BROOKLYN TWEED

The most beautiful tweed yarn comes from Brooklyn Tweed!

Not only do they make a beautiful range of colours, they also have great designers putting together collections of contemporary, yet nostalgic design for them every season. 

Heidi

SPIDER'S WEB

A friend gave me this ball of yarn, but there was no label on it. I think it might be goat hair, as it is very stiff and tightly spun, a thin yarn of long, natural white and grey hairs. Since this ball has no matching partner, what is better than makin a narrow, open laced scarf to make the most out of it? So I am challenging myself with the Starlight lace, which can be found in this book by Barbara Walker. The book is number two out of four books presenting a great collection of lace, cables and other techniques. Very useful if you make your own design, or just want to learn more about knitting.

Although I don't hate knitting lace, I don't love it either.. I can't watch the tellie or be social while doing it! Instead I have to keep my nose down into a book and at all times keep track on which row I'm on, phew! Some laces are easy, especially when they only require two varying rows. But many laces have more than 10 rows of different technique, which makes me stay as far away from them as possible! Wish me luck on this one...

The stiffness of this yarn makes a very interesting effect, it could probably look like a spiders web in a more open pattern. I look forward to finish, block, and maybe even steam iron it to make it nice and flat. Cross fingers for great amounts of patience the next few days!

Heidi

LEFTOVER PROJECTS

After a few moves I have a pretty big collection of leftover yarn. Finally I took them out of the bags and put them up in my shelf. To be able to use it up, I try to find some good projects for them all!

I often buy single skeins of yarns to test it out with different techniques. And because I prefer certain types of yarn, I seem to end up with a few skeins of the same type and brand, in a variety of colours. The yarn I have used in this project is a 2-ply 100% wool yarn that can be used for felting. But it works fine in normal knit as well, as long as it is washed carefully. It comes in a range of beautiful and rich colours.

Making these patches is a great tv-watching project! Put them in a project basket until you feel you have enough to make a blanket. It's never too late to add a few patches anyway!
This project works fine with many types of yarn and needle size, but here is some info on the yarn and technique I've used:

Crochet needle size: 4 (European)
Yarn: PT2 from Norwegian producer Rauma ull
Method: double stitch (instructions can be found here)

Start with making a loop of about 5 or 6 single stitches, and make your way around the loop with double stitch.Increase every other mask to create a flat patch. Do more or less increases as you go to make sure the patch doesn't curl up. It depends on how tight you crochet as well.

So, as you can see, my blanket is far from finished... I will have to fasten threads and put it all together, and come back to you when I'm done!

ROMPER SUIT

This little suit looks like a cowboy's underwear! With garter stitch I knitted raglan from neck and down, measuring against another baby suit as I went on.     I divided the stitches in two for legs and cast off a few stitches between them.   In the end I knitted a piece of soft baby alpaca at the end of each sleeve, and made a nice edging with a crochet needle for the buttons. This yarn is quite rough on anyones skin, but since the little cowboy will wear something under anyway, I don't think it matters. Must admit I'm a bit jealous on cold days! 

Heidi