I like to drag my knitting along with me (who doesn't?), and my knitting bag contains, apart from the current yarn, needles, and stitches on the needles, a few extra things. These are, mainly, a crochet hook (just in case something needs catching), a little bit of emergency chocolate (because you never know), a needle gauge (because I never know), a row counter ring and, of course, stitch markers and darning needles. The latter just in case I finish a project unexpectedly quickly...

I used to keep the latter two in a tiny ziplock bag, until very recently, when the little bag refused to keep them in any longer, due to a split side seam. So it was clear I need something to replace it. Something sturdier. Something slightly larger (one of the darning needles was almost too large for the bag). And, preferably, something prettier.

So I had a little rootle and found things. Such as a zipper leftover from buying notions for another project (I decided on using a different one). A leftover bit of linen with 26 threads per centimetre, which makes it dense enough to securely hold small things. And to top it all off, a wonderful piece of patterned silk fabric that Gillian sent me in a little package a while ago... which, colour-wise, went nicely with the green zipper.

So what remained but putting them all together?

I started off with drawing out a pattern, and cutting it from both the linen and the silk.



The silk was just large enough for what I had in mind - lucky coincidence!

I tried to sew both layers together at first, but quickly found that this would not work - so it was the linen layer as the first step, and then the silk cover to go over that base.



I fixed the zipper to the straight edge of the linen first, then bent it around and sewed the curved top together. Nipping the linen made it much easier to get this done.



It still remained a very fiddly process!

After the linen inner part was done, I only had to cover it with the silk. Again, I did the straight line along the zipper first, then the rest.



And then... it was done, and ready to be filled.



It's small, yet roomy enough for all my stitch markers and darning needles, with space to spare for more. I'll probably add two tiny loops of silk fabric to the ends of the zipper for easier opening and closing, but altogether, I'm already very pleased with it!

There's finally, finally an end in sight. I'm not the world's fastest knitter, and things are made worse by the fact that I tend to knit in spurts and then let the knitting mellow in some corner for a while when things get hectic, or other stuff takes priority, or I plainly don't feel like knitting at the moment.

There's just a few more rounds to go on the five-toe socks, though, and then it will be time to bind off.



The next project is already lined up, the swatch is knit, well, actually there's four possible projects competing, and two swatches completed, but I'm quite sure which of them will win the race for now.

Did I mention I need to knit faster?

The wool I use for the socks you saw yesterday is a sock wool from Opal - with 420 m on 100 g slightly thinner than normal sock wool (which is why I'm using 1.5 mm needles instead of the usual 2 mm ones for normal sock wool). It's also made from German sheep wool, all production steps done in this country, and thus supports regional shepherds.

But there's even more... it's possible to support the shepherds and their herds through a Schafpatenschaft (sheep sponsorship, so to say). For 60 €, you buy one year of sponsoring; you'll get a special something worth about 20 €, a little goes into the overhead costs and tax, and about 25 € go into a fund for helping the animals and their herders with things such as buying new rams for breeding. They also get more money for wool out of that fund.

The site seems very transparent about where how much of the money goes, and there's also a list of projects supported with the sponsoring money - plus some very nice sheep pictures. I think it's a lovely idea!

Some info about the Schafpatenschaft was on the ball band around the wool I'm knitting with, and after reading it for the approximately umpteenth time, I've decided that this is definitely something I need... so now there will be a sheep called Herlind, somewhere. And I'm very, very curious to find out what the special treat for the sponsors will be!

(This post was intended to go live yesterday, but obviously I'm not good with numbers, including calendar numbers. Dates. So sorry for yesterday's blog silence - and I hope you enjoy knitting news a day later, too!)

Current knitting news:



There is, as you can see, some sock progress. A little more on each sock, and I will call them finished (and then there's only a few last ends to weave in).

Other knitting progress is going on as well, as in "a swatch is happening":



It is very blue, and very beautiful, and I have about 780 m of this yarn... which might be just enough for something vaguely sweater-like. We shall see once the swatch has been finished.

Speaking of finishing - there's a long article about grafting on the Interweave site that might be of interest for you.

