Fake thrummed mittens

Before I jump into the real thing - amazingly soft and comfy thrummed mittens - I have accidentally stumbled upon a beautiful pattern by Purl Soho for Classic Mittens with a lovely turned cuff. The minute I saw some projects based on that pattern, I already knew what to do with some stray skeins of yarn I had laying around for ages. Fake thrummed mittens, here we go!

I absolutely LOVE the way they look, I just wished the vibrant purple yarn was 100% wool, not an acrylic mix, but it works nice and it doesn't feel so super plastic like some of the acrylic yarns do. The super bulky yarn is 100% wool, though so the mittens will be nice and warm, lined with a layer of wool yarn.

I like these so much that I will have to knit a pair for myself - maybe in nice charcoal grey with the same bulky yarn, as I still have plenty of it.

Hokey Pokey - Winter is Coming

Winter is coming! Time to knit some new mittens! I have decided to use some left over yarn and knit myself a pair of nice and warm mittens. I've used the Hokey Pokey Mittens pattern by Garn Studio/Drops Design.

I am done with the first mitten and I absolutely love it! Especially the Latvian braid that I have worked for the first time. It always looked super complicated to me but it's super easy.

I have also decided to go one number down on the needles to achieve nice and snug mittens.

I'm off to finish the 2nd mitten and can't wait to start wearing them. I think I will also knit a hat with the same pattern used.

Beautiful new roving for spinning

I just got these beauties today and can't wait to turn the fiber into beautiful yarn :-) I already have in mind a couple of nice projects for the finished yarn.

The roving comes from
https://www.etsy.com/shop/CatandSparrowUK

Playing with my new drop down spindles

I just received my new lovely drop spindle from Kromski and I absolutely love it! 

I'm using a lovely grey BFL roving I bought recently. The spindle works like a charm, however, it's slightly too heavy to spin very thin yarn, but I will use for that my old trusty DIY spindle made of a knitting needle and 2 cd :-) Speaking of DIY spindles... here's my first Turkish ( X) spindle - I always wanted to test how it works and was fascinated by the fact you immediately get a center pull ball of yarn, perfect for plying the yarn later.

I'm using a mixed roving of BFL wool that spins beautifully. The spindle is slightly too light and it needs some weights on the bottom. Once I spin for a while, the weight of the yarn does the trick and the spindle spins nicely. I'm definitely hooked - a properly balanced Turkish spindle goes straight on my "to buy" list.

Work in progress - baby cape & brioche cowl

Been busy knitting the last few days - the weather outside was really knitting-friendly. I've finally found some time to learn myself the brioche stitch and I have to say I am in love with it. Here's the final piece I've finished few days ago - a lovely reversible cowl.

Currently, I am working on a special gift for a special girl - my cute niece. My SIL has asked me to knit a cape for her daughter, something with an elf-like hood. I wasn't able to find any patterns that were suiting my needs so I improvised - here's the wip photo. 

Rainy Sunday - a perfect day for knitting

Rainy Sunday is definitely a perfect time to stay under a warm blanket with a cup of hot tea and do some knitting! These days I am (almost) all about knitting cute baby sweaters! They are great stash busters and quick projects to finish.

This is the baby cardigan I am working on currently - super cute with garter yoke and plain body. It's been a long time since I've worked with 2.5mm needles! Thankfully, the project is super easy and I can watch movies while knitting.

This is a toddler cardigan I have finished few days ago - I forgot how much I love working with fair isle patterns :-) It's another of my stash buster projects, I almost run out of the brown yarn!

This one is one of my favorite! A simple raglan sweater with one button on the back and garter panel on the front.... What I like about raglan sweaters is that they are perfectly symmetrical and you can wear them with the back side in front :-)

Just got new yarn

... and I love it! It's a bit thicker than my usual choice but I totally love the texture of this one. I still haven't decided what to knit with it, probably a nice cowl or maybe a thick shawl.

I've decided to knit a sample to see how it will look like and with what needles size should I go. This one looks very nice, me thinks :-)

I bought 4 small skeins of the yarn, I hope it will be enough for a shawl/cowl.

Busy knitting bee

I had a couple of very busy knitting weeks recently but no good weather to take any photos. My goal this weekend is to finally photograph every single shawl/scarf/hat/mittens from this huge pile! Keep your fingers crossed for a nice sunny day tomorrow!

