Sooza's Knitting Stuff

Every year spring seems to bring with it a strong urge to start some redecorating, to sort out old stuff and to rearrange some furniture. And maybe finally getting around to painting the darned staircase and get rid of the ugly terracotta color the previous owners had in the bedroom. This year things got even worse since my sister moved to Berlin and she needed furniture for this gorgeous little apartment she'd found in a nice, green quarter of town. Of course that meant numerous trips to Ikea. What a hardship ;o) And we all know how trips to Ikea end up. You buy way more stuff than you intended to. But that's half of the fun, isn't it?

Well, this time my sister's move finally got me to call the painter and within a week they showed up and fixed up the staircase and the bedroom. It's all nice and white now. The perfect canvas to put on some decoration myself. Can't wait for the wall tattoos to get here to brighten up the bedroom and the first floor hallway. Next big project is the carpet. The carpet itself is neutral enough and looks still okay to me. But the previous owners put these really ugly stair mats and a matching runner on the first floor hallway. Unfortunately they are glued tightly to the steps. The runner was easy enough to throw out. I'm glad it's finally gone. Stair mats are next on the agenda. The wooden staircase is really nice bit probably forever ruined by the carpet glue :-/ Nothing short of grinding them down would help, I'm afraid. I've made my peace with this though since the mats make the stairs safer to navigate anyway. I think I'll get some nice, natural colored sisal mats so the glue remains won't matter.

Now the freshly painted hallway looked kinda bland and it totally deserved some nice furniture, too. This little side table from Ikea was just too cute to resist. The mirror is a new addition, too and they both go really well together. Talk about Ikea style. But I really don't mind. It looks cute and bright and bit romantic. Not much of a decorator here anyway. Yes, I love my crafts and fiber hobbies but somehow decorating is not my thing. Too much work and I'd rather sit and knit – or spin – some more :-)

I've been lusting after one of those special support spindles made by Bristlecone over at ArtFibre. He calls them Glindles – a composition of 'glass' and 'spindle', I suppose. I asked for a custom spindle with a glass bead that's got some magenta or pink in there. Obviously the posed quite the challenge for Chris. He said this wasn't something he could achieve easily in this kind of lamp-work. But he managed to come up with a bead that shows a pearlescent magenta sheen. It's quite pretty. And the Bird's Eye Maple shaft is really handsome, too.

The spindle came carefully and lovingly packed in a organza bag with a little fiber snack and all wrapped up in pretty pink and magenta tissue paper. Doing business with Chris has been a total pleasure. I love discovering all those craftsmen and craftswomen and talking back and forth about some custom work and what can or can't be done. It's always such an interesting experience.

How does the Glindle spin, you ask? Very nice! It weighs about 35 grams which is in the range I'm used to in support spindles. But it still spins slightly different because the glass bead gives it a distinctively lower center of gravity. It spins quickly but still very long. So it's not only pretty to look at but also good to work with. A very attractive combination.

As far as craft hobbies go I always seem to be on one kick or another. Probably mostly because while I might have time to extensively knit I wouldn't manage to do large crochet stuff on top of that AND spinning yarn at the same time. Days with 24 hours only and all that ;-) Lately I've been digging up some of my many spinning projects and I'm attempting to finish at least some of them. Here's what my spinning kick yielded so far.





This CVM fiber has been so much fun. In contrast to the usual industrial preparation this one came in form of roving processed by a small mill. Worked out beautifully if spun with a long draw making for a lofty, airy yarn and quite a good yardage.



Still a lot of fiber to go on this project. This is the first batch of 200 grams in total. The Shetland fiber in form of carded batts worked great on support spindles. Perfect fiber to learn long draw.



Practicing some wheel spinning too. I aimed for a lofty slightly heavier yarn and I got exactly that on my Kromski wheel. The fiber came in form of carded batts.



Not that I would really need another spindle but I could not resist Sheila's offer of a Special Edition spindle in English Boxwood combined with 2 oz. of delicious Merino/Cashmere fiber dyed by Into The Whirled. But since for getting one of those you had to enter a lottery I was also pretty sure that my name would not ever come up. Well, I was wrong. I got this beauty to enhance my spindle collection. And Bosworth Minis are just so adorable. You can't ever have too many of those.

