Garnlek

Lek med bara räta maskor, kortvarv och stickor nr 2,5 som blev en handledsvärmare. Garnet är DuStore Alpakka, härligt svart. Jag blev dock inte helt nöjd med resultatet och den är uppriven igen, för att stickas om igen på ett litet annat sätt.

Fler av Tage Andersens kamelior från utställningen på Drottningholms Slottsteater. Jag tror att jag måste se denna utställning en gång till.

Färgglatt och grått

Årets påskris består av ulltussar fastknutna i äppelträdet och i magnolian. Det blev väldigt lyckat och lyser färgglatt i vårsolen.

Ytterligare ett projekt har blivit färdigt. Det är mönstret "Triangular Scarf in Leaf Pattern" från Nancy Bushs "Knitted Lace of Estonia"och garnet är Istex "Lodband". Garnet köpte mamma på Island, som hon lyckades besöka under askmolnsincidenten. Detta garn var inte helt bra för en spetssjal, visserligen var det bra att sticka med, men efter blockningen "mosade" det ihop sig och spetsmönstret framträder inte särskilt tydligt.

Mönstret var lättstickat, förutom att jag hade vissa problem med bården, jag fick riva upp och göra om den tre gånger. Det var helt mitt eget fel, som inte kontrollräknade tillräckligt noga, och det är litet frustrerande att riva upp och sticka om sammanlagt ca 9000 maskor. Men trots allt blev den färdig till slut.

Till en ny liten släkting i kameliatider

Häromveckan fick min kusin L sitt tredje barn, en liten flicka. Det slumpade sig så att jag var hemma med influensa just då och när febern givit med sig skyndade jag mig att åstadkomma en välkomspresent åt den nya släktingen. Det är min egen variant av Pippi-tröjan - eller "Gotländsk fiskartröja".

Garnet är Rowan Pure Wool Dk. Nu har jag fått en beställning på en koftvariant, vilket inte borde innebära några större problem, mer än att jag måste bestämma mig för hur jag ska göra knäppkanten.

I helgen öppnade Tage Andersens kameliautställning "Kamelia Royale" på Drottningholms slottsteater. Det var en upplevelse att vandra runt bland blommorna, som såg ut som om de bott i det rummet alltid.

Vid sådana tillfällen önskar jag att jag var en bättre fotograf.

Redo för våren

Karin Öbergs "Kalinka", i en läckert vårgrön nyans, fungerade alldeles utmärkt till en scarf. Den blev färdig häromkvällen och har invigts ute i vårsolen.

Mönstret "Peacock Tail and Leaf Scarf" kommer ifrån "Knitted Lace of Estonia av Nancy Bush
och var väldigt lättstickat.

Trots att marken fortfarande är frusen har snödropparna kämpat sig upp och står där så utmanande under körsbärsträdet.

Long Coat II

The winter got cold and now the lakes are covered with ice. Compared with the last two winters the coldness came late this winter. I really could use a long coat now, especially since the heating system at work only seems to work every other day. The coat has grown considerably during the last days and now it only misses sleeves. I hope it will be finished this week.

I made it longer than in the pattern and added more repeats of the lace-border.

I must say that I dread the blocking: the coat is really big! I usually wet-block everything and I really would like to wet-block this as well. But it will take ages to dry! Mabye it will take until the spring...

Swatch of the Week

For a long time I have felt the urge to swatch more, to try a lot of interesting things and techniqualities. The book "Knitting Brioche" induced me to grab a ball of leftover yarn and a pair of needles and after a few hours I had this swatch: ...and had learnt five new things! The basic patent-stich (or brioche-stitch) I was already familiar with, but p. 25 in the book deals with how to knit the edges, if one is not using a selvedge stitch. It´s not very visible in these photos, but the edges came out very neat and nice.

On p. 46 I found instructions for spreading out increases over several rows and I increased first to the left and then to the right. The right-sided increases were a bit tricky and I´m not sure I got them absolutely right. At the same time I tried the two-stitch decreases spread over several rows, as described on p. 50 - 53.

The yarn I used was RYC Silk Wool Dk, 50% merino, 50% silk - a very nice yarn!

It´s the time of year for tulips, one of my absolute favorite flowers! Alverbäcks, the lokal tulip grower, has started to climate-compensate their tulips, and then it must be almost my duty to buy them!

Long Coat I

A few days ago I bought a lot if white "Eskimo" and cast on for the Long Coat from "Fitted Knits". I use needles 10 and 8 mm and knit the purl-rows with the 8 mm needle to ge a more even knitting. My swatch was perfectly even, but a project like this really shows the difference between a small swatch and a much bigger piece. The coat is knitted from the top down and I like the thought of minimal finishing-work when the knitting is done. Just weave in the loose ends and block!

