Turquoise shawl

Some time ago I wrote, that I have a plan to make all my family handmade Christmas presents. Here is the list:
Mom - Baby Alpaca shawl (done, I'll post pictures after blocking)
Aunt Ania - beige shawl
Bro - socks
Gem -
Zuzia - grey thin bolero
Grandpa - socks
Grandma - lacy scarf
Gem's side of the family:
Mom - shawl
Dad - socks
Grandpa - ?
Grandma - shawl (picts in this post)
Some of the friends:
Ula - beret ?
Kasia - bolero
Ignus - socks
I think that's all but you can never be sure. So much work to do...
But for now, today I blocked a turquoise shawl for my grandma-in law. It is very light, not so big, rather for warm days. The colour is what distinguish the shawl among others. Fabulous yarn from e-dziewiarka, needles 2.5 and here we are:

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I made the pattern myself, therefore it's extremely simple ;) It was ment to be flowers on meadow. See any resemblance?

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The actual size of the shawl:

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Cable mittens

Today I finished mittens for Ilona. She wanted them for riding a bike. It can be really cold early in the morning, so I made it with wool (Hobby, no 782) bougth in my favourite on-line store. At first, I wasn't convienced to do it in such crazy pink, but Ilona picked this fuchsia yarn, and after making mittens I think they are quite interesting accessory. Let's give autumn some colour!

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Close-ups:

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Cable pattern was based on THIS but, as usual, I made finger part not as wide as the wrist and palm part. I believe it gives the mittens better fit

Spinning on a spindle - update

I tried once again spinning with thiner stripe of wool and it work acceptable. I produced two small balls of yarn, and the twist of the thread is OK.

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The only problem was it took me a lot of time... So I searched the internet and found out that the majority of hand spindles had a little hook at one end. My husband drilled one side of my spindle and screwed a hook. At first he put the hook at the wrong side of the spindle, but then, after I explained in details what is the hook for, he screw it once again. Interested, how this works. he observed me spin and had a brilliant idea. Before I say what it was, it's important to know that we both are engineers, and Mati has talent for DIY stuff. The ingenius idea was to use a drill :D i dont' have to spin the spindle myself, the drill does it for me. The only inconvenience is that the button starting the drill is not easily accessible at this position (picture below).

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Summing up, I don't have a real spinning weel but drill is as good :) Technology FTW!

Spinning on a spindle - Attempt no.1

The wool arrived yesterday, and even after twelve hours at the university I was so excited to try to spindle that I read Fanaberia's post again, watched another tutorials from Meg TUTORIALS and started the production of my first yarn.
First, I split wool on two, four, eight parts, and all the floor was covered with soon-too-be yarn.

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Then, after first really unsuccesful try (I won't even show the pictures) I split my wool on two once again. And, using on the great idea of Fanaberia to use kitchen accessory as a spindle, and after watching Meg's tutorial once again, I started spinning !

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I must say I have a big problem with determining how tight the twist of the yarn should be. I either make it too loose or too tight. Mainly too tight, so this is the effect:

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The yarn is a bit thick for me, I think I must prepare wool for spinnin more carrefully - it must be thiner and more even, so I think I will split it once more. I could use some advice on this matter :)

The next level

Few words defining some relationships:
She:"You never stand up to me"
He: "Because you'd never agree"
What more can you say ;)

Yesterday I decided to make something new, that I've never done before. Inspired by Fanaberia's post
post I bought some wool and as soon as I get it I'll try to make yarn out of it. I found great tutorial on youtube:
tutorial
Further plans are to dye the yarn and make shawls - Christmass present for my in-laws.

Reactivation (hopefully)

So much time not writing on my blog...
Today I wanted to show stuff I've been working on lately, but before that I'd like to show a shawl I barely go out without.
I bougth fabulous "Magic" by Yarn Art on e-dziewiarka.pl - multicolor wool, easy to work with and fast to give results. First I made myself a shawl. Nothing hard and complicated, because transition of colours of the wool is enough for a decorative element.Then, when my friend saw it, she wanted to have one but bigger. So second "Magic" shawl was given to Lucha as a birthday present. I'm workin on the third one for her fiance ;)

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I recently work on few things:
1. Socks for Zuzia
One sock is ready, second on its way. This is the first pair of socks I knit from cotton yarn and I think it's a bit stiff. I hope it gets better after washing.

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2. Read cardigan - for me
Decided to have enough knitting experience , I started red cardigan of my own design. We will see what comes out... Here is the main part of cardigan's body with armpit holes.

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3.Shawl for Mom
I have a plan to give every member of my family something handmade for Christmas, so I started on September to finish all the shawls, socks and other creations.
Here is a shawl for my mom (made from Baby Alpaca, needles 2.5) still in production phase:

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After blocking the lace pattern shoul look like this

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