Yarn Toss

In the stitching world, a floss toss is used to decide what fabric to use for a given project. Normally you take the required floss and place ('toss') them on several possible fabrics and the one combination you like most, is usually the one you use for stitching.
With the Great American Aran Afghan, which I plan for my next knitting project, I decide on something similar. I did spent some time last Friday in my LYS looking at options.
I knew several requirements and wishes.
A) the yarn shouldn't be too expensive. I'm going to need (if I make the afghan exactly as described by the booklet) at least 3600m of yarn. At 100 ~ 120m per 50gr ball, I'll end up buying at least 30 balls. As I plan on doing a somewhat bigger version, I will end up with even more then this.
B) the yarn should be maschine washable. As I will make the afghan in off-white, stains will be very visible.
C) I'd like to have some natural fibre in it. Wool, cotton, bamboo, whatever.
D) the gauge, needle size and yardage should be something at least close to the one given in the pattern - 19 stitches to 10cm (4inches) with 4.5mm (US7) needles, yardage 90m per 50gr

I ended up with a small basket of maybe six or seven yarns (don't you just love a yarn store that even gives you a selection like this) and ended up with three to take home with me to do some swatching.

The ones I've picked are
- Lana Grossa - Millefine: 50% Merino / 50% Acrylic, gauge is 17M x 24R, 4.5 ~ 5.5 needles size and 100m per 50gr
- Lana Grossa - Basic quick: 50% Virgin Wool / 50% Acrylic, gauge 19M x 25R, 4 ~ 4.5 needle size and 125m per 50gr
- Lana Grossa - Basic Mixer: 60% Cotton / 40% Acrylic, gauge 18m x 24R, 4,5 ~ 5 needle size and 120m per 50gr

Of the first and the last I've made a swatch (with one of the patterns from the booklet) and then washed it.



And the winner is .....

Lana Grossa Basic Mixer!!!

I seriously do love the cotton feeling of the second swatch, and it suffered not at all from washing (which I see the biggest problem with knitting with cotton), I guess due to the acrylic content. The pattern just pops better with the cotton mix and the color and feel looks to be closer to the one on the photo of the cover of the booklet.
Guess I'm going to order 30 balls tomorrow (or maybe 40 .... I do want to make a big afghan after all ....)

Two Finishes

It's done. The Lizard Ridge Afghan is finished and I'm in love.

What's not to love? Even though there was no way of knowing it, the colors work great together. Even the occational really odd color just fits in somehow. And there are plenty of odd colors in there.

For the edging I followed the instructions, and I love it as well. Aren't those little waves super cute? The wool is even the recommended one. I picked it up in San Francisco a couple of weeks back.
The afghan is also warm and cuddly and not too scratchy (I did wash and block the whole thing when it was still two half Lizards and a bit easier to handle)

It looks good on my deck chair



As I said, I'm in love.

And, I discovered that I really like knitting afghans and so I actually plan on the next one, the American Aran Afghan. In contrast, all in off white. I've got the pattern and already started working on one of the squares to see how I like it. Well, I do like it a lot and I will see about the wool next weekend. I've only have some 100% wool in the right weight and color at home, but in no way enough, and without a chance to get more as I picked it up on a whim a couple of years ago in Scottland. Besides, with the afghan in white, I want something a bit easier to wash.

Second finish is a short top named Bombshell from the book 'Big Girl Knits'.

I realize that the picture is a bit ugh.
I sort of like it (though not really super happy) and it wears like a dream (the material is a ribbon yarn bamboo cotton mix). I had to go down with the needle size by quite a bit to get the correct cauge even though the yarn should have been okay, and then I guess it all got a bit on the short side length wise. The ribbing looks much shorter than in the picture of the model and I had to extend the lower part by quite bit to have it cover my navel.

Half a Lizard

Well, that's as far as I got with the afghan so far.



I did finish knitting all the squares, weaved in all the ends (and what a pain that was) and managed to asamble half of the squares. Now to sew the rest together and do the edging. The sewing I'm not looking forward to - not at all.

