zaubernuss - witchhazel

various and flowery things

i stole the first bunch of lilacs this year. i'm not gonna lie: i do steal lilacs from hedges in spring. not from front yards of other people's houses, but from hedges along the fences of building sites, wild shrubberies or green grassy strips that belong to the sidewalk and are therefore common rather than private properties. no harm done, i'm sure, and i love the scent of them... these four or five twigs sit in a bottle on the corner shelf in the living room now and smell divine.

we've had a lot of bright, sunny and almost summery warm days throughout april. the occasional rain made everything grow and shoot up and become lush and fresh and green. i love the green of spring. there are so many shades of it, all bright and transluscent. during summer the greens tend to get dark and muted and dusty like old velvet - but spring green is all crunchy like salad with a nice and slightly spicy vinaigrette...

when winter has its slow fade-out i'm always waiting and longing desperately for spring only to find myself suddenly in the middle of it, sometimes even amost at the end of it. the temperatures are running mad though: one afternoon you get over 20°C, maybe even 22 and the next day you're lucky to get 15°C. it's that time when you really don't know what clothes to put on yourself and the kids. on cold mornings you leave the house in full winter gear, coats, hats and scarves on (sometimes even gloves if you're a five-and-a-half-year-old who likes to dash about on his scooter playing high-speed-train) and then at lunchtime when you go out again to pick your son up from kindergarten you have to change completely because it's just to hot for jeans and sweater and coat. and then it is windier than you thought and you catch a cold again which you were so glad to be finally rid of...

(i wrote a rather long spring-post last year - where i went a little nuts with the photos if you'd like to take a(nother) look... and it's actually from a yarn-and-four-days ago. spring seems to have been a little earlier and quicker this year because the fruit trees are in full leaf already and the tulips are almost over again. funny how it's never quite the same and yet it still is in a way...)

there they are, my two sweet ones, shoveling soil into a flower-box to plant strawberries. they were very persevering and kept at it for quite a while. (we have to barricade the stairs to the upper garden to keep R from wandering off all by herself and into the neighbour's garden where there is a steep wall into their courtyard without a fence.)

we were able to eat outside in the middle of april! (my mum makes the most delicious salads.)

we haven't mowed the lawn yet and T has picked me lots of little bouquets of dandelions and daisies and pretty much anything that blooms...

(i was a little late with taking pictures of this one - it's a little wilted already.)

our local supermarket has the most wonderful, organically grown williams pears at the moment. they are delicious and juicy and have a lovely fruity-flowery scent. (T loves them while i have not yet figured out how to get R to eat raw fruit and vegetables.)

i finished the kiwi yarn socks, but haven't taken proper photos yet. what's left of the yarn should be enough for a pair of little socklets for me - and if it's not i can always go for a contrasting colour heel and toe. T loves his fox-sox so much, sweetly declaring he never wants to take them off when he first put them on, that i felt like i needed to make another pair for him right away. i let him choose the yarn again and of course he picked one that had lots of red and sparkle.
"you know, mama, just because it's actually christmas yarn doesn't mean i can't wear them all the time." he has the true spirit of a hand-knit-socker...

my other (second) sock in progress had to wait a little, poor thing just barely cast on, because i got sidetracked by the second part of the fairyland-series which is beyond awesome. it could be about the reproductive cycle of garden snails as long as it's written in this wonderful language! using lots of rather oldfashioned words, all swirly and full of ruffly petticoats and yet at the same time still very clear and to the point of things. full of imaginative metaphors, magic, and everything being alive. everything. even a dress.

if you want to get a whiff of the green wind you can read a short prequel of the series for free on tor.com called The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland - For a Little While - it's really worth it.

i hope your world is wonderful - wherever you are in it - or wherever it is.

socks #10 and works in progress

pair #40 - i can't believe it's that many already! - is made from Atelier Zitron Trekking XXL 565. i love this yarn. i love the colours, the random stripes, the fact that it absolutely doesn't matter if there's a knot in the ball where the yarn has been tied (to a new cone or because it broke somewhere in the machine during the process of winding) and there is a stretch of colour missing and you would never notice if you didn't knit it yourself and knew exactly where it was. if i designed sock yarn - and i would love to design sock yarn - this is the kind of yarn i'd go for... sorry to all the OCD sock matchers out there. hihi!
(these are caterpillar socks again and you can find instructions here if you'd like to make some too.)

i'm currently working on a pair of Opal Sweet&Spicy3 Kiwi socklets for my husband. yes - he chose the yarn himself. it's awesome and i love my husband even more for liking funky socks just as much as i do.

i'll cast on the second one tonight.

i've also started to knit a sweater for my little girl... i went online shopping for clothes for her a while ago and was really frustrated because there seem to be so little nice kids' clothes available these days. everything looks either like doll stuff or like miniature adult fashion. i know there are great companies that make awesome clothes for kids - using organic and locally sourced materials and everything and i'm really all for that - but as long as i need new clothes for my kids basically every three months i just can't afford those... i'd love to but that will have to wait until they stop growing that quickly. until then i'll just have to make their sweaters myself if i can - and it turns out i can:

i have knitted two sweaters before. one that took me forever because the yarn i used required 3,5mm needles and another that didn't take quite so long but turned out horrible beause of everything: yarn that looked and felt great in the ball but not when knitted, shape, pattern, fuzzyness... everything. so i kind of gave up on the whole idea of knitting sweaters for a while. then i found this post and absolutely loved this sweater made from sock yarn leftovers. i know - even thinner 2,5mm needles, but i'm used to those by now.

