It took me a week!

Can you guess what?

Late presentation of Clapotis2!

She has been ready and in use for soon two weeks but no presentation has been done. Well here she is Claptis2.
The yarn was just enough, it was just 8,5m left, not even enough to make a decent tassel. I could have made it longer if I had had one ball more but it became pretty well. Very soft, warm and drapes realy well, I'm satisfied with her.

Clapotis2 on show

Clapotis2 by the sea.

I don't know if and when I'll knit another Clapotis. There just seems to be so much to knit out there.

Feather and Fan sock done

My sock is ready, and it went so quick! I sew the toe together before going to work this morning, took a few shots and had them on all day. This is the fastest knitted socks I have ever done. The feater and fan pattern makes the leg stretch nicely and is faster to knitt than ordinary ribbing. It's only one of four rows that has pattern the other three rows are just plain knitted stitches.
The yarn I have used is Nalle from the manufacturer Novita. It is not as thin as ordinary sock yarn.
The colorways were realy interesting but I'm afraid the knitted pattern is kind of camoflaged.

Feather and fan sock

closeup of feather and fan sock.

I'll most likely knit more feather and fan socks but then with solid color or whith striped yarn.

Litterature recomendations and pretty Pi.

Long gone AGAIN, I know I'm a bad blogger. But I'm working on some new things to show you so be patient. There is more than one project on in my knitting baskets.

During the last week there has been a lot of discussions about the roundknitted shawl/sweater on the cover of latest vogue magasine and I think this pattern is much prettier:

Sleeved pi front

Sleeved pi back

It is not my creation. It is a scanned picture on a Sleeved Pi shawl from "Ponchos & wraps - a Knitters dozen" published by xrx books. I'm thinking of knitting this pretty thing but I do not have the yarn so maybee I'll just have to recalculate the pattern to a thinner yarn that I have and I think would be lovely in this model. I was not even aware I had ordered this book but it turned out to be worth the money anyway.

On the knits now is Mystery shawl who just needs to be cast off and blocked, a domino knitted sweater to my lovely little boy

My design scetch for my little ones sweater.

Furthermore there is a new KAL. This KAL is a realy nice one, just a pair of socks now and then. All the socks are knitted from patterns in "Socks, socks, socks" published by xrx books. The book is a real treasure for sock knitters whith 70 different patterns inside! Not all in my taste but maybe 50% of them and there are some realy odd techniques to learn here too. The first sock in the KAL is a feather and fan sock who is wery fast knitted, I just finnished the first one, and the second is on the needles and will be ready tomorrow I think. This KAL stared on the 1st of September. If any one has the book or you would like to buy it and would like to join the KAL you can find the group here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/socks3kal/ . There is just one sock on the kal jet and not many has started so join in all interested.

Amazing Jacket in Opal Petticoat.

This amazing jacket is designed and knitted by an skillfull danish knitter, Inger Nelleman. I just had to show all of you this master piece. Inger told me that the jacket is knitted on 3mm needles with 500g of Opal Petticoat and a small amount of offwhite.

Petticoat jacket front.

Petticoat jacket back.

I hope I one day will knit something similar. After seing this jacket I purchased two books: "Dazzling knitz" by Patricia Werner and "Module magic" by Ginger Luters. Both books contain patterns of similar jackets but with much coarser yarn. So when I feel ready you know I can start, I do have the yarn to accomplish this.

Flashing my sockyarns

All of this I have bought the last 4 months! It is incredible! I have maybe used 50g of it all and I want to buy some more, not good, not good.

Sockyarn 5,6kg!

As you see I can not blogg anymore today. I better get these needles dancing.

By the way: Did I tell you I am a slow knitter?

Mystery shawl clue 3a completed.

Ah, finally! done the clue 3a. I'm in such a hurry to complete the clues as soon as possible. It's not that I need to be ready before anyone else, it's because I realy need to knit my Clapotis ready because winter is coming - SOON! I can feel it in my bones! I do not like the short summers up here, well I do like the summers, it's the shortness I have problem with. So, autumn means chilly weather and a rush to knit warm things. And the Mystery shawl, that I do like, keeps me away from these other HOT projects on my must list. Well The Clapotis is 60% done, that is 3 of the 5 balls are knitted in to fabric. Next thing I should do is long wristwarmers whith pearls. I do need a pair chilly mornings when we bike to daycare and work.