It's going to be pretty though *grin*

We Will Rock You

Yesterday I finally made it to Köln (Cologne) for the German version of "We Will Rock You", the Queen Musical


Last year we already plans to go there, but I had to eventually cancel because of work. Luckily this time it worked out.

First of, the show was really, really good. I've seen it in London a few years ago, and the German production doesn't need to hide itself behind the 'original'. Not at all. Very solid performance, good singing, acting and dancing. Loads of fun. At the last number nobody remained on his or her seat. I'd go again in a heart beat.
I'm pretty sure we didn't get to see the main cast, but this was no problems. Actually, I liked one of the guys a lot: J.B. in the German production, I believe his role is called Brit in London. Don't know if I'd have liked the main singer as much.

I'm making no progress whatsoever on the stitching front, but move ahead quite nicely with my knitting projects. Not much longer and I can start assembling the Lizard Ridge Afghan.

No news from my neighbors - haven't seen them in the last two weekends at all. I hope they are still there, but I'm a bit afraid they've abondoned the nest in the meantime. I stay on the lookout.

There and There and Back Again

I was there

and there

and now I'm back again.
(I would guess that everybody will recognize the bridge. The light house is the Pigeon Point Lighthouse a couple of miles North of San Fransisco)

Mostly work, but as you can see I did get off a little bit for sight seeing and shopping (not to forget the shopping, shall we :)) The weather was great, even if it was a bit on the chilly side (and windy)
The flights were long (over 10 hours each) and full and next to me two guys sat with bladders of steel (if any .. I don't know), at least they barely moved from their seats trapping me in my little corner at the window (on the other hand, I like my window seats, so I can't really complain)

Snowdrop

And a new edition of the SKK today ;)

I finished the snowdrop shawl in nine days including blocking the whole thing (on my guest bed - I was quite surprised how well it worked). I have to say it was great fun and even though I have no clear idea what I ever gonna do with those kind of shawls I know I'm going to make more. It's quite addictive.

And it turned out pretty pretty too (even though the photos didn't so much as I had to make them in the hotel room in Dresden)

(urgh, sorry about that carpet ...)
It ended up to be 2 m wide (6ft 8, if I'm not mistaken) and 1.2 m (4ft) from tip to neck line.


I did follow the pattern for most parts, but I did add little golden beads on the tip of each point (which are not really visible in the photo)

Hmmm, if I don't wear it, I still can use it as home decoration ...

One extra picture from my neighbors. After some intense study (looking it up in wikipedia) I'm convinced now that it's a pair of kestrels (Turmfalken in German)


(my parents thought it's an eagle-owl (Uhu), but look at that face. It's not even close)


I'll packed my bags and after a fairly short night I'll be off for a week of San Fransisco tomorrow morning - for work, but still, hey, it's SF!!!

New Neighbors

Look who moved in into the next house over:

I saw them the other day and again today, so I decided to see if I can get a shot.

I was laying in wait for over an hour when she finally came out (it was raining like crazy at that moment - after the rain she hid again)


He only showed up once and was not very willing to pose for me, so that's the best shot I've got (so far at least)

As there's obviously a nest over there, I will keep my eyes open and maybe I'll get some more pictures. Of course, I have the feeling now that my human neighbors in the appartment underneath the nest think I might be a peeping pervert as I pointed with a pretty big tele lens on the general direction of their bed room window for over an hour ...

Practically Nothing

I think I need to rename the 'Sapphire's Stitching Stanza' into 'Sapphire's Knitting Klub' at least for the moment (and, yes, I know club is written with a 'c' in English, but then I'm German and I like the allitaration ....)

Last time I was in Japan I picked up some 2 plyed yarn (the yellowish yarn in the middle of this post --> There's wool in Japan)
After knitting the cardigan and some squares of the Lizzard Ridge Afghan, I wanted to do something different. I did start on a pair of socks, but wasn't happy with it, so I ribbed it back up. I was looking at various shawl pattern, an finally decided to try my hands on this pattern here.
It's the snowdrop shawl by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee aka the Yarn Harlot of blog and book fame.
The pattern asks for 1200m of lace weight yarn - I've got about 1100m.
Still I decided to give it a try.


