Tangle free

At last I figured out what to do to keep my headphones untangled.


A tiny crocheted belt does the trick! Lucky me!

/Maia
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Bliss socks

DDL is the girl with the red colour. Ever since she was born and even before I thought of her dressed in red. Now she is all grown up, but I have made her a pair of red socks.



I used a wonderful yarn that I bought at Strikk in Göteborg. Glen Debbie Bliss.



Great name! Bliss.
/Maia

Go lean on a trunk... or not?

Some of the last times I bought yarn I got brochures tucked down into my plastic bag. Comparing the brochures, it is quite easy to understand which shop I'd rather visit again. The one below. Without hesitation.

Even though the upper brochure has some really nice patterns, for instance the Iceland sweater, I get so annoyed with this way of presenting patterns. What is it with knitting pattern pictures and trees? Just go lean on a trunk and you get a good picture. Or... not!

When I looked at the brochure below I actually got inspired to get yarn for a sweater to my DS. The fisherman's sweater to the very left is lovely. I don't make any promises, but I got inspired. And I will go back to Strikk! It was not at all pricier than the other shop and the yarns are simply gorgeous.

/Maia

Still going on...

My DS said that her DH might be happy for a pair of socks for his birthday. That's the black-and-blues up to the right. Under them a pair of 37-38s are finished.

With the yarn left over from the brother-in-law's socks I gave a little baby hat a try. Munchkin is the name of these hats and this is not the most beautiful one I've seen. They should be longer and much pointier.



Have a look here at some sweet newlyborns  with munchkin hats. I will keep trying.

/Maia

Some more socks...

I am not sure whether to post all the socks I make, but with them being presented on such nice feet and all...

Yarn, Järbo Raggi. I simply love Raggi.

/Maia

Lost in sock knitting

As you see I am stuck in sock knitting. Totally. Working with the magic loop knitting a sock goes so fast and working with different kinds of yarn and sometimes lace is so nice.

I am still struggling with the heels though (I accidentally wrote hells instead of heels. There's a Freudian slip for you!). The hourglass heel with its slips and wraps did not give the nice flat heel I wanted, and I really do not want to get into the different kinds of heels with rectangular flaps. I don't think they look nice.

So when I knit some rough socks in Drops Andes (I cast on 28) and the wrap and slip and knit together short row heel left the socks with big holes – again! – I went googling and found the Jo-Jo Heel which gives a better look.

But even with this technique a heel with a yarn this thick is not perfectly tight. I mean, the whole sock is not that very smooth and tight, so the heel can't be better than the rest of the sock. I am fairly satisfied with the heel though.

Here's another attempt, with a Järbo Raggi yarn.

So what you basically do is turn at the end of each short row and then you slip the last stitch you made and pull the yarn over it so that you get a double stitch on the right pin. You go on like that, but when you are supposed to turn the heel you make two rounds all around the sock before you actually turn. 

After that you will have to create these double stitches again while expanding the heel.  I understand if you don't understand. This is not meant as an instruction (maybe I will get to that later), but more as a taste of where the difference lies.

This technique has many names, Jo-Jo or Yo-Yo heel (silly name, since there are no YOs, no Yarn Overs) or Double stitch short row, but there is also a variant called Boomerang heel that I will try with my next pair of socks.

/Maia

DDS goes knitting

As mother as daughter... My dear daughter S grabbed the knitting pins and set out knitting her first socks. It's easy helping her because I only need to say what seems to me as a sufficient amount of information. Her mind is a bit like mine and she gets my logic.

When she was ready for the heels it was her grand-mother, my mother, the Heel Master, who was at hand, and she chose not to make hourglass heels.

On the first pair the heels were somewhat over-sized, as were the rest of the socks. But raggsockar are supposed to be big, right?

The second pair of socks were designed to fit with her black boots and they turned out slim and fit, as you can see.

Here's a close-up on the heel design. Sorry about the photos, but it is difficult to shoot black socks in a way that you can actually see how they are knit!


Today DDS will go back to her studies in Umeå. I will miss her!
/Maia
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