Category Archives: Knitting

I made it! I casted on for my first sock, that is not actually mine, but for Jan. I’m knitting these lovely cabled kilt hose for his Scottish attire – he plays in a pipe band. We chose a no-brand white aran bluefaced leicester 3/5 Nm (what does 3/5 Nm mean? Lookie here for an explanation on yarn count) and I’m knitting it on 2.5 mm circular needles to obtain a dense and stiff fabric that washes up to a soft but still sturdy fabric. It has a very nice stitch definition that I hope will show the cables pretty well.

On for the pics. First, two of the three 100 grams skeins I’m using for the first pair of kilt hose:

And second, a shot of my first ever short row toes on my first socks ever! (yes, I am proud of myself I’m taming the sock beast):

The circular needle you might be able to see there is a Pony, 80 cm long 2.5 mm. Got two of them at a shop here for around 5.50e. They seem sturdy and are very pointy!

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This is my first attempt at knitting lace. Branching Out is a tested and long knitted pattern from Knitty. I’ve chosed a Katia yarn (Caricia, 100% merino, superwash, sock weight) in a lovely green to knit this pattern, and some 4.5mm needles I had laying around (a.k.a. I have no idea what brand are they cause they’re old). I’m into the seventh pattern repeat, and I like how’s it turning out so far:

The cards are 10cm on the long side, put them for scale. They help me keep track of the row I’m knitting!

Any input?

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I thus present to you the WIP called the pinwheel blanket (pattern here). I’m using two colours of the same yarn, and changing from one to the other when the skein is finished, this way the stripes will be all different.

Pic of it with just two stripes:

Pics of it after the third ball was joined:

The request is fulfilled, I shall rest and knit now!

What I’m working on right now is this self design. I’ve wanted a shrug for a long time already, since I love wearing short sleeve all year round, but sometimes I need the long sleeves. So I finally bought the yarn: Katia Himalaya, 50% merino, 50% acrylic, 86m per 100gr, in shade 47 (sort of faded blue jeans), and casted on 8mm needles and after many swatchs and maths I came up with this:

It’s an easy k2p2 ribbing, with decreases at the wrist, and shoulder shaping, all fitted to my long big arms and wide back – the joys of knitting yourself, it will fit. This is the first sleeve, I’ll work both from the cuff up and then draft them in the middle of the back. More pics when this is finished, and perhaps the pattern I did too.

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On New Years, my lovely boyfriend gave me a tiny cute teddy from Me to You (they make beautiful teddies, all of them!). And since I love taking a little thing along to university, so it keeps me company and reminds me of him, I made a bag for keeping the teddy clean in my purse / backpack. The pattern is based upon MagKnits‘s Charm Bag (can’t find the link at the moment, it’s on the December 2005 issue), but heavily modified (so! I’ll post my version as a pattern some time).

• Pattern: My own based upon Charm Pouch from Magknits
• Yarn: Katia Caricia, 100% merino, colour 3 (off-white), 50gr. – 175m. Some leftover from a pair of socks.
• Gauge: approx. 30 stitches to 10 cm.
• Needles: a set of 2.5 mm double point needles.
• Finished measures: 21 cm around and 10 cm high.

Such a cute teddy deserves a merino bag, doesn’t it?

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Here it is! almost two weeks after I finished my mittens, I present them to you. This was my first ever cabling project, and I did use a cable needle (I still didn’t try cabling without a cabling needle as showed by Groumperina, but I will, some time!). I did enjoy the pattern, but of course I couldn’t help but modifying it a bit. Specs:

Natalya Mittens

• Pattern: Natalya Mittens (pdf) by Savannahchik.
• Yarn: Pure New Wool, DK weight. 1.5 50 grams skeins, in Incan Forest shade.
• Gauge: 17 stitches per 10 cm. in stockinette.
• Needles: 4.5 mm. double point needles, set of five (used the fifth as cable needle).
• Finished Measures: adult’s (one size fits different hands, since the cables are stretchy).

