A Couple of Newbies...

Ah, what a relaxing week. A bit of snow, plenty of kittens and way too much food! And - a few new projects.

Firstly, the Anemoi Mittens:

These are designed by none other than Eunny Jang, and the pattern can be found right here. I'm using alpaca and larger needles than suggested for the largest mitten size, in order to account for my lovely big man-sized hands (and oftentimes dangerously long fingernails) and the fact that all gloves and mittens in the history of mankind are too small for me. The pattern looks really well-written and the charts are wonderfully clear.


And here we have some new socks. Where is the pattern from? Oh no! Drops design! Yep, after the success of the baby jacket, I'm giving drops another go. I even looked through all of the drops patterns on Ravelry and was surprised to see how few of them have been made and entered into the database by members. That is, except for a couple of patterns that have several hundred projects! Like this one and this one, for example.

The ribbing at the beginning turned out to be too big once the cables started and caused the fabric to gather. So, I frogged. It's getting easier to rip out stuff now, although there are usually some grumbles. Anyway, the first cast on was 90 stitches in K2,P3 rib and the second cast on was 72 stitches in K2,P2 and I made the increases at the point when the rib changed to the cables. So far I like the shape much better and I think I made the right decision to make the change.

There are a couple of other new bits and pieces at the moment, but one of them is almost finished and will hopefully be up soon. I've been using my new Eastern Knitting technique and have had to deal with increases both knitwise and purlwise, so there will be some discussion about that!

A Fresh Discovery!

A few days ago, an innocent browse through the bottomless pit that is 'the internet' turned up a delightful little surprise. It's a knitting style that I'd never seen before. I did some research on it, and it seems that it's commonly referred to as 'Eastern European Knitting', but I've seen a couple of other names, including 'Combined Method Continental Hold'.

I don't know how widespread this style is. Perhaps everybody except me knows about it! In general, in our English-speaking society, we refer almost exclusively to English Style and Continental Style, and sometimes to Combined Knitting, but this is one style that I was totally unfamiliar with.

Anyway, I gave it a try and it's fabulous! It uses working through the back of the loop to allow both knitting and purling with the yarn in the back. No more bringing the yarn to the front! Knitting and purling with the yarn in back! Woo hoo!

I also like this style because my tension comes out better. I'm a hopelessly loose knitter, with knit and purl rows differing, but with Eastern Knitting, ahhh, the smoothness!

I spent a few hours practising this and I like it much more than standard Continental Style. I learned how to knit English Style when I was but a wee lass. A few months ago, I tried Continental Style and loved the knit stitch, so simple and quick, but geez, how the purl stitch sucks! Eastern Style doesn't have such a simple knit stitch, but the purl is its saving grace.

After the practice session, I made a few videos to demonstrate this technique. Like I said, I don't know how many folks out there are aware of this style, but if I didn't know about it, then surely some others don't know about it either.

The videos are only 30 seconds long because that's all my camera will allow. I hope they're light enough and in focus. It's so hard to hold the needles at a consistent distance from the camera lens! I also hope that they're slow and smooth enough so you can see how the stitches are created. Please let me know if there's anything I can do to improve them.

I would love to hear your comments about this topic. Do any of you knit like this? What do you know about it that you can share?

So this is all I know of this style at the moment, but there are lots of little things to figure out. How does one cast on? What happens with K2tog? Or with ktbl? Increases? When a pattern says 'slip one purlwise', what do I do then? It's all a mystery to me at this stage, but with a little bit of patience, this might just become a very viable alternative to the old English 'whip' method.

There will definitely be more posts on this topic!

Eastern Knitting - The Knit Stitch



Eastern Knitting - The Purl Stitch


Eastern Knitting - K1, P1 Ribbing

It's a Baby! (jacket)

Yes! A little person is going to have a present when he/she makes it into the world! (I think you can click on the fotos for a bigger size)

Pattern: Drops Design b14-27 Jacket free free free free!
Yarn details:

• the label is a bit confusing (more eastern European stuff)
• it seems that the name of the yarn is 'Donna'
• 50% cotton/50% viscose
• 50gr = 125m
• colours 106 (green) and 105 (gold)
• about one and a half balls of yellow and a little more than two of green used

Neeldes: 2.5mm

The weight, sheen and texture of this yarn all combine to give a really nice drape and feeling to the garment, and I'm very happy with how the garter stitch on small needles looks. It's not going to be the world's warmest jacket, not with the fiber content. I just love how the colours turned out, after uming and ahing over them at the beginning; I think they're dramatic and bold and they're going to be great on a really cool-looking baby!

