Autumn/Herbst

It' s getting more and more chilly in the mornings - autumn is finally here to stay. I made a door wreath with the rose-hips from my garden and keep the wooden fire burning in my hall.



I needed a small triangle scarf and knitted it with the colourful handdyed wool I bought from 'Dornröschen' earlier this fall - it's a 6-ply sock yarn.

As a small decoration in front, I knitted a woven part for the front by dividing the stitches within a square, knitting three cords separately.



Now I'm planning to start a bit of experimenting - with the embellisher and with embroidery techniques again ...

(German summary: Der Herbst hat jetzt auch bei uns endgültig Einzug gehalten und es ist kühl und nebelig in der Früh.

Ich habe aus Hagebutten einen Türkranz gewunden und schüre das Feuer im Ofen. Mit der dicken, bunten Sockenwolle von Dornröschen habe ich einen kleinen Dreikantschal gestrickt und ihn mit einem geflochtenen Mittenteil versehen.

Demnächst plane ich wieder ein paar Experimente mit dem Embellisher und mit Stickerei.)

Just a small addition/Kleines Postscriptum

I just want to add another crazy idea to my last posting:



Yesterday my daughter was playing 'Mikado' (also known as jackstraws or pick-up sticks) with a friend - and suddenly I realized they could become great knitting needles as well ...

I measured them - and do you know what? The small (normal sized) ones are 3,5 mm and the big ones 5 mm - just the same size as the barbeque sticks and the chopsticks! Isn't that a co-incidence?

Which means I won't get any new gauges with these sticks - on the other hand, I could turn it the other way round and do another Mikado sets with those waste barbeque and chopsticks ...

(German summary: Als ich meiner Tochter beim Mikadospielen zusah, kam mir der Gedanke, auch diese Stäbchen als Stricknadeln zu verwenden - allerdings stellte sich heraus, daß sie haargenau die gleiche Stärke wie die Grillspießchen und Eßstäbchen haben! Allerdings könnte man aus solchen wieder ein neues Mikadospiel machen ...)

Taking it further .../Selbstgemachte Stricknadeln

As I've been knitting a lot with my Chinese chopsticks lately - they have a very handy length for the knitting I'm doing right now and are comfortable to knit with - I thought I would like to present them once more ...

This time I've taken it a bit further - and I still find it to be a very easy and useful way to recycle your Asian take-away cutlery !

Using a normal pencil sharpener and a fine grain sand paper, you can turn your chopsticks into a pair of knitting needles (mine are about 5 mm). This time, I used some felt-tip pens to colour them, drawing the pattern with a waterproof overhead pen, then covering them with a thin coat of transparent varnish. As my varnish was water-based, the colours were a bit blurred - which resulted in a very handsome patina, all by itself!

I made a set of five very short double pointed needles too - using them as a stitch holder when knitting braids or other patterns where you need to 'park' the stitches in between -



and another set of five double pointed needles, for socks or hats knitted with medium thick yarn - this time I didn't colour them, just polished them with a bit of a wax candle to get them real smooth.



The smaller sized set above is made out of five wooden barbeque sticks - mine are 3,5 mm, which means they are perfect for normal sock yarn!

The effort of making these is almost zero, you can colour them any way you like to - and they would make a nice treat or present with a matching strand of yarn too, wouldn't they? And they are recycled!

(German summary: Weil ich so gerne damit stricke, zeige ich nochmals meine selbstgemachten Stricknadeln aus chinesischen Eßstäbchen (5 mm) und Grillspießchen (3,5 mm) - mit einem normalen Bleistiftspitzer und einem feinen Schleifpapier kann man sie ganz einfach so formen, wie man sie braucht! Am Ende bemalt man sie dann noch mit Filzstiften und etwas farblosen Lack - oder poliert sie nur mit einem Stück Kerzenwachs!)

Metamorphosis/Verwandlung

While searching for some tools, I found some forgotten nuts and O-rings in my toolbox ...



... and combined with a little of those self-dyed cotton threads and a single seed bead, they were suddenly transformed into a brooch - isn't that magic?



Where is your toolbox?

(German summary: Im Werkzeugkasten fand ich ein paar vergessene Muttern und Dichtungsringe - und Simsalabim: mit ein paar Fäden umwickelt, wurden sie plötzlich zu einer Brosche! Wo ist Dein Werkzeugkasten?)