Sandra Lace cardigan - finally finished

Have you seen my new motto?
Less blogging is more knitting - so from now on I'll (try to) be short.



This is the finished thing and it's just perfect - my daughter worn it already and she looks to be very pleased with it. Now - to get my teenager excited about a knitted sweater, that's something :).

An image of the original pattern here, and it took approx. 4 balls of yarn.

I used the original Lang Mohair, it's basically identical with Kidsilk Haze.

I'm happy it's finished - another one out of the UFOs list.

Time to cast on :). Want to see what I'm up to next ?

Visit my new blog: Knitting Elegance - it's all about this new Japanese knitting craze.

Those patterns are just great and I blame it all on fleegle.

You can join now or you can join later :).
Resistance is futile.
You'll be assimilated.

(I read this on a blog - sorry can't remember where, to give the credit to the right person :)).

Sandra lace cardigan ready - well, almost...

I went back to actually finish the blue wrap cardi, as my daughter is impatiently waiting for it. I had to take a break at some point, as I was begining to have enough of all this never ending knitting of small parts.


Finally all ten of them finished.

Now I am in THAT stage where I really sincerely and trully hope that Sandra Magazine will send me a message saying how impressed they are with my work on their pattern and that obviously it will be a pleasure for them to assembly the whole thing for me if I might require this...I am sure lots of people know what I mean.

It's never going to happen, is it? so I better look for my bloody needle now. Do not expect miracles though, I need good day light for all the edge stitches spotting, in all this mohair stuff.

A bit of update of the weekend adventures.

End of April is always the bluebells season in the crags around Hebden Bridge, the weather was great, so we decided to go for a walk in the woods.
To cut the story short: the day started with me being misleaded about where we're actually going (which always pisses me off in the end), got the wrong shoes (because I was sure we are doing a different (and much easier) trail), then walked through a river for about four miles and got totally wet in the first two minutes (I didn't have my proper walking boots on, did I?), got lost, refused to jump in a thirty meters high hole despite my partner reassuring me that it might be safe, arguments and shouting, got lost (mentioned this one before?), climbed for ever through mud and stones towards light, ended up on private land surrounded by wired fences, jumped the fences, seen a deer, had to face the owners, found out where we are, finally fully realised we are indeed lost, hurt my foot, long walk back to Heptonstall, happy ending up in a pub. Long live Timothy Taylor.

Yes, you can see a picture of the bluebells now.


Two days later now, I am looking at this image and can't stop thinking what a great day we had!

Alice Starmore Tudor Roses is here

Two days ago I finally decided to buy a copy of this book - firstly because it is still available quite cheap from Jannette Rare Yarns (and nightmares of the stock disappearing were haunting me for a while now), and secondly because I wanted to start a new sweater and I think I want to go for a pattern similar to Catherine Parr.
And obviously because the dollar went down against the pound :) and I can afford it now that it's 'half price':).
I should not really joke about this as this is bad news for my friends abroad buying things from UK.
I got the book in the post yesterday morning - so this will make a 'next morning delivery service' - 5 stars for Jannette here. And what a beautiful book.

So now it's between the Baltic and the Catherine Parr patterns. O maybe a combination of them?
Would Catherine Parr have wanted to be associated with the Baltic Sea?



Anyway, I'm going to use some light blue DB merino aran, which I bought two years ago, and some dark blue cashmerino leftovers, both from my stash (points here!), just so I'll clear more room for more yarns.
Makes sense, I hope :).

Libbi cardigan

This cardigan was love at first sight when I first saw it on the Helen McCabe's website. I like bubbles, so these patterns are definitely for me.
First I thought she is selling the kits - but no, it's not the case, it's the finished garments you get.



So I am approximating my own pattern, based on her pattern. I don't know if this is ethical or not - anyway I try to feel better about this by advertising her website here. Somebody might decide to get one of the ready made sweaters she is selling. They are beautiful.

My modifications : instead of four lines of bubbles I'll have three lines and I will have to imagine the cables and the repeats.

