Never out of season

Pattern: From a book on the history of mittens that I found at the library and can’t remember the name of..

Yarn: Peer Gynt colour 242 red and some grey with a lost ballband, 2 balls each.

Needles: 3.5 mm babmoo dpns

When I go to the library I often end up in the hobby section browsing books thinking “why on earth will people spend time and money on flowerbinding? Fly fishing? Model trains? Stamps? Or even crochet?” And then I load up on books with knitting patterns, knitting techniques and knitting history, confident that I am very smart, clever and wise to spend lots and lots of time and money to play with two sticks and a string.

In one of those books I found this pattern for a man size Norwegian mitten and liked it so much that I immediately made a copy. In fact, I like it so much that I am considering knitting it for myself with thinner yarn. And because I lost my last pair of favourite mittens on the bus this winter and the bus company had given them to Salvation Army before I had a chance to pick them up. Hope someone appreciates them.

These mittens were made as a birthday present for my Grandfather, who in spite of being closer to 90 than 80 needs something to keep his hands warm on his daily mile-long walks. ( Metric miles that is.. I took the bike to work today. Yay. ) I found some other patterns that I used as a base to get started with the cuffs and thumb increases, and kept the inside of the hand in a 1×1 checkerboard pattern, not just because it is the easiest of all and uses the same amount of both colours so you avoid too much yarn tangling, but also because it creates the warmest and most wearable fabric. I had to make up a little pattern for the thumbs but it came out OK.

The best of all is that I can see how much better and more even my stranded knitting has become after the dominant yarn exercises with the Zebra hat. I really think I will knit a pair of Norwegian Mittens for myself for next winter.

If you , like me, don’t understand the point of crochet, maybe this will make you change your mind:

My mother made this to organize all her earrings and I think it turned out like a little piece of art in the bathroom. It is just a piece of painted wood covered with a crocheted mesh and you can make it any size you need to accommodate your bling-bling. Actually I’m sure you could use a knitted mesh as well…maybe a lace panel or a cable along one side?

Central Park Hoodie

Central Park Hoodie visiting the new Opera House in Oslo. Go take a walk on the roof if you’re there.

Pattern: Central Park Hoodie from Knitscene Fall 2006

Yarn: Takhi Donegal Tweed colour 803 (as in the original pattern), seven and a half skein

Needles: 3.75mm for ribbing, 4mm for body. I had to go down a whole size to get gauge.

Modifications: Added length to body and sleeves, added waist shaping, buttonband knit vertically and sewn in, added heart cable to hood and altered hood shaping.

This has already seen lots of wear since the last buttons were sewn in very late one evening, by a very tired knitter determined to get this thing finished. I made the 40′ size which is enough to accommodate my 37′ bust and a layer or two underneath. It fits pretty great, but came out longer than I intended and have grown a little with wear I think. The heart cable for the hood had me change the hood shaping and finishing completely, using a Rogue-like design. I don’t know if my solution came out great, perhaps one could use a short-row heel approach or something similar. What I wanted was to avoid the pointy shape of the original hood, as that wouldn’t have worked with the new cable. Most of the time I wear the sweater open with the hood down, it is perfect to just throw on now when the weather is getting warmer. Warm is a very relative term around these latitudes. The jacket sure does its job though!

I love the cables flowing upwards, and didn’t want horizontal ribbing to interfere with the lines. So I knit the buttonband separately, in 1×1 rib, and sew it in as I went along instead of following the pattern. It sounds like lots of extra work, but it is much safer than picking up 300+ stitches along the edge which almost always (for me at least) gives a band that either puckers or flares.

I made 5 buttonholes and hope my LYS will get more of those buttons soon! And the waist-shaping calculator worked like a charm and clearly knew lots more about curves than I did cause the numbers I scribbled down first were not at all the same so I had some doubts when I started. For the back I did some of the waist shaping along the side seams and some in the middle stockinette panels to give them a very slight hourglass shape and a more tailored look instead of just being rectangles.

All in all this was a good knit. It was quick, easy and gives lots of room for personal modifications, besides being a good first cable sweater project, or even first jacket. No problems with rowing out this time either. I have now overcome my fear of set-in sleeves and garments knit flat, at least when the yarns are thick and forgiving! My only fear is that the loosely spun one-ply will pill. It softened up a lot after washing and is not at all scratchy.

