Tag Archives: kal

It’s all about the socks once again

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Hi there, how are you doing today? Fine I hope. For once it is a sunny day here in Normandy. We had begun thinking that spring was not actually going to come this summer but today it’s really sunny and nice so we are crossing our fingers the nice weather is here to stay.

Now I haven’t finished telling you all about my last travel and the yarn shops I visited. There is one shop left on my list, Yarn Cake in Glasgow Scotland and I’ll be telling you all about that one next week if all goes to plan. Today I thought I should tell you about my latest sock knitting as that is mostly what I’m knitting on these days.

A while back I told you that I had joined Sock Madness for the second time and that this time I was way to enthusiastic (fast) knitting on my qualifying socks and so was put into the fastest team! And boy are those ladies fast!

So as of round 2 I got disqualified. Not only because of speed but because I misunderstood the colorwork chart. I finished my socks in time and got the confirmation email that I was qualified for round 3 and then the next day I got a second email saying that I had misunderstood and thus knit the pattern wrong and so I was disqualified. Re-knitting both socks was not an option as my teammates are so quick so I forfeited. What a deception! I was so very sad and just generally angry with myself for being so stupid and actually knitting two whole socks without realizing my error! But what is done is done and colorwork (this year’s theme) is not my forté. So now I’m a cheerleader and as such I’m knitting the patterns along with my teammates but I no longer have the stress of finishing in the blink of an eye. I admit I was so disappointed at first that I thought about just forgetting all about Sock Madness but I got a lot of heartwarming encouragements from fellow knitters and so decided I had to keep going and I’m really happy I did.

So here is a picture of the pair that got me disqualified.

sock madness round 2

Instead of the pattern repeat being always the same like I did, it should have been like a mirror image. You may have seen pictures of these knit the correct way and they do look nicer than mine. Another issue I had with these, as these are stranded throughout, even though I used a bigger needle than the pattern called for, they still came out small and rather stiff. I clearly need to work on my tension when doing all over colorwork.

Then there was round 3 and I finished that pair within the 2 week period (most of my teammates finished in 2-4 days I think). I’m very happy with the end result and the colors I had chosen for this pattern. I was very careful this time around about my tension. I did use a bigger needle for the sock and the tension was much better this time.

 

Currently we are on round 4 and this time it’s not a colorwork pattern but a beaded sock. I really love this one and so far I have only done one repeat on sock one but I’m hoping I’ll be able to finish again within the two weeks. As a cheerleader I also have the luxury of not exactly following the pattern and I took advantage of that and instead of using two colors of beads as the pattern calls for, I’m only using one and I really like how that looks.

I’m knitting with my SPARKLES yarn and I really love how it is knitting up.

I have also subscribed to the New York Sock Club that Mina Philipp of the Knitting Expat is doing and she issues a pattern a month and so far I have kept up with those. Here is the pair from April, The Grand Central socks and I knit those using sock yarn from Knit Cosmic String in their Chai latte colorway.

I have only just cast on for the May sock, Union Square socks, and I’m knitting those in a self striping yarn from the Yarn Enabler.

I’m also doing a sock test knit for Dana Gervais and I really love this new pattern. I’m knitting it on my SPARKLES base and it is gorgeous even if I say so myself. The pattern has not been released yet but I’ll be sure to post pictures on IG when it is.

I was somewhat naughty and bought a ton of commercial sock yarn some time ago and when it arrived last week I of course had to cast on for a pair immediately. I cast on using a new to me yarn. It’s a cotton sock yarn from Regia and I knit a pair of shorty socks for my youngest. The pattern was just something I came up with and I really love the outcome and as spring and summer is getting closer I have this urge to knit shorty socks so I think you will be seeing more of those here.

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She doesn’t like her socks very short so I knit a longer cuff than I had expected but that’s ok. She has the option of rolling it down as I show on the second sock.

Phew that’s a lot of sock knitting! I was intending on finishing my Ramble shawl by Andrea Mowry before the Starting Point mystery kal by Joji begins this Friday. Only problem was that as I had put the shawl down for a while, once I picked it up again I was just off and yesterday I ended up ripping back the brioche section. I had done just over one repeat so quite a lot but it just didn’t look like it should and I would never have worn it like that so I decided to rip back and begin on the brioche section later. Maybe not until the Starting Point is over but at least then it will be done correctly.

