Shopping and what came from it...

A couple of weeks ago during host-lov (autumn leave) I spend one day with my daughters shopping in Göteborg. I felt a bit guilty as I had to work during leave so I felt that at least one day could be used to do something with them. I kind of like walking/browsing through a city without buying a lot and so does the big one and although the smaller daughter is more like my husband in not liking shopping too much, going to Goteborg was still a fun prospect. It is a two hour train trip away and for once we had bought the tickets really in advance which meant that it wasn’t too expensive. The train comes with free internet, so that helps as well. In Goteborg we had a good time exploring the city (not really been there a lot) but I did come home with stuff as their are some real nice yarn shops… As we were there, the sky became dark and darker and then the first snow flakes of the season came down and then as we were in a yarn shop just then, I knew what to do with that tempting yarn… hats.  We came home with some Rowan Felted Tweed and a nice organic wool from Italy. My youngest one spotted fake fur balls and really wanted one for a hat and OK that could be incorporated. 

This week the yarn became hats, the felted tweed became a Folklore hat. I knew I wanted to make a hat using some stranded knitting and after browsing the Revelry library we found that one. It is a good design and since the motifs are not large it is real fun knitting. There are no long floats so a very good item if one wants to try some stranded knitting. With a nice big multicoloured pompom at the top it makes a real fun and warm hat. For the other hat, I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do. I had two colours grey so it could be stripes or stranded or maybe a two-coloured brioche hat. I did some browsing but nothing really caught my eye. In the end I went for a simple slip-stitch pattern creating vertical stripes. It is really very simple and I really like the result. This one is more like a beanie, but it comes over the ears, very important for keeping warm according to my smaller one.

Polwarth

Slowly I knitted this sweater last month. It took a bit longer than I had foreseen, but then I had two false starts and my brioche goes very very slow. I started with a needle size 2.75/3.25 but I felt that the fabric was a bit too stiff, so rip rip rip and over to 3.25 and 3.5 mm. Much much better and the yarn really started to sing. This is Ysolda Blend no.1 and it is really lovely stuff, very soft and yet somehow sturdy too. Strangely enough it was also slightly splitty which really only bothered me when I was knitting the brioche borders and triangle. As for the pattern, as this sweater is for my teenage daughter and it is supposed to mimic a sweat-shirt, I decided not to have any shaping at all. I think that really worked well and I guess it will be a well-beloved item. It suits her well and is exactly her style. Way back in April, when I first spotted this pattern, I knew this would be a real good one for S. 

Next things to come, are some hats, with 5 weeks or so to go in this year (I can’t wait for 2016 to be over, but then I also dread the year to come) and already one winter week behind us, some warm hats are really needed. So that’s the plan, a couple of warm hats, some mittens too and then probably a cardigan for me.

The Blues

 

I am having a serious case of the blues. I lie awake at night and I am worried. Not much I can do but being worries. It was not my election, but as it stands, an US election does affect the whole world, so yeah, I have reasons to lie awake at night. Also similar populism is at work in the UK (Brexit, anyone), France, Hungary, basically the whole of Europe, including Sweden. I am sick of it and hate the small-mindedness of it all, the under-belly feelings that are brought upwards, the latent racism and misogyny that is awakened. Also I am a scientist and I am just so offended by the anti-science (experts are not needed, global warming doesn’t exist, and so on and so forth) almost anti-education vibes that are being expressed these days.  Last month I spoke with a colleague in a similar position in the UK and he said that he had become a member of a political party as he felt he had been silent too long. Right! I have always been upfront about my (non)beliefs, my political stance and so forth and I will remain doing that. I will continue to discuss politics at a dinner table, at the coffee breaks at work and so on and I will try to speak out more when I hear bigots talking. On a what can I do level, I am also becoming Swedish as I have to vote where I live. Not an easy decision to make (I will lose my birth nationality) but I need to do this.

I also want to give honor to tech knitter for her latest blog , I hope more people will follow this path, speak up, become party members or activist or something, but do not be quiet!

Socks

 

A couple of years ago I would always have a pair of socks on my needles. I would make other things too, but in parallel there would always be a pair of socks. Good for knitting in the bus when there is not a lot of space, easy to take in a bag and often one doesn’t need to take a pattern on the trip as one can store the information in one’s head. 