 Not all of the finished items are on the photo - 2 scarves are still blocked and I'm almost done with another shawl. 

Learning new tricks - Intarsia

Yesterday - inspired by a great book I got on sale, Icelandic Knitting Using Rose Patterns, I came up with an idea for a new shawl (actually, the idea was stuck in the back of my head for few weeks now). Here comes the tricky part - garter intarsia! I've never tried it before but it sounded like fun.... lot of fun with 6 small bobbins at a time and a yarn which loves to tangle :-) If you think normal intarsia is easy - try garter intarsia! 

Unfortunately, the book didn't have any clear instructions how to deal with all these colors and how to twist the strands without making holes or the whole thing breaking apart... To my surprise, you can't find much info on garter intarsia on the net or even YouTube.....

After a couple of tries (and different styles of bobbins) I finally found the solutions - my old business cards as bobbins. Now I'm working only with 3 colors but I'd love to add another two, blue and green - that's gonna be fun! I think I need another 50-70 rows to practice before I move to the shawl.

Knitting a rainbow

I'm knitting my own personal rainbow! I absolutely love how all the colors blend together. This shawl will definitely become one of my favorites, the colors are so vivid and nice. I had this yarn for a few months before I decided to use it, 'cause I really liked the look of the center-pull ball. 

Today on my needles

I'm working on 2 new shawls currently - an airy and super soft mohair/silk stole and yummy purple/pink semi-circular shawl. Can't decide which one is my favorite. I absolutely love working with mohair lace yarn (but HATE unraveling it) but I like how the 2nd yarn creates beautiful striped pattern. 

I've also listed one of my last shawls - a beautiful brown triangular shawl knitted with Crazy Zauberball yarn.  You can find it in my Etsy shop.

There's no such thing as too much yarn

I got these beauties yesterday - the white one is for a custom ordered wedding shawl and the other colors are for new shawls. Can't wait to start working with them!

New lace shawl in Shetland style

I really like experimenting with different styles and techniques of knitting and maybe that's why most of my shawls are one and only. I have to remember to start writing down the patterns for my shawls as most of them are designed by me.....

This one is a variation of a shawl I've found in one of my knitting books. The shawl is inspired by traditional Shetland shawls. It's worked in garter stitch from the bottom to top, with center panel. I have to say I was slightly terrified after casting over 400 stitches on and the first 20+ rows where a huge pita. I'm half done now and the works goes faster with every finished row.

As I rarely work with stitch markers, this time they were a must! Otherwise I'd have given up after first 5-10 rows.... The tiny stitch markers you can see below where made by my Plurk friend, Selana and I have to say that I absolutely love them as they are very light and perfect for lace knitting! You should definitely check her Artfire shop out!

Playing with dyes.... again

Here's a new batch of yarn I hand dyed with food colourings over the weekend. I'm still stunned with how well the yarn catches colours. I have to say that I get better results with the food colourings than with the normal, quite toxic dyes.

The first two from the right side are merino/silk yarn and I dyed them for new shawls I have in plans. The other two are nice and soft angora yarn, this time for cute stripped mittens and a matching hat, maybe there will be enough for a cowl as well.

I wish I could spare more time for knitting, dyeing and other crafts but it's quite difficult to do with my day job (which I really like). Can't wait to be retired and to have all days for my hobbies only.... but that will probably happen in 40+ years so all I can do now is to cut one more hour of sleep and spend
it on things I love.

Busy holidays

It's the last day of my summer holidays... buuu... but it was really great! My mom and brother&sister came to Cyprus to visit me. We had lot of fun and spent most of the time on a beach. I'm 5 shades darker than I was 2 weeks ago!

Here's one of the places we visited - the Aphrodite's Beach, a place where - according to Greek myths - Aphrodite was born from a sea foam. It's beautiful, isn't it?

And that's a place really close to Aphrodite - Kourion Archaeological Site, the ruins of ancient palace and amphitheatre.

I also managed to find some time to knit in the evening - the results are great! I have finished 5 shawls, yes - FIVE! Very productive 3 weeks :-) Here's one of the shawls I've finished - a lovely Halloween coloured semi-circular shawl with decorative lace border. I really like how it ended up, I've used one skein of Crazy Zauberball yarn - my new love!

