They sure used a lot of yarn in the 80s…

I have been slacking in my updating, apparently. But not in my knitting, that’s for sure.

After a break from Rogue when I realised that mittens and scarves are a must for Sweden in February (well, it was February then anyway) I picked it up again and have been knitting furiously ever since. This is a somewhat strange picture of the completely finished body, since I had to stuff my hair into the hood to not cover the cable detail on it, lift my right arm to show the cable on the side of the body while keeping a stubborn door closed with the other. Thank God that I have the self-taking kind of camera. Which I can’t remember the word for right now, so “self-taking” it is.

Let me just say this: I never buy patterns. I like to make up my own. Tweak free patterns to fit my taste. And so on. This is the first pattern I’ve ever paid money for, and I have to say that it’s freaking amazing. So perfect. I love it! It’s worth every cent of its six dollars and I will probably make more than one of these. When I’ve rested from the cables and stockinette stitch, that is.

My mom has knitted since before I was born. Her stitches are so even that it’s scary, and she can do intarsia and fair isle without the least little difference in tension, and such. But she’s also of the school “make do with what you have” (“man tager vad man haver, sa Cajsa Warg”). So, when my sister asked for a black and pink striped cardigan, mom went down into the basement and found some awful acrylic in black and hot pink. She dug out a pattern from the mid-80s and started knitting.

Needless to say it came out huge. When I was visiting my sister I decided to use steeks to make it fit her, since it was so big that she couldn’t even fit it under her winter coat. I used a black, storebought cardigan of my sister’s to compare. I soon found out that the back was four inches too big. Each front was two inches too wide. It’s actually worse than it looks on this picture.

The sleeves were even worse! As in so bad that they actually worked as hats. This picture is taken during art project week in my sister’s school, which is why they are also wearing paint stained aprons on the picture. It’s not a fashion statement, I promise.

And when I had unraveled the seam on the sleeve it was, no kidding, this wide. Anyway, the ending of this story (a happy one, I promise) will come next weekend when my sister comes home and can try on the new version of her cardigan. I didn’t have time to finish it, because I also had to redo the buttonband, since my mom, even tension or not, had placed the buttons with spaces so uneven that I couldn’t stand not fixing it. The space ranged from 4 cm to 11 cm.

This is the last picture, I promise. Me and my aunt Kicki on our last family get-together. People can’t seem to understand why we do so much “hard work” all the time. Knitting is therapy to me, nothing else, and that’s why I keep doing it, even during times when people seem to want me to “relax”. (Yeah, they seem to be bothered, for some reason.) At this point my aunt pulled out her crocheting and kept me company, so ha. There you go.

Hat + scarf + mittens = happiness

So. I’m finally done with the hat+scarf+mittens=happiness combo that I’ve been knitting on for a while now. It’s hands down the most amazing yarn I have ever used. And worth every cent too.

What? Yay for me combo. That would be the work in progress name for it, and I’m searching my mind for a better one. The pattern is mostly mine, with inspiration taken from here, here and here.
Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted (100 % merino wool, 216 yards/197,5 m), Violetas, 3 skeins.
Needles: US4/3.5 mm for the hat and mittens, US8/5 mm for the scarf.

The hat is really just a simple cabled hat, with a so called horseshoe cable. The ribbing is on purpose done so that it will go right into the cables, which is also my favorite thing about it! I had to dull the color down a ton for the cables to even show. I assure you that the color is a lot more like it is in the other pictures!

The scarf has the same cable, the edging of the Ropes and Ladders Scarf and slightly uneven fringe. It’s as long as my wingspan. And that is unblocked. I’m a little scared to block it, actually, but I’m still going to. Just not the night before I’m supposed to take a trip where I want to be able to wear it.

The mittens have the same cable (oh how I love it!), an afterthought thumb, and are convertible. I don’t like the regular flap thing that most convertible mittens has, so I simply used the directions from this pattern to make a hole at the top of the palm. When I was finished with it I picked up and knitted a few extra rows to sort of cover the hole from the inside. I then sewed the edges of the little flap this created to the mitten. I think that when I write the pattern down (which will be soonish) I’m not going to write it as cast off and then picking up stitches, but rather as putting them on a holder. The only thing I wish I had done differently is this, but then again it’s because I’m a perfectionist and can see the line where the stitches were picked up.

Spring cleaning!

I’ve been cleaning out my digital camera and have both pictures and patterns to go with it. That is, I don’t know if I’ll get the patterns up today, but what the hell. Let’s start and see where it takes us, right?

At least six months ago, maybe more, I was gifted some handspun yarn and a beautiful handmade journal by The Madwoman In the Attic for helping her dechifer a chart. The yarn was beautiful, in different reds and pinks and purples and some glittery stuff too. It was thick and thin like handspun yarn is and decided on some kind of drop stitch pattern.

