Winter is nigh!

I'm sorry it took me so long to start that post! In fact, I started writing it last week when temperature went below 0°C(32°F) for the first time. Today's weather is warm and damp, but not as photogenic.

I got out into the freezing cold of early morning to take those, I hope you appreciate that!

Those spider webs sure looked festive!

Since it was really cold I had to speed things up with hubby's scarf-in-making. And here it is! He loves it and no longer calls it "too colorful" :)

Pattern is called ZickZack Scarf by Christy Kamm, free on Ravelry.
I really enjoyed knitting it! It was easy to memorize, just 12 sts repeat throughout the entire thing. I used Merino Gold II by Oren Brayan for this (the 70% acrylic 30% merino version) - one skein of plain gray and one in grayish batik. I didn't use up it all - I cast off at about 180cm.
My only modification was casting on 60sts and adding 2 extra for edges - 1st slipped purlwise, last knitted.

Currently I'm working on a cardi I intend to use during my night shifts. It's a simple open-front raglan cardi in a very "medical" teal shade. I don't like that color but at least yarn was a freebie!  I need to put some serious effort into that, cause I already had my first night shift... and my cardi is still nowhere near to FO.

Back to knitting then!

Have a nice afternoon!

Gosia.

PS.: Here's a pic from our forest trip three weeks ago. It was fun! :)

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!

Shift Shawl!

Let's sum it up, shall we?

• 1 pattern by Larissa Brown
• 5 skeins of Drops Alpaca
• 1 set of 4mm circular needles
• 25 days
• 18 hours of blocking
• gazillion alpaca fibers on my clothes

...and here it is. My Shift Shawl.

I made some minor changes to the original. I ran out of light beige yarn after 8 garter ridges (instead of 9, so I made additional two garter rows in off white, and then bound off using Jenny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off.
Wet blocking took almost 18 hours, but it was worth it!

I wish I had a set of blocking wires, that could help me with this weird wavy edge you can see on pic above. Luckily it vanishes when the shawl is worn! :)

This happens to be my first knitted shawl. The first one that's not a forever-WIP that is. And it is HUGE! I even convinced my reluctant husband to help me with pictures:

I'm still figuring out ways to wear it. In fact, I had to rush a bit this weekend, because tomorrow I'm going to buy a winter coat. And I don't have to tell you what will be first criterion!

Here's more detailed color info:

Garnstudio DROPS Alpaca (100% alpaca, sport weight)

A - natural white 0100
B - dark beige 0618
C - brown 0403
D - dark red 3650
E - light beige 0302

I used up most of color D, all but 2g of color E, but I should be able to knit a matching hat from what I have left.

However weird that sounds, I'm so happy about the gloomy, windy, damp days we have now. Weather like this was made for alpaca!

Have a nice (not necessarily warm) afternoon!
Gosia.

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.

Autumnal Fennec Fox.

Autumn is officially here! As usual, it brings changes. I'm slowly finishing my internship, meaning I will start a "real job" soon. This will mean less time for my hobby, I'm afraid.

Luckily there are things that stay the same. Like my everlasting love for amigurumi for instance. Last weekend hubby talked me into buying a new magazine, dedicated only to crocheting toys.
Inside I found several patterns for woodland creatures, and one that caught my eye from the start. It took me about 4-5 hours to complete it.

Meet my sweet little Fennec Fox!

Pattern  Amigurumi Fifi the Fennec Fox by Sweet N' Cute Creations  is also  available on Ravelry.
It was very easy to make. I'm not sure if the assembly is depicted better in pdf version, but I didn't find many tips in print. It took me few tries to be happy with result.

For the first time I inserted glass marbles into hind legs and one into chest region. It made it more stable. Most of my plushies end up as baby toys at one point, so I rarely put anything except fiberfill inside. Fennec however, is moving to Cracow to accompany my sister-in-law on her college adventures. I hope she knows better! :)

Next time I will share my big autumnal project! I completed 3 out of 5 sections so far, but rows are getting dangerously loooong. But how can I complain, if I get to work with pure alpaca? <3

Have a nice afternoon!
Gosia.

Busy week.

Last week I didn't have much time to progress on my Ten Stitch Corner. I attended my graduation ceremony and a ball afterwards, which prevented me from getting much sleep last weekend.
Today it's our National Independence Day so I'm celebrating, and enjoying a day off.

