Viften/The Fan

Not long after Marianne Isager's newest book (another one is on its way right now) was published in Denmark almost two years ago, I decided to buy it and knit some of the fabulous designs of hers. But it wasn't until now that I actually started one of them. I went for The Fan (Viften), which is a cardigan, and I'm referring to the book Japanese Inspired Knits (also published in English by Interweave). I'm going to make it with long sleeves, as it gives a slightly different look, I think, not as sweet and romantic as the one in the picture above.



I'm knitting with two strands together, one Isager Tvinni Tweed and one Isager Alpaca 1, and it looks like the perfect match so far. Isager's yarns are definitely top quality yarns in my opinion. My favorite!



Of course I made a swatch first :)



The idea in the book is to make a swatch from a written instruction and then sew it together and use it as a wrist warmer. I like that.



So I followed the instructions and now I have one wrist warmer. (I do plan to make another one, though.)






I've now started the first front of the cardigan, and I'm really enjoying knitting it.

Time to catch up

I've been neglecting the blog lately, but maybe now's the time to catch up. Lately, I've been knitting some baby stuff, as there are two new babies in the family, a girl and a boy.

For the girl:

Cardigan in Rowan Felted Tweed. There's no pattern. I wanted the cardigan to be simple but with details. So I decided on a small cable along the sleeves and on the right front. The i-cord edge was made to add a little contrast to the gray. I was lucky to find the perfect buttons for this.

The famous Saartje's Bootees made in left over yarn from the cardigan.

Socks, also in left over yarn. No particular pattern, just 2x2 ribbing, my preferred heel flap, and a grafted toe.

For the boy:

A vest in Drops Alpaca. This one gave a lot of bother. I had to give it several tries before I was satisfied enough to give it away. Unfortunately it also meant that this was the only thing he got. There simply wasn't time to knit another piece. It is knitted in the round, and the ribbings are 1x1 and twisted.

I've started something for myself now. Another post about this is comming up soon.

Boyfriend cardigan

Apparently blogging hasn't been one of my top priorities the last couple of months. It doesn't mean that I've abandoned knitting, though. I've finished Frankie, a boyfriend cardigan by Kim Hargreaves.


The pattern is from her collection Breeze. This was the second time I tried one of Kim Hargreaves's patterns, and I'm loving this as much as the first one.



The yarn is Rowan Classic Pima Cotton DK, probably the best cotton yarn I've tried so far. It came as a kit, ordered directly from hargreaves's website where I also ordered the book. The kit also included the buttons.



I was having troubles getting the right gauge, so I followed the instructions for size small and it came out as a size medium/large. Just perfect.

Frankie in Progress

Mini Icarus

3 skeins (=183 m)of Phildar Phil Soie 100% pure silk are transformed into this little scarf.


I followed the instructions for Icarus Shawl by Miriam L. Felton and modified it by leaving out numerous pattern repeats.


I love the combination of yarn and pattern. The color is warm and the silk makes a fabulous shiny look.



I've thought about knitting the Icarus Shawl for a long time, and now I'm convinced that I want to knit another one full size.

Mindless Summer Knitting

It's finally time for summer knitting. And once again I fell in love with several Kim Hargreaves designs, one of them being Frankie from the spring/summer collection Breeze. This is my swatch for Frankie


I purchased a yarn kit - indluding buttons - directly from Hargreaves' s website. It went smoothly, a very good reason to do it again sometime.



The yarn is Rowan Pima Cotton DK - deliciously soft cotton yarn. Right now it's all about stockinette stitch, very straightforward and mindless knitting. Frankly speaking!

Marlene

I finally finished the Marlene socks by Cookie A. from Knit.1 Magazine. They are knitted with Shibui sock yarn, which Karin gave me. She and I had a little Shibui knitalong. (She finished her socks over a month ago.)



I love the golden semi solid color (called Honey) even though you can't predict exactly how the color turns out. On these socks the color expression changed at the foot. I like the color on the cuff best as there is a better blend of light and dark.



It was a real pleasure to knit with this yarn using 2.5mm Knit Picks dpns. Lucky me, I have more Shibui Sock in my stash.