Caspians

Tools of trade. We, crafters can't go without them and if they are somehow special to us, it makes the whole thing - crafting - even more pleasurable. Personally, I'm a real sucker for good quality craft tools. I'd rather have a few quality ones than a bunch of cheap and unreliable ones. It's not a secret that card makers have their own favourite papers, punches and stamps, crocheters have their own favourite crochet hooks and finally knitters have their own favourite yarn brands and knitting needles. I'm no different in this respect. Caspians from knitpicks.com  - is a luxurious collection of knitting needles and crochet hooks I've been wishing for months. Finally an Amazon packet carrying two types of Caspian knitting needles made its way to my door :) I'm on cloud nine! 

Naturally when buying them I couldn't decide which set I wanted more. I'm using DPNs (double pointed needles) more at the moment but I've always wanted to have a go at circulars too. So I gave myself a real treat and bought both :) 

They are beautiful and I'm so excited to use them. They arrived nicely packaged in the clear pouches with the American and European sizing on it. 

A nice surprise was also the fact that Knitpicks give you six dpns in each size set rather than 5 like most producers do. Just in case if you lose or accidentally break one ... somehow but it is rather unlikely to happen. These laminated birch needles are so durable and with a a bit of TLC they will last you a long time.

The circulars look really intriguing with all these extras included. Everything is nicely colour coordinated. I will have to learn how to assemble and disassemble them. The shiny metalic elements give the Caspians a nice luxurious finish. 

This Caspian wood is so nicely polished, warm and pleasant to the touch. The yarn doesn't slip off it easily yet it slides along nicely as you knit.  Oh and the colours! Gorgeous aquatic hues, just as I love!
This is how Knit Picks describe their product :)

Oceanic waves of sea green, teal and marine ripple across Caspian - the newest addition to the Knit Picks Options family! Boasting the same strong and smooth layers of laminated birch that you know and love, Caspian shows off a sea-inspired colorway along with a distinctive emerald cord to complement its oceanic hues.

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 The burnished surface of Caspian delivers just the right amount of grip to easily manage slippery yarns while warming quickly in your hands for hours of comfortable knitting.

In a nutshell - poetry! :)

So below here is my little private premier league of the knitting needles :) KnitPro Symfonie and KnitPro Karbonz and now the Knit Picks Caspians too :) I just love the knitting / crocheting experience with these quality products. KnitPros are very similar to KnitPicks, I'd say, a kind of European equivalent of Knit Picks in America. Their range is great so do check their websites for some lovely knitting tools.

I couldn't wait and switched to my new needles straight away :D Now the pink bunny is being knitted with Caspians. Doesn't he look a bit creepy with his head open like this? ;)

Alongside I'm also knitting a beige bunny. Sometimes I need a rest from sweet pink colours :) It's coming on slowly :)

For this spring season I'd also like to knit some new spring eggs and balls :) Patterns printed out and ready. These are always joy to make. I'm hooked on knitting these balls and thanks to who? Arne and Carlos from Norway.

And here is my latest bargain shopping from The Works :) I love all sorts of craft bibles and this quilting one is a particularly tempting one. I'm not ready for taking up quilting yet but it's my dream to be able to quilt and patchwork in the future and of course a good reference book will always come in handy. As for the second book - Mollie Makes series of books I just love to have :)

Have a good week folks :)

Greetings x x x

Martha

Knitted Bags - Scandi style and KnitPro Spectra Flair

Hi everyone. It's been a very "knitty" week for me as I've been working hard on my current knitting projects and trying to finish them asap. Today I have finished my 3rd knitted bag and they are ready to be presented to the public :) So here they are: the three Scandi-style knitted ... bags ... pouches ... favour bags ... gift bags, name them all...

The knitting pattern for these pouches comes from Knit-and-Crochet Garden book by Arne & Carlos. I've kept my eye on this knitting project for months and finally I got round to do it! I even managed to buy the recommended yarn - Vipe from Dalegarn. It's a thin mercerized cotton with a sleek satin touch. It knits well and smooth and creates that nice knitted pattern so typical of cotton yarns. I just love it! 

I'm pleased with how they turned out. When knitting your colourwork, you have to stretch your knitted fabric every so often so that it doesn't pucker on the surface when you've finished. I tried to avoid that at any price otherwise the pouches wouldn't look nice. 

