summer – part two

It has been – and it still is – way to hot to knit… over 30° C, phhew.

I really should be knitting winter stuff in heavy yarn weights now: aran, worsted or DK to prepare for new patterns. I started a warm pullover and a cozy winter cardigan before the heatwave. But right now, I can’t stand having a large, heavy pullover on my lap. The thought of knitting a smaller thing like a hat or a pair mittens makes me sweat already…

Then I saw this wonderful, amazing, colorful ‘tableau’: knitted faces in all colors with all kinds of expressions. Fantastic. DNA (look here) from ‘ableramm’ on Ravelry. She did a wonderful job. It is based on a pattern from Katarina Brieditis. It is a free pattern and can be found here. I love what she is doing, a new discovery.

I had to try it too. It looks so much fun. And a perfect small thing to knit in these temperatures.

This is the first one: knit as per the pattern, only I did slip the first stitches purlwise instead of knitwise – I didn’t read carefully, must be the heat –  and I did p2tog at the left eye ^^

Then I started to change a few things: the second one has unintentionally large lips because the yarn I used for the lips is a heavier weight. I also added more short rows under and above the eyes.

With the third and fourth I started changing the slipped stitches in the short rows to DS (double stitches as in German short rows). The knitting looks much cleaner, no long, sloppy stitches at the turns.

A longer nose, eyes closer together, larger mouth, more short rows around the eyes. One can go on for ever 🙂 More info on the changes I made on my project page here.

With every change comes another face, another expression. Finally when the eyes are added, they really are coming to life and interact with each other – or not.

Don’t know yet what I will do with them, but it is great fun and I learned a lot.
‘I saw four faces, one mad …’ 10CC

I also made a few other little things that are very handy. On the intro page of Ravelry there were these cute little knitted produce bags. I have been thinking to make some kind of reusable and washable bags to go to the market and replace the paper and plastic bags. We already reuse the paper bags and avoid plastic bags, but this is so much better: weightless produce bag by Julie Tarsha. They are really lightweight. I managed to make three of them out of 1 ball of cotton (50 grs, 170 m).

Tomatoes, red oignons, nectarines and oranges. They are just perfect: not too large and not too small. Although they look very small, the are very extensible: the larger one can hold 2 kgs of tomatoes. I think I will make some more and maybe a few smaller ones too.

This is another very quick project and very small too: reusable crocheted cotton pads. There are two free patterns for these. Both are quite the same: here and here. I used the first one, but in the first round I made the puff stitches with only 3 repeats. It got too difficult to get the 8 puffs in the first round.

In the meantime all the warm stuff is waiting for cooler weather…

Have a nice summer ✺

 

 

. . . summer . . .

Linen is the perfect yarn for summer clothes. It is a bit hard to the hands to knit it up, but it gets softer with every soak. And it has a lovely shine and drape – although drape is not really necessary in the second project, on the contrary …

1. Linne #2 See the blog post here and the pattern here
   I bought some lovely linen in 2 nice colors: aqua blue-green and a very, very dark  blue, nearly black.
   I will try to make a gradient of these 2 colors. And I will use ‘helix knitting’ to make it. If I can find out how…
   

   

   

   

   

   And I did 🙂 It is not difficult at all. It is surprisingly easy, just knitting in the round and picking up the other color at the start of each round, no twisting of yarns, no pulling on the yarn ! That is very important …
   
   I pulled a little too hard, even though I didn’t get the feeling I pulled at all. So it is really important to work very loosely when switching yarns.

   I started the ‘helix’ like this: slip half of the just worked stitches back to the left needle and knit them again with the 2nd color. When you come to the other color, just pick up that color (don’t twist both yarns) and knit a round. And so on, and so on … Super easy peasy. When my first color was nearly finished I ended in the same way. I knit half of the stitches with color 1, slipped them back to the left needle and knit them again with color 2. The bottom is worked in color 2 only.

