Gloria/Pinwheel Hybrid

I spent my precious knitting time this week figuring out the construction of Hanne Falkenberg's Gloria, and swatching a kiddie-sized version of my own hybrid of the original I thought was absolutely stunning in Ribbels' window, and the very popular Pinwheel Sweaters for Women and Children by Shelley Mackie which is a free pattern from Elann. (To be honest I was kind of meh about the pinwheel until I saw this version. Wow.)
What I think I know about Gloria:
1. The upper back is not part of the circle. Evidence here.
2. Stitches are cast on, stitches at the bottom of the upper back are picked up, and more stitches are cast on. The resulting large number of stitches are knit back and forth in a texture pattern with increases placed at the armpit region (like on the Sunrise Circle Jacket by Kate Gilbert, available for free on the Knitting Daily Website). Evidence for these conclusions can be found here.
3. I think that the front and back shoulders are seamed together and stitches are picked up in the resulting holes for the sleeves. I also think that somehow stitches are picked up for the collar or the collar is sewn in place.
4. The texture pattern, oh the lovely texture pattern that plays off of differences in the shades in the yarns used. I looked at some swatches here(#1) and here(#2), and some of it is definitely garter stitch with two different colors that are swapped on each row. Like dark is knit on RS and light is knit on WS. There is another texture pattern at play here, as can be seen in swatch #2, but I don't know what it is, and I don't really care either. I think it's used on the collar because it dosen't look so bumpy as the 'wrong side' of garter stitch would. Or the majority of the sweater is knit in this texture except for the upper back. I don't care so much because I figured out enough to modify the pinwheel to my tastes.

All I did was work the pinwheel in garter stitch while alternating colors every row. Easy.
Now some people in internet-land say they prefer Gloria to traditional pinwheel sweaters
because of the better fit. I think that all that's needed to correct this issue is proper sleeve placement. I'm guessing for the kid version, because children grow and the the armholes will eventually be in the right place anyways. But for my version I will swatch and block, and determine armhole distance from my favourite t-shirts, and incorporate minimal ease into the placement.

First up: the yarns:
starting at the top, clockwise, we have Lang Yarns Soft Shetland color 09 (Purple Charcoal), color 08 (Wine) and some grey Frankengarn Naturstrickwolle in a slightly lighter grey than I'm
using for Trud. (I was thinking legwarmers at the time of purchase. Oh well...). Now for a rant about 'standards' for needle sizes. The Soft Shetland recommends a 5.5 mm needle for a yarn that weighs in at 284 yards/100g. This is lighter than worsted weight, using Cascade 220 as a benchmark for a worsted weight yarn (220 yards/100g). What big needles! Now the Frankengarn company recommends 3.5-4 mm needles for their stuff which weighs in at
218 yards/100g. I would call this a worsted weight, what tiny needles! These days I completely disregard manufacturer recommendations when choosing yarn and instead go with yardage/weight. Anyways, I'm completely digressing. I LOVE the Frankengarn, and while the Soft Shetland is pretty to look at and soft in the ball, I find it 'ropey' to knit with. And not so elastic. I hope it softens up with a wash. I figured it would be OK for baby/kid gear because it's a superwash wool.

Anyways, here's how far I've gotten.
I think it looks pretty good, and the interplay of color with garter stitch has given the desired effect. Not to mention that these random yarns I had sitting in the stash look Falkenberg-esque. I eliminated the yarn-over increases, and I didn't like the look of kfb increases on the Lara Pinwheel Jacket (similar pattern, same designer, also free on Elann.com)
so instead I opted for something more invisible: Elizabeth Zimmerman's 'Make 1' described on page 16 of Knitting Workshop. You basically drop a twisted loop of yarn on the needle and just keep on knitting. Easy, fast, not fussy, no gaping holes, no funny twists. And I'm switching the colored wools every 10 rows, but not the grey because I have ~ twice as much gray than the colors combined.

I like it.

Now imagine, as happy as I am with the 'right side' how surprised I was when I flipped the thing over and looked at the 'wrong side'.

Ignore the tails. You can see swirls of color where the increases were made, because they were not picked up from the grey row below. Now I like the 'wrong side' better than the 'right side'!
If I weave in the ends nicely, I'll have something the neither of the model patterns had: 100 %
reversibility!

Ivanova

One month, two conferences, and two countries later...

I did a LOT of running around, and had nearly no time for knitting except on ridiculously long
train rides, but I managed to make decent progress on my cape. Here's the full-body-so-far shot:
I am using the vague-ish instructions from Barbara Walker's Knitting from the top.
The idea is that a cape/cloak is just a raglan that does not separate at the underarm for sleeves.
Simple enough, I wrote out instructions for a top-down raglan cloak that includes some cable panels from Elsebeth Lavold's Viking Patterns for Knitting on the front edges, (s-hitches from Arde, p. 73), raglan non-sleeve (wide panel with little lattice, p. 51), and the back (Vigdis pattern, p.81 over 24 stitches). Here's some detail shots of the cables in the order listed above.