The bags are knitted on double pointed needles. It took me well over a week to knit all three with 2-3 hrs knitting daily. They are about 12-13 cm in height and larger than the Christmas balls (julekuler) I knitted in the past. The Vipe yarn is thinner than Heilo wool and there are more stitches to work through but all is done in almost the same way as you knit the balls. The pouches are finished off with a crocheted frill on top and a string / ribbon drawn through the yarn-over loops.  

I really love the floral designs on these bags - they are my favourite and there's a Scandinavian vibe in it. It's the whiteness and simplicty of the design I love in them most.

This what the bags look like when spread flat. You can use a crochet chain or a decorative ribbon or even a tape according to your preferences.

These cute bags are very versatile. You can use them for many purposes. They can be scented pot pourri bags, seed bags, jewellery bags, gift bags, favour bags, Easter treats bags, bags to keep coins or beads or spools in or even any beach treasures - sea shells, stones, sea glass etc. In my case, they are going to hold my jewellery pieces safe. I already know I will be knitting more of them. Would love to try out new colour combinations and perhaps use different patterns on them. Oh, I may even try knitting some festive ones and give them away at Christmas. My mum is a keen gardener and a fan of scented sachets, she's likely to ask for a couple of them too!

I really enjoyed knitting those bags. It was great fun trying new yarn and working out the new patterns. There will be some more coming in the future.

Now on the shopping-tool front line, this is what my postman left for me today in the mailbox - a set of 5 funky pink double pointed needles! :) I love them! So girly.

They are the KnitPro Spectra Flair Acrylic needles :) I love all KnitPro products.

I didn't even know such existed! I only came across them as I was browsing through eBay offers searching for some 9mm dpns. This is my first acrylic needle set from KnitPro and my first acrylic knitting needles ever. Hope it knits well with them. If you have got any of these yourself, please, feel free to share your opinions in the comments. I'd love to hear from you.

Girls love pink. I'm gonna have fun knitting with them! :D

Thanks for reading and even more thanks for your comments x X x

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Hand-made Moday Blog Hop no. 182 :)

Yarn Snob. KnitPro Karbonz.

Recently I've had a chat with a friend about our knitting preferences and I must confess... I'm a bit of a yarn snob :) I prefer expensive good quality yarn especially from those regions of the world famous for producing their quality wool like Norway, Shetlands, Peru... I'm always on the search for the new yarns from Dalegarn - my favourite Norwegian yarn company and I will go a long way to get the exact yarn I want even if it means paying a bit more. Basically I like to enjoy my knitting wholly, both in terms of tools and materials. I do not despise any cheaper wool like ever-present acrylic yarn, available in many shops around. I even use it myself to make some project prototypes or to test my knitting skills. I do also realize lots of people knit with this yarn for economic reasons but I just appreciate this extra bit of luxury real wool gives you as you knit your stitches. For that reason last weekend I ordered a few colours of a new yarn - Vipe of Dalegarn for my future spring projects from Arne & Carlos book. The order will be coming all the way from the USA as the Vipe yarn is not sold in the UK. I'm really looking forward to laying my hand on this yarn :))))

In the meantime something else made my day yesterday. After coming back from work, I found a parcel from Ebay stuck in my mailbox and it contained this:

A set of brand new Karbonz double pointed needles from KnitPro! I fell in love with them the moment I saw them on the KnitPro website. I HAD TO have them! The pouch contains 6 sets of 5 dpns ranging from 2.5mm to 5.00 mm, the most commonly used needle sizes. 

I must say they are amazing. They are incredibly luscious, luxurious and sleek needles with a smooth feel when in hand. They are light, warm to the touch and very durable. Metal tips are extra smooth and make it easier to make and drop stitches. I've tried them on some acrylic yarn already and it knits much better with this type of needles :) Very very very pleased :))))

I had a bit of a dilemma when I was buying them: Should I order 15's or 20's? For those who don't know, this is the length of a needle. The longer needle, the more stitches you can have on. The more stitches, the bigger the item you can knit. As these posh needles are dear to buy I decided to go for the more practical 20 cm ones. One day the 15 cm long ones could have simply turned out to be too short :)

Dear reader, if you have any knitting experience with the KnitPro needles, I'm more than happy to hear from you. I'm a also a fan of KnitPro Symfonie Wood series of crochet hooks and needles and since I've been using them to knit my julekuler balls, I have never felt disappointed. I'm planning to buy some circular KnitPro's in the future, just not decided yet if I want fixed ones or with the interchangeable tips.

Musings over. Bed time. Long day ahead. Have a good night everyone x X x