Knitting for Psychos?

This is absolutely awesome.

Brutal knitting is the best.

Maschenkunst!

I went to Cologne today, to finally go to Maschenkunst, which is a yarn store on Christopherstraße. Since I missed the WWKIP Day there due to tonsilitis, it was my first time there and …. man. Why am I moving away?

A big couch, a ridiculously amazing yarn collection – including Malabrigo, Rowan, Noro, all the good stuff you can’t really get here in Germany or at least not easily. And interesting yarns, too, like 100% bamboo and 100% Casein, which is a milk protein. Weird to think that you can make yarn out of milk, of all things!

Anyway, I went in there with the plan on buying only one skein, regardless of the price. I was sort of planning on Noro, which sounded really exciting to me… but I ended up with two 100g skeins of Zitron Trekking Handdyed, one in Vulcan (brown, red, yellow) and one in Brazil (crazy shades of green, omg, fapfap) and one 100g ball of plain brown bamboo yarn that is soooo soft and is apparently enough for wristwarmers and a hat. We’ll see. But I’m terribly excited. I wish I hadn’t started the Mojo socks in the Super Soxx yarn last night, but I finally had the Knitpicks free again after I frogged the firestarters. Sob. But it didn’t fit, and somehow I wasn’t really satisfied. I have a feeling I’m gonna do another pair of the Charades, that should show off the changing colors better than plain stockinette, with the YOs.

Plans for the yarns I just bought… the Komet for the green Zitron, maybe, some woman who just came into Maschenkunst with her (also knitting) husband was doing them and they were GORGEOUS so I might try them. The bamboo, Evangeline mitts or something, maybe wind it into two balls of 50g and do it ‘toe-up’ as long as it goes. Or matching mitts and a hat, it would be nice to have matching stuff, though then I’d absolutely have to have a scarf to match that… and there’s still my handspun! And tons of sock yarn! And the Rowan 4-ply tweed! And… a crapload of other yarn. God, I need to stop buying, but I’m so afraid I’ll run out once I become a poor college student.

At least I resisted the temptation of buying needles. They had gorgeous rosewood ones there, and the long ones too, which I’ve always wanted to try. You know, the long ones with the wooden stoppers at the end. I only have DPNs and circs, which are awersome, but… you know.

Oooh and they also had the KnitPicks Options set there. Siiiigh.

Sea Foam!

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Originally uploaded by slashkitten

My first proper handspun yarn. 50g/72m, that’s pretty good for me, and absolutely gorgeous. The green is Filz-It Merino New Wool, the blue is the stuff I bought at the Leipziger Wollefest back in June. Mmmh merino. Anyway, I’m gonna spin the second half of both up this week or next, depending on how much time I have, but man, I can’t wait to knit this baby. I just need the perfect pattern, of course…

Fine Singles

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Originally uploaded by slashkitten

Texelschaf singles, pretty damn thin.

Got the fiber from Sheepmama on Ravelry through a swap, spun well. 28g, I might ply it with the teal fiber once I’ve spun that up. Ah, spinning.

First sock syndrome

I turned the heel on my Sun and Water sock (Firestarter pattern with handpainted yarn) about three weeks ago, I believe… and I’m so dissatisfied. It just doesn’t fit, any way I turn it. Plus the toe is kinda funky and short. But on the other hand, I don’t want to frog half a sock… :/ Especially since I wasted about an hour of precious, precious time with my LDR girlfriend winding that ball, and since it’s center pull, I’d have to rewind all of it, and… meh.

So I guess I’ll just thread some string through the stitches and let it rest for a while. I’m gonna start a hat in yellow sock yarn soonish, though I think 20cms would be better for that amount of stitches, so I could probably leave the knitpicks in there.

Sigh.