I am finding that the Lamb's Pride Worsted has great stitch definition even though I am knitting at a ridiculously loose gauge in order to felt this sucker, so I feel confident that the
cables will survive the felting process. I never realized what a good-value cable-knitting yarn this was, and I'll probably use it again for sweaters. I just wish the mohair was less scratchy, but I can put up with a bit of scratch.

One good (or bad) thing about conferences is that the organizers tend to put random people of the same gender together in my hotel room. Imagine my surprise when I arrived in my hotel room in a tiny university town in the Netherlands to a pile of stuff on one bed including a pair of 3.5 mm straight needles with some fingering weight pink merino knitted into perfect teeny tiny stitches. A knitter! Of all the random conference attendees I was paired with, they put me up with another knitter. Needless to say, some yarn browsing took place in the 2 hours between the end of the conferences and catching our trains back. I finally saw some Hanne Falkenberg kits up close, and they are gorgeous! Too bad I can't justify spending 100 euros (about 150 dollars) on a kit. My favourites in the shop were Gloria shown in the colors I linked to, and Jazz. The pictures do not do the kits justice. But still, they are prohibitively expensive, so my new shopping buddy said I should take the mental picture for inspiration, and knit my own version with what I've got available.

I also had the good fortune of sharing a room with a knitter in Berlin, and we went to a yarn shop on Oranienstrasse (in the very cool Kreuzberg district) and I picked up a few balls of some no-name single ply lambswool in order to make my take on Gloria. On the overly long train ride from Berlin to Hannover (my roomie's transfer point) she taught me how to purl continental style. I was on a purl row. It took me 2 hours (!) to do one row. I guess I'll have to practice, and track her down for lessons on how to knit continental style. She watched me knit 'British-style' and shook her head and said "I just don't see how you can do that." Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

Here's a picture of my circular jacket yarns all nestled together:

I think it'll work (I hope!) and I'll cast on after I try a kiddie-version for the soon to be expected
cousin's kid. They are two different colors of no-name-provided German lambswool in an aran weight from somewhere near Hamburg (according to the shop employee) in a greyish lavender and petrol blue solid, paired with some Fleece Artist Kid Aran in the Marine colorway.
I'll be basing the construction on one of the 8-million free pinwheel jackets from the Elann website by Shelley Mackie but I may throw in a texture pattern like on Gloria. And I will make the sleeves striped. I particularly like this version of the pinwheel jacket, so I'll just let the ideas mingle until I have the time to cast on. I'll test texture patterns in my collection of purpley Soft Shetland balls and medium gray merino for the kiddie version.

Ivanova

I "felt" like experimenting...

This week I decided to finally try felting. I am starting to plan my next vacation getaway to a medieval festival in May, and my husband commented that we would most likely by camping out. Probably in period gear. And if we don't camp out and get a hotel room, May is still kind of cold and damp! So I decided I needed a wool cloak. I started looking at general cloak designs, and there are some really nice LOTR inspired patterns available here. Hunt around the links, this site is a nice time suck if you're into that sort of thing. Unfortunately the wool fabrics available at the local department store fabric section kind of suck. And forget going to a fabric shop, there isn't one! (At least not a good one). And, sure, there's always Ebay, but I'd rather have something a little more inspired (and complicated) than a plain piece of gray wool draped from the shoulders with some sort of hood sewn in.

So I figured I'd felt my own after knitting it! Of course it will be cabled, so I wanted to see a) how a felted fabric looks in terms of stitch definition (and loss thereof) and b) how texture holds up to the felting process. I know it can be done nicely because I saw a felted cabled handbag pattern in the winter 2007 issue of Interweave Knits. Here's one example - very nice!

So I started with some DK merino (Frankengarn naturstrickwolle) and tried out the Dragon Scale pattern from Barbara Walker #2. I hand felted with hot soapy water and it turned into this:
Little to no stitch definition! And it's a nice stiff but light fabric, not too bad for a cloak.
I knitted it up on my Denise 11's (they're bigger than the standard US 11). I also hand-felted for about 20 minutes. For the inquiring minds, this yarn is a 2-ply. I heard somewhere that plied yarns felt cables better, but the down-side to using this stuff for the cloak is that I'd have to buy more yarn! You should have seen my husband's face when he heard this. He cringed! I guess the wool is sort of taking over our apartment. So I dug through my Christmas stash and unearthed the cones of Lamb's Pride Worsted in a dark green color. I certainly have enough of it!