I hope you have enjoyed spending some time with me today and sharing my sock knitting. Are you also avid sock knitters or do you mostly knit something else like garments? Would you be interested in us doing a kal this summer? Maybe something from June 1st to September 1st? With a prize or two in the end? Please let me know by leaving a comment below and also let me know what you would like that kal to be about. I have ideas such as : 1) socks  (of course) 2) a shawl -either we all knit the same or we just each knit our own 3) a garment 4) or we can decide on a designer and just knit any pattern by that particular designer

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

Also I almost forgot, My -20% off everything sale is still going until May 15th so if you would like to try out my yarn for the first time or maybe get some more if you already enjoy my yarns, now’s the time! Just use the coupon code MADMAY17 at checkout and you will get a 20% discount on all in stock items. I of course ship worldwide at low prices so I hope you will take advantage of this offer. The shop you can find by clicking here

Until next time I wish you a wonderful week and hopefully lots of quality knitting time. Speak to you soon 🙂

The February Plan

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Hi there, It’s me again! Sorry if you think this a bit too much for one week but like I said at the beginning of the week I had soo much to share!

So today is or should just be  a short post but a necessary one because we are at the beginning of February and I have this big plan for what I’m going to knit this month and I thought maybe some of you would like to knit along with me.

So I’ll be knitting 2 shawls and 3 socks – that I know of for the time being – and a cowl

Here is a picture of all the yarns except the Snowmelt shawl which I had not dyed when I took the picture.

all-the-february-yarns

Row 1 (bottom) Yarns for the socks Row 2 (middle) my 3 color cashmere cowl Row 3 my Snowday shawl

First the shawls. So there is the Snowday shawl by Knitting Expat Designs. This pattern was published in January and I immediately bought it. I loved the colors Mina chose for hers and I just knew I had to knit this. I’m using my own yarn of course. Mina wrote the pattern for a sport weight yarn but I don’t have any so I’m using a DK yarn. This is a new base that I’ll introduce in the shop next week. It is a non superwash organic wool from South America and I really look forward to knitting with it and seeing how it knits up. I loved the colours Mina chose and so I decided to stay with the same theme/colours.

snowday-yarn

Mina is hosting a year long kal in her Ravelry group for all her patterns so this shawl can be entered into that.

 

The second shawl is a mystery knit along and it is the Snowmelt mkal being held by Helen Stewart of Curious Handmade. This is a 5 clue, 3 color shawl and the mkal launched yesterday on the 2nd of February. I have chosen another new yarn base for this shawl. This yarn is a 100% non superwash merino in fingering weight. it dyes up beautifully and it is very soft and I look forward to knitting with it for the first time. Just looking at the yarn and the ply I’m sure it will be gorgeous and give a beautiful stitch definition. I dyed up 3 skeins in complimentary colors for this and again the theme is blues.

snowmelt-yarn-1

I’ve heard Helen say that color A is the one that has the most lace and she recommends using the lightest color for that. I don’t want to use the speckled yarn for the lace so I’m thinking then the light blue on the right side. I was going to have the darkest one as color A but I should probably follow Helen’s advice. So I look forward to knitting on this.

And then there are the socks and they all come with a kal. I’m very kal these days it seems and yet I rarely participate in the chatter.

So first it is the Lovealong kal – this kal is being hosted by Dani of the Little Bobbins; Amy of the Periscoping sisters (the designer of the sock pattern) and Christy of Yarn Café Creations who dyed the yarn Amy used in her design. This means you can actually enter your socks into at least 2 threads to win a prize and if you knit the socks with Christy’s yarn then you can enter in her group too. So as I have some of her yarns, that’s what I’m doing!

Then there is the January Challenge in Louise Tilbrook Designs group on Instagram and Facebook. You are supposed to knit a pair of socks and somehow challenge yourself. I’m cheating a bit because I want to knit one of Louise’s patterns and I chose one that is not necessarily very challenging but hey I’m the boss of me so! I’ve chosen the Bleaberry Tarn socks, a paid for pattern on Ravelry and I’m going to knit it in one of my new colorways that I’ve called Baby Pink Sparkles.

The third sock is for a kal being held by designer Rachel Gibbs. I’ve never knit one of her patterns before and I follow her on IG. I saw a post about her kal that actually began in January but I believe runs till the end of February so I decided to join and knit one of her patterns. Rachel designs lots of textured/patterned socks and the patterns are really gorgeous. I chose the Time Stream Socks and I’ve chosen another one of my Sparkles yarns in a turquoise colorway I had in my stock.

The last of the planned knits for the time being is a cowl. I’ve had this pattern in my Ravelry Library for a long time and never gotten to knit it so it is time. I have chosen an amazing yarn. This is a new base that I was trying out and want to later offer in the shop. It is a pricy one because it is a 50/50 merino and silk yarn. It is incredibly soft and knits up like a dream. I already have a cowl knit in this yarn and I love it. So the pattern I’ve chosen is the Three Color Cashmere Cowl by Joji Locatelli and I think this is the only planned knitting this month that is not part of a kal.

