The Year Of The Zauberball

Anyone who has read this blog for any short amount of time can't have failed to have noticed that I very much have a favourite yarn, and that yarn is the wonderful Zauberball, in all its various guises.

So I was so very happy to find on the morning of my birthday, a few short days before Christmas, that Mr Awesome had heeded my oft repeated advice that I imparted to him every time he said he struggled to buy gifts - any Zauberball would make me happy. I'm so fond of Zauberballs that every single colour way seems perfect to me, so I know that it is one of those things that will never be a yarn gift that will end up unloved or forgotten, and I am so happy that Mr Awesome felt confident in choosing one for my birthday.

The shade that he picked was called Der Lenz ist da!, which I think translates to something like 'Spring is here!' It's a collection of bright fresh spring greens and blues, with deeper blue and green sections every so often. It is a Crazy Zauberball, which means it is 2-ply in construction, so adding a bit more strength and resilience than that single ply Zauberball yarns. I have bought and used crazy Zauberballs in a few previous projects, and absolutely adore knitting with them, and used one as the inspiration for my Simple City Scarf/Shawlette pattern, which was designed specifically to make best use of the long stretches of colour that Zauberballs are best known for.

I think it is safe to say that Mr Awesome was made immediately aware that I was bowled over by his choice of gift (one of a few that also included my favourite perfume and a kit for making home brew beer - which caused a workmate to remark that they were the most disparate set of presents he had every heard of).

Sailing on that sea of success, Mr awesome entered the arena of the Christmas gift-giving challenge with a lot to live up to (he didn't, really, I was just happy to be spending our Christmas alone together for the first time) but can you imagine the joy that hit me when after a beautiful pair of earrings, a 3DS game and many other little treats I found this under the tree?

This is another Crazy Zauberball in the shade Frische Fische (which I guess means Fresh Fish), one of my absolute favourite colourways of Zauberball, if it is possible to have favourites.

And, as if that wasn't already just too many riches, a little later one of the parcels under the tree turned out to be this:

Another Crazy Zauberball! This shade is called Auf Tauchstation. Since even having a guess as what this might mean in English I have referred to the wonders of Google Translate tells me that it means 'Dive Down', a very appropriate name for this colourway full of jewel-like sea blues and greens.

Every one of my knitterly Christmas presents was absolutely perfect, and make knitting and the thought of knitting an absolute joy. With that in mind I was so glad when a ball of yarn for one of my magazine commissions arrived at my address. By now it was starting to feel like it had come home to visit its family, and it has arrived as very much the big brother of the brood.

This Zauberball may look the same as the others from the picture, but it is actually 50% bigger. This is Schopell Wolle's Stärke 6 yarn, in the Olive shade. It is a 6-ply equivalent weight Zauberball, which comes in a 150g skein. Like the Crazy Zauberball it actually is made of 2 plys of yarn, each of which independently flow from one colour to another in long, slow progressions of colour. I'm hoping to design a warm, snuggly pair of socks witht this special yarn, and can't wait to give this thicker, warmer version a try!

So, though we had no sight of snowballs this Christmas, I'd much rather keep warm with my knitting and these wonderful Zauberballs full of bright, festive cheer.

Back Once Again

Finally I can update this blog after what seems like a long time with so much to write about and no tools to be able to do so with. We have a new complicator, and though I have shook hands with the machine, it is fair to say that we have not yet become best friends, as everything is taking me an absolute age because I am not used to the operating system or specific peculiarities with this laptop (such as the shift button being half the regular size, so me always hitting another key to type any capital letters), so this post has taken far longer to write than you might expect, or I would hope. Still, I hope to get used to it in time, but whilst I do I will try and keep any cursing in my head, rather than in my posts.

Whilst I was on my enforced technology holiday, I actually completed quite a few projects. Some have sadly gone away to recipients without first being photographed, but others are waiting to have their pictures taken.

For now I only have one picture to share. I ordered some yarn just yesterday, and today it arrived bright an early with the postman. This yarn is for one of a number of magazine commissions I have lined up for the new year, so represents to me good things ahead for the new year, and lots of new opportunities for projects and creativity. Here's to the end of a good creative year and the beginning of an even better one.

Winter Greetings

This blog has been quiet recently as the complicator that assembles all my thoughts into words and passable HTML has been broken.

