Let's review: KnitPicks/KnitPro Cubics - Double Pointed Needles (DPNs)

 A DPN  (Double Pointed Needle) lovestory

Possibly the best DPNs in the world!

Childhood experiments

I’m a DPN kinda gal. I’ve tried it all, magic loop, two circs, you name it I’ve tried it at least once. A long time ago, I discovered that DPNs were the way to go for me. Back in the day, I was knitting on those old school metal ones, those cold, hard, hand-hurting needles. They were the only kinds around really. Does that make me sound ancient? Oh, well. My first several pairs of wooden DPNs were bamboo and while I liked them a lot more than the metal ones, they always ended up being unusable after a while. Why? Because I bent the life out of those things.  I was a hardcore, grip-the-needle-to-save-your-life kinda knitter, who even bent metal on a regular basis.  

Highschool sweethearts

Around 2008, the year I graduated from the gymnasium (not a place you work out, but an educational institution, look it up, it’s an English word), I discovered not only Ravelry and podcasts but the company KnitPicks or KnitPro as I believe they are marketed under here. That year is a knitting haze to me.  At some point I got my first pair of KnitPro DPNs, beautiful, colourful laminated wood, round, soft and still to this very day magically unbent (partly due to my much more relaxed approach to needles at this point). I still recall using them for the first time and having that feeling of being reunited with a long lost friend, I never knew I had. 

Bye-bye first love, hello perfection

For years I would rave about these needles to anyone making the mistake of lending me an ear. Then something happened, these wonderful needles suddenly fell to the bottom of my toolkit, where they still lay, neglected, rarely used. When they actually get a workout, it is to the whining tune of “why do I not have this size in those other needles”.
Let me tell you about those other needles, the ones that made me say goodbye to my first true DPN love, they are perfection in my eyes and they are called KnitPro Cubics. Beautiful, colourful laminated wood, square, soft and still to this very day magically unbent. I still recall using them for the first time and having that feeling of being reunited with a long lost friend, I never knew I had. Oh no dear, I’ve never said that to anyone but you, I promise (ahem) and I swear I really mean it with you… 

Unless of course you feel like challenging my one true love with another kind? 

New life - elbow patches

It's fashion baby

It finally happened. I managed to wear out a part of a knitted cardigan long before the body of it gave in to all the (ab)use. My best and currently only knitted cardigan was no longer just see-through-thin on the elbows, it was threatening to sport a giant hole any time soon. 

Handmade clothes are precious in my wardrobe and this was the first cardigan/sweater my mum ever knitted for me, so it is even more valuable to me. Thankfully, elbow patches are not only in style, but fairly cheap as well. I paid 50 DKK for my faux leather (aka machine washable) ones. 

Placement

Getting the perfect placement of these patches wasn't easy. I wouldn't have been able to do it without my mum's help. There were a few factors to keep in mind:
1) The worn patches had to be covered (obviously)
2) The new patches had to be centered on the sleeves
3) The new patches had to be placed at the same point on both sleeves.

The latter proved extremely difficult.

Secrets revealed

After struggling with the placement for a while, the measurering tape revealed a great secret, that not even my mum, the knitted of the garment, was aware of. I finally knew why I keep tucking at one sleeve, but not the other. There is a good 2-3 cm difference in length from one sleeve to the other. Of course the obligatory teasing of my poor mother ensued. Somehow she had been in a hurry to finish that cardigan. 

Iron and sew

With the placing problems resolved, we turned to the actual attachment of the patches, which frankly felt a little like cheating as they were ironed on. They were also neatly perforated, showing me where my stitches should go. It turns out sewing on patches takes longer than I assumed. I spent a good few 5 min brakes in betweeen studying, sewing the patches on carefully.

The final result

For the first day or so the patches were rather stiff and uncomfortable, but they are getting more pliable by the day and are placed perfectly (it was so worth spending a long time on placement). My guess is that these new patches will add a good 3-5 years of wear to the cardigan and they don't look too shabby either.

#operationsockdrawer - dad edition

Is there ever someone you follow, who seems very prolific, but you can't help but wonder, if they took a bunch of pictures once of a project and then pretend it is a number of different ones?

I would never do that to you, but have been wondering if all my sock knitting for my dad has made you suspicious.

You know what they say, the proof is in the pudding, so here you go: pudding in the shape of my dad's sock drawer and for good measure the sock I'm currently knitting for him.

There is a grand total of 7 finished and well loved socks and a pair on the needles as well. I knitted another pair for him in fancy yarn, that shrunk (shrinked? / shrank?) in the washing machine..

I wish my sock drawer had this many hand knit socks. How many pairs do you have?

Useful bargains and a little FYI

These past few day have included a little enhancement of my belongings.
First I found an amazing 'new' cook book from 1896. Its by a famous woman who had a number of restaurants with her husband back in her day. It is so much fun to read and cost me only 20 DKK on sale.