Just follow the lines. Left, right, right, right, hey, haven’t I been here before? Can you go in circles when everything is square?

Almost there

Remember how I couldn’t find that I’d done any mistakes on the Central Park Hoodie? That was only because I hadn’t looked closely enough. I had forgotten the neck decreases, so the fronts had to be ripped back before seaming. Well. Now the shoulders are grafted and the hood is done.

Aahh, the hood. There was just too much plain stockinette there, like a blank canvas begging for a cable. I’ve seen several versions at Ravelry where the back cable have been continued up the hood, and wanted to do something along the line of that. And then I thought, what if I split the two cables and let them run to the front, or meet again, or something? And was that even possible? I did lots of unsuccessful googling searching for a curving cable chart, and then decided there was only one way to find out if it could be done. It can.

It worked on the first go, the size came out perfect and when I was done it was time to shape the hood. I tried to chart out something before I started, but then switched to the opposite approach and charted out every row as I went along. I found it much easier to see where everything should go when I had the work in progress in front of me. The chart is a mess like nothing else and probably full of errors but it was a great excercise. How do real designers do create their lace and cable designs when the proportions of the knit are so different from those on paper, draw first or knit first?

“All” that remains is to sew in the last sleeve, finish the buttonband and sew in buttons. Yeah, and hunt down a last button, cause my LYS only had four left of the ones I wanted and I really hope they are not discontinued..

Like these tulips, the worst part is over and I’m almost there!

Where wool comes from

Nothing saves a crappy monday like an MMS from a farming friend, picturing lamb no 6 and 7 this year, only one hour old. May they jump happily around in green meadows all summer, growing lots of yummy wool to be spun into beautiful yarn that knitters will drool over!

(I drool when thinking about lamb meat too but this may not be the right time to talk about that).

No catchy title here

I’m back from my trip long ago. One thing that never made it back after behaving weirdly for a long time though is my camera, which finally died on me and has now been replaced with a new one. I’m sticking to the Canon Ixus series, being very happy with them. And also was I amazed to see how much more I got for less than half the price of my last camera…

I have been knitting though, and lots of it too. I’m really glad I brought some emergency sock yarn for my flight. When you find yourself in a squeeze between a business man and a mother with a very sweet and well-behaving but wiggly nonetheless baby, that does not allow for anything but small pieces of one-strand stockinette. One sock completed.

I haven’t started the other one yet, cause the Central Park Hoodie turned out to be such a breeeze in the knitting department that it substituted all my TV stockinette needs. The pieces are now blocking, the measurements look right on spot and I can’t find anything that I have managed to screw up yet. I’ve added some waist shaping and will graft the shoulders instead of binding off before the seaming, but no major modifications. Just waiting for the thing to dry.

Can I just say how much I love my measure tape for having centimetres on one side and inches on the other? So helpful when knitting non-metric patterns. I also found a needle measure thingy with both metric, US and a third measure that I have yet not encountered in patterns on it, it saves me from looking up the conversions online every time I look on a foreign pattern. And saves lots of frogging too.

The hardest part of the CPH so far has been deciding on a closure. Initially I thought of a two-way zipper but I think I’ll go with buttons. I have an image in my head of what kind of buttons I want, but a long and intense button-search with a fellow knitter yesterday did not yield any results, although the very helpful owner of a LYS in town offered to order in a selection of the sizes and shapes I had in mind so I’ll go back there in a while. I couldn’t resist these babies though. The button stash is growing. Don’t see anything wrong with that.

The obligatory weather report..if you think I’m crazy knitting a thick woolen jacket in the end of April I can assure you that the winter is not over yet, it has been snowing like crazy for a week and I’m a bit worried about the brave tulip buds I saw poking up a few days ago. But not so worried about not getting to wear the woolen jacket.

If you’re looking for cotton you’ve come to the wrong place

Green wool. Yum. This green wool is Takhi Donegal Tweed, from a bagsale (meaning I have a whole kilo of the goodness) bought online but I can’t remember where. I had to email them my credit card number so I will most likely not shop there again until they discover PayPal anyway. The only reason I took the chance was because I thought “hey, they sell yarn, they must be nice people”.  I don’t recommend it though.

