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...