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Green is so much better.....

Contrast

 

To have a pattern ready takes time and effort. For Moineau I decided that I wanted to see what would happen if I used a completely other fiber then the linen I had used at first. I decided to use Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light again, since it is my favourite 4-ply woolly yarn. The colours are rich, it has drape, it is quite sturdy for a single ply yarn and I just love knitting with it. So 1 skein of Porcelain and 1 skein of Tart were bought. But I did do my calculations wrong....

I thought I would have enough yarn with only 1 skein MC and 1 skein CC..... That doesn't work out of course. After I knitted the front I realized that I need 1 and a bit skein MC.... What to do, what to do.... It is handpainted yarn, so no guarantees on colour whatsoever, and I would of course have huge left-overs. To make matters worse, the shop I bought the yarn didn't have the colour (Porcelain) left (Eat.Sleep.Knit, they have a huge selection of Merino Light), so stuck...

I decided in the end to take the CC for the front and make it MC for the back.....and it looks so different:

 

Of course there is the difference between a sunny day and an overcast rainy one, but it is more than just that. Both are nice, but they are different. So I'm looking forward to this two-faced top....

It is real nice warm weather right now, so good days to wear summary tops. I knitted a summary top years ago for S, now M can wear it with pride, and Totoro is just good natured as he always is....

Learning Curve....

 

Knitting for older childern is a learning curve.... one should not forget to engage them in the process otherwise it is just frustation and the end of any items knitted for them. I had the "brilliant plan" to knit some Shetland Shorties for me, M and S just in time for my father's big birthday dash in July. S & M liked the pattern so OK, I went ahead. But I forgot that all important question, the colour... I though pink for S would be nice since it really is nice with her dress. But no, no and no again. Pink is apparently the most foul colour in the universe... I only learned this fact after I had finished the first one that was meant for S. Luckily the pattern is very very stretchy, so I can wear it (even though it is a bit small) and pink goes  with my dress as well, so just a change of plans then and never forget to ask about both pattern and colour and....

So I decided then to let S search my sock-yarn stash for a nice colour, so it is going to be green (what a surprise...):

 

 

It is yarnchef Mulligatawny in "Sour Apple", lovely soft yarn. I have finished the bottom bit now and it is proceeding..

 

I also finished my Salina from Rowan Vintage Knits, a quite simple sweater in mainly stockinette. I used Rowan Purelife Revive, a real lovely silk/cotton/viscose mix and recycled too. It is a nice summer sweater for those days that are so typical of a normal north european summer, a bit of sun, some showers, quite a bit of wind and not that warm. I do love this yarn. It is tweedy (always love that) with really brilliant bits of colour, it has a nice drape and feels really strong. Nice stuff!

Crochet?

I have to confess, I am not a very good crocheter. I can do it, made some hats when I was younger, but I find it more difficult than knitting. Both my mother and grandmother did equal amounts of crochet and knitting so I did learn it as a child.  Also I do like crochet trims and Granny Squares in bright colours are very neat indeed, but nevertheless I stick to knitting.

M was ill last evening and night, so we had to stay at home and take it quiet. She has a low fever and throwing up half of the night means that it is a no-no for going to school. She was extremely annoyed, since it was school-concert today and she was going to sing, instead she had to stay home and.....

 

She decided that she wanted to learn to crochet. So here she is making the line longer and longer and taking it very seriously indeed. I guess this means I have to fresh up on my crochet skills as well, to be able to learn her how to do single and double stitches and all that. Now it is only a chain stitch, but one has to start somewhere doesn't one? So any suggestion for an easy pattern that a 6-year old might be able to tackle, I'm open for suggestions!

 

Knitting news, I bought some DIC Starry to make some Shetland Shorties for all of us (except for D). So here a closing picture of some yarn and from left to right it is Happy Forest, Lipstick Java and Cool Fire.....

 

Bosbes

 

I guess that everybody knows what is the worst kind of stain in whatever thing you are wearing, yes right blueberry (bosbes in dutch) juice.... July, walk in woods, blueberries in sight and children will get covered in those intense blue-purple stains just everywhere.... The yarn I used for the skirt is called Blueberry Jam and so right it is. It has all those juicy stain colours and little flecks of it too. It is quite a nice cotton too, soft and a nice hand.

It is quite a simple dress, a bit of A-line flair, Latvian Twist at the hem for a bit more swirl  and a twist rib top. There are two straps with buttons that can be changed in position so that the dress can be worn over a longer time. Good for going into the woods on warm summer's days.....

 

A good thing comes in two.....

 

 

I had a good productive weekend and actually managed to seam and finish the two cardigans that were laying around. It feels really good. The one above is Lente, the 2nd version. I think this one is actually an improvement, the shoulders are better and the sleeves fit perfect. The gauge of the Classic Silk was just slightly different and there are more stitches in 10 cm than for the Angora Tweed and it works just better. Funny that is since the difference is only very small. I have made very extensive notes, so now I will have to work them out, do grading and write it all up.

The 2nd cardigan is a Norah Gaughan design in Linsey, a linen-cotton blend with lots of drape. A nice small cardigan excellebt for wearing over dresses. It flows and it feels nice to wear. I thought the pattern was very unclear for the shaping at the top of the back so I did my own thing. In the end that meant that I also had to adjust the fronts and the sleeves so that it all fit together. It worked out OK in the end. Here and notice same dress, which actually goes with both these carigans:

Procrastination

 

 

I guess we are all guilty about it, some time..... Right now I should be seaming older WIPs and really no excuse...I normally even like seaming. But right now, just no, I just want to do mindless knitting and do not anything that requires more attention.

That is also the reason why pattern writing goes so slow. I have Moineau in a state that it almost could go to a tech-editor and for Lente I need to do more calculations for the bigger sizes, but it is really not that far off. But it requires attention and time, and that is just too hard to give. My day-job is taking a lot of time these days and in the evenings and weekends I just have too much else to do. And then I want to watch Dr Who and just knit mindlessly.....

But to knit mindlessly I need a new project, since my others have gone to that other state.... So here comes BosBes, a simple summer dress for M in Cotton Supreme batik by Universal Yarns. I saw this yarn on the web at The Loopy Ewe and got intrigued and I do see why they sell it. It is lovely soft and the colours are quite nice too. I do maybe like the "solid" version more, but M wanted the multi-colour version.... I will use a solid colour for the chest-part of the pattern anyways.

To give the hem a bit of a swing I used a Latvian Twist, which I really like. The knitting goes really very fast on 5.5mm needles....