zaubernuss - witchhazel

"Bohemian Oasis 2.0" - 1

I finished this "Bohemian Oasis" blanket almost exactly three years ago. The pattern is by Drops and you can find it here. It's made up of individual squares which look complex but are really quite simple. The yarn I used for this is Drops Delight which is a sock weight yarn. (I bought here because they offer fairly reasonable shipping to Austria but I'm sure you can find it in other places too.) 
You could totally use any kind of yarn you have plenty of - it can also be a great stash buster project.

The above blanket turned out lovely and while I thought I had made it for myself I really only started making it at all because I saw it and I wanted to try the pattern. To be honest: it was too purple for me. I like purple, but not too much of it. After it spent a while in my closet - neatly folded and wrapped in a paper bag, waiting for nothing in particular - I decided to give it to my aunt for her 50th birthday. The colours are exactly what she likes: lots of purple and berry tones with some contrast as well. She was thrilled to bits with it!

Maybe you can guess what's in this nice, bright pink, possibly squishy parcel...?

You guessed right!

16 50g balls of Drops Delight in four different colourways... 

I went with greens, browns and neutrals this time (since my first thought of making a blanket in oranges, browns and honey tones went out the window when I couldn't find any affordable yarn like this that had plenty of these colours without too many others mixed in). The top row is colourway no. 08, the second row is no. 16, the third row is no. 18 and the bottom row is no. 02. 

I'm sooo looking forward to seeing how these will look as squares. I love the different shades of green, brown, grey and sand and the little bit of blue, teal and purple in 16 and 18 will make a beautiful contrast but they won't overpower the earthy and neutral colours. And just like with the first one I made: the squares will all blend together and there won't really be any knowing which one came from which colourway. 

The pattern says you only need eight balls of the Delight and some 200g of a solid colour for joining, but the original pattern makes the blanket seven squares wide and eleven squares long. I tried that layout on my first one and it didn't work for me. I ended up making it 9x12 which creates a nice size snuggle blanket for the sofa but I think I want to go even bigger with this one. As far as I remember I can get ten or maybe even eleven squares out of one 50g ball of yarn. I should end up with at least 160 squares which could turn into a 10x16 blanket which would be nice and big and wonderful for cozing under... 

I can't wait! 

I already started work on a no. 8 ball and so far I'm very pleased with how the squares turn out. 

 

Lots of love! xxx

 

 

P.S.: This is not a sponsored post. 

crochet blanket "Bohemian Oasis"

roughly a year ago - in august 2017 - i couldn't sleep and got up again in the middle of the night. i rummaged in one of my yarn boxes and pulled out a ball of slow gradient sock yarn in shades of purple, pink and turquoise. i'd had it for quite some time because i noticed, after knitting with another colourway of the same brand, that it didn't make nice socks and i didn't quite know what else to do with it. it was one of those single spun, artsy yarns that are quite fluffy and thick-and-thin in places. many of these yarns (by various manufacturers) are sold as "sock yarn" but they are actually just "sock weight" (which only means that they have something between 400 and 425m to a 100g ball).

but complaining about single spun, artsy, fluffy, thick-and-thin yarns that are labelled "sock yarn" is not really what this is about. most of them - or at least all that i've worked with so far - are lovely and soft and perfectly usable for various knit and crochet projects! they are just not that suited to make socks with... (maybe bed-socks that can be more on the loose side. and i should point out that there are exceptions to this, like the Schoppel Zauberball.)

anyway, i had found this free pattern for a beautiful crochet blanket called "Bohemian Oasis" by DROPS Design and it called for exactly that kind of single spun, artsy, fluffy, slightly thick-and-thin yarn. but since i only had one ball of that in my stash i had put it off until i could justify ordering some more... and then i couldn't sleep that night and simply started making squares anyway.

the yarn suggested by drops is "Drops Delight" which comes in 50g balls and lots of beautiful colour combinations. it is fairly inexpensive too, which is rather convenient when you want to buy a lot of it to make a blanket...

the pattern offers a suggestion for yarn colours but since i had started the blanket with yarn from my stash i chose different colours of drops delight to go with the colours i already had. now, i'm absolutely certain that i kept the ball bands of the colours i ordered but i cannot find them. however, i know i used drops delight 14 because it's mostly purple and there was lots of purple in the yarn i already had. then i'm absolutely sure i used drops delight 10 because that was one of the ball bands i did find (and i know i haven't used this yarn for any other project yet) and then i'm quite certain i used drops delight 11 because of the lilac and the orangeish bits which i thought would go well with the rusty colour that was in nr. 10. but i wouldn't promise... it doesn't really matter anyway because one square only takes up enough yarn for one or maybe 2 colour changes and even though i used only 3 different colourways (and one from my stash that made up only ten or so squares that got totally lost amongst all the others) it turned out quite colourful. rather on the purple side but colourful...

