Life de Luxe - knitting

KnitPicks in Europe!

2008-11-05T20:58:00.003+01:00

The French online shop Tricotin.com sells KnitPicks yarn and needles. I have heard lots of good things about the quality, and the prices are really good.

Among other things, the store keeps KnitPicks SockBlanks, knitted pieces to be painted and ripped back to knit uniquely patterned socks.

Since Tricotin is a French shop, there's no risk of added taxes or duty-fees for EU-based clients. (And as far as I know, KnitPicks in the US are still not able to handle overseas orders...)

Other nice things from the Tricotin shop:

The lovely handdyed embroidery or knitting wool from Renaissance Dyeing. You can buy 12 different shades in a kit, and some of the colours are available in bigger skeins. This could be the starting point for some sublime work! [Renaissance Dyeing in Ravelry]

Chevalier du sable

2008-02-17T23:52:00.003+01:00

Meet my new hero: le Chevalier du sable.

Needles, sticks and a loaded gun

2008-02-12T20:52:00.000+01:00

My husband the ski enthusiast told me about one of the world's best female biathlon athletes, Magdalena Neuner from Germany. She is three times world champion in the noble sport of skiing and shooting.

She's also a knitter, and German yarn makers Lana Grossa seem to be among her sponsors. They have set up a website for her, Magdalena strickt, with patterns and knitblog. It's all in German, but the language of knitting is usually quite easy to interpret.

Blogger seems to have upload problems again, if you can't see the images here, take a look in her Bildergalerie.

- - -

The weather in Luxemburg is far from suitable for skiing, it's quite warm and the skies have been clear and blue for several days now. I have finished Mr Greenjeans, I just need to trim the yarn ends and sew in buttons. It's very nice. I'll get photos for the blog and Ravelry this weekend. (At least it's the plan!)

I just cast on for a pair of Chevalier mittens, using a Finnish pattern (luckily with English translation!). I'm using two strands of Jojoland Harmony, and so far my first mitten is beautiful. I'm cabling without cable needle and the double yarn, the very tight cables and 5 dpns make for an interesting adventure...

My husband wanted a red and black scarf and I had some problems finding the right pattern. In the end I settled for bicolour brioche (tv�f�rgad patentstickning).

Bis sp�ter!

Dubbelm�ssa

2008-01-19T23:44:00.000+01:00

So, what's this? A rugby ball cover for winter training? Nope. It's a dubbelm�ssa for my father.

It can be worn like this:

Or like this:

Pay It Forward!

2007-12-12T14:56:00.000+01:00

Jag kommer att skicka en handgjord present till de tre f�rsta personer som l�mnar en kommentar p� min svenska blogg och s�ger att de vill vara med i Pay It Forward. Jag vet inte vad det blir, och det kommer inte att bli klart p� den h�r sidan jul, men n�gong�ng under de n�rmaste 365 dagarna blir det klart. Det lovar jag! Det enda jag beg�r av den som anm�ler sig �r att han eller hon lovar samma sak p� sin egen blogg.

Min hemliga present kommer s� sm�ningom fr�n Emma & Co.

I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my Swedish blog requesting to join this Pay It Forward exchange. I don't know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

Reporting in

2007-12-06T10:57:00.000+01:00

- The new Knitty is up, and I'm impressed by the number of patterns and the variety, but there is only one thing I'd really like to knit from this issue: Jeanie

- I'm on Ravelry since a month or so, my user name is JorunKnits. It's an impressive thing, the Ravelry, but I'm not planning to list everything I own and plan there, I don't have that much time on my hands...

- I still knit.

Recently finished:
- one of my sockyarn shawls for the church bazaar
- a machine washable baby blanket for a boy who is six days today. Tonight I dreamed that he was learning to walk - can you tell that my life is speeding by?
- a Calorimetry headband
- a purple bamboo scarf

On the needles in Lux:
- Mr Greenjeans cardigan
- Big green log cabin blanket in sock yarn
- A dubbelm�ssa hat for my big boy
- A scarf that I've more or less ignored for a month or so
- A pretty grey invention that needs to get back on track. Will pick it up again when Mr Greenjeans is completed.

