WIP Wednesday

Ginkgo grows on and on. I finished the first half and bound off, now I'm working on the second part of my shawl. So far I really like it. Unblocked as it is right now I think it could be a bit longer, but nonetheless I like it a lot. Progress percentage I'd say is 60%.

On other news, I didn't start any new WIPs. Yeah me! But, I'm pretty excited. Just a few hours ago I had the idea for my next hat. A few posts back I was wondering whether I needed a new winter hat or not. Whether a new rusty red hat would fit my life, and you probably guessed it right .. OFCOURSE I will need a new hat, winter will come and it will be cold, my ears would want warmth. But the exciting idea I'm having is a "Sylvi Pixie" hat. You might remember my sylvi cardigan and this hat will match it perfectly. The seed stitch and cable pattern I was wondering to add to my hat turned into vines and leaves I'm happy ^__^

How-To: Granny Square

I've learned how to make granny squares from the gazillion tutorials that are already out there on blogland and youtube and obviously they are great as I managed to finish a whole blanket not so long ago.
But while working on my "classic" squares I found I made a few changes to the classic granny tutorials that are out there. So instead of making a complete "DIY granny square tutorial" I want to keep notes on what I did, what alterations I made to make my squares look more even and maybe you will find some of the hints useful too ^__^

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1 - start by chaining 4 and closing them to a ring

2 - start the first dc-cluster by chaining 2 and follow with 2 dc
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note: in most tutorials I found people make three chain stitches to mimic a dc, but I always find that's too much and makes the chain stand out and look a bit wonky, so I only chain 2

3 - now chain 3, as now there's a corner, then do 3 dc, repeat this 3 more times
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note: now whether to make 3 or just 1 chain stitch in a corner really seems to vary amongst fellow crocheters. I liked the 3-ch-spaces for corners and the 1-ch-spaces inbetween dc-clusters along the sides of a square

4 - to finish off the first round, chain 3 and close round with a slst into the top of the 1st dc you made in this round
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note: I've marked the spot to slst in picture 3 above with a blue dot

5 - chain 3 and work 3 dc into the next space
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note: the beginning chain3 equals a chain2 to mimic the last dc in this round plus a chain1 to space between dc-clusters

6 - now always chain3 between two dc-clusters in each corner and chain1 between two dc-clusters along the sides of a square

7 - to finish a round that started with a chain3, make 1 normal dc and 1 "fat" dc
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note: fat-dc: I always found my dc+chain-clusters to be a bit wonky, a little off compared to the other dc-clusters. Therefore I "fattened" the dc between the bordering dc and the chain stitch that mimics a dc. To "fatten" a dc I started a classic dc and pulled the yarn through a second time at the base of the slst of the row below to pull up a fourth loop. To finish this "fat-dc" yo and pull through first three loops on your hook, yo again and pull through remaining two loops (basically treat the two base loops as one and pretend to work a normal dc. You can see the two base loops in the picture below.

to finish this round close with a slst into 3rd chain from base

8 - now let's make a round that starts with a cluster right away: chain 2, make 2 dc
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note: again fatten one dc here to make this cluster look more like all the others. I like to fatten the second dc of the two dc I work here.

9 - continue this round like before: chain3 between dc-clusters in corners, chain1 between dc-clusters at sides and make 3 dc to form a dc-cluster
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to finish a round that started with a cluster right away just chain1 and slst into the top of the next dc / equals the 3rd chain (remember the blue dot on pic 3)

10 - repeat the last two rounds as often as required to make a square of your desired size - either start with a chain3 plus a dc-cluster in the next space OR a (chain 2, dc, fat-dc)-cluster

I hope you will find this helpful in some way .. crochet hugs, Diana

allegiant

finally it's here

I've pre-ordered months ago and now I will spend the night reading ^__^

sleep tight my lovelies

WIP Wedn ... uhm Friday?

no. don't judge me, don't laugh at me. I found another one.

Yesterday night while cleaning I found a bag, a bag which said "hi, I include knitting" and grinned at me. I hide this stuff from myself. I swear. I wonder if hiding these from myself is some form of self protection? do I not want to finish these things deep down in my soul? Why am I hiding them from myself? is it the ever existing wish to always have something left to do? like some sort of goal in life to always look forward? deep thoughts..

anyways I found a stole. it's not bound off yet and I always intended to sew some fancy fabric to the wrong side. The fabric is there too, but no sewing. Now I don't see any event to wear a stole like this and think about frogging and re-use the yarn. Maybe knit some sort of blanket? A small one maybe for a baby or I could use it to schmancy up some of my amigurumis. I guess I will see, so far it might keep sleeping in its bag

have a lovely weekend y'all

WIP Wednesday 2

shame on me! I need to admit something. I found even more WIPs. Do you believe me when I say I wasn't aware these things even existed? Please do so, I hid them so well I couldn't remember they were there. But the minute I posted my last WIP Wednesday I saw them. Sleeping in one of my boxes. In a project bag. A project bag which you could call a WIP by it self - I never finished the seams:

