Edgings

Just before leaving on holiday, I had a quick look through my stash in order to have a second easy piece of knitting with me in case I finished Brise early. My intention was to knit a Wispy cardigan for M as a kind of easy project and a good layering cardigan for her. I found some unmarked heavy lace yarn that I knew came from Posh yarns and I thought well this might be good. But while I was travelling I got doubts (mainly over the amount of yarn I did have and whether it would be enough) so I changed my plans. Well it was also prompted by some purchases I did while I was away...

I was very restrained and only bought a little bit of yarn while away, but I did get some Japanese knitting books. I do love these books, there are beautiful projects in there and with a bit of deciphering one can make them too! They are also much cheaper to buy there then trying to get them on the internet. So I could not resist and I have spent some happy time browsing through these books at bookshops and alike. The one that gave me the idea of doing something else than Wispy was a book on Lace knitting:

This is mainly a stitch pattern book, with some projects. I think it is a combination of some stitch patterns from 3 "European" books on lace knitting, one Danish and two Latvian sources, and there are some really nice patterns in there. It is a bit focused on "edgings" which makes it a bit different. And that gave me the idea to make the cardigan such that it could have nice knitted on edgings at the front. I first thought of using a pink yarn for the edging but as the left-over TML I had proved to be too heavy I used some lace weight Prairie instead. Quite a number of the clothes I did see in Japan did have these kind of lace edgings, so it seems to be an appropriate item to make :-)

Brise was a breeze

 

As we did travel a lot in Japan, I did have some time for serious knitting while comfortably sitting on  Shinkansen trains. But I also wanted to enjoy the views from the window, so some easy knitting was required. For that reason a plain sailing stockinette item is the best. Brise fits all these requirements and as I do love linen cardigans, it was an easy choice. I almost completely followed the pattern as it is but linen can bias though and although I have used Sparrow before without problems in a stockinette item, I was slightly worried for the sleeves. I also know that knitting flat (with the alternating knit and purl rows) helps at least me, to counteract bias. So I knitted the sleeves flat as well and seamed them later on. result, no biasing and a nice flowing cardigan.....

 

Digesting

I am back home, jet legging…. So a short post (at least text wise) since it is hard to really write something clever on a day like this. I am also still getting all the impressions in line, we did travel a lot and did see a lot after all. So I just will post some pictures of places we've been and things e've been doing…. (in a very random way).

 

Happy

Gabriela is finished, finally. And I am happy, it is a real good fit and goes well with loads of different clothes. S is happy as well, well not so much showing in the project photos but not on film she is…. It is exactly the kind of thing she likes to wear these days, and it really did make some interesting knitting.  Now it is packed away as we are leaving on holidays tomorrow. Last year we basically didn't do a summer holiday, the year before we were in Madrid but that was  because of combining work & some kind of holiday, the year before that we did family visits… so somehow we felt that going away for a real vacation was the right thing to do this year. We were lucky since we found some cheap tickets and I did some extra work (another reason why I don't post that much these days), so we are going far away and for a splash…. I feel somewhat decadent to write this but we will go to Japan on Tuesday… Looking really forward to it too….

 

And that big cat, he is almost always happy. As cats go, he is not the brightest of them (in fat he seems to have some wiring loose), but he is oh so happy and he loves to be carried. And really who can resist that….. And he loves the woman who will look after him and the others while we are away… which is a relief too…. to have that bit in reliable hands….

Buttons, buttons

 

Very slowly I have been knitting Gabriela the last month. I don't know why certain projects take so much time, but this one sure did. It might be  the 4-ply cotton, the small cables or the lace ladders that did it, or just everything added up…. But now I can seam, and make a choice about buttons. I have a nice stash of buttons and mu choice if as follows:

 

Small metal buttons with some black patterning., white shank buttons with a triangular pattern or grey shiny shank buttons….

 

I do like in general shank buttons as I think they can be so very neat. They also have this vintage feel to them. However in this case, I do think the metal buttons will be it, they are just too cute….

From winter to summer in 2 weeks

We had a long long winter that never seemed to stop, but finally from the first of May we have had finally a spell of nice weather which also means that I really started with summer knitting again. Meris was an in-between project, for spring days that are still a bit "chilly", but like so often here winter goes over in summer in two weeks time. Last week we could enjoy (as shown above) outside dinners till late in the evening. I think it was real nice, but it is also a bit strange, since until the first week of May, everything was late. Now two weeks later,the Lilacs are flowering and that is early…. But now the prospects are not that good again, so things may go back to normal.

 

In any case knit wise, here is Cheeky:

So my first summer project is Cheeky from the new Kim Hargreaves book Spirit. This is a very easy knit, but clever too. The yarn is Rowan Panama in a cool yellow colour. This yarn is a mixture of rayon, cotton and linen in a chainette construction. It gives this terrific fabric with loads of drape and it is slightly slubby so there is lots of texture too. Optimal for plain stockinette knitting . I bought this yarn already more than a year ago, but Cheeky was really a good project for this yarn. It was quick knitting, but due to the fact that I didn't really have time to sit down and seam it, it had to wait through the warm days to get completely ready. And then it rained….and rained…. so a lousy photo from inside the house:

Otherwise, the Spirit book contains loads of nice items and I will come back to it after my next project.

Which is based on another Kim Hargreaves pattern, this time from Whisper, Gabriela. S likes small cropped cardigans and an in-between one for summer evenings was much desired. I have some 4-ply cotton stashed, so we looked through some patterns and this one was a "good one" according to her. It is slower knitting as there are cables and some yarn-overs but it is fun too. The needle size is again on the smaller side, but that is fine for summer clothes.

 

Meris finished….

 

It took me almost a month to knit this one, but it was worth it! And it is ready on the first day that I can go out with bare legs….

 

Sometimes life is just good…..