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There is not much left on the German socks, only the toe of the second sock. I had lost some of my sock inspiration when I saw a pair of seriously cool socks, and decided to finish my socks before I started a new pair. Go over to Mel’s blog and take a peak on her Chuck’s cabled socks. What an inspiration, and just what the knitting doctor would have ordered to get my socks finished!
The Small migrating birds mittens, or Muuttolintuset in Finnish, are finished. All in all a pleasurable knit. The fringe, done last after the mittens were knitted from the fingers down to the cuff, is knitted according to the instructions in Anna Zilboorg’s book Magnificent mittens. When I started these mittens I was a little bit bored with always doing things the same way, and I therefore decided to do it upside down. These mittens should be knitted from the cuffs up, using the fringe I earlier have done a tutorial to. But it was fun to for once doing in other wise, and now I’m very at ease with knitting the traditional way again.
Project details:
Pattern: Muutolintuset from Jalasjärvi, from Eeva Haavisto’s book Sataa kansanomaista kuviokudinmallia.
Yarn: Black Novita Wool, teal Drops Alpaca (double in the ässänväärä and cuff)
Needles: 2, 5 mm dpns.
Could also be called -The new favourite technique of the year-.
Those of you, who have followed my entries from the beginning of this year, or longer, remember the bear coat I knitted earlier for the Nelli bear. The coat was kimono-ish, with the Anemoi pattern repeated five times, two of the sequences mirrored, and knitted out of blue and white Regia silk on 2 mm needles. I have since several times considered knitting the real things, or the Anemoi mittens, as Eunny designed them. And now it was the time. I had already cast on for an other pair of mittens, got bored, ripped it out, and was wondering about what to do now. And decided to start the Anemoi mittens (brief explanation on the anemois can be found in the bear coat entry).
Look, look! The sun is shining!
The mittens are to be started with a tubular cast on. Eunny does not explain more than that in the pattern (at least the download I have, which is from the very first days this pattern was up, so perhaps there has been an alteration, I don't know), only that you should continue with two rows of K1, sl1 after the tubular cast on. I tried the tubular cast on I used for Blustery, but it got too tight, even after switching to 2,5 mm needles. Not too pleased with the result I put the mittens aside, and started a brain dead blog surfing, going through fav blogs looking for new interesting blog links. In Francesca's blog I found a link to her "Tubular cast on without waste yarn, alias The Italian tubular cast on", and when I read through the instructions, a couple of small bells started ringing somewhere back in my head. I know I have read somewhere, perhaps on Eunny's blog, perhaps somewhere else, about this cast on. I immediately ripped out everything I had knitted, and started to cast on, looking at Francesca's excellent video instructions. And the cast on is perfect, just what these mittens ask for. It's beautiful, it's elastic, and you don't waste any yarn at all with it. And it is easy and pretty fast to set up. This is definitely the best new technique I have learned this year, and one I will be using again, for sure. I did cast on on 2, 5 mm needles, but I think I could even have gone down to the 2 mm needles the pattern suggests. Big thank you to Francesca for the excellent tutorial!
And so far, that the tubular cast on is not explained better in the pattern is the only thing I have to say against the pattern so far. It is a dream of cleverness and clearly explained details, just what one can expect, in fact what one have learned to expect from Eunny's patterns. The details are worked out with so much thought that one can only admire Eunny's abilities as designer. The pattern on the inside of the hand is totally mindless, and the pattern on the other side easy short and easy in comparison to repeating it five times, and I have the feeling that the knitting is just flying. Lovely!
But enough about the Anemoi mittens. When I'm finished with this entry I'll not pick up the mitten and continue knitting grey and white swirls, no, I'll take out my charts and finish writing up the Rosebud mitten pattern. Coming up next, the rosebud mittens pattern!
I have been quite busy with other things, and only got my act together to take pictures of the first mitten pair. Or to be exact, the first mitten of the first pair. This is yet another model from Eeva Haavisto’s * book Sataa kansainomaista kuviokudinmallia. And once again is Eeva Haavisto given the origin of the pattern to Jalasjärvi in Pohjanmaa. The upper part of the mitten has a pattern that is well known in a much bigger part of Finland than only Pohjanmaa, and was called “small migrating birds” or muuttolintuset in the south of Finland. The pattern under the thumb is the in Pohjanmaa often used renaissance pattern “ässänväärä”. I don’t think this pattern was used in other areas at all. The mittens will have a fringe at the end of the cuffs.
The yarn is black merino wool (the old Novita Wool, from when it was only made from merino) and blue/teal Drops Alpaca. The alpaca yarn will make the mittens lovely warm, since it will be stranded on the inside a lot. Needles 2,5 mm dpns, and mittens started from the top down the way Anna Zilboorg describes in Magnificent mittens.
*I know this might be like putting salt in wounds for you who have no chances to find the book. I’m so sorry, but I can’t help knitting from it. It’s a treasure. But I promise, if I ever will find an other copy of it, it will be for sale.
Finally, pictures of the finished Blustery. Blustery has in fact been finished for quite a long time, but the weather, I, the camera and the photographer haven’t been present at the same time. Well, the weather has been there all the time, but when I, the camera with loaded batteries and a photographer have been present, then the weather has decided to stop co-operating, and to show who is the boss, and rain has poured down on us all. Folks, this is the best I have been able to come up with. Sunny weather, check, camera with loaded batteries, check, I, check, Blustery, check, photographer, oh no!
Blustery was a nice project to work on. Instead of Anna Bell’s suggested yarn Debbi Bliss Cashmerino DK I used Rowan WoolCotton, since that was what I had in my stash, and it worked very well. I’m a little ashamed to admit that I don’t anymore remember what needles I used (it IS some time since I finished and there has been a lot of water running under the bridge since the moment I cast off). But what I want to point out is that Blustery has several interesting features making it a great knit: tubular cast on, tubular sewn cast off, pocket, side shaping...need I say more? There was entertainment all the time. Anna’s pattern is very clear and well written, and caused me no problems. I'm sorry my un-modelled picture is not really showing up this vest at it's best.
What I’m still a bit undecided on are the buttons. I love the buttons (sorry for the a bit blurry picture), they are from my Mum’s stash that I got years ago, but can very well be from my Gran’s stash originally (we are talking real vintage here). But they are a bit heavy, and drag the fabric a bit. A lighter, flatter button could be an alternative. What do you think?
Coming up next: the mitten season has begun! Two mittens in progress to show, I need only to get pictures of them. Thankfully mittens in progress can be pictured un-modelled. One factor less to take in to consideration!
Sorry for being away for so long. It has been a busy, and partly difficult, time. The schools have started, and it is always the usual mess of new timetables, books and such. And then I went and make some unsuitable movements with my left leg, getting a terrible muscle pain that sent me for over a week on pretty heavy and energy draining pain meds. Not funny at all, and sad to say, the muscle is not at it should be, but I manage without the strong meds. Then there have been various family ceremonies, taking the rest of my time. With other words, not much knitting, and even less blogging.
Blustery has got new buttons, a blocking session, and should be ready to be modeled. But the weather has not been on my side. Every day, when I has been at home, it has rained, making it impossible to get anything even close to a modeled picture. And when I’m away, yea, you guessed right, the sun is shining to no end.
I have started a new sock. The pattern is one I copied from a book while in Munich. I can’t find the reference right now, but I know I have it somewhere, and I will post it. It was a book with German folk patterns, and there were a couple of lovely socks. The yarn is Schoeller&Stahl’s Fortissima socka and I’m using 2 mm dpns. The socks will most likely be for my daughter, I suspect I don’t have yarn enough to make them bigger.
