Garn Boet - The Yarn Nest

I wish you all and everybody a Happy New Year 2007, with lot of quality knitting time and fabulous yarns, but most of all, with health and happiness.

I managed to finish two knits between Christmas and New Years Eve, and here will follow short glimpses of them. A more detailed post with modelled pictures of the mittens will be here next year.

Fresh on the blocking board, the Rosebud mittens.

I managed to finish the thumbs of the Rosebud mittens yesterday evening, and they are now resting on the blocking board. They were before blocking sticking like gloves to my daughter’s hands, it will be interesting to see if the quite brutal blocking will gain a centimetre or two, and they would be welcome. If not, then they will go to my niece, who is three and has lot of time to grow into them.

Posing in front of the Christmas tree.

I started and finished a pair of Jaywalkers. Actually I started them before Christmas, but never came around to blog about them. The yarn is the Regia 4fädig Mini ringel colour self-striping yarn that I got from my Secret Pal this autumn, knit on 2.25 mm needles. I'm not in love with the pattern, it was a bit boring, but my older daughter loves them. The colours were also more me when the yarn was in the ball, knitted up they are brighter than I prefer.

Plans for the new year? A pair of mittens for my son and a pair of socks for the younger daughter, but more than that is not scheduled. The spring will be busy, in a good way, and I'm afraid my knitting time will be even less than it has been in the autumn. A Solveig Hisdal sweater is on the dream-list, but I must think about that project more, I want to have some shaping in the sweater.

Thank you for reading my blog and thank you to everyone who has left a comment. I try to answer the comments, but sometimes will time be short, and answering left out. Anyway, thank you all! It has been a fun year, this first blog year! See you in 2007!

Posted by Maud at 11:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (0)

Merry Christmas to everybody, and a Happy New Year 2007! I'll be back with knitting content, update on the WIPs and perhaps a FO after the holidays!

Posted by Maud at 03:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

The weather in the south of Finland has been grey and rainy for days. Yesterday did it clear up, so I hauled out yarn and needles for the second Rosebud mitten. I have longed to start the second mitten for some time already, but wanted to include a short tutorial on how to make the fringe at the beginning of the mitten. The weather and not good enough camera flashes have prevented me from starting them until now. This is the way Mary Olki teaching to cast on a fringe on a traditional Finnish mitten. The directions are from 1950’s, and can be found in her book Kirjokintaita ja muita kansanomaisia neuletöitä

	Cast on the required amount of stitches.
	After knitting one stitch, move the yarn around a flat piece of wood or plastic, from the front to the back.
	After two stitches and three loops in one colour, knit the next stitch with both colours, and make the next loop with the new colour.
	All cast on stitches are knitted and fringed. Remove the wooden measure.
	Knit next row with the main colour. Knit every stitch trough the stitch and the underlying stitch from the cast on row.
	After the first row, straight out all the fringes by inserting a needle trough the loops and gently thug them down.
	Continue knitting in pattern.

This week was disturbed knitting wise by an exam, but the Pomatomus socks were finished and blocked in the beginning of the week. They are warm and nice to wear, and I like them a lot. The yarn, Piece of Beauty’s Robe&Bowl yarn is so soft and nice in the hands. It lost a little bit of red dye in the wash, but not enough to change the colours visible.

The colour is off as usual with flash. This yarn is not flash friendly!

Project details:
Pattern: Pomatomus by Cookie A. for Knitty
Yarn: Piece of Beauty 100 % wool in the colour Robe & Bowl, 85 grams.
Needles: 2,75 mm dpns.
Alterations: I did only two pattern repeats in the leg part of the socks.

And more miniatures: The bears got a scarf from the rest 15 grams of the Piece of Beauty yarn. Pattern: Shifting sand by Grumperina. Needles: 2 mm. If you cable without cable needle, try it out! It is a fun pattern, and easy to knit.

Posted by Maud at 09:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

And everybody is busy, also the bears living by us. There are gifts to pack, and the boxes look so small, help, what shall they do?

Nelli and Nella are busy wrapping up gifts for Christmas. Somebody has been knitting bear sweaters. Do they look familiar?

They should, at least a bit. Look at the close ups!

Cardigan inspired by Ali, a design by Kim Hargreaves. Yarn Rowan WoolCotton, needles 3 mm. Set sleeves and collar with short row shaping.

Cardigan inspired by Splendour, another design by Kim Hargreaves. Yarn Rowan Kid Classic, needles 3,5 mm. Knit from on sleeve over to the other sleeve, miles of ribbing as cuffs and edge.

Turtleneck, totally own design. Yarn Austermann Bamboo Soft and 3,5 mm needles. Set in sleeves.

Shoulder bag, the last inches of the Bamboo yarn, heart beads, velvet strap and needle felted heart. Suitable size for a couple of bear books.

And here is the cat walk:

For size, the bears are about 25 cm high. I like miniature knitting.

Posted by Maud at 01:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

Another super quick update, written before morning coffee and everything. I did cast on for the Pomatomus socks from Knitty with 2,5 mm dpns and the lovely Piece of Beauty yarn I mentioned some weeks ago. The yarn is heaven to knit with, and the larger than usually sock needles enables progress of nice speed. The pattern is easy to memorize, and I judge these socks to be a fast knit. You see, I have already reached the heelflap. The Piece of Beauty yarn is slightly thicker than the in the pattern suggested yarn, and I decided to make only two pattern repeats in the leg part of the sock. You don’t want to run out of hand painted yarn, do you?

And after these socks, I will finish the second Rosebud mitten. Somehow I lost my urge to finish them when Sofia got the Basketweave mittens, but a girl of ten needs several pairs, so there is no reason to delay the finishing anymore.

Posted by Maud at 07:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

is working full time over here. And some of the time is even dedicated to making Christmas gifts. The bear project has been a very neglected one this year, so I decided the bears will get some new sweaters for Christmas.

Oh no, I don’t want to be the test bear!

More sweater pictures will be up later this week, two cardigans are blocking right now and a scarf is on the needles. Stay tuned!

Posted by Maud at 09:04 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)