In Stripes!

This yarn is a delight to knit!

Cladonia by Kirsten Kapur; Holst Garn, Coast (Silver Grey & Aconite) I fell in love with this yarn!

Wish you a lovely sunny week end!

What do you do when....

You have to many projects on the needles, and you want to cast on more?

Type A: The reasonable knitter. Will patiently and wisely finish the UFOs.

Type B: The impulsive knitter. Will cast on the new project despite the already existing UFOs.

Me? Type C: I frog.

I'm usually the Type A knitter as I don't like having more than one project at the same time. Two is a maximum, because I usually already begin to feel the Guilt. More than one is only for emergencies like Christmas, Birthdays, unexpected last-minute gifts or crochet (crochet is not knitting so it doesn't count).

This time it was different. I had this yarn for a while. I had already tried to knit it twice without any satisfying result. I thought, maybe, this time would be different. The pattern was lovely and very well written, I had the right needles (Addi 2.25mm), I was in the perfect mood to knit my May Socks... but, but, but, I hate this yarn! It's rough, splitty, thin and has a suspect acrylic sheen (confirmed by the label: 7%). After several days without touching it, the wiser decision was to frog. It's a shame because I had almost finished the gusset decreases on both sock, but I wouldn't have loved them anyway, and I'm too nice to offer these socks to someone I like (remember: acrylic = yuk!)

The sadistic satisfaction I feeled while frogging proved me I was right!

Now I have those lovely socks on the needles. They are humble and simple, but exactly what I needed to forgive this horrible blue yarn!

What type of Knitter are YOU? A, B, C or any other kind?

Wish you a lovely week end!

Holiday in Paris, Part 3: By the Seine River

 During my stay in Paris, I also knitted quite a lot:

I imagined these socks for In the Loop Webzine's readers. I wanted something easy to knit and to memorize, but still interesting to knit.

The waves and lines remind me the Seine River. It should fit any foot size and is meant to be a good beginner sock. This pattern should suit any varigated, solid or semi-solid sock yarn.

Yarn: Araucania, Botany Lace, bought at Le Comptoir, Paris.

Needles: Addi Turbo 2.5mm, 80 cm in Magic Loop, but can be easily knitted with two circulars or dpn's.

About the Yarn: Very beautiful and soft, but will probably not be the best choice for socks (yarn is very delicate and doesn't stand frogging)

I'm currently writing the pattern in french and in english. I hope to make it available as soon as possible. It has been kindly tested by Patrizia who made a gorgeous version in hand painted yarn.

Wish you a lovely day!

Holiday in Paris, Part 2: In the Loop Girls

During my stay in Paris, I met the In the Loop girls several times. It was lovely to speak about yarn, knitting, yarn, and knitting (and yarn again!) with Elise, Caroline and Bintou.We also spoke about the magazine (you can't imagine how hard they are working on this awesome webzine!)

Caroline let me enter in her atelier, and introduced me into the dyeing process. Unfortunately, that day, the light was not ideal, and I have very few pics to show.
It was Indigo Day:

Love shooting working hands!

She even offered to dye some yarn for me. I chose to submit this yarn to the experience:



And here is the result:



Caroline did magic! Merci encore beaucoup! I love those candy like colors!

You can find Caroline's yarn in her Etsy shop: Lumiere Yarns
For lovely pics of Caroline's Atelier:  Elise takes beautiful photos

Holiday in Paris, Part 1: Shopping!!!

Hello!

I just came back from 2 long weeks of holidays in Paris. The weather was horrible most of the time, but I still enjoyed my stay a lot: Spending time with my family, meeting friends, shopping, knitting, reading, cooking.... These two weeks were really fun and I have a lot to show you. 

Any trip to Paris should be followed by intense shopping, and that's what I did this time.

I first went to the Atelier de la Création and bought quite a few balls of Drops yarn:

Future Socks for me!

Those are not white anymore! ;)

A future Henslowe shawl.

I discovered this shop quite recently, and I already love it! The people in there are very nice and helpful and the yarn prices are just awesome.

Then, Paris = Le Comptoir. I went twice. I promise each time, it was just to say hello to Barbara, but you know how it is...

This is already knitted, and I'll tell you more about this very soon.

I simply fall in love with HolstGarn Coast.

And, last but not least, from a "vente privée" with Knit Cat's, I came back with:

Hedgehog Fibres, Sock Yarn. Ventricle. Knit Cat's made me promise to knit socks from it!

The Plucky Knitter, Merino Fingering, Dandelion. An amazing yellow that is too beautiful to get hidden in shoes.

14 balls of yarn. This is a record. Intense it was! I'm usually a reasonable shopper, but this time was just different: I needed this yarn. Badly.