I read on Knitter's Review that the ideal gauge for felting LPW is 3 sts/in. I get 3.8 sts/in on Denise 10 1/2's (smaller than standard) and 3 sts/in on Denise 11's (bigger than standard). So I knitted up a simple cabled close-loop and braid pattern (made up from my head) and hand felted both swatches. Here's the before and after pics.
This is the one done on Denise 10 1/2 needles. I only got about 15 % shrinkage in length after hand-felting and I felt it had not lost enough stitch definition. So I boiled it and agitated it in boiling water. Not a lick of difference was noticeable in size or loss of stitch definition. It fuzzed up a fair bit though. It's nice and thick, with a little bit of sproing left from the knitted fabric and the cables still show. Some dye was shed in the boiling process, but the vast color difference in the pics is due to the different lighting conditions. The top photo has the most accurate color, and the color shedding isn't noticeable in the boiled swatch.
This one was done on Denise 11's. The fabric was VERY loose before felting. I found it hard to keep the tension even when knitting the cables, so I got a hole (circled on the center picture) that didn't felt. I guess the Murphy's Law of felting is really true after all. I got 14 % length shrinkage with vigorous hand-felting, and it still retains stitch definition. I figure my best bet is to use the 10 1/2 needles because I get a nicer looking fabric in the end of it all.

So now for the pattern choices - I could not find any for a knitted felted cloak! There are a few knitted cloak patterns, and examples can be found by googling and surfing Ravelry. This one is nice, but it's from a Finnish book. The book is kindof expensive too. This one's okay, but not really what I had in mind. Now this one has the right shaping and would look reasonably historically accurate. I figured out by reading the blog of the flickr account I directed you towards that it is a raglan-shaped cloak, knit from the bottom up. So I popped out my Barbara Walker's Knitting from the Top and lo and behold there were vague-ish instructions for how to turn a top-down cardi into a cloak/cape. I've already picked out my Viking Cables (from Lavold's book) and I cast on already. I'll probably go to mid-calf, which should bring it to about knee length after blocking. I also need to figure out how to knit a hood...

Ivanova

Celtic Knot #7

Intertwined Heart and Happiness Sign

This knot was inspired by an image from the Book of Kells found on page 28 verso (the back side of the page), where it is part of a border in a portrait of St. Matthew. Here's my hand-drawn attempt at reproducing this knot.

I know I suck at drawing, but you get the idea. My reference book is The Book of Kells Selected Plates in Full Color edited by Blanche Cirker. So.... here's what I came up with. I used Wolle Roedel Soft Merino knitted on US 8 needles (5 mm) for this swatch.

I wanted a cable that could be a continuous cable or a stand-alone knot. Like I tend to do, I charted this with some set-up rows (rows O1-O8), a chart repeat (rows 1-36), and some finishing rows (F1-F6). If you want to knit what I have photographed above, knit rows O1-O8 from the chart, then knit rows 4-36, rows 1-36, then rows 1-24, finishing with rows F1-F6.
For this combination of a picked-up knot cable, you need to begin with 24 cast-on stitches. If you want to knot a long continuous cable without the stand-alone start, you need to begin with 36 cast-on stitches. If that is your preference, I'd recommend knitting 3 4-stitch, 4-row rwisted rope braids as charted in rows 31-34 3 times. This might take a bit of swatching. Play with it and have some fun. If you want only the stand-alone knot, knit rows O1-O8, rows 4-24, then finish with rows F1-F6. Here's the chart...

Now I omitted the dots from the stand-alone parts of the knot. I originally swatched with some bobbles but I didn't like them - I suck at knitting bobbles. If anyone want to reproduce the original knot exactly, play with bobbles and email me a link to the pictures!

Here's some gratuitous detail shots...

Happy knitting!
P.S. Don't forget to get the legend.

From the depths of Ivanova's archives...

I posted a F.O. shot of some lace muffatees I designed about 2 years ago on Ravelry and someone requested the pattern! I sent it out to a free online knitting magazine but never heard back, so I am posting it here now, because it seems that at least one person out there is interested!

I also have nothing to post on current knitting because of a major project deadline in a month (eep!) and I've also been taking advantage of my new Mac Book Pro being a faster Matlab-Number-Crunching-Machine than the computational servers at work! I loooove my new Mac... and I also love not having to share CPU time with anybody else! So here it is... my lace muffatee pattern.

What do you do with a couple of hundred yards of lace weight fiber? Especially when most shawls reach the elbow, and don’t cover your arms? Knit some lace muffatees with a Victorian-inspired ruffle, and look positively enchanting! Only want wristwarmers? Work less pattern repeats!

Materials:
200 yards of any lace weight fiber that can be blocked.
The ones shown were made with 200 yards of handpaintedyarn.com lace pure wool, 850 yards per 100 g skein, color burgundy
¼ inch wide sewing elastic (optional)
US 5 ( 3.75 mm) needles
Stitch Markers
A tapestry or darning needle to weave in ends
Scissors

Additional notes: I made these from the leftovers from my Kiri shawl, because the handpaintedyarn.com skeins have such generous yardage. I really liked working with this yarn because it's reasonably soft and very elastic. Blocks like a dream!

Sizing:
One size fits most. The muffatees fit 6-6.25” wide wrists, 9-10.25” wide arms beneath elbow, and are 10” long including ruffle. Lace stretches! If you have smaller arms, consider getting some elastic.

