Holiday startitis - follow-up

Thanks for the encouragement and concerns regarding my holiday startitis. I thought I'd just follow up on my progress.

The first week of my holidays, I actually worked mostly on a WIP - the Heart Flower Shawl - and cast on for Vitamin D on the side, as I also needed some knitting that required less attention, e.g. for the last 20 kms of the final stages of the Tour de France. I eventually ran out of yarn for the colourwork shawl; I couldn't bring all my >30 colours of highland wool with me on holiday, so when the pre-wound mixed balls ran out, I had to stop. I'm close to the point where I 'only' need to knit the edging, though.

I then carried on with Vitamin D, which was great for road trip knitting (quite a lot of that in the second week of holidays) and cast on for Karise to have an alternative knit when endless St st became too much. Two weeks after cast-on, Vitamin D is now blocked and ready for a photo shoot. Not bad, eh?

Finishing Vitamin D means casting on for another one of the holiday projects: Warriston. I've finished the first sleeve this afternoon - I most often start with the sleeves since I see it as an extra, large swatch for double-checking the tension on a larger, more correct scale - while reading the accompanying first issue of Textisles; a highly interesting read.

I cast on for Smoulder and Fayer right before we went on holiday, but haven't picked them up yet. No plans for casting on for Lida or Wisdom right away.

All in all, I'm quite pleased with myself and my discipline for focusing on a few projects at the time, though I have to say that all these are highly recommendable knits, which is probably the reason for my maintained attention.

FO: Pebbles

Not quite another Amimono knit, since it's a Rasmilla design, but it was originally inspired by Amimono's Granite so I already knew the stitch pattern and construction idea. It's Pebbles - a lovely little cardigan for small children and it comes in a wide range of sizes from 6-9 months to 6 years.

Aren't these buttons lovely? Unfortunately, I don't know anything about their origin, except that I got them from my mum's button stash...

Pattern: Pebbles by Sanne Bjerregaard / Rasmilla (Rav link), size 2 years (though mine turned out more of a size 12-18 months, methinks). Now I just need to find a child that age to put into it. Until then, it'll live in my now quite large baby knitwear stash.
Yarn: Blackhill Højlandsgarn, colourway Æggesnaps, yarn held double, approx. 185 g.
Needles: 4.5 mm and 4.0 mm for the edging.
Mods: I lengthened the body with 2-3 cm before starting the yoke. I had to decrease quite a lot more in the neck edging to get the right shape and not the largest neck opening in the world, but it turned out nicely after blocking it into shape.
Comments: The fabric that this stitch pattern creates is wonderful when knitted on these relatively large needles. The design is wonderful - all the details make it a more interesting cardigan than many other children's cardigans I know of. It looks like something bought in a very expensive store ;)
Link to my Ravelry project page: here.

Holiday startitis

Is it okay to start up 7 new projects just because I now have 3 weeks of vacation which I plan to spend... well, knitting?

I was thinking of:

Vitamin D cardigan
Smoulder sweater
Warriston sweater
Karise shawl
Lida shawl
Fayer sweater/dress
Wisdom cardigan

Should I mention that I already have 13-14 WIPs?

My Amimono obsession

Crocus by Amimono: versatile, pretty, and soooft - read more on my Ravelry page

In the comments for the post on my last sweater - Clover - Ulla rightfully asked if I haven't knit my way through all the Amimono designs soon. Well, almost but not quite. Having been asked this, I of course had to count. The stats look like this:

12 finished Amimono projects - in reverse chronological order: the new Crocus, Clover, Vanilla, Granite, Camomille, Daffodil, Coral II, Pine, Coral I, Oak, and Cherry. I may also have made a Lavender copycat once, but it wasn't really a success (don't use 100% alpaca...). These days Vanilla and Camomille are my absolute favourites. Granite, Clover, and Pine are also really nice sweaters.

3 Amimono projects on the needles: Lemon, Cinnamon (converted to a dress), and cardigan from 1940s.

4 frogged Amimono projects: Sweater from 1960s, Sweater from 1980s, Amber, and Honey.

Numerous Amimono projects I'd like to knit in the future: Poppy (1970s child's sweater), Rose, 1900s cardigan, Waterlily, another Vanilla, another Camomille, Jade - and probably many of the new patterns as well!

