Untitled

*sigh* I think I'm going to have to accept that I always have loads of pics to upload. So let this be a pre-warning that my blog seems to tell it's stories in picture form mostly, rather than words!


I've been doing lots of experiments this week, with tension squares and the washing machine. I will show you how it went!

First of all here is the Rowan Bigga for a felt project, it's strange to work with as it ranges from tufty, chunky thickness, to tight, thin stuff, so you end up with a wonderfully textural piece of knitting, which I love. I think it's almost sculptural.

I tried combining it with rowan spray, which is totally different. The Bigga felts really well, and Spray doesn't felt. Sadly I don't have an 'after' picture, so I will take one and edit this post when I do.

You end up with fabric that is really varied, you have the sculptured, felted Bigga, and in between you have bits of non felted Spray with detailed colour. It's lovely!

This will become a wall hanging, I need to test the pattern first though!

The above photo looks rathe rnice in black and white too, I have to confess (perhaps for the next post).

Ok below, Wendy Fusion. On the first attempt, at 60 degrees, this didn't felt...

But on a 90 degree wash it felted perfectly..

It's going to be a bag, I have two balls of it, so it'll be stripey (they are different colours), so I need to find a pattern for that.

Ok, here is Gedifra Gigante. I bought this in Venice last year, when I wasn't a knitter, but was wildly attracted to this yarn, which was displayed in the window of a lingerie shop. I got three balls, and have only just decided what to do with them.

This is another yarn of varying thickness, again giving it a sculptural quality (well I think so anyway!!). There's a whole range of reds in it, and browns too, it's really lovely! :D

It felted beautifully, which you will see further down (there's a pic of three felted swatches if you go down a bit!).



Ok next is my first proper felt project. It's Twilley's Freedom Wool, which is divine. The colours are so rich, and it's so soft and snuggly!

Ah here's the three tension swatches I felted. Rowan Bigga, Gedifra Gigante, and Twilley's Freedom.

After (sorry it's orangey, that's what you get for using artificial light! :( )

So having sucessfully felted the swatch but not remembering which wash cycle I used, I decided to invest the whole ball of wool (the only one!) in a DPN pouch. Here you can see it started off well..

After the first wash it was only a bit felted, (sorry orangey light again), so I thought I'd try it again. On the hottest wash on the machine!

Oops! Bit too hot! It's shrunk to pencil case size, and has gone a lovely soft colour. Which is quite lovely but not what I was aiming for!

Never mind, trial and error is what it's about, and it will make a posh pencil case!

This is one of the three incredibly cute buttons that have been sewn onto it....

Isn't he cute! They fell into my hand in my local craft shop. They have a very small range of beautiful buttons in there (there's more further down actually). I didn't buy any yarn though! Yey for the stashalong!

Ok next is a 'real' project - Forest Canopy version two point zero.

This is Rowan Tapestry. It's divinely soft, hard to get used to the paranoia of it falling apart though. However, it doesn't. You just have to knit with it for a while to get over the fear that it will!

I'm further on than this now, but aren't the colours lovely? It's very 'foresty' I think!

Oh here we have the other buttons I got. They are back to front actually, I am quite strange and often find I prefer the backs of buttons to the fronts. (Go on, ridicule me, I know you want to :p )

They go perfectly (in my opinion) with the mohair, and fasten it just right. Being so open there's no button holes, so you can fasten it how you like, because every stitch is a hole!

Here's an 'arty' shot of the Twilley's. *drool*

And here is my first, ugly sock. It's in Opal, and no offense to them but I really don't like the yarn! It's not soft, and I'm not into blue and white stripes! Oops! Not only that but the pattern is designed for huge feet! I can only wear this sock over another pair of socks, which rather defeats the object (apart from in winter). I get very very cold feet, I really struggle to keep them warm, so for me knitting really warm woollen socks sounds ideal, but these are not they!

Oh well I've learnt how to knit a sock now, so will knit it's partner and use them as bed socks.

The next socks will be much nicer yarn!

It's a funny shape on the toe too. Snigger if you will. I did. :p

Ok, phew, all done!

I'm going to York at the weekend, and have put away some money to spend there, so I would really like to get a vouple of balls of soft sock yarn. Maybe one cotton for the summer and one wool for snuggliness (Yes I just made that word up).

Apart from that, and Woolfest on June 29th, I'm on the stashalong on the AY forum. It's going really well, My Sirdar yoyo jacket's sewn up and just needs the remaining border knitting. Of course being the yarn from hell this is a slow process.