I had another attempt to start it, a few months ago, with Aurora 8 but I did not like it for some obscure reason so I've ordered some thick cotton from elann : Online Ravenna - green. I wanted some nice strong green.
This is the green on their website.


but it's not quite what you get. What you get is a much more psychedelic yellowish version of it, which looks a bit like this (can't capture the color right ).
Anyway - it's a very strong fresh green and here is where I am now. I've started it last Sunday. I have no idea if I'm going to ever wear this color - but I need to do it.


Obviously I did abandon everything else.

I am going to need more yarn probably; it is disappearing so fast on 6 mm needles and with all these bubbles. I never order enough, I've got 750 gr - WHAT WAS I THINKING ??? - but it will be a good occasion to get something else as well with the next delivery. The only problem is that the cheapest delivery from Canada in UK is taking 6 weeks.

It will not be cotton ever, I decided I do not like cotton - never used it before - but it is so demanding, especially the k3togs.

On a more optimistic tone : my climber is climbing and attempts to covered the old, long time unused antennas.


This is always great news when nature knows its ways to cover all the technical crap we're polluting the planet with. A big well done to the climber !

Snow during the weekend

We had a bit of snow during the weekend and this is quite unusual for England. It doesn't snow very often here, therefore any amount of snow always triggers a big traffic panic. The best way to deal with this is to drive your kids to school yourself and see them arriving safe there. Do not rely on buses. I lived most of my life in a country with three months of proper snow per year and we just got on with it - no closed traffic or closed schools. England is a weird place :).
Anyway - the best part was that we had a chance to get out of the house in the morning and took some great photos over Halifax in the way back from school.


The snow is long gone today but it's still very cold.

This is what I've been doing during the weekend. I abandoned my lace cardi for the moment - I feel a bit stuck with all the bands etc. so I had to start something new for a change.



I bought this yarn quite cheap from ebay - it's Jaeger shetland aran. The colour is much darker than I wanted (and than in the image) and the yarn has a kind of white hairy fuzz which I hate. I spend more time pulling out those hairs then knitting.
Otherwise it is nice and soft and what a great stitch definition.

I just wanted to destash and I wanted a warm cardi for my cold and drafty office. Because the colour is so dark I wasn't bothered with a proper design so I am inventing my own pattern as I go. This is actually the second attempt.
The first one was this:



and I wasn't sure at all I liked it - it had too many different zig-zags...
I would still do it a bit different the third time :)) - I think I just discover it's not easy at all to be a designer.

Sandra lace cardigan

This one is for my daughter - it's the first time she decided she wants a hand knitted outfit, or to be more specific, first time when she thought knitting might be cool.
You can imagine I rushed into ordering the yarn before she would change her mind, that's how pathetic I am :).

I've started it two weeks ago but I had so many problems with my wireless connection in my computer, I just had no chance to post earlier.


This is more or less the stage now - I am knitting the lace band and it looks like it will take for ever.
I am still puzzled about how it's going to look with all the bands attached - but this bridge would have to be crossed later on.
I used the original yarn: Lang Mohair Luxe, from Rikes Wollmaus, as I had no idea about any substitute. After I received it I realised Kid Silk Haze would have worked perfectly as well, but still I think I prefer the colours in Lang Mohair.
The pattern is from Sandra September 2006.

Bad news for knitting

...good news for my body shape - I've just joined the gym next door.


I decided enough was enough with my weight going up every single year, so from now on, my morning free hour is going to be spent pedaling, lifting, sweating and cursing.
Less time for knitting though, BUT I strongly hope to compensate by knitting smaller garments.
NO, you can't knit while on the bike, I thought about it for a moment this morning, but it's definitely too complicated :).

My Japanese knitting books arrived

My order with Amazon Japan arrived yesterday and it was such a nice surprise, first of all because the delivery was much faster than I thought it's going to be, just under two weeks, and secondly, all the books are totally brilliant.
You can see the entire list of books I've ordered by clicking this previous post on Japanese books.
I chose these books more or less randomly, based on all sorts of reviews and ISBN numbers I found googling the Internet.
First impresion is that the patterns are very original. Lots of lace patterns, cables, bobbles and combinations of all these I haven't seen before.

Here are two entrelac projects in the New Style of Heirloom kniting, see the way the decreases were planned just by kniting smaller and smaller squares.




