finished

The Lazy Knitter podcast – episode 8

Hello everyone!

Episode 8 is one week late, as I had absolutely nothing to show you last week. This week is still light on the knitting, but I have some spinning to show you and did some shopping.

I hope you enjoy!

Where to find me?

  • Instagram: renee_kies.
  • Ravelry: Alazybeauty.
  • Youtube channel: The Lazy Knitter
  • My designs: Renée Kies

Finished objects

  • Molly weasley blanket: no real pattern, knit using fingering weight yarn scraps and minis. Knit on 2.75 mm needles (US 2).
  • Sneaker socks: own design. Yarn is Wollbutt Calgary in 6072 (green gradient). Knit on 2.25 (US 1) and 2.5 (US 1.5).
  • Sneaker socks vol 2: own design (run wild socks, currently in testing) Yarn is regia 4-fädig in white and ONline Linie 3 supersocke 100 in 61. Knit on 2.25 (US 1) and 2.5 (US 1.5).

Works in progress

  • La Flor sweater: pattern is la Flor by Alina Shneider. Yarn is Zeeman Julia in color 60. Knit on 5.5 mm (US 9) and 6.0 mm (US 10) needles. Size small. Modifications: using a heavier yarn than pattern is written for, so knitting a smaller size to get the desired size and using larger needles.

Shopping

  • Hilltop cloud
  • Wol met verve

Spinning

Weekly goals

  • Cast on something from my handspun.

Sockmadness 2015: Round 1 & 2

Hello everyone,

I’m participating in Sockmadness for the second time this year. I’ve just finished the second round (and made it to the third) and figured it was about time I caught you guys up.

What is sockmadness you might ask? Inspired by the March Madness in the USA some nifty knitters wanted to create a sock knitting competition. And sockmadness was born!

It consists of several rounds in which you need to knit a pair of socks as fast as you can. Patterns are supplied and since they’re usually very awesome a great motivation to sign up. Entering is free and everyone knits the exact same socks. There are certain minimum requirements each round to keep things fair. One of my favourite parts is that you have so many people knitting the same pattern and yet each pair still looks unique.

The sockmadness community is amazing and kind and the social aspect is another good reason to sign up. Even if you don’t like the speed aspect, pass the first round (you need to finish a pair of socks in 2 weeks to qualify) and you can choose to be a cheerleader. You still get all the patterns and fun, but can knit at your own leisure. The first round also helps the moderators to make teams. Teams are based on speed. You compete against your team with people dropping out every round until one remains This person will then compete against the winners from the other teams! And then eventually there is one great winner who wins a huge mountain of prizes! Not so fast and bummed you’ll never win (like me)? Not to worry! Sockmadness is awesome and awards fun prizes all thought the competition. For whatever reason! If you take a very funny picture, had heaps of bad luck, or like me in round one conquer a fear (i wrote about having to self inject every week and how i always get nervous and end up taking forever to gather some courage and just do it. I managed to get over it a bit faster this time with some encouragement from the Sockmadness round 1 chat thread).

To summarise: Sockmadness is just plain awesome. Time to show off some socks.

Round 1

Pattern: Alohomora by Malena Andersen

Yarn: Hjerte Garn Sock 4 Superwash in 1100 Grey. I used 70 grams of yarn.

Needles: Knit Pro Karbonz double point needles in 2.0 mm

Experience: I really love this pattern. It’s just simple enough to memorise without being boring. The finished socks are very comfortable. I had to use the tiny 2.0 mm needles due to the minimum size we had to knit, it would have ended up far to big for me and i wanted to keep these. I could have gifted them but… nah.

Round 2

Pattern: Cable Madness by Karen Buhr

Yarn: Crelando Nina Sock yarn in a green/blue/grey tonal. This yarn is sold at lidl and retails at 5 euros for 4 balls! I used 73 grams for these socks, so i expect to get three pairs out of these 4 balls!

Needles: Knit Pro Karbonz double point needles in 2.25 mm

Experience: I really like how well the cables pop despite the subtle variegation. The yarn has a high cotton content so has little stretch. This means that you have to knit the socks exactly to size. Mine are also hard to get over the heel, but fit perfectly once I have them on.

 

I can’t wait to see what the pattern for round 3 will be! I’ll have to be patient for a little while though as round 2 runs until april 13th!