Still, It's snuggly and the colours are very effective. I can't wait til I can name the post "sirdar yoyo jacket DONE"!! Hopefully it'll be fairly soon!

Also my shoalwaters going well (see the shoalwater blog in my links), and I'm on row 44 right now.

forest Canopy's also going very well, it shouldn't take too long!

Planned WIPs are three different wall hangings, the second sock, and a very simple scarf using two balls of Wendy Moiselle, and two balls of Patons Moonglow. Simple because I don't know what else to do with them and think two rows of each will look nice!

I go home from uni tomorrow, it's a 4-5 hour journey, I hope my fish and plants (the latter of which I have many), survive. I have zillions of different cacti (not sure how I got into that), about four houseplants, and two bonsai. Oh and a tank full of Tropical fish. This and the rest of my room is going in a small (but four door) Fiesta! Yes I will fit it in ;) (It's mostly already in actually)

BUT... just think of the knitting I could do in that time! On my break I'll probably do some Forest Canopy and have my lunch.

Once I get back life will suddenly become hectic. My OH will want lots of attention, having not seen me for two weeks. My Grandma who is in hospital and lives half an hour away will need lots of looking after, but that includes lots of knitting time, and I love her to bits so that's not really a chore - just hectic!

Plus my parent's house will no doubt need cleaning, my room will need tidying having been taken over by mum and the dogs. Oh we got to York Thursday night too!

So..... I'm not going to have constant broadband at home, just intermittent dial up and occasional broadband. I will of course come online whenever I can! ;) Plus have my Secret Santa parcel to look forward to.

OH I forgot - tomorrow before I leave, the postie should bring my first pair of addi turbo circ's. Yey!

Ok that really is all now, I need to get some sleep!

Ciao for now :) Vik xx

*sigh* zillions of photos.

Now First of all - Don't say I didn't warn you - there are a lot of photo's in this blog entry!!

Above is a closeup of the edge of my Forest Canopy. How could I resist that composition! I'll really miss that sheepskin rug when I go home for the summer! (Might have to take it for photography purposes!!)

First of all here is my shoalwater. I haven't had to frog (yet!), and I just can't stop lusting over the colours! This yarn is really stunning, the colours are so rich! *drool* Also my stitch count has so far been perfect. That's quite an acheivement for me. I haven't yet discovered the secret of where the odd stitches either come from or disappear to. Just one wee one here and there and the World's thrown out of balance!

Ahhhh *sigh*

I took the one below on a black background too.. but I think I prefer it as it looks on my desk (well with heavy tracing paper below it too - you're lucky it isn't covered in drawings)!

Here you can see the fledgeling Shoalwater is growing out of it's needles (I'm waiting for a pair of Addi Turbos, my first Addi experience which I am very ecited about).

And here you can see how I'm keeping sane...

Here is a very quick project I did last week. Great for stash busting. These are mohair loop mitts (from the Natural Dye Studio, the evil temptresses (I don't know the masculine version of that word so we have to assume they are female)).

These took an hour to design and knit (I was on the phone to my Mum). They were done in the remainder of the yarn used for the mincho (mini-poncho), which you have to scroll down for.

It's quite difficult photographing your own pair of hand so one will have to do!

Wheeeeeee scroll down!

This is how the mohair loop knits up:

It's much softer and more delicate once knitted. In the ball it's a pretty colour but feels rather scratchy. I'm not too tolerant of this stuff actually. I can only wear it if I have a really good scratch round my wrists and hands first!

The poncho's ok for itchiness though.

Seeing as I can't take a photo of the back of me (arms not long enough sadly), you will have to make do with a sketch.

And yes I'm well aware the back of my head is not a squiggle, and yes my hips are a lot bigger than that!

It's basically a very simple L shape in garter stitch.

Sorry not knitting, but I got this the other day. I've been dying for one for ages, to test my OH's theory that I have "green fingers". Ha! We'll see how long this one lives... (my onions and peppers are growing very well, but they aren't quite on the level of a Bonsai).

Here is some stash. A tiny percentage of the total you might say. Below is Gedifra Gigante, which I got in Italy (Venice) last summer, long before I started knitting. It's going to be made into a felted project, which is a secret known only to me. Mwahaha.

It's really bright red, with pinks, browns etc. It's lush!

Rowan Spray... it was a bargain, and again, I'd only been knitting a month so planning what to knit with it wasn't an issue when I saw the price tag. (It was less than half price!) I'm not sure if it'll felt, so if anyone know please let me know!

