Tilting Blocks Scarf

This scarf was so much fun to knit. And since so many asked about the pattern I hurried up even more. The only thing I did NOT like was, knitting with my Rosewood needles, I much prefer addi turbo's. This is a stitch pattern, I'm definitely going to use again. But - Noro yarns make it easy to look good. ;o)

So here it is:

pattern: titling blocks pattern from the book "A second treasury of knitting patterns" by Barbara Walker (red book), page 263; I saw a wonderful version on Jane's blog; also on this Scarf Style KAL blog you'll find several beautiful ones to look at, it's called Midwest Moonlight Scarf, if you google it, you'll get plenty of hits.

I found this stitch pattern in another very old Burda magazine as well. I'm sure it's easy to get one version or the other.

yarn: Noro Silk Garden, color # 239, 3 balls

needles: 4.5mm

size after blocking: 8" x 72"

start-finish: July 22-28

I'm already working on my next scarf. This one is called "Geometric Scarf" and can be found in the little booklet "Vogue Knitting Scarves". The original used only 3 skeins of Koigu, and it's only 36" long. I have 4 balls of the softest merino wool, with more yards each ball than Koigu has, but I doubt that it will get much longer. Still it's a wide scarf, and I don't like them floppy anyways.

About Rainbows And Hail ...

So far, I'm really happy with the summer weather. Except for a few days, where it was too hot for me, it's been great. We've had it all, sunshine, humidity, rain, storm, hail, and rainbows! In the picture above, there are two rainbows to see, below a closer look at the stronger one.

The other day we had hail. My son had to grab one of the icy missiles. He showed it to Sam who promptly took it from his hand, and crunched it with a wagging tail. I think he thinks, everything offered to him is eatable.

There will be no more bunny tales to tell. At first I thought I'd let you be in blissful ignorance, but I'm sure some of you wanted to have an update. The morning after I posted about them, we discovered, that the nest was empty - except for a little bloody piece of bunny. It must have been wild cats. I heard them fighting during that night, so they were near. What other animal could have done this? We had raccoons in our neighborhood, but I haven't seen nor heard any in a long time. Same goes for coyotes, too much development going on, which pushes them further north. Our backyard is fenced in with a 6 foot fence. There are only a few holes, where the bunnies can slip through. We DO have skunks around here as well. I was shocked at first of course, but that's nature. The wild cats don't have it easy themselves.

You can laugh if you want, but I've decided to start on my Christmas knitting. Even though I'm thinking of keeping this scarf for myself, and give my Noro striped scarf to my husband, since he liked it last winter. I'm using up some Noro Silk Garden for this one. I've been wanting to knit this stitch pattern for over two years now! Yeah, and finally I've decided, it's now or never. I like this tilting block pattern a lot. It's easy to memorize, and I think it looks good with this yarn.

Now, I'll go and enjoy this lovely summer day some more. Dogs will be happy too, because we're heading outside! ;o)

A Hint of Knitting Content, also ....

I promised you a dramatic story, which happened in my garden. So here it is. I was out the other day, in the backyard, when I saw, that one of my flower beds needed weeding. The stars, sun, and the moon were aligned right, so I grabbed the yard waste container, and rolled it up to my high bed, and started weeding. (just kidding, I just felt like it). The dogs were out with me, of course, but since they had just had their breakfast, I just let them do whatever they wanted.
Sam wanted to play with me, that's why he was standing right next to me, yapping, and yabbing until his spittle flew (foaming mouth etc.). I ignored him, which is not easy. I wanted to be done with the weeding before the sun came out behind the clouds. Biko was grazing along the fence line. I could see her out of the corner of my eyes.

