joyousknits

Klaralund!

 

I've always wanted to make Klaralund (from Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton's Noro book 2) but couldn't get over the itch of Kureyon or Silk Garden, so I was thrilled when Noro came out with Matsuri, a cotton stripey yarn, and in dk weight to boot.

   

I started by  knitting from one sleeve cuff to the other in one piece.  The sleeves are straight, instead of belled.  If you don't already know, I'm a bit picky about matching the stripes.  It was a bit of a blessing (ha!) that of the nine balls of yarn used for this sweater, eight of them had knots, and so all that cutting and having enough of whatever colors to match turned out not to be a problem. 

   

I picked up stitches from the upper body and knit the lower part top-down and in the round.  In order to have stripes that aren't too thin from knitting longer rows, I knit with alternate balls of yarn that started at the same color.  There were some rows in the front where the colors didn't match/blend exactly (in left picture) but in general the stripes turned out about the same width as the sleeves.  I added a little waist shaping too.

   

Klaralund weather has finally arrived. Yay!

Maris

The first time I posted about this cardigan was waaaaay back in February 2007, when all the pieces had already been knit up.  

 

Pattern source: Maris, from Rowan 41.  Yarn: 9 balls Rowan Calmer in Bleached. 

Knitting time:  two weeks.  Seaming time: one gazillion years.  

  The front bands are folded down and tacked with buttons, as are the sleeve cuffs. 

 

It sure feels good to finish!

Kimono Jacket

From the deepest depths of the pictures folder, a ten month old fo:

   

The pattern for this Kimono Jacket comes from Rowan Studio 7.  I made it for Chinese New Year, which was about nine months ago!  Normally, I prefer to use red for CNY (any color is acceptable to wear except white), but I was in a stash-busting frame of mind, and the Queensland Kathmandu DK turned out to be a good substitute for the Rowan Scottish Tweed DK called for.  I ended up using only 9 balls of yarn.

     

It was a straight-forward knit, with little finishing, since the front bands, lapels, and collar were knit at the same time.  If there's anything I might do differently, it would be to knit an entire belt rather than having a little tie at the front, so that the waist could be cinched in.

   

I wore this for three days straight during CNY, with either a purple or red top underneath.  The yarn is exceptionally soft for a woolly tweed, but fuzzed up a little at the shoulders where I'd slung my bag.  That's all I can remember about this knit after ten months.  I really should get on with those fos! :) 

Lace lust

Ever since Terhi gave me this Wetterhoff Sivilla wool/silk yarn two (yikes, two!) years ago, I've been trying to find the perfect shawl pattern for 750 m of thin fingering weight.  Then it occurred to me: there would never be a perfect pattern, and that I should knit something I like, as soon as all the yarn gets used up.

 

This is the Estonian Garden Wrap pattern from Fiber Trends, started after those Socktober socks.  I started on one of the borders first, rather than the main part, as I am unsure whether or not there'll be enough yarn.  Just over 30 g of yarn has been used, so I might have a little less than needed to knit the full pattern.  Whatever the case, with my trusty little scale, I'll be able to squeeze as many pattern repeats as possible.  I'm looking forward to knitting the rest of this; it's been a long time since my last lace encounter and I miss it!

Nothing gold can stay*

In the stash, apparently.  I've knit up the last of my gold yarn.

I'm sure you'll all recognize the ubiquitous Clapotis.  Not much left to say about the pattern.  This knit was all about the yarn, Artfibers Silk Rhapsody Glitter. 

I only had two skeins, with about 560 yds, so I did two fewer repeats of the increasing rows before starting the straight rows.  I wish I hadn't because the the finished wrap has a tendency to stretch lengthwise with this super drapey (and super soft) yarn, and I would've preferred a wider wrap.  The yarn is basically a strand of DK weight silk with a strand of lace weight mohair and glitter, so the knitting was a bit slow at times when I had to make sure I caught all strands.

The yarn is at its shimmery best under artificial light, the kind that makes diamonds extra sparkly. ;-)  Understated by day and a bit glamorous by night.  I don't think I could ask for more of my golden yarn.

*borrowed from one of my favorite Frost poems

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In other knitting news, I had started, and am nearly finished with Brambling, from Rowan's Story Book of Little Knits.

