Garn Boet - The Yarn Nest

Huh, time flies! Repotting season is driving to it's end, and it's time to start tie together all ends that has been hanging around untied for over a month. Just to give a picture of how time consuming spring work on bonsais can be, I can tell you that I had a friend over last Sunday and we worked on a pine for over six hours. It was a long neglected tree I bought last year, and it needed a lot of thinning out and wiring, but still.

But over to knitting. First of all, a little bit more than a month ago I got a beautiful gift from the very talented Leslie Wind. Leslie makes shawl pins and closures, and other types of jewelery too. She blogs together with Maureen McMahon at Folly Cove Fiber Freaks. It's a shawl closure made of sterling silver, light, but still with clasps long enough to keep the shawl in place. Thank you Leslie! Here is the closure attached to a shawl:

and here with the clasps free:

In the middle of April I also finished Autumn Rose. I haven't got modeled pictures yet, but here is a sneak peak, evidence of really having finished it. I hope to get modeled pictures soon.

I have started a new pair of socks, in a beautiful hand-dyed yarn by VillaMokka. The pattern is Latvian socks from Nancy Bush's Folk socks.

Posted by Maud at 11:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (0)

First of all, thank you all for the very nice comments about my Chuck's socks!

And then, the content of this entry. Last summer I got new bookcases. They are a bit smaller than the old ones, and I have pushed forward sorting out my books for a very long time. This Easter holiday I finally got around to do something about the piles of books I have that I no longer use. Some of the craft books are books I of different reasons have got doubles of, but most are books I have knitted one or two items from, and most likely will not use again. There are also some books by Tasha Tudor or illustrated by her that I have got doubles of. Due to the less space I have for my books now I have decided to try to find new loving homes for the books. The prices mentioned are all without the cost for mailing, the actual cost for mailing depends on where the book goes, and will be added to the cost of the book.

So, the following books are up for sale:

- Knitted toys by Fiona McTague. Hardcover 2004. Condition slight wear on the dustjacket, otherwise as new,10 euro.

- Knits for Barbie dolls, 75 fabulous fashions for knitting, by Nicky Epstein. Hardcover 2001. Condition slight wear on the dustjacket, oterwise as new, 10 euro.

- Charmed knits, projects for fans of Harry Potter, by Alison Hansel. Paperback, 2007. Condition very good, 10 euro.

- Miniature needlepoint carpets, by Janet Granger (dollhouse sized carpets). Paperback 1996. Condition very good, 10 euro.

- Bloomsbury needlepoint, from the tapestries at Charleston farmhouse, by Melinda Coss. Hardcopver 1992. Condition very good, dustjacket shows slight wear, 10 euro.

- The handmade soap book, by Melinda Coss. Hardcover, 1998. Condition very good, 10 euro.

- Making your own teddy bear, by Peggy and Alan Bialosky and Robert Tynes. Paperback 1982. Condition wear on covers, otherwise in good condition, 5 euro.

- Kauneimmat kanavatyöt, by Kaffe Fassett. Paperback 1993. Condition very good, 10 euro.

- Vantar, mössor, sockor och sjalar, by Anita Gummerus. Hardcover, 2001. Condition very good, 10 euro.

- Sy små dockor till dockskåp och lek, by Karin Neuschütz. Hardcover, 2000. Condition very good, 10 euro.

If you are interested, email me at mfast @ welho . com (omit the blank spaces), and ask for mailing prices and details about the books. As soon as a book is gone I'll take it off the list. Payment with PayPal or directly to my bank account.

There will be some magazines on sale later on!

Posted by Maud at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I finally got something close to good pictures of the finished Chuck's cabled socks. Hanna has used the socks several times and she is very pleased with the fit, and claims them to be very warm too. Being knitted with two strands all over it's quite understandable that they are warm, and the cables add too to the thickness. The fit is perfect for Hanna, so we are all in all very pleased with the project's. A common problem people seems to have had with Chucks's is that they want go over the heel. I decided to use grotesque thick needles in order to overcome the problem, and it payed out well. It also slowed down the knitting speed since I still ha to try to knit the knitted stitches a bit looser and the purled stitches a bit tighter than what would have been natural with this needle size.

