(semi) finished object: Exploration Station by Stephen West

Details

Pattern Exploration Station by Stephen West

Needle US 6 - 4.0 mm

Yarn 
Manos del Uruguay Alegría

Manos del Uruguay Serena

Artesano Definition

Artesano Alpaca Silk 4 ply

Difficulty Medium

Well, this one isn't totally finished...it still needs to be blocked. I keep postponing it, anyone else having problems with postponing blocking your finished projects? I know it will look so nice once it is blocked, but I already love wearing it! It is so warm and soft. 

This pattern came out as a mystery knit along in november. The idea is you only know what kind of yarn to buy and what needle to use. The outcome of the pattern is a surprise. I got a piece of the pattern every week. I loved the idea, but I couldn't keep up at all. I did enjoy the surprise of it though and I might join another mystery call one day. 

Now that spring is in the air, I might wash and block it before storing it. When winter comes again, it will be looking oh so fine. 

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Details

Patroon Exploration Station door Stephen West

Naalden - 4.0 mm

Wol

Manos del Uruguay Alegría

Manos del Uruguay Serena

Artesano Definition

Artesano Alpaca Silk 4 ply

Gemiddelde moeilijkheidsgraad

Dit project is stiekem nog niet helemaal af, het moet nog steeds gespannen worden. Ik stel het steeds maar uit, iemand anders ook last van uitstel gedrag bij het spannen van breiprojecten? Ik weet dat de sjaal er mooier uit zal zien als hij gespannen is, maar ik draag hem zo graag! Hij is warm en zacht, heerlijk. 

Het patroon was onderdeel van een mystery knit along in november. Het idee bij zo'n knit along is dat je niet weet wat het eindresultaat zal zijn. Je weet alleen welke soort wol en naalden je nodig hebt, de rest is een verrassing. Elke week krijg je een stukje van het patroon toegezonden. Een heel leuk idee, ik kon het alleen totaal niet bijhouden. 

Nu de lente is aangebroken, zal ik de sjaal toch maar wassen en gelijk opspannen. Dan kan hij netjes de kast in, klaar om met het koude weer gedragen te worden. 

FO Friday: You can leave your hat on!

Winter is here and so I needed a hat, a quick one. So I found this pattern. This free pattern by Katharina Nopp is calles wurm and is knit using one of my favorite yarns, Lana Grossa Cool Wool Merino.

I rushed to the yarn store, bought me two skeins of this yammy yarn and got started!

It was so easy and very quick and so warm for your ears.

I made the smallest size and even in small the hat turned out a bit slouchy, but this is just the way I like it!

Hop over to Tamis Amis for some more FO's! 

FO Friday: Beaded cowl

First of all, thank you for all the warm welcome back comments. I feel very lucky.

 

Now, time to share some knitting! Remember that I had to frog the last project and started all over? 

I finished it!

 

I even made some new friends.

It is oh so soft made of one skein of Malabrigo lace. Check out the project page on my Ravelry for all the details. 

I'm loving the pattern, nice and simple. Want to know how I did the beading? I used a tiny crochet hook. Check youtube for a tutorial. 

One skein of the lace yarn is enough for this cowl and I can highly recommend it. It makes it an affordable project.

Hop over to Tami's Amis for some more finished projects.

Here comes the rain...

After posting some summer pictures full of sunshine the rain has come in Holland. 

It made me feel a bit sad, summer over already? No more chances to put on a lovely light summer dress and slippers, back to long sleeves and boots. 

But fortunately one of my dear friends stopped by yesterday and she was delighted to see the nights get longer and the temperatures dropping.


According to her, it's time to get cozy, visit friends, drink a hot cup of tea and eat lots of brownies. 

She is so right, it made me feel all ready for colder times. But my house isn't ready yet, so it is time to get this   crib autumn proof!

So I bought some scented candles, like this cinnamon one.

And I received the IKEA catalogue.

I'm a big fan of IKEA and around 80 % of the furniture we own is by IKEA. Not very unique, but it is perfect for a small apartment like ours. 

For me autumn is also the time to browse through all my pictures taken in summer to remember all those special moments. I take lots of pictures as do most bloggers, but they often stay digital. I thought it was time to make them tangible. 

So I made an album, which gets me to my Finished Object for this week. 

I crochet the cover...

...Lined with some fabric and a blanket stitch. 