Donegal tweed, green, cables, any bells ringing yet? It can of course only be one thing and that is the Central Park Hoodie from Knitscene Fall 06. Yeah, I know I’m late to this party, but I’ve been saving the yarn and pattern until I got some other stuff off my back and could give myself a reward. I started it just before easter and had secret hopes (based on the bad weather forecasts for the holidays) that I would have the jacket ready by tonight since I’m going away for work tomorrow. Well…I think I need something hotter both fashionwise and temperaturewise but two sleeves and half a front so this smells travel knitting. And if your are now thinking “why, why is she knitting up thick wools when April is about to start, it is almost summer” then I can only assure you that no. It is not summer and it won’t be for a long time and even in summer I don’t stash away knitted jackets, and April is, statistically, the month with the biggest snowfall around here. So. And if you ask why I am knitting a thick cabled hooded sweater just after finishing (the yet undocumented, I know and I’m sorry but I want to provide something better than self portraits in the bathroom mirror for that one) Rogue I have nothing to say to that except do I really need a reason?

The Central Park hoodie is a really nice knit that I think I will love very much when it is done but it isn’t yet. And then I thought I would document the progress on the blog instead of just posting FO pics as I seem to usually do even if what I enjoy most when reading other blogs is following the process and see a piece come together. I also wanted, at least once, try knitting something flat and seaming it up, if only to prove to myself that I prefer knitting in the round. The sleeves were a charm and I managed to follow the pattern except for (ahem, here goes) knitting the cuffs in the round with the knit stitches twisted, and lengthening the sleeves, and messing up the cable. I knit the cable rounds every 8th row instead of every 10th row and I didn’t notice until I started the front and had another look at the charts. I don’t care though cause the cables are still not too tight but at some point I have to decide if I’ll do the same for the centre back cable as that one is supposed to be similar to the sleeve cables. But at the moment I’m working my way up the fronts and actually quite enjoying the flat knitting thing since it breaks up the work in steps and in smaller, easier to carry around chunks instead of one big heavy sweater-to-be. I’m now at the point where I need to decide on where to add waist shaping. The original design doesn’t have any but it should be doable, and even more so because today’s Knitting Daily newsletter announced a waist shaping calculator. I’m tempted to say it will be easy but I know saying that will jinx everything so all I’ll say is that I’ll give it a try and hope it works.

And just when I thought I would have only one work in progress for the next few weeks my mom saved me by saying that she threw  Grandpa’s mittens because they were completely worn out and undarnable and that he would like a new pair for his birthday and not necessarily in black and white. I have lots of different mitten patterns and managed to narrow it down to two favourites. Then I asked a friend help me pick one and she came up with the same two among at least 20! Great minds think alike, and eventually I settled for this one instead of a simpler, more typical snowflake motif. My stranded knitting has improved lots after practicing yarn dominance on the zebra hat and I no longer have to focus to keep the dominant yarn, red in this case, in the right place.

This will be nice knitting for the plane tomorrow. Now I just need to decide how much green wool to bring for the week. And some sock yarn just in case. And then pack the rest of what I need. A girl has her priorities.

Ztripey

Pattern: Zebra hat kit from Dale of Norway

Yarn: Dale of Norway Falk, one ball of each colour.

Needles: 2.5 and 3 mm bamboo dpns. Should maybe have used 3.5 mm for the stripe section to make it more elastic.

Modifications: Added earflaps and I-cord ties to make it stay on a toddler’s head.

Knits are hard to photograph. It helps a great deal that the sun is back though (and Picasa can usually fix the rest). Kids are pretty damn hard to photograph too. Planning doesn’t help a bit, all you can do is shoot from the hip and hope that some part of the kiddo is still within the frame when the flash goes off. Thank heavens for digital cameras!

I made the 2-4 yr size but it won’t fit next winter I think, so it is basically a 2 yr size. Luckily (or not…) it is still snowing here and it won’t stop anytime soon. If I make the hat again, and I might, I’ll use 3.5 mm needles for the stripy part. There is not enough yarn left in any of the colours for another hat but this is one of those nice plain workinghorse yarns that you can never buy too much of.

This charming little lady sure appreciates her handknits. (Notice handknitted overall!) The hat was pulled on the moment it came out of the bag and stayed on for the reminder of my visit. It is very versatile. Just look.

