FOs: A heap of baby knits

A few odds and ends became two hats, both two new favourites of mine: an ear flap hat with this cute little tip on top and a pixie hat.

Then a new little citizen arrived a few weeks ago. I haven't met her yet, but I've knit this one for her and put it in the mail. I'm looking forward to meeting her IRL. A few details here.

And, finally, my second finished project from the new Amimono Bird Collection: the little boy's vest Lark. A great model. Fun to knit. I'm making significant progress on Raven, so I think that'll be my next FO from that book and in general.

Sorry I couldn't be bothered to put details on the blog this time. You'll have to follow the links to Ravelry.

FO: Black angora dress

A simple, black angora sweater dress. This was going to be my Euro 2012 knit, but I already finished it after the group play, but there you go. A very quick knit on 7.0 mm needles. Plain stockinette with 1x1 ribbed edges and a purl ridge to separate ribbing and body. Tubular cast-on and bind-off. It does shed some fibres, but that's what you get from knitting angora at a loose gauge. I've mixed it with a merino/viscose/cashmere blend. More details on my Ravelry page.

FO: Cloudy Sunday - and a dress!

I am still knitting and reading a lot of blogs - I've even added some sewing blogs after I've taken up sewing over the past year - but that doesn't mean I'm blogging a lot myself, apparently. This short-sleeved cowl sweater has been finished since April 29th, but only yesterday did I manage to get a modeled photo of it. It's Cloudy Sunday by Hilary Smith Callis and you can read all about it on my Ravelry project page.

I could start showing you what I'm sewing, but most of it are clothes for the little one, and since DH is opposed to having photos of him on the internet before he can give his consent (and that may be a few years!), it's going to be pretty boring, unmodeled shots. That and I seem to be far from good at documenting my crafting at the moment, seeing as it took me almost two months to get this sweater on the blog. I will however show you the dress I made yesterday, since I'm so proud of it :)

It's made from a beautiful, thick blue-green silk (I'm no good at fabric names, but it's the sort that's woven from a blue thread and a green thread making a blue-green slightly stiff fabric) that DH brought home from Dubai on Friday and lined with a thin, stripy cotton voile that I had in my fabric stash (with matching thread, yay!). I made the pattern myself based on a Marimekko dress (the stripes were very helpful in reconstructing the nicely fitting bust dart - something I rarely encounter in dresses) during the second half of the Poland-Czech Republic football match on Saturday night. The little one decided that it was time to wake up at 5 AM Sunday morning, and by noon the dress was done - complete with name tag and all!
And, yes, I'm wearing jeans underneath, and, no, that is not the intention. 

FO: Nightingale Vest

I've finished my first project from the recent and very well received Bird Collection from Amimono: the Nightingale Vest. Regular readers will know that Helga Isager (the woman behind Amimono) is my all-time favourite designer, and I promise that this won't be the last project you'll see from this collection here. The Swallow cardigan, the Lark boys' vest, and the Raven dress are also in the needles.

 

What's not to love? As always with Amimono, it's all in the detail. The designs and their construction are ingenious, and the fuss about flaws and deficiencies in her early work that still seems to cling to her name are completely unwarranted. This goes for the other recent collections as well. 

Pattern: Nightingale Vest (Rav link) by Helga Isager/Amimono.
Yarn: One strand of Isager Alpaca 1, colour 47 (antracit - discontinued) and one strand of Blackhill Highland Wool from Garnudsalg.dk in the colourway Nattehimmel.
Needles: 3.5 mm.
Mods: I think I spent one more row of bells to finish the decreases for the armholes than intended, but it doesn't make much of a difference.
Link to my Ravelry project page: Here.

FO: Fuse Cardigan

This is my most recent FO, the Fuse cardigan. It seems that working almost monogamously on projects is the way to get things done. Who would have known?

I was originally drawn to this project because of the collar that is created when the fronts are buttoned at the back of the neck. 

Despite getting gauge and knitting the size with the suggested 3-4 inches of positive ease, my cardigan is somewhat smaller and shorter than anticipated having seen the one shown in the pattern. I don't think much more can be gained from an even more rigorous blocking, but let's see. I may try to lengthen it a bit in a second blocking. Anyway, small cardigans seem more useful to me than large, bulky ones.

