Forward…..

if there is one thing that M loves, it is her bike. Om a nice day she can ride it and ride it again… It is a bit battered (It's S her old bike) but it works just fine so it is really OK for her.  A good sturdy warm cardigan is really what is needed for deep Autumn cycling, so here it is… Ruta. Diamond patterns on the body and smaller one on the sleeves in simple twisted stitches and some small cables too. It is slightly too big, but it really is meant for more than just one winter.

The yarn is peace fleece worsted. Not the softest yarn (but it does become softer after a wash), but one of the sturdiest. So very good for an outdoor type of garment. It's tweedy too with brilliants specks of colour. And when knitting it you feel the lanolin make your hands go softer. M remarked that it smelled of Lamb, which is does a bit, but not a bad thing, a sheepie kind of yarn, rustic, well suited for cables and cycling your bike on a grey November day...

Diamonds

The other day I got reminded that it was a long tim sago I did knit cables. Maybe more than two years ago….and it is odd since I do like knitting cables. So I  wondered why and I really couldn't figure it out. M in the mean time asked if she could have a warm cardigan, bit thicker than normal, so that's when 1 and 1 came together… From my stash I dug out Peace Fleece worsted in a lovely pink tweed "Moscow magic pink", from a recent acquisition I got inspiration and here are diamonds for a small cardigan. The books I bought are "Bäuerliches  Stricken", lovely stitch pattern books with quite a number of twisted stitch patterns and some lace and other goodies… This pattern is not in it, but it is inspired by it. I want this cardigan to have a saddle-sleeve with a bit of cable work, but I am not sure yet how to do it, so I knit to the arm height and will be back at the drawing board...

But so far it is fun to do cables again….

 

And my comfy cardigan, is really comfy indeed…..

Just knitting blue

 

Some weeks are just a haze. Last week was such a week… Filled with meetings and meetings again,on top of that a bit of teaching and lecturing and in the end it becomes a haze. In a way a good week, since I got some nice feed-back, but I was really really tired on Friday. In the middle of the week there was of course more good news. Wednesday was really a very happy day, what a relief and also what a progress in so many other respects. And I have been knitting blue this week as well.  That wasn't really planned, just a lucky accident. 

Anyways I am knitting a very plain cardigan right now. It is the essential cardigan from an Interweave Knits. It is of course mainly plain, not totally plain since it has nice borders and cuffs in broken rib. I really wanted a comfy cardigan, soft and warm, so I am knitting this in Blue Sky Alpacas sport weight which is a 100% baby alpaca yarn. I had this yarn in my stash for many years now and I dug it out sometime in October. I had the pattern in my queue also for a very long time, so now finally they have become together to become this , well essentially an easy, soft and warm cardigan to be worn with almost anything. Just what I need for grey and coldish days. It is relative fast knitting since it is so much stockinette, so I have finished the main parts… now only the front bands to do, so tonight a major session of picking up stitches….

Contrast

One of my favourite things in a design is if there is a nice contract between stockinette and a bit of texture. If done right it creates really nice items with an interesting edge that are easy to wear and are easy to knit. There are certain designers that are masters in just this, and I will come back to them time after time. This is Irina by Cecily Glowik McDonald and yes she is just one of those designers.

This was a fast knit, it is all stockinette from the top-down raglan. And then a bit of action follows, a cowl with an interesting drop-stitch garter pattern. I knitted it in the yearn it was designed for, since it is a a nice yarn. It is Quince and Co chickadee in the colour split pea.  The yarn has a good price, is sturdy and comes in a lovely range of colours. Quince is one of my go to companies, both for their patterns and their yarns are what I do like. Elegant, but sturdy stuff.

And Irina, well I am had-way through the second season of Alias…what can I say, some names are just right.