Autumn flowers

Some autumn flowers for you for still hanging around, although I'm late again!



We have had - and occasionally still have - warm and sunny Indian summer days here in the south-east of Austria, the mornings and evenings can be chilly, though.

So I decided to crochet a flowery cape shawl, big colourful stars, using three different balls of 6-ply variegated sock yarn and a 6 mm hook, attaching the stars on the go.



I added a couple of rows for a 'neckband' and some flower buttons too, so it stays put while my hands are busy doing other things :-)!



(German summary: Diesmal habe ich einen Schalumhang gehäkelt, denn trotz der wunderbar sonnigen Spätsommertage sind die Abende doch schon ein bißchen kühl. 6-fädiges Sockengarn und eine dicke Häkelnadel (nr 6) - und mit ein paar Blumenknöpfen bleibt der Schal auch fest auf den Schultern!)

Hibernating in a pile of sockwool ...

Oh dear, this year seems to run even faster than the last one ... and although hibernating regarding my postings (and I'm sorry for that!), I haven't been idle at all, but quite industrious -

So where shall I begin?

Well, it started with me finding an on-line provider of high-quality and non-expensive sock wool ... and as you know I love making anything but socks with that interesting, variegated yarn, I was tempted enough to buy a couple of kilos ...

As I had bought packages of unspecified colours, it was an even bigger challenge to find suitable projects - pink/rosé isn't really what I use to wear, but in combination with that green ...



anyway, it turned out to become a vest, a very comfortable one, which I'm already wearing.

The pattern, which is actually a kind of 'granny square' with distinct 'holes' at the corners, not only shows the colour variegation well but also produces a diagonal pattern which I find quite attractive. I found it in 'Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders' by Judith Durant, where it's originally used for a shoulder bag.

Then I had some of that greenish 6-ply wool left - and together with some scraps of Noro Silk Garden Sock Yarn from my stash, I decided to crochet a little neck bag, using Lucy's 'Granny Wheel' at Attic24.



My bag is about 14 x 13 cm, and I can use it both sides.

The next thing I want to show you is the second version of the 'Japanese Flower Shawl' - exactly the same pattern as in my previous posting, still very different-looking as I used a 4-ply sock wool with very long colour sequences this time (found at a local shop) and a smaller hook. I also deliberately made a colour change for each round to get a more distinct appearance.



Here you have another picture featuring the Noro shawl to the left, the sock wool shawl to the right, for comparison.



As you can see, I've become really hooked on crocheting with variegated sock yarn - both the 4-ply and the 6-ply yarns are very comfortable for that purpose, and choosing smaller and bigger hooks makes the work pieces sturdy or soft, whatever intended.

And of course I started more projects than these just presented ... but I will show them later on, when accomplished.

Finally just another triangle shawl which I've just finished - knitted with a multi-coloured yarn I spun myself - a dear friend of mine will receive it as a birthday present.



(German summary: Es tut mir leid, daß ich wieder einmal so lange gebraucht habe, um aus dem 'Blog-Winterschlaf' zu finden - gefaulenzt habe ich trotzdem nicht, sondern mich vor allem mit Sockenwolle und verschiedenen Häkelprojekten beschäftigt: eine Weste, eine kleine Häkeltasche und noch eine zweite Version des Blumenschals - ja, und ein gestricktes Tuch aus selbstgesponnener Wolle ist auch noch dabei.)

Small Xmas-project IV: Crocheted star garland/Weihnachtsprojekt IV: Girlande aus Häkelsternen

If you happen to have an evening left - and some bits of sockwool - you could still make a small star garland for yourself or for a friend ...



I found this very easy-to-follow tutorial on Ellen Bloom's blog - though instead of acrylic, I decided to use some leftover variegated sockwool, both 4-ply and 6-ply, with a crochet hook 3,5 mm - and I spaced them a bit more, about 25 chain stitches inbetween, as I didn't have the time to make that many ...

My 4-ply stars are about 4,5 cm, the 6-ply about 5,5 cm big - so this is a small and sweet garland - but of course you can use whatever yarn you have stashed.



And if you don't find the time now, remember there will be a new Christmas time next year!

(German summary: Eine feine und doch einfache Häkelanleitung für kleine Sternchen habe ich auf Ellen Bloom's blog gefunden - mit Sockenwollresten schauen sie noch einmal so süß aus, finde ich!)

Mini Summer Project III: Tiny neck bag/Kleines Sommerprojekt III: Winzige Umhängetasche

Since it's raining cats and dogs almost every day lately, I decided to do the best of it and curl up under a warm throw on the couch and amuse myself with listening to audiobooks while knitting or crocheting ...