Project details:
Pattern: Chuck's Cabled socks by Eunny Jang
Yarn: Scoeller+Stahl Fortissima socka in colours 1093 (pink, 2 balls) and 1053 (grey, one ball)
Needles:2,5 mm and 3mm dpns
Alterations: I patterned the heel instead of knitting it in just one colour. Cuff, heel and toes knitted on 2,5 mm needles, all cabling on 3 mm.

Posted by Maud at 01:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (21) | TrackBacks (0)

*Now, almost one month after cast on it doesn't feel like a new project anymore ;-)

Hello! No, I haven't dropped off the planet, I have just had my hands filled with a lot of other things. There has, as usual, been knitting going on, but my time by the computer has been used solely for none knitting purposes. This is the way the spring will continue, so I'll stop apologizing for not having time. I'll blog, but it won't be on a regular basis.

Back in February, after finishing the friendship shawl, I started knitting on the Autumn Rose pullover by Eunny Jang. The pullover is knitted in Shetland wool, Shetland Spindrift by Jamieson's. The pattern is to be found in their book Simply Shetland 4: At Tomales Bay. I use needles in size 3 mm, and I'm knitting the smallest size. The pattern is much easier than Venezia, since it's more regular, and there for is this a very fast knit. I think I knitted the body in less than two weeks, and the first sleeve in about a week. And I haven't had that much knitting time, perhaps a little more than one hour every evening. I'll start the neck opening a bit higher than in the pattern, as those familiar with the pattern already can see from my picture. I have also decided to knit the sleeves longer than the pattern, a fact you can't see from the picture, since the sleeve there is the length the pattern states. I'll knit a new cuff and both pattern parts once more, take off the old cuff and graft the new beginning to the knitted sleeve. I'll have much more use for the pullover in my climate with long sleeves, and I do already have Venezia with 3/4 sleeves. The second sleeve will of course be knitted as a long one from the beginning.

And here, a close up of the pattern. I love the colour combinations, this is simply beautiful pullover!

P.S. Chuck's cabled socks are finished, and have been waiting for a modeled socks picture session, but the weather has been grey and terrible, and I haven't got anything done. But there will be pictures!

Posted by Maud at 11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (22) | TrackBacks (0)

Today’s entry will be all about shawls. I have two finished shawls to present, one you haven’t seen at all before, and the finished Friendship shawl, alias Swallowtail shawl.I talked my older daughter Hanna into modeling the shawls. The first shots were like this, but then I managed to calm her down and make her behave in accordance with what you except of a shawl model. Elegance and ladylikeness can be very far from what a teenager is.

The sharpeyed have perhaps seen that there has been something called the Ti-to-tip shawl in the sidebar. This is a shawl I started and finished last autumn. My son had a period of practice in a hospital for elderly people, and had for five weeks to be on the other side of Helsinki at seven o’clock in the morning. My schedule was to wake up at five, take out the puppy for his morning business, wake up the son and keep him company while he breakfasted before I headed back to bed for one hour of sleep after he had left. While being up I knitted on this shawl, it was simple enough for those very early morning hours. It’s a very simple garter stitch shawl, you cast on three stitches, and on every row make a yo before the last stitch. The shawl is inspired by the shawls the American illustrator Tasha Tudor wears over her everyday dresses. I had some Rowan WoolCotton left, and used up everything for this shawl. It’s very everyday, warm and snuggly, and perfect to have under your jacket on cold days. It’s knitted on 4 mm needles. The shawl pin is by a Swedish designer who had a shop in Malmö, unfortunately I don’t have his name anymore. I like it a lot.

The Swallowtail shawl, renamed to the Friendship shawl, got finished almost exact one year after I finished my first Swallowtail shawl, a present for a dear friend’s birthday. It’s a tad bit bigger than the original, knitted with five more rows of buds. The Lily of the valley pattern matched exact with the extended bud pattern part, but the border pattern didn’t match. I simply left out the last decrease on the first row before the mid stitch and the first after the mid stitch, and after that did everything work out right. This bigger version used two hanks of Wetterhoff Sivilla, while the original version used one and a half.

