quickly before the year ends

I want to wish you all a Very Happy New Year!

I send my best wishes to each and everyone of you
also I want to thank you for staying with me and joining me in 2010, without you reading and commenting this blog wouldn't be so much fun!

Have a great year - Enjoy your parties - Have Fun - Stay save
reading you again next year
xox Diana

winter wonderland

lovely, right?

during the past weeks I didn't do much, I had some problems with my back and cervical spine and couldn't sit long enough to knit or crochet. I painted though, those of you who follow me on facebook could watch my painting getting finished. I loved working with oil colors again since I didn't touch a brush for a couple of years, and this painting will definitely not be the last.

I didn't finish my bear amigurumi project, but I made wings for him, so it's still on my to do list.
I also knitted a few rows (like 10 or so) on a stole I'm working on, it's the high seas stole by Kieran Foley, but this project starts to bore me, it "forces" me to repeat 40 rows for 9 times, I'm half through the 8th repeat now and it really doesn't yell for more at the moment, I start to feel like this is more a summer stole than a winter one so the urge to finish is getting small too.
I love the pattern itself though, the waves so much remind me of home that I get a little homesick.

I do want to knit though and started a pullover today, I love these pullovers with a "waterfall" collar or whatever they're called at the moment, you know those pullovers with wide and really loose turtlenecks that drape around your necks like cowls. Want to include a lovely lace pattern from one of Barbara Walkers Treasury books.

so long I wish you all a lovely run-up to Christmas, I sure hope to blog one or two post

see me walk ...

... and sit and simply feel great because my legs and arms are movable! Mommy added buttons to make this possible and I feel super cool :) only thing is mommy still works on my eyes :( I still can't see a single thing but I can hear mommy sing and I can feel her dance with me, she sings she likes me ... I like her too :D

so, Teddy has arms and legs and is really a pretty little bear, I still work on its eyes which is a little more difficult than I expected. Thanks once more for all your great name suggestions, your comments are fantastic :)

I grow

says bear, without a name ;-)

I made the legs now and really like the outcome, I attached them with buttons, so the legs are pose-able and he can sit :-)

still I'm searching for a name, thanks all who posted in the last post, there are a few names I REALLY like and I thought I will put all names I like after finishing Bear into a bowl and pick one blind, this way I will find a name, and the lucky winner will get the pattern first :-)

name me

I crochet again, the impulse to crochet actually carried on and so this little fellow starts to live. Big belly, even bigger head with small ears but big eyes to come. No clue on what kind of arms I'll like (short, long, clumsy, thin or thick) but he will walk on big feet. Oh yeah and he is missing a name, so far the bear is a "he" but that might just be the dark brown.

any ideas? also I might add that I plan to make it a good bear with little wings and a bad bear with little horns and tail ;-)

so today

is a special day, it's my birthday or as a dear friend of mine said this morning it's my sternchen-day ;-)
and to celebrate I crochet a bit again, made some sketches yesterday for a handsome bear, watch out

hugs, Diana

exciting

do you remember this big experiment?

now I do it again and dye ready made clothes, I found a fabulous trench coat, fantastic cut and silhouette but the color was too ordinary for my taste, great price too, so I bought it and am now dying it in the washing machine and am thrilled to see the result. The original color was a pale old rose - I added may green - and hope to receive a green that's strong but not too intense

before:



after:


still moist therefore only an impression of the color - limey =^__^=

7 things

I just received an award from goldibug - thanks my friend :-)

and one thing this award includes is to share seven things about myself that you probably don't knew yet, so I thought I might just do that

1 - on Sundays I like to wear pajamas all day long
2 - I like chive sandwiches the most
3 - my bed is placed on 4 tables - like to sleep higher AND a lot of yarn space underneath
4 - I didn't dare to start reading the last Harry Potter for almost two weeks because once I started I knew it was going to end and I just couldn't stand the idea of Harry Potter ending
5 - I don't really care about the full moon, what bothers me is the new moon
6 - I feed my facebook aquarium every day - twice!
7 - a giant plush spider is watching over my jewelry box

ice cream

just a little funny video I just found reading my blogs, it's great:

a yoke

I just learned that a yoke is a "Rundpasse" in german and that makes me happy because I found a good tutorial on that in a book I have. And this means I can finally continue on my Snailigan which was laying around for months because I didn't knew how to continue. All parts are knit until right under the arms and now I finally have an idea how to go on :-)

I love ravelry =^__^=

a great evening

yesterday I've been out to the "Schlössernacht" in Potsdam near Berlin. It was a really fantastic evening - Sanssouci and its park was illuminated beautifully, there were people with rococo style costumes and even a joyful fireworks after midnight. During the whole evening/night you could hear flute music coming from everywhere, really a great evening.

a little knitting in secret

wrong side showing
-
right side hiding

;-)

blooming

thanks so much for all the lovely comments on my new needle case, I really love it and might add some instructions info if you like.
Besides sewing I started thinking about a new knitting project, have a few on the needles but a girl can never have too much fun, right? Well the new project will be color work again, I had the idea when I saw a cardigan with flowers all over and found a vest with flowers will be nice as well. And I started charting, little flowers and a "petal path" to break the whole picture a little ;)

a needle home in teal

Did you know I had a sewing machine and that I actually used to sew long before I started knitting or even crocheting again? Well I have and it was about time I used it once more. My old knitting needle cases were overfilled and I started "storing" my knitting needles in strange places like doorknobs *making skeptical face*

