Christmas knitting revealed

light as a feather scarf for my other gran, made using my handspun lace yarn, merino, single ply. body of this scarf was made on a knitting machine and I added garter stitch edging by hand, to prevent it from curling. I like the colour variegation very much and I was very surprised that the yarn was strong enough for a knitting machine.

lahky ako pierko salik pre moju druhu bapku, pouzila som rucne spriadanu merino vlnku. usrtikovala som to na strikovacej masinke a potom som pridala rucne okraj, aby sa to neskrucalo. Perfektna farba, a bola som prekvapena, ze tato vlnka bola dost silna na to aby vydrzala aj strikovaciu masinku.

lots of pictures! I love this one! made for Danka (my mother-in-law to be). it's a very simple stitch repeat from an old estonian lace knitting book with a garter stitch edging. I used my handspun yarn for this little number as well.

tento salik je superny uplne, takze vela obrazkov mame. je pre Danku. velmi jednoduchy vzor zo starej knizky o estonskej cipke. pouzila som moju rucne spriadanu vlnku.

a hat for mom ( she doesn't like it, but it looks good on me!)
potom takato capicka pre mamu (nepaci sa jej, na mne vyzera superne!)

hat for my sister Iva, not sure if she likes it, but I bet she doesn't. again, looks good on me! the yarn is handspun alpaca, bit scratchy, so I made a clolourful lining using hedgehog fibres cashmere/merino yarn in mermaid colourway. soo soft.

capicka pre moju sestru Ivu, nevjem ci sa jej paci, ale stavim sa ze nie. opat, na mne vyzera superne! vlnka je rucne spriadana alpaca, trochu skrablava, takze som spravila podsivku z hedgehog fibres cashmere/merino vlnky, vo farbe mermaid. makkucke.


and a hat for dad, I made it too big, therefore, he doesn't like it. (mom, try washing it in the washing machine, it will shrink)
capicka pre tatinka, prilis velka, takze ani jemu sa nepaci. (mami, skus ju oprat v pracke, to sa zbehne)

so there we go. I doubt I will knit something for my family ever again. with the exception of my grandma who got the laminaria shawl, she loved it. and Danka, she liked the scarf too :) happy rest of holidays everyone!

takze tak to mame. pochybujem, ze budem este nieco niekedy strikovat pre moju rodinku. okrem bapky co dostala laminaria salik, jej sa velmi pacil. a Danke sa pacil jej modry salik tiez :) pekny zbytok sviatkov!

handspun gloves

not so keen on these, I'm not sure whether this colour works for gloves. and they are a bit lumpy, because my handspun yarn is bit irregular (to put it mildly). I knitted a good bit waiting at the emergency (5 hours... that's ireland for you), my friend thought that he had a broken rib. turned out he didn't :) but I provided a great entertainment for other patients waiting.

nie som si ista, ci tato farba je zrovna dobra na rukavice. a su aj take hrckate nejake, lebo som spriadla dost hrckatu vlnku. Dost som ustrikovala, ked som cakala s kamosom na pohotovosti (5 hodin... irske zdravotnictvo). myslel, ze ma zlomene rebro, zistilo sa ze nemal. Ale aspon som poskytla celkom dobru zabavu ostatnym cakajucim.

on the front page

my yarn made it to the front page of etsy, yay! (it's not the first time my yarns were featured, but this is the first time I was able to get a picture of it!)

huraaa moja vlnka bola na prvej strane etsy ueeej! (uz boli moje vlnky parkrat na prvej strane, ale toto je prvy krat, co mam obrazok!)

last minute wrapping

all presents are wrapped, most of them sent to slovakia for my family and the rest stays under our christmas tree.
darceky zabalene a vacsina poslana na slovensko, a tie pre nas su uz umiestnene, tak zhruba, pod stromcekom.

merry christmas everybody!
vesele vianoce!

people like my yarn :)

I really like when customers send me pics of what they've made with my yarn. Beautiful cowl by Melissa, available for sale in her etsy shop :)
je super ked mi zakaznici poslu obrazky toho co ustrikovali z mojich vlniek. Toto je nakrcnik, ktory urobila Melissa and lovely silk bags are made by pippi

a tasky od pippi

Knitting machine

Lovely Laura lend me her wonderful knitting machine yesterday. She gave me lesson number one on how to thread a knitting machine and how not to break a knitting machine and after she left I started knitting. First attempts almost made me cry. The edge stitches kept slipping off and the resulting fabric was kinda dodgy.

