Monthly Quote: February

Happy February, everyone!

I've been working a lot on the issues I spoke of in my last post, and I feel a lot calmer and more "settled" in myself now than I did a month ago. I can't tell you how much I'm enjoying it - the ease of feeling sufficient and good enough, no matter what I do and choose.
I still have a ways to go, but I'm relishing the progress, and feel steady as I go on accepting and relaxing in myself and my life, whatever each new day brings.

As you might have gathered from this image, I'm knitting again! I've even finished a project - a headband from the clever women at KlompeLompe, and I'm thrilled with the end result. I bought a Busy Lizzy to make the I-cord, and I couldn't have made a better decision. The decision to get one was motivated by my limited knitting time, since I can't knit for very long sessions at a time (at least not for now). It took a few minutes to have the I-cord finished and threaded into the headband, and I don't think you can comprehend the joy I felt as I held my first finished project in my hands since September last year. As you can also see from the photo, I've started another headband, this time in opposite colours, and I'm still really enjoying the pattern.
The best thing I did in January was to consult an expert regarding my arm, and consequently get two sessions of treatment which initially made me feel a lot worse, but which has led to my arm improving substantially in the subsequent weeks. I still need to be careful doing repetitive work for longer periods, but I got the experts blessing to knit a bit when I feel like it. So I do, and I love it and thrive on it.

Since last we spoke, we've gotten the window frames and the sills attached to the windows in the dining room. I took this picture to see how I liked the curtains I've bought for the room - and to get your opinion! What do you think? I like it more and more the longer I look at the photo. All that green is just yummy. In this photo we had yet to attach the frame below the sill - we've done that now, and it looks so nice!! Pictures to come...


Now - on to the quote for February (which I will spend holidaying in South Africa and England with my dear Alasdair, hooray!):

"In three words I can sum up everything that I've learned about life: it goes on." 

- Robert Frost. 

Have a beautiful month, everyone!

Monthly Quote: November

October was a month where my patience was (yet again) put to the test, as I struggled and still struggle to cope with sore arms and wrists, making me unable to knit. It was also a month where a lot of things happened, and not only frustrating things. We started to work inside our house, painting the first few walls of our dining room/library, and seeing that the colour we picked out worked out beautifully. I also published my very first pattern, The Little Bumps Cowl, and the joy of realising a dream like that (almost) makes me forget my aches and pains.

So, the dining room/library has gone from looking like this:

To this:

And we couldn't be more happy about it. We are eagerly awaiting the skirting boards as well as the window frames to finish the room off. Earlier today we planned our kitchen using the IKEA kitchen planner. It's all very exciting, and I'll share more pictures as soon as I can.


But - for most of October I've been unable to participate in any of the renovating. Painting the outside of the house, as well as the ceiling in the room above, the base coat and the first coat of yellow on the walls did my arms in. It probably didn't help that I spent every evening, after a good many hours of renovating, knitting frantically to get all my Christmas knitting done in time. I should've known this would happen. It's happened before, the summer two years ago, and I had to go through a period of no knitting for what seemed like an absolute age!

I hate that my arms are, apparently, so weak. I hate that I get jealous and think horrible things about people who can knit and knit and knit for however long they want without even the tiniest twinge of an ache in their arms (I've never been able to do that, I've always had to check myself from time to time, because there's a history of tennis elbow in my family). I hate that I let this upset me so much, when I know that it will most likely get all good again, with time and rest. Most of the time I think I'm just terrified that it'll become a permanent thing, something that I'll just have to 'learn to live with'. It makes me incredibly sad to imagine a future where I can't do all the needlework I want to do, because my arms refuse to cooperate. I stress myself out thinking about all the things I'd love to knit and want to finish for my friends and relatives. Then I try not to worry about it, it's not a big deal, and I'll get it done eventually. But this time, it just doesn't seem to help, I'm too scared and sad.

The past few days I've knitted one row on a hat a day, to see how my arms would cope. Yesterday I did two rows in one go, and I think I may have upset my right arm again. And so the story goes...