Another book I simply love is the Knitting patterns Book 250, which is packed with great lace patterns.
Here is one of my favourite patterns:


What can you do with it? For example this great lace cardigan from Vogue Knitting Holiday 2006.



It is a small world after all :)...

Double FO - Alice Starmore Kinsale

First I finished this sweater last November and here is a picture we took in Beaumaris, Wales, during a trip in searching for puffins. (We didn't see any, just in case you were wondering.)



And here is a close up:



In the meantime, I realised it's too short - you know the famous question: 'does my bum look big in this?'. Well, the answer was undoubtfully 'Yes'.
...So I took it apart and added another repeat to the body.
This is more or less what happend to all my FOs - it's called 're-design' :). I am said to be restless.

I don't have a recent picture of the new sweater but you can imagine it being just a bit longer.

Yarn : Aurora 8 - so nice and soft, I would use it again and again and again...if I could afford it more than once per year :).

Pattern : Fishermen's Sweaters - Alice Starmore, see the original here.
Beautiful book and still available quite cheap.

Japanese knitting books

This is a list of Japanese knitting books I've recently ordered from Amazon Japan. I will have them delivered in about 4 weeks time hopefully. It was far cheaper then buying from ebay.
Unless you can speak the Japanese language, finding the knitting books on Amazon Japan website is not an easy task.
I started searching for the 'New style of Heirloom Knitting', which is somehow a famous book, as it has an entire knitalong built around it, then I just did a lot of browsing in the 'related items' section.

In order to place an order with Amazon Japan, you need a new account with them. None of the other Amazon accounts are valid.
PM me for instructions if you want to learn from my experience :).


Click on the images bellow as some of the books are browsable and you'll be able to see a few pages.

New Style of Heirloom Knitting - the famous Am Kamin sweater book




Guernsey and Aran Sweaters



Aran patterns



Knitting Patterns Book 250 - great patterns, do not miss it.



Fair Isle Knitting - just charts.



Fair Isle, Nordic and Lopi Sweaters



These are a few other knitting books which I might order sometime in the future.

300 Knitting Patterns



Knitting Accessories



Knitting Elegance - another great book - not to be missed.

Dalegarn Sweater ready

In December last year, I finished another sweater for my partner. Just in time for Christmas, so it went as 'The Christmas Present'. Very convenient I would say :).
Unfortunately I had no time for any posts, as I was in a mad hurry to pack and leave the rainy England for a better winter location.

(That's my home town, but I'm not going to tell you where it is, as I totally hate to go home for holiday and find the whole place full of bloody tourists! :)).

Right, back to the sweater.
The photo was taken after my return, during the last weekend, and here is the happy owner, on top of the Yorkshire moors, modeling. I dragged him there, despite the strong and crispy wind, so the sweater colours can go well with the background colours :).

The original pattern is from Dalegarn 144 magazine, (see bellow the cover and the original pattern on the right).

I've only changed the middle bit of the sweater into a two-colours area, according to the customer requirements, and I think it looks at least as good as the original ( me being modest :).
This is a detailed image : on the RS the white bit is knitted and the brown one is purled. Obviosly it's the other way around on the WS - and this was really 'fun' :).

The yarn is Blueface Leicester Aran ( from my stash) and I am sure I'll never use it again, as it was full of garbage. Otherwise very nice and soft...the sheep should definitely be allowed to shoot the manufacturer :).

Currently on the needles

This is the first post after returning from our Romanian vacation. It was great (as usual) spending time with family and friends.
It was equally nice to visit my home again and clean and dust and get the sun and some fresh air in.
And of course I had a chance to browse my old knitting magazines and bring a few old Rebecca numbers back here.
So my 'wish list' is rapidly growing.
Now this is the update on the projects currently on the needles.

Kinsale - Alice Starmore design from Fishermen Sweaters.

The yarn is Karabella Aurora 8 ( lovely yarn ), in a horrible electric colour which I simply hate. Why did I bought this colour? God knows.
I am obviosly cheating here, as the original pattern is calling for a much thinner yarn and smaller needles - but it's more and more often I get this feeling that life is much shorter than I thought is going to be - (and this feeling is entirely based on the number of sweaters I can knit per year :)).

