More shorts

As mentioned in my last post, knitted shorts are the new thing for babies and children. Maybe because they are so good for using up leftover yarn?

In any case, here are two pairs of baby shorts I knit from stash oddballs. They are here and here on Ravelry. 

Shorts

As far as I can see on Instagram, knitted shorts are a must-have for children this summer. So, I went ahead and knit some for the wee one.

They are based on a pattern from Den Store Guttestrikkeboka, but with quite a few modifications such as elastic waistband and a wider crotch. If I am to make them again, I'll make the crotch even wider since the fit is not perfect. Even so, they are rather cute:

They are large enough to fit him both this summer and at least one or two more. They are knit in Rasmillas Yndlingsgarn, which is a wool/cotton blend. More details on my Ravelry project page. 

What I knit this Easter

This is how far I got on my Himalaya sweater during the Easter holidays. The back and half the front are done. It's fun to knit - I constantly have to decide which colour to use next, whether it should be a stripe or a wedge, and how wide it should be. 

On the side I've started a cardigan for the wee one. It's the same pattern as used for the first one in this post (enlarged), knit in Hverdagsuld. 

New layout

I've updated to a new, very minimalistic layout. What's mainly new (apart from the look) is that you can now jump to older posts at the end of each page, and that there is a new, nicer archive for finding old blog posts in the sidebar.

Enjoy!

Easter Knitting

It shall be interesting to see how far I'll get on my Easter knitting project during the holidays. I'll probably be knitting more than one project, but this will be my main one: the Himalaya sweater (Rav link) from Helga Isager's recent The Map Collection. 

So far it's fun to knit with all the random colour changes and wedges. Just like Kashmir, but lightweight and with changes in fabric density, too. 

Status

Today's post concludes my one month of blogging every day. It's been a good experience; both to get me going with blogging again, but also because it has inspired my to look for other topics than FOs to blog about. I know I've mostly blogged about FOs so far, but in fact I find the other topics (favourite yarns, knitting books, knitting needles, wool in use, etc.) a bit more interesting.

I won't be blogging every day of April, but I have some ideas for more blog posts up my sleeve, so hopefully I'll be blogging a bit more regularly from now on.

Thanks to those of you who commented and not least those of you who came up with ideas on what to blog about! And thanks to everyone for reading :)

A new favourite yarn

A few days ago I wrote about my go-to yarns. Recently, I have discovered a new yarn which will be added to my favourites, namely Tusindfryds Hverdagsuld (English: Tusindfryd's Everyday Yarn). You may remember that I just finished a colourwork sweater in that yarn. Having tested it, I went ahead and bought some more colours of it - you can see the ones I chose here.

It's a simple, sturdy wool yarn (150 m/50 g), and it comes in a very well balanced range of colours. While I do miss some of my favourite reds, blues, and purples in the colour range, I very much appreciate that the colours have been chosen so that they can be mixed and matched across the entire range of colours. You can see all the colours here. 

The yarn is nice to work with, and while it is 100% wool it becomes nice and soft already when working with it, and even more when washed. Even so, I don't expect this yarn to pill very much.

You'll have noticed that my favourite yarns are all classic wool yarns (or alpaca or silk mohair) and not fancy, hand-painted cashmere/merino blends. When I first discovered Ravelry, I - like most new Ravelers, I suppose - was amazed by all these luxury yarns that are kind of hyped on Ravelry and I did buy many of them (Posh Yarn, Malabrigo Sock, Madelinetosh, Wollmeise). However, while I do understand why these are considered luxury yarns, I have recently come to the conclusion that these are no longer for me. Quite simply, I'm not too keen on the coloured fabric that a handpainted yarn (even a semi-solid one) produce. I much prefer my yarns to be even in colour throughout. That does not mean that I prefer dead or flat colours; indeed, I'm very fond of the deep Highland/Shetland wool colourways as explained a few days ago. Obviously, you are free to disagree with me here (I know most people might), but it is kind of liberating to have come to this realization.

Anyway, if you haven't tried the Hverdagsuld yet, you should consider it.

Halfway there

I haven't had time for blogging today - I was busy doing something else. Today the World Championships in Half Marathon were on in Copenhagen, followed by a mass race for 30.000 runners of which I was one. It was my first time running this far in these flat 'barefoot' shoes, so it was all a bit exciting even if I have run twice as far back in the pre-baby days. It all went fine, I finished in just under 2 hours, which was great given that I didn't train as much for it as I should have. 

I'll be back with some more yarn tomorrow!

