Stripes

I can hardly believe I cast this sweater on yesterday morning on 3 mm (US 2 1/2) needles :)
I had a free day, we went to the park, rode water bicycles in the lake and then had a huge Avengers film marathon, during which I knit the greater part of this sweater. Stockinette stitch and film marathons go so well together :)
As it often happens, the night before yesterday I was searching through Ravelry for a lacy sweater pattern, when I accidentally came upon Elfe. I believe I've seen it before and I've always been keen to make similar striped sweater, I just love this gradual transition between the two contrasting colors.
On the other hand, frankly, I'm not quite thrilled with the construction of Elfe, so I decided to take the idea of the stripes and to construct my own sweater.
As I've knitted a lot with YarnArt Jeans, I didn't make a swatch, just measured a 10 x 10 square on one of the older sweaters. The colors are a bit off on the photos, they are actually lime and grey and I just love how they've worked together so far.
The lime yarn is leftovers from this project and the grey - from my mother's Grey Joy.

I've started the sweater from down to top, in the round, trying to keep my stripes joggless. I opted for the stationary method, combining the striping with the waist shaping on the sides. I'm taking notes and I might write them down, if the experiment comes out successfully.

It's a blue moon today, the skies are clear and it's very beautiful, though, of course, it's no less yellow than usual :)

A day later - I finished the body and started on the sleeves. The body took me only three days, but I'm knitting the sleeves also in the round on 5 needles (I tried again the magic loop method, but somehow it doesn't work for me) and it's taking me forever, so the two sleeves (it's always a nuisance that there are two of them :) will probably take more time than the body.

Purple Strangler

on Cherni Vrah :)

Today we went up to the summit of Vitosha - Cherni vruh, and I decided to use the extraordinary place to photo shoot my latest knit - a cowl, made from the same yarn as the hat and based on a part of the hat pattern. My model was pretty tired from all the speedy climbing and a bit reluctant to stay for long in a wooly hat and cowl, complaining of its strangling nature in the heat, hence the name of the project :)

Pattern: based on the widest part of the chart for Drops Basque Hat, 96 st., 4 leaf motifs
Needle: 4 mm Yarn: Alize Lanagold Solids, 70g
Time to knit: two days

Together with the hat and gloves (knitted a year and a half ago, just before I started blogging),
the cowl is a part of a set of three.

Purple Flower

Pattern: DROPS Basque Hat 123-20
Needle: 3.5 mm rib, 4 mm body
Yarn: Alize Lanagold Solids 100 g (reused from a previous hat)
Time to knit: two days

I've finally got my knitting mojo back. I did miss it all summer ...
I think I lost it somewhere in the middle of my (n-th) summer cardigan - I do have now too many of these, which is probably the reason why I lost momentum and stopped knitting it.
Until, at the end of August a whiff of fall is kind of felt in the air and wooly winter hats do not seem that much ridiculous to knit.

The pattern is fine and makes for a beautiful slouchy beret,
I'd definitely recommend it!

Joining Natural Suburbia and Tami's Amis FO Friday

Buttercups

For the past month I've been working occasionally on my second flower panel by John Clayton - Buttercups. I'm just past the messy and more difficult lower third of stems and leaves and from now on things should get easier and prettier as it's mostly flowers and grass in the remaining two thirds.

The photos of the live buttercups are from our trip to the Rila lakes - 

I wish I had taken more and better pictures ... :) 

Stuck Rocks

Pobitite Kamani (Stuck Rocks) - one of the most interesting places we visited during our Black Sea vacation. The natural phenomenon is near Varna and is a protected natural landmark. There are several theories about the formation of the stone forest, from coral activity through prismatic weathering of rocks to bubbling reefs. The entire region was once the bottom of an Eocene sea and one can still notice fossils embedded in the limestone. The stone columns are 5 to 8 m high above the ground and up to 100 m stuck in the ground. They are hollow and the entire region is covered with very fine sand. Many of the stones are even given names - The Face, The Chair, The Throne, The Fertility Stone, etc.
A truly surrealistic place, charged with peculiar energy.

What a joy - we found a baby turtle on a rock. Of course, turtles are a protected species, so we gently moved it away from the tourist path - to hide it from unfriendly hands or careless feet.

The solar circle - believed to be the point of energy concentration. A group of tourists is rotating anticlockwise in the circle to gather the energy, making me feel like a pagan idol :)

Three Generations

Three generations in Kim Hargreaves' cardigans - my daughter's Joy,

my mother's Grey Joy and my Copper Christina.

Lake Toblino Puzzle

Puzzle: Lake Toblino, Trentino, Italy
Trefl 500, 48 x 34 cm
Time to assemble: 1 day

A quick and very pleasant puzzle I assembled while staying at my mother's house after our vacation on the Black sea coast (more about that - later :)

A processed picture of the puzzle - just for fun :)

Crochet Bag

Project: Crochet Bag
Yarn: Karginlar Sentetik Makrame Iplik, 4 balls
Hook: 4 mm
Lining: knitted fabric from an old blouse
Time to make: 3 days

I ran out of yarn some 15 stitches before the end, so I had to redo the last row of the strap, crocheting tighter, to make the yarn suffice. But that meant that I didn't have yarn to do the flower. So as a decoration I took the tag from an old D&G bag, a favourite of mine and quite shabby now, and added it to this new purse. I think it looks cool :)

I made the bag following the excellent instructions and pattern chart from Bend Beanies.

The body of the bag - stretched and folded in half.

The lining - this is the back of a blouse my daughter outgrew this year (and my first attempt to sew knits).

The pocket is made from the lower part of the sleeve. I sewed it double, for better organization of the odds and ends one holds in her bag :)

The lining - basted ...

... and sewn by hand:

The gathering bands shape the bag (and evening photo)

The bag is ready. Inside:

Because the sleeve had a reinforcement at the end, which I kept, the pocket now has two narrow places for pens :)