Piece by piece

Eva is coming together. I'm nearly done the shawl collar, and the sleeves are blocking as you can see here.
I can't wait to try it on! I can probably finish the collar tonight if I don't go to the pub for the weekly game of darts. If I do go to the pub, I'll start swatching this
for the next sweater sketched in an earlier post. It's Rowanspun DK, color goblin. I dig the name, and I really don't wear any green, so I figure it's time to start! I figure it'll be a woodsy and rustic cardi (like ALL of my self-designed cardis ?). And this time I'll be smart at BLOCK my gauge swatch before doing the math... it's funny how these little things can make a big difference. I was lazy when I made Ingrid, and didn't block the swatch. It came out 2 inches too wide (yikes!) so I gave her to my mom. I don't want to give her all my sweaters because I need some, so I'll take the time and do this right.

Now for the late urban decay Saturday, this is a graffitied house on the main drag.
It's difficult to tell that it's actually inhabited (it is, I saw a light on in one of the windows). I wonder why so many graffitti artists converged on this building, it's not run down or anything. And, being the 'Oscar the Grouch' that I am, I think it would be pretty cool to live there!

Ivanova

Some late u.d. and a sweater in progress

Here's a view of the old town wall.
I figure it was built during or after the Thirty-Years War, which would put it's construction somewhere around the 17th-18th century. Some houses were incorporated into the wall, like the one to the right, where the residents served as guards of a sort. The building on the right is still used as an actual house, and one of the residents was sitting on a lawn chair when I took these pictures.

Now others built there houses into the wall to save on bricks and stones, like the one on the left! I think that's pretty cheapskate and decayed ;). Here's a closeup.
Now this building is the only Mexican restaurant in town, and it's pretty good, just don't expect anything to be particularly fiery, like real Mexican food (no Tacos al Pastor on the menu) or even like some Tex-Mex, but I still like it! Here's the side view.
Now for the wip update. I finished one half of the lace and cables capelet, up to the part where it will be joined to the yoke. Not bad for a night's knitting! I am also nearly done the right half of Eva, and started blocking the pieces. Here's the back blocking, and sitting in the remains of today's sunlight.
I'm blocking early because I don't want the seaming and knitting of button bands and collar to take forever! I'm also blocking Shedir, and I have to say it's hard to stretch out a hat! I need to buy a bowl about the size of my head... And I definitely have to get the Vining Knits Collection Volume 2, recently completed by Elsebeth Lavold, check it out here. I love it! As soon as I found out about it, I checked internet retailers, and my only positive hit was an Ebay merchant in the US, where the postage alone is half the price of the book! I guess it'll have to wait till Christmas, so either some UK retailers will carry it (guess where I've been doing my online yarn/pattern/equipment shopping and browsing) or I can have it sent to my dad's house in time to get it when I visit.

Ivanova

More old U.D. ...

This is another old and slightly distorted building, but not as severe as the first one I posted about. It's from the Renaissance, about 1550 or so.
Now it's a bookstore, and it looks fairly well maintained. It's very beautiful, but if you look really closely you can see some of the horizontal beams are kindof crooked. Here's a detail shot.
If I lived in that building, I would wear pseudo-renaissance gear and handknits every day, just to play it up a bit. On a slightly related note, I saw a beautiful garment on the season finale of Stargate SG-1 season 9 (episode Camelot). SG-1 goes to a medieval town (one of the eight million or so in the show's creators' perception of a galaxy inhabited by displaced humans) in search of a weapon. Mitchell befriends a girl who pulls a sword out of a stone - I think her name was Valencia. She was wearing a bluish grey sweatery-coatish thing that seemed to have a cellular or latticed texture. It had puffy lace-up arms (similar shaping to the Stefanie Japel contribution in this season's Knitscene), fit over the bust like the lace trimmed bolero I finished last year (see my 2006 FO gallery), and the back was narrow at the waist, and long and
shaped like a skirt to 3/4 calf length. I loved it! I also dig the numerous shawls and wraps (not to mention the cinched-in waist dresses in fabulous earth tones) that Valla wears in the Ori galaxy. Anyways...
Shedir's done! Two weeks on and off the needles... a bit slow for a hat but well worth it.
Pattern: Shedir from Knitty
Yarn: Alice Starmore Hebridean 3 ply, color Erica
Mods: I only did 3 repeats of the saxon braid pattern and twisted all knit stitches like Eunny.
Yarn comments: LOVE IT. Will definitely buy again, but the price is a bit steep for large projects, so I'll wait to see how the hat holds up to decide if it's worth it for a sweater. I don't mind spending the money if the garment will last. Definitely not if the garment will pill up with regular wear and reside in the closet most of the time.
General comments: It's a bit short, it almost covers my ears. I'm hoping it will grow with a good blocking (chances are good that it will) and I'm also hoping the pointy bit will flatten out.
Any guesses yet? Come on guys! I successfully ripped back one pattern repeat, and my new yarn came in the mail, and it's a close enough dye lot match (not noticeable in natural light) so I'm going on full steam ahead.
Now I leave you with ducks:
I plan on making a cabled sweater from Vogue Knitting (inspired by this picture) in a chunky tweed (Carloway Mills Shetland Tweed) in the color mallard, and a mallard is a duck, so you get duck pictures until the KFYS period is through.