And this bag I found:

the victim of sss - second sock syndrome. Green Fishnet stockings almost finished, but only almost. Pattern was from vogue knitting. I remember I liked the knit but didn't liked the non-ease of the resulting fabric. Maybe that's why I never finished my very first pair of socks. Started in August 2007. whoosh that's so much time that passed.

a summer top that never happened to be. Started in 2008. Left to be forgotten. Makes me sad. The pattern was lovely. I made some changes to this as I wanted real straps instead of the i-cord ones that the pattern came with. One important modification was knitting the pattern back and forth instead of in the round which was giving me severe headaches back in the days. I guess nowadays changing a simple stitch pattern such as this one would be so much easier for me. I've learned so much during the last years.

and then there is something I don't even remember what it was intended to be. I believe I wanted to make gaiters to wear during winter as I never could find proper boots but obviously these were never finished.

And already frogged as well. And a little magic happened while frogging, I found a needle I've been searching for for ages. Literally ages!

In another box I stored the front of a vest. Blossom. It was my first really big fair-isle knit and one that was making me practice weaving in the strands as I go, even when knitting on the wrong side. I don't like steeking and never ever ever will do so. Cutting knitting equals killing it for me, so I found a way to knit fair-isle both ways. I knew there was a way and I found one. I still like the pattern I created back then but the color combination and even more important the need for a vest just disappeared. I don't wear vests and guess I won't in the future.

All of the WIPs above will be frogged sooner or later so I guess they don't count as WIPs per se but I wanted to give a little credit to them anyways.

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now let's move on to the WIPs I wrote about last time.

Ginkgo grew quite a bit. I'm almost done with the first half and love the yarn/color/stitch combination so far. This will be a well loved shawl/cowl when done.

Also I made some progress on Klara. The mermaid got a new head. A smaller - better fitting/proportioned one. And a new nose too! The first one was reminding me of a witch and mermaids are too cute to have witch noses. Now I'm thinking about ears or no ears and the idea for her hair that I have in my mind is a little challenging.

hugs, Diana

oh, and even worse I have a hat in my head that wants to be knitted. Do I need a new hat? a rusty red one? with a cable and some seed stitch?

WIP Wednesday

Today I will start a new feature on my blog. The WIP Wednesday. I'm sure you all know what a WIP is, a work in progress, most of mine sleep in boxes or on the back/armrests of my couch.

I've originally found this feature on Amy's blog called threadpanda (which is pretty cool, btw, you SHOULD check it out). And I loved the thing the minute I first saw it. Keeping track of what you have lying around. Actually getting aware (!) of how many projects I have going on at one moment. And as I'm about to cast on two (not only one, no, two) new cowls this very moment I figured it was about time to start my own WIP Wednesday, just to remind me to not cast on even more...

Icarus: So I guess I will start at the beginning, with my oldest WIP around. When I redesigned my blog a few weeks ago I also checked on all the labels flying around here and came across one that was called "icarus". I couldn't remember what it was, so I took a look and was surprised. I just didn't remember it at all. Icarus is also very present on my ravelry page but I stopped recognizing it. It's one of those things, that once they look like furniture/background, you just stop seeing them at all. I started this sock/stocking design in May 2009 and it seems like I forgot about it in October that year..

Snailigan: a cardigan I started in September 2009. I was very enthusiastic about this baby when I started and always regret that the move to Berlin in 2010 made me stop working on this (and looking back on most other crafty things for that year). I don't have a unique label for snailigan, where you can find all the single posts about it here on this blog, but you can search for it.

Petrol Gable: another cardigan. I don't use patterns by other designers without adding quite a few changes to them very often. And this time I wasn't as well -- although I believe changing a hooded pullover into a stand-up collar cardigan isn't that much of a modification. I like Mari's designs very very much and my favorite still is my Sylvie cardi I made a few years ago. Still wear it a lot. Anyways Gable was started in July 2010 and as mentioned above 2010 wasn't a good knitting year for me, I just was too busy finding myself in a new job and a new home and a big city such as Berlin.

Eichenlaub: is an afghan made from a "doily" pattern. I love love love Herbert Niebling's designs. They are so pretty and delicate and unique. And I loved the idea of having such a pretty design on my couch to cuddle and snuggle in. But a lace pattern such as this one takes a lot of attention. And I just don't have that much attention every evening. Started in June 2011 I made pretty good progress meanwhile, earlier this summer I worked quite a few rows on it. A single row also takes about 30-45 minutes meanwhile so I guess and hope that I will finish it this winter. Maybe one row an evening isn't too much to ask for?