Gauge:
Blocked conservatively: 24 sts. in lace pattern = 4”

Pattern Notes:

The lace stitch pattern is very easy to memorize. I suggest knitting from the chart because this four stitch four row pattern is so simple, the only part you really need to keep track of are the edges, where increases are incorporated into the stitch pattern. The decreases used are k2tog, or knit two together, skp, or slip one purlwise, knit one, pass slipped stitch over, and sk2p, or slip one purlwise, knit two together, pass slipped stitch over. On the ruffle, you will be making a yarn over on the purl or wrong side. To do this properly, hold your yarn as if you were going to purl the next stitch, wrap your yarn around the needle, then purl.

Instructions:

Cast on 38 stitches using an invisible cast on. Knit 2 rows.
Knit all even numbered pattern rows (not charted to save space).

Lace pattern (work the written instructions here or follow the chart):

Row 1: k1, k2tog, yo, place marker, *sk2p, yo, k1, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 3 stitches, place marker, skp, yo, k1.
Row 3: k1, k2tog, yo, place marker, *k1, yo, sk2p, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 3 stitches, place marker, skp, yo, k1.
Row 5: k1, yo, k2tog, yo, place marker, *sk2p, yo, k1, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 3 stitches, place marker, k1, yo, k2.
Row 7: k1, yo, sk2p, yo, place marker, *k1, yo, sk2p, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 4 stitches, place marker, k1, yo, skp, k1.
Row 9: k1, k2tog, yo, k1, yo, place marker, *sk2p, yo, k1, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 4 stitches, place marker, skp, yo, k1, yo, k1.
Row 11: k2, yo, sk2p, yo, place marker, *k1, yo, sk2p, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 4 stitches, place marker, k1, yo, sk2p, yo, k1.
Row 13: k1, yo, sk2p, yo, k1, yo, place marker, *sk2p, yo, k1, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 4 stitches, place marker, skp, yo, k1, yo, k2.
Row 15: k1, yo, k2tog, yo, sk2p, yo, place marker, *k1, yo, sk2p, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 5 stitches, place marker, k1, yo, sk2p, yo, k2.
Row 17: k2, yo, place marker, *sk2p, yo, k1, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 2 stitches, place marker, k1, yo, k1.
Row 19: k1, k2tog, yo, place marker, *k1, yo, sk2p, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 3 stitches, place marker, skp, yo, k1.
Row 21: k1, k2tog, yo, place marker, *sk2p, yo, k1, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 3 stitches, place marker, skp, yo, k1.
Row 23: k1, k2tog, yo, place marker, *k1, yo, sk2p, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 3 stitches, place marker, skp, yo, k1.
Row 25: k1, yo, k2tog, yo, place marker, *sk2p, yo, k1, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 3 stitches, place marker, k1, yo, k2.
Row 27: k1, yo, sk2p, yo, place marker, *k1, yo, sk2p, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 4 stitches, place marker, k1, yo, skp, k1.
Row 29: k1, k2tog, yo, k1, yo, place marker, *sk2p, yo, k1, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 4 stitches, place marker, skp, yo, k1, yo, k1.
Row 31: k2, yo, sk2p, yo, place marker, *k1, yo, sk2p, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 4 stitches, place marker, k1, yo, sk2p, yo, k1.
Row 33: k1, yo, sk2p, yo, k1, yo, place marker, *sk2p, yo, k1, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 5 stitches, place marker, skp, yo, k1, yo, k2.
Row 35: k1, yo, k2tog, yo, sk2p, yo, place marker, *k1, yo, sk2p, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 5 stitches, place marker, k1, yo, sk2p, yo, k2.
Row 37: k2, yo, place marker, *sk2p, yo, k1, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 2 stitches, place marker, k1 yo, k1.
Row 39: k1, k2tog, yo, place marker, *k1, yo, sk2p, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 3 stitches, place marker, skp, yo, k1.
Row 41: k1, yo, k2tog, yo, place marker, *sk2p, yo, k1, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 3 stitches, place marker, k1, yo, k2.
Row 43: k1, yo, skp, yo, place marker, *k1, yo, sk2p, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 4 stitches, place marker, k1, yo, skp, k1.
Row 45: k2tog, yo, k2tog, yo, place marker, *sk2p, yo, k1, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 4 stitches, place marker, skp, yo, k2.
Row 47: k1, yo, sk2p, yo, place marker, *k1, yo, sk2p, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 4 stitches, place marker, k1, yo, skp, k1.
Row 49: k1, k2tog, yo, k1, yo, place marker, *sk2p, yo, k1, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 4 stitches, place marker, skp, yo, k1, yo, k1.
Row 51: k2, yo, sk2p, yo, place marker, *k1, yo, sk2p, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 5 stitches, place marker, k1, yo, sk2p, yo, k1.
Row 53: k1, yo, sk2p, yo, k1, yo, place marker, *sk2p, yo, k1, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 5 stitches, place marker, skp, yo, k1, yo, k2.
Row 55: k1, yo, k2tog, yo, sk2p, yo, place marker, *k1, yo, sk2p, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 6 stitches, place marker, k1, yo, sk2p, yo, k2.
Row 57: k2, yo, place marker, *sk2p, yo, k1, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 2 stitches, place marker, k1, yo, k1.
Row 59: k1, k2tog, yo, place marker, *k1, yo, sk2p, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 3 stitches, place marker, skp, yo, k1.
Row 61: k1, k2tog, yo, place marker, *sk2p, yo, k1, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 3 stitches, place marker, skp, yo, k1.
Row 63: k1, k2tog, yo, place marker, *k1, yo, sk2p, yo,* repeat from * to * to last 3 stitches, place marker, skp, yo, k1.