I'm hoping that the break won't be too long and that we will be able to get a new laptop in January to bring the site up to date with all the excellent making that has been going on of late, but until then I wanted to assure folks that everything is OK as I have had a few concerned messages on Ravelry and Twitter.

Hope everyone has had a lovely few festive days, and shall hopefully see you soon with news of pretty things!

- Mimi x

FO: 8-Bit Christmas Star Of Invincibility

Things on the blog have been a little quiet these last few days, but to be fair I have a good reason. Actually, a whole loads of good reasons. Firstly, I was ill. Ill, and off work, and miserable. Then, I was on holiday, but not the lazing around and relaxing with my knitting kind of holiday, more the rushing around the country visiting our nearest and dearest kind of holiday. After a week back to work I then had a bit of a backlog of posts to write, to catch up on the projects that I had completed over this time, so I sat down and wrote 95% of a post last night, went off to eat tea and when I returned to tidy up the post and add the pictures my laptop had stopped working. Not just frozen up or run out of battery either, just completely dead.

So, that’s just perfect.

I did not cry, but I did eat ice-cream.

So, as you can imagine, I am suitable narked that my laptop complicator has given up the ghost, especially at this time of year. Luckily I had already uploaded the photos for one FO to Flickr, though it is not one of mine but rather a little something by Mr Awesome.

This star is a 8-bit representation of the Invincibility star from the early Super-Mario game. To keep the blocky, pixelated look each pixel is made up of not one but a square block of four pixels. The star has been made in shades of blue and turquoise to match our Icy winter decorating theme that our whole tree is decked out in.

The star was made from just three shades of Hama beads and took less than an hour to be made, fused together and put atop the tree in our living room. The twinkling lights shine through the beads slightly to illuminate the star when it is dark.

I love handmade decorations of any kind, and though we started out with only a bog standard selection of multipack baubles last year when we had to start all of our decorating (both for Christmas and our new home) from scratch) but now that we are settled we will slowly add these more personal touches to the tree, and hopefully in a few years’ time will have an even more awesome Christmas tree each year.

New pattern and FO: Hawkshead Socks

These Hawkshead Socks were designed and knit for Mr Awesome, but as they are so awesome are now available to buy as a pattern from my Ravelry Store. They are available in men's sizes S-L (and Mr Awesome is a size UK12, so they really are quite accommodating for large man feet) and women's size S-L. Here are a pair on my more normal (UK5) feet:

My main aim in creating these socks was to find a stitch that was understated and perfect for everyday wear, would work well as a more masculine design for any gift knits for men or male knitters whilst remaining attractive to women, and also had some interest in both the finished knit and whilst knitting - because who wants to be bored whilst knitting?

I also wanted a stitch that wouldn't require looking back at charts or instructions as it was easily remembered and also was as elastic and comfortable as possible, and so these socks seemed to achieve each of those wishes perfectly.

I used the alternating cast on for these socks, which has provided a wonderfully elastic edge to the ribbing, so they re easy-on and off without slipping down the leg. And what a fine pair of man-model legs Mr Awesome has so kindly lent to the photo shoot. Not once did he question why should he be laying down on the floor with his feet up against a piece of white card at that awkward angle, and it was his idea to get the shots of the well-fitting heels.

These socks can be knit with a single 100g (400m) skein of 4ply sock yarn (even for the very large feet of an awesome man) and instructions are included to accommodate any foot length. The pair above were knit using a skein of Wendy Roam in the shade 'Hawkshead' which is a wonderful combination of hazelnut brown blended with teal fibres. Due to the textured nature of the pattern the teal fibres seem to show slightly more on the knit stitches, so the texture really makes the best of the almost two-tone nature of the yarn.

I really like everything about this pattern, and think it lends itself perfectly for gift knits for a loved one that can be worn often, rather than tucked away to be forgotten about, or for a comfortable pair of socks for yourself. If you decide to make a pair as a Christmas gift, don't forget to add a free knitter's gift tag to tell the recipient how best to take care of their hand knit.


Hawkshead Socks are available on Ravelry now, for $4, or click the button below:

Pattern: Hawkshead by Mimi Hill
Yarn: Wendy Roam in the shade 'Hawkshead'