Klara: is my latest amigurumi design. Started only two weeks ago I already made some neat progress. If you follow me on instagram you saw my progress so far, as I posted some pictures. (and even a video, just click the picture)

and now my new cast ons: it's getting colder and winter is approaching quickly. Last year I've turned the famous Laminaria pattern into a cowl. Seems like I never made a proper blog post on it, as the modification is quite interesting, but you can find my project page here and a picture below. Since I made this colw I wasn't wearing anything else. It's just perfect. What I never liked about classic cowls or bigger shawls is all the bulk at the neck and sometimes not enough fabric at the front. Changing a triangular shawl into a cowl solved this problem immediately and now I'm about to do this again with two other patterns.

Ginkgo Cowl: I've chosen a pretty honey colored merino yarn and won't change much about the pattern at all, maybe add a row of ginkgo leaves, but I'll see how it turns out once I get there.

Pretty as a peacock cowl: I've drooled over this pattern forever and ever (or as long as it's been around) and finally decided to buy the pattern and start on it. I'm pretty sure I'll skip a few of the rows to make it a little shorter but I will see when it's time to decide. I chose a very light bamboo yarn to try this and will work with several balls at once because I want the beautiful color changes to take a little longer. I've used this yarn before (tried to work it into a vest, but frogged already) and will use pretty small needles. The yarn doesn't hold shape very good and using smaller needles did help a lot here.

that's it, I guess seven WIPs isn't as bad as I thought. But keeping track of them will help, maybe even help with some of the older ones.
how about you? do you have tons of WIPs lying around or are you one of those (very rare ^__^) one project people?

♥ Diana

Goodbye September

Hello October. September was filled with quite some work and a new amigurumi design. Now I'm curious what October will bring along. So far the weather turns colder and the leaves start falling. I love this time of the year when everything gets calmer and cozier

1. Together: I love a good breakfast with all of us together

2. My name begins with: D .. my first try on coloring on my phone

3. Lines: somewhere in Brandenburg/Germany some birds sit on power poles

4. Alone: first day at a hotel for a science exhibition, there were so many people .. the only time to be alone was on the toilet

5. Here forever: and the training marathon began, it felt like I would be staying there forever (I would see this room again next week and the week that followed)

6. Getting ready: self-explaining, right?

7. White: oh that was cool, Saturday morning, had breakfast at my boyfriends place and went grocery shopping afterwards, on the way back home I saw these lying on the lawn, perfectly fine, now they're mine ^__^

8. Made by me: I finally finished my beloved granny blanket

9. On the wall: a mirror at the hotel

10. Sweet: chocolate money/coins .. didn't ate these for ages. Do you have this sweet at your home as well?

11. What you did today: baking birthday cupcakes in the evening

12. Shadow: of a wine glass at the hotel (told you I was at hotels A LOT this month)

13. Unexpected: a cupcake for breakfast ... what else to say?

14. Liquid: water

15. Season: first signs of autumn start appearing

16. Frame: have you ever tried to make a frame with your fingers and still take the picture with your phone? it is impossible, believe me, I've tried

17. In front of me: that was a funny day .. and in front of me was some yarn bombing too .. in the middle of nowhere too!

18. Vintage: I just couldn't find anything antique that day

19. What is this?: my first birthday card arrived

20. In the morning: I usually eat something ^__^

21. Rule of thirds: the rule of thirds is a photographic technique to divide a picture into three equal parts horizontally as well as vertically. I placed my beginning mini mermaids tails right in one of the corners of such a dividing line

22. Made me smile: it was my birthday and I had beloved people sing for me ♥ flowers ♥ and new slippers for my boyfriends home ♥

23. From my childhood: a little plush toy dog, I don't remember its name but it sits in my kitchen, watching me cook

24. Space: still blank, so put in here whatever you can think of ^__^

25. H is for…: hair .. that morning my hair had its own will, flying all around, but I guess that's what it will be like for the next couple of month as I'm trying to grow out my pixie cut

26. Curve: I had planed to take a picture of my new donut baking pan .. read a post on baking donuts a few weeks ago and loved the simplicity of the idea. Baking a few donuts and glaze them with chocolate whenever you feel the need for them .. yum

27. WTF?: at our regular stitch'n'bitch I came across the most old fashioned swift I've ever seen, kind cool!

28. 10 o’clock: I was grocery shopping and forgot to take a picture

29. Gold: goldbears by haribo .. I just had way too many sweets in September and need to be strong this month!

30. Found: and last but not least in September another autumn greeting .. found some acorns

I hope everyone had a blast last month, I sure did. see you soon. ♥ Diana