After having treated myself to a small MP3-player I now needed some kind of tiny bag to hang it around my neck - so I came up with this:



The whole bag is quite small, only 9 x 9 cm, still it can hold both the player and the ear phones along with the cable.

I took some sock wool scraps and a 3,5 mm crochet hook, doing 10 chain sts and working scs for three rows, then connecting the rings to one another with a couple of stitches, using the yarnend left.

The neck string is simply done with double yarn and chain sts - this is the 'backside' of the bag:



(German summary: Diese winzige Umhängetasche haltet MP3-Player, Ohrhörer und Kabel bereit für meine Hörbücher - sie ist aus Sockenwollresten gehäkelt und nur 9 x 9 cm groß.)

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.)

Hooked on those colourful African flowers/Kleines Häkelprojekt zum 'Drüberstreuen' ...

Oh dear, I can't help that I just have to start this little extra project as well ...



I read about the 'African Flower' pattern on Sara's blog and followed her link to the South-African Moxycrochet Project - and then I thought I'd try out just one of those little colourful flowers myself ... and I was literally hooked! The only comfort is that I can re-use some of those stashed yarns and yarn ends of mine ... (By the way, I think the only thing I'm not using my sock-wool for, is for knitting socks ;-)!

I don't know yet what it will turn out to be - thought of some kind of jacket, maybe ... if I can stick to it that long ... Or a fancy bag ... But seven of them, sewn together, would look nice as a small potholder - for a teacup or so - too, wouldn't they?

But faster than I can de-stash, I'm up-stashing again: I made the 'mistake' to have a look at Dornröschen's online-shop right after she'd done some new dyeing:



Well - what can I say? This parcel arrived yesterday! There will be plenty to spin and to knit now, during the long autumn evenings ...

(German summary: Tja, was soll ich sagen - diese kleinen bunten Blumen sind so entzückend, daß ich einfach ein kleines Nebenprojekt noch starten mußte ... aber mit 'lagerndem Material', zumindest! Und dann kam noch die frische Lieferung von Dornröschen ... da hab' ich auch noch ein paar Ideen für die langen Herbstabende ...)

Recycling bag and plastic jewellery/Recyclingtasche und Plastikschmuck

I'm in the mood for recycling again ... besides all the well-known reasons why this is a great thing to do, it sparks the imagination!

This is a small round shoulder bag, made out of tiny scraps of different sock wools which I found in my stash.

I started with the bottom, crocheting a round piece, then I turned it and went on crocheting upwards, without doing any more increases.

I added four button loops on the last round, turned the top down to make the bag more sturdy and sew on some flower buttons, so I can close the bag if I like to. As the shoulder strap has a button hole on each end, I can unbutton the strap and use the bag as a table container if desired as well.



And this is 'plastic fantastic' - a simple summer necklace to wear on the beach with the swimming gear, for instance:



I crocheted a long necklace with a thick, multicoloured cotton yarn, then I took a dive into that box with toy plastic beads which my daughter had sorted out - and I had kept in my stash a while for some reason :-) - and added these by crocheting another round onto the cotton necklace, this time with some of that variegated embroidery yarn.

As I still had more of the thick cotton yarn, I went on by knitting two circular necklaces in stockinette stitch, letting them curl up to a kind of rope:



And the colourful combination of these necklaces could be quite an interesting piece of summer jewellery, don't you think?



(German summary: Aus vielen kleinen Sockenwollresten habe ich eine 'Topftasche' gehäkelt - und aus dem Kaugummiautomaten-Plastikperlen meiner Tochter und dickem Baumwollgarn noch einen bunten Strandschmuck gestrickt und gehäkelt. Recycling fördert die Fantasie!)

Crocheted necklaces/Gehäkelte Halsketten

While Sara and I were knitting and chatting in my living room, she told me about a necklace she had seen in a boutique in Wales while visiting her daughter. It sounded fun, so we decided to try our own version with the variegated wool we had at hand.

Sara crocheted hers in black and pastel colours, I chose my favourite winter colours, black and red:



We both made them long enough to reach three or four times around the neck, and as it is a woolen yarn, it even warms the neck almost like a scarf.