Pattern: Fuse Cardigan (Rav link) by Veronik Avery published in BrooklynTweed's Wool People vol. 2
Yarn: Two strands of Holst Garn Supersoft, colourway Heather
Needles: 4.5 mm (had to go down from 5.5 mm to 4.5 mm to get gauge. Strange).
Mods: None.
Link to my Ravelry project page: Here.

FO: Jade

I finished the back of my Jade vest before giving birth to the little wonder, and he is such a good sleeper that I now - a good two weeks later - have finished the entire vest. Quite appropriate since I need something to keep his lunchbox warm in the Siberian cold. 

Not the best photo ever, but this will have to do. 

Pattern: Jade (Rav link) by Helga Isager/Amimono.

Yarn: The thin yarn is a strand of a thin lambswool and cashmere blend from Garnudsalg.dk. It's mixed with four different colours of highland wool: Holst Supersoft in Graphite, Poppy, and Gladioli and Garnudsalg.dk's Blackhill Højlandsgarn in Blommetomat.

Size: S

Needles: 3.25 mm 

Mods: Deeper front opening.

Ravelry project page: Here.

Btw, have you seen the new Amimono Bird Collection (Rav link)? It's gorgeous. I've already started the Raven dress and the Nightingale vest. I also have plans for the Starling sweater and the Swallow cardigan. And then I'm contemplating whether to make my unfinished Lemon top from the previous collection more like the Robin top. 

A new little citizen

Just wanted to let you know that our little son arrived safely to the world last Friday, January the 20th. We're all doing fine and enjoying each other tremendously. He's a good sleeper, so I even get to knit a few rows every now and then.

A few more new projects

I thought I'd told you about all my new sweater projects last week, but a few more have been added to the list.

I finally had an excuse to get the Jade pattern (Rav link) from Amimono on my hands (buying Isager yarn for a birthday present) and here is my version a bit more than halfway up the back (I knit all this yesterday - thanks, pre-birth maternity leave!).

For some time, I've been wanting to knit a large sweater in this very orangy-red chunky merino from Garnudsalg.dk. I started the sleeve of a rev St st sweater just before Christmas, but it was no real success and I frogged it. Incidentally, I encountered Gudrun Johnston's new sweater pattern Cara (Rav link) on her blog this morning and it was just what I've been looking for - especially since this yarn is a perfect substitute for the (much more expensive) Quince & Co. Osprey. I know I'll be making one modification, though: St st sleeves. At a tension of 14 sts to 4" this is a speedy project - I finished two thirds of the ribbing in one hour watching two episodes of my favourite TV programme just now.

You can follow my progress and notes on all these projects on my Ravelry page.

FO: The Hunter's Sweater

Until now, all I ever knit DH are a few hats and scarves. A couple of years ago he started asking whether I'd knit him a sweater. Of course I'd be happy to (I'm not the superstitious kind), but I set up the requirement that he should decide what kind of design and colour he wanted. He's quite indecisive so that postponed the project for quite some time. Then, having taken up hunting, came the desire for a real hunter's sweater and the colour choice was easy: hunter's green. I searched for yarns in the appropriate colour and we ended up agreeing on Holst Garn Supersoft in the colour Mallard (quite an appropriate name for the purpose, eh?). The next thing was to decide on the design (he chose crew neck and set-in sleeves) and the texture.

The best thing is that the colour is an exact match with the oilskin vest, which was purchased after the yarn!

I made four different swatches and he chose the one with the following stitch pattern:
Row 1 (RS): *k1, p1* to the end of the row.
Row 2 (WS): k all sts
Nice and simple, and it can be knit in the dark, too (perfect for nighttime road trips across the country!) because you can feel with your fingers what stitch you're at. I used tubular cast on and bind off for a great finish (you should try this if you haven't already!).

The sweater was done early December in good time for the last hunt of the year, and I'm told it received many compliments from the fellow hunters!

Pattern: My own, based on DHs measurements (approx. mens' size M). 

Yarn: Holst Garn Supersoft, colourway Mallard, 500g (I almost had to unravel one of the swatches to make it!), yarn held double.

Needles: 4.0 mm (3.25 mm for the ribbing). 

Ravelry project page: Here. 

