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January 28, 2007

It's Argyle

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In the afternoon sun, Argyle

First, I added a link in the sidebar to the tutorials I have made last year. I hope you find them useful!

Second, I made up my mind, and started Argyle, by Anna Bell. It's classic in lines, but looks so cosy and warm, still with a degree of elegance, well, I couldn't resist. The pattern is pretty easy, but since it is all in the texture, not in different colours, it asks for attention. The yarn is Jaeger Extra Fine merino Aran in the colour Dahlia. I decided to start with a sleeve, a huge swatch you could call it. Looks good so far. I know my gauge is different when I knit with a big piece, I knit looser than what I do the swatch, and it has several times been a problem. But to reknit part of a sleeve, or even the complete sleeve is usually not a huge task. An annoying task yes, but not an impossible mission.

The red colour is very hard to catch, I took several pictures inside but the red clogged up totally and looked like lingonberry porridge, a delicious thing, but not the colour of the yarn. The true colour has something of raspberries over it, beautiful and bright, but not too bright.


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And third, I have also started something that is supposed to be a sort of coat for a bear. The pattern is a repeat of Eunny's Anemoi mitten pattern, five times repeated. The upper part will be in the small pattern of the inside of the mitten, as will the sleeves be. I'm knitting it Norwegian, in the round, and then I'll sew the seams in front and for the sleeves on machine before cutting them up. The yarn is Regia Silk, consisting of wool, silk and polyamid, a sock yarn that would never keep the seams intact without machine sewing.


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But now I'm off to sort my stash. I have promised my son new mittens, but I can't find the mitten yarns. It looks like chaos!

January 22, 2007

The Nino socks and 1 year anniversary

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The Nino socks, called so for the memory of our lovely hamster that died last year, are finished. The whiskers aren’t that clear on my pictures, but they are very hamster like. The purl stitches on the top of the toe create a nice little paw, and on the underside of the toe are paw prints in purled stitches. The pattern is designed by Theresa from Keyboard biologist knits, who has very good pictures of the toe part on her blog. The pattern is very easy to knit, and I encourage you to try it if you like the look of it.

Pattern details:
Pattern: Whiskers and paws by Theresa Walunas
Yarn: Schoeller & Stahl Fortissima socka in colour1008, slightly more than 50 grams.
Needles: 2,25 mm dpn in order to get the socks smaller (Theresa’s pattern is written for woman’s medium size with 2,75 mm needles and a thicker sock yarn)

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And today is this blog’s first anniversary. Thank you all for reading and commenting! The year was started by knitting a scarf and bear clothing, and this second year is started by knitting bear clothing and pondering over what to knit next. I would like to start a sweater, and I have some Jeager yarn, but I have a hard time deciding on what to do. This is mostly due to these two last weeks being so darn busy I have hardly touched my needles, much less to think over what to knit next. I’m very fond of several of Anna Bell’s designs, and might decide on her Argyle.

And guess what. The winter is finally here. -11 degrees Celsius this morning and some snow. I had already started to hope for spring...

January 16, 2007

More whiskers over here!

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Look, it's the second sock!

The two last weeks have been crazy, long days with lectures and in the library, and then homework with the children every evening for hours. I have been knitting on the paws and whiskers socks, not much considering the time, but still. And the toe of the second sock is almost in sight, only four pattern repeats left. I hope to finish it this week, and to get some better pictures in the weekend, and a longer post, when I’m hopefully a little bit less tired. Until the, be good and knit enough, but not too much.

January 07, 2007

The finished Rosebud mittens and new WIP

Today was another grey and cloudy day, not the sunshine I had hoped for in order to take beautiful pictures of the finished Rosebud mittens. And what more, there will be no modelled pictures of the mittens. The younger daughter, who has petit hands, has too big hands for them. The mittens were simply too small, something I had slightly anticipated. The good thing is that my niece, even if she is only three, has quite big hands, and will soon be able to wear them. She is having birthday very soon, and I’m still not sure of what more than the mittens to give her in order to manifest my place as aunt of the year (ok, I’m her only aunt, but still, you should never underestimate nieces).

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I followed more or less the pattern by Eeva Haavisto in her book Sata kansanomaista kuviokudinmallia; there are some small tweaks in the flower pattern in order not to have to twist the yarn so many times on the backside. And the thumbs are patterned according to the mitten I saw in the National museums collection. The green colour is also from the museum mitten pair, Eeva Haavisto’s pattern was knitted in black, white and red.

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Project details:
Pattern: A combination of the mittens with rosebuds from Kurikka in Eeva Haavisto’s book Sata kansanomaista kuviokudinmallia and a pair of mittens in the National Museums collection, from Ilmajoki (both places are in Pohjanmaa, about 15 kilometres apart).
Yarn: White and red Vuorelma’s Satakieli, green Isager’s Tvinni.
Needles: 2mm dpns.
Gauge: 40 stitches and 43 rows to 10 x 10 cm.

