Warme Umhüllung

So, mein Gentle Cuddle ist fertig. Mit ein wenig Gefluche und viel Auftrennen. Nachdem ich jetzt schon einige Jacken für mich gestrickt habe, sehe ich langsam, wie ich Strickmuster auf mich anpassen muss, damit sie auch wirklich passen.

Wie hier beschrieben, basiert die Jacke auf dem Cubes Pullover - also zumindest die Zahlen für den Halsteil. Ich hatte mir die Größe L ausgesucht, denn ich habe endlich gemerkt, dass mein Rücken ja viel schmäler ist als meine Vorderseite. Als ich die 4. Reihe der Zunahmen fertig hatte, merkte ich, dass sie zu viel war. Es war einfach zu viel Stoff. Also trennte ich sie wieder auf und strickte gerade weiter und das war dann ok.

Aber ich habe jetzt auch gemerkt, dass die Distanz zwischen Schulter und Achselhöhle bei mir eigentlich nicht sehr groß ist. Von daher gibt es jetzt eine ausgeprägte Falte bei der Achsel, mit der ich halt leben muss. Die Ärmel gehen auch nicht ganz bis unter die Achselhöhle. Nächstes Mal experimentiere ich mal mit der kleinen Größe für den Anfang, vielleicht wird dann auch der Ausschnitt nicht ganz so riesig. Beziehungsweise gibt es ja auch die Methode, wo nur bei den Maschen für die Ärmel zugenommen wird ... aber da muss ich noch experimentieren.

Wahrscheinlich hätte ich ein paar der Maschen an den Ärmeln noch zum Körper dazugeben können. Schwierig wurde es mit den Taschen. Zuerst habe ich sie viel zu weit hinten angesetzt und mit den Körper mitgestrickt, aber das war keine gute Idee, sie wurden auch viel zu lang. Und die lila Wolle ist auch um einiges dünner als die graubraune, also habe ich den unteren Teil bis zur Farbgrenze wieder aufgetrennt und mehr Maschen zugenommen, damit auch mein Bauch genug Platz hat.

In der letzten Reihe vor dem Bündchen habe ich dann mit 2 Extraknäuelchen jeweils am Rand der Jacke über 20 Maschen doppelfädig gestrickt und die zusätzlichen 20 Maschen dann nach oben gestrickt. Oben bei der Farbgrenze angekommen reichte dann Kitchener Stitch, um die Tasche zu befestigen. Dann habe ich die Taschen noch eingefasst und dann war das untere Bündchen dran.

Als nächstes strickte ich die Knopfleisten, damit ich alles danach übriggebliebene Garn für die Ärmel verwenden konnte. Die Taschen waren an der Seite zur Knopfleiste noch offen, jetzt sollten sie geschlossen werden. Zuerst habe ich noch alle Fäden bei den Taschen vernäht, um mir später Mühe zu ersparen. Um auf der Innenseite nicht zu viel Material zu haben, was dazu führen könnte, dass die Knopfleiste nicht flach liegt, habe ich jeweils nur den äußersten Teil der Randmasche aufgenommen, normalerweise nehme ich die ganze Randmasche auf, damit alles ein wenig stabiler ist.

 

 Die Ärmel waren vergleichsweise einfach, ich musste nichts mehr auftrennen. Ich hatte noch ein paar recht kurze Restchen übrig und knotete sie alle aneinander, bis ich wieder ein kleines Knäuel hatte, aus dem habe ich dann vier kleine Fleckchen gestrickt, schräg, also mit einer Masche begonnen, daraus 2 gestrickt, in der nächsten Reihe aus einer Masche 2, also insgesamt 3 und dann am Rand immer zugenommen bis ich 9 Maschen hatte, in der Mitte ein Loch eingestrickt und dann wieder am Rand abgenommen bis 3 Maschen übrig waren, die 3 zusammengestrickt, aus.

Zusätzlich zu den 8 Knöpfen an der Knopfleiste nähte ich noch 4 Knöpfe an, die auch für sich allein gut aussehen. Ich wollte auch noch kleinere Knöpfe rundherum nähen, aber das wird glaube ich zu viel. Jedenfalls lassen sich die Flecken dranknöpfen. Die ganzen Enden und Knoten an den Fleckchen habe ich absichtlich nicht vernäht und ich finde das sieht ziemlich gut aus so.

