Showing posts with label Wollmeise. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wollmeise. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

FO, FO, SO

I finished my Angee socks, finally. This is a fun pattern, quick and easy. There were apparently a couple of mistakes in the pattern that I didn't know about, but they were minor, not really affecting the overall look of the pattern. Here they are, in different views:



I like these socks. They're nice and warm and cushy. Specs: Pattern: Angee from Sock Innovation, by Cookie A. Yarn: Wollmeise Twin, Herzblut. Needles, 2.25 mm. Modifications: none.

Next up was, as discussed in my last post, Kieler Sprotte from Socken Aus Aller Welt, by Stephanie van der Linden. After all the navel gazing and stash rearranging evidenced in my last two blog posts, I settled on three Wollmeise colors: Ebenholz (an ebony brown), Terra de Siena (a deep red/orange), and Honigtopfchen (honey pot). I decided to use three colors after seeing a black/teal/chartreuse combo and really liking it. The problem was that I loved the yarns too much to use them yet. I only have one each of the teal and the chartreuse, and I wasn't emotionally ready to use them yet. I know. I'm strange, but I know there are other people out there like me.

I rejiggered the pattern a little to accommodate using the extra color, and this is what I came up with :


Here it is with the flash:


I like the concept, but not the reality. As I said on Ravelry, it's That '70s Sock. It feels great, and I know I would love to wear them, but the color combo just isn't working for me, so it became a F(rogged) Object.

After that, I delved into the stash again and pulled out the following two yarns:


Wollmeise Twin in Schwarz (black) and Sundara sock yarn in Viola. The Sundara is really a much deeper violet than the picture suggests. I can't get my camera to register the deep purples at all. I've cast on, but I'm still on the all black cuff, so there's nothing interesting to show. Since I'm only using two colors, I'm going to stick to the original pattern. Someday I'll go back to my variation, just with different colors.

I'm tempted to write about politics, particularly the Specter situation, but I have a lot to do around here.

Coming soon -- pretty yarn pictures!

Coming after that -- Maryland Sheep and Wool!

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Yarny Incidents, Good and Bad

You take the good, you take the bad....

We'll start with the bad. There was a bit of a kitty incident with the yarn for the Alpine Frost scarf. I guess that the cat wanted to bring it to me, because while the scarf itself was on the couch, the yarn was across the room. This is, in itself, not a bad thing, except that the cat somehow managed to screw up the ball of yarn so that it was now in two separate but attached sections. I tried to crochet through it, but the yarn was not flowing easily, and I could tell more difficult times lie ahead. So I attempted to rewind the yarn into a single ball. Ugh. The yarn is a pretty hairy, loosely spun singles yarn. It likes to stick to itself. I ended up with a snarl. After desnarling, the yarn had weakened in a couple of spots and it broke. I hate the idea of having to weave in more than two ends (for the cast on and cast off) in a simple scarf, but that looks like what I'm going to have to do. This is my first crochet project, too, so I'm not an expert in weaving in yarns in this arena. It is a learning process, after all. Here's what I've got:

And the longer view, so you can see how much I've done along with my little balls of yarn:

It's a grey day today. I'm having a hard time with pictures. It's light enough that the flash doesn't come on, but dark enough that pictures don't look very good. I'm too lazy, it being a Sunday and the clocks springing (more like trudging) forward, to haul out lights and create ideal photographic conditions, so this is what you get.

I've been working mostly on my knee socks, because they're a nice, mindless stockinette, which makes it easy to knit and stalk Wollmeise at the same time.


They're pretty funky looking, especially where the calf increases start messing up the color pattern, but they are so comfortable. Too bad sock wearing season is almost over!

On to our good yarny incidents. Yesterday, the second Sundara Sock Club shipment arrived, with beautiful colors to cheer me up:

On the left is crushed cherries, a deep, rich tonal combo of reds; in the middle is sour apple; on the left is viola, violets, of course. On the left, peeking into the frame, a kitty paw. Here's another photo, from farther away, but slightly better light:


Pretty.

The final good yarny incidents come to us courtesy of Wollmeise. My dentist turns out to be my lucky charm -- this is the second time in a row that Wollmeise updates have not only come on days I have appointments, but I've also managed to score a bunch. In Thursday's big update I got some Herzblut, some Rosenrot, Single Malt, Farn, Amazonas, Honigtopfchen, and Poison No. 5. There will be some great sock knitting with those (plus, I think there might be a sweater in there, too.)

But wait! There's more! as Billy Mays and his ilk might say. After the big Thursday update, there was a smaller "easter egg hunt" on Friday, in which individual colors are put up and you have to hunt around for things. None of what was put up on Friday was on any of my wishlists, so I passed. I was good. All that was left on my wishlist was lace, and a few more sock colors, mainly in the blue range, with a few others thrown in.

After the easter egg hunt, someone asked Claudia if she was all done for the week, and her response was "no comment." Hmmm. After two days of sock updates, what more could there be? Lace, I was hoping.

Saturday morning, there it was. Some new lace! Remember the Sundig und Verrucht sock yarn I got last time, the dramatic black and violet? That was one of her new lace yarns. I snagged two, one in the medium, and one in dark. There were a few other new and old lace colors up, but none of them were on my wishlist. She also put up a couple of new sock colors, a semi-solid fuschia and a navy, both of which I passed on. At this point, I can afford to pass them up, plus, I'm limiting myself to specific colors that I want.

So wait for some lovely yarn pron pictures in about two to two and half weeks.