I actually started with the I-cord, knitted upwards and increased somehow to make the earflaps. I first did a plain all over 2×2 rib which did not work at all as it pulled in too much. Then I came up with this option. It is a 6 st garter edge with some “ribbing” that makes it stretchy, but not curly. I think it looks like pointy juicy green grass. Yummy says zebra.

The pattern requires some attention but the great thing about it is that it doesn’t matter if you do small mistakes. If you do big ones, like adding earflaps and place the decreases and the “seam” on the sides instead of front and back…. well, I ripped the whole thing and reknit to get the mane where it is usually found on zebras. I chose white as the dominant yarn but I’m not sure it matters too much here.

If you’re not tired of zebra knits you can check out Theresa’s projects. She is doing a whole zebra set!

This zebra is sleeping now. And she kept her hat on.

Spring?

At these latitudes, seasons are more about changes in light than in temperatures. A crappy, rainy winter day will typically offer 4 degrees C. A crappy, rainy summer day may give you the chills with 8 degrees. Although these are the extremes they are more than real when you experience them. This is why handknits are always so welcome at these latitudes.

I hear spring is starting to show up around knitter’s homes. Cari is growing vegetables already.  Here the snow is still covering the ground by two or three feet and I guess that qualifies for winter still. But. The winter we have in December and January, with the sun below the horizon, and the winter in March when the day is longer than the night already (spring equinox is coming up this week!) are two completely different seasons. And although the snow is still deep, you can see it dripping from the roof or feel the sun on your face on a warm day. Two moths ago it never got above the horizon, now she is high in the sky when I wake up in the morning (although that doesn’t always happen as early as it should).

So it is very easy to forget that it is still cold, and boldly cross the doorstep with too thin a jacket and no mittens. So ready to give up on the wools, still knowing it will backfire and give you a nasty spring cold. I don’t want my friends to get a spring cold. I want them to have warm, happy feet in spring colours.

Pattern: My standard sock, 56 st, 1×1 rib, eye of partridge flap heel. I’ll write down the pattern some day.

Needles: Clover 2 mm bamboo dpns

Yarn: Regia Canadian colour, lost the ball band but think it was 4726 Columbia and I got it in a yarn swap with Fuglemamma.
A friend asked if I could knit her a pair of socks for her birthday and I was happy to do so cause I knew she would appreciate the work and because I had some yarn in a colour that screams her name. I originally wanted to make the pretty Daisies socks but after knitting the first leg it became painfully obvious that one should knit these in a contrast colour compared to your skin, and light blue is by no means a contrast to any Scandinavian skin this time of the year.  So I ripped and made plain socks,  but I do recommend the pattern if you want to give it a try. Here the plain socks are modeled by my feet which are three sizes larger than my friend’s feet. I didn’t dare trying to pull the sock heels over my own heels but you get the picture. I had access to her foot when I closed the toe on the first one so I know they fit her perfectly even if I only used 60 g yarn.

I’m also happy to say that I have finished the other two items on my UFO list (that does not mean I’m out of UFOs though!) and have cast on for something green that will accompany me when I go on Easter vacation tomorrow. Bringing almost a kilo of yarn with me, I’ll be happy and knitting whatever happens and I wish the same for you!

New birds arriving

I suck, I know. I should have shown pictures of the Rogue ages ago, but the thing is that I haven’t been able to get anyone take pictures of me in it in daylight. I can only assure you that it is warm and comfy and I love it very much and have practically been living in it, cold and windy as it has been around here the past weeks.

I had some other FO pics ready but was unable to find my camera cable. It was hiding under a pile of old papers on my kitchen table and reappeared this morning so now I finally had a chance to get the photos transferred. If this makes you think that either my apartment or myself is a total mess you’re absolutely right but I’m blaming most of it on some painting and carpentering going on here, hoping things will look cleaner and brighter in every way possible very shortly.