the pattern wants you to make the blanket seven squares wide and eleven squares long. it looks pretty in the pictures but more like a wrap type shawl thingy than a blanket so i decided to make it larger (and re-order some yarn). as mentioned already i can find neither the ball bands nor the receipt from the shop i ordered from and i'm sorry to say therefore that i can't tell you exactly how much yarn i used. the pattern states that one ball of drops delight makes ten squares though - i think i even got eleven out of some of them. i used up all of the yarn i had and made a total of 113 squares. then i spent quite some time sorting them into little stacks according to the main colours in each square - while i made them i stacked them according to colourway.

and then i sat on the floor one day towards the end of september and played with all of my little colour coordinated stacks to create one big thing that was supposed to look harmonious and pleasing...

i used 108 squares and arranged them 9x12 (i think 3x4 is a really nice proportion for blankets), trying to distribute the colours as evenly as possible.

it looks like a stained glass window.

there was quite a bit of switching squares back and forth at the end. once i was happy with the arrangement i carefully stacked each long row in the right order and numbered each stack so i would connect them in the right order.

well, actually i joined the first two rows before i stacked the rest of the squares. i forgot about that... the pattern does give instructions on how to join the squares (although you could use any joining method you like, of course) but it was a little vague about the corners. i had to improvise a little and i'm reasonably pleased with the result.

somehow i didn't take any more pictures of the joining. i guess i was just too much "in the zone" to think of it... but what i did at the corners is quite simple actually: first i joined all the rows vertically (which leaves everything really floppy and a little irritating but it's managable). when i reached the end of one square i chained 3 and then continued with the next square. then i joined all the horizontal rows the same way and instead of chaining 3 at the corners i chained 1, slip-stitched into the middle of the ch-3 going the other way and then chained 1 again before continuing with the next set of squares. i hope that makes sense... basically you are creating a cross that's locked together in the center.

there's no need to block the squares. joining them stretches them nicely and when the blanket was done i machine washed it on the gentle/wool cycle. it came out beautifully softened and blocked (and almost dry already). i draped it over two clothes drying racks for as-flat-as-possible drying and it worked just fine.

and the next pictures i took where of the finished blanket already... i totally forgot to take photos before i added the scallop edging or anything like that. the black yarn is drops fabel in black by the way.

i love how it turned out... i'm almost tempted to make another one in even more colours...

 

lots of love! xxx

 

socks #15

pair #61 is a pair of sparkly christmas socks. yes - i knitted a pair of sparkly christmas socks in august. it's terrible, i know, but only very recently one of the lovely ladies in the knit'n'natter group i'm part of on facebook posted a picture of christmas socks she was just working on and that made me want to make some too. also: now there's another ball of yarn out of (one of) my stash box(es) that was still too big to move to the leftover basket but not big enough any more to make a pair of long-legged socks.

by the way: if you're a knitter and want to share your projects, ask questions, get suggestions and ideas for future projects, see lots of lovely yarns and just be part of a lovely and friendly community, you should check out this group. (you need to be admitted to the group to see its content.)

anyway, the sparkly christmas socks are made from two different yarns from seasonal yarn packs (one from 2013 and one from 2015) by this company. the cuff, heel and toe are from the older pack and the foot from last year's. i gave these to my sister.

i'm very much looking forward to this year's seasonal special - assuming that there will be one... if so it will be announced in the new autumn/winter catalogue which should arrive in september at the latest. i'll keep you posted...

for pair #62 i used Opal Hundertwasser "Der Weg von mir zu dir zurück" 2107. i love how many different colours and patterns there are in this yarn. it's almost like making a scrahappy sock out of one ball of yarn. i made caterpillar socks again. i've put the pattern in the right side bar under "tutorials and guides".

this is pair #63. i've named it "flowering appletree". just like i did for the Dr. Seuss Socks, i used leftover single spun sock yarn in two colourways for these: one of them - the brown/red one - is called "appletree" and the other one - the pink/white/green one - is what's left of a schoppel zauberball called "durch die blume".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"appletree" on the left - "durch die blume" on the right. it turned out that the appletree yarn was not really suited for sock making so i used most of what was left after the socks were done to make the body of my wonderful rose doll:

(body pattern by lalylala; hat pattern by zabbez)

there was just enough left of both to make little socklets. there are still some tiny little balls of the various single spun yarns left and i think i will keep them to make scarves for future crochet dolls...

this is pair #64. the yarn is an old one by opal - "lasst blumen sprechen" (say it with flowers). i've started this pair back in january and knitted past the heel of the first sock. and then all of the sudden i was sick of the yarn... i almost wanted to rip out the whole work and make something else with the yarn but decided to just wait until the excitement would come back. it did - sort of - and while i was not exactly overrun with joy while i finished this pair - i finished it. i think i will like wearing these very much though, maybe with a pair of jeans...

this is what the skein looked like. the collection was from 2011 or 2012 i think. i have managed to get my greedy little hands (although i think i have fairly large hands for a woman of my short body size) on five of the six colourways.

these two i knitted already...

these two are sitting in my stash, waiting to be sockified...