And you know what? I bought an extra 250 g to make a matching sweater size 1 year! :)

FO: Purple & Yellow Hat

This hat started out with a desire to knit the A Million Stripes Loop (Rav link) in the purple and yellow Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift I've had lying around for some time waiting for the perfect project - combined with some charcoal grey. I'm quite a fan of the purple and yellow combination - especially in combination with black or dark grey, too. I then came across the East Falls Hat on the Kelbourne Woolens blog, and as I've been too cold around my head on many walks lately I realized that maybe I should knit this hat seeing as I hopefully have many a walk with the pram ahead of me. I generally don't knit hats because I don't like the way I look in them (especially at the back of my head which is why you don't get a photo of that!), so I don't have very many to choose from and therefore wanted a new one. I don't have the pattern (I'm not buying the entire magazine for a single, simple hat pattern), so I just used the East Falls Hat as inspiration and made up my own, simple version.

Pattern: My own improvisation, inspired by the East Falls Hat.
Yarn: Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift, colourways 1300 Aubretia (purple) and 1160 Scotch Broom (yellow). I added a bit of Posh Yarn Mimi to the brim for softness and extra thickness.
Needles: 3.0 mm
Size: Mine, which is approx. 57 cm circumference. 140 sts in the stripes.
Link to my Ravelry project page: Here.

Next project on the needles must be the A Million Stripes Loop then!

Unqueueing

I just cleaned up my Ravelry queue. From 17 pages to 12. I do this from time to time, more or less rigorously, and it always feels great. Ahh. It's also nice to rediscover all those projects I forgot about - and to sometimes think 'what was I thinking?'.

How do you use your Ravelry queue (if you have one)?
Like me, for all projects that you may potentially knit at some point in your life and therefore want to save?
For projects you are actually going to knit within the near future?
Or?

I use tags to be able to search for specific kinds of knits - e.g. if I want to knit a cardigan, I can look at queued cardigan/sweater projects only - and I use the top of the first page to list projects I actually want to knit soon.

FO: Brick Baby Pants

The first FO of the year is a pair of woolen pants size baby:

I've agreed with DH and the little one kicking about inside that boys can easily wear brick-coloured pants. They are more orange and less pink than they appear in the photos. I recall red pants being fashionable for men this past year.

They are soft, warm, pretty, and squishy - and they were a pleasure to knit.

Pattern: Bukser med seler (Rav link) from Blød begyndelse (Myk Start) by May B. Langhelle with several modifications, e.g. stockinette stitch rather than garter stitch, only a single ribbing layer rather than double, and decreased stitch count due to different gauge.
Size: Approx. 3 months.
Yarn: The Yarn Yard Clan, colourway 1218 + Isager Spinni (Wool 1), colourway 28s.
Needles: 4.0 mm and 3.25 mm.
Ravelry project page: Here.

Swatching...

Very soon I'll have very little time to knit - but up until then I'll have plenty. This combined with the fact that I have no projects on the needles that I want to finish (those few WIPs still lingering in my knitting basket have been put into hibernation) makes this the perfect time for starting a lot of new, larger projects.

My reasoning is that what really takes time and attention in a project is the planning, the swatching, and setting up the project. Once you have a few inches on the needles it's often plain sailing from there. Thus, if I have several projects at this stage - and at various difficulty level - I'll always be able to find one that I want to knit a few rows on whenever the opportunity is there. I have therefore been doing some serious planning and swatching over the last few days and am now in the starting-up-projects phase.

Firstly, I listed all the sweater-sized projects at the top of my queue in a spreadsheet featuring the intended gauge, required amount of yarn and yarn weight, etc. along with a list of the yarns in my stash I wanted to use up next featuring their yardage and amount. 2011 brought an addition to the stash of (ahem) 6 kg of yarn (almost 9 kg out, but 15(!) kg in), which means that I now have plenty of lovely yarn to knit from and that knitting from stash is really a pleasure while also being a necessity. I am a follower of the Isager school of pairing several yarns to get the intended gauge and texture, so with all the possible combinations, the list of yarns was rather long.

(Somewhere in here was acquisition of two new Kim Hargreaves books - Shadows (my favourite!) and Scarlet - and two patterns from the new Wool People vol. 2 - knitting from stash wasn't meant to be costless, right?).

