LunaKnit

My Socktober socks are ready. All three pairs of them. I used tincanknits' Rye Sock pattern for them, and made a pair for each member of our little family. I would really like to recommend this sock pattern: the fit is great (Magnus thinks these are the best fitting woolen socks he has ever had), they were quite easy and fast to knit, and they look really good. And the pattern is freely available for download via Ravelry. A while back I posted a question asking your help for knitting heels. I had problems with picking the stitches from the sides of the heel flaps because I thought they were loose and little holes appeared at the sides of the gussets because of it. I had tried to pull the stitches at the beginning of each heel flap row really tight and then knit the picked stitches through the back loop (twisting them) to make them even tighter but it didn't give me a satisfactory result. You guys had many great tips and I already tried some of them.  First th...

As I've often mentioned on this blog, I never really learned to knit as a child (I did finish the mandatory socks and mittens we were all expected to knit in elementary school, but I hated it and decided never to touch yarn or needles again) and only taught myself to knit after I turned 20. So there are a lot of things I've had to figure out for myself as I've had no one to show me the ropes or help me when I was stuck.  I've made so many mistakes, but (hopefully) learned from every one of them. Some mistakes I had to repeat more than once before figuring out what I was doing wrong. Still I wish I could now go back and tell the beginner version of me a few things I've learned during the past few years - especially after I found Ravelry and a whole new world of knitting. I'm sharing them with you, because some of you might still be in the beginner state and I'm hoping to spare you from the same mistakes I've made. 12 THINGS I WISH I KNEW...

Just a quick update to show you what I'm working on at the moment. I already mentioned that I'm participating in a test knit for a maori inspired cowl, a project I'm really excited about. Here's how far I've gotten with it: Fair-isle knitting always looks ugly and a bit wonky before blocking but I'm sure it will look much better when it's all smooth and neat and off the needles. I'm really digging the yarn though, it's super soft and not at all itchy like alpaca yarns usually tend to be.  I'm also still working on the Jackdaw pullover for Magnus. I feel like it's taking forever and I don't see any progress even though I've put hours into it. If it was something for me, I'd put it on hold for a while but since it's a present and already horribly late, I feel like I should be working on it and feel slightly guilty every time I knit something else... One more thing I've been knitting is a onesie for the baby....

I'm taking part in a test knit for ArohaKnits , with the trial for the Tapatoru cowl starting today. I'm so excited about this project! I already have so much stuff that needs to be finished as well as a little baby, but this design was just so pretty that I couldn't help but participate. (I also think it's important to help independent designers and test knitting is a perfect opportunity for that.) I also made my Instagram profile public today, and you can find me under the name sari_n_. I'm still not sure if I'll leave it that way, I have to see how I feel about sharing my life on such a public forum. Even though I share photos and write about my personal life here on this blog I still find it more anonymous than Instagram. 

I was so planning on showing you every Wednesday what I had on my needles and what I was working on, but wait - it's already Friday! Where did this week go? I finally got my yarn order and now my stash is once again over-flowing with pretty skeins. These past few days I've been mostly knitting Magnus's birthday sweater (which is already over a month late) - it's the Jackdaw from Brooklyn Tweed's BT Men Volume 2 collection. I've now finally got the back ready and I've started knitting the front. At this moment I'm just past the bottom ribbing and a few rows in the chart.  I'm anxious to see how it looks when it's blocked and the cables relax a bit. The texture is quite unlike anything else I've ever knitted, and while it's quite easy to memorise, I don't really find it very intuitive so it doesn't make good TV knitting. Even though I'm most certainly not a monogamous knitter (at this moment I think ...