When you have completed row 64, knit 5 rows in k2 p2 rib. Cast off in pattern.

Make ruffle (not charted):
On lower edge with RS facing, pick up 38 stitches. On the next row (ws) k1 p1 into each stitch except edge stitches which are purled (74 stitches total).

Row 1: k1, * k2, yo, skp*, repeat from * to * to * to last stitch, k1.
Row 2: p1, * p2, yo, p2tog*, repeat from * to * to * to last stitch, p1.

Repeat these rows 9 times then bind off loosely. Make another muffatee the same way.

Finishing:

When the knitting is done, block the muffatees before seaming them. Do not block the ruffle. To block, soak the muffatees for about 20 minutes before washing them, if you choose to wash them. Gently press out excess water without wringing them, place them in a clean towel, and roll the towel to remove more water. Stretch them to be about 1/2 an inch smaller than your arm measurements at the wrist and arm below elbow, and stretch to meet your arm’s length keeping side edges and top edge and wrist edge straight. Do not pull on the ruffle beyond stretching the wrist edge where you picked up stitches to make the ruffle. Seam up sides. If it is a little loose or you have small arms, sew in some elastic available at many fabric stores into the wrong side of the upper edge, below the elbow. If you use a dark color of yarn, you may want to use black elastic, I used white elastic in the example and it doesn’t show.

Enjoy!

Ivanova

Christmas Stash Enhancement

I finished the Kitty Hat well before Christmas and never posted about it. This is the third time I've made myself this hat. The first one was made from the recommended black Mission Falls wool, and I quite liked it but it got lost in the move to Europe. The second one was made out of Noro Kureyon (without ears) and I look kind of goofy and like a 12-year-old in it. This one is made from a 'more serious' yarn - Mercredi et Companie 100% laine - some stuff I picked up in Grenoble in the fall. The colors are beautiful - a nice heathered burgundy with flecks of grey and black, and it's EXTREMELY soft. But this yarn is horrible to knit with. It's completely inelastic and too loosely spun to knit easily. For fun I tried swatching cables with this stuff - big disaster. Frankly I have no use for a yarn I can't cable with in the stash. I would not recommend this stuff for anything other than fancy baby knits. After a month of wear it's fuzzed up horribly and will lose all stitch definition soon. No pills though. While this hat looks OK laid out on the bed, I still look like a big dork in in. The good points for this hat are that it fits over by giant hair and keeps my ears nice and warm. But I don't really want to look like a big dork. So I'll investigate more hat options soon. The hats made so far are Shedir which looked beautiful but didn't fit my head at all, and the Ragna cap which doesn't fit over my hair. I'm totally bummed. There has to be a nice big hat design somewhere that will fit over my hair and ears! And preferably with cables too ;).

I got lots of nice yarns from myself and others for Christmas, as well as books. Thrace gave me the Knitter's Almanac by Elizabeth Zimmermann and I will cast on for the February Baby sweater soon. I will need to modify the design a bit because the baby will be a boy, but I think I can swap out the lace and stick in some cables instead. I will also make it as written for a friend who really really loved the Baby Surprise Jacket. I just hope that I have enough time! Maybe I'll have to upsize it for a toddler by the time I get to casting on. I also got the latest Viking Knitting book by Elsebeth Lavold and a book of selected color plates from the Book of Kells. Thanks Thrace, you rock! I've already charted a new celtic knot from it and am currently swatching it. Maybe it'll be done by next weekend...

So now for the yarn...
Carloway Mills Shetland Aran, colorway Mallard. It's a beautiful tweed, and I'm still trying to decide what to do with it. When I ordered it from elann I wanted to make a shawl-collared cabled cardigan, but now I can't decide between the original idea and this (with celtic knots instead of viking knots) - it is someone's brilliant idea to modify Stefanie Japel's forecast. I was never drawn to the original cables in the design but liked the shaping. I love the modified design even more!

This is some Fleece Artist Kid Aran, and I think it will become the Sunrise Circle Jacket at some point. It's by Kate Gilbert and available for free from Knitting Daily.




Now for some more greenhouse eye-candy...

Arwen and more baby knitting

Top-down baby sweaters are really easy. This one was knit in 1x1 rib using Swish superwash and following the usual formula for a top-down raglan with cables from the harmony guide thrown in for the entertainment of the knitter.

Following EZ's advice to make a hat as a gauge swatch proved to be project-saving advice since my row gauge went from 7 stitches / inch to 8 stitches / inch when washed and dried (a loss of 12%, I think). Always, always launder gauge swatches in the manner that the garment will be laundered.