I just made a piece of fabric big enough for the outside of the cover using the stitch from this pattern with some scrap cotton yarn. 

It felt so good to crochet again. I hope to do some more when I find the time to order some new yarn (new yarn...my heart just skipped a beat). 

I still have to embellish the cover a bit, don't you think? Do you have any suggestions? 

For some more FO's, quickly visit Tamis Amis!

FO Friday: Baby booties

I have a small finished object for you to see. It is one of my projects on the 2nd year of projects list and it was a fast one. 

Little baby booties.

Knitted straight on a pair of 3.5 mm needles with some scrap acrylic yarn. This pattern is a gift and I know it deserves some soft baby merino but I wanted to get this project done on time. Also, acrylic is easy to wash.

They are grey and if it would be my baby these would be made in the most colorful sock yarn, but since this is a gift I had to tone it down. 

They are in the 3 months size, since the baby will be born in summer and these would be a little too warm. 

Want to make them too? Find the free pattern on Ravelry here.  

Want to drool over some yarny projects? Check out Tami's Amis for some awesome Finished Objects. 

FO Friday: First knitted hat

Hello lovelies,

I got another FO done (my there are a lot small projects lately). I won't rambe a lot in this post and go straight to some pictures! 

If you have been around on WIP wednesday you have already seen some of the hat in progress. This hat was super fast to knit and I'm all fired up to make some more hats! 

It is a slouchy hat, but if you roll the edge you could also wear it as a normal hat.

I feel like a real rasta girl haha. 

It looks even better on mr. Boyfriend:

Now for the details.

Pattern: Graham by Jennifer Adams

Yarn: Carina by Wibra

Needles: circular needles 4.0 mm and 5.0 mm after ribbing

Pattern notes: great pattern, no changes made. 

Made for: My sister in law.

Check out Tami's Amis for more finished project fun!

Too bad this is a gift, I kinda love this hat now :p. Guess I'll have to make a new one. 

Good thing hats are so fast, I love this type of project. You can take it with you at any time and it is great to loose some stash! Yep, there will be some more hats for sure. Is it wrong to think about Christmas gifts in Summer? 

FO Friday - ❤ Knitted Armcandy ❤

I didn't expect to have something to join the fun the Finished Object Friday link party at Tami's Amis, but I made a project that was faster than light and much brighter too! 

Without further ado I present to you: 

 ❤❤❤ Knitted Armcandy ❤❤❤

Isn't that adorable? 

I attached a little gold button I still had lying around somewhere.

I love it for many reasons:

❤ This bracelet feels soft to the skin. Who doesn't love softness?

❤❤ It is such an easy and quick pattern, a perfect project for beginners or knitters that just want to have a quick finished project in between bigger projects. 

❤❤❤ The colour is to die for, this bright neon pinkish colour. I'm a big fan of neon and bright colours right now; you can find it in every store and makes me so very happy! 

❤❤❤❤ Neon colours make your skin look more sun kissed, which I need big time right now since all I have been wearing is rubber boots.  

❤❤❤❤❤ Here is a picture in which the colour looks most like it does in 'real life'. Furry friend was so kind to strike a pose playing dead. 

If you are drooling over this project like I was when I first spotted it, here are all the details:

Pattern: Cable Braided Necklace

Yarn: Nova by Wibra - 100% cotton

Needle size: 3.5 mm

Pattern modifications:

Not much, I just made the two strips much shorter by repeating the pattern 5 times instead of 16 times. I didn't wash the strips, I just steamed them with my iron to make them flat before braiding. 

Don't be afraid of the braiding, you just knit two strips with little holes in them and you braid them when you are done! So it is very easy. 

Check out Tami's for more Finished Objects :-). 

xxx

FO Friday: My first socks...kind of

After a lot of rambling about yarn hair, tulips and running the past weeks it is time for some knitwear!

I made my first pair of socks EVER! Want to see?

Unfortunately it isn't a very big pair, they are a present for a one year old girl who whose mom looooves everything pink.

For the project details:

I used this pattern:  Jelly Bean Baby Socks by Susan B. Anderson 

The pattern was really well written, but since I never made socks before I also used a little youtube tutorial that you can find here. It gives you a general idea of what kind of techniques you will need to use and how to use them.