 

i hope your knitting needles are clinking and your crochet hooks are whirling!

doll crazy

i went a little doll crazy since the start of the year. i mentioned in this post how i came across lalylala dolls back in january (and i linked to the pattern source in that post too). i think these dolls are just so charming. i love the proportions of them and how ... simple ... they are in a way. they have so much character. i had a really hard time deciding which pattern to get first and luckily there was a special offer where you could get either three, five or even seven patterns in bulk for a little cheaper than they would have been had you bought this many individually. (this offer is no longer available, which makes it easier in a way because you don't have to decide which other patterns you want to add just to get a discount even if you actually only wanted one anyway...)

i got five: the house fly, the fox, the dragon, the kangaroo and the sheep. i hadn't actually planned on buying the fly pattern but T saw them all and instantly requested that i make a fly. how could i resist that...? so the fly it was instead of the lion (which i got later) and as soon as i had all the patterns downloaded i started. i use sockyarn and a 2,5mm crochet hook for these dolls. it took me a while to get used to - i'm very well used to knitting with such fine yarn and thin needles but i usually crochet with heavier yarn. i crocheted my yarn together with some teal coloured shimmery sewing thread to add a little interest and variation to it. and the grey wings got some silver sparkle thread. he's very proud to wear a scarf knitted from some handspun yarn with golden beads...

the pattern was not difficult to follow - even though i had only done some simple amigurumi veggies and fruit before. the only problem showed when i had to join the legs - the pattern starts with the legs which you then join to work on the bum and body. but i managed that in the end and was really pleased with the progress i was making.

you may know how it is with patterns: one or two or even five is never enough. having seen so many adorable dolls in the web i went on long searches to get hold of as many free add-on or modification patterns as i possibly could - there are two berry- and a bunny-add-on by the designer herself on her website but you need to buy the sheep pattern for one of the berries and one of the others that's not the bat, toadstool, cactus or either of the sea critters for the others, if that makes sense. i also saved lots of inspirational pictures of modifications where there was no pattern. (i'm sorry i can't link to the sources because i didn't save any of them - i only saved or copied the patterns i could find. some of them seemed to have weird restrictions about sharing them for free.) now i have quite a collection...

next i made the fox. i like foxes. they seem to be very popular through the whole of the crafing community at the moment, as are mermaids and flamingos apparently. it's funny in a way that all of the sudden there seems to be a global interest in some creature or other and nobody knows where this interest comes from as it appears to be inspired independently by different designers and crafting categories: a company releases a stamp set, a designer creates a knitting or crochet pattern, there are colouring images, fabrics and clothing with according prints on, etc. and they are all about the same thing... that's how i experience it anyway. it was like that with the foxes for me: without knowing exactly why, maybe i had seen something on the internet without really noticing it, i thought to myself "i really like foxes, they are actually very cute animals, not so random as cats or dogs or bunnies and quite clever too." and then they were popping up everywhere and all the world went fox-crazy!

i tried my best to get her ears a little pointier but couldn't do better than this. and by now i'm also better at chaning colours without it being so obvious as it is at her arms there. her scarf is from a leftover 6-ply zauberball and i even took pains to find this particular section in the colourway - a thing that i usually don't do. she is lovely and i already had more experience with stuffing her as i worked and there are no overstuffed parts - the fly's head turned out a little big. (the patterns all come with names already chosen for the dolls, but i don't like to adopt these - i want my kids to choose names for them if they want to.)

the two of them instantly became friends and she was well received by my little ones as well.

then i started an owl-modification i was kindly instructed on how to do by Häkelpüppi on facebook. and it is still not finished! argh! i don't even know exactly why but i assume it's the yarn. it's heavier than the sockyarn - i didn't have anything in my sock yarn stash that suited an owl and the one i would have liked to use, but would have had to order, was too expensive for doll-making. so i just bought something with appropriate colours at the craft store but didn't really like working with it... also i have noticed that i like crochet toys and dolls much more when they have small stitches. working with bigger yarn gives you a bigger finished object of course; but with chunkier yarn i always feel like the stitches are, in proportion to the finished size, even bigger than the stitches worked with sock yarn are compared to the finished size. but who really cares about such things...

i only have to finish off some of her accessories - i don't know what's keeping me so long... 

