The Annual First Bee Day 2017... was three weeks ago!

I knew it! Apparently First Bee of 2017 was waiting for my previous post release... and showed up just one day later - on March 5th.

Ok, this may be considered cheating, because hyacinths were bought in a flower shop. But we have other flowers as well:

I mentioned buying fancy yarn in my previous post. As a 100th post celebration, or simply because I deserve some squishy goodness after this horrible winter! After hours of picking, calculating, terrorizing my husband with countless links I finally found what I was looking for - Mirella by Włóczki Warmii. Fingering weight 100% virgin merino wool, hand painted in Poland. Colorway "Curry". Yummy!

Shipping was really fast. I ordered on Saturday night, and the parcel was delivered on Tuesday afternoon. Luckily  I had a day off after a night shift, when I came back home to this:

Since skeins were a bit too long for traditional one-chair winding I had to create a Wind@tron 2.0. I swear one day I'll try winding my skeins with hand mixer!

It took me about two hours to wind all 1200meters into three neat balls.

Being done with all that I was finally able to start working on the Hitofude Cardigan by Hiroko Fukatsu. I decided not to slip any stitches at the beginning of each row, and I consider it to be a good decision so far.

 

I'm working simultaneously with all three skeins - that forced me to cut thread twice after joining sleeves. No regrets though - yarn is an absolute pleasure to work with, and result is just gorgeous! It has tiny specks of red and green - just like real curry! 

So far I manager to finish sleeves (did 10 instead of 12 repeats), and start body increases. I still have 160g of yarn left, which should be enough to complete the cardi as intended.

I hope that my next post will be one of those "ta-daaaah" posts! Also, my birthday is getting closer, and I might get myself something... nice :)

I'm running back my to knitting! Stupid daylight savings time took away a precious hour of my free weekend!

Have a nice afternoon!

Gosia.

Taking up my old hobbies.

I'm deeply sorry for my long absence! I had to take care of a huge pile of paperwork to progress with my career (get my full license, start specialty training). Now I have a few free weeks ahead, waiting for more paperwork to come. But hey, I'm pursuing a dream!:)

Staying at home I had time to refresh some of my older, a bit dusty hobbies!
As a kid I spent hours drawing. I even attended some afternoon classes. Last week I bought a nice (and discounted) set of oil pastels. I also dug up a 15 year old set I got in my elementary school! That, some dry pastels, black craft paper and few hours of being crafty resulted in this:

Getting my fingers dirty with a mix of autumnal shades makes me happy and relaxed.
Some pieces even make me feel rather proud:

Others - a little less proud (cheesiness and all):

...and there are those that don't. They just don't:

An aggressive squirrel.

And this is SUPPOSED TO BE Tiny Tina

I also re-started my stick insect farm. Well, there are only three of them and they comfortably fit in a jar, so it's hardly a "farm"... Nevertheles I feel so excited about watching them grow! Especially because I have no idea what species are they :)

The third "forgotten" hobby of mine is playing Morrowind. I thought I wouldn't enjoy the rather out-dated gameplay, after playing Skyrim and Witcher 3... but I do! And it is as much fun as it was in 2006 when I first played it :)

Between all that I still have some time for knitting/crocheting. Currently I'm working on two projects. My hubby's scarf -  ZickZack Scarf by Christy Kamm.

He dared to call it "too colorful"! Can you believe it?!

The second project I would like to keep secret. I'm 99% sure the future owner never reads my blog, but there's no rush for him to find out about it. Yet.

We're having a beautiful weather today, so we'll be spending our Sunday afternoon in a forest outside of town. It will surely be inspiring.

Have a nice afternoon!

3000 stitches to go.

Two months ago I learned how important it is to read labels carefully. I was looking for a suitable yarn to make a Shift Shawl by Larissa Brown. My pick was Drops Alpaca, so I started my search for perfect color combination.  I felt so lucky, finding it in lower than usual price... and in fact I felt lucky for another few minutes, until I realized I just purchased 5 skeins of Drops ALASKA instead of ALPACA. More haste, less speed I guess. I did put it into good use though!

