Garn Boet - The Yarn Nest

We have a secret pal exchange going on in Finland! The Salainen Neule Ystävä Exchange will continue until November, and I got yesterday the first sign from my pal. It was a card sent from Tallinn, Estonia, with greetings! Now I can conclude that my pal 1) Visited Tallinn on August the second, or 2) do live in Tallinn, or 3) has a good friend in Tallinn who has promised to send the card. Hmmm, that was pretty many alternatives… Thank you secret pal! And you, that information sheet you got about me, it wasn’t very informative, was it? No, I don’t think so either. I hope I didn’t sound too cranky, but I have been knitting for quite a long time, and one creates quite a lot of likes and dislikes. I’ll try to put small hints in my blog postings too, just to help you out.

Click to zoom out!

The sun is back, and it has motivated me to work on my Flirty top. I started to crochet the edging as the pattern told, but did soon rip it out and start to work out a different kind of picot edging. The way the pattern wanted it to be done created very high spikes very close to each. It took very long time to crochet, but patience wasn’t the problem. Patience is my middle name, and I have a lawyer’s degree and Elfin to prove it. The problem was that the tightly placed spikes were very hard to make stay flat, since there were two dc in every second dc from the first row. The wavy effect looked like there were too many stitches. Not good. So I changed the picot to a rounder arch and added two dcs between the picot. Now I like it!

Nelli got her shawl! Fifi III is blocked and the bear has received it. The size is almost perfect for a cosy shawl to snuggle up in in front of the fire in the winter. Bear and girl are both very pleased.

Project details: Fifi III by Sari Åström (pattern available only in Finnish)
Yarn: Pirkka thin in bright red.
Needles: 3,5 mm.
Other: I only knitted 1,5 X the middle chart in order to make the shawl small. A very well written pattern, the shawl is an ideal one for a beginner in lace knitting.

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Posted by Maud at 09:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

I have seamed MIL's jacket, and even bought buttons today. To be almost on the finishing line gave me a grave case of startitis. Look!

Clockwise from top left:

1. Flirty. Flirty has reached the stage of seaming. After that there are a lot of small crocheted stitches to be done. Typically, we have rain today. I'm a bit late with this project.

2. Fifi III. Sari has designed a triangular version of the in Finland very popular Fifi shawl. I volunteered to test knit the pattern. My Fifi III is taking the form of a shawl for Hanna’s Nelli-bear, making it a very quick knit and fast feedback to Sari on all the parts of the pattern. The yarn is thin Pirkka yarn, and needles 3, 5 mm.

3. The sock. I like to always have a sock under work. Socks are small and portable, and it is not mitten season yet. Mittens have these same nice portability characters, but are definitely more season items to knit*. This sock is knitted with 2, 5 mm needles and Novita Nalle colori yarn. The pattern Rib and cable socks is by Nancy Bush for Interweave Knits Fall 2005.

4. Another shawl! I have been itching to knit the Flower basket shawl by Evelyn A. Clark (to be found in Interweave Knits Fall 2004) ever since I saw it first, but never come around to start it. Now was a suitable time, and I even had three balls of Drops Alpaca (yes, 100 % alpaca!) in the stash. Needles 4, 5 mm long straight Inoxes. I had no bamboos in this size, and my metal circs were Addis, wonderful for everything but lace, due to no pointy ends. It feels funny to knit with straight needles after years of using only circs and dpn:s.

I have been pondering over a couple of designs, trying to make up my mind over next big project. These simple red knits are all a lovely vacation from thinking, and making decisions. One needs that too.

* But we will soon be there. I ordered some mitten yarns and are trimming my needles. The mittens have to be ready when the cold weathers arrives, that is knitting has to be started in about September. But August is still sock time.

Posted by Maud at 02:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)