Miss Janets Knittings

The new home is still undergoing fundamental construction, but my blogspirit subscription runs out today after which, I won't be able to write a moving-post. Let's just hope that Wordpress and I get well acquainted really soon :-)

Africa didn't inspire a lot of crochet, but finally the granny-square bag is done. The (approximately) 3598 ends are woven in, I decided on a handle-solution and got around to spending the 45 min. it took to put in the lining.

I am actually quite pleased with the result and foresee this will be used :-)

Yarn: a tiny proportion of my excessive amount of cheap cotton. 

This blog seems to have two general characteristics:

1. Blogging is exceptionally irregular
2. Posts are often finished off with promises of things to be presented in very near future, followed by a long period of silence. The previous post was one of these. At the time of writing I was convinced the green creature would be completed the next day. But, real time and the time scale of my planning do not always match. This is the present state of Shelly, aka Sheldon.

I did actually complete her once, but the shell was way to loose and non-nice. I am thus now knitting the shell again (new yarn and smaller needles) and am not looking forward to the construction, knowing its quite a fiddly job. I'm fond of Shelly, but there'll be no more knitted turtles in my immediate future  

The present which should have been done 3 months ago! At least it's still cold-ish outside, and there'll probably be snowstorms next winter also, I hope.

Pattern: I started out with the brioche hat from Weekend Knitting by Melanie Falick. Initially it took some effort, frustration and frogging to get the hang of the brioche pattern (this is clearly evident from some of the lower rows of the hat!). This overcome all went smoothly until the crown-shaping, where I did not understand the instructions of the book, but then I found this pattern, which got me through to finish.

Yarn: double stranded 4-ply sock yarn from Hjertegarn (25% nylon, 75% wool)

Needles: 4 mm

Several small things have been completed or nearly so recently. This creature still exists in an early developmental stage, but will appear in her mature life stage tomorrow.

hmn, I eagerly joined this group at the beginning of the month... I am still eager to participate, only January went a bit quicker than expected, or perhaps mine has been particularly slow!

Anyway, this is as far as I am. What drove me to grab the crochet needle was this. I managaged to get hold of the original pattern and started to crochet my squares.... I had done about 10 before it finally dawned on me, that the ones in the photo aren't of the original granny-kind, they have less holes!! didn't stop me though ( too lazy to start over). For sewing them up I had my second bright moment: given the way I've done the colours there was no way to combine the squares for the shape of the original bag with a colour-harmony I can live with. The above is what I ended up with. Not quite the original source of inspiration, but I hope we can still be happy together on a beach off the Indian Ocean :-)

Tomorrow (tonight is probably a more accurate description of the time) I'm off to Africa, and won't be back for real until mid March. I don't see much crafting going on down there, so here I am off to a rather poor start on the 12 projects. I do pack the above + darning needle and hope to finish it, but will be a project and a half behind when I return. 10½ months should allow for catching up though:-)

A few knitted items were also put under the tree.

For a dear friend:

They look at bit odd in the upper photo, hence the on-hand shot to show that proportions do fit a normal-ish hand (no piano-length fingers here ).

SPECS
Pattern: Wine and roses mitts, by Jolene Treace, Interweave Knits W2006.

Yarn: 4-ply sock yarn from Hjertegarn (25% nylon, 75% wool)

Needles: 2.5 mm 

A dear elderly lady has been without these for way too long (that is, she didn't know they were in the making, but I've been wanting to make them for her since February!)

SPECS

Pattern: Fancy silk socks by Nancy Bush, Knitting Vintage Socks 

Yarn: 4-ply sock yarn from Hjertegarn (25% nylon, 75% wool): 73 g used

Needles: 2.5 mm

These socks were knitted for myself months ago, but a similar-ish pair were given away for Christmas. Mine were knitted in 2k-2p rib, but for the pair that I gave away (and forgot to photograph) I used 1k-1p rib, which is highly recommendable. I do love my own though, despite their loose nature as they keep feet very warm. Perfect with a pair of Birkenstock in a house with cold floors :-)

SPECS

Pattern: General sock pattern with Boomerang-heel and 2k-2p rib

Yarn: Hifa 3-ply sock yarn: ca. 100 g used

Needles: 4 mm

The last knitted gift is still in progress (!): a brioche-hat (nice example here) from Weekend knitting. I have some major issues with the crown shaping, but some googling has given me hope that these will be resolved...

Christmas presents from me included several homemade items, both knitted and sewn. The latter started with a trip to the IKEA, and results are shown below

Rice bags. Quick to make and hopefully useful - I have not actually tried them. The rice grains are enclosed in another bag inside the bag made from the printed material. The outside bag is open in one end and closed by the tying the ribbon. How loose/compact the grains are distributed is determined by where the ribbon is tied.

For two knitters, a thing to help organize their circular needles was produced  (apologise for the photos, should have taken things outside rather than attempting out of window shots!) 

Lets just pretend 2006 didn't have an autumn and blogging seems perfectly regular around here.

I'm sort of ready to be meet Christmas. All* present are nicely wrapped and ready to be squashed into suitcase, to have paper & ribbons messed up.

There are quite a few homemade presents in the pile, some of which I will show after Christmas. This delay is not so much because I fear the recipients will see this space within the next two days, but this post is being written at a very unhealthy hour for blogging. It is literally in the middle of the night (of the longest night of the year!!) and brain wants to sleep.

I wish any readers a Merry Christmas :-)

*the ones that are done, two are still under construction and two will probably appear under the tree as no more than vouchers!

PS: just recall I promised dish cloths, sort of forgot about them. Might show next time.