Or if you're more into crocheting and/or into fancy stuff and/or into really, really old stuff, you might want to crochet your own copy of the famous Venus von Willendorf statue. Yes, really, there's a pattern for it, it's free, and the result really looks a lot like the original - it's amazing!

I had a beyond wonderful time at the last fair - a lot of people stopped by to say hello that I see way, way too rarely; I had lovely food (Margit treated me to Königsburger Klopse for one dinner) and lots of nice coffee and there was sunshine and warmth and general enjoyment. The fair featured a nice, large, well-lighted space with tables to sit and eat and drink and knit in one part, and most of the stalls in the second part, with a little foyer inbetween.

As usual, I didn't get out much from behind my table, but it was enough time to go on a button-hunting safari for the Most Patient Husband of Them All, who has almost finished knitting his cardi and needed buttons for that. So out I went, armed with a yarn sample (for colour coordination) and my phone and a size indicator and sent him photos of buttons I supposed might please him. I can definitely tell you that proxy-button-shopping is an exciting thing! (It was also successful, to my great delight.)

[caption id="attachment_3753" align="alignnone" width="1632"] As usual, I'm standing side by side with Margit from Alte Künste...


There was even a little knitting done in the evening - my five-toe socks are slowly creeping towards being done. And I definitely need to knit faster. Or spend more time knitting. Or, preferably, both... because, you see, there might have been a tiny little mishap at the fair.

You know that good resolution that we knitters tend to have? About not buying any more yarn before the last project is finished, or the stash has been diminished a little? Well. While I was flanked on one side by Margit's stall, I had Holles Wollfärberei on my other side. And when I returned from a quick run to fetch some coffee, I sort of got confused for a few minutes and turned left a few metres too late, and by the time I had sorted out my directions, I might have accidentally dropped some money at that stall, and some yarn might, in turn, have accidentally dropped into my bag.



I blame fair-addled brains. And her choice of blues.

So. That does look, to me, like a little cardi and a pair of socks, some assembly required. See why I need to knit faster?

(She has an Etsy shop. Just in case you wonder how to get that stuff.)

The little sock is growing, albeit slowly now that I am back at the home desk, working, instead of hanging out in trains, planes and airports with plenty of knitting time on my hands. I've turned the heel by now, though, so it is the slow way up towards the leg and cuff at the moment.



In terms of proper work-work, I'm still puddling around with the Textileforum website. It's growing, too - but there is yet quite a bit of stuff to do. Also, I'm wildly determined that 2018 will finally be the year that sees my thesis in English. Things are going on behind the scenes. Things that I will be able to tell you about soon. Sooooon...

Now that the current sweater is finished and I'm travelling a bit as well, I obviously needed a new project, something nice and small to take along with me...

...and it didn't take me long to find one: I'm making toe socks.

A bit of background for that? Here you go.
I love walking with bare feet, and I rarely wear shoes or socks at home when it is warm enough to go without. In autumn and winter, though, it's not so nice to have free but cold feet, so I walk in socks without shoes most of the time. I also have a very slight tendency to develop a bunion, as some orthopedic guy told me years ago, so I try to walk shoe- and sock-free as much as possible and consciously spread out my toes, countering that tendency.

Most socks still tend to slightly mash the toes together, and they don't grant the full freedom of toe movement that you have barefoot. The solution? Toe socks. These are a funny-looking thing, and they are a little weird to wear at first, but I like the toe-spreading freedom they grant. Except... I only have one pair up to now, and that was given to me by a friend who knit these socks for herself, then found out they don't fit her at all. They do fit me better than her, but the little toe is a total mis-construction, as it is too small and the start of the toe sits way too far at the front of the foot. Basically, that sock construction starts all the toes on one straight line. That works with fingers for gloves, but toes are much shorter, and they do start along a curved shape on the foot, so starting them on one line will not work properly with foot anatomy.

Fortunately, someone else has already thought deeply about it and came up with a really smart pattern for toe socks, where you start in the middle of the foot, knit towards the toes, then pick up stitches and knit the rest of your sock toe-up. Here's the pattern on Ravelry, called Funky Five-Toe Socks.



It's a little fiddly (I use thin yarn and 1.5 mm needles), it involves a generous amount of hedgehog wrestling, the yarn has lovely colours, and I'm having a bunch of fun with it.