Baaaaaaaaa!

I almost missed it! I was so consumed with my last project I just remembered about this year's Yarndale Community Project. Fortunaltely it's not too late to join in yet!

My little sheep is on it's way to Yarndale.
I decided to go with knitted version as I already had some experience with it. My first sheep from Frankie Brow's pattern lives now in a hospital, where I had a part of my internship.

Let's getto some details: for body I used leftovers of Alize Baby Wool (wool/acrylic/bamboo blend) and for the coat the very last remains of Malabrigo Sock. I also added a nice collar to the sweater. In order to easily find my sheep in the giant Yarndale flock I gave it a haircut. Three shorts pieces of Drops Lima, some combing, and sewing... and voila!

Korek wasn't interested in participating so I took the liberty of photographing him in his sleep. Isn't he a cutie? A lazy one, but still!

I had to secure the parcel somehow without using a plastic-padded envelope. After digging through all sorts of materials I found a piece of undyed Crêpe paper. How did it get to my room? No idea. But hey! It came in handy!

Now all I have to do is to keep my fingers crossed for postal service. Have a safe trip, little sheep!

And nice afternoon to you all!

Gosia.

Pincha!

It took 36 days, 97grams of Malabrigo Sock "Playa", one pair of 3,5 mm straight needles and a free pattern  Pincha shawl by Pinpilan Wangsai... But here it is. All ready, soft, warm and squishy!

With 24 feathers!

I'm such a lucky girl! It's really cold today, so I can wrap it around me without the danger of suffocation an overheating.  Also a dim light helps showing off the true color of this yarn.

Working on this shawl was really pleasant, and by 6th or 7th feather I memorized the entire sequence. Yes, I admit I had to go back few times and there is one mistake I know about...

...but I can't find it anymore, so that's good, right?

I had a bit of a problem with blocking it. Usually I block my items by soaking them in water with some mild detergent and letting them dry. But yesterday, of all days, a main water pipe was damaged few blocks away. We still get yellow-ish tap water, and I wouldn't dare to put my precious merino into it!

Therefore I just steamed it thoroughly, and I am really pleased with the effect. Here's how it looked pre-blocked:

Not a big difference there, except maybe for the feel of it.

I wanted to show you how good it looks when wrapped around my neck.

But SOMEONE photobombed this pic mercilessly!

I feel like I need to  take a rest from short rows for a while. Maybe I'l finally have time to finish the second pair of anle socks for my mom?

Or write down a pattern for a baby dress I made...

We'll see!

Have a nice afternoon!

Gosia.

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.

Hasiok's new friend.

Hey, look who I found hanging around in my backyard!

Ok, to be honest I found him on Ravelry (where else?). I was lucky enough to join a free KAL for Owen's Opossum. This cutie was designed by my all-time favorite toy designer: Sara Elizabeth Kellner from Rabitt Hole Knits.

I finished knitting my possum in less than 3 days. I used acrylic yarn leftovers from my Purple Cats, and some pretty random scraps. Since I used smaller needles (3mm for magic loop, and 2,5mm dpns) he came out smaller than original.

 I haven't decided how to call him yet, I was thinking Frank - in honor of Fairway Frank from one of  Parks and Recreation episodes.

While outside, Frank tried to make my dog like him. They didn't get along so well.
Sometimes Korek seems just tired of it all:

"Keep your stupid knitting away!!!"

I went back to my attic and look who showed up! Just in time to meet his new pal!

They seem to be enjoying their company, peeking out of my window. I wonder what are those to up to? I just hope it's not related with my yarn stash in any way.

Well I'm definitely up to making a nice milkshake, with red currants! :3
And making some progress on my scarf. The one I'll share with next time.


Have a nice afternoon!
Gosia.

Cleaning up my project bags.

It's my first summer without summer brake... It is kinda hard, because usually July was my busiest knitting month. I'm not giving up this year, though!
In last few weeks I completed one big project and two smaller ones. And today I received long a awaited parcel - a skein of Malabrigo Sock yarn. I also got a free project bag, since the postage was seriously delayed. Oooh my!

But let's get back to my former -WIPs. I present to you.. my brand new Syna Shawl. Pattern Syna by Mary Renji.

For this shawl I used Cotton Soft by YarnArt and I was really pleased. This yarn is almost unspliatble! Perfect for crocheting!

The only modification I made was finishing work after a solid section. Last row was crocheted using a crab stitch. I still have some yarn left, but I decided it's big enough:

Now I have to buy a matching dress, because we've been invited to a wedding.

My other no-longer-WIPs are not that big, in fact they are tiny! It's a set of newborn-size cardi and a matching hat for my friend. She's expecting her first baby, and I still need to make a pair of small booties.

Free patterns: Marianna's Lazy Daisy Top-Down with sleeves  and eyelet baby hat, both by marianna mel.
For those I used what I had left from Never Again Blanket, which was made for the same baby-to-be.

Now forgive me, but I can hear my lovely, soft, delicate skein of Malabrigo Sock yarn whisper... "wind me, wiiiiind meee!". I just have to trick my hubby into being a skein holder for a while!

Have a nice afternoon!

Gosia.

Children's Day!

Who doesn't love Children's Day? Being 26 years old is not a good enough reason not to celebrate it, right?
Over a week ago my and my hubby got invited by my in-laws to their holiday home. Placed in small town, very near to mountains. Weather was surprisingly good, so we even got to do some hiking!

I regretted not taking any of my WIP's with me, so I could do some open air crocheting.
While enjoying the view, that is.

When we took some rest in the evening, my mother-in-law asked if I heard of octopuses (or is it octopi?) for preemies. As soon as I got home I googled a bit and gathered info on The Danish Octo Project. I found also a big Polish group on Facebook, crocheting and distributing octopuses.

All softies must be made of 100% cotton, and stuffed with polyester filling.
Soo... I dug up all skein ends of Alize Bella I could find and started my work. First two projects are staying with me, because I didn't get the tension right, and filling shows through :( I couldn't bring myself to frog them, though.
Here's my collection of finished octopuses/pi:

Two in the middle are the ones staying :)

I also have some unfinished heads, and tomorrow I'm visiting my sister in search of more cotton.
Let's just have one more look at those swirling arms, shall we?

I think I could find time to crochet another one today.
Have a nice afternoon!

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.