Knitting socks again!

As I thought I wouldn't be me if I hadn't started another knitted projects! ^^
(In fact I've started more than one, but the other one is too small to be called a project. If it works, I'll write up a real project plan for myself and place it in "On the needles" section.)

So, I'm knitting the Socks of Chaos with my mysterious yarn. Why mysterious? Because I bought it on the on-line Polish auction, and the seller only new that it was acrylic (yes, I know, all wool and silk connoisseurs look at me with disapointment and disgust... ^^), and that it was from the USA. No name, no gauge, no paper band with details.
But it was funny cheap and looked like that (interesting, ha? ^^):

So I bought it. Now, could someone tell me what it is?

Anyway, I started the toe-up socks (on nedles 5 mm) and learned a new technique - a short row toe and heel! ^^

Can someone tell me if there is a way to knit this in regular stripes? I think the way it looks now is interesting and totally lives up to the name I've given these socks ^^, but I was wondering about the method of more regular knitting.

I loosesly follow the instructions found here: thank you, Wendy! ^^, but my gauge is different, so I must improvise. Frankly speaking, I'm surprised that it fits quite well, and I'm scared that the second one will be totally different ( call it the Fear of Knitting In Pairs syndrome...). But we'll see about that, because I still have lots to knit of the first sock. I want to make it as high as possible, because I have three skeins and I'm still in the middle of the first skein. I treat this as a dry run before the socks from the book by Nancy Bush, and before I start to knit with my beautiful Opal yarn (I decided to buy special needles for this yarn - Clover 3 mm. They are damn expensive here in Poland, but well... this yarn deserves some treat! ^^ And I deserve a new pair of sock needles, and I always wanted to try Clover bamboo ones, and frankly speaking I also need 4 mm needles, so it might even be a double purchase, who knows?... ^v^).
Progress soon, because it's going very quickly! ^^

Fit and Knit



Last night I had the exam at my belly dancing class - we had to prepare a short 30 second show to a chosen piece of music. I am very proud of myself because I got 97 points out of possible 100! ^v^ The teacher said, that I have a very good hip movements, and that I'm very advanced as for beginners stage. She also praised my step choices for the show. I still have to work on the hand movements (I know that, coordination is the key word!), but overall I'm not bad at all! *^v^*
Funny thing though... There are about 20 girls in my group. They all knew about the exam (all but one). Guess how many people came to the class on Thursday? 5!... There was me, another girl prepared for the exam, two girls totally unprepared but they improvised and of course passed, and the one who didn't know about the exam (that's why she came...) and got scared and refused to take it, and got 70 points in the end for the attendance, because the teacher didn't want to make a big deal out of it, and it wasn't even a "real" exam with grades. It was rather a test for ourselves, because the teacher could see us individually and point out strong and weak points, and direct us to more or less advanced groups for the next year. Next week I'm having the last class this term and then I'm on my own for vacation - I'll be practising at home by myself, until 14th August, when I'm going to have intensive full week workshop with another teacher. And then new term starting in September. Summer comes and some things have to finish, well... ^^


BTW, you may think I totally forgot about Project Spectrum June blue, but there is nothing blue around me, really... I don't wear blue, do not surround myself with blue, I rarely buy blue fabric or yarn so I don't do crafts in blue. Well, maybe next week I'll hunt around my house and try to find blue footprints around! ^^

Look what I got! ^^

Totally unexpected! ^^

I got a gift from Halina, one of my Amazon wishlist books, "Folk Socks" by Nancy Bush.
It is an absolute surprise for me and I am a very happy girl, since socks are one of my best items to knit (next to lace shawls and bags!). I looked through the book quickly on my way home from the post office and I'm already in love with some patterns. ^^
I even thought about the One Pair of Socks a Month project, maybe a KAL? We'll see about that later. ^-^
Of course, I'm not going to leave this situation unanswered, so as soon as I hear from Halina and get to know her preferences, I'm sending a big parcel all the way to Chicago! >^o^<

