Progress

My white top-down raglan is coming along nicely. I’m taking a short break while I figure out how long I want it. It’s on 4.5 mm needles so it is rather quick, which is good so it will be finished before I get tired of all the stockinette.

From Knitted

In the meantime a new project has of course been started. I finally found a yarn that was suitable for the vine yoke cardigan (Ysolda Teague). Drops baby merino held double on 5mm needles gave me the correct row gauge. It is a great pattern and I’ve really enjoyed knitting. I started on Saturday and when I went to bed Sunday evening I had just worked the first row on the back. Truly an amazing pattern.

From Knitted

By the way, I’ve completed all the knitting on Broderie. Only need to weave in ends and make the closure.

Will the yarn be enough?

I’m at home sick, but not too sick as I have just enough energy to knit and listen to a book.

Broderie is progressing slowly but surely. One of the sleeves are knitted to their final length, but not cast off. Hopefully the yarn will be enough to make the second sleeve equally long.

From Knitted

I started on another cardigan yesterday, and am already on the third ball. Lets hope I have enough to make what I have planned. I do think it is only due to the fact that I like rather dense knitted fabric, and so am using a smaller needle size compared to the projects I looked at to estimate yardage….

From Knitted

A sweater for an octopus

I’ve knitted an octopus worth of sleeves on my Broderie. I do not like seaming, but there was a time when I really questioned not knitting the sleeves as the pattern said.  Unfortunately I am not sure how much yarn I have. Therefore the top down approach.

Hopefully, I am now knitting the final version of the sleeves. The good thing though is that I now know how to knit set-in sleeves. The final version is basically taken from Wendy Bernard’s Custom knits, with short row shaping.

From Knitted

There’s is not much left now. Though I did realise that when knitting larger items like sweaters I tend to change gauge. Both sleeves are knit at a tighter gauge than the upper body. As long as it I’ll be happy.

Back from vacation

Four and a half weeks of vacation. It was wonderful in many ways. A few days were spent driving around in Sweden, but most of the time were spent in my fiance’s family’s summer home. Yes, we got engaged this summer down by the lake at the summer house.

From Misc

This is the view we have from the porch where we sit long into the evenings and relax. So there has been quite a bit of knitting going on. However, I haven’t decided if I should send the pattern to Knitty for their summer issue or not. I’m leaning towards just writing it down and putting it here and on Ravelry…. It’s a baby cardigan by the way. Made one for my nephew.

I’ve also bought quite a bit of yarn. The ideas just won’t stop coming. These are some of the things I’ll be working on after I finish Broderie.

From Knitted

From Knitted

I like progress

Broderie is coming along nicely. As is seen in the picture I’m knitting on the sleeves. First time I tried so I just winged it…had to frog it completely. Second try looks more promising. I’m pondering changing the bottom, add some sort of hemming to not have it curl.

From Knitted

Only a third of the last row left on the shawl.

Progress

I just don’t understand how so many knitters can finish shawls so quickly. When I went to France I only had 3 or 4 rows left. Since I got back from France I’ve continued knitting but it’s still not finished. The third to last row, a patterned row, took 1.5 hours to complete. Now on the last row (there’s no cast off row) I’ve only managed to knit about a third. It is very scary because the edging looks a bit too big. Hopefully blocking it will make everything alright.

From Knitted

It was the first time I knitted on a plane. Just fabulous. Broderie is coming along nicely, and it actually fits this time. I’ve started knitting the bottom part after I took this photo.

From Knitted

Now I’m heading up to M’s family’s sommer house to celebrate Midsummer. It is a big event with a very large portion of his relatives. Hopefully the weather won’t suck and that I can knit on Broderie.

Knitting in France

I’m in France for a workshop for work. The weather is great. Yesterday was sunny and about 30 degrees C. I got burnt, especially on my forehead and chest. So today I’ll stay in the shade and get some more knitting done.

I brought only one project – Broderie. But I knew it wouldn’t be a problem, I’ve wanted to pick this up for a while now. I’ve soon knitted to where I was before frogging. Hopefully this time it fits (crossing my fingers).

Now I’ll go and see if there is a place in the shade overlooking the sea where I can sit and knit.

From Misc

This image was taken earlier this week from the hotel in Les Issambres between Cannes and St Tropez.

Birthday card

A while back I went to a scrapbook and stamp fair and bought some stuff. Or a lot of stuff (hence the yarn purchase ban). I mainly bought stamps and ink to colour paper. This is what I’ve done so far:

papercraft

It’s not too difficult and quite quick, but I think I’ll need a bit moore practise before going ahead with the scrapbook project which it is intended for.

Dyed silk hankies

I finally decided to dye my silk hankies prior to spinning. Unfortunately I forgot that silk could be dyed with food colouring. Well well, so I bought some silk dye from Panduro.  The batteries were completely drained in my camera so there are only after pictures available.

I soaked about 50 g of the hankies in water with some citric acid in a big glass jar for maybe 1 hour. After draining the water I simply sprinkled the dye over the hankies. However, the dye did not dilute in the fibres so I poured on some water. I used mainly a turquoise dye with some sprinkles of navy blue.  When I felt satisfied with the dyeing I put the jar with the hankies in the microwave oven. The description was for 3-4 minutes at 350 W. Which I more than doubled with rest in between. The water was still not clear…Hopefully the dye was set properly. I separated the hankies into smaller piles and hung them up to dry.

From Spinning

Every time I passed  them hanging there I felt happy. Hopefully I will like the yarn as much. I  intentionally left some parts white and some are  darker blue so the yarn will have some nice nuances.

From Spinning

No more yarn

No more yarn purchases. Ever. No I’m kidding. But I’ve decided not to buy any more yarn for the rest of the year. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. The stash will get me through and if by chance my stash will be no more I will allow myself to end this ban.

I’m allowing myself to buy two tickets for the yarn lottery and a maximum of two Triinu patterns at the knit gathering last weekend of May. Should someone feel so inclined as to buy me yarn I shall will accept the offering. Yarn for gift knitting will be allowed if I pay no more then 50%. My fibre stash is quite small so I’m allowing moderate purchases in that area should I run out.

The rules have been set now I just need to follow them. I think it is doable and I definitely must stop constantly consume for the sake of it.

Now some more interesting stuff. I think I will add the Aeolian shawl from spring Knitty. Unfortunately, I just realised I can’t knit it this year since I would like to use beads as described in the pattern. Bummer.