I'm absolutely loving the look of this hat, and can't wait to get it finished. It's Cúram from Knitworthy 2, by Ysolda Teague. The yarn I'm using is Sandnes Garn's Alpakka Ull, which consists of 65 % alpaca and 35 % wool - it's delicious and soft to knit with. I'm knitting it without the fold, for a more simple look, but it's still a really interesting knit. It'll take forever to get it done, though, but so be it...

Let's hope for better knitting times in November! In the meantime, I'm bathing my arms in Epsom salts, and eating lots of turmeric in the hope of getting rid of my inflamation, and fingers crossed they'll get better soon. (This has been an uncommonly negative post, and I apologise for it,  things aren't really as bad as I make them sound. At least I can function normally and do normal things with both my arms. They've gotten SO much better since I stopped knitting, and I'm sure only a few more weeks will cure them almost completely). 

So, for November I've chosen a quote to remind me to see the good and positive in every day as it comes, and for that I turn to Walt Whitman:

"Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you." 

Have a wonderful week, everyone - I'm starting a new job tomorrow, wish me luck! 

x, Elise

 

The Little Bumps Cowl Now Available

So the day came a bit sooner than I had thought for the release of my pattern, which is great for you, since it'll give you ample time to knit one of these for Christmas!

It's a fast and enjoyable knit, and will come flying off your needles in no time as you hurry to get to the next row with bumps.

I'm absolutely thrilled (and a bit scared) at having a pattern online, and I'm so looking forward to hear your response and see some cowls knitted up by someone else. I hope you'll enjoy making one as much as I did!

 

 

Happy knitting to you all! 

xx, Elise

Monthly Quote: October

It's almost becoming a tradition that I am one day late in posting the quote of the month, but I'm choosing not to let that put a stopper to the fun.

These past few weeks (September, really) have flown by so fast, and I'm sad I haven't been sharing more on this blog of what I've been up to. I hope to remedy this as the days grow shorter and the time spent indoors gets longer. Alasdair and I are busy bees, trying to bring life back into our new old house. So far we've finished the last wall on the outside that needed fixing up - we've put in new windows and new panelling, with a huge amount of help from my dad. He's really our go-to helper for all things related to the house. Since the daylight hours are shorter now, we've taken the work inside, just in time for the autumn storms and rains to test the quality of the work we've done on the outside. We're crossing our fingers and toes that we won't have to worry about anything on the exterior of the house for many years.

On the 1st of October we did the first bit of painting in one of the rooms; the library dining room, to be specific. The old panelling on the walls have tasted their first ever coat of paint, a base coat of white, to make the subsequent painting smooth and easy, and the ceiling was repainted tonight with its refreshing coat of paint today, as it had been painted before (a long time ago). We're hoping it'll only need this one coat of paint, but we'll make our decision once we've seen how it dries tomorrow morning.

While doing up the house, I'm working full-time as a sub in a nursery AND trying to get into pattern writing. It's a bit of a hectic time for me, and I'm not getting as much done with any of the things I'm doing as I would have liked. But I'm still practicing patience with my self, and trying to just do a little bit everyday and be happy about the things I do get done, instead of worrying about all the things I haven't been able to do in a day.

So - this month will see the release of the my very first knitting pattern! I'm frantically knitting a second sample of my Little Bumps Cowl, and pestering my mum to test knit a little sample for me, just so I can get some idea of the quality and clarity of my written instructions. I hope I'll be able to upload the pattern to my Ravelry shop by mid-October, and I so hope you'll all like it!

This photo is of a very thoughtful, and somewhat tired, me - wearing my own design. Not quite sure what to do with my hands when modeling knitwear...




It is every bit as soft and warm as it looks, I promise! And it wraps perfectly around the neck twice, which is just what one needs on a chill autumn day.

And now, to the quote I've chosen for the month of October, by yet another woman I greatly admire:

"Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns."

- George Eliot

As always, visit Vibeke and Ruthie for more inspirational quotes and other loveliness. 

Have a very delicious October, everyone, and I'll be back with more on the house and the knitwear, I promise! 

- Elise

Monthly Quote: September

Hello, September!

Without further ado, I'd like Louisa May Alcott to do the talking for me this 1st of September:

“I've got the key to my castle in the air, but whether I can unlock the door remains to be seen.”

