it's not like I stopped knitting

Only stopped taking pictures and blogging about it. Also had some troubles with motivation, for a while there I went back to socks, which is usually a sign that I've kind of run out of ideas and all projects in progress need involved work to be finished. Eh. At least I have managed to cross two sock patterns off my queue that were on there for a long time and one birthday present for a friend is also already done (keeping just one pair of those socks).

But then, all of a sudden, my mojo came back. As usual, it was because I had promised to make something for somebody - a pair of fingerless gloves. Also as usual, the inspiration came in the yarn shop and also as usual, the gloves I created turned out so prettily that I didn't want to give them away. So on Tuesday it's back to the yarn store to pick up more yarn so I can make some for myself (which will happen in ... 2 or 3 years I'm sure).

Very medievally inspired. They're called Heathered Brocade, yarn is as usual for gloves, Lana Grossa Cool Wool 2000, 100% superwash merino. It's slightly heathered and looks even more gorgeous in person.

Sadly here my camera decided to suck and I think I forgot to turn on the macro function. I really need a new one. Patterns are from the Scottish pattern book I studied in Edinburgh. I copied those I liked by hand ...

Amazingly detailed for gloves that are not for me!

On their intended wearer. And on it goes. I wonder what kind of project I should start to see me through my thesis. In the meanwhile, I'll leave you with a dreamy picture of the Alpenglühen in the South of Switzerland.

sneaky March - musings on baby shirts

The sun is shining right in my window, so I can't watch anime - right now I'm on the Deathnote bandwagon and it's a little disappointing. I guess if you haven't seen much anime, this might strike you as the awesomest anime ever, but it's rather plotholey, shark-jumpey and too shounen (male-targeted) by half. Interesting that they've made the evil guy so good-looking and the good guy so strangely bird-like. Also, the one smart female character is treated like shit by her fiance and is killed off in one episode right at the beginning, while the annoying fanservice female character stays on and on and on ... gah. It is still an interesting thought experiment, though, which is always the best thing about anime.

Ok, enough of that. On to knitting. Lately, I've kind of been inspired to knit a few more baby things. I think the intended recipient must have been born already, I'm just waiting for the email. I wanted to use up some of the cotton yarn I had bought and so at first, I thought about making a knitted dress with large block stripes in turquoise and red, but it didn't look so hot (different yarns) and it would have fit a five-year-old.

I've actually already made a baby shirt a while ago, in summer 2008, as part of a set of playclothes, to try and use up cotton yarn leftovers (Lana Grossa Toccata, to be precise). I never got around to the pants, though. I had to reknit this because I wasn't careful enough about carrying the yarn between the stripes and there were large gaps and it looked awful. So, reknitting. And reknitting. And reknitting. I hate reknitting with cotton yarn. But I really love these colors together:

This was knit from the top down, following the construction I had put to use on an unfinished project that needs a lot of rethinking. I decided to end it with a rolled brim, because nothing else looked good. Consequently, I've been using the rolled brim in all my other baby shirts, too.

Leftovers can provide a lot of inspiration. As I repeatedly mentioned when writing about the Snow Bunny, I love the Lana Grossa Latte yarn - they also make rather a nice blue. So when I ended up with over half (too lazy to measure) a ball of the white Latte, I decided to buy a ball of blue latte and give in to this year's fashion. Yes, the French blue and white stripes have returned in force (from doing a turn in the 80s and again in the mid-90s). I love that look. Can't wear it, but I love it. So, why not make small children wear it, they can't defend themselves and look cute in it. (Muahahaha). I give you the Classic Baby Shirt. Done bottom-up, because ... no reason. I love it, it's soft and beautiful.

After this, I was on a roll. Having decided to abandon the block stripes, I thought about how little texture I had been using for the baby clothes I had made so far (with a few exceptions, but still) and how little lace! That had to be remedied. I wanted some sort of smocking effect, but not too much. And something lacy and textured. Well, one of those stitches that is really, really easy and never leaves my brain is the Trinity Stitch. Makes little cluster balls that look like berries.