I used to have a classic needle roll for my double pointed needles and a three-fold-flap-over-needle case for my circulars, both I made ages ago and was a little disappointed right after finishing because they already were sort of overfilled even back then, when I only had one needle in each size. Nevertheless I never took the time to make a new one, not until now:

It's inspired by the Della Q, which is a clever design but never featured all sizes I would need. I made ten smaller bags for my 2 mm to 4.5 mm needles and eight bigger bags for all circs with less flexible cables like 5 mm and all bigger sizes. Behind the actual needle cases I added two smaller pockets for my gauge and markers. The whole bag carries 35 circs at the moments and it definitely can carry even more. Below you can find some progress pictures:

it's not completely finished yet, I still need to add some numbered tags to the single pockets, but I want to iron them on so I can still do that whenever I find time for it

updating

oi, didn't play around here in a while and I got so much to show and tell you. I'm on vacation at the moment and knit like crazy, buy yarn like crazy and buy knitting books like crazy. I finished the tendrilous socks a while ago and am working on a pdf at the moment, so all of you can download the complete pattern with all its charts and directions, but I still need to take some pictures and show you how lovely they turned out (I made a picot BO with bigger picots - very neat). And I casted on a new project, the GreenGable-hoodie from Mari Muinonen / tikru, who also designed Sylvi and I made some little progress on my snailigan.

oh, and I got plans for two new colorwork pieces, maybe both will become vests, the first definitely will, I will call it "blossom" and it will have little and big flowers all over and I am going to Hamburg today to get some yarn. The other will be ocean themed, I started drawing and charting little fish and shells and waves and stuff, but still need some final ideas for it.

cheesecake chocolate muffins

today I baked and I made tulip muffin paper:

Cheesecake Chocolate Muffins


200 g cream cheese
1 large egg yolk
5 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
a pinch of salt

200 ml milk
1 large egg
1 large egg white
3 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder
100 g chocolate (semisweet or bittersweet)
100 g sugar
30 g butter (salted)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
200 g all purpose flour
2 teaspoon baking powder

preheat oven

mix cream cheese, egg yolk, sugar, vanilla extract and salt in a bowl - put aside

mix milk, egg and egg white, cocoa powder and vanilla extract in a bowl
melt butter and chocolate in microwave, stir into milk-egg mixture - put aside

mix flour and baking powder, blend into milk-chocolate mix until no more flour is visible

divide dough into muffin form and add cream cheese mix

bake about 20-30 min at 175°C






Tulip muffin paper

I always had the problem to find muffin papers for my baking forms bigger than the standard and a few month ago I saw tulip cups on bakingbites.com
and today I finally tried to make my own, I first tried to fold them up all origami style but couldn't find a proper way how to so I just cutter squares of baking paper and cut into the paper on four sides, which worked perfectly well =^__^=

now that came unexpected

I knit on the leg of my tendrilous socks and increase / shape the calf by using bigger needles every 12 rows, meanwhile I'm using 3,25 mm needles and will use 3,5 mm as well in a few rows! When I casted on I thought I will end up with 3 mm needles at max.

I also started thinking about the cuff, I normally use an Italian BO which is sort of grafted but on my last pair I made picot BO and really liked the outcome as well.

and on they grow

so, next step on the tendrilous socks :) now after making the heel and continuing in stockinette or even eye of patridge pattern on the back of the heel as high as I like (which is high enough for shoes not rubbing the lace) I started to make leaves again, and little bit of perfectionist that I am of course I created a pattern for the left heel and the right heel so that the leaves will start to grow symmetrically again :)

charts for left heel:




charts for right heel:



I had 27 sts on the "heel needle" and started the charts, soon I realized that there will be YO at the beginning and end of the row (as there were on the front as well) and I shifted the first knit stitch from the front to the back of each sock, this way I have a knit stitch bordering the last YO, this one was sort of loose and tended to get lost, so now it's "protected". the first YO at the front (which is now without a bordering knit companion) can handle the situation pretty good on its own [good YO ;)]

all in all, after making the charts for the heel and continuing in the main stitch pattern I have 30 sts on both needles. And I will have 30 sts on each needle until I reach the knee because I make calf shaping by switching needle sizes, I test knitted the lace in 3 different needle sizes and they looked good. I will use 2,25 mm, 2,5 mm, 2,75 mm and maybe 3 mm as well depending on much space my enormous calves will use ;)

do you believe in magic?

no socks today, I just thought I'd share the song that followed me all day and made me smile all the way - what a beautiful earworm ;)

tendrilous heels

so it's time for the heels :)

I left you about 2 inches before you would start your normal heels. I love short row heels and knit something which is called jo-jo heel. On the lana grossa homepage there is a great explanation for it (pdf in german AND english). Meanwhile I tweaked it a bit and added some increases before I start the heel, because as it is in the pdf it was always too tight and too short for my feet - the main technique though is absolutely cool, I never had any holes. Before I continue if you like heel flaps better make one :) there is no reason why you can't exchange any heel with another.