So I dyed two skeins of my merino/silk yarn and then I had one skein of a 100% silk yarn in natural, undyed state.  I think this will be heavenly and I really look forward to getting started on that one too.

three-color-cashmere-cowl

Have you planned what you want to work on in February? Are you maybe joining in some of the kals that I’m doing? I’d love to hear what you have got planned so don’t be shy and leave a comment below.

That’s it for now. I wish you all a wonderful weekend ahead with lots of quality knitting time. Thank you for sharing your time today with me. And until next time, happy knitting 🙂

What’s on my needles? A LOT

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Hi there, how are you ? I hope you are doing fine. I am just good and enjoying my knitting. I think I have rarely had so many projects going at the same time. It does feel ever so slightly overwhelming but… I’m just totally unable to resist the cast-on-itis. As soon as I get my hands on a new yarn I immediately need to cast on for something, no matter how many other projects I’ve got going at that time!

I hope you are like that too, it would make me feel less of a crazy person:)

So what exactly am I knitting on these days? So two shawls and a ton of socks. Shawl number one is the Cozy Shlanket by Mina Philipp and this is a mystery knit-a-long with clues being released each Sunday. I’m currently on clue 3 but clue 4 which is the last clue, just came out. I’m knitting the Aran version as I wanted a really huge shlanket and I imagine myself having this on my shoulders as I work my evening shifts. The yarn is my own of course and I dyed it specially for this project. I did go out of my comfort zone color wise but I think it will be fine. Here’s where I’m at now

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The rows are slowly getting bigger and bigger. This will be super cozy once done.

Then there is shawl number two which is also part of a kal and an Instagram challenge. This is the Brioche challenge launched by Louise Tilbrook designs and it encourages us to knit brioche during the month of January. Lots of people have joined and are knitting brioche of various levels of difficulty. I chose a pattern that I’ve had in my stash for a while. It is not all brioche but rather has sections of brioche and sections of garter stitch. It’s called Briochealicious and is a for sale pattern on Ravelry by Andrea Mowry. The pattern calls for 4 yarns/colors and I’m using two of mine and two store bought. Here is where I am now

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You can see that at the beginning of the second brioche section I messed up! But I decided not to tink back but leave it. Not sure that was the right decision but I’m too far into this now to tink back so I’m just going to convince myself that no one will notice 🙂

And then there are the socks! All the socks! I think I have become a sock knitting crazy lady. I have so many socks in my pile of wips that need their second sock done and then there are all the socks I’m currently working on.

Let’s begin this with three pairs of FINISHED socks! First of is a pair I knit for my daughter. The yarn is my own. I was playing with dyeing and unfortunately I did not write down the method so I won’t be able to replicate which is super silly because I really love how the yarn knits up. The stitch pattern is something I found on Ravelry and I adapted that to my own sock formula.

 

Then there is my pair of Christmas Eve Cast On socks. I joined the movement led by Dani of The Little Bobbins podcast and I cast on a pair of socks on Christmas Eve. I used the Simple Skyp pattern which is a free pattern on Ravelry and I dyed a skein of yarn just for this. I wanted a yarn that reminded me of fairy lights and I think I succeeded.

 

And then I finished a pair called London Skies. This is a twisted rib pattern and it took me forever to finish. I think it was a combination of the twisted stitches and the yarn that was a little wooly. I used West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4 ply yarn. Boy was I happy when I cast off the second sock!

 

And then there are my socks in progress. Mostly they are knit using my own hand dyed yarns and  they are at various stages of completion. I have promised myself to finish them all asap and as soon as I finish one sock to cast on for the second to avoid the second sock syndrome.

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This is a one of a kind colorway I dyed and the pattern I’m using is the same as on the finished brown pair above.

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These will be for my youngest. This is also a one of a kind colorway I dyed and I’m again doing a Simple Skyp Sock. I love how it is working up.

 

 

This is a HO. This is a test knit that I’m doing for my friend and designer Dana Gervais. I have finished one sock and just begun the ribbing of sock number two. This is knit using two yarns and I thought I had chosen contrasting yarns. One green and one pink. Well it turns out that the mostly green yarn has some yellow and the mostly pink has some green so they actually mix and look a lot like it was just one yarn. Only when you look at the heels and toes can you really see the difference. Fortunately the stitch pattern on the front still stands out so it worked out good in the end. These are fun to knit and the pattern quickly becomes intuitive.

