Born to be wild

... ah, the rural idyll of inner London. I wonder if it's the state of our back yard that encourages the more picturesque wildlife ?

Luuuuuurve. No, really...

Yes, this is a post all about love. Or Liab, to be more accurate (and Bavarian). In traditional Alpine knitting, there are several variations of single twisted stitches weaving over and under each other, and they are generally known as Liab (Love).

To Illustrate what I mean, here's a scan from my favourite go-to book when it comes to Alpine knitting, Baeuerliches Stricken by Lisl Fanderl.

Brennende Liab (burning love) creates essentially a plain weave effect, Vergessene Liab (forgotten love) has lengths of no crossing in between, and Offene Liab (open love) has one direction of stitches always over the other direction. Since these patterns are centuries old, I don't think Offene Liab would signify an open relationship, but you never know...

The reason I am blathering on about this is that I have just released another pattern which uses the same principle, albeit with two stitches moving across the ground each time. It's on Ravelry here .

Krautmeister

Today I uploaded another pattern onto Ravelry, Kraut . I wouldn't normally blog about this, but I then I don't normally blog about ANYTHING, it seems. Time to change that, still early enough in the new year to make an effort, right ?

Funnily enough, I have been called many thinks since I moved to London (all in jest and jolly good fun, I assume...), but Kraut wasn't one of them, probably more of an American thing, I guess ? Anyway, I liked the bluntness of the word, and the sock was designed for the January challenge in the Sock Knitters Anonymous group, which was Flora or Fauna themed. Predictably, there are lots of socks with pretty flowers and butterflies being knitted, and they are all beautiful, don't get me wrong, but just not for me.

I was briefly toying with a cockroach sock, but I had this eye-searingly bright green yet to use up, so this was a natural match, and over all, I am quite happy with my (un)kraut.

Be prepared ...

... for Christmas, that is. Since the department stores and supermarkets have been very subtly hinting for months now that, would you know it, there is going to be a Christmas AGAIN in December this year, I have taken the hint and started working on this year's decorations. I wanted to make some baubles for a while, and after looking at various patterns that are available, I decided that I would do my own version. It's not re-inventing the wheel, since it's a sphere shape, but I like the way it leaves several options for decoration.

On a visit to Loop in Islington this afternoon I also saw the fabulous book by Carlos and Arne 55 Christmas balls to knit, which I love for the variations, but I have to say I prefer my versions, because they are perfectly round, which is thanks to the styrofoam ball inside. It's a bitch to knit around it, but I really don't like it when they look like a lopsided dumpling, which is the look I usually manage to achieve with toy stuffing.

Enough waffling on, here is the first beauty shot of the fair isle versions. All the same pattern in the same colours, just different configurations:

I also did a few more classic red / white combos, and I found a willing stand-in for a Christmas tree:

 

Pattern is on Ravelry here!

A new dawn...

YES ! And again - YES !
Santa brought me a new camera for Christmas, so no more excuses for not taking pictures, not writing posts, not updating the blog - you get the drift...

Since, however, I still have to figure out a way of setting up a background that won't make all of the living room unusable for hours, I am just experimenting for the moment.

Never mind all this, here is the first of the new batch, reasonably current - Chester.

The name is original to the pattern, and somehow I found it a perfect match, so that's his name. His backstory (he would have a backstory, wouldn't he ?) is as follows:
We did a secret santa at work, and I wanted to give something I made myself, so Chester was the result. I then got a severe case of second thoughts, and made a second one, in green, without the ears and with fangs instead, more of a monster, really. So I kept Chester, and gifted the green monster instead, which was quite a good call, as the recipient was somehow less than impressed with my gift, not really knowing what to make of him. Turns out that these secret santa gifts are meant to be "hilarious" and provide entertainment during the Christmas dinner... before you ask - I got a pair of plastic Elvis shades with sideburns attached. Yes, I am aware that I need a new job...

Blooming Blossoms

Right, long time no update!
I have been surprisingly busy with work lately (Yeah-money! Booh-no posts!), but I thought I should put a few more pics up in the interrim. The below are both cross stitch on natural linen, done with two strands of MEZ cotton.
This sampler is mainly victorian borders from several old books and patterns I had. It was meant to fit into a frame I had (see inner border), but it just kept growing, so it turned out fairly big.

The second one is actually framed and hangs above my parents' sideboard. It's one of those victorian sentimental pictures with a hidden message. And no, it's not "Help me, I'm being locked in the tower and forced to embroider till my fingers bleed.". Starting at the bottom with F for Flieder (lilac) and going clockwise around the wreath, the initials of the flowers spell Freundschaft (friendship). Aw, bless...

Rabbit, rabbit

Just a quicky now, I have been adoring the patterns of Barbara Prime, aka Fuzzymitten for a while, and I have populated my bookshelves (and a few of my friends) with some of the results. All the pictures that I have are still from my phone, but I felt an unstoppable urge to put at least one up for now, the rest will follow soon (-ish)...