Allerdings gibt mir das mit meinen Maßen schon zu denken. Wahrscheinlich sollte ich mich endlich mal komplett abmessen und diese Maße irgendwo notieren und dann jeweils Berechnungen anstellen, dann müsste ich nicht so viel auftrennen. Leider werden meine Maschenproben nie so, wie ich dann am kompletten Stück stricke. Auf jeden Fall bin ich sehr zufrieden mit der Jacke, sie ist schön, seeeehr warm - und ich habe die Wolle wirklich bis auf den letzten Fitzel aufgebraucht!

poor blog

Abandoned for weeks, while I go off to have fun at work! Abused for facebook testing! A blog's life is hard.

I have tons of knitting to show you. I finished beautiful things. But now that my work is taking up a lot of time in my day, the amount of knitting I do has gone down of course. Not that anybody would see and I don't think most people would mind if I knit at work - but it's just not done. So I knit on my way to work, I knit in the morning before work, I knit in the evening after work.

The week before I started working, I celebrated by yarn shopping. I went to the yarnshop that is just around the corner from work - the wonderful Laufmasche and bought lots of yarn. And then I cast on immediately. ITO Sensai, a Japanese silk/mohair yarn, just can't be kept waiting. I picked up one little yarn cake of Blackberry and one of String and just knit whatever came to mind. Stripes, lace, cables, stockinette, garter stitch, on and on until I felt it was long enough. And it turned out beautifully, as you can see on the left.

The purple is such a beautiful, rare shade, the silk adds luster and depth, and the soft mohair just feels heavenly. The "String" colorway is not exactly grey, it has a subtle brownish touch, which adds warmth to the cold purple. I simply called it Blackberry String.

 
After I was done with this beauty, I somehow felt the urge to start a project I've had in mind since last fall. One of my favorite yarns, Lana Grossa Nuvola, has been discontinued and replaced with an updated version. The updated version is fine, too, but just doesn't have the same beautiful heathered colors that the original used to have. Good thing I bought plenty of Nuvola for two pairs of mittens and two jackets. But back to that project.

Back in 2009 I picked up some yarn at the medieval market happening every year at the Army History Museum in Vienna. It's kind of like a Renaissance Fair, but with a more military aspect. Anyway, there was a dyer who dyed with natural dyes that were available in medieval times, too. So I bought some yarn dyed with madder and some that was dyed with walnut. And ever since then I've been in love with the combination of light brown and bright red, with some white added to it, for good measure. Last year, Nuvola had those exact colors.

All that was left to do was pick some medieval patterns and start knitting. But I let the yarn rest. And rest. And rest. Until two weeks ago. Then inspiration struck.

This summer I bought a red shirt with little white bunnies on it. You can see it on the right, with the matching earrings. I love that shirt. And I quite like bunnies. So I looked at all the patterns I could find that seemed medieval to me and when I saw a bunny pattern, I knew I'd put it in my scarf.

In the end, it turned out like this:

I added some fairisle patterns I had copied from a book in Scotland for good measure and a much more medieval dog pattern, did some math (many times), cast on (many times) and knit. In the round. Yes, there was going to be steeking.

In the end, Le lièvre et le dragon took almost exactly the three balls of yarn I had, one of each color. For the white parts of the fringe, I needed a tiny bit of yarn from another ball, because I had used the white ball of Nuvola for Totoro eyes, Totoro stomach (twice) and skulls.

Isn't it gorgeous? I still need to even out some of the stitches, sew the steeked endings a little more tightly to the scarf, and once it is blocked, I need to see whether the scarf needs backing, but I'm already incredibly proud of it.

But what now? I have three big projects from last spring that need completing, two of which I actually want to finish, lots of small projects that need finishing, and little knitting time. But since the large projects are too large to lug around and the small projects need too many bits and pieces to carry with me, I cast on for yet another scarf, because I don't have one million billion kajillion scarves already. But who could say no to this color?

