Could knitting get any better than this?

OK, those could be palm trees and that could be the Pacific Ocean, but you get the idea…

While spending the Midsummer weekend at our country house, in between all the sunbathing, reading, eating and sleeping, I got some knitting done as well.

Pattern: Roza’s Socks, Interweave Knits spring 2007
Designer: Grumperina
Yarn: Colinette JitterBug Mist, about 40 g
Needles: 3 mm bamboo circular & 3 mm rosewood glove dpns

This was a very enjoyable pattern to knit - the brioche stitch, however simple, was really relaxing and I like the way it adds just a little something to the regular rib. I knitted my socks about 2/3 of the original pattern to get the right size. With 42 stitches the fit is nice and relaxed. This time the resizing was not a problem, but I had to modify the pattern quite a bit to get the stripes to go the way I wanted. I also modified quite radically around the heel, foot and gusset decreases because I thought the original design looked a bit odd there. I actually had to knit the first sock about five times between the leg and the toe before I got it to look the way I liked. (Yes, each time I was almost at the toe before I forced myself to pause, try the sock on and see what it looked like, so I only have myself to blame. That pattern was just too much fun to knit!)

…such as knitting cobweb yarn. Or knitting lace. Or knitting a stole. Or participating in a knit-a-long.

Or, say, participating in a lace stole knit-a-long. Which is what I’ve done. Yep, joined Mystery Stole 3. Honestly, I’m the easiest person to talk into things.

I’m not sure whether this will be something I’ll ever wear, but I’m in it for the surprise and I also want to take this as a learning experience. Luckily, black was one of the recommended colours and as I happened to have 1,400 metres of ultra thin black merino yarn, I was all set to go.

Yarn: TitanWool Merinos Extra, black
Needles: Addi 3 mm bamboo circs

However, I’m not sure whether this will be my MS3 yarn after all. Knitting the test swatch was a real pain. That yarn is thin, and I mean really thin. The pattern wasn’t difficult, but it’s quite tricky to try to see the stitches, especially as they’re small and pitch black and tend to slip off the needles as soon as you look the other way. Plus I pushed my needles through the strands several times although I was using blunt bamboo circs because I was flying again. I’m going to knit the actual thing with my new Addi Laces if the size is right.

The swatch looks better after blocking, but I’m still not sure I like the way it looks or feels. What finally made me decide to knit a lace stole was when I was told that it would be light, yet warm, and handy to keep at the office as protection against the air conditioning. Those were the magic words - I’m always cold at work and now that the summer has begun and I’m not wearing any of my regular scarves anymore, I sometimes sit at work with my overcoat on, warming my fingers around a hot cup of tea, and get very, very odd looks from the rest of the crew who walk in sandals and t-shirts and complain about the “heat”.

Anyway, what I’m saying is that since this yarn is so thin, I’m not sure whether it will serve the purpose. I might still change it into something a bit thicker. I’ll leave it for now, anyway, and go and enjoy the long Midsummer weekend.

Happy Midsummer everyone, hyvää juhannusta kaikille!

My stash had already grown to somewhat substantial measures, at least by my standards, but as if it wasn’t enough, I spent a sunny Saturday yarn shopping in Tallinn, Estonia, with Marjut and Niina. We took the morning ferry in, rushed from one yarn store to another, had dinner, stopped by one more yarn store and took the evening ferry back.

Our first stop was Karnaluks, also known as Addi heaven - a wholesale store with an amazing amount of yarn and a wall full of Addi needles.

Happy shoppers in Tallinn.

Since I parted ways with the lovely Options needle set that was more or less supposed to satisfy my needle needs for the rest of my life, there just seems to be no end to my needle stashing. I basically went to Karnaluks to buy one 2.5 mm bamboo circular, but they didn’t have any. Somehow I ended up with 6 other circulars that I didn’t really need, at least not that badly. I’ve been admiring the needle rolls many knitters have, thinking I should try to make one for myself, but at this rate it seems a sleeping bag would be more appropriate to hold all my needles.