A little while later, I was making good progress, I noticed, that the yapping had stopped beside me. You know how it is: NO sound, and NO sign of the two meant trouble! (like little kids). I turned around and yelled for them. I couldn't see all places of our backyard, they could be anywhere, and my all time favorite fear, one of the gates could be open, and they could be GONE!
I started to the most likely escape route, when Sam came towards me, ears back, the guiltiest face I've ever seen on him. Something was tangling in his mouth, and it was squealing! Of course I knew right away, what he's got there. I told him he was a bad boy as he came up to me, and put down ever so gently what was in his mouth. It was a baby bunny, naked, helpless, blind - screaming murder!
Meanwhile I could see Biko still digging at the nest they found in one of my other flower beds. I yelled at her to stop at once, and she too, looked very guilty, jumped aside, and looked at me, as if I had ruined her day.
I took a towel, picked up the still screaming baby bunny, looked it over, didn't see any wounds, to my relieve, and went to the nest. Biko had done a good job in digging it out. There was dried grass everywhere, and the hole in the ground was bare. I pushed back the bedding, put the baby bunny on it, it was still protesting loudly, and put some bedding over it.

For the next couple of days, I looked at the nest, but did not disturb it, to see if there was movement of any sign of life. I saw big fat flies, and thought the worst, but then there was a faint movement under the grass. So, now I took some pictures (over several days), and when I saw them on my computer, I was baffled! There was obviously more than one bunny in there! But how? I did not see another baby bunny, when I put the nest back together, but there must have been a second one somewhere. They are the same size.click to see big

Anyhow, now I'm not sure, if there are two or even three bunnies in there. They must be the toughest bunnies on the block to live through this. They grow so much every day, they huddle together. At first their heads wobbled, but now they are stronger, they have fur, the ears are grown. I'm guarding them, looking after them every day. The dogs watch me, because as soon as I let my guard down, and turn around, they start to creep up in the nest's direction. It's a magnetic point for them.
I can only shake my head in mother bunny's choice of where to place her nest. It's in one of my flower beds, right beside the house , right beside the wooden steps, which lead down from where we go outside, several times a day, WITH TWO DOGS! What was she thinking?

This story as a happy ending too, for now. We use another door to get outside right now, but it's not as convenient as the other.

click to see big

Since this IS a knitting blog, here's the knitting content:

Hetty from the Netherlands sent me this picture. These Ladies are learning how to knit toe-up socks using my Smoking Hot Socks pattern! :o) I hope it went well, ladies! And many greetings to you! :o)

All oranged out ...

355yds Norwegian, navajo plied, 4oz

538yds Norwegian/South African Fine, ~ 6oz, 3-ply2 strands Norwegian, and 1 strand orange South African Fine. Look how the extra orange tones down the other colors.

190yds South African Fine, 3.5oz, navajo plied, once again I was going for a little thicker yarn.

I'm almost done with spinning all the fiber I've dyed back in April. I needed to take a break from the color orange, so I'm spinning "Mist" lilac/purple merino/bamboo for the moment, before I go back to finish off the last of South African Fine.

This merino/bamboo needs to be spun fine, and fast (whorl). It's very slippery, and feels like butter in your/my hands. It's the best time to dye fiber or yarn right now. I'm really tempted, but I think I'll keep my natural fiber just that for the moment. I think I have enough dyed fiber in my stash to last me until next summer. I'll work on that, which is quite sensible of me, don't you think? :o)

There's some drama developing in our garden, of which I will report about soon. I'm hoping to get at least ONE picture to tell the tale. :o)

About Robins, and Cheekadee's ...no knitting whatsoever!

The other day, Biko was outside, on the balcony, by herself. She's got access to the house, whenever she feels too hot, or thirsty, but rarely comes in by herself.

I was doing something or other inside, when I heard a thump. Of course I had to investigate at once.

When I stepped out on the balcony, Biko was standing over a bird, sniffing it. As soon as the bird moved, she took off, and ran to the other side of the balcony, where I joined her. We both are scared of birds, it seems. The bird must have flown against the window, and fallen on her, because it was on a matt, where Biko's sleeping on most of the time.

We watched it for a minute, and I saw that it was wobbly, but alive. I took Biko inside, to not stress out the bird, which was a Robin, any more.

I looked out through the window, from time to time, to see how Robin was doing. At first, the wings where spread out, and it was lying on the side. As time past, it was shaking it's head, but stood on its feet, later it sat there, wings tucked in, and not shaking anything anymore. But it was still sitting there, doing nothing much. Must have had a bummer headache. O.K. I know nothing about birds.