And speaking of Dana, I have just begun a new test knit for her. When this picture was taken I had only done one pattern repeat but I’m further along now. It’s a gorgeous cable pattern and the yarn is a new yarn base I just got. When I saw her picture of the socks on Instagram I just new I had to get in on this test knit and that I had to knit it in this particular yarn so I dyed a skein and wound it up and then waiting until she was ready to post a call for testers. Lucky for me I got to test for her again.

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You can’t see much but the yarn is a tweed yarn with colorful neps that add an extra pop of fun to the yarn.

And the last pair of socks is one I’m knitting using yarn from Knit Cosmic Strings. It’s the Shoreditch colorway that is gorgeous. I’m again doing a Simple Skyp sock (which seems to have become my go to pattern these days).

 

I also signed up for a kal with designer Rachel Gibbs and I’m going to knit a sock of course. Her pattern is called Time Stream Socks. My yarn is all caked up and ready, I just need to find a moment to cast on. I believe the kal is to the end of February so I think I’ll make it. In addition I think I only need to finish one sock to qualify:) Will you be joining?

That’s it for today. As you can see I have a lot of work ahead of me with all the knitting projects I’ve taken on. I’d love to hear from you, what you are working on and if you feel like sharing a picture that would be awesome.

Until next time, take care and have a wonderful week:)

My first ever fandom project

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Hi there, how are you today? I hope you are doing great. It’s Friday today and the weather her in Normandy is beautiful, warm and sunny. According to the weather man that is not going to last and the weekend and even all of next week is supposed to be gloomy and grey! But lets not think about that and just enjoy the sun while its here:)

Today I want to tell you about my secret custom dye project that I have alluded to before.

So this is a very fun project that I’m working on with two friends that I met two years ago now at a show in London. The three of us are collaborating on a gorgeous knitting kit that will be released early July. The theme, as you may have guessed from the title of todays’s post, is fandom related. To be precise, its Gilmore Girls fandom related. So if you are a Gilmore Girls fan or if you just like nice things, you are going to be interested in this kit. It’s going to be quite exclusive as only 30 kits will be sold so when they’re gone, they’re gone for good. The pattern itself will probably be published later on but I don’t think there will be a repeat for the project bag and as for the yarn, well it is such huge work I’m not sure I’ll repeat it either except if we get a huge response in which case we might have to reconsider the exclusivity. But that’s a “problem” for later.

So as you may have gathered already the kit will include:

a Gilmore Girls themed sock pattern by CC of Java Purl Designs

a project bag by Sam of KnitRunDig

and hand dyed yarn by yours truly

and some little goodies for surprise

The yarn is a 10 colour self striping yarn. One stripe/colour per character in the Gilmore Girls.

It has been and still is a lot of fun to prepare this kit and it’s the first time I ever participate in such a collaboration and I’m very happy and proud to be a part of this because I’m a huge fan of CC’s designs and I own a number of project bags by Sam and I use them all the time. So I know that this kit will be high quality all around.

Dyeing the yarn is very time consuming. I’m not used to do a lot of self striping and I don’t think that’s something I’m going to develop simply because of the time involved and because I’m such a small dyer that I think it’s not really worth it for me. So that makes this particular yarn even more special.

Here are some pictures of the preparations

First I need to wind the skeins into bundles of X meters for each stripe of color
I have made up my dye stock ready to go
I then hand dyed each skein

So this kit will go on pre-order on the Java Purl Designs website as of June 12th and CC has added the exact times for a large number of time zones so you can check that out as of now to be sure to sign up when pre-orders open up.

I do hope you will sign up for this kit and maybe we’ll organise a kal around this too, I have to check with my friends and I’ll let you know but that might be fun.

And on the subject of kals, don’t forget that I’m hosting my first ever kal this summer. Kick off is June 1st and it will run to August 31st. I’m calling it the Knitting in France and Nancy kal because it’s hosted by me (Knitting in France) and it is for any of Nancy Whitmans patterns.

I have finally decided on which of her patterns I’m going to knit (first – I think I might do two during this kal). I have dyed up some yarn and I’ll be sharing that with you very soon. I will be sharing info on the kal here on the blog but the kal will live in my group on Ravelry and that is where you should sign up. I have created an information thread and a chatter thread already. Later there will be an FO thread of course. And there will be prizes at the end to make things even more fun! The prizes will include patterns, yarns, stitch markers and a project bag! These are the prizes I know of so far but who knows, there might be even more depending on how many participate. So check it out and I hope you will join in.

That’s all for now. Have a wonderful weekend and I look forward to talking to you later:)

The Nancy Whitman and Knitting in France Summer Kal

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Today I’m going to share with you my plans for this summer and my first ever kal, that is the first ever kal that I personally host.

It is super exciting to be hosting a kal and I hope I will be up to the task and that others will join in the fun. The idea behind the kal is to work on something beautiful and have enough time so as not having any stress related to the knitting. A pure pleasure interlude during our summer.

