Saturday, February 14, 2009

New Obsession

I found myself addicted to something new. It's purposely felting nice knitted items in a hot bath in my washing machine to the point that they are way smaller than before and you won't be able to see a single one of the stitches anymore, that I worked so hard on. It started all with the nice felted mittens I saw at Marmee's and Ashley's shop. So I made these mittens for my dad.



Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the finished felted project, but the braids almost disappeared. But despite that little mishap they fit nicely and are super warm.

They I got bitten by the bug and started making Bev Galeska's felted clogs. This is pair # 1.


And then came another...



.... and another...



... and another one is in the making and unless I burn out on the pattern, there are a couple more to come.

I'm also working on a baby blanket for a friend that is having a boy next month.



Its the Alpaca Baby Shawl from Mary Grace Designs. It's pretty easy and straight forward pattern that can be easily knitted while watching your favorite TV show. The only thing I didn't think about was how many stitches I end up with on my cable and now it's too short. So while I'm waiting for my new cable and the new needletips to arrive, I guess I'll knit up another pair of those slippers. :D

posted by Angelika @ 12:13 PM 9 comments

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

So here I was ...

... thinking the power outage was done and over with and a couple of hours later the power went out AGAIN and this time it didn't come on for two whole days!! It was due to the ice storm that Kentucky and Indiana and maybe even other parts had to deal with. I couldn't really tell you, since we were only able to listen to the radion in those two days to keep up with what was going on locally. It was crazy. People stood in the local Walmart foyer charging their cell phones, batteries, kerosin, candles foods that don't require cooling and heating were wiped off the shelves and even chain saws were a hot item, to cut the trees and branches that broke off from the extra weight of the frozen rain. Even the proudest looking tree ended up looking like a weeping willow.



It took another whole day for the cable and internet to come back. It sure makes you realize how much we depend on electricity these days. Thank god for a hobby that doesn't require batteries.

I kept myself busy with this.
I took this picture outside to show off the colors better, but they are not THAT bright in rality. The pattern in the Nordic Mittens from IK Winter 2004. I used Knit Picks Essential Sockyarn in black and Regia Canadian Color. With the size 1 (2.25mm) KP Harmony needles they got a little tight, since the original pattern calls for sport weight yarn, but I'm sure they'll stretch out enough. After I show them to our local knitting group tomorrow night, they will go off to my younger son's teacher as a late birthday present.
The felted mittens, the dark blue ones, are currently on their way to Germany to my dad, together with the cardigan I made for him. The felting itself turned out great. The mittens are thick an probably pretty water resistent, but unfortunately the cables disappeared almost completely. It was almost a waste of time to even put them in there, but we'll just write that off as a learning experience. I forgot to take a picture of the finished mittens, before I put them in the box.
Yesterday I cast on for some felted slippers. My husband actually "ordered" those and how can I say no to that. I still have some Lopi Lite left over from my first fair isle sweater (yes, it's still hibernating and the "beard" is still not woven in). That should make for some nice multi colored slippers for me. I might try the ballet version from the book for myself.

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posted by Angelika @ 7:34 PM 5 comments