FO: Nissehue

Just a brief photo of this little nisse that moved in on Monday morning:

You can read more facts about this (if I am to say so myself) quite successful nissehue on my Ravelry project page.

FO: September Cardigan Enlarged

Is anybody still reading?

If you are, you can now enjoy some poor-quality photos of a project that has actually been finished since the beginning of September. Then I waited the better part of two months for the perfect buttons to arrive from Hong Kong. And then another month for a photo opportunity. I've now given up hope of the latter, so here are some photos I've managed to snap during daily life - I guess this counts as proof that the cardigan is actually being worn a lot!

When I first saw Line's September Cardigan, I immediately liked the design. I got my mum to knit one for the wee one - pictured here on the left:

What happened next? Somebody wanted an identical one for himself! Having appropriate yarn in stash that would fit 6.0 mm needles I quickly agreed to knitting him one. 

Oh, and here are those buttons I waited for:

The yarn is quite drapey and heavy, so I've had to do some crocheted reinforcements with a less elastic yarn in the back neck and along the front edges. I think they work well. Husband is very pleased with his cardigan and uses it a lot. 

Pattern: My own based on the design for the September Cardigan by Rare Rusk Designs.

Yarn: One strand of a super kid mohair/baby alpaca/merino blend from Garnudsalg.dk and one strand of a single-bly wool yarn from Klippans Yllefabrik. Approx. 840 g in total.  

Link to my Ravelry project page: Here. 

FO: Ronaes Shawl

I'm sorry about the slightly weird ill-lit photos I post here at the moment - it's that time of year and the weekends are just too short to catch some good daylight.

Here's my new scarf in my favourite purple; it's Ronaes by Karina Westermann aka Karie Bookish - the first pattern from her recent Doggerland collection. If you've read about the collection (and you should), you'll understand why which was such an appropriate knit to bring on a recent weekend trip across the North Sea.

The shawl features a classic construction: Short rows shape the garter stitch centre, and the edging is knit on sideways afterwards. Brilliant! The resulting scarf/shawl is easy to wear as you can see from the photos.

Pattern: Ronaes by Karina Westermann
Yarn: Blackhill Højlandsuld from Garnudsalg.dk, Lilla, 68 g.
Needles: 4.5 mm
My Ravelry project page is here.

FO: Pickles Høstjakke

Finally! For the first time since March this year, I'm able to present a finished knit sized for an adult! It's been baby knit after baby knit for what feels like ages. Dear husband managed to snap some action photos this afternoon while I was blowing soap bubbles with the little one.

Mid-September, Pickles blogged about their new design, the Fall Coat, or in Norwegian: Høstjakke. It didn't take long to convince myself that I needed to cast-on for this one very soon.

Surprisingly, considering the sheer size of my stash, I couldn't find a suitable yarn for it in my stash, the main problem being that I only had kidmohair (in the required quantity) in black and I (even more surprisingly) did not want a black version. I went ahead and ordered some yarn to go with what I did find suitable in my stash at Garnudsalg, and with a speedy delivery I cast on on September 21. 

I ended up with a luxuriously smooth mix of three yarns from Garnudsalg: Blackhill Silk Mohair, Blackhill Wool/Silk, and Blackhill Highland Wool. It's brilliant. You can almost see from the photo below how nice it is :)

What you can also see from this photo is that I altered the pattern to include i-cord bind-off (which the coat already has on the back) on the sleeves as well, and I am extremely happy with the result.

When I first discovered Pickles, I thought most of their designs were a bit crude and lacked details and finish. Over time, I've changed my mind, thinking that it's actually easy to add the details and finish yourself (at least when you've been knitting for so long that you have a feeling of what little details might do the trick), and what Pickles does so well is to make simple patterns for garments that are fashionable right now. I definitely have my eyes on the I-do-cardi and the Crop Dot Sweater.

Pattern: Høstjakke/Fall Coat by Pickles, size XS with one more yoke increase and a few stitches cast on under the sleeves.
Yarn: Blackhill Højlandsuld (Rullesten), Blackhill Uld/Silke (Rullesten), Blackhill Silk Mohair (Kit), approx. 900 m each. 404 g in total.
Needles: 6.0 mm making it a fast knit.
Read more on my Ravelry project page: Here.

Testing the Blogger app: A heap of baby winter knits

I've just downloaded the Blogger app hoping that it'll help me getting some more blogging done. At the moment I'm mainly knitting instant gratification baby winter knits and I only manage to photograph them with my phone - and this is where the app comes in handy; honestly, photo editing, uploading, etc. take up half of the time I spend on blogging.