Next time I was looking outside, I couldn't see it anymore. That's when I opened the door again, to check if it was really gone. Yep, nothing left, but a splash of bird poop. I was very glad it got away.

Yesterday late afternoon, it was hot and humid, like all get out, I was feeling cold, from the A/C and went out on the balcony to warm up; dogs followed me out. That's when I saw the sunshine, illuminating a spot in the yews, which happened to be a bird's nest. I knew the bush housed several birds, because I saw them coming and going, and sometimes fighting. It was always a lot going on in there.
I got my camera, poor thing, that was just a job, it was not meant for, but I'm glad I got the pictures I did. (I wish I had a better camera.)

I imagine the Robin on the balcony was one of the parents, this little fellow almost lost. Can you see the big, orange opening, waiting to be stuffed? There's only one baby Robin in the nest, as far as I could make out.

After feeding the little one, Robin just sat there, on the edge of the nest, bill open, taking a break. There was also this little fella, taking a sun bath on the sun screen: I think it's a Cheekadee. It ruffled it's feathers, and spread them out. Not only we humans are bothered by the heat, or did this bird enjoy it?

We did give the dogs a bubble bath. We all got wet to the skin. Sam was not amused, but in the end I think he liked it. Now, today will be a major "brush the dogs" day. Sam seemed like he's doubled in size over night. He really got "poofed", and now I need more than two hands to hold him still, and brush him. He must be itching like crazy, but he's so white, and good smelling now.

Biko didn't poof as much, her coat is different, but she too, smells good now, but for how long?

Rambling ...

Even when your children are grown up, as a mother you will always worry. Sometimes you worry, that something might happen, than you worry, when something happens, and you will worry what will happen in the future. Sometimes that's exhausting.

Worry paralyzes me. I can't do anything, or if I do something, I'm so restless doing it, that it's no fun at all. The last few weeks were like that for me, but now it's looking up. So I've been spinning a little. Some of my own dyed fiber, and I can tell you that I'm sick of orange right now.


During my restlessness, I've been casting on and ripping out. Yarn cakes were the result. Nothing was speaking to me. I DO have wonderful yarn, but it's not what I want right now. The top yarn cake is from Sockpixie, a sock yarn, merino/bamboo blend in lovely colores. I only wound it, did not even try to knit it. The middle yarn is Uru lace yarn, which I've got from Sabine. I LOVE the color, but knitting with real lace yarn is something I have to get used to. I started a lace scarf, ripped it out, and started another one. I've got about 7" of it. The bottom yarn is Wollmeise for the "Frattello" socks from Yarnissima. I started that one too, it was so very big, I had to rip it out, and have to think about it some more.

The truth is, I'm bored with what I've got on my needles. There's the crochet star blanket, made with mercerized cotton. There's the "Bliss" blanket, made with the same mercerized cotton, knit entrelac, and the colores are so intensive, I have to take a break after every few rectangles, or I would go nuts. I still like it all, but will be glad when I'm done with knitting with mercerized cotton.

Kirsten made me aware of my feelings towards my current projects. Did you see what lovely shawl she knit, when she got bored with hers? Sometimes projects just feel right, and sometimes they don't.

I want to knit a pair of socks. I saw them in the new Knitter's magazine, they are designed by Cat Bordhi. I think she's my favorite sock designer. I didn't get the magazine yet. Don't know why I can't find it anywhere. I sure hope it's not sold out yet. The socks are called "Spring Thaw" and I just love them!

So, the last two evenings, I've been looking through all my knitting magazines. There's at least one project in every issue of "Interweaeve Kits" and "Knitter's magazine" I have,which I would like to do, but I do have other knitting magazines as well, and there was nothing in THOSE I wanted to knit. I'll be more careful in the future in buying knitting magazines. And also, why do I keep buying more knitting books? I have so many, and there are so many projects in all of them, added to the ones in my magazines. It would keep me busy for years, and years, and still, there's always a new book, a new design, which I WANT, absolutely MUST HAVE! That's crazy. This madness has got to stop, but how? :o)

I didn't take as many pictures of the pups this summer. It's always the same. They enjoy their days. Biko's doing pretty well, chasing the tennis ball, and swimming in the pool. She's now reached the point, where it's time for a bubble bath. She stinks! Getting soaking wet every day, and not drying totally, makes for the famous wet dog/old rag stink. I've been waiting for a really hot, hot day, so she would dry faster.