Rowan Biggy Print. Another secret felt project. Mostly secret because I haven't decided yet.

Wendy something-or-other. (Moiselle or something?) Goooorgeous colours, if there's a God of knitting I could do with an idea of what to do with only two balls of this please!

And that my friends, is all for now!

Current WIPs: Sirdar YoYo jacket (will it ever end) the border is now about 3cms longer than the last blog entry. Also Shoalwater (still a fledgeling), my Opal sock (I'm just heading down the foot towards the toe), and I've naughtily just cast on for another forest Canopy in Rowan Tapestry, which is lovely but VERY hairy. And be warned: it does not like being frogged!

I have also got myself a Deviant Art page. My tutor last week (I'm doing architecture), told me I should invest in a professional photography portfolio this summer (stuff doing a CV!), so I thought the first step would be a DeviantArt page.

If you happen to be interested, the address is http://vixxenspirit.deviantart.com Arty name but the others I tried were all taken!

My very talented fiance is working on his skills as a web page designer (what he's done so far is very impressive!), so once he gets me a site of my very own, I hope I might provide a few drool-worthy photos of yarn for people to lust over! (Well I can try!)

That's all for now, Ciao!

Here is my finished Forest Canopy! Yey!



Knitted with Lana Grossa Luxor, 51% wool, 49% Polyester, in a lovely shimmery lilacy colour!



I am very pleased with this, it's my first lace, and I've only been knitting since the end of November, so I am feeling quite smug! Even my 4 male housemates were impressed! I am consequently addicted though......

.... which is why I bought this Kaalund 2-ply Classic, in Pacific colourway, which can be viewed (with othe rlush colours) here:

http://www.angelyarns.com/kaalund/yarn.php/yarn/1273

(If someone can remind me how to change a word into a link, that would be great!)

Isn't the colour just delicious!

I know it's tiny, but it's the beginnings of something big! (I hope!) It's my first five rows of Shoalwater by Fiber Trends.

I can't stop admiring the colour, and softness of it!

I'm using John Lewis' wooden 4mm needles, but have ordered my first pair of Addis, so when they come I will transfer onto them. I'm very excited about it all!

Also below is another new addiciton... socks! I don't actually like the colour particularly, but I'm just so happy to be knitting my first sock that I don't care!

Yes, that is on my hand, you;ll have to bear with me til I dare put it on my foot!

The Sirdar yoyo jacket's coming on. I'm on the border, it's horrible. You do 3x3 rib 10 times, then 2x2 rib, and it's nasty. BUT I suddenly had a flash of thought (a rare occurence), and transferred it onto a circular needle. This is proving more succesful, along with the fact that the increase row was not nearly half as hard as it appears to be in the instructions. So I'm swimming along with this border, and hope to move onto the other border very soon... which means I hop to finish it fairly soon! Woohoo!

My other WIP, is a quick one - it's a mini poncho in NDS's Mohair Loop, on 9mm needles. It's going to be lovely and cosy, and I will post pics soon!


Right back to World of Warcraft! Ciao for now!

Squishy Photography

I got some stash today. Oops. It just kind of fell onto my debit card when I was browsing the Natural Dye Studio's Ebay Shop:
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/The-Natural-Dye-Studio
I wouldn't recommend you to browse it, the same strange thing might happen to you as what happened to me. I really didn't want to buy more yarn but you know how these things happen.



I knitted a wee wrist warmer in their Mohair Loop yarn, which is beautiful, it's a lot softer and more delicate looking once knitted up.

Here is what I received today! This'll whet your appetite... teehee

Laceweight Silk, in a rich lavender/lilac colour, I couldn't get the colour to show up well I'm afraid...

Next is Cobweb Mohair, in Apricot. It's divine, you can see how delicate it looks....

Cobweb Mohair again, but in Damask Rose...

These yarns all feel deliciously squishy and soft. I got 3 skeins of silk, 3 of Apricot, 2 of Rose and 2 of the Loop (which I've had a while). It was a total bargain as well :D

I'm thinking of joining the DeviantArt website to post my p hotography on (I'm hoping to do lots over the summer and improve).

I am making great progress with my Forest Canopy - I'm nearly finished, I have two repeats left to do and the border. Also my first sock is coming on - I'm nearly at the heel. And, my Sirdar yoyo jacket border is half a cm longer. (That's one row in three days).

Ciao for now!