Garn Boet - The Yarn Nest

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The swallowtail shawl was finished last weekend, and it came trough blocking with honour. It passed the quality check, and will be given to the recipient tomorrow. I talked my older daughter (bribed…) into modelling the shawl for me before I’ll dig trough my inventory of gift wrappings and small parcels and fix it up for tomorrow.

Project details:
Patter: Swallowtail shawl from Interweave knits Fall 2006, design Evelyn A. Clark.
Yarn: Wetterhoff Sivilla, 70 % wool, 30 % silk, about 75 grams.
Needles: 4 mm Addi bamboos.
Alterations: None.

The pattern is well written and in my opinion fairly easy. The nupps are tricky, but not difficult. Using a small crochet hook help making the P5tog. One has only to be careful and push the hook through all the 5 yos and stitches, and not to take the yo not belonging to the nupp as one belonging. I do admit that I more than several times wished all cleaver lace designers and the inventor of the nupp to a place closer to hell than heaven, but when looking at the finished shawl I take back all those thoughts. The nupps are very interesting as element, and lining them up as a lily of the valley results in a beautiful lace pattern. I think the yarn I have chosen is very suitable for this kind of shawl, but I’m a bit surprised I didn’t need more yarn than about 75 grams. All in all a very nice shawl to knit, and I highly recommend the pattern.

Posted by Maud at 02:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (15) | TrackBacks (0)

Attention, attention! The fifth day of holiday blogging interrupted! Important news just out! The Swallowtail shawl is blocking! So far everything is looking fine.

I have a question to you more experienced lace knitters: when does a lace shawl do better with a starchy dressing? Any general rules out there?

Posted by Maud at 05:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

Today's project to step forward is Pippa*, a design by Anna Bell (scroll down to find the right model). It is a very plain and classic cardigan, knitted on 3,25 mm needles out of Debbie Bliss' Baby Cashmerino yarn. The yarn contains, according to the label, 55 % merino wool, 33 % microfibre and 12 % cashmere. This yarn is as close to heaven as you can get among the yarns, it's soft, it feels luxury and it's a dream to knit with. Sadly has this cardigan had to step a bit to the side after initial cast on and first sleeve ribbing, but it's only because Swallowtail is having a deadline. I'm eager to continue knitting with this yarn!

The model is as said plain and classic, but I see before my eyes this cardigan paired with a flowery summer dress, in the style Laura Ashley had in the 90's, with a wide skirt and tight fitting bodice. I had a dress like that (okay, I guess I have to admit I had several, but one that is just what I think about), that I used until the fabric was worn to treads. Sadly I haven't since found a substitute, and to be honest, I haven't lately found very much in my taste over at Laura Ashley either. So I will perhaps end up having to sew a dress like the one in my imagination.

The ribbing is knitted with twisted knit stitches and a small cable. The cable is then continuing up on the sleeves and the body, and will be very subtle against the stockinet between them. So far is Anna's pattern very clear, no problems in understanding it or in the descriptions.

* When I was small child, about ten or so, I had a doll the manufacturer called Pippa. She was smaller than a Barbie, and had an own horse and all the things you need to take care of a horse, and riding clothes. I totally loved that doll, and the name of this pattern brings back very happy childhood memories.

And a short update on Swallowtail: I finished the bud pattern yesterday, and have moved forward to the Lily of the valley patterns. The nupps, oh my, the nupps! I knitted one row of nupps before popping over to the old needle case, bringing out a 1,25 mm crochet hook. I was able to knit the P5tog with just needles, but it took eons. It is fiddly even with the hook, but it cuts down on time considerably. One has just to be careful, not taking the yo after the nupp stitches into the P5tog (don't ask how I know about this specific problem). The nupps are eating yarn pretty fast, but I do still have yarn left of the first ball, and just Lily of the Valley 2 and the border pattern left. Strange.

Posted by Maud at 05:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Posted by Maud at 03:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

This week is winter holiday week here in the south of Finland. The children are at home and hubby managed to take the week off too. I have to attend a lecture tomorrow, and I should write a short essay, but I feel partly as if I also were on vacation too. So in order to entertain myself, I’ll try to post a daily update on the WIP pile. You see, I have, since Argyle was finished on Saturday, started a couple of new works. And there are still the old ones to update. Very suitable, all in all five projects, and five days.

First up on the line is Swallowtail shawl. This shawl has in my opinion got a very crappy colour on the picture in Interweave knits Fall 2006 number. Fortunately it has been a popular shawl, and there are lot of beautiful shawls out there in the blog world to admire.
I have dear friend who is about to have a quite even birthday soon, and I decided to try to finish a shawl for her. If it goes trough the quality check after blocking that's it, if not I’ll have one nice shawl more. I chose Wetterhoff’s Sivilla yarn, a soft and shiny yarn in 30 % silk and 70% wool. There is 250 meters to 50 grams, considerably less than in the alpaca yarn used in the pattern. I decided to go up one number in needle size, and it seams to be a good choice. The lacy fabric is airy, but still not too thin. I’m using Addi bamboo needles, and they feel very nice. The first budding strip is knit, and ten out of fourteen sequences of the main bud pattern. It will be followed by two different charts of the lily of the valley pattern, and then the spiked swallowtail edge. I have 100 grams of the Sivilla, and it should be enough, Tikru made one with the same yarn and needles, and used 90 grams.

We have about -10 degrees Celsius today. We have already been out ploughing snow away from the small lake in order to make a skating area, and the sleighs are on the afternoon program. I’m afraid it will take quite some time before we see the migrating birds arriving from the south.

Posted by Maud at 12:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)