How I modified this pattern: First of all, I didn’t have gauge(!): I had less stitches per 10 cm, which made the mittens slightly bigger, but good for my big hands. Then, I knit the arm part shorter, just about 10 cm, instead of the more than 16 cm the pattern directs. After making the thumb gusset, the pattern directs to finish with a 4th row of the pattern repeat (that is, the row where you cross the cables), I knitted one row more, so the cable crossing showed a bit better. And then, on the upper ribbing, I knit two more rows than specified, so it’d cover more of my fingers.

I think that’s about it! They’re very warm, and comfy. I love ’em.

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So, I knit the hat in about three evenings, as follows: the first evening I knit the seed stitch rim, the second eve, the stockinette part before the decreases, and today, the third evening, I knit all the decreases and finished the hat. And it fits, and the colour is lovely (pictures don’t make justice to it, no matter if I take them with daylight or flash).

It was a fairly quick knit, and very easy. I enjoyed it so much! And now my ears won’t freeze, since it covers them too :-)

The Hat

• Pattern: Kittyville Hat, from SnB Handbook – earflaps and kittyears removed.
• Yarn: Pure New Wool, DK weight. One 50 gr. / 67 m. (approx.) skein in Incan Forest.
• Gauge: 17.5 stitches to 10 cm in stockinette.
• Needles: 4.5 mm double point needles
• Finished Measures: Adult size

Notes: I liked the Kittyville hat a lot, but once I had the hat done, I liked it so much without earflaps or kittyears that I’m going to use it this way. I have three more skeins, so I can make a real Kittyville hat if I want! Also, the pattern asks to use a 40cm. circular needle to start the hat and then switch to double point needles, but making it all on dpn’s works as fine.

And into what? you’ll ask.. I’ve fallen into online s.e.x. (nice acronym for Stash Enhancement eXpedition, eh?).

I got myself 250 grams of Suffolk worsted to heavy worsted wool, hand-dyed in a nice colourway called Autumn Heather, for a nice warm winter hat (still pattern undecided, maybe I’ll go for the Kittyville Hat from S`n`B handbook) – my head and ears freeze on the way to university, and they’ll freeze more in Belgium, so I’m in need of one that at least I can handwash. You can see the wool in this pic:

And also indulged in 200 grams of pure new wool, DK weight, hand-dyed in Incan Forest shade. This one will be for making myself fingerless mittens/gloves (downloadable pdf pattern), with cabled ribbing. My hands tend to freeze when I’m at the computer or I need to write a lot, which is always, so these will be very handy too. And here you see the Incan Forest shade:

If you’re interested in these yarns, I bought them on ebay, but the seller has her own website www.thenaturaldyestudio.com where you can know a bit more of their work:

Here at The Natural Dye Studio we hand-dye the historical way, using flowers, roots, leaves and heartwood’s. We believe our products are safer for your skin and safer for the enviroment.

We only use dyes and mordants that will not harm the environment, all our spent dye baths and dye materials are composted and used to fertilise our organic garden.

(…)

We only use 100% natural materials and whenever possible use unbleached fibres and fabrics as this eliminates an uneccesary and toxic procedure in the manufacture of textiles.

Some weeks ago I also got 200 grams of nice fleece, washed and carded, from Ryeland sheeps, in dark gray, that I’ll use for learning to spin(!). I want to learn this other fiber art, it looks very interesting and another thing to spend my little free time on. The fleece is waiting for me in Belgium, where I’ll hand-make a couple of drop spindles (both top and bottom drop spindles), and (try to) learn to spin. Pic of the fleece bought at Forest Fibres:

It was nice s.e.x. It felt good (but I’ll try not to boost my stash too much, I’m on a student budget).

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I’ve been playing around with dpn’s and my very first project was a phone sock (phone cozy, phone sleeve, as you prefer to call it). I made up the pattern myself (you can read the pattern on the side bar). The dpn’s were really slippery aluminium ones – old ones my mother had, since she is using the new ones, and the yarn is leftover sock yarn from a pair of socks my mother knit for herself. Anyway, see the pics:

and

You can see the little sock for my smaller phone (yes, I own and actually use two different cell phones *geek*). I will also knit one for my bigger phone, and one for Jan’s (he asked me to, before even seeing mine!).

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