This drops pattern, for once, didn't give me any headaches (although I did find a small mistake in one of the stitch numbers and I emailed them about it and now it's fixed). This time it was my knitting that wasn't up to the task. The end of it is way looser than the beginning. This could mean many things: I was tense at the beginning; I was relaxed at the end; the boogey man secretly changed my needles up half a millimetre after the second sleeve, or the weight of the garment stretched it out.

Perhaps it's a combination of all of those, although if the boogey man really did visit me, I'd like to know how to exact revenge. :-)

Anywhoo, I blocked the beep out of it and now it's acceptable, but far from polished. I think I would have to rip it and reknit it if I wanted it to be perfect.

All in all, I'm happy with the way this turned out and would really recommend this pattern for knitters of all levels.

Where did the week go?

A whole week without a post! (my grumbling about the header becoming autonomous and making its own decisions regarding height doesn't count)

I've been busy doing crafty things, as always, but I haven't finished anything in the last couple of weeks. The frost flowers and leaves is making its way along - 20% now - and the baby jacket has only a few hundred more stitches to go! I'm hoping to finish it tonight and have some pictures for you tomorrow. And I have to admit that there has been some secret stitching going on, the results of which may not be shown at this stage. ;-D

Ravelry has been taking up loads of time. I just can't seem to stop looking at lots of projects and different patterns and comparing yarns and whatnot.

A friend from SnB in Vienna brought an amazing link to my attention today. It's a link to pictures of about a million Latvian mittens that were made for some NATO summit last year...mehh, I didn't read all of the official stuff. There's a link where you can download pictures of tonnes of mittens from different regions of the country, and when I say there are a million, man, there are STACKS!

http://www.rigasummit.lv/en/id/cats/nid/698/

See you tomorrow, hopefully with a baby jacket completed!

Grumpy

I don't know whether it's just my computer being a poo-brain, or it's some other factor, but the heading on this page has gone nutters. It's a third of the size that it used to be! And I really don't know how to change it, because the height of this element of the page seems to be controlled with html script and I only have the basics in that. It doesn't look very good now :-(

Free Pattern: Fluffbox Neck Warmer

Here's that pattern I was talking about, for the neck warmer I made for the man a while ago. This is the only thing that I've made him that he wears on a regular basis and this yarn is apparently nice and soft against his neck and "doesn't itch". I listened to an interview with Debbie Stoller the other day and she was discussing her new book of patterns for men and what men like in a hand-knitted item. The best thing she said was that we shouldn't approach knitting for men from a knitter's point of view. If we do, they end up with jumpers covered in a million cables or bobbles or whatever, and then we wonder why they don't wear it! Hehe, I'm guilty of this too. ;-) But this neck warmer, like I said, is the only thing that he wears on a regular basis and it was the least complicated of all of the things I've made for him.

Please let me know if you find any mistakes in the pattern, or if you have any ideas on how to improve it. I really just made this up on the needles as I went along, so it's really easy but also not the most elegant pattern ever conceived.

Yarn details:

• Novita 'Teddy'
• 45% wool/30% polyamid/25% acrylic
• 100gr = 110 metres (bulky weight)
  
• colour 567 (cherry red)
  
• about 50 grams needed

Needles: 6mm double-pointed

Finished measurements: (when flat)

• length from top to bottom: 17cm
• width at botton: 35cm
• width at top: 19cm
  

A few notes before we begin. I am a loose knitter, which I have only discovered since I started swatching recently (shame on me). So, you might find that it's best to go up a needle size if you think you're on the tight side.

Kathy asked if this is 'stretchy' - yes indeed! It fits over the head with no trouble at all and will be fine for those with larger or smaller necks. My neck is smaller than the man's, and it fits no worries. Perhaps there could be some problems with the chest part being too small on those with more meat on their bones and there would need to be more material on the lower half of the item.

