Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Two more complete

Yes, I finished two more projects and am now ready for vacation. Not, of course, from crochet or knitting, but a change of scenery will do me good. So, one more day of packing and we are gone. That is my son and myself. My husband will follow two weeks later.



Oh, it is difficult to wait to leave this terrible weather, windy, wet and colder than 20 celsius. I did wash all jackets so now we are reduced to wearing rain gear as protection from the wind.



So, the first finished project is crocheted giraffe. I didn't know it will turn out that big (115 cm long) but it does look appropriate as a companion to our almost a year old niece. This is her birthday present, her parents like it, I hope she does as well. Of course, it didn't go smooth, the connecting piece turned out to short so I had to extend it and stretch a bit to make it all fit. And I did make the horns but they just didn't fit nicely so I didn't attach them.


The other which I'm proud of is gloves. Pattern name is Progressive Gloves. This was my first knitting project with double pointed needles. I thought I'll just make mittens, but as I progressed I realized I prefer gloves. And so it was. I like the yarn (Schachenmayr Universa Color) and bought it as soon as I noticed snowflakes on the label. I made small adjustment to the pattern by adding two extra stitches for the little finger. And I also did three rows of decreases on the thumb to exactly match mine. And now just to wait for the winter to test the warmth! And it seems I'll not have to wait long, my fingers are getting cold as I'm typing right now!

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

My latest works

Of course, between various activities I managed to find time to knit and crochet. Most of these projects are small but various in complexity.
This is "Purple Pleasure" from "Crochet Kerchiefs" by Kely Robinson. Fun to make and fun to wear. It was perfect accessorie for my long hair during those hot days in Australia and Singapore. I just couldn't make it purple, thought beige is more coordinate friendly color.

On "Gerbera Doily" from Crochet Home and Holiday magazine of July 2001 I worked for of and on for almost a year. But like the pattern, might soon start on another colorful crochet project.
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''Swirls Doily" (as I call it, made to a torn out schematics page) was also fun but the edge just didn't work out for me. I had to fudge it a bit to make it work.
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"Chunky Monkey Scarf" from "Not your mama's crochet" by Amy Swenson is an easy pattern but with both meaning to the words easy. I constantly had to recount and ripple a few times since I kept making shells in the wrong spaces. But using three strands of yarn together made for a nice colored result. Nice option to the variegated yarn in my opinion.

"Cable Scarf" was my first cabled knit and amazing fun. Am definitely going to pursue this technique further. I had to frog on this a bit since I was not paying attention to the edges and they would end up being just knit instead of ribbed. I also forgot to rib the start of the scarf so had to match the end as well. Gave it to my brother in law as a birthday present but heard from him that it was appropriated by one of his 5-yr old sons. Yes, it is also warm and cuddly and am glad it has found such a nice home.

"Getting Dizzy Scarf" from "Not your mama's crochet" by Amy Swenson turned out a bit exotic due to the fuzzy yarn I applied on the outer edge. Am not sure if it will get mucht wear due to that fact.
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"Crocodile Hat" from Impact Moda "32 Fabulous Colourwork Knits for Kids 4-10 years" was my first venture into multiple colored knits. Instructions suggested to knit in one color and later stitch the crocodile but I definitely didn't fill like it. Knitting with two colors to the schematics was a lot more fun (even thought I made that beginner mistake of wrongly wrapping the yarn at color changes resulting in a big gaping hole). And my son has happly worn it to school while the weather permitted. Now that I've bought him a store made fleece with an emblem of Spiderman, I'm afraid crocodiles will spend a lot of time in the drawer. Oh, well, maybe will feel sorry for his mama and use both interchangeably!

And the last one is "Jilly Scarf" which I made just with fuzzy yarn. I like wearing it, it doesn't itch and is not warm at all. Maybe I've made it just a tad too long (205cm, 81") but that didn't present any major issues so far.

Monday, June 04, 2007

Family day(s)


Family day was the name of my husband's company picnic which took place last Saturday. We arrived there for lunch (cold but big) and after a short program I went to learn how to arrange flowers while my husband stayed with our son.


I expected I will be arranging flowers in a vase or on a foam piece but in the end it turned out to be a lot nicer. We arranged eucalyptus leaves on a styrofoam board, attached them with pins and placed everything into a metal frame. I didn't like the part of instructions of leaving the heads of the pins visible. Instead, I covered pins by laying subsequent leaves over them. I'm quite happy with the result, hope it is visible on the photo. We also did the foam arrangement which turned out quite nice as well since foam is in the ring shape.


My son also had fun exploring all shapes and sizes of slides, swings, jumping and biking facilities. He was seriously sweaty by the time I saw him after two and a half hours of fun.


And last Monday (a week ago) we visited the Hoensbroek castle. It was a holiday so we could all go together with friends and their kids. And this day was also reenactment of the medieval times which meant knights tournament and archery demonstrations. It was all geared mostly towards kids but I did have a lot of fun myself.
We managed to walk through the castle, it is indeed big. Shame, like most of the Dutch castles, it is now used mostly for wedding ceremonies. There is barely any original furniture left and I definitely miss that. There have also been some old games set up in the courtyard but the highlight of the day was fight with the knits. Until they all dropped "dead"! First kids got the chance but after them the mothers! I was sceptical about my contribution in this quest but it turned out to be excellent way to relieve the stress! Are kids also fighting for that reason? I kind of doubt that.