I did travel over 800km back and forth since my last update. This equals 20 hours sitting on a train, but sometimes I was just too tired to knit.
Nevertheless on November 2nd I passed the 50% mark!

Since then I slowed a bit, and currently my blankie looks like this:

Colors look much better in nature! We had gorgeous weather last week, but since Saturday we're back to more traditional autumn. It's a bit gloomy outside, so my camera goes crazy.

It is still surprisingly warm for November. Few days ago I spotted a ladybug convent of some sort. There were dozens of them, maybe plotting something:

Korek also enjoyed last week's sunny weather, trying to charge his inner batteries for upcoming winter.

I offered to prepare my all-time favourite meatballs in tomato sauce for today's dinner, so I need to get myself to kitchen,

Have I nice afternoon!

Gosia.

5:38 AM train.

Two weeks ago I needed to attend a course outside my home town. Lectures started at 8AM so I had to hop out of my bed at 4:45 and catch the 5:38 train.
Since I am unable to sleep while traveling I geared up and was ready for my new project!
The Ten Stitch Corner Blanket by Frankie Brown.

In 2014 I made a classic Ten Stitch Blanket (from Frankie Brown as well).

I loved working 10 stitch rounds! But to be honest, long knitting needles were hard to handle with constant turning and turning... so I decided to make myself a set of short knitting needles.   I didn't want to ruin my only set of 4mm DPNs by gluing beads to one end permanently, so I listened to my Mom's advice and.. tadaaaah:

It says "Prestige"!

Yarn I used is called Merino Gold Batik by Madame Tricote, colorway 802. Package arrived just in time for me to start the first corner during weekend. I got through the hardest part of my work and got to a point where I could safely work without making intellectual effort.

I had troubles with joining rounds and decided to go for a different join. I found it in one of original Ten Stitch projects: this one. It goes like this: slip, pick up, knit picked up and slipped st together. I also slipped 1st stitch knitwise after turning.

It produces a bit bumpy, but nice enough edge:

After a week of traveling back and forth I have one complete corner, and started another:

It turned out to be very autumnal! :)
Speaking of autumn, sadly season for garden-grown tomatoes has come to an end.

But we can enjoy our own quince! Nothing tastes quite like a big cup of tea with quince marmalade.

Now I'm off to enjoy my weekend, and my one extra hour of sleep tonight (we're having daylight saving time). 

Have a nice afternoon!

Gosia.

Cream Cardi Struggle.

Now I know... I hate knitting garments in pieces. To be more precise: I hate knitting garments that have more than 2 pieces. 

Like my Cream Cardi:

I like where this is going but I will have to frog the top of the left front AGAIN, so that length matches. I am too close to completing the project to just give up, but I lost most of my enthusiasm.

Maybe I need to take a break? I just hope it won't turn into one of my eternal WIPs

My neighborhood got overrun by hedgehogs lately. Since my dog hates them, we often have to evict them from our premises. Last Tuesday I stopped on my way to work and helped one spiky kiddo get across our street, Young hedgehogs are not as half smart as they are cute!

Next week I will have to travel to Katowice by train every day... which raised a need for a new traveler-friendly project!

I'm still waiting for yarn delivery. What worries me a bit is the fact that my parcel got labeled as XXL by the courier. Huh, maybe they sent 40 instead of 4 skeins? I wouldn't mind, really.

I will share with you my traveler friendly project as soon as I lay my hands on those squishy skeins! :3

Until then, here, feast your eyes on my gorgeous sunflower! Yes, that is a single plant. With over 30 flowers.

Have a nice evening! 

Gosia.

 

Rollable armadillo!

Just two weeks of holidays left... and to be honest I'm getting slightly bored (probably will regret saying that in less than a month).

This year's hot summer turned out to be great for our garden crops! It's mainly thanks to intensive watering and lots of sunshine. We are up to are necks with tomatoes, pumpkins and other yummy goods!

Yesterday I was scrolling through my long list of favourites on Ravelry, and came across this sweety:

Roll-up Armadillo by Kati Galusz.

Two or three hours of work and one lost forever darning needle later.. here he is! 

Phteven the Armadillo. 

He rolls up so nicely!

Now that I think about it... maybe I need another one. Just to keep the first one company! :)

Have a nice evening!

Gosia.