- Louisa May Alcott, Little Women 

For other insightful and inspirational quotes for this month, please visit the lovely Vibeke and Ruthie, who inspired me to post monthly quotes here on my blog. 

Love, 

Elise

Moving out!

We are in Oslo again, packing our books (how can there be so many?) and yarn into boxes, preparing for our big move next week. It's so amazing to think that soon we'll be living up north!
It is pretty hectic around here as you can probably imagine, with boxes everywhere, and laundry hanging to dry at all times, but I'm making sure I get some knitting time every night, just to keep me sane.

 

Right now I'm knitting on a pair of socks. It's about as mindless and straight forward a project as I can manage at the moment, but it is proving the best choice for now. I'm using the Lifestyle Toe Up pattern, by Charisa Martin Cairn, which has become my go-to pattern for toe up socks.  It is so simple, and I love the fact that you don't have to knit a gauge swatch before you start. You just cast on either 8, 10 or 12 stitches for the toe, depending on the size of the feet they're knitted for, and you're off! I'm using left overs for these ones, some Filcolana and some Lang Wool, I think. 

These socks are destined for my ever expanding Christmas pile, which pleases me immensely - I love gifting homemade things for Christmas! 

Have a happy Sunday!

Mittens in June?

June seems to be a bit weather confused in these parts of the world. So far we've had

- one day of wind and sun

- one of pouring rain (cats and dogs style)

- and one of calm, but chill stillness requiring socks (and mittens for the extra cold)




I don't know if you remember these? They've been in the making for a long time! Here's just photo proof that they're all done, at last.

I really hope that I won't be needing these in the near future... but if I do, my hands will at least look quite nice!

FO: Cable Cloud Cowl + a sneek peak

Hello again!

It's been a while since I blogged, but I've been busy knitting, spending time with my dear sister and otherwise being really enthused about future plans that are yet to be revealed (har har). Stay tuned for that, it will be so amazing!!
I've got some lovely pictures to show you of my finished Cable Cloud Cowl, which I finally took yesterday with said sister as my model. I couldn't be more happy about it - it turned out exactly the way I had envisioned, and is even more cuddly and cosy than I expected!
You can find the (k)nitty gritty of it on my ravelry project page, if you are so inclined. (Or read my previous blog post!)

Now to the photos!

For a 5'4" person this is a bit of a wide, or should I say deep, cowl, but once it's folded it works:

 

All that's left to say is that this project was FUN! It inspired me and motivated me to do more Christmas knitting, and has got me working on a wee "design" of my own: 

This is just a sneek peak, but I promise I'll be back with more photos once it's finished. This new stitch has gotten me on a roll - I'm thinking of trying it out on a background of garter stitches, maybe for a shawl? I'm excited to try it out!
(By the way, I'm in love with this colourway of Pickles Tweedy! It's called Perle, and can be found here.)

Hope you are all enjoying the last weekend in May - it's gone so fast!!

Cable Cloud Cowl

One of my WIPs is the Cable Cloud Cowl from the PurlBee, and I have to say I'm loving it! It is so much fun, and part of the fun is just imagining how squishy and soft and warm and - last but not least - how incredibly beautiful it will be when it's all knit up.

I'm knitting this cowl in Drops Air, a fluffy yarn made from baby alpaca and merino wool (plus a bit of polyester for durability, I suppose). I was initially quite worried about how the stitch definition would be pairing this yarn and this pattern, but I needn't have worried, it worked so well in the end. I'm not only enjoying knitting this, but it is also making me feel really good about myself for other reasons. It's (can you believe it) a Christmas knit. Yes, I'll repeat it: a Christmas knit!! In April! I hope you are as shocked at this as I am (or maybe all of you fellow knitters who read my blog all start your gift knitting months and months in advance and never have to worry about getting it all done before Christmas because you started too late?)




I'm also really in love with my new Oxalis (if my google search is to be trusted, this particular variety is called Oxalis tetraphylla). The leaves are just stunning, don't you think?

I'll get back to my knitting now, accompanied by an episode or two of Twin Peaks - it is so good. Can't believe I never watched it before!

x, Elise

Halligarth

It's funny how it works, isn't it, that now that I've decided to be more impulsive about my blog and the contents I put up, I actually have a finished object to show you?

