Finish HAED Call of the Raven

The end of a journey! Call of the Raven is finished!
Started in January 2007 and working on and off during all those years I now reached the end. The last stitches are done and I am happy and a bit sas at the same time. This has been my companian for such a long time! It travelled with me on vacations and short trips. I still remember how happy I was, when I discovered I stitched a hand! I remember running to my husband and showing him the completed hand, so delicate.
Here she is: Call of the Raven.
Stitched from December 2006 until July 9th, 2017.
90 colours, 270.000 stitches on 25 ct evenweave, one over one.

About slipstitches, festivals and Xantippe

May is almost over. It seems to me the days are gone before I even wake up! I celebrated my 60th birthday (!) last week. When you search for 60 y o on google, the firts hits you get are about good whiskey and some about diet and exercise plan. I know what I prefer ;-)

At Nieuwpoort a wool festival took place. I took a class to knit slipstitches and make a button. Loret Karman, as I already knew, is a wonderful teacher. She asked me to make a combination with slipstitches and bohus stickning. I did, but I think it is a bit messy. I like the button a lot more!

At the Breidagen Donna Smith talked about living on the Shetland Islands, about knitting lace and Shetland patterns. Lots of inspiration!

Although it seems I have been away all the time, I  actually also was home for some days  and took some time to stitch . I really want to finish my Call of the Raven this year. I am confident I will.

Talking about finishes, my Xantippe is finished. Pattern Xanti by Hanna Maciejewska. I used a hand dyed yarn from Dibadu Funnies.

High Cotton finished

As promised, I have a finish. Last two weeks we had vacation. No work and plenty of time for knitting. Besides that the weather was great! Unlike now we could sit outside and enjoy the sun almost all day. We hired a little cottage  with a wonderful garden in Belgium, what a pleasure to knit outside!

 

 

 

Update on some knitting and stitching

No finish yet, but there are some things about to be a finish. There is my Haute Couture knitting. It now only needs a border and looks like this

And there is Xantippe, pattern Xanti  from Hanna Maciejewska. That looks like this right now:

And I have done some stitching too. Call of the Raven is almost to be finished. Although, almost ... I know how much time you need to finish a page. And I have to do three, almost four more pages. But, this year, she will be finished. and that's a promise!

A finish

It;s not the first time I have a finish, but this time I am really proud. I finished my first cardigan, knitted on my own size and it fits very well! Its very wearable too, so I am a happy girl!
The very well written pattern is a design of Isabell Kraemer, named Paulie. The gorgeous yarn is from Dibadu, she is an idie dyer from Germany and I bought the yarn in her shop nearby the Externsteine, a beautiful touristic attraction.

Time flies ...

Before you know it January is gone and February almost  disappeared too ... I have been away for several weekends, taking short trips to relax and enjoy life.
And during those trips I knitted and stitched.
To start with stitching, my Call of the Raven is growing slowly. On Febraury 14th it looked like this:

My knitting projects are growing slowly. I have two cardigans on the needles. One is the Chickadee, designed by Ysolda Teague. I am knitting this in my Haute couture Knitting Class, which I attend every two weeks,
to learn how to adapt a pattern to my own  measurements. Here the yoke is shown and the other picture show the yoke including the arms.

The other cardigan is growing too. I am about to knit the sleeves. I can't capture the right colour, so next time I try to take a picture in daylight. The proper colour is shown on the last picture.

A new year with new opportunities

First of all I want to wish you all a happy, healthy 2017! I hope you enjoy my blogposts this coming year and I hope I can find the time to post more frequently.
The year 2016 didn't end with finished objects, but with a new project. I had some progress on Favorite, The pattern is Paulie, a design by Isabell Kramer.  And I bet this year I will finally be able fo finish my Call of the Raven.

At the end of the year I attended a workshop,  'Bakje breidzje' at Franeker. We learned about sequenced knitting and went home with a lovely gift. A big ball of hand dyed yarn by Loret Karman. This ball contains some hidden gifts and during knitting we would find them.
I started knitting a cowl. Hibernated, frogged, started a shawl. Hibernated, frogged and after adding another colour I am now knitting 'Dikke Tuut' (translation: big kiss, the name of the yarn). Below the process from ball to the final choice.

Favorite is another great knitting projects. It is knitted top down and I like how the wool/silk blend is behaving.

Pictures of Call of the Raven will be posted next week. I am in a group that shows the WIP every 10th of the month and I don't want to spoil the fun of that.