I gave it the rather stark name of One Texture, I guess a cuter name would be Summer Raspberry, but let's not get too twee here. The yarn is Lana Grossa Bingo and it has been in my stash for a long time, so yay! More space for new yarn. I wanted to do a different top construction and ended up with this kimono-like thing - I just hope it actually fits. As usual, worries about arm and head size abounded, since I don't actually have a real life baby to put this on.

From One Texture to Texture Two (aka Pie Crust Shirt or something). This time, I chose the Classic Baby Shirt construction again, but decided to do a twisted stitch rib on the straps so they wouldn't grow so much. The yarn is Lana Grossa Linea Pura Organico, which has plenty of beautiful colors. Originally it should have been a summer hat - yeah, just what a baby needs, a heavy cotton summer hat. Design fail.

I think I could go on and on knitting baby shirts. But actually, I've gone back to hats, since I decided to make a few more things that can be used immediately. It's rather boring having to wait to use all the handknitted stuff, no? A bit of instant gratification never hurt. So, because there must be some cutesy things, here's a cutesy Litte Flower Hat, knit using Lana Grossa Linea Pura Flora.

And that's it. Knitting a slightly larger hat with a bit of a lace pattern in the pink Flora and watching Deathnote. Maybe to get in the mood for the next baby thing (not for the same baby), which involves hot pink and black yarn and skulls ...

spring has sprung

Only a day after complaining about the lousy weather it turned awesomely sunny. And even with a few grey days in between, it has stayed sunny. Spring is in the air and I'm torn between wanting to knit more mittens and abandoning all winter projects. Looking at my Ravelry projects, I thought I had more projects that had to do with spring - apparently not! And not all of them are in spring colors either. But I'll introduce them here, anyway.

The oldest project is the Spring Hat for little girls, a pattern of my own design.The yarn is Jaeger Matchmaker, a mercerized cotton yarn. Sometimes I just get the urge to knit something girly, even if I do favour gender-neutral children's clothing (or actually boy clothing because I like the colors better). I do love adding just a bit of ornamentation to an otherwise plain item so that the yarn can really shine, but is accentuated by the pattern. So that's what I did here.

 

Next up is a favorite pair of fingerless gloves, the Spring Flirt gloves, also my own design, the cable pattern is from the Vogue Stitionary 2 book. These werde done in Lana Grossa Furetto and I love their color combination. Sadly, the yarn has been discontinued. I love these especially because compared to other mittens and fingerless gloves I have made, they're pretty short, so they're useful if I wear a jacket or shirt with especially long sleeves.

Then there's the little Spring Bracelet from when I was doing a spot of beaded knitting. It's a modification of Knitty's Maryella design. I've since given up knitting beaded bracelets, because there is too much sewing involved - those snaps are a pain! However, I do want to do more beaded knitting and explore its possibilities ... some day.

The penultimate project (yes! I've finally used this word!) is the Spring Blanket - also my own design. It doesn't have a dedicated owner yet (more about that when I run out of material again) and so I use it to keep my legs warm on my couch in the morning. I used Lana Grossa New Cotton for this and recycled the white and green from a scarf I knit back in ... who knows when, at the beginning of the knitting obsession. I do love it very much, but it isn't blocked yet, though, so the squares still are as sloppy as they look her.

Waiting for Spring is the last project with "spring" in the name - these gloves are currently undergoing a redesign. I wanted stripes and zigzag, but the zigzag thing is seriously messing up my thumb construction and I don't want to bother anymore. Plain stripes it will be! which involves unravelling everything I've done so far, which does kinda suck. But if the finished product isn't nice, then what's the point.

Here you can see the inspiration from the baby cap put to use! And there's sunlight as proof. Dang zigzags ... I'm not completely convinced that I should undo everything yet.

i think the sun has gone forever

There's a reason why there hasn't been a post in almost a week. The sun has completely disappeared and taking pictures has been nearly impossible for a while. On Wednesday I had a glimpse of something resembling sunshine, but then it went away just as fast. Another reason is that I've finally been able to find Elizabeth George's "Careless in Red" at the public library - I've been waiting for this for quite a while. Now that I've read it, I must say, I felt a little flat about this one, especially after "What Came Before He Shot Her". The solution was a tad too obvious for my taste, but I won't spoil it here.

