Needle felting lesson

Since finishing Lalupe (who's now happily sharing a windowsill with her older brother Dagobert), not a lot has happened on the dry felting frontier.
Until, two weeks ago, my friend from Brussels asked me for an introduction. I showed her some techniques (round, flat and long thin shapes, face shaping, basic eyes) and invented a new one for tiny rattie paws.

Draggins!

Somewhere on the intarwebs... a picture from an etsy shop got reposted.
As a knitter, my first thought was, "I can do this!". But I know myself, and at the moment, starting a project is easy, finishing is not. So I decided to knit four mittens at once, one pair for a friend, one pair for myself.

This is how it started out:

shot by Ameria for Naaldzang

This was almost finished (I had switched to my pointiest circs for ease of cabling):

shot by Ameria for Naaldzang

And this is the result:

shot by Ameria for ravelry

shot by Ameria for ravelry

shot by Ameria for ravelry

So glad I was able to finish them, so happy to have them off the needles. So green.

Colourwork Double Knitting

After deciding to quit the Stephen West KAL, I had to find another use for my Einband yarn. Inspiration finally came to me in the shape of an interesting double knit colourwork scarf.

Scarves: check

Colourwork: check

Double knitting: Err?

A tutorial had to be found and I decided to use some stash yarn for a first try.

It's still kicking my butt, but I'm getting better - one stitch at a time.

       

Cancelled Color Craving

I got stuck in the last three rows of Clue I and when I had time to pick it up again I also had a peek at the FO's of others:

©Stephen West

I didn't like what I saw and decided to frog what I had and find a different pattern for my Einband yarn.

Sorry Stephen, but not my cup of tea.

Feeling grateful and honoured

Not only did I finish my shawl, I also grabbed the chance to have it photographed by the lovely Ameria during our last knitting session in Bruges. Thx AJ!
One of those pictures is even featured on the pattern page now, which is a great honour on Ravelry:

And here are the other shots, in beautiful light and detail:

Nahuatl

I think I finished my fastest project of the year yesterday:

The triangular scarf Yexcampa Tlamachiotili only took me 3 weeks to knit!

It's currently pinned out for blocking:

Pattern: Geometry @ Julia Weiss
Yarn: Lang Mille Colori Lace & Sock @ Suzywol

Great fun project which puzzled many who witnessed me knitting this in public.

Once this was bound off (by the fumes of my yarn), I could start clue 1 of the WestKnit's Mystery KAL.

At the moment it looks rather bizarre, but appeals to my inner dragon and I love love love the colours (though in this photograph the lime/petrol combo looks more like yellow/blue. I hope it'll photograph better on a less rainy afternoon).

So here it is, the first half of clue 1 for the Ixnēzcā shawl:

In case you're wondering about the strange title of this post and the names of my projects: I have decided to hencefort name all my projects in the language of the Aztecs, which is Nahuatl. For reference, I'm using the Nahuatl Dictionary of the University of Oregon

Why, you might ask?

Waiting for West

My knitting friend Dominique took part in a Mystery Knit-Along last year, creating a lovely version of Stephen West's Rockefeller. So when I discovered that she'll knit-along in another of Mr West's mysteries, it didn't take me long to jump right in. The project name "Color Craving" matches my crafting into the rainbow motto too well.

Together with Rozemie I went yarn hunting, and this is what I chose:

Yarn Lopi Einband @ Suzywol
Pattern @ Westknits

However, the MKAL only starts on September 13th, so until then I'll keep my hands busy with more colourful stitches:

Yarn Lang Mille Colori Socks & Lace @ Suzywol
Pattern @ kNotArt

And last but not least [imagine drum roll here], K is back in blogland! Best news of the week so far, but it's only Monday ;)

read the blog

Latl

A year ago, I took Crazi Henri along when my crafty friends Rozemie and Karin took me to the international teddy bear and doll fair in Bruges. Karin fell madly in love for little Henri and asked if I ever had the time and felt like knitting another one, could she have one too?

As summer progressed and we started making plans for another visit to that show, I started knitting.

Meet "Latl" (short for Teocuitlatl, "gold" in the language of the Aztecs, Nahuatl), posing with Henri during a coffee break in Bruges yesterday:

Yarn: Rowan Silk Twist @ Stoffenidee
Pattern: Henri @ The Yarnigans

Lazy light

Half-way August, the light is starting to be lazy, but the critter knitting needs to continue.

Yarn: Rowan Silk Twist @ Stoffenidee

Crazy Critter Lady

Helen over at Breien in Oostende called me "our reigning queen of knitted and felted critters" in her post about Dagobert the dragon. This got me wondering how many knit and crochet toys I have made in the last 6 years (you've seen the felted ones here).

Luckily I tagged my projects on ravelry, so I could easily create the following screen shots:

This represents 56 different projects, with anything between 1 and 6 versions of the same pattern.

How many did I give away as presents? 50.

So I say thank you to:

- those who designed these awesome patterns

- those who sold me the materials

- those who inspired me to make presents for them

- those who intend to keep their inner child alive and / or decide to procreate so I can knit and crochet for them.