LunaKnit

Yesterday I wrote about the Brooklyn Tweed Lace KAL, but that wasn't the only Make-Along I took part during the summer. I briefly mentioned the Summer of Basics MAL in my previous post, and thought I could share a bit more about it today. Karen Templer from Fringe Association started a 3-month long Make-Along running from the beginning of June until end of August. The initiative was to knit 3 items for your wardrobe. They could be anything, and done with any technique as long as they fitted your own personal interpretation of "basic" (hence the name, Summer of Basics). I had great plans about learning to sew and making a shirt and pants (oh how ambitious!), to be paired with a knitted cardigan or a pullover. That never happened. Instead I ended up knitting all three items, of which one is the Selune scarf featured in the previous post. I didn't really have a clear plan what I was going to make when I started out, but I was quite happy to notice that...

Thank God for KALs! (That is Knit Alongs, in case you were wondering.) Otherwise this beauty would never have seen the light of day. I don't know why I had totally snubbed this pattern and never even considered knitting it, because it is actually absolutely beautiful and also a really fun pattern to knit. Me knitting the scarf in Berlin. When Brooklyn Tweed Lace KAL started in July I was eager to take part but lace shawls aren't really my thing even though I like knitting them. I was desperately trying to look for the perfect pattern when the Selune scarf by Julie Hoover popped on my Ravelry search. Love at first sight. I knew I wanted to make a thicker scarf though, something to get me through winter and decided to change the suggested lace weight yarn for a woolen fingering weight. I chose Tukuwool Fingering in shade Uupo, since I had it already in my stash.  Trying to take photos when it's really windy isn't always that easy! Also...

First of all, thank you for all your comments on my previous post! For some reason I'm not able to reply to the comments, every time I try the whole site gets stuck. Which sucks. But I really appreciate them all. It was nice to hear that you guys feel the same way about knitting and I really love the mutual support in the online knitting community, the love spread between people is just amazing!  This scarf has been on my needles for quite a while, and no wonder, after a quick calculation I came to the conclusion that I have knitted 85.624 stitches and gone through 1 kilometre and 272 meters of yarn to get this thing off my needles. Definitely worth it if you ask me. This will be something I will love and cherish for years to come.  The pattern is from Temple of Knit website and is freely available. You can also find it via Ravelry.  I used baby alpaca silk blend yarn for this scarf, which is immensely soft and gives the fabric a nice shine. I continue...

...because I want to knit (and wear) shawls like this: and this: and this: The shawls from the top:  1. Paris toujours by Isabell Kraemer 2. Sunwalker by Melanie Berg 3. Lemmy K. by Isabell Kraemer (Photos borrowed from Ravelry)

We've been enjoying some really amazing and sunny winter days, just the kind of weather that made me start to become a winter lover (I'm usually more of a warm weather person). Of course that didn't last and now we have rain fall, melting snow and extremely slippery streets. However, I enjoyed the bluer-than-blue skies and the snow shone like a thousand diamonds and made long walks with the stroller.  But I have done some knitting as well! Let me show you what I've been up to this week! I've continued on my Truss cardigan and have the body now ready. I started with the first sleeve, and since the cardigan has dropped shoulders and the sleeves have no sleeve caps, I decided to knit them top down by picking the stitches straight from the body. I'm also knitting them in a round instead of flat as in the instructions. I prefer them this way because the body doesn't have side seams either. I've also been working on the Florin triangle, an...

All my good intentions about updating my blog more often went down the drain when I caught the flu that has been circulating around here. There was a time when a slight fever and a sore throat would have meant a Netflix marathon with loads of sofa time and hours and hours of knitting - BUT - motherhood doesn't ask if you are sick or not, it's a full time job no matter what. Things are looking up now though, since I'm feeling better already and baby Theo has finally got his first two teeth (yay!), so I'm hoping both of us are back to our normal happy selves soon! I haven't finished any of my current WIPs but instead I've been casting on some new stuff. Every now and then I get this huge need to start a lot of stuff at once but not having the necessary concentration to work on any of them for more than a couple of hours. I've finished the second sleeve of my Breton sweater since last week and started the hem of the body. I haven't, however, gotten ...

The problem with being a perfectionist is the tendency to procrastinate and not get anything finished. I have this need to do everything as well as I possibly can and not being able/have time to write the amazingly long and detailed blog posts with loads of photos makes me become stuck - I seem to think that if I can't give my best it's better not do anything - which is of course a wrong way to think if you ever want to get anything done. I have been inexcusably lousy when it comes to updating this blog of mine. I keep making excuses about the baby keeping me busy and rather spending the little free time I have knitting than writing about knitting. I need to change that. I will try to write more often - even a couple of short lines to keep you up to date with everything that is going on with me. Just when I think that we finally have some kind of routine and everything is going smoothly (Theo has never really wanted to take naps but instead has slept longer during nights b...

I hope all of you have had a peaceful and happy Christmas holiday! We have been enjoying time with our families with way too much chocolate and lots of laughter. Now that everyone has opened their Christmas gifts so I can finally show what I knitted! I didn't have time to make anything for my parents but I promised to knit them socks anyway, they'll get them when I have time to finish them. (I'm using the Rye sock pattern by Tincanknits, it's such a great pattern and I love how they fit!) I knitted hats for my sisters, the younger one got a white and beige Laurus hat (pattern by Dianna Walla and it is freely available via Fringe hat along) and for the big sis I knitted a Bror hat ( pattern by Hege Klaseie ). I used Drops Nepal for both hats, and for the contrasting sections I used the last remaining leftover pieces of Novita Alpaca Wool. (Both photos are posed by me before giving the hats away.) And for my one-year old godson I knitted a hat...

I have actually finished something! (Actually I finished it already a week ago but only now had I time to take the photos...) And just in time for the cooler September weathers. This scarf is now officially the only project I finished during August. I hope I'll have more time to knit (and blog) during this month as our life with the new baby is now finally starting to become more routine and I'm slowly getting the hang of this whole being-a-mom -thing :) Can you believe the baby is already one month old? The pattern for the scarf is called L.1 by Antonia Shankland and it is available for free via Ravelry. I changed the Stockinette stitch to moss stitch (elongated seed stitch) because I didn't want my scarf to start curling. Another small modification I made was to leave out the fourth color and use the color B for the ends instead.  One more thing: I ended the scarf with 4 rows of color C followed by 28 rows of color B instead of the last 3 stripes in the ori...