Anyway, here's my parade of recently finished knits. It features my two absolute favourites among baby vests along with what might be two new favourites when it  comes to hats and gloves. 

Pattern: Lark by Helga Isager, size 6 months. 

Yarn: Blackhill Højlandsuld from Garnudsalg, Kiwi, and Blackhill Alpaca, grøn/petrol melange. Approx. 150 m of each, 46 g in total for each vest. 

Pattern: Pebble by Nikol Lohr

Yarn: Cascade 220 Heathers, Straw. I just managed to get three vests out of 200 g. 

Pattern: Raindrop Hat by Dani Sunshine

Yarn: Cascade 220 Heathers, Chocolate Heather, 46 g for the smaller one and 64 g for the larger one. 

Pattern: Rillestrikka Vottar from Strikk til Nøstebarn. 

Yarn: Holst Supersoft, Sloe, 32 g. Intentionally felted a bit to get nice and soft gloves. 

You can find more details on all the projects on my Ravelry projects page. 

So what do I think of the app? Really easy to use, pretty, and it provides fast photo handling. I can live with the fact that I need to edit the photo size in the post on the computer afterwards. Of course we will all have to live with a poorer photo quality when I use Instagram photos, but I guess I can't have it all.

Summer knits: Two stripy cardigans

I've been silent here for quite a while (less than four months left before I should hand in my PhD thesis, happy (busy) family life, etc.), but I do manage to knit quite a bit every know and then.

My summer knitting has mainly been these two stripy cardigans for the little one. The grey one turned out to be an appropriate size 2-3 years, while the blue and brown one ended up being - ahem - size 6 years. Let's hope he still doesn't mind wearing hand knits when he's that age.

Pattern: Rilletrøje by Lene Holme Samsøe published in Babystrik på pinde 3, size 2 years lengthened quite a bit.
Yarn: Medium grey Isager Alpaca 2, light grey Blackhill Højlandsuld (Rullesten), and acid yellow Blackhill Højlandsuld (Gollum). 130 g in total.
Find more details on my Ravelry project page.

Pattern: Trøje med striber by Susie Haumann published in Knit for your kid. I knit on 3.5 mm needles (3.0 mm recommended) and got a size 6 years by using the stitch count for size 4 years, so I followed the pattern for size 6 years for the length.
Yarn: Blackhill Højlandsuld colourways Åbent Hav and Muldvarp. 132 g in total.
Find more details on my Ravelry project page.

Recent baby knits

I'm working a lot at the moment, so it seems that smaller projects are my thing. I've been neglecting the blog lately, so some of these recently finished knits have actually been up on Ravelry for a while, but here they are.

Bella Baby by Lene Holme Samsøe in Holst Garn colourway Sweet Pea. Ravelry link.  

Stripy pants with a flashy edging, modified from Susie Haumann's pattern in All You Knit is Love (my favourite pattern for baby pants), in Rasmilla's Yndlingsgarn (wool/cotton) in charcoal and black and a bit of Blackhill Highland Wool colourway Gollum. Ravelry link. 

A variation on Maria Carlander's variation on her Little Scallops hat pattern in a wool yarn from Klippans Yllefabrik. Ravelry link. 

A stripy vest loosely based on Bestefartrøye from Strikk til nøstebarn in Isager Alpaca 2 and 3 different purple shades of Supersoft (Jünik/Holst Garn). Ravelry link.

I excuse the messy mix of Instagram, Yarma, and good old-fashioned photos, but these days the busy me prefers uploading directly from the phone to Ravelry.

A brief update from me this time (please follow the Ravelry links for more details!). I assure you that I'm keeping up with the blog reading, though, even if I don't get round to blogging so much myself.

FO: Peppermint Coffee Sweater

Here's my recent addition to the little one's wardrobe: A thin woolen sweater with my favourite pattern of them all - stripes!

The pattern is from the infamous Norwegian book Strikk til nøstebarn, and I can say that this will definitely not be the last sweater from that book, let alone from that pattern. It's simply a brilliant sweater: Light, pretty, and a joy to knit. He has tried it on and it looks like the size will be spot on (I say, gazing into my crystal ball).

Pattern: #1931 Rullegenser (Rav link) from Strikk til nøstebarn by Kathrine Gregersen. To get the size 2 yrs I wanted (long and tight rather than wide and short) I made a combination of size 1 yrs (width) and 4 yrs (length).
Yarn: Blackhill Højlandsuld from Garnudsalg.dk in colours Kaffe (Coffee) and Pebermynte (Peppermint) - hence the name. 84 g in total.
My Ravelry project page is here.

