Garn Boet - The Yarn Nest

The last mittens for this year!

2008-12-26T13:01:07Z

Merry Christmas to all of you who celebrate! I hope your festivities went well. We had a lovely Christmas Eve, with good food, nice company and enough presents. No yarn nor needles among mine, but a beautiful Japanese Donabe pot for cooking.

Almost off the needles already are the Urban Necessity mittens by Colleen Michele Meagher. My daughter wanted a pair of mittens that enables her to handle the bus ticket without problems, but are still warm. The Urban necessity mittens have a cap over the fingers, and fingers without tops. Handy! The yarn is Schoeller + Stahl Ronda, and I'm using 3,5 mm dpns in bamboo. Both mittens are knitted, and I have today started to knit the first cap.

The second pair I have on the needles are the Vinterblomster mittens by Heidi Mork. I'm using Vuorelma's Satakieli yarn for these mittens, in deep brick and ochre colours, on 2,5 mm dpns. This are intended for my younger daughter, but I'm not sure about the size, might be that they end up in my mitten basket. I'm just about to start the thumb gusset on the first mitten.

Here is a close up of the pattern. The observant knitter familiar with the pattern might observe that there is one flower less than intended in the second border. I forgot to increase stitches after the first border, but didn't realize it until I didn't get the main pattern to work out. So I ripped only a couple of rows and increased instead after the second border. The missing stitches were just the amount the last flower would have needed.

First pictures of finished Deep in the Forest mittens!

2008-12-16T19:09:56Z

My Deep in the Forest mittens have been finished for about a week already, and my son has even taken them into daily use, as you can see from the picture below. I should have taken pictures before I gave them to him, but the weather has been lousy, and my possibilities to get any good outside pictures close to zero. And he needed them. This picture is taken inside, without any sun or anything that could brighten them up. I'll take new pictures as soon as the weather clears up!

Summary of this mitten project: My gauge was totally off, but otherwise a very nice outcome. The pattern is very clear and well written, and I made few alterations. The major one was that I picked up thumb stitches from the contrast colour yarn in the previous row, not MC, and then I attached the cuff lining at the same time as I knitted the first grey row off the braid (simply pick up the cast-on row on a spare needle, and knit the cast-on stitch together with the live stitch you have on your ordinary needle). I like how the mittens look.

Project details:
Pattern: Deep in the Forest mittens by Tuulia Salmela.
Yarn: Vuorelmas Satakieli, 2ply 100 % wool in off white and grey (957).
Needles: 2,5 mm dpns.

Modelled pictures as soon as the weather clear up!

And P.S.: I have cast on two new pairs of mittens, and the first thing I will do next year is to make an order for yarns to several bigger projects ! Yes! But this year I try to finish the mittens and the Ribby cardi.

Marina piccola socks, modeled pictures!

2008-12-06T11:52:28Z

The Marina piccola socks have been finished for about a week, and in fact also washed and blocked for a couple of days. The problem has mostly been the weather*, with our small compact camera is quite a nice natural light required in order to get decent pictures. And today finally, during a split second when the sun decided to shine, I managed to get modeled pictures of the socks. The flash did flat out the pattern terrible, and these pictures are taken with only the natural light. And that did of course create some blur, since a young teenager is incompetent of keeping even the toes still for the time it takes to take a few pictures.

In the end, I liked the pattern by Kate Gilbert very much, and I can't understand why it was so difficult in the beginning. The socks knitted up beautifully on 2,5 mm dpns, and the pattern shows a clear stitch definition. The pattern is well written and very clear. I like the start toe a lot, and since I'm a big fan of flap heel socks, I liked the heel too. The only alteration I made was to decrease a bit sharper for the toe, but that was only because I had knitted the patterned part too long, and I didn't want to have the sock too long. And I was too lazy to frog. The pattern didn't need this alteration.

Project details:
Pattern: Marina piccola socks by Kate Gilbert.
Yarn: VillaSukka by VillaMokka.
Needles: 2,5 mm dpns.

Oh no, she moved her toes again!

* We have had rain and clouds for weeks, really almost a rainy reason. Haven't felt like winter at all.

Mitten knitting season opened!

2008-11-28T13:03:12Z

Last winter I did only knit two pairs of mittens, my younger son took my Anemois, and the second pair, the Rosebud mittens, went to my daughter. My intention was to start knit a pair of mittens for myself, but receiving the Deep in the Forest mittens pattern (by Tuulia Salmela), I realized my yarn would never stand 2,75 mm needles, and resigned to knit the mittens for my older daughter.

I started to knit as soon as the Piccola marina socks were finished (they are now blocking), and realized very soon that mu gauge of some reason is totally off. I have knitted with this yarn and these needles a lot, but obviously the straight lines and my afraidness of stranding too tight on the backside led to a much looser knit than I usually do. Result: these mittens will be suitable for my older son, whose hands are just a tad smaller than my husband's. Good part: he needed new mittens too. Bad part: still no mittens for me.