I tried some other versions as well - these are flat stars which I punched lightly with the embellisher afterwards in order to get a smoother backside:



The next one was crocheted with linen and cotton yarns - starfish and small pebbles wrapped in
chain, double and treble crochet - a bit more of a summer necklace, this is:



And finally, another kind of flowery necklace, more like a collar:



These are really uncomplicated necklaces, perfect to wear with a sweater or with a straight linen dress f.e. I think the variegated sock wool ;-) is marvellous for this purpose, but a thin cotton or even silk yarn would of course be a nice option as well ...

There is no firm pattern to follow, just play around with your hook and your wool and crochet along!

(German summary:

Diese unkomplizierten Halsketten sind vorwiegend mit bunter Sockenwolle gehäkelt - die Sternvariante noch zusätzlich leicht gepuncht; bei der Seesternkette sind noch kleine Steinchen mit eingehäkelt.)

Knitting blue-green diamonds/Gestrickter blauer Diamant

So, I've done a bit more on the blue-green diamonds - it's quite fun to do, and it's a colour combination I don't use very often!



As I have just seen Sara's 'Dragon Shawl' ready, I guess I should post the 'African Impressions' shawl as well! I consider working a fringe - maybe braided - at the short ends ...

(Unfortunately, I'm not so good at taking photos and working with the photoshop program - that's why this shawls looks a bit like a table runner ;-) ... but I guess you'll get the idea!)



(German summary: So, noch ein Stück von dem 'Blauen Diamanten' ist gestrickt, es wächst einfach von selber - und der Schal ist auch fertig, bis auf eventuelle Fransen!)

A chopstick experiment/Ein Experiment mit Eßstäbchen

I've always been convinced that it should be possible to knit with chopsticks - and today I tried it out. I got hold on a pair of those take-away chopsticks, sharpened them with a pencil sharpener and smoothed them with a fine grained sand paper.

When I measured them, I found out that they are about No. 5 needles and that they are light and comfortable to knit with.

And what's more: for this project, they are perfect for using with the normal, thin sock wool!



I'm knitting diagonal squares in garter stitch, which gives the piece a classic patchwork look and makes a very light and elastic knitting, well suitable for a scarf or an indoor poncho - or maybe even a pullover, if I'm patient enough ...



The variegated colours in green and blue form the pattern of light and shadow all by themselves.

This knitting bears many possibilities, and I'm still trying to work out how to use it the best way.



(German summary: Heute habe ich ein paar Eßstäbchen zu Stricknadeln umfunktioniert - mit dem Bleistiftspitzer gespitzt und dann geschmirgelt - sie entsprechen Nr. 5-Nadeln und liegen leicht und gut in der Hand! Ich stricke diagonale Quadrate in Blau- und Grüntönen mit der Sockenwolle und überlege noch, was man alles damit anstellen könnte ...)

African Impression shawl - knitting short rows/Schal mit verkürzten Reihen

There is a German saying something like 'that what your heart is filled with is what you keep talking about' - and I guess not only my heart but also my basket is now filled with so much colourful sock wool, that I just cannot help going on with it just a little bit longer ...

(I even found a few new ones while visiting a nearby village the day before yesterday ... sigh!)

While trying out one of the new balls and searching my mind for a solution on how to get straight coloured areas without having to cut up the wool into small units, I suddenly got the idea of using short rows (this means that you're knitting only over a part of the stitches for a couple of rows, before joining up knitting over all stitches again) - eureka!

The colours on this yarn remind me of Africa ... just the right colour scheme to brighten up a dull European fall and winter!



(German summary: Ich kann diese Sockenwolle doch noch nicht ganz lassen - bei diesem Schal habe ich verkürzte Reihen gestrickt, damit der Farbwechsel größere, einheitliche Farbflächen ergibt.)

Puzzled knitting/Rätselhaftes Stricken

I guess I'm a bit crazy to be inspired by a book which hasn't been published yet - but when I saw the front page presented in a Swedish magazine ("Hemslöjden"), it looked so startling and interesting that I just had to try out an own version of that 'puzzled knitting' ...

Do I need to say that I used some of that variegated sock wool ... ?



Below is the front page of the new Swedish knitting book "Stickning. Ett hantverk att utveckla" by Britt-Marie Christoffersson, which will be available on September 24.



(Both pictures above are from www.svenskslojd.se, photographer: Thomas Harrysson)

(German summary: Ich hab' mich von einem noch nicht erschienenen Buch inspirieren lassen ... aber die Vorderseite war schon so vielversprechend, daß ich etwas Eigenes in dem Stil einfach ausprobieren mußte!)

Sock wool disguised buttons/Sockenwollknöpfe

I'm afraid you are starting to ask yourself if I've been bought by the sock wool industry for product placement (no, unfortunately not!) - so I guess I should stop this series soon.