Then I started matching those two lists paying attention to key points such as drape and texture needed for each project. This was quite an interesting task! After that it was time to start swatching to see if my yarn choices would actually work. In the end I came up with 6 new projects! Here they are:

Craft (Rav link) from Kim Hargreaves' Scarlet in Rowan Kid Silk Haze (colourway 650 Killer Red) and Isager Alpaca 2 (colourway 025). I'm 3 inches on to the body by now.

Baron (Rav link) from Kim Hargreaves' Shadows in Cascade 220 Heather (colourway Summer Sky) and Blackhill Højlandsgarn (colourway Andeæg). After taking this photo I realised I'd swatched the wrong stitch pattern (should be moss st, not seed st). Also approx. 3 inches on to this one.

Fuse (Rav link) by Veronik Avery from Wool People vol. 2 in two strands of Holst Garn Supersoft (colourway Heather). 6 inches of the first sleeve is done.

Lawrence (Rav link) by Melissa La Barre from Wool People vol. 2 in two strands of a single ply wool from Bindestuen in Saltum which I bought at the knitters' festival on Fanø this September (I only bought one skein of yarn, but then it was a 340 g one!) in the most wonderful purplish blue colour (which unfortunately bleeds a bit). I'm casting on as soon as I finish this post.

Hanley (Rav link) from Kim Hargreaves' Shadows in one strand of a Gotland wool I bought at a farmers' market the year before last and have been wanting to try out for a long time - and one strand of Posh Yarn Mimi (colourway The Clock Struck Midnight - wonderful purple colours!). Still only a swatch.

A variation of this sweater from Pickles (I want mine long and raglan) in black angora from Garnudsalg.dk and a viscose/merino/cashmere blend from the same place. Still only a swatch.

I've also recently started Fargo (also from stash) and I want to start Jade, too, once I can decide on the colours, so I think I'm more than covered in terms of WIPs that can be picked up for a few minutes and then put aside - and I'm very pleased with it all!

Christmas Projects

As promised, here are the 3 projects that I worked on over Christmas:

Pattern: Big Snowy Owl (Rav link)
Yarn: Blackhill Højlandsgarn (colours Andeæg, Æggesnaps, and Åbent Hav), 3 strands together
Needles: 4.5 mm.
Mods: Smaller needles -> smaller owl. I attached the eyes and knit the nose before stuffing it so I could wash it and let the yarn bloom before stuffing.
Ravelry project page: here.
Comments: It's soft, squishy, and cute! It's going to live in the bed with the little one to take up some of the space while he's still very small compared to the bed. I think these could make great gifts as well.

Pattern: None. Inspired by the Sailor Sweater (Rav link) from Sort Lakrids and made to deplete the stash of 3 different leftovers from recent projects.
Size: Approx. 1-2 years.
Needles: 4.0 mm for edging, 4.5 mm for the rest.
Yarn: Red Cushendale Woolen Mills DK (leftovers from the Cabled Winter Dress, Gerda, and Cyklon), grey New Lanark DK (leftovers from Warriston and Cyklon), and blue ÅLJ-lookalike (leftovers from the Cabled Spiral Sweater and Kingscot). Quite a lot of projects in there!
Ravelry project page: here.

Pattern: None.
Yarn: Leftovers of ÅLJ and Cushendale Woolen Mills DK from the sailor sweater above.
Needles: 4 mm (3 mm for ribbing).
Size: Newborn-3 months. No thumbs and no strands inside (hence the 1x1 pattern) that small fingers can get caught in.
Ravelry project page: here.
Comments: Cute! A joy to knit.

FO: Cyklon

Happy New Year!

I finished quite a few projects over Christmas that I haven't got round to blogging before now, so there's some catching up to do. I also still need to show you the hunter's sweater, but I seem to keep forgetting to set up a photo shoot. The projects I worked on over Christmas will appear in my next post - first an FO finished on December 24th.

Pattern: Cyklon (Rav link) by Alison Brookbanks published in Brooklyn Tweed's Wool People vol. 1 (btw, vol. 2 has just been published).
Yarn: Cushendale Woolen Mills DK in Wine and New Lanark DK in Pebble - both leftovers from other projects matched up here to remove them from the stash.
Needles: 4.5 mm
Mods: I picked up stitches for the lower hem rather than sewing it on, and did not do a herringbone pattern on the hem but a slip stitch pattern instead. I did not add any ribbon on the inside of the armholes.
Ravelry project page: here.