so i started searching for ways to make sweater knitting easier which meant: find a way around all the sewing of individual pieces. i did find patterns for sweaters made from sock yarn but didn't really like any of them. then i found a series for blog posts that teaches you to knit a top-down sweater (or cardigan) using any kind of yarn and needle size you may have in your stash (no more "i like the pattern but not the yarn", etc.) and you can add any kind of decorative elements (lace, cables, etc.) if you feel up to it. i read the entire instruction, made sure i understood all of it (it's really easy to understand and follow) and then i just used my calculator to do some basic math and figure out how many stitches i needed to make a sweater that will fit an almost two-and-a-half-year-old.
(another great thing about working top-down is that the bind-off is at the bottom hem and the wrists. should it get too short before it gets to tight i can just make it longer!)

i guess i just made that sound much more complicated that it actually is.

i guess i'll be done with the body really soon and can start the sleeves. i think i'll add a hood as well. i'm using my sock yarn leftovers and i just love how it's turning out. i almost wish i had made it bigger so i could keep it myself - hehe! - but i look forward to seeing my little one in it. T has already requested a sweater for himself when he saw me knitting on this and asked what it was. he was very cute and asked if it was for him when i told him i was knitting a sweater. when i said "no, it's for R." he asked why not for him and i explained that i had never made something like this before and wanted to start with the smallest size first to see how it goes. he's a very understanding boy and was satisfied to know that he will get one as well once this one is done. and the great thing is: i'm not scared of it any more! i'm actually looking forward to a whole load of handknitted sweaters in all shapes and sizes using all different kinds of yarns, with hoods or not, pouch pockets or not, ribbing or rolled edges, v-necks, round necks, boat necks... i'm turning into Mrs. Weasley...

this is on my spinning wheel at the moment - or rather was. i finished the single today and started navajo-plying right away. it's the finest single i've spun so far. the fiber is blue faced leicester which is lovely and easy to spin and has appropriately been named "rolling hills" by the dyer. 

i still have issues with the yarn being slightly overtwisted when plied but i'm working on it.

i can see lots of shawls knitted with handspun yarn in my future...

happy yarning everyone!

socks #9 and the cuff drops sock how to

this is pair #38. T has requested another pair of socks and i was happy to oblige. i call them "fox sox" because i have used the same yarn for the crochet lalylala fox doll... the yarn is Regia Winter Stars and i made them with a three-wedge "fan heel" (a type of short row heel - link's to a (german) video - heel starts at about 4:00 min) to make the socks fit longer.

this is pair #39. i got a little fancy and named them "vintage harlequin". it's because of the colours of the stripes and squares. they seem a little muted to me - like the faded colour of an old circus poster...
i used two 50g balls - a stripy and a solid - which came in the same pack to be used together but i was a little irritated (for a very short time) because the solid turquoise and the turquoise in the stripy yarn are not the same. i really wanted to make another pair of patchwork socks and these colours were perfect for it.

a couple of months ago i stumbled across a picture of a pair of socks on google that i really liked very much. i don't think i can share it here as i could not find out who took it and therefore owns copyright to it. i think it was a listing for the finished socks on one of the many artist's marketplace websites and now i can't find it again because they may have been sold. anyway, google remembers everything so you can look at a picture of them here (i hope). it was not so much the colours that struck me - although they are lovely and instantly caught my eye all the same and you know i like everything rainbow - it was more the pattern or rather the texture on the leg. i tried to find a pattern for it but didn't, and since i really wanted a pair of socks like that for myself i had to improvise...

the pattern does not show so much as the self patterning yarn is very busy already but it worked out very great once i had finally figured it out. and i have to say: i'm rather proud of myself for coming up with a way to knit something just from looking at a picture of it. (even though i have no way of knowing if the socks that inspired me were done the same way. and i'm sure i could not do that with fancy lace patterns - haha!)

before trying on a sock i had to research instructions for knitting the little bobbles. i found different ways that seemed managable and i made a little swatch where i tried them so i could compare and choose the one i liked best. i ended up doing a three-stitch bobble.

here is how i knit the "cuff drops" pattern. (this instruction is my own design and wording, inspired by the picture i linked to above. in case it's done the same way - no offence and/or copyright infringement intended!)