Cue about two weeks of research during which I rejected the one everyone knows about and have knitted (including me), Clapotis, although I like the bias, and I don’t know how many others, most which had something I liked, but still weren’t quite what I wanted. In the end I came up with the pattern for this. It’s very, very simple, but I’m going to type it up (and link to it here) anyway. Below is what it looks like when it’s not stretched and pinned down. Still pretty damn good if you ask me!

Going home to Sweden meant that I got to be there when I gave my grandmother Kiri (lot’s of warnings for clicking, it’s a pdf!) that I finished for her in March last year, and have been meaning to send to her, but was stalling because I didn’t know if I could trust USPS with something that valuable ($0 monetary value since the yarn was a gift but unvaluable emotionally – yeah, I don’t think even insuring the package would have been possible).

Here she is with my grandfather, who went almost completely blind during the five years I was gone, but still loved the scarf I made him, although he couldn’t see much of the cable pattern. That all but broke my heart; coming home and realising that I had been gone for so long that he could barely see me (he has no sight on one eye and maybe 25% on the other). But now I’m home and I’m staying. Never ever doing that for a guy (or a girl for that matter) again.

Here is a closeup. The flash has sucked most of the dimensions out of it, unfortunately, but it’s Annie Modesitt’s i-cord edging and a cable (that I came up with after seeing the Ropes and Ladders scarf a while ago) on a garter stitch background. I would have preferred reverse stockinette, but it was curling like mad and I really like the edging, so garter stitch it was.

And finally what I refer to as my “therapy sock”. I started this on my way home, leaving my life the five last years behind me, and knitting it was sure a form of therapy. It was my first “real” sock, and doing it on a total of 20 hours on a plane made me appreciate how slow and yet intriguing sock knitting is. I thought I would be well on my way with the second one when I hit Swedish ground, but in fact I got to turn the heel (on the first one) in my parents’ kitchen. I have to do something about the cast on edge. Although beautiful it’s way too tight.

And I should probably cast on for the second sock…

The most beautiful yarn in the world

Being on disability for a number of reasons and being single for the first time in six years (save a month or two in the middle) I have been knitting a lot lately to keep my thoughts at bay. It works somewhat, although stockinette portions are too easy for this to work. I made this part of Rogue in about three days, and then haven’t touched it. I’m at the shoulder portion with 36 rows of stockinette without any cables or shaping, and those rows, although short and sweet, seem endless. So, I put it aside for something more compatible with my brain. Namely this:

I’ve never had enough money to buy really great yarn. I’ve been driving the middle lane, not doing the cheapest acrylic (not that there’s anything wrong with acrylic, it has it’s function, but once you go wool, you most likely won’t be able to, uh, not stay wool), but at the same time never buying anything at a real yarn store, and instead at sale at Joann’s or online. I think the fanciest yarn I had ever tried was Paton’s Classic Merino. Which is like $4-5 for 200 yards. And then my relationship ended, blah blah blah, I happened to be in a yarn store and decided to shop myself happy. It didn’t help, but I got this gorgeous Malabrigo out of the deal, so I’m not complaining (that much).

I’ve been working on a hat+scarf set out of it for a while. The hat is done (although not blocked), and I’m using it. The scarf is taking forever, and after realising that I had like three feet of scarf and still had one untouched skein and one slightly used I decided to do mittens as well. I call it “The Extended Version”.

The perfectionist in me absolutely loves how the ribbing on the brim of the hat and cuff of the mittens shoot right into the cable. I just can’t stop looking at it. I plan to use the “after-thought thumb” and some sort of convertible fancy pants thing, sort of like this, but overlapping. Unfortunately I don’t think I can claim this pattern as mine since I’m taking inspiration from so many different places (Kpixie’s Karaoke Cable Scarf, PieKnit’s Ropes and ladders scarf and Peekabo from Magknits). Maybe I’ll put it here somewhere with a disclaimer and all that fun stuff.

Oh, and I promise, no matter how poor you are (and I’ve been there, so I know what I’m talking about), you would not for a second doubt that this yarn was worth every penny if you got to touch it and pet it and make love to it a little.

Cheap yarn? Is there such a thing?

Today my aunt, who started crocheting all of three weeks ago, took me and her friend Tina to this yarn outlet (!) about an hour from our little shitty town. (Yes, they let me loose in a yarn outlet store.) I walked away with almost 1000 krs ($125) worth of yarn, including a bag of yarn for my mom, who has the worst cold ever (and therefore couldn’t come). She never buys herself anything, and all the yarn and patterns she owns are either inherited or from the late 80s. She deserved something, so I got her enough to make a sweater.

And they weren’t joking when they called it an outlet either. For that money I got everything that is pictured above. My dear, dear grandmother paid for mom’s yarn in the end, or my bill would’ve bounced up above 1000 kr, but not by much.