I showed a few 'in progress' photos what seems ages ago (here), but I suddenly had the urge to finish knitting the Halligarth shawl for my grandma! I've loved working on this shawl, and remember thinking I didn't want it to end when I was in the middle of it. I struggled to understand how to knit "perpendicularly" for the edging, and had to try quite a few times before I suddenly had one of those wow-moments. It then took me about two nights, or about four episodes of Downton Abbey to have the shawl finished.




The end result is a lovely, squishy, soft and luxurious shawl that will hopefully be to the liking of my dear grandma.



The pattern was easy to follow (even the edging instructions that I didn't 'get' to begin with - after I re-read them properly the rest was easy peasy), and I even managed to memorise it, which is rare for me.



I was also eager to see how the Spindrift yarn would behave during blocking and after - I've heard so much good stuff about 'the good memory' of Shetland wool, and I wasn't disappointed! The shawl dried reasonably fast (I decided to wet wet block it), and the stitches and the pattern bloomed beautifully and when I unpinned it, it kept the shape remarkably well, and feels soft and firm at the same time. Lovely, mmm!


I'm excited to start knitting the shawl for my maternal grandmother, Anna Elise (my namesake), and have started to look through Ravelry for patterns (there are SO many, oh dear). Will keep you updated on what I choose.
--- --- ---

Pattern: Halligarth , by Gudrun Johnston
Yarn: Jamieson's Spindrift, in the colourway 'Sunrise'
Needle(s): 4,5 mm 

--- --- ---
Hope you've also had some knitting successes lately!

Epistropheid

First project finished (and begun) in 2015:

An Epistropheid hat for my dear boyfriend, Alasdair.



It's knitted in Pickles's Tweedy,  a nice, worsted/aran-y yarn (don't actually know what I'm talking about here, but hopefully you'll get an idea of the thickness), which leaves the knitted fabric with lovely little specks of unexpected colours dotted all over it. While I loved the yarn in the ball, I'm not so sure about how I feel after knitting with it. I think it had something to do with the gauge I knitted this hat in, and not actually the yarn itself. Although the hat ended up fitting Alasdair surprisingly well (especially considering I skipped the oh-so-important gauge swatch this time around), it doesn't drape. At all. Which means that this hat, while looking great on Alasdair, looks funny (a.k.a. ridiculous) when worn by yours truly, as in standing up oddly, kinda sortof like a fez... Which is good for Alasdair, but not for me, since I had a cunning plan involving me using this hat as much as him. But! The pattern was an absolute treat to follow and knit, so it won't really be much of a bother to knit another one, hooray!



Like any hat pattern by Kate Davies, the crown stands out as a masterpiece (especially to a novice pattern "creator" like myself). I'm especially pleased that I managed to knit the decreases smoothly - practice makes one better at knitting, apparently..



And after all this I'm left with a chuffed BF, who's not going to have to walk around with a cold head in the Norwegian winter, which sometimes lasts for a very long time indeed. (Also, the warm and cozy looking cowl he is wearing in this photo is none other than the Calimero I test knit for Elizabeth Brassard a year and a half ago!!)

December in Oslo

It's been a long, long time since my last post - I think I must have broken my old record, leaving no posts behind re: November 2014. It's been busy. 
I've gotten lots of good Christmas knitting in these past couple months, and I'm not doing a quite as low-key knitting this year as last. I've been working on some Cricket cardigans for our two nieces and our nephew, and I'm nearing the finishing line! I'll have to do some serious knitting on the pink one this coming week, but I'm positive I'll be able to finish it. (Writing this, I realise I never posted the FO pictures of the first Cricket I made, only the WIP ones! Kindly find photos below in this post).
In other knitterly new, I'm experiencing some serious craving to do some good old ego-knitting, which is typical, I believe, for this season in particular. The other day we watched The Matrix, and I sort of fell in love with the well-worn knitted jumpers that Neo and crew were all wearing, and what do you know? There is actually a pattern for one on Ravelry (I shouldn't really be surprised, Ravelry is amazing!). I like the look of the pattern, but would like it to be a bit less fitted, and more like Neo and Trinity's:

Excuse the poor image quality on this one, I did a simple google search and this picture shows what I mean, I think (plus a really nice moment between these two). I think my one would be in Neo's coulourway, but in the style of Trinity's (that is, less ripped, and with a boatneck).