My second approach was successful and I managed to purchase the correct amount of yarn I intended to buy. Yay!
I started working on September 13th, and after two and a half weeks (and one train trip to Katowice) I got so far:

And I absolutely ADORE this yarn! It is so soft, fuzzy, and smells so good! Of course, I had to be greedy, trying to squeeze in one extra garter ridge in each color section. Now I'm afraid I will lose the game of yarn chicken with the light beige skein. This won't make a big difference, though. I can make the edge with off-white yarn.

My sister pointed out that colors I picked are a bit old-fashioned and grandmother-like. Well, I think the word she was looking for was "retro".

At this moment I have at least 5 more beige ridges to make, 4-5 off white stockinette stripes and edging. This is well over 3000 stitches to be made. No time to lose!

I secretly hope this winter will be colder than the last one, so I will be able to use my shawl often, without risking overheating.

Have a nice afternoon!

Gosia.

PS.: I might have ordered 10 skeins of yarn for a baby blankie yesterday... whoops.

Summer scarf knitting.

Can you think of a better activity for hot summer day than knitting a warm, snuggly, woolly scarf? I certainly cannot!

I started my Pincha Shawl back in June. At first I planned to use one of my Ciao Mondial skeins, but it turned out to have too long color repeats. So I dug into my Emergency Yarn Fund (also known as my bank account) and got myself a skein of Malabigo Sock in Playa colorway.
After almost a month of knitting, I'm down to 30 grams of yarn:

It's very hard to capture the true color on pictures! It seems my green garden table is the best background. Still, on every pictures shades are a bit different,

Here's the closest to natural look:

And current state of my work. 17 complete feathers. It would already make a nice scarf, but I couldn't bare to waste 30 grams of such wonderful merino.

Pattern  Pincha shawl by Pinpilan Wangsai  is available for free on Ravelry. At first all the turning and wrapping may seems overwhelming, but after several feathers I knew it by heart.
Short color repeats result in feather-like appearance.

Last week I started two other projects.
I want to keep the first one a secret, but I'll show you just a little bit:

Second one is a tunisian crochet doggie blanket for my buddy - Korek. He's already 8yrs old and recently he started to turn a bit grey lately. Also he's extremely fond of my knitting, and tried to steal my shawl few days ago.

I guess despite of not having holidays, July is still one of my craftiest months! :)

Have a nice aftrenoon!

Gosia.

Long weekend is gone...

...aaand I'm back at work.

I've had an amazing 4 day long weekend, though!

On Thursday we visited Pszczyna, just like last year. On Friday we ventured in the opposite direction and arrived at Moszna (please, don't check for direct translation from Polish to English... just don't). The castle itself, looks like it was stolen from Disney logo, but it has a certain charm to it.

Not to mention a skeleton-princess in the highest tower, who did cost me some sleepless nights when I was a kid.

The most enjoyable part for me was a long stroll in the park. Rhododendrons were still in bloom... and just look:

Unfortunately two days of sunny weather turned out to be enough to build up thick stormy clouds, and Saturday and Sunday got us mostly grounded.

Every cloud has a silver lining, right? I had ALL the time in the world to knit! I started with speedkniting booties for my cousin's new baby. Bows Before Bros by Carrie Briggs :

And then I moved to crocheting my Syna Shawl.

No. I did not re-brand my Banana Leaf Shawl. I guess it's destined to be my standby project.

It's a new shawl I started on May 20th. Pattern is called  Syna by Mary Renji

I started using a delivery box as a project bag. You know how they say: reuse, re-purpose, recycle! :)So far I'm done with two lace section repeats, and I'm still enjoying my work. It is a mindless work except for moving from one section to another.

Netflix & Ch.. Crochet it is then!

Have a nice afternoon!

Gosia.

Skeeeew-haaa!

A I mentioned last week I became a proud owner of 4 Superwash Ciao by Mondial. It was all by ACCIDENT, and the only one to blame is my favourite yarn shop, for sending me emails about discounts.