Next, I discovered a new charity shop by the red cross and in it was a dress that had my name all over it. It ends a little above the ankle  and is made of pure and lovely silk. For 175dkk it was most likely less than 10% of what it would be in a shop.

For a while I've been adding a cm to every measurement I had to make since my old measuring tape lost its first cm. Patterns says knit to 26cm, I have to measure 27cm. It gets old very quickly.
This means I've been hunting for a tape measure with both cm and inches. It's proven slightly difficult, so when my mum found this bear she thought of me and got it as a small present for me!

The last purchase I've made is a skein of yarn for my Still Light Tunic. Now instead of running out I'll have a lot left over, but I'm planning to knit some cute baby items of the leftovers so I don't really mind that much. The best parts about having to buy this skein was that a) my mum and I got to go to a new (to us) yarn store and b) there was a 35% sale on the yarn.

And now for the FYI: I started my study break (two words that do not belong together) yesterday and will be crazy bussy for the next 3 weeks. I plan to relax in the evenings with a little crafting, but in case I go a little MIA you know the deal and I'll be back (said in an Arnold accent) once my real vacation begin. 2 months of crafting time is worth the wait. 

Let's review: Adorable Animal Knits for Little People by Nuriya Khegay

Source

First impressions

It was the front page on this book that reeled me in and upon showing it to my man, he exclaimed: Yoda! Can I just tell you there are some cute headgear in this book!That each chapter begins with a page, that not only contains pictures of the patterns in it, but detail shots in addition really appealed to me.

The patterns

The book start out with 3-4 photos of each hat showing both the entire project and details well. Towards the end there are fewer photos of the projects and i miss a (big) direct shot of the Robot (there is only one picture of this project with the pattern and one small on the index page for the chapter). The additional pieces, mittens, scarfs and socks correspond nicely to the hats overall, although a few are just plain or seem a little forced to me (like the socks for the Bear and the Robot, which appears only to differ in the cuff). 

The patterns are offered in 3 sizes: 6-12mo, 12-24mo and 2-3yo. 

Addittional info

In the back of the book there is a technique section taking you all the way from the gear you need, advice on selecting yarn, how to read a pattern and the basics of both knitting and crocheting. The one thing that gets me in this section is the part about taking care of your knits. Most knitters are fairly visual people and this books seems aimed at complete beginners, so why, oh why do you combine a relatively big picture of a mitten hanging on a line and then say in the small print that it is best to dry your knits flat? It's really a small complaint, but it just gets me.

What would I knit

The best way to judge a (knitting) book is not by the cover,  but by how many pieces you want to knit from it.
This book says it has 20 patterns in it and of those I would like to knit 9:

The Bear hat

The Baby Bear mittens

The Clever Owl hat   

The Space Elf (aka Yoda) hat

The Robot hat

The Shark hat

The Fox hat

The Reindeer hat

The Pinguin mittens

and my man also really likes:

 the Snowman hat

A 50% wanna-knit rate is not at all bad for a book. 

Final judgement

This is a great book for the new or fairly new knitter, especially one with small children or grandbabies.    I would say you should flip through it before you buy it and while it is not at the top of my wishlist I would like for it to join my personal library some day. 

Disclaimer:

I am in no way paid to do this review and make it a point to always give my honest opinion about anything I review. This book was generously provided for the review by the Public Library. The copy I reviewed was translated to Danish, so layout etc. may vary. 

Pair No.3 - Socks for dad.

My mum will be here next weekend and beacuse of that it was very important for me to finish a new pair of socks for my dad, that she could bring home with her. Thus I have been knitting my little fingers off and voilá the second to last pair of the year is done. To be honest I'm about ready to be done with all these socks for the year now and move on to other projects, like the dress. That remind me, I still have to go find a skein of drops baby alpaca to finish that dress...

Not so much sewing, but still...

After another day of studying, it is just so wonderful to relax with a bit of creating. I got out the fabric, ironed it and cut all the pieces.

There isn't much to show or tell really. I've always found it odd that this sewing thing involves very little sewing compared to the ironing, pinning, measuring, cutting...

As a knitter I still find myself terrified to cut into my fabric. In knitting you can always undo pretty much any mistake. Once you've made the cut in sewing, then there is no way back. Strangly enough, I have no qualms about steaking. Most of the time I don't even secure the yarn before cutting, I just go to town (much to the regret of my mum and nana, who shouldn't be in the room with me when it happens). It must be, that I'm just so much more confident in my knitting. I know when the wool requires stitching and when it doesn't. While I have sewn about 4 garments (in addition to other items) in my life, I still feel like a complete beginner, wishing someone was there to hold my hand. 

There is this sewing school I dream of attending, but it is 1000DKK for 4 times and entirely out of the question for years to come. But one can dream, right?!

Are you doing any spring sewing?