Enough of these ramblings, and on to the Cricket photos: 

Here's the cardigan all finished, but pre-blocking (I haven't gotten round to blocking it yet, and might just do a steam press instead, I think it looks about right and quite good as it is).



I chose to line the pockets with green leftovers from another project, and it looks really sweet, I think.



And then I put a fox on it, just because! If you want more (not-so extensive) notes on this project, go check out my Ravelry project page, here. 

I'll try my best to take a decent photo of all the cardigans when they're done, but the light here is terrible these days. When I leave for work it's dark, and when I come back, it's dark again!

I hope you are all having creative and happy Advents, wherever you are in the world!

settling in

The long hiatus has been due to me and my boyfriend moving house and settling into a new life, in a new city, in a new country! (At least for the former...)




There hasn't been a lot of time for knitting in the last month, but I've managed to knit a few washcloths for that instant gratification feeling you're probably familiar with. Just this week, however, we bought a sofa (!) so now I can sit in a comfortable spot and do some serious knitting, if I choose to. I started my second Cricket this week as a result, and I'm in love with the Cascade 220 in this colour! Wish I could get some for myself, too...
This little cardigan will warm our little nephew around Christmas time, if all goes according to plan.

I will try to post more consistently, but it can get quite hectic with my new job and the hunt for furniture for our flat. Will keep you posted on that, and perhaps share a few pictures of how the decorating is going? Tell me what you think!

Have a wonderful weekend!

MA History - check!

A week ago today I was revising for my last exam here at the University of Edinburgh. It was - and still is - a very strange feeling knowing that the next day it would all be over, that there would be no more exams. At least not here, at this point. It is refreshing and daunting at the same time, not knowing what the next year will bring. As I walked out of the exam last Friday I sighed a sigh of relief, and thought about what's next. The last year has been hard in many ways, but now I'm happy I finished and that I proved to myself that I could and can if I want to.

The day after the exam, the rain came, and it has been raining on and off ever since, for the past week. It's been therapeutic, in a way, as if Edinburgh decided to wash away all the exam stress.






And I'm sure you've guessed already what I've been spending these rainy days doing. Exactly - knitting! And this is basically what my days look like now:



This is my attempt at the new shawl pattern from Gudrun Johnston, Halligarth. Earlier this spring I decided I'd like to knit a shawl for each of my grandmothers, and this is for my paternal grandmother, Karen, who told me she loves deep red. Since this pattern was inspired by a wood on the Shetland Islands, I decided I'd like to use wool from Shetland for this shawl, and since I love Jamieson's Spindrift, it was an easy choice. They have so many incredible colours, I had a hard time picking a red that I thought would be perfect for my grandma, but I think this one, Sunrise, fits my criteria perfectly.

This close-up picture shows the colour more accurately:



For my maternal grandmother, Anna Elise, I quickly decided I'd like to knit Kate Davies' new pattern, A Hap for Harriet. After having read the beautiful story behind the design on Kate's blog, I was even more determined. I haven't started knitting this one yet, since the yarn I'm going to use is currently in Norway at my parents' house.

While I'm loving the lace pattern of the Halligarth, I also quickly cast on a new cardigan for one of the 'nieces', Olivia, in a simpler stockinette stitch, to knit while watching X-Files and other things.  Here's a photo of my progress so far:



I'm making a Cricket! I've unravelled a scarf I'd initially planned on giving to Olivia's mum for Christmas, but it got too tedious, in order to knit this instead. The yarn (Cascade 220) is not the right weight, really, for this cardigan, but I'm only a few stitches off the right gauge using 4, 5mm needles, so I'm sort of counting on it to end up somewhere inbetween a 4 and 6 year-old, which is a good thing, right? Olivia will turn three right after Christmas, but she is a very tall girl with very tall parents, so fingers crossed she'll be able to wear it for a full year at least (maybe even longer?). I'm planning on using some of my moss-green left-overs from a shawl knitted in the same wool for the lining of the pockets (which, incidentally, I'm super excited about knitting, since it'll be my first time!).