On the needles in Sweden:
- a dog blanket
- a silk/cashmere shawl
- my neglected Phildar eponge/sunset cardi
- a big thick Phildar sweater in need of sleaves
- a number (yet unknown) of other things in various stages of completion.

Jeanie will have to wait a little...

Knitty fall 07: WOW!

2007-09-14T15:05:00.000+02:00

The Knitty fall issue is finally up, and I'm very impressed. Normally, each issue contains one or two things I might consider knitting. This one is full of great designs, and one or two that I don't like. And looking at the things I don't like, I believe it's more a question of sizing, the knitters should have sized up their garments or found slightly smaller models.

I think I could quite happily knit through all of these patterns.

Hello world

2007-09-05T13:22:00.000+02:00

Oh, my posts here are few and fare between. What can I say? Not much.

I just saw this in Vogue's Look books for autumn/winter 2007 and I'm intrigued but not really attracted. How do they do this? Knitting with 50-mm rods and spinning fibres?

I am knitting, but not very much and not very interesting things. But there will be news on this site, sooner or later, Stay tuned...

Finished

2007-04-01T20:43:00.000+02:00

My shawl Bj�rk is finally finished.

The "body" is done in Opal Zebra (from the Rainforest series). The leaves are done in Phildar 100% laine (a green shade called bronze, go figure...) with the other side of the leaves (sewn on) in various green sock yarns. The pattern is my own. The leaves were taken from Nicky Epstein's Knitting on the edge.

Temporary glitch, preview of Bj�rk

2007-02-21T14:37:00.000+01:00

(The disappearance of Mason Dixon was a very temporary thing and something that must have happened in the middle of the night, US time, I haven't seen any reference to it anywhere.)

Well, to slowly get back to the habit of posting: here is a preview of my Bj�rk shawl. Bj�rk is Swedish for Birch, and I have finally found a way to use my Opal Zebra sockyarn. I tried two different socks with it but they were both horrible - and frogged. I like the bark-like structure and colour. The shawl will have a leaf-shaped border in different shades of green. Not spring-time birch leaves but rather late summer.

My main girls?

2007-02-01T11:15:00.000+01:00

Where are the lovely Ann and Kay? Their blog seems to have dropped of the edge of the Internet. I hope it is a temporary glitch.

Well, I've been away from this nook in the blogosphere for a long, long time, and I hoped to come back in a more planned manner, showing stuff and being interesting.

Since last time, I've moved my family some 2500 kilometers from where I currently work and live. We are not divorced or separated - except by the very long distance of course. We are looking for other solutions but so far without success.

I'll be back, and I certainly hope mason dixon will as well.

A zippy I might need

2006-07-25T10:21:00.000+02:00

Anna Torborg: A zippered pouch

Hundertwasser by Opal

2006-07-24T23:45:00.000+02:00

Opal will release a new line of sock yarn, inspired by the works of the artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser. At the same time, a leaflet with interesting sweater designs will be published. I was surprised to see that my favourite colourway is called "the road to socialism!, I supposed it's paved with good intentions...

You need to register to access the pre-release site.

Hundertwasser was an architect, an artist and a poet. He designed his own clothes, including socks and shoes:

"Man fragt immer:
Herr Hundertwasser, warum tragen Sie zwei verschiedene Socken?
Dazu meine stereotype Antwort:
Warum tragen Sie zwei gleiche Socken?"

(People always ask: "Mr Hundertwasser, why are you wearing two different socks?" I always reply: "Why are you wearing two identical socks?")

Preview

2006-07-13T15:53:00.000+02:00

Quand nous en serons au temps des cerises
Et gai rossignol et merle moqueur
Seront tous en f�te
Les belles auront la folie en t�te
Et les amoureux du soleil au coeur
Quand nous chanterons le temps des cerises
Sifflera bien mieux le merle moqueur

The Annie edge

2006-07-06T15:18:00.000+02:00

For future reference:
The Annie edge

Perfect knot

2006-07-06T10:10:00.000+02:00

For future reference:
Heather Bailey's favourite knot

No yarn cast-off

2006-07-05T09:40:00.000+02:00

For later reference: the Yarn Harot teaches the noble art of casting off when all the yarn is gone.