• cast on the desired number of stitches (i cast on 60)
  
• purl 1 round - knit 1 round - purl 1 round - knit 1 round (that's the very top edge of the cuff)
  
• ** 10 rounds *knit 2 - purl 2*
  
• purl 1 round
• knit 2 rounds
• 1 round *knit 2 - bobble*
  (if your stitch count is not a multiple of 3 but of 4 instead you can also *knit 3 - bobble*)

bobble:

• knit into front of stitch, knit into back of stitch, knit into front of stitch
  (you have made 3 stitches out of 1)
• turn
• slip 1st stitch purlwise - purl next 2 stitches together
• turn
• slip 1st stitch knitwise - knit next stitch - lift slipped stitch over knitted stitch
• tighten gently

i don't know if this is common knowlege when knitting bobbles but i have found that i get nice looking bobbles when i knit them very loosely. don't be tempted to tighten the stitches while you are working the bobble - it will look nicer when you tighten it up only when it's done. (don't let your needle slide out of the bobble you are working on! don't ask...)
also, when you slip the stitch over the last knitted stitch to finish the bobble, let the slipped stitch kind of "wrap" itself around the whole bunch of stitches you have created. when you then tighten the bobble, said slipped stitch will pull this bunch together and create a nice bobble.

after the bobble round:

• knit 1 round - to avoid a hole appearing between the bobble and the previous stitch, pick up the thread connecting the two and knit them together through the back
• knit 1 round
• purl 1 round
• knit 2 rounds
• 1 round *knit 2 - bobble*
  
• knit 2 rounds (pick up threads and knit together with the bobble stitches through the back on the 1st knit round again)
  
• purl 1 round **

repeat from ** 

i repeated from ** to ** twice on the first two pairs i made this way, but you can repeat the pattern as many times as you like. on the vintage harlequin socks i replaced the second 10 rounds *knit 2 - purl 2* with the mitred squares which i knitted first in fact and then picked up stitches from the top and bottom edge to knit the pattern. 

mitred squares tutorials can be found on the internet aplenty. i started out with 21 stitches per square and made a continual strip of six squares, joining the last one to the first as i knitted it (or you can make a strip and then sew it together to form a cuff). that should give you 10 edge-stitches per square (60 in total) to pick up form the edges both on the top and the bottom of the cuff. however, i picked up 11 per square as i felt it was necessary but that may differ from knitter to knitter - if you think it looks okay with the intended number of stitches to be picked up that's great, should you feel like you have to add yet another stitch you'll have to decrease away more. after picking up the stitches i worked one purl round and then decreased the additional stitches away - one per square - in the first knit round of the pattern.

how many stitches you need for your squares depends on the number of stitches you need for your sock and the number/size of squares you want. my socks usually have 60 stitches, so i divided that by 6 which makes it 6 squares of 10 stitches each - those are the edge-stitches which you will pick up. a mitred square is made from double the number of stitches +1. that makes 21 stitches in my case.
you could also knit 10 squares of 6 stitches each in which case you would need 13 stitches for each square.
for the first pair of patchwork socks i made i needed 64 stitches, so i made 8 squares of 8 stitches - 17 stitches per square.
you could also make 4 really big squares, using 31 stitches per square (for a 60 stitch sock) or 33 stitches per square (for a 64 stitch sock) - but these squares would be big enough to make the entire leg of the socks.

i made the cuff first and used jeny's surprisingly stretchy bind off. take care: you are binding off purl stitches!

then i knitted the pattern again at the bottom of the squares but without the rib-section (see pictures for orientation) and added 10 rounds in stockinette before i started the heel. you can use any kind of heel you like, i made this one - which works great if you want to have a contrasting colour heel.

 

happy knitting!

 

EDIT:
the bobble pattern described above works great on the cuffs of ankle socks:

• purl 1 round - knit 1 round - purl 1 round (that's the very top "cuff")
• * knit 2 rounds
• 1 bobble round - you can space the bobbles as far apart as you wish. i usually knit 2 or 3 stitches between each bobble - it also depends on your total number of stitches.
• knit 2 rounds (remember to pick up the strand between the bobble-stitch and the previous stitch as described above in the first knit round)
• purl 1 round *
• repeat from * to *
• knit 10 rounds before starting the heel

i've also made a pair where i have only one bobble round:

on this pair i repeated the "cuff" (purl 1 rd - knit 1 rd - purl 1 rd) after the bobble section and i did only 5 rounds before the heel. they turned out really short but you can always make them as long as you want.

enjoy!

the happy socks grow

my happy socks are growing nicely. i love how the colours play together. there is a rather visible line down the middle of the soles where i change the colours but i don't mind that so much. once the socks have been worn and washed it will hardly by visible any more.

as you can see, i've put in lifelines for an afterthought heel already. i came across this video by Cat Bordhi that shows a brilliant way of inserting an afterthought heel. (actually she shows how to do an afterthought leg in the video but i thought i would try it for the heel of my socks.)

wish me luck for i have never cut into my knitting before... but it will all go well - i think...

 

 

 

it did go well:

i had a moment of terror there when i discovered that i had dropped three! stitches only when i had just closed the heel on the second sock. (it was rather late already.) i managed to pick them up and lift them back up to the bind-off where i darned the stitches in with quite a lenght of yarn. the heel is a bad place for this and i hope it holds up and does not wear out too quickly... but one advantage of an afterthought heel is that it can be replaced with comparative ease.

now i can go on and use up all the rest of my yarn leftovers on the leg...

 

happy knitting everyone!