The deal with this top is all in the construction, which is quite intricate as you can tell from the photo below.

The drape arises from wearing the top, but unfortunately I'm not able to take any modeled shots (well, I can put it on, but I'm not sure a photo would really show how the top will look eventually...). 

What I made - part II

First of all, thanks for the wonderful feedback on my Heart Flower Shawl! 

Just before Christmas I finally used up the last few yards of the stash meant for knitting small projects for the little one. Here's what I made:

Two bodysuits (Rav link) in silk/wool following a pattern from Askeladen.

Furthermore, a neckwarmer (Rav link) as suggested by Marie - probably a bit too large right now, but let's see...

...and also in a larger size a balaclava-style hat (Rav link) which is great for daycare where hats with ties are not allowed as suggested by Ulla...

... and a set of gloves (Rav link), which can also stand in for socks if necessary, as suggested by Lena and Britt. These are to be used right away.

I'm quite pleased with managing to get this much out of that 'free' yarn (free as in it was lingering in the stash with no other purpose). I have a few more project for the wee one on the needles, but I've also started focusing a bit on larger projects (for me). I also have some sewing to do...

What I made - part I

Back in October I asked you what to make for the little one from all those odd balls of soft yarn I'd dug out of my stash. All your ideas are much appreciated and I've made some plans based on them. They were however so many that I realize I can't put them all into practice, but I'll save them for later even if my knitting time becomes quite restricted. I haven't knit my way through all the yarn yet, but here's the first set of FOs: a pair of extra long socks as suggested by Irene and Nina along with a pair of legwarmers as suggested by Britt. Part II is on its way - stay tuned! :)

Notes on my Ravelry project page.

FO: Kingscot

Another project from my pre-baby to-do list has been finished - this time the Kingscot cardigan:

The pattern was published in Twist Collective Winter 2008(!) and I bought it not long after being the Norah Gaughan fan that I am. In fact, I cast on for the first sleeve in August 2009. The pattern has been a favourite all along and so has the yarn (it's the same as I used for my all time favourite sweater, the Cabled Spiral Pullover (Rav link) - which happens to be a Norah Gaughan design, too!). So why did it take me two years and four months to finish this?!

Well, you can read the details on my Ravelry page, but the fact is that I started by knitting one sleeve, then spent ages (aka approx. 6 months) worrying that it was too small and the fabric was too dense even if the tension was spot on. After a good wash it turned out everything was fine so I went on to knit the second sleeve. I reckon this was finished in the late spring of 2010. I have documentation that in September 2010 (more than a year after casting on) there were still only two (washed and blocked) sleeves.

I then went on for a year(!) thinking about how to tackle the construction of the body. I knew that I wanted to do the following moderations: (1) no cable pattern on the back - in fact, a plain St st back would do nicely but that meant I had to CO a different number of stitches than in the pattern because the tension was different, (2) I wanted less A-line shaping - but should I then do increases on the front as some Ravelers had done or should I just make it straight and leave out decreases on the back? In the end I ended up with a combination: Increases on the front and no shaping on the back, and (3) I wanted buttons all the way down the front (the easy one). All these considerations made me turn to other projects instead. As we would say in my field of research, the activation energy for picking up this project was simply too large compared to all my other projects! 8-)

In August this year I finally picked up the needles again, this time determined to finish it. As Siga suggested in the comments for one of my recent posts, it must be nesting. From there everything went along smoothly: I started with the fronts, doing a few increases by the side seam to make it straight rather than (too) A-line and enjoyed the intricate cable pattern. Having done that, I could use these pieces to calculate the width of the back and thus the number of sts required. In September, both fronts and back were done, attached to each other, and I'd knit the neckline. I then went on for a few months procrastinating about the button bands before finally casting on for these two weeks ago (the arrival of the baby is approaching!).