Ravelry lists 44 Helga Isager patterns (and many are missing), so I clearly haven't knit them all, but still, I am clearly obsessed! I for my part am just happy to have found my favourite knitting designer.

What to do with 6 skeins of grey superwash wool bought on sale?

First, I want to say thanks for all the nice comments on my two new sweaters!

So, what to do with 6 - or actually 4 and 2 - skeins of versatile grey superwash wool bought on sale? Well, I'd suggest this:

Pattern: Pebble (Rav link) by Nikol Lohr - this is actually a fairly old pattern, but it may become a new favourite!

Yarn: Schachenmayer Nomotta Juvel, col. 00005, 75 g.

Needles: 4.5 mm.

Ravelry project page: here.

Pattern: Kerrera for kids (Rav link) by Gudrun Johnston.

Yarn: Viking of Norway Superwash, col. 113, 185 g.

Needles: 5.0 mm and 5.5 mm. I wish I'd knit the hems on 5.0 mm, too, because the front edges (knit on 5.0 mm) look so much nicer!

Ravelry project page: here.

Somehow grey wool and red buttons are just such a nice match! 

These two projects left me with only a bit of each quality. I used it for making a pair of mittens for a new born (a great pattern from Pickles) and a stripy hat for a 3(?)-year old. 

 

FO: Happy Summer Clover

Here's the second knit that I started in May and finished this past Saturday: a more summery knit this time, which I very early named Happy Summer Clover because the colour combo made me think of summer. Even if it's made of wool (and alpaca and cashmere, but they classify as wool too...). It's already gotten a lot of nice comments over on Ravelry (thanks for those!) and now it's time to present it on the blog.

A lot the beauty - and the more interesting part - of this sweater lies in the hems and neck edging. The stitch pattern for the edging is really simple (knit sts only! some of them are slipped, though), but changing colours between the light main colour and the gradually changing contrast colours creates a great effect.

Pattern: Clover (for children) (Rav link) by Helga Isager/Amimono enlarged to my size. This pattern was originally created as an adult sweater, but the children's version is knitted on smaller needles at a finer tension and I liked that. I used the Granite pattern as a guideline (or rather, what I remembered off the top of my head from knitting Granite) since the construction is the same.
Yarn: Main colour: one strand of Isager Alpaca 2, offwhite, and one strand of light grey Cashmere 28/2 (wool/cashmere 90/10, 1400m/100g) from garnudsalg.dk. Contrast colours: Blackhill Højlandsuld from garnudsalg.dk in Asters, Slikkepind, Rosenknop, and Honning and Holst Garn Supersoft in Gladioli. Finished weight is 240 g.
Needles: 4.0 mm for the body, 3.0 mm for the edging.
Link to my Ravelry project page: here.

FO: Gerda - or The Long Cosy Red Winter Cardigan

I see myself as a sweater knitter, but I must admit there haven't been many of those around this year. But now, dear readers, they're finally back! Mid May I started two new sweaters (no need to finish those WIPs, right?) and both of them ended up being done on Saturday. Here's the first one: my brilliant new red cardigan!

What's not to like? :) 

I think it's going to get a lot of wear once winter arrives. I chose a sturdy wool combination so I expect it'll keep its shape and be able to stand long-time wear without pilling.

Pattern: Gerda (Rav link) from Mere Feminin Strik by Lene Holme Samsøe (so far available in Danish only).

Yarn: One strand of Cushendale Woolen Mills DK, colourway Wine, bought at The Yarn Room, and one strand of Spinni Tweed (Isager Wool 1) in a red colour whose number I don't recall and it probably won't be relevant either since it was a leftover batch I bought directly at the spinning mill years ago under their own label. The yarns were in my stash, the colours just happened to match and give the right tension. Win!

Needles: 5.5 mm for ribbing, 6.0 mm for the rest.

Mods: I added 7 cm to the length before starting waist decreases. In the armholes I knit the edge st on the RS and purled it on the WS to make sewing in the sleeves easier. Otherwise I knit the edge st on all rows. That's it.

Link to my Ravelry project page: here.

Probably my timing is not the best with such a wintery knit finished in July, but when the weather on the day I finishied it looked like this...

... it may not be so bad after all!