on one of my searches of more mod-patterns (not that i needed them yet...) i found some adorable dolls with wonderfully intricate flower hats. first i thought they were lalylala doll modifications but then i realised they were by a different designer - and another talented one of that! his doll designs have a similar shape to lalylala dolls, but have longer legs and a shorter, less rounded body. to be honest: i like the shape of the lalylala dolls more, but that could also just be because i saw those first. (i know a lady from a crochet-doll group on facebook who saw the flower dolls first and then thought the laly-dolls looked odd with their shorter legs.) i asked said lady if she knew whether or not the flower hats fit on a lalylala doll head. she replied saying she thought so because she had made both and they are the same size; so i just had to get the rose pattern and i made this lovely doll:

i had a really hard time sewing her head on centered and after undoing it three times already i decided to just let it be. to keep her from appearing totally askew i cheated a little and attached her arms relative to her eyes as oppose to her "shoulders". it gives her a slightly shy appearance which adds greatly to her character i think.

i used FernerWolle "Color Flow" sockyarn in the shade "apple tree" which i had left over for her body. this yarn is a rather artsy thick-and-thin single spun yarn and even though it's labeled sock yarn it actually does not create very good socks (they turn baggy when you wear them and don't hold their shape) - it's more suitable for shawls and such. but the colours were just rigtht for a rose doll and i didn't have the right shade of either solid green or brown for it anyway.

my kids like to watch the puppet theatre version of Michael Ende's "Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver". and in the second part - "Jim Button and the Wild 13" - there appears a mermaid.

(this is a screen-shot from the movie.) i knew there was a mermaid lalylala and i liked the idea of making our own. her name is Sursulapitschi by the way - the "sch" is pronounced like "sh" - and she is a princess. i didn't have the right colour of yarn for her tail though so i ordered this one which i think fits the bill perfectly:

but because i didn't want to wait for the yarn to arrive and i had a sudden idea i took this ball of yarn i had left from my rainbow circle cardigan and started to make a rainbow mermaid instead:

this pattern is very easy and straightforward and the only thing that bugged me was that working on an already stuffed toy - because you have to stuff them as you go - can be a little troublesome as the whole thing is less squishy and more difficult to hold, but that's just part of it. with most of the other patterns the head is made seperately and then crocheted or sewed on, which can also be tricky but i actually mind it less than i mind handling already stuffed toys while working on them.

then i made 38 hair pieces - or scales as i call them - as the pattern said and pinned them onto the dolls head to see what it looked like. the pattern only said to sew them on but was not very explicit as to how exactly it was to be done. quite frankly: it sucked! and while i was doing it i vowed to myself to never make a scale-headed mermaid ever again. i tried my best to rainbow organise them and only when i was almost done i thought i should have followed my gut feeling telling me to pick them at random. i also had to make 2 more scales even though i felt like neither her head was very big nor did i overlap the scales too much - in the pictures in the pattern the looked much more overlapped... with only two more scales to sew on i was very tempted to cut them all off again and start over but i stitched the last scales in place and left her until the next day. when i came back and picked her up again to finish her arms she looked better already and has very much grown on me since.

when i make the Sursulapitschi doll i will give her a wild turquoise and green mermaid hairdo and i guess i really won't bother with the scales ever again - haha!

and i have to say i very much like her fin.

for the sparkle i crocheted some sparkle thread along with the rainbow yarn. it's "Coats Reflecta" in copper (nr. 314) and silver (nr. 301) and it is horribly expensive at 4,20€ for the 100m spool. i will have to find some other sparkle thread to add some glamour to future dolls - maybe something with colour too...

at the end of may there was a new lalylala pattern released and when i saw the announcement on facebook i dropped everything, bought it and started yet another doll... i'm beginning to feel that i make them more for myself than for the kids but i don't mind that so much actually. everybody needs something soft and slightly silly in their lives...

it's a seahorse! how awesome is that! haha!
now, this pattern was a tad more difficult than the others because you need to work stitches of different hight within the same round to get the curly tail. it's just a matter of following the instructions carefully and not losing track of where you are in the pattern. i used a large paper clip as a kind of arrow to point at the row i'm currently working on and i never lost track really. the only thing i wish i had done better was the beginning of the tail where i should have worked tighter i guess because the stuffing shows through the fabric. it's not coming out but it's visible - i'll know better next time.

haha! when i showed my husband the fin on seahorse's back and asked him if that looked straight to him he said: "as straight as a male seahorse in psychedelic pastels can be..." i almost fell off my seat... hihihi...

you may know - or not - that it's the daddy seahorses who take care of the babies. they are kept safe in a belly pouch.
this daddy here takes good care of his little one, which is only 8,5cm tall. R loves this little seahorse baby and i often find her carrying it around while she plays with other things.

and as all parents need a little hand from time to time it's a good thing there's a relative to help out...

the family keeps growing!