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The new project I started just before New Year is the Paws and whiskers socks by Theresa, but over here known as the Nino socks, or for the memory of a world fine hamster. The yarn Theresa used for these cat inspired socks was very much in colour with our beloved hamster Nino, who died in November, and I instantly saw her whiskers and paws in the pattern. I decided to knit the younger daughter a pair of Nino socks, initially intended as a Christmas gift, but delayed by other things going on around.

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I had first in mind to omit the edge Theresa had made and simply make a ribbed cuff, but changed my mind in the last minute. I now have to sew the edge to the inside (and the inside will be ribbed, but that doesn’t matter). I have reached the heel, almost, and I must say it is a pattern that looks much more complicated than what it is. It’s not mindless knitting, but it is fun and easy knitting. Well done job with the pattern Theresa!

January 06, 2007

Summary of 2006

The holidays are finally behind, and on Monday will the normal drill with school and lectures start. Before I present the finished Rosebud mittens for you, I'll make a summary of what I knitted in 2006.

2006 was the year of Kim Hargreaves, socks and mittens. I knitted five Kim Hargreaves designs, of which one, Charm, died like the Phoenix bird, just to take new life in the form of Elfin. The interesting thing is that the only sweaters and cardigans I knitted for myself were Kim Hargreaves' designs.

The KH designs were:Charm, Adorn, Splendour, Elfin and Ali .

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The first pair of mittens for the year was the squirrel mittens I had promised my Dad for birthday the previous year (in December, so they were not thaaat late). They were not followed by more mittens until autumn, when I knitted the Paistu mittens, an Estonian model by Nancy Bush, and started my Finnish Mitten Challenge, a project to knit up some of the old beautiful Finnish designs I knew there were. So far I have completed four mittens with old Finnish designs, and more is to come.

Here are all the mittens: Ekorrvante (Barbro Wilhelmsson), Paistu mittens, Jalasjärvi flower mittens , Basket weave mittens, John's still unnamed mittens, Rose bud mittens. One pair of wristewarmers was also completed, Haruha. All in all six pairs of mittens and one pair of wristwarmers.

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The socks then? I started the sock production of the year by joining Theresa's Family Sock Challenge. Almost all of my socks were in designs by Nancy Bush. I knitted another Nancy Bush pair for my mother's birthday. Then the rest of the socks were by different designers, Theresa, Eunny, Cookie A. and Grumperina aka Kathy. All in all 13 pairs of socks:
Family Sock Challenge: For myself:Tiit's socks (Nancy Bush)
For John:John's socks (original)
For Mikael: Gentleman's fancy socks (Nancy Bush)
For Sofia:Sofia's socks (original)
For Hanna: Juta's socks (Nancy Bush)
For Björn: Merike's socks (Nancy Bush)
.
The rest: Birch Leaf socks, Hiiumaa socks, Here There Be Dragons socks, Rib and cable socks, Bayerische socks, Pomatomus socks and Jaywalker socks.

My MIL had a big birthday in August, and had asked for a hand-knit cardigan. Since MIL is nice, and deserves hand-knit items, I made a cardigan in line with her wishes, the Cable-trim Jacket (Martin Storey, Classic knits for real women), a cardigan that when the summer heat finally was over, has got a lot of wear. In the gift category is also Veste asymétrique, a birthday present for my children's cousin.

I did also knit two vests, the Vest Everest my older daughter later snatched (scary when your daughter is big enough to take your clothes...) and Deep V Argyle Vest, another Eunny design.

There has also been some shawls and scarfs knitted during the year. The first FO was in fact a scarf, the Fishtail scarf, which was followed by the Kimono shawl, the Flower Basket Shawl, Sharfik and Fifi. A scarf that was finished so fast that it newer reached the blog before I already had given it away was a green fringed scarf for my mother, in Debbie Bliss Astrakhan. For those that were members in the now discontinued Debbie Bliss club, it was the club gift scarf from last year.

The category odds and ends consisted this year of Hanna's poncho, the top Flirty and a couple of Helping bunnies or the Apupupu/Hjälpjösse project.

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Last but not least, the bear project. I think this is my most neglected knitting category this year, and I tried to make up for it in the end of the year. The year started with a knitted pair of socks, Denmark from Nancy Bush's book Knitting on the road, and a shawl. In May was a hat completed. Then nothing happened until I test knitted the shawl Fifi III. And then again nothing until the end of the year, when I finished no less than three sweaters for the bears, a bag and a scarf. Two of the sweaters are miniatures of Splendour and Ali, and the scarf is a miniature of the Shifting sand scarf.

I'll post later today or tomorrow details and pictures of the Rosebud mittens, and of the new WIPs and the projects to come. Until then, have a nice weekend!

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Welcome to my blog! My name is Maud, and I spend my free hours grooming Afghan hounds, knitting, cooking, and growing bonsai trees. I am since the summer of 2012 reporting from Stockholm Sweden, entries before that are from Esbo, Finland.

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