Finished Object: Snowfling Mitts

Pattern: Snowfling Mitts by Tanis Lavallee
Yarn: Purl Soho Line Weight
Colours: Cardamon Green, Heirloom White and Peacock Blue
Needles: 3.25mm Round Needles
Start of project: September 12th , 2015
End of project: September 30th, 2015

On Ravelry

While I was still in Tschiertschen I cast on the first of these mitts. I had a lot of left overs from Yannick's Atlas and I wanted to see how the colours looked together as mitts. Because the yarn is fingering weight I held it double for the outer mitts and used only one strand for the inner lining mitt, which worked out well.

At first I was convinced that the mitts were going to be far too wide, but I realised quite soon that they would be quite tight in the end. I was hoping for a good blocking effect and I stretched them as much as possible once the outer mitts were done. They fit ok, but there isn't a lot of room for the thumbs and the fingers. So I decided to knit the inner mitt like a fingerless glove and ended the thumb after the gusset (I improvised a short row cast off) and the main part once I'd reached the beginning of the decreases for the fingers. I didn't attach the gusset, it stays in place just like that but I sewed the end of the fingerless mitt to the outer mitt to keep it from getting tangled.

The mitts are really soft and I think they'll be quite warm. They could be a bit bigger but I can wear them like this.

Happy one year bloggiversary to me

A year ago I wrote my first blog entry.

In it I asked three questions:

Do I need a blog?
What should I write about?
Which language should I write in anyway?

#1: I still don't have the answer to the first one but I can say that I like having one.
#2: I wrote lots of entries about knitting, quite a few about travelling and family, about what I can do to feel good about myself and I looked back to old photos 12 times. I think the only thing I gave up was the Reading Challenge. I am still reading and I might write another post at the end of the year but writing about it every month bored even myself ;-)
#3: English was a good choice, I can practice and more people from all over the world are able to read it.

During this year I published 111 entries (this is 112), an amazing number of 17091 people stumbled upon my address and left about 150 comments (thank you so much, it's always lovely to see that there's somebody out there who takes time to say something - but thanks everybody for just stopping by)

I enjoy putting my thoughts to word and having a platform for my photos as well. So I guess here's to another successful blogging year ;-)

Finished object: Atlas

Pattern: Atlas by Jared Flood
Yarn: Purl Soho Line Weight
Colours: Oyster Gray, Cardamon Green, Heirloom White and Peacock Blue
Needles: 2.75, 3.75 and 4mm Round Needles
Start of project: August 16th , 2015
End of project: September 12th, 2015

On Ravelry

This sweater was supposed to be my second sweater for this year's summer sweater knitalong. I still haven't started the first sweater on my list up to today (but I have the yarn all ready) because of two babies: I first knit Playdate for the KAL and then another baby was born and I knit a Peanut. When I was finally ready for the sweaters on my actual list, I decided to knit this one first, because my boy is growing and the biggest size is only a 10 and I got slightly panicky. Once I measured him I realised that size 10 should be a good fit and I was ready to go.

I didn't order the proper yarn meant for this sweater - Brooklyn Tweed LOFT. Somehow I was scared that it would break all the time and that it would be too scratchy. (I definitely want to try some Brooklyn Tweed soon, no more shying away from it now). Instead I searched for a similar yarn and found the Purl Soho Line Weight. I really liked the colours (aren't those names the best) and once it arrived I knew that scratchiness definitely wasn't going to be a problem, because this yarn is soo soft. I wasn't sure how well it would hold up because it felt as fragile as spider's webs but somehow it looked ok even though the ends got really felty while hanging around.

The body took a long time and then instead of getting to an interesting part I had to knit two sleeves. More stockinette that went on forever. I decided to learn a new technique and knit both of them at the same time (definitely worth repeating). Finally I got to put everything together and then I could start the colour work. It was slow but I enjoyed knitting it. It was my first time with three colours in the same row and even while the yarn got tangled up in places it wasn't too hard to do.

Before the weekend in Tschiertschen all that was left was the collar, a lot of loose ends and the holes between the arms and the body. I got it all done by Saturday and therefore got to take a few pictures while still in the mountains.

I wasn't totally sure that it would fit Yannick. Today he tried it on and it looked ok. I blocked the arms and the body slightly longer so it will fit him through the next growth spurt which might happen any day. I am really pleased with how this turned out and I am quite envious of the beautiful yoke -  I can see a fair isle sweater for myself not too far away ;-)

Weekend in Tschiertschen

Sometimes life is stressy and sometimes all the pieces just fall into place. This happened to me last week. I was really tired from a great start at school. (It's really going well but it's soo intense at the same time that I often feel close to empty batteries)

Then last Tuesday I liked (again) some lovely sunrise photos taken from my favourite hotel in the Swiss mountains on facebook. I think I wrote that I wished I were there and it only took a few moments before I'd been offered a room, made up my mind and booked a bed for two nights.

On Friday it all seemed like a very ambitious idea, not ideal when I was really tired from a day at school. Nevertheless I packed my backpack (it was actually almost empty ;-), took the train to Chur and then the postauto to Tschiertschen and there it was so obvious that this had been exactly the right thing to do.

I didn't do a lot on Friday evening apart from eating dinner and some knitting but I made hiking plans for Saturday. The weather forecast was neither too good nor too bad but once I woke up and saw the sun rise over the mountains it looked much better than I expected.

 At first I'd wanted to go all by myself, but then I started out with another guest which worked out really well. We kind of started far too quickly and were out of breath and close to collapsing (at least me) after about 20 minutes, but after a break and a hot tea we paced ourselves and found a comfortable rhythmn. We met a lot of bikers, a couple of cows and found lots of blueberries and a few enzian. We went all the way up to the Churer Joch at 2020 m. a. S. which meant that we'd done a bit more than 600 meters of altitude. It was beautiful at the top, quite windy but still nice to be outside.

The way down took longer than expected, especially because we had to go back up again, but everything was fine. It was great to wash off the sweat back at the hotel and enjoy more time on the balcony of the Gürgaletsch. And in the evening I tried to understand as much Dutch as possible (I was the only Swiss guest all weekend) and I finished my Atlas (FO entry coming soon ;-) before I fell into bed.

This morning was already my last one. I was up for the sunrise again (seen from the bath ;-) and I had a bit of time left before I had to head back to the lowland. I only spent about 36 hours in the mountains, but I feel all refreshed and ready for school again.

Looking back: 9th of September

In 2006 I went to the carnival all by myself. I remember that I was totally scared on the pirat (which really isn't that wild) and enjoyed the merry go round.

In 2007 I was on a two day hike to the Krönten hut. This was taken on the first day, where we had to get up 900 meters of steep altitude. I sure was glad to reach that hut. On the second day we went up even further to the glacier and then we had to walk down the whole lot. An amazing but also very exhausting trip.

In 2008 I took a photo of myself from my balony into my living room.

In 2010 Yannick ate some sweets that really turned his tongue blue.

In 2013 we were at the carnival again. Yannick and Antonia were fearless and had a lot of fun and I went up really high.