So that was that for this time, but it feels wonderful to have rested and to have knitted guilt-free for nearly a whole week. May the next year be very knitterly and wooly!

Left over Love

Earlier this year I decided to purchase a copy of Mary Jane Mucklestone's 200 Fair Isle Designs. I've been meaning to learn more about fair isle knitting and colours, with the hopes of creating my own patterns some day. I love doing stranded colourwork, since it's so addictive and therefore makes for speedy progress in projects. I'm not confident enough to create a pattern form scratch just yet, but I used the inimitable Kate Davies' Ursula mitten pattern as a basis for these mittens:



Having knit two pairs following Davies' pattern, I knew that the fit would be perfect for the intended recipient of these mittens. I decided to use the left overs from the other pairs of mittens for this pair, both to use up some of my leftovers, but also because I saw it as a golden opportunity (and a challenge) to put colours together in new ways. I ended up just knitting the colours at random, but the end result looks neat anyhow, with the black on the cuff, thumb and fingertips.

 *

I'm looking forward to venturing into 'uncharted' (gettit?) territory with the aid of Mucklestone's book. My mum gave me some lovely organic wool, probably enough for a jumper/cardigan, in two colours, which I'm hoping I can turn into something wearable and nice. I'm thinking something slightly Icelandic, with a round yoke, perhaps? Time will show - I will keep you updated on that process when I have more time for sketching, swatching and knitting. For the next week I'll be busy finishing my coursework for my last semester at university! It's unbelievable, but so nice to think that I'll be done in about two months time. Cross your fingers and toes for me! 

Red

When my older sister and I were litte girls, our mum used to read us a book about a dog who built his own house from scratch. It was one of those really simple children's stories, with only a couple of sentences on each side, but this one had lovely illustrations full of details. I remember that he finished off his house by putting a red geranium on his window-sill. Ever since, I've loved a red geranium on my window-sill to get that 'home' feeling wherever I am. I don't know about my sister, but that book is strong in my memory.
This particular geranium is special to me for other reasons - my boyfriend got it for me when it was a tiny seedling last summer, and I have watered it and fed it, and stopped feeding it for its dormant period during winter. It has, however, never seized blossoming, all throughout winter! I came back from my Christmas holiday, and there it was still, red and blooming amongst all the dark, and dreich of Edinburgh's mild winter. I'm so confused, but so happy, it has really helped me through the year, in its simple way.

I was very happy when my younger sister wanted me to knit her a cabled, red hat, since her old one that I knitted years back has finally capitulated:



It is not the exact same colour, but it was just as pleasing to me as the red of the geranium, and now it's warming the head of a loved one.

Today I'm knitting a fluffy, silky, dreamy blue thing for my good friend, Ingrid, who really deserved everything fluffy, silky and dreamy.

little hello

Hello!
Sorry for that very long and sad blogging hiatus - I'm back!
In between writing on my final year dissertation, stressing about other essays that needs to get started (and eventually done) I've tried to find time for some knitting. I've been struggling with an inflammation in my right arm, probably tennis elbow (?), for a while, and I think, somehow, I keep making it worse by worrying too much about it. Yes, I've realised it's probably turned into a sort of psychosomatic thing by now, so I'm trying to not worry so much about my arms and just knit a little bit here and there. It has been working really well for me, and I've started knitting a pair of fair isle mittens with left over Shetland yarns that were lying around in my room:



I've actually nearly finished the first mitten already, this is a photo from earlier in the week. I really love playing around with my colours. And also, look! It's light! Thank you for that, early spring.
I hope to be able to blog a bit more, I even charged my SLR (!) so I can easily take photos of projects, and it's all a lot more motivating when the light is coming back, don't you think?

What are you working on? I'd love to see, so please leave a link for me to check out!

Low key Christmas Knitting

Soundtrack: the voices in my head telling me to do work for uni instead of knitting. Oh well!