Love, Renée

Tadaaa: Socks and some sewing!

Hello Everyone!

Pfff, i haven’t been a very good blogger the last week. I thought that, being free from school for the week, i would shave blogged more, but i fell ill and ended up doing a lot even if nothing really got done. No homework, not much housework (i put away some cleam clothes on a chair). I did manage to squeeze in some knitting and some other crafts. I have officially started my quilt top, I finished some socks, started some new socks and sewed a project bag for my new socks.

I finished my (Yippee) Kai-Mei socks! This pattern was so much easier than expected! The yarn is amazingly soft. I’ve used this yarn before but the other pair i made for me is a bit itchy.

The stats:

Pattern: Kai-Mei by Cookie A. The 16,5 cm leg is a bit dull very zen. getting the lace to move across your foot was very mysterious to me, but it turned out to be rather easy! I loved knitting the pattern. I thought i didn’t like lace socks, but i’m rather fond of these. And these socks got my mom to admit that they looked rather cozy and that she fancies herself wearing them. So she’ll probably be receiving some socks soon!

Yarn: Superba Poems (by Rico Design) in the color 001 Candy. I was attracted to this yarn by the fun bright colors. That hot pink is so amazing! This colourway (or my ball) was a little weird. it was impossible to find a repeat in the colors to match my socks. There was no section that was the same! And at one point i encountered a repaired break in the yarn that lead to a rather sudden color change.

Needles: I used my trusty 2.5 mm karbonz double point needles. I’m coming to realize that these are my favorites. they’re very comfortable to hold and use, can take a bit of a beating, and have a nice point to them.

Time: These took me about 2 weeks, but i didn’t always work on them.

Experience: These socks were great fun. The pattern was very clear and therefore good for a beginner sock knitter. I made the socks as written and they fit me perfectly. I made a tiny mistake on the second sock (I misremembered what i had done on the first sock, even though i had written it down…), but it’s barely noticeable and i’m probably the only one who will ever notice.

 

And now for my second Tadaa this week. For those of you that also knit, you may have heard about a regular event every march called “Sockmadness”. It’s a challenge with several rounds in which you knit a pair of socks. The first round decides in which team you are placed and is the “easiest” sock. After that you knit at the same time as you team members and move on to increasingly harder socks. Eventually someone is crowned winner.  I have no chance of winning (although a girl can dream), but when i heard of this and saw sign-ups were still open I had to enter. The first round has just started a few days ago. I bought a second set of the 2.5 mm dpns as i wanted to try and knit my socks at the same time. But i quickly encountered a problem. How do i carry my Sockmadness supplies around easily without tangling all the yarn..? A new project bag was needed! I went in search of a good pattern and came across the sock sack pattern by Ramona Rose. I had recently ordered some fun fabrics and so could get to work straight away. This was only my second sewing project so i had some troubles and it took me a little longer than an experienced seamstress, but I learned a lot and made it work!

I’m so proud of it! Inside you can see my brucie socks, the socks for the first round of sock madness. There’s only one in here, but there are two of them now!

I used a bit of the leftovers/scraps to make my first hexi for my quilt! I need to baste about 3000 of these…. And then i’m going to sew them together and then quilt the entire thing. It’s a huge undertaking and will probably take a while.

What did you finish this week?

Love, Renée

Work in Progress Wednesday

Hello Everyone,

Today is Wednesday and so it’s time I shared my current wips!

My main project for the last few weeks is off the needles! All that’s left to do is to tuck in the last few ends (I didn’t have time to finish that before leaving for my dorm this week) and it needs a vigorous blocking session. It’s quite scrunched up and includes a lot of lace and cables so a good blocking will really make it bloom.

Here’s a picture from before it was done. The colour is a lot of here. The yarn is terrible to photograph even though it’s gorgeous in reality. It’s a blueish purple. Sometimes it looks more purple than other times, but it rarely looks like the colour above.

This is a photo of my favorite lace section. The colour here is a lot more accurate.

As i don’t have much to do on this I’ve continued on my next project.

