Tuesday, March 25, 2008

...easterknitting...

DD2 is a knitter. She is knitting a pair of slippers that will be felted, but she wanted another project too (a REAL knitter- can't have only one project at a time!) So she and I decided that a pair of mittens would be good. Thanks to Rani, I had this great mitten pattern, and here she is well into the first, doing magic loop. She uses doubled Tove- yarn and 5mm needles(knitpicks even!!!) As I told you in a previous post, I've started the IcelandicLaceShawl, I didn't have all the colours stated in the pattern, but use a dark sand, a brown and a white singlepsun Navia (couldn't find a link, but it is a Faroese/Australian/Shetland wool blend, very nice to knit with. I bought it here. )Mr.Black is checking it out. I'm sure he will find several mistakes, but it doesn't matter, because the pattern is a bit "messy". I'm decreasing to the top, and will have to pick up and add the lace border afterwards...which means picking up 340 stitches and increase to nearly 700 over 30 rows... This is the morning view- at 8am- sun! At 9:30am, I had sun on my kitchenwindows! We've got more snow this easter than we've had for years! We thought spring was here two weeks ago, but they say we will get even more snow:-( It looks beautiful though. We moved the
sheep inside the barn yesterday- it was just snowing too much. The ewe with the twins was reluctant to go, but now they've settled down and are doing fine. We're haveing trouble with the fox and raven here, they catch lambs, so we didn't want to take any chances. There has been a bit of knitting going on. This is a hat for me knitted in Topp't Tå, on 6mm needles. I deleted the pattern! It was called Robin's egg or blue nest or something. The pattern called for a big button to hold down the flap, but I had a much better option, Lesley's lovely
corsage. Looks great, doesn't it? The colours of the corsage matched the colour of the yarn perfectly:-) I've been knitting another pair of socks! These are knit in Opal euel(owl), and they looks nice. I've had trouble knitting toe-up socks, because of the shortrow heel, but now I found a pattern with a proper heelflap
here! The pattern is in 3 sizes, which mean it is easy to use with different weights of yarn-and it is easy to change the stitchpattern too. These are knit toe-up, magic loop, both at the same time. I knitted the heels one at a time, but intend to try kitting both at once. That might involve an extra circular needle and a couple of DPN's, I think. Has anyone done it? Or is it customary to knit one at a time? It was easy to understand, and really fast! DD1 got them, she has alredy worn them, and they were wet when I took the photo, so they look a bit odd... Take a good look at this:!!! Some time ago, Kristy had a giveaway on her blog, and I was lucky enough to win! The package was waiting for us when we came back from a few days at my MIL's. I was dying to open it- but we had the evening filled up- feeding our own sheep, feeding the sheep at a neighbour, having dinner with friends at their house...we came home at 5pm, but ddn't open until 10pm- those were long hours-LOL!
I got a cute little bag perfect for small projects, a set of bamboo DPN's in size 2.75mm- great! I didn't have that size! And a lovely skein of Schaefers Anne yarn, in bright yellow/red/orange! It is soft and yummy! Thank you, Kristy! The BIG surprise, however, was THIS: A beautiful skein of handpainted yarn from Susie! Please notice the name of the yarn! "Marit's sky!" How cool is that??? Kristy asked me some time ago if she could copy one of my views- the sunset on the photo below- I said yes, of course, and she had Susie dying this special yarn. It is soft and beautiful and gorgeous!!! Thank you, Kristy, this is really special:-) I've been cuddling it, gazing at it, touching it, smelling it...the girls can't keep their hands away either! Any good suggestions on a pattern? It is probably sockweight- but too good for socks-LOL! A scarf? A stole? A hat with mittens? Or it might be staying on my shelf as eyecandy:-)
You have a great week:-)


13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Det var da fantastisk, hvor produktiv går det egentlig an å være ? Så morsomt med det spesielle garnet, du må nok strikke deg en solnedgang på et eller annet vis. Skjønner godt at du bare må nyte det en god stund !
Det ble vinter her på østlandet også, men den blir forhåpentligvis ganske kort...

Kristy said...

Oh Marit!!! I am so happy that you liked your package. It is exciting to see it on your patio, with the beautiful scenery in the background. And I am so thrilled that you like your Marit's Sky. Susie never disappoints. I just hope it was worth the wait.

Speaking of the snow - I am thoroughly jealous. It has been sunny and nearly 70F in Modesto this week...and I hate it! Maybe we could arrange some sort of knitter exchange program?

The shawl is really lovely. I am excited to see the progress. And don't listen to Mr. Black if he finds any mistakes - cats are notoriously critical of other's work. ;)

Anonymous said...

Oh Marit, your shawl is gorgeous. A daunting task to pick up that many stitches - it would leave me a babbling fool. The skein dyed for you is beautiful, simply breathtaking.

We, too had snow for Easter and the forecast is for more snow tomorrow. I so need spring to arrive. Quickly!!

Mary B said...

Mr. Black knows beauty when he sees it.

Wow, that custom dyed yarn is gorgeous -- you are lucky!

YarnThrower said...

I don't know how you knit so fast, but you do! Everything looks so nice!

Mrs Moog said...

Wow Marit - so much loveliness in this post!! First of all I have to what gorgeous little lambs in your previous post :)

Your knitting is looking fabulous and it was a lovely surprise to see my corsage on your lovely blue hat - and looking like it's meant to be there :)
The yarn that you had in your parcel is beautiful and the 'sunset' dyed yarn is amazing - the colours are so close to your photo!

Good to hear your daughter is following in her clever Mum's footsteps too :)

Happy knitting!

xxx

STRIKKEMOR(O) said...

Sjalet som du har begynt på ser berre så nydeleg ut!!!! Eg fekk lyst til å begynne på eit eg og med ein gong, men får prøve å styre meg.... naviagarnet er herleg å strikke med, men eg har berre prøvd totråda.

Rani said...

Look at all you knitting! The shawl is going to be really cool! Very Icelandic-looking.

And all that yummy yummy yarn! I've never had Schaefer Anne - but I'm eyeing it at our local yarn store.

Wooly Works said...

Beautiful shawl and out of Icelandic Yarn!! I have some unspun Icelandic that I'm using for a hooded jacket. It's more like roving than yarn and very hard to get the hang of knitting. It will be worth it when it's done, though. So light and airy, but so warm!! Lovely yarn with the sunset picture next to it. I don't purchase yarn for the most part because we have so very much of our own. I enjoy hearing about the different fibers that you use.

I just started using the magic loop for socks last week. I'm not sure whether I'll like it or not. I read in a past post of yours about how much you like it, and that's what made me try it to begin with. I'm a solid DP needle sock knitter, so old habits die hard.

Caroline said...

How exciting to have such beautiful yarn named after you..or at least one of your wonderful pictures:)

Your shawl sounds amazing to me. I'll let you do all of that work though.

Heidelweiss said...

What beautiful knitting and what a stunning place you live in! Love all the photos.

Unknown said...

Yeah, a knitting daughter, how wonderful to be able to share your craft like that.

I do wish I had the courage to try magic loop, maybe one day.... As for the shawl, breathtakingly beautiful of course.

Tracy said...

Hi, Marit! So great to catch up with you here now that we are back from our holiday. Glad you had a lovely Easter...and plenty of time for your beautiful knitting! Happy Days ((HUGS))