Right, the second one is a no name sweater, from a Dale of Norway magazine.

The yarn is a nice brown shade of Bluefaced Leicester Aran - my Canon camera is not very accurate lately, don't know why.
The original pattern was all in white, I've decided to add another color to the fair isle bit, which is a nice oatmeal. The pic doesn't do justice to the colours.

Violet cardigan

Right, I've decided to update this post and finish the story.
I was trying to duplicate this fabulous cardigan :



which, by the way can be seen here, http://www.helenmccabe.co.uk. She has great designs, I simply love them all.

And, of course, mine just did not look the same :(.


The yarn is back in the ball (Karabella Aurora 8 ), but I think I know what I'm doing wrong here. It's a cotton yarn not a wool yarn I need, in order to get the bubbles lines to look the same. And to get the same drape effect.
The idea is on hold and I am might be considering Rowan Calmer for this job, not sure yet.
End of story and end of frustration.

FO Flower Basket Shawl

Quote of the Post:
"It's all about mind over matter, if you don't mind it doesn't matter !"


Last UFO finished last week.


For a few days afterwards I managed to stay 'clean' and got myself focused on all sorts of other tasks. First I finished ironing (the mountain of clothes I had piled up for weeks) and this was a great achievment. Did some washing and gardening, re-organized the stash - even did weekend walks :).
Just enjoying independence and pretending to be a normal person.
It didn't last long though.
Everything went downhill last night, when I could not resist anymore and started my Aurora 8 sweater.
But that's another story altogether :).

Now back to the FB shawl.
Loved the pattern, loved the yarn.
I've used Blue Sky Alpaca Silk in red brick (4 skeins), and 4.5 mm needles.

The photo is not very clear - but there was no way to convince my model to repeat the shouting session in the day light.
If you have teenagers you'll know precisely what I mean.

Intermezzo Jo Sharp sweater

That's what I've been doing last weekend - re-shaping the neck line for the Jo Sharp aran sweater, by decreasing 1/4 of the total stitches. AGAIN !


Just to remaind you (and me) the whole story - this sweater went huge and lifeless after HAND washing and carefully blocking and I've already had to reknit the ribbing and to cut off a part of it.
The yarn is DB casmerino aran - and it's a final no-no on my list. Not even for shawls or afgans - simply because it's peeling like hell as well as relaxing way too much - don't even want to think about it any more...

FO - Lace Dream Shawl

I finished this one a few weeks ago - just waited for the blocking wires to arrive.
I wasn't very impressed with the wires - too thick to be inserted right at the edge and difficult to handle... but using millions of pins instead would have been worst I guess.


Back to the shawl. It is designed by Eugen Beugler, very easy (and boring) pattern - drives you crazy after a while :)). (I know now how Penelope must have been felt doing the same thing over and over again)

Yarn: I've used 5 balls of Rowan Kidsilk Haze - in Pearl.
It is a great lace weight silk/mohair yarn - it was a real pleasure to knit with.

Stitch markers

Basically I had enough of the improvised stitch markers I am using at the moment. I bought some thin rubber hair bands from Claire's last year and they are sort of ok-ish when knitting wool or cotton but it's a total nightmare using them when knitting mohair yarn as they get totally tangled.
After a lot of frustration I thought I deserve more, so I've started doing some googling in order to buy some proper ones.
The conclusion is there is no way I am going to pay 14 pounds for a set of four, when I need at least three sets for my doillies.
So what's left if not the old Back to DIY.
Research phase : I've asked Angel yarns forum and got all the advice I needed, thank you all.

Here is me, two hours later, in Leeds, in Corn Exchange getting the components.


Prior to this was the trip to Hobby Craft - there is where I bought the tools and the pins from.

And here is the result, this morning.


One single remark for who ever wants to try it: my sticth markers will be ok for thin needles, but the ring is too small for normal knitting (on 4-5 mm needles or bigger).
I've used 7 mm jump rings, 10 mm would have been much better.

And was it cheaper doing then buying them? No way! But it was definitely FUNNIER :) .

FO - Entrelac sweater

This is my first entrelac achievement: Debbie Bliss Entrelac sweater.


