All about my girl

In my last post I wrote about who inspired and full of energy I felt. A short time after that I slipped and fell badly. After that I could hardly sit for two weeks and lets just say that one part of my body has suffered a permanent dent. Knitting came to a halt, but now I'm back in the game again.

Some projects at this time of year have to wait another week to be revealed here, but I will ad them to Ravelry where my family can't see them. Instead I will focus on some stuff that my daughter has gotten this year. Starting with the most recent project: she got an icelandic dress for her birthday two weeks ago. The pattern is really cute (Teikn from Lopi 28 by Ístex), but what won me over was the yarn. Létt-Lopi colour 1408 is a bright and happy pink and when I saw it on the shelf there was no way to resist it.















Next up are a couple of socks that she picked the yarn for. The pattern is a modified version of Serpentine socks from Socks from the Toe Up by Wendy Johnson. In the book they are made from a thicker yarn and the pattern repeat has more rows, but I made them for a 7-year-old and scaled it down and used Regia sock yarn.















Last here, but knitted first, is this sweater that she wore on the last day of school in June. The yarn is Rowan Damask in the colour Lava. The design is from Rowan´s The Organic Cotton Collection and its name is Cherry Pie, which suits the colour very well. This was truly a last minute effort. I literally ran to the school to put on the sweater over her white lace dress only minutes before the program started. What caused the problem was my firm crochet, which made the edges to small and the sewing a nightmare. After redoing it a couple of times I finally got it together.

Icelandic wool

I went to Iceland last week, and although I was there on other business I managed to squeeze in some wool. My cousin owns some 170 sheep and the week before they had been brought down from the mountains were they graze freely during the summer. The farmers still go out on horseback for several days to collect them, but they use airplanes to locate the sheep. Then the sheep are brought to a place where they are held in a circular enclosement and then separated into smaller pens, one for each farm, as seen in the picture. These days they don't have to herd them the last kilometres to the farm, but load them on trailers. After the sheep have been brought home the lambs are slaughtered before the remaining sheep are put in a barn for the winter.















Later that day we went to a local shop where people with an interest in crafts in the western parts of Iceland sell a selection of high quality products. It is called Ullarselid and was started in 1992 on the grounds of the university of agriculture at Hvanneyri. The products are mostly made from wool, but there are also buttons made from bone and horn, stones and other souvenirs. The following three pictures show some of their hand spun or herb dyed yarn, sweaters designed for the hand spun yarn and their special take on the traditional Icelandic sweaters with a patterned yoke.











































I made my not so interested brothers come along, and here is what they bought: socks, mittens, a hat and some felted soles. Not as expensive as the larger items but still great quality and perfect gifts to bring home. What I bought? You will see in the next post...

And then there were three

Third sweater finished. Well, I only made the sleeves and finishing this week, the body was knitted about five years ago, probably when I was on maternity leave, and has been in the UFO pile since.















The pattern is a traditional Danish Nattröje (night sweater) from a book on Nordic knitting by Susanne Pagoldh, with a few modifications. It is knitted in flat pieces and the sleeves are shortened for comfort. I also used the same border on both body and sleeves. The yarn is far from the thin wool of the original. It is the cotton yarn Muskat Soft by Garnstudio from an old stash of about 40 balls in various colours that I got from a closed down yarn store. The pin at the neck is a traditional Estonian model in bronze.

In my study there are now some plastic boxes with about 55 projects on their way to my little exhibition tomorrow. Back to work on that...

Two sweaters so far

Finally! I've bit of a bit more than I could chew lately by trying to make family gifts, sweaters for me and planning an exhibition that is due this Sunday (report on that next week). On Monday I sewed up the final ends on two sweaters and now they are blocked, dried and photographed.

First up is Unwrapped from Knotions. This is a fitted modell that has many neat details, like the linen stitch edges and the diagonal line that imitates a wrap model. I enjoyed making it and was happy to get help from the designer on a few unclear parts of the pattern. The yarn is 100% linen from Garnstudio, and this is the first time I use this material for a top and it looks just as I wanted, rough and shiny at the same time. I made the belt to go with it, but I liked the look better without it in the end.





