So even thou we went sailing yesterday I managed to knit some on my mystery.

Mystery 3a by the sea.
Of course I found a serious patternmisstake in the car on the way home but all is fixed now and the mystery is packed away in a box and put high up where small hands can't find her.

Packed away waiting for clue 4a.


Now Clapotis can have me until friday.

So whats up?

Well it has been awfully quiet here for some time. Sorry about that, but I do have a good excuse; I have been knitting. I started a sweater to my son in domino knitting during the holiday trip to sweden. In Sweden I visited Östergötlands ullspinneri and bought some yarn and a pattern to a scarf. On our way back home we visited my dearest friend who realy liked my Clapotis and since she is so lovely I gave it to her. Doesn't she look nice in it?
Clapotis new owner.

Well since I desperately need something warm over my shoulders I started on a new Clapotis with some yarn I bought in Tartu, Estonia. It seems like I bought to small amount, :( . Only 250gr(5 balls) I would have liked to make this new Clapotis longer but I will do as much as I can, I intend to only have scratches left when I'm done.
I also joined Mystery shawl along using some of the yarn from my stash and it looks lovely. A good thing I have about 20kg of this yarn!
Time to fix dinner CY.

Nordic Knitting Symposium - Estonia

I have been home for more than one week now trying to figure out what I possible could write about this symosium.

We all met up in Tallin where knitting were present everywhere.
Knitting market close to Viruporti. Amazing amounts of knitwear close to Viro Porti, Tallin.

Knitting market close to Viruporti.

On the flight down to estonia I knitted on my clapotis and finally, on our trip to the schoolmuseum in Heimtali, I did it. I finnished the Clapotis.


The second day we went to Tartu, the second biggest city in Estonia. Here we enjoyed a tour of the musem and big amounts of knitted stuff.



Gloves in Rosing technique.

I tried to take a photo of the complete glove but had to be satified with this. The knitter has realy gone wild in colour, I like it.

Knitted lace at the National Museum in Tartu.

We also swarmed the city of Tartu looking for yarnshops and bookstores. Some where very lucky to find cheap yarn. I found myself in the position as translator with my very bad finnish knolledge(finnish and estonian are similar languages) and we actually found some nice yarns, cheap too.

The next two days we spent with workshops, trying to learn some Estonian techniques.



You have to consentrate.

It is a bit complicated.

Waiting for the ferry to Kihnu.


Boarding the Kihnu Taxi.


Turbulent ride to the Comunity house.


Me on the Kihnu taxi.


The Kihnu outdoor restaurant served good and filling countryfood.


Knitting in sunshine while waiting for the guiding of the church.

The rain poured down on our sighseeing of the iland.



Arriving to Pärnu.
My maingoal whith my partisipation was to meet other yarnoholics, knitting freeks and make new friends. This was a big success in theese parts. I have never ever met so many nice people and made so many friends during one week as I did during my week in Estonia. I estimate that I have got about 30 good new friends. There has just not been time enough to make more friends. I could have made even more friends with more time I'm sure about that but you need time to talk and find eachothers spirit. So those of you whom I never got close to you I would like to say, I just had not time and energy to make more friends this time but I'm looking forward to learn to know you better next time.
I have also seen a lot of marvelous knitted objects and woven too. Estonia is rich in it's knitting traditions and are still having a living knitting tradition with long history. There are so many techniques and patterns in the knitted tradition and they are still visible today.
My main fear before going to Estonia was that the country was unstable and insecure but these fears were soon forgotten. I felt just as secure and safe as in my hometown.

On the ferry to P?rnu.
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Waiting for the ferry early sunday morning.
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Traditional shoe, shoestring and sock.
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Border on a Kihnu glove.
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Testing Nalle and Opal together.

I am still working on the A-shaped sweater. I like these colors better. Espesially the tourquise Opal mixed with the multicoloured Nalle. I only have 200gram of tourquise. I'll use the blue and lilac at the end. I am also thinking about doing this sweater in a feather and fan pattern. That way the sweater will look as waves, I think.

One thread each of Nalle and Opal on needles 5.5mm, 17x24stiches.

To much to say and too little time!

I have a draft about the knitting symposium in Estonia active but there is so much to say...

