Felting by hand

You gotta do what you gotta do. Since I'm stuck with top loaders (washing machines that the laundry goes in on the top instead off the traditional front loaders) I haven't been able to felt. The pieces come out all limp :( I miss my old front loader in Iceland. Maybe it's just Icelandic washer that are different from Americans, who knows?

I had my French Market Bag. I had run it twice through the washing machine on low water and with couple of pairs of shoes. But the fabric was still limp and hardly felted at all. I use coin laundry and there is just a limit to how many times I can wash a single item.

Along came a hand felting article in the latest Knitty.

I decided to try that. Bought a plunger and a bucket in Family Dollar for the total of $3 (only if all my knitting supplies where so cheap).



After plunging away at the bag, with a little dish soap and some 'help' from my daughters I felt (ha ha ha) I had made some progress.



Then I dried the bag by rolling it up in a towel and shaped it by putting a plate in the bottom and filling it up with plastic bags. I also folded it in on the sides because it was a little too wide.



When it has dried I will sew in the sides and then use it as a knitting bag.

The forgotten blog

I just realized I never wrote about my knitting retreat on the blog :o I don't even think I mentioned I was going. Úpps.

Well I did go and it was great. We were 8 knitters, all women, who meet on Thursdays at the LYS for couple of hours. Well, sometimes couple of hours just aint enough so we rented a cabin by Lake Hope, which is close by and spent last weekend knitting and eating (little bit of sleep in between).

I worked on slippers for Clint and finished a hat for Kamilla (about 5 times!). When I cam home I immediately started gloves. These are Cigar from knitty.



I made all the fingers whole and knit the smallest size for me in one color. It was a quick knit on 3.5 mm needles.

I also finally got a decent photo of me in the jacket/sweater/cardigan whatchacallit



I wear it all the time. It´s just great.

I just started socks for Kamilla. These last weeks have been all about knitting for the extremeties for the family. Then I want to do a big project for me.

Sad Sock Story

I want to tell you a short story of a sock that never was.



I started this sock as a bus knitting project. I don't know if that was such a good idea. I probably should have started it at home and then introduced it to the world of sock knitting.

I sometimes take the bus, as I am lucky enough that the bus stops at my house and goes all the way to work across town. Never mind I live in a small college town and the bus ride takes 15 min total. I still get some knitting time (when I'm not too busy bumping up and down on the bick layed streets).

There were few problems. I had discovered that size 1 needles (2.25 mm) provide me with my perfect sock size and texture. I btw discovered this when I had just bought sock needles in all sizes but 1 so I had to resort to dpns (sokkaprjona).

I had decided to try a toe suggested by a guest writer at the Yarn Harlot blog. This clever woman knits a 8 sts by 8 row 'swatch' and then pickes up the stitches and proceeds to knit a toe up sock. It's brilliant. But as I did this bumping up and down on the bus my picking up stitches didn't work out as nicely as it could have and then I got terrible laddering so now this project has been abandoned (some weeks ago actually) and the woodland shawl taken over as my preferred bus knitting project.

p.s. the sock has been ribbed :o

Prepared for winter

Look at this nice basked filled with wooly goodies



I placed it by the front door. I'm just missing the mittens I'm making for the girls (couple of thums still to go) and a hat for Kamilla. Otherwise we are set for the winter, although you can never have to much wooly goodies, right? I love living in a place that has winter.

I've been wearing the jacket I made and my mom put the zipper in last summer. It was too hot to model it then and now I keep forgetting. I've also been wearing some of my hats. I'm a product knitter so wearing the knitting is the ultimate joy for me. I like to see these babies being used. That's actually one of the reasons why I like dishcloths/washcloths so much. I can always use them. Speaking of dishcloths, there are 3 that I knit this summer (and then promptly forgot about).



This pattern is great. It's so simple you can knit it anywhere, including at the movies. You never have to look down. If we are going somewhere and I need a projet to work on in the car. I can just bring a ball of kitchen cotton and size 7 (4.5mm) needles and I'm good to go. No pattern, nothing.

Of course they have a pattern. But it is easy to learn. You cast on 4 stitches and knit one row. Then for the increasing rows you knit 2 stitches, yarn over (YO), knit rest of the stitches in EVERY row. The decreasing rows are a bit more complicated, you knit one, k2tog, YO, k2tog, knit rest of the stitches in EVERY row until you have 4 stitches left, then cast off.

In Icelandic: Fitja upp 4 lykkjur og prjóna einn prjón, auka út með því að prjóna 2 lykkjur, bregða bandinu yfir prjóninn og prjóna út umferð í hverri umferð. Úrtakan fer þannig fram að maður prjónar eina lykkju, prjónar tvær saman, bregður garninu yfir prjóninn, prjónar 2 lykkjur saman og prjónar út umferð í hverri umferð þar til maður er með 4 lykkjur á prjóninum og þá fella af.

p.s. here is a picture of Ása wearing the sweater her grandma Rósa made her. Kamilla got one too.