The second finished sweater is a very cropped version of the February Lady Sweater. I used all the Silke Alpaca I had and this is as far as I got, and it is quite a wearable experiment. The yarn is extremly comfortable, but too much of the red colour spilled over on the off-white parts in the washing and gave it a slightly pink tone. Maybe that is a good thing, because when my 3-y-o son saw me when I first tried it on, he said that now I just had to make a hat as well. When I asked him why, he said that would make me look even more like Santa Claus...































Right now I'm working on an old UFO from five years ago that needs sleeves before Sunday, so I had better get back to that if I'm going to finish three sweaters this week.

February is late this year

Couldn't resist any longer. Last Christmas Mr P gave me a challenge when he bought me 12 balls of Garnstudio Silke Alpaca, 7 red and 5 white. I decided to use them all in one project, but it is not quite enough for a sweater. Have been searching for a vest or bolero pattern since then. Then the February Lady Sweater came along, and after seeing Marias sweater half done I realized that it would work just fine in two colours and could be made with short sleeves. Last week I finished knitting Unwrapped, but it needs a little finishing before I can show it. Three days ago I cast on for February Lady "Vest" and this is what it looked like yesterday morning when I divided the stitches for the sleeves and tried it on. It fit perfectly!
















Some technical notes: I'm making it in large, but at a slightly looser gauge. I cast on a couple of times before I got it right with a knitted cast on recommended in Alice Starmore's books. The one row button holes are neat but a bit tricky and I learned how to make them in a class with Britt-Marie Christoffersson. After the eyelet row I only knitted the compulsory three rows of garter stitch, after hearing about bulkiness at the armholes. Then I made one purl row across the white part only before starting the pattern, for a neat colour transition. Now I'm working a little bit more of the body, but I will make the (short) sleeves before continuing so I can use up the yarn as efficiantly as possible.

Spring clearing

I've spent Easter digging my way through almost-finished-knittings (is there an abbreviation for that?). Often there is an edge, buttons or a seam left and it can lie about for years in that state. So far two projects are finished and approved, and I hope there will be at least three more by the end of the week.















This is the sweater in Icelandic lambs wool that I started in November. It's not that old, but has been waiting for finishing since Christmas. If you read my previous post you might recall that I promised to knit it for the grand-daughter of a friend of an acquaintance of my mothers. I haven't made any modifications, but ran out of brown yarn with half the neckline and all the seams left. It's a good thing I have a little stash of similar yarn and could find exactly the right colour in a thinner quality for the sewing. The inside of the neck became white and that doesn't show when it is worn. The only thing I don't like about the finished sweater is the bulkiness of the seams when the openings for the sleeves are cut open.

The design and yarn aren't the usual for Icelandic sweaters, but more like Faroese knitting or bulky Norwegian. The horses are popular in Icelandic designs from recent years, because these warm garments can only be worn outside, eg. by people who work with horses. This sweater will be going back to Iceland this spring on one of those horse lovers.

The next item on my list this week is a Baby Surprise Jacket designed by E. Zimmerman. The yarn is two shades of Fabel by Garnstudio. I know it isn't finished in the picture, but the whole point of this one piece design shows better in this half finished state. At the moment it only awaits the buttons I got this weekend. The baby it is intended for was born last Monday, but I only got word of it last Thursday and didn't have time to wrap it up before the holiday. Hopefully it will be in the mail tomorrow. The only problem is that all the newborns in my family weigh over 4kg, so it might be too small, but it will look good on a doll as well. I'll make something nicer for her later on, when she stays the same size longer.

Knitting for pleasure

Lately I've been needing to knit to reduce stress. Finishing things and being useful and productive come further down the list. This weekend I started on a true feel good project. I even missed my knitting so much when I took a bath on Sunday that I asked Mr P to get it for me, but it wasn't very comfortable. I would also like to be able to knit in bed, but that doesn't work either.








