Knitted Christmas Presents #3

A little late, here comes the third and last post about my knitted Christmas presents: Three hats and two little sweaters. Here goes...





A hat for my brother made of Rowan Felted Tweed. I added some stripes with yarn from my stash. The pattern is made up as I went along.



My boyfriend saw me knitting it and asked for one too, so I made another one with thicker stripes and some other small mods.






A hat for my sister-in-law. The pattern is from a Danish book by Lena Blidell called 'Hotte huer'. (Ravelry link here) It is made with one strand of wool and one strand of some angora blend.





This sweater is for my little niece. I used the pattern from the Climbing Vines Pullover in Interweave Knits, Winter 2008. The Yarn is Lana Grossa Cool Wool 2000.


This looked really good on her, when she tried it on.



The last sweater is this cardigan made for my cousin's daughter. It was a small experiment with yarn from stash (DROPS Karisma) I'm not all satisfied but it looked fine when she tried it on. In my opinion there are some minor errors but on the other hand you have to make these in order to be an experienced knitter, right? It is knit in the round and steeked.

New skills learned

Many of my anxious thoughts about this sweater have shown to be totally needless. It came out just the way I hoped.



One of the reasons for my anxiety about the sweater was the construction, which isn't similar to any other sweater I've knitted. During the process it was very hard to tell whether this would fit or not. It wasn't until the steek was cut that I was able to see if it would be a succes or a total failure. I did some measuring before I cut and felt fairly safe, but not until I could try it on, which was also beyond the point of no return, I knew I was going to be happy with it.



The construction also entails that there is absolutely no seaming, except from the underarms. It is knitted all in one piece, even though it has set-in sleeves. And this was new to me. All in all I learned quite a few new skills but to me the overriding new technique was doubtlessly the steeking. Much of the fear has disappeared now, though, and I'll definately do it again some time. I might use the same yarn (shetland wool) next time I knit something which includes steeking. I liked it and there is a wide range of colors.



I had some trouble about finding the right buttons but these were the ones I ended up with. I think they suit the sweater well.



The only moderation I made was making the sleeves a bit longer by adding one pattern repeat. I see now that it wasn't necessary, however, I dont' mind them being on the long side.

Pattern: Little Birds
Designer: Ysolda Teague
Source: Twist Collective
Yarn: Shetlandsuld from BC Garn

I cut the Birds!

The steek is cut. It all went fine, so I won't need to worry about steeking again. I'm glad that I made the reinforcement, though.



Also, edging is done, ends are weaved in and it's now blocking. Once it's dry I'll sew on the buttons.






Yesterday I bought three skeins of Rowan Tapestry. Have you tried it? What do you think? It contains 30% of soybean protein fiber. Now, that's interesting! Another fiber I haven't tried. The rest of the content is wool. It's very soft so I want to knit a scarf using the ogee pattern from Mary Thomas's Book of Knitting Patterns, which I also used for my cardigan.

Steeking - The Chicken and the other Birds

I guess I'm a chicken! I'm making a crocheted steek on Little Birds even though the pattern says you don't need to make a reinforcement. Shetland Wool is fuzzy and sticky enough to leave it as it is. It will felt enough by itself. But - since I haven't tried it with Shetland wool before - I can't just cut. I'm using Eunny Jang's tutorial.