Crochet cast-off

Knitting hugs for special people

2006-06-28T11:34:00.000+02:00

I have had little time for knitting these las weeks, but as always, there is some work going on. My UFOs are still waiting patiently, I had to do some emergency gifts. My son has three lovely teachers whom we really would like to thank for theit patient work this year. I decided to knit something for them, and thought that scarves would be nice for autumn when he's not coming back to hug them. I thought I would create three different scarves using the same yarn. I took three balls of a merino/acrylic blend I had in my boxes and dyed them using German egg dye. Yes, I will move on to more serious stuff one day. Only not this day and year...

This is what the skeins looked like while still wet.

Here is the dry, lighter end result. I have finished scarf 1, a small moebius with some twinkly beads/pearls at the edges.

Scarf 2 is reversible and cabled, and I realised that it needs two balls of yarn to be long enough.

Teacher number 3 will get something entirely different, but still knitted. Double-knitted panholders in a pattern close to the famous Mason Dixon washrag. The cotton I had was too thin, that's why I'm knitting it double.

Time is running out, school ends 7/7 and I have a lot of other things to do. Clickety click, all night.

Spykids?

2006-05-31T22:47:00.000+02:00

Knitty seems to have been hacked, the front page says Spykids and nothing more. Links to single patterns work though.

Let's hope it has been fixed when you read this.

Inspiration: MarianneS crochets

2006-05-31T15:40:00.000+02:00

Estonian crafter MarianneS has some amazing freeform crochet work on display at Flickr. This woman has an unusual skill for picking just the right colours. It could have turned out garish and awful, but it is simply lovely.

MarianneS keeps a blog called heegeldab, but since I don't understand Estonian, it's just eye candy for me.

Let's play balls!

2006-05-21T21:55:00.000+02:00

The football world championships will start in a few weeks' time, and the football fever is slipping into the world of stitches as well. Marika has started a Football knit along, and I have asked to join the UFO-otball team. I'm not very interested in football, but I know a man who loves the game and I think I know what our TV will show for one month... I hope to finish off some of the UFOs listed below!

Cleaning out my closet...

2006-05-21T20:47:00.000+02:00

As I wrote earlier, we are moving back to Sweden in August. Yesterday I started packing some of my yarn, and checking my UFOs. Let me introduce my unfinished friends!

Some of you may recognise this tank top, she has appeared here with alarming regularity without ever coming close to the finishing line. This is the Microfiber Sangria, with roots in 2002, changes in 2003, 2004 and 2005. Will this be the Year of the Sangria? Somehow I doubt it.

This is one of the projects born from the Phildar "Chanel" failure. The links to Phildar's site don't work anymore, so I can just tell you that I realised that the suggested colour scheme in the pattern was the only one that could possibly work. Unfortunately, this discovery came after I had spent a lot of money on yarn in incompatible shades. The overwhelming fluorescent green of the Clapotis yarn was a warning sign I ought to have noticed, but I suppose I was ill that day. The funnel neck sweater will probably be used as a warning sign on days when it is wise to keep some distance.

This is part two of the "Chanel" rescue operation; the White stripes cardigan with transparent opulent stripes of gold through the white terry-like fabric. If I ever fit into the finished thing, I bet some cold hard euros that I will look approachable. Snuggle up...

Some time ago, the world of online knitters was swept away by Annie Modesitt's Circular shrug for Vogue knitting. (I'm not involved in this knitalong, but they have some nice variations of the shrug.) I used the pattern to get rid of some oddballs from my stash. My niece was supposed to get it for Christmas, but I lost a ball of dark blue yarn and the process stalled. I have knit it on 80 cm circulars, and last night I put it on a (long) piece of string for the first time. I think it might be worth the effort to continue, although the dark blue vanished.

This is a cardigan for a pretty girl called Olga who needs something soft and pink right now.

The pink yarn is Phildar's Cecilia, and the multicoloured is a ball of Louisa Harding's Kimono Angora, from my February trip to London. I'm happy I could match the Cecilia so well, from memory!

This project (Phildar yarn again, this time "Peluche") started last Easter and was ment for my son Jonas. It still fits, but it will soon be too short. Finish or abandon? We'll see. He is a cuddly boy, so he might like the sweater.