Ah, knitting. Right. I made two chemo caps for my friend (who loved the shawl by the way, and thank you for all the good thoughts and comments). I didn’t get a photo of them but the leftovers look like this:

Using the purple Svale from Dalegarn for the top and the shinier Cotton viscose for the edging I made a Pi Topper cap that I enjoyed knitting so much that I decided to  use the pattern as a base for a second stripy cap. In the background is the new yarn in the bird series from Dale (called Lerke, meaning larch in Norwegian)  that was just perfect for this project, a cotton/merino blend that is soft to the skin and wonderful to knit with. For the stripy cap I knit a simple ribbed  edging. I am no good at knitting hats but the top-down construction is so simple and clever that even I managed to make a wearable hat out of it. I might knit one for myself next winter, chemotherapy or not.

But except for this I think I’ve lost my knitting mojo. The last issue of IK has been lying still wrapped in plastic on my coffee table for over a week. I know, it is a very disturbing sign. But I have been knitting. A while ago I finished this just in time for the homecoming of a little baby boy who decided to come out a week before his due date, otherwise it would have been there to welcome him at the hospital.

Pattern: Curve of Pursuit

Yarn: 2-ply merino from Nøstebarn or Bånsull

Needles: 5 mm circulars. Lots of them..

I’m guessing I used somewhere between 150 and 200 g, and that the measures are about 1×1 m. Before the birth I had seen the parents washing and preparing a pile of outgrown stuff after the big sister including a blanket I knit for her in the pre-blog days so I knew this one would be welcome and used every day. Although I love knitting I love even more seeing the knitting resulting in something pretty and useful that will be appreciated and worn, either by myself or someone else. I’m probably more a product than a process knitter although I love watching a piece come together and nothing pleases me more than clever construction and design. I’m thrilled that my Dad loves his Noro scarf as much as he does, he wears it all the time and I’m happy I’m able to give him something that he enjoys so much. (There was a small drama when he forgot it at a restaurant but it ended well. The town is so small that if someone had stolen it chances are good he would have seen them wearing it sooner or later anyway).

That is why I have decided to finish three of my UFOs before I start anything new. All three are for people who I hope will like their knits very much and I want them to be living happily with their new owners as soon as possible.

Plain socks for a friend who asked if I could please make her a pair for her birthday (which is long overdue) after seeing my last pair of birthday socks. It was very easy to say yes for a lot of reasons:I’ve been wanting to knit up this beautiful yarn for ages and it is her favourite colour, she has very small feet, and I had decided not to knit any socks for myself in a while cause I don’t need any but still I had this great urge for a plain stockinette sock… case closed. One is done and I’m ready to start hte heel on the other so it shouldn’t be long.

The zebra hat had to be ripped back to the ribbing as I realized I had done a stupid mistake that would cause the mane to go from ear to ear instaed from forehead to neck. It could have been funky-looking I’m sure but I strongly believe that one should not mess with nature so I decided to get it right. I’m ready to start the decreases for the crown so this is also not to far from complete.

The black thing has not been mentioned on the blog yet even if it was started last summer, cause I just don’t know what to say about it, and I still don’t, but it is about 2/3 complete I think so… I’m not really enjoying the knitting for a number of reasons but I’ll get back to that later. When it is done.

And then, when these birds are out of the nest, I’ll cast on for something green. Yum.

Protect and comfort

Pattern: Feather and Fan comfort shawl

Yarn: Evilla Artyarn 6/2 colour Denim, 185 g, and PT2 colour 06, 2 balls (100 g). About 250 blue and grey beads, randomly placed along edge.

Needles: 3.5 and 4 mm Addi Turbo Lace circulars

Breast cancer has somehow become the knitblogging disease. We read about it, raise money and share stories. There are devoted pattern pages like Knitty Breast cancer issue and Headhuggers. I’m sure the knitblogging community have most diseases out there represented, but at least this is one that we talk about and work actively against. Still, it is like a punch in the face when it suddenly hits someone you know. There is just no way to be prepared.

I picked up this yarn for no real reason other than liking it, and had no plans for it. Later that day I was told that a friend of mine had cancer. There is just so little one can do. I cast on for a shawl.

I wanted the shawl to be warm, sturdy and snuggly but good-looking at the same time. Comforting waves. Not blue, not grey, not purple but shifting with the light. With little treasures hidden deep down.

In many years from now I hope so see this shawl worn out, and I hope I can knit a new one for my friend. And I want to thank Knitty, Virtuella, Oktober Rosa and everyone else who is continuously working to fight this terrible disease.

Cross your needles. Please.