Friday 29 July 2011

The fastest wool shipping ever

Bloggin' here, bloggin' there, I came across a post from "a knitting bear..."
The fellow knitter linked me to http://www.ortodegliulivi.it/ , a bio-farm selling pure homespun wool - (on sale, at the time)
I was tempted - both by the offer and by their dyeing tips, so and I ordered 2 kg of their wool - in the 2 and 4 ply version, having lot of projects on the list (a wedding shawl, a baby surprise, some heritage heavy socks for a swap, some home made natural dyeing, things like this).
As you can see from the not so brilliant pic taken with my smartphone, the two cones are already making friends in my (one of the many) knitting corb.
Let me tell you the wool is superb, with a delicate parfume of lavender, soft at touch.
But - most of all - Chiara, from L'Orto degli Ulivi, sent the parcel yesterday morning and I  got the wool today, before noon. Poste italiane being involved, I can assure you it's a WR.
Look, I've seen tons of advertisement about superb yarns, I've even seen people spreading a good word about a seller being rewarded with  hats, mittens, stitchmarkers, pretty soaps... Not at all in this case - I'm totally AD and sponsor free, but  I also feel free to heartly reccomend you L'Orto degli Ulivi farm and their wool. That is.

Wednesday 27 July 2011

New knitting

It was so hot outside that I just stopped knitting. Then I went to Vienna and I had such a wonderful evening with Barbara and Kristine, two really skilled knitters, and I was back on needles again.
Here are a small display of my latest efforts.
First of all the socks I'm knitting for my swap partner. Hope she will like them, because the pattern is so really lacy-nice and the strech cotton is just perfect for the project. I'm not sure about the beads, but she can crash them with a hammer, no?  


 This is another version of Fluss des Lebens sock, knitted in one of the really tousend yarns of Tausendschoen , the yellow one are plain socks for my son M., knitted in Opal Hundertwasser.


Of couse I'm not only knitting socks. I'm on a Rowan project knitted with the Lana Grossa's Linea pura cotton-kashmere  blend. I bargain I could not resist.....you know there is no cure for this.

Wednesday 6 July 2011

Fluss des Lebens

I've knitted my first pair of Sonja's socks Fluss des Lebens. Hope Lina will love them as much as I did  knitting  them. To tell you the trouth I've knitted one third sock - that's because I've made an error, I've added half a repeat of the "Zopf Muster", so I have to knit another left sock for Lina. Did I ever mention I hate frogging or re-knitting things? So, now, I have a single blue sock waiting for a friend..... and some yarn left. I'll knit a mišmaš for myself and knit a new pair of socks - with the same cotton blend but in pale blue and white colour - for my son.
At this very moment I'm learning how to knit short rows heel flaps ( on two pair of socks ) and I've started my sock swap project. Something white, with beads and lace. Something I've never knitted before.
I have only one regret - I did not accept to test a nice project from Unite contro il cancro. It was a small size, not adjustable, and I really don't have enough time to knit just for fun. Alas I have to wait another 10 years before I could retreat from work and start playing all for myself.