Friday Eye Candy - Free Form Crochet

I saw a few free form crochet/knitting items on ravelry, which I found very intriguing and wanted to know more about it. Here are some of the interesting sites I found:

Free Form Crochet - handouts

Prudence Mapstone

Book Review - Mapstone's book

Gallery of free form items

Tea cozy

Remember the tea cozy kit I bought at Ally Pally? It was my last FO in 2007, finished a few minutes prior to midnight! It was a quick knit, although I added the first pattern after the main pattern to make the cozy longer. There was also more than enough yarn in the kit.

I love the pattern, and the color and how it greets me every morning.

Bye the way, this is a very good Fair Isle beginner's project.

Erinnert Ihr euch noch an die Strickpackung für einen Teekannenwärmer, den ich mir in London gekauft habe? Nun kurz vor Sylvester habe ich endlich damit begonnen und den "cozy" wenige Minuten vor Mitternacht fertig gestellt.

Die Packung enthielt mehr als genug Wolle, obwohl ich den ersten Musterrapport nochmal nach dem Hauptmuster hinzugefügt habe, da meine Kanne höher ist, als die in der Anleitung angegebene.

Die Farben gefallen mir sehr gut und nun bereitet das Tee trinken noch mehr Vergnügen.

So ein "tea cozy" ist ein exzellentes Projekt für Anfänger des Fair Isles strickens.

Persian Tiles

The Persian Tiles stole from A Collector's Item by Jade Starmore is one of my favourite patterns (yes, the one I knit for myself can be seen as background to this blog's headline) and when it came to decide what to knit for my Secret Pal Cristiana, both yarn and pattern cried out to me to make a Persian Tiles for her.

So here it is. An autumnal brown-orange-red Persian Tiles knit on the machine. It is very different from my own not only because of the color, but also because of the length and thickness - or rather thinness, as I made it thinner then mine. My own is a bit too short for its own heaviness, but one learns with each and every piece, doesn't one?

Die Persian Tiles Stola aus A Collector's Item von Jade Starmore ist eines meiner Lieblingsmuster (wie man an der Kopfzeile dieses blogs sieht) und als ich nach einem Muster für Cristianas Secret Pal Geschenk suchte, da verlangte die Wolle, dass ich sie in einen Persian Tiles verarbeite.

In diesem braun-rot-orange ist es ein ganz herbstliche Stola geworden, die sich von meiner eigenen nicht nur durch die Farben wesentlich unterscheidet, sondern auch in der Länge und Dicke des Gestricks. Meine eigene ist für ihre Dicke etwas zu kurz geraten und fällt daher nicht so gut. Man lernt mit jedem Stück, gell? Ach ja, diese Stola ist zur Abwechslung mal auf der Strickmaschine entstanden.

Nachtrag:

Vielen Dank für all die lieben Kommentare.

Winni hat gefragt, ob das gute Stück auch gefüttert ist. Leider nein, da ich derzeit über keine wirklich funktionstüchtige Nähmaschine verfüge. Was das für Wolle ist, kann ich schwer sagen. Es handelt sich um Konenwolle, ein einheitliches braun, vermutlich Schurwolle, da nicht so weich wie Merino. Das Rot-orange ist eine Mischung (meine eigene Designerwolle;-)) aus rotem Merino und orangfarbenem Mohair, ebenfalls von der Kone. Leider steht auf den Konen nie drauf, aus was sich das Garn zusammensetzt...

Friday Eye Candy

I have found a couple of new blogs lately and here are three more. They are not necessarily knit-related. In fact, most of them are about fabrics and sewing, but I enjoy the pics and posts:

whipup (sroll down and you'll find the most amazing rain coat)
hopskipjump
weewonderfuls

In der letzten Zeit bin ich auf ein paar neue (für mich neue) blogs gestoßen. Hier sind wieder 3 links. Diese blogs sind selten Strickblogs. Im Gegenteil häufig geht es ums Nähen, aber ich mag die Fotos und die Einträge:

whipup (sroll down and you'll find the most amazing rain coat)
hopskipjump
weewonderfuls

January

Last day of the month - time for an evaluation. What have I accomplished this month?

Here is the list of WiPs I started the month with:

1. Juno Regina
2. Mystery Stole
3. Lacy Waves Top
4. Bloomsbury scarf
5. Kells
6. Crochet cardigan
7. Starmore afghan
8. Diamond upon Diamond
9. Mondnacht stole

And here is what I finished this month:

1. Lyra cardigan (new project this month)
2. Mystery Stole
3. Lacy Waves Top
4. Bloomsbury scarf
5. Green sweater for my son (new project this month)
6. Twisted Stitch Gauntlets for myself (new project this month).

Altogether approx. 1350 g of yarn - 1150 g from my stash!

I made progress on these projects:

1. Juno Regina
6. Crochet cardigan

I did not work on these items, although I had planned to:

Starmore Afghan

New projects this month:

1. Cashmere sweater for my son
2. Alpaca sweater for my son

Thus, I'll start February with 8 WiPs. I plan to work on/finish the following:

Kells, Diamond upon Diamond , Crochet cardigan/Cashmere and Alpaca sweater, Starmore Afghan, Juno Regina.

What else happened knitwise? I broke 3 bamboo knitting needles and one plastic crochet hook!!! Two of them this week.