Jewellery

Yesterday I spent 1,5 hours at the polishing machine and here is the final view of the cat pendant for Robert:

Forgive the funny angle but it's so hard to take a good picture of it now... it's like a mirror and when I tried to take a photo from the front everything got reflected in its surface: me, the camera, the rest of the room... ^^
Last night I had my last class in this school year. So, now I have two months of gathering tools, stones, silver, and ideas, and in September I'm starting another year of my jewellery adventure! ^^
For now in the jewellery field I'm playing with wool and beads, if my swatches turn out fine, I'll show you first results soon!

My own business

Well, I'm not talking about my business exactly, but I'd like to recommend a series of posts from Whip Up, written by Alicia Paulson, about how to set up and run your own business.

Naming your craft business
Store selling vocabulary
About that 50%
Think like the buyer
Ironing Board Loves Computer
Pricing your work

Off into the third year...

Thank you very much for your nice comments on my last post! ^^ Well, you know, 14 years together must mean something, ne? ^^ I believe I chose the right man.
Lobstah, I had only one bridesmaid and she wasn't wearing a sari (although we thought about that). She was wearing a very elegant short black dress. So short that when she was sitting down, the dress was going up considerably and all the male guests at the ceremony were suddenly very nervous!... ^-^
Desi, I bought my sari online, from www.homeindia.com . I love buying from them, it was my fourth purchase and everytime I was very happy about the products as well as the extremely fast shipping from India to Poland. Not to mention that I paid half of what I would have paid here for a Western wedding dress - and it's six metres of embroidered silk with Svarovski crystals all over (it was the first time I really shimmered in the sunlight... *^v^* )!
BTW, my husband was wearing the XVIII-th century suit which was made by the tailor from a scratch, and I also ordered for him a tophat from the lady who works in the National Great Theatre in Warsaw.
And on Monday evening we went to a sushi restaurant and I was wearing the same shoes as two years ago! ^^

Off to other things now! ^^

Ella shawl is growing!

I am currently in row 7 of section IV, which means I finished the main part and started the right wing of the shawl. I must admit that this pattern is a bit tricky - it's rather easy to make a mistake - forget to yo or pass the slipped stitch over the knit one (at least for me) but those mistakes are easy to fix and after the third section it's knitting up rather quickly.
I would like to try this design with some multi-coloured yarn one day.
And I also thought about the blocking of this shawl - I believe it'll end up quite big and I thought about steam pressing it instead of blocking. Have you ever tried it?

Yesterday I modified my Yarn Guard Basket - I added the lining with some sturdy interlining to the handle and just the lining to the rest of the basket - in this way the handle doesn't fall down inside and the ball of yarn doesn't get caught by the felted surface of the basket.


I can finally show you my surprise present for Robert for our anniversary - I made him a silver cat that is based on a pattern from a X-th c. Novgorod, Russia. It's a pendant and he'll use it for the necklace for our historical reenactment outfit.

It still needs a lot of machine polishing! Yes, I know, I didn't make it in time, but he was happy anyway. ^^

Additionally, he got two simple silver horses of Viking origin. ^^


And, you've probably seen this already on Saartje's blog, but I would highly recommend visiting Whip Up site. It's a place for crafty people like us, full of ideas, inspirations, news about artists, techniques, exhibitions, patterns, you name it!

19 June 2004

Two years today. ^^
Well, in fact 14 years together, can you imagine?!... *^-^*

Me and my girls on the night before! ^^


Anna, Zuzia, me, Joanna (Marzena is missing because she's behind the camera)

Next day in the Old Town. The first sunny and warm day after two weeks of rain! ^-^
My Mom almost didn't come to our wedding because I was wearing sari, and not some traditional ecru Western dress!...