I also got two balls of regular Fortissima sock yarn and a whole lot of stuff I didn’t really need, such as wooden buttons, although I have no intentions whatsoever of knitting a cardigan. But they were cheap and they were there, and if I ever should feel like knitting a cardigan, I’ll already have some nice wooden buttons. How’s that for reasoning?

At the next store our attention was focused on huge hanks of TitanWool 100% laceweight merino wool. I was on a mission to buy some for Villasatu, but couldn’t help fondling the yarns even after we’d chosen the colours for her. It was so lovely that at first glance I thought the label read “irresistible” although it in fact read “irrestringible”…

Those of you who have been reading this blog know I’ve never knitted a lace shawl, and those of you who know me in person could probably never imagine me wearing a lace shawl. I’ve admired them on many blogs and think they look beautiful, but they’re not my style at all. So what do I do? Buy a hank of laceweight merino wool for a lace shawl. That I’m going to knit. I think.

Got a black one, the only imaginable colour for a lace shawl for me. Only somehow, when I was already at the counter, I found myself running back to get another one. And then another. In the end I left the store with four merino hanks.

The second one from the left is a very dark chocolate brown, and the one on the right is the black one.

Honestly I don’t know how that happened, and as we left the store I was already starting to regret my lapse. I’m not a lace knitter - what the hell will I do with all this laceweight yarn? I was quickly reminded of my stash philosophy and the undying words “stash is a security blanket”. Yeah, right. My blanket will soon be big enough to cover the entire Olympic stadium.

I also got three balls of thicker TitanWool merino. The colours just looked so good together. The SO is going to get a new winter scarf.

After this we went to several stores where I didn’t buy anything, but the last store sold thick Estonian wool and I completely lost my self control. You’ll never believe it, but I got this:

Yep, it’s totally Technicolor! I would never even have dreamed of buying anything that gaudy had Niina not shown me this. We figured this yarn would suit the pattern - it certainly is very rainbowish. I prefer sweaters over cardis and am not crazy about the box-like shape either, but I’ll see if I can modify the pattern a bit. I love the use of colour in that pattern and find the idea of faux fair isle very appealing.

The shop was full of fantastic colour combinations and I couldn’t resist buying some more.

The one on the left has fantastic autumn colours, and the one on the right has different shades of red, my favourite colour. These will make sweaters and/or scarves.

The situation may not seem that bad in the pictures, but there’s yarn everywhere now and all that wool was heavy to carry. The Estonian wool hanks are humongous, about 300 g each, and I can tell you I was embarrassed to walk around with my bursting plastic bags. The others were wiser and brought backpacks; the amateur went shopping with a small handbag and had to carry everything in huge plastic bags.

Us knitters know that yarn is an addictive substance just like alcohol and tobacco, but thank god there are no import restrictions on yarn - I would totally have been busted at the customs.

Let’s keep it a secret, shall we? I’m up for a new yarn shopping trip to Tallinn any time.

Someone went a little ga-ga on eBay.

Now all I need is some more circulars and I should be done… for a while.

And while I was at it, I got myself a couple of crochet hooks as well…

…because a girl can never know when she feels the urge to learn to crochet.

BTW, something quite weird has happened. I’ve found out that the people at the post office know me. I don’t have to show my ID when picking up a parcel, and last time they even rang me at work to say my goodies had arrived so I could go and pick them up on my way home, without having to go home to fetch the package slip first. They had even set my package aside for me under the counter. Now that’s what I call good service!

What’s weird about this is that we’re not talking about any old village post office where everyone knows everyone but one in central Helsinki. And it’s not like I go there every day, either. I’ve only been there to pick up the latest additions to my stash, and I haven’t ordered that much yarn, have I?

Be that as it may, I have been doing some knitting as well. The JitterBug Mist that I was a bit disappointed in and was actually thinking of selling started to whisper in my ear from the bottom of the stash bag. She was saying that instead of a scarf & gloves she could be a nice pair of socks. I toyed with the idea for a while and decided to give it a go. And she is lovely! Like her brother Jay, she’s a true pleasure to knit, and it turns out she has some surprises up her sleeve as well. You never know which colour she’ll whip up next: pearl grey, steel, dark purple, mauve, pale pink, magenta, boysenberry…

Here are some sneak peeks:

These just may become my favourite socks.