I finished knitting this shawl quite some time ago, but I have never worn it. Why? Well, it has a gazillion yarn ends that need to be taken care of. It is a stash buster, I used remains from ancient projects (some of it are leftovers from a baby sweater I made for my now 25 years old youngest sister, picking bits and ends from my mother's stash...)

To make the list complete, I added my on-going socks. Missing from the list: a fair-isle potholder in black and charcoal, a thing called Ch�rie for Magknits. I feel an over-whelming urge to start something new, but my plan is to pack away all but the UFOs. Wish me good luck!

Finally, a finished object. A blanket for my newest little niece, who still has a long way to go before she can leave the hospital.

Warm summer shawl

2006-05-18T15:07:00.000+02:00

I'm moving to the north of Sweden, where the summer nights are long and light, but not very warm. Something more than a drafty lace is needed if you want to avoid the old winter coat over your sleeveless dress. In preparation for this, I've started a luxurious yet simple shawl in silk and cashmere.

The green yarn is Hipknit's handdyed silk in aran weight, and the baby blue is cashmere in aran weight, also from Hipknits. The off-white is a discontinued raw silk from Garnstudio. They have a similar quality now but it seems to be much thinner.

The knit fabric is soft and the different textures compliment each other. I have just made a wider green stripe with some strange lace-and-bobbles pattern. I hope it will look interesting and not just weird...

I haven't decided what to do when I run out of yarn, the green will be first. I can't just add anything from the stash, it needs to be something luxurious in aran weight. The colours remind me of birch trees and their white trunks against a blue sky. I don't know if I should add more colour or try and match the ones I have. We'll see...

Greetings from the silent planet

2006-05-05T16:04:00.000+02:00

Somewhere in the far corners of the knitting galaxy, I'm still clicking away, but more on the needles than on the keyboard. (Well, my "normal" blog, in Swedish, is always updated, come and visit if you want to! >>> Life de Luxe)

I have been knitting a lot since I finished the Silk garden scarf, I just haven't had the time and energy to blog my stuff. This sudden energy drain has two main reasons; pollen allergy and moving woes. The birch pollen season is over soon, the move will linger longer.

We have decided to go back to Sweden, after more than five years in Luxemburg. We have found a house to rent, my husband will study and the boys will go to school. I am still looking for a job. Our worst case scenario is that I will stay here for a while, providing for the family, and move north when I find a good job.

I promised a long time ago that I would post pictures of my Olympic achievement, the Downhill cardigan. Here it is!

One of the knitters on the Swedish mailing list Sticklistan suggested that I include a cable in the shoulder seams. This was a top-down knitting, and I think the cable hid the raglan increases beautifully. (I think it was Heidi who tought me how to make he increases less visible, I hope I kept the e-mail somewhere...)

I knit a cable along the front edge, and let it continue up through the garter stitch collar. I don't know if I should have done the same thing with the raglan cables. I knit an applied icord on the front edges. I still haven't decided if I'll sew in a zipper or just continue to wear it with a flower pin.

Finally, the bottom of the hill. I decided to end with garter stitch to prevent rolling and to match the neck. I added cables in the "side seams" (it turns out I like cables, I thought I didn't!) and let them continue through the garter stitch edge.

Yarn: Phildar Coton microfibres, 50% acrylics, 50% coton
I used fewer balls than expected, maybe 8 or so.
Project duration: 16 days, just like your average olympic game
Pattern: loosely based on the Incredible Custom-fit Raglan Sweater

I loved the challenge, and now I know that I'm the kind of knitter who can turn out a sweater in two weeks. I wear it now and then, and have got nice compliments on it. The yarn pills a little, but not too bad. The top-down knitting is nice, but next time I'll eliminate the purled rounds and go for a sweater.

First I'll finish a great number of things, some of which I may present next time I surface...

Knitted ceramics

2006-04-04T09:30:00.000+02:00

The German ceramist Annette Bugansky has created a series of knit porcelain vessels. Her mother knits the basic shapes in thick cotton yarn and they are transformed into molds where the porcelain clay is poured. The porcelain clay is then fired at a high temperature to get a semi-transparent matte surface.

The images is borrowed from the craft2eu.net website, where many interesting designers showcase their work. The London yarn store Loop also stocks some of Bugansky's work.

(Link via Chicknits)