 

EDIT: here are the pattern links again for the lalylala dolls and the zabbez flower dolls.

socks #8 and the caterpillar sock how-to

these are my ode-to-spring-socks - it's pair #37. the yarn is Lana Grossa India 2305 and it was a dream to knit with. they were done really quickly - because i enjoyed knitting them so much! - and would have been done even more quickly had i not waited for daylight to finish off the second heel because i took some photos of the process to write a tutorial some time soon... 

i could have easily matched them and made them twin socks but that's just not a thing i do - but i did kind of meta-match them because i made the first cast-on loop exactly at the change between two colours which gives me a differently coloured top edge (which is only a thin line really) but i like that they have that in common.

the inspiration for the leg came from Babajezas Wundertüte - i think i have linked to it in another post already but i'll link it again anyway... you can never have enough reference to the places that inspire you i think...

she doesn't say anything about the exact number of rows knitted and purled so i counted them as best as i could from the screen and then just went with it. i've called it the "caterpillar sock" and if i'm stepping on anyones toes by naming the pattern that and posting my way of doing it here, i do apologise...

this is for 4-ply sock yarn, instructions for 6-ply in ( )

• cast on the desired number of stitches
• *knit 2 - purl 2* 10 rounds (8 rounds)
  
• *knit 10 rounds (8 rounds) - purl 5 rounds (4 rounds)* as many times as you like to achieve the lenght of sock leg you want
• knit 10 rounds (10 rounds) before starting the heel
• finish the sock as you normally would

you can use the 4-ply instructions for 6-ply yarn of course. i've tried it but didn't like it so much so i changed it a little for thicker yarn. here is an example:

(although i started with the purl rounds right after the rib on this pair but it really does not matter...)

for pair #60 - you can find it at the bottom of this post - i modified the 4-ply pattern a little: i changed every other purl rib from "purl 5 rounds" to "purl 1 rd - knit 1 rd - purl 1 rd - knit 1 rd - purl 1 rd". it makes the purl section appear lighter and gives it a nice and soft look. you could do that for all the purl sections of course.

T has very sweetly requested another pair of socks for himself to wear to bed. after making his first pairs i got the impression that he didn't like wearing hand knitted socks very much because whenever he wanted to wear them he took them off rather soon again. then i realised that a) they are too warm for him to wear during the day - busy, playing children hardly ever get cold feet i think; at least mine don't, and b) they didn't fit him quite well because he kept stopping what he did to pull them up. so now when he said he wanted a new pair (the other ones might also be getting a little small already) i was very happy and instantly set to work. his favourite colour at the moment is red and when i pulled out the ball of yarn remembered what he had said when i first bought it back in autumn: "mama, you just have to knit me a pair of socks from this!" and the "just have" came with a big sigh to emphazise the importance of it... (he forgot it again and so did i to be honest but he remembered when i made the crochet fox doll.)

so now i'm calling T's new socks-to-be the fox-sox...

they have a roll down cuff, no ribbing and very little leg - more ankle socklets than socks. they'll get a three-segment heel (more on that soon) and i hope that it will fit him better than the normal heel (which apparently does not want to stay in place on his feet).

by the way: i've knitted 37 pairs of sock and this is the first one that is all one colour - and it is so boring! good thing they are so small...haha!

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socks #1

rainbowy things and scrap yarn

every now and then i like to surround myself with rainbowy things. maybe it's just the "default" colourscheme because i don't want to commit myself to a colourway i might get bored of or dislike some time later - but i actually don't think so... i just like it when colours flow.

after i finished my mixed stitch blanket i had lots of this cotton yarn left - i don't recommend using cotton for making blankets by the way - and then i discovered that another brand of cotton i still had from a failed project - i used some of it for Mrs. Penstemmon, my african flower hippo - requires the same size needle and i could mix them and create a more complete rainbow effect.

last summer i ordered this yarnkit to make a crochet circle cardigan and when i thought about what to do with all the leftover cotton i decided to make a smaller version for R to wear in spring and summer. (it all started when i found this post somehow.) the above picture shows the beginnings of it and i'm past the armholes and all the way round with the colours already, starting again with the dark red.

i'm also working on a pair of mojo socks using Schoppel Zauberball "Frische Fische". it is not a perfect rainbow because it does not have any purple and goes from dark blue - almost black - back over green and yellow to red and from red back to blue...