Look, how happy we were! ^^
One moment later I spilled the cream from a cake on my outfit and was shouting for help to my bridesmaid Anna... >^v^<

Planning

Resume of the last week plans:

Knitting:
- third felted bag for Bag Me KAL June - finished! I'm going to add one more thing to it, namely the lining, to make it sturdier and because the yarn gets caught by the felted inside of the basket. I also need some inside pockets.
- Ella shawl - growing! I'm starting section III tomorrow.
- toe-up socks using the mysterious yarn - not yet, because I think I need 4 mm needles for this (and I don't have them, need to buy 3 and 4 mm needles).

Embroidery:
- band for Robert's caftan - done a bit, but it's still a long way to go...
- kokoshnik (sewing and embroidery) - will be making next week probably

Sewing:
- three skirts for Sylwia - finished! ^^
- two bags for sale ready, three more almost finished
- sleeveless top for sew? I knit - finished! ^^

Other:
- tutorials for cord making using the circle and the lucet - posted! ^^

Not bad, huh?! ^-^


My projects for the coming week involve:

Knitting:
- Ella shawl - on going
- toe-up socks - swatching with the mysterious yarn on needles 3,5 mm and 5 mm,
- another felted bag - either Buttonhole Bag or Twice As Nice Bag

Sewing:
- fourth skirt for Sylwia - black linnen with white lace, rather simple pattern, so it should be a quick one
- knitting bag for myself - my first quilted project, so keep your fingers crossed! ^^ It's going to be a basic squared-bottom tote, with lots of inner pockets for books, knitting needles, mobile, and whatever else I'm always carrying around (and I'm really in need for a big bag right now because I noticed that my favourite backpack is slowly loosing its bottom...)
- some new bags for sale - quilted bags, I hope, although I still have to finish five other bags that I've cut and started earlier. But I want to try at least one quilted patchwork bag.

Other:
- felted jewelery - I need to knit a bag first, because I need more items to put into washing machine to felt than just several cords... ^^

Looks like another busy week! *^-^*
Off to bed now! ^^

I don't know how to rest...

Yes, and it's a big problem for me.
I always do something, not only when I plan to sit and knit/sew/ect, but also while watching tv, travelling, I keep my hands busy all the time. And when I have nothing in my hands at the moment, I keep thinking about current and future projects, make new plans, imagine solutions to project problems.
I am not able to switch off completely, even for one day. Even for one hour. Doing nothing seems to me like a terrible waste of time. And because I started so many things and put them away, they haunt me now as UFOs, so I think about finishing them all the time (some of them get finished luckily! ^^).
But I feel I need a rest. For my mind's safety. I need one day away from doing things and thinking about doing things. How could this be arranged? I have no idea... Because I always say: "Yes, I must take a break, but not yet, not today, because there is still this and that to be done...".
Any ideas?

Currently I also feel uneasy because there is only Ella shawl on my needles (I'm not counting Checkered Scarf because it's a next-winter project). I feel I want something else to switch between knitting projects. Maybe I'll finally try the mysterious yarn I bought with the vision of stripey socks? Do you know any good toe-up sock patterns? I have three skeins of the yarn and want to use them fully, so I want to start from the toes and go up as high as 1,5 skeins for one sock.

Ella is growing, I still have 20 rows of section II to knit and then I'll start the first wing part.

Yesterday, for a moment, I thought I found the perfect pattern for my green cotton yarn (the one I bought together with my Clapotis plum/violet cotton, which is lovely, and the green one is totally blah...). I read on Liz's blog that she started to knit Saturday Market Bag and I thought "That's the ideal project for the blah green!" But it wasn't!... I swatched and it behaves terrible and looks ugly. I'm afraid, it'll stay in my stash forever...

