baah, pure new wool

i have started the scarf and i am going to put it away for a while. i will need to do stranded knitting all over the scarf instead of stripes. the two colour patterns i have chosen have a very tight tension and hence all the scarf needs to be like that. but i really like knitting all the letters. great graphic fun.
and look what was in the mail. big sky blue mctaggart tweed for a tomten for my cute great nephew albert. i purchased all the colourcards from leanne at beaverslide (and a hell of a lot of wool not yet knitted) and this blue is simply stunning. i adore it. and hope my niece, maja, will as well. this will be my 4th tomten. i love the simplicity of this pattern which makes your choice of wool all the more important. i feel the greatest urge to knit a sweater for my friend peter in the same colour. he and i have been close-knit (no pun intended) friends for 25 years now, and i did knit him a sweater in brioche stitch many years ago, but maybe it is about time again. i hope to get out of the job i have now (i am on sick leave) and into another that is more me very soon, so my only worry about purchasing wool will be the fear of moths. in ravelry and on various knitting blogs it seems to be a bit embarrasing to buy a lot of wool. i don't mind as long as it doesn't break the bank. i am not planning to enroll in some kind of AA for knitters. i actually have a principle of knitting up a ball of yarn a day and i succeed pretty much in this. i have to dash because i want to clean my house and attack all the beautiful blue skeins for some mindless knitting while listening to herbie hancock: river, the joni letters. happy knitting.

what's next

oh knitting is indeed divine as my dpn box says in german. there is knitting. whipped off 3 hats and started a scarf this week. it was great fun to do the black tweedy hat and i wear it all the time. the project on the needles now is a scarf in alpaca for me. i am going to knit a poem into it in spanish. i have written about it in an earlier blogpost. it is difficult for me to see where i am going for the moment but all shall be well eventually and in the meantime i will knit like crazy. i would like to be a knitting magazine editor. we really miss some high quality knitting magazines here. or i would like to go to peru and learn to knit andean style. i am a great daydreamer and that is very good in times of confusion.

soon i will start the beaverslide worsted saddle shouldered aran for my nephew. he is going to look so fab in it. just cool and hip enough to wear this kind of thing. and then another tomten for albert of course. but tomtens only takes a couple of days to knit. especially in attractive yarn.

there are lots of things to do. just look at my stash.

tonight i went to see lucinda williams with my sister, my nephew and his girlfriend. if you ever get the chance go see her. she rocks. it is always so great to go and see music live. i enjoy every penny spent on that. and i can get so envious on guitarplayers. isn't that just something. she had a really amazing band with her as well. i would also like to be the girl who sits in the lobby and sells merchandise. one time one of the merchandise sellers sold her handknit hats too. nothing special but of course i bought one. i thought it was so cute that she did it.

a match box from buenos aires, venezuelan laurel and hardy and a dries van noten knock off.

oh i have knitting time. lovely knitting time. besides knitting time things are not very bright at the moment except for the two venezuelan hats european and dreadlock hairstyle. the more i knit in these colours the more fascinating the brightness. some people have it in them to wear bright colours, alas i do not. but i like playing around with bright colours and i have made impulse purchases in very bright colours expensive and never to be worn. since i heard that the venezuelan scarf and matching hat had been put away for a special occasion i thought i'd better knit an extra hat for my friend and one for him to give away for his friend. i was offered money for the latter but i don't like to mix knits and money and friends for some reason. what can you charge for a little hat. nothing compared to knitting time and since i don't know the recipient i would not want him to come to my house and clean for six hours.

the black tweedy hat is a dries van noten (belgian designer) knock off that i saw in a shop here for USD 200. i thought i'd use some yorkshire tweed dk in the colour top hat, that i had in my stash. one way not to buy more yarn is to make a competion with yourself about how long it will take to knit your stash. well lets see, i have:
21 skeins of rowanspun dk
10 skeins of yorkshire tweed aran
5 skeins of 123silk wool
20 skeins of yorkshire tweed chunky
10 skeins of beaverslide worsted
6 skeins of beaverslide mctaggart tweed
15 skeins of classic elite skye tweed
1 cone of jaggerspun zephyr

i partly blame it on jared and a little bit on myself.

and since it is worsted or heavier most of the stuff it cannot take more than 3 months. i am not giving it a try. buying wool is such a lovely thing. and having a nice stash when inspiration hits is even nicer. and hats are a lovely way to use all the odd skeins that you have left from different projects. i always buy a little to much. i beaver yarn. like i always cook too much food.

p.s. the black hat looks like nothing. it is a garter stitch band that is broader on the 'back-head* third. i have picked up stitched all around and purled one round before knitting the hat in stockinette. it looks quite smart irl though.

shiver me timbers!!!!!!!

