Garn Boet - The Yarn Nest

Nelli the bear presenting the bear coat. I haven’t still made up my mind over weather to add a belt or some kind of fastener or not, but fortunately, bears aren’t fussy on this point.

The inspiration for this bear coat goes a long way back. I once saw a picture of a beautiful silk kimono with a pattern of waves along the hem, and an animal (I can’t remember which) flying or jumping over the waves. Last year in Copenhagen I saw a very similar kimono. And then when Eunny presented her Anemoi mittens I decided this was the pattern that was to be used for a bear coat inspired by the kimono. Anemoi stands for the wind gods in Greek mythology, and you need wind in order to make weaves, so the background to Eunny’s pattern suits my inspiration well.

Since I didn’t remember the wind gods too well, I had to check them up, and I got the following explanation: Of the four chief Anemoi, Boreas was the north wind and bringer of cold winter air, Notus was the south wind and bringer of the storms of late summer and autumn, and Zephyr was the west wind and bringer of light spring and early summer breezes; Eurus, the east wind, was not associated with any of the three Greek seasons, and is the only one of these four Anemoi not mentioned in Hesiod's Theogony or in the Orphic Hymns. Additionally, four lesser Anemoi were sometimes referenced, representing the northeast, southeast, northwest, and southwest winds.

The bear coat is knitted with Regia silk in dark blue and white on 2 mm dpns. The Anemoi pattern is repeated five times over the coat, and the smaller pattern is used for the sleeves. The coat is knitted in the round with steeks, machine sewn in front and in the sleeve openings. Stitches for the sleeves were picked up around the arm openings. The front band is double, hiding the cut edge of the steek.

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The bear blanket is finally finished, and the bear is now snuggling up in it every evening at bedtime. And is found, like so many young ones, without the blanket in the morning, happily sleeping. Or this is what I’m told by the bear’s young friend.

When I first got the Mason-Dixon knitting book I fell in love with the modern log cabin blanket. I like the colours it’s made up in, and the only reason I didn’t start it straight away was that the suggested yarn, Silky Wool by Elsebeth Lavold, is not that easy to find, and pretty expensive too. I was way too busy to start searching for a substitute yarn, and simply pushed the project to the back of my thoughts. And now I’m pretty happy I did so, since I seriously suspect it would have been one of those never ending projects.

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This bear version is knitted on 2 mm needles, but the pattern is also shrunk by starting with 10 stitches instead of 76, and by knitting 10, 20 or 30 ridges when the pattern called for 33, 66 or 99 ridges in garter stitch. I think I would have gone crazy with the bigger version; I’m not that a huge fan of garter stitch. I made one small miss with the edge. This pattern instructed you to pick up all stitches on the right side, but using the edge instructions of another pattern. Those instructions directed you to pick up the stitches on the wrong side for the edge, and I, blind fool, followed those directions instead of the instructions for the modern log cabin. I realized this when all the ends were woven in, and I didn’t find it worth ripping up all the edges just because that. On a big one I would have done it, but not on this bear version.

Project details:
Pattern: Modern log cabin blanket by Mason-Dixon knitting.
Yarn: Sandnes sisu, 80% wool, 20% polyamid.
Needles: 2mm Addi circular.

Talking about bear clothing, this is how far I have advanced on the bear coat: there are just miles of interfacing to sew to the inside, and then blocking and thinking about whether or not a bear needs some kind of fastening for the coat, or would a belt be sufficient. And another big question: should I add an opening for the tail or not.

The pictures of bear clothes I have made are up in the Bear Gallery. There is a link in the side bar to the pictures!

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Yesterday’s post got postponed. The weather has been very cold, and we decided to pack the children in the car and spend the day in Helsinki, shopping, eating and watching a movie. Today is the weather warmer, and there has been sleighing and swimming on the program. I think the children will fall asleep easily today!

Today’s knitting project out in the flashlight is the bear blanket. The pattern for this blanket is the modern log cabin blanket from Mason Dixon knitting. The yarn is Sandnes Sisu, a yarn I got from my Secret Pal last year. I’m knitting it on 2 mm needles. The reason why this knit has come this far without being presented on the blog is that it has been my knit while helping the kids with their homework. It has not been together with the other knits, and I have never had time to blog on it after having worked on it, it has usually been time to start dinner or drive to football practises. Anyway, here it is. The last boxes are almost done, and then there is the border to finish after that. Pretty close to FO!

Swallowtail news: the nupps are finished, and I have moved along to the edge pattern. Blocking tomorrow? Let’s hope so!