My Raspberry Broadside, made with the incredibly soft Zitron Unisono - the first sock yarn I've held in my hands that is actually soft enough for a scarf - is a bit of an experiment as well. I'm currently undecided whether I want to add a second skein, so I'll be weighing the rest of the skein to see how much yarn I still have left over.

There is lots more yarn waiting for me. There are many, many patterns in my queue. But I signed up to start working on my PhD and we'll see how it all goes with working, studying and knitting. One thing is sure: there will be no knitted Christmas presents this year - for the first time in ages.

project 250

Before I flit off to Styria for a few days, let me tell you a little about my 250th project and let's ignore the trip to Bonn and the knitting I did there and the yarn I bought today until next week.


250 is supposed to be the first garment knit by and for myself that I can wear without thinking: "But I could have done this much better and this doesn't fit well and this isn't good and this and that is wrong". I picked a pattern that I have been wanting and waiting to knit since 2008. It's called Stormsvale (not a Ravelry link) and attracted me instantly with its pretty, understated herringbone stitch and attractive fairisle bands. Yes ... I can wait years until I start a pattern. Capricorns are patient like that.


However, I decided to go in a completely different direction with the construction. The yarn that I'm using is vintage yarn that was given to me by my father quite some time ago. It's probably between 35 and 40 years old or maybe older. I only have 10 balls of dark blue, a bit of grey, a bit of green and a bit of white - and the green is much moth-eaten. After some deliberation, I replaced the green and the white yarn with purple and a variegated turquoise-grey-brown yarn to make the fairisle band stand out more.

So making the most of my yarn gave me the idea of knitting this cardigan in a new way. Instead of starting at the bottom, I used a provisional cast-on and knit the color band that should sit just below the bust first - and I knit it with a steek, because that's easier.



Then I switched to smaller needles and used the instructions from the pattern for what would happen after the fairisle band, i.e., bust shaping, armhole shaping, back and shoulder shaping and so on. The shoulders were knit using shortrow shaping, so I could do a three-needle bind-off (so worth it!).

After that, I knit the two sleeves. They were also started from a provisional cast-off and with the color band. Instead of putting the band at the wrist I moved it up to the upper arm and decided that short sleeves were the way to go. My first try at an edging was a reverse stockinette edging that would curl inwards and give it a sort of i-cord bind-off look without the actual i-cord (I hate i-cord), but now I'm afraid that actual i-cord is called for to make it look good. Man, do I ever hate i-cord. And this jacket will need a lot of i-cord bind-off.


The next step in the plan was to pick up the stitches from the provisional cast-on of the main fairisle band and just knit down from there for the "skirt", increasing steadily to give the whole cardigan a sort of Jane Austen vibe. I started doing that and after a while, I felt the need to see how the whole jacket would look. So I used some small hair clasps to hold the pieces together and put in one sleeve.

And of course a problem immediately revealed itself. There is a lot of extra fabric under my arms that should not be there. It looks weird when I lift my arm and there are weird welts and bulk when my arm is down.

What was to blame? As per the instructions,
I increased stitches at both sides under the arms and that is where the extra fabric came from, since my gauge is a bit bigger than the pattern specified. The only solution to this is ripping out the whole top (curses and swearwords) and not increasing that many stitches. Or maybe still increasing the stitches, but making the armhole smaller.

Of course, if I do this, the question is whether the sleeves will still fit. Maybe I'll have to reknit the sleeves, too. I do have to reknit one, anyway, since I knit it far too loosely. Reknitting the whole top really doesn't thrill me at all very much, but since I am determined to make this jacket fit and look good, I'll do it.

It will be a good chance to fix the neckline, too. I went with the original neck instructions, intending to maybe do some ribbing instead of the fairisle stand-up collar, but that just looks too uptight. So, a far lower neckline is required and it will probably also be finished with the all-powerful i-cord bind-off (grumble). Then more i-cord for the skirt bind-off. Then sewing the steek! And then the endless button bands! Two of those! To say nothing of sewing the button loops and sewing on the buttons!

Why did I start knitting this again?

Well, look at that last picture. It will be a seriously nice jacket once it's done, so I'll put in the effort to make sure it will turn out that way. My new lace shawl will just have to wait ... and maybe I should block all the lace shawls I have knit up to now before I start a new one. Or not.