First, the yarn shipment has arrived. It got here earlier this week just in time for the monthly knitting meeting where the new owner of the Options set was already waiting for her new toys, so I rushed from work to the post office and from there to the meeting. The parcel contained replacement bamboo circulars for the project the Options were in, so I got to open the parcel in front of all the knitters, replaced the needles, handed over the Options set, and everybody got to fondle the new yarn.

This is what I got:

Louisa Harding Grace, 50% silk and 50% merino wool, shade 4. Lovely, soft, silky, shiny. For a scarf and possibly gloves, if it’s not too thick.

Trekking Pro Natura, shade 1603. Socks for the SO, finally. It took a long time to find a good colourway for him, and I believe this is just right.

And finally, you guessed it, two hanks of JitterBug. These are Velvet Damson and Velvet Plum. I’m a total sucker for this yarn - I can’t help it. I also seem to be getting quite a reputation already. People at the KIP picnic yesterday were saying that I should get a yarn winder because I buy so much JitterBug!

I also got some needles:

While I like bamboo and wooden needles, I’m also going to try the new metallic Addi Lace circulars, which contain no nickel and are apparently as sharp as the Options, which I liked a great deal.

With the new bamboo circulars, I got the scarf going again and finished it yesterday, after a long, sunny day of KIPing and picnicing in a park. Thank you all who were there, it was a lot of fun!

Pattern: Here and There Cables Scarf
Designer: Norah Gaughan, Scarf Style
Yarn: Knit Picks Andean Silk, Hollyberry, 7 balls
Needles: Knit Picks Options 4.5 mm circular & Clover Takumi 4.5 mm bamboo circular

The finished scarf is lovely, thick, chunky, and very warm. I’ve mentioned this before, but I’ll say it again: the pattern is ingenious. It’s extremely simple, yet results in an intricate jungle of cables that go every which way but are also symmetrical. And what’s best, there is no “wrong” side. The scarf looks exactly the same on both sides!

I love my new Knit Picks Options circulars. They’re smooth, they’re light, they glide like a dream and hardly make any noise at all. The needles warm up in seconds, and the cables are awesome. I’ve mostly knitted with bamboo and rosewood single and double pointed needles so far and used circulars only for half of my first project. I love natural materials and never saw myself as a circular knitter, let alone a metallic circular knitter, but the Options set opened my eyes.

So where’s the tragedy? I’m allergic to them. I only have myself to blame; I knew the needles were nickel-plated, but the set looked too good. I also figured that there wouldn’t be that much skin contact because the stitches come in between most of the time, but apparently there is enough to make the needles burn my hands. I’ve tried band-aids, silk gloves, and finally fingerless woollen gloves, but the time has come to face the truth.

Our journey together must end.

I was going to post a for sale ad here, but I only had to mention my thoughts to a knitting friend and the word got around. So in case you were interested, I’m sorry to say I already have a buyer. The only thing is, I don’t have alternative needles for my current project, so I’ll have to wait for the postman before I can free the Options needles. But, after much browsing of the Internet, help is on the way. (And a bit of yarn as well.)

You may recognise my current project as the Here and There Cables Scarf from Scarf Style. It’s incredible how such a short and simple pattern can produce such an ingenious design. Despite the easiness, it’s progressing slowly because I’ve only been able to knit about 15 minutes at a time before the burning gets too intense. I’ve also been on two business trips this week and you know how fussy airline companies are about sharp, metallic objects… That and the nickel plating are the only drawbacks I can think of with the Options needles.

So, as you may guess, I’ve ordered a lot of bamboo this weekend. I’m also going to try Addi Lace circulars, which are resin-coated brass and should be nickel-free.

What a pain. I wish they’d just ban nickel altogether.