After finishing the back and left front, and using short-rows to subsequently widen the sleeves, the Arwen sweater got put on hold in November. I recently resumed work on the right front, sleeve and hood. So far, using my LK-150 to knit the stockinette sections of the sweater has been fairly easy: the only really tricky part to handle was casting on stitches for the sleeves, then weighing the newly cast-on stitches down so that no stitches get dropped when the next row gets knit. The cable panel is also a quick knit, so I'm hoping I'll actually get to wear this sweater this winter.





And finally, here's Miss Dashwood on Christmas morning.

Another year gone by...

And now that I think about it, I have knit a lot of sweaters this year! Guess that makes me a 'sweater knitter' now, and not so much of a lace knitter. In my last post I promised some better pics of the fully finished Garnstudio Drops Sing Jacket, so here is one (though done in crappy light).
I've been wearing it constantly since it's been finished and I like it a lot! The Yorkshire Tweed Chunky blocked into a nice soft drapey fabric, though it was a royal pain in the butt to wash in a bucket. It was huge and wet and dripping all over the bathroom floor, and one sleeve would hang over my sweater-filled arms and stretch out like crazy! Luckily some pulling and patting got it to be more-or-less the same length as the other sleeve. Guess which one from the photo!

Anyways, the sweater was a huge hit at the 8 million or so holiday parties I attended. One lady asked my if it was very expensive because it looked very expensive (i.e. it cost a fortune or I made it myself). Yay! I think this would make it the best sweater yet. Now, being a perfectionist, I would always change those little details that I think are less than perfect. I would definitely add more buttons, and make them a touch closer together. I also deviated from the instructions on the collar, and having picked up more stitches along the neckline, I should have skipped increasing the number of stitches on the second row because the collar is too wide for my neck. I fold it over in half (inwards) and I find it annoys me less, but it doesn't really look like the original collar either. Oh well, not worth ripping over.

This sweater also nearly convinced my mother to take up knitting. If I were to do it again, I'd use Istex Lopi because it comes in such beautiful colors if I (or the recipient) could handle the scratch factor. I pawed lots of Lopi at North American LYSs over the break!

Now for a FO report for a baby sweater I gave to a friend, and has been successfully received so I can blog about it now.

Pattern: Ripples in Time by Fiona Ellis from Inspired Cable Knits
Yarn: Rowan 4 Ply Cotton, colorway Fennel

Mods: I made it into a cardigan by omitting the center wide cable panel and adding a 7 stitch wide seed stitch button/buttonhole band on each side. I also was not aware of the errata published for the pattern (even though I googled it several times and came up with nothing) so I knitted the wide cable panel WRONG (boo hiss!). If you are going to do this number, GO HERE FOR THE ERRATA. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and look for the 'download errata' link. And thanks to Ravelry editors of this pattern page for providing a link to the errata. Yay! All in all, I don't think that the error is so noticeable. I also remember being quite confused about the cable panel placement in the written instructions and had to figure it out from the not-full-body photo. The neckline instructions were also confusing, so I looked at photographs and Thrace went to a baby clothing store in order to figure out the assembly. Thanks Thrace, you rock!

Comments on the yarn: this is a nice soft cotton to knit with. I don't usually use cotton because I am always freezing and prefer wool garments for myself. But some people are cautious about giving wools to babies and this yarn is a very good option for fine gauge baby knits. It also comes in fantastic colors that are not babyish, and there are lots of gender-neutral options. Now can you tell there's a 'but' coming? There were about 4 knots in EACH BALL. Boo! Hiss!
I've said it before, I'll say it again. Rowan yarn is expensive, especially if you don't live in the UK. If I pay more I expect to get more, and I'm not getting more. I would only buy this yarn again if someone on eBay were to have a serious 50% off sale.

If I were to knit this sweater again... I would use a wool yarn. I had to knit at such a tight gauge (and I got row gauge but not stitch gauge, so I followed the instructions for the largest size to end up with finished dimensions for the second largest size) and the cables were so difficult to knit that I cannot recommend using cotton for this one. Maybe a cotton-cashmere, cotton-acrylic or cotton-merino blend would be better. But either way the recipient is happy, so I'm happy. No word yet on the baby liking it because he won't fit it for at least another 6 months or more. Here's a back shot so you folks won't have a heck of a time figuring out the assembly details.

On the needles...Trud by Elsebeth Lavold from the Viking Knits Collection Volume 1.
It's unblocked and the peplum is unseamed. I sure hope it fits! It's quite a relaxing knit with all of that (reverse) stockinette, but that peplum sure eats yarn. I'm currently working on the sleeve, so I can be sure I'll have enough to finish. And the yarn is as soft as buttah... yummy ;).
The cables pop out nicely, so I'm quite pleased with this Frankengarn undyed merino. It also comes at a nice price, and I'm considering their undyed dark brown for future DK weight knits.