Wool in Use

Last year you could read a series of blog posts on Wool in Use, i.e. knitted garments actually used by their producers. You can find a list of links on Merete's brilliant blog. It's both interesting and useful to see which models are actually successful when it comes to being used. When I showed my Top 5 Knits for Babies on Sunday, Lena asked if I would make one for grown-ups as well. However, it was too hard to decide on five knits only, so here's my contribution to the Wool in Use tour instead.

Let's first take a look at my wardrobe:

Here are my - ahem - two shelves of hand-knitted sweaters, cardigans, vests, and dresses. If you look at my Ravelry page you will however realize that many more garments have left my needles. These have been passed onto friends and charity shops. I'm no more attached to them than being able to give old and unused ones away to make room for new ones. 

My two shelves have a sort of system that is clearly visible from this photo. In the lower right corner are the sweaters that are used a lot and hence put back in in a not-so-tidy fashion. Moving towards the upper left corner, the sweaters come closer and closer to a life in a new home. Some of those on the top shelf do however have a long way to go before facing that destiny, but you won't see any of them in the following display of frequently used sweaters, which are the ones on the lower shelf - here listed after how frequently they are worn. 

On the top shelf you'll find some previous favourites, that are no longer worn very often (I guess my style has changed) but did get a lot of wear some years ago - e.g. Cabled Spiral Sweater, Bubble Pullover, Still Light, and Twenty Ten. 

The next two photos show the sweaters, cardigans, and vest that I put on occasionally, i.e. somewhere between three and seven times each winter season (and by winter season I mean something like September-April + cold summer nights):

From the top: 1) An old timer, Twinkle's Best Friend Cardigan - still used because of the vibrant colour, it's almost blazer shape, and the fact that chunky knits are still fashionable; 2) Vitamin D; 3) Leise.

From the top: 1) Swallow - this has not been used so much recently because I got into my head that it was too small, but I tried it on today and realized it is not, so it will now be moved to a different pile - quite appropriate since I chose to use my favourite (discontinued) highland wool colour for this one; 2) my The Killing III sweater; 3) my Cara variation; 4) Buttercup; 5) Nightingale.

The next photo shows the garments that are used a bit more often than the ones above but less than the favourites below - something like once or twice a month:

From the top, going in rows from left to right: 1) Raven - I've used this sweater dress a lot; 2) Mellow - I'm not using it so much at the moment, but I have used it a lot previously and think I will do again; 3) Day job dress - a new addition to my wardrobe, but I'm sure it'll get some more wear; 4) a Kim Hargreaves-inspired mohair sweater; 5) Warriston - I use this for outdoor life and it's  actually a quite brilliant sweater.

And finally the favourites: These are used somewhere between a couple of times each month and several times each week:

From the top, going in rows from left to right: 1) Kashmir - currently, this is number one on my list of Most Frequently Used Knits list; 2) Lemon - this has been abandoned for a while, but recently I've started using it often; 3) Høstjakke; 4) Vanilla - a simple and flattering go-to cardigan; 5) Kingscot - I like this one for its colour, the durability of the ÅLJ yarn, and it's almost blazer-like shape; 6+7) my two No. 23 sweaters (red and grey), which are probably the two sweaters I've used the most of everything I've ever knit (and still am) - a good reason for my knitting a third, long-sleeved one (Normandy) at the moment!

So, if I were to make a top list of my favourite knits for adults, it would contain Kashmir, No. 23/Normandy, Kingscot, and Vanilla. I'm hoping that it will also contain Manchuria and Himalaya once I finish those.

My go-to yarns

No prizes for guessing that my favourite colour is red!

My go-to yarn - the yarn which is my starting point when trying to find yarn for a new project - is the highland wool (100% wool, approx. 550 m/100 g, where the colours are mixed from several colours before spinning to give a deeper colour). The main part of my estimated more than 6 kg highland wool is Blackhill Højlandsuld, but I do also have some Holst Yarn Supersoft and Jünik Supersoft. In total, I have 46 different colours, albeit only a few metres of some of them.

This yarn is fairly cheap, the main reason for this being that it contains spinning oil. It's possible to wash out the oil before knitting, but since I'm not sensitive to it, I don't. The presence of the spinning oil means that the yarn blooms when washed and becomes softer. If you prefer purchasing this type of yarn without spinning oil, Isager's Highland Wool is a luxurious (and more pricey) option. To the best of my knowledge, Garnudsalg's Blackhill Højlandsuld and Jünik are from the Scottish spinning mill J.C. Rennie, whereas Holst Yarn is from English Knoll Yarns. You can buy both of them in more places than the ones I have linked to above - Google and Ravelry are your friends. I find that the former is bit easier to wash the spinning oil out of as well as wee bit softer and hence my favourite.