I just wanted to show you a few more ways to use that colourful, variegated yarn besides knitting socks out of it - plying it with handspun wool, for example:



Or crocheting squares without changing the yarn:



Or disguising - i.e. recycling - ugly buttons (the ones in the middle and upper right):



The first two to the left are actually crocheted and then woven over O-rings - this was tought to me by Sara - and the last three ones I covered with a piece of wool, which I first punched on the embellisher. The flower in the right corner is not a button, of course - just another experiment!

And so - I started with the last two scarves for a while (although you can get addicted to it!) - one in my daughter's favourite colours, one for a friend.



(German summary: Noch ein paar Sockenwolle-Ideen, bevor ich dann mit dem Thema aufhöre: handgesponnene bunte Wolle, verzwirnt mit Sockenwolle; gehäkelte Quadrate ohne Garnwechsel und schließlich umhäkelte und umfilzte Knöpfe, teils auch Dichtungsringe. Und die derweil letzten zwei Schals sind auch angefangen - da könnte man richtig süchtig werden!)

Two crocheted scarves/Zwei gehäkelte Schals

So, I'm done with my crocheted scarves, which I made with that 'famous' variegated sock wool!

They are 20-25 cm x 120 cm (you cast on 30-35 chain stitches and work one double crochet stitch in each chain, turning with 4 chainstitches, continuing with double crochet stitches between the previous ones) - and while crocheting, I got the idea to add a button in the corner - a 'Bockfilz button', as you can see! - which can be buttoned up through any of the holes to secure the scarf as tight or as loose as you like it!

The lighter one (with more pink and yellow in it) found a new owner as a birthday present today already - the one with orange and turquoise is mine to keep! And I guess I have to let my wrists calm off a bit now - they're not used to knit and crochet around the clock anymore!



(German summary: Meine beiden gehäkelten Schals sind fertig und meine Handgelenke glühen förmlich! Sie sind beide aus Sockenwolle gehäkelt, 30-35 lm anschlagen und dann mit Doppelstäbchen zu gewünschter Länge - bei mir waren es 120 cm - weiterarbeiten, 4 lm zum Wenden. Mit einem Knopf im Eck - der irgendwo durchgeknöpft werden kann - wird der Schal so festgehalten, wie man ihn braucht.)

Multicoloured shawl, knitted with variegated sock wool/ Bunter Schal, gestrickt mit Sockenwolle

My shawl is finished!

(Now I can face the chilly autumn evenings soon to come ...)



The squares in detail:



And a little glimpse :-) of my next project with the variegated sock wool - a crocheted version:



(German summary: So, mein bunter Schal aus Sockenwolle ist fertig! Und da mich diese Wolle fasziniert, habe ich gleich ein neues Projekt in Angriff genommen, diesmal gehäkelt ...)

Colourful sock wool/Bunte Sockenwolle

What do girls do when they want to have fun? Right! They go shopping!

(And they visit an Irish pub and watch movies, they spin and knit and talk a lot, exchange ideas, they try out new patterns and techniques ... all that sort of stuff, which we also did when I visited Sara last week!)

Anyway, we finally fell into the local yarn shop and I guess we almost emptied it - this time we were aiming for variegated sock wool -

this was my harvest:



The big advantage of using variegated sock wool is that you can knit or crochet in a patterned and colourful way without having to change the yarn all the time. But I find it very useful for plying with handspun yarns as well - or even to embroider with it, on wool!

Upon my arrival at Sara's, I laid my eyes on a beautiful multi-coloured shawl Sara had knitted for her daughter - and as I just had to have one like that too, I began knitting and still am ...



I made some variations in colour and pattern - hers was entirely done in garter stitch - but the credit of this model goes to Sara, of course!

Returning home, I also found a crocheted bracelet on Etsy, which I thought would look great with my variegated wool - you can buy the original from "Stjärnkraft" - and here is the version I made to wear myself:



Besides knitting on the coloured shawl, I'm also working on a little bag à la Hundertwasser, as the wool corresponds very well with his typical colour scheme ... Hope being able to show you the result before long!

(German summary: Ich war letzte Woche bei Sara und habe mich von ihrer Begeisterung für bunte Sockenwolle anstecken lassen: Der große Vorteil ist, daß sich die Farben und die Musterung von alleine ergeben, auch bei anderen Strickteilen als nur Socken! Und für ein locker gestricktes Stück kann man ruhig auch etwas dickere Nadeln als angegeben verwenden.)