Sam's goofy as always. He bumped his head against a wall, not once, but twice. He was so excited to go outside, that he's twirling, well that's the same every time we go outside. But now he's got a wound over his right eye. Nothing too bad. He's staying away from every water source, except where he goes to drink some. He's almost destroyed his red ball, we introduced a new ball, but so far, he's rather playing with the red, of course. He might get a bath today too, which will leave all of us wet, wet, wet. Well, I'll get to it then, to get it over with.

Test knit socks

I've been waiting for Bea to give me a link to the finished pattern, which is now available in English. She's still working on the German version. Since this was all finished some time ago, there's no reason not to show it to you now.

I've been lucky to be able to test knit "Cross and Meet" socks by Beate Zaech. This pattern comes in two versions. I've knit the lace version. Dave did the cabled version.

So far there's only a ravelry link for the pattern.

Of course red socks are hard to photograph. I've used Regia stretch, because that's what Bea used for her pair, and I happened to have this yarn in my stash. I didn't like the yarn much. It was very splitty, sometimes the stretch material looked through. The color isn't my favorite either, I bought it online, because it was on sale. I do however like this pattern very much. They fit comfortable, and I'll be happy to wear them a lot. I think I'll knit the cabled version some day too.

specifics:

pattern: "Cross and meet" by Beate Zaech

yarn: Regia stretch, color# 32,

needles: 2.25mm, 5 DP

size: 10.25" for myself

start-finish: June 20 - 25

Little brown bear ....

My little brown bear block found a new home. Shirley from PEI liked it so much, that she asked me, if I would trade it. I was really happy that she liked it so much, and was glad to send it to her, because the block would have disappeared in my closet for who knows many more years?


... today I found this package in my mail box! I didn't really want anything for the block, but Shirley send me fiber samples! Cashmere! Mohair! Silk hankies! and Kid Mohair locks!!! Wow!
I've spun mohair/wool blend before, but all the others I haven't even touched so far, only read about it, seen it on other blogs. Cashmere is sooooo very soft, but right now, my fingers are too rough, because of the gardening. I have to look at these treasures for a while, enjoy them in their lovely little bags. Thank you, Shirley! You made me very happy!

You all know how much I love my little bloggy here. But sometimes life has a way to bring things into perspective. If you don't hear as much from me as in the past, forgive me. I hope I'll be back in full force soon. I haven't done much fibering through the last weeks, I also hope this will turn around soon.

Stay cool!

Dutch socks for Dutch Klompen!

This is sock yarn from my super swap. I had to hand - wind it, because it was so tangled, and I didn't have the patience to work it on the swift. Didn't matter, although I like to work with a center pull ball the best.


yarn: Storm in Wolhalla, color Hollandse Luchten or "flour mill", 75% wool, 25% nylon, 100g, 460 yds.
pattern: Hypnosis by Janel Laidman from her book "The Eclectic Sole"
needles: 2.25mm, 5DP
size: for my 10 1/4" feet
start-finish: June 18 - 20

I liked the pattern in the book, and when the socks are on the sock blocker, but not so much when they are on my feet. They are too short for my liking. I wanted to follow the pattern first, before I could think of making changes to it, to fit me better, but now I'm thinking, I don't want to knit this pattern a second time. As they are, you have to follow the chart 4 times, and that's enough for me. I found a tiny printing error in the chart 1, page 50, round 23, stitch 20. This stitch should be a purl instead of knit, but everybody can figure that one out. I love how the chart is printed big enough to read comfortable. I also like the Chart Key and Techniques in the back of the book. Great pictures to show how to do the techniques used in the book.
One thing was irritating to me, and that is that from the 14 sock pattern in the book there are
1 pattern with 58 stitches
6 with 60 stitches
1 with 62 stitches
1 with 63 stitches and
2 with 64 stitches, there are also the cool looking patterns knit sideways, I haven't figured out yet. They are all made for one size, you can play with yarn weight, and needle sizes to get them bigger or smaller.