When in need of a yarn heavier than this light fingering yarn, I do one of two things depending on the yarn weight and type of fabric needed: 1) use more than one strand, or 2) combine it with another, thinner yarn. Doing the latter gives me the opportunity to mix with either alpaca or silk mohair for a more drapey and fluffy fabric. For this, I have fairly large stashes of lace alpaca and silk mohair, too:

The lace alpacas are either Isager Alpaca 1 or Blackhill Superfine Alpaca. The silk mohairs are Isager Silk Mohair (by far the most luxurious one), Rowan Kidsilk Haze, or Blackhill Silk Mohair. 

It all takes up some space, but I really like being able to rummage through my stash and combine colours (it's not always easy on a screen - especially not with the highland/shetland wool yarns which are indeed made from several colours and therefore made to match with yarns that share one or more of the same solid colours; I remember Kate Davies blogging about this at some point, but I cannot find the post again). Furthermore, I like to be able to start a new project whenever I want without having to wait for new yarn to arrive, let alone time to go to a yarn shop.

FO: Colourwork Sweater

Recently, I discovered a new yarn: Tusindfryds Hverdagsuld - more on that in another post. Inspired by the well-coordinated colours, I wanted to knit a colourwork sweater.

I couldn't find a pattern that I liked (enough), so I made my own instead. When it comes to colourwork I much prefer stretches that are no more than three stitches wide for two reasons: 1) It's much easier to knit and 2) little fingers don't get stuck in the loops on the back of the work. With this - and two contrast colours - as a starting point, I ended up with this colourwork pattern. The shape is a simple slim fit raglan with a short row neckline.

The main colour is a bluish grey, and the contrast colours are a slightly cold lemon yellow and a navy blue. I like this combination. 

The sweater is an intentionally slim fit size 3-4 years - I expect we will use it next winter (and if we're lucky also the following one). You can read a few more details on my Ravelry project page.

Top 5: Not-so-useful Knits for Babies

This is the final list in my series, which started with Top 5 Knits for Babies and Top 7 Knits for Toddlers. Today, I'm taking a look of the knits I prepared before welcoming the little one, but never actually used. I do not mean to speak ill of the patterns mentioned - it is merely a matter of misjudgement from my side!

My Top 5: Not-so-useful Knits for Babies

1: Knitted Bodysuits

In my opinion so not worth the trouble (especially of buttoning all these buttons) when you can buy really brilliant ones and spend your knitting time on something which will actually be seen, like little vests. I may be wrong, though.

2: Heavy Summer Sweaters

It may have been the timing with the seasons, but I never used heavy cotton summer sweaters.

3: Baby Booties that Don't Stay on the Foot

I much preferred these that did (cf. my list of favourite baby knits).

4: Knitted Bibs

I'm not sure this is worth the trouble either. Maybe it would have been, had he been a drooler, but we only ever used bibs for eating and they need to be considerably larger!

5: Knits that Don't Fit!

There's absolutely nothing wrong with this little vest, except that I never managed to get it over his (rather large) head!

Top 7: Knits for Toddlers

Continuing from the Top 5: Knits for Babies from yesterday, here's my Top 7 list of Knits for Toddlers (I couldn't cut it down to five!). Note that some of these knits also work for 6 months old babies - especially if you have a summer baby, where warm winter knits are required at that age.

My Top 7: Knits for Toddlers

1: Lark Vest

This surprises nobody. You've already seen it here five times before, but there is no getting away from it: Vests are brilliant for toddlers, and Lark is - in my opinion - the prettiest and coolest vest for little boys.

2: Knitted Trousers

I've knit four pairs of these (three for the little one) simply because they are brilliant, simple trousers and woolen trousers are good for the little ones in winter time. I'm quite fond of my main modification to the original pattern: Elastic waistband. For crawling babies I'd also recommend reverse stockinette stitch, since the knit stitch side is softer against the skin (the pair in the photo is an example of that). I have to admit that these days I 'cheat' and sew woolen trousers for him instead!

3: The Poppy Sweater - or another thin sweater

The Poppy sweater took ages to knit, but the result was completely worth it. It's so pretty and it was worn a lot when he was around one year old (the photo is from his first birthday)! Another thin sweater, which was also used a lot, is this one, which is much faster to knit.