This weekend a friend asked about my well-being since I hadn't shared any new knitting around here for a while. Ouch. Apart from the regular everyday stuff like work, family, the house, friends and whatnot there has been knitting going on, of course.



One of the most interesting and fun projects over the last months was the Inspiria Cowl. There were so many fabulous Inspira projectst in Ravelry's database! Beautiful colors. Many variations regarding size and shape. And all that based on the most basic colorwork. With pretty self-striping yarns that sported long color repeats.


The first Inspira was intended to end up as a small cowl or neck warmer for me. The pattern was a bit difficult to figure out and adjust at first. That's probably because the instructions are more of an entertaining guideline than a clearcut pattern. It took some frustrated ranting but in the end was possible to put two and two together. The photos and project descriptions on Ravelry helped, too. The pattern in combination with the lovely Drops yarn made for a lovely end result. Unfortunately I couldn't enjoy it for long. The girl laid claim to the cowl declared it a "kids poncho" and off she went :-)

Well, there was nothing to do but sit down and knit another Inspira to have one for myself. This time larger and with random variations on the stripes. It turned out just as lovely as the first one. And the simple stranding over only two stitches worked up nearly as quickly as plain ribbing. Who would have thought it?


This is definitely one of those knits that look much more complex than they actually are. In this one a traditional knitting technique paired with a modern yarn combine to the best effect.



Along the lines of those two projects I also discovered a new yarn that I hadn't worked with before. Drops Delight is one of those new yarns that are clearly inspired - I hesitate to call them poor copies - by Noro's trademark color gradations. For all intents and purposes Drops Delight appears as a soft singles yarn while a closer look shows that there might be more to it. The 75% wool, 25% nylon content suggests that it would also be suitable as a sock yarn. If knit on a somewhat tighter gauge it might actually hold up against harder wear. I haven't tried that myself though. In those projects I worked the yarn on 4mm neeedles producing a slightly looser gauge while still resulting in a nice, coherent fabric with a bit of drape. And while the yarn imitates Noro yarns to a certain degree it's an entirely different thing to knit with. Much softer, not as much knots or slubs and not half as much vegetable matter. Cheaper, too. On the other hand it's absolutely clear that nobody can imitate Noro's vibrant, unique color schemes. The same item worked in Noro yarn will always stand out in a crowd. So it's not a real competition at all.

 
And here we are. Another year in front of us. Full of new possibilites and challenges. Time to see what's been going on knitting wise here at Sooza's. The clever Ravelry database tells me I've got 35 projects logged in for 2011. Not bad. Lots of this has actually been crochet which was a surprise for me. The year 2011 was all about re-learning and improving my skills with a crochet hook. And it's been fun.

Another skill I wanted to try my hands on was weaving. No progress on this front though. But I've got the loom now and it will be one of the projects I'll take with me into 2012.

What else has been going on? I discovered the concept of everyday carry and fell down the rabbit hole of collecting pocket knives. To keep this blog mostly about my crafts and some personal side notes I've been setting up a Tumblr blog for my EDC hobby - Sooza's EDC and Stuff. I'm thinking about putting out some knife reviews in the upcoming weeks. Will have to see wether I find the time.

 
Here's a knitted FO from back in October that went to a friend as a gift. Ishbel by Isolda Teague is one of rare patterns I've knitted more than once. And since the results are always so nice I'll probably do it again. I'm thinking Wollmeise this time. Project details on Ravelry.

For the better part of this year I've been tumbling down the slippery slope of EDC carrying. What's EDC? Here's how Bernard Capulong, founder of the Everyday Carry Blog puts it:


As any good EDCer I'm always looking for ways to optimize my EDC - trying stuff out, carrying it around for a while, swapping things, getting new gadgets to try out, slimming things down. It's a fun process. But I'm not only looking for functional stuff, it's also got to fit my personal style. The most important part of my EDC seems to be my keychain and the stuff in my pockets. I usually carry my phone and a pocket knife - preferably a Spyderco - in my pockets. As for the keychain, well those have undergone a few changes in the last 6 months. Most importantly I reorganized the decluttered them. The one constant thing so far has been a Victorinox Classic of some kind and the carabiner. As far as lights and other keychain tools go I've been through a few iterations so far.