In those days I had often 3 projects simultaneously cast-on and that didn’t really work for me, and these days I am a “monogamous” knitter, strictly one project at the time, unless I have to wait for extra yarn. And somehow when I changed to being a single project knitter, socks became less a priority and anyways I made so many pairs, so we were covered… But now after a good clean out as many pairs had holes (well they got worn) and it is getting colder, some members in my household started to ask for socks… I still have a quite a stash full of sock-yarn, so it is a matter of making a choice of pattern and sock yarn… So some Shibui Sock (now discontinued) and a nice Cookie Pattern (Mona) and time on the train and bus and:

The other good thing with sock knitting is turning the heel, my favourite bit of knitting and I had kind of forgotten that… I’m not done yet with sock knitting, so I have now Lateral on my needles…. just turned a heel,so I leave that here….. And there is a kind of KAL on ITFF so I think there will be more socks coming this autumn to fill those drawers in our clothing cupboards once again….

Sunny

 

This time of year, with the students coming back to town and the days in the calendars get filled with appointments and meetings, it is good to remain in summer mood. The Autumn term is always busy, filled with things and quickly before you know it, it is dark and winter is upon us. So a project to keep the sunny up is most welcome… This one for sure is, an easy knit where the yarn does make the project. The yarn in this case is Madelinetosh merino tosh light in chamomile. I love this yarn, a sturdy single ply in such nice colours. Just very good for projects in the Spring or Autumn, when you need some warmth but not too much….

Th pattern for this little sweater is Folded, I started with exactly the pattern, but for the yoke I went my own way. So my sweater doesn’t have the wide neck as the pattern, but I think that work better for me. I did quite extensive short rows to do the shaping and I am pretty pleased with it. It is a near sunny sweater and it will get plenty of ue I think.

Right now I actually don’t really need it, it is unseasonally warm here, so high-summer clothes it is right now, but I will need this sweater soon, too soon in a way... 

Gradient

 

During my long stay in the US this summer, I did have the good fortune to travel near to Northampton, the place where WEBS is…. and of course I did visit it and spend half a day and too much money…. But it was nice as it is a big place, the front is big and then when you go into the back-room, oh my… One thing I did do was a bit of thinking beforehand what I would want to buy. Normally I get completely lost in a big yarn-shop, everything is tempting and great and since I can’t buy “everything” it normally is nothing that I buy. That is of course not a bad thing at all, my stash does not need to grow and at least I get to see a lot of yarn. But this time I wanted to take something back, so I had done a shortlist.

One of the yarns I wanted was Zooey. I have used this yarn before and it is just lovely to work with. I made a sweater for M with it that she has been wearing a lot and it is just as lovely as when I made it. It comes in cheery colours and has a slight thick/thin structure that gives a nice fabric. M choose 4 colours that went well together so a sweater it had to be. I used a stripe design and a round yoke with some short rows… The only problem that I ran into was that the one ball of light- purple was not enough so I had to order one more. S is showing it here, but really it is meant for M.

Been away

 

It’s been a while...

I have been away, conferences followed by holiday. Just one picture above of a knit in use on a whale-watching trip in New Brunswick. One picture below of a knit produced during the last weeks...

 

Yes it has been good (and I have visited WEBS, even better…).

And stretch...

I just came home from a week of travels and meetings. Quite a number of train journeys once again, so I still got some knitting done. A small cropped cardigan for M, good to cover cold shoulders on a not so warm Summer’s day. The pattern is Carousel and apart from slightly longer sleeves (upon request), there were no other changes to this pattern. I knitted it in cotton, Cascade Ultra Pima fine, one of my favourite yarns. A soft cotton, with loads of colour options, still quite sturdy and so good for summer knitting. 

Green is M’s favourite colour of the moment, so I think it will get worn. I love the slight vintage feel of this one, who knows I might make a Grown-Up version of this one for myself one day….

Short and Boxy

I like tape paper-like cotton yarn. I knitted now for a second time with this kind of yarn and it just gives such a nice unusual fabric. It is almost linen-like in some aspects, but there is also a crisp to it that makes quite a different fabric. It is perfect for Teen- items, like a short and boxy tee… Easy to wear in summer time.