To get into list mode, this is what I bought:

On the left: 20 skeins of Lowisa by Garngrossisten (real cheapo yarn, in other words!), 65% superwash wool, 35% acrylic. The color doesn’t have a name, but is a pretty variegated color with dark red and dark purple – my two favorite colors together!

In the middle: Three hanks of Pärlgarn, 100% mercerized cotton. I didn’t get a label, that’s how low budget this place was, but I know that’s what it is. The color is very close to that plum colored Lorna’s Laces that I mentioned a few entries back.

On the top right: 12 skeins of Superwash Ullgarn (the imagination must’ve been on vacation when they named it!) by Vartofta Garner (store brand yarn!). The color is very close to periwinkle, maybe a tad more blue.

On the bottom right: Six skeins of sock yarn, four of them are two different colorways of Mini Raggi by Järbo Garn, 75% superwash wool and 25% nylon. The other two skeins is Clown by Marks & Kattens, which is 45% cotton, 40% superwash wool and 15% nylon. The look of these are… well, the first two look a lot like the self-striping sock yarn Knitpicks used to have, and the latter reminds me of Sockotta, maybe a tad more low budget.

Before we left for this place I was worried that they would only have what is considered cheap-ish yarn in the US, acrylic that is so manmade that it squeaks as you knit along, but I was pleasantly surprised. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not Lorna’s Laces or anything that resembles luxury fibers, but they had mercerized cotton, superwash wool, many many wool/acrylic blends, lots of mohair, and so on. It was oh so great.

If anyone living in Västergötland, Sweden, or anywhere near that the store is Vartofta Garner, which is situated in the tiny little village (not even a town!) of Vartofta. They have a big outlet sale, like the one we went to, twice a year, but are open daily as well. I’m not sure how cheap they are the rest of the year though. And they do mail orders as well!

Oh, and Tina, being on disability permanently because of her MS crochets and knits a lot of hats and sells them, since she has a friend with a store that sells crafty things, and suggested that I might be able to sell some felted bags. She would talk to her friend about it. I’m very excited, although I’m a little worried that I will sell myself short. I saw a hat that she had made, a really beautiful spring like, striped hat with earflaps, knitted in very thin mercerized cotton in four or five different colors, and found out that she only got paid 140 kr (barely US$20) for it. I don’t generally sell knitted stuff, because I don’t feel that I can get what it’s worth. The two things I’ve gotten paid for I made for friends; the hat I got US$30 for, and the scarf I got US$40, even though I asked for just $20 (because it was for a friend of a friend who just found out she had cancer – to maybe make her feel better in some way – so I didn’t mind not making any money from it). So, I’m undecisive, but it’s nice to be asked

And now I’m off to knit and call the straight version of myself, as I like to call my friend Amanda.

When I found my yarn needle…

I fixed a couple of pics in the last entry, took new ones in daylight, such an innovative idea!, and swapped them for the dusky excuses for pictures that I posted this weekend.

I have been a busy bee lately. Nothing makes you forget a heart ache like weaving in ends and sewing on buttons on projects you had forgotten you had ever made. I’m gifting like crazy, and I’m loving every minute of it.

What? Centersquare from Knitty.
Yarn: Paton’s Classic Merino (100% wool, 223 yards), sage, about 2/3 or a skein, burgundy, no more than half a skein.
Needles: Addi Turbos, size 3 (3.25 mm), for most of it, then I moved and found that you can’t find the very same size in Sweden. I finished it with cheap 3 mm circs.

As I wrote in my last entry I made a few modifications, most importantly, I worked it with a single strand on US3′s instead of double on US11′s as the pattern calls for it. It meant a ton more repeats width wise and an extra circle on top as well. I was too lazy to look up how to get rid off the job at the beginning of each round, and didn’t pay attention when I snapped the picture and naturally got it in the front, so you can see it…

What? Daisy from Knitty.
Yarn: TLC Cotton Plus (51% cotton/49% acrylic, 186 yards), spruce, 1 skein, lavender, little itty bitty amounts.
Needles: US6/4 mm circs, probably Denises.

I’ve already blogged this, but I finally put on the buttons and had to do a recap. The color is most true on the first picture, and the way this pattern is written makes me want to marry the Yarn Harlot. Unfortunately I think she’s already taken… I put striped sleeves instead of making flowers or snakes, since I like to keep baby clothes as ungendered as possible.

What? The Irish Hiking Scarf and a modified Coronet from Knitty.
Yarn: Lion Brand WoolEase (80% acrylic, 20% wool, 162 yd/146m), Pines print, 3 or 4 skeins (I can’t remember!)
Needles: US8/5 mm, straights and DPNs.

