An Estonian girl who has found a home in Sweden.

Friday, August 5

Knitting Again

August 05, 2016 Posted by Vaire , ,

After Tour de Fleece I was feeling like knitting again. There has been a lot of spinning since I got my Hansen miniSpinner and not a lot of knitting. Unfortunately all the spinning during TdF aggravated the old RSI in my right wrist. I still spin, but I can do so little at a time, that it's not worth showing.

Knitting to the rescue! I can't not do something with my hands, so I cast on a couple of things. Only two because I already have a pair of gloves going on, and a KEME hat. They both need me to pay attention, and it is way too hot for that. I wanted something nice and mindless.

Project Bags

Now, before you can cast on a new project, you must make a project bag for it, right? No? That's just me?

Regardless. I wanted to make some more wedge bags and I found this fabulous owl fabric while I was in a fabric store looking for some cotton for bags. It is not cotton, it is upholstery fabric, which is perfect because it doesn't need any interfacing to make it stiff enough to stand up on its own.

Project Bag

On a previous shopping trip to a fabric store I'd found a grey owl fabric which is light enough for linings. It is a bit flimsy, though, so I could have used some light interfacing on it to make it less floppy. I bought a full metre of the black owl fabric and the grey owl remnant was quite large, so I'll get quite a few bags out of them.

Project Bag with Leftie II

The one with the red zipper is the noodlehead large size, but it won't fit a sweater project. It is a shawl size for me. Right now it contains 5 x 50 g balls for my Leftie II. I loved knitting and wearing the first one so much that I wanted another one that is black and red, and bigger.

Relax Sox

The other project bag is the right size for a sock project (noodlehead medium). Last winter I realised I do not have enough red socks, even though I had enough red yarn for several pairs of socks. I did cast on for a red pair in January, but the winter was over before they got finished. This time I am determined to knit a few red pairs before the winter starts.

This yarn is Regia Relax Color and is a recent acquisition. I wanted to try making socks on two circulars again, and naturally I had to check if the store had red sock yarn. Of course they did. I now have enough yarn for 7 pairs of red socks. 8 if I use the leftovers for a pair of scrappy socks. That ought to be enough pairs to satisfy my need for red socks.

While I was shopping I exercised some self control and bought only two balls of Regia, and one Zauberball. At one point I had a lot more yarn in my basket, but I decided that I did not want to knit plain socks in single colour. I want the yarn to be the interest, not the stitch pattern. I had originally bought the Zauberball for socks as well, but it is a singles yarn, and it probably won't last for very long as socks. So, I changed my plans and chose to make a Nurmilintu with it.

I have decided to always have one sock project going on in addition to other knitting/spinning/sewing/etc. projects. They are perfect for the time when the fingers are restless, but the brain is tired. I have my sock recipe memorised and it is simple enough to remember even through brain fog.

When I run out of the red yarn, or need a break from the red, I have other colours of socks to knit for other people. I also want to knit up some of my handspun that has been accumulating. There are lots of project ideas whizzing around in my brain. Some of those may even materialise as finished objects.