Skansen - Ull & lindagar 2014

Today I took the girls to Skansen. Wool and flax/linen days was on the agenda but of cause also to visit a "Sven". (if you have seen the movie Frost you know that it's a rein deer).

Apart from that it rained in the afternoon we had a great day. We followed the process of wool from the sheep to duying yarn and the kid´s were allowed try the carding comb.

We spent most time with the animals and this time we were lucky to see wolf, seal, bear, wild boar, lynx (that is rare - this time 4 of them) and rein deer and a long list of other.

Great day but not a stich in the whole day!

Bute - a story of my summer project, now completed and delivered

Bute. A great cardigan pattern. It started last winter when I decided to knit a cardigan to my dad for his 75 year old birthday in June this year. I looked for hours in my magazines and on Ravelry and finally decided that I wanted to knit Bute.

My dad is a typical "navy blue cardigan but I thought (hoped) he would like it.
At Syfestivalen in February I found the yarn at Wincent's, it was Rowans Amy Butler Belle Organic DK on sale. The yarn felt very soft and is 50% wool and 50% cotton.

During the Spring so many other things happened., at work, with the family and also with finding other more "fun" projects (for me!). The idea to give away the swatch and a note that more will come felt like a good solution in June. Came the summer vacation and celebration plans were changed to meet my dad last weekend at Gotland instead. Vacation period and Bute was my first priority (knittingwise...). I made the size 2XL just to be sure

The pattern calls for making the body separate but I decided to make it in the round and steek. This (still) feels a bit risky with a wool/cotton mix but counting the number of threads to be woven in made it an easy decision to try.

I made the first sleeve on dpns but the second one back straight. The patterns isn't that bad with fair isle on the wrong sides. I think it is one row out of 6. With the yarn a bit "slippery" I didn't get the changing of colors neat but gaps showed. Most of them was possible to correct. I think the second sleeve also went faster with one circular needle.

I tied knots on the body  and then took out the sewing machine, 3 times for each side.



The cardigan was completed the night before the plane left for Gotland (you can survive with little sleep for some days).









More news at arrival The pattern calls for 54 cm long sleeves. That is a lot and as it turned out - too much, far too much. So I had my second part of the project, shortening the sleeves.


I put all the stiches back to the circular needle, cut out the part and knitted a new cuff. As the picture shows I removed more than 10 cm.

I have now a happy dad in a new cardigan and I'm pleased and proud to have completed this project in 6 weeks.

Left to do is to put in a zipper and a band to cover the edges after the steek.