 

as much as i love watching my socks grow and the beautiful colours morph into each other - when i'm knitting with Zauberball i almost like seeing how the ball changes even more...

i have two of these left from my circle cardigan and they will be turned into socks at some point too. unless i desperately need rainbow yarn for something else... it could happen...

on to the scrap yarn:

i'm very excited about this! i'm in a group called Winwick Mum Knit n Natter on facebook where members can share knitting and crochet (anything really - yarn related or not) projects, yarn purchases, ups and downs, techniques, links to patterns, questions about techniques and patterns, etc. it's a really lovely place. very friendly and encouraging and helpful. a while ago i came across this post about socks knitted from leftovers and we started talking about what we could do with our sock yarn scraps in the group. there are lots and lots of possibilities...

but i'm a sock knitter at heart so that's what i want to do... and then a lovely lady named Rosemary told me how she used to swap yarn scraps with a friend. i loved that idea and was sad that i don't have anyone around who i could swap yarn scraps with... and you know what: she kindly offered to do a yarn swap with me! so we sent each other the first load of sock yarn left overs, parting them roughly in the middle so we would each have the same yarn. we will both knit socks with it and even though we work with the same materials the results will be different because of our induvidual colour choices, pattern choice and so on... i'm really looking forward to seeing what we are going to come up with.

in the above picture you can see my collection so far (my actual sock yarn scrap stash is much bigger - those are the swap sock scraps). it's funny how we both went with a similar colourscheme without knowing what the other one would send... the three balls on the right are the ones Rosemary sent me and she dyed them herself. i love them! (she sent me some other lovely things too...) the pink and white one has sparkle in it, the rusty brown one has lovely textural flakey bits and the purple one is my favourite shade of lilac lilac...

Thanks again, Rosemary!!!

Rosemary runs an Etsy store called Rosie's Moments. she paints and dyes sock yarn - you should go and have a look if you are a knitter (and if you are not - look anyway) - her yarns are lovely!

i can't wait to play with these yarns and arrange them and select colourways... i want to try my hand at "blending" which apparently is when you knit very few rows of each colour although not in regular stripes but in a sort of interchanging way so you can't tell the different yarns apart in the end. i've seen scrap socks knitted that way and they are soo cool! i also want to try a specific technique of toe-up with these...

(while looking for the post about the yarn blending i found this just now... isn't he awesome...?)

 

i'm back

i haven't posted in a long time. time has kind of gotten away from me and whenever i thought i could (or should) write a post i didn't feel like writing something long and picture heavy - so i didn't... you see: long and picture heavy posts are the kind of posts i enjoy when i read other peple's blogs, so i thought i myself should blog the way i would enjoy reading it. now i notice: this doesn't suit me. and i guess that's fine. there are other ways to write blog posts. 

writing long posts and uploading lots of pictures annoyed me and i don't really have time to do it during the day (maybe sometimes I would have time, but whenever i sit down to write something on the computer the kids come running and want something) so it usually took up most of my evenings and i didn't want that. i have a facebook page that goes with my blog and i've been posting a lot there recently which got me thinking: why don't i just write blog posts the way i write facebook posts? a quick line and a picture or two and it's done and it only took five minutes (and that's only because i honstly think the typepad photo uploading service is very inefficient).

i'm going to try this - i don't know why i didn't think of this before actually. i really want to write about and record my daily life more but somehow i had this fixed idea in my head that blog posts have to be wordy and full of photos... don't know why...

there have been lots of things going on since i last posted:

i have knitted 20 pairs of socks since september! i can't believe this... i will not post pictures of them all now because it would take forever but i'm thinking of setting up a gallery sort of thing where i can add all the finished pairs to over time.

i finally finished my mixed stitch blanket (which i started back in spring 2014 and have been working on on and off whenever the mood struck me). it's living on the sofa and being used already.

you can find a very detailed pattern with lots of photos and easy to follow explanations here if you're interested in making one for yourself.

i also spun some yarn but i'll write a seperate post on that because that one will be picture heavy... here's a little sneak peek:

i stumbled across Lalylala Dolls while browsing through google images seaching for something and was instantly smitten with them. i bought some of the patterns (here) and have made the house fly and a fox already. there will be more to come... many more to come...

we are going to move next winter. our new place is being built and supposed to be finished next winter around the end of november. we'll have unlimited lease, affordable rent, no draft from the windows and underfloor heating - all of which we've never had in any of the places where we've lived before. i'm very much looking forward to it and already have lots of ideas for decorating. we need to plan our kitchen - also something we've not done before - and despite the ongoing issue of how-do-we-pay-for-that i'm looking forward to that too because in all the kitchens i've been in so far (at home or as a guest) there have been features i liked and features i hated so we came up with a list/concept of the things we would like to have in our kitchen and we'll just see what's possible...

i made a canvas last weekend as a thank-you present for a friend of my mum's who has given us lots of kids' clothes her son had outgrown. my mum had commissioned me to knit her a pair of socks as a birthday present as well so i matched them up:

i'm glad that spring is on its way. we have liverleaf and snowdrops to marvel at on the way to kindergarten and once we're into march it can't be long until it finally gets a little warmer (on a more regular basis - we've had an odd mild day or two)... i'm looking forward to sitting outside again while the kids play without freezing my butt off or having to put on so many layers i can't move any more. and i'm sure the kids will enjoy not having to wear so much too.

i'm sure i'll be back soon with something short and small about something that i'm working on or that's happening... until then.

back to school...

on the way to kindergarten

it's actually been two weeks of school and kindergarten already... and i already feel like there has not been any summer break at all... i don't know what it is really but just knowing it's school-time stresses me out a little already. and i don't even have to go there.