The pattern is called Hole in One, and I did actually make some changes. I had to adjust as the smallest size was way too big for S. I also redid the sleeve caps and made the whole item actually slightly longer. It was a quick knit, but those hours spent in trains did of course help a lot….

Rude Awakenings

 

This morning I got woken up by a thunderstorm. It actually had thundered throughout the night but it intensified just around 6:30. My husband also woke up and started to read the news on his iPad, an even ruder awakening… Brexit….

I am a scientist, we work in a very international setting both at work and through our collaborations. We are in EU projects and although occasionally we sigh about the bureaucracy of the EU, it has given us an advantage. I think this exit will have effects on us, how and what, I can’t say yet, but I don’t think it will be for the better. Sad that is what it is!

Travelling

I just spend almost 15 hours of the last two days travelling…. Work duties but it gave me plenty of time to do some knitting…. On the way up I looked at my lectures but on the way back I just knitted, after all it is a Saturday isn’t?

Seaming done...

 

So it got seamed….yesterday afternoon my new cardigan was finally finished. This one took a bit of time, the lace was not hard but my row gauge was seriously off which meant that I had to think carefully about the V-neck and the sleeve caps and the whole process did take a bit of time. My stitch could was spot on, so there was no wiggle room. The back was no problem and that got knitted really fast, but as I had to rip and reknit the fronts partly twice, that took a bit more time and I also got slightly tired by it. When I finally had finished the fronts, the sleeves went really fast and that was good. In the end it all worked out and I am quite happy with this one.The yarn ( mostly cotton and a bit cashmere) is nice and soft. It was easy to work with and even though I redid part of the fronts at least twice, no signs of wear. Also this yarn has quite a bit more drape than just a cotton yarn and for a cardigan like this, without much waist shaping, it is required. The colour is nice and cheery. The patterns is quite ok but as I had to follow so much my own path, I didn’t really use it that much, but I do like the lace and the casualness of it. A good one for evenings and colder summer days (like this week….).

Seaming

 

I have kind of neglected this blog the last month or so. It has just been quite busy and with sudden very warm weather too, just not a good time to do some writing… But I promise, I have things coming, I am slowly seaming a new cardigan, Wisteria and really when it’s done, I will make a proper entry. Back to my needle now..

Every last bit

 

Last week after I finished Polaris, I was a bit stuck. On the one hand, I had a number of summer projects that I had in mind for this summer, so one of those would be the obvious thing to cast on. Except that the weather was really not for summer knitting. Hail & sleet are really not enticing for starting a summer project. But it was the end of April, and surely a change of weather has to come...

I made a Cladonia earlier this year and that was quite a fun project. I had quite a bit of the counter colour left-over and if I would have just enough of a main, that would be fine little project to tide me over. I had to repair a small hole in one of M’s sweaters, so I went through my left-over basket and found more than 1/2 a skein of Tosh Merino light in Iris (blue), so ideal… I would have a red and a blue Cladonia…. 

I casted on and about half-way through the main body I started to get doubts whether I would have enough blue… I did also have quite a bit of the main colour left-over from my first shawl, so that was an option. When I was at the point to knit the lace, I measured both my blue and my red skein and the red was just about 3 grams more, and I though OK I go for the biggest one and make a red, white, blue shawl instead. After all, I am dutch so there is that aspect ;-)

This was a good decision since at the end I started to get really really nervous, but I made it, but my red skein is completely gone now… 

And the weather? The weather has changed now, mild sunny days is the prospect….

 

 

Night-sky

 

And it is done, my Polaris is finished. This was a breeze of a knit, no major changes apart from that I made the body quite a bit longer. The one difference I could have made is to redo the bind-off for the neckband, it is all right but it could have been a bit more loose.  I do like this length of sleeves, just warm enough for the time of year, but also going it a bit more “warm part of the year” look.

I used Dandelion for this knit and it is lovely. A merino with a bit of linen. It has the same lovely colours as Madeline Tosh light, but it has a more rustic component. The colour is fitting a Polaris, a dark blue with some hints of purple and some white bits from the linen, just like a starry nigh-sky with Polaris as your guide… It has to be said too, the nights here are getting rapidly shorter and this time of the year there is always a hint of light in the sky. I have never been up-north in Sweden (I am afraid of the mosquitos) but one day….