I just wanted all of you to know: summer issue of Knitty is finally here, :) , go there and enjoy!

Decreasing the stash.

I do try to decrease the amount of yarn I have but not very successfully. There always seems to be more in than out no matter how much I try to knit.
This sample is thought to become my holiday sweater knitted from up and down in A-shape. I think all the time spent in the car to my parents and all other relatives could make this sweater ready already this summer. If only I am able to figure out how to knit.
testing color blends and knits in double nalle yarn from novita.

It's getting closer - Det närmar sig

I'm on my way to Estonia!

I'll be there for 7 days together with 85 other ladies( one man I think ) who all will be knitting, both workshops and own projects I guess.

So what has this slowknitter been up to when she has not opdated her blog for two weeks? Ahh, knitting of course. As much as possible but... Working and having a family takes it's time too.

I can gladly announce that my woolen wraparound sweater is ready. I made the last seams last night. As suspected the result does not look the same on me as on the tiny model. No sweater can hide those X:es infront of the size. And the boobs! I used to have tiny ones and I liked that! Well this is me of today, no lies, the whole truth. One detail that did not turn out well is the sholders. The sweater is far to big there. Othervise I'm quite happy with the sweater but next sweater will be of a looser fit.

Wraparound

I have franatically been working on a clapotis the last two weeks and it's almost ready. I think I have to make the finnishing touch in Estonia but I am so close, so very, very close. It's just I have to concentrate on packing today. knitting has to wait. The decreeses are already started. You might see (the pictures are soo small) that I don't use any markers. Instead I purl betweent the two twisted knits. I have never used stichmarkers and in this case where you are supposed to drop the stiches, it realy does not matter how you knitt the stiches to be droped. Neither have I droped the stiches far jet, I want to see the compplete trasformation at once. So I have to wait...

Clapotis to be Closeup very close

So in 8 days or so, I'll report from the "Nordic Knitting Symposium 2005" and tell you all about it.

My first Opal sock - First sock on long cirkular needles

There is sometimes benefits with buisnesstrips... Such as, you can knit in peace on the train, hotell and this time I also knitted walking around in Tampere! This was my very first sock knitted in Opal sock yarn. I realy love the yarn, I think Markno design where I ordered the yarn could confirm in this statement, where I purchased a lot of Opal the last month.

I used the same lace pattern as on the last pair of socks, you can find the pattern here: http://www.socknitters.com/lace/introduction.htm
I have though disovered that it is wiser to follow your instinct rather than a pattern. In most patterns on opal sock the recomended stiches to cast on was 56. My instinct said that I should cast on 72 stiches, on 2.5mm needles, but to compromise I casted on 64.
This decition I regret now. The sock became a little tight and the cast on too hard.
I cant decide if I should use 3mm needles or 72 stiches in the next pair.

Wrap around coming up...

All parts are ready and blocked. The knitted pieces bacame so soft and, and wonderful after blocking.
Have been on a buisnesstrip and a summer party so there has been no time putting the pieces together. I hope that will be accomplished today. I'll have some photos to show soon

Wrap around sweater soon to be

Moda 2004/5. Posted by Hello	If you take the yarn from the ufo in my last post, mix it with this wraparoun sweater, take the XL size, shorten the arms with some 2cm, lengthen the body with 20cm, add a few extra stiches over the hips, make some more waist decreeses and finally add some shortrows over the bust, add my bad knolledge of finnish (the pattern is written in finnish) you will end up with the sweater soon to be. :)

What made me do all these changes? Well I read knittys latest issue. Thinking beyond the pattern ... but will it fit?.
It made me realise that in the size and figure I come with at the moment all clothes are too short in my liking and if there is no shortrows over the bust and decreeses in the waist clothes look realy awful on me.
The progress has gone in my measurement fast, that is I only have the last front pice left and then blocking and sewing. I started 4 weeks ago with size 5,5mm needles but after about 20cm on the back I realized I needed larger needles. I bought new 6mm needles (I'm not used to knit with these big needles and had none in the size 6mm). Still to thin needles and by a lucky star I found a pair of 7mm needles that were perfect. In all I think the real knitting process has been in 3weeks so far. So next week, in the middle of the summer I'll have a thick woolen wraparound sweater. ;)
A good thing that summers often are cold here, ;) .