T's chalking a house

one of the things is that i have a really hard time getting up in the moring. i'm an owl-type by nature and according to recent studys by chronobiologists this is not a thing that can be "un-trained" or "re-trained" and "just go to bed earlier" doesn't do the trick. my personal body-clock is set to get up at around 09:00 and go to bed between 23:00 and 24:00... and there isn't much i can do about it... so when i have to get up at 07:00 it feels like 03:00 or 04:00 in the morning. i have a wonderful husband who knows and respects that and since it's not AS hard for him to get up in the morning as it is for me he lets me sleep as long as possible. usually he wakes me when he has to leave the house to go to work - at about 07:20 - i know i'm blessed.

another thing is that i never got rid of the "school-rhythm": my year starts in september, not january, even though i don't go to school myself. but since my husband is a teacher, my mother is a teacher, my dad's job runs very parallel to the school-year, my mother-in-law is a teacher and of course the kids go to kindergarten and later to school too it's kind of natural for me to stick with that too. i don't mind it much really. when i was in school myself i always thought it would be weird to get a job later that doesn't follow the school-rhythm (and i still dread that!). i just never knew it any other way...

lovely overgrown flowery streetlight

T settled back into kindergarten very well. the group got a new teacher at the beginning of term and he has adjusted to her i think... he's good at that. he's so open minded and takes change rather well. i also did prepare him very gently during the last couple of days before start of term - that may have helped too... she is rather young and seems to be a very kind, competent, friendly sort of woman. i'm glad - i have to admit: i was a little worried since i liked his former teacher very much...

R is getting so big and she's so grown up already... she's so mischievous and funny... very generous with her hugs and kisses (at least with me)... she plays with cars and trains as well as T does and she plays cooking and setting the table as well as T does... she's very much into doing what T does anyway - which also means that when he happens to be mean to her she will retaliate. maybe not immediately but eventually...

cute brown mouse eating birdfood in my mum's shed

they both love listening to stories by Reinhard Lakomy at the moment. the stories have lots of songs in them and they are whimsical, funny, unusual and totally different. i used to love them when i was little - and i still do now. even almost 20 years later i can still sing along most of the songs. we switch between Der Traumzauberbaum and Schlapps und Schlumbo for now. there are many more but i think it's best to wait until the kids are done with these before we start the next one... R even has a special word for each of them so she can voice her requests: "mauwau" and "mamu/mabu" respectively.

happy husband is playing his birthday present

my creativity has been challenging lately... sometimes the muse just kisses me and i can come up with things just like that and i work my way through a frenzy of productivity. and some (most of the) times it drags on like spit out gum that's been heated up nicely on hot concrete and someone stepped right into it...

recently i just didn't know what it was going to be:

• i love papercrafts and making books and journals. no question about that but i tend to get stuck with whatever paper i'm working on very quickly these days.
  
• i felt like sewing a little more again (but nothing close to the sewing obsession i had a couple of years ago when i thought i wanted to make a living of sewing purses and handbags) - i made myself a light summer shirt and a kind of wannabe-medieval shirt for T which he wore last weekend when we were at the big annual medieval-festival in Eggenburg.
• now that summer's pretty much over and we are heading for autumn i felt this natural urge to pick up knitting socks again. this urge has set in every september since i learnt how to knit socks five years ago - it seems to be something of a nesting-thing: it starts to get colder (even if it doesn't really just yet) and i want to make sure my feet stay warm. why the drawer full of socks in my wardrobe doesn't suffice i don't know.
• there is the ongoing crochetblanket (which i haven't talked about on the blog but will soon) which i started around easter 2014 and then had to set aside and eventually pack up for a while because i couldn't get to it and the box of yarn was in the way. i pulled it out again this summer and continued working on it.

for some reason i don't seem to be able to knit in summer while crocheting totally works. i made a circle cardigan (which i will show soon as well) and then went on to the african-flower crochet hippo - which is done and absolutely adorable and i want to make more of them.

this is Mrs. Penstemmon

so what's it gonna be? books and journals? cards? (i forgot to take pics of the birthday card i made for my sister-in-law and i've totally stopped art journaling for now even though i absolutely and totally needed my own Dylusions Crative Journal and wanted to participate in several year-long art journaling challenges about a year ago. socks? crochet and fabric soft toys? blankets? i would really like to knit myself an autumn coat - a nice and thick one...i need about ten more pairs of arms - and all strechable like Kamaji's in Spirited Away.

i gave her a heart of course

and all that next to running a house and a family - but that's not optional. (not that i would want it to be.)