The kal starts on June 1st and finishes on August 31st. I have created 2 threads in my Ravelry group one to share the information about the kal and a chatter thread. I will be opening an FO thread later on. Here is a link to my group on Ravelry for you to join if you so wish.

There will of course be prizes. I love prizes and even though I very rarely win anything I still have hope:) So depending on the number of participants we will have X number of prizes. The designer herself, Nancy Whitman, has agreed to donate some patterns and I will be donating yarn and hand made accessories and if you would like to donate a prize that would of course be wonderful.

The rules for this kal are very simple:

  1. no wips allowed
  2. only patterns by Nancy Whitman can be included in this kal

Nancy Whitman has a number of gorgeous designs, shawls, cowls and socks.I have shared some of them here before and if you missed my interview with Nancy just click here and read it now before joining in the kal.

These are some of her shawls.

Personally I’m going to knit a shawl and I own a number of those by Nancy including the three shown above. I currently have two contenders which are

  1. Ganz  ganz nancy whitman

2.  Tappan Zee

tappan zee nancy whitman

Both shawls are gorgeous and it’s not going to be easy to choose and I think I might possibly just knit both so I don’t have to choose. We’ll see if I have the time or not. At the moment I leaning slightly more towards Ganz but not sure yet. Ganz is knit with a sport weight yarn but I could probably use fingering also and Tappan Zee is in fingering. I have a ton of fingering yarn in my stash but not so much in sport weight so should I go with the Ganz I’ll have to do some dyeing which will be fun.

So what do you say? Do you want to join in this kal with me? I will be sharing info here on the blog but mostly the kal will live on Ravelry so if you want to join you should join my  group there.

I have created a special coupon/discount code for those who want to join the kal and want to buy some of my yarn to knit their project with (of course you are welcome to use the code even if you are NOT joining in the kal). So this code is valid as of now and until June 15th and will give you 15% off your purchases. The code should be used upon checkout and is: THENANCYKAL

 

That’s all for today. Thank you for stopping by and I hope you will join me in this summer kal for some relaxed knitting and sharing.

Youpi! I’m in for round 5

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Hi there, I hope you are doing good and enjoying a day off from work – that is if May 5th is a public holiday where you live. It is a public holiday both in Iceland and France so I’m enjoying a day off from my “real” job but I have a very heavy schedule for my shop and dyeing. I have two custom dye jobs in the works for two different knitwear designers but I can’t tell you about those just yet. Just know that something very exciting is happening behind the scenes:)

Now yesterday I cast off my socks for the Sock Madness competition round 4. It was a pattern with lots of charts for lace and beads. When I first discovered the pattern I got worried that I would probably not be able to finish in time to qualify for the next round. But luckily I was wrong. The pattern was a joy to knit and in spite of all the charts, it actually knit up quite quickly. I can really see myself making a second and even third pair from this pattern. Here are some pictures of my socks.

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I really love the heel on these socks. What was new and unusual for me was the cast on and the heel/gusset construction. If you like knitting socks, you should definitely check out this pattern on Ravelry, just click here.

I knit monogamously on this pair of socks because I was so afraid I wasn’t going to make it to the next round. All in all there are 7 rounds. Next round, round 5, only half of each team will make it to round 6. This time around 20 out of 30 knitters in each team made it to round5. And next time only 10 of those 20 will make it to round 6. That is probably where I’ll have to leave the competition. In round 6 only 1 out of 10 members per team will make it to round 7 which is the last round and will count only 1 knitter per team. I know I can’t win because there are knitters that seem to knit at atomic speed and I can never do that – too much life in the way for me. But I’m very happy to have made it this far and IF I were to make it to round 6 that would be a real victory to me.

Are you participating in this year’s Sock Madness? Or have you ever participated? I’d love to hear if you have and what you thought of the experience and how far  you got. Do share:)

So once this pair was done, rather than pick up my wips, I of course cast on for another pair of socks! This time for the Coffee with CC kal that Vegan Jilly of The Knitting Broomstick is hosting.

I’m knitting all the sock patterns in the book as they appear and then I’ll end with the Coffee Date Shawl. So now it was time to cast on for the Espresso Macchiato Socks

This pattern calls for a self striping sock yarn. I had chosen 2 different yarns and showed them in my video review of CC’s book. I began casting on with the yarn I had hand dyed and it didn’t feel right so I ripped that out. Unfortunately I did not take a picture before I ripped it out so I can’t show you. Then I chose to cast on with the handspun yarn.

coffee with cc pattern 2 - 1

The yarn is lovely but the color changes are not regular enough I felt – after all this is handspun so I have no idea how the rest of the skein will knit up. And so I decided that this was not it. I did not rip it out though and I still have this on the needles and I just might finish this anyway or just rip back to the end of the toe and do something else.