I knitted these for my dad for Christmas 2005. They have been waiting for their ends to be weaved in since then. Sadly, I’m not even kidding. Today I finally finished them, a year and two months after I bound off. That’s what you call slow progress! My only modification was to swap the cable in Coronet for the one in the Irish Hiking Scarf, so that the hat and scarf would match.

The state of my needles have been driving me crazy for a long time. When I moved home and suddenly had all the time in the world (well, not really, but let’s pretend) I went searching for fabric in the basement and made this. The inside is grey courdorouy or however the hell you spell it, and the all but straight pockets are some fabric my mom thought she had bought at Ikea a million years ago to make curtains. She never did and I got to play with it instead. Awesome. I didn’t follow a pattern, I just measured my longest needle and made pockets from that. And no, that’s not all my needles. Most of them are still packed down, actually…

Back in the game

I hijacked my brother’s cell phone so that I could post some pics. He was not very happy, and the pics are questionable at best, but still.

 

What? Cabled hat to my sister’s very specific preferences.
Yarn: Marks & Kattens Quick (70% acrylic, 30% wool, 75 m or 93 yards), 2 skeins. The color doesn’t seem to have a name other than 1588, but it’s a very beautiful red.
Needles: 7 mm, which lies right between 10.5 and 11, dpns. I’d recommend circs as well.
Gauge: 14 sts and 18 rows equals 4×4 inches.

This is a very simple cabled hat with a 1×1 rib on the bottom. It has an increase after the ribbing because she wanted it to be “sort of a tam”. I’m thinking of submitting it somewhere with a better photo, but it may be too easy. I’m not sure.

This is the sewing machine my grandmother gave me. She bought it in 1954, right after she got married. It has the cutest little booklet with pictures that are very typical for that decade. I love it. And yes, it works excellent too! In the background is my needle case in the works. It’s grey courduroy with white and blue pockets.

My Center Square in the works. I’m not too fond of color work in bigger gauges, so I swatched with US3/3.25 mm Addis, and did the math. I opted for three sets of circles instead of two, even though it means that I won’t get that neat color change on the top vs bottom. Unfortunately I moved across the world in the middle of it and can’t for my life found needles that are 3.25 mm. I found some 3 mm ones, and I’m going to try. I will be so sad if I have to rip this thing out, because I just learned to knit twohanded – Continental with the main color and English with the contrast color and it has taken me forever to get this far. I recommend this method like no other; it’s the only way I have ever been able to get fair isle to look even.

The Knitter’s Breakup

How do knitters survive breakups? I knit because I would go batshit crazy if I didn’t, but every stitch fucking hurts, and when I look at every finished object I have ever made I can tell you where and how we bought the yarn and where I knitted it and he is so present in it all and I can’t stand it.

Corrina helped me pick out (or more like, brought me to the yarn store and sat down while I petted every single yarn in the whole store before deciding) some yarn that has no attachment to him, but it doesn’t help. Not at all. I have new Crystal Palace DPNs that he has never touched, I have Lorna’s Laces in Manzanita, which looks bright pink on their website, but is really the prettiest plum color ever (the most money I’ve ever spent on sock yarn, by the way) shaping itself into the Embossed Leaves Socks from Interweave Knits, Winter 2005, and it’s probably the most beautiful thing I have ever knitted and I know I won’t be able to stand looking at them once I’m done. On the other hand, if I’m going to give these away I will have to give away everything I have ever knitted and everything I will ever knit, so maybe I should just put them in a drawer until the emotions are not so raw and painful.

I also bought something that is possibly the most beautiful yarn I have ever owned. I just had to buy something for myself, and this yarn turned out to be it. It’s Malabrigo, kettledyed worsted in Violetas. It’s an amazing blend of blue and purple shades. I’m putting it aside for when I feel better, because I don’t want to be sad when I look at the amazing whatever it will be that I knit out of these three skeins.

This weekend I will be able to put some pics up. I’m oh so excited. Expect a few scarves with patterns and possibly a in progress shot of my Heartbreak Socks.

Starting over

Sometimes, when life changes and your knitting is so deeply entangled into the emotions that go with it you just need to start over. I’ve been knitting since 2004. A few months into it I taught my beloved how to knit. We did everything together; I knitted for him and he knitted for me. We went driving and ended up petting yarn together. And so on. Now we are broken up after five years and it hurts to make every stitch. Yet I can’t stop, because knitting and sewing is the only thing that keeps me sane.

So here I am. Starting over. You can see my finished projects (or you will, once I’m done with the linkage and other fancy stuff) and find links to my old blog, but personally I can’t stand to look at it anymore.

I’d love new blog friends, especially if you are in Sweden, like me! I blog in English because I have so many American knitting friends, plus that I don’t know a single knitting term in Swedish. Yeah, I pretty much sound like a moron when I go to the yarn store and explain what I need, but that’s a story for another day…