Quick summer tops

Big needles, some leftover cotton & acrylic blend, a few good movies, and I got two festival tops. Both are loosely knit, on a petit person they'll look like a tunic.

One more evening and even more leftover yarn, and there is another handknit top:

Sometimes improvising ends really well:)

Summer knitwear - oh, yes!

Some people think that knitting is mostly an autumn/winter thing. They hear "knit" and see hats and sweaters that are there to keep us from cold. But that is so not true! There are so many gorgeous summer yarns that just wink at you from the store shelf as if saying: "Pick me! Pick me! I can be your next top/dress/shawl! Pick me, I'm sooo pretty!"

Well, I picked:) It was Alize Miss Batik, mixing my favorite summer colors: shades of blue and bright lime green. The yarn is very thin (280 m/50 g skein), so I went with my favorite summer design - the Faux Granny Shawl. The result is this:

This scarf was made with only one skein on size 3 needles (US2.5). It's light, breezy, a bit shiny and perfect with a t-shirt on a nice summer day. 

And it is for sale: https://www.etsy.com/listing/231086148

If you'd like to make a similar shawl yourself, the pattern is available here:
Faux Granny Shawl on Etsy
Faux Granny Shawl on Ravelry

 Happy summer knitting!

Behold, I'm going bilingual:)

Ladies and gentlemen, od dzisiaj będzie też po polsku:)

And I'm going to show you what came out of my experiments with new yarns and beads.

Pokażę Wam dzisiaj co wyszło z eksperymentowania z nową włóczką i koralikami.

Experiment 1 - cobweb yarn / pajęczyna

A long time ago I found a beautiful yarn in one of my favorite stores. It was a gorgeous blend of cashmere, silk and merino wool. But it was incredibly thin, 2600 meters (that's over 2000 yards) per 100 g - that probably means the yarn is thinner than the one you use to sew on your buttons. And definitely more delicate. I kept looking at it for a while, after all a yarn that thin is a bit scary. But in the end I gave in and bought one skein for a bridal shawl.

Dawno temu wypatrzyłam w jednym z moich ulubionych sklepów przepiękną włóczkę - delikatną mieszankę kaszmiru, jedwabiu i wełny merino. Piękną, ale niesamowicie cienką - 2600 m/100g. Mam grubsze nici do szycia. Najpierw nie mogłam się zdecydować, bo taka cienizna jednak trochę przeraża. Ale w końcu uległam i kupiłam motek z myślą o jakimś delikatnym szalu dla przyszłej panny młodej.

And here it is:

I absolutely love this yarn. Yes, it's thin, and delicate, and knitting takes a long time, but the result is amazing. This is a true cobweb shawl. It weighs less than one ounce (I used less than 1/3 of the skein), you almost don't feel it on the skin. And it's soft, delicate and so easy to drape.

Zakochałam się w tej włóczce. Owszem, jest cieniutka i delikatna, a sama robótka pochłonęła sporo czasu, ale efekt jest fantastyczny. To jest prawdziwa pajęczynka. Całość ma 220x107 cm i waży zaledwie 28 g! Tej chusty prawie nie czuć na skórze. A do tego jest miękka, delikatna i bardzo łatwo ją ładnie ułożyć.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/103881164/romantic-wedding-lace-shawl-in-silk

20% cashmere, 20% silk, 60% merino

Eksperyment 2 - koraliki / beads

Na koraliki miałam ochotę od dawna, ale trochę brakowało mi konkretnego pomysłu. A potem przypomniał mi się ten szal. Zrobiłam go wzorem estońskim z bąbelkami. A teraz wymyśliłam sobie, że wykorzystam ten wzór, ale zamiast bąbelków wplotę koraliki.

I wanted to knit something with beads for a long time, but I couldn't quite figure out what and how. And then I remembered this shawl. I'd knitted it in an Estonian lace stitch pattern with nupps. And now I decided to use it again, only this time replacing the nupps with beads.

I wyszło tak:

Podoba mi się co koraliki robią z szalem: nieco go obciążają, przez co fajniej przylega do sylwetki, a do tego błyszczą w słońcu, dzięki czemu szal migocze. Całość jakby w sam raz na romantyczne spacery przy zachodzie słońca:)

I like what the beads do to the shawl: they make it a little bit heavier, so it drapes closer to the body, and they shine in the sun, making the shawl shimmer a bit. The whole thing is perfect for romantic walks at sunset:)

https://www.etsy.com/listing/103881402/knit-red-lace-stole-with-beads

100% merino wool

So how do you like this bilingual post? Is color coding comfy enough for you to read? Let me know what you think.

I jak się Wam podoba ten dwujęzyczny wpis? Wygodnie się go czyta w takiej podkolorowanej wersji? Dajcie mi znać, co o tym myślicie.

News from the needles

Dear readers,

This is going to be a very short post, I just want to give you an update on new things from the shop. Some shawls were knitted with brides in mind - these are light and delicate, and colorful, after all not everything has to be white:)

http://www.etsy.com/listing/97830781/knit-lace-shawl-ultralight-delicate-blue

http://www.etsy.com/listing/94227314/wedding-shawl-delicate-lace-lavender

http://www.etsy.com/listing/97831322/knit-lace-shawl-ultralight-delicate

I even have one for a vampire bride;)

http://www.etsy.com/listing/97832360/knit-black-lace-shawl

For spring (but still wearable in winter) there's a nice lacy scarf:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/96068613/knit-gray-lace-scarf

Then there are two feather and fan shawls in two colors and two sizes:)

http://www.etsy.com/listing/95629554/gray-lace-shawl-hand-knit-rectangular

http://www.etsy.com/listing/95664019/raspberry-red-lace-shawl-hand-knit

 And finally a triangular shawl:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/94227049/raspberry-lace-shawl-triangle

And I think that's all the news for now. Now back to work. I'm finishing one more "heavy" triangle and then I plan to work of some summer pieces.

Thanks for reading the blog, thanks for visiting the shop (http://www.etsy.com/shop/KnitsDeLuxe)

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Enjoy!

Finding purpose for leftover yarn

I have a whole box of part-skeins of yarn I used for larger projects. Normally I'd use them to knit some sort of slippers, but this time somehow I don't feel like it. So I'm knitting wristwarmers (my favorite thing to wear on cold days:)) and... jewelry? Well, accessories, for sure:) They are simple loops knitted from bamboo yarn and you can wear them any way you like. They can be a necklace, bracelet, headband, belt - anything.

These items were inspired by izuss1's sev[en]circle - it's amazing, how something so simple can spice up your outfit:)

Both are available here:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/79503480/white-and-blue-bamboo-necklace-bracelet
http://www.etsy.com/listing/79502286/rainbow-bamboo-necklace-bracelet

Two summer triangles

I think I have a new favorite yarn - bamboo. It's soft, light, silky and soooo nice on the skin. I bought two skeins just to try it out, and as soon as I touched it, I knew there will be more coming my way:)

I used my bamboo to knit a triangular shawl for the beach. I don't have the right photo (well, there's no beach anywhere near me), but I think this is perfect to wrap around your hips, when you go for a stroll down the beach. The upper part is knitted in a plain, solid pattern (to cover you know what;)); the rest is a nice lace that looks great and is, well, breezy:)

And here is the bamboo's cotton sister:

Both shawls are available for sale here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/amadeitknits