4: A thick cardigan or sweater

We also use heavier cardigans (in particular) or sweater for outdoor life during spring and autumn - and for driving in the car during winter. The one in the photo is an example, but it could also be the September Cardigan, which my mum knit for him (it's so cute!), or a cabled one like the most recent one she knit for him (I cannot find the pattern online). I also knit this simple sweater from a generic pattern in Strikk til nøstebarn. 

5: Raindrop Hat

The Raindrop Hat is such a cute hat and fun to knit! I prefer ear flap hats for the little ones because you avoid all the trouble of keeping their ears warm while maintaining their eyesight... Of course it makes is slightly harder for them to put it on themselves, but we're getting there. I've knit this twice and we use it all the time.

6: Mittens

I wrote about these from Strikk til nøstebarn a few days ago.

7: Collared Pixie Balaclava

Balaclavas are brilliant in winter time and fulfill the kindergarten 'no strings' criteria. This pattern is great because I like the cute pixie form, but I'm also quite fond of the modifications I've introduced. The only drawback of this pattern is that it doesn't quite cover the forehead as much as I would like, so I've now taken to sewing woolen, jersey-lined balaclavas instead.

What's your favourite knits for toddlers?

Stay tuned for the Not-so-useful Knits for Babies Top 5 tomorrow!

Top 5: Knits for Babies

Inspired by a question from Karen, I decided to put together three Top 5 lists: Knits for Babies, Knits for Toddlers, and Not-so-useful Knits for Babies. I'll start off with the first one today and the rest will follow tomorrow and Tuesday.

These lists are entirely based on what I used most for my little one, so yours may look differently. Bear in mind that mine was born in January, so the materials may need to be changed if you're knitting for a July baby!

It's no secret that the little one is a boy, so I'll mainly be focusing on knits for boys (something which is much harder to find patterns for than cute little patterns for girls!). Luckily, most boys' baby knits go equally well for girls, but not always vice versa (sigh). In all cases, the pattern I used may of course be substituted by a similar one - it's all a matter of taste!

My Top 5: Knits for Babies

1: Pebble Vest

Generally, vests (and hats) are hits for babies and also the items I most commonly knit as presents for the wee ones. The Pebble Vest is my favourite for the smallest ones (boys as well as girls) because it is easy to get on and off - and pretty! I've knit as many as six of these.

2: Earflap Baby Hat

I've mentioned this several times already this month, but this is by far my favourite baby hat. It works equally well in wool as in cotton, so this can be used for babies all year round. I've knit eight of these so far...

3: Baby Overalls

We used these overalls a lot back when the little one was smaller. I made some modifications to the original pattern, which you can read (some brief notes) about on my Ravelry project page.

4: A Hooded Cardigan

This could be any hooded cardigan (I'm quite keen on this one, too), but I knit Kerrera back in the days. Stylish and practical for the little ones with the hood in winter time. In warmer weather you may prefer one without a hood, like Crocus.

5: Baby Socks - with a Tie!

I could come up with both pros and cons of knitted baby booties. You can get far with ordinary, shop-bought socks (which stay on the foot), but in colder weather actual baby booties is a good addition - and cute. The only ones that ever worked for us (and were thus used a lot) were these. One thing: with my little one, a string to keep the socks on the foot was a must! What I particularly liked about these, then, was that the string was not a thin one made from one or two strands of yarn, but an actual, soft i-cord. They are from the same book as the overalls above.

That's my Top 5 for babies. What's on yours?

Stay tuned for the knits for toddlers tomorrow; some of these projects work equally well for 6 month old babies, so there is more inspiration to be had for the wee ones!

PhD

Yesterday was a success! On top of my much appreciated titles 'mum' and 'knitter', I can now call myself PhD.

I'll be back tomorrow with knitting-related contents: A Top 5 of my favourite baby knits!

Today

Today I'm defending this one!

The mittens

When going through my favourite knitting books last week, I mentioned the Norwegian pattern book Strikk til nøstebarn. Among other useful patterns, you'll find a brilliant pattern for mittens - in many sizes!

This autumn I knit two of these for the little one. They are knit in two strands of a woolen yarn (Holst Garn, Sloe) and then washed in the washing machine at a normal 40 degrees C cycle with wool detergent in order to felt them enough but not too much. I find these perfect for small hands as they are easy to put on and wear.