I’ve continued work on my Painter socks! This is my first pair of vanilla socks and my first time using self striping yarn. I love it. It’s so relaxing and easy. To challenge myself I’ve made myself try out a new to me technique in this pair. I’m trying out an afterthought heel so as to not interrupt the pattern created by the yarn on the foot. I’m really enjoying this project so far. The yarn is soft yet firm and very pleasurable to work with. It was expensive, but it’s proving worthwhile. I bought the yarn while on vacation in New York so these socks will always have fond memories for me. I’m already imagining hexipuffs made from the leftovers. I’ve progressed a little further than is shown here. I’ve already placed the waste yarn for the heel and am now working on the foot. I’m hoping to match the striping on the first sock on the second sock.

The yarn for these socks was inspired by Hundertwasser paintings. Below is the one the colourway for these socks was based on. My yarn was labeled incorrectly so I had to do some digging to figure out which one it was based on.

What are you working on this week?

Love, Renée

ps. linking up with Tami’s Amis  🙂

Tadaa: Smaug Socks

Hello Everyone!

Today I’m here to share a still pretty recent FO with you. bear with me for a while whilst I share some projects i finished during my blogging hiatus. I’m too proud of them not to share haha!

Today’s project was both well loved and hated. I started out loving it. It was my most complicated sock to date and used some techniques i was unfamiliar with. All fun and games, until… i made a pretty big mistake. Oops. I’m not very good at explaining, but I’ll try. In buy sock there is no knit stitch between the side of the sock and the cable tail going across the foot and there are 2 twisted knit stitches on the side of the tail cable where it meets the purl section. It was supposed to be 1 (twisted) knit stitch on either side. It’s not noticeable unless you know about it (like me, and now you) and it doesn’t make the sock look bad, but it really really bothered me. So much that, after finishing the first sock in a state of anxiety and disappointment after finding out the mistake, i let that sock sit, lonely and without a mate for weeks. I didn’t want to purposely knit a sock with a mistake in it. The first time was an accident and so somewhat acceptable, but doing it on purpose… And frogging was not an option. That would to me not having any Smaug socks EVER. At this stage I wasn’t very pleased with these socks, but when i showed my sister the finished loner sock after watching the hobbit part 1, she loved them! So I said they were hers. Yay! It’s fun to give knits and have them be appreciated (my family would have to be blind to not notice how much time and effort i spend on all of my knits). But there was a small detail: It would mean knitting the second sock (with the mistake, because no frogging!) and it would mean doing so on a deadline. Because if I didn’t get them to my lil sis before she left for South-Korea she wouldn’t have them for another 6 months! By the way: South-Korea is super cold in winter, who knew? So hopefully these wool socks keep her toes a bit warmer! I eventually finished and now i get bragging rights, because these were such a chore. Yay me! (I’m in a very celebratory mood today. After an insane week with stress levels I hadn’t even ever imagined possible, I (probably ) failed one test causing even more stress and fear, i (think i ) aced my second test this morning. And my bike repairs were a lot less expensive than imagined. Pfieuw! That’s less to worry about!)

No fancy pants pictures as we were in a hurry and then forgot and now they’re in Korea. I love the colourway i picked for this pattern. I promise it shows of the pattern better than this picture would say. I always thought Smaug was red, but it turns out he’s brownish with some red highlights. Like this yarn! Haha!

Stats:

Pattern: Smaug socks by Claire Ellen Although my experience wasn’t perfect, this pattern is well written and has clear instructions. It was my own fault for not paying attention. I switched up the charts for the tail cable and did the right one on the left sock and vice versa. (By the way: Shoutout to the lovely people of the Sock Knitters Anonymous group on Ravelry for helping me figure that out! This was my first SKA challenge and i felt so very welcome!)

Time: Far far far too long. I cast on on the 3rd of November and finished on the 4th of January.

Yarn: Tiger Garn Strømpegarn/sockyarn. This is a cheap sock yarn (2 euros a ball I believe) that is for sale In Flying Tiger Stores. It doesn’t have a number to identify the colours, but they have a range of about 5-6 colours, so they aren’t really necessary. Unfortunately there are not lot numbers either and this is a bit of a hassle. There were noticeable colour differences in my 2 balls (that sounds so wrong!), so be careful and examine the yarn if you need more than one ball. The yarn doesn’t feel very stretchy (unlike the single ply yarns I’m more used to), but I’ve been assured this is normal for such yarns. The yarn knits up not super soft, but certainly not scratchy. They soften with a good washing.