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Today’s project to be presented is the bear coat. For those not recollecting this knit, it’s a coat for a 25 (or perhaps 20) cm long teddy bear, knitted in Regia Silk on 2 mm dpns. The pattern is Eunny’s Anemoi mitten pattern, repeated 5 times in the coat. Last time showed was the front steek cut open. One reason why this knit is advancing so slowly is that I try to make it without showing it to the girls. A new edition of the Bear Catalogue is about to be published with brand new knits. And this time, in order to reduce the stress on my self, will most of the models be ready before the catalogue is issued. I love knitting miniatures, but having the girls hanging over my shoulder asking me when I think the garments they ordered from the Bear Catalogue will come is an effective way to take away the joy of knitting.
The system is that the girls put an order (pre delivered order forms) in a letter box in my office. Normal delivery time for an item is two weeks, but there can of course be force majeure of different kinds. In that case will a letter be sent to the girls, explaining why the order is delayed. And when the order is finished will the item be delivered with Rabbit post to our main mail box. I got the idea for this Bear Catalogue thing from Tasha Tudor, famous American children’s book author and illustrator, who made a very similar thing for her own children. They paid for the orders with buttons.

I have since last showing the coat sewn the arm steeks, cut them open, and knitted the first sleeve. The sleeves will be slightly bell shaped, ending as you can see with a blue-white-blue striping, the same way as the hem of the coat. The needle is there to keep the sleeve straight, I have not blocked it, and the interfacing is rolling like h*ll. I have picked up the stitches for sleeve number two, but not knitted anything (you see, Tuesdays are the days of my time hog lesson, and the only knitting time I have got today was while watching the children swim,
as I was down with a flu last week and doesn’t yet feel up to exercising).The front will be striped in the same way, but perhaps with slightly wider front bands. This bear has been at home when dinner has been served, and her belly is round. Rounder than what I had taken into consideration when counting stitches for the coat. But one good thing with bear knitting is that they don’t complain if a garment is too tight. And if the coat won’t fit over the belly, well, they don’t complain over cold clothes either. And they don’t get the flu, blessed small teddies.

I’ll be working on the bear clothing gallery today too. There are some pictures of clothes and knits made in the pre blogging era, but I have not yet uploaded the knitted items I made last year. And the layout of the pictures is not optimal either. Anyway, the link can be found in the sidebar.


As an update on Swallowtail I can report that the twelfth repeat of the budding pattern is done. I’ll try to finish the budding pattern today, and move forward to the lily of the valley pattern and the much talked about nupps tomorrow.

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With an exam lurking in the very near future, this is all I have managed. A weekly update again. I must break this boring trend the week after the exam, I promise.

Argyle is growing steadily. Front and back are done, as is the first sleeve, and the second sleeve is halfway to the sleeve cap. I will not have a lot of knitting time this week, but I hope to be able to finish the second sleeve, and if luck is on my side, have an Argyle finishing party next weekend.

And I have made some progress on the bear coat too. The front steek is machine stitched and cut up. The green yarns show where the sleeves will be stitched and cut up. The pattern is Eunny’s Anemoi, repeated five times over the width of the coat, each repeat mirrored to the one on the side.

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In the afternoon sun, Argyle

First, I added a link in the sidebar to the tutorials I have made last year. I hope you find them useful!

Second, I made up my mind, and started Argyle, by Anna Bell. It's classic in lines, but looks so cosy and warm, still with a degree of elegance, well, I couldn't resist. The pattern is pretty easy, but since it is all in the texture, not in different colours, it asks for attention. The yarn is Jaeger Extra Fine merino Aran in the colour Dahlia. I decided to start with a sleeve, a huge swatch you could call it. Looks good so far. I know my gauge is different when I knit with a big piece, I knit looser than what I do the swatch, and it has several times been a problem. But to reknit part of a sleeve, or even the complete sleeve is usually not a huge task. An annoying task yes, but not an impossible mission.

The red colour is very hard to catch, I took several pictures inside but the red clogged up totally and looked like lingonberry porridge, a delicious thing, but not the colour of the yarn. The true colour has something of raspberries over it, beautiful and bright, but not too bright.

And third, I have also started something that is supposed to be a sort of coat for a bear. The pattern is a repeat of Eunny's Anemoi mitten pattern, five times repeated. The upper part will be in the small pattern of the inside of the mitten, as will the sleeves be. I'm knitting it Norwegian, in the round, and then I'll sew the seams in front and for the sleeves on machine before cutting them up. The yarn is Regia Silk, consisting of wool, silk and polyamid, a sock yarn that would never keep the seams intact without machine sewing.

But now I'm off to sort my stash. I have promised my son new mittens, but I can't find the mitten yarns. It looks like chaos!

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