and she has the best butt

well... all of that indecision will be over when my new spinning wheel will be delivered in about a week or two... not that i need another expensive hobby... =)

nothing in particular...

wow! i haven't written a post in over two months! how did that happen...? well - i don't really know exactly why or how... we have been busy with life i guess and i have not yet gotten into the habit of blogging enough to make it a part of my life i suppose... also i didn't really feel like it anyway and as it is my blog i figured i could keep that any way i wanted... 

i worked on pages for two "deconstructed art journal" page swaps i was in... (i'm a member of the facebook-group "deconstructed art journaling" - one joins a swap-group of 5 people - with a theme or not - and creates 5 8"x8" pages (folded in half) accordingly to be sent out to the other 4 members of your group - one you keep for yourself. you get one page each in return to be bound into an artjournal any way you please. the main point of doing it that way is to keep the postage as low as possible since the format is made to fit a standard business envelope - there are art-swap-groups where entire books and journals are being sent around, which can get expensive.)

i was in a group with the theme "enchanted forest/garden" and made these:

the back has an extract from "the secret garden" written on it. the scene where mary calms colin after his big tantrum by telling him of all the wonders of the garden... i love that book...

the other group-swap i was in had the theme "peacocks" and also the challenge to give the page some sort of shaped edge. this is what i came up with:

i got beautiful pages in return which i might write about once i have bound them into books...

i made a journal two weeks ago. a little envelope journal that included the first 1st of using an envelope for the cover - i used a padded one which makes it a little poufy - as well as the second 1st of my first attempts at tea-dying paper, envelopes and doilies. i don't think i did it the best possible or most efficient way but i was fine with the results.

it has lots of pages in it, some tuck-spots and tags and paperclips. i intend to add more of everything and some stamping... i don't know what to do with it yet but i want to take it to a little local store i discovered recently that sells vintage (inspired) and shabby chic items and ask the owner if she would be at all interested in displaying my journals - this store might just have the right sort of customers...

i made a good-bye-card for T's kindergarten teacher. sadly she has been transferred somewhere else...

parents were lining up to say good-bye and thank-you and to give her flowers and chocolates... we all got a little emotional i think...

kindergarten is done for now until september and T's currently on a mini-vacation at my mother's - he loves it there and always tries to talk her into letting him stay even longer - which is sometimes possible and sometimes not. R misses her big brother though. she runs into his room first thing in the morning to look for him when he's not home... very cute...

this is what i'm currently working on. it's going to be a circle-cardigan.

this is the main circle almost finished and by now i'm working on the second sleeve - it's almost done! i'm very much looking forward to wearing it when it cools off a little - we have it crazy hot here at the moment with temperatures reaching 38°C... *phu* i also have not figured out how to block it yet as it is very big when laid out. i guess i will have to finish it really quickly and then try blocking it bit by bit. the "petals" need it most. i should take advantage of the hot weather while it lasts - it dries faster...

the pattern is by wollfactory by the way. you can select from 11 different beautiful colourways (i chose 4254 which was not easy). you get full instructions (in german) and the yarnpack including the colourful yarn and a huge cone of solid in a matching colour (which you can't choose) - in the above pic that's the red of the very outside round. in the sample pictures on the website you can see it in the very center and the round before the petals-round - just so you can get an idea of what's coming...

next on my to-do-list is this kid's artjournal for T and a traveljournal for my mother-in-law who's going on a trip to china in a couple of weeks... she brought a huge pile of old paperstuff for me to use in my art last week and there were even some chinese maps which i'm going to use...

well... i better get to work... =)

juggling

years ago my mum gave each of us - my siblings and me - a set of three beanbags each.

we were in that circus phase (especially my sisters and me) where we came up with little dance and acrobatics routines that involved skipping ropes and hoops and music which we then "performed" for our neighbours. (we were all good friends and relatives in the house of 5 apartments where i grew up.)

after years of use the beanbags ended up looking like this:

they turned really soft even though they used to be pretty firmly stuffed. the upper material got brittle and thin and is about to break.

i accidentally came across this tutorial when i was searching for crochet doll patterns - which she has too by the way. i saw it and instantly thought i have to try if these crochet baubles fit around my old broken bean bags. and they did!

i didn't have to change the size or number of stitches at all. i only skipped round 4 of the tutorial because i found i didn't quite like the look of it after i tried it on the green one. and i added another round of hdc (half double crochet) at the end of each hemisphere to make them meet so i could slip stitch them together.

i'm very pleased with them. they are much firmer again, much prettier to look at and also have a very nice texture. the kids love throwing and rolling them... i still have three more to do in pinks, blues and yellows i think...

 

yarn info: i use Schachenmayr smc Catania which is a cotton yarn and great for crafting and a 2.5mm crochet hook.