I made a provisional cast-on, hence the blue yarn, so that I can use the live stiches for the lace-edge later.

Thick yarn and big needles makes this a very quick knit! It didn´t take long to get this far. The only drawback so far is that the yarn is fluffing a lot; when I put the knitting down I´m covered with white fluff. Wearing this coat will take some planning: I must make a mental note not to wear it over dark things!

Time to put it back on the needles and carry on!

Longing for Spring

Three skeins of green "Kalinka" from Karin Öberg suddenly made me long for spring and I got a vision of a nice scarf, a lacy scarf, to wear when the light and warmth has returned. Leafing through my lacier knitting-books, I found the "Peacock Tail and Leaf Scarf" in Nancy Bush´s "Knitted Lace of Estonia".

I cast on and knitted a few rows. I ripped them out, because something was not quite right. I re-knitted. And re-ripped. And admired my effort. And discovered that things were not very wrong, but not exactly right either. So I ripped. And reknit. Then I had a long thought about if someone else than me would really notice that the knitted edge still was not totally right. Then I decided that it wouldn´t matter if someone else noticed anything at all: I would know the edge was faulty and it would irritate me every time I used it. So I re-ripped. And re-knit.

The Patent Stitch

The first stitch I learned - after the knit and the purl, of course - was the brioche-stitch, or as I prefer to call it: the patent-stitch (patentstickning). I have mainly used it for scarves, but once I knitted a whole sweater in patent-stitch. Some days ago, I found this book:

"Knitting Brioche" by Nancy Marchant. At first I thought it an overkill to write a whole book about one singe stitch, but then I got curioius and ordered the book. It arrived yesterday (trust Adlibris to deliver fast!) and I had a really pleasant time looking through it. The patent-stitch actually IS worthy of a whole own book: there is soo much one can do with it! It´s an excellent stitch for double-sided things and for playing with colours.

The book is very informative with a lot of pages containing technique shown in clear colour-photos. There is also patterns for a lot of projects: hats, mittens, scarves, sweaters... I´m really keen to grab a pair of needels and some yarn and cast on for a swatch. Suddenly there are so many things I just have to try. This book is a really good addition to the knitting-library!


This is something I knitted over ten years ago, a very over-sized scarf or a small blanket. I used the patent-stitch and different lovely yarns from Rowan. I keep it at work and use it those days when the heating is not working very well.

Growing Bohus

My Bohus has been resting during the autumn and spent it`s time adorning Miss Lizzy, my trusting partner in wooly experiments. But during the holidays I put it back on the needles again and spent some time knitting a lot of knit stitches in black.

Actually, it has been growing faster than I had dared to hope and I soon got down to arm-pit level and had to put the work on a thread again to be able to try it on. Putting all of those stiches on a thread - and then back on the needles again - is boring work, but very necessary! The only way to see if the sweater is going to fit, is to try it on.

I´m not following the pattern any more, true to my habit I knit it in the round and not back an forth as the pattern suggests. Knitting in the round have three great advantages: I can try it on during the process, knitting only knit stitches gives a very even fabric and -best of all!- I don´t have to sew anything!

The Bohus is now back on Miss Lizzy and I´m knitting other things while I try to make up my mind whether the 18 stitches I have cast on under each arm are too many... I want this sweater to be quite close-fitting. Another point to consider is wheather sleeves should be full length or three-quarter. However that last decision can wait for a while, but the fate of the 36 stitches needs to be delt with soon, if I´m going to get anywhere with this sweater.

Socks Norwegian Style

A good basic sock-pattern and a good basic yarn (Drops Karisma) is the starting point for creative knitting.

Starting New Things

A collegue at work has been wearing a very nice knitted poncho several times this autumn and I have spent several minutes studying it to find out how it was knitted. Actually it is quite a simple construction, a long rectangle sewn together to form a poncho.

Using some purple Istex Lodband I cast on for a poncho of my own. It has lace-edge on one side, I found it in "Victorian Lace Today", in the pattern "Scarf with Striped Border on p. 80.

Colourful

These are some of the wrist-warmers I have been knitting during the autumn. Playing with colour and yarn, using the pattern "Mrs Beeton"(Knitty-link), one of my favourites! The yarn is also a favourite: Rowan´s Pure Wool Dk.

New Year New Project

New Years Day is one of the best days of the year, a totally lazy day when there is nothing that needs to be done. Tomorrow is working-day - but that´s far away in the future. Today is a cold and gray day, just made for knitting and drinking tea.

Ever since I bought the book "Fitted Knits" I have been looking at the long coat with a chevron lace border. Today the temptation become to great and I started pondering about what yarn to use, found some white "Eskimo" in the stash and started on a swatch.

