After 10 months of yarn diet I had to see if there was anything changing regarding the horrible crowded living conditions of my yarns.

You remember my Sockables who were suffering from a lack of space? (as do all the other yarn weights in the other six drawers…)

I carefully opened the drawers to see weather they were still mad at me, all those balls of yarns, for not choosing THEM over the other. But nothing was jumping at me, thank goodness. Taking a look at my yarn drawers I’m happy to note a few corners where the white of the bottom is actually shimmering through! Incredible. Although I’m pretty sure that others wouldn’t notice… (My husband certainly doesn’t!) Well. It certainly motivates me to continue to at least see this year through without any yarn purchases and – if I can keep it up – even longer. *You didn’t read this – it was just your imagination running wild*

Autumn is showing us it’s best to assure that we get plenty of knitting time (meaning, it’s bucketing down) and so I better heed it’s advice and knit.  Testing my resolve of not buying any yarns this year I went to the annual Sy- och hantverksfestivalen (craft fair – read more about it here) again. And I came back without any new yarn (YESS!) but with plenty of ideas for new projects and designs (double YESSS). I need to show you some things that caught my attention.

First off, the fair is truly growing, which shows that people get more and more interested in creating things themselves again. I really like this trend! The fair sported more than 200 exhibitors and loads of workshops of various types and so many new ideas that my head almost exploded. It was great to see the craftiness of people and colour combinations, shapes and patterns… (and of course to drool over yarns)

My grandpa used to make bobbin lace like this and I was standing here for a long time gawking at the mesmerizing process of lace making. I’m so glad that I usually have no more than 5 double pointed needles to handle at the same time. I think I lack the patience for this but I admire everyone who masters this craft.

The one pattern that really jumped out on me was this one. Not only the unusual shape and pattern mix which looks incredibly fun to knit, but especially the colour combination really got to me. Evenly Uneven by JennyPenny (I presented her to you in this post) just went onto my must-do list for the near future. This shawl is made from Malabrigo yarn, by the way!

Something else that has been on my bucket list for long is brioche knitting. I love the simplicity of this shawl and also the colour combination with the black and white edge! unfortunately they didn’t name any pattern for this one. (If you know it, please drop me a line!)

After the fair I needed to finish my wips as fast as possible, to clear my needles for the new ideas.

So here are some of my latest FOs that helped improve the living conditions of the rest of my stash immensely! I made my very first icelandic sweater with short sleeves using up 386grams of beautiful Gotland wool that I bought last year from Gotlands Spinneriet (read about Gotland and the wooly wonders it offers here)

I really tried to follow a pattern (Léttlopavesti (Létt-Lopi Vest) by Védís Jónsdóttir) as I’m not an experiences sweater knitter. I just love the looks of this one and the fact that it has short sleeves. Apparently I’m a hot blooded person, so pure wool and long sleeves would bring me to a boil withing seconds. So short sleeves it is!

Alas, me being unable to follow any pattern – including my own – I started improvising after a few stitches already. First off I really can’t get sweaters to fit when knitting bottom up. So I needed to convert this pattern to top down, which is easy enough if you put the chart upside down 😛

But then the suggested stitch numbers didn’t really work for me. I ended up casting on twice the number of stitches she suggested for size S to create a neckline that would actually fit me. And then I had to basically wing it from the middle of the chart as not to wind up with a tent 🙂 But: I must say for the first try at fair isle knitting I’m quite happy. Plus it’s getting really cold up ere already, so it was the perfect timing, too!

More sofa-knitting and custom orders relieved me of some 300grams of other yarns, too! Some of my hand dyed yarns went into these Dart Mitts:

A pair of kids convertible Monster Mittens from Mumpitz Bamboo Blue Suede Shoes is now relocating to France:

A Roundabout Neckwarmer for my son knit from I knit or dye Killing Me Softly BFL (I just LOVE this yarn!!). I bought this yarn years back in London and it has waited so patiently in my stash so far. But I’m happy I used it now. There is even a little bit left over for my beloved leftover bowl 🙂

And last but not least I had a lovely custom order for a Dragon Hat for adults, which devoured another 160 something grams of squishy leftovers.

Phew! With all these projects my stash SHOULD be shrinking like crazy, but for some reason it isn’t really visible yet… Hmpf.

Well. Since stopping isn’t an option I’ll just go on knitting then 🙂 Two more month of yarn diet to go! Wish me luck!

Happy knitting!