Knits for the kids

This summer I thought about my reasons for knitting, and realized that I should think more about the result and less about the process and make things that someone would need, want and use. I'm still very much a process knitter, and I have to find the work interesting, but I have tried to be more practical. One top priority is to involve my children more. I made a pile of baby garments for them, but they were big and could hardly use them. Since then I have made very little for them, because it felt like a waste of time. Now they have shown some interest in what I'm doing and I've tried to listen to their ideas.

Some time in July my daughter asked why I didn't knit for her. She has strong opinions, so I told her to make me a drawing of what she had in mind. She came back a few minutes later with a picture of a dress with long sleeves. I immediately thought about the pattern Sand Dollar from The Children's Collection by Alice & Jade Starmore and showed it to her, and she approved. A few days later we went to the LYS to pick a yarn that was light and cool and not too expensive, and most importantly very red. We chose Blend/Tendens by Hjertegarn in cotton and acrylic. The deadline for this project is her birthday in December, so I havn't worked that much on it yet but it is small and quick to knit even if the pattern is extensive.















A couple of weeks ago I came across a Spiderman blanket made by Liisa. I had seen the pattern before, but I hadn't realized just how big and beautiful it was. When my son saw the picture he was spellbound and asked me to make one for him, so now I'm knitting as fast as I can without letting him see it. I hope to have it finished for his fourth birthday in three weeks.















Finally the best news of all. My 6-y-o daughter knits! Maybe it is because she gets hot chocolate at the knitting café and not at home, but I don't care. I gave her some cotton to start with, but it split and was hard to work with. Then we went shopping for something funnier and more suitable, and got some printed, heavy sock yarn for a scarf. Her brother wanted a ball too, for when he learned to knit. I said that might be a while but then his sister offered to make a scarf for him too. I volunteered to make his scarf, otherwise it might take a few years, and he got his favourite colour as well. I knitted half of his scarf in the car last weekend, but my daughter made slow progress and needed some more encouragement. This week I got her some domino needles that made it easier to knit with small hands

Brown and blocks

There has been so much going on in my life this past month that I havn't had the time or energy to blog, but I have been knitting! And shopping! There is so much to write about that I will save some for later, but these are some of my favourite knitting events since last time.

I'm back on track with Sockklubben, having finished the September socks. This is my favourite pattern and yarn so far, so I'm really happy about the result. When I tried them on for the first time they stayed on all evening and I even slept in them. The pattern is Oak Leaf from Knotions, the great new free pattern magazine. It is a bit tricky to get all the twists right, and I had to knit the first leg twice to get it right, but it isn't really difficult. The yarn is the wonderful Regia Silk, a lovely quality but not really my palette of colours except this one. I used 2.5 dpns and the size is the largest, but not very long.















I bought this yarn, as well as the beautiful Färgkraft skeins in the next picture, at the "new" shop in town. Cina has taken over an old shop here in Sundsvall and redecorated and renewed it in many ways (great pics here). Great job Cina and good luck! The Färgkraft line is the most noticable addition to the stock so far, and I think every knitter I know in town has bought some. I recently made a shawl in this quality, but this time I have something else in mind... The colours have poetic names, and mine are Bärnsten (Amber) and Choklad.















Finally a few words about a great new book. Despite new issues of Vogue Knitting, Interweave Knits, knitty.com and knotions.com I had to buy some new books. I got Folk Hats, which was mostly wierd, No Sheep For You, both educational and great patterns, but the book you can glimpse in the picture above is my number one inspiration so far this autumn. Danish Vivian Höxbro has taken here special Domino technique a few steps further in Knit to be Square. I bought it because I knew her spectacular Abstract Stole would be in it, but a few other ideas look very tempting as well. I have just cast on for a vest from her previous book Shadow Knitting, but that is another story.