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.

Digging Out My Summer Tweed

I've started knitting a cardigan using the highly popular February Lady Sweater pattern as a guide. I wanted to try knitting from the top but not doing raglan increases. Instead I'm doing a rounded yoke. Also, I'm considering to knit the body in St st rather than using the lace pattern.




The yarn is Rowan Summer Tweed (70 % silk and 30 % cotton), a birthday present from Karin. She gave it to me last year in August and now is the perfect time to use it. I'm thinking about adding some big buttons, maybe these white ones... I'm not sure.

Reckless Raglan Alpaca Project

Time to blog about the alpaca project.



This pullover was an attempt to make a rather simple knit with a few details, namely the ridges with reversed stockinette and the shape of the sleeves.




I had 6 skeins of Berroco Ultra Alpaca in my stash, 2 of each of the three colors. I never got to the point when I was 100 percent sure of how to place the colors, I just knew that I wanted broad stripes and that the stripes of the sleeve weren't going to match the ones on the body. I simply rushed into it and didn't plan where to change the colors before i knit it. Maybe I should've done that. Well, next time perhaps.



I had to rip the collar a couple of times as it didn't turn out as I wanted. Pretty much because I hadn't decided on anything specific! I first thought about making a big collar, which somehow would've matched the sleeves, but instead I ended up making it rather tight. (I can ditch the kerchief then.)



Overall I'm pleased with the result. I already use it outside in the rather cold spring chill.

New inspiration

As I wrote in my last post I participated in the knitting class taught by Britt-Marie Christoffersson. Katie asked how it was, and well, it was awesome! It was great inspiration and it made me want to try and think about knitting in a slightly new way. I'd like to experiment more with knitting than I do at the moment. During the class we all tried out different stitch patterns, which Britt-Marie had used in the exhibition. Here's how my swatches turned out. I didn't pay that much attention to the color combo - I wanted to just knit as much as I could while having Britt-Marie around helping out.






















I think that these swatches have helped guiding me in the direction of more experimentation and exploration. Now that would be fun!