Now for some eye candy, captured along the way while I went pretty much everywhere this holiday season.
This was taken from the tallest peak in the Black Forest - Feldberg. It was very very pretty and I have tons more photos of mountains and trees which I may upload to my Flickr account.
I also dashed into a North American greenhouse to escape the chill and saw some GORGEOUS flowers in some very nice arrangements. I want a yarn in this color...
The black and pink combo is spectacular. It would look very good in a variegated yarn, I think!
Funny how it always comes down to yarn! I also like these pinks and purples...
Happy New Year!

Ivanova

Coming up for air

It's been a long time since my last post. Fall tends to be a busy time at work, so there wasn't much time for blogging.

The Lopi vest is done and has been safely delivered to it's new home. I'm still really happy with Lopi yarn, and will definitely be using it in the future.





The rest of the vest photos have been saved on Flickr.

I've also been baby knitting. I knit Miss Dashwood in Mission Falls wool: it took about 104 grams to make the largest size, in other words I used only a small amount of wool from the third skein.



Miss Dashwood is a quick knit, and I'm very happy with how well it turned out.

Last week, C and I went to the local Barnes and Noble to see Debbie Stoller present her latest book. Her talk was worth showing up for, and it was good to see the samples in person. C approved of enough patterns to make buying it worthwhile, so I did.

Nearly FO

That cute Drops Jacket is nearly finished! All that's left is to weave in the ends, sew on the buttons, and block. This was a quick knit, but not as easy as I thought it would be.

Pattern: 103-1 Jacket in Eskimo or Silke-Alpaca with A-shape and ¾-long or long sleeves

by DROPS design

Modifications:
1. Shortened the sleeves because I'm short. I also extended the double seed stitch on the sleeves by an inch or so because I liked it and wanted it to be a bit more prominent.
2. Completely changed the sleeve caps. The caps as written would not fit into the armhole! As cosmicpluto recently observed, how can a 9 cm deep cap result in a set-in-sleeve sweater?
Instead of casting off 2 stitches every row until the sleeve was X cm long, I decreased one stitch each side every second row until it fit into the armhole, then cast off the cap according to the pattern. I'm really glad I followed my gut on this one because I achieved a very nice fitting set-in-sleeve sweater and not a modified drop sleeve others got by following the instructions.
See? Nice!
3. The collar was messed up too. The instructions said to pick up 24-28 stitches across the neckline excluding the front sides' cast-off parts (this is clear if you have the pattern in front of you). This was physically impossible for me to do unless I left huge gaps along the neckline pick-up row. So I picked up as many stitches as I normally would on any other sweater following the generic instructions of pick up stitch ratios along collars from the Knitters' Handy book of Sweater Patterns, and followed the pattern instructions from there until it was the right length to be sewed to the front sides' cast-off parts, then I cast off and sewed. I think it looks enough like the picture that I'm not sweating over this detail, and it'll probably sit nicer once it's blocked.
I think it looks OK.
4. A note on the yardage: the pattern says to use about 900 meters of yarn, and I used a touch over 600 meters. Go figure.

The yarn: Rowan Yorkshire Tweed Chunky, colorway Damp. It's a nice gray-blue with blue, cream, and celery green flecks. What do I think of it? I definitely like it better than the aran weight version. As with all Rowan yarns I've tried so far, it's definitely NOT worth paying full price for, but I got a great deal on eBay because it's discontinued. So this time, I feel that I got what I paid for and then some. It was filled with vegetable matter, but luckily there were no knots anywhere. And each ply snaps extremely easily, but luckily this is a 2-ply yarn so no problems there. And it's reasonably soft. So, good for 5 bucks a ball, but definitely not for 15 bucks a ball. I think my policy on Rowan products is to only buy discontinued stuff. There's certainly enough of it floating around...

Well, this is my last post of the year because of a conference with no internet access, and going back home to visit parents and in-laws with no internet access, so happy holidays to all and a happy New Year!

Ivanova

p.s. I leave you with some husband knitting humour!

Me: Hey honey, how does this collar look?
Him: Hmmmm.... I don't know...... I think it's more of an anti-collar.
Me: What's that supposed to mean?

No Christmas knitting here!

I'm just too busy, and all of those baby knits sucked up my will to give knitted gifts this year. Being so busy, I decided to only pursue relatively mindless knits this holiday season, so I started that Garnstudio Jacket that is extremely popular on Ravelry. This is Ravelry inspired project #2, where #1 was Klaralund. I have to stop browsing the pattern pages! The pattern for #3 is in the mail, shame on me, but I'm using the stash for that one. Anyways, I'm digressing.
Here it is, less than a week in, and I've finished the back already.
I'm making the large, and using Rowan Yorkshire Tweed Chunky on a Denise US 11 needle. Huge needles+huge yarn+no cables = a fast knit! I've decided to use some buttons I picked up in Berlin, made of mother of pearl.
I may even have this finished by the time I go home for Christmas, which suits me fine 'cause I always freeze when I'm there.

I also cast on for the yarn-eating-monster a.k.a. Trud by Elsebeth Lavold.
This is not a fast knit, but the yarn is incredible to work with - Frankengarn Merino Naturwolle, which I knit at DK weight even though it claims to be a sport/fingering weight. This peplum has eaten 2 of the supposedly 9 balls needed for this sweater! Needless to say, I ordered more. For now, it'll be on hold until after the crazy business lets up a bit. I leave you all with a few photos from Berlin.