Cheers,

Ivanova

Why yes! It's....

Urban Decay Saturday! I have some old u.d. for you today...
This is the oldest standing building in the city - it was built in the 15th century. It was the city hall from 1789 to the late 1800's. Now it's a very nice restaurant and pub. And yes, your eyes are not decieving you - it's crooked! The inside is equally distorted. Check out the bulging on the side of the building.
Hee hee! I love it! It's pretty AND decaying. I believe they are planning to do some restoration work in the near future. Now for the mystery project update shots:
It's gotten bigger and much more quickly than I anticipated. Can anyone guess what it is yet?
Here's a gratuitous close-up shot as a clue
The stitch pattern is very pretty, and a bit complicated, so it needs my full attention, as well as decent light. You can see a bit of the yarn's tweediness in this shot. I think I prefer my yarns tweedier, but it's still very pretty. Unfortunately, this yarn is kindof driving me crazy. It is a 2 ply (why they call it a 4 ply still excapes me) and sometimes one of the 2 strands gets really thick and thin. And when they both get thick, it makes my stitches bulge and look kindof distorted. And it splits on my needles sometimes - I shudder to think what would happen if I were using bamboo or wooden needles with more grab to them. But it may be my fault for going below the recommended needle size but I just couldn't get gauge on a US 3 needle, and the US 2's are not available here so I had to go down by 0.25 mm and ended up with a 2.5 mm needle. Also the yarn is scratchier than I expected, but I'm sure a wash will fix that up. It's not intolerable or anything.

Now I leave you with some eye-candy:
I love the shade of green of the building in the background. I want yarn in this color! Maybe next year...

Ivanova

The brewery is coming down...

It is currently falling apart, and the city will tear it down soon. This local brewery has been in it's current location for so long, they named the street Brauweg (brew-way or brew street, I think). Will they re-name the street once it's gone? Probably not, but it will be weird to walk down Brauweg with no Brauhaus. They'll probably put up condos or something.

So I've been knitting something...
My apologies for the faded-out photos, I tried to photoshop them, they were dark and somewhat blurry. Harrumph. In my experience, dark yarns do not photograph well. Or I suck at taking photos. Or both. So... what is it? I'll let you people out there guess, but here's a few hints. The yarn is a Rowan tweed 4 ply (color claret), whose name got the company caught up with a copyright infringement case. So then the yarn line became Yorkshire tweed, then Scottish tweed. As far as I can tell, they are more or less the same line. What's up with that?

So here's a picture to scale the needle size:
The big needle with a few rows is a US 8 (5 mm) with the beginnings of the left front of my blue tweed cabled sweater. I finished the sleeve this week, and I will try to take decent photos in natural light tomorrow. These needles are tiny. I couldn't find a US 2 (2.75 mm) needle, so I'm using a 2.5 mm needle instead. Tiny! The smallest needle I have ever used.

Now for the detail shot...
Again, it's all faded out, but you can make out the texture. Is it the one thing I said I would never knit (a sock)? Wait and see...

Ivanova

In the spirit of fun...

I attempted to make a button for our new day, and if anyone else wants to join in the fun, well, you get the picture? What do you all think of the picture? Will it work as a tiny button? How do I make it into a button?