   

   

   

   

   

   
   
   

   

   

    

2. And then there is #2: a linen hat
   It is inspired by a free pattern available  on Ravelry: windansea
   But I made it top down and I also wanted another shape.
   Starting with a cast on in the round of 8 sts: just turn the yarn twice around a finger and k1, p1 four times in the circle. After having knit the 8 sts in the first round, you can pull on the tail and close the round …
   
   I also wanted another shape like the one I was wearing with my second linne tee (see above). I love that shape, but it was not mine. Had to return it.
   I added short rows to shape the brim so that it is larger at the front.When it was finished I crocheted a wire at the edge and sewed a large elastic at the bottom of the crown to shape the hat.
   I found the perfect moulding form (an old basket)…
   
   and applied fabric stiffener and left it to dry …

   A ribbon and tada 🙂

   

   

   

   

   Happy summer

. . . hallerbos . . .

I was reknitting  the neckband on a beautiful sunny spring day in the garden. There were lots of bluebells under the three large trees and they were in full flower. When I saw that color, it was like a perfect match with the color of my yarn. That’s how it got its name. I adore that color. Wollmeise Pure – of course, who else –  in colorway ‘Taube’.

Hallerbos is famous for its fields of bluebells under the birch trees. People come in large numbers to see it when they are flowering in spring.

 

Hallerbos: a memory of bluebells in the spring, a cute stitch pattern, a special but very easy construction. It is the perfect little summer pullover for chilly mornings or evenings.

BTW Do you recognize this stitch pattern ?

It is the same one I used in the ‘never say never’ socks.

Hallerbos is worked seamlessly in pieces. First the front and back are worked bottom up with that cute stitch pattern. Then stitches are picked up & knit to work the sides sideways and back and forth. Increases and decreases shape the high-low hem and a few short rows are added for a perfect fit around the shoulders. The sides are closed using a 3 needle bind off and from here the sleeves are worked top down in the round. Finally stitches are picked up around the neck-line to work the neck band.

Instructions for short sleeves or 3/4 sleeves are included.

As with all my patterns lots of schematics and photos that illustrate all techniques used.

Sizes
XS, S, M, L, XL, XXL
finished measurements: 30¾, 34½, 38½, 43, 46½, 50½ “ (78, 88, 98, 107, 118, 128 cm)

What you’ll need
± 950/1120/1250/1380/1520/1650 m (1050/1220/1370/1500/1670/1800 yards) fingering / 4ply weight

two 3 mm (US 2½) circular needles, or one 3 mm (US 2½) circular needle and one straight needle, 3 mm straight needles (optional)
2.5 mm (US 1½) circular needle
4 markers

Gauge
26 sts and 40 rows stockinette stitch with the larger needle = 10 x 10 cm (4” x 4”)
28 sts and 48 rows in stitch pattern with the larger needle = 10 x 10 cm (4” x 4”)

Check it out here

… afterthought pockets …

Recently I knit a cardigan for my friend in a classic navy-blue. But than I found something was missing and added some color at the ribbing, buttonbands and neck.

I also wished I had made pockets (a little late, I know, the cardi was finished) as I know he likes to have some storage room for I-phone, glasses etc…

So this is how I did it and how you can do it, even in store bought pullovers or cardigans:

Decide where you want your pocket and how wide
your pocket opening needs to be. Mark the edges with stitch markers.

Choose the row where you would like the pocket opening.
Snip a stitch in the middle between the two markers.

Pull out the yarn of the row you cut, in both directions until you reach the stitch markers at the ends.

You now have two rows of live stitches (at the top and the bottom of the opening)

The yarn tails can be used later to close any holes or to stabilize the corners.

Slip the stitches of the upper row and the lower row to a circular needle.

Join the working yarn and knit the pocket in the round to desired length. (Make it a little shorter than needed, because the fabric will stretch in use)

Bind off all the stitches using the 3 needle bind-off.

Hold the needle tips with the stitches of the pocket together.
With a 3rd needle knit 1 stitch from front needle together with a stitch of the back needle, knit the following stitch of front needle together with next stitch of back needle.
Insert one of the left needles into the second stitch on the right (3rd) needle, pass the second stitch over the first stitch and off needle. (This is the normal way of binding off).
Bind off all stitches. Break yarn and pull it throught the remaining stitch.

  

And with some buttons (also afterthought) it just looks right.

A few more pics here on Ravelry