Earlier this Spring, found some great bargain cotton hanks thrown over a stand outside the haberdasher on the main street downtown Bodrum. Pink and white were only one hank each but the capuccino kind of colour was plenty. Needless to say, they all happily accompanied me home to join my stash. These, I thought, would serve great to my eyelet training. I decided to knit a sweater but a sweater with randomly chosen complimentary patterns found on the net. The very top pattern though is the Diamond Lattice Parke-Trim Panel from the book Arctic Lace by Donna Druchunas ...
I was seriously avoiding the wool stand at the weekly market place again earlier this Spring but somehow was pulled into the crowd of hanks by this exceptional beauty earing the colours I love! When I got home, I thought this was a great opportunity to give the Estonian lace a try which I was avoiding due to fear of failing to knit lace. I chose "Lily of the Valley" scarf for my knitting lace training from the book by Nancy Bush - Knitted Lace of Estonia. I was very surprised to witness how smoothly the scarf is knitted. I said to myself, either lace knitting is exaggerated or I was an Estonian in my previous life!
This little blanket for older ages is to be continued and is put aside to be knitted with cooler weather. Three colours and when finished, will be 15 squares. Originally, it is a sock pattern which is very generously offered by Stephanie van der Linden. Pattern can be downloaded here :
And my new haircut with roses from the garden
I must confess and yes, am quite proud of myself to have achieved knitting this
The size is 19 cm square (about 7.5 inches), from a freebie at Ravelry. As to what to do with this, is another story. So many storms in my mind but summer is approaching and not enough room for knitting then!
We had a wonderful WET, WET, WET winter. Such a bliss ... OK, I want to start by posting a picture of our home as to how it looks from its vicinity. And a nice picture of my dear hubby with two of our dogs, the youngest two!
This year I wanted to advance my knitting and before I could ever do that, discovered the magical lace knitting! Luckily, Lion Brand had a lovely freebie to avail beginners give it a try. I used a mix of cashmere-bambu yarn and my dear friend Tommy used variegated wool mix and to my fascination, managed to finish two of them (for her cousins-in-law) before I could ever finish my only one. She was so adicted to stitching it that I with pleasure lend her my unfinished baby so she discharged all her lace-related-accumulated energy on it :) When she showed up with my finished project, she told me she will avoid looking at this particular pattern for a few months. Made me laugh out loud ... Below are pictures of our lace shawl adventure!
Below you can see my yet to finish shawl lying on the chiffoniere :)
Aaaand ... Thanks to Tommy :)
The aran sweater I am wearing below was a gift from my boss' (David Faulkner) wife Ronnie Faulkner from Canada. She had her MIL knit it for me in year 1984, that means 25 years ago! Just as people do, everything has a story behind. I hope they both are in good health and wish I could show them that I still have it and how much I cherish it. As to Dave's mom, she very likely is no more with us as she was already very aged then and may she rest in peace. Cem's cardigan is inherited from Tommy's grandmother. It is some very good and minimum 40 years old !!! Probably from early 60's. Tommy was so sweet to flatter us by sharing this heirloom with us. May her dear granny rest in peace too ...
My dream to knit socks also achieved this year. The variegated red pair is the toe-up!
The variegated blue below is top-to-toe knit by me :) The other beauty is a Dutch gift knit by mama Lilian.
Another toe-up still to be finished!
Needed a box for my knitting needles and came up with this Pringles project. Am dressing the box. Yet another project waiting for my attention!
Darning is one of the new challenges though quite hard to find literature. Thanks to imagination and I managed to come up with this one :)
Aaaaaand Lilian transferred the whitework diseases. Could not help but try this small Ruskin piece. Still incomplete!
