Spring is in the air....

Most years there is that one day when one realises, winter is over… spring is here. Today is that day here, ok it is still early spring, but crocuses and the hazel bush are flowering, birds are chirping, the grass is growing and the sun is there being a thin haze of clouds. Now this winter wasn’t a long and cold one, we had a bit of cold, but it was grey, stormy and rainy and it feels quiet now, calm and mild, nice in other words.

So a good day for some pictures on the dress that M had in her head…colours blue and a bit of green, spring colours….

I used Barbara Walkers simultaneous set-in sleeve method, and it worked like a dream. So yes I will use this method again for other designs. The beginning is a bit fiddly, as one has to knit small bits, cut yarn of here and there, but then once it all comes together, it works really well. I tried to mimic a flat knitted sleeve, so my increases on the sleeve are every row in the beginning, every second row for a bit, one or two every fourth row, a bit every second row. I am happy I choose these set-in sleeves and not the raglan as I played with in my head when I was planning this dress, since I now have mastered something new...

We wil probably go for a walk in the afternoon, so let’s go out and enjoy the end of winter…. (even though, being in Sweden, it always can make a return, even as late as April….).

Ideas and such

 

During the sales M got a nice dress in different colours and she loves that dress. Has been wearing it a dozen times already and she is convinced I can make one in wool… ok….. According to her, it has to be a simple A-line (easy peasy), long sleeved and going from dark blue to dark green…… It can be done, of course, so on the hunt for a nice yarn from dark blue to dark green. It also had to be soft wool (shetland was considered just slightly too scratchy for a dress), in the end we choose O-wool classic 2-ply. The colours are indigo, cornflower, sky, robin’s egg, natural, willow and wheatgress.

it is indeed lovely soft wool and I think it will work nicely. What I am still considering is how to knit it…. top down with simultaneous set-in sleeves as in Barbara Walker’s book, from the bottom up, splitting the front and back, sleeves knitted flat…. batwings and not really long sleeves, a henley type opening, a boat-neck, a little split in the back neck and a high round neckline…. Still much to think about before I will start, but I am looking forward and sketching, which is nice too...

What shetland is good for is mittens. D needs mittens (even though the winter has taken a break and it is unseasonal warm again), I wanted to play a bit with patterning, so ZigZag mittens are being knit. The first one is knitted, the hand is fine, but I am not so happy with the thumb, so I am tinkering and knitting the second one slightly different. If that works out I will make another pair and make it into a pattern. The main thing was to make the scheme and I have done that, so why not release it too, as a free pattern that is….

 

It is difficult to pose when....

One thing about cats is that they are excellent scene stealers…. I just wanted to get some photos of the miles and miles of stockinette that I just finished and they came and made life difficult...

But I waited, and one other thing about cats is, that they can lose interest real quick…. so at least one good picture. S is  bit under the weather (as many people in my surroundings) so a warm long cardigan will be good...

We are watching Fringe again (one of my favourite series) and S remarked that this is a cardigan that Walter could be wearing. And yes it is that kind of colour. When I was seaming the odds and bits (not that many since it is in one piece and top-down sleeves with short rows) I was thinking that this sweater was one on which you put elbow patches to make it even more “academic”. Something about that colour and that wool that makes me thinking of that… It is very cosy and very understated and I think quite so versatile in the end.