I usually need 64 stitches for the leg for my socks, on 2.25mm needles. That means I have to do something to fit my feet with almost all the patterns. They seem to be also on the short side on the leg, again, with time, and a little thinking you can make them longer.

With this Hypnosis socks, from the nature of the pattern, there is a ridge forming on top of the foot, where the leg ends and the foot starts. I've read on ravelry, that others have that as well, so there's not much one can do about it.

I must say, that I'm a tiny bit disappointed in these socks. I love the yarn and the colorway, the socks look good on the blockers, but not on my feet. Maybe one day, when I'm really, really bored, I'll frog them and knit something else. I do have yarn left over, but realistically, I don't think I ever will.

Audio books, and multi tasking!

I've discovered that I can multitask by listening to audio books. I'm probably very much behind the times with this discovery, but nevertheless very much pleased to finally be able to combine my love of reading, with my love of fiber arts, be it knitting, spinning, or folding laundry! :o)

The first audio book I've been listening to is called " No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting" by Anne L. Macdonald, read by Kymberly Dakin. It's about knitting, duh!

Before I started up knitting again, this was back in 2006, I've been reading between 3-5 books a week, thanks to our Libraries, where you can check out books for free. I've never been much for watching TV, and spent every minute waiting in the car, picking up kids from school or afternoon activities, or waiting anywhere else, reading, reading, reading. Once I started using my hands for holding needles and yarn, my reading time became less, mostly at night, in bed. I've missed it!

Now, look what had opened up for me again! Now I can do both comfortable. I thought I'd choose "No Idle Hands" because it IS about knitting, and we'll see where it will lead me from there.

It's amazing to listen to, what women before us had endured, and how knitting was with them every step of the way. They knit not only for their families, but used knit items for trade, to warm their men on the battlefields, to be social, but never, ever idle. Even soldiers, having come out of the war, being shell shocked knit for their sanity. I did not know that at all. I was always intrigued by History, and listening to pits and pieces about these times, with the focus on knitting, is at the moment interesting to me.

Of course now I'd like to know the history of knitting in good old Europe as well. I wonder if there's a book about that out there somewhere.

I'm sure this will not be my last audio book I listen too. It just wet my appetite for more. Thank goodness there are already more books to listen to out there. One thing is for sure, which came apparent to me as soon as I started listening: you've got to like the voice of the narrator!

I've got my copy from Kathy Goldner, Knitting out loud publisher, an audio book publishing company, which has more knitting books to offer. Thank you for this wonderful opportunity to listen to this book, I'm hooked, but why stop there?

You'd like more information? Look here, and here, and here.

Since we are all about publishing today: I forgot to tell you about:

my little Morning Surf Scarf made it into the Summer 2008 Spin Off magazine after all. They used my picture, but it turned out a little darker than in reality. I'm surprised that it would make it in there at all, since they had so many other wonderful scarves collected already.

Patchwork is out of my system for good!

So, this morning I went through our tiny spare room, and found the following, dragged everything downstairs, and took some pictures. These are two tops for pillow cases. They survived the move from Austria to Canada, therefore they were made before 1996. Back then Patchwork and Quilting just got known around where we lived. There were no pretty prints to buy like you can find today. I used mostly old clothes, but also bought some prints, I don't know what they were meant for. Aprons, dresses? Who knows. I only know I cut up A LOT of clothes. I don't think these two will ever be finished by me.

I also found this wall hanging, made out of silk fabric. My first and only silk Quilt, if I remember right. It was also made before the move. I remember having a lot of fun with this one. It's hand quilted, but silk is not easy to work with.

The colores are really rich, not as light as in the picture below.

A close up.

And here's my single bed finished top. It might never get finished by me as well. After I saw it all, I thought, oh pretty, but it all will be put away again. I just can't.

This seems to me, was a part of my life that definitely is over now. I may sew some bags, pillow cases, and maybe toys in the future, but doubt, that patchwork and quilting will be a hobby of mine again.

In the meantime ....

Thank you all, for your 'Sleepy Sam' love! It makes me happy to be able to look at him every day. He's still sleeping, not very active this guy, but that's O.K.

