Hardanger

Wow I cant believe I can finally tell you about my design in Twist Collective!

The jacket is inspired by my mother.  I wanted to make a piece that characterized her; very precise, natural (she´s a professor in environmental science), witty and of course beautiful.   I originally made the sweater for her in unspun lopi and did the pattern in cross stitch.  Below you can see a picture of the sweater modeled by my friend Erla.

Sjónabók/ Ornaments and Patterns found in Iceland is an amazing book on patterns from the 17th, 18th  and 19th  century in Iceland.  The pattern is inspired by one of the many beautiful patterns in the book.

I´ve been designing for a few years now but never had the nerve to publish before and thanks to my talented, wonderful and very precipitant friend Ragga from Knitting Iceland ( I finally got the nerve to submit…. and they excepted!

The process was challenging, educational and extremely fun.  The Twist Collective team as been so patient and wonderful.  I had no idea how much work goes into a published design: from getting the yarn through customs, making swatches, writing, sizing, laying out, photographing, tech editing, etc.  I am so thankful for this experience, the help and the opportunity.

This is the photo that I submitted to TwistCollective.  As you can see the pattern changed a bit during the process.  The pattern is now steeked and not embroidered and the panels are wider.  The beauty modeling is my friend Erla.

The jacket is perfect for first time steekers because you are only steeking a small portion 4” and 8” and the entire sweater is not comprised if a mistake is made, but don’t worry.  steeking is very easy.  You can find many good steeking videos on youtube.

If the color work intimates you as there are more then 4 stitches between color changes here is a little trick.  When you reach 4 stitches wrap the alternate color around the yarn you are knitting with.

I´m hoping to make another jacket for my self, in either blue or black.  I think I´ll use the yarn from Halcyon I´ve been looking for a good substitute for lopi that isn’t as scratchy and I think I finally found it.

To buy the pattern or see more information about it please visit the pattern page on the twist collective web site.

A baby cardigan

 

This cardigan I´ve made twice for my daughter.  The first one made very small and it was the cardigan that she wore on her way home from the hospital.  I made Elizabeth Zimmerman´s baby leggings from the Knitters Almanac with embodied flowers on the feet to go with it as well as Pickles baby turban.

 

 

The cardigan was so fun to make but babies grow really fast.  So this summer I decided to make another one.

 

 

I changed the design a bit, made the sleeves wider and the cardigan longer.  I’ve been thinking about publishing the design but the pattern is just so personal but if there is intrest then please let me know.

 

I made the second cardigan out of my stash.  It was made out of Lorna´s Laces Shepherd Solid and Rowans Kid Silk Haze.  It weighs 115gr  which means only 839 gram to go!

Cleaning my closet

My friend Snigla had a brilliant stash busting idea.  I´ve joined her with my own stash busting efforts.  You can read about it here.

More to come 🙂

 

One down four to go!

This is harder then I thought. I so want to start a new project… maybe a soft headband (braided) and mittens to match… or a soft warm sweater out of lopi for me… or a quick last minute christmas gift. But I finished one cardigan and have three more and a blanket. No new project before the new year!

Self control

So here´s my latest experiment. I meet a very wise woman at a knitting group past Sunday that said that every time she is more than half way done with a project she starts itching for another.  Spends hours looking at patterns on Ravelry and as a urge to visit a yarn store.  This is the same for me and I´m thinking a lot of other knitters I know. It has gotten so bad that my living room is flooded with wip.  My living room is very small and my family are getting a bit tired of this.  So here is my plan:

 

Finish every project before the new year!  I know crazy right? I cannot start a new project until I´m done with the ones I started on.

 

I´ve got two secret projects for Knitting Iceland on the needles , I´ve got an Afghan from 2008, a baby sweater for my son and Ysolda´s Cria out of some Old Maiden Aunt Alpaca/Silk Yarn I bought in London this last spring.  So here´s hoping. I will keep you all informed!

 

 

 

The only question that is left, how do I reward myself if I can finish in time?

Laikia

In the beginning of the year I pre-ordered Ysolda´s new book Little Red.  This is the first time  I´ve ever pre-ordered a book, and what a fun process! Laikia was the first pattern that was sent to us how pre-ordered a few months before the book was published.  I wasn’t planning on knitting Laikia, I was more interested in Melina which I saw when Ysolda came to Iceland for a Knitting Iceland tour, but because I was so excited and I found out that handprjon.is sells Lorna Laces I just had to start. 

The pattern is so fun to work with, so clever.  Even the pages are perfectly planned so you can fold it twice and use it sufficiently. 

I changed the pattern a bit,  I skiped the hood because I didn´t know if I had enough yarn.  Turns out that I did have enough but I don´t really like hoods anyway 🙂

The sweater is surprisingly warm and perfect design for us ladies who need to hide a few pounds around the tummy area… another great office sweater for the winter!

Leaving

Sorry for the silance but there has been knitting!  Here´s the first project:

Leaving

I found this project on ravelry.  It´s my first twist collective purchase.  Dangerously easy but you are not able to keep the pdf. in your ravelry library which is a bummer.  The designer Anne Hanson is wonderful, you can read about the pattern on her blog.

Pattern: Leaving by Anne Hanson

Yarn: Fiber Optic Yarn Casmire (bought at Rhinebeck, sheep and wool festival in NY)

Needels: 3.5mm

Model: My wonderful sister inlaw Sigríður Hrönn.

The yarn is amazing!  I bought two skeins at Rhinbeck and when I got home I decided I wanted to make a sweater. I contacted Kimber at Fiber Optic Yarns and she sent me 5 skeins of the yarn and I sent her back the two skeins I bought from her at Rhinbeck.  Super service I cant´s recommend her enought!  The yarn was amazing… amazing, so soft, so fun to knit.  The small changes in color really make the sweater flow.

I love the little details like the sleeves.

Modifications

I hate sewing with a passion so I knit both the fronts and the back in one piece, and the sleaves in the round.  This made for some interesting blocking!  I bought blocking wires at handprjon.is that really helped alot.

I love the sweater, perfect for the office.

More coming soon!

Knit in public

I found this amazing photo on The Satorialist and it made me think.  A few years back Ilmur an Icelandic knitting pioneer started a knit in public movement to help bring Icelandic knitters out of there couch and in to the wild.  I myself am a very shy knitter, the only time I  knit outside the comfort of my home or other knitting friends is when I´m travelling.  But I´m trying to break the habit and bought an amazing project bag yesterday and plan to do some more public knitting.  I wonder if Knit in Public Day is still alive?

Published!

Sorry for the silence but I was just so excited to tell you all about this.  Yes my very first published pattern.  Ragga was so wonderful and helpful.  She edited the pattern and gave me wonderful pattern writhing tips.  I highly recommend Knitting Iceland as a place to publish or just to visit, online or physically.  I so want to go on one of her Faroe Island trips.

The pattern is in icelandic and english and free!

Crazy cakes!

A few months ago my boyfriend bought me a lot of Þingborgar lopi.  I´m almost done with my cardigan (just to pockets left) and where´s whats left of my stash:

Before

After… as you can see I only touched the first skein/cake, this stash will last me a lifetime!