Then I decided to choose a different yarn. I picked up a yarn by Turtle Purl, a beautiful yarn with stripes but…

coffee with cc pattern 2 - 2

There is much more grey than the other colors so I’m thinking that the pattern would not look like in the book if I only do the patterning on the red stripe. There would not be a lot of patterned rows. So again, I decided that this was not it. I did not rip this out either but left to the side and I have yet to decide if I’ll knit this anyway or just rip out to the end of toe section and do something else like I did with the handspun trial.

And then last night I cast on for yet another try. This time I chose a yarn custom dyed for Jo Milmine of the Shiny Bees podcast. It’s a self striping red, yellow/white. And I think this time I’ll call it good. I quite like how this is knitting up and because the stripes are quite large, I’m doing the patterning once per stripe and I think it looks quite nice.

coffee with cc pattern 2 - 3

What do you think? Are you joining in the Kal?

And on the topic of Kals, would you like to join in a summer kal? I was thinking we could knit one of Nancy Whitman’s patterns which you can find here and the kal would run from June 1st to August 31st and on September 1st I would draw a winner from an FO thread. I would prepare a  nice prize bundle and maybe someone would like to donate something as a prize to make it even more fun. Let me know what you think.

Well, that’s all for today. Have a lovely day and a wonderful weekend ahead. Speak to you soon:)

 

Some FOs and some in progress and a WINNER

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Hi there, today is Friday and I hope you are all doing good and looking forward to your weekend. I hope the weather is better in your part of the world than it is in mine. Today it is rather cold and raining non stop! Not very spring like here today.

So last time I shared with you a video review of a new knitting book called Coffee with CC which was recently published by a friend of mine called CC Almon. I hope you enjoyed watching the review and if you have yet to see it you can click here

So I have now finished my first pattern of the book. I’m going to knit the sock patterns in the order they appear in the book and then I’m going to end with the Coffee Date Shawl. So I have just finished the first pair of socks, the French Vanilla Socks. The pattern is super simple and really an ideal pattern for a first time sock knitter so if you have been thinking about jumping in at the deep end and cast on for a pair of socks, you should definitely cast on for this pattern.

french vanilla socks by cc

I used yarn from a UK dyer called Truly Hooked. This is a cashmere, merino, nylon base which is a heavenly base to knit with. I bought this yarn because it was so incredibly bright and looking at the skein I thought this would be a crazy variegated yarn but no. This is actually a self striping yarn. I’m truly in aw of the dyers talent. I really love how this yarn knit up and I look forward to wearing my new socks.

I also recently finished another pair of socks, the Geek socks (a free pattern on Knitty). I had actually finished most of the socks, I only had the afterthought heels to do and finally got to do those. The pattern is a very simple one too and a really fun pattern to use with self striping yarns. It’s the closest thing to a vanilla pattern and yet it looks more complex.

geek socks done

This week I took the yarns I had chosen for my Coffee with CC kal and wound them all up so the’ll be ready when I am and I took a little picture to show you

yarn for coffee with cc

There are more balls than sock patterns left because I have a doubt about my next pattern which is written for a self striping yarn.  This is a yearlong kal and that is great because I still  have a ton of wips and I’m also doing the Sock Madness competition and on that subject, I just received the round 4 pattern so I had better get my stuff ready and cast on. I’ve been to the Ravelry tread and some people are already well on their way! I got the pattern by email last night but I was already asleep so…

This time around it is a beaded lace sock with a lot of charts so I’m thinking this will be a complex knit and it just might be the one that eliminates me from the competition. I don’t think this one will be something I can work on while doing other things. This pattern seems to demand full attention.

You can take a peak at the pattern on Ravelry, it is called Sweet Nuttins

Well it’s time for me to say good by and cast on if I want a chance to go on to round 5 so I better announce the winner of last weeks giveaway!

So the winner will receive a digital copy of the book Coffee with CC and I hope the winner will enjoy the book as much as I do and maybe she will even join us in the yearlong kal with Jilly of the Knitting Broomstick podcast.

So drumroll please!!!!! And the winner is:  Salenamom23

Congratulations to you Salenamom23, please send a message to CC aka JavaPurl on Ravelry and she will in turn send you a copy of her new book.

Thank you to all those that participated in the giveaway.

That’s all for today. Have a wonderful weekend and I’ll be back soon.

