Knitting Ranger

I know I am a bit late, but I actually wanted to post this earlier, but better late than never ;) So here is the first part of my Christmas Gifts. I made several of these as gifts to various friends and relatives. The models were taken from here:

https://snowflakepatterns.wordpress.com

So here are some of my results - I made approx. 30 of those to give away.

I used various types of cotton, but the best results were achieved with Schoeller-Stahl Manuela size 20, color 02, using a 1mm crochet needle. I also tried with thicker and thinner wool, but this provided the nicest results.

This is a follow-up on the previous post. Rosemary, who I met in Dublin, was kind enough to send me an example of Studio Donegal wool and I set out to make something out of it and this is the result:



It is a small bag, which holds at most my wallet and my mobile. At work I normally carry a backpack, but sometimes I need to carry just my purse and my mobile and the whole backpack is just too much. So I had been thinking for some time already to get a small handbag to carry with me, but I could never find the right thing. Now I had several good reasons to take it into my own hands. I took one of the patterns from the book I bought in Dublin, translated the written pattern to a chart and got going. The back is a lot simpler by the way:



Unfortunately, so far the charted pattern is only on paper. But I will try to digitalise it as soon as possible and add it here. Until then, a close-up picture of the central pattern has to suffice:

As mentioned in my previous post, I was travelling a bit over the summer. Part I was about the metal pins. During the second half of my holidays I had started wearing the silver spiral needle on the black pullover that I described a few posts ago, just as decoration.

Here is a close-up of the needle. It is approx. 5cm (2") in diameter:



When I wear it on that specific pullover it looks like this:



Another journey brought me to Dublin. Unfortunately it was a business trip, so I had too little time to explore the town, but one afternoon I managed to have a look around. I had checked the Internet before and of course there are some wool shops around. As I knew that there are some famous cable patterns, I wanted to look for a book on those patterns. So I went to this shop:

http://www.theconstantknitter.ie

And I actually found what I was looking for: A book on Aran knitting.

http://www.amazon.com/Traditional-Knitting-Dover-Crochet-Tatting/dp/048644807X/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1409939060&sr=8-10&keywords=aran+knitting

It does not only provide ready patterns on how to make a pullover, but covers the basics, such as what types are out there and how to arrange them. Exactly what I needed, as I do not look for yet another pattern for a pullover, but I like to design them myself. The book is from the 1980s, so it does not have flashy pictures, but that is not too important. Unfortunately, true to the tradition outside of Germany, there are just written instructions. So I guess, one of the next tasks will be to translate them to charted instructions, which I normally use.

I also started to chat a bit with the owner of the shop, asking about traditional Irish wool and she showed me some wool by Studio Donegal, which look and feel really nice.

And she in turn noticed the spiral on my pullover, asking me where I got it from. So I got the two ladies in touch with each other. Maybe these needles will be worn in Dublin in the future ;)

So in case you have a trip to Dublin or happen to be in Dublin take a bit of time to check out this shop and keep a bit of space in your luggage to bring back some nice wool - not only "Irish" wool, but also others -- or for a holiday knit while you are exploring the town and the country :) Greetings from Germany to Dublin and thank you Rosemary for your time

... Holiday time, which means a lot of time for knitting, for exploring and very little time for posting. I will update the new projects as soon as I have them all wrapped up. But a first glimpse on some accessoires I found during my holidays:



I met the lady who makes these a couple of years ago. But we went back to that place for this years holidays and I had a chance to catch up with her and see about the new things she has. The needles in bronze and silver can be used both as pins for the knitted jackets as well as for pinning up hair. I use them for both. Or just as decoration on plain pullovers. But more on that in the next post.....

Feel free to have a look at her wesite yourself:

http://www.ritaackermann.de/index.html