 
I wanted a light source on my keys. It started out with a cheapo promotional LED light. Updraged to an iTP A3 EOS after a while and quite liked this neat little light. The three modes are very convenient. Somehow the A3 EOS migrated from my house keys to my car keys and I find they come in handy there more often than not. But now I was in need of a replacement light for my house keys. I discovered the follow-up model of the A3 EOS was going under the Olight brand as "Olight i3 EOS" and it even came in purple. No question as to whether I would buy this one or not ;-)


The other must have for my keys was a bottle opener. Something small. I tried the True Utility KeyTool for a few months. And while I really liked the ingenious idea with so many cool functions in one small package I didn't like it so much in real life. The one thing I got it for - the bottle opener - was a pain to use. I never managed to pop of a bottle cap at the first try and on top of that the sharp edges of the tool cut into my hands painfully. I dumped the Key Tool and got myself a Gerber Shard instead. While Gerber promotes the tool with 7 functions - "Phillips driver, small and medium flat head driver, bottle opener, pry bar, wire stripper and lanyard ring" - I don't really believe they all are actually worth anything. Except for the bottle opener and the pry bar. Which is perfectly fine with me. Will see how this one carries in real life a couple of months from now.

One other thing I've been trying was a key-chain lighter. I've had the True Utility FireStash but after only 3 or 4 months it broke down on me. I got a couple of cheaper key-chain lighters from EDCdepot.com but while they are they are a bit more comfortable to use they are also too large for my keys. I'll keep one on a lanyard in my hand bag just case though.

While at first I thought this whole EDC business was a bit over the top and really, how much stuff do you really need on an everyday basis and what's with all the firearms, I was surprised at how interesting and appealing the idea of EDC as a lifestyle and philosophy becomes once you've started to dig deeper. And it's not only a guy's thing either. Especially women seem to carry around everything but the kitchen sink in enormous purses and hand bags. It's fodder for jokes between the guys in the cafeteria or break room. A little more EDC thinking would certainly not go amiss. I hated not being able to find the stuff I knew was sitting SOMEWHERE way down there in my bag. And if push came to shove I was still missing this little thing that could help me out in this particularly situation. I went over all my stuff with a critical eye and made some serious changes. I feel better now that there's less clutter and more thoughtfully assembled stuff. And I'm not done by a long shot. I'm more critical now when it comes to packing my bags. And of course there's always more cool tools to discover and to try :-D

While washing some of my woolen garments for winter I was shocked to find my beloved Wollmeise cardigan with two holes and a thin spot on the collar. How can this be? I frantically searched my wardrobe for other signs of moth infestation but couldn't find any. Which is good, of course. But what happened to the Wollmeise cardi? I really don't know. Gourmet moths maybe only out for the finest Merino?! It seemed fine the last time I wore it but after washing it suddenly turned up holey :-( May didn't like the washing machine. Now what to do?

I knew I didn't have any of the original yarn left because I gave the left-over skein to my sister. But I knew there was a swatch somewhere in my binders with project notes. While I'm not the most religious swatch knitter ever I do so most of the time to calculate my gauge and do the sizing. As predicted I found the swatch tacked to my notes and it was quickly unraveled. I sat down and carefully retraced the stitches over a few rows - not so easy in moss stitch - to close up the two holes as invisibly as possible. And it worked quite alright. It's not totally invisible but also not right in your face either. I undid maybe a third of the bind off row on the collar and replaced this one too to take care of the thin spot there. Steam ironed it a bit and now it's as good as now. Let's hope this doesn't happen to more of my hand-knits.

Yesterday the best husband of all took part in the last autocross events on this year's schedule. The weather even though mighty cold in the morning warmed up nicely during the day and made the last day of the season a huge success. The number of participants was astonishing and it seemed like everyone wanted to take their car to the track one last time before winter lowers its white blanket.


I enjoyed the trip through the flat Brandenburg countryside prettied up by the low autumn sun and those awesome tree lined country roads. This one here is on the terrain of former Soviet air base in Groß Dölln. The clearing on the right side would have been the parade-ground. Weird how quiet and peaceful this place is today. Privately owned "Driving Center Groß Dölln" has become a mecca for motorsports enthusiasts across the country. And imagine, it's still an active air strip. So from time to time you'll have small air planes making their way down onto the tarmac where the guys do their dance around the cones. But with two air strips of 4000 meters there's plenty of room for everyone.


