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.

Family portrait

Last winter I went a bit sock crazy, and now there is a new addition. Let me show you a few examples.








On the left is Mr P. in toe-up-socks by Barbro. The yarn is the leftovers from his Aran sweater, that you will see soon. On these socks the toe and heel are made in the same way, with short rows, so by measuring the toe section it is easy to know when it is time to start the heel.

Next you see the latest project. These are Ann Budd's toe-up-socks from Interweave summer 2007. The toe is clever, but a bit bulky in the smallest size. Maybe I will try making a larger version. The short row heel is really neat, and I will probably use Budd's technique next time I use Barbro's pattern. The yarns in these and the ones to the right are all from Opal. The purple is from a test collection, the pale green is from the Rainforest line and the brown is Opal smoke.

The Rainforest caterpillar socks are made from the same pattern as Mr P's, but only have rib at the top. With this pair I learned to twist the knit stitches and bind off by sewing. Both methods worked really well, especially the bind off because it isn't tight at all.

Finally you see my own feet. They are dressed in Broken Cable Rib socks, also by Ann Budd for Interweave. They look really good, but the cables make the leg a bit tight and I'm afraid I will tear something when I put them on.

A warm red

Sometimes it takes unusual measures to get a project finished. This week my litte boy had been coughing for a couple of nights, and finally I had to escape to the guest room. I really needed the sleep and didn't want to get up in the morning, until I saw a shawl in need of blocking by the end of the bed (it's more of a knitting room than a guest room).










This shawl is made from the very first Kauni yarn that I bought from Garnkorgen last autumn before she was even on the net. It is very fine and it took a while to find the right use for it. In Cheryl Oberle: Folk Shawls I found this great combination of garter stitch and feather and fan. It is from the chapter on Iceland and it's originally made in unspun icelandic wool. Instead I used my red yarn double, and it worked well with one strand from each skein. The final result is 220cm at top edge and 90cm at the point, which is almost as big as the original even though I had to skip a few pattern repeats here and there to get the most out of my yarn.

Feather and fan is called krónuprjón (crown knitting) in Icelandic and it is very common in scarfs and langsjöl (long shawls) that are knitted for sale. I even have a lace sweater in this pattern that my mother wore in the sixties.

Off the needles

Now it's a vest, and the sleeves have just been started. Like with the front and back pieces I make them both at the same time. The collar is a really great model where you start out with the neck stitches and pick up a few new stitches on each side every time you reach the end of a row. The pattern is really quick to knit, and I think I will be able to stick to this project until it's finished, which rarely happens when I knit. Well, there are some knee socks from the toe up from last Interweave in the basket too, but I hardly ever touch them.

A vest with the bag

My very first post here was a felted bag. The yarn was actually the leftovers from a vest, that is finally finished.












I really wanted to try this great model, found at Barbros stickning. It starts at the back of the neck and continues down the front, round the back, up again and returns to the back of the neck. It really takes a yarn like this for the design to be visible. I cheated a bit and started to use the colours in reverse order at the middle of the back to get it symmetrical. The white that I saved from the back became I-cord bind off, which I made quite firm to tighten up the look. Maybe I should also add that the original design is for needles 5mm, but this version was made on 3,5mm and with 50% more stitches. I think I used about 400g of yarn for the vest and 200g for the bag. My only problem right now is if I should use this matching set together , or if that is a bit too much...

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.

On the needles

A while ago H. told me that moths had damaged her wool cardigan. It was a "viking" design by Elsebeth Lavold made in Peer Gynt. I originally knitted it for my grandmother but H. inherited it because she was the only family member who could get into it. Off course I immediately offered to make her a new one. This time she got to choose pattern and yarn from my shelves, and this is the result:














The pattern is from The Best of Knitter's: Arans and Celtics and designed by Nancy Bush. The cables are all made by knitting the stitches in reverse order and/or twisting them. Quick and clever. The original is called "Irish moss" and made from soft wool and mohair. My version is crisper and made in Garnstudio's Silke Tweed in silk and lambs wool. Since it is a little thinner I have added 20% to all numbers of stitches. It should work, I usually have to do that when I run out of sizes or change the yarns. To keep track of the numbers I make front and back at the same time, and so far I'm at the armholes.