Laura mi pozicala jej strikovaciu masinku vcera. Dala mi lekciu cislo jedna ako do masinky navliect vlnku a ako nepokazit strikovaciu masinku a odisla. Tak ja som zacala strikovat. Skoro ma to rozplakalo a kebyze to je moja strikovacia masinka tak ju asi od nervov rozbijem na male kusky. Padali mi z toho ocka a cele to bolo nejake divne.


So after couple of hours I finally had 'eureka' moment and I realized I really need to add weight to the bottom of the fabric. From then on it went quite smoothly, only occasional dropped or unknitted stitches.

A potom huraaaaa som na to prisla, treba zatazit spodok tej latky ktora sa tam strikuje. Odtial to islo celkom haldko, len obcas nejake spadnute ocka alebo nezostrikovane ocka

here are the perfect tiny stitches, yay!
perfektne malicke ocka

also I thought it would be rather nice to add and odd stripe of silk here and there. And I got bored with charcoal gray :)
potom ma zacala nudit tmavoseda, tak som pridala sem tam zeleny pruzok


I am in love with the resulting fabric, the edges are still a bit funny, but it's almost two metres long and 60cm wide scarf, not bad! I just need to add an edging of some sort, probably garter (by hand) so it won't curl.

Vznika z toho perfektna latka. Okraje su este take trochu vesele a capate, ale mam skoro 2 metre salu ktory je 60cm siroky! Uz teraz len potrebujem pridat nejaky okraj (rucne), aby sa to nekrutilo do rulicky.

fluff build up on row 557
nazbierana spinka na riadku 557


resulting fabric: gray is merino lace, dark green is silk lace and pink variegated is my handspun single ply lace yarn
tmavoseda vlnka je merino, tmavozelena je hodvab a pruzkovana ruzova je moja rucne spriadana jednovrstvova vlnka

I didn't know that my handspun lace is that consistent!
som netusila ze pradiem tak rovnomerne

Buster

We had this monster dog to watch for five days. He is a labrador cross and he is huge! Buster was mostly very good, especially when he was asleep.
Tohto obr psika sme strazili 5 dni, je to labrador krizeny s niecim a je obrovsky! Buster bol prevazne dobry, hlavne ked spal.

Our poor Lola wasn't very happy about the whole situation. She was so jealous and she wouldn't let him near me. Or into the bedroom, or onto the bed (which was good!). But they played nicely outside, chasing each other in the park.
Nestastna Lola nebola prilis nadsena. Ziarlila a nechcela ho chudaka pustit ku mne. Alebo do spalne, alebo na postel (co bolo super!). Zato vonku sa pekne hrali a nahanali.

I did almost nothing for the past few days, as the dogs needed constant attention. I had to make sure Buster's not eating Lola and that Lola isn't provoking him.
Celych 5 dni som ich strazila ako oko v hlave a skoro nic ine som nerobila. Davala som pozor, ci Buster nezere Lolu a ci ho ona prilis neprovokuje.

One day, Lola found a spool of thread. But who can stay mad at her? So I let her keep it.
Jedneho dna Lola nasla nitku. Tak som jej ju nechala, lebo kto sa na nu moze hnevat...

I did a bit of spinning, here is Buster thinking he is a lap dog... he sat on me most of the time. And yes, he is heavy.
Trosicku som priadla a tunak mame Bustera, ktory mi pomahal. Nestastnik, on nevie, ze je velky a snazil sa sadnut si na mna skoro cely cas. A hej, je dost tazky.

I spun this lovely almost black alpaca pencil roving last week. I bought it from Loop, a great etsy shop. I really like pencil roving, easy peasy, just add twist, no drafting necessary. (and I also bought two other batts, I can't resist, when the second item has lower postage)
Tutok vlnku som spriadla, z takych chlpov, ktore som kupila u Loop. Je to alpaca a takmer ciena. No velice piekna. Este som si tam kupila dve tzv. batts, co su take cesance (cesanec, zas ta tu mame. hrozne slovo), lebo bola velka zlava na postovne na druhu a tretiu vec...


I got 6 oz of this lovely stuff from here, it's blend of 9% Angora rabbit, 70% Alpaca, and 20% Llama fiber wit a bit of glitz. Very nice. It's going to be a single ply laceweight, I think.
Toto su najnovsie chlpy, zmes 9% Angorsky zajko, 70% Alpaca, and 20% Llama s troskou lesklitka primiesaneho. juuj z tohoto oblacika bude asi jednovrstvova tenka vlnka.


and not to forget, Buster is going home today! I was nice and all with him, but I'm tired... :)
a aby som nezabudla, Buster ide dnes domov, huraaa! Bolo nam super a vobec, ale stacilo, som unavena...