Ivanova

p.s. My thanks to Delenn who snapped the original pic with my camera, which I photoshopped.

It's my favourite day...

Yeah, you guessed it, Urban Decay Saturday! My husband noticed a burned (and melted) recycling bin on our way to work a couple of days ago...
and people are still putting their recycling in and near it! Here recycling is different than my North American experience. In my old town, you put your recycling in a bin and the city picked it up every week or two. Here you walk (or drive) your recyclables to your neighbourhood's giant bin. My first thought was of Thrace's post... someone recycled novelty yarn! Then, upon closer examination I noticed this poster on an adjacent bin...
I guess someone just couldn't wait!

Anywhoo, in this week's knitting update, I didn't get nearly as much sleeve done as I would have liked, I tried out my new ball winder and swift and made some of my Christmas Market yarn into a ball, and cast on for a shawl. Inspired by brooklyn tweed's aran weight Shetland Triangle Shawl by Evelyn Clarke (from Wrap Style) I cast on for it with my aran weight mystery wool purchased at the town's Christmas Market. It's VERY soft, so I'm guessing it's merino. It also seems quite durable, so who knows. I like it. Anyways, upon making numerous swatches, I had to go up to a US 10.5 needle (bt used a 9) and still thought it was a lumpy mess.
Does this
look anything at all like this? I know that blocking would help a bit, but it can't turn a curving-inwards lump into a beatuful shawl, so I decided a more open lace would work better with this yarn. After attempting to design a triangular shawl around my favourite spider stitch pattern featured in this shawl (Nov. 3) I gave up and cast on for the Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn Clarke (Fall 06 IK). I don't know if the Lilly of the Valley Border will look good, I'll just have to see... So now I'm thinking that the gorgeous cashmere-silk blend Delenn gave me will be cast on for the Shetland Triangle shawl. It'll probably work better because it has more drape. Now here is some eye candy....

Ivanova

A late Urban Decay Saturday

Well, first let's say a big hello to our newest collaborator, Tasha Yar (yarknits)! Hello! Now this is the last Saturday of the year, so I figured I'd post something seasonal. I visited my inlaws, and was told about a great nativity scene set up downtown, so I took a swing by and took some photos. Dig the non-traditional colors on Mary and Joseph. Also note that the baby doll depicting Jesus is under plexiglass - very urban decay! And if you look real close, you can see that someone stuck some gum on the right side of Joseph's head... also quite urban decay.

Now, as I'm sure you can all guess, I took a swing by my old LYS - I really miss seeing many brands of yarn in one place! I aquired some new yarn, and got a lovely yarn gift, so here are some pics. First: some Harris Tweed from Rowan in a fuschia-ish color. I don't know the name, and it was difficult to photograph well. This is meant for Shedir from the Fall 2004 Knitty surprise issue, but I got sock weight by accident. I figure I can make it if I hold it doubled, and omit some repeats like Eunny did, I think she used a DK weight yarn. Or I can beg a North American to send me an extra ball, or I could Ebay it. We'll see...
Now Delenn gave a truly fabulous gift, 2 hanks of Hand Maiden Silk Cashmere. Truly luxurious, the first thought that ran through my head was Evelyn Clarke's Swallow Tail Shawl from the Fall 2006 IK, or maybe the Trellis scarf that Thrace just finished... we'll see. I promise to take better photos of this yarn when I cast on!

Also, I finally cast off the back of the blue tweed cabled number I've not been working on this Holiday season. I finished Delenn't mitts (she had better post photos - prod prod) so I managed to finish off the back one evening. I have also cast on for the sleeves, which I hope will see major progress on the plane ride home.
My final yarn purchase was more Noro Silk Garden in the same dye lot, to make Siv in the near future, from one of Lavold's Viking Collection books. I will have to work out the math because NSG is aran weight and Lavold Silky wool is DK weight, but I know it can be done and look fabulous becase Carter has already done it. It will be a twin-set of sorts... I LOVE twin sets, even non-traditional ones. I splurged because Noro anything is cheaper in North America, and the quality of the spinning seems to be better, but I will report on that in full, when I get around to casting on for it. Now I'm ready for 2007, the year of knitting from one's stash according to Wendy of Wendyknits. Happy New Year!

Ivanova