Pod Kamiko Eco Trail

A bunch of photos from our recent hike in the Balkan mountains, near the village of Bov, in the Iskar gorge. Pod Kamiko eco-trail has it all - water cascades with numerous smaller waterfalls and two high ones, interesting rock formations, beautiful forests, pastoral village scenery, fresh air. Husband and I enjoyed it immensely. Next time the children will have to join us, the trail is too beautiful to be missed.

Celtic Dancer Slippers

Another pair of slippers by DROPS design I made these days. I like the original construction of DROP's slippers, although I have a few remarks to make to this design. The obvious - the pattern requires sewing at the heel. This I avoided by casting on with provisional cast on and then grafting. At the toes the pattern envisages cutting the yarn, pulling it through the remaining stitches and tightening - like at the top of a hat. I replaced this with the usual and much neater Kitchener stitch.

However, although I had some doubts about the angular heel, I did not modify that. If I was to knit these slippers again, I would cast on 23 sts - only 3 seed stitch for the under foot and gradually increase the seed stitch section to 11 sts. This would give a more round form of the heel section, which is a bit angular now and make it symmetric to the toes.

My other modifications - I knitted the slippers with 4 mm circular needles and the ribbed edge - with 3.5 mm circular needles and I cast on 31 sts - only 11 sts for the under foot. Because of my thinner yarn and smaller needles I was able to work the diamond section two full repeats.

Pattern: Celtic Dancer by DROPS Design
Yarn: Alize Lanagold Solids, color 645 (mustard), 70 g (the remainder from my Monte Rosa cardigan, I worked the rib of both slippers to the last cm of yarn).
Needle: 4 mm, 3.5 mm
Time to knit: 4 days

Kitchener stitch instead of sewing

Autumn scenery from our recent hike in the Balkan Mountains (reportage coming soon:)

Little Red Riding Slippers

When I went out this morning I noticed that the cherry tree in front of our building had lost almost half of its leaves overnight and had covered beautifully the steps on the side of the building. I quickly grabbed my camera and took a few photos and then asked my daughter to pose just for a couple of minutes with her new slippers before going to school (well, obviously, not in her slippers :))) The things we do (and our closest are made to do) in the name of knitting ...

This is quite a popular pattern, which makes for comfortable and cozy slippers. There are so many pages written and even youtube videos on the making of these slippers that I will not dwell much on mine. I used one skein of red Alize Lanagold Solids, and as I ran out of yarn for the final rows, I finished the slippers with the burgundy red Lanagold for my cardigan. In stead of casting off the stitches and sewing the slippers I made them seamless, folding the last row and grafting it.

Pattern: Little Red Riding Slippers by DROPS Design
Yarn: Alize Lanagold Solids 56, 100 g, 240 m + a few grams of Lanagold 358
Needle: US 6 / 4 mm
Time to knit: 4-5 days