Knitting through The Awkward Stage

Now that I´ve finished all the pre-baby-colorful stuff I´m kinda happy to do something black´n goth like this Juliana scarf/wrap all in black, YAY:-D!!! Due to having had a few more or less lazy days (say: weekend with several hours on bedrest to have less contractions:-/) it progressed quicker than I had ever imagined.
The pattern is slightly different from what is described in the original instructions because I knew I´d make a small mistake here and there (oh yes:-D!) and I really feared that with those mistakes the part with *letting the stitches unravel* probably wouldn`t work.

(Although it looks sooo neato in this pic...)

At the moment I guess Juliana is going through a very awkward stage, having mastered the first armhole the whole piece looks...well...awkward. I do wonder if it´s turning out to be a garment one day or if I´ll be forced to frog it due to Extreme Awkwardness.

Yes, this looks weird and awkward. But I believe in the pattern and construction. Kind of.

If you´d love to knit one yourself BE WARNED, the pattern doesn´t eat up yarn, IT DEVOURS it and I had to beg at my yarn dealer for more of the (sadly discontinued) stuff for which I felt kinda ashamed.

Granny squares baby blanket ftw!!!!!!111

It took  me some time to shovel myself some minutes to post this finished, fabulous granny squares blanket which is designed ONLY for baby owlets! 

The plan was to make a blanket from squares resembling the colors of the rainbow, which is a very colorful project for a goth household to start with. Anywhooo, kids are kids and therefore like bright colors, so I went for it anyway. It did take some extra skeins of yarn since the remainder of my stash wasn´t tooooo colorful to yield a complete blanket, but not really much was bought for it. Most yarns I used are acrylics because they are more durable than anything more sophisticated like wool or silk (which both is totally not suitable for spit up and the like). The size is more than enough for a little baby and I hope to use it as a picnic and outdoor blanket for spending the summer on outdoors.

It was hellish fun to make all those squares and put them together, this is what I simply love about making granny blankets, seeing them grow piece by piece.

I declared it finished and did an edging to finish it BUT if I all out of the sudden found myself with an unlimited amount of time I´d definately add another, say, two rows of accordingly toned squares to add to the size.


Something tells me I didn`t finish it a day too early since I´m down with on-and-off premature labor (oh noes, again!!!) and a short cervix (which is new!!!), let´s hope to keep it put another few days...

Gothic lace shawl back at the homebase

Well, well, my infamous gothic lace shawl followed its wanderlusty spirit and spent a good month abroad at a friend´s home (where I used to live a few years back). I was glad to come over and collect it because it´s been missed greatly *sniff*. And I had to promise that I would never ever leave it at another place, not even with nice people and cats. Being a cold and miserable owlet with some anonymous generic black scarf was no fun at all but due to health reasons collecting it any earlier was not really possible.

In the meanwhile I started knitting this piece here which will hopefully make a cardigan AND breastfeeding cover at the same time, at least it looks like this was possible. And it will pair greatly with the black lace scarf. I´m by far not the hero of lace knitting but this is a really simple piece for lace beginners. Plus, I totally underestimated the amount of yarn it sucks up without really looking it. Strange and makes it kinda extra exciting to do since the yarn is out of stock at my local dealer, so, the worst case oh-noes-scenario includes me frogging quite a bunch...

Not exactly hibernating....

...although it is tempting, seeing as how the temperatures here don´t creep above 0°C. What sounds like the ideal season to hide under a pile of yarn to crochet an knit cozy stuff has turned out for me a season to write, write, write which is good because it provides what people call an income and I´ll definately won´t have the ressources to freelance once the tiniest of all owlet is here (which will be soooooooon, joy, joy:-D!!!)

So, the blanket is coming along albeit veeery sloooowly but it´s so incredibly bright and colorful that words are not enough to describe it. Currently I´m adding a last and final row of blues-and-purples-and-grays to tone the colorfulness down a bit and so far it looks great, great, great and I´ll be posting another recent pic once I´m home to take a photo.

Blindingly colorful granny blanket

This is the piece I´m working on in every free minute (when I´m not blogging). Inspired by the pillowcase of blinding colors +3 (somewhere in this blog) I´m doing a brand new baby blanket for the soon-to-come addition to our nest of owls. It´s not easy to find the time for crocheting when you´re waddling like a whale and want to sleep, sleep, sleep...

The plan (if there´s such a thing) is to add at least another row of purple and blue squares PLUS some extravagant edging on which I´ll decide once I have to do it. The colors in the photo hardly do the real blanket any justice, it´s BLINDINGLY COLORFUL and dh is averting his goth eyes in goth shame every time he sees it. I´m putting the choice of colors on my hormone level:-D! (but already feeling like there´s been enough color in this blanket to do black-only-projects for the rest of the year)

Anywhoooo, there´s still a black and beautiful garment on my to-knit-list (already started with that!!!!111) which will be featured in lenght once the blanket is finished.

...no more posts until 2012, I swear - shortest recap ever

I´m not too big a fan of year´s end posts at all, especially when it comes to years like 2011 which has been ...special... in ways, speaking for both my private and business life not to say emotional state. So much has happened that I can´t begin to make a list without making it real damn boring. Anyhow, I guess this is the way LIFE is shaping its tracks for you and your future and I´m still thankful for all this stuff happening because it actually makes me stronger and more at peace with myself and everyone. That (kinda depressing stuff) being said, I´m so much looking forward to a new year with new opportunities, a relaxed mindset and more time to make things/craft.

Plant hanging pics

Go me, the plant hanging is happily doing its job supporting one of our giant green lilies:

But: Somehow it´s impossible to take decent pics of this thing, it´s either too dark or too bright with all that flash, I´m not happy with those pics at all but with so little time left to sneak for making photos for this blog, I have to put up with that. Sigh.

This was taken a few SECONDS after finishing it in the middle of the night (litterally so). Yay for gl00my goth kitchens!

Couldn´t resist this weird closeup of the famous *tiny net*, because it´s a net and it is tiny, Macrame kinda makes me feel all silly inside, still have those kung pow references in my head every time I see it...