Sewing update: next week I'm going to try something I've never tried before! ^^
Which is quilting, my dears! ^v^
I've never made a single quilt in my whole life and when I look at all the beautiful quilted bags (yes, I said "bags", what did you expect I would make?... *^-^*) all around the blogs, I feel tempted to try. Already have some ideas on my mind (that's what I told you earlier in this post - I can't stop thinking about different projects even if I'm not making them yet...).
Quilting, here I come! ^^

And, one more thing, felting inspired me much, and I'm preparing a new project that combines cord-making, felting and jewelery making in one.
Somebody, stop me! ^^

FREE PATTERNS - Yarn Guard Felted Basket

What I used:
- 2,5 skeins of wool in green (50m/50g),
- 3 skeins of wool in orange (50m/50g),
- 1,5 skein of wool in yellow (50 m/50 g)
- 0,5 skein of fuzzy yellow yarn with small feathers
- needles 8mm circular, 8 mm straight (for the bottom and the handles)
- tapestry needle or crochet hook

Bottom of the bag:

CO 21 st with green yarn.
R1: k3, turn
R2: k all
R3: k6, turn
R4: k all
R5: k9, turn
R6: k all
R7: k12, turn
R8: k all
R9: k15, turn
R10: k all
R11: k18, turn
R12: k all
R13: k21
R14: k all
R15: k18, turn
R16: k all
R17: k15, turn
R18: k all
R19: k12, turn
R20: k all
R21: k9, turn
R22: k all
R23: k6, turn
R24: k all
R25: k3, turn
R26: k all

Change the yarn into orange, repeat rows 1-26.
Continue knitting triangles, changing the colours after 26 rows. You mut knit 5 green triangles and 5 orange triangles.
When the first and the last triangles meet, bind off the stitches on the wrong side of the bag and connect them to achieve the round bag bottom.
You can do it in two ways:
- either bind off all the stitches of the last triangle, and then sew the two triangles together using tapestry needle
- or do a kind of a three-needle bind-off, (but without the second needle) - just put your working needle through the stitch on the left needle AND through the stitch on the edge of the first green triangle.

Body of the bag:

Now, with 8 mm circular needle, pick up 120 st around the bottom of the bag - 12 stitches per one triangle.
Work in stockinette from here.
Knit 7 rows in green.
Knit 5 rows in orange.
Knit 3 rows in yellow.
Knit 5 rows in green.
Knit 3 rows in orange.
Knit 2 rows in yellow.
Knit 3 rows in green.
Knit 2 rows in orange.
Knit 1 row in yellow.
Work in garter stitch with orange yarn for 5 rows.

Change yarn into yellow wool kept together with fuzzy yellow yarn.
Knit 10 rows in stockinette.
BO.



Handle:

Pick up 20 st along the edge with straight needle 8 mm.
R1: k2, p16, k2
R2: k20
R3: k2, p16, k2
R4: k2, k2 tog, k12, k2 tog, k2
R5: k2, p14, k2
R6: k2, k2 tog, k10, k2 tog, k2
R7: k2, p12, k2
R8: k2, k2 tog, k8, k2 tog, k2
R9: k2, p10, k2
R10: k2, k2 tog, k6, k2 tog, k2
R11: k2, p8, k2
R12: k2, k2 tog, k4, k2 tog, k2
R13: k2, p6, k2
R14: k2, k6, k2
R15: k2, p6, k2
Repeat rows 14 and 15 - 15 times.

R46: k2, m1, k6, m1, k2
R47: k2, p8, k2
R48: k2, m1, k8, m1, k2
R49: k2, p10, k2
R50: k2, m1, k10, m1, k2
R51: k2, p12, k2
R52: k2, m1, k12, m1, k2
R53: k2, p14, k2
R54: k2, m1, k14, m1, k2
R55: k2, p16, k2
BO.
Attach the handle on the other side of the bag using crochet hook or tapestry needle. Make sure you count 40 st on both sides from the place you started to knit your handle - that's the exact place to attach the handle.
If you want the handle to be sturdier, knit with two threads held together.