The mittens look very uneven on these pictures, but it comes from the straight lines, the colour change is on exactly same place row after row. They will even out when blocking. The braid was fun to knit, as always, and Tuulias description on how to do it is very straight forward and clear. I'm using Vuorelma's Satakieli yarn and 2,5 mm dpns. The only alteration I so far has done was to pick up the stitches for the thumb gusset from the grey, or contrast colour, yarn on the backside, not from the main colour yarn. I got visible stitches on the right side when using the mc, but that can of course have come from making some other mistake when picking up the stitches. Anyway, it's very neat now.

And finally an update on the Ribby cardi: I have located two balls of grey in the right dye lot, and I'm waiting for them to be shipped to me. I have knitted the body and almost the entire first sleeve. As soon as the yarns arrive I'll continue.

Tha Wabi Sabi scarf

2008-11-22T11:49:04Z

The Wabi Sabi scarf is a project I in fact started and finished back in April. Of some reason I haven't got around to take pictures of the scarf until now, perhaps because it's a very hot scarf. The Wabi Sabi scarf is knitted in lovely Noro Kochoran, shade 47 on 6 mm needles. The yarn is a 10 ply aran weight of Wool, Silk and Angora.

The pattern for the Wabi Sabi scarf is by Kamicha, and Kamicha is kind enough to give it out as a free pattern. Thank you Kamicha! The pattern repeat is only for rows, and very easy. An absolute extra is the beautiful knotted fringe. The scarf is knitted lengthwise, and you need a long, about 100 cm circular needle to manage the amount of stitches. The fringed is created at the end/beginning of the row every time you turn the work around. The scarf is long, about two meters, and I used about one and a half skein of Kochoran.

It's a bit cloudy outside, so I talked Hanna into modeling the scarf inside instead, and she agreed, but was not overly enthusiastic in showing her modeling skills. Anyway, some kind of pictures of the finished scarf got taken. But what is not showing of very well is how the colours work in the scarf. The idea is that there is not supposed to be any pooling, the scarf is about as long as one colour repeat of the yarn. I must have started a bit into the first colour, since I managed to get a small pooling effect in both ends of the scarf. It doesn't disturb me since it's symmetrically, and is quite beautiful. Still, it would have been nice to get the colour sequences right, but I had knitted quite a lot before I realized about the pooling. And Kochoran is pretty hairy, so I decided against ripping up it all.

Here is a close up of the end and the fringe. Kamicha's pattern has instructions for both a shawl and a throw, or to be more exact, yarn amounts for those, since they are made by just knitting more repeats.

I was a bit afraid the yarn would be itchy, but it turned out being very nice against the skin, and I have already have use for the scarf several times. We have got some kind of first feeling of the winter here in south Finland, with a couple of millimeters of snow on the ground and a couple of minus degrees. Lovely!

The new socks

2008-11-20T08:53:54Z

Some months ago I started a new pair of socks. I have for some time, well actually since the pattern was published, admired Kate Gilbert's Marina Piccola socks. The inspiration for the socks is a small path down to a small harbour in Italy, and it reminds me of our holiday with the kids in north Italy a lot. I also had this lovely sea blue yarn, hand painted by VillaMokka (Mokkasukka 75 % wool, 25 % nylon).

I had some problems grasping the graph for the pattern, I don't know why, since it's hardly ever a problem of mine. A slight problem was also that I did knit quite infrequently on the leg portion, and managed to forget the pattern in between. Fortunately, after having understood it, it usually took a row or two to get it again. Here is a close up of the winding path between the waves of the sea, a beautiful pattern I think.

The cuff is knitted on 2 mm dpns, and the rest on 2,5 mm. Today I have promised to take my friend's son to his piano lesson, and I think I'll have plenty of time to set up the second sock while waiting for him. In fact, the foot part of the first sock was knitted in less than a week, so I think the second one will finish pretty smoothly too.

The Ribby Cardi

2008-09-15T14:26:00Z

Schools have started over here, and I feel the first hectic period that always follows the beginning of the school year is over. And that is good. The garden is in dire need of weeding and some replanting. We have got a fence up around part of the garden, and the plants that now are in the running route of Ludde have to be moved, or he will totally destroy them. Fortunately my mother has promised to drop in and give a helping hand. There are some painting jobs in the house, and there are knitting to be done.

And now over to the knitting. Let's not dwell over the fact that its months since I last updated, and instead concentrate on the knitting: The fabulous Ribby Cardi by Bonne Marie Burns. I'm knitting the all ribbed version.

I had 8 balls of beautiful charcoal grey Cashsoft Aran (colour SH 014, dye lot 19D5), and thought it would be enough. Well, it will probably be one ball too little. I have knitted the fronts, and I'm halfway on the back, and it looks a little alarming. I already checked with the shop I bought the yarn from, and they don't have more of it in this dye lot, the dye lot they have has a quite different shine, and is out of question. If I don't relocate one or two balls more, I'll have to decide on another colour for the sleeves, which isn't an impossible idea, even if I had a one coloured Ribby Cardi in mind.

Here is a picture proof of the knitted and folded fronts:

I have started a pair of socks in a beautiful aqua blue colour, but I didn't manage to get any good pictures of tat project, so it will have to wait for better light and a post of its own.

