Back home to Vermont sweater - in progress

The Back home to Vermont sweater is well in progress. So far no more redos after the incident with the sleaves (or me not reading properly).

New idea - Mosaic Yoke Jacket

Home with N today and I had time to pass by Maria with my latest project idea, the Mosaic Yoke Jacket from the fall 2008 number of Interweave Knits.

Home with a sample to see if it should be in Alpaca (Garnstudios Classic Alpaca) instead of wool.

Relief Crochet

Apart from the crochet lovvika mittens in school at the age of 13 I've only done one project, the Chantel shawl. So when Maria arranged a crochet course with relief pattern I signed up.

Intersting time with questions such as "what is a row", "how can I count rows", which side is the right side", "it should have been 20 and now I have 21...." and me being a true beginner had them all but managed to do some result at the end.

Fun! I'll try it more but think I'll stick to knitting.

More pictures here.

Nålbunden vante upphittad

Hej,
Jag hittade för en vecka sedan en vante på Söder i Stockholm som jag nu söker efter ägen till. Jag tror att den är nålbunden, den är i alla fall otroligt vacker.

Hör av er om ni saknar den.

mvh anna

In English in short - I found a hand-made mitten on the street and is now searching for the owner.

Back Home in Vermont Sweater

Most things I completed this year has been for N, some for me but very few (any?) for T. I have this UFO that will take forever to complete. Specially since I'm not knitting on it at all for the last years. It is Stone Circles by Kaffe Fassett. Having the guilt I last year showed him the Back Home in Vermont Sweater in the book "The Natural Knitter". Better (and so much faster) to do other projects for T. At the "Syfestivalen" last year I even bought the yarn. In October this year I started.

It is always better to read the pattern, and I mean really read it. "Increase 1 st in the beginning of each row" does not mean to increase in the beginning and in the end.

So now I have done half a sleeve twice and remade 14+14 rows of the body. But I'm on the way.

The pattern is easy and the yarn is really nice. It's a cable but not using an extra needle, just twisting the stiches. It's a top-down knitting and is getting quite chunky right now. I need a new knitting for the subway soon.

Laminaria

Starting working this fall I had the need for a "subway knitting", meaning something to knot on for the at least 30 minutes I have each day getting to and from work. It is a big plus if the item is not too big to carry around. Maria made this beautiful Laminaria and also stated it was relly fun knitting. I had looked at it and loved it but thought that it would be too tricky.

Inspired by Marias words, result and not the least her hand-dyed yarn I decided to give it a try.

To get fully inspired I invested in a set of knit pick needles. No regrets!!!!

I followed the pattern , but using larger needles than described, 5.5 mm for the first part and then 4.5 mm for the remaining parts. Copying Maria I also added beads at the edging lace part.

I also made two extra "rows" on the second lace part, making the shawl a bit larger. And this one I blocked (again thankful for the blocking wires).

Last minute purled beret

The weather was changing and I was feeling cold standing at the slide in the play-ground. I wanted a new hat. Browsing Ravelry I found this beret and taking my one skein of Maya yarn I started. First attempt is got too small (I was afraid to run out of yarn) the second attempt was better. Here (and still) it is not blocked so there is no nice edge. The mittens are made a few years ago based on Nysta Ninas pattern. This was the first pair I made, the second pair got lost this spring.

N can fool anyone that she actually made this but I must say I did the most part. Don't missunderstand, I'm being extremely proud and hope she will continue her knitting learning journey. Maybe I also should explain her hat - that is completely her own choice!!

Waldorf doll for N

At N's day-care all children should have a "I doll" (Waldorf doll). Already the first day all parents got a kid with very detailed instructions. It took a while before I started but it (mini N) is now ready and dressed. The doll is about 10 cm tall.

If knitting small sweaters with big needles was fast and fun, knitting tiny sweaters with small needles was equally fast (I actually made the first one a bit too long in the sleeves so I just made a second one). All clothes are sewn on, made to stick, but she has a belly button (all according to instructions).