After a quick start, the rows got longer and longer and eventually I've had about 240 stitches to a row. Still, it's loads of fun, so much fun in fact, that I couldn't wait to get home after work (or rather the hotel I was staying in) just so I could knit a bit more on it.

Looks a bit bumpy at the moment, but after blocking it should look much better.


I finished the main body so far and working on the edging.

And ... I'm close to the end of the third skein (out of the five I have) and I guess that I'll end up with using roughly 800m.
At 25gr per skein, the whole thing will weight less than 100gr - practically nothing.

Seventeen Down, Seven To Go

I finished the seventeenth square for the Lizard Ridge afghan.


Sideway's view as I've stacked them on the table
Pretty colors :)
I still enjoy to knit those squares, and the fact that I'm only 7 squares away from the end does feel good. At the moment I've got only two complete skeins of Noro left and a couple of ends from other skeins.

I believe those are good for another two to three squares. So I'll need to buy two, maybe three more skeins and than that's it.
I'll got to San Francisco in two weeks and already checked out possible yarn stores, so I will buy what I need there. The current dollar to euro exchange rate is really looking good for us, and I guess there will be some more yarn to end up with me.

After the cardigan was done, I finally got around to work a bit more on the Castle Sampler, so a progress picture here:

Proudly Presenting: Oblique

Drum roll:



I finish the cardigan on Thursday. Surprisingly, it does fit pretty perfect. The arms are slighly too long, but not so much that I want to go back and change anything. The pattern asked for roughly 1120m of yarn - I ended up using closer to 1400m (I saw at several places that the yardage was off by quite a bit) It was 13 balls of Shetland De Luxe by Cedifra (50% New wool, 25% Baby Alpaka and 25% Mohair) in the color 9202. I might have been able to finish it with just 12 balls, but I wanted to make sure that I wouldn't have to join any yarn while knitting the collar, so I used an extra ball for this.

It wears nicely, but is nothing for a windy day.

There are many, many holes ....

Some details on the buttons:



I did make some progress on the Castle Sampler, but was too lazy to take a picture today.

Instead, some flowers:



On Friday, I visited the botanical garden in Frankfurt, and as there was little to take pictures of on the outside (still too early in the year) I went to the orchids. Lovely flowers.

Dreaming Of A White ... Easter?

Happy Easter to everybody. Hope you had fun and found all the hidden goodies (and not that you find them by the bad smell that comes from that one corner in a few weeks time)


On Easter Sunday I had the family over (my parents, my sister plus hubby and two of my nephews) and I made lamb and nobody went home hungry.

Though we had a bit of a warmish winter this year with very little snow, Easter sure made up for that.


Snow on my balcony this morning. It's pretty much gone by now, but, really, snow at Easter? Somebody up there must be laughing his head off.
Good thing I'm off this week, so I don't need to go outside, unless I really want (or need)
This gives me a chance too to hopefully finish the cardigan in a couple of days. On the picture above is the last arm I'm knitting on. I only had to redo half of it once so far - considering how much I reworked other parts, not too bad - though, there's always the chance I'll manage to screw something else up.
But ripping parts of it, really makes a difference.

The upper error is were the arm decrease started before I took out 4 inches. The lower arrow where it is now. It's still, somehow, about an inch longer than in the pattern, but, to be honest, I DON'T CARE ANYMORE!!!
(phew, sorry, had to get that off my chest)

No stitching done. Nothing at all.

The long and the short of it

Last week I worked pretty much exclusively on the cardigan and I was moving along nicely. Back and both fronts were finished (after I redid the left front once again) and I started on one of the arms. I felt confident that the wool is going to last, and that, with a little bit of luck (okay, maybe with a lot of luck) I might be done by next weekend.
Life was good.

