A thought

I have been collecting needlework magazines for about 2-3 years now and I often see so many things I would like to find the time to do. I also admire, and secretly envy, those knitters whose blogs quickly fill up with wonderful garments. They have made me interested in lace knitting and lace knitted shawls. Surfing the net I get the impression knitting is not at all old fashioned. I had that impression because I don’t know any other person who knits; there are not so many yarn shops in my town as there used to be and they are not so busy, either. I have difficulties in finding some yarns and notions. But you surf the net, and there they are: knitters of all ages and nationalities, who make me feel comfortably accompanied.

Icarus under way

While Emma was still a baby I also gave embroidery a try. After seeing the perfectly embroidered projects in Mani di fata and its attractive visual lessons I embarked myself in a not-very-difficult cot cover. I enlarged a design with two amorous elephants that came in one of the transfer sheets of the magazine. Doing the elephants in stem stitch was ok. But the satin stitch flowers took me a long time. The result is far from perfect but quite acceptable, I believe, as a first-time embroidery project. (See photo in previous post, the one with the booties)



Incidentally, after much consideration, I have finally made up my mind as for yarn and model and started to knit Icarus Shawl in Rich Earth lace wool (skein on the right) from handpaintedyarn. The other colours are, from left to right, Dusty and Bergamota.

Baby things

Once my daughter was born, I had to do something nice for her. Some mothers and grannies knit a whole set of clothes and things before the baby is born. But I had done nothing as I didn’t have much time and felt quite tired the last months of pregnancy. I found some lovely booties in a Mani di fata issue I had around. I had to make a quite a few changes to the pattern because the explanations produced a very big boot, large enough for a 3-year-old. I used thinner needles (2.5 mm) and I also cast on fewer stitches and did fewer rows in some parts. At the beginning I had decided to do without the embroiderd flower because I am not good at embroidery but later I decided to give it a try and see what happened. I liked it and here is the result. I used Copito from Lanas Stop. I still have 1 ½ balls balls left, which I am planning to turn into a sleeveless cardigan for my daughter.

A start

I hadn’t knitted anything since I left university 20 years ago. That is a long time; long enough to lose a lot of practice I had gained. I decided to take up knitting and crochet again when I got pregnant and the doctor advised me to stay in bed for a few months. Reading was ok, but it began to be tedious when it was almost the ONLY thing I could do the whole day. Then I thought of knitting, but the needles felt a bit awkward in bed. Crochet, however, was much comfortable to use since you dont need so much space around you to move it. So I took out some mags and crocheted a doily.




The model is from Labores del Hogar Ganchillo n.50 (especial tapetes)