Lace knitting

After a bunch of baby knits I wanted to cast on for a lace shawl for myself. I've had this shawl in my queue and the yarn in my stash for quite some time. The pattern is the Brooklyn Tweed pattern Rock Island and you can see it right here.

I bought the yarn for this shawl when I was in Berlin a year ago - it is bought in the wonderful shop and café Handmade Berlin in Mitte. I love the bright yellow color of the yarn which is a cobweb weight yarn, Extrageelong Single from Yarn Edition.

I haven't tried knitting a shawl with this construction before. First you knit the edging and then you pick up stitches and knit the rest. The edging is going a bit slow since I have to look at the chart all the time. I doubt I'll memorize this before I'm done, but let's see, the chart is repeated 71 times. 

A stashbusting project

Recently I started knitting a cardigan for my daughter. I wanted to use only yarn from my stash, and since I have lots of single balls I chose to go for a really colorful piece.

The pattern is from the Danish knit designer Susie Haumann's book Knit for your kid. The Danish title is Trøje med striber. The pattern actually calls for only two colors but I think that multiple colors will work fine as well. I'm not going to add more colors than shown in the picture and I plan to use the same color for all edgings all the way around.

Originally I bought the yarn for a crocheted blanket that never was realized. I think it is Supersoft from Knoll Yarns but I'm not sure. I bought it ages ago in one of the local yarn shops Fandango.

Days in Berlin

Once again, Berlin has been the destination for a small vacation. My boyfriend and I have spent 5 days in one of the best cities I know. Only one museum visit this time; an interesting exhibition of photographs by Alexander Rodchenko, and only one concert; a dub label night in Friedrichshain. The rest of the time was spent wandering around the city, relaxing in cafés, finding good places to eat (a lot of sushi, mmm), having drinks in cozy cafés and bars, simply enjoying. I was a bit sad, though, that the Berlin Philharmonic wasn’t giving any concerts during the summer; however, we knew it before we got there, so it was no surprise. We heard the orchestra last time we visited Berlin and it was just overwhelming. I have to go to the Philharmonie again some time.

Last time we were in Berlin I forgot to visit what I’d heard should be one of the best yarn shops in the city, namely Loops in Prenzlauerberg. Compared to Fadeninsel in Kreuzberg, which was my favorite so far, it was much alike. Loops carries Noro and ghh yarn, which is used in the patterns in Rebecca knitting magazine plus other yarn brands I didn’t recognize. I bought 4 skeins of sock yarn, Jawoll from Lang Yarns; two skeins in red and two in brown. I’ve noticed that especially the German sock yarn brands often have some extra reinforcement yarn in the skein, which is a good thing to use for the heel and the toe of the sock.

If you go to Berlin don’t forget to visit Fadeninsel and Loops!

I knitted on my Monkey socks in the bus to and from Berlin and thanks to my knitting it was actually a really nice trip. 8 and a half hour with knitting and listening to music while watching the landscape roll by. What great occupation knitting is!