Finished back

On Friday I thought I should try blocking the pieces I've got (I can't really do it during the week, as I'm usually spending my nights in hotel rooms on weekdays. The hotel staff might take exceptions to wet wool stretched out on their beds). I started with the front, gently washing it in mild soap, pressing the exessive water out in a towel and then lightly stretching it on my old couch, pinning it in place and waiting for it to dry. The wool, which was nice and soft to begin with, got even softer.
Again, life was good.

Right front after blocking.

Then I made the mistake of holding the blocked front against my chest, wanting to see how far down it went.
It almost hit my knees!!!
Aarghle!!!
I pulled out my measuring tape and measured.

bottom to beginning of raglan.

25 inches!!!

This was suppose to be 19.5 "
How in the world did I manage to knit 5 1/2 inches more than I really should have?
I'm an engineer, I'm suppose to know how to measure.
Maybe the blocking made it longer? Did I over-block it? Is 'over-block' even a verb? Can I go back to the un-blocked state?
I measured the so far unblocked back of the cardigan. 24 inches bottom to raglan start.
How did I miss that?
Why did I not only made this mistake on the back, but on both fronts as well? (well, the last one is easy to answer, as I measured the fronts against the back and not on again the tape)
I did mention 'Aarghle!!!'

Big question now - do I accept that the cardigan will end at my knees and just plow on as if nothing happened?
Of do I accept that I seriously messed up and if I don't go back and rip everything halfway up, that I will never wear the cardigan as I can't stand a cardigan that does end at my knees?

Okay, I start ripping right away....

At least, my frustration with the cardigan lead to me picking up the Castle Sampler once again and I do have a bit of progress to show.


Hmm, looking at the farbic I've got and the amount I've still got to stitch, it looks to be a bit tight on the sides....

Cardigan the First

This week I knitted


I got the back finished as well as the left side of the front. It's a lot of fun and it's moving along nicely.
Well, it was moving along nicely, until I discovered a serious mistake in the pattern. Okay, maybe not so much a mistake, but the fact that knitted as instructed, the neck will look very different from the neck line of the cardi in the pictures. So I ripped up half of the front, and started again on the neck shape, only to discover halfway through that the little mistake I made and thought I could ignore was staring my in the face like crazy and that I couldn't live with it. Rib, rib once again.


Well, now I'm happy with that bit and already moved on to the next.

I also went back to my beloved yarn store and bought two more skeins of the wool. I think there's another screw up in the pattern - I did the math and found that I would need ten skeins, but to be on the save side I decided to take twelve (I can always bring them back, right?), but after using a little over four skeins for the back and almost exactly two for one half of the front, I'm pretty sure I'll need at least one additional skein, if not two (two for the right front, two for each arm, plus some for the collar)

I got only very little stitching done, so I didn't take a picture.

Socks, socks, socks

I do have socks ...


... plenty of socks.
And even though I've took a picture of only one sock per pair, I asure you, there's a second sock to every one here shown. And those are only the socks I've kept. There are still a few more out there that ended up on the feet of other people.
This leads to the question, why knit more socks?
My answer (at least for the moment) is: I don't!
I've decided I leave the land of the sock knitters and wander over to the land of cloth knitting. Now, I'm not exactly size S (or even M, not in a long shot), so I've shyed away from the knitting of pullovers and cardigans for quite a while. A long time ago, I did knit pullovers, and some of them I loved dearly (some of them ... well, probably better not to think of those). If I remember correctly, the last pullover I've knitted was when I was in college, and I only remember something went very wrong and when I picked it up from the clothline after washing it for the first time, there were big holes all over it - moths, birds, I have no clue. Since then, I stuck mostly to socks. They also tend to get holes eventually (as I just saw in my favorite pair), but at least that's because of the wear and tear I put them through.
Well, nothing like a new start.

(I did mention I'm not a size 10, right?)
The pattern is, once again, from knitty. It is a somewhat modified version of Boogie from the spring 2004 issue. I changed the neck shape a little, making it wider. The wool is from a sale a few years back in my favorite yarn store. I originally bought is for a cardigan, but then realized that it would never be enough. For an experiment I'm not too displeased on how it turned out.

