Thursday 26 June 2014

How To Trick When Knitting A Scarf

One side of the scarf with my name and year of knitting it.
The butterfly scarf reached half done. I had started knitting it without thinking of a transition in the pattern. I often just start knitting and a solution will come to mind.

In this case, if I continued the butterfly pattern would have been upside down on half the scarf.

I could of course knit two parts and sew them together. That would not look good either - and sewing is not an option on a scarf to me.

Name of my scarf on the other side.
The pattern did not match when placed over one another (the one upside down) and whatever I did there would be a very visible transition.

As I am a big fan of the old tradition where knitters marked their work with their name and year of knitting I simply did just that.

Yes, the transition is visible but I like this better than a distorted pattern. And in about 100 years someone will find the scarf and post it on Facebook in order to find the history about it. Yeah, right... LOL.

Anyway, I happen to like this. I simply made the letters in excel and knitted them into the garment. Now I knit the pattern upside down on the rest of the scarf.

The butterfly pattern is from 1947 and the book Sata Kansanomaista Kuviokudinmalia by Eva Haavisto. It is a finish book. Knitting charts are thankfully international. I love it when old patterns comes to life again. Even if it can get a bit tricky.

The trick in life is learning how to deal with it
Helen Mirren

The Stitch Story
Yarn: Kauni effektgarn, Rauma finull
Needles: 2.5mm
Pattern: N:o 95, Kotka
My Ravelry Project: Butterfly
Pattern is now knitted upside down on the rest of the scarf.



Friday 20 June 2014

Going Camping In A Knitted Tent

Open front jacket seen from the back - nearly a blanket if you ask me...
What Should I Call This? A mistake? A tent? A new apartment? Or simply too big? 

Well, this started out to be knitted on too small needles. I did not get gauge and had to unravel. I mean, this is a yarn I would normally choose 2mm needles for.

I had to knit in 3.5mm. Man, that was way out of my comfort zone. And indeed, I have this panic of not getting my knitted garments large enough. That normally ends up in tents or worse. This is no exception.

First the positive thing about it: The color and the feel of the garment. Holst supersoft yarn is wonderful - I could live in it. It sure seems that I could spent a week inside this and still find new places to hide....

The pattern was a bit unclear here and there. But the size of this is all my fault. I knitted the largest one - because the sleeves are so tight on this.

Instead of knitting the sleeves bigger I ended up knitting the whole thing too big. I wanted an open front jacket for colder days to just put over tunics and so on.

But this ends up as a tent on the back and the front is hanging on the sides. Looking at other projects on Ravelry - this seems to be the thing about it.

Open front is really the front on the sides and the back standing out like a tent.

It took some time to knit it as well. It was kind of boring. The designer had photos of a red jacket with a lot of pattern.

She simply forgot to mention that the pattern is for another garment - the gray one I did not look at.

Ending up with a jacket with less pattern on it. Very annoying.

Anyway - this weighs only 300 grams. A good thing to take on vacation or to places that turns out cold.

Would I use this? I will try - go camping inside... LOL!!

I will look for another thing like this one - only with a better pattern and a better fit.

It does not fit well on the shoulders and the short row shaping for the neck made it even worse. I think this garment will qualify as failure of the year...

But the good thing about the failures are that those are the things I learn from. If I had never made any mistakes I would not have learned so much. Or something like that.

A failure is not always a mistake, it may simply be the best one can do under the circumstanses
The real mistake is to stop trying
B.F. Skinner

The Stitch Story
Yarn: Holst supersoft
Needle: 3.5mm
Pattern: Huldan Takki
My Ravelry Page: Out In The Open
Seems like I need to grow my shoulders wider...

Sunday 15 June 2014

Shining In Plastic

Polymer clay is really plastic of some sort. The soft clay has nothing to do with clay. Although we call it clay - it is plastic in soft form. At least until it is cured in the oven. Then you can paint, polish and do almost anything with it. Totally versatile and fun to create with.

Anyway, I have made bird ornaments, stitch markers, earrings and now a pendant. All made in polymer clay, textured, cured and painted.

Mr Shine was intended to be an ornament but I found him utterly handsome and think he needs to fly a little hanging on a leather cord. I have the word Live on the other side: Live to Shine. Just as we were all meant to do.

I use long leather cords and tiny beads on the ends. Easy to adjust the length and no clasp or something like that. Also makes it easy to make - I like those short cuts that do not take a lot of time and stop me from making jewelry.

The bird is a celebration of our uniqueness. Spreading my wings and fly into the summer which is warm, sunny and just as we like it.

Be as a bird perched on a frail branch that she feels bending beneath her, still she sings away all the same, knowing she has wings
Victor Hugo


Thursday 5 June 2014

About A Yarn Stalker

From the hotel - I love yarn day :-)
 Just around a corner a bit out of sight and surrounded by noise from shoppers and with the smell of a thousand different spices. There she stood. With all her yarn on the biggest market in Europe situated in Riga.

I wind up the yarn outside to avoid dust. 
All the colors and the wonderful feeling of wool just captured me totally. It was like my knees gave in and I could not understand the yarn heaven I entered.

The woman in the tiny stall told me the price. One kilo had the same price as a little over 150g here in Norway.

It sort of exploded in my head and I was starting a yarn hoarding that may qualify as compulsive.

When I came back the third time she just laughed and and said: Ohhhhhhh!

I picked about 6.5 kilos. 1.5 kilo for a friend - the rest for me. I put it all in the freezer for at least 72 hours.

And then - I took it outside and apart from one hank they are all winded up.

Yarn is so much better to bring home than plastic souvenirs. I may have exaggerated a bit...

I have nothing to say in my defense other than this has the price of what I would only get a little over 800grams in Norway for.

I have read somewhere that the Latvian does not like to sell their wool yarn as they use it for themselves.

I do not know if that is true, but the yarn was nowhere to be found other than in that little stall at the market. As I mostly use wool in my knitting this is perfect.

The yarn holds no label but it is 100% wool in 2ply. It seems a lot like Finull I use so much.

I wish I could have asked the yarn seller about her stall and the yarn. But language was an obstacle but she told that it is pure latvian wool. A very nice woman. I thank her for her smile.

It is pure potential. Every ball or skein of yarn holds something inside it, and the great mystery of what that might be can be almost spiritual
Stephanie Pearl-McPhee


From the market - is this wonderful or not?