FO: Lark II

This past winter season, the first Lark has been my absolute favourite vest for the wee one. It's classy and comfortable at the same time. Hence, the obvious first choice for the next season is a similar one and here it is - absolutely perfect if you ask me! If you're looking for the perfect pattern for a little boy, you really should try this one. There's a lot of purling, but it think it's worth it - after all I finished this in 10 days with limited knitting time.

My favourite colours for the wee one are blue, turquoise, and brown because it goes so well with his beautiful brown eyes (and because I'd choose blue over green any day), so expect to be seeing a lot of that.

Pattern: Lark (Rav link) by Helga Isager, published in Bird Collection and Finstickat. I knit the size 18 months on larger needles (4.0 mm) and made it longer to make it more of a size 2 years. I much prefer vests that are a bit too long.
Yarn: Blackhill Højlandsuld, colourway Kaffe, and Blackhill Alpaca, colourway C857 (brun), both from Garnudsalg.dk. Approx. 250 m of each, 74 g in total.
My Ravelry project page is here. 

FO: Blackrose Socks

Next Thursday, it's been 3 years since I last finished a pair of socks! Crazy, right? Those were a pair of Monkeys in Kaffe Fassett's beautiful Fire colourway (made for Regia). I still use them despite having worn out the sole; that's one thing I've never understood: why reinforce the heel when I always wear out the foot first? This particular pair of socks will always be special to me since I actually wore them on the wee one's very first birthday 15 months ago. That is not the reason why I never got round to knitting another pair for 3 years, though. Maybe I'd tired of socks, having knit the entire A Year in Socks collection. More than that, though, I think I'd grown tired of knitting socks from fancy, hand-dyed sock yarn without nylon, which would consequently be worn out in a matter of weeks. And I didn't have many durable 20% nylon sock yarns in my stash.

Anyway, some weeks ago, while clearing out the sock stash to get rid of all those old pairs that had been worn out a long time ago, I suddenly felt the urge to start a new pair in this Regia Hand-dye Effect yarn that had been lingering in my stash for too long. I had two 100 g skeins, so I set out to make identical socks, starting the same place in both skeins. Luckily, they started almost the same place in the colour sequence, so I only lost a few yards here.

I went through my Ravelry queue for a suitable pattern and settle for the Blackrose Socks from an old Knitty issue. 

And here they are!

Pattern: Blackrose Socks (Rav link) by Suzi Anvin, published in Knitty, Winter 2008. A nice pattern. It comes with matching wristwarmers, too.
Yarn: Regia Hand-dye Effect (Rav link), colourway 06550. This yarn is a bit special: It's plied from a single strand of wool and a very thin strand of black nylon. This makes it a bit hard to knit without splitting the strand, so it wasn't the most pleasing knit ever. The colours are pretty, though, and I expect it to be durable. I used 62 g for this pair, so I can actually get 3 pairs out of these two skeins. I'm not sure I have it in me to do so, though.
Link to my Ravelry project page: Here.

Preparing for the baby season

This summer, many of our friends will be welcoming their firstborn child, and to me this means baby knitting! I started out in good time to make sure it would be a happy process, enabling me to put the required love into each garment. Here's the result of the first heat:

Two cotton hats knit from my favourite baby hat pattern, Hue med øreklapper, from Susie Haumann's All You Knit is Love. More details on my Ravelry project page.

The next knit is from the same publication; it's called Smilla's dress, but I made it into a vest since I find dresses rather impractical for crawling babies. Oh, how I loved knitting a pink lace pattern baby knit for once! :) Again, more details on my Ravelry project page.

Next up is a variation on another pattern from the same book, Vest med perlemønster - the same pattern I used for this little sweater for the wee one. I just made stripes instead of the moss stitch pattern. More details on the Ravelry project page.

Finally, a knit for the wee one: a vest for the coming winter season knit in a combination of Pickles' wonderfully soft (but not very durable) Cash Yak and (the more durable) Blackhill Højlandsuld from Garnudsalg.dk. The pattern is a simple improvisation. The colour is perfect, and it's nice and soft. Win! More details on my Ravelry project page.

And there goes another 202 g into the stashdown tally. I'm rather pleased with myself, having knit up/destashed more that 2 kg more yarn than I've acquired this year. Even then I'm still very pleased with my stash and I have many plans for it. I'll try and keep up the good work :)

FO: Red Ripple Sweater

 Last year in January, I dug out this cone of very bright orangey red chunky merino wool and cast on for Gudrun Johnston's Cara. I had a lot of new knits going at the time (a few days before giving birth to the wee one) and this one never really made it through to the end. Continuing in the stream of KALs in the Rav group for Lindse's podcast, I signed the finished bottom ribbing up for the 'Finish or frog' KAL taking place this March. And here it is! Finally finished, thanks to this KAL.