The particularly clever thing about this pattern for children's mittens is that there is no left and right. This is brilliant when putting them on - and when loosing one. At some point I thought we had lost one and knit another before finding the 'lost' one in a pocket, so now we have three! But since they are all identical, it doesn't matter which one we lose next :)

Having knit these for the little one I turned to the same pattern when I realized I needed a pair for biking to work. They are almost the same colour (which is very pleasing to the little one!), but not quite since I added an extra brown strand to these to get them thicker and larger for the larger hands.

Finally, some Ravelry links to the small ones and the big ones.

Knitting needles and notions

Here's my bag of knitting needles and notions. It's not particularly pretty, but it's quite practical. It's the one that comes with the large set of interchangeable wooden needles from KnitPro (I originally bought mine here). On top of the original set, I've bought extra wires and more of the smaller needle sizes (3.0 mm, 3.25 mm, and 3.75 mm). And I've bought extra of sizes 3.5 mm and 4.0 mm after having sat upon them... They didn't particularly like that, so now I have three needles in each of those two sizes. Most of you will know the KnitPro Symfonie interchangeable needles already, but if you don't, they look like this:

The bag holds more than the KnitPro needles, though. I use the KnitPros for most projects, but for the smaller needle sizes, I have my old collection of Addi circulars (sizes 2.5 mm, 3.0 mm, 3.25 mm, 3.5 mm, and 3.75 mm). They come in all kinds: Turbo, Lace, and Bamboo. Back in the days I preferred the bamboo ones, but now I'm more keen on the Turbos. The eagle-eyed reader will see that these old bags not only contain Addi circulars, but also my new favourites when it comes to smaller size circulars: The KnitPro Karbonz! These carbon needles are a true pleasure to knit with.Try them if you haven't already!

Also in the bag are my knitting notions: A tape measure (I wonder how long this one will last, since I know a little one who loves to measure 'måle - måle'), two needles of which I actually only use the non-pointy one, an almost antique device for measuring needle sizes (it has UK sizes on the back), and Lego stitch markers from Succaplokki. I rarely use stitch markers, but when I do I enjoy having these pretty ones.

I haven't shown you the box of old knitting needles. Although rarely used, there are some gems in there, so maybe I should!

Do you have a knitting needle/notions bag and what's in it?

Two new knitting books

Here are the two most recent additions to my collection of knitting books: two booklets by Danish knitwear designers, namely 'Blue Notes' by Susie Haumann and 'Vendestrik i lange baner' by Hanne Meedom & Sofie Meedom.

Apart from the two booklets with knitwear for babies and children that I showed you among my favourites, Susie Haumann has also published two booklets with knitwear for adult - Grey Days (sweaters) and Around (scarves) - and this is now her third booklet. Her design does not hit my style spot one, but there is always one or two designs that I like; this time so much that I felt the need to own the booklet. Among the many blue sweaters, my favourites are Baby Blue and Sky Blue. I may knit both of them, albeit in different colours.

'Vendestrik i lange baner' is quite different from 'Blue Notes'. It's much more colourful and inspirational - part of the idea with the book is to inspire the reader to combine patterns and colours in new ways. The book focuses on short rows (in Danish, vendestrik) and how this technique can be used (in a number of ways) for scarves, ties, belts, pillowcases, and blankets. I'm keen on knitting myself a blanket or two using this technique. Furthermore, while I think I know short rows quite well, I did still learn a few tricks from this book, so if you have the opportunity do take a look and be inspired.

FO: Pickles Bat Top

Another not-so-recently finished project designed by Pickles is the Bat Top (Flaggermustopp). I apologize for the appalling photography.

When it was done, it was quite short (something went wrong with the row gauge in my yarn substitution - usually I'm good at swatching, but apparently not this time), so I picked up stitched around the lower hem and added more of an actual hem there. It works fine. Not the most practical garment to wear - poncho-like sweaters never really are - but it's nice and comfy to wear.

More details on my Ravelry project page.

Two little baby vests

From one of my favourite knitting books mentioned yesterday - probably the favourite among the books with pattern for children, All You Knit is Love - I knit this little vest for a friend of mine who just gave birth to a cute little boy. Like all other patterns I've tried from that booklet, this pattern is just brilliant. You can find more details on this pretty little vest on my Ravelry project page.

Earlier this year I tried out another vest pattern, which I found on Ravelry. It's called Rigmor and is designed by Mumu Knits. This little vest is atypical in its racerback construction and interesting to knit. I'm a wee bit worried that the neck opening is not large enough (I do prefer buttons for the little ones), but I may knit it again for a larger child.

See more details on my Ravelry project page.