søndag 29. mars 2015

#8 / 2015: Thermal

I finally finished this!

This week I suddenly had three sweaters on the needles, and they were all sleeves. One of the projects was kind of hibernating... and it will continue to do so, for Easter. The sleeves for this sweater were so long, and I just wanted them finished. Hooray for weekend (and Easter break!), I say!


thermal2

So, what I had wanted was a super casual henley sweater, which is a style I like. I knit the Thermal pattern at a looser gauge, with a sport weight yarn, and I knit the smallest size. I think the sweater could have been even smaller, but the looser fit is fine, too.

I feel a bit like a grandpa wearing it. The colour is very neutral and the pattern is simple. I like it! It is what I wanted, after all. The fabric, which is a 100 % wool, became quite soft and fluffy after washing.


thermal3

I still haven't sewn on buttons, but to be honest, I quite like the open look like this. I'm not sure what to do with it yet.

Now I have a week long break, so I hope to be able to knit a fair bit!

torsdag 12. mars 2015

On the needles: Sweaters

I am still hoping that 2015 will be the Great Sweater Year. My goal is to end up with a wardrobe of sweaters that is varied enough that I won't have to wear store bought sweaters anymore. I am already well on my way to that point; at the moment, I only have one store bought sweater that I wear regularly. Then again, it is winter (though not for long, hopefully!). Let's see how this plan will work out when spring and even summer arrives. Maybe I will have to start knitting in cotton.

There are so many sweaters I want to knit. Right now, I am dreaming of cables, and I have two words: Brooklyn Tweed. Ugh, the sweaters are SO lovely. I am also drooling over the yarn, SHELTER. It looks so nice. Hey, it's my birthday soon...

Right now I'm not knitting anything too cable heavy, though - although the previously mentioned Winter Song sweater does have a whole bunch of small, intricate cables all over the yoke..


wintersong_2

This even has cabling on the wrong side. I'm not used to it, and I had a lot of problems with it in the beginning! The yoke is split into three parts; left and right front, and the back. I sped through the right and left front, but the back is taking me such a long time, and it's very attention demanding knitting, so not good for TV knitting. Hopefully, this weekend will see me get some real work done with this yoke!

The intricacy of the Winter Song sweater is what made me cast on for a new sweater... and hey, it's a classic: Thermal from Knitty. Even though it's much simpler than the Winter Song sweater, they have one thing in common, and it's one of my favourite sweater styles: They are henley sweaters! I don't know why, but to me it's like the henley is the epitome of the casual, cozy sweater. I have at one point actually owned four of the same henley sweater model from H&M... in different colours, mind you, but still! Something about the buttoned front just speaks to me.

I also find that when knitting, I tend to want to use so many techniques, to kind of show look what I can do, look how talented I am but I can't only have sweaters like that; my style is very casual.


thermal_1

I am also going back to my roots, so to speak, with this yarn, which is all Norwegian. Ask/Hifa 2 from Hillesvåg. I "accidentally" had a bit of a yarn spree, I guess you could say, a while ago, and got yarn for four sweaters(!). I like the yarn, it's at a good sport weight gauge (24 sts) and very good meterage. It's also quite soft in its own way - I like it!

So these are the sweaters I'm currently knitting. I hope I will finish at least one of them in the coming two weeks; I want to knit a yellow sweater in the Easter holidays!

Happy Thursdays!

søndag 8. mars 2015

#6 & #7: Rolf fingerless mitts and lizard ridge dishcloth

It's been quiet here lately - after I posted my last post I got really ill and was actually unable to knit for a while! This week I have managed to finish some projects, though, and get up to par with the ones I have on the needles.

The fingerles glove has recently had its renaissance in my life. I was a big fan of fingerless gloves some five-ish years ago, and wore them a lot. I slowly stopped wearing them altogether. Then last autumn I knitted a pair of Merletto Mitts for the bi-annual NydeligFin (my sewing group) gift exchange and I was kind of reminded that they exist. Now spring is coming to Trondheim, and my eyes have yet again opened to the fingerless glove! Not only are they practical to wear as the weather gets warmer, they are also great stashbusting projects and very quick, satisfying knits.

I also got lots of inspiration from my newly purchased Mittens & mitts book (Vantar för alla årstider).

The first pair I have knit is the Rolf mitts.


rolf_mitts2

They are a quick knit in a heavy worsted weight yarn and fun with the thick cables.
The yarn I chose is Cozy from Pickles. It's a type of yarn that has become very popular in Norway lately, kind of a fuzzier version of Malabrigo worsted. It's an alpaca/nylon/merino blend, one ply. It's light and extremely soft. I had knitted a pullover out of this yarn and I had almost two skeins left, so I decided to knit these mitts.


rolf2

Unfortunately I did not manage to use it all up. Oh, well... headband next, I suppose.


rolf-1

I have also recently become very taken with the colour of these mittens - a dusty beige, so stay tuned for more projects in this colour! The mitts have been all knit up for over a week, now, but only today did I weave in the ends. I don't like doing boring stuff...

I promptly cast on for another pair of fingerless gloves - but I will post them in this week's WIP Wednesday, unless I manage to finish them before then!

The next project is a quite different one, and an ongoing project of sorts: Dishcloths. Our kitchen needs them sorely, but I have never been a cotton kind of lady, so I just have never had any in my stash. This week, however, I managed to destash over a kilogram of yarn, and got lots of white cotton in return. Of course, So because of the destash (which was quite big - over a kilogram!!) I justified buying some more cotton - because I can't have only white dishcloths, right? So in the end I managed to shrink my stash by about 300 grams.

While in the yarn shop, I thought I would get some colours I can't wear myself, so I was drawn to this extremely turquoise yarn.

Extremely turquoise.


lizardridge

Wow. By itself, it didn't look so bright, but once paired with the white it is just TURQUOISE. Good thing it will be used to wipe the stove top and other surfaces, and not be worn by me.

And now I have lots of cotton, so I have to knit many cloths. I have scoured ravelry for fun patterns to try, so that is what I will do. A great way to try fun stitch patterns! The one above is the Lizard Ridge pattern, and it's free on ravelry.

Anyway, that's all for today - and this coming week  I will do the WIP Wednesday, for sure. I have many things going on, and even more ideas. Happy Sunday!