Having taken the step to this new country, I knew I couldn't just stop there. So my next project is a cardigan. And again, it's a knitty pattern: Oblique. Found some nice wool/angora/mohair mix pretty close to the one from the pattern. I've just started today after the swatch showed I'm not too far off with my gauge. I have to see how it developes ...


One last pic for today. King Tut in his frame up on the wall:


I'm still pondering if I should get the queen from the same series, so Tut is not so lonely ...

Two New Starts And One Old Finish

My cross-stitch project free time is over.

New start no. 1:

Castle Sampler by Teresa Wentzler.
I've noticed that there are as many different ways to start this as there are stitchers. Many do the outer frame first, then work their way inwards. Some (like me) start at the very center, then work there way outwards. I decided to start with the castle first, simply because I have the feeling this is going the be the most painful part - more blends than there are letters in the alphabet and not a single stitch next to a stitch of the same color anywhere. Confetti at it's best.
Well, I have to see where my mood carries me.


New start no. 2:


Eulentischdecke (German magazine pattern). I've made a few changes to the pattern before I started in order to make it fit the table cloth I've got (spread the owls a bit more apart and also added two owls inbetween).
I'm stitching over two, using three strands of thread for better filling. So far, so good. I got all the threads in Anchor, as I didn't felt too sure about the conversion I've made into DMC. Besides, with Anchor I've got a better chance on replacing the threads quickly. Forgot, though, how expensive stitching material is here - Euro 1.20 per hank. *gulp*

King Tut came back from the framer. Need to make a picture as soon as he's up on the wall.


I also finished a long time strangler - a pair of socks.

Minutes away from being finished:


And a shot of the socks in action (I was playing around with the remote control for the camera)


A very basic sock pattern, 2x2 rip for the cuff, short row heel, the rest plain stockinett.
Wool is Regia 4-fold, color surprise 1267

On the reading front, I've stopped with Friday Night Knitting Club as well as with the Charlie Bone book - both, for some reason, couldn't keep my interest any more. The Knitting Club book wasn't really what I expected - it was more about yuppy women in New York and their endless relationships. Just not something I'm that interested in.
With the Charlie Bone book - don't know why it didn't work for me. I liked the first one well enough.
Instead I've gone back to the 'Cat who ...' series. I'm at book 13 and got two more here. I just love them :)

It's about wool

I'm still cross stitch project less - though not for much longer, I think.
For my travel project I've decided on a table cloth with owls. The pattern (well, at least the basic) is from a German magazine (Lena 9/04). It's a row of funny looking owls sitting on a long branch. As the table cloth I've got is a little bit bigger then the one the pattern called for, I've modified the pattern a little. I think it will turn out quite cute. I'll keep you updated.

As I didn't have anything to stitch last week, I've went back to the lizard ridge blanket from Knitty. My plan is to buy a couple of skeins of Noro any time I've get a special business trip or some crazy work project (which I am in the middle of right now). I did have about 6 skeins left from the last such event and finally got around knitting them up.


This is going to be a very colorful blanky.
The final count will be 24 squares. The pattern is extremely fun to knit, the color changes in the wool full of surprises. In the first couple of skeins I didn't have any problem with knots (I've read other having the problem) but this time I've got a few *sigh*
I plan on buying more skeins tomorrow ...

I've also decided that the green/black/silver scarf from the wool I've got in Japan is long enough and bound it of.


The picture gives no idea on how glittery the thing is thanks to the metallic thread in the wool.

Post 100

Just noticed that this is my 100th post :)
Go me!!!

Sorry, for not posting on Sunday. A) I was working on Sunday and came home at 9PM and was not in the mood to fire the computer up. B) nothing to show really, at least not at this point.