 

Pattern bonanza or the Indie Designer Gift-a-long 2015

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Hi there, last time I posted about the Indie Designer Gift-a-long 2015 on Ravelry which I was excited about participating in for the first time this year. Well the Indie GAL was launched last night. I had already taken a peek at the 325 designers participating this year and added a number of patterns to my cart. Some of the patterns, I realized, I had only just purchased which was a bit of a bummer as I could have waited a few days for the discount but hey… that’s what I get for being impatient! Especially when I know that I’m buying because I MUST have the pattern and not because I’m CASTING ON immediately.

Anyway, I’ve totally indulged myself these last 2-3 days because I’ve not only participated in the Indie designer GAL but I’ve also joined Curious Handmade Knitvent 2015.

And before I tell you all about my GAL patterns let me just touch on the the KNITVENT. I think this is the second year that Helen Stewart of Curious Handmade launches a Christmas collection called Knitwent where she publishes one pattern per week for 6 weeks and of course there is a KAL going on etc. Here is how Helen describes the Knitvent on Ravelry:

“The 2015 Knitvent collection is inspired by the special radiance of winter. As the days grow shorter, light becomes something precious. Imagine the dazzle of sunlight on snow and the gleam of firelight through the frosted windows of a log cabin. Think fairy lights twinkling behind a row of icicles, and the glow of candles on the dinner table. I’ve tried to capture all that glimmering brightness and warmth in this year’s designs.

Knitvent is the Curious Handmade community’s beloved holiday tradition. Together we enjoy the sweet suspense of an advent calendar and conjure up the community spirit of a mystery knit along, with a new design to discover and knit each week. All of the patterns are ideal for gifting, but chances are you’ll cast on at least one for yourself (you deserve it!)

  • The collection will feature six beautiful accessory patterns.
  • The first design will arrive on the 5th of November, and you’ll be sent updates each Thursday as each pattern is released.

There will be chatter, fun, support, and prizes in the Ravelry group. It’s really exciting, and a brilliant way to bring an extra bit of magic to your holiday knitting”

So far 3 patterns have been published, all gorgeous, and I’m going to try to knit at least one of the 6 patterns during the KAL to actually be able to say that I did join in the fun. Are any of you participating in her Knitvent this year? If so, are you already knitting on one of the patterns and would you like to share a picture with us here? That would be super nice 🙂

And now on to the Indie Designer Gift-a-long 2015. I don’t know how many designers participated last year but this year they are 325 and I find that super impressive. You have a mix of both well known and established designers as well as totally unknown (to me at least) designers. You can choose from both knit and crochet patterns and they span all possible projects imaginable. So if you are dreaming of a new pattern or looking for something special to knit this is definitely the time to check out and join this GAL. I’m going to knit some of the patterns I just bought now so I can join in the KALs and be eligible for a prize because there are a number of incredible prizes to be won and those will be drawn at random from FOs from participants in the KALs.

Now what did I buy? Hm, actually quite a lot… more than my wallet had accepted but….what’s done is done so I’m not going to scold myself and just enjoy all these gorgeous new patterns!

I bought 1 sock pattern – 5 hat patterns – 2 shawls – 1 mitten pattern – 1 pullover pattern or a total of 10 patterns.

Some of these I’m going to knit asap to gift for Christmas and at the same time join in the KALs.  I’m going to knit at least 2 hats and 1 pair of mittens before Christmas and maybe some more but not sure because I have recently bought so many incredible patterns that I’ve already got lined up and am anxious to cast on for.

I’m just going to list the names of the patterns and designers I bought from and then later as I knit them I’ll share pictures with you.

Jump to the left socks by Fiona Hamilton-Maclaren

Riparian shawl

Nougat pullover

Sand bank hat   –  all three by Justyna Lorkowska

Loop shawl by Casapinka

Fernie hat

Kicking Horse Mittens by Kate Bostwick

Tempano hat

Coriander hat both by Carol Feller

And then one last hat which was actually not part of the GAL but I bought it anyway because I want to knit it for my grandmother for Christmas

Flavia tam by Beth Kling

That’s all 10 just from today! Wow! I think I have outdone myself in pattern purchases this month! So what about you? Please tell me you too have gone overboard buying patterns this month or that you are just about to. I’d love to hear if you are joining the GAL and what patterns you have purchased or are thinking of buying. So please do share 🙂

 

That’s all for today. Just one more thing before saying goodbye, the Birthday gift-a-long I’m organising, I’m going to work on preparing the questionnaires for the participants this weekend hopefully so if someone wants to join in it’s still time.

That’s all for today. Happy Friday to you! Enjoy your weekend, if you are knitting on the Doodler like I am then happy knitting clue nr 3.