I'm using Jaeger's Extrafine Merino Aran, which if you don't know already, is going for a steal at Cucumberpatch.  This is a nice and squishy yarn that's machine washable.  I can't believe the whole Jaeger line will be discontinued.  It's taking all my self restraint not to get more of this stuff!

The finishing will have to wait til after I get back from vacation in a couple of weeks.  I'm all packed, and my travelling project was a no-brainer.  Socks, of course!  See you all soon!

The Wispy Flair

I really, really wanted Kim Hargreaves' Wispy when I first saw it, but decided to wait a few days for the excitement to cool off and avoided an impulse kit purchase.  I still have the Carrie kit from last year still waiting to be cast on, so maybe it was a bit of guilt that prevented me from buying another.  And then Siow Chin alerted me to Knit and Tonic Wendy's Flair pattern.  Isn't it great to have knitting buddies? ;-)

Top down and mostly stocking stitch, like Wendy's pattern, but big front bands with two saucer sized buttons, slightly longer sleeves, and knit with Rowan Summer Tweed, like in Kim's pattern.  The Summer Tweed!  I thought I'd never use it again after using it for these two projects.  I didn't like the way those garments stretched (a lot!!) at the recommended gauge of 4 st/ inch, and depending on your color/lot choice, the yarn can be quite rough, as I found out in the stripy sweater.  It goes to show how much I liked the original tweedy Kim design to buy this yarn.  Perhaps it was not the smartest thing to just hope but I thought the tighter gauge for this pattern (4.5 st/ inch) might make it less stretchy and just crossed my fingers that this particular lot of yarn (color is Summer Berry) would be soft (it is).

The biggest modification to the pattern was the button/ button hole bands, which were knit in double moss stitch.  I had knit the 36" size, cast on three fewer stitches on each side of the neck, and used 11 instead of 7 stitches for the bands.  The buttonholes were done over 3 stitches instead of 2.  I used just two rows of seed stitch at the neck, sleeve and hem edges, so that there were no other bands to distract you from the front ones. The edges would probably roll with a sproingier yarn, but the Summer Tweed pretty much stayed where it's finger pressed.  The fabric is stiffer at this gauge, but at least the jacket isn't stretching out.  Six and a half skeins of Summer Tweed were enough for this project.

I hadn't knit much over and after the holidays.  I slept a lot, cooked a bit, spent lots of time with the boys, and lunched with the knit buds.  (Thanks to Siow Chin and Maryann for taking the Wispy Flair photos for me. :-))  Time to go... I should get cracking on those wips of mine!!

What's more humbling

than finding a mistake in your garter stitch?

It's a reknit of the cherry scarf, which I'd mentioned over a year earlier.  I guess I just didn't like my uneven stitches, and the way I'd woven in the ends (kind of lumpy) that the cherries were't getting attached to the first scarf, which was knit up over two years ago.  So it's being reknit with new yarn (yummy Jaeger extrafine merino), and because it's a gift, it has to be done soon, so no more dilly dallying!  Anyway, I think I made that mistake because I started this right after I finished the last piece of Maris (from Rowan 41), whose second last stitch on every row was a purl.  Here're the Maris pieces ready to be seamed up:

A trip to town to the notions store is in order.  Maris is an open cardi, with the front bands flipped outwards, buttoned down on both sides.  I can't decide between colorful buttons and pearl buttons on bleach white.  Any thoughts on that?

Smoulder

I was telling the hubby the other day how I liked the Chinese New Year of yesteryear, when the whole of Hong Kong would slow to a standstill.  I kind of miss the rush of having to make sure I got all the food and gift packages ready before the festivities because all the shops and restaurants would be closed for a couple of days.  And because I hate crowds, I loved that the normally busy areas of town were devoid of people and cars.  Not any more.  Lots of shops and restaurants are opened so fewer people are staying at home.  I miss the cold too!  I used to look forward to dressing the kids up in the silk padded jackets that my mil had made.  This year, people were walking around wearing T-shirts in the hottest CNY on record. In fact, it was really too hot to wear Smoulder, but of course, I wore it anyway. ;-)

Here it is, making it's way around the streets of HK.  That's H peeking from behind me.  H is a pig, and if he's anything to go by, I'll say that pigs are gentle and generous to a fault, very easy going, dreamy, and optimistic folk.

The elbows are a bit saggy with wear for three days straight.