Well, after enjoying Monday / Tuesday off, I've managed to finish two projects and are, as of now, x-stitch project free (not ocunting the one UFO that lingers in the depth of my basket and I'm very doubtful about it ever being worked on again - what gave me the idea I should do a huge hunking project over one, I don't know)

Happy Dance no 1:


The pattern is 'It's All in the Eyes - Cats: Mr. Zachary' by Ronnie Rowe Designs. I've stitched it on a 40ct linen with one thread of DMC 310, so the stitches are really tiny. The eyes in the original pattern were yellow, but I liked the green better - more cat like, so to speak.
This was my travelling project. I thought it interesting how for the longest time you couldn't make anything out, and then *whomp* there was a cat.

Happy Dance no 2:


Calender Cats - July, by Margaret Sherry. A very cute and fun little in between stitch. I'm going to make this into a birthday card.
For some strange reasons it also feeds me Transformers obsession - black and white cat --> Barricade (though this is not any expression I would ever think to see on Cade's face) and a little Bumblebee as an added bonus.
As I said, strange obsession ....

So, nothing else to stitch, all WiPs finished. I'm freeeeeeee!!!
*giggle*

Maybe I could finally finish the two scarves and the one pair of socks I've got to do. Or give two single socks finally some partners.
Or start to put together everything for The Castle Sampler by TW. I've already decided on the fabric, so all I need is to pull out the threads.
Or start something totally different.
Sounds like a good plan to me :)

Long Live King Tut

Happy Dancing!!!


It took me a good year (with a couple of longer interuptions) to finish this one - and it has been worth every minute.

It was a kit by Lanarte "Tutankamum", design is by Joandoor.
I used the fabic in the kit (it's a printed fabric and it really adds to the piece) and all threads, except the metalic gold - I have no idea how the little that was in the kit should have been enough. I needed two spools of Kneinik 102 #4 braid, and there's not much left on the second spool. Of most of the colors there was plenty of thread left, though for a couple it was a bit tight. One color was missing when I got the kit (well, I got it half price in London, so no reason to complain), but a quick e-mail to Lanarte got me the DMC number I needed.

The week after next I'll see that I get a frame (I've got a long working week ahead of me, away from home, else I would be in the store tomorrow morning). From the very beginning it was slated to go to my guest room, as it has a bit of an Egyptian theme (well, honestly, it's more Stargate than Egyptian, but the colors are perfect)

If I ever come across Nefertiti in the same series in a sale (at least 25% off, prefered more) I'll get it too, but till then King Tut will be on his own.

Hah, best bit of finishing such a big piece (size is 39 x 49 cm - 15.5 x 19.3 inches - stitch count 209 x 230) is that now there's a new spot free on my schedule. I haven't decided yet, but best chance has the Castle Sampler by Teresa Wentzler. I need to check if I have a suitable fabric here. Though I'm not going to rush anything, and probably try to clean up a couple of other (much smaller) projects I've got in my basket. Maybe some knitting .... (wanders off to check my options)

just a quick update

... on King Tut (update no. 11)


The lady on the left has a head now :)

Of camels, headphones and the stars in the sky

OnThursday I've went to a concert by the classic radio station. A symphonic orcestra of 60 people (as I counted them) playing movie scores.

It took place in the old opera building in Frankfurt. The orcestra was pretty good, though the horns suffered a bit from not quite hitting a note now and again.
I enjoyed the concert a lot, they had a nice selection of many of my favorites: Bernstein (Magnificent Seven), John Williams (Harry Potter, Indiana Jones and, of course, Star Wars), Hans Zimmer (Gladiator), Jerry Goldsmith (Gremilins) and many others.
There was a funny story the moderator told about how Mike Batt, after writting the music for Caravans, went to Marocco and found himself a camel. He then put headphones on the poor beast and played the score for it. According to him, he knew he had a success when the camel started to run ;)


Last night was very cold but also very clear, so I dragged my Nikon outside, put it on a tripod and tried to make some star pictures.

This a looking east from my balcony. Orion to the right hand side.
I decided I really need to get a remote release for the camera. Even with the tripod it's practically imposible to stop the picture from moving in a 10 seconds exposure (I have to leave the finger all the time on the release, so it's inevitable that the camera shakes a little). This is the best of the lot.

King Tut is making progress, though not update picture. Sorry.