Oops! I knitted again...

I think I've got the knitting fever! Let me rephrase that, I know I have the knitting fever! I haven't been crocheting much recently, since there have been so many things I wanted to learn about knitting! Don't worry, I still love to crochet, and I will keep on crocheting!

My latest project is again a Stephen West pattern, it's called Earth & Sky.

The yarn I used for this project is Golden Eagle Alpaca, which is a 100% Alpaca, fingering weight. I love how vibrant the turquoise is next to the black and gray! I've only recently discovered how much I love turquoise! I think it works great in this color combination! 

It was a little bit scary to start such a big project (I started with 3 stitches and ended up with almost 500) especially since the yarn is so very very thin! I worked the shawl with size 4mm knitting needles.
I loved working on this project, but I did put it aside sometimes. I'm not the best 'purler' and it really slows me down! I'm telling you, rows of 500 purl stitches aren't that much fun! I'm chuffed with the results though!

Because of the fingering weight yarn, and a bit bigger needles, there is a lot of drape! It's incredibly soft (I love alpaca) and even though it looks very thin, when wrapped around my neck, it keeps me perfectly warm! 

The colorwork is very clever in this pattern. It's called 'Intarsia knitting' which scared me when I first heard it. However, I love a good challenge! It turned out very easy, you just twist the working yarn over the new color of yarn before you start knitting with that new color, and on your way back you do the same. This way you don't have to carry the colors at the backside of your work (which wouldn't have looked so nice on this scarf). In the picture below you can see the intarsia quite clear, but I think it looks very neat!

I couldn't help taking my scarf out for a little photo shoot at a lovely location around the corner! It is such a beautiful and sunny day today!

Here's a shot of the same place but from a distance. I walk past this everyday on my way to work, and always love how pretty it looks! In winter it was even more beautiful, everything was covered in snow and ice! 

It's a lovely day here in Hamburg! I'm very lucky because I have two days off now. I can enjoy the beautiful weather and spend time doing the things I love! These two days were very welcome because my head is overloaded with information with all the rehearsals I'm doing. I only started less than 2 weeks ago and we've already learned 5 shows. I will elaborate a little bit more about my job in another post and when I'm a little less busy ;-)

Have a beautiful day everybody!

Dennis xxx

This post has moved!
You can read an updated and revised version on our new blog.

Click here to read this post in full at it's new home!

Hospital Knitting and Model for a day!

I'm back! I'm home!

I'm very excited to be out of the hospital. As you might have read, I was in the hospital for a tonsillectomy, and stayed for 6 days. The operation itself was a breeze as I was completely under, but I think nobody could have really warned me enough about the post-op pain. I won't go into too much detail, but I didn't know it was going to be this bad. I knew that having this surgery would come with a lot more pain as an adult, but I had no other choice, they had to go!

It's been 10 days now, and I'm finally able to enjoy most foods again. I'm still on top of my pain meds, but it's all very manageable by now! What really surprised me, was how very painful it was to have ice cream in the days after surgery. Everybody always says that that's the only good thing about having this procedure. The endless supply of ice cream! The first day after surgery I asked the nurses for an ice pop to relieve some of the pain, but boy was I wrong. It was stinging like crazy and making everything worse! I managed to finish it somehow, but only because I knew it could help recovery.

The only thing that made me forget the pain a little, besides my meds, was knitting!
Yes that's right, I took all my knitting needles and a lot of yarn with me. It was the perfect opportunity to finish some projects, and start new ones!

I would have my laptop positioned on my bed, watching my favorite TV Series (Will & Grace), and I would knit for hours and hours. I really gave my head as much distraction as possible! I had to follow the pattern, make my stitches, give some attention to the series I was watching, and all this together really made me less aware of the pain! It might sound crazy, but I knitted about 8-10 hours a day!

Like I mentioned in my other post about knitting, I'm very much enjoying the patterns of Stephen West. In the hospital I finally had some time to finish the Loxley hooded scarf I'd been working on.

So this is a little scary now, I've never really modeled any of my projects, but here we go. Matt & I had a good laugh shooting these shots. To pose or not pose? To smile or not to smile? We had a lot of fun and shot about a 100 pictures, but only these made the cut!  So here goes:

Here I'm wearing the Loxley (Hooded Scarf). Pattern can be found here: Loxley by Stephen West.

Here's a clear shot of the back of the hood! This one wasn't so hard to model ;-)

 Of course we needed a crazy one as well! 

This is the Windschief Hat. Pattern can be found here: Windschief by Stephen West
I feel like I should have chosen a yarn that's a little more sturdy, because it shapes a little too well around my ears, making them stand out a little. But it was still a very interesting pattern, and I love the textures in this hat!

Trying to look seriously at the ground. That's how it's done right?

This is the Botanic Hat. Pattern can be found here: Botanic Hat by Stephen West.
It's a very nice pattern, and the great thing about this hat is: It's reversible! There's no wrong side with this hat! The pattern is very clever, especially because both sides have a very different look! Judge for yourselves!

 

I do love black & white!

And this is what it looks like if you wear it inside out, or ouside in, or...?

 

And a again, randomly looking to the side.

I've had so much fun knitting these patterns and can recommend them to everyone! They're fun to make, very wearable, and look amazing! I guess staying in the hospital wasn't such a bad thing after all!

It's been really nice reading all the lovely and warm messages from all of you! It really made me happy whilst being in the hospital. Thank you all very much!

Dennis xxx

This post has moved!
You can read an updated and revised version on our new blog.

Click here to read this post in full at it's new home!