Looking at you....

 

Just a monday morning picture, my Polaris is getting finished and I just tested the length. This is the second time that I had cast-off the main body, the first time round I felt it was too short, this time I am happy. This will be a nice spring sweater!

Silk and such..

 

My first summer project has been finished, a fun top well suited for a teenager. I knitted this with Kiito which is a 100% silk yarn. But it is one of those dry silk yarns and not one of those smooth shiny silk yarns. It makes for a lovely slightly tweedy fabric which will work so nice for hot summer days. Not that we have hot summer days yet, but hopefully later in the year we get at least some of them. I made some minor changes to the pattern, the main one is that I didn’t do a single row of crochet at the neckline. That felt too flimsy, instead I did a couple of rows of garter in the contrast colour. Otherwise no big changes. As this was mainly stockinette, this was a fast project, just like the one I am working on now. With a yarn like this stockinette can work so well...

Ready for Spring

It is nice that spring is on its way. On Sunday we went out to watch the Cranes resting on their long track to the north and after that we had a long walk along a river with fields with loads of birds back from the South, lapwings, oyster catchers, geese, a lark in the sky and that was really really nice. Unfortunately there was a very cold strong wind and I was already feeling a bit iffy, so on Monday I had a fever and was in bed. Spring too? I am feeling better now so it wasn’t a long one, but annoying it was.

Anyways I finished my Braid Hills, a little spring cardigan with some nice twisted stitches to keep me just warm enough. It was a pretty straight-forward knit, I didn’t really change anything except the sequence of how I knitted it (one front first, then the back and then the other front) in order to minimise the seaming. I also picked up the sts for the sleeves just very slightly different, but really those are not big changes.I found some nice buttons in my stash that added to the vintage feeling. 

I can’t really see the rowing out anymore after blocking and the cables show up neat and nicely. This is nice yarn with that slightly “artisan” feel, not as polished as some yarns, but very nice and soft and that nice heathered colour. 

Braids

it’s spring, so I am knitting a cardigan that is hopefully perfect for just this time of year. It is lightweight and has a soft-colour, not toasty warm but more an item to take that chill away. There is a bit of cable work, or actually twisted stitches going on to keep it interesting, so I am quite happy. The yarn is the main thing. It is De Rerum Natura Ulysses which is made from white and black merino sheep. That mixture gives the yarn a grey heather which makes the colour quite hard to describe but also quite lively. It is quite a soft yarn with a nice drape and it is just ever so slightly fuzzy which makes that the stitch definition is not as good as for some merino wools. I also have a slight whiff of rowing out which is also funny. I sometimes have a bit of rowing out with certain cotton yarns, but I do not think I ever had it with a woollen yarn so I am a bit puzzled. It is however less bad in real life than in the photo so I can definitely live with it, but it is just one of those riddles, why does this wool do this...

Since the yarn is so soft and still quite sturdy feeling and the colour is so nice, I think I might come back to this one, maybe for a lace cardigan...

Summer is coming....

Yesterday I was with my big daughter at Malmö syfestivalen, and can I just say that it was a good thing she was there as I would probably have increased my stash even more than I did… So summer knitting all lined up now….

Neat

I had an intensive week and face a bit of writers-block, so I will just show a couple of pictures…. Maybe I will update it tomorrow, but for now….

 

Underdog

 

In this time and age, I don’t think that there are many parent who haven’t encountered Harry Potter in one way or the other. In our case we have read all the books to the eldest one and are now on a cycle for the youngest one as well. We’ve seen the movies (more than once, especially the 3rd one as I do think that is by far the best one) and we have seen the train going over that bridge (it helps when there is a strong link to Scotland). With a daughter very much into cos-play, it is just a wonder that there wasn’t a call for a knit earlier. Well I knitted the “Harry Potter” sweater many years ago, but apart for that, that has been it. And there has been quite a bit of really nice knitwear in Harry Potter…. So it didn’t came as a surprise that I got a request for a “school sweater”. What was a bit of a surprise was the house, it had to be a Ravenclaw sweater… The other day we were at the Science Fiction book-shop in Malmö and like “Forbidden Planet” they do have a good collection of bits and pieces of merchandise including Harry Potter stuff. Hagrid comes as an extra sized vinyl pop figure and so on, and there are Gryffindor & Slytherin badges and even an odd Hufflepuff scarf but the one that is absent was Ravenclaw. One of my favourite characters from the books & films is Luna, clever and loopy, but so very insightful. So why is Ravenclaw so neglected? To be clever at school and actually liking to learn can be a reason to be bullied, the trope of the clever scientist to wrapped up in his/her experience to forget that (s)he has gotten over to the evil side is quite common. Hufflepuff is charming and innocuous, Ravenclaws are too clever for their own good. Why Hermione is in Gryffindor and not in Ravenclaw is another good question I guess…. In any case I am knitting a Ravenclaw sweater…..