The yarn I used was something I still had in my stash. It was Royal from Zeeman (a local retailer), which is a very cheap acrylic yarn I bought when I started crochet. I know what you are thinking, why on earth would you use that?!  It was a last minute thing to make (stress knitting alert!) and I knew it HAD to be pink. This was the only yarn that was pink and gave me the right gauge.

In my opinion this yarn doesn't knit very smooth and the finished project is very stiff (I knitted some swatches with different needles sizes but they all ended pretty stiff).

Luckily the new owner didn't mind having some stiff socks, they fitted perfectly! I guess people that don't knit themselves won't mind getting acrylic socks ;-).

I do know that I will make another pair of baby booties or socks for a new born that will be welcomed in August (lots and lots of time to pick out some super soft yarn!).

But before I knit those, I still need to knit a pair of real socks for little old me. I have been wanting to do so but I am a bit nervous about it. I still need to buy a pair of nice little sock needles. Does anyone know a good beginner pattern?

Check out other finished objects at Tami's Amis

Finished Object, fringe blanket

Hellooo lovelies!

It’s been a while, hasn’t it? No worries, all is well. Just a bit busy, I just got a new part time job and it has been a bit overwhelming. Although I have to learn a lot and it isn’t always fun, I’m really glad I got it. I’ve been searching a long time and I’m still looking for a full time job but it’s a start. Enough about that, this blog is my resort and it does not involve work ;-).

I finally have a finished object to share with you again. My blanket I shared at WIP Wednesday a few weeks ago is all done. 

I enjoyed making this so much. I didn’t use a pattern, it’s just garter stitch squares joined by sewing. The best part is that I didn’t buy any yarn for this (new year resolution: yarn diet. So far so good), so my stash has shrunk quite a bit.

This blanket is for my dog since the old one was just worn out.

It seems that after some sniffing....

and checking it out.....

 He was very pleased with it!

I added a little single crochet edge and then little fringes.

Just cut two 13 cm long pieces of yarn

Insert your hook in one of the single crochet stitches.

Fold the two pieces of yarn and pull them through the stitch, not all the way just until you have a loop. Pull the tails of the pieces of yarn through this loop and your done!

Take a peek at Tami's Amis for some more Finished Objects. Next week I'll be joining the blogging week so a lot of posts will be popping up here, how exciting!

Have a great weekend!

Finished Object Bunny Friday

The weather is amazing right now, 19 degrees, sun and no wind, perfect. 

After a busy day with a job application and some chores it was time for a wee bit of knitting on the balcony.

A new project is started, but more about that on next Wednesday. Today it is Friday, so I will share a little finished object with you. Do you remember this book I talked about? 

I made this little Easter bunny, want to see how he turned out? 

Isn't he adorable? I really love how he turned out (smugness alert). He feels right at home too. 

He loves to cuddle....

He loves to show his little pom pom tail...

And loves to hang out. 

I really had a hard time making this since I never made a knitted doll before, crochet dolls are easy as pie for me. This project required to learn some new techniques.

 It took me some frowning and some struggling but I love how soft it is in comparison with crochet work. Crochet dolls are a bit more stiff and this is oooh sooo soft and cuddly. I really start to love knitting more and more, who would have thought? 

For the project details check out the project on Ravelry here. 

Thank you all for visiting and thank you for the many many lovely comments on my Beekeeper's quilt progress. It warms my heart :-). 

Please check out Tamis Amis for more Finished Objects!

FO friday: perfect beginner project

I have a little project that I made a while ago. When frost kicked in I had to make something to keep my ears warm, a quick project. I decided to make a headband and without further rambling let's get to the pictures: 

I loved the pattern, it was a really easy knit. I think the designer, Elisa McLaughlin, is very talented and I will definitely make more of here designs in the future. 

The pattern I used is this one and is a free one. It is knitted on straight needles using nothing but knit stitches *for some reason I a far better at knitting than purling*. You join at the end and wrap some yarn around it, it is sooooo simple. A perfect beginner project! 

I used some cheap acrylic yarn that I had in my stash in a dark purple color. I think this pattern deserves some nice cotton or wool though, that's what you get when you are on a yarn diet haha. 

Well, I pretty happy about this one. I think you should leave the smugness over here and look at other projects at Tami's Amis. There are some pretty awesome projects over there! 

Edit: if you want to make something like this and you're not a knitter, try this great crochet pattern from Stephanie Jessica Lau. 

Source: Stephanie Jessica Lau