Retro sweater for N

Finishing the February Lady Sweater I had some "cable twined" brown yarn left. Since I really liked the yarn combination I wanted to make another sweater for N using the leftover.

Exploring the shelfes in Maria Garn I found an orange color that looks great with the brown.

I got the retro feeling of the 70's and it has a nice "raggsockseffekt".

Again I used the Wizard Sweater as a base for this one for N.

Striped Wizard Sweater for N's friend F

Small sweaters on "big" needles are fast and fun. Using yarn from the same stash as the Cookie Sweater I made a striped sweater that F, N's friend at daycare, got as a birthday gift when he turned 2. The pattern is from Rowans bookMiss Bea's Dressing Up.

Cookie Sweater for N

N started daycare in August and to prepare her (and me) for that event I started knitting some sweaters for her to use. Here is N playing around in her "Cookie Sweater" from Rowans "Miss Bea's Rainy Day". I like the book with a number of basic patterns for children.

The yarn was from my stash, 8/8 cotton from Marias Garn sale some time ago.

Visit to Huskroken in Gotland - kid cardigan

My dad moved to Gotland earlier this year and we went there this summer to see his new house. It was very nice and luckely not that far from where Huskroken, a local yarn shop that hand-dyes and sells ecological yarn. I managed to get 7 relatives thinking it was a great idea to visit this nice place. Well there I had to buy some yarn (what else!). Not only beacause it is almost irrestistable but also to motivate any future visits to any yarn shop with a caravan of relatives.


I bought some cotton dyed in 4 different colors and on the way to the car I passed the sales basket (how did I miss it on the way in) and found one hank of brown cotton to make the cuffs and edging.


I used the same pattern that I have used for many (1, 2, 3, etc) other cardigans for N, but I like the simplicity and it fits her well.

February Lady Sweater

I started this cardigan for vacation. The intention that it is a quick and fun project, not that complicated. Since this cardigan has sleeves not in full length I thought that I wanted to do one in cotton. I bought the yarn at Marias Garn and it's a combionation of Muskat from Garnstudio and one "kabeltvinnad" (cable twined???) cotton. Both in brown but slightly different shades.

I just want to say again that I did swatch!!! Having figured out that size 4.5 mm needles was right I went around Kalmar (wacation stop) to find new needles. ...And off I went.

Almost at the shoulders it became clear that it would be difficult to close the cardigan and breathe at the same time. Time for re-start number 1!

Changing needles to 5mm but keeping the size this time I restarted - much better. Somewhere along the "waistline" I saw that I had made one row off in the pattern....time for re-start number 2!

Just go for it!!! Now in progress.

But it is completed and I like it very much. The yarn combination was fine, as expected with cotton it is bit heavy but still nicely and very wearable.

In the end, it was fun knitting and I would like to make more stuff top-down.

Geno - spring cardigan with restart

Geno is one of the projects that made my knitting halt. Still, I love the pattern. I bought the yarn (Saffran from Garnstudio) at Marias Garn, Spring 2008.

Here is the proof that a re-start was needed. Thanks Anna for pointing that out before I had done the complete cardigan.

I just want to say that I did swatch! I picked size "L" and needles 3mm to start with. In this picture I have put the "second back" on top of the first and there is at least 12 cm difference.

The new start is in size "M" and needles 2.5 mm. The result is so much better.

The original pattern has short sleeves, I decided I wanted a bit longer, inspired by the picture from Rowan I made them longer using the lace pattern. Since I'm fairly tall I made the cardigan 5 cm longer than designed.

Knitting - not blogging

This has been a quiet corner this fall. N started daycare in August and now it's middle of November. What happen?
At least I have a few projects to show now, mostly completed (not from the UFO file unfortunately).

Here they are in separate entries !

I'll try to show things more often again.

See you soon :-)