Felt and enjoy! ^^

Before I'll show you my Yarn Guard bag

Taken from Kimberly's blog:
Please leave a one-word comment that you think best describes me - it can only be one word long. Then copy and paste this in your journal so that I may leave a word about you.

Look what the postman brought! ^^

Yes, it's my prize for May bag (Bag Me KAL) - Wendy, you are a Goddess! >*^o^*<


It's a ball of Opal sock yarn - It was one of my "knitter's dream" yarn, I've seen Opal here and there on blogs and wondered how on Earth I could get my hands on a skein - and here it is, right in my arms! ^^
Second one - a huge (250 g) skein of awesome orange New Zealand wool for another felted bag! ^v^

And the bag pattern (in fact, two bags - smaller and bigger) - The "Twice As Nice" Bag. I think I might combine this orange Wool Pak with the green wool I have left from my Yarn Guard Basket and make a two-colour version.

And last, but not least, I got a fan - very handy right now, since we started to have a real hot summer in Poland! Thank you very, very much! ^^

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I finished the top for Sew? I knit just in time. I still got some of this fabric, maybe I'll make a matching bag? ^^


Here is also the photo of a blue skirt for Sylwia (my camera finally decided to cooperate!).


And I'm felting the Yarn Guard Basket today, so I hope to post the tutorial and photos at the end of the week.

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My first year as a jeweler's apprentice is almost finished, there are only three classes left and then there will be summer break. I already enlisted for next year - this time I won't have to sit in front of the Artistic Centre closed doors from 12:00 till 17:00 to apply (some girls waited since 9:00 in the morning!...) I have so many ideas, and finally I'll be able to transform many jeweler's stones I kept buying for years into pieces of jewelery for me and for my family. Even now I'm working on something, but I cannot tell you yet, because I'm not sure whether my husbands reads my blog - and it's a surprise for him for our 2nd wedding anniversary (whic is on 19th June). So, whatever it is, I'll show you next week! ^-^
BTW, if you want to see some works of my teacher, here is his webpage: Roman Kowalkowski , the page is in Polish, but there are no descriptions, only his jewelery, oil paintings and artistic photos.

Knitting and sewing like crazy

That's what I've been doing for the past few days!...
I'm sewing bags - two of them here finished:



I must admit this is my favourite model so far! It's very spacious, very neatly fits the armpit as well as comfortable while kept in hand. I'll be making one for myself definitely!
For the details and patterns - visit my Friendsheep Bag-o-rama blog! ^^

I've been also knitting.
Yarn Guard Basket for Bag Me KAL is almost ready. I still need to knit 10 top rows with some fuzzy yarn and the handle. And then felt it. I'm very anxious about the final size after felting. It's fun to felt! ^^

Ella is growing, too.

Look, I've arranged a heart shape with my Ella! ^^

I made two mistakes on the way and had to frogg two rows, but it's going fairly easy, once you get the rhytm of this pattern. I'm almost done with section II, and it's time to decide whether I want this to be triangular or like in the original design. I've already thought about that a bit and I think I'll make this one in the funky shape for myself, and the second one sometime in November for my Mom in triangular shape - I think I've found a pattern for her Christmas present! ^^

And because my camera played tricks today I cannot show you the blue skirt for Sylwia I've sewn yet... But I'll try to take a good photo tomorrow. Now I only have one to sew - the black one. Yatta! ^^

Last Saturday was the first really sunny and warm day in Poland this season. ^^ So, we spent time outside. First we went with Robert's father to a picnic organised for the Polish subway employees.

Sunny day, yatta! ^^

Firemen's truck that can go into the subway tunnel on rails and carry the rescue operation.


Robert and his father.

And then we and our friends Anna and Gabriel went to the Amusement Park, and Robert with Anna decided on a roller-coaster!... It wasn't very big, but they were scared anyway, and they both decided while being in the highest point that they changed their minds and want to quit, but it was too late!... ^^


You should hear them scream! ^^