With the switch from DST to regular time the evenings start mighty early all of a sudden. Four o'clock in the evening has had us seeing the most beautiful sunsets this past week. For most knitters this turn of the clock signals the upcoming high season for our hobby. There's mittens and socks needed to keep small hands and feet warm. Wool garments pulled out of the closet to ward off the chill. Christmas presents to be planned and materials to be acquired. And the of course there's much knitting to be done. Let the fun begin :-)

I am beyond happy about the pink Delica. The Delica model is about my favorite Spydie with the only drawback that it's not legal to carry in Germany because it locks and is one hand operated. This one has been a special edition for the Spyderco distributor Midwest Gun Exchange and I secured one via eBay. The other three knives are non-locking folders and therefore legal. The Kiwi is really cool and I particularly like the Wharncliff blade. Unfortunately my husband thought so, too and the knife is now his :-)

 


I've probably quoted this before but somehow this time of the year always brings this particular Green Day song to mind. After a summer that mostly seems to have left a cold and wet impression we seem to be hitting a mild early autumn period for a change where you can still enjoy the parks, gardens and terraces.

On the one hand I'm kind of sad to see summer go. But as a knitter and crafts person I can't help looking forward to shorter days and cozy evenings at home. My mind is awhirl with new ideas for knitting projects and other crafts stuff. A trip business trip to Salzburg over the last weekend triggered some interest in traditional alpine/Tyrollean dress. I bought an interesting book about the history of the dirndl and traditional dress and I bought some accompanying sewing and knitting books. Those dirndls are so very pretty and really versatile. I'm a bit sad to live in a region where wearing a dirndl is pretty much out of the question.


 
In the picture above is also one my latest obsessions - a Spyderco pocket knife. Somehow I've been sucked into the world of pocket knives and found them to be incredibly useful to have at hand. Opening parcels and letters, cutting card bord, peeling an apple, cutting a roll and putting on butter while outdoors, small stuff in the garden and around the house. I'm particularly fond of Spyderco. Spyderco's trademark is the so-called 'spyderhole' in the blade serving as a means to open the knife one-handed. I really like their style and the superb quality. In the picture there's the still fairly new 'Squeak'. It's a small non-locking blade mostly geared towards markets where pocket knives are under very heavy restrictions regarding size and locking capabilities. It's manufactured not in Asia or the United States but in Maniago, Italy's number one place for steel blade making. Unfortunately most of Spyderco's knives fall under §42a of the German weapon's law. Which means they are locking blades and feature one-hand opening. Those are not allowed to carry in public on your person. But Spyderco is one of the few companies aware of the fact that more and more countries put quite severe restrictions on knives and tries to find ways innovative solutions while staying true to their trademark look and feel.


 
This is probably my favorite Spyderco model - a Delica 4 FFG. I've got one in purple and one pink just for kicks. The size is just right even for bigger tasks while still being light-weight and compact. There's more pictures to proof my hopeless decline into just another obsession on Flickr ;o)

With only about 7 months in the making this crochet blanket hasn't been the most epic project I've ever done. But after years of blocking out crochet completely this one feels like a real achievement. And after a handful of cute crochet scarfs this is my first big project off the hook. I already liked working on this big project and I sure am in love with the finished object! It turned out better than I might have imagined. The Granny Stripe Blanket by Lucy of Attic24 is such an accessible pattern and in combination with the right yarn it's plain magic in the making.


 
I used Schachenmayr nomotta Cotton Linen yarn for this one because I fell in love with the powdery slightly toned down colors. Apart from the colors it's also comfortable to work with and the resulting fabric has a good drape and a crisp handle. I started out with every color in their range but decided to drop the black and navy because they were too harsh a contrast with the other colors. After the first batch was used up and more than half of the blanket was done I reordered and discovered that the "coral" color wasn't available any longer and I plain forget to order the sky blue. Well, no help for it but to go on without them. For the border I had stashed to extra skeins in the natural color-way.


