FO: Anthracite No. 23

Remember my Christmas sweater? Well, here's the sequel. In one of my absolute favourite colours, anthracite grey (Isager's colour 47). I got the yarn for Christmas and cast on first thing in the New Year. I've already worn the red one a lot, so I've been looking forward to getting this one done. It drapes well and fells lovely against the skin. What's not to love?

No modeled shots this time - you'll just have to imagine the red one in grey...!

Pattern: No. 23 by Helga Isager (Rav link), published in No. 21, no. 22, no. 23..., size S/M.
Yarn: Isager Viscolin, colour 47 + Isager Silk Mohair, colour 47, approx. 3.2-3.3 skeins of each.
Mods: Only a few minor ones: I knit the garter stitch hem back and forth (why not), and attached the neck edging while binding off rather than sewing it on afterwards. I forgot to switch to decreases on every 2nd row (as opposed to every 3rd row) on the last few decrease row on the back, so it has a slightly wider neckline than the first one. I like that.
My Ravelry project page is here.


You know what? I only have 5 WIPs at the moment! For someone who usually has more than 10 WIPs lying around, this is quite impressive. And somewhat liberating, too.

FO: Winter trousers III

As the headline indicates, this is the third pair of trousers from the same pattern. The first two pairs are such a success, so we needed some more for next winter. After I finished the first pair, I has quite a bit of the Malabrigo Sock leftover. I found a skein of Arwetta in a matching, brown colour and set out to make another, larger pair, making stripes for as long as the Malabrigo could last.

Incidentally, I ran out of Arwetta in the waist ribbing and had to call for help in order not to buy a whole new skein just to complete the ribbing. Luckily, Karen was so kind to help me out (thank you!), and here they are the finished trousers - ready for September or whenever woolen clothes will be needed again.

Pattern: Bukser i glatstrik (in Danish) by Susie Haumann in All You Knit is Love, size 12-18 months.
Yarn: Malabrigo Yarn Sock in colourway Persia, 28 g, and Filcolana Arwetta Classic in colourway 975, 58 g.
Mods: Knit the legs in the round (apart from the ribbing). Doubled the waistline hem and added an elastic band inside.
My Ravelry project page is here.

FO: The Birthday Sweater - Poppy

This past weekend we celebrated a very special first birthday. Early December I started a project that has been in my queue for ages, another(!) Amimono pattern, namely the children's sweater which first appeared in the book Strikketøj as a children's sweater from the 1970's and then in the following Amimono Knit Collection 2010, where it was called Poppy. I wanted to finish it for the little one's birthday, and so I did sewing on the button Sunday morning.

I knit the smallest size, 6-12 months, but made it a bit longer so that it would fit the wee one now. If fits perfectly and will probably do so the rest of this winter and throughout the spring.

I've learnt that thin sweaters are more useful to the little one than thick sweaters, so this one fits the bill.

The yarn is of the Supersoft/Highland Wool type. I used 18 different contrast colours and spent ages spit splicing them together, trying to match the length of each colour so that each round has one colour, but without the same colour overlapping at the joints since that ruins the effect. It did take some time, so I think that if I knit another - it's so pretty, so I think I may have to - it'll probably be size 4 years... :)

The sweater is closed with a button at the back of the neck to allow enough space for the little one's rather big head without being too wide in the neckline. I love the broad multicolour hems.

Pattern: Poppy / 1970's childrens sweater by Helga Isager (Rav link), size 6-12 months
Yarn: 76 g of Blackhill Highland Wool from Garnudsalg.dk and Supersoft from Holst Garn. The main colour is Blackhill in Nattehimmel. The names of the 18 different contrast colours are listed on my Ravelry project page.
Needles: 3.5 mm for the main part, 3.0 mm for the hems.
Modifications: Made the body one row of 'holes' longer.
My Ravelry project page is here.

FO: Buttercup Sweater

Take a look at my new sweater! Isn't it just great?! This sweater actually really surprised me. Being my 22nd Helga Isager/Amimono knit I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but for some reason this sweater completely blew my expectations. I’ve worn it every day since I finished it!

It's a new take on a very old design of Helga's (the Buttercup cardigan), published in her beautiful new (Swedish) book Finstickat. If you haven't seen the book yet you should - the photography is great and so is the paper quality. Luckily, knitting in Swedish is fairly easy when you've watched too many Swedish detective series on TV... 

The pattern calls for a mix of four yarns, but I had this mohair/alpaca/merino/viscose (!) blend in my stash which matched the tension and I wanted to use that. I’m usually not a fan of yellow hues, but for some reason I like this one a lot. It goes well with dark grey, my new favourite colour - which goes well with black, which is my actual favourite colour… ;)

Pattern: Buttercup Sweater by Helga Isager, published in Finstickat, size S/M.
Yarn: 30% super kid mohair/30% baby alpaca/30% merino/10% viscose blend (Rav link) from Garnudsalg.dk, colourway Honning. This yarn is really nice! The blend may sound strange and it does have some similarity to rope in its structure, but it’s actually quite soft, can be worn next to the skin, and it’s incredibly warm. Just what I needed from this sweater, where the yarn also turned out to work quite well with the pattern.
Mods: 9 cm ribbing. Four pattern repeats before armpit decreases (42 cm). Neck opening at same point in pattern repeat as in the pattern, but with one extra repeat on the sweater (starting armpit decreases at a different point in the pattern).
Link to my Ravelry project page: Here.

The Stashdown Project

2012 has been a successful year in many ways. Knittingwise, it's been a success in the sense that for the first time ever (or at least as long as I remember) I managed to knit up more yarn than I purchased/got! To be precise, I knit up 1,2 kg (1196 g) more than I got in. Success! You can see the details of how much in and how much out in the sidebar.

I intend to continue this successful route in 2013. My stash is great (not only in size), and I've had a great time trying to match queued patterns with what was available in the stash. To raise the stakes, I've decided to be inspired by Frk. Snupp who has joined the Norwegian Sparealongen (Saving-along) saving for a Mulberry bag. My wish is different, but also quite similar letter- and amountwise. I won't be following the KAL, I'm just using it as inspiration. I'm the impatient type, so I've decided to save 1 DKK per gram of yarn I knit up. And no, I don't get refunds every time I get new yarn! That would be too tempting, wouldn't it? My main goal is still to lower the size of the stash. Let's see how well I do!

And with that, I wish you all happy knitting in 2013.