I had serious problems with the nupps on the original Swallowtail shawl, and I'm happy to report I managed better this time. The pointier bamboo needles grabbed the yarn, and even if it wasn't fast working, it worked much better than what it did with metal needles. I'm still waiting for the lace needles I ordered eons ago, so I don't know if it would have worked even better with them.

Project details:
Pattern: Swallowtail shawl by Evelyn Clark in Interweave Knits Fall 2006.
Yarn: Wetterhoff Sivilla, two hanks in colour 916.
Needles: 3.5 mm Addi bamboo circulars.
Alterations: Shawl made bigger by knitting five more pattern repeats of the bud pattern.

I have a new wip to present, one that is simply flying off the needles (in spite of all the colour changes), and new pictures of Chuck's Cabled socks. The second sock has already reached the heel, and will soon be finished. It's amazing how fast the knitting will advance when you have only half the amount of cables left!

Posted by Maud at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (16) | TrackBacks (0)

A quick update on my Chuck’s cabled socks: the first sock is almost finished. I have knitted the cuff and the heel on 2,5 mm needles, and the rest on 3 mm needles, much bigger needles than what I usually use for this yarn. But the cables drag the stitches together, and this way will the socks be wide enough. The pink toes will most likely be knitted on 2,5 mm. The yarn is Schoeller+Stahl’s Fortissima socka, in grey and pink. The socks will be for my older daughter, but the size would fit me too.

Posted by Maud at 03:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (13) | TrackBacks (0)

I finished the Tangled yoke cardigan before I got ill for the second time, and I even got the buttons bought. It then took me almost a week to get it all together and last weekend it was time for finishing party chez Yarn Nest. I have pushed forward the photo session, waiting for blue skies to turn up, but it looks hopeless. We do still have the same grey weather as we have had already too much of. So I talked the younger son into taking some pictures while it was still daylight out there, and the result can be seen below. A modeled Tangled Yoke cardigan.

The fit of this cardigan is perfect. I freely admit I was a bit nervous before washing the cardigan for the first time, since I had measured the gauge after washing, and Felted Tweed is always growing in the wash for me. The sleeves of the unwashed cardigan ended halfway between my elbows and hands, and it was alarmingly short. But, all calculations were done right and the finished fit is just perfect. I have worn this cardigan for several days already, and it is absolutely one of the sweaters I’m most pleased with of all I have ever made.

Project details:
Pattern: Tangled Yoke Cardigan by Eunny Jang from IK Fall 2007.
Yarn: Rowan Felted Tweed in colour 152 Watery (thank you Paulina for wise advises on choosing colour!), 7 balls (didn’t use much of the seventh).
Needles: 3,5 mm and 3 mm bamboo circular needles and 3,5 mm dpns.
Size: Smallest (34").

Eunny’s pattern is a very good one, as hers usually are. It was a joy to knit with Felted Tweed, and I didn’t mind the stockinette parts at all. I used bamboo needles in size 3,5 mm for the body of the cardigan, and a cabling needle for the pattern. I usually cable without a cable needle, but the irregular stretches on this cable were easier to manage with a cable needle, I discovered. The button bands were knitted with 3 mm bamboo needles, and the button side reinforced with a cotton ribbon on the wrong side. The only change I made to the pattern was to start the short rows for the neckline a couple of centimeters earlier than what the pattern stated, in order to lower the neck opening somewhat. < ahref="http://reunasilmukka.net/">Kamicha did this on her Tangled Yoke last year, and I liked the way her cardigan looked a lot.

If you like cardigans with a tight fit, then this is a pattern for you. The yoke construction is very good, and the cable looks far more difficult than what it in reality is. But if you are using Felted Tweed, take into consideration how the yarn behaves after a wet wash. There are several good looking but too big Tangled yokes out there in blog land. But besides that, I’m all for recommending this pattern, and I had no problems with knitting the cardigan.

Posted by Maud at 03:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (30) | TrackBacks (0)