Der Januar geht zu Ende und ich nutze den Tag, um eine erste Bilanz zu ziehen.

Das neue Jahr begann mit diesen WiPs:

1. Juno Regina
2. Mystery Stole
3. Lacy Waves Top
4. Bloomsbury scarf
5. Kells
6. Häkeljacke
7. Starmore afghan
8. Diamond upon Diamond
9. Mondnacht

Fertiggestellt habe ich:

1. Lyra cardigan (neu)
2. Mystery Stole
3. Lacy Waves Top
4. Bloomsbury scarf
5. Green sweater for my son (neu)
6. Twitsted Stitch Gauntlets (neu)

Insgesamt habe ich ca. 1350 g Wolle verarbeitet, davon 1150 g aus meinem Vorrat!

Fortschritte haben diese Wips gemacht:
1. Juno Regina
6. Häkeljacke

Obwohl ich es mir vorgenommen hatte, habe ich dann doch nicht an meinem Starmore Afghan gearbeitet.

Neu hinzukamen:

1. Cashmere Pulli für meinen Sohn
2. Alpacapulli für meinen Sohn

(Ja, er braucht dringend neue Pullis)

Ich beginne den Februar also mit 8 WiPs (immerhin eines weniger als den Januar) und plane an folgenden zu arbeiten/sie fertig zu stellen:

Kells, Diamond upon Diamond , Häkeljacke/Cashmere and Alpaca Pulli, Starmore Afghan, Juno Regina.

Was ist sonst noch passiert? Ich habe 3 Bambusnadeln zerbrochen und einen Plastikhäkelhaken, 2 davon allein diese Woche...

Anne Enright, The Gathering

I have just recently finished this novel, which won the Man Booker prize 2007.

The narrator Victoria is one of 12 children and 7 miscarriages in an Irish family. Her brother Liam to whom she has been very close has just committed suicide at the age of 40. The tale alternates between various settings in time. It starts off in the 1920s and an imagined love-triangle. As it turns out later, the people involved are Victoria’s grandparents and their later landlord and friend Nugent. The second story line basically tries to retell what happend when Victoria was eight and her brother Liam was nine and their developments into adulthood. The third story line outlines Victoria’s life since Liam’s death, but even here events are not told chronologically, only what happened after the wake is in chronological order.

The narration navigates towards the revelation that Liam has been sexually abused as a child and Victoria witnessed it (or maybe was a victim herself? She cannot say for sure, 31 years later, nor were it happened and how often). This doesn't come as a surprise in the narration. In fact, the cover text gives it away before you even start reading.

The narrator is no great help, in fact, she repeatedly tells the reader that she has been drinking at least a bottle of wine every night since the wake, that she has not slept at night ever since the wake, that she is not sure what really happened and what she is just imagining, because she learnt to imagine a different/better world for herself at the sink in her grandmother’s house. So, the narrator doubts her own reliability.

I think, the novel transports these doubts , Victoria’s frustrations in her marriage and the consequences of the abuse for her very well and documents her process of becoming aware of what determines her own reactions (and obsession with and aversion of penises). After her brother’s death she gradually turns from her romantic imaginations (first half of the novel) towards what really happened and determined her life. As she says in the end, throughout those weeks she has been falling into her life.

The novel may seem confusing and there have been stories about child abuse, about women having too many kids and not being able to cope and about how families mame you. What the novel achieves is to transport Victoria's confusion. The consequences of her being a witness to the abuse of her brother for her own sexual life, her relationships with men.

I haven't ultimately made up my mind about this novel. It leaves the reader dissatisfied. The narrator is very occupied with herself, she "lacks" distance and true reflection. The reader is witness to her confusion and "sorting out" of her memories. The reader experiences the same daze as the narrator. The novel ends when she decides to tell her family about the abuse - to not spare them any longer, only maybe "Mummy". The reader is not told whether Victoria will really tell her brothers and sisters and whether that will result in any positive development for her. The novel leaves it very much open whether there is a real solution to Victoria's problems.
It is an interesting novel, but not a "must-read".

You'll find many reviews on the web. I found this discussion very interesting.

Der Duft von Lavendel

The show of FOs from 2007 draws towards its end…

Here are two Christmas presents, I haven’t shown you yet. The first is a long-sleeved Very Berry sweater I made for a friend’s daughter.It wasn’t difficult to rewrite the pattern for a long-sleeved version. I really enjoy knitting this pattern which I discovered again thanks to Ingrid!

And yes, I made a couple more of these lovely, fidgety lavender hearts. I find the result just adorable:

Langsam nähert sich die FO 2007 Show ihrem Ende...

Hier sind noch 2 Weihnachtsgeschenke, die ich bislang noch nicht gezeigt habe. Zum einen ein Pulli nach dem Very Berry T-shirt, nur mit langen Ärmeln. Ich stricke dieses Muster wirklich gern, dass ich ursprünglich nur ausprobierte, weil Ingrid ihrer Tochter eines gestrickt hatte und dieses meiner Tochter so gut gefiel.

Und ja, ich habe noch ein paar von diesen wunderschönen, fieseligen Lavendelherzen gemacht. Ich liebe den Effekt von handgefärbter Wolle und Patchworkstricken: