It seems to be anew thing with me that each time I go somewhere I know exactly where the next alpaca far is located. How convenient! So when we last spend a week in a holiday apartment in the black forest there was the Kreuzmatthof only 10 km away from where we stayed, which of course was totally coincidental. So I wrote an email to Sabine asking if I may visit and maybe buy some wool, she almost immediately answered that I may :) Continue reading
I tried to get my hands on some local Alpaca fibre, but my favorite dealer (we often go there and take a walk with the alpacas) didn’t have any left when I started spinning and he referred my to another alpaca farm not far from here. I phoned with the lovely owner and she sent me 900g of already washed and carded fibre of her Suri Alpacas. And this is were the story of Marvin’s new Alpaca Cardigan starts. Continue reading
The first week plus a few days of this year’s MeMadeMay have passed and as promised I’ll show you what I wore. I published daily pictures in my sidebar and no where else. I didn’t sign up on Zoe’s Blog and I didn’t pledge anything to anyone either. But my secret goal is to have a lot of fun ;) Continue reading
The temperature has dropped since last weekend and I don’t mind, because that means it is cold enough to wear cardigans again :) Plus I have knitted several pieces that I haven’t blogged about yet, so I used a short break from the rain to take pictures. I made that cardigan half a year ago, I think it took me so long to blog about it because I made it from store-bought yarn, which kind of feels like cheating now that I can make my own yarn. Also I didn’t use instructions for this one but thought of the design myself. I was thinking of publishing my pattern for some time but I don’t like the design enough to go through all that work. But let’s start at the beginning: Continue reading
I just finished this dress in time to show it off before it gets too warm here. I wasn’t sure if I was gonna make it, it took me all winter and most of autumn to finish this thing. I don’t think anything ever took me so long so complete. Teh dress started with a big 1 kg ball of fiber that Marvin gave me for my birthday. The fiber is from Australian Merino Sheep and very fine and soft. It was combed into roving and consisted of 3 different shades of red, you can find a product picture of it here. Sadly I didn’t take a picture of the huge roving ball I had, looked ridiculous, and I remember thinking that I would never finish spinning it. Continue reading
Almost 3 and a half years ago I knitted myself a color gradient sweater. I knitted it from some relatively thick cotton yarn and ended up using 7.0 mm needles and a lot of yarn. To achieve a kind of gradient color I knitted with 3 threads at a time, always changing the color of a single thread one at a time. The pullover was meant to be worn in spring but it got too thick for that and as it was knitted from cotton it also wasn‘t warm, enough to be worn during winter. Continue reading
Okay, maybe some of you remember that I started spinning? Well, I just finished my first handspun sweater. I dyed, spun and knitted this sweater all by myself and I am enormously proud :) And that is the reason why I am showing you another sweater today ;) I couldn’t help it, I just had to show the pictures to the world :) Continue reading
Shortly after showing off my selfish Icelandic sweater I am now ready to show you exhibit no 2: the unselfish Icelandic sweater! Before we went to Iceland Marvin thought about buying a real Icelandic sweater directly there. When he saw the reasonable but high prices for the sweaters knowing that I would love to knit him one myself he decided that that was what he wanted ;) I think it is a waste of suitcase space packing a bought jacket instead of some more skeins of wool, so naturally I was content with his decision. Continue reading
On to the next item of my knitted sweaters stack :) Back in May we visited Iceland were everything is expensive except for wool. I don’t know how the Icelandic people did it but they imported sheep a while back, the sheep adapted to the climate and now they are know as Icelandic sheep. Their wool is very special. And it is very itchy, oh so itchy, but also very durable and warm. Continue reading
Today I start pulling sweaters from my stack of handknit sweaters I told you about last week ;) I’ll start with the oldest one. I knitted it in February but as there was a lot going on my life the first half of the year I wasn’t able to blog about it before it got too warm. Luckily it got colder again and so the cardigan already got a lot of wears. It definitely fills a gap in my wardrobe (as if there really was one… ;)) because it is red and warm and cropped. I’m not sure what was first the pattern or the yarn. Continue reading