Pattern: Smoulder from Rowan 31

Yarns:  Rowan Cotton Glace and Cotton 4-ply in stated colors as the pattern, except for Blood Orange, for which I substituted Rowan Nice in the same shade.  (The Nice yarn is terribly splitty, and the knitting slowed down a lot when I knit that color to make sure I caught the nearly thirty strands in each stitch.)

A couple of the big color bands from the sleeves were deleted to suit my short arms, and the fronts/back were knit as one piece.  I'm sooo glad I did that because I had over 250 ends to weave in as it was, and if everything was knit separately, there would've been about three times the number of ends! 

The different yarns had different spins, and it was noticeable when two extreme opposite leaning bands of color were close to one another, such as the bright light red (Cotton Glace in Poppy) near the bottom of the picture, which leaned right, and the darker red (Nice in Blood Orange) above it which leaned to the left.  The buttonhole and button bands are self-faced, so it's a bulky four layers of fabric when the cardi was buttoned up.  All minor things to consider in the big picture, because I'm quite happy with the whole thing.

Smoulder was started (and nearly done except for weaving in the ends, sleeve seams, and neckband) almost a year ago, and I must have gained weight since then because the fit is a bit on the snug side, which was aggravated by all the holiday feasting. ;-) 

Here's some lai see (lucky money) for you!  A happy and healthy Year of the Pig to everyone! (BTW, this last picture best represents Smoulder's colors.)

So I hear it's going to be warm

on Chinese New Year this Sunday.  It's going to rain too, but I don't care, because I'll be wearing a little bit of sunshine.

Just a neckband and buttons to go for Smoulder.  It's going to need a washing on Saturday because plenty of dust has settled on it over the year. 

I started something new as my portable project.  It's a sleeve for Maris (Rowan 41), also known as the biggest yarn gobbler ever.  It's Calmer, knit at a gauge of 25 st/ 35 rows for a 10cm square.  Simple but s-l-o-w.  It is also white, which signifies death for some people here, so I probably won't be knitting this when I go round visiting relatives during the holiday.

This year, I've been late in preparing for the holidays so there's still lots to do tomorrow, like cleaning the house.  I won't get to it until Smoulder is done.  ;-)

Mismatched mates

These were based on Nancy Bush's Hiiumaa Mismatched Mates in Knitting on the Road.  It turned out after knitting the first sock (on the left) that I had enough blue left over for an entire sock, so that I could stripe the second one any way I liked.  I find totally random stripes rather difficult to do, as my hands would unwittingly continue knitting in one color unless I knew ahead of time where to change colors, so these ended up with patterned stripes. The yarn is Jaeger Baby Merino 4 ply, one skein Indigo, plus one white dyed with Limeade Koolaid (lots leftover), and knit at 56 st on 2.25 mm needles.  They're for Y, the little one who wanted his own socks, just because his brothers had handknit socks. 

When I finished the first one, I was so sure I couldn't be happier with another stripe pattern, and yet, when I was knitting the second, it became my favorite. Put side by side, I can't decide.

I like the stripes on the reverse side too, but there was no way I could purl every row for socks. There're small jogs at the beginning of the rounds, but not so bad that I wanted to do something about them.

The round toes are becoming my favorite, especially since I'm not that fond of doing the K stitch.  After the socks were done, I started something new immediately.  It's Pampas, from Rowan 40:

Once in a while, when my stash becomes overwhelming and there's no space to stuff another ball of yarn in the cupboard or under the table, I have a great urge to knit up the biggest pack of chunkiest yarn.  The chunkiest was the Rowan Chunky Print, which I'd bought a few months ago to make Mist, thinking I could figure out the pattern without paying kit prices. (Never mind that it's on sale now, and I'm so kicking myself!) I still think I could figure out the pattern, but I just don't have the time right now.  I have to make room!

Pampas is written to be knit with Big Wool at 10 st/ 10 cm, while mine knits at 13.5 st/ 10 cm, using 8 mm needles.  I'm not totally sure of the gauge, as the thick and thin texture, and the somewhat loose stitches make it difficult to measure.  I erred on the side of small when deciding on the number of sts to cast on, because I think it'll stretch a bit with wear.  What you see above (back plus two front, with shoulders seamed, ends woven in, and half a sleeve) is two day's worth of knitting over the weekend, when I stayed home most of the time.  Don't expect it finished in another two days though, as I'm stuck at the sleeve cap shaping at the moment, plus I don't have the correct sized crochet hook to do the edging.  But soon, I hope.