Soon it was finished. I knit it with needles size 9 and 10 mm; since I knit the purl-rows looser than the knit-rows, I knit the purl-rows with a size smaller needles to get a more even result. This time I got the right tension at the first try.

Now I have to decide the colour for my coat. And I thought: how about thinking different this time and not go for the same colours I always choose, like black, gray, white or pink? How about bright red? Or green?

Finished Last This Year

The last day of the year is here and we are preparing for the celebration of the new. I take a short break from the cooking to show the last finished item for 2011: a pin-cushion, made in a traditional style, on wool with wool.

I bought this as a kit more than a year ago, because I was quite keen to try this technique and actually needed a pin-cushion for my sewing-neeedles. I eagerly started, made half of it, was a bit displeased with my stitches, put it away and forgot about it.

I found it again yesterday and it only took a few hours to finish it, sew it together, fill it and: voilá - a new pin-cushion!

Earlier this year I bought the very inspiring book Yllebroderier (Adlibrislänk), a real must for anyone interested in traditional Swedish embroidery. It´s really fascination to see all the colours and fascination designs - and to send a thought to all those women who made all these stitches.

Now I have 30 minutes to cast on for a new project, before it´s time to make the dinner-table.

Socks

Two balls of Karisma, in a quite boring brown colour, suddenly found some pink leftover Svarta Fåret Raggsocksgarn and they decided that they should become something together. Some charts in a knitting book inspired a simple pattern and in only a few days time the union was completed: a pair of socks!

While knitting these I was constantly reminded of chocolate and strawberry ice-cream!

There was just enough brown yarn, I ended up with only two meters left and I´m very pleased that I managed to use up all of it. I think Karisma (from Drops) is a very nice sock-yarn: it´s pleasant to knit with and comes in a lot of nice colours. I have more of it in the stash and maby it´s time to cast on a new pair of socks...

Me = Great Fashion Designer!

During my blogging I have been wavering between writing in English or in Swedish - writing in English IS much harder, but it´s a good excercise. Yesterday, I decided first of all to go on blogging and then to write in Swedish. Almost as soon as I had posted, I got a request to write in English... So I will.

During the autumn I have been my own fashion designer. My mother came to me with a picture from a magazine and said she wanted a sweater like the one in the picture. It was designed by Stella McCartney (I doubt she knitted it herself). After having studied the picture, mum and I decided it was a piece of cake to knit something similar and I started looking for the right yarn.

And I found Rowan "Big Wool", that turned out to be expensive, yes, but absolutely wonderful to knit with. After some swatching and measuring, I cast on.


And this is how it turned out.

It´s knitted in the round up to the armpits. Mum wanted a short ribbing round the hems -I would have omitted that if I had knit the sweater for myself. I divided the work after the armpits and knitted the front and back separately back and forth. After a little shaping for the neck I knitted the sholders shut and picked up stitches for the sleeves. I knitted the sleeves in the round, shaped them a little and ended them with a short ribbing. Then I knitted the neck-ribbing and the whole sweater was wet-blocked. Yes, it took ages to dry!

Mum was very pleased with her sweater and maybe I have a great future ahead of me as a great fashion designer. But most likely not!

Länge sedan!

Det var ju länge sedan det skrevs något här: hösten har varit alldeles för full av arbete och sjukdom! Och när tiden och krafterna tryter gäller det ju att använda bådadera till det mest viktiga och alltså har jag hellre stickat än bloggat om stickning! Så det finns gott om nystickade saker att visa upp.

I år ville julstämningen inte riktigt infinna sig, jag som annars är en riktig julnörd. Inte ens julblommorna lockade och till julafton struntade jag i julstjärnor och amaryllisar och köpte mig en bukett snittblommor istället.

Dottern modifierade sitt halsduksönskemål till att vilja ha " en sådan där rund", en som fungerar som halsduk och som kan dras upp över huvudet när det blåser kallt. Jag har för mig att modellen kallades väpnarluva i min gröna ungdom.

Tre härvor Colinette gick det åt och mottagaren blev nöjd med resultatet. Själv tycker jag nog att färgerna inte var någon höjdare, men nu var det ju inte jag som skulle ståta i skapelsen.

Jag prövade en ny uppläggning av maskor denna gång, en slags stickad uppläggning som gav ett fast och bra resultat till kanten. Det första försöket med vanligt skoluppläggning blev för sladdrigt. Jag stickade två räta och två aviga som en tub och formade det hela litet för huvudet med litet kortvarv. En bit ner ökade jag så att den skulle passa om axlarna. Så maskade jag av och gjorde små uddar med jämna mellanrum med hjälp av en slags picot-avmaskning.

Sommarminnen

Ett av sommarens projekt. Jag har återigen fått önskemål om mönstret, så nu får jag väl ta och plita ner min version av denna klassiska tröja.