Sorry for my long absence, it's been quite hectic around here lately. Being a fourth-year student is not a joke, apparently. I must admit I've been dealing with it a lot more sanely than I thought I would, and that is a plus. In addition to that, essay work always means a lot of knitting (at least for me, anyone familiar with the logic?). I've decided to keep my ambitions low for this year, and I'm only knitting for pleasure, basically. But I have ended up with some gifts for a lucky few.

First out is this cute hat:



I knit this using three different strands of yarn to get a chunky/aran-ish sort of weight that the pattern called for. I think it turned out pretty well, although I ended up with a tiny size, so this one goes to my boyfriend's little nephew, who'll be around 6 months come Christmas time. The yarns I used were a DK weight merino, some Sandnes Garn Alpakka and Jamieson's Spindrift. This picture shows the hat unblocked, and hopefully after a good soak and stretch it'll be a bit bigger. Why do I knit so tightly?

Second in line is this little jumper:



This is strictly speaking not a Christmas present, but a 'welcome-to-the-world'-gift to a friend who's having a baby any time now. It has been wrapped and sent home with a friend who came to visit a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully it'll be able to warm a tiny body soon. It was very fun knitting this jumper, and it must be the smalles 'proper' garment I've ever made! The yarn was the left over yarn from these mittens - Scappa Aran, which I absolutely love to work with. The buttons I found in an Etsy-shop and couldn't resist using them for this jumper.

And the last item for this post, these mittens:



I've been trying to use my left-over yarns for a while now, and I think I've been very successful so far. In fact all of these items were knit using yarn that was already in my basket! I knit these out of my left over Christmas Red Cascade 220, which I made this hat from earlier this year. They were lots of fun knitting, and I avoided the Second Mitten Syndrome, if there is indeed such a thing. I have washed and blocked these very lightly, and the yarn is just scrumptious, and has a lovely glow to it. I might upload another picture of them all finished - it is just so tricky to photograph anything now that it gets dark so early. These are a going to be a present for a dear friend of mine.

What have you been knitting lately? Are you having high ambitions for Christmas-knitting this year, or are you - like me - only knitting for pleasure?

Thanks for visiting!

On Drops patterns

A while ago I finished a cardigan, that I believe I have not blogged about earlier, in a pattern by Drops. It sort of settled my opinion that Drops patterns are really not that great. I have to admit I'm happy about the result, but there are a few things that annoys me.

First things first; let's have a look at the finished garment:



At first glance it looks really cute, right?

Let's take a closer look:



It is this part that really annoys me. In the pattern it said to knit every stitch that would not fit in the cable-pattern as regular knit stitches. When shaping for the armhole (which, incidentally, makes a nice fit, so that's one good element) this became problematic, and as you can see I ended up with a bunch if knit stitches that look as though they should have been cable knit. It would have been so good if they could make the instructions clearer, or rather, create a pattern where all the cables and decreases/increases are perfectly matched. Another thing that was worrying me during knitting, was that it looked so small for a size 5/6. Luckily it grew a fair bit during blocking (to be honest, I gave it a good stretch, just to be sure).



In the end, the girl (and her parents) who got it for her birthday loved it, and that is all you want, isn't it? More about this on Ravelry.

Have you had similar experiences with patterns from Drops? I'd like to hear I'm not the only one!

Calimero

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I took part in a test knit. This was my very first time test knitting anything, so I was naturally quite excited about it.

What I knitted was this:

 

A cowl, that can also, in a matter of seconds, be transformed into either a slouchy hat or a thick, more tight fitting hat. I test knit it in size L, so both me and my boyfriend can use it this coming winter - as a cowl for me, and as both for my boyfriend. It is really a very clever design, which incorporates a few simple, but highly effective techniques. It was designed by Elizabeth Brassard, who likes playing around with garter stitch.


In this photo, the details of the Malabrigo Worsted is shown in detail. I decided, in cohorts with my boyfriend, to knit Calimero in the colourway Marine, since I haven't really knitted much in blue before, and also because it would give a nice (but subdued) pop of colour to his otherwise black/grey wardrobe. Visit the ravelry page for more details on this cool design, here.

After having finished my first test knit, I'm left feeling good about aiding someone in the process of publishing a new, exciting pattern, but also thoroughly inspired.