Magic

 

 

 

I guess the best one say about a pattern, I did not make any adjustments at all, just plain sailing…. This one was like that, no adjustments at all, so not a lot to write about. One of the main attraction for me about this pattern was the treatment of the shoulders, better seen in the picture to the left. It is difficult to find the name “French shoulders? German shoulders I have also seen and a couple more names. I think it is a nice treatment. I also like the stockinette vs cable contrast, the trims and the slipped stitches. A very nice knit. The pattern is Plum Wine knitted in Madelinetosh DK Twist in a lovely lively blue.

So a little bit of magic here...

My next project is also magic related but in a completely different manner… To be honest one of the reasons that I was drawn to Plum were these shoulders and those I will employ again on the next project, but that one will be own design, a request again from S…. Lots of stockinette so a nice contrast with this one… good to blend things!

Lipstick

 

Finding the right red for lipstick can be a difficult thing. I think I found it, only it is wool and it is called Tosh Merino Light in Scarlet… 

Seeing red

I seem to knit a lot with red these days. I am not sure how that happened, but I am on my fourth project in a row that features some red or red-like colours. It seems that things come in waves. I knitted striped projects in a row, or I had a period where every other project was blue. Now it is red and in the bleak midwinter it is somehow fitting. Anyways I knitted a beret that was a nice fast knit as I was kind of deciding what to make next.  

And my next project is a very cheerful red, s small shawl in red&white in Tosh Merino Light. I got this yarn as a grab-bag and the white colour way is called Holi festival and yes it is white with splatters of very vivid colours, just like Holi festival. But I am actually not a big fan of the splatter colour ways, I prefer the more tonal ones where there is a shimmering of very similar colours to create a nice effect. In any case, if you get the yarn very cheap, one shouldn’t complain, so I thought, combined with a more solid colour it might just work for me. So there, combined with a very cheerful red, I think this is a nice combination. And cheery is just what we need! 

 

After this I have a cardigan planned (in blue) and S wants a sweater (in Grey), end of the period red?

Tee for mee

 

Sometimes it is just good to make something for yourself…. a nice wool, a good colour and a pattern to match…. Not much to write about though when things seem to work. Well almost that is, the collar is not entirely as I wanted it. It is finished with an i-cord trim, but that I-cord is flipping upwards and not downwards and that makes that there is an extra line there. It is not ugly, but just not as sleek as I wanted it. Ah well as I do not know why this is and I guess that more blocking with this in mind will work, I will live with it. And otherwise it is a feature….

I am happy with it, and after all that’s what counts or?

Pictures are not great, melting snow day and I just didn’t want to go outside….

A good start!

The winter holidays have been a real good time for me. slowly knitting away on my cardigan project. Today was the first day that I actually did really touch work related stuff again (I am preparing for a presentation I have to give on Friday) so in good time I finished my stranded knitting project yesterday. And I am pleased!  I had to tweak the design that I used on the main body to be able to do the decreases in the yoke, but as I used the same design on the sleeves i still think it comes together very neatly. I used the formula for a yoked sweater from “The Opinionated Knitter” , 4 rows of decreases in total. Some short rows just under the the yoke shape the neckline.

I found some neat fish-eye buttons at a 2nd hand/vintage shop my eldest likes to go in Malmö. They matched one of the pinks exactly so that was real lucky too.

Now I didn’t make many notes (too busy with the knitting), so I fear that this will not become a proper pattern. I do have the schematics for the colour work though... 

 

So with that I can just wish that you all will have a good 2016!