It took me almost two months to finish it and I've really enjoyed it. Entrelac is fun and addictive.
Noro yarns are great, I've used Kureyon, which is quite thick - my hands and wrists were hurting for days after finishing the sweater.
It's all the turning in entrelac which makes it very difficult to handle.
Knowing this now, I would probably use Silk Garden for any next Noro project.
The picture is taken in Scotland in Stonehaven - during a two days kiosk installation session in Aberdeen - and I was really glad I had this sweater ready - I definitely did not expect 1 grade Celsius temperature in the middle of May.

Flower Basket Shawl

Quote of The Post

"It is our choices Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. "
- Albus Dumbledore

That's next on my list - Flower Basket shawl.

I think I finally found the right yarn for it : it's Blue Sky Alpaca Silk in brick red.

I've started the shawl a few weeks ago with Jamieson's Ultra and I didn't like the way it turn out - the yarn is too thin, so it went back on the ball.

I ordered the new alpaca from US, from kpixie.com and stronly hope I am not going to be disappointed by the color - buying online is tricky, specially with my laptop monitor.
And I've also received a color chart yesterday from Artesano Alpaca - so I know exactly what I'm buying next :) for a short sleeve blouse.
But I need a financial recovery first.
No, I'm not broken due to 4 skeins of silk Alpaca, it's because I've been greedy and ordered 900 grams of Aurora 8 violet as well, in the same order ... well, just could not resist. And to save on shipment, of course.

I start to wonder what's more addictive : the knitting itself or buying yarns...
Please feel free to vote on this thought :).

Joining Entrelac shoulders seamlessly

Thanks God, finally finished both parts of my Noro entrelac sweater.
My hands and wrists are hurting - the parts are quite heavy and it's too much 'turning' in this entrelac technique. I need to learn to knit backwards.
Anyway, it's Joining Time !
All other problems I had seam to fade away as, at this stage, the pattern only says : join the parts together :).
I am not going to complain again about the pattern, as it definitely has a good part as well: it does force you into thinking a lot.
I've rejected the idea of closing triangles from the start, so I needed to come up with something else, more intelligent eventually.
And this something else needs to be a seamlessly method!

I started with a few hours of staring at both parts lying flat on the table, trying to fit them together in different ways. Finally enlightenment struck.

You want to find out the result, don't you?
Well, in this case send me an email to enroll in my knitting class or simply pay a fee for written instructions.

Sorry, just joking :).

Right, stay tuned. Here it is what I've noticed:

- If you end up both parts on the same side ( WS or RS ), you'll be able to get them together perfectly like this, the open stitches facing each other and the edges being parallel with each other. Well - it looks OK but actually it isn't: as the blocks are suppose to be oriented against each other and not parallel with each other!

- But, if you knit one more row for the front part, which was good anyway as it's going to push the back a bit down, then you get the blocks facing in the right direction: against each other.
Now, try to get the parts together again and you'll notice, (sh..t), they don't fit anymore!
Don't despair - what you can do to get them to interlace is to shift one of the parts slightly to the right or to the left - your choice. Just make sure you are shifting the other side symmetrically. I've decided to shift the front in a kind of inner position, the back part end triangles covering the edge of the front on both sides.
You will need to work an extra triangle at one of the edges - but this is easy to figure out.
See image.



So, now it's a case that the blocks are against each other, as in normal entrelac, and you have to join four live stitches with a block edge.
My method is quite simple and worked very well - it might be that there are other better ways.
What I did was to pick up four stitches from the edge of the block and get them alternatively on one single needle, together with the live stitches : one live stitch, one picked-up, one live stitch, one picked-up etc. You'll end up with 8 stitches and all you have to do is work them on the WS , 4 times (k2tog). The result is 4 stitches.
Just continue like this for each block. You might need to 'k2tog through the back' on some blocks - decide this by checking on the RS that the picked up stitches don't get twisted after k2tog.
Turn at the end of the row and cast-off all stitches. All this is happening on the WS, right?
Done,that's all.
You will end up with a kind of zig-zag seam on the WS, but it's just making the shoulders to look a bit higher.
I am really proud about the result - there is no way you can see any difference between the knitted rows and the joined ones.
...Sleeves next !