haekelmonster

A wonderful friend has sent me a skein of hemp yarn from Sweden. 100% hemp. It got here the day before yesterday and since then I can’t get it out of my mind.

Hemp fascinates me. I really like its shimmer. It reminds me of hair. However, unlike (my) hair, hemp is rather brittle. And it has a funny smell to it. Therefore, it may not be suitable for garments. Even though it is rather thin – just like sock yarn.

Maybe I should crochet a basket. But … a basket crocheted with a yarn that thin? The basket would have to be either tiny to be sturdy enough or I would have to crochet around a rope. (Not to mention that it would take forever to make …).

Knitting a bag might be a better idea. Another Edda? (Having made two already, I am not too thrilled by the idea of making another).

It is a 400 grams skein with approximately 800 meters. So far, I have winded it as much as I could. For now, it is nothing but a huge cake. And all I need is a cool idea!

What would you make out of it?

There is so much summer outside that I am hardly ever inside knitting (at least not as much as I’d like to).

At first, the lovely neighbors had cherries for me, then mirabelles, finally there were plums everywhere and now apples are already falling off the trees in our garden. Coring and pitting fruits, extracting the juice, making jam and jelly – feels like I have been stirring hot liquids for days.

Every night, I carry glasses in the storage cellar. Something to look forward to in winter. That is the good part about it.

However – as I have mentioned before – knitting time is restricted. All I manage to do are tiny projects. Like this one: the  pinwheel purse made of sock yarn bits and pieces and knitted in no time. Joining all five parts took much longer …

But it was totally worth it.

After all, it was the only way to find out whether it actually works. Whether it opens up when you pull the top apart and then snaps back closed when you let go. And it does. However, the way I knit it is sagging, not tight enough. Maybe I should have used (even) thinner needles or thicker yarn. But I did not. That is to say, it may not hold coins but maybe smaller jewelry or other little things.

Sooner or later, it will take over some task. Until then, it might sit on the sofa’s arm rest.

Last week, I finished my second Edda market bag. Flame red and made with much thinner yarn I like it even better than the first. However, because of my choice of yarn, I had to slighly adapt the pattern. That is to say: cast on some more stitches, use thinner needles and add to its handles. It took forever to knit but I am very happy with the result.

Especially as the finished bag looked so tiny when done. Hardly 20 cm long (less than 8 inches) it seemed more like a Pompadour bag than a market bag but – DON’T BE DECEIVED! And that’s the only reason why I write about Edda again.

Look at this: The tiny empty bag and then the very same bag with basketball. (For those of you who do not live surrounded by basketballs – they have a circumference of 75 cm, that is roughly 30 inches).

Isn’t that crazy?

I want Edda to see the ocean. She will love it.

It all started, when I needed a red button for the Little Sister’s Dress. So far, all the buttons I bought or found, inherited or just had, had been stored in a glass and it was definitely high time to change that, to sort them at least by colors. Because no matter how much I liked the glass – it was so impractical, as every time I was looking for a button I had to pour all buttons on a tray as the one I needed was always at the bottom of the glass.

The wooden box with glass lid is intended for tea bag storage (I think), but it works just as well as a home for buttons.

It turned out to be so nice!

Plus, I found the perfect button for the little dress. Unfortunately, it is only one (the only one I had). The pattern asks for two but I decided not to care.

The Little Sister’s Dress has been on my list for a long time. I have knitted it with Schachenmayr’s Catania in coral red in the smallest size (0-3 months). As the yarn is slightly thicker than the yarn the pattern suggests, the dress will hopefully fit a 6 months old baby.

I really like the idea of a baby girl wearing it as a dress, have it as a tunic in fall and as a top next summer. Thus, wearing time will be significantly longer than knitting time – which is usually never the case with baby clothes : )

Beautiful little project! I am pretty sure I will knit another one of these dresses sometime soon. If it had been my pattern / my idea I don’t think I would have given it away for free. Luckily the designer did exactly that.

Thank you!