What's next?

New yarn equals new projects evolving in my head. I'm thinking socks.

I haven't finished my previous projects but I think that I'm bit of a mood knitter who needs to have many ongoing projects to choose from. Big needles, small needles, double pointed needles, stripes, multicolor...

There's a christmas present still in progress.. maybe it'll be finished by next Christmas..
There's a cardigan for myself...
There's a baby sweater to Ethiopia...
There's...
...so many others. Maybe I'll get something finished, too.

Patterns

I started a pattern course in the autumn. I've never had any lessons in sewing after primary and secondary school. Ok, only evening classes for one year, but it was more about just having something done rather than learning anything new. 

This time I'm really learning a lot! We have a fantastic teacher who really knows what she's talking about. Last week I missed the course because of work and am really looking forward to go there again this week.

We started with drawing a base pattern with everyone's individual measurements. Boy, did that require a lot of measuring! And a lot of concentration to understand why each line was drawn where. It was not easy - and I've really been using and looking at a fare share of patterns in my life!

Then we made a test garment for fitting. Even before doing any adjustments it fitted better than any garment I've worn before. 

Trying to decide on what sort of garment to do was hard. But when I made my mind up on which fabric to use, the model was easily decided. Here's the first sketch.. which has already changed a bit..

Practicing on small scale:

Then in actual size (but no more practicing..):

And finally tonight I washed the fabric, which I received as a gift from Tanzania a few years back. It's printed cotton.

To be continued...

Learning new

I tried out the magic loop technique for the first time and made a wrist warmer with cables. It is an interesting way to knit, but a bit tricky at first. The technique itself is simple, but I guess my circular needle was a bit too short for this. There were no loose stitches, though, as there are when I use double pointed needles. So that's definitely a reason to keep on practicing.

Gold

I started ski season today, in -25°C. At school we only went skiing when it was -15°C or less. In my opinion it doesn't matter how cold it is. The colder the better for me, actually, because the colder it is the slower you have to ski. Breathing is more difficult in the freezing weather. And my skiing is more about having the means to get to a place for the perfect shot than for getting the exercise.. 

With this method I've never won the gold medal, but I did find gold everywhere I looked.

Deserted

It's a short walk across the frozen sea to a tiny island.

 The whole island was quiet. There seemed to be no one else.

And at that moment there probably wasn't. 

The footprints revealed that a couple of people had been there earlier today with a dog, 

but now it was just me...

... and the empty, abandoned houses.

You couldn't see the buildings behind the snowy trees until you were right in front of them.

Come on in, the door is open, some of the houses said.

Windows were broken or totally missing.

Wind had blown snow inside.

Some of the houses were tilted. All of them could use a bit of TLC.

It seems that life has stopped here without warning.

As it was getting darker, it started to feel a bit eerie...

At sundown I headed back to the ice. Not hurriedly, though.

There had to be time to stop and listen to the creaking trees.

Legwarmers

Legwarmers

Pattern: by Frost

Yarn: Drops Alpaca 

(green, although it looks yellow in the picture)

Warmth for winter

Just after Christmas I finished a sleeveless dress I started knitting a while ago. My first big knitting project in years!

 Pattern: DROPS nro 108-7


Edit: new picture: