Brief and short is better than nothing

I don't have as much time for blogging as I would like to have. I've got two exams coming up: one written exam, which will be fairly easy and one oral exam, which will be fairly hard with lots of stuff to memorize and understand(it's mostly logic stuff again...).
If I'm not learning, I'm crafting or surfing the net a bit. Writing blog entries would take away the little free time I have, so they will be scarce and probably also quite brief. I will try to make up for that with a few photos though ;-)

1.fleamarket finds:
lots of quality fabric for 2€ per meter! Bottom fabrics for free!:

School weaving loom, 3€:


From my grandaunt:


2. finished projects:
The best hat pattern ever: le slouch from knitandtonic!


Sublime napkins:

More Shrinky Dink fun:

3. WIP's
my own version of the Chevron scarf:

my coat, old photo, has grown double since then:

socks out of this yarn, on hold at the moment, have to finish another pair for a grandaunt of mine first:

fashion victim

You know how it is, don't you? When the season changes and all the magazines, stores and "celebrities"(using that word in its widest sense) showcast the newest, hippest and oh-so-hot trends, you will soon see a lot of people on the street wearing exactly that no matter how ridiculous it looks. And sometimes trends even take 1 or 2 years untill they hit the big masses. Nevertheless, you're a grown up and long ago realised that not every trend has to be followed in order to look good(actually quite often following every trend leads to the exact opposit result).

And then one day you go shopping and...you fall in love with one pair of pants, that is just perfect and fits great and...well, is quite trendy and probably a knock-off of something Paris Hilton once wore!

Yes, I brought a pair of hip pants. It has a knit waistband and a drawstring closure and the cotton fabric is a navy blue and white stripes pattern, need I say more? And to top it of, I brought some black ballerinas with a white polkadot pattern. They are darn uncomfortable as I found out today(let's just say that the only shoes I will be able to wear for the next three days are my sport shoes), but oh sooooo cute together with the pants...

In knitting news, I started knitting cotton socks, cause the cowl yarn is too warm to knit right now. I also joined the mystery shawl 3 group, but will have to order the yarn first(I want to use Zephyr in white).

I also sewed a bit this weekend instead of knitting. I wish I had more time for sewing, but it always takes me so much time to set everything up and trace patterns etc.
First I sewed a pair of sleeping shorts.

Pattern: traced from a old pair of shorts
Fabric: Star Wars knit fabric from the fabric market
Notes: I love to wear big shorts for sleeping especially when it's as warm as it's now. Therefore the circumference for these shorts is 40+inch and an elastic is sewn in into the top part.
And today I sewed another skirt.

Pattern: Easy fashion, H/W 2005/2006
Fabric: embroidered linnen
Notes: The fabric was pretty cheap because the embroidery is loose in some areas, I don't mind that because first you can't really see this and second I will probably only wear it a few times anyway. The color is totally off in the picture, it's actually a dark brown!
And then I went a bit silly and did what you just have to do when you wear a skirt like this :-)

atishoo!

Yepp, that I did do a lot today. In order to change that I will have to remember to take my medicine every day and not just every other, actually wash my hair in the evening not in the morning and only open my window in the morning and late evening.
Furthermore I managed to clean my room today which took a long time and many more atishoos, but atleast it's clean and almost free of pollen!
I've got a picture to prove it:

The cleanest it has been for over a month(yes, I know that is kind of urghhs, but I hate to clean my room). And I got rid of a couple of dust catchers, they are pretty to look at, but impossible to clean so they had to go.

In knitting news not much has happened today as it's incredible warm, but I started knitting the somewhat cowl from knit and tonic awhile ago. I changed the increases a lot because of the skinny arms mentioned in the last post and am now knitting the sleeves. This is my second try at the pattern. My first got frogged cause the yarn I used was a very slippery cotton yarn and I was only able to knit two rows before my wrists started to hurt.


Now all I have to find is something to knit while it's so warm outside, maybe some cotton socks since I need another pair anyway?

Headless or I really should get a hair cut soon

I finally managed to take pics of the Scoop du Jour, but they are headless. Really, my hair looks horrible right now and I'm so not going to make that public!
Scoop du Jour

Pattern: Scoop du Jour from Chick knits
Yarn: "Miro 5fach" from Schoppel; 50% cotton and 50% polyacryl
Needles: can't remember
Size: the smallest
Modifications + notes:
-I swear, I got gauge for this one perfectly, but somehow my gauge must have changed while knitting, cause it's a lot bigger than I wanted it to be. It's ok, I wear it anyway, but if I should knit this one again, I will recalculate stitches.
-The arms were much too wide too, so I had to frog one sleeve after knitting half of it. That may just be a problem I have because I have the skinniest arms in the world. Even when I weighted much more, my arms were always small, now they are even smaller.
I only casted on less stitches for the arms and then had to increase many for the sleeve cap, which resulted in a lot of bulkyness at my upper arm...
-Oh, and there's a mistake I made too, but I'm not going to tell you what it is ;-) You can see it if you make the photos bigger though.

Apart from taking those photos I also plied some yarn:

I love the color combo!

Currently listening to: http://www.kexp.org better than any radio station you can get around here and the best is that when there's the morning show it is afternoon here!

I rediscovered it

Ah, my Bloglust has returned to me, only I have little time to blog! I have so many crafty projects and ideas I want to finish this weekend so I will begin this post now and every spare second inbetween waiting for things to cool of, heat up etc I will add something. Let's see how that goes...
...I have a bunch of finished projects to show you, but since they are so many, I thought I would just show you one sample and than let you discover the rest on flickr. If you have any questions about those or want me to write more about a project here, tell me and I will answer...

...OH MY GOD!!!! I didn't realized how many projects I had finished since my last substantial crafty blog post. Ok, I will show you one project that I'm pretty proud of, because it took the longest from idea to FO.

Yes, it's a cross stitch. You might now about subversive cross stitch. I always liked the designs but from the first time I saw them I knew I would want to make my own. Besides all you need is an alphabet, right? Well, yes and a text. Which is half of the problem, cause I didn't wanted anything too vulgare, just something a bit fun and quirky. Finally one day, I had this idea(among others that are not yet stitched): "Angsthase". Which means coward in german, but it's composed of the words Angst=fear and Hase=Bunny. Kind of cute, isn't it?...

...The Scoop de Jour is finished and has already been worn. I'm shocked I haven't posted a pic yet, I was a 100% sure I already did!...

...Just wanted to post the pic and write the info, but there's no pic in my folder! Seems like I didn't take one!?? Too dark to take one now, but I will post about it tomorrow as I did some minor changes to the pattern etc...

...to be continued...

knitting meme

I found this meme at Westerly Whimsies and it seems to be originally from rineke. I thought it fun, so here it is:
Bold for stuff you’ve done, italics for stuff you plan to do one day, and normal for stuff you’re not planning on doing.

Afghan/Blanket
I-cord
Garter stitch
Knitting with metal wire
Shawl
Stockinette stitch
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Knitting with camel yarn
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Hat
Knitting with silk
Moebius band knitting
Participating in a KAL
Sweater
Drop stitch patterns
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Slip stitch patterns
Knitting with banana fiber yarn
Domino knitting (modular knitting)
Twisted stitch patterns
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Two end knitting
Charity knitting
Knitting with soy yarn
Cardigan
Toy/doll clothing
Knitting with circular needles
Knitting with your own handspun yarn
Slippers
Graffiti knitting (knitting items on, or to be left on the street)
Continental knitting
Designing knitted garments
Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran)
Lace patterns
Publishing a knitting book
Scarf
American/English knitting (as opposed to continental)
Knitting to make money
Button holes
Knitting with alpaca
Fair Isle knitting (atleast I tried)
Norwegian knitting
Dyeing with plant colors (let's not talkabout that result..)
Knitting items for a wedding
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cozies…)
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars
Olympic knitting
Knitting with someone else’s handspun yarn
Knitting with DPNs
Holiday related knitting
Teaching a male how to knit
Bobbles
Knitting for a living
Knitting with cotton
Knitting smocking
Dyeing yarn
Steeks
Knitting art
Fulling/felting
Knitting with wool
Textured knitting
Kitchener BO
Purses/bags
Knitting with beads
Swatching
Long Tail CO
Entrelac
Knitting and purling backwards
Machine knitting
Knitting with self-patterning/self-striping/variegating yarn
Stuffed toys
Baby items
Knitting with cashmere
Darning
Jewelry
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Writing a pattern
Gloves
Intarsia
Knitting with linen
Knitting for preemies
Tubular CO
Freeform knitting
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerless mitts/arm warmers
Pillows
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine
Rug
Knitting on a loom
Thrummed knitting
Knitting a gift
Knitting for pets
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Knitting with dog/cat hair
Hair accessories
Knitting in public

revelation and crafting

First of, my SP revealed herself. It was Beverly! Thanks again for beeing my fantabulous SP this round!
She was my first SP that I didn't kind of guessed before the round was finished eventhough I knew where she lived and her real name. The funny thing though is that I did click a link from one of her posts in the SP thread to her blog and a post of her own sp package where at the bottom she wrote that the she would send the next package to her downstream sp(me) by UPS! I so could have figured her out if I just had read that!!!
Which is another reason to not just look at the pretty picture when visiting blogs. I'm still working on cutting down my bloglist, but with minimal outcome. I think I have deleted two blogs, but added the same number...
Oh and Diane was the recipient of my packages!

Anyway, the Star Wars pillows I made for my brother were a big hit, he loves them and said they would be for decoration only, too precious to sleep/sit on!
Knitwise my Scoop de Jour is almost finished and I brought some buttons for it today so now I can finally add the finishing touches.
I also started another cardigan out of Rowan Summer tweed. The pattern I'm using is from that Rowan summer tweed book and is called Cinnamon. Not sure yet if I will make it with buttons or without.
In other crafty news I finished a bunch of stuff for another round of the "Shop the Swap" on craftster. Too tired to add any pictures, but you can have a look over there. Not much else got finished.

Crafty girl

There's a reason I had not bloged for a week. Besides studying I did a lot of crafting mainly for a swap on craftster(Shop the Swap). Following are some of the things from my "shop" and some other crafted stuff:

knitting needle rolls for DPNS:

Dyed roving and sock yarn:

Star wars pillows, the first set is for my brothers 18th birthday:


Then I finally managed to sew in the lining for my cupcake purse. I'm pretty proud of the neat handstitching, my best so far. Though if I would do this again, I wouldn't interface the lining, atleast not with the strong interfacing I normally use for my bags as it's a bit too stiff:

(click to see neat stitches!)
And my Scoop du Jour is almost finished too. It took me quite a bit longer than I had thought it would take. The yarn is a cotton/acrylic blend and I can't knit as long as I want to with it. I still need to search for some buttons and then add the button and neck band.

knitting projects

What can I say, I'm addicted to swaps! I swapped a lot the last two months, mostly just supplies and fabric. It will be hard not to swap much for the next two months untill I have payed the study fees!
Anyway, here are some of the crafted things I send:
1. a tube top that gladly fit the recipient. I really wasn't sure about that and had no one to try fit it on. But as you can see it looks great on her! I also send a yoyo brooch along.


2. a pair of leg warmers. After I knit these I thought for some time to make myself some cause I loved how they came out, but I never wear leg warmers. It would just be a waste of yarn and time making some for myself. Good thing there are swaps so I can atleast knit some for others!

she liked them too ;-)

3.I also dyed and send some roving+sock yarn. I really liked the white-blue one and think I will dye that way again. I guess it would result in a really light blue with darker blue when spun up.

4.+5. two Calorimetries. I love to knit them as they are fast and only take an evening to make plus you don't need much yarn so it's a good project for all of those single skeins in my stash.

And I decided to knit Scoop du Jour from the retrieved yarn. I even began knitting the back and am almost getting the gauge. In fact the back is just a few rows short of completion and the only thing that stopped me from finishing it yesterday was that my hands started to hurt, always a sign to stop knitting.

In sp news, I have a hard time coming up with ideas for the last package for my downstream pal. Fortunately I had brought yarn before I had to buy a new sewing machine, so she surely gets that, but what else to send? I already finished a little knit project too, but the package looks so empty. Will have to think about that a little more.

yoyo-craze

Ever since I made my first yoyo brooch I've been eyeing my fabrics and matching them. I actually sewed a couple of yoyos, but had to wait for my button lots from Ebay to arrive untill I could finish the brooches. Here are some in various stages:

The two on the left are finished, with a stabilized fabric circle at the back and a pin. On my first brooch I had attached the pin right unto the fabric yoyo and found out it's a bit too loose and makes pinning it to something difficult. That's why I added a small circle to the back of those two with fusible interfacing to stabilze it. Works much better!
I love making these and I hate sewing by hand normally! I have to admit though that I stopped making more despite the great fabric combinations still waiting to be made into yoyo brooches because what should I do with a dozen fabric brooches? Even I don't need that many!

knitting:
I finished a couple of knitting projects, some were for swaps and have been received already so I will post pics of them tomorrow. Which left me with 0/ zero/ null knitting projects at the moment! Can you hear the despair? I'm truely addicted to knitting and having no project at all is...well, what did I ever do while watching tv before? I mean are there really people who just watch tv and do nothing else at the same time? It's sooooooooo boring!
I could have cast on another pair of socks, but I want my next socks to be patterned socks, no more excuses about finding the right sock pattern etc. Instead I unraveled my Miro top that was way to big and will use the yarn for my next project. I was thinking about a sweater or cardigan. Maybe SCOOP du JOUR?

Swap projects

I've been in a couple of craftster swaps lately and therefore couldn't post pics of some of my finished projects. But now that they've been received, feast your eyes:
1. dyed roving

I loved how the left one came out and debated parting with it. In the end I told myself that my swap partner might just like it as much as I do and send it.

2. knitted leg warmers

These are the first leg warmers I ever knit. I was a bit anxcious if they would fit, but my partner sais they fit perfectly! You might recognize the yarn, it's the same selfdyed lamb yarn I used for one of my sweaters and I still have left-overs from it!

3. heart swap

This is by far the best bag I ever sewed, if I might say so myself. I loved it so much I wanted to keep it for myself! I already cut some pieces to reproduce it for myself, but have to change the colors since I don't have enough of all the fabrics anymore.
And just because I'm so proud of it, more pics:

busy bee

As you probably already guessed, I was quite busy lately trying to finish all my WIPs. Not only did I finished the cotton candy, but also a scarf/shawl and the camisole.
First the scarf: The pattern is a simplification of eunny's print o'the wave stole. Fewer repeats and a simple garter stitch edge instead of the fancy one. It's knit out of Kauni yarn 100% wool, my mum thinks it's too scratchy for a scarf, I think it's perfect! It even smells a faint bit wooly plus it matches my coat!
Unfortunately the picture is not very good, but I hope you get the idea. There's also my fab shawl pin from scottsmountaincrafts, love it! (Have you seen her new bracelets? Wish my arms weren't that skinny and I could wear bracelets, see pictures below for what I mean)


The camisole has been blocked too. I blocked the hell out of it since it ended up beeing much too wide due to my gauge changing while knitting. Well, it definately isn't too wide anymore, but now it's quite lengthy flowing over my hips. I don't mind though, it's rather hip now, isn't it?

(I really, really need to get my hair cut, but I can't decide how...)

I also dyed some roving for a swap and since I couldn't decide what kind of colors I wanted to send I dyed a bunch more and decided afterwards. The rest is going into my fiber stash.

I already spun up one that isn't in the above picture and plied it with some undyed fiber

I love how it turned out! It's light blue with light blue-green. I'm thinking about knitting socks out of this though I probably have to spin the rest of it for that too.

Well, with almost all my projects finished I felt lost. What to knit next? I opted against another pair of socks(though I just brought some more sock yarn...) and tried out Domino knitting instead. I had brought this book recently and it is really nice. The instructions are pretty clear and take you every step. I'm not so fond of the patterns especially the yarn choices made. I think Domino knitting just screams for multicolored yarn.
Anyway I made this potholder for my mum within two hours.


Ok, there also was a lot of shopping lately, but I will only show you this gigantic fabric stash enhancement. These are over 18m of Ikea fabric! Ikea had a special last Tuesday: 2 for 1! Yes, you got two yards for the price of 1! I went there early in the morning to be there when they open cause I knew the chaos it would be. Of course that was the day a truck lightly hit a car and though nobody seems to have been injured the 15 minutes trip to Ikea took me 1.5 hours!!!
The fabric section had turned into hell by the time I finally arrived! Nevertheless I got everything I had wanted to buy.


You might not believe it, but I'm a pretty stubborn person. Once I set my mind on something there's not much that can distract me from it. I'm very much like my father in that characteristic, though he denies beeing stubborn ;-)
There was a contest on Dawanda , which is kind of like a german etsy. It was a valentines contest where you had to mark your favorits and then you randomly got kissed by valentin, valentina or a frog. For every valentin or valentins you got a point and the three persons with the most points would get something of their favorits list.
That's where my stubbornness set in and I kept on adding to my favorits, must have been hundreds and hundreds of things I marked( you could see the top 8 persons I think). Well, in the end I was indeed number three!
To my surprise I was allowed to make 3 suggestions for the price which I did. And then even more surprising, I did not just get one item, but two!!!
First this really cool felt pillow arrived. It matches my room and is just fab. I'm really thinking about buying a second one. http://dawanda.com/user/berlinerfilz

And today this amazing brooch was in the mail! I'm a sucker for pretty brooches! http://dawanda.com/user/filani