A bit of brown and purple

I just finished these lovely shawls last week - had no time to publish new posts as I've been quite busy with custom orders. I'm working on 2 custom pieces - one for a bride and other one for a groom's mother. How cool is that?

The Purple One
I knitted it using one of my favourite fiber blends, 80/20 merino/alpaca, hand dyed in lovely lavender violet.
You can find it in my MadelinesWardrobe Etsy shop.

The Brown One

This one was knitted using very soft yarn, 70/30 merino/cashmere, in lovely chocolate brown shade. The design is my own. The shawl also available at MadelinesWardrobe shop

Dyeing yarn with food coloring

I was always curious if the food coloring really can dye yarn... It definitely can!  I bought red, blue and yellow food coloring at local grocery store a couple of weeks ago and couldn't wait to try them out. 

All you need  do dye your yarn are food coloring (liquid or paste), vinegar, water & a large pot. You can use any pot you normally use for cooking because the food colorings are not toxic.

The food coloring + vinegar mixture will dye almost all animal fibers.

Soaking:

You need your yarn to be in a loosely tied skein. Fill a large bowl with a lukewarm water and put the skein inside, making sure it's fully covered by water (you can put a small plate on top of it so it'll press the yarn down). Leave it soaking for 30 minutes.

Prepare dyes:

To prepare your food dye, you need hot water, a large cup an food coloring in a color you want. You can always mix different colors (color theory - yellow + blue = green, yellow + red = orange, red + blue = purple etc......).

Remember to wear gloves and an apron or old t-shirt. The food coloring can dye your fingers as well :-)

Fill the cup with hot water and add the food coloring a (you don't have to add much) - you can test the color by dipping a piece of paper towel in the mix.

The fun begins!

Fill the pot with a lukewarm water and add the dye mixture. Take the yarn out of the bowl and slightly squeeze to remove exceed water. Now, put the skein in the pot and gently stir it with a plastic/metal spoon to be sure it's fully soaked with the dye solution.

Now bring the content of the pot to shimmer for 15 minutes, don't allow it to boil. Try to move the yarn as little as possible - if you rub or move it too much it could felt. 

Vinegar

After 15 minutes of shimmering, it's time to add vinegar - it "opens" the yarn and helps it absorb the color making it solid. You will need approx. half of a cup of vinegar - add it to the pot trying not to pour it directly at the yarn. Delicately stir the solution and move the yarn around.

Bring almost to boil and then back to shimmer, let it shimmer for 30 minutes. You will notice that the water gets clearer with every minute. 

After 30 minutes, put the pot aside and let its content to cool to room temperature. When it's done, rinse the yarn with lukewarm water, gently squeeze and hang it in to dry, making sure it's not in the direct sun.

And VOILA! You have your yarn dyed the color you wanted!

Coffee + knitting = perfect lazy Saturday morning

I woke up quite early today and decided to start Saturday the most lazies and nicest way - sipping delicious hazelnut coffee and working on my new shawl.... Mohair is such a nice yarn to work with (unless you have to unravel 5 rows of your project, 350 stitches a row.......) and when it's 75/25 mohair/silk - I'm in heaven!

I've started the shawl yesterday morning before going to work (yay for waking up at 6am....) and it looked like this:

I'm using KidSilk Aura yarn in beautiful dusty blue shade. I just hope that the 5 skeins I bought will be enough to finish the shawl!

And here are my latest addition to the stash - oh my, it's growing fast! I'm still waiting for some yarn I ordered last week. I just wish I could have 8 hands and knit faster :-)

I heart mohair - another shawl is growing fast

Yes, I know I'm crazy :-) Here comes another of my shawls, this time in beautiful pink shades. The mohair was handdyed by one of Etsy sellers - mynameisyarn. I bought it last year and used half of the skein for this shawl and couldn't decide what to do with the other half. I didn't want to waste it! And here it is, a beautiful rectangular shawl. I still have to finish the body panel and knit a nice edging. I just hope I have enough yarn for the edging. If not - I have a nice plan B.

The blue shawl - Day 4

4 days later and my new blue shawl is almost finished! YAY! Just 20-30 more rows left to knit. I totally improvised this design and can't wait to see the shawl finished and blocked. But I have a feeling that it will look really nice. 

And I'm still in love with this color! I think I'll have to order more of this yarn because I've used almost half of the cone for this beauty.