 
I started out this project way back in January with the hope that over the course of this spring Little Girl would grow to like her room and her pretty white princess bed and outgrow the parental bedroom. As an incentive I wanted to add a cute blanket as a bedspread. Well, turns out I'm actually a bit late. She's been in her own bedroom for a few months now - ever since we painted it all purple and pink back in May. Maybe the blanket project was a good omen. In any case, it's a nice addition to the girly room :-)


 
Details
Pattern: Granny Stripe Blanket by Lucy of Attic24
Hook: 4 mm/G
Yarn: About 32 skeins of Schachenmayr Nomotta Cotton Linen (78% Cotton, 22% Linen)
Size: 140 x 85 cm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
I've got to admit, mountains were never quite my thing. Too high, too much snow, too far away. But this vacation was seriously fun and Austria turned out to be a really great place for a vacation with kids. It's got everything from beautiful lakes to VERY high mountains and on top of that all kinds of cultural and outdoors stuff. I'm looking forward being back in Salzburg this autumn on a trip with the company.

This has been an extra crafty weekend thanks to the husband. Who would have thought that he would come up with idea, the books and the material for knotting bracelets? But not any old bracelets, mind you, but manly and incredibly useful Survival Bracelets using Parachute cord (Paracord) original developed for military purposes. I'd never heard of that one before but a Google search turns up an incredible amount of pages and shops either offering information on how to make them or selling the bracelets themselves.


 
What the heck is a survivial bracelet, you ask? Well, I didn't know either so I did the research. Originally it's been a military thing. The basic idea is to carry around some strong cord in case an emergency situation comes up where some of said strong cord might save your ass. But since loose cord is a bitch to carry around someone came up with the clever idea of knotting a bracelet. The knotting technique makes sure that you neatly fit a considerable length of cord into a tight package that can be worn but can also easily be unraveled if need be. What has been an emergency item for military members obviously has found the way to a wider public if all the Etsy listings for 'paracord bracelet' and paracord webshops are anything to go by. Today Paracord is available in a wide range of colors that turn those accessories into fun fashion items.


 
There's a few good tutorials and videos online that show how to make your own bracelet. As a starting point check out Stormdrane's instructions that can be found in several places, for example at instructables.com. I think it's basically macramé but don't tell the guys ;-)



 
The original Paracord is a bit difficult to get here in Germany. eBay is probably the most likely source. Outdoor stores carry similar cord though and even a trip to the hardware store might prove enlightening. We found nylon cord in different diameters and colors and even the brightly colored cord that's been used for the kiddie bracelet in the picture above. So DH and me spent the weekend knotting some bracelets and key fobs. Perfect activity for an otherwise rainy and drab weekend.

Our family car, a Subaru Impreza 2.0 R, had been fitted Eibach Springs Pro Kit a while ago. While the 2008 model already looks awesome on its own the lowered suspension makes it stand out even more in a sea of nondescript Volkswagen clones. But apart from that the lowered body also makes it handle better and increases mileage. Good looks and practical use. Totally win-win situation, if you ask me. It's really a great, sturdy car and the all-wheel-drive rocks - in the midst of a snow heavy winter as well as on Brandenburg's notoriously unpaved side roads.


 
Eibach Springs established a Facebook Fanpage and from time to time they have some cool fan action going. In our case they asked everyone for pictures of cars with Eibach springs/suspension and offered Eibach stickers to everyone who posted a pic. As happy Eibach customers we posted to picture above, got our sticker and proudly showed our brand appreciation.


 
Unfortunately the hatch started to suffer from a known rust problem under the chrome trim over the winter. Obviously we weren't the first ones to encounter this problem and Subaru handled the issue generously and uncomplicated. They took on the cost for a paint job for the hatch and we got the car back all shiny and new. Unfortunately my beloved Eibach sticker was a thing of the past. Thank goodness the nice people from Eibach had thought ahead and had sent two stickers back then. Today I managed to put on a new one and we once more show the the Eibach Springs brand proudly.


 
And since one sticker isn't enough and the guys from Speedhunters.com are without a question the height of cool when it comes to auto journalism their sticker got a place of honor on our Subi, too.


 
Oh, yeah, and Mr. GeekSpeed, the man who organized the stickers adorned the roll bar of his Miata, too. And another one on the hatch.