Two pairs of socks

2008-07-11T13:43:29Z

During my stay in the archipelago I finished both wip sockpairs. The Snickets were almost done before we came there, but the Latvian socks needed more knitting. Fortunately I got inspired by my pictures of the first sock, and finished the second in a quite speedy way.

First up are the Snicket socks. The socks are knitted on 2,5 mm dpns, with VillaMokka's yarn Mokkasukka (75 % wool, 25 % nylon) in the colourway Viimeinen kejsari (Finnish for The last Emperor). The yarn is a hand painted one, and beautiful. You can look at more of Villamokka's yarns at her blog. The Snicket socks pattern is a nice one, well written, and as I mentioned the short row heel I so far like the best of all I've tried. It was first published in MagKnits, but is now available as a free download in Ravelry. In the smallest size they are perfect for my younger daughter, with a shoe size 37.

The Snicket pictures are from the east terrace of the house on the island, but it started to rain before I finished the Latvian socks, and we pictured them here at home.

The pattern for the Latvian socks is to be found in Nancy Bush's book Folk socks. I have again used Mokkasukka yarn, this time in the colourway Iris. The picot cuff is knitted on 2,5 mm dp needles, the rest on 2 mm needles. I used almost all of the 100 gram hank of yarn, and I must admit I had a slightly scary feeling when knitting the toe of the socks. It looked like so little left. The socks were intended for my mother, and she will get them as a thank you for taking care of Ludde while we were on the archipelago holidays. But they suits me very well too, and I have 38 in shoe size. A very nice pattern this too, as Nancy's usually are, they fit my foot very well.

I couldn't decide which pictures from the archipelago to post, so I a put them all in
an album, so you can have a look at more than a couple, click here! These pictures are all taken in the archipelago of Turku, in southwest Finland. It's a beautiful place, and you can see my love for stones and rock formations, I can't stop taking pictures of them. The house on the island is very primitive, with some solar energy, but no running water, and with a nice vegetable plot. It's easy to forget about the troubles at home when over there!

Short update

2008-07-10T15:21:49Z

I have been away for a while, spending holiday days in the archipelago with the family. There are no possibilities to blog from there, but there has been plenty of knitting time. The Snicket socks are finished, as are the Latvian socks, and a new project is started. I'll upload pictures of them all, and some beautiful shots from the archipelago tomorrow. Here is a sneak peak, the beautiful short rows on the Snicket sock heel (the best short row heel I've ever managed to make):

New socks

2008-06-26T16:38:33Z

Huh, time has been flying! I can't understand it's so long since I last updated the blog! But it have been so busy months that I haven't even picked up the needles many times.

I started a pair of socks, with the intention to give them to my mother as birthday present. I managed to finish the first sock in May, but since Mum's birthday is on May 28th, I had to come up with something else for that, and the second sock is still not even started. The pattern is Latvian socks by Nancy Bush from Folk socks, and they are knitted on 2 mm dpns in a yarn by Villamokka called Mokkasukka in the colourway Iris. The yarn is a German Zitron yarn that is handpainted by Villamokka in Hämeenlinna.

The second Latvian sock has been suffering from the second sock syndrome, and when I finally had more time to think about knitting, I decided that instead of casting on for sock number 2 I would start a new sock. One reason was the weather, we have had a lot of rain, and the yarn I chose is the perfect antidote for rain: an other Mokkasukka yarn, this time in the colourway Viimeinen kejasari, Finnish for The Last Emperor. My girls are fighting over this yarn, but I think the younger one will end up as winner, the Snicket sock will be too small for her sister.

The pattern is the Snicket sock, a design by Sabine Riefler, previously published in MagKnits, but now available as free pattern in Ravelry. I'm knitting size one with 54 stitches on 2,5 mm dpns. And the heel. As you know I'm not a fan of short row heels. All ways now and then I test a new way to knit them, but so far, I haven't found a winner. But this heel is almost perfect, and I think the second sock will be even better, since now I really know what I'm doing. The stitches continue over the heel in a column not broken by the direction change of the heel, simply beautiful. Here is a close up of the heel.

And do not feel sorry over my older daughter, I bought two skeins of this beautiful yarn, she will get a pair of her own, but in an other pattern. I also bought two skeins of a blueish colourway, perfect for my boys. Or for Marina Piccola by Kate Gilberts, a design that reminds me so much of Italy that I'll knit it, sooner or later.

And while knitting these socks I dream of what to knit next. I long for a sweater project, but not a multicolour one, perhaps even something as opposite as charcoal or black... I absolutely need something in those colours. I love the colour of the socks I'm knitting right now, but for myself I feel for something more simple and serene.

Shawl pin and Autumn Rose

2008-05-07T09:40:04Z

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.

Books for sale!

2008-03-25T08:46:50Z

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.

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!

Modeled Chuck's Cabled socks

2008-03-21T11:04:51Z

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.

The "new" project: Autumn Rose*

2008-03-13T09:44:59Z

*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!

Focus on shawls

2008-02-22T09:35:04Z

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!