After the final blocking, I picked out 4 different sets of button candidates and made DH choose the ones he preferred without telling him which ones were my favourites. Fortunately, he chose the same! So here it is with pink buttons, bringing out the slight purple tones of the blue yarn so nicely. As you can tell from the creases on the sleeves, I've already worn the cardigan - to work (which is where the photos were taken to exploit the minimal amounts of daylight even if the photos don't show), two days in a row to be exact. I think it's going to be a wardrobe staple making the 28 months long process completely worth it :)

Pattern: Kingscot (Rav link) by Norah Gaughan
Yarn: The same as ÅLJ (Rav link), but produced under the mill's own label. The colour corresponds to (the sadly discontinued) colour 53 of Tvinni and Spinni in the Isager collection.
Needles: 3.0 mm, 3.25 mm, and 3.5 mm.
Mods: Several. See my Ravelry page for more details.

FO: Heart Flower Shawl

Finally! The photos of my new favourite - the Heart Flower Shawl - are here!

I started this project back in January inspired by Christel Seyfarth's design and technique, but with the desire to make my own (truly) unique shawl and not least use my own yarn since I have so much of this supersoft/shetland/highland wool (I acquired quite a lot of that back in January - and before/since). Along the line followed some improvements to the border construction compared to the original shawls - very cleverly suggested by my mum and then tested by me.

I used the heart/flower pattern from these mittens that I found on Ravelry and combined it with the diagonal lines of Christel's Kornblomst Shawl although with just a single stitch in the lines as I prefer that look. It was my mum's idea to put the hearts on the border, too.

The colours for the heart flower pattern are a palette of reds, pinks, and oranges (yes, I do have a lot of those!) while the background comprises various blues with a bit of yellow, purple, and grey. For the border I used a very dark grey (graphite) for the background - I found pure black too 'hard'. I used 29 different colours in total! All the same type of wool from 3 different mills (marketed under 5 different names). I've become quite adept at spit splicing (with water, though)!

So, what's so special about the border construction? Well, it's knit all in one and in the round - perfect for colourwork! It does require quite a few circular needles of the same size to manage these 1000+ stitches, but luckily I have quite a lot in 3.5 mm and used five of them here (2 long ones, 3 shorter ones). During my summer vacation I made small samples to see what sort of increases were required at each corner to make it work and came up with the following: For the point at the bottom of the triangle, I increased one stitch on either side of the center stitch on each round. For the points at the sides (top of the shawl) I increased one stitch on each round on the side of the center stitch that forms the top border and two stitches on each round on the side towards the side border. I hope this makes sense? After turning the hem with a purl row I did similar decreases on the back. I of course made sure to place the heart pattern on the border so that it fits nicely around the in-/decrease lines (not possible where 2 stitches are increased on the same side of the center stitch, though). The border is bound off normally and sewn to the back making sure to match it stitch by stitch with the picked up stitches (I didn't pick up stitches along the top - there I just kept the live stitches). I also decreased the stitch number across the top border a bit to avoid the convex upper border that I've seen on some shawls with this construction. You can see what it ends up looking like here:

I am of the opinion that large shawls need tassels; tassels just make them that much more fashionable. I attached the tassels with an i-cord using Britt's tutorial - it looks great.

Pattern: My own, but many other shawls of this kind exist. You can read all my many notes on my Ravelry page. 

Yarn: Blackhill Højlandsuld, Júnik Supersoft, Holst Garn Supersoft, Isager Highland Wool, and BC Garn Shetlandsuld. All the same type of yarn. 330 g in total. My Ravelry page states which colourways I used in case you're interested.

Needles: 3.5 mm.

I haven't actually measured the shawl, but you can get an indication of the size from the first photo (I'm 5' 6" / 168 cm).

It was a pleasure to knit - colourwork isn't all that bad once you get the hang of it!

Conclusion: What's not to love?!

Ahhh...

I just landed in our sofa after an intensive 6-day work week where I've barely had time for anything but eat and sleep (and attending the PhD course which took up all of my time...). I have 127 unread posts in my blog reader (I wonder what would happen if I actually worked at this intensive level every week...!), so I guess I have plenty to do with my 1-day weekend. At the moment my knitting projects mainly consist of sewing sleeves in and side seams together, so I guess I'll have some more FOs to show soon. About that - I promised photos of my Heart Flower Shawl almost two weeks ago. Actually, I had the photos taken that same day, but then birthday weekend and work happened and I didn't have time or opportunity to put a post together. Maybe this weekend I will!
Off to brew a cup of tea and read all your many blog posts...