I had this project on mind since a long time. Pattern is called Skew by Lana Holden. Construction of the sock is just plain awesome! At one point I was sure I made a mistake as it would not look like a sock at all! But then...

There is however a small problem with fit. As long as the fabric is stretched - fits just right. The moment I let it go - it gets baggy around my ankles. I think that's partially because of my bony legs, and the fact that pattern is not really adjustable.

That won't stop me from casting on a second sock, of course!

As for my other WIP's - I'm in the middle of the 4th (and final) skein of my Never Again Blanket. After so many repeats it became a mindless knit :)

Now I'm out to enjoy this lovely spring day!

Have a nice afternoon!

Gosia.

Whooops!

Oh no! I just realized I skipped my blogging Sunday!
At least I have a decent excuse - the weather last week was PERFECT. We decided we need some fresh air so we went to our favourite park.
The one we visited last summer, and spring.

Since today we have a horribly cold and rainy Sunday... I'm back!
My "Never again" blanket is going surprisingly well. I am just few metres away from completing third skein. I can't wait to block it!

It is impossible for me to stay focused on one project at a time, so I started this crochet beauty:

Using Ten Stitch Blanket leftovers, and some black acrylic/wool mix. I follow the Granny Mandala pattern by Crochet with Raymond. I hope I will have enough patience to turn it into a circular shrug or a cardi.

Today I got an email about a big sock yarn discount. Couldn't help myself... 4 skeins are on their way.  I think this means getting be back to socks knitting this month. Just in time for the first Sockalong anniversary I guess! :)

Ohhh, now I need to make some progress on the blanket before my new yarn arrives.

Have a nice afternoon!

Gosia.

Springtime Knitting Power-up!

Now that I no longer have to worry about not making a baby blanket in time I have a chance of finishing my WIP's! Or to start new ones...

So about two weeks ago I found this new (to me at least) yarn brand. I was looking for a nice soft acrylic for my Mysterious Purple-Grey Thing, and just by accident I also purchased a skein of Nako Ombre in red-purple. It is a rather cheap 75% acrylic 25% wool mix, and my drop stitch scarf probably won't last longer than one season, but I'd say it was worth it!  Finished scarf is soft, warm, colors are wonderful, and yarn did not break once during knitting. And it took me just one skein and five afternoons to complete:

Of course I had a little helper, who is still dissapointed I didn't let him use Ten Stitch Corner as a doggie blanket. His little paws were reaching to check if the gauge is right.

Before you all think I'm a bad person, who wouldn't make anything for her poor dog:

I DID MAKE THAT *** A SWEATER!!!

It was my very first Ravelry project (ones with earlier dates are from my pre-Ravelry period).

What did I get for my commitment, should you ask?

A nasty growl when I tried to dress him up for a walk!  

See? I'm not the one who's evil!

My Mysterious Purple-Grey Thing is finished, but I'll be able to share it in May, because (again) it's a birthday gift. I decided to make a second, similar Thing, so the first one would have a company.

The yarn I'm using for both projects is a 100% acrylic Nako Rekor. I don't know if it would be nice for sweaters, but for toys it works great!

There's a slight chance we might get through Easter without snow! Last Easter in March ended with us stuck in snow while trying to visit my fiance's granny. Forecasts are more optimistic this year. Weather is still rather chilly, but at least now we have sunny days!

Time to make a shameful confession... When I finished my second ever baby blanket I swore I won't start another one anytime soon. Well, as I learned the term "anytime soon" can mean "at least for one week", because yesterday I ordered yarn for a christening blanket... for my  co-worker's baby-to-be. This needs to be done by July, so there's stillplenty of time left! What worries me is that she picked a lacy pattern, which might cause me some trouble, and that we only got seven 50g skeins - all that was left in yarn shop.

Ahhh, waiting for a squishy parcel to arrive is pure pleasure!

Have a nice afternoon!

Gosia.

PS.: Korek says "hello!"