So what is it? I brought it with me to knit during my daughters gymnastics on Monday night, and after that I went to my music group, and during coffee I pulled out something that looked like this.















Faces lit up around the table when someone suggested it was a nursing bra for cold days, but no. All the pieces I've made so far look like this.















And the correct answer is Russian coat by Norah Gaughan from Vogue Knitting holiday issue 2007 that I recieved last Friday. The yarn I'm using is a great wool yarn from Yllet, that I bought in Gotland last year. Since that is an island halfway between Sweden and Russia that somehow felt appropriate for this model, even though it was ment for a big shawl.

I have been a little practical too lately, and worked the pattern section of the Icelandic lambs wool sweater. Someone is actually waiting for this one, so it would be nice to get it done. I don't like knitting charted patterns like this with long floats to handle all the time, but now it is done and the rest is made in the small pattern repeat.

Icelandic lambs wool

Last weekend this project fell into my lap. An old friend of the family had promised to knit a kit for a woman who bought a sweater to match her horses, but couldn't knit it. The intended knitter couldn't knit it either, because of the foreign language pattern and recent illness. So who do you call? An Icelandic woman known to be a good knitter, my mother. She doesn't knit much these days, so she passed it on to me.

As you can see it starts out with a basic Scandinavian geometrical pattern. Further up there will be some horses and larger squares. It knits quick and easy, and it is interesting to knit Icelandic lambs wool. I have never come across a yarn like this before. It is a lot like Lópi light, but it has two strands. If I didn't know it was lambs wool I would never have guessed it, because it is almost as coarse as regular Icelandic wool, but it has a little more shine. It comes from a small company called Frú Lára.

Starmore in green

I have many favourites, but the top designer I wish I could imitate the most is Alice Starmore. I own six of her books and one by her daughter Jade, and I read them over and over again. My aim is to have knitted something from every book I have, but that is a longterm project in this case. The first book I found was Fishermen's sweaters, because it was translated into Swedish.
The pale ladies' model comes from this book, and it was a joy to knit this classic gansey with a modern touch. The men's and child's Arans are found in The Aran Collection.














If we take a closer look at the details, you can see how fine the ladies' model is. The yarn is Cortina by Solsilke, a delicate mix with e.g. cashmire. The Arans are made from regular Aran yarn and variegated sock yarn. The child sweater involved a bit too much sewing for my taste, but there is hardly a sewn stitch in the ladies' model and only side seams for the men's Aran. The most difficult part was the braids in single twisted stitches on the men's sweater, but otherwise the patterns are very detailed and user friendly even if they are long. If you want to take a look at more Starmore designs, check out her shop at Virtual yarns. Most of her books are really hard to find, but some of the kits include patterns. I ordered a few skeins of their yarn, and it was soft, tweedy and made a very warm hat.

Scandinavian sweaters

This July I hosted a small exhibition to promote a local crafts society that arranges cafés and classes for knitters. For this purpose I collected some of my projects from the last fifteen years, and I will present some of them here.
















These are my two-coloured favourites. The top sweater is shown from the back where you can see my husband's initials. The front has a 15 cm opening with three hooks. It's a classic norwegian model in Heilo by Dale. I knitted it for our second Christmas together, and when he opened the present his mother spontaneously said "That's love".

On the left is a true scandinavian mix. The pattern is a basic norwegian Setesdal without the "lus", because the owner didn't like them. The yarn is icelandic Létt Lópi by Álafoss, which is a lot thicker than the original, so I simply took a pattern for a child and without any changes the result became XXL. Finally the buttons show the symbol of the Medelpad region in Sweden, where I live.

Last, but definitely not the least work, my own cardigan from the west coast of Sweden. I wanted it wearable and washable, so instead of wool it's made from Mandarin Petit by Sandnes, a yarn for babies and summer in 100% cotton. Like with the others I have changed the colourway, this time into my two favourite colours emerald and dark red. All the sweaters where originally made in combinations of red, blue, black or white.