The yarn used in this pattern is really only available in Finland, and then sparsely over some other parts of the Nordic countries (so I'm told). Kathy also asked for some substitute yarns that can be purchased in the US. Before I give you my list, I have to warn you that I don't have any of these yarns here in front of me, so I've judged based on the stats and the pictures.

Tahki 'Dakota' - this one has just the right amount of fuzz on it to match the novita and a similar blend of fibers. This would be my top choice.
Drops 'Inka' - this has the same kind of 'bumpy' texture, but is not available in solid colours, and I'm also not sure how easy it is to get a hold of in the US.
Berroco 'Duo' - this also has the 'bumpy' texture, but without the fuzz, but it was discontinued a couple of years ago. It might be slightly bigger than the novita.
Cascade 'Leisure' - this has a different fiber content but looks to be in the same ballpark as the novita.

Without further ado, cast on!


Cast on 81 stitches.

Round 1: K2, P1 around.

Rounds 2 and 3: repeat round 1.

Round 4: *K2tog, P1, (K2, P1)x2, repeat from *around. [72 stitches]

Round 5: *K1, P1, K2tog, P1, K2, P1, repeat from * around. [63 stitches]

Round 6: *(K1, P1)x2, K2tog, P1, repeat from * around. [54 stitches]

Round 7: K1, P1 around.

Round 8: *slip 1, K2tog, psso, (P1, K1)x2, P1, repeat from * around. [40 stitches] (the last repeat will be cut short)

Rounds 9, 10 and 11: K1, P1 around.

Round 12: *K1, P1, slip 1, K2tog, psso, P1, repeat from *around. [28 stitches] (last repeat will be *K1, P1, slip 1, K2tog, psso, P1, (K1, P1)x2 )

Continue in K1, P1 for 15 more rounds.

Cast off loosely (you want to be able to pull it over your head).

Leafy Progress

Twenty thousand stitches, innumerable hours...and only fifteen percent of the way through! The frost flowers and leaves is coming along, slowly but surely.


It's starting to progress more quickly, now that the pattern has clearer repeats and I'm able to work without looking at the chart all the time. This is the first time that I've seen it out flat and been able to distinguish the pattern clearly and it's great! Yeah, there are a few boo-boos, but none big enough to warrant correcting at this stage. But come on - so much time and yet only 15% of the way through?!?! I can taste the satisfaction of working the last stitch already, albeit very faintly! Looking forward to seeing more of this pretty shawl develop.

Bub Jacket

Hey hey! An itty bitty baby jacket has been started!

I have to admit that it's a drops pattern...yes, I know I swore off them for a while, but there are so many nice little versions of this on Ravelry and I had a read through the pattern and thought I should just go for it - and so far there haven't been any dramas (but then again the pattern isn't so complex either). Here you can see a pic of the finished jacket, which has pants to match, and I think I might make those too, if all goes well. I certainly have enough of this yarn to make jackets and pants for a set of quintuplets!

I debated over whether this was a good colour combination for baby attire. I know that I certainly like the combo, but I was a little hesitant about the mother - would she like this and would she want to dress her baby in this green and gold jacket, especially if the baby turns out to be a girl? But then I thought about a story that my own mum told me years ago, about when she took my brother to kiddie school and he had a pink teddy bear, and all of the other mothers were incredulous that my mother had the nerve to allow my brother to have something pink. And mum said it was a whole lot of bollocks, basically, and so I'm following her lead and saying stuff it, babies can look fabbo in green and gold, even if they do look like aussie cricket players. :-)

Stacked Wedges

The first of the new scarves is completed! The problem with scarves is when to stop...I had planned on just going until the yarn ran out, but it probably would have turned out like the sweet scallops shawl - three metres long. :-)


Pattern: 'Stacked Wedges' from Lynne Barr's Knitting New Scarves

Finished measurements: 13.5cm wide and 185cm long

Yarn details:

• 'Salima' from On Line yarns
• Colour #3
• 60% cotton/20% acrylic/15% linen/5% polyamid
• 50gr=80 metres
• 180gr used

Neeldes: 5mm

This is a really simple pattern that came along quickly and it looks pretty cool, so I'm quite happy with this one! I'm not sure which pattern from this book will be next, but surely there will be another one, or two, or three...