Wordless Wednesday

Silky Slouch

I had a really relaxing weekend. The weather turned freezing cold in Austria, and what do you need in winter? Yes, cake. And, even better, a mighty cake! =)



I won't tell you how many calories this one has got, but it sure is delicious.

A couple of days ago, I finished Le Slouch from knitandtonic.





Project specs:

Pattern: Le Slouch from knitandtonic
Size: one size
Yarn: Rowan Summer tweed
Color: SH521, lot 2616
Washing instructions: hand wash cold

Needle Size: 5 mm dpns and addi circs
Amount of yarn: 2 balls (1.5 to be more accurate)
Yarn called for: no
Mods: I didn't use a smaller needle size for casting on.
What I like about it: Nice yarn and great pattern. The finished beret looks good, too.
What I don't like: It is not really suitable for colder weather, the wind is blowing right through it - I could have expected that with this yarn choice, though.

Wordless Wednesday

Some random links

Patterns to buy:
chicknits.com


How to make knitting graph paper:
Format rows in an excel sheet to have a height of 0.067" and a width of 0.1".

Knitting content, finally!

To start with, a cute bunny picture - how to take in comfortable positions while sleeping.



I have bought some yarn and pattern books at Laughing Hens. The first time I am using Rowan yarn (Summer Tweed)! It's for Le Slouch from knitandtonic. I am thrilled to see if it lives up to my expectations.



I am trying to show also my pre-blog finished objects on my blog, so here is one.
Meet "the-Verena-sweater-with-the-ever-boring-name":





It's from Verena Spring/Frühjahr 2004, pattern No. 34. Don't remember much of the specs, I finished it in 2006 using Schoeller + Stahl Scooter in the suggested color. I knit the sleeves and the body in the round instead of a flat construction and inserted some short rows for the chest.

In China, I had two projects with me. One of them was Wicked, which got finished (but just barely), using pretty small needles:







Project specs:

Pattern: Wicked by zephyrstyle (laceweight version)
Size: between 2nd and 3rd because my gauge was off (22 sts instead of 24)
Yarn: mysterious pirate yarn containing some wool and unknown fibres
Color: pink
Washing instructions: I tried 30°C wool wash program - seems to be okay!

Needle Size: 3.5 mm
Amount of yarn: 450 grams
Yarn called for: no
Mods: Short row dart for the bust area, edging in seed stitch and parts of the pocket.
What I like about it: Cool sweater.
What I don't like: The pocket is not really perfect.

China - Guangzhou

From Shanghai we took a plane to Guangzhou. We had a little bit too much luggage, which was not a problem for the airport staff (a lot of things are done not too accurately in China).



We had an internet cafe right next to our hotel. It was full of Chinese kids who played all day.



Guangzhou is not too small (about 3.2 million people), but a lot less touristy than the other towns we have been to. Everybody was looking at us when we were walking around on the street.



The Chinese kitchen gets stranger in the South, we visited a market with weird ingredients, herbs and dried animals ... probably for Chinese traditional medicine. I felt sorry for the dried sea horses (yuk!).



We had a stroll around the city and the island next to it.



This guy was selling tiger paws and other things I did not want to know about.



Frogs ...



... and more markets.



So enough with the disgusting things, this guy had a HUGE amount of boxes on his bike.



And totally unexpected - Octoberfest in China!



We did not stay in Guangzhou for too long (and I was VERY afraid of eating I have to admit), so after two days we moved on to Hong Kong! No more gruesomeness, I promise!