Above picture was taken after I stayed up late to finish these things and watch Chicago (i love the songs in that movie!). They took longer than expected so I ended up watching a strange show about weird habits.

Love, Renée

ps. I’ve decided to make my pattern Imperial Star on Ravelry permanently FREEEEEEE!

pps. I had my Anouk Headband tested and the French Doily is currently undergoing testing. I’ve decided I want to up the quality of my patterns so will look into ways to improve all of them.

Tadaa: Dawlish

Hello Everyone,

I finished something! Last wednesday I finished up a pair of socks that I had been working on for a while. Time to show them off!

These are the stats.

Pattern: Dawlish by rachel Coopey. I have the Coop Knits sock book and this is my first sock from that book.

Yarn: Rico Design Superba Poems in the colour 7 (gradient from light grey to black).

Time: These socks took about a month to finish, but I wasn’t working on them the whole time. The actual knitting took about 2 weeks (I took it slow).

Experience: These were my first socks using fingering yarn and smaller (2.5 mm) needles. I feel like this pattern was a great choice. The pattern was very clear and explained each step without using too much words. The pictures in the book are spectacular, they make me want to knit all the patterns in the book. I was a bit unsure about the size at first, but after a good blocking they fit perfectly. Before blocking they are snug and tight to get over your heel, after blocking they slide on easily. These socks were fun! The pattern kept the knitting very interesting and the finished design is very pretty.

Love, Renée

Tadaa: Mom’s Mittens

Hello Everyone!

I have another finished object to share with you today! remember this post a while back where I showed off my new mittens? Well I wasn’t the only one who really liked them. My mom loved them! And as I liked making them I was very willing to make her her very own pair. And as I still have to finish the scarf I promised her for her birthday in March (I’m completely out of love with it, but I WILL finish it! Soon!), but meanwhile this will be a good way to tide her over until I do finish it.

So I let her pick from a few yarn options (which I new she would like and would work for this project) and set to work.

Here’s the deets:

Pattern: Eugenia’s mittens by Mollie Woodworth

Yarn: Royal by Zeeman (A dutch Budget store) in a dark purple (colour 40).

Time: This second time round I was already familiar with the pattern so it went a lot faster than the first time.  I took my time on the first glove as I started them during my exams, but the second was done in 3 evenings.

Experience: I still like knitting these even though I have now knit the pattern 4 times. These make perfect gifts! I have noticed that I really ought to alternate projects like this one, that use fatter dpns (4.00 mm and up) as they really hurt the joins in my right hand. I feel it after as much as one night knitting so I should probably be careful with that. It can really mess up my motivation! But I’m stubborn and knit these and until I finish one glove don’t alternate at all. Life on the wild side!


Which do you prefer, red or purple?

 

Love, Renée

Tadaa: Plane Socks

Hello Everyone!

I’ve been a bit absent for a bit and for that I am sorry. I have a good reason though… the weather here in The Netherlands is being pretty awesome! I can’t recall other times with such high temperatures very easily, Usually it stays around 20-25 degrees Celsius in Summer, and recently we have been having temperatures of 30-35 degrees Celsius! I have spent my days lazing about in the shade ( I don’t do so well in the sun if it’s this hot! One of the reasons my tan is severely lacking this year!) with a mountain of good books (neatly stored in my ereader), yummy drinks and lots of good food (what else is one supposed to do when it’s too hot to move?). I’ve also been on a little trip with my mom to a city I haven’t been to before. We had a great time, so i’ll be sure to share some of our adventures later!

Back to today’s business. A finished object! I finished these a while back, but haven’t found time to share them yet so they will be a good way to get back into things again!

Today’s finished item is my pair of “Plane socks”. I started these socks when I was traveling to New York for my 21st birthday with my Dad (Mom and I had gone to Paris for my sweet 16. We have a tradition that you get to pick a parent for a trip for special birthdays). I had picked a easy enough pattern, some lovely soft and simple yarn that is very forgiving of mistakes (just in case lol! They were only my 3rd pair!). They were slightly doomed though. On the flight over I lost a dpn and then messed up the pattern somewhere during the trip. The sock was also turning out to be a bit too large as my yarn was quite a bit thicker than what the pattern called for. So i frogged and restarted and now they are done!

