Because I can

It has taken me a long time to get the hang of crochet. I just couldn't get the yarn through more than one loop on my hook, which prevented me to to anything more than a double crochet. Now I have finally found out what I was doing wrong, it's easy as anything. What I was doing wrong? I wrapped the yarn around my hook in the opposite direction. Being a continental knitter, I simply grabbed the yarn with my hook as I would when knitting, whereas I should have wrapped it the other way.

Now this simple problem has been solved, I'm addicted. I just want to crochet everything, which is kind of unfortunate because I like the look of finished knitwear better most of the time. As a compromise (and as a way to use up some of the cotton thread I inherited from my grandmother) I decided to crochet this doily (Ravelry link). I'm thrilled that it is charted, because written instructions confuse the hell out of me. It's so much easier to keep track of what you're supposed to do through a drawing than through lines and lines of written abbreviations.

I have no idea what I shall do with the finished thing, because my BF has forbidden that it shall serve as decoration. Personally, I don't see the problem, but I'll probably find someone whose interior is more forgiving of doilies. For now, I'm just enjoying making it.

A Day of Knitting

Yesterday:
8:00 - On my way to an exhibition in Limburg to knit socks. I usually don't really knit socks... but today I was planning to make an exception. During the two hour train ride I worked on a super secret shawl and listened to a few episodes of The Moth podcast. There truly are few things better than sitting in the train, knitting while listening to all these wonderful stories.

10:30 - Knitting socks in Roermond.

A table full of sock yarn and a few wonderful knitters made for a lovely afternoon. The only downside of knitting here was that all my illusions of being a fast knitter were shattered when sitting next to Miriam, the world's fastest knitter. I started a pair of toe up socks in a funky self-striping yarn, but wasn't too happy with it. I ripped it out, and restarted the socks in an improvised stranded pattern with black to downplay the yellow and orange of the other yarn. I got to about half-way through the foot, but am still not satisfied. I'm afraid try number two will find its way to the frog pond quite soon...

17:00 - On the train again, to Amsterdam. About the same as the trip to Limburg, apart from the fact that I actually managed to read a few chapters of Jane Eyre.

19:30 - Famous knitters at the ABC Treehouse!
Nancy Bush (on the picture) and Beth Brown-Reinsel were in Holland and were kind enough to drop by the Treehouse, tell us about their passion for traditional knitting techniques and sign books. It was so interesting to hear how they managed to make their passion their job and I hope that one day people will get excited to hear me talk about knitting ;)
It's such a pity I was too broke to buy books, because especially Nancy Bush has written a few that are high on my wishlist...

Late Summer Resolution

I have decided that I am going to try to become a published designer. The aim is to have at least one design accepted somewhere before the end of this year. Unfortunately this means that I can't show the things I have been working on recently. One mystery project is now finished. All I need to do is write up the pattern and take proper photos.

Taking the photos is surely the most difficult part of all this. I desperately want pictures that are interesting, flattering (if I'm on them), pretty AND show the knits well. Does anyone know of any good tutorials for this?

Hey, at least it's a picture...

Apart from all the math and attempts at original knitting, I have picked up some crochet. It's the fan bookmark, modified to a scarf. I'm using the 1,5 skeins of Cascade 220 I had left from my Owl sweater and a 6mm hook. I'm not sure if I like the result so far, but I sure enjoy working on it.

Wollmeise

A few days ago my doorbell rang and Hassan the Mailman had something for me. I have finally managed to get my hands on some Wollmeise and was about to see for myself what all the fuss was about. The package itself was already so pretty that I hardly wanted to open it. I'm glad I did, because the contents were even better than I'd imagined. Beforehand I was a bit sceptical about this whole Wollmeise-thing, and I expected to be a bit disappointed.

Rosenrot (the red one) is by far my favourite. The picture doesn't show it very well, but the shades range from deep dark bordeaux to a bright, almost orangey red. I think this will sit in my stash for a while until I find (or design) the perfect pattern to go with it. Hortensie is really pretty as well. From the pictures on the website I expected it to be more purpleish, but in fact it's an intense shade of ultramarine blue. This one is already claimed. My boyfriend desperately wants the DNA scarf and I am more than happy to oblige. It's not every day that one can knit something geeky and be appreciated for it.

Summer cleaning

Normally, my house is a messy, messy place. A million projects, pencils, skeins of yarn and random needles and hooks are spread out all over the place. A few days ago, after my paper was finally handed in, I decided to organise my craft supplies. It was quite a daunting task to untangle all the half-frogged projects I had stuffed in a drawer, never to be seen again.

The final result is more than worth it though, because I now have one lovely cabinet full of my yarn, paint, sewing supplies and other crafty stuff. In fact, it didn't even seem as all that much after it was all put together nicely. I did find things that I didn't even remember having, such as 15 empty sketchbooks, a caligraphy set, proper oil paints and a few sets of colouring pencils. It promises to be a long, crafty summer.

Behold the craft cabinet in all its glory.