Message from the Exile ;-)

This was going to be just a short note to letting you know (if you're interested in my private affairs ;-)) that my self-imposed exile was the right choice. I've been working hard on my thesis, and made quite some progress. I really do hope to finish it by the first week of May, though there might be some delay because I had a bad cold and had to take a few days off. But May it should be!

Now for the extra part ;-) I've been meaning to show you some photos which I have just rediscovered, so I chose to put them in this post, too, for a bit of colour. Last year, I knitted a hat and a pair of arm warmers from a skein of gorgeous corespun. I don't have a photo of the yarn or the arm warmers, but here's the hat :-)

The yarn was spun from a complex fibre blend, some of which was hand dyed, and it didn't contain any add-ins. I used the whole skein of about 100 m, which was enough for both the hat and the arm warmers, and I used 6mm needles. I think I must have written down the pattern as I went, but I have no idea where I put it. Maybe I should use a note book for future knitting projects, as I always find myself in this dilemma: I write down everything on small pieces of paper, and when I'm done I put them away so I won't lose them, intending to write a neat version down some time. When I get around to blogging about the project I can't remember where I put the pieces of paper...

I also took some time for spindle spinning recently. I bought these wonderful spindles from Zebisisdesigns shortly after Chrismas (my mum gave me money to buy two of them because she didn't feel comfortable ordering them herself, but it was a wonderful gift, of course! :-)), and delivery got delayed because the wonderful shop owner wanted to do me some good and made me another spindle, free of charge! I was absolutely amazed, as you can imagine. I had ordered a labradorite and a lapislazuli spindle, commenting that I really liked the one lapislazuli spindle in her shop (which had the wrong form for me) since it reminded me of a starry night sky. She only had a whorl of lighter blue left, but then she made me a starry night sky spindle from what I think might be called blue goldstone (please correct me if I am wrong!), and she also sent some hand dyed fibre along, also free of charge. Thank you again so much, M.!

I started spinning, and both the goldstone and the labradorite spindles turn beautifully. I haven'd tried the lapislazuli one yet. I made some more progress during my lunch break today, watching Star Trek DS9 (for the fourth time, I think) and trying to relax my mind a little.

I love the colours of the hand dyed fibre, they are very bright and intense.


Ahh, I do miss working on the shop. Please wish me luck so I can finish my thesis soon and start spinning for real again! :-)

News from Westeros ;-)

Some of you might remember my blog post about the series "A Song of Ice and Fire"/"Game of Thrones", and the yarn I spun based on it. Well, it's been bought, and transformed into a wonderful neck piece, which I'd like to show you, of course :-)

  Winter is Coming

 

 Pam knitted up the whole skein of 257 m / 110 g (14-18 WPI) on 4mm needles. She used the free pattern Elanor, and here's the outcome:

Isn't it beautiful? I really love how it turned out, and I think the pattern was a great choice for the yarn :-) Thank you for sharing, Pam!

Meet Anna! :-)

Anna's alpacas Galax and My

A while ago we got a message from a very friendly knitter from Sweden who - apart from flattering us very much indeed - told us she had alpacas. This really got my attention, as well as the small and beautiful word Sweden ;-) I just love Scandinavia, and I took Swedish classes a while back, and with these things and the fact that Anna described herself as crazy about yarn and knitting we had something to talk about :-) Turns out we are interested in similar things, like mythology, Star Trek and Harry Potter, and there were some long letters going back and forth. I asked her whether she had a blog, for I'd love to follow someone who wrote about alpacas and knitting, even if it was in Swedish (I have forgotten nearly everything from my classes), as long as there were pictures ;-) Anna told me she had actually thought about writing a blog, and now she felt was the time to get going. I promised to tell you about it, so she could get some readers (and at-picture-lookers ;-)) - so here I go:

Please stop by Annas aviga maskor :-)

I've rediscovered google translate in the process, so now the Swedish isn't too much of a problem, and also the google translations turn out to be quite hilarious at times (yeah, it's still a machine, and for that it's pretty good). Just give it a try if you like creative stuff and alpacas!

Anna has also kindly sent me pictures of the cowl she made from our Dark Secrets art yarn, which can be worn in more than one way:

I love the versatility of this piece, and also this was one of the yarns I thought twice about putting in the shop, so naturally I like how it turned out as well :-)
Thank you for sharing, Anna!