Then I came across "Hue & Cry" (1947) which caused me no end of pleasure, because I have come to love British films, especially the late 1930s, war-time and post-war films, so I had to watch it. It's a most adventurous story about a gang of boys finding out that crooks pass messages through a boys' newspaper - there's a definite touch of Kästner's Emil and the Detectives, but the film is more brutal and very British. Through it I have finally made the acquaintance of Alistair Sim, who was once the rector of Edinburgh University and who will never leave my memory again. (There's *na-hemm* gin in mine.) Add to all that some manga read online and well - knitting time got converted into reading time.

So now I can't do much but wait for the sun to come out so I can take a picture of my 200th project, which has been finished for a while, it just needs a big button and all the ends need to be hidden. Then there are my beautiful Plum Blossoms in the Snow mittens which need plum blossoms and snow flakes, even though they're nice enough as they are now:

And of course while waiting for the sun I can knit even more - I've started my fingerless gloves inspired by the coloring of the Sweet Elfin Baby cap and am up to the thumb on the first, but wrestling with how many stitches to use for the thumb ...

Guess if this sunless thing goes on, I'll have to do a post "from the archives". Maybe one about my sad attempts at berets or about my fleeting affair with socks or about my true love for all things mittenish ...

P.S.:

quick action

Usually it takes me a while to finish things. I hate weaving ends, sewing on buttons, seaming and blocking. It's all too boring. But once in a while, when I'm feeling inspired, things get finished rather quickly. Those red gloves were finished in a flash - ends woven in, blocked and all. And something else got finished rather quickly, too.

My snow bunny from the second episode of Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou. First I used the figure-8 cast-on to cast on 8 stitches, increased 4 stitches every row for a bit, then 8 stitches every row for a bit. Then knit straight, then increases again and finally scattered decreases to create the round bum. I think it's a pretty accurate copy, except the nose is maybe a touch too pointy and the ears are a bit longer, too. But I don't think that detracts from its cuteness. I just wish the light was better.

out in the snow

The mittens for Finland are finished, all ends are tucked away and right now they're blocking. I took them for a little outing to get a more interesting background than my windowsill and they fit right in with the weather.

For Finland!

Mittens are my true love. I love mittens. I wear them more often than the socks I've knitted, that's for sure. Mittens to me are like tiny canvases on which to try things I'd never try in a sweater. Also, buy two balls of yarn (or even just one) and a pair of mittens or fingerless gloves at least is always a possibility. And if something goes wrong, ripping it all out won't be such a drama. What's hard to fit on mittens? Big fat cables, intarsia and well, lace mittens ... maybe not the best idea. Besides mittens, I also love fingerless gloves and wristwarmers, but that's for another post.

Today I'd like to introduce a mitten fresh from the brain. A friend of mine who was among the first people I met when I went online back in April 1999 a very long time ago recently complained about the cold (on facebook, where else). We used to send little things to each other ages ago, so I thought - mittens, why not? After much back and forth about his hand measurements and the color of yarn he'd prefer, I went to my favorite yarn store to search for dark red yarn. In my brain, a devilish idea was already lurking.

It's cold in Finland, very cold (otherwise he wouldn't have complained). So I couldn't knit just a simple mitten - anyone can do that. No, I would knit a superwarm mitten! But how? Simply doubling the yarn would make for warm mittens, but bigger stitches mean colder hands when it's windy. Enter a very simple solution, if you like fairisle, that is.

I bought four balls of yarn of the same color, a fluffy, muted dark red. The yarn is Lana Grossa Linea Pura Verde, a mixture of merino and alpaca. Then I doubled the yarn and knit the cuffs in a simple but pleasing pattern of k1tbl, p2. After 12 rows, I switched back to single yarn and knit one stitch with one ball, the next with the other, etc. So, stranded knitting with the same color. I increased periodically from 30 stitches to 72, then set aside 20 for the thumb, but didn't cast on any further stitches. I knit knit knit until the glove was too long (I still have to fix that), then I started decreasing and did a three-needle bindoff at the top, it just looked better. Add the thumb and - voila - a superwarm dark red mitten, that just needs its top ripped out a little ... for Finland!