Garn Boet - The Yarn Nest

Hand knitted jacket – check!
Buttons in the front – check!
Pockets in the sides – check!

Everything is ready for MIL’s 70 yo birthday, and it is still two weeks away. The program is fixed, and I managed to finish the present in time. No procrastination here, no. Or yes, actually I had the buttons for more than a week before I sewed them on. And then it took me one day more to get the pockets fixed. I decided to add thin fabric pockets, the yarn is so thick that knitted pockets of any kind would have been too heavy.

Projects details: Cable-trim Jacket from Classic knits for real women by Martin Storey and Sharon Brat.
Yarn: Jaeger Extra Fine Merino Chunky in the colour Teal, 20 balls.
Needles: 5mm and 6 mm.
Gauge: 16 stitches and 21 rows to make 10 x 10 cm.
Alterations: MIL had asked for a hand knitted cardigan or jacket, with buttons and pockets. Since this model had neither buttons nor pockets, I had to add them. Buttonholes were knitted between the cables, and pockets of thin cotton fabric added to the sides.

See all entries on Cable-trim Jacket!

Posted by Maud at 04:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (0)

I run into a slight problem when knitting the second front band of MIL's cable-trim jacket. It was very clear that I had to find another way to make the buttonholes, since the ordinary method would have made the second cast-off stitch to run into the cable. There are only two purl stitches between the cables, and this jacket is so heavy it needs bigger buttons than those going through a one stitch bind off or eyelet button hole. The answer was to be found in my knitting handbook Vogue knitting, a very good book for knitting problems like this. I highly recommend it.

And there was enough yarn for all the front bands, but only about 15 grams extra. I'm on to seaming now.

I started a new project. This is my perfect timing, when the worst heat is over, the vacation is almost over (schools start in two weeks) and everybody over here starting to think about autumn, then I pick out my cotton yarn and start knitting a summer top. Okay, I did cast on when we were in the archipelago, but I haven’t had that much time to knit on it. It should be a fast knit, and I hope to be able to wear it before it cools down here finally. I’m a bit unsure about the colour, I ordered it without looking at the shade card in real, and it looked much brighter on my screen. I had in mind to make the crocheted parts in a pinker yarn, but it doesn’t go together with this colour at all. I think I have enough yarn in this colour to use in the crocheted parts too, and then I can dye over the whole thing in brighter red if it looks terrible.

On another note, remembering my agonies over Solveig Hisdal's beautiful but ill-fitting boxy sweaters? Take a look at Eunny's creation, I can't wait for that pattern to be out!

Posted by Maud at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

I have worked hard on the Cable-trimmed jacket for MIL. In the heat. I should get a Top-Daughter-In-Law medal for this.
Jokes aside, this yarn is very rewarding, it is nice to knit with, and is, despite the 100 % merino wool content, not hot to knit at all. And we have been travelling a bit, and watched a couple of seasons of The underground army on DVD (anybody remembering this from the beginnings of the 1980’s? Funny parody on Frenchmen, Englishmen, Germans and Italians during WW II, perhaps even funnier when one isn’t a F, E, G nor I). Good knitting time when you’re in for plain stockinet stitch.

The last of the second front on the beach.

Last Sunday we went down to Hankoo. It’s a yearly visit for us, hubby spent his childhood summers here, and as well his father’s parents as my father’s parents were home from Hankoo. It’s a very picturesque summercity, but emptier and windier and colder in the winters. There are lovely sand beaches and also those with more stones. It takes 1,5 hours with car to get there, and the same back. Yes for knitting in the car! I was halfway through the first sleeve on the way home.

Yarn nest kids on HUS’ (Hangö Udds Segelsällskap) beach. They are having a snack on the same stones where their great-grandfather always used to sit before and after swimming.

I have finished the sleeves and they are now blocking. They asked for some recalculating, MIL has shorter arms than what the pattern gives you. But no big problems, other than the fact that I’m afraid I’m going to run out of yarn. The collar took one full ball of yarn, and I didn’t even make it as wide as described in the patter. This yarn amount, 20 balls, was supposed to be enough for one size bigger too, so I didn’t even buy an extra ball, something I usually do.

The second front band.

I have never made cables on trimmings before, so this might be ordinary stuff for those of you who have done it before. The front bands are constructed so that you first pick up stitches to make a row of 2 knit 2 purl stitches. Then on next row to you increase one stitch in every knit stitch, giving you the four stitches you need for the cable. The band is not increasing in width since the cable is decreasing the level of the four stitches. Very neat, and the first front band is absolutely straight. I have calculated where to put the buttons and have started the right front band. I will have yarn for the front band, but the problem is the collar. It is knitted, but there will be a cable trim on the front edge of the collar too, and when I reach that point I’ll be sailing on dangerous water.

We'll see tomorrow if it was enough.

Posted by Maud at 01:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

My hands are flying over the stitches of this work! 6 mm needles, an old circ I got with my Mum’s collection when she gave me everything knitting related she had some 15 years ago, an Aero according to the package, with nice pointy ends and flexible plastic needles. But the wire, oh my! Look! I must try Sia’s trick and put the wire in boiling water, hot water alone didn’t help, nor hot oven. I bought a new one in the local Citymarket, a Novita 6 mm, but it felt like the yarn was about to glue itself to the needles. Too much friction for my taste. So I stick to the Aeros, even if the wire is a mess. The ribbing is made with 5 mm needles, but here I’m on safer waters, I have an Addi circ (that I love) that makes the finer gauged work a dream to do.

Big piece to the right: blocked back piece. Sausages to the left: completed unblocked left front, partial right front.

I started to knit on the cable-trimmed jacket when we went to the archipelago this Monday. It takes about 1,5 hours in the car to drive from close to Helsinki where we live down to Kimito where the island is situated. I knitted almost 2 balls on the way down and started the fourth ball on the way home. I couldn’t knit on it while on the island, since I was under the eyes of MIL herself, and finishing the Kimono shawl was a high priority too. I finished the back piece while watching Nanny McPhee with the kids on Thursday, and the fronts, well, they grow with the speed of light. As you can see, I'm halfway with the second one!

On a totally other note, have you all Finnish knitters seen that Kristel has put up details for our own version of the Secret Pal? The Salainen Ystävä 2006 is about to start in August, so hurry up and send in your participation details before 30.7. See you there!

Posted by Maud at 08:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Startskottet för svärmors 70 års present har gått, då garnet till jackan anlände idag. 20 nystan av härliga Jaeger Extra Fine Merino Chunky i färgen Teal som skall bli Cable-Trim Jacket från Rowans bok Classic knits for real women.

Mönstren i boken är designade av Martin Story och Sharon Brant. Jackan stickas på stickor nummer 5 och 6 mm, så jag tror jag har en chans att nå målet i tid, dvs. före slutet av augusti. Svärmor har talat om den här 70 års presenten i ett par års tid, och förberett mig mentalt på vad hon verkligen vill ha i present. Vem kan motstå det!

The yarn for MIL's 70 yo present has arrived, and the jacket's way to finished birthday present has begun. 20 balls of wonderful Jaeger Extra Fine Merino Chunky in the colour way Teal are about to, with the help of needles 5 and 6 mm, be transformed into the Cable-Trim Jacket from Rowan's book Classic Knits for real women. The patterns are designed by Martin Story and Sharon Brant. MIL has been talking about this jacket for a couple of years already, so to say preparing the grounds in order to be sure to get the hand knitted jacket. And who can resist that!

Posted by Maud at 05:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)