Breaking up

Yesterday I was in the store formerly known as Barka. I went with big momentum, I wanted to buy a bunch of yarn, but there was none from the colors I needed... I was really down, but I fell in love with a color combination, and somehow a sweater worth climbed into my basket... Only at home I started to think what exactly I should knit with it...
Of course once again a discussion ensued about how much I am addicted to yarn (very much so) and how muc does it bother me (very little)... and I closed the exchange with one sentence...

Once I broke up with a man, who (beside bringing me yellow flowers and dark chocolate) asked me if I really needed all this yarn...

In one sitting

I did the patterns on the shoulder of the sweater I am kniting in one sitting.

As long as you can call knitting, sitting up in my bed, watching TV, then fall asleep, wake up and knit a couple of more hours without getting out of said bed....

A new toy..

I have :-)

I really loved the Flora yarn, so as soon as I finished the kitty hat, I started something new...

Poncho on a yarn diet

Even though I did not announce it loudly, at the beginning of the year I've put myself on a yarn diet (I should put myself on a food diet as well, but that is another story).

I know I have a surreal amount of yarn, and it got to the point when... No it does not bother me, nor does it frustrates me, only that there is really no more place to put them... yarn is everywhere in my flat. I did not made strict rules. Buying yarn to dye is alowed. Buying travel yarn is allowed. Buying yarn to weave with is allowed. I've been a really good girl, and kept to it with only two exception, Flora, and one bagful at the one of the very few remaining second hand stores. In both case I did used the yarns at a relatively short time.

 It is a great sadness to my heart that some of my favorite yarns (besides DROPS) are not available in Hungary. One of these favorites is the tweed yarns of Lana Grossa. Their sadly discontinued Lord was a joy to knit with, and I also dearly love their Royal Tweed. The balls I have I always picked up out of the bins and bags of second hand stores. Even if it was a half ball, and no matter what the color. No wonder that as soon as I saw that there was about 7 balls of dark red available I bought it without thinking. Only afterwards I started to consider what can I do with that amount as the yarn is to thick for sleeveless, or short sleeved anything, and not enough for a full sweater.

Going through the DROPS fall patterns as I translated them caught my eyes this simple and straightforward poncho that seemet the perfect choice to break the spell of the lost mojo (you might have noticed there were no knitting post all through the summer and then some- there was a reason for it, but it will be the subject of another post. If at all).

My poncho is loosely based on the pattern, I ommitted the very high, ribbed neck, and knitted it as long as my yarn held, adding a loose neck and an edge from garter stitch.

Pattern: DROPS Echoes
Yarn: Lana Grossa Royal Tweed
Knitting needles: Knit Pro Zing 5 mm.
Photoes: Christopher Laurent Deli

Kitty cat and the accountant

I was trying to figure out what to knit rom my brand new  Flora yarn, when my friend called this pattern to my attention. 

She also kind of implied (pretty strongly) that she'd like a kity hat, and since she is doing my accounts, and I do not argue with her when she says what and how should be done in connection to that, why would I argue, about a hat? Besides there is enough lavander-lemon cookies :-)

The pattern is up on Ravelry, free, but it is french. The charts and and the numbers are rather clear, I still asked the help of my Belgian friend Kim, to make sense of it. 

Good thing I did, as it uses tubular cast on, whch sounded pretty complicated, but this video helped a lot.

I love the yarn. I already had a feeling thet there will be love involved when I first read about ir, and I waited for it to be available, and available here too.

I really hope that it will have more colors in time, especially what they call MIX, and in English they are lovely deep heathery colors, but I think one can already put toogether a good fair isle from it. 

Bízom benne, hogy idővel még több színben lesz elérhető, elsősorban az általuk MIX-nek hívott színekből szeretné többet látni a palettán, bár azért már most is össze lehet állítani egy jó kis fair isle-ra val. 

The kitty pattern is not simple, there are pretty long floats to manage at places, which cannot be dealt with without weaving in, and it is not put together from small repeats but pretty large scale, it is easy to mess it up. For advanced stranded knitters and cat lovers, however, it is a great opportunity to 

pushing the boundaries of comfortable knitting.

Pattern: Lucette
Yarn: Drops Flora
Kinitting needles: Knit Pro Zing 2,5mm, 3mm

Just one picture

From yesterday. This is how, when I only take the "small" portion".

Cat tail

This is tubular cast on:

 And this is a cat's arse...Um, cat's tail.