the heel:

I find the jo-jo heel works best when you have enough stitches to work it from and I think if my feet get bigger from toe to heel why not increase the sock as well? so I start increasing about 2 inches before I would start the heel. In this sock I increased 2 stitches on the sole every 3rd row like this *k1, m1, k until 2 sts before end, m1, k1*. Slowly the 25 sts of the sole will turn into 37 - see below



now I start to work the jo-jo heel as described in the pdf above, only I divide my stitches like this 13-11-13 and not 10-10-10 as in the pdf. After I made the heel my sock looked like this:



and because I would have much too many stitches to continue the lace pattern AND because my feet narrow after the heel AND the heel as it is right now would be too short and my shoes would rub the lace I work a few more rows of stockinette PLUS I decrease some stitches again. I decreased the 37 stitches to 27 like this *k1, k2tog, k until 3 sts before end, ssk, k1* every 3rd row and my heel now looks like this:



In case you wonder, I added an eye of patridge pattern to the back of my heels to make them more durable. ([1] *sl1, k1*, sl1 -- [3] *k1, sl1*, k1 -- k all even rows)

the feet are ready to walk

After casting on I made a few more rows of stockinette stitch only far enough to cover my toes, oh did I mention I casted on with 2.25 mm needles? and then I started with the patterns for the feet, yes plural, this may look a bit difficult at the beginning, but after making the 'starting pattern' both feet have the same basic stitch, which is a little shifted at both feet, and this IS a bit weird when starting but I got used to it pretty fast. But now let me show you the charts and I hope that it will bring light into what I just wrote

the basic stitch:



to start the left foot:




to start the right foot:




as you can see I really like symmetry and I wanted the petals of the pattern to slowly "start growing" on my feet and if I finally get my SD card to work I can upload a few pictures of the knitted socks so far


last not least the stitches are:



work in pattern until ~2 inches before you would start to turn the heel. Another tip - there's a YO at the beginning and the end of every round on top of the foot, if you find that a bit hard to handle, because I did find it a bit hard, just transfer one stitch of the sole to both sides, you have the lace stitch bordered by one knit stitch, this will make 25 stitches of stockinette for the sole and 31 stitches for the lace on top (casted on 27 sts, increased 2 sts during the beginning of the lace sections and bordered by 2 sts = 31 sts)

and again, click the pictures to enlarge them


edit: got my SD to work and here some pics of the knitted pieces

let's cast on :)

welcome follow knitters :) I enjoy you being here. If you have any questions post a comment or leave a message on ravelry because it's the first time ever I write down a knit pattern, so any help is welcome :)

but now let's cast on. I prefer anatomical toes, I have no idea why (in fact I never tried normal toes) maybe I only like the idea of a sock especially for my left foot and one especially made for my right foot :) plus they feel pretty good on the feet.

To cast on I use 2.25 mm needles and the Judy Becker magic cast on, I like it alot and it creates a very neat beginning and to have anatomical toes I use this chart:


this one's for one foot only, just mirror the increases for the other foot. If you click on the picture it will enlarge.

I will work both socks at a time using the magic loop technique with 2 needles.

In total we will cast on 54 stitches.

If you prefer different toes please knit your favorite version - only make sure you have 54 stitches divided on two needles at the end.

added: a little pictures of my toes ;)

would you like to knit along?

I couldn't sleep last night, one reason was the summer heat the other were my new tendrilous socks. I kept thinking about how to start them and how the pattern will elongate along the leg and how fabulous they will be once they're finished and then I had the idea to make the whole process public and maybe some of you can knit along ... any followers? I will create a pattern page at ravelry too and copy'n'paste the details there as well. This evening I will cast on - we will cast on =^__^=

tendrilous swatching

So I started swatching again, I want to have a little project I can carry around easily and I always wanted to try knee high socks with a 'calf shaping' made from changing needle sizes instead of increases or decreases depending on toe up or top down. Searching my knitting books I found a cute little stitch pattern that might work great for its purpose - and after finding 4 errors in the original pattern and correcting them I came up with this:

FO - bintje stockings

pattern: Bintje-Socks by Jatta Saukko
yarn: Regia 4-ply, solid green
started: may 2 2010
finished: june 2 2010

modifications: made them toe up, added anatomical toes too, made an itsy bitsy alteration to the stitch pattern, I changed the [sl1-k2tog-psso] to [sl2-k1-p2sso] this way the decrease has the middle knit stitch on top, and since I was making them toe up I increased one stitch every second row instead of decresing.

all in all I'm very satisfied with the result, at the beginning I wasn't sure if I liked the stitch pattern but now they're done I really like it

_________________

oh, and I haven't forgotten my snailigan, but it's a SNAILigen so it grows very sloooowly, no seriously, a couple of weeks ago I started searching my little mess, that I call stash, for the single parts of it and found two sleeves, two different sleeves, meanwhile I reknitted one so they are both equal and am at the point when to decide how to knit all parts together so I can make a collar...