Pattern: Vanilla Latte Socks by Virginia Rose-Jeanes. A plus in this pattern is that it provides options for different kinds of heels and explains all of these. You have a choice of options for the cuff as well. I picked a k1,p1 ribbed cuff and an eye of partridge heel.

Yarn: 2 balls of Strengels acryl garen in colour 106, a blue variegated yarn (ranges from light blue to black).

Difficulty: This pattern is easy enough to knit and all steps are explained clearly so if should be fine for a beginner (having knit socks at least once). Unless, like me, you’re on a plane and loose your needles.

Time: Due to a few bumps in the road, these socks took way longer than necessary.

Detail shot of the heel. It worked so well with this yarn!

 

That’s it! What do you think?

Love, Renée

Tadaa: POP! Baby Cardigan

Hello Everyone!

Today, in the spirit of Finished Object Friday, I have a new finished object to share with you! And it’s one I’m really proud of. Not everything went as planned, but as it was my first time knitting a garment, I think I did pretty well!

I had a blast while knitting this! It gave me a chance to see how a cardigan is shaped and formed. At first I was quite confused about the yoke. I didn’t know what it was or where it went in the cardigan, but some googling showed me what it was ( the part near the neck).

POP! Baby Cardigan

Pattern: Pop! baby Cardigan by Rachel Atkinson. I knit the cardigan in the size 3 to 6 months. I have no baby (the recipient hasn’t been born yet, she’s due somewhere in November) to try it on, but it looks teeny tiny! I think it may have ended up a bit smaller. But then she’ll be able to wear it sooner right?

Yarn: I used a really nice yarn with a subtle pink variegation. The yarn slowly shifts from a bright pink to a darkr pink and back. it’s Wibra Bianca in the colour 70177.

Difficulty: The pattern is very clear and the steps are explained in a logical manner. For a beginner it might be a bit tricky to read. I had some trouble understanding how the cardigan is formed, but this wasn’t a big problem. Just do what the pattern tells you to do and you’ll be fine.

Time: It took me 3/4 evenings of knitting to knit up the body (after a few false starts, but I always have those). I then had to wait a while to knit the sleeves as my needles were in use on another project ( a pair of Eugenia’s Mittens for my mom in a lush purple). it’s actually a pretty quick knit!

What do you think?

Love, Renée

ps. Checking in with Tami’s Amis for Finished Object Friday.

Tadaa: Eugenia’s Mittens

Hello Everyone!

It’s friday, so it’s time to show off something I finished recently! I blogged about the project featured in today’s Tadaa when I cast on, you can read about it here.

I finally finished my Eugenia’s Mittens! This was quite a challenging project! It took me several tries to get the pattern straight, I had never made mittens before and the cable pattern is very intricate (but oh so pretty!)I had to start over more than a few times, but that made finishing these that much more rewarding. I love the finished product and will wear then a lot once winter comes around again (or even fall… we’re having a few good days now with lovely weather, but it’s been very rainy and cold for the biggest part!).

The pattern: Eugenia’s mittens by Mollie Woodworth (the pattern is free on Ravelry!)

Yarn: Vintage Acrylic in deep intense red (Zeeman – Royal). This yarn comes in balls of 260 meters and I had at least half left over. These mittens would make perfect little stash busters  (could be a great christmas gift too!)

Difficulty: 4/5, it’s certainly doable, but I often forget I am still a novice and can’t make everything in the blink of an eye (kind of glad about it too, learning new stuff is fun!) For experienced knitters the cables might be a bit of a challenge, just because it’s so intricate. Lifelines are a good useful tool for these mittens!

Time: These mitts knit up pretty fast, but because I had to start over a few times the first one took a while. After that the second took me about 2/3 evenings of relaxed knitting. I’ve started a second pair (and a third and fourth pair are on my list, they were quite a hit here and everyone requested a pair haha!)for my mother and I’ve completed the first of her mittens in record time!

This photo shows the colour of the mittens best, the red is really bright!

Leftover yarn

Can you imagine? Me in my dark, long woolen trench coat, hair carefully coiffed into a stylish bun (maybe someday!) with these red babies on my hands? Snow softly falling around me… Ah I love winter! My mom’s pair is going to be a dark purple as that is her favorite colour and the third pair (for a friend) will be grey. My sister is getting a slightly variegated red.  I really like making these, so if you need a pair of mittens be sure to give this pattern a try!

Love, Renée