AHOY MATEY, here is one finished pirate sweater. the pattern is the seamless hybrid with shirt yoke and the charts are adrians and mine. the yarn is jaeger extra fine merino.
i hope carl will be happy with this creation and i also hope the seamless hybrid will work as well on a little man as on a big one. oh how i love knitting for other people and making them happy.

yesterday i said to the venezuelan friend i have got. pleaassssssssssssse don't wash alpaca in the washing machine and he said: i'd always handwash. but it seems that the hat and the scarf has been put away until he is traveling home on a family visit. how cute is that. and he has customers for me. it seems that the hat has become a fad in the venezuelan community here and he asked if i take orders. no i don't take orders on dreadlock covers in lego colours but will happy make one for him and one selected friend every now and then. so i am going to whip a few off before it is tomten time and cable time featuring beaverslide.

i ordered big sky blue mctaggart tweed for a tomten for albert. alba's was a big hit so now albert wants one too. or his mum. and the tweed from beaverslide is so lovely. maybe i will cable it up a bit. that could look nice. the mother finds bobbles a bit too much on the feminine side. lucky her that i never knit a february sweater for her little boy.

it is autumn here now. lovely crisp air. it makes me feel whole and happy with the autumn sun on the big blue sky.

caminante hay no camino

no this is not a spanish blog. for the reason that i know no spanish. but i have listened to the song based on the poem by antonio machado, which priscilla gibson roberts also quotes in knitting in the old way and it sort of reminds me of my life right now: walker there is no road, you make the road by walking. i love that sentence. i reminds me, even though i feel so desperate about my jobsituation, that i can walk away and create another road in life as i walk. it is not a no way out situation. but the changes has to emerge pretty soon, i know that.

and when i sit thinking of all this, i knit. and as i knit i create new ideas for knitting. one idea is to knit literature scarves with poems on. a green one quoting emily dickinson or simply a scarf saying: caminante hay no camino, se hace camino al andar..... then the truth would warm my neck :-))

the pirate sweater is proceeding swimmingly. i suppose i will finish it tonight. and then i have purchased some wool. it looks like an old man's dreadlocks a bit. i want to knit a snail hat from the opinionated knitter. then i can wear it in class to keep out the noise....

and all the lovely cablework goes nowhere at all. i sometimes get so stressed out by my stash. and that is ridiculous. luckily i read jean's lovely blog the other day and she adresses this subject so wisely, as so many other. if you don't know her blog you should go there.

happy knitting.

arghh

as all my blogfriends little sons get pirate sweaters why shouldn't carl, age 3. he got all the pirate gear for his birthday and soon he will get this coffee and cream pirate sweater. it is of course adrian's chart i have been rearraging and adding some teeth to in jaeger extra fine merino from cucumberpatch. great yarn, lovely elasticity and stitch definition but not my kind of yarn, really. but it does make you yearn for a nice piece of chocolate.....
i am having one weeks holiday and i cannot really believe ever going back. but i shall straighten my back. arrgh.
i got quite inspired by my latin american scarf. i would like to make all kinds of scarves with different colour combos. even cheery ones like the last. but maybe not with the flag stripes. it is amazing where knitting can take you. all of a sudden i know sooooooooooo much about flags and the number of stars and the proportions between the colours. i also know where almost all american states are situated. i want to know the whereabouts of my blogfriends.
and when i am dreaming my life away i dream about a trip to the us studying lys', music and ending up in knitting camp or studying el chullo in peru. i think i am seriously in need of quality time.
it is sad that being a volunteer at ravelry is possible from one's own computer. otherwise i'd volunteer anyday.
in the meantime. knitting and listening to the lovely salvador duran from mexico singing and playing guitar on the album solo pasión.

a scarf for rafael

here is a scarf for rafael, my venezuelan i. i saw him wearing it with pride from the bus and that made my little knitter heart jump with joy. and even though it is much more colourful than what i usually make i ended up liking it. especially since it suits the recipient very well since he is not a pale dane.

it is a tube that i kitchenered at both ends. it is made of six skeins of drops alpaca. thes charts are from hats on and scarf style.

rafael loves indians and has a tattoo saying: geronimo. hence the little knitted indians. he is also a great bird lover and has a multitude of tattoed birds on his arms. hence the birds. and the colours are the colours of the venezuelan flag. the blue colour symbolizes the water that separates venezuela from spain. the yellow the corn and the red symbolizes the bloodshed of the venezuelan people.

and then i have to say it again. americans have all the fun. spent last night with my aunt who lives in colorado. she is in a knitting group with cheryl oberle and i am envious. i knitted cheryl's kimono shawl and instantly recognized my aunt's scarf as one of cheryl's designs and then they are friends as well. a small small world isn't it.

little green

seeing alba on the green lawn made me think about joni mitchell's old song little green expect that this is a song about the child she had to leave and who she met 20 years or so later with the help of the world wide web. it also made me think of one of favourite emily dickinson poems # 1333:

A little madness in the Spring
Is whole even for the King
But God be with the Clown-
Who ponders this tremendous scene-
This whole Experiment of Green-
As if it were his Own!

only that it isn't spring.

But these pictures of this little green girl also speak for themselves. she is adored and she is getting independent. not totally, far from, but definitely daring.

and my niece told me that the little norwegian sweater got lost. they looked for it high and low with no result. it was alba who had decided that it would be nice to sleep with when she is in creche faraway from mom and dad. i am very honoured to be the provider of the two things she sleeps with. knut, the polar bear and the sweater.

my other niece has decided that woolies are not such a bad thing for little boys. so i have a seamless hybrid pirate sweater and a tomten on the list now. it is good to be able to change opinions.

more venezuela and lovely gifts.

i have received lovely elsebeth lavold: silky wool from peggy . my name was drawn in her blogiversary contest. and peggy has made lovely little tags with mine and alba's names on for future knittings. they are incredibly cute and the perfect colour choice for me.

and speaking about colours. a few days i simply had to knit something absolutely mindless and came thinking about some scarves i knit in alpaca and lifetime ago. it is a tube, knit in the round, and kitchenered together at each end. so now i am doing one to match (well not quite) the venezuelan cap. i am planning to do some fair isle with bird/eagle/llama motifs at each end to make it a bit more latin american than it already is. i cannot believe i am doing this. i am not really a sucker for colours of that brightness. but at least they keep me awake....