This was my daily morning view from the hostel boat. It's not a big party-boat like the website claims, it's actually very quiet and relaxing. I will definitely stay there again. It's also incredibly close (like 10 meters) from the last remaining parts of the Berlin Wall.
The wall isn't what I expected at all. I thought it would be huge and thick and made of bricks, and I guess I had that impression from that Pink Floyd album cover art. Well, it's not so big and certainly not thick. And right now it's very crumbly, and artists paint on it every year. Definitely worth checking out if any of you have the chance.

Ivanova

So much to knit, so little time!

I went to Berlin last weekend and finished up Klaralund just in time for the trip; good thing too because it was FREEZING! Snow and hail and rain all at the same time. Yuck! But I love going to Berlin, so a little bad weather won't slow me down too much. I just wish I'd packed smarter. Anyways here's the pics and details.
And for the modelled shot:
It looks saggy in this shot because I'm slouching. It really fits me quite well, and is very cosy and warm. I'm not a big fan of wearing pullovers, but I really like wearing this one.

Pattern: Klaralund from Noro - Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton Collection Book Number 2.

Yarn: Noro Kureyon 157 E, with balls swapped every second row except for the extended garter stitch pattern at the shoulders. I figured that part would look nicer if each flat bit plus ridge was a different color instead of striping within the pattern, so I swapped every 4 rows there (the pattern repeat is 4 rows).

Modifications: I added 1 inch of waist shaping on each side. I was also a bit hesitant about making the sweater because it tends to pull up at the neckline and look funny at the boob area. The last thing I want is to look like I have weird boobs. Check out the book's photo of this sweater on a fairly flat-chested young girl. Also google the pattern, you'll see many examples of this on other people with different figure types. My solution: I increased 1 inch on each side of the sleeve over the last 4 repeats of the extended garter stitch pattern. (The body is essentially a boob-tube and the sleeves are sewn into the top for shoulder coverage, giving the V-neck shaping, if you can't guess at the construction by the laying-on-the-bed photo). How did I come up with 1 inch each side? I put on the boob-tube and pinned it to my t-shirt at half-way over the boobs (this is where I figured the piece would lie from looking at many photos). Then I had my husband measure the length from back to front just over the shoulder (where there is not so much boob) and from half-way between my shoulder and spine (where there is more boob). With ease, I figured an inch would do the trick. I think it worked out pretty well, but each person should calculate this for themselves. Some people did not have this problem with this sweater, it could also depend on the broadness of one's shoulders.

Anyways, I'm very happy with the result! Yay! So what did I see in Berlin? Many shops, got my hair cut, many artsy cafes, and I went to an art gallery that was not so close to the city centre that has a large collection of pieces from 1400 to 1800 (or so, I lost the brochure). I was surprised at how well preserved the older pieces were, some of them managed to preserve the extremely bright colors of the paints. I mainly went to troll for costume ideas to augment my middle-ages dresses. There were very many religious paintings, but a few of relatively mundane situations. Here's the original photo I took of an inspirational piece from about 145o, roughly the late middle ages.
I know it's very blurry, but the lighting levels in art galleries are far from ideal for inexpert photographers and of course flash photography is forbidden. So do you see what I see? It's a capelet! This is what I came up with after some intensive photoshopping...
It's a textured capelet! I can make this... if you look closely it's a diamond and bobbles pattern, which I have in my harmony guide for aran knitting. And the edging? Hard to tell, but I think I could use seed stitch and get away with it. And I believe that there is a ribbon threaded though the edging and used as a fastener... I'll have to think about that because a worsted-weight capelet will be a bit heavy to be held shut by a ribbon-tie. I'd also like the capelet to be a bit longer than the one in the painting, but I'll have to see what I can get away with, with the 700-or so yards of gorgeous handspun blue aran weight wool yarn I bought in Berlin. Do I think the original garment in the painting was knitted? Before enhancement I thought the garment was made from a brocade fabric, but with enhancement I think it could have been knitted based on the shadows around the texture work. Who knows, I'm no expert. As long as it'll make it past the door-guy at the next festival, I'm happy. If only I had the CSI 'get-something-from-nothing' filter ;). I'll probably cast on after Christmas.

On the list of things to knit now: 1). The original design sweater which is being very naughty. I have to rip back many rows and rework the neckline. Boo! 2). Trud from Elsebeth Lavold Viking Knits Collection Volume 1 . Incentive: It's mostly reverse stockinette. If done as instructed (with seaming, yuck), it should be a reasonable fast knit once I get past the peplum. And I bought the yarn at the Easter Market, if I need more, I'll need to get it from the Market Yarn Lady who will be back for the Christmas Market. Disincentives: I'll need to do some serious math to make sure everything is in the right place. And I'll need to dig up my pre and post blocked swatch information. Still, I'm in the mood for it. I think I'll go do that now!

Ivanova