for the results of the previous year... it was really helpful. I got so many positive feedback and reinforcement... If I will get insecure again I will just get those notes out.... what notes??? I do know that it is a well known technique, but still... on the the morning after the first half day, the trainer asked that each of us choose five person who gave something positive the time we spent together, write it down to post its, and then walk around and put them on the persons file (which was left on our chairs)... I stood up thinking "OMG how will it feel not to have any notes"... and at the end I got a LOT of them, I think I was one of those who got the most notes... and they were so nice and lovely... I almost cried then, and I guess from that point they could have done anything to me there, even chop trees on my back as we say here...I do think I even found some "colleagues" (not my direct ones) who might even become friends over time. And I think my name got "caught" on a couple of the right hooks. So there might even have direct results, but if not, I would still think it was great to be there.
There wasn't much time to knit, except on the train to go there. And I made sure I do a couple of rows every night. Coming home I managed to catch a ride with somebody (who was rather happy she don't have to drive alone), and we -again- had a great talk... but I was to shy to take out my knitting in the car. Still I managed to make about three and half repeats on my yoga wrap, which is a lot considering that there is about two hundred stitches in a row...

I am back...

Earlier this week I spent a couple of days in the Czhech Republic. My father is a dealer of a small aircraft Lambada
and this was the annual dealer's meeting. Longish drive, but I managed to knit some of the way. I got this far on the white thank top:













The meeting was... a bit boring, but OK. It was our first. I did translated a lot. Met some interseting people, the men:women ratio was about 15:3. so I enjoyed the attention too. It is so easy to forget how does it feel...

Also, I finally figured out the pattern for the lace edging of the Butterfly dress:

Now it goes really fast.

knitting sightings

I am to tired today to think of anything to write or knit but I thought it would be a good time to intriduce a feature that will be more or less regular. Just how much, it would depend...
I am a clothes maniac, and not only on me, but I constantly looking at what others wear...
Back in the eighties we had and used so many hand knitted items it was the height of the fashion, probaly partly because living in a socialist country, what you could get in a store was very limited. Making it gave a chance to wear something that would be remotely fashionable. Even if it was made out of sctachy acrylic yarn. Then in the nineties, I don't know what happened, more merchandise came in I guess, but we wouldn't touch handmade items (especially if they did looked handmade) with a ten foot pole. I still did crafts, but I stayed with crochet afgans, tablecloths, knitted lace doilies, quilts and such. An other ten years on many new stores opened like the chainstore, the french PROMOD whose merchandise I love love LOVE.. They do have some rather rustic looking stuff, inculding knits...which made me think again. I was like "How pretty... hmm...I can do that"... Oh I got sidetracked... I was talking about me looking at people's dresses (sometimes sitting on the metro I check on their feet too. I have yet to see a handknitted sock on somebody else than me), and ever so happy when I can spot a knitted item, which is not so rare (these cheap acrylic machine knits made in china do not make me want to go closer though), but occasionally I do spot a handkitted item. A few weeks ago I was sitting in a cafe with my Ravelry friend Dinara, and I saw a gorgeous grey tweed cabled cardi... on an italian woman. Still it was kind of hard to hold myself back and not stare openly, and not to go and ask, if it is really handknit, and did she made it or???
So.... Handknit sighting for today
As I was coming home from a bus I've seen an old(er) woman in a brown handknit poncho. It was knit in the modern way, from two rectangulars. It was knitted from a chunky yarn, with cables and it had fringes around the edges... In the last couple of years ponchos came back to fashion with a vehemence. If I wouldk have the time I would knit one for myself... maybe for the fall. For now my attention is on the butterfly, or the white thank top...