With all the sewing going on around the knitting blog world, as seen here, here, here, and here for instance, made me dust off my sewing machine, get out some fabric, and sew. Well, I WAS motivated, really, but more than two pillow cases, was not in me. I don't even want to show them here. I bought this fabric some time ago, to make a tote bag, but now I didn't like it for that anymore. It was just enough for two pillow cases. Yeah, it's dogs all over. Thought a tote bag would have been to kitschy.

I'm leaving the machine out for a while, lets see if I can muster the will to sew a few bags, or one. All that quilting made me think of a finished top I've stuffed in a corner somewhere, must be almost 13 years old now. It's old enough to be a real Quilt by now. So hopefully, when I'll find it, I still have the urge to finish it. I did finish the socks, I was test knitting for Bea, more about them as soon as I they are dry, and I get some better pictures. I loved knitting them, that's for sure, although I didn't like the yarn I used, as I said, more about it later.

Now I'm working on my crochet star blanket, which grows slowly, and another Baby blanket, for which I'm using the same Butterfly Super 10 cotton, but in another colorway. It's VERY colorful, and I couldn't think of anything better to do, then to knit entrelac with it. It hurts to look at it for too long, but I still like it.

In the picture you can see the base triangles, and a couple of rectangles. I'm on the third tier right now, and having fun!

I have some finished singles to ply, and some merino/bamboo to finish spinning, as you can see, lots to do. I've also done a lot of weeding, and tomorrow I'll plant my loveage, and spearmint plants, all except two. I found two bunny nests in my neglected beds, but both were empty, thank god! If there would have been some wiggling action in it, I would have had a heart attack. I usually don't wear gloves for gardening, but the last time my fingers bled, so I decided to look for a pair, and actually use them. Took no time at all, and my finger tips where out through holes in the gloves. Must have worked them too hard. But, if I had not worn them I would have touched two North American toads, which I have done once before, and I don't care for the feeling. I like to have them in our garden, I like the "music" they make during the night, but touching them?- Na-ah.

Tired?

How about snuggling up next to Sleepy Sam? I kid you not, that's his name, not given by me, but by Sandra Polley from this book.

I was looking through several knitted toys books, to find a toy which I could make with my 170yds of handspun, when I stumbled upon this little guy. How could I NOT knit him?

This April, I dyed 16oz of Norwegian fiber. 4oz of it was this orange roving. I was burning to know how it would look spun up, so I did, and then I wanted to see how it would look as knit fabric.

I tried to spin thicker as usual. I thought I would navajo ply it, but since it was already thicker singles, I would have been left with not a lot of yardage, so I did a 2-ply instead. It turned out to be 170 yds, 13 WPI - mostly. Next step was to find a pattern. I knew I wanted to knit a toy, and can you imagine my joy, when I found "Sleepy Sam", and that in fact I could knit him with my yarn?

I've knit all pieces as described in the book, but something WAS horrible wrong with the body parts. It looked like the head was on the wrong way. Head and body were knit in one piece. I thought I screwed up, but I don't think so. So this bear has his belly on the back side. Good thing he's so comfortable sleeping in this position, because he would have a hard time being upright. I was really put out, when I realized this, walked away, but in the end still continued to sew up the pieces, stuff them, and once I had the face on him, I was in LOVE!

Sandra Polley suggests that you iron the pieces, but in the past, I didn't have much success with ironing, the edges still rolled in quite madly. So I soaked all pieces, pinned them out, and let them dry. It was so much better, and so much easier to sew them together.

One other thing I didn't agree with the author. She said to put pellets into the belly, like a beany baby. She just pours them inside, without putting them into a little bag or something. (I didn't read the book cover to cover, so she might have mentioned something about a bag somewhere, but I didn't find anything.) Of course, lazy that I am, cutting corners where ever I can, I did as told, and the pellets tend to come out easily. Lesson learned. Don't be lazy. Take sewing needle, and a scrap of fabric and sew a little bag!

I did his face twice. I wanted him to smile in his sleep. I think I've got it. The soles, and the inside of his paws where supposed to be knit with a different colored yarn, but I liked it just fine, the way the handspun turned out. I even had some left over yarn. I'm definitely going to knit toys with my handspun again.