Take care:)

 

My first ever Mkal participation

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Hi there, so like I told you last time, I’m going to join in this new mystery kal and this is the first time ever I do a KAL and so the first time ever I do a mystery one as well 🙂

This is The Doodle MKAL by Stephen West and it begins on Nov 6th. I saw the pattern page on Ravelry and looked at the pictures of the proposed yarn combinations for this shawl and I fell in love with all the yarn and the idea of knitting a shawl in 3 colors. So I decided to join in.

I haven’t made a project page on Ravelry yet but I intend to do so one of these days. I’m not one for KALs and I don’t know if I will be very present in the Ravelry thread dedicated to this KAL but I wanted to join in just for the fun.

So he recommends using Hedgehog Fibres yarn. I could of course have gone through my stash to find nice substitution yarn or even just hand dyed some yarn myself but…. after seeing all the pictures of these gorgeous Hedgehog Fibres yarns that was just asking too much of the knitter in me.

So off I went and ended up in the online shop of A Yarn Story in England. This is the first time ever I buy yarn from Hedgehog Fibres and I must admit that I could have bought at least 10 skeins! I just totally love their speckled yarns! They are all totally gorgeous. But seeing as I do not have a limitless cash supply for yarn I had to ONLY buy 3 skeins. i went with a blueish theme. And here are my yarns:

www.knittinginfrance.com Don’t you just love the speckled one in the middle?

The colors are (from left to right): Ink, Lupi, Wish

Are you going to join in this KAL? If so, have you chosen your yarns? Would you like to share a picture of your yarns with me by posting a picture in a comment below? I’d love to see what others have chosen yarnwise for this KAL.

So next weekend i’m going to wind my yarns into cakes and choose a project bag, find the appropriate needles and necessary accessories and I’ll be all set when the first clue comes out on Nov 6th.

That’s all for today. Thank you for stopping by and until next time, take care and enjoy your crafting:)

Some exciting news for me and anyone else who loves knitting socks

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Hi there, I’m not sure if I talked about this first issue in a previous post and too lazy to go browse all my past post so my apologies if I’m repeating myself here:)

So, exciting news for me and my activity as an indie yarn dyer and at the same time exciting (I hope) for the sock knitters out there that might be participating.

I’ve been asked to sponsor an ongoing Kal on Ravelry. There is a group of knitters that are knitting their way through an entire book of sock patterns! The book is called  Op-Art-Socks by Stephanie Van Der Linden – this book is available on Amazon

www.knittinginfrance.com

I’ve been asked to sponsor the KAL for the sock pattern they are knitting this July and August and the winner will be drawn at random in September. The lucky winner will get to choose a skein of sock yarn from my shop. i’m super excited about that! I’m proud that they found me online and that they like what I do so much that they want me to sponsor their KAL. This will give my little shop some much needed exposure this fall.

I actually own the Op Art Socks book but have yet to knit anything from it (I’m ashamed to say) so now I really MUST knit up a pair! The sock they are knitting now is called Symmetry

www.knittinginfrance.com

If you want to join in or check out the group and their sock knitting here is a link to their discussion thread on Ravelry

That’s all for the FIRST exciting news, now on to the SECOND!

Like you all know, I’m always looking for exposure and trying to participate in things that could bring me more visibility and sales to be able to continue with my shop and my work as a dyer. My work has so far been featured in 3 different Knitting Magazines: Simply Knitting, The Knitter and Knitsy. And….. (drumrolls please)…. this autumn I will be featured in an independent, digital sock knitting magazine! Yeah!!! Happy!! The magazine is called Addicted to Sock Knitting and there will be an interview with me along with some pictures of my work and a little photo gallery with pictures from knitters who have knit socks using my yarns! I’m honored to have been chosen and I really look forward to the interview and preparation process and hopefully this will bring my little shop some new clients. BUT, I may need your help. I’m worried (hopefully totally without reason) that my photo gallery of socks will be EMPTY! Imagine that!! So, I don’t know if any of my readers here are also clients and if so, if you have knit a pair of socks using my yarns or if you have the yarn and are about to cast on for a pair. So if you are reading these lines and have knit a pair with my yarn or are about to do so, I would love to get in touch with you so that when we prepare the magazine piece your pair could be included in the piece (if you agree to share your work with the world of course). So if this applies to you, please either leave me a comment below or send me a line to: knittinginfrance@gmail.com

I’ll be ever so grateful:)

That’s all for today, have a wonderful day and enjoy your crafting 🙂

ps-  here is a little gallery of my own with some socks that I’ve knit using my yarns

skandium pair done www.knittinginfrance.com Maudie by General Hogbuffer My Regency socks are done www.knittinginfrance.com The Philosophers Walk socks knit by www.knittinginfrance.com