snailigan & more Backnang

above you can see what I brought home from Backnang, as you can see I didn't buy yarn, I bought buttons and I needed to be very very strong because at one stand there where knitting books there as well. Patterns and books are my kryptonite!

and below my progress on the snailigan. I almost finished the back, both front parts and one sleeve. All end below the underarm, because I now plan to knit my cardigan just like the tangled yoke cardigan from Eunny Jang. While sitting on the train home from Backnang Cleo suggested to add some tiny snails all around (where the tangled yoke cardigan has its celtic design) and I really like the idea although designing another snail that's even smaller than both other ones is a little tricky.


and last but not least I served myself some birthday style food today: sushi - nom, nom, nom

quick notion

I have so much to tell and show you I don't know where to start. First of all, thanks to all of you who sent me birthday wishes, thanks for the emails, the short messages or calls and ecards!

hugs'n'kisses (100)

looks like ravelry? reminds me of something, the meeting in Backnang was awesome! I met so many nice people there and to finally add some faces to names is great too. When I signed in to the site today I found over 40 new messages, new friends, more birthday wishes and comments on my Sylvi Cardigan, (I needed to turn my back to people that often it surprised me that there still where people who didn't see it before, got plenty of compliments *blush*) I also got oohs and aaahs on the snailigan, which I will show you later.

When returning from Backnang a hardcore week of work was waiting for me; observing an experiment from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. resulted in no online time (which explains why I couldn't write this post until now), lack of sleep, and some knitting time between the single parts of the experiment. All in all my Snailigan grew quite abit. Writing this I realize how tired I am, so I will go to bed early today and tomorrow I can show you the progress on my Snailigan. (btw. I finally got the yarn and needles I've been waiting for so patiently)

For now I will leave you with some impressions from Backnang. When I arrived in the hotel there were two people knitting and then coming to the "Bürgerhaus" (the meeting place) there were knitters knittng everywhere, what a view!

what a difference a day makes

or rather nine hours on the train on monday or (as it might seem to you) a few days more. On these nine hours on the train I made real good progress on my snailigan: I almost finsihed the whole colorwork snail pattern, only two rows of the snails tentacles are left.


the rest of the week was filled with congress sessions and too many speakers who spoke real bad english, I mean I don't blame anybody for not speaking a second language properly, but sometimes my ears just can't take any more bad grammar and mispronounciations. Anyway the congress is history and tomorrow morning I'm going to Backnang. Enjoy your weekend as well, as I'm sure I will =^__^=

pretty backside

not mine, well it's nice =^_^= but not as nice as this:


I casted on the snailigan, as I tend to call it for now, my snail cardigan. I didn't plan to cast on but I don't have the needles that I still wait for yet and also I didn't want to carry around a project that needs much attention when traveling the next 8 days. But since the yarn for my Liesl didn't approach my door as well and I needed something to knit while beeing on the road I freed my (not yet finished) acorn scarf from its needles and started a new project. What I really admire is how my purling looks now and that I really got used to throw yarn, at the beginning that was what irritated me most but it feels quite natural now. And before you ask what the front side looks like:


have a wonderful week. I start my trip in munich tomorrow and go to Backnang on saturday for the big ravelry meeting - really looking forward this one.

a dark cloud on the horizon?

I really hope not. I was just thinking and wondering if maybe, only maybe knitting something with snails might be the reason why I'm still waiting for my new knitting needles to arrive. I ordered them at the 21st last month and they were supposed to be shipped the very next day so I believe they already should be here - but they are not. Snails? Really snaily snail mail? ugh.
I'm also waiting for new yarn to arrive, I plan to knit a new Liesl on my train rides next week (going to a congress in munich and spending the following weekend at the first german raveler meeting, so excited!), I love that pattern and started one when my Sylvi was blocking but I used an acrylic yarn that would not handle the lacy pattern at all and so I put it away, I must show you a pic though (I still haven't frog that one) cause I think I never mentioned it here before. In case you like to know the colorway I ordered even before I get to see them: I'm waiting for a 100 % merino 10 ply to arrive. Same yarn I used for my Sylvi (it wears great, no pilling wonderful touch to the skin) and you can choose from app. 200 solid colors and even create your own yarn when mixing some solid strands into a thicker yarn. I mixed the ones below to create a warm reddish tone and a cooler green, so that makes two Liesls for me =^__^=


(I think I choose the upper red/yellow combination, because the one in the middle didn't had the yellow available at the moment, but both look pretty, hope they do too when they arrive here)

Oh and before I forget, a picture of my snail swatch blocked and dry, it's pretty huge but I'm glad it turned out a good size so I won't need to re-chart anything to fit my cardi design.

the biggest swatch I've ever made

thanks for your input on my dilemma which design to choose. Seems like nearly everybody agrees on the middle one. I like that one too, so I will knit it =^__^=

Also I made a swatch, the third one actually, but this time I included colorwork. I knitted both bigger snail versions and right now I tend to the smaller shell (the one on the left). This snail looks a lot more elegant.


The swatch is still unwashed and even though I improved my color-knitting extremely while making it you still can see the different tensions between some stitches, I hope this evens out when the swatch is dryed.

If you look at the back of the swatch you see I used a method that weaves in the yarn while you knit it this way there's nothing to tangle. I really like the outcome and used a method that is described here. At first I had problems knitting the wrong side but I needed to find out how to purl it since I won't knit the cardigan in the round - but once I found out how to do it it was quite easy and came pretty naturally.

which one should I choose?

Help please. I'm totally confused and get more and more confused the longer I try to think about this one. I said I was thinking about snails last time because of some gorgeous mittens. Well these snails circled my thoughts the whole day and this makes me think I will knit a snaily cardigan!

But now I have a problem, a serious one, one that's so typical for me, which version of my ideas shall I use? First the snails themselves. I created a smaller snail just like in the mittens (it's not the original pattern since I don't have the book they are in but I think I made a pretty good job in recharting them, even though I made some "error" in the neck area, but that doesn't bother me much) and then I charted a bigger version of the snail to go with the smaller one - and there is my problem, I don't know which bigger snail to use. They are only slightly different, I only made a little change to the shell but it's visible clearly. Which one do you like better? the left or the right one?


And then there is the arrangement on the back. I started with the idea on the left: all snail facing the outside of the cardigan. But then I thought why not make them face the center? and it makes a completely different effect, especially on graph paper. The outside facing verion looks alot wider whereas the center facing version seemed to create a thinner looking garment. And to make my confusion complete I made the snails face each other, looks good too! What I was surprised of was that the huge effect that there was on graph paper melted alot when I put the snails into a cardigan sketch to give me a clearer idea of what I was going to do. You see - confusion everywhere. Which would you make?


jus a side note: is it fair isle if it's working with 2 colors only and doesn't use the typical geometric repetitive style