The bottom ribbing is indeed all that remains of the original sweater. The rest has been frogged and restarted in various shapes at least three times, before I finally ended up with a shape that would give a flattering knit in this chunky yarn. Therefore, all that I kept of the original pattern was the garter rib and the ripple pattern. 

Pattern: My own, inspired by Cara by Gudrun Johnston.
Yarn: Chunky SuperGeelong (Rav link) from Garnudsalg.dk, colourway Rød, 480 g. This is a 10-ply(!) merino yarn, which actually feels like cotton while knitting, but after a wash its true wooly nature came to life. It's nice and soft, but it remains to be seen how much it will pill. The colour is bright and I love it.
Needles: 6.0 mm.
My Ravelry project page has many more notes and can be found here.

Two small projects

Sometimes you just need some quick little projects, so here are two. The first is 7 squares (sewn together as requested) for a project called 'Varme 15x15' where a lot of Danish women (and a few men, I assume) knit for the homeless. I'll be sending some unused hats and scarves from the stash along as well.

The second one is a pink baby hat for one of the many babies our friends and acquaintances will be welcoming in 2013. It's not from my favourite baby hat pattern, which can be found in Susie Haumann's All You Knit is Love. I used this model a lot for the wee one - it's cute and fits well.

Both projects are on Ravelry - here and here.

FO: Mellow Sweater

It's all KAL work at the moment. This time Mette suggested we knit Pickles' Mellow Sweater in the Copenhagen Knitters Ravelry group, and since I had it in my queue I signed up after digging some fairly suitable yarn out of the stash. It's originally knit in angora, but since I'm not at ease with all that fibre shedding and wanted to use my stash instead, I settled for a 1:1 mix of Holst Supersoft in Mandarin and Isager Alpaca 2 in the tomato-coloured 025.

I knit the free size XS with a slightly different tension (one stitch less per 10 cm, I think). After finishing the sleeves it looked awfully wide and I had my doubts about how flattering this sweater would be. I decided to add a few side decreases and decreased 2 stitches under each arm 4 times in total. In the end, it turned out to be just perfect! The right size, great fit, and just the right length! I couldn't be more happy with this sweater!

Pattern: Mellow Sweater (Rav link) by Pickles, size XS.
Yarn: One strand of each: Isager Alpaca 2, colour 025, and Holst Garn Supersoft, colour Mandarin. 7-800 metres of each (had a hard time determining the amount of each yarn used), 272 g in total.
Needles: 5.5 mm (3.75 mm for the lower hem).
Mods: 4 x 4 stitches decreases down the sides to add some shaping; I think this is quite flattering. 
My Ravelry project page is here.

FO: Leise

In January and February I joined a KAL in the Ravelry group for Lindse's podcast - this time with the theme 'Knit from Danish patterns'. The first FO for the KAL was my anthracite No. 23 from the previous post. For the second project, I pulled out the new book by Lene Holme Samsøe, Suveræn Strik, which I got for Christmas, and started knitting the Leise cardigan.

Like  last year, I try to knit mainly from stash, but had to get a fluffy kidmohair for this project. I paired up one of my favourite (now discontinued) Isager colours, the slightly purplish blue 53 with a purple silk kidmohair from Garnudsalg.dk. I'm a fan of bluish purple, so matching the slightly dull purple of the kidmohair with the blue wool made the perfect match for me. In my opinion, this silk kidmohair is a bit more rough than the silk mohairs from e.g. Rowan or Isager, but the price is also lower, so I guess you get what you pay for. It works well in this knit, though.

I made some really stupid mistakes while knitting this cardigan (of which you can read more on my Ravelry project page if you can read Danish), but I ended up finishing it in time. In retrospect I think I would have liked it more without the bubbles on the sleeves (the simplicity is in part what makes me so fond of Helga Isager's designs), but I'm definitely not redoing them and I like it well enough as it is.

Pattern: Leise by Lene Holme Samsøe, published in Suveræn Strik, size M. I chose size M based on the measurement schemes in the book, but I think I could've used a size S, too.
Yarn: One strand of each: Isager Tvinni, colourway 53 (now discontinued), 144 g + Blackhill Silk Mohair, colourway 8 (Lilla 2), approx. 80 g. It's quite a lightweight sweater, and fast to knit on large needles.
Needles: 6.0 mm and 5.0 mm.
Mods: None.
My Ravelry project page is here.

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.