3KCBWDAY3 - My knitspiration

I have  no recollection of when and how I learnt to knit. It must have been in school. My mother and/or my older sister surely helped me as well. They keep telling me that I hold my yarn on my index finger the way my grandma used to hold it. So that must have been passed on to me via my family.

Before I rediscovered knitting in 2007-2008, I knit a lot my own improvised designs. Funny that I rarely do that anymore now that I'm a much better knitter than I used to be.

My husband and I were visiting my family in Lithuania for winter vacation 2007. Our car broke down and as I still had some time off from university, I stayed on to wait for our car to get fixed whereas my husband flew back to Germany. That was a very cold winter with loads of snow. With no car, I was stuck at my parents' house. There was little to do besides reading, watching tv (and that is never an option for me in Lithuania, really) or knit. That is when I rediscovered knitting big time and came across knitting blogs.

I had a big crush with Vogue Capecho at the time. Knitlit's Kate wrote an open letter to the designer, Norah Gaughan. Then I found anothershopgirl's blog. One thing led to another and I had a long list of blogs that I was reading. After a short while, I decided to join into the blogging. Soon afterwards I became a Ravelry member.

Nowadays it is really Ravelry where I find most of my knitting inspirations. When it comes to colourwork, I'm in awe with jettshin's skills (Flickr link here). It also helps seeing knits in action, so whatever shawl Christine is next wearing, I will probably end up wanting one myself. Sabrina knit a lace cardi and I just had to add it to my queue.

And finally, heirlooms like this knitted skirt give me inspiration to knit. Currently I am working on one for my daughter. The above was knit by my husband's grandma. I love how well preserved it is, love the colour combo. And I never tire going through the many many knitted items that she has made through the years for her family. She is my knitting hero. Too bad she's not around anymore. Whenever I wear this skirt or anything else knit by her, it brings sweet memories of her and in the way she's back with us.

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3KCBWDAY2 - Photo

I really thought I was going either to stay out of today's topic or go for a wild card. But instead I'll give you an unspectacular picture of my stash mountain.

And now I will go on about my business, pretending for at least this evening that this is all the yarn that I own.

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3KCBWDAY1 - Colour me, knits!

I decided to join the crowd this year and participate in Knitting and Crochet Blog Week. I do not promise  to be here everyday. Life might hit me and it might be the first and the last entry this week from me, so let's see how far I come along.

Colour. My all time favourite would be red. But if I look at my wardrobe, then I do have many browns, blacks, blues and reds. After my pregnancy I did not want to buy all new wardrobe as I was aiming to get back to my initial weight. That is when black and brown took over. I am trying to dare more colour in my outfits, like this Paulie cardigan in Wollmeise (about which I am yet to blog more extensively).

Most of the time my knits are used as accessories to brighten up the outfit. And I do not single out any colour for that. I love my Side Slip Cloche hat just as much as my Honey cowl. 

Knitting has made me more open to colour.  I do not have any green among my knits, but I feel ready for that. The more accomplished of a knitter I've become, the more appreciative I am of indie dyers and their strong and often unique colours.

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My Ravelry queue and I

This Karie's post has inspired me to blog about my relationship with my Ravelry queue.

I am not that strict as to what comes onto my Ravelry queue as Karie is. But I do try to keep the total number under one hundred, so now and then I go through my queue and delete items that I have changed my mind about.

There are two categories of patterns in my queue:

• Must knit now - got into the queue because either the pattern struck me as a must knit or somebody else's project inspired me to try and knit one myself
• A good stash usage - got into the queue because I thought this might be a good knit one day; it is meant for helping get ideas when knitting for somebody else or using up yarn

Now I don't think I will knit all of these items, most will probably drop out of my queue sooner or later, but there are some special projects there that will definitely be knit up. And I even have yarn for some of them.

Number one in my queue is Grellow Cardigan. That will be a very special knit as I asked my friend Christine to dye some BFL sock for it. Wait till you see the colours!

Up until two days ago Selbu Modern was also in my queue. Ever since January 2009. I bought Shetland Spindrift for exactly this project October 2010 with Jasmine in Loop Islington. Now it felt like the right time to cast on for it. You can see that I'm addicted. I think I am ready to tackle a bigger colourwork project after this.

wordless WIP Wednesday

skirts skirts everywhere

Normally I do not buy any knit magazines in Switzerland, but the newest issue of Debbie Bliss magazine caught my eye. Well, it was this skirt mainly. 

My readers are aware of my skirt addiction. And ever since Lanesplitter was such a success, I am looking for new skirt patterns that might work. Not sure if I like the idea of doubling mohair yarn for it, though. Maybe that's the project for doubling mohair and linen? Anyways, at the rate that I am knitting things lately it might happen only next year.

what I need is...

... some mindless knitting. I tried casting on for a skirt for my daughter, but somehow I had to keep on going back to the beginning. So I left that idea for now and got out some Manos Silk leftovers. I got a nice mindless knitting pattern where after one row it was clear where it was taking me. This is exactly what I need right now.

yes, that's a handknit

But that is not what I want to show off this time.

Look, I made a skirt!

OK, I had some help from a professional sewer. It was fun. Now I'm determined to try and do it all on my own. I thought craftsy would be the right address, but I did not find a course in skirt making. I think I know now what to do, but if you know some online tutorials, tips would be welcome.

The cardi has been knit by my MIL some 20 years ago (I guess). So far I can tell it's been knit buttom-up in the round. The sleeves are a bit too wide for my liking, but otherwise the fit is great.

button fail

I decided to focus on positive things. Really. I could have named this blog post something unthinkable, but instead I'll tell you how I've bought 4 different sets of buttons (above are pictured only two of them) and how all ended up being wrong kind of shade. Somehow the campari orange Wollmeise colourway is this red that looks different depending on the lighting there is. The buttons might look like the right kind of colour at the store, but it is no longer the case once I'm at home. Oh well.

And what is that negative thing that I do not want to think about? That is the fact that I discovered a creature on my freshly blocked cardigan that has been confirmed to be a m***! So now that said cardigan is in the freezer. Luckily this case did not happen at my home where all my lovely stash is as I'm visiting my parents right now. Nevertheless, still frightening. So instead I think of how I am going to wear my new cardigan unbuttoned for now.

wordless WIP Wednesday

not that much left

This is exactly how much (well, how little in fact) MC is left after finishing Paulie front bands. And I thought there'll be some yarn left for my sister's blankie squares. I'm on to the fun part of doing an i-cord bind off. There will be an FO post very very soon.