I am still here, I promise! The last few months have been totally hectic for me, and it won’t slow down any time soon. I’ve moved from Germany to spend a month in London, and subsequently to the Netherlands for the next 2 semesters… Although, I also have tickets booked home to my lovely New Zealand for Christmas. In all of these places, I have managed to pick up some “souvenir” stash, most of which I am currently knitting up. I was putting of starting too many projects, but somehow in the last two weeks, I have cast on two more projects. Whatever! Variety is the spice of life. Here are my stash favourites at the moment:
This lovely number is Juno Fibre Arts Alice Lace, which I bought in London at the wonderful wonderful yarn shop Loop. If you ever get to London, definitely go and visit this yarn shop – and don’t miss the fact that they have two stories! The yarn is a gorgeous blend of alpaca, silk and cashmere, and just feels like butter through my fingers. It is becoming another version of the Echo Flower Shawl (Ravelry). This is a gorgeous and free (!) pattern, which I have already knitted once for my Mum. I am not usually one to knit a pattern more than once, but there is something strangely calming knitting this one, with its distinctive stitch pattern (3 into 9s!), in a different place, in a different season, in a different yarn…
These balls of Baby Alpaca, from a large craft shop in Hamburg are becoming a pair of soft silky (alpacary?) Strong Heart Mittens (Ravelry). I wasn’t originally going to buy this yarn, but it was so gorgeous that I kept going back to it over and over in the shop! The colour is a deep turquoise, quite a dark colour, but somehow it just glows. I knitted one mitten within two days, and I loooooove it. I keep putting it on and looking at it. I will knit the next one in the coming days and take some pictures. It was very very cold the other day here in the Netherlands, but it has inexplicably warmed up again. However with all this bike riding, even relatively warm temperatures feel chilly on my little hands, so I am so looking forward to having these mittens on them! I’m so thankful to talented people who share their creations!
Last but not least, because one should always have a pair of socks on the needles, these balls of Regia Sock Yarn are very very slowly becoming Starlock Socks (Ravelry). I actually started these socks 3 or 4 times, a combination of changing my mind about the pattern (originally I started to knit the Elementary Watson sock pattern, but I didn’t like the purled flying geese). It also took a while to get going because I am knitting them from the toe up rather than top down like the pattern. Nothing like a bit of a challenge, huh?
So, that’s what’s going on with my needles. Lots of knitting, not much finishing!
Wool and Spoons 